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  Abraham, The Jew: (Alchemist and magician, circa, 1400). 
  Comparatively few biographical facts are forthcoming concerning 
  this German Jew, who was at once alchemist, magician and 
  philosopher; and these few facts are mostly derived from a very 
  curious manuscript, now domiciled in the Archives of the 
  Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Paris, an institution rich in occult 
  documents. This manuscript is couched throughout in French, but 
  purports to be literally translated from Hebrew, and the style of the 
  handwriting indicates that the scribe lived at the beginning of the 
  eighteenth century, or possibly somewhat earlier. 
   
  A distinct illiteracy characterises the French script, the 
  punctuation being inaccurate, indeed frequently conspicuous by 
  its absence, but an actual description of the document must be 
  waived till later. Abraham was probably a native of Mayence, 
  having come thence after the exile of the Jews from Spain, and 
  appears to have been born in 1362. We find that his father, Simon 
  by name, was something of a seer and magician, and that the boy 
  accordingly commenced his occult studies under the parental 
  guidance, while at a later date he studied under one, Moses, whom 
  he himself describes as " indeed a good man, but entirely ignorant 
  of The True Mystery, and of The Veritable Magic." 
   
  Leaving this preceptor, Abraham decided to glean knowledge by 
  travelling, and along with a friend called Samuel, a Bohemian, by 
  birth, he wandered through Austria and Hungary into Greece, and 
  thence penetrated to Constantinople, where he remained fully two 
  years. He is found next in Arabia, in those days a veritable centre 
  of mystic learning; and from Arabia he went to Palestine, whence 
  betimes he proceeded to Egypt. Here he had the good fortune to 
  make the acquaintance of Abra Melin, the famous Egyptian 
  philosopher, who, besides entrusting to him certain documents, 
  confided in him by word of mouth a number of invaluable secrets; 
  and armed thus, Abraham left Egypt for Europe, where eventually 
  he settled in Germany, some say at Wurzburg, but better 
  authorities posit Frankfurt. 
   
  Soon he was deep in alchemistic researches, but these did not 
  prevent him from espousing a wife, who appears to have been his 
  cousin Matilde Stein; and by her he had three daughters and also 
  two sons, the elder named Joseph and the younger Lamech. 
   
  He took great pains to instruct both of them in occul affairs, while, 
  on each of his three daughters, he settled a dowry of a hundred 
  thousand golden florins. This considerable sum, together with 
  other vast wealth, he claim to have gained by travelling as an 
  alchemist; and whateve the truth of this statement, he certainly 
  won great fame being summoned to perform acts of magic before 
  man rich and influential people, notably the Emperor Sigismun of 
  Germanv, the Bishop of Wurzburg, King Henry VI. of England, the 
  Duke of Bavaria, and Pope John XXIII 
   
  The remainder of Abraham's career is shrouded in mystery while 
  even the date of his death is uncertain, but it i commonly supposed 
  to have occurred about 1460. The curious manuscript cited above, 
  and from which the foregoing facts have been culled, is entitled 
  The Book the, Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, as delivered by 
  Abraham the Jew unto his son Lamech. The volume was translated 
  around 1899 by one of the founders of the modern British Golden 
  Dawn, and long time Imperator of its Paris Lodge, MacGregor 
  (Samuel Liddell) Mathers. 
   
  This title, however, is rather misleading, and not strictly accurate, 
  for Abra-Melin ha absolutely no hand in the opening part of the 
  work this consisting of some account of Abraham's youth and early 
  travels in search of wisdom, along with advice to the young man 
  aspiring to become skilled in occult arts. The second part, on the 
  other hand, is base on the documents which the Egyptian sage 
  handed the Jew, or at least on the confidences wherewith the 
  former favoured the latter; and it may be fairly accurately defined 
  as dealing with the first principles of magic in general, the titles of 
  some of the more important chapter being as follows: " How Many, 
  and what are the Classe of Veritable Magic ? " - What we Ought to 
  Take int Consideration before the Undertaking of the Operation, " 
  Concerning the Convocation of the Spirits, " and " I what Manner 
  we ought to Carry out the Operations. 
   
  Passing to the third and last part, this likewise is most derived 
  straight from Abra-Melin; and here the author eschewing 
  theoretical matter as far as possible, gives information about the 
  actual practice of magic. In the first place he tells how " To 
  procure divers Visions, - How one may retain the Familiar Spirits, 
  bound or free in whatsoever form, " and how " To excite Tempests, 
  while in one chapter he treats of raising the dead, anoth he devotes 
  to the topic of transforming oneself into " dive shapes and forms, " 
  and in further pages he descants o flying in the air, on demolishing 
  buildings, on discovering thefts, and on walking under the water. 
  Then he dilates o the Thaumaturgic healing of leprosy, dropsy, 
  paralysis and various more common ailments such as fever and se 
  sickness, while he offers intelligence on - How to be b loved by a 
  Woman, " and this he supplements by direction for commanding 
  the favour of popes, emperors, and oth influential people. 
   
  Finally, he reverts to the question summoning visions, and his 
  penultimate chapter is titled, " How to cause Armed Men to 
  Appear, " while the concluding pages treat of evoking " Comedies, 
  Opera and all kinds of Music and Dances." It is by employing 
  Kabalistic squares of letters that a these things are to be achieved, 
  or at least, almost all them, and lack of space makes it impossible 
  to deal with the many different signs of this sort, whose use he 
  counsels. 
   
  It should be said, in justice to the author that he manifests little 
  selfishness, and seems to have striven after success in his craft 
  with a view to using for the benefit of mankind in general. His 
  writings are besides, a firm belief in that higher self existing in 
  man, and a keen desire to develop it. 
   
  Abraxas: (or Abracax). The Basilidian (q.v., ) sect Gnostics, of the 
  second century, claimed Abraxas as the supreme god, and said 
  that Jesus Christ was only a phantom sent to earth by him. They 
  believed that his name contained great mysteries, as it was 
  composed of the se Greek letters which form the number 363, 
  which is also number of days in a year. Abraxas, they thought, 
  under his command 365 gods, to whom they attrib 365 virtues, one 
  for each day. The older Mythology placed him among the number 
  of Egyptian gods, demonologists have described him a - a demon, 
  with head of a king and with serpents forming his feet. 
  Represented on ancient amulets, with a whip in his. It is from his 
  name that the mystic word, Abracad (q.v.) is taken. 
   
  Adepts: Adepts are men who after stern self-denial and by means 
  of consistent self-development, have fitted themselves to assist in 
  the ruling of the world. The means by which this position is 
  attained is said to be long and arduous, but in the end the 
  Successful one has fulfilled the purpose for which he was created 
  and transcends his fellows. The activities of Adepts are 
  multifarious, being concerned with the direction and guidance of 
  
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  the activities of the rest of mankind. Their knowledge, like their 
  powers, say Theosophists, far exceeds that of man, and they can 
  control forces both in the spiritual and the physical realm, and are 
  said to be able to prolong their lives for centuries. 
   
  They are also known as the Great White Brotherhood, Great 
  Hermetic Order, Rishis, Rahats, or Mahatmas. Those who 
  earnestly desire to work for the betterment of the world may 
  become apprentices or chelas to Adepts, in which case the latter 
  are known as " masters, " but the apprentice must first have 
  practised self-denial and self-development in order to become 
  sufficiently worthy. The master imparts teaching and wisdom 
  otherwise unattainable, and helps the apprentice by communion 
  and inspiration. Madame Blavatsky (q.v.) alleged that she was the 
  apprentice of these masters, and claimed that they dwelt in the 
  Tibetan Mountains. The term Adept was also employed by 
  mediaeval magicians and alchemists to denote a master of their 
  sciences. 
   
  Adhab-Algal: The Mohammedan purgatory, where the wicked are 
  tormented by the dark angels Munkir and Nekir. 
   
  Adjuration: A formula of exorcism by which the evil spirit is 
  commanded, in the name of God, to do or say what the exorcist 
  requires of him. 
   
  Adonai: A Hebrew word signifying " the Lord, " and used by the 
  Hebrews when speaking or writing of Jehovah, the awful and 
  ineffable name of the God of Israel. The Jews entertained the 
  deepest awe for this incommunicable and mysterious name, and 
  this feeling led them to avoid pronouncing it and to the substitution 
  of the word Adonai for " Jehovah " in their sacred text. This custom 
  still prevails among the Jews, who attribute to the pronouncement 
  of the Holy Name the power of working miracles. The Jehovah of 
  the Israelites was their invisible protector and king, and no image 
  of him was made. He was worshipped according to his 
  commandments, with an observance of the ritual instituted through 
  Moses. The term " Jehovah " means. the revealed Absolute Deity, e 
  Manifest, Only, Personal, Holy Creator and Redeemer. 
   
  Adoptive Masonry: Masonic societies which adopt women as 
  members. Early in the eighteenth century such societies were 
  established in France, and Speedily spread to other countries. One 
  of the first to "adopt" women were the Mopses. The Felicitaries 
  existed in 1742. The Fendeurs or Woodcutters were instituted in 
  1763 by Bauchaine, Master of a Parisian Lodge. It was modelled 
  on the Carbonari, and its popularity led to the establishment of 
  other lodges, notably the Fidelity, the Hatchet, etc. In 1774 the 
  Grand Orient in Lodge of France established a system of degrees 
  called the Rite of Adoption, and elected the Duchess of Bourbon as 
  Grand Mistress of France. 
   
  The rite has been generally adopted into Freemasonry, and various 
  degrees added from time to time, to the number of about twelve in 
  all. Latin and Greek mysteries were added to the rite by the 
  Ladies' Hospitallers of Mount Tabor. The greatest ladies in France 
  joined the French lodges of adoption. The Rite of Mizraim created 
  lodges for both sexes in 1818, 1821, 1838 and 1853, and the Rite 
  of Memphis in 1839. America founded the Rite of the Eastern Star 
  in five points. In these systems admission is generally confined to 
  the female relations of Masons. The Order of the Eastern Star and 
  that of Adoptive Masonry were attempted in Scotland, but without 
  success. 
   
  Agathodemon: A good demon, worshipped by the Egyptians under 
  the shape of a serpent with a human head. The dragons or flying 
  serpents venerated by the ancients were also called 
  Agathodemons, or good genies. 
   
  Agla: A kabalistic word used by the rabbis for the exorcisms of the 
  evil spirit. It is made up of the initial letters of the Hebrew words, 
  Athah gabor leolam, Ado-nai, meaning, " Thou art powerful and 
  eternal, Lord." Not only among the Jews was this word employed, 
  but among the more superstitious Christians it was a favourite 
  weapon with which to combat the evil one, even so late as the 
  sixteenth century. It is also to be found in many books on magic, 
  notablv in the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III. 
   
  Agrippa von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius (1486-1535): Cornelius 
  Agrippa - A German soldier and physician, and an adept in 
  alchemy, astrology and magic. He was born at Cologne on the 14th 
  of September, 1486, and educated at the University of Cologne. 
  While still a youth he served under Maximilian 1. of Germany. In 
  the early 16th century he lectured at the University of Dole, but a 
  charge of heresy brought against him by a monk named Catilinet 
  compelled him to leave Dole, and he resumed his former 
  occupation of soldier. In the following year he was sent on a 
  diplomatic mission to England, and on his return followed 
  Maximilian to Italy, where he passed seven years, now serving one 
  noble patron, now another. Thereafter he held a post at Metz, 
  returned to Cologne, practised medicine at Geneva, and was 
  appointed physician to Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis 1.; but, 
  on being given some task which he found irksome, he left the 
  service of his patroness and denounced her bitterly. 
   
  He then accepted a post offered him by Margaret, Duchess of 
  Savoy, Regent of the Netherlands. On her death he repaired to 
  Cologne and Bonn, and thence to France, where he was arrested 
  for some slighting mention of the Queen Mother, Louise of Savoy. 
  He was soon released, however, and died at Grenoble in 1535. 
   
  Agrippa was a man of great talent and varied attainments. He was 
  acquainted with eight languages, and was evidently a physician of 
  no mean ability, as well as a soldier and a theologian. He had, 
  moreover, many noble patrons. Yet, notwithstanding these 
  advantages, he never seemed to be free from misfortune; 
  persecution and financial difficulties dogged his footsteps, and in 
  Brussels he suffered imprisonment for debt. 
   
  He himself was in a measure responsible for his. troubles. He was, 
  in fact, an adept in the gentle art of making enemies, and the 
  persecution of the monks with whom he frequently came into 
  conflict was bitter and increasing. His principal works were a 
  defence of magic, entitled De occulta philosophia, which was not 
  published until 1531, though it was written some twenty years 
  earlier, and a satirical attack on the scientific pretensions of his 
  day, De incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium atque 
  Excellentia Verbi Dei Declamatio, also published at Antwerp in 
  1531. 
   
  Ahnernerbe, S.S.  – Reich Ancestral Heritage Office: Unlike other 
  states in which Occultists are accorded little respect, Nazi 
  Germany has made certain occult operations a part of the state, 
  while repressing others with strict brutality.  The S.S. itself has a 
  network of Thule Society ritual which replaces Christian religion 
  for S.S. Officers.  Based in Old Prussian Paganism, with Nordic 
  
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  colorings, the S.S. has its own rites, festivals, rituals and burial 
  customs.  The “spiritual center” of the S.S. – dedicated entirely to 
  the development of these and other public rituals, is the Ancestral 
  Heritage Office.   
   
  Reichsfuhrer S.S., Himmler, is an avid student of the occult. An SS 
  occult research department, the Ahnernerbe (Ancestral Heritage) 
  was established in 1935 with SS Colonel Wolfram von Sievers at 
  its head. Occult research took SS researchers as far afield as Tibet.  
   
  As soon as the Nazi movement had sufficient funds, it began to 
  organize a number of expeditions to Tibet and these succeeded one 
  another practically without interruption through the present day.  It 
  is conjectured that the Nazis wish to find Shambala, an ancient 
  center of power which is said to be accessible through hidden 
  tunnels in Tibet. 
   
  The strongest influence on Hitler in this regard was Dietrich 
  Eckart (1868-1923). Most biographers have underestimated the 
  influence that Eckart exerted on Hitler. He was the wealthy 
  publisher and editor-in-chief of an anti-semitic journal which he 
  called In Plain German. Eckart was also a committed occultist and 
  a master of magic. As an initiate, Eckart belonged to the inner 
  circle of the Thule Society as well as other esoteric orders.  
   
  There can be no doubt that Eckart - who had been alerted to Hitler 
  by other Thulists - trained Hitler in techniques of self confidence, 
  self projection, persuasive oratory, body language and discursive 
  sophistry. With these tools, in a short period of time he was able to 
  move the obscure workers party from the club and beer hall 
  atmosphere to a mass movement. The emotion charged lay speaker 
  became an expert orator, capable of mesmerizing a vast audience.  
   
  One should not underestimate occultism's influence on Hitler. His 
  subsequent rejection of Free Masons and esoteric movements, of 
  Theosophy, of Anthrosophy, does not necessarily mean otherwise. 
  Occult circles have long been known as covers for espionage and 
  influence peddling. 
   
  Akashic Record: the idea that all of the experiences and memories 
  of every living being are contained in the substance of the ether. 
  Advanced magicians develop the ability to recover details of past 
  events by "reading the Akashic Records."  
   
  Akiba: A Jewish rabbi of the first century, who, from being a 
  simple shepherd, became a learned scholar, spurred by the hope of 
  winning the hand of a young lady he greatly admired. The Jews say 
  that he was taught by the elemental spirits, that he was a conjurer, 
  and that, in his best days, he had as many as 24, 000 disciples. He 
  is said to be the author of a famous work, entitled, Yelzirah (q.v., 
  On the Creation), which is by some ascribed to Abraham, and even 
  to Adam. It was first printed at Paris in 1552. The historic Akiba 
  was a formative influence on Judaism during the post-Diaspora 
  period. 
   
  Albagensianism: A neo-Manichæan (Gnostic) sect that flourished 
  in southern France in the twelfth and  thirteenth centuries.  Among 
  recent historians there is a pronounced  tendency to look upon the 
  Cathari as the lineal descendants of the Manichæans.  The 
  doctrine, organization, and liturgy of the former, in many points, 
  reproduce  the doctrine, organization, and liturgy of the early 
  disciples of Manes. The  successive appearance of the 
  Priscillianists, the Paulicians, and the Bogomili,  representatives to 
  some extent of similar principles, fairly establishes the  historical 
  continuity between the two extreme links of the chain -- the  
  Manichæans of the third, and the Cathari of the eleventh, century. 
   
  The Albigensians may also have some relation to the Arian Heresy, 
  which flourished in southern France in the fifth century, before it 
  was repressed by the Frankish King Clovis, the leader of the 
  Merovingian Dynasty.  The Arians denied that Jesus was divine. 
   
  The name Albigenses, given to the Southern French sect by the 
  Council of Tours  (1163) prevailed towards the end of the twelfth 
  century and was for a long time applied to all the heretics of the 
  south of France. They were also called  Catharists (katharos, pure), 
  though in reality they were only a branch of the  Catharistic 
  movement. The rise and spread of the new doctrine in southern 
  France was favoured by various circumstances, among which may 
  be mentioned:  the fascination exercised by the readily-grasped 
  dualistic principle; the remnant of Jewish and Mohammedan 
  doctrinal elements; the wealth, leisure, and imaginative mind of 
  the inhabitants of Languedoc; their contempt for the Catholic 
  clergy, caused by the ignorance and the worldly, too frequently 
  scandalous, lives  of the latter; the protection of an overwhelming 
  majority of the nobility, and the  intimate local blending of national 
  aspirations and religious sentiment.  
    
  What the Albigensians are supposed to have believed 
   
  Relatively little is known about the Albigensian beliefs, since the 
  sect was repressed, and most evidence destroyed.  What is known 
  largely comes from their opponents.  However some picture can be 
  drawn.   
   
  The Albigenses asserted the co-existence of two mutually opposed 
  principles, one good, the other evil. The former is the creator of the 
  spiritual, the latter of the material world. The bad principle is the 
  source of all evil; natural phenomena, either ordinary like the 
  growth of plants, or extraordinary as earthquakes, likewise oral 
  disorders (war), must be attributed to him. He created the human 
  body and is the author of sin, which springs from matter and not 
  from the spirit. The Old  Testament must be either partly or 
  entirely ascribed to him; whereas the New  Testament is the 
  revelation of the beneficent God. The latter is the creator of  
  human souls, which the bad principle imprisoned in material 
  bodies after he had  deceived them into leaving the kingdom of 
  light. This earth is a place of  punishment, the only hell that exists 
  for the human soul.  
   
  Punishment, however,  is not everlasting; for all souls, being 
  Divine in nature, must eventually be  liberated. To accomplish this 
  deliverance God sent upon earth Jesus Christ, who, although very 
  perfect, like the Holy Ghost, is still a mere creature. The 
  Redeemer could not take on a genuine human body, because he 
  would thereby have come under the control of the evil principle. 
  His body was, therefore, of celestial essence, and with it He 
  penetrated the ear of Mary. It was only apparently that  He was 
  born from her and only apparently that He suffered. His 
  redemption was  not operative, but solely instructive. To enjoy its 
  benefits, one must become a member of the Church of Christ (the 
  Albigenses). Here below, it is not the Catholic sacraments but the 
  peculiar ceremony of the Albigenses known as the  
  consolamentum, or "consolation," that purifies the soul from all sin 
  and ensures  its immediate return to heaven. The resurrection of 
  the body will not take place,  since by its nature all flesh is evil.  
   
  
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  The dualism of the Albigenses was also the basis of their moral 
  teaching. Man, they taught, is a living contradiction. Hence, the 
  liberation of the soul from its captivity in the body is the true end 
  of our being. To attain this, suicide is commendable; it was 
  customary among them in the form of the endura  (starvation). The 
  extinction of bodily life on the largest scale consistent with  human 
  existence is also a perfect aim. As generation propagates the 
  slavery of the soul to the body, perpetual chastity should be 
  practiced. Matrimonial intercourse is unlawful; concubinage, being 
  of a less permanent nature, is  preferable to marriage. 
  Abandonment of his wife by the husband, or vice versa, is  
  desirable. Generation was abhorred by the Albigenses even in the 
  animal  kingdom. Consequently, abstention from all animal food, 
  except fish, was enjoined. Their belief in metempsychosis, or the 
  transmigration of souls, the result of their logical rejection of 
  purgatory, furnishes another explanation for the same abstinence. 
  To this practice they added long and rigorous fasts. The necessity 
  of absolute fidelity to the sect was strongly inculcated. War and  
  capital punishment were absolutely condemned.  
   
  History of the Albigensian Heresy 
   
  The contact of Christianity with the Oriental mind and Oriental 
  religions had  produced several sects (Gnostics, Manichæans, 
  Paulicians, Bogomilae) whose  doctrines were akin to the tenets of 
  the Albigenses. But the historical connection  between the new 
  heretics and their predecessors cannot be clearly traced. In  
  France, where they were probably introduced by a woman from 
  Italy, the  Neo-Manichæan doctrines were secretly diffused for 
  several years before they  appeared, almost simultaneously, near 
  Toulouse and at the Synod of Orléans  (1022). Those who proposed 
  them were even made to suffer the extreme penalty of death. The 
  Council of Arras (1025), Charroux, Dep. of Vienne (c. 1028), and 
  of  Reims (1049) had to deal with the heresy. At that of Beauvais 
  (1114) the case of  Neo-Manichæans in the Diocese of Soissons 
  was brought up, but was referred to  the council shortly to be held 
  in the latter city. Petrobrusianism now familiarized  the South with 
  some of the tenets of the Albigenses. Its condemnation by the  
  Council of Toulouse (1119) did not prevent the evil from 
  spreading. Pope Eugene  III (1145-53) sent a legate, Cardinal 
  Alberic of Ostia, to Languedoc (1145), and  St. Bernard seconded 
  the legate's efforts. But their preaching produced no lasting effect. 
  The Council of Reims (1148) excommunicated the protectors "of  
  the heretics of Gascony and Provence." That of Tours (1163) 
  decreed that the Albigenses should be imprisoned and their 
  property confiscated. A religious  disputation was held (1165) at 
  Lombez, with the usual unsatisfactory result of  such conferences.  
   
  Two years later, the Albigenses held a general council at  
  Toulouse, their chief centre of activity. The Cardinal-Legate Peter 
  made another attempt at peaceful settlement (1178), but he was 
  received with derision. The Third General Council of the Lateran 
  (1179) renewed the previous severe measures and issued a 
  summons to use force against the heretics, who were plundering 
  and devastating Albi, Toulouse, and the vicinity. At the death 
  (1194) of  the Catholic Count of Toulouse, Raymond V, his 
  succession fell to Raymond VI  (1194-1222) who favoured the 
  heresy.  
   
  With the accession of Innocent III (1198)  the work of conversion 
  and repression was taken up vigorously. In 1205-6 three events 
  augured well for the success of the efforts made in that direction.  
  Raymond VI, in face of the threatening military operations urged 
  by Innocent against him, promised under oath to banish the 
  dissidents from his dominions.  The monk Fulco of Marseilles, 
  formerly a troubadour, now became Archbishop of  Toulouse 
  (1205-31). Two Spaniards, Diego, Bishop of Osma and his 
  companion,  Dominic Guzman (St. Dominic), returning from Rome, 
  visited the papal legates at  Montpellier. By their advice, the 
  excessive outward splendour of Catholic preachers, which offended 
  the heretics, was replaced by apostolical austerity.  Religious 
  disputations were renewed. St. Dominic, perceiving the great  
  advantages derived by his opponents from the cooperation of 
  women, founded  (1206) at Pouille near Carcassonne a religious 
  congregation for women, whose  object was the education of the 
  poorer girls of the nobility. Not long after this he  laid the 
  foundation of the Dominican Order. Innocent III, in view of the 
  immense spread of the heresy, which infected over 1000 cities or 
  towns, called (1207)  upon the King of France, as Suzerain of the 
  County of Toulouse, to use force. He renewed his appeal on 
  receiving news of the assassination of his legate, Peter of  
  Castelnau, a Cistercian monk (1208), which judging by 
  appearances, he attributed to Raymond VI. Numerous barons of 
  northern France, Germany, and Belgium joined the crusade, and 
  papal legates were put at the head of the expedition, Arnold, Abbot 
  of Citeaux, and two bishops. Raymond VI, still under the ban of 
  excommunication pronounced against him by Peter of Castelnau, 
  now  offered to submit, was reconciled with the Church, and took 
  the field against his former friends. Roger, Viscount of Béziers, 
  was first attacked, and his principal fortresses, Béziers and 
  Carcassonne, were taken (1209).  
   
  The monstrous words: "Slay all; God will know His own," alleged 
  to have been uttered at the capture of Béziers, by the papal legate, 
  were never pronounced (Tamizey de Larroque, "Rev. des quest. 
  hist." 1866, I, 168-91). Simon of Monfort, Earl of Leicester, was 
  given control of the conquered territory and became the military 
  leader of the crusade. At the Council of Avignon (1209) Raymond 
  VI was again excommunicated for not fulfilling the conditions of 
  ecclesiastical reconciliation. He went in person to Rome, and the 
  Pope ordered an investigation. After fruitless attempts in the 
  Council of Arles (1211) at an agreement between the papal legates 
  and the Count of Toulouse, the latter left the council and prepared 
  to resist. He was declared an enemy of the Church and his 
  possessions were forfeited to whoever would conquer them. Lavaur, 
  Dep. of Tarn, fell in 1211, amid dreadful carnage, into the hands 
  of the crusaders. The latter, exasperated by the reported massacre 
  of 6,000 of their followers, spared neither age nor sex. The crusade 
  now degenerated into a war of conquest, and Innocent III, in spite 
  of his efforts, was powerless to bring the undertaking back to its 
  original purpose. Peter of Aragon, Raymond's brother-in-law, 
  interposed to obtain his forgiveness, but without success. He then 
  took up arms to defend him. The troops of Peter and of Simon of 
  Montfort met at Muret (1213). Peter was defeated and killed. The 
  allies of the fallen king were now so weakened that they offered to 
  submit. The Pope sent as his representative the Cardinal-Deacon 
  Peter of Santa Maria in Aquiro, who carried out only part of his 
  instructions, receiving indeed Raymond, the inhabitants of 
  Toulouse, and others back into the Church, but furthering at the 
  same time Simon's plans of conquest.  
   
  This commander continued the war and was appointed by the 
  Council of Montpellier (1215) lord over all the acquired territory. 
  The Pope, informed that it was the only effectual means of 
  crushing the heresy, approved the choice. At the death of Simon 
  (1218), his son Amalric inherited his rights and continued the war 
  
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  with but little success. The territory was ultimately ceded almost 
  entirely by both Amalric and Raymond VII to the King of France, 
  while the Council of Toulouse (1229) entrusted the Inquisition, 
  which soon passed into the hands of the Dominicans (1233), with 
  the repression of Albigensianism. The heresy disappeared about 
  the end of the fourteenth century.  
   
  Albigensian Practice 
   
  The members of the sect were divided into two classes: The 
  "perfect" (perfecti) and the mere "believers" (credentes). The 
  "perfect" were those who had submitted to the initiation-rite 
  (consolamentum). They were few in number and were alone bound 
  to the observance of the above-described rigid moral law. While 
  the female members of this class did not travel, the men went, by 
  twos, from place to place, performing the ceremony of initiation. 
  The only bond that attached the "believers" to Albigensianism was 
  the promise to receive the consolamentum before death. They were 
  very numerous, could marry, wage war, etc., and generally 
  observed the ten commandments. Many remained "believers" for 
  years and were only initiated on their deathbed. If the illness did 
  not end fatally, starvation or poison prevented rather frequently 
  subsequent moral transgressions. In some instances the 
  reconsolatio was administered to those who, after initiation, had 
  relapsed into sin. The hierarchy consisted of bishops and deacons. 
  The existence of an Albigensian Pope is not universally admitted. 
  The bishops were chosen from among the "perfect." They had two 
  assistants, the older and the younger son (filius major and filius 
  minor), and were generally succeeded by the former. The 
  consolamentum, or ceremony of initiation, was a sort of spiritual 
  baptism, analogous in rite and equivalent in significance to several 
  of the Catholic sacraments (Baptism, Penance, Order). Its 
  reception, from which children were debarred, was, if possible, 
  preceded by careful religious study and penitential practices. In 
  this period of preparation, the candidates used ceremonies that 
  bore a striking resemblance to the ancient Christian 
  catechumenate. The essential rite of the consolamentum was the 
  imposition of hands. The engagement which the "believers" took to 
  be initiated before death was known as the convenenza (promise).  
   
  Actions of the Church 
  Properly speaking, Albigensianism was not a Christian heresy but 
  an extra-Christian religion. Ecclesiastical authority, after 
  persuasion had failed, adopted a course of severe repression, 
  which led at times to regrettable excess. Simon of Montfort 
  intended well at first, but later used the pretext of religion to usurp 
  the territory of the Counts of Toulouse. The death penalty was, 
  indeed, inflicted too freely on the Albigenses, but it must be 
  remembered that the penal code of the time was considerably more 
  rigorous than ours, and the excesses were sometimes provoked. 
  Raymond VI and his successor, Raymond VII, were, when in 
  distress, ever ready to promise, but never to earnestly amend. Pope 
  Innocent III felt justtified in saying that the Albigenses were 
  "worse than the Saracens"; and still he counselled moderation and 
  disapproved of the selfish policy adopted by Simon of Montfort.  
   
  Alfarabi: (d. 954.) An adept of remarkable gifts and an extensive 
  knowledge of all the sciences; born at Othrar (or, as it was then 
  called, Faral), in Asia Minor. His name was Abou-i~Zasr-
  Mohammed-lbn-Tarkaw, but he received, from the town of his 
  birth, his better-known appellation of Farabi, or Alfayabi. Though 
  he was of Turkish extraction, a desire to perfect himself in Arabic, 
  led him to Bagdad, where he assiduously studied the Greek 
  philosophers under Abou Bachar Nlaltey. He next stayed for a time 
  in Hanan, where he learned logic from a Christian physician. 
  Having far surpassed his fellow-scholars, he left Hanan and drifted 
  at last to Egypt. During his wanderings he came in contact with all 
  the most learned philosophers of his time, and himself wrote books 
  on philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences, 
  besides acquiring proficiency in seventy languages. 
   
  His treatise on music, proving the connection of sound with 
  atmospheric vibrations, and mocking the Pythagorean theory of the 
  music of the spheres, attained some celebrity. He gained the good-
  will and patronage of the Sultan of Syria in a somewhat curious 
  fashion. While passing through Syria he visited the court of the 
  Sultan, who was at that moment surrounded by grave doctors and 
  astrologers, who were discussing abstruse scientific points with the 
  potentate. Alfarabi entered the presence of the Sultan in his 
  stained and dusty travelling attire (he had been on a pilgrimage to 
  Mecca), and when the prince bade him be seated, he, either 
  unaware of, or indifferent to the etiquette of court life, sat down 
  boldly on a corner of the royal sofa. The monarch, unused to such 
  an informal proceeding, spoke in a little-known tongue to a 
  courtier, and bade him remove the presumptuous philosopher. 
   
  The latter, however, astonished him by replying in the same 
  language: "Sire, he who acts hastily, in haste repents." The Sultan, 
  becoming interested in his unconventional guest, questioned him 
  curiously, and learned of the seventy languages and other 
  accomplishments of Alfarabi. The sages who were present were 
  also astounded at his wide learning. When the prince called at 
  length for some music, Alfarabi accompanied the musicians on a 
  lute with such marvelous skill and grace that the entire company 
  was charmed. When he struck up a lively measure, the gravest 
  sages could not but dance to it. When he changed the melody to a 
  softer lilt, tears sparkled in every eye, and at last, with a gentle 
  lullaby, be put the court to sleep. The Sultan wished to keep such a 
  valuable philosopher about his court, and some say that Alfarabi 
  accepted his patronage and died peacefully in Syria. Others, again, 
  maintain that he informed the Sultan that he would never rest till 
  he had discovered the secret of the Philosophers' stone, which he 
  believed himself on the point of finding. These say that he set out, 
  but was attacked and killed by robbers in the woods of Syria. 
   
  Almanach du Diable: An almanac containing some very curious 
  predictions for the years 1737 and 1738, which purported to be 
  published in the infernal regions. It is a satire against the 
  Jansenists, which was suppressed on account of some over-bold 
  predictions, and which has become very rare. The authorship was 
  ascribed to Quesnel, an ironmonger at Dijon. The Jansenists 
  replied with a pamphlet directed against the Jesuits, which was 
  also suppressed. It was entitled Almanac de Dieu, dedicated to M. 
  Carre de Montgeron, for the year 1738, and, in contradistinction to 
  the other, claimed satirically to be printed in heaven. 
   
  Alrunes: Female demons or sorceresses, the mothers of the Huns. 
  They took all sorts of shapes, but without changing their sex. The 
  name was given by the Germans to little statues of old sorceresses, 
  about a foot high. To these they attributed great virtues, honouring 
  them as the negroes. honour their fetishes; clothing-them richly, 
  housing them comfortably, and serving them with food and drink at 
  every meal. They believed that if these little images were neglected 
  they would cry out, a catastrophe which was to be avoided at all 
  costs, as it brought dire misfortunes upon the household. They may 
  have been mandrakes, and it was claimed for them that they could 
  foretell the future, answering by means of motions of the head, or 
  unintelligible words. They are still consulted in Norway. 
  
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  Alu-Demon: This Semitic demon owes his parentage to a human 
  being; he hides himself in caverns and corners, and slinks through 
  the streets at night. He also lies in wait for the unwary, and at night 
  enters bed-chambers and terrorises folks. 
   
  Amadeus: A visionary who experienced an apocalypse and 
  revelations, in one of which he learned the two psalms composed 
  by Adam, one a mark of joy at the creation of Eve, and the other 
  the dialogue he held with her after they had sinned. Both psalms 
  are printed in Fabricius' Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris 
  Testamenti. 
   
  Amaranth: A flower which is one of the symbols of immortality. It 
  has been said by magicians that a crown made with this flower has 
  supernatural properties, and will bring fame and favour to those 
  who wear it. 
   
  Amaimon: One of the four spirits who preside over the four parts of 
  the universe. Amaimon, according to the magicians, was the 
  governor of the eastern part. 
   
  America For the history of Spiritualism in America, See 
  Spiritualism, where a full summary of the subject will be found. 
  Apart from the doings at Salem, colonial America has little to offer 
  in the way of occult history; but the modern United States of 
  America is extremely rich in occult history. This, however, is a 
  history of outstaniding individuals - Thomas Lake Harris, Brigham 
  Young and Joseph Smith, the Foxes, Andrew Jackson Davis, and so 
  on, biographies of some of whom wilt be found scattered 
  throughout this work. But that is not to say that various occult 
  movements have not from time to time either originated in, or 
  found a home in the United States. Indeed, the number of occult or 
  semi-occult sects which have originated there, is exceedingly 
  great, and the foundation of occult communities has been frequent. 
   
  Such were the Mountain Cove community of Harris; the Society of 
  Hopedale, founded by Ballou; and so on. The notorious 
  community, or rather nation of Mormons had undoubtedly a semi-
  occult origin. Its founder, Joseph Smith, and its first great prophet, 
  Brigham Young, both had occult ideas, which rather remind us of 
  those of Blake (q.v;), and were decidedly of biblical origin. It 
  should be remembered that various Masonic and pseudo-masonic 
  orders were well established in both Europe and America, and 
  Mormonism definitely draws from Masonry and Rosicrucianism. 
   
  Smith purported to discover tablets of gold upon which was 
  engraved the new law, buried on a hillside in New York. This was 
  the germ of the Book of Morman the Prophet, and a certain pseudo-
  mysticism was associated with the Mormon movement. This, 
  however, wore off after a while. Some non-orthodox sects of 
  Mormons still have archaic practices including taking multiple 
  wives after the fashion of the ancient Israelites, and follow more 
  mystical practices, having flourished since interest in the 
  persecution of this sect, or any religious group, at least in the 
  physical sense, largely vanished. 
   
  The Mormons hold that the Americas were reached by the Lost 
  Tribes of Israel, and that a civilization flourished in Pre-
  Columbian times. 
   
  More fresh in the recollection are the blasphemous absurdities of 
  the prophet Dowie, who purported to be a prophet of the new 
  Christianity, and succeeded in amassing very considerable wealth. 
  Later, however, he became discredited, and many of his disciples 
  seceded from him. 
   
  Sects of Adventists have also been fairly numerous. These persons 
  at the call of their leaders have met in cemeteries and elsewhere 
  arrayed in white robes, in the belief that the Last Day had arrived; 
  but finding themselves duped, they invariably turned upon the 
  charlatans who had aroused these false hopes. There is an instance 
  on record, however, where one such person succeeded in bringing 
  about the repetition of such a scene. The modern Jehovah’s 
  Witness and Adventist Churches have roots in such movements, 
  the original prophecies however long repudiated as they manifestly 
  did not come true. 
   
  Theosophy, as will be seen in the central article on that subject, 
  owes much to America, for it may be said that in the United States 
  it received an almost novel interpretation at the hands of William 
  Q. Judge, and Katherine B. Tingley, the founder of the theosophic 
  colony at Point Loma. 
   
  The United States is frequently alluded to as the home and birth-
  place of " queer " religions par excellence. If Paris be excepted 
  this charge holds good, for nowhere is pseudo-occultism so rife. It 
  would indeed be difficult to account for this state of things. Shrewd 
  as the average American is, there is no question that he is prone to 
  extremes, and the temper of the nation as a whole is not a little 
  hysterical. 
   
  Such sects are often founded by unscrupulous foreign adventurers, 
  and worshippers of Isis, diabolic societies and such-like abound in 
  the larger cities, and even in some of the lesser communities. But 
  on the other hand many such cults, the names of which for obvious 
  reasons we cannot mention here, are of native Ametican origin. In 
  course of time these duly invade Europe with varying fortunes. 
   
  The influence of Mysticism upon the founding fathers of the United 
  States, in the form of Rosicrucianism or Freemasonry cannot be 
  underestimated. The wave of Republican leaning Freemason 
  lodges that rose in the late 18th century came to full fruition in 
  America, and hardly a single man among the founding fathers was 
  not a Freemason, such that there was a specific “Anti-Masonic” 
  party which sought to control the influence of the Masons. Their 
  influence was on the whole positive rather than negative, teaching 
  a tolerance for religion and the rights of individual man. The early 
  founding fathers are widely supposed to have established a 
  Masonic order of a higher nature which supervised and shepherded 
  the welfare of the Republic, such as might be supposed to be 
  necessary in a State deprived of a monarchy which traditionally 
  saw to such esoteric concerns. 
   
  Amoymon: One of the four kings of Hades, of which the eastern 
  part falls to his share. He may be invoked in the morning from nine 
  o'clock till midday, and in the evening from three o'clock till six. 
  He has been identified with Amaimon (q.v.) Asmodeus (q.v.) is his 
  lieutenant, and the first nine of his dominions 
   
  Answerer, Or Fragarach: A magical sword belonging to the Irish 
  Sea-God, Lir. It was brought from the Celtic Other   world by Lugh, 
  or Hy Breasil, the Irish Sun-God, and it was believed that it could 
  pierce any armour. 
   
  
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  Angurvadel : The sword, possessing magical properties, which was 
  inherited by Frithjof, the hero of an Icelandic saga. It had a golden 
  hilt, and shone like the Northern Lights. In times of peace certain 
  characters on its blade were dull and pale ; but during a battle 
  they became red, like fire. 
   
  Anima Mundi: The soul of the world; a pure ethereal spirit which 
  was said by some ancient philosophers to be diffused throughout 
  all nature. Plato is considered by some to be the originator of this 
  idea ; but it is of more ancient origin, and prevailed in the systems 
  of certain eastern philosophers. By the Stoics it was believed to be 
  the only vital force in the universe ; it has been entertained by 
  many philosophical sects in a variety of forms, and in ruore 
  modern times by Paracelsus and others. It is also incorporated in 
  the philosophy of Schelling. Rich says : " The anima mundi, or 
  heaven of this world, in which the stars are fixed, is understood to 
  be a receptivity of the empyrean or heaven in which God dwells, so 
  that the forms or seminal conceptions of the one correspond to the 
  divine ideas of the other." 
   
  Anneber : A demon of the mines, known principally in Germany. 
  On one occasion he killed with his breath twelve miners who were 
  working in a silver mine of which he had charge. He is a wicked 
  and terrible demon, represented under the figure of a horse, with 
  an immense neck and frightful eyes. 
   
  Anameiech: An obscure demon, bearer of ill news. He was 
  worshipped at Sepharvailn, a town of the Assyrians. He always 
  reveals himself in the figure of a quail. His name, we are told, 
  signifies a " good king, " and some authorities declare that this 
  demon is the moon, as Andramelech is the sun. 
   
  Anonymous Adept: (1750): A noted German jesuit of the 
  eighteenth century, known to his clerical confreres and his flock as 
  Athanasius the Churchman. He composed two folio volumes of 
  semi-alchemistic writing, which were published at Amsterdam in 
  1768- In the course of these voluminous works, he alludes to an 
  alchemist whose name he refrains from revealing, and who is 
  usually hailed in consequence by the elusive title heading this 
  article. 
   
  Athanasius, we find, having long endeavoured to discover the 
  Philosopher's Stone, and having met with no success, chanced one 
  day to encounter a venerable personage, who addressed him thus: " 
  I see by these glasses and this furnace that you are engaged in 
  search after something very great in chemistry, but, believe me, 
  you will never attain your object by working as you are doing." 
   
  Pondering on these words, the shrewd Jesuit suspected that his 
  interlocutor was truly learned in alchemy, wherefore he besought 
  him to display his erudition, and thereupon our Anonymous Adept 
  took a quill, and wrote down a receipt for the making of 
  transmutatory powder, together with specific directions for using 
  the same. “Let us proceed together, " said the great unknown; and 
  at first some success appeared to be in the offering, but try as he 
  might, his attempts all proved futile. Much enraged, he went to the 
  inn where the Anonymous Adept was staying, but it need scarcely 
  be said, perhaps, that the bird was flown. " We see by this true 
  history, " remarks Athanasius, by way of pointing a moral, " how 
  the devil seeks to deceive men who are led by a lust of riches "; 
  while he relates further, that having been duped in this wise, he 
  destroyed his scientific appliances, to renounce alchemy for ever. 
   
  Arbatel: A magical ritual published at Basle in 1575. The text is in 
  Latin, and it appears to have been influenced by Paracelsus. It is 
  of Christian, not Jewish origin, and although the authorship is 
  unknown it is probably the work of an Italian. Only one of its nine 
  volumes has come down to us. It deals with the institutions of 
  magic, and is entitled Isagoge, which means essential or necessary 
  instruction. In it we are introduced to the ritual of the Olympic 
  spirits dwelling in the air and among the stars, who govern the 
  world. There are, we are told, one hundred and ninetv-six Olympic 
  provinces in the universe. 
   
  Assumption of Godforms: a magical technique wherein the Adept 
  identifies him or herself with a particular deity by "assuming its 
  form." The archetypal image of the deity is created on the astral by 
  focused visualization, vibration of the deity's name, the tracing of 
  its sigil, etc. The magician then steps into this astral image and 
  wears it like a garment or mask, continuing to strengthen the image 
  with focused concentration. This is performed in order to create a 
  vehicle for that particular aspect of the Divine that the magician is 
  working with.  
   
  Astral Plane: an intermediate and invisible level of reality between 
  the physical plane and higher, more divine realms. It is the 
  common boundary between the individual and noumenal reality. A 
  non-physical level of existence which is the basis of the physical 
  plane. The astral plane has several "layers" of density and 
  vibrational rate. The upper astral lies close to the angelic realms, 
  while the lower astral is the world of dreams and phantasms. The 
  astral plane contains many non-physical entites.  
   
  Astral Projection (or Astral Traveling): the practice of "traveling" 
  out of the physical body in the astral planes. It is the transference 
  of consciousness from the physical to the astral body, in a way that 
  the practitioner perceives and moves about on the astral plane in 
  the "body of light," while the physical body remains inert. By using 
  astral projection, the magician enters this world and interacts with 
  angels, elementals, and other beings. Astral Projection in the 
  Golden Dawn tradition can be described as a form of self-hypnosis 
  which uses symbols as doorways in order to cause changes in 
  consciousness. From these higher levels of consciousness, the 
  magician often tries to see the underlying causes of things. 
   
  Atlantis:  Atlantis presents a mystifying riddle.  There are 
  undoubtedly elements of its architecture and remanants of its 
  civilization all around the globe.  Yet it is inconceivable that any 
  such global civilization ever existed.  
   
  The story of Atlantis begins quite literally with two of Plato's 
  dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. These accounts are the only known 
  written records which refer specifically to a lost civilization called 
  Atlantis.  
   
  Archaeology got a “wake up” call in the mid-Victorian period.  
  Most ruins were very well documented and explored in Georgian 
  times, and the Victorians had meticulously documented the 
  ancient world.  The existence of “mythical” Troy had no place in 
  that scheme – Troy was a literary convention invented by Homer.  
  Then in 1871, a German Chemist and amateur archaeologist 
  named Heinrich Schliemann found an ancient city of northwest 
  Asia Minor near the Dardanelles. Originally a Phrygian city dating 
  from the Bronze Age, there was little doubt that it was the 
  legendary site of the Trojan War and was captured and destroyed 
  by Greek forces c. 1200 B.C. 
   
  
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  This began a flurry of new archaeological activity as 
  Archaeologists and students realized there was a great deal yet to 
  be discovered about the ancient world.  A new generation of 
  archaeologists was fired by boyhood readings of Schliemann’s 
  discovery which was widely publicized (somewhat along the lines 
  of Ballard’s discovery of Titanic).  
   
  In 1898 Sir Arthur Evans discovered a vast palace site on Crete, 
  which he fairly reasonably linked to King Minos.  That the palace, 
  and “Minoan” civilization were real was beyond doubt, and the 
  ancient stories of Crete fell neatly into place with scientific fact. 
   
  Thus Atlantis remains a historic possibility – after all, was not Troy 
  thought fictional?  Schliemann and Evans both believed in 
  Atlantis, and Schliemann spent a fair amount of money trying to 
  find it.  The classic “map” of Atlantis, developed from the 
  description in Plato, originates with Schliemann.  That Atlantis 
  was a place of strange super science seems doubtful, but Atlantis 
  may well have represented a civilization more advanced than the 
  one which came immediately after it as the Greeks went through 
  some periodic cycle of barbarism.  Certainly the Greeks possessed 
  great skills at calculation as shown by objects such as the 
  Antikythera device, recovered in 1901, which is a sort of complex 
  astronomical computer. 
   
  Atlantis was the domain of Poseidon, god of the sea. When 
  Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito, he created a 
  dwelling at the top of a hill near the middle of the island and 
  surrounded the dwelling with rings of water and land to protect 
  her. 
   
  Cleito gave birth to five sets of twin boys who became the first 
  rulers of Atlantis. The island was divided among the brothers with 
  the eldest, Atlas, first King of Atlantis, being given control over the 
  central hill and surrounding areas. 
   
  At the top of the central hill, a temple was built to honor Poseidon 
  which housed a giant gold statue of Poseidon riding a chariot 
  pulled by winged horses. It was here that the rulers of Atlantis 
  would come to discuss laws, pass judgments, and pay tribute to 
  Poseidon.. 
   
  To facilitate travel and trade, a water canal was cut through of the 
  rings of land and water running south for 5.5 miles (~9 km) to the 
  sea. 
   
  The city of Atlantis sat just outside the outer ring of water and 
  spread across the plain covering a circle of 11 miles (1.7 km). This 
  was a densely populated area where the majority of the population 
  lived. 
   
  Beyond the city lay a fertile plain 330 miles (530 km) long and 
  110 miles (190 km) wide surrounded by another canal used to 
  collect water from the rivers and streams of the mountains. The 
  climate was such that two harvests were possible each year. One in 
  the winter fed by the rains and one in the summer fed by irrigation 
  from the canal. 
   
  Surrounding the plain to the north were mountains which soared to 
  the skies. Villages, lakes, rivers, and meadows dotted the 
  mountains. 
   
  Besides the harvests, the island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits, 
  and nuts. An abundance of animals, including elephants, roamed 
  the island. 
   
  For generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous lives. But 
  slowly they began to change. Greed and power began to corrupt 
  them. When Zeus saw the immorality of the Atlanteans he gathered 
  the other gods to determine a suitable punishment. 
   
  Soon, in one violent surge it was gone. The island of Atlantis, its 
  people, and its memory were swallowed by the sea. 
   
  Other ancient writers, like Diodorus, Pliny, and Virgil wrote about 
  other “lost continents.”  Probably the most common is Thule, a 
  land the Greeks said existed before their time. They described 
  Thule in the North Atlantic as warm and green surrounded by high 
  mountains, known for breathtakingly beautiful women.  The 
  ancients agreed that the Hyperborean race was tall and in 
  excellent physical condition, and some told of how they conquered 
  the aging process and looked youthful in old age. They were 
  sometimes described as vegetarians and fruitarians who lived in 
  harmony with nature. 
   
  The primary modern resource for Atlantis is Ignatius Donnelly’s 
  The Antediluvian World  published in 1882.  It is a compendium 
  of every strange archaeological anomaly in the world, and many 
  which are purely invented, and purports to “prove” the existence 
  of Atlantis.  Doubtless there are real gems of archaeology mired 
  among the mass, but Donnelly’s …er hem…”uncritical” approach 
  to his material leaves much to be desired.  (GM Note - This 
  material is, interestingly, the source of much of the “historic fact” 
  repeated by late 20th century writers such as Charles Berlitz and 
  Erich Von Dankien) 
   
  Atlantis is supposed to have perished in destruction, but the Thule 
  legend is likely true – a remembrance of times of better weather on 
  the Steppes of Russia, before the invasions that toppled the 
  Mycenae Kings, and brought about centuries of chaos in Greece.   
   
  Other references like “Mu,” or “Lemuria” are probably modern.  A 
  French pseudo-scientist named Dr. Augustus le Plongeon and his 
  wife spend years trying to prove that a “Queen Moo of Yucatan” 
  founded a colonly in Egypt, however their science was completely 
  spurious, since it included the apparent ability to read a “Mayan” 
  alphabet which they invented.   
   
  More recently The Problem of Atlantis by Lewis Spence was 
  released in 1924, and between the turn of the century and the 
  twenties a number of spiritualists and the like churned out masses 
  of writing about Atlantis.   
   
  Lewis Spence, whose works on Atlantis were published in the 
  1920's, revived the popular fifteenth-century tradition of a 
  rectangular continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific 
  called Antilia.  The legend of an “Atlantic Continent” is 
  maintained by nearly all the Western European peoples, 
  exemplified by Hy Breasil the Irish earthly paradise, which 
  probably gave its name to the South American land discovered by 
  the Spanish.   
   
  There is some suggestion that Christopher Columbus believed this 
  theory, hoping to find Antilia on his westward course to the Indies.  
  
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  The present traces of Antilia are claimed to be the Antilles Islands 
  in the West Indies 
   
  Spence modified this historical belief by suggesting that Antilia 
  was a land bridge connecting Atlantis to the Americas. Placing 
  Atlantis in its common spot, the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 
  Spence envisioned refugees fleeing from the sinking Atlantis, over 
  the land bridge of Antilia, and   into the Yucatan Peninsula. "He 
  traced the origins of the Maya culture to those uprooted early 
  Atlantians. To Spence, a Mexican Indian legend about the 
  destruction of the old Toltec capital was a distorted memory of the 
  Atlantis disaster"  
   
  Believing that western Europe was populated by successive waves 
  of Atlantians, Spence used the 
  early paintings of the Cro-Magnons to argue that these non-
  Europeans had to come from the lost continent. Using proof that 
  pointed to the existence of foreigners creating these paintings, 
  Spence argued that these "invaders" were not large tribes of 
  nomadic peoples, but instead were "small, organized hunting 
  expeditions sent out from the highly civilized island" 
   
  To further prove that Europe was settled by these immigrants, he 
  "puts the date of the catastrophe that overwhelmed Atlantis as 
  13,000 years ago at the earliest, which agrees very well with 
  Plato's summary dating" 
   
  While Spence’s science is flawed, his basic thesis has an element 
  of truth.  Atlantis is an archaeological “problem” or rather the 
  symbolic name for a much bigger problem.  Throughout 
  archaeology and history there are elements that do not fit, strange 
  artifacts, and things that do not fit in with their culture or do not 
  seem to be possible to explain except in the wildest terms of 
  chance.  From the strange device found near Antikythera to the 
  most recent rumors from Baghdad that William König, a German 
  archaeologist, has discovered strange 2000 year old cylinders in 
  jars, which have the form and function of a “battery.”  As a symbol 
  of all these riddles “Atlantis” is as valid a name as any other. 
   
  Attwood, Mrs. : The author of  a  work entitled, A Suggestive 
  Inquiry with the Hermetic Mystery, published anonymously, at 
  London, in 1850. Owing to the circumstance that A was supposed 
  to have revealed certain alchemical secrets, it was shortly 
  afterwards withdrawn from circulation. 
   
  Baalberith: According to Wierius, a demon of the second order; 
  master of the lnfernal Alliance. He is said to be secretary and 
  keeper of the archives of Hell. 
   
  Babiagora: Certain lakes of a gloomy nature, which lie between 
  Hungary and Poland, and in Romania, which have figured in 
  various stories of witchcraft. Pools, such as these, are often used 
  for purposes of divination, as by gazing down into clear water the 
  mind is disposed to contemplation, often of a melancholy 
  character. 
   
  Bagommedes: A knight mentioned by Gautier in the Conte du 
  Graal. It is said that he was fastened to a tree by Kay and left 
  hanging head downwards, until released by Perceval. On 
  Bagommede's return to the court he challenged Kay, but was 
  prevented by Arthur from slaying him. 
   
  Baian: son of Simeon, King of the Bulgarians, and a mighty 
  magician, who could transform himself into a wolf whenever he 
  desired. He could also adopt other shapes and reader himself 
  invisible. He is alluded to by Ninauld in his Lycanthropic (page 
  ioo). 
   
  Baitus, Jean Frangols: A learned Jesuit who died in 1743. In his 
  Reply to the History of the Oracles of Fontenelle, published in 
  Strasbourg in 1708, he affirmed that the oracles of the ancients 
  were the work of demons from outside the creation, and that they 
  were reduced to silence during the mission of Christ upon the 
  earth. 
   
  Baltazo: One of the demons who possessed a young woman of 
  Laon, Nicole Aubry, in the year 1566. He went to sup with her 
  husband, under the pretext of freeing her from demoa-possession, 
  which he did not accomplish. It was observed that at supper he did 
  not drink, which shows that demons are averse to water. 
   
  Baltus, Jean Francois: A Jesuit who died in 1743.  In his Reply to 
  the History of the Oracles of Fontenelle, pub lished in Strasbourg in 
  1708, he affirmed that the oracles of the ancients were the work of 
  demons, and that they were reduced to silence during the mission 
  of Christ upon the earth. 
   
  Barnaud, Nicholas : A medical doctor of the sixteenth century who 
  claimed to have discovered the Philosophers' Stone. He published 
  a great number of short treatises on the subject of Alchemy, which 
  are contained in the third volume of the Theatrurn Chiivicum of 
  Zetzner, published at Strasburg, in 1659. 
   
  Barqu : A demon in whose keeping was the secret Philosophers 
  stone. 
   
  Baquet : A large circular tub which entered largely into the 
  treatment which D'Eslon, the friend and follower of Mesmer, 
  prescribed for his patients. Puysegur tells us in his book Du 
  Maqnetisme Animal, that in the baquet were placed some bottles, 
  arranged in a particular manner, and partly covered with water. It 
  was fitted with a lid in which were several holes, through which 
  passed iron rods connecting the patients, who sat round the 
  contrivance, with the interior of the tub.  The operator was armed 
  with a shorter iron rod.  While the patients waited for the 
  symptoms of the magnetic treatment, someone played upon a 
  pianoforte, a device which is frequently adopted at seances.  The 
  symptoms included violent convulsions, cries, laughter, and 
  vomiting.  This state they called the crisis and it was supposed to 
  hasten the healing process.  A commission appointed in 1784 by 
  the French government through the Faculte de Medccine and the 
  Societe Royale du Medecine¸ reported that such practices were 
  exceedingly dangerous and in nowise proved the existence of the 
  magnetic fluid.  Dr. Bell a "professor of animal magnetism": set up 
  a similar institution in England in 1785, using a large oak baquet. 
   
  Bat:-There is an-Oriental belief that the bat is specially adapted to 
  occult uses. In the Tyrol it is believed that the man who wears the 
  left eye of a bat may become invisible, and in Hesse he who wears 
  the heart of a bat bound to his arm with red thread will always be 
  lucky at cards. 
   
  Baphomet: The goat-idol of the Templars (q.v.) and the deity of the 
  sorcerers' Sabbath. According to Eliphas Levi, the name is 
  composed of three abbreviations: Tem. olip. Ab, Templi oinnium 
  hominum Pacis abhas, " the father of the temple 'of universal peace 
  among men." Some authorities hold that the Baphomet was a 
  monstrous head, others that it was a demon in the form of a goat. 
  
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  An account of a veritable Baphometic idol is as follows: " A 
  pantheistic and magical figure of the Absolute. The torch placed 
  between the two horns, represents the equilbrating intelligence of 
  the triad. The goat's head, which is synthetic, and unites some 
  characteristics of the dog, bull, and ass, represents the exclusive 
  responsibility of matter and the, expiation of bodily sins in the 
  body. The hands are human, to exhibit the sanctity of labour; they 
  make the sign of esotericism above and below, to impress mystery 
  on initiates, and they point at two lunar crescents, the upper being 
  white and the lower black, to explain the correspondences of good 
  and evil, mercy and justice. The lower part of the body is veiled, 
  portraying the mysteries of universal generation, which is 
  expressed solely by the symbol of the caduceus. The belly of the 
  goat is scaled, and should be colored green, the semicircle above 
  should be blue; the plumage, reaching to the breast, should be of 
  various hues. The goat has female breasts, and thus its only human 
  characteristics, are, those of maternity and toil, otherwise the signs 
  of redemption. On its forehead, between the horns and beneath the 
  torch, is the sign of the microcosm, or the pentagram with one 
  beam in the ascendant, symbol of human intelligence, which, 
  placed, 'thus below the torch, makes the flame of the latter an 
  image, of divine revelation. 
   
  This Pantheos should be seated on a cube, and its footstool should 
  be a single ball, or a ball and a triangular stool." Wright 
  (Narratives of Sorcery and Magic), writing on the Baphomet says:-" 
  Another charge in the accusation of the Templars seems to have 
  been to a great degree proved by the depositions of witnesses; the 
  idol or head which they are said to have worshipped, but the real 
  character or meaning of which we are totally unable to explain. 
  Many Templars confessed to having seen this idol, but as they 
  described it differently, we must suppose that it was not in all 
  cases represented under the same form. Some said it was a 
  frightful head, with long beard and sparkling eyes; others said it 
  was a man's skull; some described it as having three.face.-; some 
  said it was of wood, and others of metal; one witness described it 
  as a painting (tabida Picta) representing the image a man (imago 
  hominis) and said that when it was shown to him, he was ordered 
  to ' adore Christ, his creator.' According to some it was a gilt figure, 
  either of wood or metal; while others described it -as painted black 
  and white. 
   
  According to another deposition, the idol had four feet, two before 
  and two behind;` the one belonging to the order at Paris, was said 
  to be a silver head, with two faces and a beard. The novices of the 
  order were told always to regard this idol so their saviour. 
  Deodatus Jaffet, a knight from the south of France, who had been 
  received at Pedenat, deposed that the person who in his case 
  performed the ceremonies of reception, showed him a head or idol 
  of rock or crystal, and said, ' You must adore this as your saviour, 
  and the saviour of the order of the Temple ' and that he was made 
  to worship the idol, saying, ' Blessed be he who shall save my soul.' 
  Cettus Ragonis, a knight received at Rome in a chamber of the 
  palace of the Lateran, gave a somewhat similar account. 
   
  Many other witness s spoke of having seen these heads, which, 
  however, were, perhaps, not, shown to everybody, for the greatest 
  number of those who spoke op. this subject, said that they had 
  heard speak of the head, but that they had never seen it 
  themselves; and many of them declared their disbelief in its 
  existence. A friar minor deposed in England that an English 
  Templar had assured him that in that country the order had four 
  principal idols, one at London, in the Sacristy of the Temple, 
  another at Bristelham, a third at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire), 
  and a fourth beyond the Humber. " Some of the knights from the 
  south added another circumstance in their confessions relating to 
  this head. 
   
  A templar of Florence, declared that, in the secret meetings of the 
  chapters, one brother said to the others, showing them the idol, ' 
  Adore this head. This head is your God and your Mahomet.' 
  Another, Gauserand de Montpesant, said that the idol was made in 
  the figure of Baffomet (in fieram Baffomeli); and another, 
  Raymond Rubei, described it as a crystal head, which was hanged 
  opposite the Baphomet, and he adds, ' that he worshipped it by 
  kissing its feet, and exclaiming Xalla, ' which he describes as ' a 
  word of the Saracens ' (verbum Slalyacenoyum). This has been 
  seized upon by some as a proof that the Templars had secretly 
  embraced Mahometanism, as Baffomet or Baphoinet is evidently a 
  corruption of Mahomet; but it must not be forgotten that the 
  Christians of the West constantly used the word Mahomst in the 
  mere signification of an idol, and that it was the desire of those 
  who conducted the prosecution apinst the Templars to show their 
  intimate intercourse with the Saracens. Others, especially Von 
  Hammer, gave a Greek derivation of the word, and assumed it as a 
  proof that gnosticism was the secret doctrine of the temple. . .  
   
  Baptism: It was said that at the witches' Sabbath children and 
  toads were baptised with certain horrible rites. This was called the 
  baptism of the devil. A babe might be drowned in a kettle of 
  boiling water in mockery of the rite of baptism. 
   
  Baptism of the Line: A curious rite is performed on persons 
  crossing the equator for the first time. The sailors who are to carry 
  it out dress themselves in quaint costumes. The Father of the Line 
  arrives in a cask, accompanied by a courier, a devil, a hair-
  dresser, and a miller. The unfortunate passenger has his hair 
  curled, is liberally sprinkled with flour, and then has water 
  showered upon him, if he is not ducked. The origin of this custom 
  is not knovn, nor is it quite clear what part the devil plays in it. It 
  is said, however, that, it may be averted by tipping the sailors. 
   
  Barbarous Names: words and names of deities that are frequently 
  used in medieval grimoires. These names often originated as deity 
  names from ancient civilizations, which have been corrupted 
  through scribal error. The word barbarous comes from the Greek 
  word barbaros meaning "non-Greek, foreign." Many of the so-
  called barbarous names originated as Greek versions of more 
  ancient Hebrew, Egyptian, and Babylonian names. Modern 
  magicians believe that through centuries of ritual use, these names 
  have taken on a magical potency of their own, regardless of their 
  origins. 
   
  Barbarossa, Frederick I: German King and Roman Emperor, son of 
  Frederick of Swabia (d. 1147) and Judith, daughter of Henry the 
  Black; born c. 1123; died 10 June, 1190. Connected maternally 
  with the Guelphs, he seemed destined to effect a reconciliation 
  between them and the Ghibellines. In 1146 he had already roused 
  public attention by a determined and victorious war against Duke 
  Conrad of Zähringen. On 4 March, 1152, after having been 
  designated by Conrad III as his successor, he was elected German 
  king, unopposed, and crowned at Aachen on 9 March. Taking 
  Charles the Great as his ideal of a German emperor, Frederick 
  determined to expand his supremacy to its utmost limits. This 
  explains his ecclesiastical policy. With astonishing firmness his 
  bold spirit pursued the aims it had once marked out for itself. 
  
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  Though no scholar, Frederick surprises us by the clearness and 
  cleverness of his speech, by his rapid comprehension and decision, 
  and by his well-reasoned and logical policy. A born ruler, he 
  considered it his duty to secure for his subjects the blessings of 
  peace. The majesty of his personal appearance was combined with 
  attractive kindliness. Though shrewd and calculating, he had at 
  times fits of uncontrolled passion. However, he was sufficiently 
  master of himself to restrain his anger if the object to be attained 
  was endangered by an outburst. Such a man naturally excited the 
  admiration and invited the confidence of his fellow-men.  
   
  The sense of national unity that grew out of the rivalries existing in 
  the crusading armies found in him an ideal for its enthusiasm. In 
  public opinion Frederick found the support which was lacking to 
  his predecessors, Lothair and Conrad. The German people loved 
  their king, who soon after his coronation visited the various parts of 
  his realm and manfully exerted himself to establish internal peace. 
  There was no reason why the secular princes of his empire should 
  oppose the newly chosen king; his naturally conservative mind 
  knew how to deal with existing forces. Of the princes, whose power 
  was already approaching sovereignty, he demanded only respect 
  for the existing order. He sought also to unite the interests of the 
  German princes, especially those of the House of Guelph with the 
  interests of the empire. The Gregorian, hierarchical party in 
  Germany was in a state of complete dissolution. From the bishops 
  Frederick had no reason to fear radical opposition to his policy 
  towards the Church, dissatisfaction with the papal administration 
  in Germany being then widespread. He succeeded in recovering 
  the influence formerly exercised by the German king in the 
  selection of bishops. Many powerful men were at that time to be 
  found among the German clergy, prominent among them being the 
  provost of Hildesheim, Rainald von Dassel, consecrated 
  Archbishop of Cologne in May, 1156, and made chancellor of the 
  empire. For eleven years he was the most faithful counsellor of 
  Frederick. Rainald was a formidable opponent of the papacy; in 
  him the bishop almost wholly disappears in the statesman. Similar 
  to Frederick in character, he vigorously supported the anti-
  hierarchical policy of the emperor. Another prelate, also a stanch 
  supporter of the king, was Wichmann, Archbishop of Magdeburg, 
  more of a soldier than a bishop, and uncanonically promoted from 
  the See of Zeitz to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. Thus assisted 
  by the various estates of the empire, Frederick sought to make the 
  power of the crown as independent as possible. This he did by 
  vigorously furthering the interests of his ancestral house. The 
  administrators of his family property, the ministeriales, were not 
  only managers of great estates, but at the same time an ever-ready 
  body of warriors. The negotiations between the king and the pope 
  concerning the appointment to the See of Magdeburg revealed for 
  the first time a radical difference between the policies of the 
  Church and the State. During these stormy controversies, 
  forerunners of the approaching tempest, Frederick was 
  strengthened in his views regarding the superiority of the royal 
  over the papal power, chiefly through intercourse with the leading 
  jurists of the University of Bologna. The conception of the dignity 
  of the Roman emperor placed before him by these men confirmed 
  him in his claims to the supremacy of the German kings over the 
  Church, which he based upon the rights exercised by them during 
  the Carlovingian period. The whole internal and external policy of 
  Frederick was controlled by the idea of restoring the ancient 
  imperium mundi. In Northern Italy, where many prosperous 
  communes had acquired independence, the former imperial 
  suzerainty had passed away. Frederick failed to see that in these 
  cities a new political factor was developing, and underrated the 
  powers of resistance of these free municipal republics. Concerned 
  only with immediate advantages, he sought to recover the regalia 
  (income from vacant sees and benefices), which the cities had 
  gradually usurped, and to utilize them in persuing his imperial 
  policy. The conduct of Frederick in Northern Italy and the 
  mistaken concept of the relations between Church and State could 
  not fail to bring about a conflict with the papacy. In this conflict for 
  supremacy in Northern Italy, the pope was forced to prove that he 
  was able to defend the position of equality with the king, which the 
  papal see had acquired, and in this way to gain a complete victory 
  over the emperor. The king, a deeply religious man, was, indeed, 
  convinced that the secular and ecclesiastical power should co-
  operate with each other, but he made it clear that even the pope 
  should respect in him the imperial lord. If Frederick became 
  master of Italy, the pope would have to acknowledge this 
  supremacy. In the beginning, it seemed probable that Frederick 
  would triumph. The pope needed German help. Threatened by the 
  Normans from without, he was not even secure in his own city, 
  which governed itself through a senate elected by popular vote and 
  tolerated the revolutionary Arnold of Brescia within its walls. It 
  was in these circumstances that the Treaty of Constance was 
  signed between the pope and the king (March, 1153). This treaty 
  was aimed against the enemies of the pope both in Rome and 
  Southern Italy. In return the pope promised to crown Frederick 
  emperor and to help him against his enemies.  
   
  In October, 1154, Frederick began his march Romewards. Owing 
  to the weakness of his army, the king did not succeed at this time 
  in subjecting to his power Northern Italy and the rebellious city of 
  Milan. In 1155 he went on with his army to Rome, where he met 
  the newly elected Pope Adrian IV, who maintained himself in 
  Rome with difficulty and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 
  German king. Frederick could not establish permanent order in 
  Rome. The Treaty of Constance, promising the pope help against 
  the Romans and Normans, was therefore not carried out. In On 18 
  June, 1155, after having delivered Arnold of Brescia into the 
  pope's hands, Frederick was crowned as Roman emperor in spite 
  of the opposition of the rebellious Romans. In Southern, as in 
  Northern, Italy Frederick made little progress during this Italian 
  expedition. During the years 1155-1158, Frederick reached the 
  height of his power, and energetically safeguarded the tranquillity 
  of his realm. The difficult Bavarian question, replete with 
  imminent danger of war, was successfully settled; Henry 
  Jasomirgott surrendered Bavaria to Henry the Lion and in return 
  received Austria as an independent duchy, a step that was 
  pregnant with consequences for the future of Germany. Frederick's 
  policy was also successful along the eastern and western 
  boundaries of his empire. His suzerainty in Burgundy was, in the 
  main, re-established, after Frederick, with the consent of the 
  Curia, had separated from Adela von Bohburg, and married 
  Beatrice, the heiress of Burgundy. On his eastern frontier, he 
  succeeded more and more in Germanizing and Christianizing the 
  local tribes. In this respect, Henry the Lion was the chief pioneer 
  of the future imperial policy. Frederick maintained amicable 
  relations with Denmark, Poland, and Hungary. Impelled by his 
  proud consciousness of authority, which found expression at the 
  Diet of Würzburg (1157), Frederick undertook a second Italian 
  campaign in 1158. In the meantime, conditions had changed in 
  Italy; the pope, from being an opponent of the Normans, had 
  become their ally. The friendly relations between the pope and 
  emperor had suffered a shock after the Diet of Besançon (1157). 
  On that occasion the papal legate had called the imperial dignity a 
  benefice (beneficium) of the popes. The expression was ambiguous, 
  since the Latin word beneficium might mean either a personal 
  benefit or a feudal concession. There is no doubt, however, that the 
  
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  indignant German princes were right in understanding it to be an 
  assertion of the superiority of the popes over the emperors. In 
  sharp denial of this claim, Frederick defended his imperial 
  sovereignty. The relations between pope and emperor became more 
  strained. Pope Adrian was considering the excommunication of the 
  emperor, when his death relieved the existing tension. Relying on 
  his own resources, Frederick now began another campaign against 
  the cities of Northern Italy. Milan succumbed after a short siege (7 
  Sept., 1158). At the Diet of Roncaglia the emperor undertook to 
  define with precision the rights of the empire as against its subject 
  rulers and cities, also to restore the earlier strong suzerainty by the 
  appointment of imperial officials (podestà) in the North Italian 
  cities. His intention was to establish peace, but the Lombards 
  failed to understand this and openly rebelled. During his war with 
  the city of Cremona occurred the disputed papal election of 1159. 
  As supreme protector of Christendom, Frederick claimed the right 
  to decide this quarrel. Of course, had he been able to enforce his 
  claims it would have been a proof of the supremacy of the empire. 
  The Synod of Pavia, assembled by Frederick in Feb., 1160, 
  decided in favour of Victor IV. Thereupon, as Victor's protector, 
  Frederick undertook to win over to the cause of this antipope the 
  other rulers of Europe. Milan, in the meantime, had surrendered 
  (March, 1162) and met with a fearful castigation.  
   
  The successes of the emperor excited the envy of the other 
  European rulers. Pope Alexander III, animated with the spirit of 
  Gregory VII, refused to acknowledge the imperial supremacy. 
  Around the pope gathered all the enemies of Frederick. The 
  universal papal power was destined to triumph over the idea of a 
  universal imperial power. The Western rulers were determined to 
  resist every attempt to re-establish the imperial hegemony in the 
  West. Frederick was again left to his own resources and, after a 
  short sojourn in Germany, undertook a new expedition to Italy 
  (1163). For a time the death of the antipope, Victor IV, gave rise to 
  hopes of a reconciliation between Frederick and Alexander III, but 
  soon the emperor recognized another antipope, Paschal III. At the 
  same time an anti-imperial alliance, the Lombard League, was 
  formed by the cities of Verona, Vicenza, and Padua; it was joined 
  by Venice, Constantinople, and Sicily. Internal troubles caused by 
  the schism prevented the emperor from coping successfully with 
  the famous League. Some of the German clergy, moreover, had 
  espoused the cause of Alexander III, and Frederick was unable to 
  overcome their opposition. Nevertheless, he again left Germany 
  (1166), marched through the disaffected cities of Northern Italy, 
  and accompanied by the antipope, entered Rome. There a deadly 
  fever destroyed his army, while behind him the Lombard 
  insurrection assumed more dangerous proportions. Lengthy 
  negotiations followed, and the emperor again attempted to 
  overthrow the coalition of the League and Pope Alexander (1174). 
  The great battle of Legnano (29 May, 1176) destroyed the imperial 
  hopes, and left Frederick willing to enter on negotiations for peace. 
  The most important result of the ensuing treaty of Venice (1177) 
  was the failure of the emperor to establish his supremacy over the 
  pope; and in acknowledging the complete equality of Alexander, 
  whom he now recognized as pope, Frederick confessed the defeat 
  of the imperial pretensions.  
   
  While Frederick was fighting in Northern Italy, the head of the 
  Guelphs, Henry the Lion, had refused to give him armed 
  assistance. Now he openly rebelled against Frederick. The 
  emperor overthrew Henry, and henceforth aimed at impeding the 
  growth of his powerful vassals by dividing the dukedoms as much 
  as possible. Bavaria, without Styria however, was at this time 
  granted to the Guelph house of Wittelsbach, which act naturally 
  revived the feud between the Houses of Guelph and Hohenstaufen.  
   
  The Treaty of Constance (25 June, 1183) between Frederick and 
  the Lombards deprived the pope of his important ally, the 
  combined cities of Northern Italy. Shortly afterwards, Frederick's 
  son Henry married Constance, the Norman princess of Sicily. The 
  papacy was now threatened both from the north and the south. 
  Friendly relations between the pope and the emperor were also 
  endangered by complaints about the exercise of the Jus spolii and 
  the collection of the tithes by laymen. The coronation of 
  Frederick's son Henry as King of Italy (27 Jan., 1186) led to an 
  open rupture. The political weakness of the papacy was offset to 
  some extent by the fact that Philipp von Heinsberg, Archbishop of 
  Cologne and a powerful prince, became the champion of the pope. 
  By skilful management and with the aid of a majority of the 
  German bishops Frederick evaded the threatening peril.  
  The death of Urban III and the election of Gregory VIII brought 
  about a change in the dealings of the Curia with the empire, owing 
  chiefly to the gloomy reports from the Holy Land.  
   
  At the Diet of Mainz in 1188, Frederick took the cross, and on 11 
  May, 1189, started for Palestine. On 10 June, 1190, he met with a 
  sudden death while crossing the River Saleph in Asia Minor. 
  German legend insists that Barbarossa will return to form a new 
  German Empire, and in Germany Barbarossa's figure has stature 
  similar to Arthur in Britain. 
   
  Quetzalcoatl: According to Mayan legend Kulkulkan, the Plumed 
  Serpant, (called Quetzalcoatl by the Toltecs and later the Aztecs) 
  arrived in Central America in a boat from across the sea. The 
  Mayans regarded him as the great organizer who founded cities, 
  formulated laws and invented the Mayan calendar. The Aztecs 
  revered him as a god of light. He was a bearded white man. Other 
  Central American deities were Votan, a great civilizer who was 
  white and bearded and Itzamana a pale skinned, bearded Mayan 
  God of medicine. The Central American Indians did not have 
  beards. 
   
   Bataille, Dr.: Author of Le Diable au XIXsime. Under the 
  pseudonym of Dr. Hecks he purports to have witnessed the secret 
  rites and orgies of many diabolic societies, but a merely 
  perfunctory examination of his work is sufficient to brand it as 
  wholly an effort of the imagination. 
   
  Battle of Loquifer, The: A tale incorporated in the Charlemagne 
  saga, supposed to have been written about the twelfth century. Its 
  hero is Renouart, the giant brother-in-law of William of Orange, 
  and the events take place on the sea. Renouart and his barons are 
  on the shore at Porpaillart, when a Saracen fleet is seen. He is 
  persuaded to enter one of the ships, which immediately set sail; 
  and he is told by Isembert, a hideous monster, that the Saracens 
  mean to flay him alive. Isembert may preserve an element of an 
  earlier legend by which the Royal house of the Franks was 
  descended from a Sea-Monster. 
   
  Renouart, armed only with a huge bar of wood, kills this creature, 
  and makes the Saracens let him go, while they return to their own 
  country. It is arranged that Renouart will fight one Loquifer, a fairy 
  giant and leader of the Saracens; and on the issue of this combat 
  the war will depend. They meet on an island near Porpaillart. 
  Loquifer is -in possession of a magical balinj which heals all his 
  wounds immediately, and is concealed in his club; but Renouart, 
  
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  who is assisted by angels, at length succeeds in depriving Loquifer 
  of his club, so that his strength departs. Renouart slays him, and 
  the devil carries off his soul.  
   The romance goes on to tell of a duel between William of Orange 
  and Desrame, Renouart's father, in which the latter is slain. 
  Renouart is comforted by fairies, who bear him to Avalon 
   
  Beaumont, John: Author of a Treatise on Spirits, Apparitions, etc., 
  published in 1705. He is described as " a man of hypochondriacal 
  disposition, with a considerable degree of reading, but with a 
  strong bias to credulity." Labouring under this affection,  
   
  Belocolus : A - white stone with a black pupil, said to render its 
  bearer invisible in a field of battle. 
   
  Benjees, The: A people of the East Indies, given over to the 
  worship of the Devil; and whose temples and pagodas are filled 
  with horrible statues of him. The king of Calicut had a temple 
  wholly filled with awful figures of the devil, and which was lighted 
  only with the gleam of many lamps. In the centre was a copper 
  throne, on which was seated a devil, made of the same metal, with 
  a large tiara on his head, three huge horns and four others which 
  come out of his forehead. On his tongue and in his hand were two 
  figures-souls, which the Indians say, he s preparing to devour. 
   
  Bermechobus:  The supposed writings of St. Methodius of Olympus 
  (martyred 311 A.D.) or the saint of the same name who was 
  Patriarch of Constantinople and who died in 846. The real name of 
  the work is Bea-Methodius, a contraction for Beatus Methodivo, 
  which was misprinted " Bermechobus." The work is of the nature of 
  a prophetic Apocalypse, and foretells the history of the world, It 
  was handed down by the Gnostics and was printed in the Liber 
  Mirabilis (q.v.). There are no grounds, however, for the supposition 
  that the work should be referred to either of the saints above 
  mentioned. It recounts how Seth sought a new country in the east 
  and came to the country of the initiates, and how the children of 
  Cain instituted a system of black magic in India. The author 
  identifies the Ishmaelites with those tribes who overthrew the 
  Roman power, and tells of a powerful northern people whose reign 
  will be over-turned by Anti-Christ. A universal kingdom will 
  thereafter be founded, governed by a prince of French blood, after 
  which a prolonged period of justice will supervene. 
   
  Bearded Demon: The demon who teaches the secret of the 
  Philosophers' Stone. He is but little known. The dimon barba is not 
  to be confused with Barbatos, a great and powerful demon who is a 
  duke in Hades, though not a philosopher; nor with Barbas, who is 
  interested in mechanics. It is said that the bearded demon is so 
  called on account of his remarkable beard. 
   
  Beehard is supposedly one the of the demons linked to the Key of 
  Solomon he makes wind, rain and thunder. 
   
  Belphegor: The demon of discoveries and ingenious inventions. He 
  appears always in the shape of a young woman. The Moabites, who 
  called him Baalphegor adored him on Mount Phegor. He it is who 
  bestows riches. 
   
   Berande: A sorceress burnt at Maubec, in France, in 1577. She 
  was confronted by a damsel whom she accused of sorcery, which 
  the girl denied, whereat the beldame exclaimed, " Dost thou not 
  remember how at the last dance at the Croix du Pat, thou didst 
  carry a pot of poison ? " The damsel at this confessed, and was 
  burnt along with her accuser. 
   
  Bible of the Devil: This was without doubt a grimoire or some such 
  work. But Delancre says that the Devil informed sorcerers that he 
  possessed a bible consisting of sacred books, having a theology of 
  its own, which was dilated upon by various professors. One great 
  magician, continues Delancre, who was brought before the 
  Parliament of Paris, avowed that there dwelt at Toledo sixty three 
  masters in the faculty of Magic who took for their text-book the 
  Devil's Bible. 
   
   Biscar, Jeanette: A sorceress of the district of Labour in France, 
  who was transported to the witches' Sabbath by the Devil in the 
  form of a goat. As a reward she was suspended in mid-air head 
  downwards. 
   
  Bisclavet: The name of the were-wolf (q.v.) in Brittany. It is 
  believed to be a human being, transformed by magic into a 
  fearsome man-devouring beast, which roams about the woods, 
  seeking whom it may slay. Bisclaveret or Bisclavet was supposed 
  to have been a sorcerer who discovered the secret of transformation 
  into a wolf. See: Lycanthropy 
   
  Black Lodges: The term “Black Lodge” is one applied by a 
  member of one order to the member of another.  Very few lodges 
  would style themselves as “Black Lodges” and with those that do it 
  would be more a sort of “in your face” reaction than any really 
  meaningful designation. 
   
  Black Lodges are not mindless cults that serve evil.  Black Lodges 
  follow what esotericists of the 1930s would term “the left hand 
  path.”  It is likely that cults that went around recruiting mindless 
  servants of darkness would not swell in numbers – a few psychotics 
  and malcontents might rally to their banner, but it is unlikely that 
  they would attract the sort of customers that make for much of a 
  challenge. 
   
  Black Lodges can be divided into two practices – those who 
  actively pursue the Left Hand Path, and those who believe that the 
  concept of Right and Left Hand paths is a historical anachronism.   
  Those which pursue the Left Hand Path can be divided into (using 
  arbitrary terms) dualists and supremacists. 
   
  Those who reject the Left and Right Hand Path concepts believe 
  that the concepts of strict good and evil are outmoded and 
  obsolete.  The may treat magic as a science which needs to be 
  explored, and see no more reason not to exploit it for personal gain 
  that they see why GE should not sell lightbulbs.  The Ordo Templi 
  Orientis is probably representative of this type of Black Lodge.  
  These lodges may cooperate with White Lodges and are not “evil” 
  in the traditional sense of the word.  Many of these groups might be 
  more appropriately termed “grey lodges” 
   
  Dualists follow a Manichiaean or Zoastrian universe concept which 
  suggests that man must be balanced.  They believe that there must 
  be good and evil in the universe and that to be truly ascended a 
  man must know good as well as evil.  This is often a self-
  justification for immoral acts, but there are those who have 
  pursued the path with conviction and even many White 
  practitioners acknowledge some legitimacy to this approach.  Many 
  groups which have sex-magic practices, but are otherwise fairly 
  heterodox might be placed in this category by their more obviously 
  “White” co-practitioners. 
   
  
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  Supremacists express devotion to a power which most white 
  practitioners would see as evil or negative.  They may rationalize 
  this power as being “beyond good and evil” in a Nietzschean 
  sense, or may believe in a dualistic universe but have committed to 
  a path which they acknowledge will bring them more personal 
  power, following a “some will be predators some must be prey” 
  mentality.  Lodges like the Vril Society fall into this category.   
   
  Black Lodges and “Black Magic” 
   
   “Black Lodge” does not particularly pertain to “Black Magic.”  
  Black magic (Goiety - magic which requires dealing with beings or 
  forces which the practitioner believes to be evil or maleficent) is 
  studied and practiced by even the most exemplary of Lodges, 
  though rather carefully.    
   
  What makes a Lodge “Black”  
   
  Dion Fortune, writing in the says: 
   
  “…with regard to Black Occultism, it is impossible to label any 
  operationat all times and circumstances definitely Black or 
  definitely White; all we can say is, that under certain 
  circumstances it is black or white.  Dirt has been defined as 
  misplaced matter, and evil can be defined as misplaced force.  
  Force can be misplaced in time or space.  A thing may be right at 
  one time which is wrong at another.  Black Occultism, then, may 
  be defined as misplaced force or out of date methods.” 
   
  In saying out of date, Fortune’s point seems to be the use of 
  methods such as sacrifice, which might be considered pure and 
  admirable when reading of the ancient Hellenes, but are not 
  acceptable to our basic western culture today – though we might 
  not condemn tribesmen for the same practices. 
   
  Rather Black Lodges present themselves as any other lodge.   
  Determining if a given Lodge is a “Black Lodge” is generally a 
  matter of opinion.  A lodge might be (meaningfully) said to be 
  black or following the Left Hand path if it: 
   
  1)Teaches or condones the use of the esoteric for selfish or 
  personal gain 
  2)Teaches or condones the formation of pacts with malevolent 
  beings or forces 
  3)Espouses personal esoteric development without an ultimate goal 
  which is essentially benign (peace, union with God, harmony, etc.) 
  4)Condones non-consensual actions towards others (rape, sacrifice, 
  etc.) 
  5)Pretends to present esoteric teachings, but primarily exists to 
  serve the corporeal needs of the group organizer (through support, 
  sex cults providing pleasure to a master, etc.) 
  6)Promotes “recidivist” philosophies which may have been 
  legitimate in a historical context, but are anti-progressive and out 
  of place in the modern world. 
   
  It can be seen immediately that distinguishing a “Black Lodge” 
  from a “Poorly Run Lodge” is a bit difficult.   It is important 
  however, because “Right Hand path” lodges teach that the 
  influence of the teacher will pervade the student. 
   
  “If a teacher has evil or unsublimated aspects in his own nature 
  these aspects will put him in touch with the corresponding 
  potencies in the unseen world, and when he seeks to bring the 
  force of his master, he will be working on a mixed contact, and the 
  results for the pupil will be good and evil inextricably blended….if 
  the teacher is a man of impure life you cannot fail to be involved in 
  impurity; if he be unscrupulous, you will be sacrificed to his love 
  of power or gain.” 
   
  Black Lodges it is also admitted teach very nearly the same thing 
  as White Lodges.  It is their “vitality and temperament” that is 
  different.   
   
  Black Lodges are very like the White, and in fact a lodge that was 
  once White may be, under another leader who is less fit, a Black 
  lodge, without ever changing its basic teachings. 
   
  Some Black Lodges have symbols and trappings which distinguish 
  them.  A French Lodge which we’ll explore below was effectively 
  Satanist, and conducted “Black Mass” with all the trappings.  
  Other Black Lodges teach peace, and inner wisdom, while only at 
  their highest levels do they practice corruption – yet that pervades 
  every level of their initiatory process. 
   
  And there are many lodges which cannot be definitely categorized.  
  They may have strong leanings toward the Left-Hand path, yet 
  their teachings may not be entirely corrupt.  Even white magicians 
  pursue left hand knowledge and learning, and since the 
  Manichaieans, there has been a legitimate (though in the opinion 
  of orthodox practitioners terribly dangerous) dogma which 
  suggested that in order to truly understand the universe a mystic 
  must be “dualist” and acquire the knowledge of both paths. 
   
  Not every Black Lodge is about personal gain.  There are lodges 
  which with genuine energy and devotion serve the cause of power 
  and glory, but of things or causes which are not considered to be 
  gainful to the overall advancement of the evolution of the human 
  mind and psyche. 
   
  “Black Lodges” versus “Enemy Lodges” 
   
  The concept of the "Black Lodge" or something very like it seems 
  to go back to Bulwer Lytton, and the Masonic thriller "Zanoni."  
  Since then occult fiction has tended to present a well ordered 
  network of “Black Lodges” which fight ruthlessly against “White 
  Lodges.”  Often they are presented as powerless to act against 
  White fraters and sorors, which leaves one to wonder why they are 
  feared and effective.  However, Dion Fortune admits “By either 
  route he can rise upon the planes.” 
   
  The concept of a vast array of well ordered and ranked Black 
  Lodges waiting to do combat with the forces of light is as erroneous 
  as the assumption that the vast array of White Lodges – some more 
  informed than others, could be arrayed into any meaningful order 
  of battle.  The Esoteric is not a field battle, and its practitioners 
  are not soldiers. 
   
  “Black Lodges” do not present an immediate threat to “White 
  Lodges.”  They are at worst like many things in the world – drugs, 
  gambling, and heavy drink – stumbling blocks over which the soul 
  must trip again and again on its trip to a more elevated state.   
  Some more centrist groups may not be seen as “Black Lodges” by 
  all White fraters and sorors, and some may be willing to work with 
  more moderate groups or teachers who they see as talented, in 
  hopes (sometimes realized) of influencing them into a more 
  mainstream and acceptable practice. 
  
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  Overlying the loose networks and affiliations (and quarrels and 
  disagreements) of the White Lodges, there is generally assumed to 
  be some higher brotherhood of Initiates, the mythical “Third 
  Order” which oversees and ensures that no group of Black 
  Brothers grows powerful enough to upset the balance of the world.   
   
  Likewise at various times leadership may emerge among Black 
  Lodges, and like all Esoteric orders there is a “feeder” system, 
  with more knowledgeable and capable groups drawing members 
  from a select group of more public and popular groups – much like 
  a major league baseball team draws on its network of “farm clubs” 
  for players.  To the typical low-level initiate the shadowy goings on 
  of those “higher level” initiates with outside connections is a 
  source of mystery and fascination that encourages growth. 
   
  Occasionally, White and Black Lodge Brothers may struggle over 
  some element, or even attempt to destroy each other.  Generally 
  killing high adepts is not very useful.  To borrow from a more 
  recent work, the rationale behind this might well be explained by 
  Obi-Wan Kenobi “if you strike me down, I will only become more 
  powerful than you can possibly imagine.”  Ultimately striking 
  down members of either path does little to advance ones own.  
  However, followers of the Left-Hand Path are more likely to trade 
  long term misery for short term gains, and therefore are more likely 
  to be the instigators of fatal violence. 
   
  An Example from History 
   
  The duel of  Marquis Stanislas de Guaita and Joseph Antoine 
  Boullan may be a classic example of black lodges.  Guita was a 
  practitioner of ritual magic based on his readings of Eliphas Levi, 
  and his disciple Oswald Wirth was a mason and Theosophist.  In 
  France in 1887 they infiltrated the Church of the Carmel, a sect 
  led by Joseph Antoine Boullan, a defrocked priest.  Boullan's sect 
  was deeply involved in sexual magic, including union with 
  archangels and other supernatural beings "either conjured up in 
  the operator's imagination or represented by another member of the 
  sect.." They are said to have practiced the “Black Mass” and this 
  appears to have been the case – at least they practiced a very 
  perverted version of the Catholic faith.  Guita and Wirth told 
  Boullan in 1887 that they had judged him and condemned him.  
  Boullan defended himself with various rituals, many involving his 
  housekeeper Julie Thibaut, Priestess of the Carmel and Apostolic 
  Woman.   
   
  While his Carmel cult met many of the criteria for a "black lodge," 
  Boullan accused de Guaita and Wirth of using black magic to try 
  to kill him.  The French decadent novelist J.K. Huysmans was a 
  friend of Boullan, and left a record of his side of the struggle.  
  Boullan died in 1893, and Huysmans was convinced that de 
  Guaita had slain him.   
   
  Black Magic: Black Magic as practised in mediaeval times may be 
  defined as the use of supernatural knowledge for the purposes of 
  evil, the invocation of diabolic and infernal powers that they may 
  become the slaves and emissaries of man's will; in short, a 
  perversion of legitimate mystic science. This art and its attendant 
  practices can be traced from the time of-the ancient Egyptians and 
  Persians, from the Greeks and Hebrews to the period when it 
  reached its apogee in the Middle Ages, thus forming an unbroken 
  chain; for in mediaeval magic may be found the perpetuation of the 
  popular rites of paganism-the ancient gods had become devils, 
  their mysteries orgies, their worship sorcery. Some historians have 
  tried to trace the areas in Europe most affected by these devilish 
  practices. Spain is said to have excelled all in infamy, to have 
  plumbed the depths of the abyss. The south of France next became 
  a hotbed of sorcery, whence it branched northwards to Paris. 
   
  Black Mass: It is known from the confessions of -witches sorcerers 
  that the devil also has mass said at his Sabbath. Pierre Aupetit, an 
  apostate priest of the village of Fossas, in Limousine, was burned 
  for having celebrated the mysteries of the Devil's mass. Instead of 
  speaking the holy words of consecration the frequenters of the 
  Sabbath said: " Beelzebub, Beelzebub, Beelzebub." The devil in 
  the shape of a butterfly, flew round those who were celebrating the 
  mass, and who ate a black host, which they were obliged to chew 
  before swallowing. 
   
   Black Pullet, The: A French magical publication supposedly 
  printed in 1740, purporting to be a narrative of an officer who was 
  employed in Egypt. While in Egypt the narrator fell in with a 
  magician to whom he rendered considerable service, and who 
  when he expired left him the secret of manufacturing a black 
  Pullet which had much skill in goldfinding. In it we find much 
  plaglarism from the Coite de Gabalis and the whole work if 
  interesting, is distinctly derivative. It contains many illustrations of 
  talismans and magical rings. The receipt for bringing the black 
  Pullet into existences describes that a black hen should be set to 
  hatch one of its own eggs, and that during the process a hood 
  should be drawn over its eyes so that it cannot see. It is also to be 
  placed in a box lined with black material. The chick thus hatched 
  will have a particular instinct for detecting the places wherein gold 
  is hidden.  
   
  Blake, William: (1757-1827) Poet, 'Mystic, Painter and Engraver, 
  is one of the most curious and significant figures in the whole 
  history of English literature, and a man who has likewise exerted a 
  wide influence on the graphic arts. He was born in London on the 
  28th of November, 1757. It would seem that his parents and other 
  relatives were humble folk, but little is known definitely about the 
  family while their ancestry is a matter of discussion. Mr. W, B. 
  Yeats, who is an ardent devotee of Blake, and has edited his 
  writings, -would have it that the poet was of Irish descent but 
  though it is true that the name Blake is common in Ireland to this 
  day, especially in Galway, Air. Yeats’ contention is not supported 
  by much trustworthy evidence, and it is contradicted by Mr. Martin 
  J. Blake in his genealogical work, Blake Family Records. 
   
  Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna: Was born at Ekaterinoslav Russia, on 
  the 31st Of July, 1831. She was the daughter of Colonel Peter 
  Hahn, a, member of a Mecklenburg family settled in Russia. She 
  married, at the age of seventeen Nicephore Blavatsky, a Russian 
  official in Caucasia, a man very much Older than herself. 
   
  Her married life was of short duration as she separated from her 
  husband in a few months. The next year or so she occupied chiefly 
  in traveling, Texas Mexico, Canada and India, were each in turn 
  the scene of her wanderings, and she twice attempted to enter 
  Tibet on one occasion she managed to cross its frontier in disguise 
  but lost her way, and after various adventures was found by a body 
  of horsemen and escorted homewards. The period between 1848 
  and 1858, she described as the " veiled" time of her life, refusing 
  to divulge anything that happened to her in these tell years, save 
  stray allusions to a seven years' stay in Little and Great Tibet, or in 
  a " Himalayan Retreat." 
   
  
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  In 1858 she returned to Russia, where she soon 'achieved 
  distinction as a spiritualistic medium. Later on she went to the 
  United States where she remained for six years, and became a ' 
  naturalised citizen. She became prominent in spiritualistic circles 
  in America about 1870. It was there that she foundled her school 
  of Theosophv. The idea occurred to her of combining her 
  spiritualistic control " with Buddhistic legends about Tibetan 
  sages, and she professed to have direct " astral - communication 
  with two Tibetan mahatmas. 
   
  With the air of Col. Henry Olcott, she founded in New York, in 
  1875, the Theosophical Society with a threefold aim: (1) to form a 
  universal brotherhood of man; (2) to study and make known the 
  ancient ieligions, philosophies and sciences; (3) to investigate the 
  laws of nature and develop the divine powers latent in man. In 
  order to gain converts to Theosophy she was obliged to appear to 
  perform miracles. This she did with a large measure of success, 
  but her " methods " were on several occasions detected as 
  fraudulent. 
   
  Nevertheless her commanding personality secured for her a large 
  following, and when she died, in the late 19th century she was at 
  the head of a large body of believers in her teaching, numbering 
  about 100, 000 persons. 
   
  Bodin, Jean: a juris consult and student of demonology, who died 
  of the plague in 1596. An Angevin by birth, he studied law in 
  youth and published his Republique, which La Harpe calls " the 
  rerm of the spirit of law, " but it is his Den~onomanie des Soyciers 
  by which he is known to occultists. In this work he defended 
  sorcery, but propagated numerous errors. By his Colloquiurn 
  heptaplomeron de abdites rerum sublimium varcanus he aroused 
  very unfavourable opinions regarding his religious views. In it. he 
  discusses in the form of dialogue the theological opinions of Jews, 
  Mussulmans, and deists to the disadvantage of the Christian faith, 
  and although he died a'Catholic he professed in his time the tenets 
  of Protestantism, Judaism, sorcery, atheism and deism. 
   
  The Demonomanie was published in Paris, in 1581, and again 
  under the title of Fimu des demons el des sarciers at Wirt, in 
  1616. In its first and second books Bodin demonstrates that spirits 
  have communication with mankind, and traces the various 
  characteristics and forms which distinguish good spirits from evil. 
  He unfolds the methods of diabolic prophecy and communication, 
  and those of evocation of evil existences of pacts with the Devil, of 
  journeys through the air to the sorcerers' Sabbath, of infernal 
  ecstasies, of spells by which one may change himself into a 
  werewolf, and of carnal communion with incubi and succubi. The 
  third book speaks of the manner of preventing the work of 
  sorcerers and obviating their charms and enchantments, and the 
  fourth of the manner in which sorcerers may be known. He 
  concludes his study by refuting the work of John Wier or Wierius 
  (q.v.) who, he asserts, was in error in believing sorcerers to be 
  fools and people of unsound mind, and states that the books of that 
  author should be burned " for the honour of God, " 
   
  Sir Walter Scott says: " Bodin, a lively Frenchman, explained the 
  zeal of Wierius to protect the tribe of sorcerers from punishment, 
  by stating that he himself was a conjurer and the scholar of 
  Cornelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to save the 
  lives of those accused of the same league with Satan. Hence they 
  threw on their antagonists' the offensive names of witch-patrons 
  and witch-advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold the 
  opinion of Naudeeus, Wierius, Scot, etc., without patronizing the 
  devil and the witches against their brethren of mortality. Assailed 
  by such heavy charges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, 
  and retorted abuse in their turn, calling Bodin, Delrio, and others 
  who used their arguments, witch-advocates, and the like, as the 
  affirming and defending the existence of the crime seemed to 
  increase the number of witches, and assuredly augmented the list 
  of executions. But for a certain time the preponderance of the 
  argument lay on the side of the Demonolog1sts. 
   
  Bohemian Brethren:  "Bohemian Brethren" and "Moravian 
  Brethren" are the current popular designation of the Unitas 
  Fratrum founded in Bohemia in 1457, renewed by Count 
  Zinzendorf in 1722, and still active in our own day. Placing life 
  before creeds, the Moravian Church seeks "to exemplify the living 
  Church of Christ constituted or regenerated men and women, while 
  it affords a common meeting-point for Christians who apprehend 
  dogmas variously". Personal faith in the crucified Saviour 
  constitutes the chief foundation for the fellowship thus established. 
  Scripture is the only rule of faith, but "nothing is posited as to the 
  mode of inspiration, for this partakes of the mysteries which it has 
  not pleased God to reveal". The Trinity, the Fall, Original Sin, and 
  "Total Depravity" are admitted, but "discussion about them is 
  shunned". The Love of God manifested in Christ — without 
  theories about the mode — is the centre of Moravian belief and 
  practice. Justification by faith alone and the necessity of 
  regeneration "are posited as facts of personal experience". 
  Sanctifying grace, the need of prayer, and other public means of 
  grace, a complete ritual, a strict discipline, "the orders of the 
  ministry with no conception of the functions of the episcopate", i. 
  e. bishops ordain, but the episcopal office implies no further ruling 
  or administrative power Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the only 
  sacraments, and the common Christian eschatology: Resurrection, 
  Judgment, Heaven, Hell; such are the tenets from which 
  Moravians are expected not to depart, whilst they are allowed to 
  speculate about them on Scriptural lines with entire liberty.  
  History Of The Ancient Unitas Fratrum (1457-1722) 
  The Bohemian Brethren are a link in a chain of sects beginning 
  with Wyclif (1324-84) and coming down to the present day. The 
  ideas of the Englishman found favour with Hus, and Bohemia 
  proved a better soil for their growth than England. Both Wyclif and 
  Hus were moved by a sincere desire to reform the Church of their 
  times; both failed and, without intending it, became the fathers of 
  new heretical bodies — the Lollards and the Hussites. The former 
  were persecuted out of existence in England by Catholic rulers; the 
  latter prospered in Bohemia, thanks to royal and national support. 
  The burning of John Hus at the stake for his stubborn adherence to 
  the condemed doctrines of Wyclif (at Constance, 6 July, 1415) was 
  considered an insult to the faith of the Bohemian nation, which, 
  since its first conversion to Christianity, had never swerved from 
  the truth. The University of Prague came boldly forward to 
  vindicate the man and his doctrines; the party which hitherto had 
  worked at reforming the Church from within now rejected the 
  Church's authority and became the Hussite sect. Divisions at once 
  arose amongst its members. Some completely set aside the 
  authority of the Church and admitted no other rule than the Bible; 
  others only demanded Communion under both kinds for the laity 
  and free preaching of the Gospel, with some minor reforms. The 
  former, who met for worship at "Mount Tabor", were called 
  Taborites; the latter received the name of Calixtines, i.e., the party 
  of the Chalice. As long as they had a common enemy to fight they 
  fought together under the leadership of that extraordinary man, 
  John Trocznowski, known as Zizka (the one-eyed), and for fully 
  
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  fifteen years proved more than a match for the imperial armies and 
  papal crusaders sent to crush them. Peace was at length obtained, 
  not by force of arms, but by skilful negotiations which resulted in 
  the "Compactata of Basle" (30 November, 1433). The compact was 
  chiefly due to the concessions made by the Calixtine party; it 
  found little or no favour with the Taborites. The discontent led to a 
  feud which terminated at the Battle of Lippau (30 May, 1434) with 
  the death of Procopius, the Taborite leader, and the almost total 
  extinction of this party. The small remnant, too insignificant to 
  play a role in politics, withdrew into private life, devoting all their 
  energies to religion. In 1457 one section formed itself into a 
  separate body under the name of the "Brethren's Union" (Unitas 
  Fratrum), which is now generally spoken of as the Bohemian 
  Brethren. Their contemporaries coined for them several 
  opprobrious designations, such as Jamnici (cave-dwellers) and 
  Pivnicnici (beerhouse men), Bunzlau Brethren, Picards (corrupted 
  to Pickarts), etc.  
  The originator of the new sect was a certain Gregory, a nephew of 
  the leading Calixtine preacher, Rokyzana, whose mind was imbued 
  with the conviction that the Roman Church was helplessly and 
  hopelessly corrupt. Gregory therefore decided to found a new 
  Church in accordance with his uncle's and his own ideas of what a 
  perfect Church should be. Through Rokyzana's influence he 
  obtained leave from the governor George von Podiebrad to organize 
  a community in the village of Kunwald near Senftenberg. Michel, 
  the parish priest of Senftenberg, and Matthias, a farmer of 
  Kunwald, joined Gregory, and soon the community counted several 
  thousand members. Their distinguishing tenets at this early period 
  were rather vague: abolition of all distinctions of rank and fortune, 
  the name of Christian being the one all-sufficient dignity; abolition 
  of oaths, of military service, etc. Governor von Podiebrad kept a 
  vigilant eye on the growing community. In 1461 he had Gregory 
  and several other persons arrested on suspicion of reviving the 
  heresies of the Taborites. The accused admitted that they did not 
  believe in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, but 
  had partaken of the bread and wine at their nocturnal meetings as 
  common food. They were set free, but, to avoid further 
  interference, Gregory and his companions fled into the Lordship of 
  Reichenau, where they lived hidden in the mountains. There, in 
  1464, was held a secret assembly consisting of Brethren from 
  Bohemia and Moravia, who accepted as basis of their creed the 
  doctrine that justification is obtained through faith and charity and 
  confers the hope of eternal salvation. The rich were requested to 
  abandon their wealth and worldly pomp and to live in voluntary 
  poverty. The Brethren were to give up private property for the 
  benefit of the Brotherhood. Anyone not observing the brotherhood 
  of faith and practice was to be separated from the community.  
  Meanwhile the persecution continued. The Utraquist (Calixtine) 
  priests refused the Sacrament to the Brethren. These, therefore, 
  were forced to constitute a priesthood of their own belief. A bishop 
  and a number of priests were chosen by lot, and the separation 
  from the Utraquists became an accomplished fact. The head of the 
  Austrian Waldenses, who was believed to have received 
  consecration from a real bishop, gave episcopal orders to the ex-
  parish priest, Michael, and Michael consecrated his friend, 
  Matthias, bishop and ordained several priests. The new Bishop 
  Matthias of Kunwald then reordained his consecrator, to make him 
  a true priest of the Brotherhood. This happened in 1467 at the 
  synod of Lhotka, near Reichenau, where also all those present 
  were rebaptized. The breach with both Catholics and Utraquists 
  was now completed, and the Brethren began to order their 
  community on the model of "the primitive Church". The governing 
  power centred in a council presided over by a judge. Four seniors, 
  or elders, held the episcopal power. The priests had no property 
  and were encouraged to celibacy. The strictest morality and 
  modesty were exacted from the faithful. All acts subservient to 
  luxury were forbidden; oaths and military service were only 
  permitted in very exceptional cases. Public sins had to be publicly 
  confessed, and were punished with ecclesiastical penalties or 
  expulsion. A committee of women watched with relentless severity 
  over the behaviour of their sisters.  
   
  A new persecution quickly followed on the synod of Lhotka. The 
  Brethren defended their cause in copious writings, but in 1468 
  many of them were imprisoned and tortured, one was burnt at the 
  stake. The death of the governor George von Podiebrad in 1471 
  brought some relief. Brother Gregory died in 1473. From 1480 
  Lucas of Prague was the leading man. Thanks to him, and to 
  toleration granted the Brethren by King Ladislaus II, the 
  Brotherhood rapidly increased in numbers. By the end of the 
  fifteenth century there were 400 communities. Pope Alexander VI's 
  endeavour to reconvert the Brethren (in 1499) proved futile. About 
  this time an internal feud in the "Unity of Brethren" led to a 
  renewal of persecution. The Amosites, so called from their leader, 
  Brother Amos, accused their more moderate Brethren of fomenting 
  violent opposition to the Government in imitation of their spiritual 
  ancestors, the Taborites. King Ladislaus II thereupon issued a 
  decree prohibiting the meetings of the Brethren under heavy 
  penalties. In many places, however, the decree was left unheeded, 
  and powerful landowners continued to protect the Brotherhood. 
  Once more the king resorted to milder measures. In 1507 he 
  invited the chiefs of the Brethren to meet the Utraquists in 
  conference at Prague. The Brethren sent a few rude, unlettered 
  fellows unable to give answer to the questions of the professors. 
  The king regarded this as an insult and ordered all the meetings of 
  the "Pickarts" to be suppressed, all their books to be burnt, and the 
  recalcitrants to be imprisoned (1508).  
   
  The Brethren now began to look for foreign sympathy. Erasmus 
  complimented them on their knowledge of truth, but refused to 
  commit himself further. Luther objected to their doctrine on the 
  Eucharist, to the celibacy of their clergy, to the practice of 
  rebaptizing, and to the belief in seven sacraments. Brother Lucas 
  answered in a sharp pamphlet and, having ascertained the low 
  standard of church discipline among the Lutherans of Wittenberg, 
  ceased all attempts at union. At the same time (1525) Lucas 
  rejected the Zwinglian doctrines which some Brethren were trying 
  to introduce. After the death of Lucas (1528) the government of the 
  Brotherhood passed into the hands of men fond of innovations, 
  among whom John Augusta is the most remarkable. Augusta 
  reopened negotiations with Luther and so modified his creed that it 
  gained the Reformer's approbation, but the union of the two sects 
  was again prevented by the less rigid morals of the Lutherans in 
  Bohemia and Moravia. Augusta pleaded for stricter church 
  discipline, but Luther dismissed him, saying: "Be you the apostle 
  of the Bohemians, I will be the apostle of the Germans. Do as 
  circumstances direct, we will do the same here" (1542). Soon 
  afterwards the Bohemian Estates were requested to join Charles V 
  in his war against the Smalkaldic league. Catholics and old 
  Utraquists obeyed, but the Bohemian Protestants, having met in 
  the house of Brother Kostka, established a kind of provisional 
  government composed of eight members, four of whom belonged to 
  the Brotherhood, and appointed a general to lead the armed rebels 
  into Saxony against the emperor. Charles's victory over the 
  Smalkaldians at Muhlberg (1547) left the rebels no choice but to 
  submit to their king, Ferdinand I. The Brethren, who had been the 
  chief instigators of the rebellion, were now doomed to extinction. 
  John Augusta and his associate, Jacob Bilek, were cast into prison; 
  
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  the Brethren's meetings were interdicted throughout the whole 
  kingdom; those who refused to submit were exiled. Many took 
  refuge in Poland and Prussia (1578); those who remained in the 
  country joined, at least pro forma, the Utraquist party. Owing to 
  Maximilian II's leniency and Protestant propensities, the 
  Bohemian diet of 1575 could draw up the "Bohemian Confession of 
  Faith" in which the principles of the Brethren find expression 
  along with those of the Lutherans. Under Rudolph II (1584) 
  persecution was again resorted to, and lasted with more or less 
  intensity down to 1609, when Rudolph's Charter granted the free 
  exercise of their religion to all Protestants. No sooner, however, did 
  external oppression relent than internal dissension broke out in the 
  Protestant ranks. The Consistory, composed of Lutherans and 
  Brethren, was unable to maintain peace and union between the two 
  parties. Ferdinand II, after his victory over the rebellious 
  Bohemians at the white Mountain near Prague (1620), offered 
  them the choice between Catholicism and exile. Many Brethren 
  emigrated to Hungary, but a greater number to northern Poland, 
  where they settled in Lissa (now in Prussian Posen). Even to this 
  day there are in that district seven communities calling themselves 
  Brethren, although their confession of faith is the Helvetic. In 
  Prussian Silesia there are also three communities of Brethren 
  claiming descent from the Bohemian Brotherhood.  
   
  The Bohemian Brethren And England 
  During the reign of Maximillian II and Rudolph II the Bohemian 
  Brethren enjoyed a period of prosperity which allowed them to 
  establish relations with younger Protestant churches. They sent 
  students to Heidelberg and one at least to Oxford. In 1583 
  "Bernardus, John, a Moravian", was allowed to supply B.D. He had 
  studied theology for ten years in German universities and was now 
  going to the universities of Scotland. This Bernardus, however, has 
  left no trace but the entry in the Register of Oxford just quoted. 
  The man who brought the Brotherhood prominently before the 
  Anglican Church was Johann Amos, of Comna, generally known as 
  Comenius. As a scholar and educationist he was invited by his 
  English friends to assist in improving the state and administration 
  of the universities, then under consideration in Parliament. The 
  outbreak of the Civil War brought all these plans to naught, and 
  Comenius returned to Germany in 1642. His influence in England 
  allowed him to set on foot several collections for his severely 
  persecuted church in Poland: the first three were failures, but the 
  fourth, authorized by Cromwell, produced £5,900, of which sum 
  Cambridge University contributed £56. This was in 1658-59. 
  Intercourse with the Anglican Church was kept up uninterruptedly 
  until the remnants of the ancient Brotherhood had dwindled away 
  and been swallowed up by other Evangelical confessions. When 
  the renewed Brotherhood was established in England it benefited 
  by the memory of former friendly relations.  
   
  HISTORY OF THE RENEWED BROTHERHOOD 
  Persecution from without and dissension within wellnigh brought 
  about the total extinction of the Bohemian Brethren. The small but 
  faithful remnant was, however, destined to blossom into a new and 
  vigorous religious body under the name of Moravian Brethren. The 
  founder and moulder of this second Unitas Fratrum was the pious 
  and practical Count Zinzendorf (b. 1700, d. 1760). In 1722 the 
  Lutheran Pastor Rothe, of Berthelsdorf in Upper Lusatia, 
  introduced to the Count, from whom he held his living, a Moravian 
  carpenter named Christian David. This man had been deputed by 
  his co-religionists to look out for a concession of land where they 
  could freely practise their religion. Zinzendorf was so far 
  unacquainted with the history and the tenets of the Bohemian 
  Brethren, but in his charity, he granted them the desired land, on 
  the slopes of the Hutberg in the parish of Bertlesdorf. In a short 
  time emigrants from Moravia founded there a colony, call 
  Herrnhut. The colonists worshipped at the Lutheran parish church. 
  Two years later, there arrived from Zauchenthal in Moravia five 
  young men fully conscious of being true members of the old 
  "Bohemian Brotherhood". At once religious quarrels arose, to the 
  annoyance of Count Zinzendorf and his friends. The count was not 
  slow in perceiving that the colonists, all simple labourers and 
  craftsmen, were more concerned with church discipline and 
  Christian rules of life than with dogma. Accordingly he set about 
  elaborating a constitution for a community of which religion should 
  be the chief concern and bond of union. He left Dresden and, with 
  the pastor's leave, began to work as a lay catechist among the 
  Brethren at Herrnhut. The community met for their religious 
  services in their own hall where one of the Brethren, either chosen 
  by lot or elected by the assembly, acted as minister. In 1731 they 
  seceded from the parish church and added to their usual services 
  the celebration of the Lord's Supper. They were divided in "choirs" 
  according to age, sex, and calling; each choir was ruled by elders 
  (male and female), pastors, and administrators chosen among its 
  members. The female choirs were distinguished by their dresses. 
  Widows, unmarried young men, and young women formed separate 
  choirs under the supervision of elders. Everything at Herrnhut was 
  controlled by the College of Elders, even matrimony, subject to the 
  sanction of the lot. Provision was made for the poor and the sick, 
  for prayer meetings and so forth. Deacons, acting for the Elders, 
  administered the property accruing to the community from 
  donations. Great care was given to the education of the young, 
  Zinzendorf being anxious to raise a generation that would 
  perpetuate his work. The organization of the renewed Brotherhood 
  was complete in 1731. It bore the stamp of the personality of its 
  founder, a man deeply religious, nurtured in Spencer's Pietism by 
  the two noble ladies who brought him up, and well acquainted with 
  Catholic life from his sojourn in Paris. As soon as the foundations 
  were solidly laid at Herrnhut, Zinzendorf began to think of 
  missionary work. His personal connection with the Danish Court 
  led him to choose the Danish possessions in the West Indies and 
  in Greenland for the field of his labours. His first missionaries 
  were sent out in 1732 and 1733. Feeling, however that as a simple 
  layman he could not well confer missionary powers, he took orders 
  at Tubingen in 1734 and, moreover, received episcopal 
  consecration from the Reformed court-preacher Jablonsky of 
  Berlin, in whose family the Moravian episcopacy, originated in 
  1467 by a validly ordained Waldensian bishop, had been — or 
  was said to have been — preserved. Persecution was not long in 
  coming. The orthodox Lutherans became the Brethren's bitterest 
  enemies. The Imperial Government in Vienna strongly objected to 
  their propaganda in Bohemia, which caused Austrian subjects to 
  emigrate and sowed discontent in the country. Under imperial 
  pressure the King of Saxony banished Zinzendorf "for ever". The 
  zealous count put his exile to good use. During the ten years 
  (1737-47) of his absence from Saxony he founded congregations in 
  Holland, England, Ireland, America; new ones also arose in 
  Germany at Herrenhag, Neuwied, Gnadenfrei, Gnadenberg, and 
  Neusatz. Zinzendorf showed a special predilection for the London 
  establishment. In 1750 he fixed his residence in the English 
  capital and from there ruled the whole "Unity of Brethren". But in 
  1755 he returned to Herrnhut, which now became and remained 
  the centre of the whole administration. To the present day the 
  "Provincial Board of Elders for Germany" occupies Zinzendorf's 
  own house at Berthelsdorf. The finishing touch of the new church 
  system is the liberty enjoyed by those who join it to retain the 
  
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  Lutheran, the Reformed, or the Moravian Confession to which they 
  belonged, and to be placed under the rule of Elders of the same 
  belief. This peculiar feature shows the founder's disregard for 
  dogma and the great value he attached to Christian practice and 
  ecclesiastical discipline. He held that faith and justification could 
  only be found by individuals who were, or became, members of a 
  religious community. However much, in this and in other points, 
  he copied the Catholic Church, yet he was to the end a faithful 
  adherent of the Augsburg Confession and obtained from the 
  Consistory in Dresden an official acknowledgment that the 
  Moravian Brethren were followers of the same faith. He also 
  succeeded after a long struggle in securing for the Brotherhood 
  recognition by the Saxon government. When, regretted by all, he 
  died in 1760, his work and his spirit lived on in the strongly 
  organized body of the "Unity of Brethren". No material changes 
  have taken place since. In 1775 the Brethren, assembled in a 
  synod at Barby, adopted the following statement of principles:  
  "The chief doctrine to which the Church of the Brethren adheres, 
  and which we must preserve as an invaluable treasure committed 
  unto us, is this: That by the sacrifice for sin made by Jesus Christ, 
  and by that alone, grace and deliverance from sin are to be 
  obtained for all mankind. We will, therefore, without lessening the 
  importance of any other article of the Christian faith, steadfastly 
  maintain the following five points: (1) The doctrine of the universal 
  depravity of man: that there is no health in man, and that, since 
  the Fall he has no power whatever left to help himself. (2) The 
  doctrine of the Divinity of Christ: that God, the Creator of all 
  things, was manifest in the flesh, and reconciled us to Himself; 
  that He is before all things and that in Him all things exist. (3) The 
  doctrine of the atonement and satisfaction made for us by Jesus 
  Christ: that He was delivered for our offences and raised again for 
  our justification and that by His merits alone we receive freely the 
  forgiveness of sin, faith in Jesus and sanctification in soul and 
  body. (4) The doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the operation of His 
  grace: that it is He who worketh in us conviction of sin, faith in 
  Jesus, and pureness in heart. (5) The doctrine of the fruits of faith: 
  that faith must evidence itself by willing obedience to the 
  commandment of God, from love and gratitude."  
  Faith in the Redemption and entire surrender of self to Christ (with 
  Whom in 1741 a spiritual covenant was made) are held to be the 
  very essence of religion. The will of Christ was ascertained by 
  casting of lots as the final sanction in case of marriage (until 
  1820), in the election of superiors (until 1889), etc. Zinzendorf 
  ruled as bishop over all the communities, both in Europe and 
  America, but since his death the episcopal office has remained a 
  mere title. In 1857 the British and American Unity became 
  independent; the only bond of union being now the General Synod 
  held once every ten years.  
   
  THE MORAVIANS IN ENGLAND 
  The beginnings of the Brethren's Church in England are an 
  interesting chapter in the commerce of thought between Germany 
  and that country. The German dynasty on the English throne had 
  attracted a strong colony of their countrymen; towards the middle 
  of the eighteenth century London alone numbered from 4000 to 
  5000 Germans among its inhabitants. These would naturally be in 
  sympathy with the Brethren. But the "Religious Societies" founded 
  by Doctor Smithies, curate of St. Giles, and Dr. Horneck, of the 
  Lower Palatinate, together with the writings of William Law-the 
  father of the religious revival of the eighteenth century-had 
  prepared the minds of many Englishmen for stronger spiritual food 
  than that offered by the established religion. Horneck was a 
  German Pietist, and William Law, in his "Serious Call", sets up a 
  standard of perfection little short of Catholic monasticism. John 
  Wesley, who confesses that he was stimulated into activity by 
  William Law, at first sought satisfaction of his spiritual cravings in 
  the Moravian Brotherhod. He, with three other Oxford Methodists, 
  met the Moravian Bishop Nitschmann and twenty Brethren at 
  Gravesend, where they were waiting for the vessel that was to carry 
  them all to Georgia (1736). The Englishmen were favourably 
  impressed with the religious fervour of the Germans, and a fruitful 
  friendship sprang up between them. As early as 1728 Zinzendorf 
  had sent to England a deputation headed by the Moravian Johann 
  Toltschig "to tell such as were not blinded by their lusts, but whose 
  eyes God had opened, what God had wrought". Countess Sophia 
  von Schaumburg-Lippe, Lady-in-Waiting at the English Court, 
  used her influence in their behalf, but was unable to counteract the 
  opposition of the Lutheran court-chaplain Ziegenhagen. The 
  embassy had little or no result. Other visits followed at intervals, 
  most of them by missionaries and emigrants on their way to 
  America. On the occasion of such a visit Zinzendorf himself 
  induced some young people to form a society for the reading of the 
  Bible, mutual edification, abstention from theological controversy, 
  brotherly love, etc. It was the first step towards realizing his ideals 
  in England. The next step was Peter Boehler's zealous preaching to 
  the "religious societies" and the working classes.  
   
  It was Boehler who founded the religious society in Fetter Lane of 
  which John Wesley became a member, and for which he framed 
  most of the rules; it seems also due to the influence of Boehler that 
  John and Charles Wesley "found conversion" (June, 1738), yet not 
  a conversion exactly of the Moravian type. A visit of John Wesley 
  to the German centres made it clear that the Brotherhood had no 
  room for two men like Zinzendorf and Wesley, both being born 
  leaders of men, but having little else in common. Little by little 
  Wesley became estranged from the Brethren, and his former 
  friendship turned to open hostility (12 November, 1741), 
  according to Wesley's journal). At a meeting in Fetter Lane Wesley 
  accused the Brethren of holding false doctrines and left the hall 
  exclaiming: "Let those who agree with me follow me." Some 
  eighteen or nineteen of the members went out after him, the rest 
  called upon the Brethren to be their leaders. Thus a religious 
  society of the Church of England became a society of the Brethren. 
  After their rupture with Wesley the Brethren began to work on 
  their own account in England. Professor Spangenberg organized 
  the young church with rare talent, and its activity spread far and 
  wide in the provinces, even to Scotland and Ireland, but their 
  success was greatest in Yorkshire. They also came in for some 
  persecution from people who still confused them with the 
  Methodists. The legal status of the Brotherhood was now to be 
  determined. They did not wish to be classed as Dissenters, which 
  would at once have severed them from the Anglican Church, and, 
  on the other hand, the Anglican Church, disowned them because 
  they neither had Anglican orders nor did they use the Book of 
  Common Prayer. Archbishop Potter would grant them no more than 
  the toleration accorded to foreign Protestants. To obtain a license 
  from a Justice of the Peace they had to adopt a name, and 
  Spangenberg decided on "Moravian Brethren, formerly of the 
  Anglican Communion". This name implied a new denomination 
  and led to the immediate formation of the first congregation of 
  Brethren of English nationality (1742). Zinzendorf greatly objected 
  to the name of Moravians being given to his Brethren whom he 
  considered as an ecclesiola in ecclesiâ, a select small church within 
  a greater one, which might exist in almost any denomination. The 
  proposed designation, "Old Lutheran Protestants", was distasteful 
  to English members. They resolutely clung to the names "United 
  Brethren" and "Moravians" as their official and popular 
  designations, and the "Bill for encouraging the people known by 
  
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  the name of Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren to settle in His 
  Majesty's colonies", passed in 1749, gives official sanction to the 
  old name, recognizes that the Brethren belonged to an "ancient 
  protestant and episcopal Church", and maintains their connection 
  with Germany.  
   
  BEGINNINGS OF THE MORAVIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA 
  In 1734 Zinzendorf obtained for thirty families of banished 
  Schwenkfelders (adherents of Kaspar von Schwenkfeld) a home in 
  Georgia which had just been carved out of the Carolina grant "to 
  serve as an asylum for insolvent debtors and for persons fleeing 
  from religious persecution". These exiles, however, found it 
  preferable to join an older colony in Pennsylvania. The Brethren 
  now conceived the plan of securing for themselves in Georgia a 
  home of refuge in time of persecution. The governor general, 
  Oglethorpe, granted them 500 acres, and Spangenberg, the 
  negotiator, received a present of 50 acres for himself, a part of the 
  site on which the city of Savannah now stands. The first eleven 
  immigrants reached Savannah 17 April, 1734, led by 
  Spangenberg. Bishop Nitschmann brought over another twenty, 7 
  February, 1736. The work of evangelizing and colonizing was at 
  once vigorously taken in hand and carried on with more courage 
  than success. The climate, wars, enmities from within and without, 
  checked the growth and cramped the organization of the 
  Brotherhood.  
   
   Boehme, Jakob: (1575-1624): A highly respected German Mystic 
  and philosopher. The name of this illustrious mystic and 
  philosopher, who has excited so wide and lasting an influence, is 
  sometimes spelt Beem or Behm, Behinon or Behinont, while 
  commoner still is the form used at the head of this article; but it ib 
  probable that Jakob's name was really Bohme, for that spelling 
  savours far more of bygone Germany than any of the multifarious 
  others do. Born in 1575, at Altsteidenberg, in Upper Lusatia, the 
  philosopher came of humble peasant stock, and accordingly his 
  education consisted in but a brief sojourn at the village school of 
  Seidenberg, about a mile from his own home, while the greater part 
  of his childhood was spent in tending his father's flocks on the 
  grassy sides of a mountain, known as the Landskrone. This 
  profession doubtless appealed to a boy of speculative and 
  introspective temperament, but betimes it transpired that Jakob 
  was not strong enough physically to make a good shepherd, and 
  consequently he left home at the age of thirteen, going to seek his 
  fortune at Gorlitz, the nearest town of any size. 
   
  To this day Gorlitz is famous for its shoemakers, while in Boehme's 
  time it was a very centre and stronghold of the cobbling industry; 
  so it was to a cobbler that the boy -went first in search of 
  employment, and very soon he had found what he wanted. 
  Unfortunately, the few authentic records of his career offer little 
  information concerning his early years, but apparently he 
  prospered tolerably well, it being recorded that in 1608 he became 
  a master-shoemaker, and that soon afterwards he was married to 
  Katharina, daughter of Hans Kantzschmann, a butcher. The young 
  couple took a house near the bridge in Neiss Voistadt -their 
  dwelling is still pointed out to the tourist-and some years later 
  Boehme sought to improve his business by adding gloves to his 
  stock in trade, a departure which sent him periodically to Prague 
  to acquire consignments of the goods in question. It is likely that 
  Boehme began to write soon after be- coming a master-cobbler, if 
  not even at an earlier period, but it was not till he was approaching 
  forty that his gifts became known and appreciated. 
   
  About the year 1612, he composed a philosophical treatise, 
  Aurora, Odey die Alloy-un Aufgang, and, though this was not 
  printed till much later, manuscript copies were passed from hand 
  to hand, the result being that the writer soon found himself the 
  center of a local circle of thinkers and scholars, many of them 
  people far above him in the social scale. These did not say that the 
  cobbler should stick to his last, but realised that his intellect was 
  an exceptionally keen one; and Boehme would no doubt have 
  proceeded to print and publish his work but for an unfortunate 
  occurrence, just that occurrence which has always been liable to 
  harass the man of bold and original mind. In short, a charge of 
  heresy was brought against him by the Lutheran Church; he was 
  loudly denounced from the pulpit by Gregorius Richter, pastor 
  primarius of Gorlitz, and anon, the town council, fearing to contend 
  with the omnipotent ecclesiastical authorities, took possession of 
  the original manuscript of Boehme's work, and bade the 
  unfortunate author desist from writing in the meantime. So far as 
  can be ascertained, he obeyed instructions for a little while, 
  perhaps fearing the persecution which would await him if he did 
  otherwise, but by 1618 he was busy again, compiling polemical 
  and expository treatises; while in 1622, he wrote certain short 
  pieces on repentance, resignation, and the like. 
   
  These last were the only things from his pen which were published 
  in book form during his lifetime, and with his consent, nor were 
  they of a nature likely to excite clerical hostility; but a little later 
  Boehme circulated a less cautious theological work, Der Weg zu 
  Chrisla, and this was the signal for a fresh outburst of hatred on the 
  part of the church, Richter storming from his pulpit once again. 
  The philosopher, however, contrived to go unscathed, and, during 
  a brief sojourn at Dresden, he had the pleasure of listening to 
  sundry orations made in his praise by some of his admirers, whose 
  number was now greatly increased. But Boehme was not destined 
  to survive this triumph long, for, struck down by fever at Dresden, 
  he was carried with great difficulty to his home at Gorlitz, and 
  there he died in 1624, his wife being absent at the time Boehme, 's 
  literary output divides itself easily and naturally into three distinct 
  sections, and indeed he himself observed this, and drew up a sort 
  of specification wherein he virtually indicated his successive aims. 
   
  Alchemist or not himself, Boehme's writings demonstrate that he 
  studied Paracelsus closely, while they also reflect the influence of 
  Valentine Weigel, and of the earliest protestant mystic, Kaspar 
  Schwenhfeld. Nor was it other than natural that the latter should 
  appeal keenly to the philosopher of Gorlitz, he too being 
  essentially a stout Protestant, and having little or nothing in 
  common with the mystics of other forms of Christianity. That is to 
  say, he is seldom or never dogmatic, but always speculative, true 
  Teuton that he was; while his writings disclose none  - of those 
  religious ecstasies which fill the pages of Santa Theresa, and he 
  never talks of holding converse with spirits or angels, or with 
  bygone saints; he never refers to miracles worked on his behalf, 
  practically the one exception being a passage where he tells how, 
  when a shepherd boy on the Landskrone, he was vouchsafed an 
  apparition of a pail of gold. 
   
  At the same time, he seems to have felt a curious and constant 
  intimacy with the invisible world, he appears to have had a 
  strangely perspicacious vision of the Urgyund, as he calls it, which 
  is, being literally translated, primitive cause; and it was probably 
  his gift in these particular ways, and the typically German 
  clearness with which he sets down his ideas and convictions, 
  which chiefly begot his vast and wide influence over subsequent 
  
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  people inclined to mysticism. Throughout the latter half of the 
  seventeenth century, his works were translated into a number of 
  different languages, and found a place in the library of nearly 
  every broadminded English theologian; while they proved a great 
  and acknowledged source of inspiration to William Law, the author 
  of Christian Perfection and A Serious Call to a Devout Life. Since 
  then, various religious bodies, regarding Boehme as their high 
  priest, have been founded in Great Britain and in Holland; while 
  in America, too, the sect known as Philadelphians owe their 
  dominant tenets to the mystic of Gorlitz. 
   
  Boniface VIII: Pope, who gained an unenviable notoriety in 
  Dante's Inferno has been regarded by many as an exponent of the 
  black art, and so romantic are the alleged magical circumstances 
  connected with him that they are worthy of repetition. Boniface, a 
  noted juris consult, was born at Anagni, about 1228, and was 
  elected Pope in 1294. He was a sturdy protagonist of papal 
  supremacy, and before he had been seated two years on the throne 
  of St. Peter he quarreled seriously with Phillippe le Bel, King of 
  France, whom he excommunicated. This quarrel originated in the 
  determination ot the king to check in his own dominions the power 
  and insolence of the church and the ambitious pretensions of the 
  see of Rome. In 1303, Phillippe's ministers and a 'gents, having 
  collected, pretended evidence in Italy, boldly accused Boniface of 
  heresy and sorcery, and the king called a council at Paris to hear 
  witnesses and pronounce judgment. The pope resisted, and refused 
  to acknowledge a council not called by himself; but the insults and 
  outrages to which he was exposed proved too much for him, and he 
  died the same year, in the midst of these vindictive proceedings. 
  His enemies spread abroad a report, that in his last moments he 
  had confessed his league with the demon, and that his death was 
  attended with " so much thunder and tempest, with dragons flying 
  in the air and vomiting flames, and such lightning and other 
  prodigies, that the people of Rome believed that the whole city was 
  going to be swallowed up in the abyss." His successor, Benedict 
  X1. undertook to defend his memory but he died in the first year of 
  his pontificate (in 1304), it was said by poison, and the holy see 
  remained vacant during eleven months. In the middle of June, 
  1305, a Frenchman, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected to 
  the papal chair under the title of Clement V. 
   
  It was understood that Clement was raised to the papacy in a great 
  measure by the king's influence, who is said to have stipulated as 
  one of the conditions, that he should allow of the proceedings 
  against Boniface, which were to make his memory infamous. 
  Preparations were again made to carry on the trial of Boniface, but 
  the king's necessities compelled him to seek other boons of the 
  supreme pontiff, in consideration of which he agreed to drop the 
  prosecution, and at last, in 1312, Boniface was declared in the 
  council of Vienne, innocent of all the offences with which he had 
  been charged. 
   
  If we may place any faith at all in the witnesses who were adduced 
  against him, Boniface was at bottom a freethinker,  - who 
  concealed under the mitre the spirit of mockery which afterwards 
  shone forth in his countryman Rabelais, and that in moments of 
  relaxation, especially among those with whom he was familiar, he 
  was in the habit of speaking in bold - even in cynical - language, of 
  things which the church regarded as sacred. Persons were brought 
  forward who deposed to having heard expressions frorn the lips of 
  the pope, which, if not invented or exaggerated, savour of 
  infidelity, and even of atheism. Other persons deposed that it was 
  commonly reported in Italy, that Boniface had communication with 
  demons, to whom he offered his worship, whom he bound to his 
  service by necromancy, and by whose agency be acted. They said 
  further, that he had been heard to hold conversation with spirits in 
  the night; that he had a certain " idol, " in which a " diabolical 
  spirit " was enclosed, whom he was in the habit of consulting; 
  while others said he had a demon enclosed in a ring which he wore 
  on his finger. The witnesses in general spoke of these reports only 
  as things which they had heard; but one a friar, brother Bernard de 
  Sorano, deposed, that when Boniface was a cardinal, and held the 
  oftice of notary to Nicholas III., he lay with the papal army before 
  the castle of Puriano, and he (brother Bernard) was sent to receive 
  the surrender of the castle. He returned with the cardinal to 
  Viterbo, where he was lodged in the palace Late one night, as he 
  and the cardinal's chamberlain were looking out of the window of 
  the room he occupied they saw Benedict of Gaeta (which was 
  Boniface’s name before he was made pope) enter a garden 
  adjoining the palace, alone, and in a mysterious manner. He made 
  a circle on the ground with a sword, and placed himself in the 
  middle, having with him a cock, and a fire in an earthen pot (in 
  quadans olla terrea). Having seated himself in the middle of the 
  circle, he killed the cock and threw ' its blood in the fire, from 
  which smoke immediately issued, while Benedict read in a certain 
  book to conjure demons, Presently brother Bernard heard a great 
  noise (rumorem magnum) and was much terrified. Then he could 
  distinguish the voice of some one saying, " Give us the share, " 
  upon which Benedict took the cock throw it out of the garden, and 
  walked away without uttering a word. Though he met several 
  persons on his way, he spoke to nobody, but proceeded 
  immediately to a chamber near that of brother Bernard, and shut 
  himself up. Bernard declared that, though he knew there was 
  nobody in the room with the cardinal, he not only heard him 
  talking all night, but lie could distinctly perceive a strange voice 
  answering him. 
   
  Bors, Bohors or Boort: One of King Arthur I s knights. He was 
  associated with Sir Galahad and Lancelot in their search for the 
  Holy Grail. He is the hero of many magical adventures, one of 
  which we relate. During the quest for the Holy Grail, a damsel 
  offers him her love, which he refuses; and she, with twelve other 
  damsels, thereupon threatens to throw herself from a tower. Bors, 
  though of a kindly disposition, thinks they had better lose their 
  souls than his. They fall from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and 
  the whole vanishes, being a deceit of the devil. After the quest is 
  ended Boys comes to Camelot; he relates his adventures, which it 
  is said were written down and kept in the Abbey of Salisbury. 
   
  Botanomancy: A method of divination by means of burning the 
  branches ol vervein and brier, upon which were carved the 
  questions of the practitioner. 
   
  Bottle Messages: After the liner S.S. Waratah vanished off the 
  South African coast in July, 1909, with 211 persons aboard, five 
  bottle messages were found washed ashore. All proved to be 
  hoaxes. 
   
  "Every shipwreck, or any other catastrophe, brings out 
  merrymakers, " wrote Charles Fort. "The tragedy of the Waratah 
  was enjoyed a long time. More than thirteen years later (November 
  21, 1922) another bottle, said to be a hoax, was found near Cape 
  Town. Still, I am affected just the other way, and am taking on a 
  new pessimism. 
   
  "Heretofore, I have thought cheerfully of bottles. But there's a 
  depression from anything, once the humorists get ahold of it. I 
  wonder how comes it that nobody has reported finding an old 
  
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  bottle, and in it a sea captain's account of an impending mutiny, 
  signed 'Christopher Columbus.' " 
   
  Columbus actually did place a message in a wooden cask off the 
  West Indies in 1493, according to his ship's log. It simply 
  described the fears of his men as their ship was being violently 
  tossed about in a hurricane. But it's unlikely that a cask would, 
  remain on the surface for centuries. 
   
  A Soviet fisherman found a small watertight container while in the 
  Russian Arctic. The message inside, written in both English and 
  Norwegian, 'read: "Five ponies and 150 dogs remaining. Desire 
  hay, fish and 30 sledges. Must return early in August. Baffled." 
  The message had been written by Evelyn Baldwin, the polar 
  explorer, and had drifted in the water for forty - five years. The 
  Baldwin expedition, however, had come through safely, and the 
  explorer died of natural causes in 1933. 
   
  Bottle Imps: A class of German spirits, similar in many ways to 
  Familiars. The following is the prescription of an old alchymist, 
  given by the Bishop of Dromore in his Relics of Ancient Poetry, for 
  the purpose of securing one of these fairies. First, take a broad 
  square crystal or Venetian glass, about hree inches in breadth and 
  length. Lay it in the blood of a white hen on three Wednesdays or 
  three Fridays. Then take it and wash it with holy water and 
  fumigate it. Then take three hazel sticks a year old; take the bark 
  off them; make them long enough to write on them the name of the 
  fairy or spirit whom you may desire three times on each stick, 
  which must be flat on one side. Bury them under some hill haunted 
  by fairies on the Wednesday before you call her; and on the Friday 
  following dig them out, and call her at eight, or three, or ton 
  o'clock, which are good times for this purpose. In order to do so 
  successfully one must be pure, and face toward the East. When 
  you get her, tic her to the glass. 
   
  Bourru: A monkish apparition spoken of in many tales as that of an 
  imaginary phantom which appears to th( Parisians, walking the 
  streets in the darkest hours of the night, and glancing in at the 
  windows of timid folkpassing and re - paFsing a number of times. 
  Nurses are wont to frighten their small charges with the Monk 
  Bourru. The origin of the spectre is unknown. 
   
  Brahan Seer, The: Coinneach. Odhar  - (Kenneth Ore). Although 
  Coinneach Odhar is still spoken of and believed in as a seer 
  throughout the Highlands, and especially in the county of Ross and 
  Cromarty, his reputation is of comparatively recent growth. The 
  first literary reference to him was made by Hugh Miller in his 
  Sceues and Legends of the North of Scotland (1835). About half a 
  century later a collection of the Seer's predictions was published 
  by the late Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, Inverness, the author of 
  several clan histories. Many of these alleged foretellings are of a 
  trivial character. The most important prophecies attributed to 
  Coinneach (Kenneth) are those which refer to the house of Seaforth 
  Mackenzies. One, which is supposed to have been uttered in the 
  middle of the seventeenth century, foretold that the last of the 
  Seaforths would be deaf. It was uttered at Brahan Castle, the chief 
  seat of the Seaforths, near Dingwall, after the seer had been 
  condemned to death by burning, by Lady Seaforth for some 
  offensive remark. He declared to her ladyship that he would go to 
  heaven, but she would never reach it. As a sign of this he declared 
  that when he was burned a raven and a dove would hasten towards 
  his ashes. If the dove was the first to arrive it would be proved his 
  hope was well founded. The same legend is attached to the memory 
  of Michael Scott - a rather suggestive fact. According to tradition, 
  Kenneth was burned on Chanonry Point, near Fortrose. No record 
  survives of this event. The first authentic evidence regarding the 
  alleged seer, was unearthed by Mr. William M. Mackenzie, editor 
  of Barbour's Bruce, who found among the Scottish Parliamentary 
  records of the sixteenth century an order, which was sent to the 
  Ross - shire authorities, to prosecute several wizards, including 
  Coinneach Odhar. This was many years before there was a 
  Seaforth. It is quite probable that Kenneth was burned, but the 
  legendary cause of the tale must have been a " filling in " of late 
  tradition. Kenneth's memory apparently had attached to it many 
  floating proliecies and sayings including those attributed to 
  Thomas and Michael Scott. The sayings of " True Thomas " were 
  hawked through the Highlands in Gaelic chap books, and so 
  strongly did the bard appeal to the imaginations of the eighteenth 
  century folks of Inverness, that they associate him with the Fairies 
  and Fingalians (Fians) of the local fairy mound, Tom - na - hurich. 
  A Gaelic saying runs, " When the horn is blown, True Thomas will 
  come forth." 
   
  Thomas took the place of Fingal (Finn or Fionn) as chief of the " 
  Seven Sleepers " in Tom - na - hurich, Inverness. At Cromarty, 
  which was once destroyed by the sea, Thomas is alleged to have 
  foretold that it would be thrice destroyed.' Of course, the Rhymer 
  was never in Cromarty and probably knew nothing about it. As he 
  supplanted Fingal at Inverness, so at Cromarty he appear~, to 
  have supplanted some other legendary individual. The only 
  authentic historical fact which remains is that Coinneach Odhar 
  was -  a notorious wizard, and of mature years, in the middle of the 
  sixteenth c~ntury. Wizards were not necessarily seers. It is 
  significant that no reference is made to Kenneth in the lett, ers 
  received by Pepys from Lord Reay, regarding second - sight in the 
  seventeenth century, or in the account of Dr. Johnson's Highland 
  tour, although the learned, doctor investigated the problem 
  sympathetically. 
   
  In the Scottish Highlands no higher compliment could be paid to 
  the memory of any popular man than to attribute to him the gift of 
  "second sight." Rev. John Morrison, minister of Petty, near 
  Inverness, who was a bard, was one of the reputed seers of this 
  order. Many of his "wonderful sayings " were collected long after 
  his death. Rev. Dr. Kennedy, a Dingwall Free Church minister, 
  and a man of strong personality and pronounced piety, is reputed 
  to have had not only the " gift of prophecy " but also the gift of 
  healing." Ile was himself a believer in " second sight " and stated 
  that his father was able to foretell events. In his The Days of the 
  Fathers in Ross - shire (1861), he makes reference to several 
  individuals who were similarly gifted " with what he believed to be 
  a God - given power. One of his seers was reputed to have foretold 
  the " Disruption " of the Church of Scotland about sixteen years 
  before the event took place. By this time the seers had acquired 
  the piety of the people who believed in them. Even the notorious 
  Kenneth, the Brahan seer a Pagan and a wizard, became glorified 
  by doubtful tradition, like the notorious Michael Scott, one of his 
  prototypes. 
   
  References to second sight in the Highlands are made in the 
  following publications: Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of Elves, 
  Fauns and Fairies; Martin's Western Isles of Scotland; 
  Dewerosophia (Second Knowledge) or a Brief Discourse 
  concerning Second Sight by Rev. John Frazer (Edinburgh, 
  Ruddiman, Aned and Co, 1763), Aliscellanies by John Aubrey, 
  F.R.S (London, 1696). That there is sufficient evidence to justify 
  
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  the serious investigation of " Second sight " phenomena in the 
  Scottish Highlands, no doubt can remain. But that is no reason 
  why the " Brahan Seer " legends should be accepted as genuine, 
  especially when it is found that Kenneth died before the Seaforth 
  branch of the Mackenzies came into existence. Whoever foretold 
  the fall of that house, it was certainly not the " notorious wizard " of 
  the Scottish Parliamentary records. No doubt, Kenneth made 
  himself notorious by tyrannizing over a superstitious people in the 
  sixteenth century, and was remembered on that account. During 
  his lifetime he must have been credited with many happenings 
  supposed to have been caused by his spells. After his death he 
  gathered an undeserved reputation for prophecy and piety by the 
  snowball process - a not unfamiliar happening in the past of the 
  Scottish Highlands, where Sir William Wallace, St. Patrick, St. 
  Bean, and others were reputed to have been giants who flung 
  glaciated boulders from hill - top to hill - top across wide glens and 
  over lochs of respectable dimensions. 
   
  British National Association of Spiritualists : A society formed in 
  1873, mainly through the instrumentality of Mr. Dawson Rogers, to 
  promote the interests of spiritualism in Great Britain. It numbered 
  among its original vice-presidents and members of council the 
  most prominent spiritualists of the day-Benjamin Coleman, Mrs. 
  Macdongall Gregory, Sir Charles Isham, Messrs. Jacken, Dawson 
  Rogers, and Morell Theobald, Drs. Wyld, Stanhope Speer, Mrs. 
  Carter, and many others-while many eminent people of other lands 
  joined the association as corresponding members. The B.N.A.S. in 
  1882 decided to change its name to " The Central Association of 
  Spiritualists." Among its committees was one for systematic 
  research into the phenomena of spiritualism, in which connection 
  some interesting scientific experiments were made in 1878. Early 
  in 1882 conferences were held at the Association's rooms, presided 
  over by Professor Barrett, which resulted in the formation of the 
  Society for Psychical Research. Many members of the latter society 
  were recruited from the council of the B.N.A.S., such as the Rev. 
  Stainton Moses, Dr. George Wyld, Messrs. Dawson Rogers, and 
  Morell Theobald. The B.N.A.S. was at first associated with the 
  Spiritualist, edited by W. H. Harrison, but in 1879 the reports of 
  its proceedings were transferred to Spiritual Notes, a paper which 
  founded in the previous year, came to an end in 1881, as did also 
  the Spiritualist. In the latter year Dawson Rogers founded Light, 
  with which the society was henceforth associated. From the 
  beginning of its career, the B.N.A.S. has he'd itself apart from 
  religious and philosophical dogmatism, and has included among 
  its members spiritualists of all sects and opinions. 
   
  Broceliande: A magic forest in Brittany, which figures in the 
  Arthurian legend. It was in this place that Merlin was enchanted 
  by Nimue or Viviana, Lady of the Lake, and imprisoned beneath a 
  huge stone. The name Brocaliande is often employed as symbolic 
  of the dim unreality of legendary scenery. 
   
  Brothers of Purity association of Arabs and philosophers in the 10th 
  century studied later by Spanish Jews.  
   
  Bruillant: One of the actors mentioned in the Grand Saint Gyaal. 
  He it was who discovered the Grail Sword in Solomon's ship, and 
  with it slew Lambor. For this use of the holy sword, however, the 
  whole of Britain suffered, for no wheat grew, the fruit trees bare no 
  fruit, and there was no fish in the sea. Bruillant himself was 
  punished with death. 
   
  Cagliostro  : one of the greatest occult figures of all time. It was the 
  fashion during the latter half of the XIXth century to regard 
  Cagliostro as a charlatan and impostor, and this point of view was 
  greatly aided by the savage attack perpetrated on his memory by 
  Carlyle, who alluded to him as the " Prince of Quacks." Recent 
  researches, however, and especially those made by Mr. W. R. H. 
  Trowbridge in his Cagliostro: the Splendour and Misery of a Master 
  of Magic, go to show that if Cagliostro was not a man of 
  unimpeachable honour, he was by no means the quack and 
  scoundrel that so many have made him out to be. In the first place 
  it will be well to give a brief outline of his life as known to us 
  before Mr. Trowbridge's examination of the whole question placed 
  Cagliostro's circumstances in a different light, and then to check 
  the details of his career in view of what may be termed Mr. 
  Trowbridge's discoveries. 
   
  We find that Carlyle possessed a strong prejudice in regard to 
  Cagliostro, and that he made no allowance for the flagrant 
  mendacity of the documentary evidence regarding the so - called 
  magician; and this leads up to the fact that although documents 
  and books relating to Cagliostro abound, they possess little or no 
  value. An account compiled from all these sources would present 
  the following features: 
   
  Cagliostro's father whose name is alleged to have been Peter 
  Balsamo, a person of humble origin, died young, and his mother, 
  unable to support him, was glad to receive assistance for this 
  purpose from one of her brothers; but from infancy he showed 
  himself averse to proper courses, and when placed in an religious 
  seminary at Palermo, he more than once ran away from it, usually 
  to be recaptured in undesirable company. Sent next to a 
  Benedictine convent, where he was under the care of a Father 
  Superior, who quickly discovered his natural aptitude, he became 
  the assistant of an apothecary attached to the convent, from whom 
  he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine; but even then 
  his desire was more to discover surprising and astonishing 
  chemical combinations than to gain more useful knowledge. Tiring 
  of the life at last, he succeeded in escaping from the convent, and 
  betook himself to Palermo where he associated with rascals and 
  vagabonds. He was constantly in the hands of the police, and his 
  kind uncle who tried to assist him was rewarded by being robbed 
  of a considerable sum. Engaged in every description of rascality, 
  he was even said to have assisted in the assassination of a wealthy 
  canon. At this time it is asserted that he was only fourteen years of 
  age, but, later, becoming tired of lesser villainies he resolved upon 
  a grand stroke, upon which to lay the foundations of his fortunes. 
   
  At Palermo resided an avaricious goldsmith named Marano, a 
  stupid, superstitious man who believed devoutedly in the efficacy 
  of magic. He became attracted to Cagliostro, who at the age of 
  seventeen posed as being deeply versed in occultism, and had 
  been seen evoking spirits. Marano made his acquaintance and 
  confided to him that he had spent a great deal of money upon 
  quack alchemists; but that he was convinced that in meeting him 
  (Cagliostro) he had at last chanced upon a real master of magic. 
  Cagliostro willingly ministered to the man's superstitions, and told 
  him as a profound secret that in a field at no great distance from 
  Palermo lay a buried treasure which, by the aid of magic 
  ceremonies he could absolutely locate, But the operation 
  necessitated some expensive preliminaries - at least to oz. of gold 
  would be required in connection with it. To this very considerable 
  sum Marano demurred, and Cagliostro coolly asserted that he 
  would enjoy the vast treasure alone. But the credulity of Marano 
  was too strong for his better sense, and at length he a. - reed to 
  furnish the necessary funds. 
   
  
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  At midnight they Sought the field where it was supposed the 
  treasure was hid. Cagliostro proceeded with his incantations and 
  Marano, terrified at their dreadful nature, fell prostrate on his face, 
  in which position he was unmercifully belaboured by a number of 
  scoundrels whom Cagliostro had collected for that purpose. 
  Palermo rang with the affair, but Cagliostro managed to escape to 
  Messina, where he adopted the title of " Count." 
   
  It was in this town that he first met with the mysterious Althotas. 
  He was walking one day in the vicinity of the harbour when he 
  encountered a person of singular dress and countenance. This 
  man, apparently about fifty years of age, was dressed as an 
  oriental, with caftan and robes, and was accompanied by an 
  Albanian greyhound. Attracted by his appearance Cogliostro 
  saluted him, and after some conversation the stranger offered to 
  tell the pseudocount the story of his past, and to reveal what was 
  actually passing in his mind at that moment. Cagliostro was 
  interested and made arrangements for visiting the stranger, who 
  pointed out to him the house in which he resided, requesting him 
  to call a little before midnight, and to rap twice on the knocker, 
  then three times more slowly, when he would be admitted. At the 
  time appointed Cagliostro duly appeared and was conducted along 
  a narrow passage lit. by a single lamp in a niche of the wall. At the 
  end of this was a spacious apartment illuminated by wax candies, 
  and furnished with everything necessary for the practice of 
  alchemy. Althotas expressed himself as a believer in the mutability 
  of physical law rather than of magic, which, he regarded as a 
  science having fixed laws discoverable and reducible to reason. He 
  proposed to depart for Egypt, and to carry Cagliostro thither with 
  him - a proposal which the latter joyfully accepted. Althotas 
  acquainted him with the fact that he possessed no funds, and upon 
  Cagliostro's expressing some annoyance at this circumstance 
  laughed at him, telling him that it was an easy matter for him to 
  make sufficient gold to pay the expenses of their voyage. 
  Authorities differ greatly regarding the personality of Althotas; but 
  we will leave this part of the Cagliostro mystery for the moment. 
   
  Embarking upon a Genoese ship they duly came to Alexandria 
  where Althotas told his comrade that he was absolutely ignorant 
  regarding his birth and parentage, and Said that he was much older 
  than he appeared to be, but that he was in possession of certain 
  secrets for the preservation of strength and health. " No - thing he 
  said " astonishes me; nothing grieves me, save the evils which I am 
  powerless to prevent; and I trust to reach in peace the term of my 
  protracted existence." His early years had been passed near Tunis 
  on the coast of Barbary, where he had been the slave of a wealthy 
  Mussulman pirate. At twelve years of age he spoke Arabic fluently, 
  studied botany, and read the Koran to his master, who died when 
  Althotas was sixteen. Althotas now found himself free, and master 
  of a very considerable sum which had been bequeathed him by his 
  late owner. 
   
  Accompanied by Cagliostro he penetrated into Africa and the heart 
  of Egypt, visiting the Pyramids, making the acquaintance of the 
  priests of different temples, and receiving from them much hidden 
  knowledge. (The slightest acquaintance with Egyptian history 
  would have saved the author of this statement from making such an 
  absurd anachronism). Following upon their Egyptian tour, 
  however, they visited the principal kingdoms of Africa and Asia, 
  and they are subsequently discovered at Rhodes pursuing 
  alchemical operations. At Malta they assisted the Grand - master 
  Pinto, who was infatuated with alchemical experiments, and from 
  that moment Althotas completely disappears - the memoir of 
  Cagliostro merely stating that during their residence in Malta he 
  passed away. 
   
  Cagliostro on the death of his comrade repaired to Naples. He was 
  in funds, for Pinto had well provided him before he left Malta. In 
  Naples he met with a Sicilian prince, who conceived a strong 
  predilection for his society, and invited him to his castle near 
  Palermo. This was dangerous ground but Cagliostro was nothing if 
  not courageous, and besides he was curious to revisit the haunts of 
  his youth. He had not been long in Palermo when one day he 
  traveled to Messina where he encountered by chance one of his 
  confederates in the affair of Marano the goldsmith. This man 
  warned him strongly not to enter the town of Palermo, and finally 
  persuaded him to return to Naples to open a gambling - house for 
  the plucking wealthy foreigners. This scheme the pair carried on 
  but the Neapolitan authorities regarded them wit grave suspicion 
  that they betook themselves to the States. Here they parted 
  company, and regarding this time the alleged memoir of Cagliostro 
  is not very clear. It however leads us to believe that the so - called 
  Count had no lack of dupes, and from this obscurity he emerges at 
  Rome where we find him established as an empiric, retailing 
  specifics for all the diseases that flesh is heir to. Money flowed in 
  upon him, and he lived in considerable luxury. 
   
  It was at this time that he met the young and beautiful, Lorenza 
  Feliciani, to whom he proposed marriage; her father dazzled by 
  Cagliostro's apparent wealth and importance consented, and the 
  marriage took place with some ceremony. All biographers of 
  Cagliostro agree in stating that Lorenza was a thoroughly good 
  woman, honest, devoted and modest. The most dreadful 
  accusations have been made concerning the manner in which 
  Cagliostro treated his wife, and it has been alleged that he 
  thoroughly ruined her character and corrupted her mind. But we 
  shall discover later that this account has been coloured by the 
  unscrupulous imagination of the Jesuitical writers of the Roman 
  Inquisition. All biographers agree that Cagliostro hastened his 
  wife's ruin, but it is difficurt to know how they came by their data; 
  and in any case they disagree substantially in their details. 
  Cagliostro's residence now became the resort of card - sharpers 
  and other undesirables, and it is said that he himself assumed the 
  title and uniform of a Prussian colonel; but he and his confederates 
  quarreled and with his wife he was forced to quit Rome with a so - 
  called Marquis D'Agriata. They took the road to Venice, and 
  reached Bergamo, which through their rogueries they had speedily 
  to leave. They then made the best of their way through Sardinia 
  and Genoa, and indeed spent several years in wandering through 
  Southern Europe. At last they arrived in Spain by way of 
  Barcelona, where they tarried for six months, proceeding 
  afterwards to Madrid and Lisbon. From Lisbon they sailed to 
  England, where Cagliostro lived upon his wits, duping certain 
  foreigners. An English life of Cagliostro gives an account of his 
  adventures in London, and tells how he was robbed of a large sum 
  in plate, jewels and money; how he hired apartments in Whitcomb 
  Street, where he spent most of his time in studying chemistry and 
  physics, giving away much money and comporting himself 
  generously and decently on all sides. 
   
  In 1772 he returned to France with his wife and a certain 
  Duplaisir. At this time it is said that Duplaisir eloped with 
  Lorenza, and that Cagliostro obtaining an order for her arrest, she 
  was imprisoned in a penitentiary, where she was detained for 
  several months. On her release, it is alleged, an immediate 
  reconciliation occurred between husband and wife. At this time 
  
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  Cagliostro had attracted much attention in Paris by his alchemical 
  successes. It was the period of mystic enthusiasm in Europe, when 
  princes, bishops, and the nobility generally were keen to probe the 
  secrets of nature, and when alchemy and the allied sciences were 
  the pursuits and hobbies of the great. But according to his Italian 
  biographer Cagliostro went too far and raised such hopes in the 
  breasts of his dupes that at last they entertained suspicions of his 
  honesty, so that he was forced to flee to Brussels, whence he made 
  his way to his native town of Palermo, where he was speedily 
  arrested by the goldsmith Marano. A certain nobleman, however, 
  interested himself on his behalf, and procured his release, and he 
  embarked with his wife who had accompanied him, for Malta. 
  From that island they soon retired to Naples, and from there to 
  Marseilles and Barcelona. Their progress was marked by 
  considerable state, and having cheated a certain alchemist of 100, 
  000 crowns under the pretence of achieving some alchemical 
  secret, they hurried to England. 
   
  It was during his second visit to London that the Count was 
  initiated into Masonry, and conceived his great idea of employing 
  that system for his own behalf. With this grand object in view he 
  incessantly visited the various London Lodges, and ingratiated 
  himself with their principals and officials. At this period he is said 
  to have picked up in an obscure London bookstall a curious 
  manuscript which is said to have belonged to a certain George 
  Gaston, concerning whom nothing is known. This document dealt 
  with the mysteries of Egyptian Masonry, and abounded in magical 
  and mystical references. It was from this, it is alleged, that 
  Cagliostro gathered his occult inspirations. He studied it closely 
  and laid his plans carefully. After another and somewhat harassed 
  tour through Holland, Italy and Germany, he paid a visit to the 
  celebrated Count do St. Germain. In his usual eccentric manner, 
  St. Germain arranged their meeting for the hour of two in the 
  morning, at which time Cagliostro and his wife, robed in white 
  garments, and cinctured by girdles of rose colour, presented 
  themselves before the Count's temple of mystery. The drawbridge 
  was lowered, and a man of exceptional height led them into a 
  dimly lighted apartment where folded doors sprang suddenly open, 
  and they behold a temple illuminated by hundreds of wax lights. 
  The Count of St. Germain sat upon the altar, and at his feet two 
  acolytes swung golden censers. In the Lives of the Alchemystical 
  Philosophers this interview is thus detailed. " The divinity bore 
  upon his breast a diamond pentagram of almost intolerable 
  radiance. A majestic statue, white and diaphanous, upheld on the 
  steps of the altar a vase inscribed, ' Elixir of Immortality, ' while a 
  vast mirror was on the wall, and before it a living being, majestic 
  as the statue, walked to and fro. Above the mirror were these 
  singular words - ' Store House of Wandering Souls.' The most 
  solemn silence prevailed in this sacred retreat, but at length a 
  voice, which seemed hardly a voice, pronounced these words - ' 
  Who are you ? Whence come you ? What would you ?' Then the 
  Count and Countess Cagliostro prostrated themselves, and the 
  former answered after a long pause, ' I come to invoke the God of 
  the faithful, the Son of Nature, the Sire of Truth. I come to demand 
  of him one of the fourteen thousand seven hundred secrets which 
  are treasured in his breast, I come to proclaim myself his slave, his 
  apostle his martyr.' 
   
  " The divinity did not respond, but after a long silence, the same 
  voice asked “What does the partner of thy long wanderings intend” 
   
  ' To obey and to serve, ' answered Lorenza. 
   
  Simultaneously with her words, profound darkness succeeded the 
  glare of light, uproar followed on tranquillity, terror on trust, and a 
  sharp and menacing voice cried loudly: ' Woe to those who cannot 
  stand the tests .' 
   
  " Husband and wife were immediately separated to undergo their 
  respective trials, which they endured with exemplary fortitude, and 
  which are detailed in the text of their memoirs. When the romantic 
  mummery was over, the two postulants were led back into the 
  temple with the promise of admission to the divine mysteries. 
  There a man mysteriously draped in a long mantle cried out to 
  them: - ' Know ye that the arcanum of our great art is the 
  government of mankind, and that the one means to rule them is 
  never to tell them the truth. Do not foolishly regulate your actions 
  according to the  - rules of common sense; rather outrage reason 
  and courageously maintain every unbelievable absurdity. 
  Remember that reproduction is the palmary active power in nature, 
  politics and society alike; that it is a mania with mortals to be 
  immortal, to know the future without understanding the present, 
  and to be spiritual while all that surrounds them is material.' 
   
  " After this harangue the orator genuflected devoutly before the 
  divinity of the temple and retired. At the same moment a man of 
  gigantic stature led the countess to the feet of the immortal Count 
  de St. Germain who thus spoke 
   
  “ Elected from my tenderest youth to the things of greatness, I 
  employed myself in ascertaining the nature of veritable glory. 
  Politics appeared to me nothing but the science of deception, 
  tactics the art of assassination, philosophy the ambitious imbecility 
  of complete irrationality; physics fine fancies about Nature and the 
  continual mistakes of persons suddenly transplanted into a country 
  which is utterly unknown to them; theology the science of the 
  misery which results from human pride; history the melancholy 
  spectacle of perpetual perfidy and blundering. Thence I concluded 
  that the statesman was a skilful liar, the hero an illustrious idiot, 
  the philosopher an eccentric creature, the physician a pitiable and 
  blind man, the theologian analytical pedagogue, and the historian 
  a word - monger. Then did I hear of the divinity of this temple. I 
  cast my cares upon him, with my in certitudes and aspirations. 
  When he took possession of my soul he caused me to perceive all 
  objects in a new light; I began to read futurity. This universe so 
  limited, so narrow, so desert, was now enlarged. I abode not only 
  with those who are, but with those who were. He united me to the 
  loveliest women of antiquity. I found it eminently delectable to 
  know all without studying anything, to dispose of the treasures of 
  the earth without the solicitations of monarchs, to rule the c'ernents 
  rather than men. Heaven made me liberal; I have sufficient to 
  satisfy my taste; all that surrounds me is rich, loving, 
  predestinated. 
   
   -  When the service was finished the costume of ordinary life was 
  resumed. A superb repast terminated the ceremony. During the 
  course of the banquet the two guests were informed that the Elixir 
  of Immortality was merely Tokay coloured green or red according 
  to the necessities ~of the case. Several essential precepts were 
  enjoined upon them, among others that they must detest, avoid, 
  and calumniate men of understanding, but flatter, foster, and blind 
  fools, that they must spread abroad with much mystery the 
  intelligence that the Count de St. Germain was five hundred years 
  old, and that they must make gold, before all." 
   
  
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  There is no good authority for this singular interview, but if it 
  really occurred it only probably served to confirm Cagliostro in the 
  projects he had mapped out for himself. 
   
  Travelling into Courland, he and his wife succeeded in 
  establishing several Masonic Lodges according to the rite of what 
  he called Egyptian Freemasonry. Persons, of high rank flocked 
  around the couple, and it is even said that he plotted for the 
  sovereignty of the Grand Duchy. Be this as it may, it is alleged that 
  he collected a very large treasure of presents and money, and set 
  out for St. Petersburg, where he established himself as a physician. 
   
  A large number of cures have been credited to Cagliostro 
  throughout his career, and his methods have been the subject of 
  considerable controversy. But there is little doubt that the basis of 
  them was a species of mesmeric influence. It has been said that he 
  trusted simply to the laying on of hands; that he charged nothing 
  for his services; that most of his time was occupied in treating the 
  poor, among whom he distributed vast amounts of money. The 
  source of this wealth was said to have been derived from the 
  Masonic Lodges, with whose assistance and countenance he had 
  undertaken this work. 
   
  Returning to Germany he was received in most of the towns 
  through which he passed as a benefactor of the human race. Some 
  regarded his cures as miracles, other as sorceries, while he himself 
  asserted that they were effected by celestial aid. 
   
  For three years Cagliostro remained at Strasburg, feted and lauded 
  by all. He formed a strong friendship with the famous Cardinal - 
  archbishop, the Prince de Rohan who was fired by the idea of 
  achieving alchemical successes. Rohan was extremely credulous, 
  and leaned greatly to the marvellous. Cagliostro accomplished 
  supposed transmutations under his eyes, and the Prince delighted 
  with the seeming successes lavished immense praise upon the 
  Count. He even believed that the elixir of life was known to 
  Cagliostro and built a small house in which he was to undergo a 
  physical regeneration. When he had sucked the Prince almost dry, 
  Cagliostro repaired to Bordeaux, proceeding afterwards to Lyons, 
  where he occupied himself with the foundation of headquarters for 
  his Egyptian Masonic rite. He now betook himself to Paris, where 
  he assumed the role of a master of practical magic, and where it is 
  said he evoked phantoms which he caused to appear at the wish of 
  the enquirer in a vase of clear water, or mirror. Mr. Waite thinks in 
  this connection that fraud was an impossibility, and appears to 
  lean to the theory that the visions evoked by Cagliostro were such 
  as occur in crystal - gazing, and that no one was more astonished 
  than the Count himself at the results he obtained. Paris rang with 
  his name and he won the appellation of the " Divine Cagliostro." 
  Introduced to the Court of Louis XVI. he succeeded in evoking 
  apparitions in mirrors before many spectators - these including 
  many deceased persons specially selected by those pres6nt. His 
  residence was isolated and surrounded by gardens, and ~ere he 
  established a laboratory. His wife affected great privacy, and only 
  appeared in a diaphanous costume at certain hours, before a very 
  select company. This heightened the mystery surrounding them, 
  and the 61ite of Parisian society vied with one another to be 
  present at their magic suppers, at which the evocation of the 
  illustrious dead was the principal amusement. It is even stated that 
  deceased statesmen, authors and nobles took their seats at 
  Cagliostro's supper - table. 
   
  But the grand object of Cagliostro appears to have been the spread 
  of his Egyptian Masonic rite. The lodges which he founded were 
  androgynal, that is they admitted both men and women; the ladies 
  being instructed by the Master's wife, who figured as the Grand 
  Mistress of the Order  - her husband adopting the title of Grand 
  Copt. There is little doubt that a good deal of money was 
  subscribed by the neophytes of the various lodges: the ladies who 
  joined, each sacrificing on the altar of mysticism no less than 100 
  louis; and Cagliostro's immense wealth, which has never been 
  doubted by any authority on his life, in the strictest probability 
  found its source in the numerous gifts which showered in upon him 
  from the powerful and wealthy for the. purpose of furthering his 
  masonic schemes. 
   
  But although he lived in considerable magnificence, Cagliostro by 
  no means led a life of abandoned luxury; for there is the best 
  evidence that he gave away vast sums to the poor and needy, that 
  he attended the sick hand and foot, and in short played the part of 
  healer and reformer at one and the same time. 
   
  A great deal of mystery surrounded the doings of the Egyptian 
  Masonry in its headquarters in the Faubourg Saint Honore, and the 
  seances for initiation took place at midnight. Figuier and the 
  Marquis de Luchet have both given striking accounts of what 
  occurred during the female initiations: 
   
   " On entering the first apartment, " says Figuier, "the ladies were 
  obliged to disrobe and assume a white garment, with a girdle of 
  various colours. They were divided into six groups, distinguished 
  by the tint of their cinctures. A large veil was also provided, and 
  they were caused to enter a temple lighted from the roof, and 
  furnished with thirty - six arm - chairs covered with black satin 
  Lorenza clothed in white, was seated on a species of throne, sup 
  ported by two tall figures, so habited that their sex could not be 
  determined. The light was lowered by degrees till surrounding 
  objects could scarcely be distinguished, when the Grand Mistress 
  commanded the ladies to uncover their left legs as far as the thigh, 
  and raising the right arm to rest it on a neighbouring pillar. Two 
  young women then entered sword in hand, and with silk ropes 
  bound all the ladies together by the arms and legs. Then after 
  period of impressive silence, Lorenza pronounced an oration, 
  which is given at length, but on doubtful authority, by several 
  biographers, and which preached fervidly the emancipation of 
  womankind from the shameful bonds imposed on them by the lords 
  of creation. 
   
  " These bonds were symbolized by the silken ropes from which the 
  fair initiates were released at the end of the harangue, when they 
  were conducted into separate apartments, each opening on the 
  Garden, where they had the most unheard - of experiences. Some 
  were pursued by men who unmercifully persecuted, them with 
  barbarous solicitations; others encountered less dreadful admirers, 
  who sighed in the most languishing postures at their feet. More 
  than one discovered the counterpart of her own love but the oath 
  they had all taken necessitated the most inexorable inhumanity, 
  and all faithfully fulfilled what was required of them. The new 
  spirit infused into regenerated woman triumphed along the whole 
  line of the six and thirty initiates, who with intact and immaculate 
  symbols re - entered triumphant and palpitating, the twilight of the 
  vaulted temple to receive the congratulations of the sovereign 
  priestess. 
   
  
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  " When they had breathed a little after their trials, the vaulted roof 
  opened suddenly, and, on a vast sphere of gold, there descended a 
  man, naked as the unfallen Adam, holding a serpent in his hand, 
  and having a burning star upon his head. 
   
  " The Grand Mistress announced that this was the genius of Truth, 
  the immortal, the divine Cagliostro, issued without procreation 
  from the bosom of our father Abraham, and the depositary of all 
  that hath been, is, or shall be known on the universal earth. He 
  was there to initiate them into the secrets of which they had been 
  fraudently deprived. The Grand Copt thereupon commanded them 
  to dispense with the profanity of clothing, for if they would receive 
  truth they must be as naked as itself. The sovereign priestess 
  setting the example unbound her girdle and permitted her drapery 
  to fall to the ground, and the fair initiates following her example 
  exposed themselves in all the nudity of their charms to the 
  magnetic glances of the celestial genius, who then commenced his 
  revelations. 
   
  " He informed his daughters that the much abused magical art was 
  the secret of doing good to humanity. It was initiation into the 
  mysteries of Nature, and the power to make use of her occult 
  forces. The visions which they had beheld in the Garden where so 
  many had seen and recognised those who were dearest to their 
  hearts, proved the reality of hermetic operations. They had shewn 
  themselves worthy to know the truth; he undertook to instruct them 
  by gradations therein. It was enough at the outset to inform them 
  that the sublime end of that Egyptian Freemasonry which he had 
  brought from the very heart of the Orient was the happiness of 
  mankind. This happiness was illimitable in its nature, including 
  material enjoyments as much as spiritual peace, and the pleasures 
  of the understanding. 
   
  The Grand Copt at the end of this harangue once more seated 
  himself upon the sphere of gold and was borne away through the 
  roof; and the proceedings ended, rather absurdly in a ball. This 
  sort of thing was of course as the breath of his nostrils to 
  Cagliostro, who could not have existed without the atmosphere of 
  theatrical mysticism, in which he perfectly reveled. 
   
  It was at this period that Cagliostro became implicated in the 
  extraordinary affair of the Diamond Necklace. He had been on 
  terms of great intimacy with the Cardinal de Rohan. A certain 
  Countess de Lamotte had petitioned that prince for a pension on 
  account of long aristocratic descent. De Rohan was greatly 
  ambitious to become First Minister of the Throne, but Marie 
  Antoinette, the Queen, disliked him and stood in the way of such 
  an honour. Mme Lamotte soon discovered this, and for purposes of 
  her own told the Cardinal that the Queen favoured his ambitions, 
  and either forged, or procured someone else to forge, letters to the 
  Cardinal purporting to come from the Queen, some of which 
  begged for money for a poor family in  - which her Majesty was 
  interested. The letters continued of the begging description, and 
  Rohan, who was himself heavily in debt, and had misappropriated 
  the funds of various institutions, was driven into the hands of 
  money - lenders. The wretched Countess de Lamotte met by 
  chance a poor woman whose resemblance to the Queen was 
  exceedingly marked. This person she trained to represent Marie 
  Antoinette, and arranged nightly meetings between her and Rohan, 
  in which the disguised woman made all sorts of promises to the 
  Cardinal.  
   
  Between them the adventuresses milked the unfortunate prelate of 
  immense sums. Meanwhile a certain Bohmer, a jeweller, was very 
  desirous of selling a wonderful diamond necklace in which, for 
  over ten years he had locked up his whole fortune. Hearing that 
  Mme. de Lamotte had great influence 'with the Queen, he 
  approached her for the purpose of getting her to induce Marie 
  Antoinette to purchase it. She at once corresponded with De Rohan 
  on the matter, who came post haste to Paris, to be told by Mme. de 
  Lamotte that the Queen wished him to be security for the purchase 
  of the necklace, for which she had agreed to pay 1, 600, 000 
  livres,  in four half - yearly instalments. He was naturally staggered 
  at the suggestion but however, affixed his signature to the 
  agreement, and Mme. de Lamotte became the possessor of the 
  necklace. She speedily broke it up, picking the jewels from their 
  setting with an ordinary penknife. Matters went smoothly enough 
  until the date when the first instalment Of 400, 000 livres became 
  due. De Rohan, never dreaming that the Queen would not meet it, 
  could not lay his hands on such a sum, and Bohmer noting his 
  anxiety mentioned the matter to one of the Queen's ladies in - 
  waiting, who retorted that he must be mad, as the Queen had never 
  purchased the necklace at all. He went at once to Mme. de 
  Lamotte who laughed at him, said he was being fooled, that it had 
  nothing to do with her, and told him to go to the Cardinal. The 
  terrified jeweller did not however take her advice, but went to the 
  King. 
   
  The amazed Louis XVI. listened to the story quietly enough, and 
  then turned to the Queen who was present, who at once broke forth 
  in a tempest of indignation. As a matter of fact Bohmer had for 
  years pestered her to buy the necklace, but the crowning indignity 
  was that Do Rohan, whom she cordially detested, should have been 
  made the medium for such a scandalous disgrace in connection 
  with her name, and she at once gave directions that the Cardinal 
  should be arrested. The King acquiesced in this, and shortly 
  afterwards the Countess de Lamotte, Cagliostro and his wife, and 
  others, followed him to the Bastille. 
   
  The trial which followed was one of the most sensational and 
  stirring in the annals of French history. The King was greatly 
  blamed for allowing the affair to become public at all, and there is 
  little doubt that such conduct as the evidence displayed as that of 
  aristocrats assisted to hasten the French Revolution. 
   
  It was Mme. de Lamotte who charged Cagliostro with the robbery 
  of the necklace, and she did not hesitate to invent for him a 
  terrible past, designating him an empiric, alchemist, false prophet, 
  and Jew. This is not the place to deal with the trial at length, and it 
  will suffice to state that Cagliostro easily proved his complete 
  innocence. But the Parisian public looked to Cagliostro to supply 
  the comedy in this great drama, and assuredly they were not 
  disappointed, for he Provided them with what must be described as 
  one of the most romantic and fanciful, if manifestly absurd, life 
  stories in the history of autobiography. His account of himself 
  which is worth quoting at length is as follows: 
   
  " I cannot, " he says, " speak positively as to the place of my 
  nativity, nor to the parents who gave me birth. All my inquiries 
  have ended only in giving me some great notions, it is true, but 
  altogether vague and uncertain, concerning my family. 
   
  " I spent the years of my childhood in the city of Medina in Arabia. 
  There I was brought up under the name of Acharat, which I 
  preserved during my progress through Africa and Asia. I had my 
  apartments in the palace of the Muphti Salahaym. It is needless to 
  add that the Muphti is the chief of the Mahometan religion, and 
  that his constant residence is at Medina,  
  
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  " I recollect perfectly that I had then four persons attached to my 
  service: a governor, between forty - five and sixty years of age, 
  whose name was Althotas, and three servants, a white one who 
  attended me as valet de chambre and two blacks, one of whom was 
  constantly about, night and day. 
   
  My governor always told me that I had been left an orphan when 
  only about three months old, that my parents were Christians and 
  nobly born; but he left me absolutely in the dark about their names 
  and the place of my nativity. Some words, however, which he let 
  fall by chance have induced ms to suspect that I was born at Malta. 
  Althotas, whose name 1 cannot speak without the tenderest 
  emotion, treated me with great care and all the attention of a 
  father. He thought to develop the talent I displayed for the 
  sciences. I may truly say that he knew them all, from the most 
  abstruse down to those of mere amusement. My greatest aptitude 
  was for the study of botany and chemistry. 
   
  " By him I was taught to worship God, to love and assist my 
  neighbours, and to respect everywhere religion and the laws. We 
  both dressed like Mahometans and conformed outwardly to the 
  worship of Islam; but the true religion was imprinted in our hearts. 
   
  " The Muphti, who often visited me, always treated me with great 
  goodness and seemed to entertain the highest regard fr my 
  governor. The latter instructed me in most of the Eastern 
  languages. He would often converse with me on the pyramids of 
  Egypt, on those vast subterraneous, caves dug out by the ancient 
  Egyptians, to be the repository of human knowledge and to shelter 
  the precious trust, from the injuries of time. 
   
  " The desire of travelling and of beholding the wonders of which he 
  spoke grew so strong upon me, that Medina and my youthful sports 
  there lost all the allurements I had found in them before. At least, 
  when I was in my twelfth year, Althotas informed me one day that 
  we were going to commence our travels. A caravan was prepared 
  and we set out, after having taken our leave of the Muphti who was 
  pleased to express his concern at our departure in the most 
  obliging manner. 
   
  " On our arrival at Mecca we alighted at the palace of the Cherif. 
  Here Althotas provided me with sumptuous apparel and presented 
  me to the Cherif, who honoured me with the most endearing 
  caresses. At sight of this prince my senses experienced a sudden 
  emotion, which it is not in the power of words to express, and my 
  eyes dropped the most delicious tears I have ever shed in my life. 
  His, I perceived, he could hardly contain. 
   
   " I remained in Mecca for the space of three years; not a day 
  passed without my being admitted to the sovereign's presence, and 
  every hour increased his attachment and added to my gratitude. I 
  sometimes surprised his gaze riveted upon me, and turned to 
  heaven with every expression of pity and commiseration. 
  Thoughtful, I would go from him a prey to an ever - fruitless 
  curiosity. I dared not question Althotas, who always rebuked me 
  with great severity, as if it had been a crime in me to wish for 
  some, information concerning my parents and the place where I 
  was born. I attempted in vain to get the secret from the negro who 
  slept in my apartment. If I chanced to talk of my parents he would 
  turn a deaf ear to my questions. But one night when I was more 
  pressing than usual, he told me that if ever I should leave Mecca I 
  was threatened with the greatest misfortunes, and bid me, above 
  all, beware of the city of Trebizond. 
   
  " My inclination, however, got the better of his forebodings - I was 
  tired of the uniformity of life I led at the Cherif's court. One day 
  when I was alone the prince entered my apartment; he strained me 
  to his bosom with more than usual tenderness, bid me never cease 
  to adore the Almighty, and added, bedewing my cheeks with his 
  tears: 'Nature's unfortunate child, adieu !' 
   
  " This was our last interview. The caravan waited only for me and I 
  set off, leaving Mecca never to re - enter it more 
   
  " I directed my course first to Egypt, where I inspected these 
  celebrated pyramids which to the eye of the superficial observer 
  only appear an enormous mass of marble and granite. I also got 
  acquainted with the priests of the various temples, who had the 
  complacence to introduce me into such places as no ordinary 
  traveller ever entered before. The next three years of my progress 
  were. spent in the principal kingdoms of Africa and Asia. 
  Accompanied by Althotas, and the three attendants who continued 
  in my service, I arrived in 1766 at the island of Rhodes, and there 
  embarked on a French ship bound to Malta. 
   
  " Notwithstanding the general rule by which all Vessels coming 
  from the Levant are obliged to enter quarantine, I obtained on the 
  second day leave to go ashore. Pinto, the Grand Master of the 
  Knights of Malta, gave us apartments in his palace, and I perfectly 
  recollect that mine were near the laboratory. 
   
  " The first thing the Grand Master was pleased to do was to request 
  the Chevalier d'Aquino, of the princely house of Caramanica, to 
  bear me company and do me the honours of the island. It was here 
  that I first assumed; European dress and with it the name of Count 
  Cagliostro, nor was it a small matter of surprise to me to see 
  Althotas appear in a clerical dress with the insignia of the Order of 
  Malta. 
   
  " I have every reason to believe that the Grand Master Pinto was 
  acquainted with my real origin. He often spoke to me of the Cherif 
  and mentioned the city of Trebizond, but never would consent to 
  enter into further particulars on the subject. Meanwhile he treated 
  me with the utmost distinction, and assured me of very rapid 
  preferment if I would consent to take the cross. But my taste for 
  travelling and the predominant desire of practising medicine, 
  induced me to decline an offer that was as generous as it was 
  honourable. 
   
  " It was in the island of Malta that I had the misfortune of losing 
  my best friend and master, the wisest as well as the most learned of 
  men, the venerable Althotas. Some minutes before he expired, 
  pressing my hand, he said in a feeble voice, ' My son, keep for ever 
  before your eyes the fear of God and the love of your fellow - 
  creatures; you will soon be convinced by experience of what you 
  have been taught by me.' 
   
  " The spot where I had parted for ever from the friend who had 
  been as a father to me, soon became odious. I begged leave of the 
  Grand Master to quit the island in order to travel over Europe; he 
  consented reluctantly, and the Chevalier d'Aquino was so obliging 
  as to accompany me. Our first trip was to Sicily, from thence we 
  went to the different islands of the Greek Archipelago, and 
  returning, arrived at Naples, the birthplace of my companion. 
  
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  " The Chevalier, owing to his private aff airs, being obliged to 
  undertake a private journey, I proceeded alone to Rome, provided 
  with a letter of credit on the banking house of Signor Bellone. In 
  the capital of the Christian world I resolved upon keeping the 
  strictest incognito. One morning, as I was shut up in my apartment, 
  endeavouring to improve myself in the Italian language, my valet 
  de chambre introduced to my presence the secretary of Cardinal 
  Orsini, who requested me to wait on his Eminence. I repaired at 
  once to his palace and was received with the most flattering 
  civility. The Cardinal often invited me to his table and procured 
  me the acquaintance of several cardinals and Roman princes, 
  amongst others, Cardinals York and Ganganelli, who was 
  afterwards Pope Clement XIV. Pope Rezzonico, who then filled the 
  papal chair, having expressed a desire of seeing me, I had the 
  honour of frequent interviews with his Holiness. 
   
  "I was then (1770) in my twenty - second year, when by chance I 
  met a young lady of quality, Seraphina Feliciani, whose budding 
  charms kindled in my bosom a flame which sixteen years of 
  marriage have only served to strengthen. It is that unfortunate 
  woman, whom neither her virtues, her innocence, nor her quality of 
  stranger could save from the hardships of a captivity as cruel as it 
  is unmerited." 
   
  Cagliostro is reticent regarding his life between the period last 
  dealt with, and the date of his coming to Paris. But although 
  proved innocent he had through his very innocence offended so 
  many persons in high places that he was banished, amidst shouts 
  of laughter from everyone in the court. Even the judges were 
  convulsed, but on his return from the court - house the mob 
  cheered him heartily. If he had accomplished nothing else he had 
  at least won the hearts of the populace by his kindness and the 
  many acts of faithful service he had lavished upon them, and it was 
  partly to his popularity, and partly to the violent hatred of the 
  Court, that he owed the reception accorded to him. He was re - 
  united to his wife, and shortly afterwards took his departure for 
  London where he was received with considerable eclat. Here he 
  addressed a letter to the people of France, which obtained wide 
  circulation and predicted the French Revolution, the 
  demolishment of the Bastille, and the downfall of the monarchy. 
  Following upon this the Courier de L'Europe a French paper 
  published in London, printed a so - called exposure of the real life 
  of Cagliostro from beginning to end. From that moment, however, 
  his descent was headlong; his reputation had Switzerland and 
  Austria, he could find no rest for the sole of his foot. At last he 
  came to Rome, whither Lorenza, his wife accompanied him. At first 
  he was well received there, and even entertained by several 
  cardinals, privately studying medicine, and living very quietly: but 
  he made the grand mistake of attempting to further his masonic 
  ideas within the bounds of the Papal States. Masonry was of course 
  anathema to the Roman Church, and upon his attempting to found 
  a Lodge in the Eternal City itself, he was arrested on the 27th 
  September, 1789, by order of the Holy Inquisition, and imprisoned 
  in the Castle of Saint Angelo. His examination occupied his 
  inquisitors for no less than eighteen months, and he was sentenced 
  to death on the 7th April, 1791. He was, however, recommended to 
  mercy, and the Pope commuted his sentence to perpetual 
  imprisonment in the Castle of Saint Angelo. On one occasion he 
  made a desperate attempt to escape: requesting the services of a 
  confessor he attempted to strangle the Brother sent to him, but the 
  burly priest, whose habit he had intended to disguise himself in 
  proved too strong for him, and he was quickly overpowered. After 
  this he was imprisoned in the solitary Castle of San Leo near 
  Montefeltro, the situation of which stronghold is one of the most 
  singular in Europe, where he died and was interred in 1795. The 
  manner of his death is absolutely unknown, but an official 
  commissioned by Napoleon to visit the Italian prisons gives some 
  account: of Cagliostro's quarters there. 
   
  "The galleries, " he reports, " which have been cut out of the solid 
  rock, were divided into cells, and old dried - up cisterns had been 
  converted into dungeons for the worst criminals, and further 
  surrounded by high walls, so that the only possible egress, if 
  escape was attempted, would be by a staircase cut in the rock and 
  guarded night and day by sentinels. 
   
  " It was in one of these cisterns that the celebrated Cagliostro was 
  interred in 1791. In recommending the Pope to commute the 
  sentence of death, which the Inquisition had passed upon him, into 
  perpetual imprisonment, the Holy Tribunal took care that the 
  commutation should be equivalent  to the death penalty. His only 
  communication with mankind was when his jailers raised the trap 
  to let food 'down to him. Here he languished for three years without 
  air, movement, or intercourse with his fellow creatures. During the 
  last months of his life his condition excited the pity of the 
  governor, who had him removed from this dungeon to a cell on the 
  level with the ground, where the curious, who obtain permission to 
  visit the prison, may read on the walls various inscriptions and 
  sentences traced there by the unhappy alchemist. The last bears 
  the date of the 6th of March 1795." 
   
  The Countess Cagliostro was also ' sentenced by the Inquisition to 
  imprisonment for life. She was confined in the Convent of St. 
  Appolonia, a penitentiary for women in Rome, where it was 
  rumoured that she died in 1794. 
   
  Cagliostro's manuscript volume entitled " Egyptian Freemasonry " 
  fell with his other papers into the hands of the Inquisition, and was 
  solemnly condemned by it as subversive to the interests of 
  Christianity. It was publicly burned, but oddly enough the 
  Inquisition set apart one of its brethren to write -  - " concoct " is 
  the better word  - some kind of Life of Cagliostro and in this are 
  given several valuable particulars concerning his Masonic methods 
  as follows: 
   
  " It may be unnecessary to enter into some details concerning 
  Egyptian Masonry. We shall extract our facts from a book compiled 
  by himself, and now in our possession, by which he owns he was 
  always directed in the exercise of his functions, and from which 
  those regulations and instructions were copied, wherewith he 
  enriched many mother lodges. In this treatise, which is written in 
  French, he promises to conduct his disciples to perfection by 
  means of physical and moral regeneration, to confer perpetual 
  youth and beauty on them, and restore them to that state of 
  innocence which they were deprived of by means of original sin. 
  He asserts that Egyptian Masonry was first propagated by Enoch 
  and Elias, but that since that time it has lost much of its purity and 
  splendour. Common masonry, according to him, has degenerated 
  into mere buffoonery, and women have of late been entirely 
  excluded from its mysteries; but the time was now arrived when 
  the Grand Copt was about to restore the glory of masonry, and 
  allow its benefits to be participated by both sexes. 
   
  " The statutes of the order then follow in rotation, the division of 
  the members into three distinct classes, the various signs by which 
  they might discover each other, the officers who are to preside over 
  and regulate the society, the stated times when the members are to 
  
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  assemble, the erection of a tribunal for deciding all differences that 
  may arise between the several lodges or the particular members of 
  each, and the various ceremonies which ought to take place at the 
  admission of the candidates. In every part of this book the pious 
  reader is disgusted with the sacrilege, the profanity, the 
  superstition, and the idolatry with which it abounds - the 
  invocations in the name of God, the prostrations, the adorations 
  paid to the Grand Master, the fumigations, the incense, the 
  exorcisms, the emblems of the Divine Triad, of the moon, of the 
  sun, of the compass, of the square, and a thousand other 
  scandalous particulars, with which the world is at present 
  acquainted. 
   
  " The Grand Copt, or chief of the lodge, is compared  - to God the 
  Father. He is invoked upon every occasion; he regulates all the 
  actions of the members and all the ceremonies of the lodge, and he 
  is even supposed to have communication with angels and with the 
  Divinity. In the exercise of many of the rites they are desired to 
  repeat the Veni and the Te Deam - nay, to such an excess of 
  impiety are they eniolned, that in reciting the psalm Memento 
  Domine David, the name of the Grand Master is always to be 
  substituted for that of the King of Israel. 
   
  " People of all religions are admitted into the society of Egypiian 
  Masonry - the Jew, the Calvinist, the Lutheran are to be received 
  into it as well as the Catholic - provided they believe in the 
  existence of God and the immortality of the soul, and have been 
  previously allowed to participate in the mysteries of the common 
  masonry. When men are admitted, they receive a pair of garters 
  from the Grand Copt, as is usual in all lodges, for their mistresses; 
  and when women are received into the society, they are presented 
  by the Grand Mistress with a cockade, which they are desired to 
  give to that man to whom they are most attached. 
   
  " We shall here recount the ceremonies made use of on admitting a 
  female. 
   
  " The candidate having presented herself, the Grand Mistress 
  (Madame Cagliostro generally presided in that capacity) breathed 
  upon her face from the forehead to the chin, and then said, - I 
  breathe upon you on purpose to inspire you with virtues which we 
  possess, so that they 
   
  may take root and flourish in your heart, I thus fortify your soul, I 
  thus confirm you in the faith of your brethren and sisters, 
  according to the engagements which you have contracted with 
  them. We now admit you as a daughter of the Egyptian lodge. We 
  order that you be acknowledged in that capacity by all the brethren 
  and sisters of the Egyptian lodges, and that you enjoy with them 
  the same prerogatives as with ourselves.' 
   
  " The Grand Master thus addresses the male candidate In virtue of 
  the power which I have received from the Grand Copt, the founder 
  of our order, and by the particular grace of God, I hereby confer 
  upon you the honour of being admitted into our lodge in the name 
  of Helios, Mene, Tetragrammaton.' 
   
  " In a book said to be printed at Paris in 1789, it is asserted that 
  the last words were suggested to Cagliostro as sacred and 
  cabalistical expressions by a pretended conjuror, who said that he 
  was assisted by a spirit, and that this spirit was no other than a 
  cabalistical Jew, who by means of the magical art had murdered 
  his own father before the incarnation of Jesus Christ. 
   
  " Common masons have been accustomed to regard St. John as 
  their patron, and to celebrate the festival of that saint. Cagliostro 
  also adopted him as his protector, and it is not a little remarkable 
  that he was imprisoned at Rome on the very festival of his patron. 
  The reason for his veneration of this great prophet was, if we are to 
  believe himself, the great similarity between the Apocalypse and 
  the rites of his institution. 
   
  " We must here observe that when any of his disciples were 
  admitted into the highest class, the following execrable ceremony 
  took place. A young boy or girl, in the state of virgin innocence and 
  purity, was procured, who was called the pupil, and to whom power 
  was given over the seven spirits that surround the throne of their 
  divinity and preside over the seven planets. Their names according 
  to Cagliostro's book are Anael, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, 
  Zobiachel, and Anachiel. The pupil is then made use of as an 
  intermediate agent between the spiritual and physical worlds, and 
  being clothed in a long white robe, adorned with a red ribbon, and 
  blue silk festoons, he is shut up in a little closet. From that place 
  he gives responses to the Grand Master, and tells whether the 
  spirits and Moses have agreed to receive the candidates into the 
  highest class of Egyptian masons. . . . 
   
  " In his instructions to obtain the moral and physical regeneration 
  which he had promised to his disciples, lie is exceedingly careful 
  to - give a minute description of the operations to which they have 
  to submit. Those who are desirous of experiencing the moral 
  regeneration are to retire from the world for the space of forty days, 
  and to distribute their time into certain proportions. Six hours are 
  to be employed in reflection, three in prayer to the Deity, nine in 
  the holy operations of Egyptian Masonry, while the remaining 
  period is to be dedicated to repose. At the end of the thirty - three 
  days a visible communication is to take place between the patient 
  and the seven primitive spirits, and on the morning of the fortieth 
  day his soul will be inspired with divine knowledge, and his body 
  be as pure as that of a new - born infant. 
   
  " To procure a physical regeneration, the patient is to retire into 
  the country in the month of May, and during forty days is to live 
  according to the most strict and austere rules, eating very little, 
  and then only laxative and sanative herbs, and making use of no 
  other drink than distilled water, or rain that has fallen in the 
  course of the month. On the seventeenth day, after having lot blood 
  certain white drops are to be taken, six at night and six in the 
  morning, increasing them two a day in progression. In three days 
  more a small quantity of blood is again to be let from the arm 
  before sunrise, and the patient is to retire to bed till the operation 
  is completed. A grain of the panacea is then to be taken; this 
  panacea is the same as that of which God created man when He 
  first made him immortal. When this is swallowed the candidate 
  loses his speech and his reflection for three entire days, and he is 
  subject to frequent convulsions, struggles, and perspirations. 
  Having recovered from this state, in which however, he 
  experiences no pain whatever, on that day, he takes the third and 
  last grain of the panacea, which causes him to fall into a profound 
  and tranquil sleep; it is then that he loses his hair, his skip, and 
  his teeth. These again are all reproduced in a few hours, and 
  having become a new man, on the morning of the fortieth day he 
  leaves his room, enjoying a complete rejuvenescence, by which he 
  is enabled to live 5557 years, or to such time as he, of his own 
  accord, may be desirous of going to the world of spirits." 
   
  
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  To revert to the question of the researches of Mr. Trowbridge, it 
  will appear to any unbiased reader of his work that he has proved 
  that Cagliostro was not the same as Joseph Balsamo with whom his 
  detractor, -  have identified him. Balsamo was a Sicilian vagabond 
  adventurer, and the statement that he and Cagliostro were one and 
  the lame person originally rests on the word of the editor of the 
  Courier de I' Europe, a person of the lowest and most profligate 
  habits, and upon an anonymous letter from Palermo to the Chief of 
  the Paris police. Mr. Trowbridge sees in the circumstance that the 
  names of the Countess Cagliostro and the wife of Balsamo were 
  identical nothing but a mere coincidence, as the name Lorenza 
  Feliciani is a very common one in Italy. He also proves that the 
  testimony of the handwriting experts as to the remarkable 
  similarity between the writing of Balsamo and Cagliostro is 
  worthless, and states that nobody who had known Balsamo ever 
  saw Cagliostro. He also points out that Balsamo, who had been in 
  England in 1771, was " wanted " by the London police: how was it 
  then that six years afterward they did not recognise him in Count 
  Cagliostro who spent four months in a debtors' prison there, for no 
  fault of his own ? The whole evidence against Cagliostro's 
  character rests with the editor of the Courier de I'Europe and his 
  Inquisition biographer, neither of whom can be credited for various 
  good reasons. Again, it must be recollected that the narrative of the 
  Inquisition biographer is supposed to be based upon the 
  confessions of Cagliostro under torture in the Castle of St. Angelo. 
  Neither was the damaging disclosure of the editor of the Courier de 
  I'Europe at all topical, as he raked up matter which was at least 
  fourteen years old, and of which he had no personal knowledge 
  whatsoever. Mr. Trowbridge also proves that the dossier discovered 
  in the French archives in 1783, which was supposed to embody the 
  Countess Cagliostro's confessions regarding the career of her 
  husband when she was imprisoned in the Salpetriere prison, is 
  palpably a forgery, and he further disposes of the statements that 
  Cagliostro lived on the immoral earnings of his wife. 
   
  It is distinctly no easy matter to get at the bed - rock truth 
  regarding Cagliosiro or to form any just estimate of his true 
  character. That he was vain, naturally pompous, fond of theatrical 
  mystery, and of the popular side of occultism, is most probable. 
  Another circumstance which stands out in relation to his 
  personality is that he was vastly desirous of gaining cheap 
  popularity. He was probably a little mad. On the other hand he was 
  beneficent, and felt it his mission in the then king - ridden state of 
  Europe to found Egyptian Masonry for the protection of society in 
  general, and the middle and lower classes in particular. A born 
  adventurer, he was by no means a rogue, as his lack of shrewdness 
  has been proved on many occasions. There is small question either 
  that the various Masonic lodges which he founded and which were 
  patronised by persons of ample means, provided him with 
  extensive funds, and it is a known fact that he was subsidised by 
  several extremely wealthy men, who, themselves dissatisfied with 
  the state of affairs in Europe, did not hesitate to place their riches 
  at his disposal for the purpose of undermining the tyrannic powers 
  which then wielded sway. There is reason to believe that he had in 
  some way and at some period of his life acquired a certain working 
  knowledge of practical occultism, and that he possessed certain 
  elementary psychic powers of hypnotism and telepathy. His absurd 
  account of his childhood is almost undoubtedly a plagiarism of that 
  stated in the first manifesto to the public of the mysterious 
  Rosicrucian Brotherhood, (q.v) as containing an account of the 
  childhood of their Chief. But on the whole he is a mystery, and in 
  all likelihood the clouds which surround his origin and earlier 
  years will never be dispersed. It is probably better that this should 
  be so, as although Cagliostro was by no means an exalted 
  character, he was yet one of the most picturesque figures in the 
  later history of Europe; and assuredly not the least aid to his 
  picturesqueness is the obscurity in which his origin is involved. 
  Consult - Cagliostro. W. R. H. Trowbridge; Cagliostro and 
  Company. Franz Funck - Brentano; Waite, Lives of the 
  Alchemysts. 
   
  Caiumarath, or Kaid - mords:  
  According to the Persians, the first man. He lived a thousand years 
  and reigned five hundred and sixty. He produced a tree, from the 
  fruits of which were born the human race. The devil seduced and 
  corrupted the first couple, who after their fall, dressed themselves 
  in black garments and sadly awaited the resurrection, for they had 
  introduced sin into the world. 
   
  Calmet, Com Augustin:  
  A Benedictine of the congregation of Saint - Vannes, and one of the 
  most diligent and active of his order, who died in 1757 at his 
  abbey of Sesones. He was the author of a Dictionnaire de la Bible 
  and of many well - known commentaries on the scriptures. But he 
  is chiefly famous among occultists for his Dissertation, sur les 
  apparitions des anges, des demons et des esprits, et sup les 
  revenans et vampires de Hongyie, de Bohdme, de Moravie et de 
  Sildsie. (Paris 1746, and 1751 - the latter being the best edition). 
  It was translated into English in 11759, and is alluded to in the 
  article " Vampire." The greatest faith in the supernatural (some 
  might perhaps stigmatise it as credulity) marks the work. But he 
  notices unfavourable theories equally with those which suit his 
  hypotheses, and if he places too much credence i a the classical 
  authors, he is never dull. He became the butt of Voltaire, who 
  wrote beneath his portrait in verse of questionable quality " Des 
  oracles sacres que Dieu daigna, nous rendre Son travail assidu 
  perca Fobscurite fit plus, il les crut avec simplicite Et fut, par ses 
  vertus, digne do les entendre." 
   
   
   
  Case, Paul Foster: Paul Foster Case was born in Fairport, New 
  York. His mother was a teacher and his father was the head 
  librarian of the town library, in which Paul Case was literally born. 
  For a man whose thirst for hidden knowledge was unquenchable, 
  he could not have been born into more fortunate circumstances. 
   
  Paul learned to read at a very young age. By the age of four he was 
  found pouring over "forbidden books" in the attic of his father's 
  library. He was also found to have extraordinary musical talent at 
  an early age, and at the age of three began training in piano and 
  organ. At the age of nine, he was the organist at the Congregational 
  Church in which his father was deacon. 
   
  At the age of seven, Case began correspondence with Rudyard 
  Kipling, who verified the "fourth-dimensional" experiences Case 
  was having as being not merely imaginary, but actual states of 
  being.  Kipling had similar experiences when composing his 
  A.B.C. works, which depict a strangely altered future for humanity. 
  At this early age, Case found that he had the ability to consciously 
  manipulate his dreams. 
   
  At sixteen, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon, as they had 
  both donated their talents to a charity performance. It was in this 
  meeting that Paul Case got his first "directive". Bragdon asked 
  Case, "Where do you think the playing cards come from?" This 
  simple question sparked an immediate search for the origins and 
  uses of Tarot. Within a very short period of time, Case had 
  
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  collected every book and every set of Tarot Keys available. He 
  spent years researching, studying, and meditating on these 
  archetypal images. 
   
  Case described his experience at the time as definitely "guided" by 
  an inner voice. In his view, the experience with Tarot had 
  stimulated an "inner hearing", through which he was guided to the 
  many attributes of Tarot which were published before he was 21 
  years old. Perhaps Eliphas Levi's statement on Tarot best 
  summarized its influence on the young Paul Case: "As an erudite 
  Kabalistic book... A prisoner devoid of books, had he only a Tarot 
  of which he knew how to make use, could in a few years acquire a 
  universal science, and converse with unequaled doctrine and 
  inexhaustible eloquence." 
   
  While in New York, Case was approached by Michael Whitty, the 
  Praemonstrator of the Thoth-Hermes Temple of the Golden Dawn 
  (Alpha et Omega). Whitty, having heard of Case's extensive 
  knowledge of the Western Mystery Tradition and having read some 
  of his published works, invited Case into the Order. Case naturally 
  accepted the offer, and moved through the Outer Grades quickly. 
  He was initiated into the Second Order on May 16, 1920, with the 
  magical motto, Perseverantia. Just three weeks later, he was the 
  Third Adept in the annual Corpus Christi ceremony. 
   
  He soon became known as the most knowledgeable occultist in the 
  New York temple, and succeeded Michael Whitty as 
  Praemonstrator within a year of his acceptance into the Second 
  Order. Despite Case's attainments, he did have considerable 
  difficulty with the system of Enochian Magic. Ultimately, he 
  concluded that the Enochian system was demonic rather than 
  angelic. His Order, the B.O.T.A., excludes all mention of Enochian 
  from its curriculum. 
   
  Because of his quick advancement through the Grades of the 
  Order, Case may have sparked some jealousy among the other 
  Adepts. Moreover, others may have thought some of his teachings 
  inappropriate. On July 18, 1921, Moina Mathers wrote Case 
  regarding complaints she had received regarding some of his 
  teachings. Apparently, Case had begun discussing the topic of sex 
  magic, which at the time had no official place in the Order 
  curriculum. Since no knowledge lectures exist on the subject, 
  whether sex practices were ever taught in the Golden Dawn has 
  been a long standing question. In her correspondence with Case, 
  Moina wrote, "...I have seen the results of this superficial sex 
  teaching in several Occult Societies as well as in individual cases. 
  I have never met with one happy result." 
   
  But to Case, sexuality became an increasingly important subject. 
  In his Book of Tokens, a collection of inspired meditations on the 
  22 Tarot Keys of the Major Arcana, Case comments on the sex 
  function, "You must wholly alter your conception of sex in order to 
  comprehend the Ancient Wisdom... It is the interior nervous 
  organism, not the external organs, that is always meant in phallic 
  symbolism, and the force that works through these interior centers 
  is the Great Magical Agent, the divine serpent fire." In his works, 
  The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order and The Masonic Letter 
  G, he writes of certain practices involving the redirection of the 
  sexual force to the higher centers of the brain where experience of 
  supersensory states of consciousness becomes possible. 
   
  Some members also complained about a personal relationship 
  between Case and a soror, Lilli Geise. Case confessed the matter to 
  Moina: "The Hierophantria and I were observed to exchange 
  significant glances over the altar during the Mystic Repast... My 
  conscience acquits me... Our relation to each other we submit to no 
  other Judge than that Lord of Love and Justice whom we all adore." 
  In time, Case married Geise, who died a few years later. 
   
  Perhaps Moina's correspondence also touched a sensitive area for 
  Case. In her July 18th letter, she tells Case, "You evidently have 
  reached a point in your mystical Way where there would appear to 
  exist certain cross-roads. The artist in you, which I recognize, and 
  with whom I deeply sympathize, would probably choose to learn 
  the Truth through the joy and beauty of physical life." She 
  continued, "You who have studied the Pantheons, do you know of 
  that enchanting God, the Celtic Angus, the Ever Young? He who is 
  sometimes called Lord of the Land of Heart's Desire?" Angus 
  rescued Etain, the Moon, who had been turned into a golden fly. 
  But Etain had to choose between bodily existence in the land of 
  mortals and everlasting life. She continued still, "The artist in us 
  may have lingered in that land for a moment. But you and I who 
  would be teachers and pioneers in this Purgatorial World must be 
  prepared before all the Gods to be the servants of the greatest of 
  them all... the Osiris, the Christ, the God of the Sacrifice of the 
  Self." Moina then asked Case to resign from his position as 
  Praemonstrator. 
   
  Case resigned as Praemonstrator, responding to Moina, "...I have 
  no desire to be a 'teacher and pioneer in this Purgatorial World.' 
  Guidance seems to have removed me from the high place to which 
  I have never really aspired. The relief is great." This seems odd 
  coming from a man who would, in a few years, abandon his artistic 
  endeavors to start his own occult school, the Builders of the 
  Adytum (B.O.T.A.). Perhaps this struggle between his artistic soul 
  and his mystical soul pre-existed his involvement with the Order, 
  and maybe Moina knew this. Archives at the B.O.T.A. state that on 
  one occasion years before he joined the Order, Case was 
  approached by a stranger on the streets of Chicago who called him 
  by name and told him many things about himself. "Your teacher is 
  my teacher," the man told him. He told Case that he must choose 
  between a life of material comfort as a musician and a life of 
  suffering and renunciation as a vitally needed teacher of the 
  Mysteries. The former would offer him "more of this world's goods 
  than most"; the latter, important service to mankind and eternal 
  life, and that, "In the end, you will not starve to death." 
   
  After Case was expelled from the Order, he pursued the creation of 
  his own occult school, the School of Ageless Wisdom. This 
  organization failed within a few years. However, he soon moved to 
  Los Angeles, abandoning his lucrative career as a musician, and 
  established the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.). Still in 
  existence today, it has proven to be a successful correspondence 
  course on Tarot. 
   
  Geise wrote to Moina that students from other temples were 
  flocking to hear Case speak prior to his being expelled. Mrs. Elma 
  Dame, The Imperatrix of the Philadelphia Temple, who resigned 
  due to the numerous problems in the Order at the time, pointed to 
  the need for a knowledgeable teacher in America. She wrote to 
  Moina: "When you got rid of Mr. Case, you 'killed the goose that 
  laid the golden egg.'" Dr. Pullen Burry, a former Order member, 
  concluded that Case was the one to bring "the light of the old R.C. 
  [Rosicrucian] teachings" into the light of Aquarian consciousness. 
  Case's book, The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order, stands as 
  a classic Qabalistic interpretation of the Rosicrucian Fama 
  
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  Fraternitatis and Confessio. 
   
  The B.O.T.A. is active in the United States, and Case travels 
  frequently on speaking engagements. 
   
  Ceremonial Magic: The art of dealing with spirits. Its rites are 
  supposedly religious, and the rituals which contain it partake 
  largely of the nature of religious observances. It is not, as generally 
  supposed, a reversed Christianity or Judaism, nor does it partake 
  of the profanation of religious ritual. It attempts to derive power 
  from God for the purpose of  a  successful control of evil spirits. In 
  the Grimoires and Keys of Black Magic, the operator is constantly 
  reminded that he must meditate continually on the undertaking in 
  hand, and centre every hope in the infinite goodness of the Great 
  Adonai. The god invoked in Black Magic is not Satan as is so often 
  supposed, but the Jehovah of the Jews, and the Trinity of the 
  Christians. The foundation of practical magic is almost certainly 
  the belief in the power of divine words to compel the obedience of 
  all spirits to those who could pronounce them. Such words and 
  names were supposed to invoke or dismiss the denizens of  the 
  spirit world, and these with suitable prayers were used in all 
  magical ceremonies. Again it was thought that it was easier to 
  control evil spirits than to enlist the sympathies of angels – too 
  there is no doubt that there is no moral wrong in enslaving an evil 
  spirit to do good, whereas to compel an Angel would be the 
  greatest of sins, and even to importune such a creature a matter of 
  grave seriousness. 
   
  He who would gain such power over demons is exhorted in the 
  magical texts which exist to observe continence and abstinence, to 
  disrobe as seldom and sleep as little as possible during the period 
  of preparation, to meditate continually on his undertaking and 
  centre all his hopes on the Great Adonai. The fast should be most 
  austere, and human society must be avoided as much as possible. 
  The concluding days of the fast should be additionally strict - 
  sustenance being reduced to bread and water. Daily ablutions are 
  necessary, and these must be made in water which has been 
  previously exorcised according to the ritual: especially must this 
  be observed immediately before the ceremony. Certain periods of 
  the day and night are ruled by certain planets and these are to be 
  found in the book known as the Key of Solomon the King (q.v). 
  (See also Astrology.) The Book of Black Magic taught that the 
  hours of Saturn, Mars and Venus are good for communion with 
  spirits, - the hour of the first named planet for invoking souls in 
  Hell; and that of the second those who have been slain in battle. In 
  fact these hours and seasons are ruled by th., laws of astrology. In 
  the preparation of the instruments employed, the ceremonies of 
  purifying and consecrating, must be carefully observed. An 
  aspergillum composed of mint, marjoram, and rosemary should be  
  used for the first and should be contained in a pot of glazed earth. 
  For fumigation a chafing dish should be used filled with freshly 
  kindled coal and perfumed with aloe - wood or mace, benzoin or 
  storax. 
   
  The experiment of holding converse with spirits should be made in 
  the day and hour of Mercury: that is the ist or 8th, or the 15th or 
  22nd (See Necromancy). The Grand Grimoire says that when the 
  night of action has arrived, the operator shall take a rod, a goat - 
  skin, a blood - stone, two crowns of vervain, and two candlesticks 
  with candles; also a new steel and two new flints, enough wood to 
  make a fire, half a bottle of brandy, incense and camphor, and four 
  nails from the coffin of a dead child. Either one or three persons 
  must'take part in the ceremony - on of whom only must address the 
  spirit. The Kabbalistic circle is formed with strips of kid's skin 
  fastened to the ground by the four nails. With the blood - stone a 
  triangle is traced within the circle, beginning at the eastern point. 
  The letters a e a j must be drawn in like manner, as also the Name 
  of the Saviour between two croses. The candles and vervain crowns 
  are then set in the left and right sides of the triangle within the 
  circle, and they with the brazier are set alight - the fire being fed 
  with brandy and camphor. A prayer is then repeated. The operator 
  must be careful to have no alloyed metal about him except a gold 
  or silver coin wrapped in paper, which must be cast to the spirit 
  when he appears outside the circle. The spirit is then conjured 
  three times. Should the spirit fail to appear, the two ends of the 
  magic rod must be plunged into the flames of the brazier. This 
  ritual is known as the Rite of Lucifuge, and is believed to invoke 
  the demon Lucifue Rofocale. 
   
  Those who understand Ceremonial Magic do not fully deplore it, 
  but many writers and occultists have urged the greatest restraint 
  and caution in its praticse.  The issue is that the Spirits invoked 
  are not trivial in their treachery or knowledge, and that the magus 
  is seldom as pure or prepared as advised.  Early triumphs might 
  open the door for dealings which eventually result in the Faustian 
  fall of the magus.  Yet nearly all the substantial authorities give 
  over some space to the methods of Ceremonial Magic, and none 
  deplore it outright. 
   
  For further information concerning the ceremonial of magic, See 
  Necromancy and the articles on the various rituals of magic, such 
  as Arbatel, Key of Solomon, Grimorium Verum, etc. (See Magic.) 
   
  Charlemagne: Charlemagne; or Charles the Great The greatest of 
  Frankish kings; was the elder son of Pepin the Short, and 
  succeeded his father in 768 A.D. Pepin held the title of Mayor of 
  the Palace, which was to say Prime Minister for the Merovingian 
  Kings who at that time held a role that was largely ceremonial and 
  had some religious import.  Sinjce the time of the Mayor of the 
  Palace Charles Martel, real power lay with the mayors  Pepin 
  moved to overthrow the last hollow vestiges of the Merovingian 
  Kingship, and crown himself as King, which was acknowledged by 
  the Pope. 
   
  He is included in this work chiefly because of his close connection 
  with the supernatural so far as legend is concerned. Again and 
  again in the pages of French romance, notably in these romances 
  dealing with the adventures of William of Orange, do we find the 
  Emperor visited by angels who are the direct messengers of the 
  heavenly power. This of course is to symbolise his position as the 
  head and front of Christendom in the world. He was its champion 
  and upholder, surrounded as he was on all sides by the forces of 
  paganism, - the Moors on his southern borders, and the Prussians 
  and Saxons on his flank. Charles was regarded by the Christians of 
  Europe as the direct representative of heaven, . whose mission it 
  was to Christianise Europe and to defend the true faith in every 
  way. No less do we find him and his court connected with the 
  realm of faery. Notices of the encounters of the fairy folk by his 
  paladins are not so numerous in the original French romances 
  which deal with him and thern; but in the hands of Boiardo, 
  Ariosto, and Pulci, they dwelt in an enchanted region where at any 
  moment they might meet with all kinds of supernatural beings.  
   
  But both in the older and later romances the powers of magic and 
  enchantment are ever present. These are chiefly instanced in 
  magical weapons such as the Sword Durandal of Roland which 
  cannot be shivered; the magical ointments of giants like Ferragus, 
  which rubbed on their bodies make them invulnerable; the wearing 
  
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  of armour which exercises a similar guardianship on the body of its 
  possessor, and so forth. But we find heroes like Ogier, the Dane, 
  penetrating into fairy land itself, and wedding its queen. This was 
  the fate of a great many medieval heroes, and Ogier finds in the 
  enchanted realm King Arthur, and several other paladins. The 
  magical and the marvellous is everywhere in use in the romances 
  which dcal with Charlemagne. Indeed in this respect they entirely 
  put in the shade the later romances proper, as distinguished from 
  the Chansons de Geste. 
   
  Historically it may not be unreasonable to assume that 
  Charlemagne had some knowledge and acquaintance of at least the 
  rudiments of mysticism and the occult.  The Merovingians, who he 
  overthrew, were deeply enmeshed in mysticism, and were the focus 
  of a cult that in some ways combined the Emperor Worship of 
  ancient Rome with Christianity.  Their line, from which Charles 
  had some nominal descent, claimed descent from a sea-monster, 
  and on other occasions descent from the divine through Christ, this 
  being an early adaptation of the traditional practice among royal 
  families of claiming descent from the divine, being applied to 
  Christianity.  During the time of the Merovingian Kings, Sorcerers 
  were plentiful, and despite the Salic Laws, there is  every evidence 
  of a widespread practise of witchcraft and proliferation of 
  vampirism, at even the highest levels of state – and such may have 
  provoked Pepin’s coup.  But certainly a lettered ruler such as 
  Charles must not have been ignorant of such practices and well 
  might have excelled at them in order to better oppose the sorcerous 
  Merovingians, which it must not be assumed went  quietly, but 
  must have made trouble for some decades or even generations after 
  the fashion of most European rivalries of the sort. 
   
  China: Although it can hardly be said that any system of magic 
  worthy of the name ever originated in China, and though magical 
  practice was uncommon, yet instances are not wanting of the 
  employment of magical means in the Celestial Empire, and the 
  belief in a supernatural world peopled by gods, demons and other 
  beings is very strong in the popular Chinese mind. 
   
  " Although the Chinese mind possessed under such a constitution 
  but few elements in which magic could strike root and throw out its 
  ramifications and influence, yet we find many traces giving 
  evidence of the instinctive movement of the mind, as well as of 
  magical influence; though certainly not in the manner or 
  abundance that we meet with it in India, The great variety of these 
  appearances is, however, striking, as in no other country are they 
  so seldom met with. 
   
  , ' As the King, as it were, microcosmically represents the human 
  races in fortune or misfortune before the divinity so must his eye 
  be constantly directed to those signs in which the will of the Most 
  High is revealed; ' He must observe dreams as much as the 
  phenomena of nature, the eclipses and the positions of the stars; 
  and, when all else is wanting, he must consult the oracle of the 
  tortoise, or the Plant Tsche, and direct his actions accordingly.' He 
  is therefore, as it were, the universal oracle of the people, as the 
  popular mind is relieved from every flight of imagination by a 
  highly remarkable mental compulsion ... . . . 
   
  " It is easy to understand from these circumstances wherefore we 
  find so few of these phenomena of magic and the visionary and 
  ecstatic state, in other parts of the East so frequent, and therefore 
  they are scattered and uncertain. Accounts are, however, not 
  wanting to show that the phenomena as well as theories of 
  prophecy were known in more remote times. Under the Emperor 
  Hoei Ti, about A.D. 304, a mystical sect arose in China calling 
  themselves the teachers of the emptiness and nothingness of  - 11 
  things. They also exhibited the art of binding the power of the 
  senses, and producing a condition which they believed perfection." 
   
  Dewonism and Obsession. The Chinese are implicit believers in 
  demons *whom they imagine surround th rn on every hand. Says 
  Peebles: " English officials, American missionaries, mandarins and 
  many of the ChInnese literati (Confucians, Taoists and Buddhist 
  believers alike) declare that spritism in some form, and under 
  some name, is the almost universal belief of China. It is generally 
  denominated ' ancestral worship.' " 
   
  " There is no driving out of these Chinese, " says Father Gonzalo, - 
  the cursed belief that the spirits of their ancestors are ever about 
  them, availing, themselves of every opportunity to give advice and 
  counsel." 
   
  " The medium consulted, " remarks Dr. Doolittle, " takes in the 
  hand a stick of lighted incense to dispel ail defiling influences, 
  then prayers of some kind are repeated, the body becomes 
  spasmodic, the medium's eyes are shut, and the form sways about, 
  assuming the walk and peculiar attitude of the spirit when in the 
  body. Then the communication from the divinity begins, which 
  may be of a faultfinding or a flattering character. . . . Sometimes 
  these Chinese mediums profess to be possessed by some specified 
  historical god of great healing power, and in this condition they 
  prescribe for the sick. It is believed that the ghoul or spirit invoked 
  actually casts himself into the medium, and dictates the medicine." 
   
  " Volumes might be written upon the gods, genii and familiar 
  spirits supposed to be continually in communication with this 
  people, " writes Dr. John L. Nevius, in his works, China and The 
  Chinese. " The Chinese have a large number of books upon this 
  subject, among the most noted of which is the - Liau - chai - chei, ' 
  a large work of sixteen volumes. . . . Tu Sein signifies a spirit in 
  the body, and there are a class of familiar spirits supposed to dwell 
  in the bodies of certain Chinese who became the mediums of 
  communication with the unseen world. Individuals said to be 
  possessed by these spirits are visited 
   
  by multitudes, particularly those who have lost recently relatives 
  by death, and wish to converse with them. . . 
   
  Remarkable disclosures and revelations are believed to be made 
  by the involuntary movements of a bamboo pencil, and through a 
  similar method some claim to see in the dark. Persons considering 
  themselves endowed with sup2rior intelligence are firm believers 
  in those and other modes of consulting spirits." 
   
  The public teacher in Chen Sin Ling (W. J. Plumb says) 
   
  In the district of Tu - ching, obsessions by evil spirits or demons 
  are very common." He further writes that there are very many cases 
  also in Chang - lo." Again he says: 
   
  " When a man is thus afflicted, the spirit (Kwei) takes possession 
  of his body without regard to his being strong or weak in health. It 
  is not easy to resist the demon's power. Though without bodily 
  ailments, possessed persons appear as if ill. When under the 
  entrancing spell of the demon, they seem different from their 
  ordinary selves. 
  
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  " In most cases the spirit takes possession of a man's body contrary 
  to his will, and he is helpless in the matter. The kwei has the 
  power of driving out the man's spirit, as in sleep or dreams. When 
  the subject awakes to consciousness, he has not the slightest 
  knowledge of what has transpired. 
   
  " The actions of possessed persons vary exceedingly. They leap 
  about and toss their arms, and then the demon tells them what 
  particular spirit he is, often taking a false name, or deceitfully 
  calling himself a god, or one of the genii come down to the abodes 
  of mortals. Or, perhaps, it professes to be the spirit of a deceased 
  husband or wife. There are also kwei of the quiet sort, who talk and 
  laugh like other people, only that the voice is changed. Some have 
  a voice like a bird. Some speak Mandarin - the language of 
  Northern China - and some the local dialect 
   
  but though the speech proceeds from the mouth of the man, what is 
  said does not appear to come from him. The outward appearance 
  and manner is also changed. 
   
  " In Fu - show there 'is a class of persons who collect numbers and 
  make use of incense, pictures, candles and lamps to establish what 
  are called - incense tables.' Taoist priests are engaged to attend the 
  ceremonies and they also make use of mediums.' The Taoist writes 
  a charm for the medium, who, taking the incense stick in his hand, 
  stands like a graven image, thus signifying his willingness to have 
  the demon come and take possession of him. Afterward, the charm 
  is burned and the demon spirit is worshipped and invoked, the 
  priest, in the meanwhile going on with his chanting. After a while 
  the medium begins to tremble, and then speaks and announces 
  what spirit has descended, and asks what is wanted of him. Then, 
  whoever has requests to make, takes incense sticks, makes 
  prostrations, and asks a response respecting some disease, or for 
  protection from some calamity. In winter the same performances 
  are carried on to a great extent by gambling companies. If some of 
  the responses hit the mark, a large number of people are attracted. 
  They establish a shrine and offer sacrifices, and appoint days, 
  calling upon people from every quarter to come and consult the 
  spirit respecting diseases. . . . 
   
  " There is also a class of men who establish what they call a ' Hall 
  of Revelations.' At the present time there are many engaged in this 
  practice. They are, for the most part, literary men of great ability. 
  The people in large numbers apply to them for responses. The 
  mediums spoken of above are also numerous. All of the above 
  practices are not spirits seeking to possess men; but rather men 
  seeking spirits to possess them, and allowing themselves to be 
  voluntarily used as their instruments. 
   
  " As to the outward appearance of persons when possessed, of 
  course, they are the same persons as to outward form as at ordinary 
  times; but the colour of the countenance may change. The demon 
  may cause the subject to assume a threatening air, and a fierce, 
  violent manner, The muscles often stand out on the face, the eyes 
  are closed, or they protrude with a frightful stare. These demons 
  sometimes prophesy. 
   
  " The words spoken certainly proceed from the mouths of the 
  persons possessed; but what is said does not appear to come from 
  their minds or wills, but rather from some other personality, often 
  accompanied by a change of voice. Of this there can be no doubt. 
  When the subject returns to consciousness, he invariably declares 
  himself ignorant of what he has said. 
   
  " The Chinese make use of various methods to cast out demons. 
  They are so troubled and vexed by inflictions affecting bodily 
  health, or it may be throwing stones, moving furniture, or the 
  moving about and destruction of family utensils, that they are 
  driven to call in the service of some respected scholar or Taoist 
  priest, to offer sacrifices, or chant sacred books, and pray for 
  protection and exemption from suffering. Some make use of 
  sacrifices and offerings of paper clothes and money in order to 
  induce the demon to go back to the gloomy region of Yan - chow. . . 
  As to whether these methods have any effect, I do not know. As a 
  rule, when demons are not very troublesome, the families afflicted 
  by them generally think it best to hide their affliction, or to keep 
  these wicked spirits quiet by sacrifices, and burning incense to 
  them.'  
   
  An article in the London Daily News gives lengthy extracts from an 
  address upon the Chinese by Mrs. Montague Beaucham, who had 
  spent many years in China in educational work. Speaking of their 
  spiritism, she said, " The latest London craze in using the 
  planchette has been one of the recognized means in China of 
  conversing with evil spirits from time immemorial. -  She had lived 
  in one of the particular provinces known as demon land, where the 
  natives are bound up in the belief and worship of spirits. " There is 
  a real power, " she added, " in this necromancy. They do healings 
  and tell fortunes." She personally knew of one instance that the 
  spirits through the planchette had foretold a great flood. The boxer 
  rising was prophesied by the planchette. These spirits disturbed 
  family relations, caused fits of frothing at the mouth, and made 
  some of Their victims insane. In closing she declared that " 
  Chinese spiritism was from hell, " the obsession baffling the power 
  of both Christian missionaries and native priests. 
   
  Dr. Nevins sent out a circular communication for the purpose of 
  discovering the actual beliefs of the Chinese regarding demonis 
  through which he obtained much valuable information. Wang Wu - 
  Fang, an educated Chinese wrote: 
   
  " Cases of demon possession abound among all classes. They are 
  found among persons of robust health, as well as those who are 
  weak and sickly. In many unquestionable cases of obsession, the 
  unwilling subjects have resisted, but have been obliged to submit 
  themselves to the control of the demon. . . . 
   
  " In the majority of cases of possession, the beginning of the 
  malady is a fit of grief, anger or mourning. These conditions seem 
  to open the door to the demons. The outward manifestations are apt 
  to be fierce and violent. It may be that the subject alternately talks 
  and laughs; he walks awhile and then sits, or lie rolls on the 
  ground, or leaps about; or exhibits contortions of the body and 
  twistings of the neck. . . . It was common among. them to send for 
  exorcists, who made use of written charms, or chanted verses, or 
  punctured the body with needles These are among the Chinese 
  methods of cure. 
   
  " Demons are of different kinds. There are those which clearly 
  declare themselves; and then those who work in secret. There are 
  those which are cast out with difficulty, and others with ease. 
   
  " In cases of possession by familiar demons, what is said by the 
  subject certainly does not proceed. from his own will. When the 
  demon has gone out and the subject recovers consciousness, he 
  has no recollection whatever of what he has said or done. This is 
  true almost invariably. 
  
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  " The methods by which the Chinese cast out demons are enticing 
  them to leave by burning charms and paper money, or by begging 
  and exhorting them, or by frightening them with magic spells and 
  incantations, or driving them away by pricking with needles, or 
  pinching with the fingers, in which case they cry out and promise 
  to go. 
   
  " I was formerly accustomed to drive out demons by means of 
  needles. At that time cases of possession by evil spirits were very 
  common in our villages, and my services were in very frequent 
  demand. . . . " 
   
  The Rev. Timothy Richard, missionary, also writing in response to 
  Dr. Nevius' circular, says: 
   
  " The Chinese orthodox definition of spirit is, ' the soul of the 
  departed;' some of the best of whom are raised to the rank of gods. 
  . . . There is no disease to which the Chinese are ordinarily subject 
  that may not be caused by demons. In this case the mind is 
  untouched. It is only the body that suffers; and the Chinese 
  endeavour to got rid of the demon by vows and offerings to the 
  gods. The subject in this case is an involuntary one. . . . 
   
  " Persons possessed range between fifteen and fifty years of age, 
  quite irrespective of sex. This infliction comes on very suddenly, 
  sometimes in the day, and sometimes in the night. The demoniac 
  talks madly, smashes everything near him, acquires unusual 
  strength, tears his clothes into rags, and rushes into the street, or to 
  the mountains or kills himself unless prevented. After this violent 
  possession, the demoniac calms down and submits to his fate, but 
  under the most heart - rending protests. These mad spells which 
  are experienced on the demon's entrance return at intervals, and 
  increase in frequency, and generally also in intensity, so that death 
  at last ensues from their violence. 
   
  " A Chinese boy of fifteen was going on an errand. His path led 
  through fields where men were working at their crops. When he 
  came up to the men and had exchanged a word or two with them, 
  he suddenly began to rave wildly; his eyes rolled, then he made for 
  a pond near by. Seeing this, the people ran up to him, stopped him 
  from drowning himself and took him home to his parents. When he 
  got home, he, sprang up from the ground to such a height as 
  manifested almost a superhuman strength. After a few days he 
  calmed down and became unusually quiet and gentle; but his own 
  consciousness was lost. The demon spoke of its friends in Nan - 
  Kin. After six months this demon departed., He has been in the 
  service of several foreigners in Chefoo since. In this case no 
  worship was offered to the demon. 
   
  " Now we proceed to those, who involuntarily possessed, yield to 
  and worship the demon. The demon says he will cease tormenting 
  the demoniac if he will worship him, and he will reward him by 
  increasing his riches. But if not, he will punish his victim, make 
  heavier his torments and rob him of his property. People find that 
  their food is cursed, They cannot prepare any, but filth and dirt 
  comes down from the air to render it uneatable. Their wells are 
  likewise cursed; their wardrobes are set on fire, and their money 
  very mysteriously disappears. Hence arose the custom of cutting 
  off the head of a string of cash that it might not run away. . . . 
  When all efforts to rid themselves of the demon fail, they yield to 
  it, and say 
   
  'Hold! Cease thy tormenting and we will worship thee!' A picture is 
  pasted upon the wall, sometimes of a woman, and sometimes of a 
  man, and incense is burned, and prostrations are made to it twice a 
  month. Being thus reverenced, money now comes in mysteriously, 
  instead of going out. Even mill - stones are made to move at the 
  demon's orders, and the family becomes rich at once. But it is said 
  that no luck attends such families, and they will eventually be 
  reduced to poverty. Officials believe these things. Palaces are 
  known to have been built by them for these demons, who, however, 
  are obliged to be satisfied with humbler shrines from the poor. . . . 
   
  " Somewhat similar to the above class is another small one which 
  has power to enter the lower regions. These are the opposite of 
  necromancers, for instead of calling up the dead and learning of 
  them about the future. destiny of the individual in whose behalf 
  they are engaged, they lie in a trance for two days, when their 
  spirits are said to have gone to the Prince of Darkness, to inquire 
  how long the sick person shall be left among the living.  
   
  "Let us now note the different methods adopted to cast out the evil 
  spirits from the demoniacs. Doctors are called to do it. They use 
  needles to puncture the tips of the fingers, the nose, the neck. They 
  also use a certain pill, and apply it in the following manner: the 
  thumbs of the two hands are tied tightly together, and the two big 
  toes are tied together in the same manner. Then one pill is put on 
  the two big toes at the root of the nail, and the other at the root of 
  the thumb nails. At the same instant the two pills are set on fire, 
  and they are kept until the flesh is burned. In the application of 
  the pills, or in the piercing of the needle, the invariable cry is: ' I 
  am going; I am going immediately. I will never dare to come back 
  again. Oh, have mercy on me this once. I'll never return' 
   
  " When the doctors fail, they call on people who practise spiritism. 
  They themselves cannot drive the demon away, but they call 
  another demon to do it. Both the Confucianists and Taoists practise 
  this method. . . . Sometimes the spirits are very ungovernable. 
  Tables are turned, chairs are rattled, and. a general noise of 
  smashing is heard, until the very mediums themselves tremble 
  with fear. If the demon is of this dreadful character, they quickly 
  write another charm with the name of the particular spirit whose 
  quiet disposition is known to them. Lu - tsu is a favourite one of 
  this kind. After the burning of the charm and incense, and when 
  prostrations are made,  is procured, to which a Chinese pencil is 
  attached. Two men on each side hold it on a tab1E spread with 
  sand or millet. Sometimes a prescription is written, the pencil 
  moving of its own accord They buy the medicine prescribed and 
  give it to the possessed. . . . Should they find that burning incense 
  and offering sacrifices fails to liberate the poor victim, they may 
  call in conjurors, such as the Taoists, who sit on mats and are 
  carried by invisible power from place to place. They ascend to a 
  height of twenty or fifty feet, and are carried to a distance of four or 
  five 1i (about half a mile). 0. this class are those who, in 
  Manchuria call down fire from the sky in those funerals where the 
  corpse is burned. . . . 
   
  "These exorcists may belong to any of the three religions in China. 
  The dragon procession, on the fifteenth of the first month, is said 
  by some to commemorate a Buddhist priest's victory over evil 
  spirits. . . . They paste up charms on windows and doors, and on 
  the body of the -  demoniac, and conjure the demon never to 
  return. The evil spirit answers: ' I'll never return You need not take 
  the trouble of pasting all these charms upon the doors and 
  windows.' 
  
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  " Exorcists are specially hated by the evil spirits. Some times they 
  feel themselves beaten fearfully; but no hand is seen. Bricks and 
  stones may fall on them from the sky or housetops. On the road 
  they may without any warning be plastered over from head to foot 
  with mud or filth or may be seized when approaching a river, and 
  held unde the water and drowned." 
   
  In his Social Life among the Chinese, Dr. Doolittle says “They 
  have invented several ways by which they find out the pleasure of 
  gods and spirits. One of the most common of their utensils is the 
  Ka - pue, a piece of bamboo root, bean - shaped, and divided in 
  the centre, to indicate the positive and the negative. The incense 
  lighted, the Ka - pue properly manipulated before the symbol god, 
  the pieces are tossed from the medium's hand, indicating the  - will 
  of the spirit by the way they fall." 
   
  The following manifestation is mental rather than physical The 
  professional takes in the hand a stick of lighted incens to expel all 
  defiling influences; prayers of some sort are repeated, the fingers 
  interlaced, and the medium's eye are shut, giving unmistakable 
  evidence of being possessed by some supernatural or spiritual 
  power. The body sway back and forward; the incense falls, and the 
  person begin to step about, assuming the walk and peculiar 
  attitude of the spirit. This is considered as infallible proof that the 
  divinity has entered the body of the medium. Some times the god, 
  using the mouth of the medium, gives the supplicant a sound 
  scolding for invoking his aid to obtain unlawful or unworthy ends. 
   
  " Divination, " writes Sir John Burrows, " with many strange 
  methods of summoning the dead to instruct the living and reveal 
  the future, is of very ancient origin, as is proved by Chinese 
  manuscripts antedating the revelations of the Jewish Scriptures." 
   
  An ancient Chinese book called Poh - shi - ching - tsung, 
  consisting of six volumes on the " Source of True Divination. It 
  contains the following preface: This secret of augury consists in the 
  study of the mysteries and in communications with gods and 
  demons. The interpretations of the transformations are deep and 
  mysterious. The theory of the science is most intricate, the practice 
  of it most important. The sacred classic says: ' That which is true 
  gives indications of the future.' To know the condition of the dead, 
  and hold with them intelligent intercourse, as did the ancients, 
  produces a most salutary influence upon the parties. . . . But when 
  from intoxication or feasting, or licentious pleasures, they proceed 
  to invoke the gods, what infatuation to suppose that their prayers 
  will move them Often when no response is given, or the 
  interpretation is not verified, they lay the blame at the door of the 
  augur, forgetting that their failure is due to their want of sincerity. . 
  . . It is the great fault of augurs, too, that, from a desire of gain, 
  they use the art of divination as a trap to ensnare the people." 
   
  Peebles adds; " Naturally undemonstrative and secretive, the 
  higher classes of Chinese seek to conceal their full knowledge of 
  spirit intercourse from foreigners, and from the inferior cases of 
  their own countrymen, thinking them not sufficiently intelligent to 
  rightly use it. The~ lower orders, superstitious and money - 
  grasping, often prostitute their magic gifts, to gain and fortune - 
  telling. These clairvoyant fortune - tellers, surpassing wandering 
  gypsies in ' hitting ' the past, infest the temples, streets and 
  roadsides, promising to find lost property, discover precious metals 
  and reveal the hidden future." 
   
  Ghosts. - The Chinese are strong in the belief that they are 
  surrounded by the spirits of the dead. Indeed ancestor - worship 
  constitutes a powerful feature in the national faith, but as it deals 
  with religion it does not come within the scope of this article. 
  Suffice it to say that the Celestial has ever before him the 
  likelihood and desirability of communion with the dead. On the 
  death of a person they make a hole in the roof to permit the soul to 
  effect its escape from the house. When a child is at the point of 
  death, its mother will go into the garden and call its name, hoping 
  thereby to bring back its wandering spirit. 
   
   " With the Chinese the souls of suicides are specially obnoxious, 
  and they consider that the very worst penalty that can befall a soul 
  is the sight of its former surroundings. This, it is supposed that, in 
  the case, of the wicked man, ' they only see their homes as if they 
  were near them;they see their last wishes disregarded, everything 
  upside down, their substance squandered, strangers possess the 
  old estate; in their misery the dead man's family curse him, his 
  children become corrupt, land is gone, the wife sees her husband 
  tortured, the husband sees his wife stricken down with mortal 
  disease; even friends forget, but some, perhaps, for the sake of 
  bygone times, may stroke the coffin and let fall a tear departing 
  with a cold smile.' "" In China, the ghosts which are animated by a 
  sense of duty are frequently seen: at one time they seek to serve 
  virtue in distress, and at another they aim to restore wrongfully 
  held treasure. Indeed as it has been observed, ' one of the most 
  powerful as well as the most widely diffused of the people's ghost 
  stories is that which treats of the persecuted child whose mother 
  comes out of the grave to succor him.' " 
   
  " The Chinese have a dread of the wandering spirits of persons who 
  have come to an unfortunate end. At Canton, 1817, the wife of an 
  officer of Government had occasioned the death of two female 
  domestic slaves, from some jealous suspicion it was supposed of 
  her husband's conduct towards the girls; and, in order to screen 
  herself from the consequences, she suspended the bodies by the 
  neck, with a view to its being construed into an act of suicide. But 
  the conscience of the woman tormented her to such a degree that 
  she became insane, and at times personated the victims of her 
  cruelty, or, as the Chinese supposed, the spirits of the murdered 
  girls possessed her, and utilized her mouth to declare her own 
  guilt. In her ravings she tore her clothes and beat her own person 
  with all the fury of madness; after which she would recover her 
  senses for a time, when it was supposed the demons quitted her, 
  but only to return with greater frenzy, which took place a short time 
  previous to her death. According to Mr. Dennys, the most common 
  form of Chinese ghost story is that wherein the ghost seeks to bring 
  to justice the murderer who shuffled off, its mortal coil." 
   
  Poltergeists (q.v.) are not uncommon in China, and several cases of 
  their occurrence have been recorded by the Jesuit missionaries of 
  the eighteenth century in Cochin China. Mr Dennys in his Folk 
  Lore of China, mentions a case in which a Chinaman was forced to 
  take refuge in a temple by the usual phenomena - throwing about 
  of crockery, &c., after the decease of a monkey. 
   
  Secret Societies. For an account of secret societies in China, See 
  Thion - ti - Hwir and Triad Society. 
   
  It has sometimes been claimed that the systems of Confucius and 
  Lao - Tze are magical or kabalistic, but such claims have been 
  advanced by persons who did not appreciate their proper status as 
  philosophic systems. (See Y - Kin, Book of.) 
   
  
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  Symbolism. There are numerous mysteries of meaning in the 
  strange symbols, characters, personages, birds, beasts, etc. which 
  adorn all species of Chinese art objects. For example a rectangular 
  Chinese vase is feminine, representing the creative or ultimate 
  principle. A group of seemingly miscellaneous art objects, 
  depicted perhaps upon a brush tray, are probably the po - ku, or ' 
  hundred antiques, ' emblematic of culture and implying a delicate 
  compliment to the recipient of the tray. Birds and animals occur 
  with frequency on Chinese porcelains, and, if one will observe 
  closely, it is a somewhat select menagerie, in which certain types 
  are emphasized by repetition. For instance, the dragon is so 
  familiar as to be no longer remarked, and yet his significance is 
  perhaps not fully understood by all. There are, in fact, three kinds 
  of dragons, the lung of the sky, the li of the sea, and the kiau of the 
  marshes. The lung is the favourite kind, however, and may be 
  known when met by his having' the head of a camel, the horns of a 
  deer, the eyes of a rabbit, ears of a cow, neck of a snake, belly of a 
  frog, scales of a carp, claws of a hawk, and palm of a tiger.' His 
  special office is to guard and support the mansions of the gods, and 
  he is naturally the peculiar symbol of the Emperor, or Son of 
  Heaven. A less familiar beast is the chi - lin, which resembles in 
  part a rhinoceros, but has head, feet, and legs like a deer, and a 
  tufted tail. In spite of his unprepossessing appearance he is of a 
  benevolent disposition, and his image on a vase or other ornament 
  is an emblem of good government and length of days. A strange 
  bird, having the head of a pheasant, a long flexible neck and a 
  plumed tail, may often be seen flying in the midst of scroll - like 
  clouds, or walking in a grove of treepeonies. This is the fengbuang, 
  the Chinese phoenix, emblem of immortality and appearing to 
  mortals only as a presage of the auspicious reign of a virtuous 
  Emperor. The tortoise (huei), which bears upon its back the seagirt 
  abode of the Eight Immortals, is a third supernatural creature 
  associated with strength, longevity, and (because of the markings 
  on its back) with a mystic plan of numerals which is a key to the 
  philosophy of the unseen. 
   
  Colours have their significance, blue being the colour of the 
  heavens, yellow of 'he earth and the Emperor, red of the sun, white 
  of Jupiter or the Year Star, while each dynasty had its own 
  particular hue, that of the Chou dynasty being described as ' blue 
  of the sky after rain where it appears between the clouds.' 
   
  One could go on indefinitely ' reading ' the meaning of the 
  seemingly fantastic creations of the Chinese artist devotee, but 
  enough has been said to show that the strange beings, the 
  conventional arrangements, the apparently haphazard conjunction 
  of object, , in his decorative schemes are far from being matter of 
  chance, but add to their decorative properties the intellectual 
  charm of significance. 
   
  Colloquy of the Ancients: A collection of Ossianic legends, made 
  into one about the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. It relates how 
  the Fian heroes, Keelta and Oisin, each with eight warriors, met to 
  talk over the glorious past for the last time. Then Oisin returns to 
  the Fairy Mound of his mother, and Keelta meets with St. Patrick 
  and his monks at Drumdreg. Keelta tells the saint many tales, 
  interspersed with lyrics, with which he is delighted, and he 
  eventually baptises Keelta and his warriors and grants them 
  absolution. 
   
  Conte Del Graal: - One of the Quest versions of the legend of the 
  Holy Grail (qv.) compiled by various authors. It tells how Perceval 
  was reared to the life of a forester by his mother; but forsaking her 
  he becomes a member of the Court of King Arthur. Thence he goes 
  forth as a knight - errant, and his numerous adventures are recited. 
  During these, he meets with certain mysteries, but returns to the 
  court. The adventures of Gauvain, another of the knights, are fully 
  detailed, Perceval, himself, sets forth again, and wanders about for 
  five years in a very godless state of mind.  
   
  Compass Brothers: - Between the years 1400 and 1790, there 
  existed at Lubeck a guild of this name, which met twice a year. 
  Their badge was a compass and sector suspended from a crowned 
  letter " C, " over which was a 'radiated triangular plate. In 1485 
  they adopted chains composed of these emblems united by eagles' 
  tails. They appear to have been a magical or Kabbalistic society. 
   
  Conan Mae Morna: - A figure in the Ossianic cycle of Irish legend, 
  described as scoffing and deriding  - all that was high and noble. 
  One day while hunting, lie and others of the Fians, entered a 
  magnificent palace which they found empty and began to feast. It 
  soon became apparent, however, that the palace was enchanted, 
  and the walls *shrank to the size of a fox's hole. Conan seemed to 
  be unaware of the danger and continued to cat; but two of the 
  Fians pulled him off his chair, to which some of his skin stuck. To 
  soothe the pain a black sheep - skin was 'placed on his back, on to 
  which it grow, and he wore it till he died. 
   
  Conary Mor: - A legendary High King of Ireland. It is said that his 
  great - grandfather destroyed the Fairy Mound of Bri - Leith, and 
  thus brought down ill - fate upon Conary Mor. Wheja a child he 
  left his three foster - brothers on the Plains of Liffey, and followed 
  a flock of beautiful birds down to the shore. These were 
  transformed into armed men, who told him that they belonged to 
  his father and were his kin. His geise (or taboo) was made known 
  to him. and later he was proclaimed King of Erin. His reign was 
  good, happy and prosperous, until the Darman folk lured him. to 
  the breaking of his geise. It is told how Conary, dying of thirst after 
  battle, sent his warrior Mac Cecht to bring him water. Mac Cecht 
  had much difficulty in obtaining this, and on his return found that 
  Conary had been beheaded: the water, however, was raised to the 
  mouth of the bodyless head - which, it is said, thanked Mac Cecht 
  for his deed.   
   
  Control: - A spiritualistic term, denoting the spirit who controls the 
  physical organization of a medium. - (See Spiritualism.) 
   
  Corpse Candles: Mysterious lights supposed to presage death. 
  They are also called fetch - ligkis and dead men's candles. 
   
  Dactyls: A class of sorcerers and scientific physicians who had 
  their origin in Phrygia. Their number is given differently by 
  different authorities. Some say it equals the 
   
  Crowley, Aliester: often cited as the “father of Satanism,” Crowley 
  is a learned, if occasionally phlegmatic and obtuse author on the 
  esoteric. Crowley was an eccentric raised by an extraordinarily 
  strict religious sect in southern England, called “The Plymouth 
  Brethren.”  He became periodically involved with heroin, 
  homosexuality, and the occult. Crowley delighted in outrageous 
  behavior, and willingly took on the title of “The Great Beast” and 
  “666.”  However in fairness, one has to observe that the deck was 
  stacked against Crowley, and he took refuge in flamboyant 
  rebellion as an alternative to humiliation.   
   
  
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  Crowley was famous enough to be publicly mocked by famous 
  novelist Somerset Maugham in his novel The Magician in 1908.  
  The Book is a novel and a dramatization, but it forms the basis for 
  Crowley’s legend.  Maugham and Crowley were both homosexual 
  (or at least bisexual) and moved in similar artistic social circles.  
  Maugham didn’t like Crowley, whose personality was certainly 
  caustic, and tar-brushed him for the future with a lopsided 
  depiction. 
   
  In 1910 Crowley watched his best friend, and homosexual, and 
  fellow occultist, George Cecil Jones put through a humiliating 
  mockery of a trial for homosexuality, probably because of his 
  association with Crowley.  Crowley himself was not summoned, 
  probably because prosecutors feared he would turn the courtroom 
  into a circus.  Jones’ prosecution was reminiscent of the outrageous 
  trial of luminary Oscar Wilde fifteen years before.  
   
  After his public identification as a Homosexual (his name was 
  published in the newspapers in reference to Jones’ trial) Crowley 
  was unlikely to be let alone in England.  He found a powerful 
  enemy in Horatio Bottomley, an important English publisher, 
  xenophobe, and bigot, who founded the Financial Times and later 
  established John Bull.  Bottomley became a powerful and vitriolic 
  personal detractor of Crowley .  It is certainly possible that 
  Crowley created his own problem, but if so it had more to do with 
  his annoying personality and scorching wit than deals with the 
  Devil.  Crowley mercilessly lampooned fellow mystic A. E. Waite 
  (of Rider-Waite Tarot fame).  Waite was not a particularly 
  important writer, but he was a powerful Freemason, and he’d 
  worked fort Bottomley in the past.   
   
  Crowley fell into Bottomley’s sites because Crowley spent WWI in 
  New York, propagandizing against the British on behalf of the Irish 
  independence movement.  But Bottomley found the flamboyant and 
  noisy bisexual an easy target.  He was largely responsible for 
  Crowley’s virtual exile from England.  It might well do to look at 
  the character of the man who is so largely responsible for our 
  perception of Crowley as an outrageous worshipper of Satan.  
  Bottomley, like William Randolph Hearst, would do anything to 
  sell a paper, and Crowley was an interesting man to make people 
  hate, partially because he rose to the bait so well.  In 1922 
  Bottomley was imprisoned for fraud 
   
  Crowley also quarreled with his former mentor, S. L. MacGregor 
  Mathers over his publication of some of the Golden Dawn materials 
  in his periodical "The Equinox" also around 1910, and made a 
  bitter enemy of Mathers.  Crowley's publication of the material has 
  been important to the Western Esoteric world, as it provides the 
  only relatively accessible copies of much of the Golden Dawn 
  material, since the ruins of that once great order are largely 
  fragmented concerns.  
   
  Anyone who has read a fair amount of Crowley’s esoteric material 
  certainly knows that  Crowley wasn’t a Satanist, or even close to 
  one.  The only people who think otherwise are people who have 
  read about Crowley, but have never read any of his actual writing.   
   
  His basic worldview followed the teachings of the Golden Dawn, 
  and while he enlarged greatly on the group’s teachings, he 
  maintained the fundamental principles.  Crowley’s cosmology 
  didn’t allow for the existence of “Satan” in any meaningful sense, 
  and his writing doesn’t refer to Satan, except in an offhanded way.  
  His writing does deal extensively with various dark spirits and 
  beings, but even these are not so much evil as objects of illusion – 
  those forces which mask the hidden world and keep the unworthy 
  from comprehending the infinite.  His works deal equally with 
  spirits of light, and for the most part with forces which are simply 
  manifestations of the elemental forces of creation.   
   
  If anything, Crowley’s rival A. E. Waite deals more directly with 
  Satanism by publishing (presumably for scholastic purposes only) 
  reproductions of late medieval instructions for summoning the 
  Devil in true in his Book of Black Magic and Pacts.   
   
  Crowley's most important work was his revelation of the Aeon 
  which he claimed to have been divinely inspired by a spirit called 
  Aiwass at the Great Pyramid in 1904.  The revelation is reported in 
  his "Book of the Law" or "Liber Legis" and gives a system called 
  "Thelema" which was incorporated into the practices of the OTO 
  (q.v.) after Crowley revised the ritual of the English order.  
   
  Crowley resides as an expatriate in Italy.   
   
  Crucifixion, Gnostic Conception of: As soon as Christ was born 
  according - to the Gnostic speculative view of Christianity - 
  Christos, united himself with Sophia (Holy Wisdom). descended 
  through the seven planetary regions, assuming in each an 
  analogous form to the region, and concealing his true nature from 
  its genii, whilst he attracted into himself the spark of Divine Light 
  they severally retained in their angelic essence. Thus Christos, 
  having passed through the seven Angelic Regions before the " 
  Throne, " entered into the man Jesus, at the moment of his baptism 
  in the Jordan. From that time forth, being supernaturally gifted, 
  Jesus began to work miracles. Before that, he had been completely 
  ignorant of his mission. When on the cross, Christos and Sophia 
  left his body, and returned to their own sphere. Upon his death, the 
  two took the man " Jesus, " and abandoned his material body to the 
  earth; for the Gnostics held that the true Jesus did not (and could 
  not) physically suffer on the cross, and die, and that Simon of 
  Cyrene, who bore his cross, did in reality suffer in his room: " And 
  they compelled one, Simon a Cyrenian, wao passed by, coming out 
  of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross 
  - (St. Mark XV. 2 1). The Gnostics contended that a portion of the 
  real history of the Crucifixion was never written. 
   
  At the resurrection Christos and Sophia gave the man Jesus 
  another body, made up of ether (Rosicrucian Aetheroeum). Thence 
  - forward he consisted of the two first Rosicrucian principles only, 
  soul and spirit; which was the reason that thedisciples did not 
  recognise him after the resurrection. During his sojourn upon earth 
  after he ha4 risen, he received from Sophia, or Holy Wisdom, that 
  perfect knowledge or illumination, that true " Gnosis, " which he 
  communicated to the small number of the Apostles who were 
  capable of receiving the same number of fingers on the hands - five 
  male and five female. Pausanias says five, Perecydes fifty - two, 
  twenty right and thirty - two left; while Orpheus the Argonaut 
  mentions a large number. The dactyls were magicians, exorcists, 
  conjurors, soothsayers. Plutarch says that they made their 
  appearance in Italy as sorcerers, while their magical practices and 
  mysteries threw the inhabitants of Samothrace into consternation. 
  They were credited with the discovery of minerals and the notes of 
  the musical scale; also with the discovery and use of the Ephesian 
  mines They introduced fire into Crete, musical instruments into 
  Greece. They were good runners and dancers, skilled in science 
  and learning, and from them came the first wise men. They are 
  said by some to have been the magnetic powers and spirits, whose 
  head was Hercules. 
   
  
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  Daemonologle: by King James VI. and I.: It is customary nowadays 
  to sneer at the writings of this royal author, ard as Horace Walpole 
  remarks, his majesty really has more critics than readers; while it 
  should be borne in mind that in his own day the king's books were 
  greatly admired, winning the encomiums of Bacon, Izaak Walton, 
  and numerous equally eminent men of letters. In general, however, 
  it was Basilicon Doron which elicited their homage, and compared 
  to this last the king's study of demonology is but a mediocre 
  performance. Published in 1597, it is couched " in forme of ane 
  dialogue, " the speakers being Philomathes and Epistemon; and 
  the former, being very incredulous as regards all kinds of magic, 
  asks Epistemon to enlighten him. Thereupon many famous acts of 
  witchcraft are adduced, but, when Philomathes requests to be told 
  precisely why the black art should be considered iniquitous, Z 
  interlocutor fails conspicuously to give a satisfactory answer. He 
  merely inveighs against the practice in question, and accordingly 
  there is something distinctly trite in the subsequent pages, wherein 
  Epistemon is represented as being converted to the other speaker's 
  point of view, and declaring loudly that all sorcerers and the like " 
  ought to be put to death according to the Law of God, the civill and 
  imperiall Law, and municipall Law of all Christian Nations." 
   
  D'Aiglon, Eugene-Auguste Albert de Rochas a French officer and 
  writer born at Saint-Firmin in 1837. Fluid Theory of magnetics 
  “des Force non definies” (1887) “le Fluide des magnetiseurs” 
  (1891) “les Etats profonds de l’hypnose’’ (1892) ’’l’ Exteriocaation 
  de la sensibilite’’ (1895)   
   
  Daiver - Logum: The dwelling place of the daivers (q.v.) a species 
  of Hindoo genii. Besides the daivers, who number three hundred 
  and thirty millions, there dwell in the Daiver Logum those heroes 
  and prophets who are not yet fit for the paradise of Shiva or of 
  Vishnu.' 
   
  Daivers and DaivergoeIi: Hindoo genii inhabiting the Daiver 
  Logum, a world of their own. They are, it secras, related to the 
  Persian divs, from which it is suggested that the word " devil " is 
  derived. . They possess material 'bodies as well as spiritual, and 
  have many human attributes, both good and evil. Their king is 
  called Daivuntren, or Indiren, his wife Inderannee, and his son 
  Seedcra - hudderen. The latter records the actions of human 
  beings, by which they must at last be judged. In Daivuntren's 
  immense court of audience there is room not only for the daivers 
  themselves, but for a multitude of attendants, or companions. 
  These are the kuinarer, the musicians of Daiver - Logum; 
  Dumbarim, Nardir, the drummers; Kimprusher, winged beings - of 
  great beauty, who wait on the duivers; Kundagaindoorer, similar 
  beings, the messengers of Vishnu; Paunner, the jugglers; 
  Viddiaser, the bards; Tsettee, those beings who attend them in 
  their aerial flights; Kannanader, or Dordanks, the messengers who 
  lead devotees of Shiva and Vishnu to paradise, and the wicked to 
  hell. There is yet another class of daivergoel, or genii, which 
  comprises the eight keepers of the eight sides of the world, known 
  by their general name of Auslitatiken - Pauli, , aur. These are 
  Indiren, or Daivuntren, their king; AugneBangauven, god of fire; 
  Eemen, king of death and hell; Nerudee, the earth - element 
  personified as a giant; Vaivoo. 
   
  Dalan: A druid who figures in the medieval Irish legend of Conary 
  Mor (q.v.). 
   
  Damear: A mystical city. (See Rosicrucians.) 
   
  Danaans, The: The people of the goddess Dana, often mentoned in 
  Irish medieval romance. They were one of the three Nemedian 
  families who survived the Fomorian victory, and returned to 
  Ireland at a later period. By some it was said that they came " out 
  of heaven, " and by others that they sprang from four cities, in 
  which they learned science and craftsmanship, and from each of 
  which they brought away a magical treasure. From Falias they 
  brought the Stone of Destiny (Lia Fail) (q.v.); from Gorias an 
  invincible sword; from Finias a magical spear; and from Murias 
  the Cauldron of the Dagda. They were believed to have been 
  wafted to Ireland on A magic cloud, carrying their treasures with 
  them. After a victorious battle they took possession of the whole of 
  Ireland, except Connacht which was given to the vanquished. The 
  Danaans were the representatives of power and beauty, of science 
  and poetry, to the writer of the myth; to the common people they 
  were gods of earth. In their battles they were subject to death, but 
  it was by magical powers that they conquered their mortal foes. 
   
  Davenport Brothers (Ian and William): Two American mediums 
  who gave seances for physical phenomena in America and Britain 
  during the decade 1860 - 70. They seem to have attained to a 
  considerable measure of fame, and to have won a great many 
  people to the belief that their performances were genuine spirit 
  manifestations. On their coming to England in 1864 they were 
  accompanied by a chaplain, the Rev. L. J. B. Ferguson, who 
  helped to inspire confidence in their good faith. The usual plan of 
  their seances was as follows: The Brothers Davenport took their 
  seats vis - a - vis in a small walnut cabinet " made very like a 
  wardrobe or clothes - press." Any two gentlemen from amon -  the 
  audience were requested to bind them firmly to their benches, so 
  as to preclude any possibility of their freeing their hands. Musical 
  instruments. were then placed in the cabinet, apparently out of 
  reach of the medium, and the lights were lowered. Soon the 
  musical instruments began to play within the cabinet, dim " spirit 
  hands " were seen in front of it. At the conclusion of the seance, 
  however, the mediums were found tied as securely as ever. They 
  met with a check, however, on their provincial tour, for at 
  Liverpool there were two men among the audience who possessed 
  the secret of a special knot. The " Tom Fool's knot, " as it was 
  called, baffled the spirits, and the mediums were mobbed. Later in 
  a seance giiven before a committee of the Anthropological Society, 
  they shirked nearly all the conditions, and succeeded in 
  accomplishing nothing which could not be done by a skilful 
  conjurer. Tolmagne, Anderson, and other conjurers emulated their 
  feats, and Maskelyne and Cooke so successfully that mediums had 
  no resource but to class them as fellow - adepts." 
   
  Davies, Lady Eleanor Tuchet, daughter of George, Lord Audley, 
  married Sir John Davies, an eminent lawyer in the time of James 
  the First, and author of a poem of considerable merit on the 
  Immortality of the Soul. This lady was a person of many talents; 
  but what she seems most to have valued herself upon, was her gift 
  of prophecy; and she accordingly printed a book of Strange and 
  Wonderful Predictions. She professed to receive her prophecies 
  from a spirit, who communicated to her audibly things about to 
  come to pass through the voice could be heard by no other person. 
  Sir John Davies was nominated lord chief justice of the king's 
  bench in 1626. Before he was inducted into the office, lady 
  Eleanor, sitting with him on Sunday at dinner, suddenly burst into 
  a passion of tears. Sir John asked her what made her weep. To 
  which she replied " These are your funeral tears." Sir John turned 
  off the prediction with a merry answer. But in a very few days he 
  was seized with an apoplexy, of which he presently died. She also 
  
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  predicted the death of the duke of Buckingham in the same year. 
  For this assumption of the gift of prophecy, she was cited before 
  the high - commission - court and exmined in 1634. 
   
  Davis, Andrew jaekson: Known as the " Poughkeepsie Seer " from 
  his residence in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was a prophet, clairvoyant, 
  and mystic philosopher, who commenced his mission to the world 
  about 1844, some time before the Rochester Rappings had 
  inaugurated the movement known as " modern spiritualism." In 
  1847 he published a volume of trance discourses, The Principles 
  of Nature, Her Divine Revelations and A Voice to Mankind. In the 
  same year he issued & first number of the Univercceluns, a 
  periodical devoted to clairvoyance and trance phenomena 
  generally, which continued till 1849. Not until 185o, however, did 
  Davis and his followers identify themselves with the spiritualists. 
  In his Revelations the Poughkeepsie Seer propounds his 
  Harmonial Philosophy, afterwards to be elaborated in many 
  volumes. His mission, revealed to him by Galen and Swedenborg, 
  was the prophesying of a new dispensation, preceded by a social 
  revolution. He was associated, throughout his career, with many 
  prominent spiritualists. 
   
  Deetera: A figure of Irish medieval romance. She was the daughter 
  of Cathbad the Druid, and mother of Cuchulain (q.v.). She and fifty 
  other maidens disappeared from the court of Conor mac Nessa. 
  Three years later, while pursuing a flock of birds which were 
  spoiling the crops, the kin, and courtiers came upon a magnificent 
  palace inhabited by a youth of noble mien and a beautiful woman 
  and fifty maidens. These were recognised as Dectera and her 
  companions, and the youth as Lugh, the sun - god. Conor 
  summoned Dectera to him, but she, sent him instead her new - 
  born son, Cuchulain. 
   
  Dee, John: Born in London 1527, this remarkable mathematician 
  and astrologer is supposed to have been descended from a noble 
  old Walsh House, the Dees of Nant y Groes in Radnorshire; while 
  he himself affirmed that among his direct ancestors was Roderick 
  the Great, Prince of Wales. Dee's father appears to have been a 
  gentleman server at the court of Henry VIII., and, being 
  consequently in tolerably affluent circumstances, he was able to 
  give his son a good education. So at the age of fifteen John 
  proceeded to Cambridge, and After two years there he took his 
  degree as Bachelor of Arts; while a little later on his becoming 
  intensely interested in astronomy and the like, he decided to leave 
  England and go and study abroad. In 1547, accordingly, he went to 
  the Low Countries, where he consorted with numerous scholars, 
  and whence he eventually brought home the first astronomer's staff 
  of brass, and also two gloves constructed by Gerard Mercator; but 
  Dee was not destined to remain in his native land for Iong, and in 
  1548 he lived for some time at Louvain, and in 1550 he spent 
  several months in Paris, lecturing there on the principles of 
  geometry. He was offered, indeed, a permanent post at the 
  Sorbonne; but he declined this, and in 1551 he returned to 
  England, where, having been recommended to Edward VI., he was 
  granted the rectory of Upton -  upon - Severn, Worcestershire. 
   
  The astrologer was now in a delightful and enviable position, 
  having a comfortable home and assured income, and being able to 
  devote himself exclusively to the studies lie loved. But hardly had 
  he begun to enjoy these benefits, where an ugly cloud darkened his 
  horizon, for, on the accession of Queen Mary in 1553, , he was 
  accused of trying to take the new sovereigns life by thaumaturgic 
  means, and was imprisoned at Hampton Court. He gained his 
  liberty soon afterwards, but he felt very conscious that many 
  people looked on him askance on account of his scientific 
  predilections; and, in a preface which he wrote for an English 
  translation of Euclid, he complains bitterly of being regarded as " a 
  companion of the helhounds, a caller and a conjuror of wicked and 
  damned spirits." However, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth his 
  fortunes began to improve again; and after making another long 
  tour abro4d, going on this occasion so far afield as St. Helena, he 
  took a house at Mortlake on the Thames, and while staving there 
  he rapidly became famous for his intimate knowledge of 
  astronomy. In 1572 on the advent of a new star, people flocked to 
  hear Dee descant on the subject; while five years later, on the 
  appearance of a mysterious comet, the scholar was again 
  vouchsafed ample opportunity of displaying his learning, Elizabeth 
  herself being among those who came to ask him what this addition 
  to the stellar bodies might portend. 
   
  The most romantic circumstances in Dee's life, however, are those 
  which deal with his experiments in crystallomancy. Living in 
  comparative solitude - practising astrology for bread, but studying 
  alchemy for pleasure brooding over Talmudic mysteries and 
  Rosicrucian theories - immersed in constant contemplation of 
  wonders which he longed to penetrate - and dazzled by visions of 
  the elixir of life and the Philosopher's Stone, Dee soon attained to 
  such a condition of mystic exaltation that his visions became to 
  him as realities, and he persuaded himself that he was the 
  favoured of the Invisible. In his Diary he records that he first saw 
  in his crystal - globe - that is, saw spirits the 25th of May, 1581. In 
  another year he had attained to a higher level, and one day, in 
  November, 1582, while on his knees and fervently praying, he 
  became aware of a sudden glory which filled the west window of 
  his laboratory, and in whose midst shone the bright angel Uriel. It 
  was impossible for Dee to speak. His tongue was frozen with awe. 
  But Uriel smiled benignly upon him, gave him a convex piece of 
  crystal, and told him that when he wished to communicate with the 
  beings of another world he had but to examine it intently, and they 
  would immediately appear and reveal the mysteries of the future. 
  Then the angel vanished. 
   
  Dee, however, found from experience that it was needful to 
  concentrate all one's faculties upon the crystal before the spirits 
  would obey him. In other words, it was necessary to stimulate the 
  imagination to the highest pitch, until the soul became a willing 
  agent in its self - deception. Bring the will to bear upon the 
  imagination, and it is possible to realize a spirit in every shadowy 
  corner - to hear the song of the spirits in the low crooning of the 
  evening wind -  to read in the starry heavens the omens and 
  portents of the future. One may become with marvellous case the 
  deceiver of one - self, - the dupe of one's own delusions, - and 
  brood upon a particular subject until one passes the mysterious 
  border between sanity and madness  - passes from imagination into 
  mania. 
   
  Dee could never remember what the spirits said in their frequent 
  conversations with him. When the excitement was over, he forgot 
  the fancies with which he had been beguiled. He resolved, 
  therefore, to discover some fellow 
   
  worker, or neophyte, who should converse with the spirits while he 
  himself, in another part of the room, sat and recorded the 
  interesting dialogue. He found the assistant he sought in one 
  Edward Kelly, who unhappily possessed just the requisite boldness 
  and cunning for making a dupe of the amiable and credulous 
  enthusiast. 
   
  
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  Edward Kelly was a native of Lancashire, born, according to Dee's 
  own statement, in 1555. We know nothing of his early years, but 
  after having been convicted at Lancaster of coining - for which 
  offence he lost his ears - he removed to Worcester, and established 
  himself as a druggist. Sensual, ambitious, and luxurious, he longed 
  for wealth, and despairing of securing it by honest industry, began 
  to grope after the Philosopher's Stone, and to employ what magical 
  secrets he picked up in imposing upon the ignorant and profligate. 
  Dee sought knowledge for the love of it   Kelly as a means to gratify 
  his earthly passions. He concealed the loss of his ears by a black 
  skull - cap, and being gifted with a good figure and tolerably 
  handsome countenance, looked the very incarnation of mysterious 
  wisdom, Before his acquaintance with Dee began, he had obtained 
  some repute as a necromancer and alchymist, who could make the 
  dead utter the secrets of the future. One night he took a wealthy 
  dupe with some of his servants, into the park of Walton le Dale, 
  near Preston in Lancashire, and there alarmed hini with the most 
  terrific incantations. He then inquired of one of the servants whose 
  corpse had been last buried in the neighbouring churchyard, and 
  being told that a poor man had been interred there within a very 
  few hours, exhumed the body, and pretended to draw from it 
  oracular utterances. 
   
  Dee appears to have had a skryer, or seer before his introduction to 
  Kelly, who was named Barnabas Saul. He records in his Diayy on 
  the 9th of October, 1581, that the unfortunate medium was 
  strangely troubled by a " spiritual creature " about midnight. On 
  the 2nd of December he willed his skryer to look into the " great 
  crystalline globe " for the apparition of the holy angel Angel. Saul 
  looked and saw. But his invention appears to have become 
  exhausted by the following March, when he confessed that he 
  neither saw nor heard any spiritual creature any more; whereat the 
  enthusiastic Dee grew strangely dissatisfied, and soon dismissed 
  the unsatisfactory and unimaginative medium. Then came Edward 
  Kelly (who appears to have been also called Talbot), and the 
  conferences with the spirits rapidly increased in importance as 
  well as curiosity. 
   
  A clever rogue was Kelly. Gifted with a fertile fancy and prolific 
  invention, he never gazed into the " great crystalline globe " 
  without making some wondrous discoveries, and by his pretended 
  enthusiasm gained the entire confidence of the credulous Dee. The 
  mathematician, despite his learning and his profound intellect, 
  became the easy tool of the plastic, subtle Skryer. The latter would 
  sometimes pretend that he doubted the innocent character of the 
  work upon which he was engaged; would affect a holy horror of the 
  unholy; and profess that the spirits of the crystal were not always " 
  spirits of health, " but - perish the thought! - " goblins damn'd; 
  demons whose task it was to compass their destruction. The 
  conferences held between Kelly and the spirits were meanwhile, 
  carefully recorded by Dr. Dee; and whoever has stomach for the 
  perusal of a great deal of absurdity and not a little blasphemy, may 
  consult the folio published in, 1659 by the learned Meric 
  Casaubon, and entitled " A True and Faithful Relation of what 
  passed between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits; tending, had it 
  succeeded, to a General Alteration of most States and Kingdoms in 
  the World."' 
   
  Two such shining lights could not hide themselves under a bushel, 
  and their reputation extended from Mortlake even to the Continent. 
  Dee now declared himself possessed of the elixir vitae, which he 
  had found he said, among the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey; so that 
  the curious were drawn to his house by a double attraction. Gold 
  flowed into his coffers in an exhaustless stream, but his 
  experiments in the transmutation of metals absorbed a "eat portion 
  of his substance. 
   
  At this time the court of England was visited by a Polish nobleman 
  named Albert Laski, Count Palatine of Siradz, who was desirous to 
  see the magnificence of the famous "Gloriana." Elizabeth received 
  him with the flattering welcome she always accorded to 
  distinguished strangers, and placed him in charge of the splendid 
  Leicester. He visited all the England of the sixteenth century worth 
  showing, and especially her two Universities, but was sorely 
  disappointed at not finding the famous Dr. Dee at Oxford. " I would 
  not have come hither, " he said to the Earl, " had I wot that Dee, 
  was not here." Leicester undertook to introduce him to the learned 
  philosopher on their return to London, and so soothed his 
  discontent. 
   
  A few days afterwards the Pole and Leicester were waiting in the 
  ante - chamber at Whitehall for an audience of the Queen, when 
  Dr. Dee arrived. Leicester embraced the opportunity, and 
  introduced him to Albert Laski. The interview between two genial 
  spirits was interesting, and led to frequent visits from Laski to 
  Dee's house at Mortlake. Kelly soon perceived what a source of 
  income this Pole would prove, and as he was imbued with all the 
  extravagant superstitions of the age relative to the elixir and the 
  Philosopher's Stone, it was easy enough to play upon his 
  imagination, and entangle him in the meshes of an inextricable 
  deception. Dee, in want of money to prosecute his splendid 
  chimeras, and influenced by Kelly's artful suggestions, lent himself 
  in some measure to the fraud, and speedily the " great crystalling 
  globe " began to reveal hints and predictions which inflamed the 
  ardent fancy of the " noble Polonian." But Kelly imposed upon Dee 
  as well as upon Laski. He appears to have formed some wild but 
  magnificent projects for the reconstruction of Europe, to be 
  effected through the agency of the Pole, and thenceforth the spirits 
  could converse upon nothing but hazy politics. 
   
  On a careful perusal of Dee's Diary, it is impossible to come to any 
  other conclusion than that he was imposed upon by Kelly, and 
  accepted his revelations as the actual utterances of the spirits; and 
  it seems probable that the clever, plastic, slippery Kelly not only 
  knew something of the optical delusions then practised by the 
  pretended necromancers, but possessed considerable ventriloquial 
  powers, which largely assisted in his nefarious deceptions. 
   
  Kelly had undoubtedly conceived some extravagant notions of a 
  vast European monarchy, in which Laski was to play the part of a 
  Royal and he himself of a Mayor of the Palace. To this point all the 
  spiritual revelations now tended, and they were managed, it must 
  be owned, with consummate skill. Laski was proved, by the agency 
  of scrying, to be descended from the Anglo - Norman family of the 
  Lacies. Then an angel named Murifre, who was clothed like a 
  husbandman, pointed out Laski as destined to effect the 
  regeneration of the world. 
   
  But it did not answer Kelly's purposes to bring matters too 
  suddenly to a conclusion, and with the view of showing the extreme 
  value of his services, he renewed his complaints upon the 
  wickedness of dealing with spirits, and his fear of the perilous 
  enterprises they might enjoin. He threatened, moreover, to 
  abandon his task, a threat which completely perturbed the 
  equanimity of Dr. Dee. Where indeed, could he hope to meet witfi 
  another skryer of such infinite ability ? Once when Kelly 
  
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  expressed his desire of riding from Mortlake to Islington on some 
  pretended business, the doctor grew afraid that it was only an 
  excuse to cover his absolute evasion. "Whereupon, " says the 
  doctor, " I asked him why he so hasted to ride thither, and I said if 
  it were to ride to Mr. Harry Lee I would go thither, and to be 
  acquainted with him, seeing now I had so good leisure, being 
  ease~ of the book writing. Then he said that one told him the other 
  day that the duke (Laski) did but flatter him, and told him other 
  things both against the duke and me. I answered for the duke and 
  myself, and also said that if the forty pounds annuity which  - Kr. 
  Lee did offer him was the chief cause of his mind setting that way, 
  that then I contrary to many of his former promises would assure 
  him of fifty pounds yearly, and would do my best, by following of 
  my suit, to bring it to pass as soon as I possibly_ could; and 
  thereupon did make him promise upon the Bible. 
   
  " Then Edward Kelly again upon the same Bible did swear unto me 
  constant friendship, and never to forsake me; and moreover said 
  that unless this had so fallen about he would have gone beyond the 
  seas, taking ship at Newcastle within eight days next. 
   
  " And so we plight our faith each to the other, taking each other by 
  the hand, upon these points of brotherly and friendly fidelity 
  during life, which covenant I beseech God to turn to his honour, 
  glory, and service, and the comfort of our brethren (his children) 
  here on earth." 
   
  Kelly now returned to his crystal and his visions, and Laski was 
  soon persuaded that he was destined by the spirits to achieve great 
  victories over the Saracens, and win enduring glory. But for this 
  purpose it was needful he should return to Poland, and to Poland 
  the poor dupe went, taking with him the learned Dr. Dee, the 
  invaluable Edward Kelly, and their wives and families, The spirits 
  continued to respond to their inquiries even while at sea, , and so 
  they landed at the Brill on the 3oth of July 1583, and traversed 
  Holland and Friesland to the opulent free town of Lubeck. There 
  they lived sumptuously for a few weeks, and with recruited 
  strength set out for Poland. On Christmas Day they arrived at 
  Stettin, where they remained till the middle of January 1584. They 
  gained Lasco, the Pole's principal estate, early in February. 
  Immediately the grand work commenced for the transmutation of 
  iron into gold, boundless wealth being obviously needful for so 
  grand an enterprise as the regeneration of Europe. Laski liberally 
  supplied them with means, but the alchymists always failed on the 
  very threshold of success. Day by day the prince's trees melted 
  away in the deceptive crucible; he mortgaged his estates, he sold 
  them, but the hungry furnace continued to cry for " More ! more ! " 
  It soon became apparent to the philosopher's that Laski's fortune 
  was nearly exhausted. Madinic, Uriel, and their comrades made 
  the same discovery at the same time, and, moreover, began to 
  doubt whether Laski, after all, was the great regenerator intended 
  to revolutionize Europe. The whole party lived at Cracow from 
  March 1584 until the end of July, and made daily appeals to the 
  spirits in reference to the Polish prince. They grew more and more 
  discouraging in their replies, and as Laski began slowly to awake 
  to the conviction that he had been a monstrous dupe, in order to 
  rid himself of the burthen, he proposed to furnish them with 
  sufficient funds for a journey to Prague, and letters of introduction 
  to the Emperor Rudolph. At this very moment the spirits 
  discovered that it was necessary Dee should bear a divine message 
  to the Emperor, and Laski's proposal was gladly accepted. 
   
  At Prague the two philosophers were well received by the Emperor. 
  They found him very willing to believe in the existence of the 
  famous stone, very courteous to Dee as a man of European 
  celebrity but very suspicious of the astute and plausible Kelly.  
  They remained some months at Prague, living upon the funds 
  which Laski had supplied, and cherishing hopes of being attached 
  to the imperial service. At last the Papal Nuncio complained to the 
  countenance afforded to heretical magicians, and the Emperor 
  ordered them to quit his dominions within four - and - twenty 
  hours. They precipitately complied, and by so doing escaped a 
  prison or the stake, to which the Nuncio had received orders from 
  Rome to consign them (May 1586). 
   
  They now proceeded to Erfurdt, and from thence to Cassel, but 
  meeting with a cold reception, made their way once more to 
  Cracow. Here they earned a scanty living by telling fortunes and 
  casting nativities; enduring the pangs of penury with an almost 
  heroic composure, for they, the pretended possessors of the 
  Philosopher's Stone, durst not reveal their indigence to the world, 
  if they would not expose themselves to universal ridicule. After a 
  while, they found a new dupe in Stephen, king of Poland, to whom 
  Kelly's spirits predicted that the Emperor Rudolph would shortly 
  be assassinated, and that the Germans would elect him to the 
  Imperial throne. But he in his turn grew weary of the ceaseless 
  demands for pecuniary supplies. Then arose a new disciple in the 
  person of Count Rosenberg, a nobleman of large estates at 
  Trebona, in Bohemia. At his castle they remained for upwards of 
  two years, eagerly pursuing their alchemical studies, but never 
  approaching any nearer to the desired result. 
   
  Dee's enthusiasm and credulity had degraded him into the tool and 
  slave of Kelly; but the latter was nevertheless very wroth at the 
  superior respect which Dee, as really a man of surprising 
  scholarship and considerable ability, enjoyed. Frequent quarrels 
  broke out between them, aggravated by the criminal passion which 
  Kelly had conceived for the doctor's young and handsome wife, 
  and which he had determined to gratify. He matured at length an 
  artful plan to obtain the fulfillment of his wishes. Knowing Dee's 
  entire dependence upon him as a skryer, he suddenly announced 
  his intention of resigning that honoured and honourable office, and 
  only consented to remain on the doctor's urgent entreaties. That 
  day (April 18, 1587) they consulted the spirits. Kelly professed to 
  be shocked at the revelation they made, and refused to repeat it. 
  Dee's curiosity was aroused, and he insisted upon hearing it, but 
  was exceedingly discomposed when be found that the spirits 
  enjoined the two philosophers to have their wives in common. 
  Kelly expressed his own abhorrence of the doctrine, and when the 
  spirits repeated it, with a mixture of socialistic extravagance to the 
  effect that sin was only relative, and could not be sinful if ordered 
  by God, protested they must be spirits of evil, not of good, once 
  more resigned his post as skryer, - and left the Castle. 
   
  Dee now attempted to convert his son Arthur into a medium, but 
  the lad had neither the invention, the faith, nor the deceptive 
  powers for such an office, and the philosopher, deprived of those 
  conferences with the other World which he had so long enjoyed, 
  began to lament the absence of his old confederate. At this 
  juncture Kelly suddenly returned. Again he consulted the crystal, 
  and again was ordered to practise the socialistic rule of all things 
  in common. Dee was too delighted at his return to oppose any 
  longer the will of the spirits. The two Wives resisted the 
  arrangement for some time, but finally yielded to what was 
  represented to be the will of Heaven, and Dee notes in his Diary 
  that " on Sunday the 3rd of May, anno 1587 (by the new account), 
  1, John Dee, Edward Kelly, and our two wives covenanted with 
  God, and subscribed the same for indissoluble and inviolable 
  
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  unities, charity, and friendship keeping, between us four, and all 
  things between us to be common, as God by sundry means willed 
  us to do. " 
   
  The alchymists now resumed their pursuits with eagerness; but 
  discord soon crept into this happy family of four. The wives, never 
  very well content with the socialistic theory, quarrelled violently; 
  the husbands began to be pinched for want of Zans; and Dee 
  turned his eyes towards England as a pleasanter asylum than the 
  castle of Trebona was likely to prove for his old age. He obtained 
  permission from Queen Elizabeth to return, and separated finally 
  from Kelly. The latter, who had been knighted at Prague, took with 
  him an elixir found at Glastonbury Abbey, and ventured to proceed 
  to the Bohemian capital. He was immediately arrested by order of 
  the Emperor, and flung - into prison. Obtaining his release after 
  some months' imprisonment, he wandered over Germany, telling 
  fortunes, and angling for dupes. With the customary magical baits, 
  but never getting a whit nearer that enjoyment of boundless 
  resources which the possession of the Philosopher's Stone should 
  have ensured him. Arrested a second time as a heretic and a 
  sorcerer, and apprehending perpetual imprisonment, be 
  endeavoured to escape, but fell from the dungeon - wall., and 
  broke two of his ribs and both of his legs. He expired of the 
  injuries he had received in February 1593. 
   
  Dr. Dee set out from Trebona with a splendid train, the expenses of 
  his journey apparently being defrayed by the generous Bohemian 
  noble. Three waggons carried his baggage; three coaches conveyed 
  himself, his family, and servants. A guard of twenty - four soldiers 
  escorted him; each carriage was drawn by four horses. In England 
  he was well received by the Queen, as far as courteous phrases 
  went, and settling himself at Mortlake, he resumed his chemical 
  studies, and his pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone. But nothing 
  prospered with the unfortunate enthusiast. He employed two 
  skryers - at first a rogue, named Bartholomew, and afterwards a 
  charlatan named Ileckman - but neither could discover anything 
  satisfactory in the " great crystalline globe." He grew poorer and 
  poorer; he sank into absolute indigence; he wearied the Queen 
  with ceaseless importunities; and at length obtained a small 
  appointment as Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, which he 
  exchanged for the wardenship of Manchester College. Be 
  performed the duties of this position until age and a failing 
  intellect compelled him, to resign it about 1602 or 1603. 
   
  He then retired to his old house at Mortlake, where he practised as 
  a common fortune - teller, gaining little in return but the 
  unenviable reputation of a wizard, " a conjuror, a caller, or 
  invocator of devils." On the 5th of June 1604, he presented a 
  petition to James the First, imploring his protection against such 
  injurious calumnies, and declaring that none of all the great 
  number of - the very strange and frivolous fables or histories 
  reported and told of him (as to have been of his doing) were true." 
   
  Dee is an exceptionally interesting figure, and he must have been a 
  man of rare intellectual activity. He made calculations to facilitate 
  the adoption in' England of the Gregorian calendar; and he 
  virtually anticipated the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
  addressing to the crown a petition wherein he wrote on the 
  desirability of carefully preserving the old, unpublished records of 
  England's past, many of which documents were at this period 
  domiciled in the archives of monasteries. Moreover he was a 
  voluminous writer on science, and, though lack of space makes it 
  impossible to give a full list of his works here,  
   
  Demonology: That branch of magic which deals with malevolent 
  spirits. In religious science it has come to indicate knowledge 
  regarding supernatural beings who are not deities. But, it is in 
  regard to its magical significance only that it falls to be dealt with 
  here. The Greek term Daimon, originally indicated " genius " or " 
  spirit, " but in England it has come to mean a being actively 
  malevolent. Ancient Demonology will be found dealt with in the 
  articles Egypt, Semites, Genius and Devil - Worship, and savage 
  demonology under the heads of the various countries and races 
  where it had its origin. According to Michael Psellus, demons are 
  divided into six great bodies. First, the demons of fire. Second, 
  those of the air. Third, those of the earth. The fourth inhabit the 
  waters and rivers, and cause tempests and floods; the fifth are 
  subterranean, who prepare earthquakes and excite volcanic 
  eruptions. The sixth, are shadows, something of the nature of 
  ghosts. St. Augustine comprehends all demons under the last 
  category. This classification of Psellus is not unlike that system of 
  the middle ages, which divided all spirits into those belonging to 
  the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, or salamanders, 
  sylphs, undines, and gnomes. 
   
  Dermot of the Love - spot: The typical lover of Irish legend, and 
  the hero of the myth of Dermot and Grania. It was in this wise that 
  he got the love - spot. One night he and three companions entered 
  a hut for a night's shelter, in which dwelt an old man, a young girl 
  (Youth), a wether (the World) a cat (Death). During the night the 
  girl put the love - spot on Dermot's forehead, and henceforth, it is 
  said, no woman could see him without loving him. He came to be 
  loved by Grania, the betrothed of Finn, who forced him to run away 
  with her. They were pursued all over Ireland, but after sixteen 
  years of outlawry, Dermot was allowed to return to his patrimony. 
  He was killed by the Boar of Ben, Bulben, (q.v.) an enchanted 
  animal, who had been his step - brother. His body was borne away 
  on a gilded bier by the People of Dana, and was given a soul by 
  Angus Og, the Irish God of Love, that he might return each day 
  and talk with him. Dermot was of the type of solar hero; and the 
  bier on which his body was borne away is, of course, the sunset. 
   
  Devas: In Theosophy, constitute one of the ranks or orders of 
  spirits who compose the hierarchy which rules the universe under 
  the Deity. Their numbers are vast and their function -, are not all 
  known to mankind, though generally these functions may be said to 
  be connected with the evolution of systems and of life. Of Devas 
  there are three kinds - Bodiless Devas, Form Devas and Passion 
  Devas. Bodiless Devas belong to the higher mental world, their 
  bodies are composed of mental Elemental Essence, and they 
  belong to the first Elemental kingdom. Form Devas belong to the 
  lower mental world, and while their bodies are composed also of 
  mental Elemental Essence, they belong to the second Elemental 
  kingdom. Passion Devas belong to the astral world and their bodies 
  are composed 
   
  Dickenson, Edmund: Dr. Edmund Dickenson, physician to King, 
  Charles the Second, a professed seeker of the hermetic knowledge, 
  produced a book entitled, De Quinta Essentia. Philosophoyum; 
  which was printed at Oxford in 1686, and a second time in 1705. 
  A third edition of it was printed in Germany in 1721. In 
  correspondence with a French adept, the latter explains the 
  reasons why the Brothers of the Rosy Cross concealed themselves. 
  As to the universal medicine, Elixir Vitae, or potable form of the 
  preternatural menstruum, he positively asserts that it is in the 
  hand's of the " Illuminated, " but that, by the time they discover it, 
  
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  they have ceased to desire its uses, being far above them: and as to 
  life for centuries, being wishful for other thingi, they decline 
  availing themselves of it. He adds that the adepts are obliged to 
  conceal themselves for the sake of safety, because they would be 
  abandoned in the consolations of the intercourse of this world (if 
  they were not, indeed, exposed to worse risks), supposing that their 
  gifts were proven to the conviction of the bystanders as more than 
  human, when they would become simply abhorrent. Thus, there are 
  excellent reasons for the its conduct; they proceed with the utmost 
  caution, and instead of making a display of their powers, as vain - 
  glory is the least distinguishing characteristic of these great men, 
  they studiously evade the idea that they have any extraordinary or 
  separate knowledge. They live simply as mere spectators in the 
  world, and they des're to make no disciples, converts nor 
  confidants. They submit to the obligations of life, and to 
  relationships - enjoying the fellowship of none, admiring none, 
  following none, but themselves. They obey all codes, are excellent 
  citizens, and only preserve silence in regard to their own private 
  beliefs, giving the world the benefit of their acquirements up to a 
  certain point; seeking only sympathy at some angles of their 
  multiform character, but shutting out curiosity where they do not 
  desire its inquisitive eyes. 
   
  Didot Pereeval: So - called because the only MS. of this legend 
  discovered belonged to A. F. Didot, the famous collector. This 
  version of the Grail Legend lays great stress on the illness of the 
  Fisher King. It tells how the Table Round was constructed, and 
  relates the adventures of Sir Perceval, which are much the same as 
  those told in the Conte del Graal and include the Good Friday 
  incident. It is said that he, with his brother - in - law, Brons, were 
  instructed in the mystic expressions which Christ whispered to 
  Joseph of Arimathea when on the cross 
   
  Dithorba: Brother of Red Hugh and Kimbay of Irish medieval 
  legend. He was killed by his niece Macha, and his five sons 
  expelled from Ulster. They resolved to wrest the sovereignty of 
  Ireland from Macha, but she discovers them in the forest, 
  overpowers them by her mesmeric influence, and carries them to 
  her palace on her back. They build the famous Irish city of Emain 
  Macha under her supervision. 
   
  Divine Name, The: In Jewish mysticism. great stress is laid upon 
  the importance of the Divine Name. It consists of forty - twjo 
  letters, not, as Moses Maimonides points out, comprised in one 
  word, but in a phrase of several words, which conveyed an exact 
  notion of the essence of God. With the priestly decadence in the 
  last days of the Temple, a name of twelve letters was substituted 
  for the Divine Name, and as time went on even this secondary 
  name was not divulged to every priest, but only to a few. The 
  longer name was sometimes said to contain forty - five or seventy - 
  two letters. The ten Sefiroth are also supposed, in a mystical sense, 
  to be the names of the Deity. The Divine Name jehovah is greater 
  than " I am that I am, since the latter signifies God as He was 
  before the creation, the Absolute, the Unknowable, the Hidden 
  One; but the former denotes the Supreme Manifestation, the 
  immanence of God in the Cosmos. 
   
  Djermscheed, The Cup of: A divination cup, which has been the 
  subject of many of the poems and myths of ancient Persia. It was 
  believed to have been found while digging the foundations of 
  Persepolis, filled with the elixir of immortality. In this magical cup 
  was mirrored the whole world, and everything, good and evil, - was 
  revealed therein. The Persians had great faith in these revelations 
  and attributed the prosperity of their empire to the possession of 
  this famous cup. 
   
   Dual Personality: In every form of cerebral dissociation there is a 
  disturbance of consciousness. Sometimes, and especially in the 
  trance, there occurs what is known as split consciousness, " and 
  the split may be so pronounced that the subject seems to have two 
  or more distinct personalities. The secondary personality may 
  differ from the primary in many ways, and possess entirely distinct 
  intellectual and moral characteristics. The entranced subject may 
  allude to his normal consciousness in the third person, may 
  criticise its opinions and attitude, or even express direct 
  antagonism towards it. The secondary personality sometimes 
  alternates with the primary in such a way as to suggest that two 
  spirits are struggling to possess the same physical organisation. 
  Another peculiarity of this state is that whereas the normal 
  consciousness generally knows nothing of the others, the secondary 
  personalities have full knowledge of each other and of the normal 
  conciousness. Dual personality is not confined to the trance state, 
  but may arise spontaneously. R. L. Stevenson makes effective use 
  of it in his Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  
   
  Duguid, David:  
  A Glasgow painting medium who achieved considerable success in 
  his line. He was a cabinet - maker, who in 1866 found himself 
  possessed of mediumistic faculties. At first an ordinary rapping 
  medium, he speedily developed the power of painting in trance, , 
  even in the dark. A still higher stage of mediumship was reached 
  when direct drawings were produced in his presence. These 
  drawings, generally copies of Dutch masters, purporting to be done 
  by the original artists, are said not to have been without some 
  merit, apart from the fact that they were done in complete 
  darkness. The two principal controls were Ruysdael and Steen. In 
  1869 control of the medium's organism was taken by Hafed, prince 
  of Persia t at the beginning of the Christian era, and Archmagus. 
  Hafed related his many adventures through Duguid's mediumship 
  in a series of sittings extending over some years. A Persian of 
  princely birth, he had borne arms in his country's defence. After 
  extensive travels, he was t admitted to the magi, and ultimately 
  became Archmagus. e He was of those who bore rich gifts to 
  Bethlehem at the birth of Christ. Finally he met his death in the 
  arena at Rome. Hafed, Prince of Persia, was afterwards published 
  in book form. (See Spiritualism). 
   
  Durandal: A magical sword belonging, to Roland of legendary 
  fame. 
   
  Dzibilchaltun; a name which means 'the writing on the stone 
  tablets.' It is the oldest of the Mayan Archaeological sites; dating 
  back 3000 years. It is famous for its Temple of the Seven dolls, 
  and is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. 
   
  Eber Don chief of Milesian invaders of Ireland whose ships were 
  lost in storms raised by Danaana magic 
   
  Eckartshausen, K. Von: Author of The Cloud on the Sanctuary 
  (1800). Eckartshausen, by birth and education an intensely 
  religious man, at first wrote several little books of devotion that 
  had great vogue in France and Germany. He later turned his 
  attention to larger works of a more' profound character, such as 
  that mentioned above. According to Eckarthausen the requisite 
  faculty of true communion with the church is the inward 
  conception of things spiritual and with this sense present, is 
  possible the beginning of Regeneration understood as the process 
  
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  of gradually eliminating original sin. His work on the Interior 
  Church is in two parts: first, elucidation of his doctrine; second, a 
  series of dogmas or assertions derived therefrom. 
   
  Ectenic Force: A supposed physical force emanating from the 
  person of the medium, and directed by his will, by means of which 
  objects may be moved without contact in apparent defiance of 
  natural laws. The existence of such a force was first postulated by 
  Count Agenor de Gasparin, to explain the phenomena of table - 
  turning and rapping, and the name Ectenic Force was bestowed 
  upon the supposed agency by de Gasparin's colleague, M. Thury. 
  The experiments of Thury and de Gasparin are declared to offer 
  some of the most convincing evidence that spiritualism can 
  produce, and have influenced more than one eminent student of 
  psychic research. If it be true that tables were moved without 
  contact, then such a theory is indeed necessary, but the evidence 
  for this type of phenomena is not abundant 
   
  Egregore: Psychologically speaking, an egregore is that "ambiance" 
  or "personality" that develops among groups independent of any of 
  its members. It is the feeling or impression you get when walking 
  into a neighborhood that feels different from the surrounding area, 
  or when visiting a club or association that has been around for a 
  long time.  
   
  In an occult or magical context, an Egregore is such a thing that 
  has developed to the point of attaining an indepent existence as an 
  entity itself, or it is an intentionally created entity (such as a 
  servitor) that has grown in power well past its original design. To a 
  non-religious practioner of magic, an "egregore" and a "god/dess" 
  would be interchangeable terms--to a religious practioner, an 
  egregore would be just "under" the god/desses.  
   
  Electric Girls: Girls in whose presence certain phenomena 
  occurred, similar in nature to the time - honoured phenomena of 
  the poltergeist (q.v.), but ascribed to the action of some new 
  physical force, probably electricity. The best known of these 
  electric girls was perhaps Angelique Cottin, a Normandy peasant 
  girl, whose phenomena were first observed about 1846. Finally she 
  was taken to Paris and placed under the observation of Dr. 
  Tanchon and others, who, testified to the actuality of the 
  phenomena. These included the movement of objects without 
  contact, or at a mere touch from Angeliqu6's petticoats, the 
  agitation in her presence of the magnetic needle, and the blowing 
  of a cold wind. She was also able to distinguish between the poles 
  of a magnet at a touch. A commission appointed by the Academy of 
  Sciences, however, could observe nothing but the violent 
  movements of her chair, which were probably caused by muscular 
  force. Other electric girls practised about the same time, and even 
  after the beginning of the spiritualistic movement in America - 
  they were occasionally heard of. They are worthy of note as a link 
  between the poltergeist and the spiritualistic medium. 
   
  Elementary Spirits: The unseen intelligences who inhabit the four 
  elements, of the finest essence of which they are composed. The 
  creatures of the air are called sylphs; of the earth gnomes; of fire 
  salamanders; and of water, nymphs or undines. The best authority 
  on the subject is the Abbe de Villars, who published early in the 
  eighteenth century a short treatise entitled Comte de Gabalis, from 
  which a good deal of what follows is drawn. According to this work 
  the creatures of the elements were before the Fall subject to Adam 
  in all, things, and we are led to understand that by means of 
  certain performances this ancient communication may be restored, 
  and that man may once more have at his beck and call the 
  elementary spirits. The Abbe gives a brief sketch of the nature of 
  these peoples. The air, he says, is filled with a great number of 
  beings of human form, somewhat fierce in appearance, but really of 
  a docile nature. They are much interested in the sciences, and are 
  subtle, officious towards the sages, hostile towards the foolish and 
  the ignorant. Their wives and daughters are of a masculine type of 
  beauty, such as is depicted in the Amazons. The seas and rivers 
  are inhabited as well as the air, beings dwelling therein whom the 
  sages designated undines, or nymphs. The female population much 
  exceeds the male, the women being exceedingly beautiful, so that 
  among the daughters of men there is none to equal them. The earth 
  is filled almost to the centre with gnomes, people of small stature, 
  the guardians of subterranean treasure, minerals and precious 
  stones. They are ingenious, friendly towards men, and easy to 
  command. They provide the children of the sages with all the 
  money they require, asking no other reward for their services than 
  the glory of performing them. The gnomides, their wives, are small 
  of stature but very good looking, and they dress very curiously. As 
  for the salamanders, the inhabitants of the region of fire, they serve 
  the philosophers, but are not over - anxious for their company, 
  while their daughters and wives are rarely seen. Their women are 
  very beautiful, beyond all the other elementals, since they dwell in 
  a purer element. Their habits, mode of life, manners and laws are 
  admirable, and the attractions of their minds are greater even than 
  that of their persons. The Supreme Being they know and religiously 
  adore, but have no hope of eternal enjoyment of Him, since their 
  souls are mortal. True it is that, being composed of the purest parts 
  of the elements wherein they dwell, and having no contrary 
  qualities, they can live for several centuries; yet are they much 
  troubled because of their mortal nature. It was, however, revealed 
  to the philosophers that an elementary spirit could attain to 
  immortality by being united in marriage with a human being. The 
  children born of such unions are more noble and heroic than the 
  children of human men and women, and some of the greatest 
  figures of antiquity - Zoroaster, Alexander, Hercules, Merlin, to 
  mention a few - are declared to have been the children of 
  elementary spirits. 
   
  The salamanders, the Comte de Gabalis goes on to say, are 
  composed of the most subtle particles of the sphere of fire, 
  conglobated and organised by the action of the Universal Fire, so 
  called because it is the principle of all the mot4ons of nature. The 
  sylphs are composed of the purest atoms of the air; the nymphs, of 
  the most delicate particles of water; and the gnomes, of the finest 
  essence of earth. Adam was in complete accord with these 
  creatures because, being composed of that which was purest in the 
  four elements, he contained in himself the perfections of these four 
  peoples, and was their natural king. But since by reason of his sin 
  he had been cast into the excrements of the elements, there no 
  longer existed the harmony between him, so impure and gross, and 
  these fine and ethereal substances. The Abbe then gives a recipe 
  whereby the resultant state of things may be remedied and the 
  ancient correspondence restored. To attain this end we must purify 
  and exalt the element of. fire which is within us. All that is 
  necessary is to concentrate the fire of the world by means of 
  concave mirrors, in a globe of glass. There will then be formed 
  within the globe a solary powder, which, having purified itself from 
  the admixture of other elements, becomes in a very short time a 
  sovereign means of exalting the fire which is in us, and makes us, 
  so to speak, of an igneous nature. Thenceforward these creatures of 
  the fire become our inferiors, and, delighted at the restoration of 
  mutual harmony between themselves and the human race, they will 
  
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  show towards man all the good - will they have for their own kind. 
  Sylphs, gnomes, and nymphs are more familiar with man than are 
  the salamanders, on account of their shorter term of life, and it is 
  therefore easier to get into touch with them. To accomplish the 
  restoration of our empire over the sylphs, gnomes, or nymphs, we 
  must close a glass full of air, earth, or water, and expose it to the 
  sun for a month, at the end of which period its various elements 
  must be separated according to science. This process is most easy 
  in the case of water and earth. " Thus, " says the Comte, " without 
  characters, without ceremonies, without barbarous words, it is 
  possible to rule absolutely over these peoples." Other authorities 
  prescribe other means of obtaining dominion over the spirits of the 
  elements. Eliphas Levi, , for instance, states that anyone desirous 
  of subjugating the elementals must first perform the four trials of 
  antique initiation; but as the original trials are no longer known 
  similar ones must be substituted. Thus he who would control the 
  sylphs must walk fearlessly on the edge of a precipice, he who 
  would win the service of the salamanders must take his stand in a 
  burning building, and so on, the point of the ordeals being that the 
  man should show himself unafraid of the elements whose 
  inhabitants he desires to rule. In mediaeval times the evocation 
  and exorcism of elementary spirits was much practised, the crystal 
  being a favourite means of evoking them. The exorcism of earth is 
  performed by means of breathing, sprinkling of water, and burning 
  of incense, and the repetition of a formula of prayer to the gnomes. 
  Air is exorcised by breathing towards the four cardinal points, and 
  by the recital of prayers to the airspirits (sylphs). The casting of 
  salt, incense, sulphur, camphor, and white resin into a fire is 
  declared efficacious in the exorcism of that element. In the case of 
  water, breathing and laying on of hands, repetition of formulae, 
  mixing of salt and ashes of incense, and other ceremonials are to 
  be observed. In every instance a special consecration of the four 
  elements is a primary and essential part of the proceedings confer 
  immortality on an elementary spirit by the ceremony of marriage. 
  But this does not always occur; sometimes the reverse is the case, 
  and the elementals share their mortality with their human mate. In 
  literature, at all events, countless stories relate how men have 
  risked and lost their immortality by marrying a sylph or an undine. 
  According to the Comte de Gabalis, however, it would seem to be a 
  matter of choice whether a man confers his immortality on his 
  ethereal partner, or whether he partakes of her mortal nature; for it 
  is therein suggested that those who have not been predestined to 
  eternal happiness would do well to marry with an elemental, and 
  spare themselves an eternity of woe. 
   
  Not every authority has painted so attractive a picture of the 
  creatures of the elements as has the Abb6 de Villars. By some it is 
  believed that there are numberless degrees among these beings, 
  the highest resembling the lowest angels, while the lowest may 
  often be mistaken for demons, which, of course, they are not. Not 
  only do multitudinous variations of form and disposition 
  characterise the elementals of our own planet; the other planets 
  and the stars are the abode of countless hosts of elementary spirits, 
  differing from those of our world perhaps more than the latter differ 
  from one another.' All the forms of beasts, insects, and reptiles may 
  be taken by the lower elementals, as well as strange combinations 
  of the shapes of different animals. The inhabitants of each element 
  have their peculiar virtues and vices which serve to distinguish 
  them, The sylphs are capricious and inconstant, but agile and 
  active; the undines, jealous and cold, but observant; the 
  salamanders, hot and hasty, but energetic and strong; and the 
  gnomes, greedy of gold and treasures, but nevertheless hard - 
  working, good - tempered and patient. One who would seek 
  dominion over any of these must practise their virtues; but 
  carefully avoid their faults, thus conquering them, as it were, on 
  their own ground. Each species can only dwell in its own proper 
  element. Thus a sy p may not invade the sphere of a salamander, 
  or vice versa, while both would be decidedly out of their element 
  in the regions of the nymphs or the gnomes. Four rulers have been 
  set over the four species - Gob, ruler of the gnomes; Paralda, of the 
  sylphs; Djin, of the salamanders; and Necksa, of the nymphs. To 
  the dwellers in each element is assigned a point of the compass, 
  where lies their special kingdom. To the gnomes is given the north; 
  to the salamanders, the south; to the sylphs, the cast; and to the 
  undines, the west. The gnomes influence those of a melancholic 
  disposition, because they dwell in the gloom of subterranean 
  caverns. The salamanders have an effect on those of sanguine 
  temperament, because their home is in the fire. The influence of 
  the undines is upon the phlegmatic, and of the sylphs upon those 
  of a bilious temperament. Though as a rule they are invisible to 
  human eyes, they may on occasion become visible to those who 
  invoke them, to the sages and philosophers, or even to the 
  multitude. In the reign of king Pepin, Zedekias suggested to the 
  sylphs that they should appear to men, whereupon the air was seen 
  to be full of them, sometimes ranged in battle, or in an aerial navy. 
  It was said by the people that they were sorcerers - an opinion to 
  which Charlemagne and Louis the Debormair subscribed, the latter 
  at last imposing heavy penalties on the supposed sorcerers. So that 
  they might behold their admirable institutions, certain men were 
  raised up in the air, and while descending were seen by their 
  fellowmen on earth. The latter regarded them as stragglers of the 
  aerial army of sorcerers, and thought that they had come to poison 
  the fruits and fountains. These unfortunate persons were thereupon 
  put to death, along with many others suspected of connection with 
  the sorcerers. 
   
  Elixir of Life: No doubt exists that the mediaeval alchemists and 
  mystics believed that they were perfectly justified in their search 
  for the Elixir of Life, the universal medicine, and the renewal of 
  youth. This, with the quest for gold, became the grand aim of 
  alchemy, and although this search may have had a psychical and 
  mystical side, it most certainly had a physical one. But there does 
  not seem to have been any standard method of accomplishing the 
  manufacture of the elixir. Thus in Petit Albert one is instructed to 
  take 81bs. of sugar of mercury as the foundation of such a mixture; 
  while Bernard Trevisan believes that the precipitation of the 
  philosopher's stone into mercurial water results in the manufacture 
  of the elixir. This he states, will when elaborated to the Red, 
  transmute copper and other metals into pure gold, and if 
  elaborated to the White, will produce unalloyed silver. 
   
  But the application of the elixir to the prolongation of life was 
  undoubtedly the chief reason for its continued search. The retired 
  alchemist in his later years, wearied with his quest for gold, craved 
  the boon of youth and desired renewed health and strength to assist 
  him to carry out his great purpose. As an illustration of the 
  alchemical 
   
  To return to the consideration of the nature of these spirits, we find 
  them collated in the Comte de Gabalis with the oracles of 
  antiquity, and even with the classic pantheons of Greece and 
  Rome. Pan, for example, was the first and oldest of the nymphs, 
  and the news of his death, communicated by the people of the air 
  to the inhabitants of the waters, was proclaimed by them in a voice 
  that was heard sounding over ail the rivers of Italy - " The great 
  Pan is dead ! " Mr. A. E. Waite considers that the " angels" evoked 
  in medieval magic, as well as the " devils " of the Sabbath, were 
  higher or lower elementals. Others may see in the brownies and 
  
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  domestic spirits of folk - lore some resemblance to the subjugated 
  elementary spirit. Even the familiar poltergeist, where he does not 
  clearly establish his identity as the spirit of a deceased person, 
  may be regarded with propriety as an elemental. The Theosophists 
  use the word " elemental " in a different sense, to denote the " 
  astral remains " (See Shell) of one who has lived an evil life on 
  earth, and who is loath to leave the scene of his pleasures. With 
  some occultists again, " elemental " really signifies a sub - human 
  being, probably identical with an elementary spirit, but of a mental 
  and moral status considerably lower than that of a human being. 
  conception of the elixir of life, we quote the following from a work 
  dealing with the secret of rejuvenescence, originally supposed to 
  have been written by Arnold de Villanova, and published by 
  Longueville - Harcourt at Paris in 1716: 
   
  " To renew youth is to enter once more into that felicitous season 
  which imparts to the human frame the pleasures and strength of 
  the morning. Here it is to no purpose that we should speak of that 
  problem so much discussed by the Wise, whether the art can be 
  carried to such a pitch of excellence that old age should itself be 
  made young. We know that Paracelsus has vaunted the 
  metamorphic resources of his Mercury of Life which not merely 
  rejuvenates men but converts metals into gold; He who promised 
  unto others the years of the sybils, or at least the 300 winters of 
  Nestor, himself perished at the age of thirty - seven. Let us turn 
  rather to Nature, so admirable in her achievements, and deem her 
  not capable alone of destroying what she has produced at the 
  moment she has begotten them. Is it possible that she will refuse 
  unto man, for whom all was created, what she accords to the stags, 
  the eagles, and the serpents, who do annually cast aside the 
  mournful concomitants of senility, and do assume the most 
  brilliant, the most gracious amenities of the most joyous youth ? 
  Art, it is true, has not as yet arrived at that apex of perfection 
  wherefrom it can renew our youth; but that which was unachieved 
  in the past may be accomplished in the future, a prodigy may be 
  more confidently expected from the fact that in isolated cases it 
  has actually already taken place, as the facts of history make 
  evident. By observing and following the manner in which nature 
  performs such wonders, we may assuredly hope to execute this 
  desirable transformation, and the first condition is an amiable 
  temperament, such as that which was possessed by Moses, of 
  whom it is written that for one hundred and twenty years his sight 
  never failed him. 
   
  The stag, eagle, and sparrow - hawk renew their youth. 
  Aldrovandus has written on the rejuvenescence of the eagle. 
  Among the birds of the air, we are told by Pliny that the raven and 
  the phoenix live, each of them six hundred years. No one denies 
  that the stag is renewed by feeding on vipers and serpents, while 
  the apes of Caucasus, whose diet is pepper, prove a sovereign 
  remedy for the lion, who grows young by devouring their flesh. 
  Those who have written of the elephant maintain that his normal 
  life is extended through three centuries, while the horse, which 
  alone in creation participates in the natures of man, of the lion, of 
  the ox, the sheep, the mule, the stag, the wolf, the fox, the serpent, 
  and the hare, from each deriving three of its qualities, has 
  occasionally survived with undiminished vigour the lapse of a 
  hundred years. The serpent, who is instrumental in the 
  rejuvenescence of the stag, himself renews his youth at the 
  shedding of his scales, from all which considerations, it follows 
  that it is not beyond belief that a like prodigy may be found in the 
  superior order of the same productions whence man has been 
  himself derived, for man is assuredly not in a worse condition than 
  the beasts whom he rules." 
   
  Trithemius (q.v.) on his death - bed dictated a receipt which he 
  said would preserve mind, health and memory with perfect sight 
  and hearing, for those who made use of it. It consists of among 
  other things, calomel, gentian, cinnamon, aniseed, nard, coral, 
  tartar, mace, and five grammes of it were to be taken night and 
  morning in wine or brodium during the whole of the first month; 
  during the second month, in the morning only; during the third 
  month thrice in the week, and so continuing through life. This is a 
  more understandable receipt than that of Eugenius Philalethes, 
  who says: " Ten parts of colestiall slime; separate the male from 
  the female, and each afterwards frqm its own earth, physically, 
  mark you, and with no violence. Conjoin after separation in due, 
  harmonic vitall proportion; and straightway, the Soul descending 
  from the pyroplastic sphere, shall restore, by a mirific embrace, its 
  dead and deserted body. Proceed according to the Volcanico 
  magica theorv, till they are exalted into, the Fifth Metaphysical 
  Rota. This is that world - renowned medicine, whereof so manv 
  have scribbled, which, notwithstanding, so few have known." 
   
  In his History of Magic Eliphas Levi gives Cagliostro's great secret 
  of rejuveneseence in the following terms: 
   
  " Let us now turn to the secret of physical regeneration to attain 
  which -  - according to the occult prescription of the Grand Copht - 
  a retreat of forty days, after the manner of a jubilee, must be made 
  once in every fifty years, beginning during the full moon of May in 
  the company of one faithful person only. It must be also a fast of 
  forty days, drinking May - dew -  collected from sprouting corn 
  with a cloth of pure white linen - and eating new and tender herbs. 
  The repast should begin with a large glass of dew and end with a 
  biscuit or crust of bread. . There should be slight bleeding on the 
  seventeenth day. Balm of Azoth should then be taken morning and 
  evening, beginning with a dose of six drops and increasing by two 
  drops daily till the end of the thirty - second day. At the dawn 
  which follows thereafter renew the slight bleeding; then take to 
  your bed and remain in it till the end of the fortieth day. 
   
  .. On the first awakening after the bleeding, take the first grain of 
  Universal Medicine. A swoon of three hours will be followed by 
  convulsions, sweats and much purging, necessitating a change 
  both of bed and linen. At this stage a br6th of lean beef must be 
  taken, seasoned with rice, sage, valerian, vervain and balm. On the 
  day following take the second grain of Universal Medicine, which 
  is Astral Mercury combined with Sulphur of old.  
   
  On the next dav have a warm bath. On the thirty - sixth day drink a 
  glass of Egyptian wine, and on the thirty - seventh take the third 
  and last grain of Universal Medicine. A profound sleep will follow, 
  during which the hair, teeth, nails and skin will be renewed. The 
  prescription for the thirty - eighth day is another warm bath, 
  steeping aromatic herbs in the water, of the same kind as those 
  specified for the broth. On the thirty - ninth day drink ten drops of 
  Elixir of Acharat in two spoonsful of red wine. The work will be 
  finished on the fortieth day, and the aged man will be renewed in 
  youth. 
   
  " By means of this jubilary regimen, Ca - gliostro claimed to have 
  lived for many centuries. It will be seen that it is a variation of the 
  famous Bath of Immortality in use among the Menandrian 
  Gnostics. 
  
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  Aristeus is stated to have left to his disciples a secret which 
  rendered all metals diaphanous, aiid man immortal. The process 
  would appear to consist in a mystic treatment of the atmosphere, 
  which is to, be congealed and distilled until it develops the divine 
  sparkle, and subsequently becomes liquified. It is then subjected 
  to heat and undergoes several other processes, when the elixir 
  emerges. 
   
  There is surprisingly little literature upon the subject of the Elixir 
  of Life. But a more prolonged notice on the subject will be found 
  under the article " Philosopher's stone " (q.v, ). 
   
  Effide: The dragon - shaped ship of Frithjof, the hero of an 
  Icelandic legend. It was said to be golden - headed, with open 
  jaws, its under part scaled with blue and gold, its tail twisted and 
  of silver, its sails red - bordered and black. When its wins were 
  outspread, it could skim the calmest seas. This ship had been 
  given to one of Frithjof's forefathers as a reward for kindness by 
  Aegir, the sea~god. 
   
  Emerald Table, The: A symbolic work on the hermetic art by 
  Hermes Trismegistus. 
   
  Enchirldion of Pope Leo, The: Is a collection of charms, cast in the 
  form of prayers, which have nothing in common with those of the 
  Church. It is concerned chiefly with worldly, rather than spiritual 
  advantages. It was perhaps printed at Rome in 1523, and again in 
  16o6. Its magical virtue rests on a supposed letter from 
  Charlemagne to Pope Leo, in which he states that since receiving 
  the Exchiridion he has never ceased to be fortunate. The charms it 
  contains are supposed to be effectual against all the dangers to 
  which human flesh is heir - poison, fire, wild beasts and tempests. 
  When a copy of the book has been secured, it must be placed in a 
  small bag of leather, carried on the person, and one page at least 
  read daily. The reading must be done upon the knees with the face 
  turned to the east, and works of piety must be performed in honour 
  of the celestial spirits, whose influence it is desired to attract. The 
  first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John is declared to be 
  the most potent in the book. As for the symbols, they are mostly of 
  oriental origin. It also includes the mysterious prayers of Pope Leo, 
  and certain conjurations of a semi - magical character, including 
  the seven mysterious orisons, which are merely clumsy imitations 
  of the Roman ritual,  
   
  Endless Cord, Tying Knots in: About the years 1877 - 88 Professor 
  Z611ner of Leipsic investigated the phenomena of the medium 
  Slade, and particularly anything which might prove a fourth 
  dimension of space, in which hypothesis Professor Zo11ner was at 
  that time greatly interested. The tying in an endless cord of such 
  knots as could ordinarily only be made if the ends of the cord were 
  free provided such a test. In December, 1877, Zo11ner visited 
  Slade with two pieces of hempen cord, the free ends of each being 
  sealed to a piece of cardboard. To ensure the cord always being in 
  sight Zo11ner hung it round his neck, and kept Slade's hands 
  continually in view. Under these circumstances four knots were 
  produced, apparently on the original sealed cord. 
   
  Enoch: Seventh master of the world after Adain, and author of the 
  Kabalo and Book of the Tarot. He is identical with the Thoth of the 
  Egyptians, the Cadmus of the Plicenicians, and the Palamedes of 
  the Greeks. According to tradition he did not die, but was carried 
  up to heaven, whence he will return at the end of time. 
   
  Enoch, Book of: An Apochryphal book of the Old Testament, 
  written in Hebrew about a century before Christ. The original 
  version was lost about the end of the fourth century, and only 
  fragments remained, but Bruce the trav - eller brought back a copy 
  from Abyssinia, in 1773 in Ethiopia, probably made from the 
  version known to the early Greek fathers. In this work the spiritual 
  world is minutely described, as is the region of Sheol (q.v.) the 
  place of the wicked. The book also deals with the history of the 
  fallen angels, their relations with the human species and the 
  foundations of magic. The book says: " that there were angels who 
  consented to fall from, heaven that they might have intercourse 
  with the daughters of earth. For in those days the sons of men 
  having multiplied, there were born to them daughters of great 
  beauty. And when the angels, or sons of heaven, beheld them, they 
  were filled with desire; wherefore they said to one another: Come 
  let us choose wives from among the race of man, and let us beget 
  children'. Their leader Samyasa, answered thereupon and said: ' 
  Perchance you will be wanting in the courage needed to fulfil this 
  resolution, and then I alone shall be answerable for your fall.' But 
  they swore that they would in no wise repent and that they would 
  achieve their whole design. Now there were two hundred who 
  descended on Mount Armon, and it was from this time that the 
  mountain received its designation, which signifies Mount of the 
  Oath. Hereinafter follow the names of those angelic leaders who 
  descended with this object: Samyasa, chief a - mong all, 
  Urakabarameel, Azibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, 
  Sprakuyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Ananc, Zavebe, Sameveel, 
  Ertrael, Turel, jomiael, Arizial. They took wives with whom they 
  had intercourse, to whom also they taught Magic, the art of 
  enchantment and the diverse properties of roQts and trees. 
  Amazarac gave ingtruction in all secrets of sorcerers; Barkaial was 
  the mister of those who study the stars; Akibeel manifested signs; 
  and Azaradel taught the motions of the moon." In this account we 
  see a description of the profanation of mysteries. The fallen angels 
  exposed their occult and heaven - born wisdom to earthly women, 
  whereby it was profaned, and brute force taking advantage of the 
  profanation of divine law, reigned supreme. Only a deluge could 
  wipe out the stain of the enormity, and pave the way for a 
  restitution of the balance between the human and the divine, which 
  had been disturbed by these unlawful revelations. A translation of 
  the Book of Enoch was published by Archbishop Lawrence in 
  1821, the Etheopic text in 1838, and there is a good edition by 
  Dillman (1851). Philippi and Ewald have also written special 
  works on the subject. 
   
  Enochian: a genuine language and a system of magic that was 
  discovered by Dr. John Dee (1527-1608) who was a magician, 
  philosopher, astrologer, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth, and his 
  assistant Edward Kelly. The Enochian system was received 
  through the crystal skryings of Kelly, under Dee's supervision. The 
  system was described as the "language of the angels" or the 
  "language of Enoch," and came to be called the Enochian or 
  Angelic language. Enochian magic is a complex system of 
  elemental and spiritual hierarchies, which was further developed 
  by MacGregor Mathers of  the Golden Dawn. (See Dee, John) 
   
  Fagail: The - parting gift" of the fairies, of Gaelic origin. This may 
  be of a pleasant or unpleasant nature - it may be death, or the 
  conversion of a man who worked badly, was ugly, and of rude 
  speech, into the best workman, the bestlooking man, and the best 
  speaker in theplace - Campbell's Superstitions of the Scottish 
  Highlands. 
   
  
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  Fairies: A species of supernatural beings, and one of the most 
  beautiful and important of mythological conceptions. The belief in 
  fairies is very ancient and widespread, and the same ideas 
  concerning them are to be found among rude and uncultivated 
  races as in th -  poesy of more civilised peoples. Of British fairies 
  there are several distinct kinds, and these differ considerably in 
  their characteristics. In Ireland, where the belief is strongest, the 
  fairies are called  - good people, " and are of a benevolent but 
  capricious and mischievous disposition. The pixies of England are 
  very similar. The industrious domestic spirit known as Puck, or 
  Robin Goodfellow, is of the fairy kind; so also are the brownies of 
  Scotland. It is supposed that the hard work of the latter has given 
  them the swarthiness from which they take their name, the other 
  being called fairies from their fairness. 
   
  Fairfax, Elward: An English poet of the sixteenth century, author 
  of a work on Demonology, wherein he treats somewhat credulously 
  of sorcery. 
   
  Fendeurs: A supposed French Rosicrucian Society, concerning 
  which very little is known. It flourished in the middle of the 
  seventeenth century; and its members claimed that it was of 
  Scottish origin. 
   
  Fetch: According to Irish belief, the apparition of a living person; 
  the Irish form of the wraith (q.v.) It resembles in every particular 
  the individual whose death it is supposed to foretell, but it is 
  generally of a shadowy or ghostly appearance. The fetch may be 
  seen by more than one person at the same time and, like the wraith 
  of England and Scotland, may appear to the person it represents. 
  There is a belief, too, that if the fetch be seen in the morning, it 
  indicates long life for the original: but if it be seen at night, his 
  speedy demise may be expected. The Fetch enters largely into the 
  folk - tales of Ireland; and it is hardly surprising that so many tales 
  have been woven around it, for there is something gruesome in the 
  idea of being haunted by one's own " double " which has frequently 
  been turned to account by more sophisticated writers than the 
  inventors of folk - tales. 
   
  Fiction, English Occult: English literature, as it is known  to - day, 
  really begins with the Elizabethan age; for the writers prior to that 
  time, excellent as many of them are,  elicit comparatively little 
  interest nowadays save among experts. And, by the time of 
  Elizabeth's advent, the old miracle plays " had gone out of fashion; 
  yet tales about the miraculous doings of mythical heroes continued 
  to find favour, and many new things of this kind were written. 
   
  A few of the Restoration dramatists dealt in magic and the like, but 
  throughout the Georgian age people were mostly too prosaic, too 
  matter - of - fact, to care for things of that sort, and they were 
  eschewed by the majority of prominent writers of the day. 
  However, after th - e great artistic movement commonly styled the 
  Renaissance of Wonder, the old interest in the occult began to 
  revive apace, and, ere the nineteenth century was very far 
  advanced, a literature suitable to this budding taste was being 
  purveyed on a voluminous scale. Among the first to enter the lists, 
  soi disant, was William Godwin, with his novel of St. Truyne the 
  Rosicrucian; while Godwin's daughter Mary, chiefly remembered 
  nowadays as the second wife~ of Shelley, merits notice as - -  
  mystical writer by virtue of her story of Frankenstein. A little 
  before the advent of this authoress, numerous occult tales had been 
  written by Matthew Lewis, notably Tales of Terror and the drama of 
  Castle Spectre, staged successfully at Drury Lane in 17o8; while 
  not long after Lewis a further novelist came to swell. the muster - 
  roll, Bulwer Lytton, whose taste for the mystic. is seen especially 
  in Zanoni, A Strange Story, and Haunters and the Haunted. His 
  essays of this kind, nevertheless, were never very satisfactory in 
  the real literary sense; and as Leslie Stephen once discovered, 
  they too often smacked of the theatrical. But Sir Walter Scott, on 
  the other hand, writing just before Lytton's time, not only showed a 
  keen fondness for occult matter, but frequently utilised it to 
  genuine artistic purpose. In The Monastery a mysterious sylph 
  rises from a fountain; astrology is introduced into Guy Manneying, 
  The Fortunes of Nigel, and Quentin Durward; while a splendid 
  ghost story is told in Redgauntlet, and ghosts figure also in 
  Woodstock. In The Bride of Lamniermoor, besides, the author 
  deals incidentally with that firm belief in prophecy which was long 
  a prominent part of Scottish life; while in Waverley, again, he 
  depicts a Highland chief as awestruck and unmanned by the sight 
  of a peculiar omen. Highland superstitions, indeed, appealed with 
  particular potency to Sir Walter's romantic temper; while he was 
  not the only writer of his time who dealt ably with this branch of 
  the occult, another being Susan Ferrier in her novels of Destiny 
  and The Chief's Daughter. Nor should we fail ere leaving this 
  period, to mention Ann Radcliffe, for in almost all her novels the 
  supernatural figures prominently. 
   
  While the last - named trio were at work thus in Britain, some good 
  stories in which magic occurs were being written in America by 
  Washington Irving; and, not very long after his day, a second 
  American arose to treat brilliantly of weirdness and wizardry, 
  Edgar Allan Poe. Then, reverting to England, ghosts appear in a 
  few of Dickens' novels, and Charles Reade manifests here and 
  there a love of the occult; while coming to slightly later times, a 
  writerwho manifested this predilection abundantly is Robert Louis 
  Stevenson. His Dr. Jekyll and My. Hyde is among the best of all 
  modern novels in which the supernatural plays a salient r6le, and 
  many of his short stories pertain also to the category of occult, for 
  example, the tale of the magic bottle in Island Nights 
  Entertainments; while, about the date these were being composed, 
  Oscar Wilde was writing what is one of the most beautiful things 
  dealing with invisible powers, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Much 
  inferior to this masterpiece, yet possessing considerable 
  excellence, are George du Maurier's Peter Ibbelson, Trilby and 
  The Martian, in each of which the supernatural is prominent; while 
  a further work which should certainly be cited is Lafcadio Hearn's 
  Dead Love, a tiny tale of magic which the author thought lightly of, 
  but which future generations are almost sure to prize on account of 
  its lovely wording, at some places worthy of Theophile Gautier 
  himself, who was Hearn's acknowledged master. 
   
  These recent authors do not by any means conclude the list, for a 
  wealth of occult fiction has been written since their day. Among its 
  most remarkable items is The Ghost Ship of Richard Middleton, a 
  singularly promising storyteller and poet who died by his own hand 
  lately at the early age of twenty - nine; while many contemporary 
  novelists have introduced magic into their books, for instance, Mr. 
  Rider Haggard in She, the late Mr. Bram Stoker in Dracula, and 
  Mr. F. A. Anstey in Vice Versa and The Brass Bottle. In fact, were 
  one to cite all the living wont to trade in the occult, an article of 
  formidable size would be the result, and accordingly the attempt 
  must be eschewed; but at least it is essential to mention Mr. 
  Theodore Watts - Dunton's Aylwin, this reflecting really fine 
  treatment of mystic matter, and being couched throughout in a 
  style of exceptional beauty. Mr. Arthur Symons is another great 
  writer of to - day who loves the borderland between dreams and 
  
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  realities, as witness many pages in his Spiritual Adventures while 
  the invisible world has always appealed powerfully~ to Mr. W. B. 
  Yeats, and is employed to good purpose here and there in his 
  stories of the Irish peasantry. It is less the ghost than the fairy 
  which he delights in, true Celt that he is; and his predilection 
  herein sets one dreaming of fairy - tales in general, and summons a 
  curious medley of names. William Morris wrote a host of beautiful 
  fairystories, some of them concerned with the promulgation of 
  socialistic ideas, but others innocent of anything of that sort; while 
  the voluminous works of Ruskin include what can only be defined 
  as a fairy tale, The King of the Golden River. Numerous 
  contemporary writers have likewise done good work in this field - 
  Lord Dunsany, Mr. J. M. Barrie, and more especially Mr. Laurence 
  Housman - while a remarkable fairy play has been written lately by 
  Mr. Graham Robertson, and has been staged with surprising 
  triumph. Then, reverting for a moment to defunct authors, fairies 
  occur in that charming volume by H. D. Lowry, Make Believe, and 
  in Richard Middleton's book, The Day Before Yesterday; while no 
  account of this particular domain of literaiure would be complete 
  without mention of the work of Lewis Carrol, and also of Jean 
  Ingelow's lovely story, Mopsa the Fairy. This last is possibly the 
  best of all fairy stories, and one which has been most widely and 
  wisely cherished; and it stands out very clearly in the memory of 
  nearly every man of imaginative temperament, reminding him of 
  his own childhood. 
   
  Finn Mae Cummal: In Irish romance, Captain of the Fianna and 
  the centre of the Ossianic tales. His father Cumhal, chief of the 
  clan Basena, was slain at Castle Knock by the rival clan Morna, 
  but his mother succeeded in saving him from the enemy. He was 
  brought up in hiding and given the name of Finn from the 
  clearness of his skin. He learned science and poetry from the druid 
  Finegas who dwelt on the river Boyne. The druid had been unable 
  to catch the salmon of knowledge until Finn became his pupil, and 
  when he did succeed in catching it, he told Finn to watch it while 
  it was cooking but not to partake of it. Finn, however, burned his 
  fingers as he turned the spit and put one of them in his mouth. 
  Seeing this, Finegas bade him eat the salmon and he became filled 
  with the wisdom of all ages. Afterwards he took service with King 
  Cormac to whom he revealed his name and lineage. Cormac 
  promised him the leadership of the Fianna if he succeeded in 
  killing the fire - blowing demon that came yearly to set Tara in 
  flames. Finn slew the demon and bore his head back to Tara. The 
  Fianna were therefore ordered to swear allegiance to Finn as their 
  captain, which, led by Goll mac Morna, their former captain, they 
  all did. Under Finn, the Fianna rose to great eminence, an 
  eminence which at length became tyrannical and from which they 
  were thrown at the battle of Bowra. Finn's end is shrouded in 
  mystery. According to popular tradition he and his great 
  companions lie sleeping in an enchanted cave whence they shall 
  arise in the hour of their country's need, like Arthur, Barbarossa 
  and Charlemagne. 
   
  'At the time Finn was born his father Cumhal, of the sons of 
  Baiscne, Head of the Fianna of Ireland, had been killed in battle 
  by the sons of Morna that were fighting with him for the leadership. 
  And his mother, that was beautiful long-haired Muirne, daughter of 
  Tadg, son of Nuada of the Tuatha de Danaan and of Ethlinn, 
  mother of Lugh of the Long Hand, did not dare to keep him with 
  her; and two women, Bodhmall, the woman Druid, and Liath 
  Luachra, came and brought him away to care for him. 
   
  It was to the woods of Slieve Bladhma they brought him, and they 
  nursed him secretly, because of his father’s enemies, the sons of 
  Morna, and they kept him there a long time. 
   
  And Muirne, his mother, took another husband that was king of 
  Carraighe; but at the end of six years she came to see Finn, going 
  through every lonely place till she came to the wood, and there she 
  found the little hunting cabin, and the boy asleep in it, and she 
  lifted him up in her arms and kissed him, and she sang a little 
  sleepy song to him; and then she said farewell to the women, and 
  she went away again. 
   
  And the two women went on caring him till he came to sensible 
  years; and one day when he went out he saw a wild duck on the 
  lake with her clutch, and he made a cast at her that cut the wings 
  off her that she could not fly, and he brought her back to the cabin, 
  and that was his first hunt. 
   
  And they gave him good training in running and leaping and 
  swimming. One of them would run round a tree, and she having a 
  thorn switch, and Finn after her with another switch, and each one 
  trying to hit at the other; and they would leave him in a field, and 
  hares along with him, and would bid him not to let the hares quit 
  the field, but to keep before them whichever way they would go; 
  and to teach him swimming they would throw him into the water 
  and let him make his way out. 
   
  But after a while he went away with a troop of poets, to hide from 
  the sons of Morna, and they hid him in the mountain of Crotta 
  Cliach; but there was a robber in Leinster at that time, Fiacuil, son 
  of Codhna, and he came where the poets were in Fidh Gaible and 
  killed them all. But he spared the child and brought him to his own 
  house, that was in a cold marsh. But the two women, Bodhmall and 
  Liath, came looking for him after a while, and Fiacuil gave him up 
  to them, and they brought him back to the same place he was 
  before. 
   
  He grew up there, straight and strong and fair-haired and 
  beautiful. And one day he was out in Slieve Bladhma, and the two 
  women along with him, and they saw before them a herd of the wild 
  deer of the mountain. "It is a pity," said the old women, "we not to 
  be able to get a deer of those deer." "I will get one for you," said 
  Finn; and with that he followed after them, and caught two stags of 
  them and brought them home to the hunting cabin. And after that 
  he used to be hunting for them every day. But at last they said to 
  him: 
   
  "It is best for you to leave us now, for the sons of Morna are 
  watching again to kill you." 
   
  So he went away then by himself, and never stopped till he came to 
  Magh Lifé, and there he saw young lads swimming in a lake, and 
  they called to him to swim against them. So he went into the lake, 
  and he beat them at swimming. "Fair he is and well shaped," they 
  said when they saw him swimming, and it was from that time he got 
  the name of Finn, that is, Fair. But they got to be jealous of his 
  strength, and he went away and left them. 
   
  He went on then till he came to Loch Lein, and he took service 
  there with the King of Finntraigh; and there was no hunter like 
  him, and the king said: "If Cumhal had left a son, you would be 
  that son." 
   
  
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  He went from that king after, and he went into Carraighe, and there 
  he took service with the king, that had taken his mother Muirne for 
  his wife. And one day they were playing chess together, and he 
  won seven games one after another. "Who are you at all?" said the 
  king then. "I am a son of a countryman of the Luigne of Teamhair," 
  said Finn. "That is not so," said the king, "but you are the son that 
  Muirne my wife bore to Cumhal. And do not stop here any longer," 
  he said, "that you may not be killed under my protection." 
   
  From that he went into Connacht looking for his father’s brother, 
  Crimall, son of Trenmor; and as he was going on his way he heard 
  the crying of a lone woman. He went to her, and looked at her, and 
  tears of blood were on her face. "Your face is red with blood, 
  woman," he said. "I have reason for it," said she, "for my only son 
  is after being killed by a great fighting man that came on us." And 
  Finn followed after the big champion and fought with him and 
  killed him. And the man he killed was the same man that had 
  given Cumhal his first wound in the battle where he got his death, 
  and had brought away his treasure-bag with him. 
   
  Now as to that treasure-bag, it is of a crane skin it was made, that 
  was one time the skin of Aoife, the beautiful sweetheart of Ilbrec, 
  son of Manannan, that was put into the shape of a crane through 
  jealousy. And it was in Manannan’s house it used to be, and there 
  were treasures kept in it, Manannan’s shirt and his knife, and the 
  belt and the smith’s hook of Goibniu, and the shears of the King of 
  Alban, and the helmet of the King of Lochlann, and a belt of the 
  skin of a great fish, and the bones of Asal’s pig that had been 
  brought to Ireland by the sons of Tuireann. All those treasures 
  would be in the bag at full tide, but at the ebbing of the tide it 
  would be empty. And it went from Manannan to Lugh, son of 
  Ethlinn, and after that to Cumhal, that was husband to Muirne, 
  Ethlinn’s daughter. 
   
  And Finn took the bag and brought it with him till he found 
  Crimall, that was now an old man, living in a lonely place, and 
  some of the old men of the Fianna were with him, and used to go 
  hunting for him. And Finn gave him the bag, and told him his 
  whole story. 
   
  And then he said farewell to Crimall, and went on to learn poetry 
  from Finegas, a poet that was living at the Boinn, for the poets 
  thought it was always on the brink of water poetry was revealed to 
  them. And he did not give him his own name, but he took the name 
  of Deimne. Seven years, now, Finegas had stopped at the Boinn, 
  watching the salmon, for it was in the prophecy that he would eat 
  the salmon of knowledge that would come there, and that he would 
  have all knowledge after. And when at the last the salmon of 
  knowledge came, he brought it to where Finn was, and bade him to 
  roast it, but he bade him not to eat any of it. And when Finn 
  brought him the salmon after a while he said: "Did you eat any of it 
  at all, boy?" "I did not," said Finn; "but I burned my thumb putting 
  down a blister that rose on the skin, and after that, I put my thumb 
  in my mouth." "What is your name, boy?" said Finegas. "Deimne," 
  said he. "It is not, but it is Finn your name is, and it is to you and 
  not to myself the salmon was given in the prophecy." With that he 
  gave Finn the whole of the salmon, and from that time Finn had the 
  knowledge that came from the nuts of the nine hazels of wisdom 
  that grow beside the well that is below the sea. 
   
  And besides the wisdom he got then, there was a second wisdom 
  came to him another time, and this is the way it happened. There 
  was a well of the moon belonging to Beag, son of Buan, of the 
  Tuatha de Danaan, and whoever would drink out of it would get 
  wisdom, and after a second drink he would get the gift of 
  foretelling. And the three daughters of Beag, son of Buan, had 
  charge of the well, and they would not part with a vessel of it for 
  anything less than red gold. And one day Finn chanced to be 
  hunting in the rushes near the well, and the three women ran out to 
  hinder him from coming to it, and one of them that had a vessel of 
  water in her hand, threw it at him to stop him, and a share of the 
  water went into his mouth. And from that out he had all the 
  knowledge that the water of that well could give. 
   
  And he learned the three ways of poetry; and this is the poem he 
  made to show he had got his learning well: — 
   
  "It is the month of May is the pleasant time; its face is beautiful; 
  the blackbird sings his full song, the living wood is his holding, the 
  cuckoos are singing and ever singing; there is a welcome before 
  the brightness of the summer. 
   
  "Summer is lessening the rivers, the swift horses are looking for the 
  pool; the heath spreads out its long hair, the weak white bog-down 
  grows. A wildness comes on the heart of the deer; the sad restless 
  sea is asleep. 
   
  "Bees with their little strength carry a load reaped from the 
  flowers; the cattle go up muddy to the mountains; the ant has a 
  good full feast. 
   
  "The harp of the woods is playing music; there is colour on the 
  hills, and a haze on the full lakes, and entire peace upon every 
  sail. 
   
  "The corncrake is speaking, a loud-voiced poet; the high lonely 
  waterfall is singing a welcome to the warm pool, the talking of the 
  rushes has begun. 
   
  "The light swallows are darting; the loudness of music is around 
  the hill; the fat soft mast is budding; there is grass on the 
  trembling bogs. 
   
  "The bog is as dark as the feathers of the raven; the cuckoo makes 
  a loud welcome; the speckled salmon is leaping; as strong is the 
  leaping of the swift fighting man. 
   
  "The man is gaining; the girl is in her comely growing power; every 
  wood is without fault from the top to the ground, and every wide 
  good plain. 
   
  "It is pleasant is the colour of the time; rough winter is gone; every 
  plentiful wood is white; summer is a joyful peace. 
   
  "A flock of birds pitches in the meadow; there are sounds in the 
  green fields, there is in them a clear rushing stream. 
   
  "There is a hot desire on you for the racing of horses; twisted holly 
  makes a leash for the hound; a bright spear has been shot into the 
  earth, and the flag-flower is golden under it. 
   
  "A weak lasting little bird is singing at the top of his voice; the lark 
  is singing clear tidings; May without fault, of beautiful colours. 
   
    
   
  
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  "I have another story for you; the ox is lowing, the water is creeping 
  in, the summer is gone. High and cold the wind, low the sun, cries 
  are about us; the sea is quarrelling. 
   
  "The ferns are reddened and their shape is hidden; the cry of the 
  wild goose is heard; the cold has caught the wings of the birds; it is 
  the time of ice-frost, hard, unhappy." 
   
    
   
  And after that, Finn being but a young lad yet, made himself ready 
  and went up at Samhain time to the gathering of the High King at 
  Teamhair. And it was the law at that gathering, no one to raise a 
  quarrel or bring out any grudge against another through the whole 
  of the time it lasted. And the king and his chief men, and Goll, son 
  of Morna, that was now Head of the Fianna, and Caoilte, son of 
  Ronan, and Conan, son of Morna, of the sharp words, were sitting 
  at a feast in the great house of the Middle Court; and the young lad 
  came in and took his place among them, and none of them knew 
  who he was. 
   
  The High King looked at him then, and the horn of meetings was 
  brought to him, and he put it into the boy’s hand, and asked him 
  who was he. 
   
  "I am Finn, son of Cumhal," he said, "son of the man that used to 
  be head over the Fianna, and king of Ireland; and I am come now 
  to get your friendship, and to give you my service." 
   
  "You are son of a friend, boy," said the king, "and son of a man I 
  trusted." 
   
  Then Finn rose up and made his agreement of service and of 
  faithfulness to the king; and the king took him by the hand and put 
  him sitting beside his own son, and they gave themselves to 
  drinking and to pleasure for a while. 
   
  Every year, now, at Samhain time, for nine years, there had come a 
  man of the Tuatha de Danaan out of Sidhe Finnachaidh in the 
  north, and had burned up Teamhair. Aillen, son of Midhna, his 
  name was, and it is the way he used to come, playing music of the 
  Sidhe, and all the people that heard it would fall asleep. And when 
  they were all in their sleep, he would let a flame of fire out of his 
  mouth, and would blow the flame till all Teamhair was burned. 
   
  The king rose up at the feast after a while, and his smooth horn in 
  his hand, and it is what he said: "If I could find among you, men of 
  Ireland, any man that would keep Teamhair till the break of day 
  to-morrow without being burned by Aillen, son of Midhna, I would 
  give him whatever inheritance is right for him to have, whether it 
  be much or little." 
   
  But the men of Ireland made no answer, for they knew well that at 
  the sound of the sweet pitiful music made by that comely man of 
  the Sidhe, even women in their pains and men that were wounded 
  would fall asleep. 
   
  It is then Finn rose up and spoke to the King of Ireland. "Who will 
  be your sureties that you will fulfil this?" he said. "The kings of the 
  provinces of Ireland," said the king, "and Cithruadh with his 
  Druids." So they gave their pledges, and Finn took in hand to keep 
  Teamhair safe till the breaking of day on the morrow. 
   
  Now there was a fighting man among the followers of the King of 
  Ireland, Fiacha, son of Conga, that Cumhal, Finn’s father, used to 
  have a great liking for, and he said to Finn: "Well, boy," he said, 
  "what reward would you give me if I would bring you a deadly 
  spear, that no false cast was ever made with?" "What reward are 
  you asking of me?" said Finn. "Whatever your right hand wins at 
  any time, the third of it to be mine," said Fiacha, "and a third of 
  your trust and your friendship to be mine." "I will give you that," 
  said Finn. Then Fiacha brought him the spear, unknown to the 
  sons of Morna or to any other person, and he said: "When you will 
  hear the music of the Sidhe, let you strip the covering off the head 
  of the spear and put it to your forehead, and the power of the spear 
  will not let sleep come upon you." 
   
  Then Finn rose up before all the men of Ireland, and he made a 
  round of the whole of Teamhair. And it was not long till he heard 
  the sorrowful music, and he stripped the covering from the head of 
  the spear, and he held the power of it to his forehead. And Aillen 
  went on playing his little harp, till he had put every one in their 
  sleep as he was used; and then he let a flame of fire out from his 
  mouth to burn Teamhair. And Finn held up his fringed crimson 
  cloak against the flame, and it fell down through the air and went 
  into the ground, bringing the four-folded cloak with it deep into the 
  earth. 
   
  And when Aillen saw his spells were destroyed, he went back to 
  Sidhe Finnachaidh on the top of Slieve Fuad; but Finn followed 
  after him there, and as Aillen was going in at the door he made a 
  cast of the spear that went through his heart. And he struck his 
  head off then, and brought it back to Teamhair, and fixed it on a 
  crooked pole and left it there till the rising of the sun over the 
  heights and invers of the country. 
   
  And Aillen’s mother came to where his body was lying, and there 
  was great grief on her, and she made this complaint: — 
   
  "Ochone! Aillen is fallen, chief of the Sidhe of Beinn Boirche; the 
  slow clouds of death are come on him. Och! he was pleasant, Och! 
  he was kind. Aillen, son of Midhna of Slieve Fuad. 
   
  "Nine times he burned Teamhair. It is a great name he was always 
  looking for, Ochone, Ochone, Aillen!" 
   
  And at the breaking of day, the king and all the men of Ireland 
  came out upon the lawn at Teamhair where Finn was. "King," said 
  Finn, "there is the head of the man that burned Teamhair, and the 
  pipe and the harp that made his music. And it is what I think," he 
  said, "that Teamhair and all that is in it is saved." 
   
  Then they all came together into the place of counsel, and it is 
  what they agreed, the headship of the Fianna of Ireland to be given 
  to Finn. And the king said to Goll, son of Morna: "Well, Goll," he 
  said, "is it your choice to quit Ireland or to put your hand in Finn’s 
  hand?" "By my word, I will give Finn my hand," said Goll. 
   
  And when the charms that used to bring good luck had done their 
  work, the chief men of the Fianna rose up and struck their hands 
  in Finn’s hand, and Goll, son of Morna, was the first to give him 
  his hand the way there would be less shame on the rest for doing it. 
   
  And Finn kept the headship of the Fianna until the end; and the 
  place he lived in was Almhuin of Leinster, where the white dun 
  was made by Nuada of the Tuatha de Danaan, that was as white as 
  if all the lime in Ireland was put on it, and that got its name from 
  
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  the great herd of cattle that died fighting one time around the well, 
  and that left their horns there, speckled horns and white. 
   
  And as to Finn himself, he was a king and a seer and a poet; a 
  Druid and a knowledgeable man; and everything he said was 
  sweet-sounding to his people. And a better fighting man than Finn 
  never struck his hand into a king’s hand, and whatever any one 
  ever said of him, he was three times better. And of his justice it 
  used to be said, that if his enemy and his own son had come before 
  him to be judged, it is a fair judgment he would have given 
  between them. And as to his generosity it used to be said, he never 
  denied any man as long as he had a mouth to eat with, and legs to 
  bring away what he gave him; and he left no woman without her 
  bride-price, and no man without his pay; and he never promised at 
  night what he would not fulfil on the morrow, and he never 
  promised in the day what he would not fulfil at night, and he never 
  forsook his right-hand friend. And if he was quiet in peace he was 
  angry in battle, and Oisin his son and Osgar his son’s son followed 
  him in that. There was a young man of Ulster came and claimed 
  kinship with them one time, saying they were of the one blood. "If 
  that is so," said Oisin, "it is from the men of Ulster we took the 
  madness and the angry heart we have in battle." "That is so 
  indeed," said Finn. 
   
   
  Flamel, Nicholas: was born at Pontoise, of a poor but respectable 
  family, about the beginning of the fourteenth century. He received 
  a good education, of which his natural abilities enabled him to 
  make the best use. Repairing to Paris, he obtained employment as 
  a public scrivener, - sitting at the corner of the Rue de Marivaux, 
  copying or inditing letters and other documents. The occupation 
  brought with it little profit, and Flamel tried in succession poetry 
  and painting with an equally unsatisfactory result. His quick wits 
  suggested that as he could make no money by teaching mankind, it 
  might be more profitable to cheat them, and he took up the pursuit 
  of Astrology, casting horoscopes and telling fortunes. He was right 
  in his conjectures, and soon throve so vigorously that he was 
  enabled to take unto himself a wife named Petronella. But those 
  who begin to study the magic art for profit or amusement generally 
  finish by addicting themselves to it with a blindly passionate love. 
  Nicholas devoted himself both day and night to his fascinating but 
  deceptive pursuits; and soon acquired a thorough knowledge of all 
  that previous adepts had written upon the elixir vihv, the universal 
  Alkahest, and the Philosopher's Stone. In 1297 he lighted upon a 
  manual of the art which would have been invaluable if it had been 
  intelligible. He bought it for two florins. It contained three times 
  seven leaves written with a steel instrument upon the bark of trees. 
  The caligraphy was as admirable as the Latin was cryptical. Each 
  seventh leaf was free from writing, but emblazoned with a picture; 
  the first, representing a serpent swallowing rods; the second, a 
  serpent crucified on a cross; and the third, the and expanse of a 
  treeless desert, in whose depths a fountain bubbled, with serpents 
  trailing their slimy folds from side to side. The author of this 
  mysterious book purported to be " Abraham, the patriarch, Jew, 
  prince, philosopher, Levite, priest, and astrologer, " (q.v.) who 
  added to his other claims upon the wonder of mankind a 
  knowledge of Latin. He had included within these precious pages a 
  complete exposition of the art of transmuting metals; descrbing 
  every process, explaining the different vessels, and pointing out 
  the proper seasons for making experiments. In fact, the book would 
  have been perfect, but for one deficiency; it was addressed not so 
  much to the tyro as to an adept, and took it for granted that its 
  student was already in possess2 of the Philosopher's Stone. This 
  was a terrible obstacle to the inquiring Flamel. The more he 
  studied the book the less he understood it. He studied the letter 
  Dress, and he studied the illustrations; he invited the wise men of 
  France to come and study them, but no light was thro -, vii upon 
  the darkness. For thrice seven years he pored over these 
  perplexing pages, until at length his wife suggested that a Jewish 
  Rabbi might be able to interpret them. As the chiefs of the Jews 
  were principally located in Spain, to Spain went Flamel, and there 
  he remained for two years. From one of the Hebrew sages he 
  obtained some hints which afforded a key to the patriarchal 
  mysteries, and returning to Paris he recommenced his studies with 
  a new vigour. They were rewarded with success. On the 13th of 
  February, 1382, O.S., Flamel made a projection on Mercury, and 
  produced some virgin silver. On the 25th of the following April he 
  converted some Mer cury into gold, and found himself the fortunate 
  possessor of an inexhaustible treasure. But his good fortune did not 
  end here. Flamel, continuing his researches discovered the elixir 
  of life, which enabled him to prolong his life~and accumulate gold 
  - to the venerable age of ri6. He further administered the life - 
  giving potion to his wife, who reached nearly as great a longevity as 
  himself, dying in the year preceding his own death, A.D. 1414. As 
  they had no children, they spent their wealth upon churches and 
  hospiQs, and several of the religious and charitable institutions of 
  France still attest their well - directed benevolence. There is no 
  doubt that Flamel practised alchemy, and one of his works on the 
  fascinating science - a poem entitled The Philosophic Summary - 
  was printed as late as 1735. In Salmon's valuable and very curious 
  Bibliotheque des Philosophes Chimiques are preserved same 
  specimens of the drawings in Abraham's treatise on metallurgy and 
  of his own handwriting. But Flamel was neither an enthusiast nor a 
  dupe. His alchemical studies were but the disguises of his 
  usurious practices. To account for the immense wealth he acquired 
  by money - lending to the young French nobles, and by transacting 
  business between the Jews of France and those of Spain, he 
  invented the fiction of his discovery of the Philosopher's Stone. He 
  nevertheless obtained great repute as a magician, and his followers 
  believed that he was still alive though retired from the world and 
  would live for six centuries. 
   
  Fludd, or Flud, Robert: This Rosicrucian and alchemist was born 
  in 1574 at Milgate House, in the parish of Bearsted, Kent, his 
  father being one Sir Thomas Fludd, a knight who enjoyed the 
  patronage of Queen Elizabeth, and served her for several years as " 
  Treasurer of War in the Low Countries." At the age of seventeen 
  Robert entered S~14 John's College, Oxford, and five years later 
  he took his degree as Bachelor of Arts; while shortly afterwards, on 
  his deciding to take up medical science, he left England and went 
  to prosecute his studies on the Continent. Going first to Spain, he 
  travelled thence to Italy, and subsequently stayed for some time in 
  Germany, where he is said to have supported himself by acting as 
  pedagogue in various noble households; but soon he was home 
  again, and in 1605 his alma mater, of Oxford conferred on him the 
  degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, while 
  five years later he became a Fellow of the College of Physicians. 
  Having thus equipped himself thoroughly for the medical 
  profession, Fludd went to London and took a house in Fenchurch 
  Street, a quiet place in those days, though now a noisy centre of 
  commerce; and here he soon gained an extensive practice, his 
  success being due not merely to his genuine skill, but to his having 
  an attractive and even magnetic personality. But busy though he 
  was in this way, he found leisure to write at length on medicine; 
  while anon he became an important and influential member of the 
  Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, iind at the same time he commenced 
  
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  alchemistic experiments. He. preached the great efficacy of the 
  magnet, of sympathetic cures, of the weapon - salve; he declared 
  his belief in the Philosopher's Stone, the universal alkahest or 
  solvent, the elixir vitep; he maintained that all things were 
  animated by two principles - condensation, the Boreal, or northern 
  virtue; and rarefaction, the Austral, or southern virtue. He asserted 
  that the human body was controlled by a number of demons, that 
  each disease had its peculiar demon, each demon his particular 
  place in the frame of humanity,. 
   
  France: Magical practice in pre - Roman France was vested in the 
  druidic cast, and was practically identical with that of the same 
  body in Britain, from which, indeed, it drew its inspiration. It is not 
  likely that Roman magic gained any footing in Gaul, but we have 
  little evidence to show whether this was or was not the case. In the 
  early Frankish period of the Merovingian dynasty, we find the 
  baleful personality of Fredegonda, wife of Hilperic, king of 
  Soissons, " a woman whose glance was witchcraft." She destroyed 
  many people on the pretext of sorcery, but there is no doubt that 
  she herself experimented in black magic, and protected many 
  practitioners of the art. Thus she saved a sorceress who had been 
  arrested by Ageric, bishop of Verdun, by hiding her in the palace. 
  (See Fredegonda.) The practice of magic was not punished unde 
  the rule of the early French kings, except in those in hig places, 
  with whom it was regarded as a political off ence4l as in the case of 
  the military leader Mummol, who was tortured by command of 
  Hilperic for sorcery. One of the Salic laws attributed to Pharamond 
  by Sigebert states that; " If any one shall testify that another has 
  acted as Herebeurge or strioporte - titles applied to those who 
  carry the copper vessel to the spot where the vampires perform 
  their enchantments - and if he fail to convict him, he shall be 
  condemned hereby to a forfeit of 7,500 deniers, being 1800 sous. . 
  . . If a vampire shall devour a man and be found guilty, she shall 
  forfeit 8,000 deniers, being 2000 sous. 
   
  The Church legislated also against sorcerers and vampires, and the 
  Council of Agde, in Languedoc, held in A.D. 506, pronounced 
  excommunication against them. The first Council of Orleans, 
  convened in 541, condemned divination and augury, and that of 
  Narbonne, in 589, besides excommunicating all sorcerers, 
  ordained that they should be sold as slaves for the benefit of the 
  poor. Those who had dealings with the Devil were also condemned 
  to be whipped by the same Council. Some extraordinary 
  phenomena are alleged to have occurred in France during the 
  reign of Pepin le Bref. The air seemed to be alive with human 
  shapes, mirages filled the heavens, and sorcerers were seen among 
  the clouds, scattering unwholesome powders and poisons with open 
  hands; crops failed, cattle died, and many human beings perished. 
  It is perhaps possible that such visions were stimulated by the 
  teachings of the famous Kabalist, Zedekias, who presided over a 
  school of occult science, where he refrained indeed from unveiling 
  the hidden secrets of his art, and contented himself by ~spreading 
  the theory of elemental spirits, who, he stated, had before the fall 
  of man been subservient to him. 
   
  It was thought that the visions alluded to above simplified the 
  descent of sylphs and salamanders in search of their former 
  masters. Says Eliphas Levi: 
   
  " Voyages to the land of sylphs were talked of on all sides as we 
  talk at the present day of animated tables and fluidic 
  manifestations. The folly took possession even of strong minds, and 
  it was time for an intervention on the part of the Church, which 
  does not relish the supernatural being hawked in the public 
  streets, seeing that such disclosures, by imperilling the respect due 
  to authority and to the hierarchic chain of instruction, cannot be 
  attributed to the spirit of order and light. The cloud phantoms were 
  therefore arraigned and accused of being hell - born illusions, 
  while the people - anxious to get something into their hands - 
  began a crusade against sorcerers. The public folly turned into a 
  paroxysm of mania; strangers in country places were accused of 
  descending from heaven and were killed without mercy; imbeciles 
  confessed that they had been abducted by sylphs or demons; 
  others who had boasted like this previously either would not or 
  could not unsay it; they were burned or drowned, and, according to 
  Garinet, the number who perished throughout the kingdom almost 
  exceeds belief. It is the common catastrophe of dramas in which 
  the first parts are played by ignorance or fear. 
   
  " Such visionary epidemics recurred in the reigns fol - " lowing, 
  and all the power of Charlemagne was put in action to calm the 
  public agitation. An edict, afterwards renewed by Louis the Pious, 
  forbade sylphs to manifest under the heaviest penalties. It will be 
  understood that in the absence of the aerial beings the judgments 
  fell upon those who had made a boast of having seen them, and 
  hence they ceased to be seen. The ships in air sailed back to the 
  port of oblivion, and no one claimed any longer to have journeyed 
  through the blue distance. -  Other popular frenzies replaced the 
  previous mania, while the romantic splendours of the great reign of 
  Charlemagne furnished the makers of legends with new prodigies 
  to believe and new marvels to relate." 
   
  Around the figure of Charlemagne (q.v.) clusters such an immense 
  amount of the matter of faEry that it is reserved for treatment in a 
  special article, and it will suffice to state here that it almost 
  partakes of the nature of true myth. It is stated that the Enchiridion 
  (q.v.) (which may well be stigmatised as an early text - book of 
  occult absurdity having no claim to figure in the true genealogy of 
  occult literature) was presented to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III. 
   
  Eliphas Levi presents a picturesque condition of affairs in the 
  France of Charlemagne in the following passage: 
   
  " We know that superstitions die hard and that degenerated 
  Druidism had struck its roots deeply in the savage lands of the 
  North. The recurring insurrections of Saxons testified to a 
  fanaticism which was (a) always turbulent, and (b) incapable of 
  repression by moral force alone. All defeated forms of worship - 
  Roman paganism, Germanic idolatry, Jewish rancour conspired 
  against victorious Christianity. Nocturnal assemblies took place; 
  thereat the conspirators cemented their alliance with the blood of 
  human victims; and a pantheistic idol of monstrous form, with the 
  horns of a goat, presided over festivals which might be called 
  agapm of hatred. In a word, the Sabbathwas still celebrated in 
  every forest and wild if yet unreclaimed provinces. The adepts who 
  attended them were masked and otherwise unrecognisable; the 
  assemblies extinguished their lights and broke up before daybreak, 
  the guilty were to be found everywhere, and they could be brought 
  to book nowhere. It came about therefore that Charlemagne 
  determined to fight them with their own weapons. 
   
  " In those days, moreover, feudal tyrants were in league with 
  sectarians against lawful authority; female sorcerers were attached 
  to castles as courtesans; bandits who frequented the Sabbaths 
  divided with nobles the blood - stained loot of rapine; feudal courts 
  were at the command of the highest bidder; and the public burdens 
  weighed with all their force only on the weak and poor. The evil 
  was at its height in Westphalia, and faithful agents were 
  
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  despatched thither by Charlemagne entrusted with a secret 
  mission. Whatsoever energy remained among the oppressed, 
  whosoever still loved justice, whether among the people or among 
  the nobility, were drawn by these emissaries together, bound by 
  pledges and vigilance in common. To the initiates thus 
  incorporated they made known the full powers which they carried 
  from the emperor himself, and they proceeded to institute the 
  Tribunal of Free judges. 
   
  A great deal of this, of course, is only what might be expected from 
  the French magus. It is not likely that the Sabbath was yet 
  celebrated in such an extreme manner as in later times, nor was 
  the Vehingericht founded by Charlemagne, or indeed, founded at 
  all, for four and a half centuries after his day. 
   
  From the reign of Robert the Pious to that of St. Louis, there is not 
  much to relate that can strike the imagination of the student of 
  occult history. In the time of the latter monarch flourished the 
  famous Rabbi Jachiel, the celebrated Kabalist. There is some 
  reason to believe that he had glimmerings ' of the uses of 
  electricity, for on the approach of night 'a radiant star appeared in 
  his lodging, the light being so brilliant that no eye could gaze 
  thereon without being dazzled, while it darted rainbow colours. It 
  appeared to be inexhaustible, and was never replenished with oil 
  or other combustible substance. When the Rabbi was annoyed by 
  intruders at his door he struck a nail fixed in his cabinet, 
  producing simultaneously a blue spark on the head of the nail and 
  the door - knocker, to which, if the intruder clung, he received a 
  severe shock. Albertus Magnus (q.v.) lived at the same period. 
   
  The next circumstance of interest which falls to be noted is the 
  prosecutions of the Templars (q.v.) who were brought to trial by 
  Philip the Fair. Other prosecutions for sorcery were those of Joan 
  of Arc, Gilles de Laval (q.v.), lord of Raiz, the prototype of 
  Bluebeard, a renowned sorcerer, who with two assistants, practised 
  diabolical rites at his castle of Machecoul, celebrating the black 
  mass in the most revolting manner. He had been in the habit of 
  slaughtering children to assist him in his search for the 
  philosopher's stone. We now near the period of those astounding 
  prosecutions for sorcery which are fully noted under the article " 
  Witchcraft " and elsewhere. As early as the thirteenth century the 
  charge of sorcery had been made as one of the means of branding 
  with infamy the heretical Waldenses (q.v.), who were accused of 
  selling themselves to the Devil, and of holding sabbatical orgies 
  where they did homage to the enemy of mankind. About the middle 
  of the fifteenth century France became the theatre of wholesale 
  oppression against suspected sorcerers, but one finds leading up to 
  this a series of events which prove that the outburst in question 
  was by no means a novelty in that country. In 1315 Enguerraud de 
  Marigny, who had conducted the execution of the Templars a 
  minister of Philip the Fair, was hanged along with an adventurer 
  name~ Paviot, for attempting to compass the deaths of the Counts 
  of Valois and St. Paul. In 1334 the Countess of Artois and her son 
  were thrown into prison on a suspicion of sorcery. In 1393, in the 
  reign of Charles VI., it was considered that his sister - in - law, the 
  Duchess of Orleans, who was a viscomte and the daughter of the 
  Duke of Milan, had rendered the King mad by sorcery. The 
  ministers of the court resolved to pit a magician against her,  - and 
  one Arnaud Guillaume (q.v.) was brought from Guienne as a 
  suitable adversary to the noble lady. He possessed a book to which 
  he gave the strange title of Smagorad, the original of which, he 
  said, was given by God to Adam, to console him for the loss of his 
  son Abel, and he asserted that the possessor of this volume could 
  hold the stars in subjection, and command the four elements. He 
  assured the King's advisers that Charles was suffering from the 
  malignity of a sorcerer, but in the meantime the young monarch 
  recovered, and the possessor of the patriarchal volume fell back 
  into his original obscurity. Five years later the King had another 
  attack, and two Augustine friars were sent from Guienne for the 
  purpose of effecting a cure. But their conduct was so outrageous 
  that they were executed. A third attack in 1403 was combated by 
  two sorcerers of Dijon, Poinson and Briquet. For this purpose they 
  established themselves in a thick wood - not far from the gates of 
  Dijon, where they made a magic circle of iron of immense weight, 
  which was supported by iron columns of the height of a middle - 
  sized man, and to which twelve chains of iron were attached. So 
  great was the popular anxiety for the King's recovery, that the two 
  sorcerers succeeded in persuading twelve of the principal persons 
  of the town to enter the circle, and allow themselves to be fastened 
  by the chains. The sorcerers then proceeded with their 
  incantations, but they were altogether without result. The bailiff of 
  Dijon, who was one of the twelve, and had averred his incredulity 
  from the first, caused the sorcerers to be arrested, and they were 
  burnt for their pretences. 
   
  The Duke of Orleans appears to have fallen under the same 
  suspicion of sorcery as his Italian consort. After his murder by 
  order of the Duke of Burgundy - the commencement of those 
  troubles which led to the desolation of France - the latter drew up 
  various heads of accusation against his victim as justifications of 
  the crime, and one of these was, that the Duke of Orleans had  - 
  attempted to compass his death by means of sorcery. According to 
  this statement, he had received a magician - another apostate friar 
  -  into his castle of Mountjoie, where he was employed in these 
  sinister designs. He performed his magical ceremonies before 
  sunrise on a neighbouring mountain, where two demons, named 
  Herman and Astramon, appeared to him; and these became his 
  active instruments in the prosecution of hisdesign. 
   
  About the year 1400 the belief in the nightly meetings of the 
  witches' Sabbath had become almost universal. It would indeed be 
  difficult to attempt to trace the origin of this practice, which does 
  not seem altogether referable to the survival of pagan belief. (See 
  Witchcraft.) The wholesale nature of the prosecutions against 
  sorcerers and witches prove that there must have been an 
  extraordinary number of them in the country. In Paris alone, in the 
  time of Charles IX, there were no less than thirty thousand 
  sorcerers, and it is computed that France contained more than 
  three times that number in the reign of Henry Ill., not a town or 
  village being exempt from their presence. hey belonged to al 
  classes, and ~generally met the same fate, regardless of rank -, 
  age or sex. Children of the tenderest years and nonagenarians were 
  alike committed to the flames, and the terror of being publicly 
  accused as a sorcerer hung like a black cloud over the life of every 
  successful man, as the charge was one which envy readily seized 
  upon for the destruction of its object. No elaborate or perfect creed 
  regarding witchcraft had at this epoch been evolved in England, 
  but in France and other continental countries it had been assuming 
  a form systematic and complete. There were probably two reasons 
  for this, the decrees of ecclesiastical councils and the numerous 
  treatises of scholars who professed to illustrate their 
  varioustheories regarding sorcery by alleged statements from the 
  mouths of its innumerable victims. Indeed the writings of these 
  men served to standardise the sorcery creed of all continental 
  countries. During the earlier part of the sixteenth century, trials for 
  witchcraft in France are of rare occurrence, and there are no cases 
  
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  of great importance recorded till after the year 1156. In 1561 a 
  number of persons were brought to trial at Vernon, accused of 
  having held their Sabbath as witches in an old ruined castle in the 
  shape of cats; and witnesses deposed to having seen the assembly, 
  and to having suffered from the attacks of the pseudo - feline 
  conspirators. But the court threw out the charge, as worthy only of 
  ridicule. In 1564, three men and a woman were executed at 
  Poitiers, after having been made to confess to various acts of 
  sorcery; among other things, they said that they had regularly 
  attended the witches' Sabbath, which was held three times a year, 
  and that the demon who presided at it ended by burning himself to 
  make powder for the use of his agents in mischief. In 1571, a mere 
  conjurer, who played tricks upon cards, was thrown into prison in 
  Paris, forced to confess that he was an attendant on the Sabbath, 
  and then executed. In 1573, a man was burnt at Dr6le, on the 
  charge of having changed himself into a wolf, and in that form 
  devoured several children. Several witches, who all confessed to 
  having been at the Sabbaths, were in the same year condemned to 
  be burnt in different parts of France. In 1578, another man was 
  tried and condemned in Paris for changing himself into a wolf; and 
  a man was condemned at Orleans for the same supposed crime n 
  1583. As France was often infested by these rapacious - animals, it 
  is not difficult to conceive how popular credulity was led to 
  connect their ravages with the crime of witchcraft. The belief in 
  what were in England called wer - wolves (men - wolves), and in 
  France loups - garous, was a very ancient superstition throughout 
  Europe. It is asserted by a serious and intelligent writer of the time 
  that, in 11588, a gentleman, looking out of the window of his 
  château in a village two leagues from Apchon, in the mountains of 
  Auvergne, saw one of his acquaintances going a - hunting, and 
  begged he would bring him home some game. The hunter, while 
  occupied in the chase, was attacked by a fierce she -, volf, and 
  after having fired at it without effect, struck it with his hunting - 
  knife, ard cut off the paw of his right fore - leg, on which it 
  immediately took to flight. The hunter took up the paw, threw it 
  into his bag with the rest of his game, and soon afterwards returned 
  to his friend's château, and told him of his adventure, at the same 
  time putting his hand into the bag to bring forth the wolf's paw in 
  confirmation of his story. What was his surprise at drawing out a 
  lady's hand, with a gold ring on one finger ! His friend's 
  astonishment was still greater when he recognised the ring as 
  onewhich hehad givento his own wife; and, descending hastily into 
  the kitchen, he found the lady warming herself by the fire, with her 
  right arm wrapped in her apron. This he at once seized, and found 
  to his horror that the hard was cut off. The lady confessed that it 
  was she who, in the form of a wolf, bad attacked the hunter; she 
  was, in due course of time, brought to her trial and condemned, 
  and was immediately afterwards burnt at Riems. 
   
  In 1578, a, witch was burnt at Compi6gne; she confessed that she 
  had given herself to the devil, who appeared to her as a great black 
  man, on horseback, booted and spurred. Another avowed witch was 
  burnt the same year, who also stated that the evil one came to her 
  in the shape of a black man. In 1582 and 1583, several witches 
  were burnt, P - 11 frequenters of the Sabbaths. Several local 
  councils at this date passed severe laws against witchcraft, and 
  from that time to the end of the century, the number of miserable 
  persons put to death in France under the accusation was very 
  great. In the course only of fifteen years, from 158c, to 1595, and 
  only in one province, that of Lorraine, the president Remigius 
  burnt nine hundred witches, and as many more fled out of the 
  country to save their lives; and about the close of the century, one 
  of the French judges tells us that the crime of witchcraft had 
  become so common that there were not jails enough to hold the 
  prisoners, or judges to hear their causes. A trial which he had wit - 
  nessed in 1568, induced jean Bodin, a learned physician, to 
  compose his book De la Demonomanie des Sorciers, which was 
  ever afterwards the text - book on this subject. 
   
  Among the English witches, the evil one generally came in person 
  to seduce his victims, but in France and other countries, this 
  seems to have been unnecessary, as each person, when once 
  initiated, became seized with ail uncontrollable desire of making 
  converts, whom he or she carried to the Sabbath to be duly 
  enrolled. Bodin says, that one witch was enough to corrupt five 
  hundred honest persons. The infection quickly ran through a 
  family, and. was generally carried down from generation to 
  generation, which explained satisfactorily, according to the learned 
  commentator on demonology just mentioned, the extent to which 
  the evil had spread itself in his days. The novice, at his or her 
  reception, after having performed the preliminaries, and in general 
  received a new and burlesque rite of baptism,  - was marked with 
  the sign of the demon in some part of the body least exposed to 
  observation, and performed the first criminal act of compliance 
  which was afterwards to be so frequently repeated, the evil one 
  presenting himself ~on these occasions in the form of either sex, 
  the reverse. to that of the victim. 
   
   Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the witchcraft 
  infatuation had risen to its greatest height in France, and not only 
  the lower classes, but persons of the highest rank in society were 
  liable to suspicions of dealing in sorcery. We need only mention 
  that such charges were publicly made against King Henry III. and 
  Queen Catherine de Medicis, and that, early in the following 
  century, they became the ground of state trials which had a fatal 
  conclusion.  
   
  In 1610, during the reign of Louis XIII., occurred the .cause 
  celebre of the marechale d'Ancre. Among the servants attached to 
  the train of Marie de Medici was a certain Eleanora Dori, who 
  married one, Concini, a prodigal spendthrift. Marie de Medici, as 
  guardian to her son, was virtually ruler of France, and considerable 
  power wa8 exercised by these favourites of hers. The result was 
  that the peers of France leagued themselves together against the 
  upstarts, but with little result at first, as Concini was created 
  Marechal of France, with the title of Marquis J'Ancre. His wife, 
  who was very superstitious, fell sick, and attributed her ill - health 
  to the effects of sorcery. The upshot was that d'Ancre was 
  assassinated by the nobles luring a hunting expedition. The mob 
  dragged the corpse of d'Ancre from its grave and hanged it on the 
  Pont Neuf. His wretched widow was accused of sorcery, and of 
  having bewitched the Queen Mother. The exorcists who had 
  assisted her to free herself from illness had advised the sacrifice of 
  a cock, and this was now represented as a sacrifice to the infernal 
  powers. Added to this, the astrological nativities of the royal family 
  were found in her possession,  were, it is said, a quantity of 
  magical books, and a great iumber of magical characters. After 
  being tortured with out result she was beheaded and burnt, and 
  strangely enough the anger of the Parisian mob turned to general 
  commiseration. Many other interesting cases occurred n France in 
  the seventeenth century, among others that of the Ursulines at Aix 
  (q.v.), for the enchantment of whom, Louis Gaufridi was burnt, the 
  Nuns of Louviais, and the Nuns of Assonne.  
   
  The eighteenth century in France was fairly prolific in occult 
  history. At a time when Europe was credulous about nothing but 
  magic, France did not escape the prevailing craze. Perhaps the 
  most striking personality of this age in the occult connection was 
  
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  the Comte de Saint Germain (q.v.), who was credited with 
  possessing the secrets of alchemy and magic. His family 
  connections were unknown, and his conversation suggested that he 
  had lived for many centuries. Another mysterious adept was an 
  alchemist calling himself Lascaris (q.v.) who literally sowed his 
  path through Europe with gold. Then followed Cagliostro (q.v.), 
  who attained a fame unrivalled in the history of French occultism. 
  He founded many masonic lodges throughout the country, and 
  assisted in many ways to bring about the French Revolution. A 
  school of initiates was founded by Martines de Pasqually, which 
  appears in some measure to have incorporated the teachings of the 
  later European adepts. One of the most important figures at this 
  time is Louis Claude de Saint - 'Martin, known as " Le Philosophe 
  Inconnu " who came under the influence Of Pasqually (q.v.), and 
  later, under that of the writings of Boehme, whose works he 
  translated. Cazotte (q.v.) was the first of these names who were 
  associated with both magic and the Revolution, which, indeed, 
  owed much in its inception to those mysterious brotherhoods of 
  France and Germany, who during the eighteenth century sowed the 
  seeds of equality and Illuminism throughout Europe. Another was 
  Lois6aut (q.v.), who formel a mystical society, which met in great 
  secrecy, awaiting a vision of John the Baptist, who came to them to 
  foretell the Revolution. The spiritual director of this circle was a 
  monk named Dom Gerle (q.v.) one of the first mesmerists in Paris, 
  who is said to have foretold the dreadful fame of Robespierre by 
  means of Catherine Th6ot, his medium. He was expelled by the 
  members of the circle, acting on the advice of one of their number, 
  Sister Françoise Andre, who cherished a notion to preserve the 
  crown for the future reign of Louis XVIL, and thus gave rise to that 
  multitude of stories connected with the so - called  - Saviours " of 
  the youthful " Capet." This sect, or a portion of it, became notorious 
  under the leadership of Vintras (q.v.), when its meetings 
  degenerated  - into the most dreadful debauchery. The appearance 
  of Mlle. Lenormand as a prophetess at the end of the eighteenth 
  century may be said to close the occult history of that age. With 
  the beginning of the nineteenth century we find th - e craze for 
  magnetism rampant., In his works The  - Reform of Philosophy and 
  Yes or No, Wronski pretended to have discovered the first 
  theorems of the Kabala, and later beguiled rich persons of weak 
  intellect into paying him large sums in return for knowledge of the 
  Absolute. The Saviours of Louis XVII. were formally condemned in 
  1853 by the Pope as practitioners of black magic, but they in turn 
  condemned the Pope, and their leader, Vintras, constituted himself 
  Sovereign Ponti~, but he was arrested on the charge of roguery 
  and after five years' imprisonment, found an asylum in England. 
   
  The Baron du Potet did much to advance the science of Mesmer 
  and by this time was being seriously followed by Cahagnet and 
  others (See Mesmerism). In the middle of the nineteenth century 
  all sorts of absurdities swayed occult Paris. The tale of Alphonse 
  Esquiros (q.v.) entitled The Magician founded a school of magic 
  phantasy, which was assiduously nursed by Henri Delaage (q.v.), 
  who was said to have the gift of ubiquity, and who made a 
  collection of processes from the old magicians for acquiring 
  physical beauty. 
   
  The Comte d'Ourches was the first to introduce into France 
  automatic writing and table - writing. 
   Baron Guldenstubbe, in his Practical Exbeyimental 
  Pnenmatology; or, the Reality of Spirits an~ the Mayziellous 
  Phenomena of their Direct Writing, gives an account of his 
  discovery as follows: 
   
  " It was in the course of the year 1850, or about three years prior to 
  the epidemic of table - rapping, that the author sought to introduce 
  into France the circles of American spiritualism, the mysterious 
  Rochester knockings and the purely automatic writings of 
  mediums. Unfortunately he met with many obstacles raised by 
  other mesmerists. Those who were committed to the hypothesis of a 
  magnetic fluid, and even those who styled themselves Spiritual 
  Mesmerists, but who were really inferior inducers of 
  somnambulism, treated the mysterious knockings of American 
  spiritualism as visionary follies. It was therefore only after more 
  than six months that the author was able to form his first circle on 
  the American plan, and then thanks to the zealous concurrence of 
  M. Rousaan, a former member of the Societe des Mage wiseuys 
  Spiritualistes, a simple man who was full of enthusiasm for the 
  holy cause of spiritualism. We were joined by a number of other 
  persons, amongst whom was the Abbe Chattel, founder of the 
  Eglise Francaise, who, despite his rationalistic tendencies, ended 
  by admitting the reality of objective and supernatural revelation, as 
  an indispensable condition of spiritualism and all practical 
  religions. Setting aside the moral conditions which are equally 
  requisite, it is known that American circles ale based on the 
  distinction of positive and electric or negative magnetic currents. 
   
  The circles consist of twelve persons, representing in equal 
  proportions the positive and negative or sensitive elements. This 
  distinction does not follow the sex of the members, though 
  generally women are negative and sensitive, while men are positive 
  and magnetic. The mental and physical constitution of each 
  individual must be studied before forming the circles, for some 
  delicate women have masculine qualities, while some strong men 
  are, morally speaking, women. A table is placed in a clear and 
  ventilated spot; the medium is seated at one end and entirely 
  isolated; by his calm and contemplative quietude he serves as a 
  conductor for the electricity, and it may be noted that a good 
  somnambulist is usually an excellent medium. The six electrical or 
  negative dispositions, which are generally recognised by their 
  emotional qualities and their sensibility, are placed at the right of 
  the medium, the most sensitive of all being next him. The same 
  rule is followed with the positive personalities, who are at the left 
  of the medium, with the most positive next to him. In order to form 
  a chain, the twelve persons each place their right hand on the 
  table. Observe that the medium or mediums, if there be more than 
  one, are entirely isolated from those who form the chain. 
   
  " After a number of seances, certain remarkable phenomena have 
  been obtained, such as simultaneous shocks, felt by all present at 
  the moment of mental evocation on the part of the most intelligent 
  persons. It is the same with mysterious knockings and other 
  strange sounds; many people, including those least sensitive, have 
  had simultaneous visions, though remaining in the ordinary waking 
  state. Sensitive persons have acquired that most wonderful gift of 
  mediumship, namely, automatic writing, as the result of an 
  invisible attraction which uses the nonintelligent instrument of a 
  human arm to express its ideas. For the rest, non - sensitive 
  persons experience the mysterious influence of an external wind, 
  but the effect is not strong enough to put their limbs in motion. All 
  these phenomena, obtained according to the mode of American 
  spiritualism, have the defect of being more or less indirect, 
  because it is impossible in these experiments to dispense with the 
  mediation of a human being or medium. It is 
   
  the same With the table - turning which invaded Europe in the 
  middle of the year 1853. 
  
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  " The author has had many table experiences with his honourable 
  friend, the Comte d'Ourches, one of the most instructed persons in 
  Magic and the Occult Sciences. We attained by degrees the point 
  when tables moved, apart from any cont~, ict whatever, while the 
  Comte d'Ourches has caused them to rise, also without contact. 
  The author, has made tables rush across a room with great rapidity, 
  and not only without contact but without the magnetic aid of a 
  circle of sitters. The vibrations of piano - chords under similar 
  circumstances took place on January 20, 1856, in the presence of 
  the Comte de Szapary and Comte d'Ourches. Now all such 
  phenomena are proof positive of certain occult forces, but they do 
  not demonstrate adequately the real and substantial existence of 
  unseen intelligences, independent of our will and imagination, 
  though the limits of these have been vastly extended in respect of 
  their possibilities. Hence the reproach made against American 
  spiritualists, because their communications with the world of 
  spirits are so insignificant in character, being confined to 
  mvsterious knockings and other sound vibiations. As a f~ct, there 
  is no direct phenomenon at oncer intelligent and material, 
  independent of our will and imagination, to compare with the 
  direct writing of spirits, who have neither been invoked or evoked, 
  and it is this .only which offers irrefutable proof as to the reality of 
  the supernatural world. 
   
  " The author, being always in search of such proof, at once 
  intelligent and palpable, concerning the substantial reality of the 
  supernatural world, in order to demonstrate by certain facts the 
  immortality of the soul, has never wearied of addressing fervent 
  prayers to the Eternal, that He might vouchsafe to indicate an 
  infallible means for strengthening that faith in immortality which is 
  the eternal basis of religion. The Eternal, Whose mercy is infiniba, 
  4 has abundantly answered this feeble prayer. On Augus 
   
  ist, 1856, the idea came to the author of trying Whether spirits 
  could write directly, that is, apart from the presencer of a medium. 
  Remembering the marvellous direct writing of the Decalogue, 
  communicated to Moses, and that other writing, equally direct and 
  mysterious, at the feast of Belshazzar, recorded by Daniel; having 
  further heard about those modern mysteries of Stratford in 
  America, where certain strange and illegible characters were found 
  upon strips of paper, apparently apart from mediumship, the author 
  sought to establish the actuality of such important phenomena, if 
  indeed within the limits of possibilitv. 
   
  " He therefore placed a sheet of blank letter paper and a sharply 
  pointed pencil in a box, which he then locked, and carried the key 
  about him, imparting his design to no one. Twelve days he waited 
  in vain, but what was his astonishment on August 13th, 1856, 
  when he found certain mysterious characters traced on the paper. 
  He repeated the experiment ten times on that day, placing a new 
  sheet of paper each time in the box, with ille same result 
  invariably. On the following day he made twenty experiments. but 
  left the box open, Without losing sight of it. He witnessed the 
  formation of characters and words in the Esthonian language with 
  no motion of the pencil. The latter being obviously useless he 
  decided to dispense with it and placed blank paper sometimes on a 
  table of his own, sometimes on the pedestals of old statues, on 
  sarcophagi, on urns, etc., in the Louvre, at St. Denis, at the Church 
  of St. Etienne du Mont, etc., Similar experiments were made in 
  different cemetries of Paris, but the author has no liking for 
  cemetries, while most saints prefer the localities Where they have 
  lived on earth to those in which their mortal remains are laid to 
  rest." 
   
  We are now launched upon the sea of modern spiritualism in 
  France, which occupied the entire activities of occultist in that 
  country for several decades, and which it will be better to trace 
  from the period of its importation into the country. 
   
  Very soon after public attention had been drawn to the subje~t of 
  magnetism in France by Mesmer and d'Eslon several men 
  distinguished for learning and scientific attainments, followed up 
  their experiments with great success Amongst these was the Baron 
  Dupotet, whose deep interest in the subject of magnetism induced 
  him to publish a periodical which, under the title of ' Journal de 
  Magn&ismestill forms a complete treasury of well collated facts, 
  and curious experiments - in occult force. From this work we learn 
  that the Baron's investigations commenced in the year 1836, since 
  which period up to 1848, he chronicled the production of the 
  following remarkable phases of phenomena, the occurrence of 
  which  - 'is testified to bv numerous scientific and eminent 
  witnesses. Through the Baron's magnetized subjects was evolved, 
  clairvoyance, trancespeaking, and healing; stiginata or raised 
  letiets and figures on the subject's body; elevation of 
  somnambulists into the air; insensibility to fire, injury or touch. In 
  the presence of the magnetized objects also, heavy bodies were 
  moved without human contact, and objects were brought from 
  distant places through walls and closed doors. Sometimes the " 
  Lucides " described scenes in the spirit world, found lost property, 
  prophesied and spoke in foreign languages. 
   
  In 1840, Baron Dupotet writes that he had " rediscovered in 
  magnetism the magic of antiquity." "Let the savants, " he says, 
  "reject the doctrine of spiritual appearances; the enquirer of to - 
  day is compelled to believe it; from an examination of undeniable 
  facts." . . . " If the knowledge of ancient magic is lost, all the facts 
  remain on which to reconstruct it." 
   
  But of all the revealers to whom French Spiritualism is indebted 
  for indubitable proof of super - mundane intercourse, none stands 
  more prominent in truthfulness and worth, than M. Caliagnet, the 
  well - known author of "The Celestial Telegraph, " a work 
  translated into English in 1848.' 
   
  M. Cahagnet was an unlearned mechanic, a man of the people and 
  though a sensible and interesting writer, was neither well read, nor 
  high1v educated. He affirms that he was -  a " materialist " wl~en 
  first his attention was attracted to the subject of animal magnetism, 
  but being of a thoughtful nature, he determined to devote all the 
  leisure he could spare to a thorough examination of its 
  possibilities. When he found that he possessed the power to induce 
  the magnetic sleep in others, he proceeded on the plan then 
  generally adopted by mesmerists, namely, to try how far he could 
  succeed in biologizing his subjects, that is to say, to substitute his 
  own senses, mind, and will, for those of the sleeper. 
   
  In the course of these experiments M. Cahagnet discovered that he 
  could effect remarkable cures of disease, and being naturally of a 
  benevolent disposition, he determined to bend all his energies in 
  this desirable direction. He soon found, however, that he was 
  destined to realize the aphorism, " he builded wiser than he knew." 
  A new and most perplexing obstacle arose to confound his 
  philosophy and scatter his theories to the winds; this was the fact, 
  that some of his subjects, instead of representing what simply he 
  willed, or manifestin - in accordance with his views of biology - 
  merely the influence of his mind, began to transcend both will and 
  mind, and wander off in space, to regions they persisted in calling 
  
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  the " land of spirits, " and to describe people, whom they 
  emphatically affirmed to be the souls of those whom the  - world 
  called dead. 
   
  For a long time M. Cahagnet strove vehemently to combat what he 
  termed these "wild hallucinations, " but when he found them 
  constantly recurring, and vast numbers of those who had come to 
  witness the experiments in magnetism recognising in the 
  descriptions given by the somnambulists the spirits of those whom 
  they had known on earth, and mourned as dead, conviction became 
  inevitable, and the magnetizer, like his visitors, was compelled to 
  admit a new and wonderful phase of lucidity, and one which 
  carried the vision of the clairvovant from earth to heaven,  - and 
  pierced the veil which separated the mortal from the realms of 
  immortality. It was after a long series of carefully conducted 
  experiments of the above description, that M. Callagnet was finally 
  persuaded to give the results of his wonderful seances to the world, 
  under the name and style of The Celestial Telegraph, or, Secrets of 
  the Life to, Come. 
   
  The author of Art Magic says The narrow conservatism of the age, 
  and the pitiiul jealousy of the Medical Faculty, rendered it difficult 
  and harassing to conduct magnetic experiments openly in Europe 
  within several years of Mesmer's decease. Still such experiments 
  were not wanting, and to show their results, we give a few excerpts 
  from the correspondence between the famous Frencri Magnetists, 
  MM. Delcuze and Billot, from the years 1829 to 184o. By these 
  letters, published in 1836, it appears that M. Billot commenced his 
  experiments in magnetizing as early as 1789, and that during forty 
  years, he had an opportunity of witnessing facts in clairvoyance, 
  ecstasy, and somnanibulism, which at the time of their publication 
  transcended the belief of the general mass of readers. On many 
  occasions in the presence of entranced subjects, spirits recognised 
  as havin., once lived oil earth in mortal form - would come in 
  bodi~y presence before the eyes of an assembled multitude and at 
  request bring flowers, fruits, and objects, removed by distance 
  from tile scene of the experiments. 
   
  " M. Deleuze frankly admits that his experience was more limited 
  to those phases of somnambulism in which his subjects submitted 
  to amputations and severe surgical operations without experiencing 
  tile slightest pain. . . . 
   
  In a letter dated I83E M. Billot writing to Deleuze says. 
   
  " 4 1 repeat, I have seen and known all that is permitted to man. I 
  have seen the stigmata arise on magnetized subjects; I have 
  dispelled obsessions of evil spirits with a single word. I have seen 
  spirits bring those material objects I told you of, and when 
  requested, make them so light that they would float, and, again, a 
  small boilean de bonbons was rendered so heavy that I failed to 
  move it an inch until the power was removed. 
   
  .1 ' To those who enjoyed the unspeakable privilege of listening to 
  the " somnambules " of Billot, Deleuze, and Cahagnet, another and 
  yet more strilting feature of unanimous revelation was poured forth. 
  Spirits of those who had passed away from earth strong in the faith 
  of Roman Catholicism - often priests and dignitaries of that 
  conservative Church, addressing prejudiced believers in their 
  former docti ine, asserted that there was no creed in Heaven  - no 
  sectarian worship, or ecclesiastical dogmatism there prevailing. 
   
  " ' They taught that God was a grand Spiritual Sunlife on earth a 
  probation - the spheres, different degrees, of comprehensive 
  happiness or states of retributive suffering - each appropriate to 
  the good or evil deeds done on earth. They described the 
  ascending changes open to every soul in proportion to his own 
  efforts to improve. 
   
  " ' They all insisted that man was his own judge, incurred a penalty 
  or reward for which there was no substitution. They taught nothing 
  of Christ, absolutely 
   
  denied the idea of vicarious atonement - and represented man as 
  his own Saviour or destroyer. 
   
  " ' They spoke of arts, sciences, and continued activities, as if the 
  life bevond was but an extension of the present on a greatly 
  improved scale. Descriptions of the radiant beauty, supernal 
  happiness, and ecstatic sublimity manifested by the blest spirits 
  who had risen to the spheres of Paradise, Heaven, and the glory of 
  angelic companionships melts the heart, and fills the soul with 
  irresistible vearning, to lay down life's weary burdens and be at 
  rest witli them.' " 
   
  Having shown that Spiritualism arose in France as in Germany 
  from the awakening of psychic powers evolved by magnetism, and 
  traced the footprints of the great temple builders who have laid the 
  foundation stones.of the spiritual edifice in the human system and 
  steadily worked upwards from matter to force, and from thence to 
  spirit in every gradation of sphere, life and progress, we recall the 
  pithy words of the Baron de Potet, who, in addressing the would - 
  be leaders of public opinion in his essay on the 
   
  Philosophical Teaching of Magnetism, " says: 
   
  You savants of our country; you have not shown yourselves better 
  informed than the Siamese. 
   
  " For these sixty years it has been shouted in your ears 
   
  The Magvelizers march to the discovery of a moral world; all the 
  Phenomena they produce indisputably proves its existence. 
   
  " You have declared that they were impostors, imbeciles, and the 
  most illustrious amongst you have only pronounced a verdict which 
  will attest to future ages your ignorance or your insincerity. 
   
  " Before the soul is disengaged from matter, it can, and does, 
  converse with pure spirits. Already it can gaze prophetically on its 
  own future destiny, by regarding the condition of those who have 
  gone before - but a stepyet one which the eve of spirit alone can 
  measure, and if men are spirits already, who can stay the eagle 
  glance of the soul into the land of its own inheitance ? " 
   
  In following up the history of Spiritualism in France, although we 
  find it has gainid an immense foothold, and exerted a wide - 
  spread influence upon the popular mind, it is nevertheless evident, 
  that one of the chief obstacles to its general acceptance has been 
  its lack -  of internal unity, and the antagonistic sentiments which 
  have prevailed amongst its acknowledged leaders. 
   
  Two of those who have figured most prominently in the grand 
  drama of French Spiritualism, and in all probability exerted more 
  influence upon public opinion than any other members of its 
  
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  dyamatis personce, were  - NIM. Allan Kardec and Pierart, the 
  respective editors of the two leading Spiritual journals, entitled La 
  Revue Spirite and La Revue Spiritualisle. These may also be 
  regarded as the representatives of the two opposing factions known 
  as Spiritualists and Si)iritists, the former teaching that the soul of 
  man undergoes~ but one mortal birth, and continues its progress 
  through eternity in spiritual states, the latter affirming the doctrine 
  of lie - Kicarnation, and alleging that the one spirit in man can and 
  does undergo many incarnations in different mortal forms. 
   
  M. Kardec and his followers represented the " Spiritists or Re - in 
  earn ationists - M. Pierart leading the ranks of the  - opposing 
  faction most commonly called Spiritualists. 
   
  In respect to the question of testimony, it must be remembered that 
  M. Kardec derived his communications cbiefly from those writing 
  and trance mediums who might have proved the most susceptible 
  to his influence, and is said to have persistently banished from his 
  circles, not only Mr. Home, M. Breaif. and other physical 
  mediums, but all those who did not endorse his favourite dogma 
  through their communications. 
   
  Says the author of Nineteenth Century Miracles: It 
   
  must not be supposed that the schism which divided the two 
  leaders of French Spiritualism was confined to the immediate 
  sphere of action in which they moved. Scattered sympathisers with 
  the writings of Allan Kardec, may be found all over the Continent 
  of Europe, and in small numbers in America also. Few people who 
  read works put forward with authoritative pretentions have the 
  faculty of thoroughly digesting what they read, hence, when M. 
  Kardec's books were translated into the English language, and it 
  became the publisher's interest to aid in their circulation, they 
  found more readers than thinkers, and their plausible style 
  attracted more admiration than sincere conviction. In France, no 
  doubt M. Kardec's personal influence, and strong phychological 
  power, admirably fitted him f or a propagandist, and when we 
  remember how readily any doctrines eloquently advocated will 
  command adherents, especially among restless and excitable 
  natures, we need be at no loss to discover why M. Kardec's writings 
  have become so popular and his opinions so generally accepted by 
  his readers. Little or no spiritual literature was disseminated in the 
  French language when Allan Kardec's works were first published. 
  He possessed that indomitable energy and psychological influence 
  in which his much harassed rival Pierartwas wanting. Thus in a 
  measure, the field of Continental spiritual propagandism was his 
  own, nor did he fail to make use of his great opportunities. 
   
  ', The successes achieved by Kardec's journal, La Revue Spirile, 
  communicated a wave of influence also, which propagated journals 
  of a similar character all over the country. Thus in 1864, there 
  were no less than ten spiritualistic periodicals published in 
  France, under fhe following titles: La Revue Spirite, La Revile 
  Spiritualiste, and L'Aveoir, Paris; four Spiritist journals published 
  in Bordeaux, which, in 1865, became merged into L' Union Spirite 
  BordeJaise; La Medium Evangelique, Toulouse; L'Echo d'outre 
  Tombe, Marseilles; and La Viriti, Lyons. The editors of these 
  journals are said to have been all followers of Allan Kardec, with 
  the exception of M. Pierart, editor of La Revue Spiritualiste." 
   
  It must be remarked that the doctrines of the Re - incarnationists, 
  although defended with great ability by their propagandists, who 
  included many of' the most capable minds of France, were not 
  suffered to pass without severe castigation on the part of their 
  English neighbours; and it becomes necessary to note how the 
  French spiritual schism was received on the other side of the 
  Channel. In the London Spiritual Magazine of 1865, the editor, 4D 
  commenting on the ominous silence of the Spirite journals 
  concerning Dr. 1\1aldigny's opera of Swedenborg says: 
   
  , , It is worthy of note that the journals of the Kardec school, so far 
  as we have seen them, do not take the least notice of this opera. 
  The Avenir of Paris, which appears weekly, but greatly wants facts, 
  has not a word to say about it . . . . . It is greatly to be regretted that 
  the main object of the Kardecian journals seems to be, not the 
  demonstration of the constantly recurring facts of Spiritualism, but 
  the deification of Kardec's doctrine of Re - incarnation. 
   
  " To this doctrine - which has nothing to do with Spiritualism, even 
  if it had a le., of reason or fact to stand onall the strength, and 
  almost all the space of these journals is devoted. 
   
  These are the thing which give the enemies of Spiritualism a real 
  handle against it, and bring it into contempt with sober minds. Re - 
  incarnation is a doctrine which cuts up by the roots all individual 
  identity in the future existence. It desolates utterly that dearest 
  yearning of the human heart for reunion with its loved ones in a 
  permanent world. If some are to go back into fresh physical bodies, 
  and bear new names, and new natures, if they are 
   
  to become respectively Tom Styles, Ned Snooks, and a score of 
  other people, who shall ever hope to meet again with his friends, 
  wife, children, brothers and sisters ? When he enters the spirit - 
  world and enquires for them, lie will have to learn that they are 
  already gone back to earth, and are somebody else, the sons and 
  daughters of other people, and will have to become over and over 
  the kindred of a dozen other families in succession ! Surely, no 
  such most cheerless crochet could bewitch the intellects of any 
  people, except under the most especial bedevilment of the most 
  sarcastic and mischievous - as of devils." 
   
  In the January number for 1866, a still stronger article on this 
  subject appears from the pen of Wm. Howitt, who writes the 
  following fearless words of protest against the doctrine of Re - 
  incarnation: 
   
  " In the Avenir of November 2nd, M. Pezzani thinks he has 
  silenced M. Pierart, by asserting that without Reincarnation all is 
  chaos and injustice in God's creation: ' In this world there are rich 
  and poor, oppressed and oppressors, and without Re - incarnation, 
  God's justice could not be vindicated.' That is to say, in Al. 
  Pezzani's conception, God has not room in the infinite future to 
  punish and redress every wrong, without sending back souls again 
  and again into the flesh. M. Pezzani's idea, and that of his bro her 
  Re - incarnationists is, that the best way to get from Paris to 
  London is to travel any number of times from Paris to Calais and 
  back again. We English, that the only way is to go on to London at 
  once. . . . As to M. Pezzani's notions of God's injustice without 
  Reincarnation, if souls were re - incarnated a score of times, 
  injustice between man and man, riches and poverty, oppression 
  and wrong, all the enigmas of social inequality would remain just 
  then as now. 
   
  " In noticing these movements in the Spiritist camp in France, we 
  should be doing a great injustice if we did not refer to the zealous, 
  eloquent, and unremitting exertions of M. Pierait in the Revue 
  Spiritualists, to expose and iesist the errors of the Spirite to which 
  we have alluded. The doctrine of Re - incarnation, M. Pierart has 
  
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  persistently resisted and denounred as at once false, unfounded on 
  any evidence, and most pernicious to the character of 
  Spiritualism." 
   
  Allan Kardec died on March 31st, 1869. 
   
  Notwithstanding the fact that the experimental method of receiving 
  communications through physical mediumship was not in favour 
  with all. Allan Kardec and his followers, there is an abundant 
  amount of phenomena of all kinds recorded in M. Pierart's 
  excellent journal, La Revue Spiyitualiste, also in many other 
  European journals devoted to the subject. From this we are about 
  to select such facts of a representative character as will give a 
  general view of French Spiritualism in the nineteenth century. 
   
  The celebrated " Cur D'Ars, " the founder of the D'Ars Providence, 
  " and many other noble works of charity, jean Baptiste Vianney, 
  was born in the vicinity of Lyons, in 1786, in a humble sphere of 
  life. His natural capacity was by no means remarkable, and at 
  school he was only remembered as a somewhat dull scholar. 
  Circumstances having opened up the way for his becoming a 
  priest, although he had only Latin enough to say mass, and no 
  learning beyond the routine of his profession, yet his amiable 
  nature and unaffected piety won him friends wherever he went. 
  After some changes of fortune and the rejection of two good offers 
  of rich positions, which in his extreme humility he did not deem 
  himself fit for, he accepted the pastoral charge of file little 
  agricultural village of D'Ars, now in file arrondisement of Trevoux. 
   
  Very soon his reputation for beneficence drew round him a much 
  larger circle of poor dependents than he could provide for, and 
  then it was that he commenced his extra ordinary life of faith, 
  supplicating in fervent prayer for whatever means were necessary 
  to carry out his divine mission of blessing to his unfortunate fellow 
  creatures. In this way the sphere of his. benevolence, and the 
  wonderful results of the means he employed to maintain it, reached 
  proportions that could scarcely be credited. 
   
  But now a still more wonderful thing was tc happen in the 
  enchanted region of D'Ars. Persons afflicted with disease began to 
  experience sudden cures whilst praying before the altar, or making 
  confessions to the Cur6. The fame of this new miracle soon spread 
  abroad, until the Abbe Monnin declares that upwards Of 20, 000 
  persons annually came from Germany, Italy, Belgium, and all parts 
  of France, and even from England, and that in less than six years 
  this number increased to an average of 8o, ooo. Diseases of every 
  kind that had been pronounced incurable, were dissipated at once. 
  The indefatibagle Cure gave himself up to the work, heart and soul. 
  His church stood open day and night, and the immense crowds that 
  surrounded it, were obliged to wait for hours and sometimes days, 
  to reach the good healer. No one was allowed to take precedence oi 
  the rest, except in cases of extreme poverty or extreme suffering. 
  Princes, nobles, and great ladies, often drove up as near'as they 
  could to the church in grand carriages, and manifested the utmost 
  astonishment when informed that notwithstanding their rank, they 
  could not be admitted except in turn. The Cur6 only permitted 
  himself to take four hours sleep, namely from eleven to three, and 
  when he came to the confessional again, the church and all the 
  approaches to it were crowded with those who had waited all night 
  to secure their places. Omnibuses were established to convey 
  patients from Lyons to D'Ars, and the Sa6ne was covered with 
  boats full of anxious pilgrims. 
   
  There can be no doubt that the first well marked impulse which 
  experimental spiritualism received through the invocatory 
  processes of the circle, in France, as in many other countries of 
  Europe, was due to the visits of Mr. D. D. Home, the celebrated 
  non - professional physical medium, and subsequently to the large 
  influx of professional mediums, who found in France an excellent 
  field for the demonstration of their peculiar gfts. 
   
  Of Mr. Home's seances it would be superfluous to write, he himself 
  havin -  related them in two volumes published at different periods 
  of his career, and his many admiring friends having sufficiently 
  described the marvels of which they were witnesses in numerous 
  magazines and newspaper articles. 
   
  Mr. Home's manifestations were given in France almost exclusively 
  to personages of rank, or those distinguished by literary fame. He 
  was a guest of royalty, the nobility, and persons of the highest 
  position. During his residence in Paris, under the Imperial Court, 
  he was a frequent and ever - welcome visitor at the court of the late 
  Emperor Louis Napoleon. A record of the manifestations produced 
  through his mediumship was kept by command of the Empress, 
  and frequently read to her favoured friends. Amongst these 
  memoranda is one which went the round of the papers at the time 
  of its occurrence, hence there can be no impropriety in alluding to 
  it now. It stated that on one occasion a seance was held at the 
  Tuileries, when none were present save the Emperor, the Empress, 
  the Duchess do Montebello, and Mr. D. D. Home. 
   
  Oil the table were placed pen, ink, and paper, and presently a 
  spirit hand was seen, which dipped the pen in the ink and 
  deliberately wrote the name of the first Napoleon, in a perfect 
  facsimile of that monarch's handwriting. Tile Emperor asked if he 
  might be permitted to kiss this wonderful hand, when it instantly 
  raise to his lips, subsequently passing to those of the Empress, and 
  Mr. Home. 
   
  The Emperor carefully preserved this precious autograph, and 
  inscribed with it a memorandum to the effect that the hand was 
  warm, soft, and resembled exactly that of his great predecessor and 
  uncle. 
   
  As an evidence of the wide popularity to which the subject of 
  Spiritualism had attained in 1869, M. Pierart quotes in one of his 
  numbers of that year, an article from the Si9cle, a leading paper, 
  but one which has hitherto contained many notices inimical to 
  Spiritualism. The writer, M. Eug6ne Bonnemere, says: 
   
  " Although somnambulism has been a hundred times annihilated 
  by the Academy of Medicine, it is more alive than ever in Paris; in 
  the midst of all the lights of the age, it continues, right or wrong, to 
  excite the multitude. Protean in its forms, infinite in its 
  manifestations, if you put it out of the door, it knocks at the 
  window; if that be not opened, it knocks on the ceiling, on the 
  walls; it raps on the table at which you innocently seat yourselves 
  to dine or for a game of whist. If you close your ears to its sounds, 
  it grows excited, strikes the table, whirls it about in a giddy maze, 
  lifts up its feet, and proceeds to talk through mediumship, as the 
  dumb talk with their fingers. 
   
  " You have all known the rage for table - turning. At one time we 
  ceased to ask after each other's health, but asked how your table 
  was. 'Thank you, mine turns beautifully; and how goes yours on ? ' 
  Everything turned; hats and the heads in them. One was led almost 
  
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  to believe that a circle of passengers being formed round the 
  mainmast of a ship of great tonnage, and a magnetic chain thus 
  established, they might make the vessel spin round till it 
  disappeared in the depth of the ocean, as a gimlet disappears in a 
  deal board. The Church interfered; it caused its thunders to roar, 
  declaring that it was Satan himself who thus raised the devil in the 
  tables, and having formally forbade the world to turn, it now 
  forbade the faithful to turn tables, hats, brains, or ships of huge 
  size. But Satan held his own. The sovereign of the nether world 
  passed into a new one, and that is the reason that America sends 
  us mediums, beginning so gloriously with the famous Home, and 
  ending with the Brothers Davenport. One remembers with what a 
  frenzy everyone precipitated himself in pursuit of mediums. 
  Everyone wished to have one of his own; and when you introduced 
  a young man into society, you did not say, ' He is a good waltzer, ' 
  but, ' He is a medium.' Official science has killed and buried this 
  Somnambulism a score of times; but it must have done it very 
  badly, for there it is as alive as ever, only christened .3fresh with a 
  new name." 
   
  Amongst the many distinguished adherents of Spiritualism in the 
  department of French literature, none have more bravely asserted 
  and defended their belief than Camille Flammarion, the celebrated 
  astronomer; Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Victorien Sardou, 
  the renowned writer of French comedy. M. Sardou was himself a 
  medium of singularly happy endowments. He executed a number 
  of curious drawings, purporting to represent scenes in the spirit 
  world, amongst which was an exquisite and complex work of art 
  entitled, " The House of Mozart." 
   
  Fawcett, Colonel Percy Harrison:  Colonel Fawcett was born in 
  1867 in Devon, England. At the age of nineteen he was given a 
  commission in the Royal Artillery. He served in Ceylon for several 
  years where he met and married his wife. Later he performed 
  secret service work in North Africa. Fawcett found himself bored 
  with Army life and learned the art of surveying, hoping to land a 
  more interesting job. Then in 1906 came the offer from the Society: 
  His ticket to adventure.  
   
  The Colonel arrived in La Plaz, Bolivia, in June of 1906 ready to 
  start his expedition. After a disagreement with the government over 
  expenses ,Fawcett started into the heart of the continent to begin 
  the boundary survey. He quickly found that just getting to the area 
  where he was to be working would be an ordeal in itself. The trail 
  lead up a precipitous path to a pass in the mountains at 17,000 
  feet. It took him and his companions two hours to go four miles and 
  climb 6,000 feet. The pack mules would struggle up the path 30 
  feet at a time, then stop, gasping for breath in the thin air. The 
  party was afraid that if they overworked the animals, they would 
  die.  
   
  Hostile People  - Arriving at the town of Cobija, Fawcett quickly 
  got a taste of how difficult life was in the interior of South America. 
  Disease was common and he was told that the death rate in the 
  town was nearly fifty percent a year. Cut off from the outside world, 
  many depressed inhabitants sought comfort by abusing alcohol. 
  One night one of the local army officers became enraged by his 
  subordinate's refusal to join him in a card game. Drunk, the officer 
  drew his sword and went after the man, injuring him. When 
  another soldier tried to assist the injured man the officer turned on 
  him, chasing him around a hut. The fellow sought refuge in 
  Fawcett's room, but the officer followed him inside.  
   
  "Where is that dirty so-and-so?" the officer roared. "Where have 
  you hidden him?"  
  When Fawcett reprimanded the officer for chasing unarmed men 
  with his sword, the officer cursed at the Colonel and drew his 
  revolver. Fawcett grabbed the man's wrist and struggled with him, 
  finally forcing the gun from his hand.  
   
  Bolivia was a lawless frontier is those days, much like the 
  American West had been a half century before. Fawcett, in fact, 
  met an American gunslinger named Harvey. The red-bearded, 
  silent man was quick with his revolver and sure with his aim. 
  Harvey, a bandit, had found the United States too civilized and 
  dodged the Texas Rangers, working his way down through Mexico 
  into South America. He had held up a mining company in a 
  neighboring country, and there was a large reward on his head. 
  Boliva had no extradition law, however, and he was safe in this 
  new frontier.  
   
  Colonel Fawcett was appalled by treatment of the native South 
  American Indians. Although slavery was illegal, rubber plantation 
  owners would often organize trips into the jungle for the purpose of 
  capturing slaves to be used as rubber collectors. Some of the 
  tribes, in return, became quite hostile toward those of European 
  decent. Fawcett believed that if you treated the Indians with 
  kindness and understanding, you would receive kindness in return. 
  During a trip up the Heath River to find its source in 1910, 
  Fawcett had a unique opportunity to test his theory.  
   
  He and his group had been warned off traveling up the Heath 
  because the tribes along it had a reputation for unrestrained 
  savagery. "To venture up into the midst of them is sheer madness," 
  exclaimed an army major. Fawcett went anyway.  
   
  After a week paddling up the river, the party rounded a bend and 
  ran straight into an Indian encampment perched on a sandbar. The 
  natives were as surprised as the expedition. "Dogs barked, men 
  shouted, women screamed and reached for their children" Fawcett 
  recalled. The natives hid in the trees while the group grounded 
  their canoes on the sandbar. Arrows whizzed by the men or fell 
  around them. Fawcett tried some peace overtures using native 
  words he had learned, but the message didn't seem to be getting 
  through. Then he had an idea. One of the group was seated just 
  beyond arrow range and was told to play his accordion. The man 
  sang "A Bicycle Made for Two", "Suwannee River", "Onward 
  Christian Soldiers" and other tunes. Finally Fawcett noticed the 
  lyrics had changed to "They've-all-stopped-shooting-at-us." Sure 
  enough, the singer was right. Fawcett approached the natives and 
  greeted them. Gifts were exchanged as a sign of friendship.  
   
  Not all contacts with the Indians ended so well. During a trip down 
  the Chocolatal River, the pilot of the boat Fawcett was traveling on 
  went off to inspect a nearby road. When he didn't come back 
  Fawcett found him dead with 42 arrows in his body.  
   
  Dangerous Animals - People were only one of the dangers of the 
  jungle. The animal kingdom was another. One night while camped 
  near the Yalu River ,the Colonel was climbing into his sleeping 
  bag when he felt something "hairy and revolting" scuttle up his arm 
  and over his neck. It was a gigantic apazauca spider. It clung to his 
  hand fiercely while Fawcett tried to shake it off. The spider finally 
  dropped to the ground and walked away without attacking. The 
  animal's bite is poisonous and sometimes fatal.  
   
  
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  Vampire bats were also a nuisance in some remote areas. At night 
  these creatures would come to bite and lap up blood from sleepers. 
  Fawcett reported that though they slept under mosquito nets, any 
  portion of bodies touching the net or protruding beyond it would be 
  attacked. In the morning they would find their hammocks saturated 
  with blood.  
   
  Near Potrero, wild bulls became a problem for one of Fawcett's 
  expeditions. The group was traveling in an ox cart which gave them 
  some protection. Even so, the group was attacked by three bulls 
  one day. They managed to drive them off only after killing one 
  animal and riddling the other two with bullets. On that same trip 
  Fawcett was fifty yards behind the rest of the group when a big red 
  bull appeared between him and the cart. The Colonel wasn't 
  carrying a rifle and there were no trees or other places to seek 
  refuge. Fawcett was able to get past the animal, as it snorted, 
  lashed its tail and tore up the ground, by moving slowly while 
  fixing it with a a hopefully hypnotic stare.  
   
  Snakes were also a constant threat too. Once while traveling with a 
  Texan named Ross, they were attacked by a seven-foot long 
  "Bushmaster," a deadly poisonous snake. The men leapt out of the 
  way as the Texan pulled his revolver, putting two slugs through the 
  ugly head of the creature. On close examination Ross realized the 
  snake had bitten him, but the fangs had sunk into his tobacco 
  pouch. His skin showed two dents where the fangs had pressed 
  against him, but never broke through. His skin was wet with 
  venom. The pouch had saved his life.  
   
  Fawcett often found it necessary to swim rivers in order to get a 
  rope across for hauling equipment over. The Colonel had to be very 
  careful there were no cuts or open sores on his body that might 
  attract piranha fish. Swarms of these fish have been known to strip 
  the flesh off a man in minutes if he was unlucky enough to fall into 
  the water were they where congregated. One of Fawcett's 
  companions lost two fingers to them while washing his blood 
  stained hands in the river.  
   
  Though not poisonous, the giant anaconda is probably the most 
  feared snake in the jungle. Fawcett had a run-in with one not long 
  after he arrived in South America. In his diary he noted: "We were 
  drifting easily along the sluggish current not far below the 
  confluence of the Rio Negro when almost under the bow of the 
  igarit'e [boat] there appeared a triangular head and several feet of 
  undulating body. It was a giant anaconda. I sprang for my rifle as 
  the creature began to make its way up the bank, and hardly waiting 
  to aim, smashed a .44 soft-nosed bullet into its spine, ten feet 
  below the wicked head."  
  The boat stopped so that the Colonel could examine the body. 
  Despite being fatally wounded, "shivers ran up and down the body 
  like puffs of wind on a mountain tarn." Though they had no 
  measuring device along with them, Fawcett estimated the creature 
  was sixty-two feet in length and 12-inches in diameter.  
   
  Indifferent Nature - Colonel Fawcett probably came closest to 
  death during his trips not from human or animal agents but from 
  the geography of the land itself. While traveling down the 
  uncharted Madidi River by raft, his expedition encountered a 
  series of dangerous rapids. With each the speed of the rafts 
  increased until they were rushing down the river uncontrolled. 
  Finally, the river widened and the velocity slowed.  
  The crews had just given a sigh of relief when they rounded a steep 
  bluff and the roar of a waterfall filled their ears. One of the rafts 
  was able to make it to shore, but Fawcett's was caught in the 
  current. With the water too deep to use a pole to snag the bottom 
  and turn away, the raft shot over the drop.  
   
  Fawcett later recounted, "...the raft seemed to poise there for an 
  instant before it fell from under us. Turning over two or three times 
  as it shot through the air, the balsa crashed down into the black 
  depths."  
    
  The group survived, but lost much of their equipment. "Looking 
  back we saw what we had come through. The fall was about twenty 
  feet high, and where river dropped the canyon narrowed to a mere 
  ten feet across; through this bottleneck the huge volume of water 
  gushed with terrific force, thundering down into the a welter of 
  brown foam and black-topped rocks. It seemed incredible that we 
  could have survived that maelstrom!"  
  During a trip to map the Rio Verde River and discover its source, 
  Fawcett came face to face with starvation. The expedition started 
  well: The land around the mouth of the river had plenty of game 
  and the group took what they estimated to be three weeks worth of 
  food with them. Then the expedition was forced to abandon their 
  boats because of rapids, and had to continue up the riverbank on 
  foot.  
   
  Because the expedition needed to minimize the weight they would 
  carry, Fawcett decided to bury some of his equipment and 60 gold 
  sovereigns (worth about $300) in metal cases near where they 
  landed. Fawcett was amazed when years later stories came to him 
  about a "Verde Treasure" that had been left behind by his 
  expedition. The story had been retold and embellished so many 
  times that the size of the treasure had been magnified to 60,000 
  gold sovereigns. The Colonel was particularly amused because the 
  story never mentioned the fact the he had retrieved the cases after 
  the trip was over. He was sure the story would attract future would-
  be treasure hunters.  
   
  As they walked upriver the water, which had been clean, turned 
  bitter and no fish could be found. Then game also seemed to 
  disappear. Soon the supplies they carried were exhausted. For ten 
  more days the group pressed on, despite only having consumed 
  some bad honey and a few bird eggs. Finally, the found the source 
  of the river and charted it (l 
   
  Freed from the responsibility of charting the river, Fawcett tried to 
  figure out the quickest route to somewhere they could get food. 
  Deciding the best chance was to go over the Ricardo Franco Hills, 
  the group tried to work their way up canyons that would lead them 
  to the top.  
   
  The hills were flat-topped and mysterious. They looked like giant 
  tables and their forested tops were completely cut off from the 
  jungle below. When Fawcett later told Conan Doyle about these 
  hills, the writer pictured the isolated tops populated with surviving 
  dinosaurs. Doyle used these hills as the location for his famous 
  novel The Lost World.  
   
  The expedition quickly found that crossing the hills was futile, and 
  returning the way they had come impossible. Colonel Fawcett 
  instead decided to follow the direction the streams in the region 
  were flowing, hoping that it would get them out. Days passed and 
  no food. One of the expedition's Indian assistants lay down to die, 
  and only the prodding of Fawcett's hunting knife in his ribs got him 
  moving again.  
  
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  After twenty days without food, the group was at its limit. Fawcett 
  prayed audibly for relief. Then fifteen minutes later a deer 
  appeared 300 yards away. Fawcett unslung his gun. The target was 
  too far away and his hands were shaking, but,in a miracle the 
  Colonel could only attribute to a higher power, the bullet found its 
  mark, killing the deer instantly.  
   
  The group consumed every part of the deer: skin, fur and all. The 
  expedition's fortune had turned and within six days they were back 
  in a town with the Verde trip only a bad memory.  
   
  For the first three years Fawcett had worked for the Boundary 
  Commission charting the region. When that job came to an end, 
  Fawcett retired from the military and continued exploring on his 
  own, financing the trips with help from newspapers and other 
  businesses. After returning to England to serve in World War I, the 
  Colonel was again drawn back to the South American jungle. As 
  time went on, he became more and more interested in the 
  archaeology of the region. In total he made seven expeditions into 
  wilderness between 1906 and 1924.  
   
  The Final Expedition  - Finding reliable companions for his trips 
  had always been a problem, but by 1925 his oldest son, Jack, had 
  reached an age where he could join his father in the field.  
   
  Fawcett, by examining records and sifting through old stories, had 
  become convinced that there was a large, ancient city concealed in 
  the wilds of Brazil. Fawcett called this city "Z" and planned an 
  expedition that consisted of himself, his son, Jack, and a friend of 
  Jack's. Fawcett had always preferred small expeditions that could 
  live off the land, thinking that a small group would look less like 
  an invasion to the Indians and therefore be less likely to be 
  attacked. The route was carefully planned.  
   
  Fawcett, concerned with others, left word that should they not 
  return, a rescue expedition was not to be mounted. He felt that it 
  would be too dangerous.  
   
  On May 29th, 1925, a message was sent from Fawcett to his wife, 
  indicating that they were ready to enter unexplored territory. The 
  three were sending back the assistants that had helped them to this 
  point and were ready to go on by themselves. Fawcett told his wife 
  "You need have no fear of failure..." It was the last anyone ever 
  heard of the expedition. They disappeared into the jungle never to 
  be seen again.  
   
  Despite Fawcett's wishes, several rescue expeditions tried to find 
  him, but without success. Occasionally there were intriguing 
  reports that he'd been seen, but none of these were ever confirmed.  
   
   
  Fortune, Dion: was born Violet Mary Firth in Llandudno, North 
  Wales on 6th December 1890, the daughter of a solicitor. Her 
  interest in occultism was sparked when she was working as a lay 
  Freudian analyst around the time of the First World War. She was 
  trained by a doctor named Moriarty who specialised in astro-
  etheric psychological conditions (and who later provided the 
  inspiration for her series of short stories The Secrets of Doctor 
  Taverner). Having found her 'path' in the Western Mystery 
  Tradition she joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 
  1919. 
   
  Moving to London in 1920, she joined an offshoot branch of the 
  Golden Dawn run by Moina Mathers, widow of MacGregor 
  Mathers, one of the Golden Dawn's founders. She began to write 
  articles under the name of Dion Fortune (taken from her family 
  motto Deo Non Fortuna, 'God not luck'), which were later 
  published in book form as The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and 
  Marriage, Sane Occultism and Psychic Self-Defence, the first of 
  her many occult textbooks. These articles enraged Moina Mathers, 
  who felt that Dion Fortune was betraying the secrets of the Order.  
   
  Dion Fortune became increasingly disillusioned with the Golden 
  Dawn, and after Dr. Moriarty's death in 1921 she set about 
  founding her own esoteric order with a few of Moriarty's students 
  and a few members of the Theosophical Society in London. In 
  1924 her little group bought an old officers' hut from the army and 
  erected it at the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. This site, 
  which they named Chalice Orchard, was the first headquarters of 
  the Fraternity of the Inner Light (later re-named the Society of the 
  Inner Light). Soon afterwards they also acquired a large old house 
  -- 3 Queensborough Terrace, London -- which was big enough for 
  certain members to live in as well as being an established magical 
  lodge. Among those living there were Dion Fortune and her 
  husband Dr. Penry Evans, although they divided their time 
  between London and Glastonbury, and eventually divorced. The 
  society soon became an initiatory school of high calibre. Working 
  in trance mediumship, Dion Fortune made contacts with certain 
  inner plane adepts, or Masters, whose influence on the Western 
  Esoteric Tradition is still vital to this day.  
   
  During the 1930s Dion Fortune wrote several esoteric novels 
  which contain much practical detail which was considered too 
  'secret' at that time to be published in her articles or textbooks. 
  She also pioneered Qabalah as a key to the Western Mystery 
  Tradition, and her book The Mystical Qabalah is still one of the 
  best texts available on the subject. Her other main work was The 
  Cosmic Doctrine, which was received mediumistically and 
  originally reserved for initiates only. Its text is abstract and 
  difficult to follow, and is intended for meditation rather than as a 
  straight textbook.  
   
  The Society of the Inner Light continues to operate its lodge at 3 
  Queensborough Terrace in London, and Fortune writes and speaks 
  occasionally. 
   
  Fraud: A very large part is played by fraud in spiritualistic 
  practices, both in the physical and psychical, or automatic, 
  phenomena, but especially in the former. The frequency with 
  which mediums have been convicted of fraud (for example the 
  spectacular case of Eileen Garrett)  has, led, induced many people 
  to abandon the study of psyn chical research, judging the whole 
  bulk of the phenomena to be fraudulently produced. Yet the 
  question of fraud is itself an interesting and complicated one, not 
  unworthy of the attention of the student, for we find in connection 
  with spiritualism not only simple deception practised with a view 
  to gaining pecuniary advantages, but also many instances of 
  systematic and apparently deliberate trickery where there is no 
  evident reward to be obtained, and even cases where the medium 
  is, so far as can be judged, entirely innocent and ignorant of 
  thefraud he obviously practises. And it may be added that after all 
  precautions have been taken which science and commonsense can 
  suggest, there remains a portion of the phenomena which still 
  continues to be inexplicable, and which justifies the interest now 
  so widely shown in psychic sciencu. 
   
  
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  In considering the important factor of fraud, we must distinguish 
  between conscious and unconscious fraud, though, as will be 
  shown hereafter, it is at times possible for the one to shade 
  imperceptibly into the other. Conscious fraud most often appears 
  in connection with the physical phenomena. Almost at the outset of 
  the spiritualistic movement, i.e., in 1851, three doctors, professors 
  of the University of Buffalo, N.Y., demonstrated that the rappings 
  which attended the Sisters Fox were produced by the manipulation 
  of the knee and toe joints, a fact which was shortly afterwards 
  corroborated by Mrs. Cluver, a relative 'of the Fox family. Since 
  that time many mediums have at one time or another been 
  convicted of fraud, and every phase of physical mediumship been 
  discredited. Slate - writing, spirit photography, materialisation, 
  have all in turn been exposed, though the latter, at least, seems 
  able to survive any number of exposures. Time and again, sitters 
  have beheld the form and features of the medium in the 
  materialised spirit; shadowy figures in filmy draperies, have been 
  shown to be mannikins wrapped in muslin, and false beards and 
  white draperies have been found about the person of the medium. 
  Apports have been smuggled into the seance - room - jewels, 
  flowers, perfumes, objels d'art - in order to be showered upon the 
  sitters by generously - disposed " spirits." Threads and human 
  hairs have been used to move furniture and other objects. 
  Sometimes more elaborate and complicated machinery is provided, 
  but more often the medium depends upon sleight of hand and 
  skilful su., gestion to accomplish his ends. Conjurers have 
  frequently been admitted to seances, and have failed to discover 
  the modus operandi of the various feats, but this fact, though a 
  great dead has been made of it by spiritualists, cannot be taken to 
  have any significance, since conjurers are often quite mystified by 
  each other's performances. 
   
  Freemasonry - History and Origin: Though it would not be exactly 
  correct to say that the history of Freemasonry was lost in the mists 
  of antiquity, it is competent to remark that although to a certain 
  degree traceable, its records are of a scanty nature, and so crossed 
  by the trails of other mystical brotherhoods, that disentanglement 
  is an extremely difficult process.  
   
  The ancient legend of its foundation at the time of the building of 
  the Temple at Jerusalem is manifestly traditional. If one might 
  hazard an opinion, it would seem that at a very early epoch in the 
  history of civilization, a caste of builders in stone arose, who 
  jealously guarded the secret of their craft. In all probability this 
  caste was prehistoric. It is not unreasonable to assume this when 
  we possess plenty of proof that an ancient caste of bronze - workers 
  flourished in every country in Europe and Asia; and if this be 
  admitted, and it cannot well be refuted in the light of recent 
  researches, -  (see Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society for 1913) - 
  there is nothing absurd or impossible in the contention that a 
  similar school of workers in stone should have arisen at a like early 
  period. We know that it is probable that the old caste of 
  bronzeworkers had an esoteric language of their own, which has 
  come down to us as the Shelta Thari (q.v.) spoken generally by the 
  tinkler people of Great Britain and Ireland. If such a caste can 
  elaborate a secret language and cling jealously to the " mysteries " 
  of metal - working, there is no reason to doubt the existence of a 
  similar caste of masons. We tender t his theory for what it is worth, 
  as it is unsupported by any great authority on the subject. Where 
  such a caste of operative masons arose is altogether a separate 
  question, and cannot be dealt with here; but it must obviously have 
  been in a country where working in stone was one of the principal 
  arts. It is also almost certain that this early brotherhood must have 
  been hierophantic. Its principal work to begin with would 
  undoubtedly consist in the raising of temples and similar 
  structures, and as such it would come into very close contact with 
  the priesthood, if indeed it was not wholly directed by it. In early 
  civilization but two classes of dwelling receive the attention of the 
  architect, - the temple and the palace. For example, among, the 
  ruins of Egypt and Babylon, remains of the private house are rare, 
  but the temple and the royal residence are everywhere 
  conspicuous, and we know that among the ruins of Central 
  America temples and palaces alone remain - the huts of the 
  surrounding dwellers having long ago disappeared. The temple is 
  the nucleus of the early city. Around the worship of the gods 
  crystallizes commerce, agriculture, and all the affairs of life. All 
  roads lead to the temple. Striding for a moment over the gap of 
  years between early Babylon and Egypt and mediaeval Britain, we 
  find the priesthood in close touch with the masons. A mediaeval 
  cathedral took more than one generation to erect, and in that time 
  many masons came and went around the fane. The lodge was 
  invariably founded hard by the rising cathedral or abbey, and 
  apprentices and others were entered as opportunity offered: indeed 
  a man might serve his apprenticeship and labour all through his 
  life upon the one building, without ever seeing any work 
  elsewhere. The evidence as to whether the master - masons were 
  also architects is very conflicting, and it has been held that the 
  priests were the architects of the British cathedrals, - the master - 
  masons and operatives merely carrying out their designs. There is 
  good evidence however that this is not wholly true. Authorities are 
  at one in declaring that of all arts architecture is by far the most 
  intricate. It is undoubtedly the one which requires a long and 
  specific training. Questions of stress and strain of the most difficult 
  description arise, and it seems incredible that anyone with the 
  most superficial knowledge of the subject should believe that 
  ecclesiastics, who had not undergone any special training should 
  be qualified to compose plans of the most perfect and intricate 
  description for the most noble and remarkable edifices ever raised 
  in this country. 
   
  We know that professional architects existed at a very early period; 
  and why the priesthood should be credited with their work, it is 
  difficult to understand; but instances are on record where the 
  priests of a certain locality have taken to themselves the credit of 
  planning the cathedral of the diocese. Be this as it may, the " 
  mystery " of building was sufficiently deep to require extensive 
  knowledge and experience and to a great extent this justifies the 
  jealousy with which the early masons regarded its secrets. Again, 
  this jealousy with which it was kept from the vulgar gaze may have 
  been. racial in its origin, and may have arisen from such 
  considerations as the following: " Let no stranger understand this 
  craft of ours. Why should we make it free to the heathen and the 
  foreigner ? " This also smacks of priestcraft, but if masonry 
  originated hierophantically, it certainly did not continue a preserve 
  any religion, and is nowadays probably the chiefest abomination of 
  the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which has not hesitated to publish 
  and disseminate the grossest libels regarding it. it is to Britain that 
  we must look for evidence as to the evolutionary line of masonry. 
  Before the founding of the Grand Lodge, we find that York and the 
  North of England in general was regarded as the most ancient seat 
  of the fraternity in this island. Indeed  - without stretching 
  probabilities too far, the line of evolution so far as York is 
  concerned is quite remarkable. We know for example that in the 
  early days of that city a temple of Serapis existed there, which was 
  afterwards a monastery of  - the Begging Friars, and the mysteries 
  of this god existed beside the Roman Collevia -  or Craftsmen's 
  
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  Society. It is also considered that the crypt of York Minster affords 
  evidence of the progress of masonry from Roman to Saxon times. it 
  is stated that it had a mosaic pavement of blue tiles laid in the 
  form employed in the first degree of masonry, and is said to show 
  the sites of three seats used by the master and his wardens (luring 
  the construction of the building. It is also an undoubted fact that 
  the craft occasionally met in this crypt during last century. There 
  is thus reason to believe even though the evidence be of a, the 
  foregoing does not embrace it that the early masons of Britain were 
  probably influenced by Romano - Egyptian mystical societies, and 
  that their w, , n craft societies drew some of their practices and 
  constitutions froni. these alien schools. Masonic tradition goes to 
  show that even in the begiflul4rig of the fourteenth century 
  masonry in Britain was then regarded as a thing of great antiquity. 
  Lodge records for the most part only date back to the sixteenth 
  century in the oldest instances, but ancient manuscripts are extant 
  which undoubtedly relate to masonry. Thus the old charge -, 
  embodied in the Regius  which was unearthed in 1839 by Mr, 
  Halliwell Philips are dated at 139o0 and contain a curious legend 
  of the craft, which tells how the necessity of finding work of some 
  description drove men to consult Euclid, who recommended 
  masonry as a craft to them. It goes on to tell how masonry was 
  founded in Egypt, and how it entered England in the time of 
  Athelstan. The necessity for keeping close counsel as regards the 
  secrets of the craft is insisted upon in rude verse. The Cooke MS. 
  dates from the first part of the fifteenth century, and likewise 
  contains versions of the old charges. Egypt is also regarded here  - 
  as the mother - land of masonry, and Athelstan is the medium for 
  the introduction of the craft into the island of Britain. But that this 
  manuscript was used among masons at a later date was proved by 
  the discovery of a more modern version dated about 1087, in 1880, 
  and known as the William Watson MS. In all about seventy of 
  these old charges and pseudo - histories have been discovered 
  since 1860. They have all much in common and are of English 
  origin. 
   
  A great deal has been written to attempt to prove that British 
  freemasonry borrowed extensively from continental secret 
  societies, such as the Steinmetzin of Germany, the Rosicrucians 
  (q.v.) and similar fellowships. The truth probably lies however in 
  the circumstance that the coming and going of students of 
  occultism throughout Europe was so constant, and so frequent were 
  their communications that practically all those societies were, in 
  touch with one another. Again many persons belonged to several of 
  them at once, and imported the rules and constitution of one body 
  into another. No student of occultism can fail to be struck with the 
  close resemblance of the constitutions of nearly all the mystical 
  fellowships of the middle ages, and the resemblance of the 
  verbiage employed by their founders and protagonists. It must also 
  be insisted that the speculative or mystic part of masonry was in 
  the middle ages merely a tradition with the brotherhood, whatever 
  it may have been in earlier times, and whatever close connection 
  the craft may have had with hierophantic or in\ stic Philosophy. 
  The speculative element, we repeat, was merely traditional and 
  symbolical as at present, and not practical; but this tradition was to 
  serve to keep alight the flame of speculative mysticism which was 
  to be aroused again at the end of the medieval period. When 
  political freedom awoke in Europe, the necessity fo17 the 
  existence of secret societies vanished, but the persons who 
  delighted in their formation and management still remained. The 
  raison d'etre of these fellowships had disappeared, but the love of 
  mysticism, not to say the mysterious, was perhaps stronger than 
  ever. What then occurred ? Simply this: that all those persons who 
  found the occupation of floating and managing real secret societies 
  are, cast about for anything in the shape of a mystic fellowship that 
  they could find. They soon discovered the craft of masonry which 
  although operative possessed mystical traditions. The attraction 
  was mutual, and astrologers, alchemists and others soon crowded 
  the lodges, to such purpose that at the ledge held in 1646 in 
  London, there was not an operative mason present, and at that held 
  in 1682, the speculative branch was overwhelming in its numbers. 
  Looking back a little, it is noteworthy that the freemasons in 
  medieval times formed a fellowship or guild. closely resembling ill 
  its constitution that of similar trade guilds both in Britain and the 
  continent; such as the Weavers, Tailors, Fishmongers, and so 
  forth. But although these guilds preserved their " mysteries, " 
  where they possessed them, With considerable jealousy, they do 
  not appear to have embedded in their constitutions the same 
  ancient practices and ritual which go to show so strongly that 
  masonry is undoubtedly an institution of great antiquity. 
   
   It has also been suggested that freemasonry was introduced into 
  Europe by the Knights Templar. It would be difficult to discover a 
  similar institution which in the opinion of some authorities had not 
  been founded by that order; and it is difficult to believe that the 
  haughty chivalry of Norman times would have claimed any 
  connection whatsoever with an operative craft.  Nevertheless there 
  are indications that Scottish Rite Masonry has strong Templar 
  Influences 
   
  Many masons of the middle of the seventeenth century, such as 
  Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole, were diligent students of occult 
  science. and Sir Christopher Wren was a student of hermetic art. 
   
  It has often been put forward that Scotland was the original home 
  of freemasonry in these islands, but although the craft was 
  undoubtedly ancient in that country, there does not appear to be 
  any adequate proof that it was older than in England. Some of the 
  Scottish lodges, such as No. 1 Edinburgh, Kilwinning, and 
  Aberdeen, possess very ancient records, and it is probable that this 
  has led to the assumption that the brotherhood was of greater 
  antiquity in North Britain than in England. But the circumstance 
  that the craft was probably introduced into England in Roman 
  times, where it has in all likelihood flourished ever since, tends to 
  dispose of such a theory. The history of modern freemasonry begins 
  with the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, which was 
  inaugurated on St. John the Baptist's Day 1717 by several old 
  lodges. This represented the first central governing body of the 
  fraternity, and before this time each lodge had been self - 
  governing. Many lodges speedily came under its aegis, and Ireland 
  formed a Grand lodge of her own in 1725 but Scotland did not 
  follow till 1736, and even then many lodges held aloof from the 
  central body, only 33 out of 100 falling into line. From one or other 
  of these three governing bodies all the regular lodges throughout 
  the world have arisen, so that modern masonry may truthfully be 
  said to be of entirely British origin. This is not the place to enter 
  into an elaborate discussion of the history and affairs of modern 
  masonry, and we are chiefly exercised regarding its mystical 
  position and tendencies. Regarding these we must be brief. As 
  regards the lower ranks of the craft, it consists almost entirely in 
  these islands at least of persons who have in great measure treated 
  it as a mere friendly society, and it is only in the higher ranks that 
  any real  - 'idea of the true significance of the mystical tenets 
  preserved and taught is retained. The ordinary mason, who 
  preserves a cryptic and mysterious silence when the affairs of his 
  craft are alluded to, merely serves as a laughing - stock to the 
  modern well - equipped mystic. Certain signs and handgrips are in 
  use amongst masons, and the possession of these, and of a ritual 
  
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  the significance of which he rarely comprehends, the average 
  brother fondly imagines, renders him somewhat superior to the 
  layman. It is extremely doubtful if among even the higher ranks of 
  masonry, the deepest significance of the tradition of the craft is 
  thoroughly realised, and if the absurd works which every now and 
  then emanate from eminent masons regarding the history of their 
  craft be accepted as criteria of their higher knowledge, it must 
  indeed be of slight proportions.  
   
  As has been said, continental masonry is undoubtedly the offspring 
  of British systems. This is not to say that in France and Germany 
  there were no masonic lodges in existence before the formation of 
  the English Grand Lodge; but all modern lodges in these countries 
  undoubtedly date from the inception of the English central body. 
  French masonry possessed and possesses many rites which diff er 
  entirely from those accepted by the Biitish craft. We find the 
  beginnings of modern French masonry in the labours of Martinez 
  Pasqually (q.v.), St. Martin (q.v.), and perhaps to a great extent in 
  those of Cagliostro (q.v.) who toiled greatly to found his Egyptian 
  rite in France. It is noticeable, however, that he had become a 
  member of a London lodge before attempting this. In France, 
  masonry has always had more or less a political complexion, and 
  nowadays the extreme enmity existing between it and the Roman 
  Catholic church in that country favours the inclusion in its ranks of 
  persons possessing ideals by no means in consonance with the very 
  upright standard of British masonry. In Germany, it has been said 
  that  Steinmetzin approximated very strongly to the British masons, 
  if they were not originally one and the same; but the later lodges in 
  Germany all date from that founded in 1733. 
   
  The entrance of masons into the various degrees involves an 
  elaborate system of symbolic ritual, of which the essence is 
  uniform throughout all lodges. The members are classified in 
  numerous degrees, of which the first three are entered apprentice, 
  fellow - craft, and master - mason. Each lodge possesses its own 
  byelaws, subject to the Book of Constitution of the Grand Lodge. 
   
  Wild stories have been circulated, chiefly by the Roman Catholic 
  enemies of masonry, regarding the practice of diabolic occultism in 
  the higher ranks of the craft. To begin with, it is extremely unlikely 
  that more than three or four persons connected with it possess the 
  requisite knowledge to thus offend against the Christian 
  proprieties, and the childish asseverations of French writers on the 
  subject may be dismissed with a smile. The " occultism " and " 
  transcendentalism " of the majority of zealous brethren are usually 
  of the mildest character possible, and are in some measure related 
  to the mysterious attitude of the average mason, when dark hints as 
  to lodge doings  - ire whispered of among his admiring relatives. 
   
  Friends of God: A mystical society founded in Germany in the 
  fourteenth century, for the purpose of ministering to the poor by 
  preaching and sacrament. Its members included men and women 
  of every rank and station; not only monks and nuns, but knights, 
  farmers, artizans, merchants. Their law was: " That univers al love, 
  commanded by Christ, and not to be gainsaid by his vicar ' " Their 
  prophecies and warnings roused the ire of certain of the clergy, 
  and they were charged with sectarianism. 
   
  Garinet, Jules : Author of a Hisloy Of Magic in France, Paris,  
  1818. In this curious work will be found a description of the 
  Sabbath, a dissertation on demons, a discourse on the superstitions 
  connected with magic among the ancients and the moderns. 
   
  Geber:, otherwise Abou Moussah Djafar al Sofi, was a native of 
  Haman, in Mesopotamia, or, according to other accounts, a 
  Spanish Moor, born at Savile, somewhere about the end of the 
  eighth century, though all dates concerning him are extremely 
  doubtful. Practically nothing is known of his life. He undertook 
  wide experiments in metallurgy and chemistry, with the object of 
  discovering the constituent elements of metals, in the course of 
  which he stumbled upon nitric acid and red oxide of mercury. It is, 
  , indeed, upon actual discoveries that his reputation is based, and 
  not upon the many spurious treatises which have been attributed to 
  him, and which embrace the entire gamut of the sciences. His 
  alleged extant works, which are in Latin, cannot but be regarded 
  with suspicion, especially as several mediaeval writers adopted his 
  name. It is believed, however, that 
   
  Genius: Is generally used as the name of a superior class of aerial 
  beings, holding an intermediate rank between mortals and 
  immortals. That, at least, appears to be the signification of " 
  Daemon, " the corresponding term in Greek. It is probable, that the 
  whole system of Demonology was invented by the Platonic 
  philosophers, and engrafted by degrees on the popular mythology. 
  The Platonists professed, however, to derive their doctrines from 
  the " theology of the ancients, " so that this system may have come 
  originally from the East, where it formed a part of the tenets of 
  Zoroaster. This sage ascribed all the operations of nature to the 
  agency of celestial beings, the ministers of one supreme first 
  cause, to whose most visible and brilliant image, Fire, homage was 
  paid as his representative. Some Roman writers speak of " the 
  Genius " as " the God of Nature, " or " Nature " itself, but their 
  notions seem to have been modified by, if not formed from, 
  etymological cornsiderations, more likely to mislead than to afford 
  a certain clue to the real meaning of the term. At a later period, 
  they supposed almost every 
   
  Gehenna (otherwise Hell): The word is derived from the Hebrew 
  ge and Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom - originally a valley in 
  Palestine where the Jews passed their children through the fire to 
  Moloch, the god of the Ammonites. Gehenna is popularly regarded 
  as a place of toiment to which the wicked are consigned when they 
  leave this earth: it is pictured as a bottomless pit, lit only by the 
  fire which is never quenched. In Dante and Milton, we have 
  diverse descriptions of Hell - the one of unutterable anguish, 
  horror and despair; the other more sublimely imaginative, and 
  pierced with rays of faith and love. The locality of Hell, and the 
  duration of its torments, have for centuries been the subject of 
  much questioning. By some, it is believed, that there is a 
  purgatorial region - a kind of upper Gehenna, " in which the souls 
  of just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment - before they 
  are admitted to Heaven. It was believed that during this period the 
  soul could revisit the places and persons whom it had loved. By 
  the Persians, Gehenna was understood as the place inhabited by 
  the divs, or rebellious angels, and to which they had been confined 
  when they refused to bow down before the first man. Gehenna is 
  used in the New Testament for Hell, and is practically synonymous 
  with the Greek " Hades." 
   
  Gematria: along with teinuyah, was the science of the dual 
  interpretation of the Kabalistic alphabet, which composed the 
  notary art, which is fundamentally the complete science of the tarot 
  (q.v.) signs and their complex and varied application to the 
  definition of all secrets. 
   
  
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  Gilles de Laval: Lord of Raiz, and Marshal of France, the "Blue 
  Beard" of our nursery legends, and a famous sorcerer, was born 
  about the year 1420, of one of the most famous families of Brittany. 
  His father died when he was in his twentieth year, and the 
  impetuous lad found himself possessed of unliraited power and 
  wealth. By birth, he was connected with the Roceys, the Craons, 
  and the _Montmorencys. Through his father's decease he became 
  the lord of fifteen princely domains, yielding a revenue of three 
  hundred thousand livres. He was handsome, lithe, well - limbed, 
  but distinguished by the appendage of a. beard of bluish black. 
  His address was fascinating, his erudition extensive, his courage 
  unimpeachable. Everything seemed to promise a splendid and 
  illustrious career, instead of th - ~tt dark and miserable history 
  which has associated the name of Blue Beard with so many 
  traditions of horror and legends of atrocious crimes. 
   
  At the outset he did nothing to justify an evil augury. He served 
  with zeal and gallantry in the wars of Charles VL against the 
  English, and had fought under Joan of Arc in the ever memorable 
  Siege of Orl6ans. His exploits procured him from a grateful king 
  the reward of the high dignity of Marshal of France. From this 
  point his career tended downwards. He retired to his Castle of 
  ChamptOG6 and indulged in the display of the most luxurious 
  state. Two hundred horsemen accompanied him on his travels, and 
  his train, when he went hunting, exceeded in magnificence that of 
  the King himself. His retainers wore the most sumptuous dresses; 
  his horses were caparisoned with the richest trappings; his castle 
  gates were thrown open day and night to all comers, for whom an 
  ox was daily roasted whole, and sheep, and pigs, and poultry, wine, 
  mead, and hippocras provided in sufficient quantities for five 
  hundred persons. He carried the same love of pomp into his 
  devotion. His principal chaplain, whom he called a bishop, a dean, 
  a chanter, two arch - deacons, four vicars, a schoolmaster, twelve 
  assistant chaplains, and eight choristers, composed his 
  ecclesiastical establishment. Each of these had his horse and his 
  servant; all were dressed in robes of scarlet and furs, and had 
  costly appointments. Sacred vessels, crucifixes, .all of gold and 
  silver, were transported with them wherever their lord went, 
  together with many organs, each carried by six men. He was 
  exceedingly desirous that all the priests of his chapel should be 
  entitled to wear the mitre, and he sent many embassies to Rome to 
  obtain this privilege, but without success. He maintained a choir of 
  twenty - five young children of both sexes, and these he caused to 
  be instructed in singing by the best masters of the (lay. He had 
  also his comedians, his morris - dancers, and his jugglers, and 
  every hour was crowned with some sensual gratification or 
  voluptuous pleasure. 
   
  In 1443, this magnificent young seigneur wedded Catheri ne, the 
  heiress of the noble House of Thouars, an event which afforded 
  him fresh occasions of displaying his insane passion for luxutious 
  pomp. fie gave the most splendid banquets; he figured in the most 
  chivalric tournaments. His guests, who came from all parts to share 
  in the revels of Champtoc6, knew not which to admire the most, his 
  skill in all knightly exercises, or his profound erudition. " He had 
  espoused a young woman of high birth, " says Eliphas Levi, " and 
  kept her practically shut up in his castle at Machecoul, which had 
  a tower with the entrance w"Illed up." A report was spread by the 
  Marshal that it was in a ruinous state, and no one sought to 
  penetrate therein. This, notwithstanding Madame de Raiz, who was 
  frequently alone duiring the ~lark hours, saw red lights moving to 
  and fro in this tower; but she did not venture to question her 
  husband, whose bizarre and sombre character filled her with 
  extreme terror. 
   
  The legal state maintained by the Lord of Retz was ordered on so 
  extensive a scale that it even exhausted his apparently 
  inexhaustible revenues, and to procure the funds for his pleasures 
  and his extravagance, he was compelled to sell several of his 
  baronies. Then the Marshal attempted to dispose of his seignory of 
  Ingrande. But his heirs - at - law, indisposed to see their valuable 
  inheritance gradually pared away into nothing, solicited the 
  interference of the King, and a royal edict'~rohibited him from 
  selling his paternal estates. In this predicament, most men would 
  have curtailed their profusion, and endeavoured to economize their 
  income, but Gilles de Retz was unable to live in diminished 
  splendour. The luiuries that surrounded him were all that for him 
  made life. To have shorn him of his ma - nificence would have 
  been to strike a death - blow at his heart. Money, theiefore, 
  became the principal object of his desires, and to obtain money it 
  seemed to his excited imagination only necessary that he should 
  turn alchemist. 
   
  He sent accordingly into Italy, Spain, and Germany, and invited 
  the adepts in the great science to repair from vvely land to the 
  splendours of Champtoc6. Amongstthose who obtained the 
  summonses, and continued attached to him durin -  the remainder 
  of his career, were Prelati, an alchemist of Padua, and a physician 
  of Poitou, whose name is not given. At their instigation he built a 
  stately laboratory, and joined by other adepts, eagerly began the 
  search for the Philosophers' Stone. For a twelve month the furnaces 
  blazed away right merrily, and a thousand chemical combinations 
  disposed of the Marshal's gold and silver. Meanwhile, the 
  alchemists feasted on the most luxurious viands, and quaffed the 
  rarest wines; and so admirable were their quarters that, as far as 
  they were concerned, they would have prosecuted the quest of the 
  elixir vita~, or the Philosophers' Stone, until death cut short their 
  labours. 
   
  The impetuosity of the Lord of Retz could not abide such lingering 
  processes. He wanted wealth, and he wanted it immediately. If the 
  grand secret could not be discovered by any quicker method, he 
  would have none of it, nor, indeed, as his resources were fast 
  melting away, would it avail him much if theseirch occupied 
  several years. At this junction the Poitousaii physician and the 
  Paduan alchemist whispered to him of quicker and bolder methods 
  of attaining the desired alkehest, if he had the courage to adopt 
  them. Gilles de Retz immediately dismissed the inferior adepts, 
  and put himself in the hands of the two abler and subtler masters. 
  These persuaded him that the Evil One could at once reveal to 
  them the secret, and offered to summons him ex tenebris, for the 
  Marshal to conclude with him whatever arrangement he thought 
  best. As long as he saved his soul, the Lord of Retz profe9sed 
  himself willing to do anything the devil might command. 
   
  In this frame of mind he went to the physician at midnight to a 
  solitary recess in the neighbouring wood, where the physician drew 
  the magic circle and made ' the customary conjurations. Gilles 
  listened to the invocation with wonder, and expectant that every 
  moment the Spirit of Darkness would burst upon the startled 
  silence. After a lapse of thirty minutes, the physician manifested 
  signs of the greatest alarm; his hair seemed to stand on end, his 
  eyes glared with unutterable horror; he talked wildly, M s knees 
  shook, a deadly pallor overspread his countenance, and he sank to 
  the ground. Gilles was aman of dauntless bravery, and gazed upon 
  the strange scene unmoved. After awhile the physician pretended 
  to recover consciousness. He arose, and turning to his master, 
  inquired if he had not remarked the wrathful countenance of the 
  
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  devil. De Retz replied that he had seen no devil. Whereupon the 
  physician declared lie had, appeared in the fashion of a wild 
  leopard, and had growled at him horribly. "You, " he said to his 
  lord, "  - would have been the same, and heard the same, but for 
  your want of faith. You could not determine to give yourself up 
  wholly to his service, and therefore he thrust a mist before your 
  eyes." De Retz acknowledged that his resolution had somewhat 
  faltered, but that now his choice was made, if indeed the Evil One 
  could be coerced into speaking, and revealing the secret of the 
  universal alkahest. The physician said that there grew certain 
  herbs in Spain and Africa which possessed the necessary power, 
  and offered to go in search of them himself if the Lord of Laval 
  would supply the funds. As no one else would be able to detect the 
  herbs so miraculously gifted, De Retz thanked the physician for his 
  voluntary self - denial, and loaded him with all the gold he could 
  spare. The physician then took leave of his credulous patron, who 
  never saw him again. 
   
  De Retz, as soon as the physician had quitted Chanvptoc6, was 
  once more seized with the fever of unrest. His days and nights were 
  consurned in ceaseless visions of gold; gold, without which he 
  must abandon his gilded pomp and unholy pleasures; gold, without 
  which he could not hope to brave his enemies or procure 
  exemption from the just punishment of his crimes. He now turned 
  for help to the alchemist Prelati, who agreed to undertake the 
  enterprise it De Retz furnished him with the charms and talismans 
  necessary in so troublesome a work. He was to sign with his blood 
  a contract that he would obey the devil in all things, and to offer up 
  a sacrifice of the hands, eyes, blood, heart and lungs of a young 
  child. The madman having willingly consented to these terms, 
  Prelati went out alone on the following night, and after an absence 
  of three hours, returned to his impatient lord.  - His tale was a 
  monstrously extravagant one, but De Relz swailowed, it greedily. 
  The devil had appeared in the shape of a comely young man of 
  twenty, who desired to be called Barron, and had pointed out to 
  him a store of ingots of pure gold, buried under an oak in the 
  neighbouring wood, which was to become the property of the Lord 
  of Laval if he fulfilled the conditions of his contract. But this bright 
  prospect was over - clouded by the devil's injunction that the 
  goldwas notto be searched for until a period of seven times seven 
  weeks had elapsed, or it would turn to slates and dust. Do Retz was 
  by no means willing to wait so many months for the realisation of 
  his wishes, and desired Prelati to intimate to the devil that he 
  should decline any further correspondence with him if matters 
  could not be expedited. Prelati peisuaded him to wait for seven 
  times seven days, and then, the two repaired with pick - axe and 
  shovel to dig up the treasure. After some hard work they lighted 
  upon a load of slates inscribed with hieroglyphical characters. 
  Prelati broke out into a fit of rage, and culuminated the Evil One 
  as a liar, a knave, a rogue - De Retz heartily joining in his fierce 
  denunciations. He persuaded his master, however, to give the devil 
  a further trial, and led him on from day to day with dark oracular 
  hints and pretended demoniac intimations, until he had obtained 
  nearly all the valuables remaining to his unhappy dupe. He was 
  then preparing to escape with his plunder,  -  hen a catastrophe 
  occurred, which involved him in his lord's ruin. 
   
  On Easter Day, in the year 144o, having communicated solemnly 
  in his chapel, and bade farewell to the lady of Machecoul, telling 
  her that he was departing to the Holy Land, the poor creature was 
  even then afraid to question, so much did she tremble at his 
  presence; she was also several months in her pregnancy. The 
  Marshal permitted her sister to come on a visit as a com pan'(n 
  during his absence. Madame de Raiz took advantage of this 
  indulgence, after which Gilles de Laval mounted his horse, and 
  departed. To her sister, 1\1adamc de Raiz communicated her fears 
  and anxieties. What went on in the castle ? Why was her lord so 
  gloomy ? What signified his repeated absences ? What became of 
  the children who disappeared day by day ? What were those 
  nocturnal lights in the walled - up tower ? These and the other 
  problems excited the culiosity of both women to the utmost degree. 
  What, all the same, could be done ? The Marshal had forbidden 
  them expressly even to approach the tower, and before leaving he 
  had expressed this injunction. Itmustassuredly have a secret 
  entrance, for which Madame de Raiz and her sister Anne 
  proceeded to search through the lower rooms of the castle, corner 
  by corner, stone after stone. At last, in the chapel, behind the altar, 
  they came upon a copper button, hidden in a mass of sculpture. It 
  yielded under pressure, a stone slid back, and the two curiosity - 
  seekers, now all in a tremble, distinguished the lowermost steps of 
  a staircase, which led thern to the condemned touer. 
   
  At the top of the first flight there was a kind of chapel, with a cross 
  upside down and black candles; on the altar stood a hideous 
  figure, no doubt representing the demon. On the second floor, they 
  came upon furnaces, retorts, alembics, charcoal - in a word, all the 
  apparatus of alchemy, The third flight led to a dark chamber where 
  the heavy and fetid atmosphere compelled the young women to 
  retreat. Madame de Raiz came into collision with a vase, which fell 
  over, and she was conscious that her robe and feet were soaked by 
  some thick and unknoNNn liquid. On returning to the light at the 
  head of the stairs, she found that she was bathed in blood. 
   
  Sister Anne would have fled from the place, but in Madame de 
  Raiz curiosity was even stronger than disgust or fear. She 
  descended the stairs, took a lamp from the infernal chapel and 
  returned to the third floor, where a frightful spectacle awaited her. 
  Copper vessels filled wiih blood were ranged the whole len, th of 
  the walls, bearirg labels with a date on each, and in the middle of 
  the room there was a black marble table, on which lay the body of 
  a child, murdered quite recently. It was one of those basins which 
  had fallen, and black blood had spread far and wide over the grimy 
  and worm - eaten wooden floor. The two women were now half - 
  dead with terror. Madame de Raiz endeavoured at all costs to 
  efface the evidence of hcr indiscretion. She went in search of a 
  sponge and water, to wash the boards, but she only extended the 
  stain, and that which at first seemed black, became all scarlet in 
  hue. Suddenly a loud commotion echoed through the castle, mixed 
  with the cries of people calling to Madame de Raiz. 
   
  She distinguished the awe - stricken words: " Here is Monseigneur 
  come back." The two women made for the staircase, but at the 
  same moment they were aware of the trampling of steps and the 
  sound of other voices in the devil's chapel. Sister Anne fled 
  upwards to the battlement of the tower; 'Madame de Raiz went 
  down trembling, and found herself face to face with her husband, 
  in the act of ascending, accompanied ~y the apostate pr'est and 
  Pr&lati. 
   
   Gilles de I avol seized his wife by the arm, and without  speaking, 
  dragged ~er in~~o the infernal chapel. It was  then that Prelati 
  observed to the Marshal: " It is needs  must, as you see, and the 
  victim has come of her own  accord. . . . " " Be it so, " answered his 
  master. " Be, - in  the Black Mass . . . ... The apostate priest went 
  to the  altar, while Gilles de Laval opened a little cupbw~rd fixed  
  therein, and drew out a large knife, after which he sat down  close 
  
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  to h ' is spouse, who was now almost in a swoon, and  lying in a 
  heap on a bench against the wall. The sacrileg  ious ceremonies be 
  - an. It must be explained that the  Marshal, so far from taking the 
  road to Jerusalem, had  proceeded only to Nantes, where Prelati 
  lived; he attacked  this miserable wretch  -, vith the uttermost fury, 
  and threat  , ened to slay him if be did not furnish the means of 
  extracting  from the devil that which he had been demanding for so  
  long a time. With the object of obtaining delay, Prelati  declared 
  that terrible conditions were required by the  infernal master, first 
  amon, which would be the sacrihee of  the Marshal's unborn chila, 
  after tearing it forcibly from  the mother's womb. Gilles de Laval 
  made no reply, but  returned at once to Machecoul, the Florentine 
  sorcerer  and his accomplice, the priest, being in his train. With  
  the rest we are acquainted. 
   
  Meanwhile, Sister Anne, left to her own devices on the roof of the 
  tower, and not daring to come down, had removed her veil, to make 
  signs of distress at chance. They were answered by two cavaliers, 
  accompanied by a posse of armed men, who were riding towards 
  the castle; they proved to be her two brothers, who, on learning the 
  spurious departure of the Marshal for Palestine, had come to visit 
  and console Madame de Raiz. Soon after they arrived with a clatter 
  in the court of the castle, whereupon Gilles de Laval suspended 'he 
  hideous ceremony, and said to his wife: " Madame, I forgive you, 
  and the matter is at an, end between us if you do now as I tell you. 
  Return to your apartment, change your garments, and join me in 
  the guest - room, whither I am going to receive your brothers. But 
  if you say one word, or cause them the slightest suspicion, I will 
  ~ring you hither on their departure; we shall proceed with the 
  Black Mass at the point where it is now broken off, and at the 
  consecration you will die. Mark where I place this knife. 
   
  He rose up and led his wife to the door of her chamber, and 
  subsequently received her relations and their suite, saying that this 
  lady was preparing herself to come and salute her brothers. 
  Madame de Raiz appeared almost immediately, pale as a spectre. 
  Gilles de T aval never took eyes off her, seeking to control her by 
  his glance. When her brother suggested that she was ill, she 
  answered that it was the fatigue of.pregnancy, but added in an 
  undertone: " Save me, he seeks to kill me." At the same moment, 
  Sister Anne rushed into the hall, crying: " Take us away; save us, 
  my brothers, this man is an assas -;in, " and she pointed to Gilles 
  de Laval. While the Marshal summoned his people, the escort of 
  the two visitors surrounded the women with drawn swords, and the 
  Marshal's people disarmed instead of obeying him. Madame de 
  Raiz, with her sister and brothers, gained the drawbridge, and left 
  the castle. 
   
  Terrible rumours were now bruited through all the country - side. 
  It was noticed that many young girls and boys had disappeared. 
  Some had been traced to the Castle of Champtoc6, and not beyond. 
  The public voice accused him of murder; and of crimes even worse 
  than murder - of lust in its foulest and most disgusting shapes. It 
  was true that no one dared openly accuse a baron so powerful as 
  the Lord of Retz. It was true that whenever the circumstances of 
  the disappearance of so many children were alluded to in his 
  presence, he always manifested the greatest astonishment. But the 
  suspicions of the people onct aroused are not easily allayed; and 
  the Castle of Cham - ptoc6 and its lord soon acquired a fearful 
  reputation, and were surrounded with an appalling mystery. 
   
  The continued disappearance of young boys and girls had caused 
  so bitter a feeling in the neighbourhood that the Church had felt 
  constrained to intervene, and on the earnest representations of the 
  Bishop of Nantes, the Duke of Brittany ordered De Retz and his 
  accomplice to be arrested. Their tripl took place before a 
  commission composed of the Bishop of Nantes, Chancellor of 
  Brittany, the Vicar of the Inquisition, and Pierre 1'146pital, the 
  President of the Provincial Parliament. De Reiz was accused of 
  sorcery, sodomy, and murder. At first he disT, )Iayed the most 
  consummate coolness, denounced his judges as worthless and 
  impure, and declared that rather than plead before such shameless 
  knaves he would be hung like a dog, without trial. But the 
  overwhelming evidence brou, ht against him - the terrible 
  revelations made by Pr&lati and his servants of his abandoned 
  lust, of his s~criflces of young children for the supposed 
  gratification . he devil, and the ferocious pleasure with which he 
  gloated over the throbbing limbs and glazing eyes of those who 
  were equally the victims of his sensuality and his cruelty - this 
  horrible tale, as it unfolded day by day the black record of his 
  enormities, shook even his imperturable coura, e, and he confessed 
  everything. The bloodstained chronicle showed that nearly one 
  hundred children had fallen victims to this madman and his insane 
  greed of the Philosophers' Stone. Both De Retz and Prelati were 
  doomed to be burned alive, but in consideration of his rank the 
  punishment of the Marshal was somewhat mitigated. He was 
  strangled before he was given over to the flames. On the scaffold, 
  he exclaimed to Pr&lati, with a hideous assumption of religious 
  confidence: " Farewell, friend Francis. In this world we shall never 
  meet again, but let us rest our hopes in God - we shall see each 
  other in Paradise." The sentence was executed at Nantes, on the 
  23rd of February, 1440. " Notwithstanding his many and atrocious 
  cruelties, " says the old chronicler, Monstrelet, "lie made a very 
  devout end, full of penitence, most humbly imploring his Creator to 
  have mercy on his manifold sins and wickedness. When his body 
  was partly burned, some ladies and damsels of his family 
  requested his remains of the Duke of Brittany, that they might be 
  interred in holy ground, which was granted. The greater part of the 
  nobles of Brittany, more especially those of his kindred, were in 
  the utmost grief and confusion at his shameful death." 
   
  The Castle of Champtoc6 still stands in its beautiful valley, and 
  many a romantic legend flowers about its gray old walls. " The 
  hideous, half - burnt body of the monster himself, " says Trollope, " 
  circled in flames, pale, indeed, and fuint in colour, but more 
  lasting than those the hangman kindled around his mortal form in 
  the meadow under the walls of _2\antes - is seen on bright 
  moonlight nights, standing now on one topmost point of craggy 
  wall, now on another, and is heard mingling his moan with the 
  sough of the night - wind. Pale, bloodless forms, too, of youthful 
  growth and mien, the restless, unsepulchred ghosts of the 
  unfortunates who perished in these dungeons unassoiled,  
   
  may at similar times be seen flitting backwards and forwards in 
  numerous groups across the space enclosed by the ruined walls, 
  with more than mortal speed, or glancing hurriedly from window to 
  window of the fabric, as still seeking to escape from its hateful 
  confinement." 
   
  Girard, Jean - Baptiste: A Jesuit born at P61e in 168o, much 
  persecuted by the Jausenists. They accused him of having seduced 
  a girl named Catherine Cadi&re, who showed symptoms of 
  possession, and had to be sent to a convent of Ursulines at Brest. 
  His enemies found it impossible to implicate him in the affair, and 
  the parliament of Aix, before which he was tried, were forced to 
  acquit him. 
   
  
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  Glanyll, Joseph: (1636 - i68o) An English philosopher who wrote 
  several works dealing with occult affairs, was born at Plymouth, 
  and became a Church of England clergyman with chargps at Frome 
  Selwood and Streat and Walton. In 1666 he was appointed to the 
  Abbey Church, Bath, was made a prebendary of Worcester 
  Cathedral, and was chaplain in ordinary to Charles II. from 1672. 
  In his scepsis Scientifica (1665) his Sorcerers and Sorceyy (1666) 
  and his Sadducismus Tyiumphatus (printed 1681) he undertook 
  the defence of the belief in the supernatural, and supplied many 
  illustrations in support of his theory. 
   
  Glamis Castle: Located just over five miles south of the town of 
  Forfar in Angus and looking like a Grimm fairy-tale, Glamis Castle 
  was originally a 14th century keep which has been extended 
  extensively over the years. King Malcolm II is reputed to have died 
  in the castle, though not in the room which is currently named after 
  him.   It is also reputed to be the place of the murder of King 
  Duncan by MacBeth.  Since Malcolm gained the throne for Duncan 
  by slaughtering the heirs of Kenneth III, in general the place and 
  the MacAlpin dynasty has a bloody history. 
   
  In the 15th century, the lands were held by Sir John Lyon, 
  Chancellor of Scotland who married the daughter of King Robert 
  II. The castle is still held by the Lyon family, now elevated to the 
  Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The 9th Earl became a Bowes-
  Lyon when he married a Yorkshire heiress. The Duchess of York, 
  the wife of Duke George, comes from this family.  
   
  The castle has the reputation of being the most haunted in Britain, 
  including "Earl Beardie", the 4th Earl of Crawford who is said to 
  have played cards with the Devil in a walled-up room. Visitors to 
  the castle are given an escorted tour round many of the sumptuous 
  apartments, including the dining room (lined with portraits of the 
  Strathmores), the crypt, the magnificent drawing room, the private 
  chapel with painted ceiling and the sitting room used by the Queen 
  Mother. Unfortunately, as in so many such buildings (Scone Palace 
  is an honourable exception) no photography is allowed in the 
  private apartments. 
   
  The story is told of a gentleman staying overnight at Glamis who 
  awoke to see a knightly suit of armor standing over him.  With a 
  skeletal face staring down. 
   
  Another account speaks of finding a hidden room where some half-
  man half monster idiot rolled and mewled in the beams of sunlight, 
  but all vanished when the room was entered.   
   
  Most accounts of Glamis suggest a hidden room.  An anecdotal 
  story tells that the Duchess during her childhood and some of the 
  other ladies tried to find the secret room when the men were away 
  one day around the turn of the century, by hanging strips of cloth 
  from every room in the castle.  One window did not sport a strip of 
  cloth, but before it could be explored further, the men returned, 
  and the Earl was disproportionately angry about the incident. 
   
  Glas Chairm: A rhyme or spell of Scottish origin, by the use of 
  which one could keep a dog from barking, and open a lock, and 
  supposed to be of special value to young men in their courtship 
  days. About twenty years ago a wellknown character in Skye, 
  named Archibald the Lightheaded, was believed to know this 
  incantation; but he repeated it so quickly that no one could 
  understand what he said. This poor man was insane; but the fear 
  which dogs had of him was ascribed to his knowledge of the Glas 
  Ghaiym. It was believed that this rhyme had some reference to the 
  safety of the Children of Israel on the night before the Exodus: " 
  against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his 
  tongue, against man or beast." 
   
  Glauber, Johann Rudolph: German mediciner and alchemist, born 
  at Carlstadt, in 1603. No authentic records concerning his life 
  appear to exist, although he was a profuse writer and left many 
  treatises on medicine and alchemy. He discovered and prepared 
  many medicines of great value to pharmacy, some of which are in 
  common use, for example the familiar preparation known as 
  Glauber's Salts. He was a firm believer in the Philosophers' Stone 
  and elixir vitae. Concerning the former, he states: " Let the 
  benevolent reader take with him my final j udgment concerning the 
  great Stone of the Wise; let every man believe what he will and is 
  able to comprehend. Such a work is purely the gift of God, and 
  cannot be learned by the most acute power of human mind, if it be 
  not assisted by the benign help of a Divine Inspiration. And of this 
  I assure myself that in the last times, God will raise up some to 
  whom He will open the Cabinet of Nature's Secrets, that they shall 
  be able to do wonderful things in the world to His Glory, the 
  which, I indeed, heartily wish to posterity that they may enjoy and 
  use to the praise and honour of God." 
   
  Some of Glaubey's principal works are, Philosophical Furnaces, 
  Commentary on Paracelsus, Heaven of the Philosophers, or Book 
  of Vexation, Miraculum Mundi, The Prosperity of Germany, Book 
  of Fires. 
   
  Gloucester, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of: Wife of Humphrey of 
  Gloucester, uncle of Henry VI., and Lord Protector of England 
  during the King's minority. Though Humphrey was very popular in 
  England, he was not without enemies, and one of the most bitter of 
  these was Henry Beaufort, Cardinal of Winchester, great - uncle to 
  the King. He it was who brought a charge of witchcraft against the 
  Duchess of Gloucester, hoping thus to destroy her husband's power 
  as the actual head of the realm and heir to the throne in the event 
  of the King's death. It was supposed that the Duchess had first 
  resorted to witchcraft in order to gain the affections of Humphrey, 
  whose second wife she was. Then, when she had married him, and 
  the death of the Duke of Bedford had removed the last barrier but 
  one between her and a crown, she set about the secret removal of 
  that barrier, which was, of course, the unfortunate King. To assist 
  her in her evil designs, she sought the advice of Margery Jourdain 
  (the Witch of Eye), Roger Bolingbroke, Thomas Southwel, and 
  John Hume, or Hun, a priest. All five were accused of summoning 
  evil spirits, and plotting to destroy the King. They were also 
  suspected of making a waxen image, which was slowly melted 
  before a fire, in the expectation that as the image was consumed, 
  the life of the King would also waste away. For the supposed 
  practice of this common device of witches, they were put upon 
  trial. The priest, Hun, turned informer, and Bolingbroke, having 
  abjured his evil works, was called upon to give evidence. Margery 
  Jourdain was burned as a witch, and the Duchess o ' f Gloucester 
  was sentenced to walk through the streets of London on three 
  separate occasions bearing a lighted taper in her hand, and 
  attended by the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, and others. Afterwards, she 
  was banished to the Isle of Man. 
   
  Gnosticism: Under the designation " Gnostics, " several widely - 
  differing sects were included, the term, derived from the Greek, 
  meaning, " to know " in opposition to mere theory, and sharing this 
  
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  significance with the words, wizard, " " witch, " which also indicate 
  in their original meaning: "those who know." 
   
  Simultaneously with Christianity, these sects assumed a definite 
  form, the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire being their 
  sphere of operations at first. Their doctrines were an admixture of 
  Indian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Christian creeds, astrology and 
  magic, with much of the Jewish Kabbala also. From Alexandria, 
  that centre of mystic learning, much of their distinctive beliefs and 
  ritual were derived, while it seems certain that to a certain extent 
  they became affiliated with Mithraism (q.v.), to whose sheltering 
  kindness Occidental Christianity also owed much. Most of the 
  sects had a priesthood of the mysteries, and. these initiated priests 
  practised magic arts astrology, incantations, exorcisms, the 
  fashioning of charms talismans and amulets, of which many are 
  extant at the present day. It is said that the Grecian mysteries, the 
  Eleusinian and Cabiric, for instance, were celebrated by the 
  Gnostic sects down to a late date. They were looked upon as 
  heretics and sorcerers by the Church, and were the victims of 
  relentless petsecution. In Persia also they were put to death, but 
  some embraced Islamism, and transmitted their doctrines to the 
  Dervish sects (q.v.). Manicheism, a later sect was founded by 
  Manes, who belonged to the Order of the Magi, and was famous for 
  his skill in astrology, medicines and magic. This sect was 
  anathema to the Church, and its later variants, Paulicians, Cathari, 
  Albigensis, Lollards, and later still the Carbonari, never failed to 
  arouse the persecuting fervour of the Church. 
   
  Apollonius of Tyana (q.v.), a Pagan, was supposed to have some 
  connection with the Gnostics. The first Gnostic of eminence was 
  Simon Magus (q.v.) contemporary with the Christian apostles. The 
  Simonians are said to have interpreted the Creation in Genesis as 
  symbolic of the gestation of the foetus, the temptation of Eve and 
  the Garden of Eden having a like character. The Carpocratians, 
  one of the Gnostic sects, derived their mysteries and rites from Isis 
  worship. They used Theurgic incantations, symbols and signs. The 
  Ophites also adopted Egyptian rites, and, as their name indicates, 
  these included much of serpent symbolism, an actual serpent 
  being the central object of their mysteries. Marcos, disciple of 
  Valentinus, and founder of the Marcian sect, celebrated Mass with 
  two chalices, pouring wine from the larger into a smaller, and on 
  pronouncing a magical formula, the vessel was filled with a liquor 
  like blood, which swelled up seething. Other sects practised 
  divination and prophecy by means of female somnambules. Some 
  of the sects became degraded in doctrine and ritual, this often 
  being of an orgiastic character. 
   
  The Gnostic talismans were mostly engraved on gems, the colour 
  and traditional qualities of the jewel being part of its magical 
  efficacy. They used spells and charms and mystic formulae, said to 
  " loose fetters, to cause blindness in one's enemies, to procure 
  dreams, to gain favour, to encompass any desire whatsoever." In a 
  Greek Gnostic Papyrus is to be found the following spell of 
  Agathocles, for producing dreams: " Take a cat, black all over, and 
  which has been killed; prepare a writing tablet, and write the 
  following with a solution of myrrh, and the dream which thou 
  desirest to be sent, and put in the mouth of the cat. The text to be 
  transcribed runs: ' Keimi, Keimi, I am the Great One, in whose 
  mouth rests Mommom, Thoth, Nauumbre, Karikha, Kenyro, 
  Paarmiathon, the sacred Ian ic& ieu aeoi, who is above the heaven, 
  Amekheumen, Neunana, Seunana, Ablanathanalba, ' (here follow 
  further names, then, ) I Put thyself in connection with N.N. in this 
  matter (as to the substance of the dream narned, ) but if it is 
  necessary then bring for me INT.N. hither by thy power; lord of the 
  whole world, fiery god, put thyself in connexion with N.N.' Again, 
  there follows a list of meaningless names, the formula ending: ' 
  Hear me, for I shall speak the great name, Thoth! whom each god 
  honours, and each demon fears, by whose command every 
  messenger performs his mission. Thy name answers to the seven 
  (vowels) a, e, i, i, o, u, e, iauoegae ouegeia. I named thy glorious 
  name, the name for all needs. Put thyself in connection with N.N., 
  Hidden One, God, with respect to this name, which Apollobex also 
  used." The repetition of apparently meaningless syllables was 
  always held to be of great efficacy in magical rites, either as 
  holding the secret name of the powers invoked, or of actual power 
  in themselves. In Atanasi's Magic Papyrus, Spell V11., directs you 
  to lay the link of a chain upon a leaden plate, and having traced its 
  outline, to write thereon, round the circumference, the common 
  Gnostic legend in Greek characters (reading both ways) 
  continuously. Within the circle was written the nature of the thing 
  which it was desired to prevent. The operation was called " The 
  Ring of Hermes." The link was then to be folded up on the leaden 
  plate, and thrown into the grave of one dead before his time, or 
  else into a disused well. After the formula above given, was to 
  follow in Greek: " Prevent thou such and such a person from doin -  
  such and such a thing - - a proof that the long string of epithets all 
  referred to the same power. These instarces might be multiplied, 
  although much of the more valuable parts of the Gnostic doctrines 
  were destroyed by every persecutor who arose, and this was easily 
  done, for the sacred and mystic teachings, the prayers and spells 
  were inscribed on perishable parchments. That much of the evil 
  was imputed to them by the Church because of their more 
  philosophic habit of thought in opposition to faith and dogma, is 
  beyond doubt. 
   
  Golden Dawn, Hermetic Order of: What is generally referred to as  
  the “Heremetic Order of the Golden Dawn” was two organizations, 
  formed in 1888 and 1892 respectively.   The organization was the 
  brainchild of Dr. William Wynn Westcott, an amiable London 
  coroner.  His partners in the affair were Dr. W.R. Woodman, and 
  Samuel Lidell “MacGregor” Mathers.  Westcott seems to have 
  been the initial organizational mind behind the Golden Dawn.  
  Woodman was the Supreme Magus of a reputable Rosicrucian 
  organization, and was doubtless selected to lend credibility to the 
  new organization.  Mathers was chosen because of his quirky, but 
  irrefutable genius with ritual and all things magical.   
   
  The Golden Dawn had a charter from a supposed German 
  Rosicrucian Lodge, issued by an aged German adept named 
  “Fraulein Anna Sprengel.”   The basis for the Golden Dawn’s 
  rituals was a “cipher manuscript” discovered by Westcott, and 
  deciphered by Mathers.   Westcott’s initial temple was styled “No. 
  3.”  Supposedly temple No. 1 was the German Lodge which issued 
  the charter, and Temple No. 2 is supposed to have been an initial 
  abortive experiment at a smaller, “secret” temple in England about 
  ten years earlier, which had initially held the cipher manuscript.  
  Undoubtedly the Continental lodge existed, though perhaps not in 
  so simple a form as Mathers would suggest. 
   
  The initial Golden Dawn was the “Outer Order” which did not 
  teach practical magic, but existed for the most part as a 
  philosophical and esoteric group.  The Outer Order members did 
  work grades and initiation rituals, but they did little in the way of 
  practical operations.  For the first four years the Golden Dawn 
  existed only in the “Outer.”  In late 1892, the “Inner Order” 
  rituals – and the physical “Vault of the Adepts” which plays an 
  important part in the rituals – were completed.   
   
  
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  From this point on the history of the Golden Dawn is really the 
  history of the small “Inner Order.”  Those who were actively 
  interested in the occult progressed quickly to the “Inner Order,” 
  which had separate meeting places and facilities from the “Outer 
  Order.”  When we talk of the “Golden Dawn” after 1892, we are 
  speaking of the “Inner Order” to all intents and purposes.   
   
  The Golden Dawn prospered, more or less, for ten years.  It had a 
  number of temples, most of them quite small.  The primary temples 
  were the original “Isis Urania” temple in London, the “Amen-Ra” 
  Temple in Edinburgh, and the “Ahathoor” Temple in Paris.  
  Mathers left London in 1892 to live in Paris, and his temple there 
  became the nominal center of the organization, though it was 
  notable chiefly for his presence.   
  Historically the Golden Dawn underwent its first collapse in 1900.  
  Amid accusations that the organization’s charter was forged, and 
  arguments over Mathers’ authority, the original structure 
  crumbled, and over the next three years the Golden Dawn divided, 
  and divided again.   
   
  Around 1910, Aliester Crowley published a significant portion of 
  the organization's materials in a hardbound periodical, "The 
  Equinox of the Gods" which ran several numbers, and was a sort of 
  occult compendium cum magazine. 
   
  While none of the “splinter” organizations have the cachet of the 
  original, many of them were significant in their own right, and 
  certainly the membership of Golden-Dawn descended 
  organizations was greater, not smaller, twenty years after the split.  
  The Stella Matutina, the Alpha et Omega, and the Independent and 
  Rectified Rite were all direct descendants of the Dawn’s first 
  schism.  Another set of disagreements in the early 1920s split 
  some of the larger descendant groups again, and by the 1930s most 
  of the original groups had vanished, though a few tiny groups 
  survive into the present day.   
   
  The “Apostolic Succession” of teachers, and the literature of the 
  Golden Dawn, was more important than the actual direct 
  descendants.  Before the First World War, Aliester Crowley 
  published the essential rituals and teachings of the Golden Dawn 
  in a serial issue called “The Equinox.”  For the first time the 
  “secrets” of the Golden Dawn were available to the public.  “The 
  Equinox” created a stir in the small and fading occult community, 
  but it was not until after the War that interest in the occult 
  exploded.   
   
   Figures such as “Dion Fortune” (Violet Firth) popularized the 
  teachings of the Golden Dawn in novels, and serious, but simply 
  written, books like “Psychical Self Defense.”  Groups organized by 
  pupils of Dion Fortune prosper to this day.  Aliester Crowley 
  published a wealth of somewhat more obtuse material which forms 
  the core teachings of the modern Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in 
  America.  Israel Regardie, who was once Crowley’s secretary, 
  published the workings of the Stella Matutina (essentially identical 
  to the original GD teachings) in the twenties and earned himself 
  expulsion, but his volumes remain in print to this day.  Groups 
  such as the original and the modern OTO, Paul Foster Case’s 
  “Builders of the Adytum”, and dozens of less well known groups 
  are indirect descendants of the Golden Dawn.   
   
  But the writing that preserved the ideas of the 19th century 
  mystics owes drastically more to the Golden Dawn than to Helena 
  Blatavsky.  While her writings, and indeed her organization, still 
  exist, they are obtuse and have never been widely read.  It is the 
  simplified synthesis that came out of the Golden Dawn 
  descendants in the 1920s that was produced in mass market 
  editions through the 20’s and 30’s that has become more or less 
  widely known.  The break between Blatavasky and the 
  Hermeticists came with her rejection of all things western for all 
  things eastern.  The essential teaching of the Golden Dawn was the 
  unification of all things esoteric – eastern and western.  
   
  Gormogons: A Jacobite Masonic Society, perhaps related to the 
  Lodges of Harodim (q.v.) They employed pseudonyms like the 
  latter, and had an ambassador at Rome. Their history is sketched 
  in a pamphlet dated 1724, entitled " Two Letters to a Friend, " and 
  in the work of Prichard (1730). The Duke of Wharton and the 
  Chevalier Ramsay who were well - known Jacobites, were members 
  of the Order. They had a cipher and secret reception of their own, 
  and used a jargon in which the names of places and individuals 
  were hidden and transposed. A plate of Hogarth's is extunt in 
  which the Order is lampooned under the title of " The Mystery of 
  Masonry brought to light by ye Goyinogors." 
   
  Graal, The Lost Book of the: The origin of the Gyaal legend, which 
  is of course speculative. Seven ancient books are cited as being the 
  possible cradle of the story, but none of them quite meet the case. 
  In the Huth Merlin, a " Book of the Sanctuary" is referred to, but 
  this is a  - book of records, not containing any special spiritual 
  allusion. 
   
  If, and it is very doubtful if, such a book ever existed, it was most 
  probably a. Mass book, extant about i too. Its contents would relate 
  to a Mass following the Last Supper, in which Christ gave Himself, 
  the Priest serving. The mystery is threefold. (t) of Origin, which is 
  part of the mystery of the Incarnation. (2) of Manifestation, which 
  would have taken place had the world been worthy. (3) of 
  Removal: this world being unworthy, the Graal was said to be 
  removed, yet not hidden, for it is always discernible by anyone 
  worthy, or qualified to see it. As has been said, it is not probable 
  that such a Mass - book ever existed. 
   
  Grail, Holy: A portion of the Arthurian cycle of romance, of late 
  origin embodying a number of tales dealing with the search for a 
  certain vessel of great sanctity, called the grail " or " graal." 
  Veisions of the story are numerousthe most celebrated of them 
  being the Conte del Graal, the Grand St. Graal, Sir Percyvalle, 
  Quete del St. Graal, and Guyot; but there are many others. These 
  overlap in many respects, but the standard form of the story may 
  perhaps be found in the Grand St. Graal - one of the latest 
  versions, which dates from the thirteenth century. It tells how 
  Joseph of Arimathea employed a dish used at the last supper to 
  catch the blood of the Redeemer which flowed from his body 
  before his burial. The wanderings of Joseph are then described. He 
  leads a band to Britain, where he is cast into prison, but is 
  delivered by Evelach or Mordrains, who is instructed by Christ to 
  assist him. This Mordrains builds a monastery where the Grail is 
  housed. Brous, Joseph's brother - in - law, has a son Alain, who is 
  appointed guardian of the Grail; and this Alain having caught a 
  great fish, with which he feeds the entire household, is called the 
  Rich Fisher, which title becomes that of the Grail keepers in 
  perpetuity. Alain placed the Grail in the castle of Corbenic, and 
  thence in due time come various knights of King Arthur's court in 
  quest of the holy vessel, but only the purest of the pure can 
  approach its vicinity; and in due time Percival attains to sight of 
  the marvel. 
  
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  It is probable that the Grail idea was originated by early mediaeval 
  legends of the quest for talismans which conferred great boons 
  upon the finder: as for example, the Shoes of Swiftness, the Cloak 
  of Invisibility, the Ring of Gyges, and so forth; and that these 
  stories were interpreted in the light and spirit of mediaeval 
  Christianity and mysticism. They may be divided into two classes: 
  those which are connected with the quest for certain talismans, of 
  which the Grail is only one, and which deal with the personality of 
  the hero who achieved the quest; and secondly those which deal 
  with the nature and history of the talismans. 
   
  A great deal of controversy has raged around the probable Eastern 
  origin of the Grail Legend, and much erudition has been employed 
  to show that Guvot, a Proven~al poet who flourished in the middle 
  of the iwelfth century, found at Toledo in Spain an Arabian book 
  by an astrologer, Flegitanis, which contained the Grail story. But 
  the name " Flegitanis " can by no means be an Arabian proper 
  name; and it might perhaps be the Persian felekeddw9h, a Persian 
  combined word which signifies " astrology, " and in this case it 
  would be the title of an astrological work. Professor Bergmann and 
  others believed that the Holy Legend originated in the mind of 
  Guyot himself; but this conclusion was strongly combated by the 
  late Alfred Nutt. There is, however, good reason to believe that the 
  story may have been brought from the East by the Knights 
  Templar. 
   
  The Grail Legend has often been held by certain writers to buttress 
  the theory that the Church of England or the Catholic Church has 
  existed since the foundation of the world. From early Christian 
  times the genealogy of these churches is traced back through the 
  patriarchs to numerous apocryphal persons; but we are not 
  informed as to whether it possessed hierophants in neolithic and 
  paleolithic times, or how it originated. This mischievous and 
  absurd theory, which in reality would identify Christianity with the 
  grossest forms of paganism, is luckily confined to a small band of 
  pseudo - mystics, comprising for the most part persons of small 
  erudition and less liberality of outlook. Tae Grail Legend was 
  readily embraced by those persons, who saw in it a link between 
  Palestine and England and a plea for the special and separate 
  foundation of the Anglican Church by direct emissaries from the 
  Holy Land. Glastonbury was fixed as the headquarters of the Grail 
  immigrants, and the finding of a glass dish in the vicinity of the 
  cathedral there not many years ago was held to be confirmation of 
  the story by many of the faithful. The exact date of this vessel 
  cannot successfully be gauged, but there is not the least reason to 
  suppose that it is more than a few hundred years old. (See 
  Tradition.) 
   
  Grail Sword: Associated with the Holy Grail in Arthurian Legend. 
  Its history begins with King David who bequeathed it to Solomon 
  who was bidden to re - cast the pommel. In Solomon's time it was 
  placed in a ship built and luxuriously furnished by Solomon's wife. 
  Subsequently discovered by the Knights of the Quest, it was 
  assurned and worn by Galahad. 
   
  Gram: A magic sword thrust into a tree by Odin and pulled out by 
  Sigmund. It bestowed upon its possessor exceptional nowers and 
  performed many miracles 
   
  Grand Grimoire, The: A work pretended to be edited by a 
  suppositions person, Antonia del Rabina, who, it is alleged, 
  prepared his edition from a copy transcribed from the genuine 
  writings of King Solomon. The work is divided into two parts: the 
  first containing the evocation of Lucifuge Rocofale (See 
  Ceremonial Magic " in article "magic"); the second being 
  concerned with the rite of making pacts with demons, The work is 
  regarded as one of the most atrocious of its type; but there is little 
  reason for such heavy condemnation, as its childish and absurd. 
  character must be patent to everyone. Eliphas Levi says that it 
  pretends to confer the Powder of Protection, that great mystery of 
  the sages, but that in reality it confers the Powder of Consecution - 
  whatever that may imply. The first portion of the Grand Grimoire 
  in a process for the evocation of evil spirits to assist the operator to 
  discover hidden treasure. The second part, that which deals with 
  facts, sugges~ts the surrender of the magician body and soul to 
  the demon, and it is in this that the diabolical excellencies of the 
  work consist. But the pact, as it stands, is grossly unfair to the 
  devil, for the working of it is such, that the magician can very 
  readily slip through his fingers. 
   
  Grimoire of Honorlus, The: A magical work published at Rome in 
  1629, and not, as is generally thought, connected in any way with 
  Kabbalistic magic. The work is indeed permeated with Christian 
  ideas. It is extremely unlikely that it is the work of the Roman 
  Bishop known as Honorius. The work has been called " a malicious 
  and somewhat clever imposture, " since it pretends to convey the 
  sanction of the Papal Chair to the operators of necromancy. It deals 
  with the evocation of the rebellious angels. 
   
  Grimorium Verum, The: This magical text - book was first 
  published in 1517, and purported to be translated from the 
  Hebrew. It is based to some extent upon the Key of Solomon (q.v.), 
  and is quite honest in its statement that it proposes to invoke " 
  devils, " which it refers to the four elements, so that these would 
  appear to be of the type of elementary spirits (q.v.). A part of the 
  account it gives regarding the hierarchy of spirits is taken from the 
  Lemegeton (q.v.). The work is divided into three port~ons: the 
  first describing the characters and seals of the demons, with the 
  forms of their evocation and dismissal; the second gives a 
  dsecription of the supernatural secrets which can be learned by the 
  power of the demons; and the third is, thj key of the work and its 
  proper application. But thesedivisions only outline what it purports 
  to place before the reader, as the whole work is a* mass of 
  confusion. The plates which supply the characters do not apply to 
  the text. The book really consists of two parts - the Grimorium 
  Verum itself, and a second portion, which consists of magical 
  secrets. The first supplies directions for the preparation of the 
  magician based on those of the Clavicle of Solomon. Instru, - tions 
  for the manufacture of magical instruments, and the composition of 
  a parchment on which the characters and seals are to be inscribed, 
  as well as the processes of evocation and disruissal. Tae second 
  part contains the " admirable secrets " of the pretended Albertus 
  Magnus, the " Petit Albert " and so forth. The work is only partially 
  diabolical in character, and some of its processes might claim to be 
  classed as White Magic. 
   
  Guppy,  Mrs : Nee Miss Nichol, a celebrated English medium who 
  began to exerc; es her powers about 1866. At that time she lived 
  with Mrs. Sim, a sister of Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, who was a 
  frequent witness of her phenomena. Thereafter her mediumistic 
  powers developed apace and the circle of her sitters grew as the 
  manifestations became more ambitious. Raps were heard and 
  apports of fruit and flowers conveyed to the s6ance-room. A. R. 
  Wallace states that on one occasion " the room and the table shook 
  violently," and Miss Nichol herself was several times levitated-(See 
  Levitation). Soon after the formal commencement of her 
  
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  mediumship, she married Mr. Samuel Guppy. In January, 1872 
  she gave a materialisation 
  seance, the first serious attempt of the kind in the UK.  She and 
  her husband were also instrumental in introducing 
  spirit-photography (q.v.) into England. On the death of Mr. Guppy 
  she was married a second time to Mr. W. Volckman. 
   
  Gurney, Edmund : A distinguished psychologist and student of 
  psychic science. He was born at Horsham in 1847, and educated 
  at Blackheath and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained 
  a fellowship. He devoted himself thereafter to the study of 
  medicine and passed the second M.B. Cambridge examination in 
  i880. Thus equipped, he turned to the investigation of psychical 
  research, seeking, in common with most psychical researchers, to 
  find evidence for the survival of consciousness and personality 
  after death. He chose for exploration the region of unconscious or 
  subconscious activity-what Mr. Myers, himself a worker in the 
  same field, has designated the "subliminal consciousness." From 
  1874 to 1878 Gurney and Myers worked with professional 
  mediums, getting but poor results, but on the founding of Cue 
  Society for Psychical Research experiments of a more scientific 
  nature were made. These resulted in two volumes, of Phantasms of 
  the Living, by Messrs. Myers, Podmore, and Gurney, which went 
  some way towards establishing telepathy on a sound basis. To the 
  same end were directed Mr. Gurney's careful hypnotic experiments 
  between ][885 and 1888, and his contributions to the Pyoceedings 
  of the S.P.R. He was, indeed, an ideal student: of psychic 
  research, acute, patient, exact, logical, and entirely disinterested. 
  Besides his psychological works he wrote The Power of Sound 
  (1880), an essay on music, and a collection of essays entitled 
  Tertium Quid (1887). He died in June, 1888, from an overdose of 
  narcotic medicine 
   
  Habondia one of the names for the Queen of the fairies, witches, 
  harpies, furies and ghosts. 
   
  Hanon-Tramp : kind of nightmare (q.v.). This particular nightmare 
  takes the form of a demon, which suffocates people during sleep. It 
  is believed by the French peasantry that this is " the destruction 
  that wasteth at noon-day," as it is supposed that people are most 
  exposed to its attacks at that time Its method of suffocation is to 
  press on the breast and thus impede the action of the lungs. 
   
  Hermes Trismegistus ( ' the thrice greatest Hermes "): The name 
  given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, the god 
  of wisdom, learning and literature. Thoth, is alluded to in later 
  Egyptian writings as " twice very great" and even as "five times, 
  very great" in some demotic or popular scripts. (ca. third century 
  B.C.) and was attributed as " scribe of the gods " the authorship of 
  all sacred books which were thus called "Hermetic " by the 
  Greeks. These, according to Clemens Alexandrinus were forty - 
  two in number and were sub - divided into six portions, of which 
  the first dealt with priestly education, the second with temple ritual 
  and the third with geographical matter. The fourth division treated 
  of astrology, the fifth of hymns in honour of the gods and a text - 
  qook for the guidance of Kings, while the sixth was medical. It is 
  unlikely that these books wereall the work of one individidual, and 
  it is more probable that they represent the accumulated wisdom of 
  Egypt, attributed in the course of ages to the great god of wisdom. 
   
  As a scribe of the Gods " Thoth was also the author of all strictly 
  sacred writing. Hence by a convenient fiction the name of Hermes 
  is placed at the head of an extensive cycle of mystic literature, 
  produced in post - Christian times. Most of this Hermetic or 
  Trismegistic literature has perished, but all that remains of it has 
  been gathered and translated into English. It includes the " 
  Poimandres, " the " Perfect Sermon, " or the " Asclepius, " excerpts 
  by Stobacus, and fragments from the Church Fathers and from the 
  philosophers, Zosimus and Fulgentius. Hitherto these writings 
  have been neglected by theologians, who have dismissed them as 
  the offspring of third century NeoPlatonism. According to the 
  generally accepted view, they were eclectic compilations, 
  combining Neo - Platonic philosophy, Philonic Judaism and 
  Kabalistic theosophy in an attempt to supply a philosophic 
  substitute for, Christianity. The many Christian elements to be 
  found in these mystic scriptures were ascribed to plagiarism. By an 
  examination of early mystery writings and traditions it has been 
  proved with some degree of certainty that the main source of the 
  Trismegistic Tractates is the wisdom of Egypt, and that they " go 
  back in an unbroken tradition of type and form and context to the 
  earliest Ptolemaic times." 
   
  The " Poimandres, " on which all later Trismegistic literature is 
  based, must, at least in its original form, be placed not later than 
  the first century. The charge of plagiarism from Christian writings, 
  therefore, falls to the ground. If it can be proved that the " 
  Poiniandres " belongs to the first century, we have in it a valuable 
  document in determining the environment and development of 
  Christian origins. 
   
  Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author of "Thrice Greatest Hermes says in a 
  illuminating passage: 
   
  " The more one studies the best of these mystical sermons, casting 
  aside all prejudices, and trying to feel and think with the writers, 
  the more one is conscious of approaching the threshold of what 
  may well be believed to have been the true adytum of the best in 
  the mystery traditions of antiquity. Innumerable are the hints of the 
  greatnesses and immensities lying beyond that threshold - among 
  other precious things the vision of the key to Egypt's wisdom, the 
  interpretation of apocalypsis by the light of the sun - clear epopteia 
  of the intelligible cosmos." 
   
  Heydon, John: English Astrologer (fl. - 1667). In his useful if not 
  invaluable Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers, Waite speaks 
  with great scorn of the English Astrologer, John Heydon, 
  describing him as no better than a charlatan, and for that retson 
  furnishing no facts whatsoever concerning his career. 
   
  The astrologer appears to have been born in 1629, his father being 
  Francis Heydon, owner of a small estate called Sidniouth, in 
  Devonshire. It was not in that romantic shire, however, that the 
  astrologer first saw the light of day, but at a house in London 
  boasting the pleasant name of Green Arbour, ; and after some 
  years spent here Heydon went to Worcestershire, when his 
  education was attended to by various clergymen. Being a clever 
  boy, his parents naturally desired to send him to the University, 
  but this was soon rendered virtually impossible by the outbreak of 
  the great civil war, and thereupon Heydon took arms on behalf of 
  the king, and fought in several battles. He is said to have been 
  successful as a soldier, and to have won to the captaincy of a troop 
  of horse under Prince Rupert, but on the ultimate triumph of the 
  Roundhead party, the young man found it advisable to leave 
  England, and for some years he sojourned in various countries on 
  the Continent, notably Spain and Turkey. Indeed, if his 
  contemporaneous biographers are to be trusted, he penetrated so 
  
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  far afield as Zante, the island in the Levant whose praise has been 
  sung so beautifully by Edgar Allan Poe; but by 1652 Heydon was 
  back in his native England, and in 1655 we find him studying law 
  and established in the Temple, a place almost sacred by virtue of 
  its many literary associations. Nor was law his only study, for soon 
  he was deep in that craft of astrology wherewithhis name was 
  destined to become associated, and on one occasion, having 
  prophesied that Cromwell would shortly die by hanging, he was 
  straightway imprisoned accordingly. So, at least, says Thomas 
  Carte in his life of the great Marquis of Ormonde, that storehouse 
  of information concerning England in Stuart and Cromwellian 
  days. 
   
  Those who take an interest in the history of medicine will 
  doubtless recall Nicholas Culpeper, who, after fighting for the 
  Parliament in the Civil war, devoted a wealth of energy to 
  compiling elaborate treatises on astrology and pharmacopoeia, arts 
  which went hand in hand in the seve*nteenth century. And it was 
  the widow of this Culpeper whom Heydon took to wife, the year of 
  their marriage being 1656, while it would seem that a daughter 
  was born of their union, for among the astrologers' writings is a 
  volume entitled Advice to a Daughter (1658). Whether Heydon 
  continued living in the Temple after his marriage is not recorded, 
  nor do we hear that he even attended greatly to legal business, and 
  it is likely, on the contrary that astrology occupied all his time, 
  while it appears that that imprisonment already mentioned was not 
  the only one he suffered. He became intimate with many of the 
  great scientists of the Restoration, but quarrelled with a number of 
  them too; while, though he always maintained that he was not 
  actually affiliated with the Rosicrucians, it is a fact that he 
  explained their theories publicly. Little is known about his later 
  years, while the date of his death is unknown, and, before turning, 
  to the subject of his writings, it only behoves to state that his 
  portrait was engraved by Thomas Cross. 
   
  Mr. Waite declares that Heydon's writings are sorry pastiches, and 
  it cannot be questioned that the bulk of his work is derivative, Sir 
  Thomas Browne being one whom he apes particularly. 
  Nevertheless Heydon must be credited with considerable 
  assiduity, and his Rosicrucian books alone are numerous, the best 
  of them being probably The New Method of Rosiae - Crucian 
  Physich (1658), The Rosie - Crucian Infallible Axiomater (166o), 
  The Wise Man's Crown, or The Glory of the Rosie - Cross (1664), 
  and The Rosie - Cross Uncovered (1662). In addition to them he 
  was author of Theomagia or The Temple of Wisdom (1664), and 
  The Prophetic Trumpeter, sounding an Allarum to England (1655), 
  the latter being dedicated to Henry Cromwell, while according to 
  Wood's Athene oxonicsis, Heydon was likewise the compiler of A 
  Rosiecrucian Theological Dictionary. Yet another book from his 
  pen was Idea of the Law, and at the end of this we find 
  advertisements of several works of his, probably pamphlets, none 
  of which is known to exist nowadays. 
   
  Home, Daniel Dunglas, (1833-1886) : One of the best known of 
  spiritualistic mediums, was born near Edinburgh in 1833. At the 
  age of nine he was taken by his aunt to America, where in 1850 he 
  became a convert to the new doctrine of spiritualism. and himself 
  developed mediumistic powers. The next five years saw him 
  occupied in giving s6ances in New York and elsewhere. In 1855 
  some of his friends subscribed a sum of money to send him to 
  Europe. In England his s6ances were attended by many notable 
  people, and on the Continent also he was admitted into the highest 
  society. Until 1859 he had subsisted on the bounty of his wealthy 
  friends-for at no time did he take actual fees for his services-but in 
  that year he married a Russian lady of noble birth, young, 
  charming, and possessed of means. But on her death in 1862 his 
  financial circumstances were altered again. Four years later he was 
  adopted by a wealthy widow, Mrs. Lyon, who made him large 
  money gifts. In a few months, however, she tired of her adopted son 
  and sued him in the law courts for the recovery of her "gifts." The 
  charge of fraud was not proved, and many distinguished persons 
  filed affidavits testifying to the actuality of Home's mediumistic 
  powers, but the court was not- satisfied that he had not influenced 
  Mrs. Lyon, and judgment was given in her favour. During all this 
  time he had largely exercised his faculties as a medium, and in 
  1870-72 he held a series of sittings with Sir William Crookes In 
  1871 he married again, and for the second time his wife was a 
  Russian lady of means. From 1872 onwards he lived mostly on the 
  Continent, where he died in 1886, after a long and painful illness. 
  Home's mediumship presents many remarkable features. His 
  seances were productive of both trance and physical phenomena, 
  the latter including raps and table-tilting, levitation and 
  elongation, materialisation, the fire-ordeal, and practically every 
  form of manifestation. Unlike other mediums, he was never 
  detected in fraud, though his mediumship was spread over so many 
  years, and his phenomena are among the best-attested in the 
  records of spiritualism. But a more important factor in Home's 
  success was his wonderful personality. Though of lowly birth, he 
  early acquired an ease and charm of manner which fitted him for 
  the good society wherein he was destined to move. Artless and 
  spontaneous and very affectionate, of pleasing manners and 
  generous disposition, he won the hearts of all with whom he came 
  in contact, and inspired in his sitters an emotional confidence 
  which seems frequently to have over-ruled their judgment. Sir W. 
  Crookes said of him that he was " one of the most lovable of men," 
  whose " perfect genuineness and uprightness were beyond 
  suspicion." Whether a medium should ever be " beyond suspicion " 
  to a scientific investigator is, of course, open to question, but the 
  instance shows abundantly that even scientists are not immune 
  from the influence of personal magnetism 
   
  House of Wisdom: The tarik or "path" of the House of Wisdom was 
  founded by Moslem mystics at Cairo in the ninth century, and had 
  seven initiatory degrees. The original founder appears to have been 
  one Abdallah, a Persian, who, believing in the Gnostic doctrine of 
  the Aeons or Sephiroths, applied the system to the successors of 
  Mohammed, stating that Ismael was the founder of his tarik and 
  one of his descendants as the seventh Imaum. He established an 
  active system of propaganda and sent missionaries far and wide. 
  He was succeeded in his office as chief of the society by his son 
  and grandson. After the institution had been in existence for some 
  time it was transferred to Cairo, and assemblies were held twice a 
  week, when all the members appeared clothed in white. They were 
  gradually advanced through the seven degrees of which the tarih 
  consisted, and over which a Dai - al - doat or " Missionary of 
  missionaries " presided. A later chief, Hakem - bi - emir - Illah, 
  increased the degrees to nine, and in 11004 erected a stately home 
  for the society, which he elaborately furnished with mathematical 
  instruments. As the institution did not meet with the approval of 
  the authorities, it was destroyed in 1123 by the then Grand Vizier, 
  but meetings continued elsewhere. The officers of the society were: 
  - Sheik, Dai - el - keber, or Deputy, Dai, or Master, Refik, or 
  Fellow, Fedavie, or Agent, Lassik, or Aspirant, Muemini, or 
  Believer. The teaching was to the effect that there had been seven 
  holy Imaums, that God had sent seven Lawgivers, who had each 
  seven helpers, who in turn had each twelve apostles.  
   
  
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  Huet, Pierre-Daniel: A celebrated bishop of Avrenches, who died 
  in 1721- One finds in his Reminiscences many interesting passages 
  relating to the vampires by the Greek Archipelago. " Many strange 
  things," he says "are told of the broucolagnes, or vampires of the 
  Archipelago. It is said in that country that if one leads a wicked 
  life, and dies in sin, he will appear again after death as he was 
  wont in his lifetime, and that such a person will cause great 
  affright among the living." Huet believed that the bodies of such 
  people were abandoned to the power of the devil, who retained the 
  soul within them for the vexation of mankind. Father Richard, a 
  Jesuit, employed on a mission in these islands, provided Huet with 
  details of many cases of vampirism. In the Island of St. Erini, the 
  Thera of the ancients occurred one of the greatest chapters in 'the 
  history of vampirism. He says that these people were tormented by 
  vampires, that they were constantly disinterring corpses for the 
  purpose of burning them Huet states that this evidence is worthy of 
  credence as emanating from a witness of unimpeachable honesty, 
  who has had ocular demonstrations of what he writes about. He 
  further says that the inhabitants of these islands after the death of 
  a person, cut off his feet, hands, nose, and ears, and they call this 
  act acroteriazein. They hang all these round the elbow of the dead. 
  It is noteworthy that the bishop appears to think that the modern 
  Greeks may have inherited the practice of burning bodies from 
  their fathers in classical times, and that they imagine that unless 
  the corpse is given to the flames, all cannot be well with the soul of 
  the deceased. 
   
  Huns: The ancient historians credited the Huns with a monstrous 
  origin. They were often called children of the devil, because it was 
  said that they were born of a union between demons and hideous 
  witches, the latter cast out of their own county by Philimer, king of 
  the Goths, and his army. The old writers state that the Huns were 
  of horrible deformity, and could not be mistaken for anything but 
  the children of demons. Besoldus, following Servin, claims that 
  their name of Huns comes from a Celtic or barbaric word signifying 
  great magicians. Many stories are told of their magic prowess, and 
  of their raising spectres to assist them in battle. 
   
  Hydromaney: Divination by water, is said by Natalis Comes to 
  have been the invention of Nereus, and according to Delrio, a most 
  respectable authority in these matters, it is a method of divination 
  than which nulla cundior imposturis. lamblichus, he says, 
  mentions one kind used by Macrobius. Pausanias has described a 
  fountain near Epidaurus, dedicated to Ino, into which on her 
  festival, certain loaves were wont to be thrown. It was a favourable 
  omen to the applicant if these offerings were retained; on the other 
  hand, most unluclky if they were washed up again. So, also, 
  Tiberius cast golden dice into the fountain of Apomus, near Padua, 
  where they long remained as a proof of the imperial monster's good 
  fortune in making 'be highest throw. Several other instances of 
  divining springs may be found collected by the diligence of 
  Boissard; and to a bel'ef in them Delrio thinks a custom of the 
  ancient Germans is referable, who threw their new - born children 
  into the Rhine, with a conviction that if thy were spurious they 
  would sink, if legitimate they would swim. In a fifth method, 
  certain mysterious words were pronounced over a cup full of water, 
  and observations were made upon its spontaneous ebullition. In a 
  sixth, a drop of oil was let fall on water in a glass vessel, and this 
  furnished as it were a mirror upon which many wonderful objects 
  became visible. This, says Delrio, is the Modus Fessanus. Clemens 
  Alexandrinus is cited for a seventh kind, in which the women of 
  Germany watched the sources, whirls, and courses of rivers, with a 
  view to prophetic interpretation;. the same fact is mentioned by 
  wives in his Commentary upon St. Atigustive. In modern Italy, 
  continues the learned Jesuit, diviners are still to be found who 
  write the names of any three persons suspected of theft upon a like 
  number of little balls, which they throw into the water and some go 
  to so profane an extent as to abuse even holy water for this most 
  unsanctified purpose.  
   
  Hypnotism: A peculiar state of cerebral dissociation distinguished 
  by certain marked symptoms, the most prominent and invariable of 
  which is a highly - increased suggestibility in the subject. The 
  hypnotic state may be induced in a very large percentage of normal 
  individuals, or may occur spontaneously. It is recognised as having 
  an affinity with normal sleep, and likewise with a variety of 
  abnormal conditions, among which may be mentioned 
  somnambulism, ecstasy, and the trances of Hindu fakirs and 
  savage medicine - men. In fact, in one or other of their forms, 
  hypnosis and its kindred have been known in practically all 
  countries and all times. 
   
  Hypnotism is no longer classed with the occult sciences. It has 
  gained, though only within comparatively recent years, a definite 
  scientific status, and no mean place in legitimate medicine. 
  Nevertheless its history is inextricably interwoven with occultism, 
  and even to - day much hypnotic phenomena is classed as " 
  spiritualistic "; so that the consideration of hypnotism in this place 
  is very necessary to a proper understanding of much of the occult 
  science of our own and former times. 
   
  The Eayly Magnetists. - So far back as the 16th century hypnotic 
  phenomena were observed and studied by men of science, who 
  attributed them to magnetism, an effluence radiating from every 
  object in the universe, in a greater or less degree, and through 
  which all objects might exercise a mutual influence one on 
  another. From this doctrine was constructed the " sympathetic " 
  system of medicine, by means of which the magnetic effluence of 
  the planets, of the actual magnet, or of the physician, was brought 
  to bear upon the patient. Paracelsus is generally supposed to be 
  the originator of the sympathetic system, as he was its most 
  powerful exponent. Of the magnet he says: 
   
  " The magnet has long lain before all eyes, and no one has ever 
  thought whether it was of any further use, or whether it possessed 
  any other property, than that of attracting iron. The sordid doctors 
  throw it in my face that I will not follow the ancients; but in what 
  should I follow them ? All that they have said of the magnet 
  amounts to nothing. Lay that which I have said of it in the balance, 
  and judge. Had I blindly followed others, and had I not myself 
  made experiments, I should in like manner know nothing more 
  than what every peasant sees - that it attracts iron. But a wise man 
  must enquire for himself, and it is thus that I have discovered that 
  the magnet, besides this obvious and to every man visible power, 
  that of attracting iron, possesses another and concealed power."  - 
  That of healing the sick. 
   
  And there is no doubt that cures were actually effected by 
  Paracelsus with the aid of the magnet, espe6ally in cases of 
  epilepsy and nervous affections. Yet the word "magnet" is most 
  frequently used by Paracelsus and his followers in a figurative 
  sense, to denote the magnes microcosmi, man himself, who was 
  supposed to be a reproduction in miniature of the earth, having, 
  like it, his poles and magnetic properties From the stars and 
  planets, he taught, came a very subtle effluence which affected 
  man's mind or intellect, while earthly substances radiated a grosser 
  
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  emanation which affected his body. The human mummy especially 
  was a " magnet - well suited for remedial purposes, since it draws 
  to itself the diseases and poisonous properties of other substances. 
  The most effective mummy was that of a criminal who had been 
  hanged, and it was applied in the following manner. " if a person 
  suffer from disease, " says Paracelsus, " either local or general, 
  experiment with the following remedy. Take a magnet impregnated 
  with mummy, and combined with rich earth. In this earth sow some 
  seeds that have a likeness to, or homogeneity with, the disease; 
  then let this, earth, well sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in 
  an earthen vessel, and let the seeds committed to it be watered 
  daily with a lotion in which the diseased limb or body has. been 
  washed. Thus will the disease be transplanted from the human 
  body to the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this, 
  transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, and 
  wait till they begin to flourish into herbs. As they increase, the 
  disease will diminish, and when they have reached their mature 
  growth, will altogether disappear." The quaint but not altogether, 
  illogical idea of " weapon - salve " - anointing the weapon instead 
  of the wound - was also used by Paracelsus, his theory being that 
  part of the vital spirits clung to the weapon and exercised an ill 
  effect on the vital spirits in the wound, which would not heal until 
  the ointment had first been applied to the weapon; this also was an 
  outcome of the magnetic theory. 
   
  Towards the end of the 16th century Paracelsus was worthily 
  succeeded by J. B. van Helmont, a scientist of distinction and an 
  energetic protagonist of magnetism. " Material nature, " he writes, " 
  draws her forms through constant magnetism from above, and 
  implores for them the favour of heaven; and as heaven, in like 
  manner, draws something invisible from below, there is established 
  a free and mutual intercourse, and the whole is contained in an 
  individual." Van Helmont believed also in the power of the will to 
  direct the subtle fluid. There was, he held, in all created things, a 
  magic or celestial power through which they were allied to heaven. 
  This power or strength is greatest in the soul of man, resides in a 
  less degree in his body, and to some extent is present in the lower 
  animals, plants, and inorganic matter. It is by reason of his 
  superior endowment in this respect that man is enabled to rule the 
  other creatures, and to make use of inanimate objects for his own 
  purposes. The power is strongest when one is asleep, for then the 
  body is quiescent, and the soul most active and dominant; and for 
  this reason dreams and prophetic visions are more common in 
  sleep. " The spirit, " he says, " is everywhere diffused, and the 
  spirit is the medium of magnetism; not the spirits of heaven and of 
  hell, but the spirit of man, which is concealed in him as the fire is 
  concealed in the flint. The human will makes itself master of a 
  portion of its spirit of life, which becomes a connecting property 
  between the~ corporeal and the incorporeal, and diffuses itself 
  like the light." To this ethereal spirit he ascribes the visions seen 
  by " the inner man " in ecstasy, and also those of the " outer man " 
  and the lower animals. In proof of the mutual influence of living 
  creatures he asserts that men may kill animals merely by staring 
  hard at them for a quarter of an hour. That Van Helmont was not 
  ignorant of the power of imagination is evident from many of his 
  writings. A common needle, he declares, may by means of certain 
  manipulations, and the will - power and imaginations of the 
  operator, be made to possess magnetic properties' ' Herbs may 
  become very powerful through theimagination of him who gathers 
  them. And again:" I have hitherto avoided revealing the great 
  secret, that the strength lies concealed in man, merely through the 
  suggestion and power of the imagination to work outwardly, and to 
  impress this strength on others, which then continues of itself, and 
  operates on the remotest objects. Through this secret alone will all 
  receive its true illumination all that has hitherto been brought 
  together laboriously of the ideal being out of the spirit - all that has 
  been said of the magnetism of all things -  - of the strength of the 
  human soul - of the magic of man, and of his dominion over the 
  physical world." Van Helmont also gave special importance to the 
  stomach as the chief seat of the soul, and recounts an experience of 
  his own in which, on touching some aconite with his tongue, he 
  finds all his senses transferred to his stomach. In after years this 
  was to be a favourite accomplishment of somnambules and 
  cataleptic subj ects '  
   
  A distinguished English magnetist was Robert Fludd, who wrote in 
  the first part of the i7th century. Fludd was an exponent of the 
  microcosmic theory, and a believer in the magnetic effluence from 
  man. Not only were these emanations able to cure bodily diseases, 
  but they also affected the moral sentiments; for if radiations from 
  two individuals were, on meeting, flung back or distorted, negative 
  magnetism, or antipathy resulted, whereas if the radiations from 
  each person passed freely into those from the other, the result was 
  positive magnetism, or sympathy. Examples of positive and 
  negative magnetism were also to be found among the lower animals 
  and among plants. Another magnetist of distinction was the 
  Scottish physician, Maxwell, who is said to have anticipated much 
  of Mesmer's doctrine. He declares that those who are familiar with 
  the operation of the universal spirit can, through its agency cure all 
  diseases, at no matter what distance. He also suggests that the 
  practice of magnetism, though very valuable in the hand of a well - 
  disposed physician, is not without its dangers, and is liable to 
  many abuses. 
   
  While the theoretical branch of magnetism was thus receiving 
  attention at the hands of the alchemical philosophers, the practical 
  side was by no means neglected. There were in the seventeenth 
  and eighteenth centuries a number of " divine healers, " whose 
  magic cures were without doubt the result of hypnotic suggestion. 
  Of these perhaps the best known and most successful were 
  Valentine Greatrai~es, an Irishman, and a Swabian priest named 
  Gassner. Greatrakes was born in 1628, and on reaching manhood 
  served for some time in the Irish army, thereafter settling down on 
  his estate in Waterford. In 1662 he had a dream in which it was 
  revealed to him that he possessed the gift of curing king's evil. The 
  dream was repeated several times ere he paid heed to it, but at 
  length he made the experiment, his own wife being the first to be 
  healed by him. Many who came to him from the surrounding 
  country were cured when he laid his hands upon them. Later the 
  impression came upon him strongly that he could cure other 
  diseases besides king's evil. News of his wonderful powers spread 
  far and wide, and patients came in hundreds to seek his aid. 
  Despite the fact that the Bishop of the Diocese forbade the exercise 
  of these apparently magical powers, Greatrakes continued to heal 
  the afflicted people who sought him. In 1666 he proceeded to 
  London, and though not invariably successful, he seems to have 
  performed there a surprising number of cures, which were testified 
  to by Robert Boyle, Sir William Smith, Andrew Marvell, and many 
  other eminent people. He himself describes them in a work 
  entitled " Val. Greatrakes, Esq., of Waterford, in the kingdom of 
  Ireland, famous for curing several diseases and distempers by the 
  stroak of his hand only: London, 166o." His method of healing was 
  to stroke the affected part with his hand, thus driving the disease 
  into the limbs and so finally out of the body. Sometimes the 
  treatment acted as though by magic, but if immediate relief was not 
  obtained the rubbing was continued, and but few cases were 
  dismissed as incurable. Even epidemic diseases he healed by a 
  touch. It is said that during the treatment the patient's fingers and 
  
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  toes remained insensible to external stimuli, and frequently he 
  himself showed every symptom of such a magnetic crisis as was 
  afterwards to become a special feature of mesmeric treatment. 
  Personally Greatrakes was a simple and pious gentleman, 
  persuaded thai his marvellous powers were a divinely - bestowed 
  gift, and most anxious to make the best use of them. The other 
  healer mentioned, Gassner, belongs to a somewhat later period - 
  about the middle of the eighteenth century. Gassner was a priest of 
  Bludenz in Vorarlberg, where his many cures gained for him a 
  wide celebrity. All diseases, according to him, were caused by evil 
  spirits possessing the patient, and his mode of healing thus 
  consisted of exorcising the demons. He too was a man of kindly 
  disposition and piety, and made a large useof the Scriptures in his 
  healing operations. The ceremony of exorcism was a rather 
  impressive one. Herr Gassner sat at a table, the patient and 
  spectators in front of him, A blue red - flowered cloak hung from 
  his shoulders; the rest of his clothing, we are told, was " clean, 
  simple, and modest." On his left was a window, on his right, the 
  crucifix. His fine personality, deep learning, and noble character 
  inspired the faith of the patient and his friends and doubtless 
  played no small part in his curative feats. Sometimes he made use 
  of magnetic manipulations, stroking or rubbing the affected part, 
  and driving the disease, after the manner of Greatrakes, into the 
  limbs of the patient, The formula of exorcism he generally 
  pronounced in Latin, with which language the demons showed a 
  perfect familiarity. Not only could he control sickness by these 
  means, but the passions also were amenable to his treatment. " 
  Now anger is apparent, now patience, now joy, now sorrow, now 
  hate, now love, now confusion, now reason, - each carried to the 
  highest pitch. Now this one is blind, now he sees, and again is 
  deprived of sight, etc." These curious results suggest the phreno - 
  magnetism of later years, where equally sudden changes of mood 
  were produced by touching with the finger - tips those parts of the 
  subject's head which phrenology associated with the various 
  emotions to be called forth. 
   
  Hitherto it will be seen that the rational and supernatural 
  explanations of magnetism had run parallel with one another, the 
  former most in favour with the philosophers, the latter with the 
  populace. It was reserved for Emanuel Swedenborg (q.v.) (1688 - 
  1772), the Swedish philosopher and spiritualist, to unite the 
  doctrine of magnetism with that of spiritualism - i.e., the belief in 
  the action in the external world of the discarnate spirits of 
  deceased human bein., s. That Swedenborg accepted some of the 
  theories of the older magnetists is evident from his mystical 
  writings, from which the following passage has been extracted. 
   
  " In order to comprehend the origin and progress of this influence 
  (i.e., God's influence over man), we must first know that that which 
  proceeds from the Lord is the divine sphere which surrounds us, 
  and fills the spiritual and natural world. All that proceeds from an 
  object, and surrounds and clothes it, is called its sphere. 
   
  " As all that is spiritual knows neither time nor space, it therefore 
  follows that the general sphere or the divine one has extended 
  itself from the first moment of creation to the last. This divine 
  emanation, which passed over from ther spiritual to the natural, 
  penetrates actively and rapidly through -  the whole created world, 
  to the last grade of it, where it is yet to be found, and produces and 
  maintains all that is animal, vegetable, and mineral. Man is 
  continually surrounded by a sphere of his favourite propensities; 
  these unite themselves to the natural sphere of his body, so that 
  together they form one. The natural sphere surrounds every body of 
  nature, and all the objects of the three kingdoms. Thus it allies 
  itself to the spiritual world. Thisis the foundation of sympathy and 
  antipathy, of union and follows. The brain is composed of 
  innumerable groups of nerve cells, all more or less closely 
  connected with each other by means of nervous links or paths of 
  variable resistance. Excitement of any of these groups, whether by 
  means of impressions received through the sense organs, or by the 
  communicated activity of other groups, will, if sufficiently intense, 
  occasion the rise into consciousness of an idea. In the normal 
  waking state the resistance of the nervous association - paths is 
  fairly low, so that the activity is easily communicated from one 
  neural group to another. Thus the main idea which reaches the 
  upper stratum of ~consciousness is attended by a stream of other, 
  subconscious ideas, which has the effect of checking the primary 
  idea and preventing its complete dominance. Now the .abnormal 
  dominance of one particular system of ideasthat suggested by the 
  operator - together with the complete suppression of all rival 
  systems, is the principal fact to be explained in hypnosis. To some 
  extent the physiological process conditioning hypnosis suggests an 
  analogy with normal sleep. When one composes himself to sleep 
  there is a lowering of cerebral excitement and a proportionate 
  increase in the resistance of the neural links; and this is precisely 
  what happens during hypnosis, the essential passivity of the 
  subject raising the resistance of the association - paths. But in 
  normal sleep, unless some exciting cause be present, all the neural 
  dispositions are at rest, whereas in the latter case such a complete 
  suspension of cerebral activities is not permitted, since the 
  operator, by means of voice, gestures, and manipulations of the 
  patient's limbs, keeps alive that set of impressions relating to 
  himself. One neural disposition is thus isolated, so that any idea 
  suggested by the operator is free to work itself out in action, 
  without being submitted to the checks of the sub - activity of other 
  ideas. The alienation is less or more complete according as the 
  degree of hy notism is light or heavy but a comparatively slight 
  raising of resistance in the neural links suffices to secure the 
  dominance of ideas suggested by the hypnotizer. Hyperaesthesia, 
  than which perhaps no phenomenon is more frequently mentioned 
  in connection with the hypnotic state, really belongs to the 
  doubtful class, since it has not yet been decided whether or no an 
  actual sharpening or refining of the senses takes place. 
  Alternatively it may be suggested that the accurate perception of 
  very faint sense - impressions, which seems to furnish evidence for 
  hypera~sthesia, merely recalls the fact that the excitement 
  conveyed through the sensory nerve  - operates with extraordinary 
  force, being freed from the restriction of sub - excitement in 
  adjacent neural groups and systems. In accepting this view - point 
  we concede that in normal life very feeble sensory stimuli must act 
  on nerve and brain just as they do in hypnosis, save that in the 
  former case they are so stifled amid a multitude of similar 
  impressions that they fail to reach consciousness. In any case the 
  occasional abnormal sensitiveness of the subject to very slight 
  sensory stimuli is a fact of hypnotism .as well authenticated as 
  anaesthesia itself, and the term " hyperaesthesia, " if not entirely 
  justified, may for want of a better be practically applied to the 
  observed phenomenon. The hypnotic state is not necessarily 
  induced by a second person. " Spontaneous " hypnotism and " 
  autohypnotisation " are well known to science. Certain Indian 
  fakirs and the shamans of uncivilised races can produce in 
  themselves a state closely approximating to hypnosis, by a 
  prolonged fixation of the eyes, and by other means. The 
  mediumistic trance i, ; also, as will be shown hereafter, a case in 
  point. 
   
  
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  Hypnotism and Spiritualism. - Spiritualism is a legacy directly 
  bequeathed by the magnetic philosophers of medi~eval tirnes, 
  and through them, from the still older astrologers and magi. It has 
  been shown that at a very early date phenomena of a distinctly 
  hypnotic character were ascribed to the workings of spiritual 
  agencies, whether angelic or demoniac, by a certain percentage of 
  the observers Thug Greatrakes and Gassner believed themselves to 
  have been gifted with a divine power to heal diseases. Cases of 
  ecstasy, catalepsy and other trance states were given a spiritual 
  significance - i.e., demons, angels, elementals, and so on, were 
  supposed to speak through the lips of the possessed. Witchcraft, in 
  which the force of hypnotic suggestion seems to have operated in a 
  very large degree, was thought to result from the witches' traffic 
  with the Prince of Darkness and his legions. Even in some cases 
  the souls of, deceased men and women were identified with these 
  intelligences, though not generally until the time of Swedenborg. 
  Though the movement known as " modern spiritualism " is usually 
  dated from 1848, the year of the " Rochester Rappings, " the real 
  growth of spiritualism was much more gradual, and its roots were 
  hidden in animal magnetism. Emanuel Swendenborg, whose 
  affinities with the magnetists have already been referred to, 
  exercised a remarkable influence on the spiritualistic thought of 
  America and Europe, and was in a sense the founder of that faith. 
  Automatic phenomena were even then a feature of the magnetic 
  trance, and clairvoyance, community of sensation, and telepathy 
  were believed in generally, and regarded by many as evidences of 
  spiritual communication. In Germany Professor Jung - Stilling, Dr. 
  C. Rbmer, Dr. Werner, and the poet and physician Justinus 
  Kerner, were among those who held opinions on these lines, the 
  latter pursuing his investigations with a somnambule who became 
  famous as the " Seerers of Prevorst - - Frau Frederica Hauffe. Fran 
  Hauffe could see and converse with the spirits of the deceased, 
  and gave evidence of prophetic vision and clairvoyance. Physical 
  phenomena were witnessed in her presence, knockings, rattling of 
  chains, movement of objects without contact, and, in short, such 
  manifestations as were characteristic of the poltergeist family. She 
  was, moreover, the originator of a primeval " language, which she 
  declared was that spoken by the patriarchs. Thus Fran Hauff e, 
  though only a somnambule, or magnetic patient, possessed all the 
  qualities of a successful spiritualistic medium. In England also 
  there were many circumstances of a supernatural character 
  associated with mesmerism. Dr. Elliotson, who, as has been 
  indicated, was one of the best - known of English magnetists, 
  became in time converted to a spiritualistic theory, as offering an 
  explanation of the clairvoyance and similar phenomena which he 
  thought to have observed in his patients. France, the headquarters 
  of the rationalist school of magnetism, had, indeed, a good deal 
  less to show of spiritualistic opinion. Nonetheless even in that 
  country the latter doctrine made its appearance at intervals prior to 
  1848. J. P. F. Deleuze, a good scientist and an earnest protagonist 
  of magnetism, who published his Histoire Critique du Magnilisme 
  Animal, was said to have embraced the doctrines of spiritualism 
  before he died. Dr. G. P. Billot was another believer in spirit 
  communication, and one who succeeded in obtaining physical 
  phenoena in the presence of his somnambules. It is, however, in 
  the person of Alphonse Cahagnet, a man of humble origin who 
  began to study induced somnambulism about the year 1845, and 
  who thereafter experimented with somnambules, that we encounter 
  the first French spiritualist of distinction. So good was the 
  evidence for spirit communication furnished by Cahagnet and his 
  subjects that it remains among the best which the annals of the 
  movement can produce. In America, Laroy Sunderland, Andrew 
  Jackson Davis, and others who became pillars of spiritualism in 
  that country were first attracted to it through the study of 
  magnetism. Everywhere we find 
  hypnotism and spiritualism identified with each other until in 
  1848 a definite split occurs, and the two go their separate ways. 
  Even yet, however, the separation is not quite complete. In the first 
  place, the mediumistic trance is obviously a variant of spontaneous 
  or self - induced hypnotism, while in the se, ~ond, many of the 
  most striking phenomena of the seance - room have been matched 
  time and again in the records of animal magnetism. For instance, 
  the diagnosis of disease and prescription of remedies dictated by 
  the control to the " healing medium " have their prototype in the 
  cures of Valentine Greatrakes, or of Alesmer and his disciples. 
  Automatic phenomenaspeaking in " tongues " and so forth - early 
  formed a characteristic feature.of the induced trance and kindred 
  states. While even the physical phenomena, movenient Without 
  contact, apports, rappings, were witnessed in connection with 
  magnetism long before the movement known as modern 
  spiritualism was so much as thought of. In in - Any instances, 
  though not in all, we can trace the operation of hypnotic suggestion 
  in the automatic phenomena, just as we can perceive the result of 
  fraud in much of the physical manifestations. The question 
  whether, after the factors of hypnotism and fraud have been 
  removed, a section of the phenomena remains inexplicable say by 
  the hypothesis of communication with the spirit - world is one 
  which has been in the past, and is to - day, answered in the 
  affirmative by many men of the highes~ distinction in their 
  various walks of life, and one which we would do well to trea~ 
  with due circumspection. This, however, is reserved for 
  consideration elsewhere, the scope of the present article being to 
  show how largely spiritualism has borrowed from the fact of 
  hypnotism. (See Suggest'On.) 
   
  Illuminati: The term used first of all in the 15th century by 
  enthusiasts in the occult arts signifying those who claimed to 
  possess " light " directly communicated from a higher source, or 
  due to a larger measure of human wisdom. We first find the name 
  in Spain about the end of the 15th century. Its origin is probably a 
  late Gnostic one hailing from Italy, and we find all sorts of people, 
  many of them charlatans, claiming to belong to the brotherhood. In 
  Spain, such persons as laid claim to the title had to face the rigour 
  of the Inquisition, and this is perhaps the reason that we find 
  numbers of them in France in the early seventeenth century, as 
  refugees. 
   
  Here and there small bodies of those called Illuminati, sometimes 
  known as Rosicrucians rose into publicity for a short period. But it 
  is with Weishaupt, Professor of Law at Ingolstadt, that the 
  movement first became identified with republicanism. It soon 
  secured a strong hold all through Germany, but its founder's object 
  was merely to convert his followers into blind instruments of his 
  supreme will. He modelled his organisation on that of the Jesuits, 
  adopted their system of espionage, and their maxim that the end 
  justified the means. He induced mysficism into the workings of the 
  brotherhood, so that an air of mystery might prevade all its doings, 
  adopted many of the classes and grades of Freemasonry, and held 
  cut hopes of the communication of deep occult secrets in the 
  higher ranks. 
   
  Only a few of the members knew him personally, and thus although 
  the society had many branches in all parts of Germany, to these 
  people alone was he visible, and he began to be regarded by those 
  who had not seen him almost as a god. He took care to enlist in his 
  ranks as many young men of wealth and position as possible, and 
  within four or five years the power of Illuminism became 
  
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  extraordinary in its proportions, its members even bad a hand In 
  the affairs of the state, and not a few of the German princes found 
  it to their interest to having dealings with the fraternity. 
  Weishaupt's idea was to blend philanthropy and mysticism. He 
  was only 28 when he founded the sect in 1776, but he did not 
  make much progress until a certain baron Von Knigge joined him 
  in 1780. A gifted person of strong imagination he had been 
  admitted master of most of the secret societies of his day, among 
  them Freemasonry. He was also an expert occultist and the 
  supernatural had strong attractions for him. These two, rapidly 
  spread the gospel of the Revolution throughout Germany. But they 
  grew fearful that, if the authorities discovered the existence of such 
  a society as theirs they would take steps to suppress it. With this in 
  view they conceived the idea of grafting it on to Freemasonry, 
  which they considered would protect it, and offer it means of 
  spreading more widely and rapidly. 
   
  The Freemasons were not long in discovering the true nature of 
  those who had just joined their organisation. A chief council was 
  held with the view of thoroughly examining into the nature of the 
  beliefs held by them and a conference of masons was held in 1782 
  at which Knigge and Weishaupt attended and endeavoured to 
  capture the whole organisation of Freemasonry, but a 
  misunderstanding grew up between the leaders of illuminism. 
  Knigge withdrew from the society, - and two years later those who 
  bad reached its highest grade and had discovered that mysticism 
  was not its true object, denounced it to the Bavarian Government 
  as a political society of a dangerous character. Weishaupt fled, but 
  the damage had been done, for the fire kindled by Illuminism was 
  soon to burst forth in the French Revolution. 
   
  It has been suggested, and must certainly be true that the fathers of 
  the United States had a solid grounding in the same principles as 
  Weishaupt, and that the declarations of 1776 were not entirely co-
  incidental to his founding of the German movement.  Certainly it 
  can be reasonably suggested that the American Freemason lodges 
  provided Weishaupt with an example, and there is fair reason to 
  belive that Washington, Jefferson, and other Masonic luminaries of 
  the United States Independence corresponded with the German 
  society of the same aim.   
   
  The title Illuminati was later given to the French Martinists (q.v. ) 
   
  India: Mystical Systems. - It would be beyond the scope of such a 
  work as this to undertake to provide any account of the several 
  religious systems of India, and we must confine ourselves to a 
  description of the mysticism and demonology which cluster round 
  these systems, and an outline of the magic and sorcery of the 
  native peoples of the empire. 
   
  Hinduism. - It may be said that the mysticism of the Hindus was a 
  reaction a - ainst the detailed and practicalceremonial of the 
  Vedas. If its trend were summarised it might justly be said that it 
  partakes strongly of disinterestedness; is a pantheistic identifying 
  of subject and ~object, worshipper and worship; aims at ultimate 
  absorp 
   
  tion in the Infinite; inculcates absolute passivity, the most minute 
  self -  examination, the cessation of the physical powers; and 
  believes in the spiritual guidance of the mystical adept. For the 
  Indian theosophists there is only one Absolute Being, the One 
  Reality. True, the pantheistic doctrine of Ekam advitiyam " the 
  One without Second " posits a countless pantheon of gods, great 
  and small, and a rich demonology; but it has to be ~understood 
  that these are merely illusions of the soul and not realities. Upon 
  the soul's coming to fuller knowledge, its illusions are totally 
  dispelled, but to the ordinary man the impersonality of absolute 
  being is useless. He requires a symbolic deity to bridge the gulf 
  betwixt the impersonal Absolute and his very material self, hence 
  the numerous gods of Hinduism which are regarded by the 
  initiated merely as manifestations of the Supreme Spirit. Even the 
  rudest forms of idolatry in this way possess higher meaning. As Sir 
  Alfred Lyall says: " It (Brahminism) treats all the worships as 
  outward visible signs of the same spiritual truth, and is ready to 
  show how each particular image or rite is the symbol of some 
  aspect of universal divinity. The Hindus, like the pagans of 
  antiquity adore natural objects and forces, - a mountain, a river, or 
  an animal. The Brahmin holds all nature to be the vesture or cloak 
  of indwelling divine energy which inspires everything that 1 - 
  redoces all or passes man's understanding." 
   
  The life ascetic has from the remotest times been regarded in India 
  as the truest preparation for communion with the deity. Asceticism 
  is extremely prevalent especially in connection with the cult of 
  Siva, who is in great measure regarded as the prototype of this 
  class. The Yogis or Jogis (disciples of the Yogi. philosophy), 
  practise mental abstraction, and are popularly supposed to attain 
  to superhuman powers. The usual results of their ascetic practices 
  are madness or mental vacancy, and their socalled supernatural 
  powers are mostly prophetic, or in to 
   
  many cases pure jugglery and conjuring. The Paramal Hamsas, 
  that is " supreme swans " claim to be identic. with the world - soul, 
  and have no occupation except meditation on Brahma. They are 
  said to be equally indifferent to pleasure or pain, insensible to beat 
  or cold, and incapable of satiety or want. The Sannyasis are those 
  who renounce terrestrial affairs: they are of the character of monks, 
  and are as a general rule extremely dirty. The Dandis or staff - 
  bearers are worshippers of Siva in his form of Bhairava the 
  Terrible. Mr. J. C. Owen in his Mystics, Ascetics and Sects of India 
  says of these Sadhus or holy men:" Sadhuism whether perpetuating 
  the peculiar idea of the efficacy of asceticism for the acquisition of 
  far - reaching powers over natural phenomena or bearing its 
  testimony to the belief of the indispensableness of detachment 
  from the world as a preparation for the ineffable joy of ecstatic 
  communion with the Divine Being, has undoubtedly tended to 
  keep before men's eyes as the highest ideal, a life of purity and 
  restraint and contempt of the world of human affairs. It has also 
  necessarily maintained amongst the laity a sense of the rights and 
  claims of the poor upon the charity of the more opulent members of 
  the community. Further, Sadhuism by the multiplicity of the 
  independent sects which have arisen in India has engendered and 
  favoured a spirit of tolerance which cannot escape t4e notice of the 
  most superficial observer." 
   
  One of the most esoteric branches of Hinduism is the Sakta cult. 
  The Saktas are worshippers of the Sakti or female principle as a 
  creative and reproductive agency. Each of the principal gods 
  possesses his own Sakti, through which his creative acts are 
  performed, so that the Sakta worshippers are drawn from all sects. 
  But it is principally in connection with the cult of Siva that Sakta 
  worship is practised. 'Its principal seat is the north - eastern part of 
  India - Bengal, Behar and Assam. It is divided into two distinct 
  groups. The original self - existent gods were supposed to divide 
  themselves into male and female energies, the male half occupying 
  the right - hand and the female the lefthand side. From this 
  
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  conception we have the two groups of " right - hand " observers and 
  " left - hand " observers. In the Tantras or mystical writings, Siva 
  unfolds in the nature of a colloquy in answer to questions asked by 
  his spouse Parvati, the mysteries of Sakta occultism. The right - 
  hand worshippers are by far the most numerous. Strict secrecy is 
  enjoined in the performance of the rites, and only one minor caste, 
  the Kanlas, carry on the mystic and degraded rites of the Tantras. 
   
  Brahmanism. - Brahmariism is a system originated by the 
  Brahmans, the sacerdotal caste of the Hindus, at a, comparatively 
  early date. It is the mystical religion of India par excellence, and 
  represents the more archaic beliefs of its peoples. It states that the 
  numberless individual existences of animate nature are but so 
  many manifestations of the one eternal spirit towardswhich they 
  tend as their final goal of supreme bliss. The object of man is to 
  prevent himself sinking lower in the scale, and by 4degrees to 
  raise himself in it, or if possible to attain the ultimate goal 
  immediately from such state of existence as he. happens to be in. 
  The code of Manu concludes " He who in his own soul perceives 
  the supreme soul in all beings and acquires equanimity towards 
  them all attains the highest state of bliss." Mortification of animal 
  instincts, absolute purity and perfection of spirit, were the moral 
  ideals of the Brahman class. But it was necessary to pass through a 
  succession of four orders or states of existence ere any hope of 
  union with the deity could be held out. These were: that of 
  byahmacharin, or student of religious matters; grihastha, or 
  householder; vanavasin, or hermit; and sannyasin or bhikshu, fakir 
  or religious mendicant. Practically every man of the higher castes 
  practised at least the first two of these stages, while the priestly 
  class took the entire course. Later, however, this was by no means 
  the rule, as the scope of study was intensely exacting, often lasting 
  as long as forty - eight years, and the neophyte had to support 
  himself by begging from door to door. He was usually attached to 
  the house of some religious teacher; and after several years of his 
  tuition was usually married, as it was considered absolutely 
  essential that he should leave a son behind him to offer food to his 
  spirit and to those of his ancestors. He was then said to have 
  become a " Householder " and was required to keep up perpetually 
  the fire brought into his house upon his marriage day. Upon his 
  growing older, the time for him arrived to enter the third stage of 
  life, and he " cut himself off from all family ties except that (if she 
  wished) his wife might accompany him, and went into retirement in 
  a lonely place, carrying with him his sacred fire, and the 
  instruments necessary to his daily sacrifices." Scantily clothed, 
  and with hair and nails uncut, it is set down that the anchorite 
  must live entirely on food growing wild in the forest - roots, herbs, 
  wild grain, and so forth. The acceptance of gifts was not permitted 
  him unless absolutely necessary, and his time was spent in reading 
  the metaphysi, cal portions of the Veda, in making offerings, and in 
  practising austerities withtheobject of producingentire indifference 
  to worldly desires. In this way he fits himself for the final and most 
  exalted order, that of religious mendicant or bhikshu. This consists 
  solely of meditation. He takes up his abode at the foot of a tree in 
  entire solitude, and only once a day at the end of their labours may 
  he go near the dwellings of men to beg a little food. In this way he 
  waits for death, neither desiring extinction nor existence, until at 
  length it reaches him, and he is absorbed in the eternal Brahma. 
   
  The purest doctrines of Brahmanism are to be found in the 
  Vedanta philosophic system, which recognises the Veda, or 
  collection of ancient Sanskrit hymns, as the revealed source of 
  religious belief through the visions of the ancient Rishis or seers. It 
  has been already mentioned that the Hindu regarded the entire 
  gamut of animated nature as being traversed by the one soul, 
  which journeyed up and down the scale as its actions in its 
  previous existence were good or evil. To the Hindu the vital 
  element in all animate beings appears essentially similar, and this 
  led directly to the Brahmanical theory of transmigration, which has 
  taken such a powerful hold upon the Hindu mind. 
   
  Demonology. - A large and intricate demonology has clustered 
  around Hindu mythology. The gods are at constant war with 
  demons. Thus Durga slays Chanda and Asura, and also despatches 
  Durga, a fiend of similar name to herself. Vishnu also slays more 
  than one demon, but Durga appears to have been a great enemy of 
  the demon race. The Asuras, probably a very ancient and 
  aboriginal pantheon of deities, later became demons in the popular 
  imagination, and the Rakshasas were cloud - demons. They are 
  described as cannibals, could take any form, and were constantly 
  menacing the gods. They haunt cemeteries, disturb sacrifices, 
  animate the dead, harry and afflict mankind in all sorts of ways. In 
  fact they are almost an absolute parallel with the vampires of 
  Slavonic countries; and this greatly assists the conclusions of 
  Asikoff that the Slavonic vampires were originally cloud - spirits. 
  We find the gods constantly harassed by demons; and on the whole 
  we may be justified in concluding that just as the Tuatha - de - 
  danaan harassed the later deities of Ireland, so did these 
  aboriginal gods lead an existence of constant warfare with the 
  divine beings of the pantheon of the immigrant Aryans. 
   
  Popular Witchcraft and Sorcery. - The popular witchcraft and 
  sorcery of India greatly resembles that of Europe. The Dravidian or 
  aboriginal races of India have always been strong believers in 
  witchcraft, and it is possible that here we have an example of the 
  mythic influence of a conquered people. They are, however, 
  extremely reticent regarding any knowledge they possess of it. It is 
  practically confined to them, and this might lead to the hasty 
  supposition that the Aryan races of India possess no witchcraft of 
  their own. But this is strongly unlikely, and the truth probably lies 
  quite in the other direction; however, the extraordinarily high 
  demands made upon the popular religious sense by Brahmanism 
  probably crushed the superstitions of the lower cultus of a very 
  early period, and confined the practice of minor sorcery to the 
  lower castes, who were of course of Dravidian or aboriginal blood. 
  We find witchcraft most prevalent among the more isolated and 
  least advanced races, like the Kols, Bhils, and Santals. The 
  nomadic peoples are also strong believers in sorcery, one of the 
  most dreaded forms of which is the Jigar Khoy, or liver - eater, of 
  whom Abul Fazl says:" One of this class can steal away the liver of 
  another by looks and incantations. Other accounts say that by 
  looking at a person he deprives him of his senses, and then steals 
  from him something resembling the seed of a pomegranate, which 
  he hides in the calf of his leg; after being swelled by the fire, he 
  distributes it among his fellows to be eaten, which ceremony 
  concludes the life of the fascinated person. A Jigar Khoy is able to 
  communicate his art to another by teaching him incantations, and 
  by making him eat a bit of the liver cake. These Jigar Khoy are 
  mostly women. It is said they can bring intelligence from a long 
  distance in a short space of time, and if they are thrown into a river 
  with a stone tied to them, they nevertheless will not sink. In order 
  to deprive any one of this wicked power, they brand his temples 
  and every joint of his body, cram his eyes with salt, suspend him 
  for forty days in a subterranean chamber, and repeat over him 
  certain incantatons." The witch does not, however, devour the 
  man's liver for two and a half davs, and even if she has eaten it, 
  and is put under the hands of an exorciser, she can be forced to 
  substitute a liver of some animal in the body of the man whom she 
  victimised. We also hear tales of witches taking out the entrails of 
  
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  people, sucking them, and then replacing them. All this 
  undoubtedly illustrates, as in ancient France and Germany, and 
  probably also in the Slavonic countries, the original combination of 
  witch and vampire; how, in fact, the two were one and the same. In 
  India the arch - witch Ralaratri, or " black night " has the joined 
  eyebrows of the Slavonic werewolf or vampire, large cheeks, widely 
  - parted lips, projecting teeth, and is a veritable vampire. But she 
  also possesses the powers of ordinary witchcraft, - second - sight, 
  the making of philtres, the control of tempests, the evil eye, and so 
  forth. Witches also take animal forms, especially those of tigers; 
  and stories of trials are related at which natives gave evidence that 
  they had tracked certain tigers to their lairs, which upon entering 
  they had found tenanted by a a notorious witch or wizard. For such 
  witch - tigers the usual remedy is to knock out their teeth to 
  prevent their doing any more mischief. Strangely enough the 
  Indian witch, like her European prototype, is very often 
  accompanied by a cat. The cat, say the jungle people, is aunt to the 
  tiger, and taught him everything but how to climb a tree. Zalim 
  Sinh, the famous regent of Kota, believed that cats were associated 
  with witches, and imagining himself enchanted ordered that every 
  cat should be expelled from his province. 
   
   As in Europe, witches are known by certain marks.  They are 
  believed to learn the secrets of their craft by  eating offal of all 
  kinds. The popular belief concerning  them is that they are often 
  very handsome and neat, and  invariably apply a clear line of red 
  lead to the parting  of their lair. They are popularly accused of 
  exhuming  dead children, and bringing them to life to serve occult  
  purposes of their own. They cannot die so long as they are  
  witches, and until, as in Italy, they can pass on their  knowledge of 
  witchcraft to someone else. They recite  charms backwards, 
  repeating two letters and a half from a  verse in the Koran. If a 
  certain charm is repeated " for  wards, " the person employing it 
  will become invisible to  his neighbour, but if he repeats it 
  backwards, he will  assume whatever shape he chooses. A witch 
  can acquire  power over her victim by getting possession of a lock 
  of  hair, the paring of nails, or some other part of his body,  such as 
  a tooth. For this reason natives of India are  extremely careful 
  about the disposal of such, burying them  in the earth in a place 
  covered with grass, or in the neighbourhood of water, which 
  witches universally dislike.  Some people even fling the cuttings of 
  their hair into  running water. Like the witches of Europe too, they 
  are  in the practice of making images of persons out of wax,  dough, 
  or similar substances, and torturing them, with the  idea that the 
  pain will be felt by the person whom they  desire to injure. In India 
  the witches' familiar is known  as Bir or the " hero, " who aids her 
  to inflict injury upon  human beings. The power of the witch is 
  greatest on the  14th, 15th and 29th of each month, and in 
  particular on  the Feast of Lamps, and the Festival of Durga.  
   
  Witches are often severely punished amongst the isolated hill - 
  folk and a diabolical ingenuity is shown in torturing them. To 
  nullify their evil influence, they are beaten with rods of the castor - 
  oil plant and usually die in the process. They are often forced to 
  drink filthy water used by curriers in the process of their work, or 
  their noses are cut off, or they are put to death. As has been said, 
  their teeth are often knocked out, their heads shaved and offal is 
  thrown at them. In the case of women their heads are shaved and 
  their hair is attached to a tree in some public place. They are also 
  branded; have a ploughshare tied to their legs; and made to drink 
  the water of a tannery. During the Mutiny, when British authority 
  was relaxed, the most atrocious horrors were inflicted upon witches 
  and sorcerers by the Dravidian people. Pounded chili peppers 
  were placed in their eyes to see if they would bring tears, and the 
  wretched beings were suspended from a tree head downwards, 
  being swung violently from side to side. They were then forced to 
  drink the blood of a goat, and to exorcise the evil spirits that they 
  had caused to enter the bodies of certain sick persons. The 
  mutilations and cruelties practised on them are such as will not 
  bear repetition, but one of the favourite ways of counteracting the 
  spells of a witch is to draw blood from her, and the local priest will 
  often prick the tongue of the witch with a needle, and place the 
  resulting blood on some rice and compel her to eat it. 
   
  In Bombay, the aboriginal Tharus are supposed to possess special 
  powers of witchcraft, so that the "Land of Tharus " is a synonym for 
  witch - land. In Gorakhpur, witches are also very numerous, and 
  the half - gypsy Banayas, or grain - carriers, are notorious 
  believers in witchcraft. In his interesting Popular Religion and 
  Folk - lore of Northern India, Mr. W. Crooke, who has had 
  exceptional opportunities for the study of the native character, and 
  who has done much to clear up the dark places of Indian popular 
  mythology, says regarding the various types of Indian witches: 
   
  " At the present day the half - deified witch most dreaded in the 
  Eastern Districts of the North - western Provinces is Lona, or 
  Nona, a Chamaript or woman of the currier caste. Her legend is in 
  this wise. The great physician Dhanwantara, who corresponds to 
  Luqman Hakim of the Muhammadans, was once on his way to cure 
  King Parikshitis and was deceived and bitten by the snake king 
  Tal - shaka. He therefore desired his son3 to roast him and eat his 
  flesh, and thus succeed to his magical powers. The snake king 
  dissuaded them from eating the unholy meal, and they let the 
  cauldron containing it float down the Ganges. A currier woman, 
  named Lona, found it and ate the contents, and thus succeeded to 
  the mystic powers of Dhanwantara. She became skilful in cures, 
  particular of snake - bite. Finally she was discovered to be a witch 
  by the extraordinary rapidity with which she could plant out rice 
  seedlings. One day the people watched her, and saw that when she 
  believed herself unobserved she stripped herself naked, and taking 
  the bundle of the plants in her hands threw them into the air, 
  reciting certain spells. When the seedlings forthwith arranged 
  themselves in their proper places, the spectators called out in 
  astonishment, and finding herself discovered, Nona rushed along 
  over the country, and the channel which she made in her course is 
  the Loni river to this day. So a saint in Broach formed a new course 
  for a river by dragging his clothes behind him ...... 
   
  " Another terrible witch, whose legend is told at Mathura, is 
  Putana, the daughter of Bali, king of the lower world. She found 
  the infant Krishna asleep, and began to suckle him with her devil's 
  milk. The first drop would have poisoned a mortal child, but 
  Krishna drew her breast with such strength that he drained her life 
  - blood, and the fiend, terrifying the whole land of Braj with her 
  cries of agony, fell lifeless on the ground. European witches suck 
  the blood of children; here the divine Krishna turns the tables on 
  the witch. 
   
  " The Palwar Rajputs of Oudh have a witch ancestress.  Soon after 
  the birth of her son she was engagad in baking cakes. Her infant 
  began to cry, and she was obliged to perform a double duty. At this 
  juncture her husband arrived just in time to see his demon wife 
  assume gigantic and supernatural proportions, so as to allow both 
  the baking and nursing to go on at the same time. But finding her 
  secret discovered, the witch disappeared, leaving her son as a 
  legacy to her astonished husband. Here, though the story is 
  
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  incomplete, we have almost certainly, as in the case of Nona 
  Chamarin, one of the Melusina type of legend, where the 
  supernatural wife leaves her husband and children, because he 
  violated some taboo, by which he is forbidden to see her in a state 
  of nudity, or the like. 
   
  " The history of witchcraft in India, as in Europe, is one of the 
  saddest pages in the annals of the people. Nowadays, the power of 
  British law has almost entirely suppressed the horrible outrages 
  which, under the native administration were habitually practised. 
  But particularly in the more remote and uncivilized parts of the 
  country this superstition still exists in the minds of the people and 
  occasional indications of it, which appear in our criminal records, 
  are quite sufficient to show that any relaxation of the activity of our 
  magistrates and police would undoubtedly lead to its revival in 
  some of its more shocking forms." 
   
  The aborigines of India live in great fear of ghosts and invisible 
  spirits, and a considerable portion of their time is given up to 
  averting the evil influences of these. Protectives of every 
  description litter their houses, and the approaches to them, and 
  they wear numerous amulets for the purpose of averting evil 
  influences. Regarding these, Mr. Crooks says: 
   
  Some of the Indian ghosts, like the Ifrit of the Arabian Nights, can 
  grow to the length of ten yojaras or eighty miles. In one of the 
  Bengal tales a ghost is identified because she can stretch out her 
  hands several yards for a vessel. Some ghosts possess the very 
  dangerous power of entering human corpses, like the Vetala, and 
  swelling to an enormous size. The Kharwars of Mirzapur have a 
  wild legend, which tells how long ago an unmarried girl of the tribe 
  died, and was being cremated. While the relations were collecting 
  wood for the pyre, a ghost entered the corpse, but, the friends 
  managed to expel him. Since then great care is taken not to leave 
  the bodies of women unwatched. So, in the Panjab, when a great 
  person is cremated the bones and ashes are carefully watched till 
  the fourth day, to prevent a magician interfering with them. If he 
  has a chance, he can restore the deceased to life, and ever after 
  retain him under his influence. This is the origin of the custom in 
  Great Britain of waking the dead, a practice which, most probably 
  originated from a silly superstition as to the danger of a corpse 
  being carried off by some of the agents of the invisible world, or 
  exposed to the ominous liberties of brute animals.' But in India it 
  is considered the best course, if the corpse cannot be immediately 
  disposed of, to measure it carefully, and then no malignant Bhut 
  can occupy it. 
   
  " Most of the ghosts whom we have been as yet considering are 
  malignant. There are, however, others which are friendly. Such are 
  the German Elves, the Robin Goodfellow, Puck, Brownie and the 
  Cauld Lad of Hilton of England, the Glashan of the Isle of Man, 
  the Phouka or Leprehaun of Ireland. Such, in one of his many 
  forms, is the Brahmadaitya, or ghost of a Brahman who has died 
  unmarried. In Bengal he is believed to be more neat and less 
  mischievous than other ghosts; the Bhuts carry him in a palanquin, 
  he wears wooden sandals, and lives in a Banyan tree. 
   
  Initiation: The process of entry into a secret society or similar 
  organisation. The idea of initiation was certainly inherited by the 
  Egyptians and Asssyrians from older neolithic peoples, who 
  possessed secret organisations or mysteries " analogous to those of 
  the Medwiwin of the North American Indians or those of the 
  Australian Blackfellows. We read of initiation into the various 
  grades of the Egyptian priesthood and the " mysteries " of Eleusis 
  and Bacchus. (See Mysteries.) These processes probably consisted 
  of tests of courage and fidelity (as do the savage initiations) and 
  included such acts as sustaining a severe buffeting, the drinking of 
  blood, real and imaginary, and so forth. In the Popol Vuh, the saga 
  of the Kiche Indians of Guatemala we have a picture of the 
  initiation tests of two hero - gods on entrance to the native Hades. 
  Indeed, most of the mysteries typified the descent of man into 
  Hell, and his return to earth, based on the corn - mother legend of 
  the resurrection of the wheatplant. 
   
  Initiation into the higher branches of mysticism, magic and 
  theosophy has been largely written upon The process in regard to 
  these is of course entirely symbolical, and is to be taken as 
  implying a preparation for the higher life and the regeneration of 
  the soul. 
   
  Indwelling: Religiously the concept of "Immanence" is well known 
  – the godhead is said to dwell within the flesh of every living 
  being.  Esotericists also recognize a situation in which a Spirit of 
  some type may "dwell within" a living person, without however 
  possessing or obsessing them.    
   
  INRI: an important acronym in both orthodox religion and in 
  magic. The initials of a Latin phrase once placed by the Romans at 
  the top of the Cross which stood for Jesus Nazarenus Rex 
  Judecorum, or "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Medieval 
  alchemists theorized that it meant Igne Natura Renovatur Integra 
  or "the whole of nature is renewed by fire," or Igne Nitrum Raris 
  Invenitum - "shining is rarely found in fire." Masonic author J.S.M. 
  Ward attributed the initials to the first letters of certain Hebrew 
  words used to describe the four elements (I - Yam - Water; N - 
  Nour - Fire; R - Ruach - Air; I - Yebeshah - Earth). INRI is known 
  as the "Keyword" and is used in the Golden Dawn's Inner Order to 
  describe the cycle of the seasons; the equinoxes and solstices, as 
  well as the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth (I - Yod - Virgo; N - 
  Nun - Scorpio; R - Resh - the Sun; I - Yod - Virgo). 
   
  Ireland:  
  Although nominally Christianised, there is little doubt that the 
  early mediaeval Irish retained many relics of their former condition 
  of paganism, especially those which possessed a magical tendency. 
  This is made clear by the writings of Giraldus Cambrensis, the first 
  account we have of Irish manners and customs after the invasion of 
  the country by the Anglo - Normans. His description, for example, 
  of the Purgatory of St. Patrick in Lough Derg, Co. Donegal, proves 
  that the demonology of the Catholic Church had already fused with 
  the animism of Irish native heathnesse. He says: 
   
  " There is a lake in Ulster containing an island divided into two 
  parts. In one of these stands a church of especial sanctity, and it is 
  most agreeable and delightful, as well as beyond measure glorious 
  for the visitations of angels and the multitude of the saints who 
  visibly frequent it. The other part, being covered with rugged 
  crags, is reported to be the resort of devils only, and to be almost 
  always the theatre on which crowds of evil spirits visibly perform 
  their rites. This part of the island contains nine pits, and should 
  any one perchance venture to spend the night in one of them 
  (which has been done, we know, at times, by some rash men), he is 
  immediately seized by the malignant spirits, who so severely 
  torture him during the whole night, inflicting on him such 
  unutterable sufferings by fire and water, and other torments of 
  various kinds, that when morning comes scarcely any spark of life 
  is found left in his wretched body. It is said that any one who has 
  once submitted to these torments as a penance imposed upon him, 
  
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  will not afterwards undergo the pains of hell, unless he commit 
  some sin of a deeper dye. 
   
  " This place is called by the natives the Purgatory of St. Patrick. 
  For he, having to argue with a heathen race concerning the 
  torments of hell, reserved for the reprobate, and the real nature and 
  eternal duration of the future life, in order to impress on the rude 
  minds of the unbelievers a mysterious faith in doctrines so new, so 
  strange, so opposed to their prejudices, procured by the efficacy of 
  his prayers an exemplification of both states even on earth, as a 
  salutary lesson to the stubborn minds of the people." 
   
  The ancient Irish believed in the possibility of the transformation 
  of human beings into animals, and Giraldus in another narrative of 
  facts purporting to have come under his personal notice proves that 
  this belief had lost none of its significance with the Irish of the 
  latter half of the twelfth century. The case is also interesting as 
  being one of the first recorded examples of lycanthropy (q.v.) in 
  the British Isles, and that must be our excuse for quoting it at some 
  length. 
   
  " About three years before the arrival of Earl John in 1yeland. it 
  chanced that a priest, who was journeying from Ulster towards 
  Meath, was benighted in a certain wood on the borders of Meath. 
  While, in company with only a young ]ad, he was watching by a 
  fire which he had kindled under the branches of a spreading tree, 
  lo ! a wolf came up to them, and immediately addressed them to 
  this effect: ' Rest secure, and be not afraid, for there is no reason 
  you should fear, where no fear is’  The travellers being struck with 
  astonishment and alarm, the wolf added some orthodox words 
  referring to God. The priest then implored him, and adjured him 
  by Almighty God and faith in the Trinity, not to hurt them, but to 
  inform them what creature it was in the shape of a beast uttered 
  human words. The wolf, after giving catholic replies to all 
  questions, added at last: 'There are two of us, a man and a woman, 
  natives of Ossory, who, through the curse of Natalis, saint and 
  abbot, are compelled every seven years to put off the human form, 
  and depart from the dwellings of men. Quitting entirely the human 
  form, we assume that of wolves. At the end of the seven years, if 
  they chance to survive, two others being substituted in their 
  places, they return to their country and their former shape. And 
  now, she who is my partner in this visitation lies dangerously sick 
  not far from hence, and, as she is at the point, of death, I beseech 
  you, inspired by divine - charity, to give her the consolations of 
  your priestly office.' 
   
  " At this wood the priest followed the wolf trembling, as he led the 
  way to a tree at no great distance, in the hollow of which he beheld 
  a she - wolf, who under that shape was pouring forth human sighs 
  and groans. On seeing the priest, having saluted him with human 
  courtesy, she gave thanks to God, who in this extremity had 
  vouchsafed to visit her with such consolation. She then received 
  from the priest all the rites of the church duly performed, as far as 
  the last communion. This also she importunately demanded, 
  earnestly supplicating him to complete his good offices by giving 
  her the viaticum. The priest stoutly asserting that he was not 
  provided with it, the he - wolf, who had withdrawn to a short 
  distance, came back and pointed out a small missal - book, 
  containing some consecrated wafers, which the priest carried on 
  his journey, suspended from his neck, under his garment, after the 
  fashion of the country. He then entreated him not to deny them the 
  gift of God, and the aid destined for them by divine Providence; 
  and, to remove all doubt, using his claw for a hand, he tore off the 
  skin of the she - wolf, from the head down to the navel, folding it 
  back. Thus she immediately presented the form of an old woman. 
  The priest, seeing this, and compelled by his fear more than his 
  reason, gave the communion; the recipient having earnestly 
  implored it, and devoutly partaking of it Immediately afterwards 
  the he - wolf rolled back the skin and fitted it to its original form. 
   
  " These rites having been duly, rather than rightly performed, the 
  he - wolf gave them his company during the whole night at their 
  little fire, behaving more like a man than a beast. When morning 
  came, be led them out of the wood, and, leaving the priest to 
  pursue his journey pointed out to him the direct road for a long 
  distance. At his departure, he also gave him many thanks for the 
  benefit he had conferred, promising him still greater returns of 
  gratitude, if the Lord should call him back from his present exile, 
  two parts of which he had already completed." 
   
  " It chanced, about two years afterwards, that I was passing 
  through Meath, at the time when the bishop of that land had 
  convoked a synod, having also invited the assistance of the 
  neighbouring bishops and abbots, in order to have their joint 
  counsels on what was to be done in the affair which had come to 
  his knowledge by the priest's confession. The bishop, hearing that I 
  was passing through those parts, sent me a message by two of his 
  clerks, requesting me, if possible, to be personally present when a 
  matter of so much importance was under consideration; but if I 
  could not attend he begged me at least to signify my opinion in 
  writing. The clerks detailed to me all the circumstances, which 
  indeed I had heard before from other persons; and, as I was 
  prevented by urgent business from being present at the synod, I 
  made up for my absence by giving them the benefit of my advice in 
  a letter. The bishop and synod, yielding to it, ordered the priest to 
  appear before the pope with letters from them, setting forth what 
  had occurred, with the priest's concession, to which instrument the 
  bishops and abbots who were present at the synod affixed their 
  seals." 
   
   " In our own time we have seen persons who, by magical arts, 
  turned any substance about them into fat pigs, as they appeared 
  (but they were always red), and sold them in the markets. 
  However, they disappeared as soon as they crossed any water, 
  returning to their real nature; and with whatever care they were 
  kept, their assumed form did not last beyond three days. It has also 
  been a frequent complaint, from old times as well as in the present, 
  tha certain hags in Wales, as well as in Ireland and Scotland 
  changed themselves into the shape of hares, that, sucking teats 
  under this counterfeit form, they might stealthily rob other people's 
  milk." 
   
  In Anglo - Norman times sorcery was widely practised but notices 
  are scarce. It is only by fugitive passages in the works of English 
  writers who constantly rail against the superstitious nature and 
  practices of the Irish that we glean any information concerning the 
  occult history of the country. The great cause celebre of the Lady 
  Alice Kyteler shook the entire Anglo - Norman colony during 
  several successive years in the first half of the fourteenth century. 
  The party of the Bishop of Ossory the relentless opponent of the 
  Lady Alice, boasted that by her prosecution they had rid Ireland of 
  a nest of sorcerers, but there is reason to believe that Ireland could 
  have furnished numerous similar instances of black magic had the 
  actors in them been of similar rank to the ill - fated lady - that is of 
  sufficient importance in the eyes of chroniclers. 
   
  
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  In this connection a work on Irish Witchcraft and Demonology by 
  Mr. St. John D. Seymour (1913), is of striking and pregnant 
  interest. We do not gather from it that Mr. Seymour had any 
  previous general knowledge of the subject he handles before 
  writing this book, and he appears to take it for granted that 
  witchcraft in Ireland is purely an alien system, imported into the 
  island by the Anglo-Normans and Scottish immigrants to the north. 
  This undoubtedly is the case so far as the districts of the Pale and 
  of Ulster are concerned, but surely it cannot be applied to the 
  Celtic districts of Ireland. Regarding these Mr. Seymour is silent, 
  but it will occur to most readers that the analogy of Celtic Scotland, 
  which abounded in witches and witch - customs, is powerful 
  evidence that a system similar to that in vogue in the Highlands 
  obtained in the aboriginal districts of Ireland. Early Irish works 
  contain numerous references to sorcery, and practices are 
  chronicled in them which bear a close resemblance to those of the 
  shamans and medicine - men of savage tribes all over the world. 
  Animal transformation, one of the most common feats of the witch, 
  is alluded to again and again in the ancient Irish cycles, and there 
  are few heroes in Hibernian legend who have not a fair stock of 
  working magic at their finger - ends. Wonder - working druids, too, 
  abound. Mr. Seymour will have it that " In Celtic Ireland dealings 
  with the unseen were not regarded with such abhorrence, and 
  indeed had the sanction of custom and antiquity." He also states 
  that " the Celtic element had its own superstitious beliefs, but 
  these never developed in this direction (the direction of 
  Witchcraft). This is very difficult to believe. The lack of records of 
  such a system is no criterion that it never existed, and we have not 
  the least hesitation in saying that a thorough examination of the 
  subject would prove that a veritable system of witchcraft obtained 
  in Celtic Ireland as elsewhere, altho -, igh it may not have been of 
  " Celtic " origin. 
   
  Be that as it may, Mr. Seymour's book is most interesting as 
  dealing with those Anglo - Norman and Scottish portions of Ireland 
  where the belief in witchcraft followed the lines of those in vogue 
  in the mother - countries of the immigrant populations. He 
  sketches the cause celebre of the Kyteler case touches on the 
  circumstances con nected with the Earl of Ormond and notes the 
  case of the Irish prophetess who insisted upon warning the ill - fate 
  James of Scotland on the night of his assassination at Perth. It is 
  not stated by the ancient chronicler, quote by Mr. Seymour, from 
  what part of Ireland the witch in question emanated - for a witch 
  she undoubtedly was as she possessed a familiar spirit, Huthart, 
  whom she alleged had made her cognisant of the coming 
  catastrophe Mr. Seymour does not seem to be aware of the history o 
  this spirit. He is the Teutonic Hudekin or Hildekin the wearer of 
  the hood, sometimes also alluded to a Heckdekin, well known 
  throughout Germany and Flander as a species of house - spirit or 
  brownie. Trithernius allude to him as a " spirit known to the 
  Saxons who attached himself to the Bishop of Hildesheim " and we 
  find him cropping up here and there in occult history. From this 
  circumstance it might with justice be inferred that the witch in 
  question came from some part of Ireland which had been settled by 
  Teutonic immigrants, and more probably from Ulster, but the data 
  is insufficient to permit us to conclude this definitely. 
   
  From the most scanty materials, Mr. Seymour has com piled a book 
  of outstanding interest. He passes in review the witchcraft trials of 
  the XVI. century, the burning of dam Dubh, of the Leinster trial of 
  O'Toole and College Green in 1327 for heresy, and the passing of 
  the statute against witchcraft in Ireland in 1586. The prevalence of 
  witchcraft in Ireland during the sixteenth century is proved by him 
  to have been very great indeed, but a number of the authorities he 
  cites, as to the existence of sorcerers in the Green Isle, almost 
  certainly refer to the more Celtic portions of it; for example Rich 
  and Stanihurst. He has an excellent note upon the enchantments of 
  the Earl of Desmond who demonstrated to his young and beautiful 
  wife the possibilities of animal transformation by changing himself 
  into a bird, a hag, a vulture, and a gigantic serpent. Human 
  relations with the Devil are dwelt upon at length by Mr. Seymour in 
  a racy chapter, and we are told how he was cheated by a doctor of 
  divinity and raised on occasion by certain sorcerers. Florence 
  Newton, the witch of Youghal claims an entire chapter to herself, 
  and worthily, for her case is one of the most absorbing in the 
  history of witchcraft. At any rate, whatever her occult powers, she 
  splendidly succeeded in setting a whole community by the ears. 
  Ghostly doings and apparitions, fairy possession, and dealings with 
  the 'wee folk' are also included in the volume; and Mr. Seymour 
  has not confined himself to Ireland, but has followed one of his 
  countrywomen to America, where he shows how she gave congenial 
  employment to the fanatic Cotton Mather. Witchcraft notices of the 
  seventeenth century in Antrim and Island Magee comprise the 
  eighth chapter; and the ninth and last bring down the affairs of 
  sorcery in Ireland from the year 1807 to the present day. The last 
  notice is that of a trial for murder in 1911, when a wretched 
  woman was tried for killing another - an old - age pensioner - in a 
  fit of insanity. A witness deposed that he met the accused on the 
  road on the morning of the crime holding a statue or figure in her 
  hand, and repeating three times " I have the old witch killed. I got 
  power from the Blessed Virgin to kill her." It appears that the witch 
  quoted in question threatened to plague the murderess with rats 
  and mice; a single rodent had evidently penetrated to her abode, 
  and was followed by the bright vision of a lady who told the 
  accused that she was in danger, and further informed her that if 
  she received the old pensioner's pension - book without taking off 
  her clothes and cleaning them and putting out her bed and 
  cleaning up the house, she would - receive dirt for ever and rats 
  and mice." This is not an isolated case, and shows how hard such 
  superstitions die in the more remote portions of civilised countries. 
   
  We have reviewed Mr. Seymour's book at some length because it 
  represents practically all that exists on the subject in question. But 
  it would be interesting to see him further his researches by an 
  examination into such oi the native Irish records as exist. Such a 
  course would most probably result in the rescue of a considerable 
  amount of detail which would enable him to complete the occult 
  history of his country. 
   
  Jeanne, D'Are: Jeanne d'Arc was born in the village of  Domr6my, 
  near Vaucouleurs, on the border of Champagne   and Lorraine, on 
  Jan. 6th, 1411. She was taught to spin   and sew, but not to read or 
  write, these accomplishments   being unusual and unnecessary to 
  people in her station of   life. Her parents were devout, and she 
  was brought up   piously. Her nature was gentle, modest, and 
  religious;   but with no physical weakness or morbidity; on the 
  contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later history   shows.  
   
  At or about the age of thirteen, Jeanne began to experience what 
  psychology now calls " auditory hallucinations." In other words, 
  she heard " voices - - usually accompanied by a bright light - when 
  no visible person  - was present. This, of course, is a common 
  symptom of impending mental disorder; but no insanity developed 
  in Jeanne. Startled she naturally was at first, but continuation led 
  to familiarity and trust. The voices gave good counsel of a very 
  commonplace kind, as, for instance, that she " must be a good girl 
  and go often to church." Soon, however, she began to have visions; 
  saw St. Michael, St. Catharine, and St. Margaret; was given 
  
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  instructions as to her mission; eventually made her way to the 
  Dauphin, put herself at the head of 6, 000 men, and advanced to 
  the relief of Orleans, which was surrounded by the victorious 
  English. After a fortnight of hard fighting, the siege was raised, and 
  the enemy driven off. The tide of war had turned, and in three 
  months the Dauphin was crowned king at Rheims as Charles the 
  Seventh. 
   
  At this point, Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished. But 
  her wish to return to her family was over ruled by king and 
  archbishop, and she took part in the further fighting against the 
  allied English and Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and 
  tactical skill. But in November, 1430, in a desperate sally from 
  Compi6gnewhich was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy - she fell 
  into the enemy's hands, was sold to the English, and thrown into a 
  dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen. 
   
  After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial before the 
  Bishop of Beauvais, in an ecclesiastical court. The charges were 
  heresy and sorcery. Learned doctors of the Church, subtle lawyers, 
  did their best to entangle the simple girl in their dialectical toils; 
  but she showed a remarkable power of keeping to her affirmations 
  and of avoiding herectical statements. " God has always been my 
  Lord in all that I have done, " she said. But the trial was only 
  pretence, for her fate was already decided. She was condemned to 
  the stake. To the end, she solemnly affirmed the reality of her " 
  voices, " and the truth of her depositions. Her last word, as the 
  smoke and flame rolled round her, was " Jesus." Said an English 
  soldier, awestruck by the manner of her passing: " We are lost; we 
  have burned a Saint." The idea was corroborated in popular 
  opinion by events which followed, for speedy death - as if by 
  Heaven's anger - overtook her judges and accusers. Inspired by her 
  example and claims, and helped by dissension and weakening on 
  the side of the enemy, the French took heart once more;' and the 
  English were all -, but swept out of the country. 
   
  Jeanne's family was rewarded by enoblement, under the name of 
  Do Lys. Twenty - five years after her death, the Pope acceded to a 
  petition that the process by which she was condemned should be re 
  - examined. The result was that the judgment was reversed, and 
  her innocence established and proclaimed. 
   
  The life of the Maid supplies a problem which orthodox science 
  cannot solve. She was a simple peasant girl, with no ambitious 
  hankering after a career. She rebelled pathetically against her 
  mission. " I had far rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for 
  this is no work of my choosing, but I must p and do it, for my Lord 
  wills it." She cannot be dismissed on the " simple idiot " theory of 
  Voltaire, for her genius in war and her aptitude in repartee 
  undoubtedly prove exceptional mental powers, unschooled though 
  she was in what we call education. We cannot call her a mere 
  hysteric, for her health and strength were superb. It is on record 
  that a man of science said to an Abbe:" Come to the Salpetriere 
  Hospital, and I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the 
  Abbe responded: " Has one of them given us back Alsace and 
  Lorraine ? " The retort was certainly neat. Still, though the 
  Salpetriere hysterics have not won back Alsace and Lorraine, it is 
  nevertheless true that many great movements have sprung from 
  fraud or hallucination. May it not have been so with Jeanne ? She 
  delivered France, and her importance in history is great; but may 
  not her mission and her doings have been the outcome of merely 
  subjective hallucinations, induced by the brooding of her specially 
  religious and try? The army, patriotic mind on the woes of her 
  country being ignorant and superstitious, would readily believe in 
  the supernatural nature of her mission, and great energy and valour 
  would result - for a man fights well when he feels that Providence 
  is on his side. 
   
  This is the most usual kind of theory in explanation of the facts. 
  But it is not fully satisfactory. How came it - one may ask - that 
  this untutored peasant girl could persuade not only the rude 
  soldiery, but also the Dauphin and the Court, of her Divine 
  appointment ? How came she to be given the command of an army 
  ? Surely a post of such responsibility and power would not be given 
  to an ignorant girl of eighteen, on the mere strength of her own 
  claim to inspiration. It seems, at least, very improbable. 
   
  Now it so happens (though the materialistic school of historians 
  conveniently ignore or belittle it) that there is  strong evidence in 
  support of the idea that Jeanne gave  the Dauphin some proof of 
  the possession of supernormal  faculties. In fact, the evidence is so 
  strong that Mr.  Andrew Lang called it " unimpeachable " - and Mr. 
  Lang  did not usually err on the side of credulity in these matters.  
  Among other curious things, Jeanne seems to have repeated  to 
  Charles the words of a prayer which he had made men  tally - and 
  she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a sword 
  hidden behind the altar of Fierbois  church. Schiller's magnificent 
  dramatic poem - " Die  Jungfrau von Orleans - - though 
  unhistorical in some  details, is substantially accurate on these 
  points concerning  clairvoyance and mind - reading. I 
   
  The best books on the Maid are those of Mr. Anatole France (two 
  vols.), and Mr. Andrew Lang, giving respectively the sceptical and 
  the believing side as to the explanation of her experiences. There 
  is also a very useful little book by Miss C. M. Antony, with preface 
  by Father R. H. Benson. 
   
  Jinn: Singular Jinnee, plural Jineeyeh, Arabian spirits, perhaps 
  animistic, but more probably strictly mythological like the Persian 
  divs (q.v.). The jinn were created out of fire, and occupied the 
  earth for several thousand years before Adam; they were perverse, 
  and would not reform, although prophets were sent to reclaim 
  them; they were eventually driven from the earth, and took refuge 
  in the outlying islands of the sea. One of the number named 
  Azazeel (afterwards called Iblees) had been carried off as a 
  prisoner by the angels; he grew up amongst them, and became 
  their chief, but having refused, when commanded, to prostrate 
  himself before Adam, he was degraded to the condition of a 
  sheyt5.n, and becomes the father of the shey-tans, or devils. The 
  jinn are not immortal, but destined ultimately to die: they eat and 
  drink and propagate their species; they live in communities, and 
  are ruled over by princes: they can make themselves visible or 
  invisible, and assume the forms of various animals, such as 
  serpents, cats and dogs. There are good jinn and bad jinns. They 
  frequent baths, wells, latrines, ovens, ruined houses, rivers, cross 
  roads and market places. Finally, like the demons of the Rabbins, 
  they ascend to heaven and learn the future by eavesdropping. But 
  with all their power and knowledge, they are liable to be reduced 
  to obedience by means of talismans or magic arts, and become 
  obsequious servants until the spell is broken. 
   
  It is far from clear or certain, that the jinn of the east were 
  borrowed from the mythology or philosophy of the west, and the 
  practice of translating the Arabic word jinn by the Latin term 
  "genius" arose more from an apparent resemblance in the names, 
  than from any identity in the nature and functions of those 
  
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  imaginary beings. This similarity of name, however, must have 
  been purely accidental, for the Arabs knew little or nothing of the 
  Latin language, and not a single term derived immediately from it; 
  demon, therefore,  - and not genius was the word which they would 
  have used if they had borrowed this part of their creed from the 
  west. jinn appears, moreover, to be a genuine Arabic word, derived 
  from a root signifying " to veil " or " conceal -; it, therefore, means 
  properly, " that which is veiled and cannot be seen." " In one 
  sense, ' says Fruzh Utdi, author of the Gedmus, " the word jinn 
  signifies any spiritual being concealed from all our senses, and, for 
  that reason, the converse of a material being. Taken in this 
  extensive sense, the word jinn comprehends devils as well as 
  angels, but there are some properties common to both angels and 
  jinn; some peculiar to each. Every angel is a jinn, but every jinn is 
  not an angel. In another sense, this term is applied peculiarly to a 
  particular kind of spiritual beings; for such beings are of three 
  kinds; the good, which are angels; the bad, devils; and the 
  intermediate, comprehending both good and bad, who form the 
  class of jinn." Thus the Arabs acknowledge good and bad genii, in 
  that respect agreeing with the Greeks, but differing from the 
  Persians. The genii, so long familiarized to European readers by 
  the Arabian Nights, were not the same beings, mentioned by the 
  Arabian lexicographer, but the Divs and Devatiis of Indian 
  romance, dressed up in a foreign attire, to please the taste of 
  readers in Persia and Arabia. 
   
  The principal differences, therefore, between the genii of the west 
  and the jivn of the east, seem to have been these; the genii were 
  deities of an inferior rank, the constant companions and guardians 
  of men, capable of giving useful or prophetic impulses, acting as a 
  species of mediators and messengers between the gods and men. 
  Some were supposed to be friendly, others hostile, and many 
  believed one of each kind to be attached, from his birth, to every 
  mortal. The former was called Agathodminon, the latter 
  Cacodmmon; and one of the latter who appeared to Cassius is 
  represented as a man of vast stature and of a black hue, whence, 
  no doubt, that colour has been given, in latter times, to the devil. 
  The good genius prompted men to good, the evil to bad actions. 
  That of each individual was as a shadow of himself. Often he was 
  represented as a serpent; his age also varied; he was generally 
  crowned with a chaplet of plane leaves. In coins of Trajan and 
  Hadrian the genius places a patera with his right hand on an altar, 
  and holds a sort of scourge in his left. his sacrifices were wholly 
  bloodless, consisting of wine and flowers, and the person who 
  performed the oblation was the first to taste the cup. They were 
  adored with prostrations, particularly on the birthday, which was 
  placed under their especial care. 
   
  The Roman men swore by their Genius, the women b their Juno. 
  The genius of the reigning Prince was an oath of extraordinary 
  solemnity. There were local as we as individual genii, concerning 
  whom many particulars ma be found in " Vossius, " de Idol. 
   
  The jinn, on the contrary, who seem to be the line descendants of 
  the Devatiis and Rakshasas of the Hind mythology, were never 
  worshipped by the Arabs, nor considered as anything more than 
  the agents of the Deity Since the establishment of 
  Mohammedanism indeed, the have been described as invisible 
  spirits, and their feat and deformities which figure in romance are 
  as little believed by Asiatics, as the tales of "Arthur's Round 
  Table" are by ourselves. Their existence as superhuman beings is 
  maintained by the Mussulman doctors, but that has little 
  connection with their character and functions a delineated by 
  poets. 
   
   Ka: The Egyptian conception of one of the seven parts of man; a 
  spiritual double or astral body. Not only did mankind possess a 
  Ka, but animals and inanimate objects as well. Every mortal 
  received a Ka at birth. When he died his Ka left him, but was 
  supposed to hover near the body and occasionally to reanimate it. 
  For this purpose statues were placed near the mummy in which the 
  Ka might find a temporary shelter. The Ka was provided with food 
  by the friends of the deceased who left provisions in the tomb for 
  its use. (See Egypt and Vampire.) 
   
  Kabala, The: A Hebrew and Jewish system of theosophy. The word 
  signifies "doctrines received from tradition." In ancient Hebrew 
  literature the name was used to denote the entire body of religious 
  writings, the Pentateuch excepted. It is only in the early middle 
  ages that the system of theosophy known as Kabalism was 
  designated by that name. We will first consider the Kabala as a 
  literary production before proceeding to examine it in the light of a 
  hand - book of Hebrew occultism. The main sources which went to 
  the making, of the Kabala are the Se - pherYesirah or Book of 
  Creation, which is a combination of mediaeval mysticism and 
  science. The date of origin of this work has been matter of great 
  argument, but it is perhaps safest to say that it seems to be earlier 
  than the ninth century A.D. The Bahi or brilliant is first quoted by 
  Nahmanides, and is usually attributed to his teacher, Ezra. It owes 
  much to the Sepher Yesirah, and to a great extent foreshadows the 
  Zohar, which is a commentary on the Pentateuch, including eleven 
  dissertations on that book, the most important of which are the 
  Book of Secrets, the Secret of Secrets, the Mysteries of the 
  Pentateuch, and the Hidden Interpretation.  
   
  It pretends to the authorship of Simon ben Yohai in the second 
  century, and it is alleged that he drew his sources from traditional 
  dialogues between God and Adam in Paradise. It is further stated 
  that it was discovered in a cavern in Galilee where it had been 
  hidden for one thousand years.  
   
  While it has been proved almost beyond doubt, however, that it 
  was written in the thirteenth century, and the capture of Jerusalem 
  by the Crusaders is alluded to, the source may well be the 
  document described. It is also believed that Moses de Leon, who 
  died in, and who circulated and sold the Zohar, was himself its 
  author, however he likely stands only as an editor. At the same 
  time there is no doubt that it enshrines a large number of very 
  ancient and important Hebrew traditions. The matter contained in 
  the Kabala deals with the nature of God, the sephiroth or divine 
  emanations, of angels and of man. God, known in the Kabala as 
  Ein Soph, fills and contains the universe. As he is boundless, mind 
  cannot conceive him, so in a certain mystical sense he is non - 
  existent. The doctrine of the sephiroth is undoubtedly the most 
  important to be met with in the'pages of the Kabala. To justify his 
  existence the Deity had to become active and creative, and this he 
  achieved through the medium of the ten sephiroth or intelligences 
  which emanated from him like rays proceeding from a luminary. 
  The first sephiroth or emanation was the wish to become manifest, 
  and this contained nine other intelligences or sephiroth, which 
  again emanate one from the other - the second from the first, the 
  third from the second, and so forth. These are known as the Crown, 
  Wisdom, Intelligence, Love, justice, Beauty, Firmness, Splendour, 
  Foundation and Kingdom. From the junction of pairs of sephiroth, 
  other emanations were formed: thus from Wisdom and 
  Intelligence. proceeded Love or Mercy and from Mercy and justice, 
  Beauty. The sephiroth are also symbolical of primordial man and 
  the heavenly man, of which earthly man is the shadow. They form 
  
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  three triads which respectively represent intellectual, moral, and 
  physical qualities: the first, Wisdom, Intelligence and Crown; the 
  second Love, justice and Beauty; the third Firmness, Splendour 
  and Foundation. The whole is circled or bound by Kingdom, the 
  ninth sephiroth. Each of these triads symbolises a portion of the 
  human frame: the first the head; the second the arms; the third the 
  legs. It must be understood that though 'those sephiroth are 
  emanations from God they remain a portion, and simply represent 
  different aspects of the One Being. 
   
  Kabalistic cosmology posits four different worlds, each of which 
  forms a sephiric system of a decade of emanations, which were 
  verified in the following manner: the world of emanations or the 
  heavenly man, a direct emanation from the Ein Soph. From it is 
  produced the world of creation, ~or the Briatic world of pure 
  nature, but yet not so spiritual as the first. The angel Metatron 
  inhabits it and constitutes the world of pure spirit. He governs the 
  visible world and guides the revolutions of the planets. From this is 
  formed the world of formation or the Yetziratir world, still less 
  refined, which is the abode of angels. Finally from these  - 
  emanates the world of action or matter, the dwelling of, evil spirits, 
  which contains ten hells, each becoming lower until the depths of 
  diabolical degradation is reached. The prince of this region is 
  Samael, the evil spirit, the serpent of Genesis, otherwise " the 
  Beast." But the universe was incomplete without the creation of 
  man; the heavenly Adam, that is the tenth sephiroth, created the 
  earthly Adam, each member of whose body corresponds to a part of 
  the visible universe. The human form, we are told, is shaped after 
  the four letters Which constitute the Jewish tetragrammation, 
  Jhava or Y H W H, thus, the letters YHWH . The souls of the 
  whole human race pre - exist in the world of emanations, and are 
  all destined to inhabit human bodies. Like the sephiroth from 
  which it emanates, every soul has ten potentees, consisting of a 
  trinity of triads - spirit, soul, cruder soul or neptesh. Each soul, 
  before its entrance into the world consists of male and female 
  united into one being, but when it descends to this earth, the two 
  parts are separated and animate different bodies. The destiny of 
  the soul upon earth is to develop the perfect germs implanted in it, 
  which must ultimately return to Ein Soph. If it does not succeed in 
  acquiring the experience for which it has been sent to earth, it 
  must re - inhabit the body three tiMe3 till it becomes duly 
  purified. When all the souls in the world of the saphirolh shall 
  have passed through this period of probation and returned to the 
  bosom of Ein Soph, the jubilee will commence; even Satan will be 
  restored to his angelic nature, and existence will be a Sabbath 
  without end. The Kabala states that these esoteric doctrines are 
  contained in the Hebrew scriptures, but cannot be perceived by 
  the uninitiated; they are, however, plainly revealed to persons of 
  spiritual mind. 
   
  Next considering the Kabala as occult literature, we find it stated 
  that the philosophical doctrines developed in its pages are found to 
  have been perpetuated by the secret method of oral tradition from 
  the first ages of humanity., The Kabala, " says Dr. Ginsburg, when 
  explaining the story of its birth, " was first taught by God Himself 
  to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in 
  Paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously communicated 
  this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to furnish 
  the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility 
  and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to 
  Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where 
  the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze 
  out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge 
  of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their 
  philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom 
  of Egypt, was first initiated into the Kabala in the land of his birth, 
  but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the 
  wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the 
  whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. 
  By the aid of this mysterious science the lawgiver was enabled to 
  solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the 
  Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries 
  of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret 
  doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld 
  them from Deuteronomy. Moses also initiated the seventy Elders 
  into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them 
  from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of 
  tradition, David and Solomon were the most deeply initiated into 
  the Kabala. No one, however, dared to write it down till Schimeon 
  ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second. 
  After his death, his son, Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary, Rabbi 
  Abba, as well as his disciples, collated Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai's 
  treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Z 
  H R, Zohay, Splendour, which is the grand storehouse of 
  Kabalism." 
   
  The history of Kabalistic origins, however, is as has been shown 
  almost wholly fabulous, and no evidence worthy of the name can 
  be adduced in its support. The mysticism of the Mishna and the 
  Talmud must be carefully distinguished from that of the Kabalistic 
  writings, as they are undoubtedly of very considerable antiquity.  
  Certainly there must be some element in the concept that a certain 
  core of mystical knowledge was passed down through the ancient 
  Egyptians to Solomon, and thence to the modern world, and an 
  echo of this myth is seen in Freemasonry.  But the system must be 
  considered to be one which has grown and been added to over 
  centuries.  
   
  The Kabala has certain claims upon the modern student of 
  mysticism. Its philosophical value is not depreciated by its modern 
  origin, and it is regarded by many as an absolute guide to 
  knowledge in all the most profound problems of existence. Its 
  thesis is extensive and profound, but examination unfortunately 
  proves it to be merely a series of dogmatic hypotheses, a body of 
  positive doctrine based on a central assumption which is incapable 
  of proof. This tradition, says Eliphas Levi, wholly reposes on the 
  single dogma of magic, that the Visible is for us a proportional 
  measure of the Invisible. In fact it proceeds by analogy from the 
  known to the unknown. At the same time, it is a most interesting 
  effort of the human mind. 
   
  Medieval magic was deeply indebted to Kabalistic combinations of 
  the divine names for the terms of its rituals, and from it it derived 
  the belief in a resident virtue in sacred names and numbers. 
  Certain definite rules are employed to discover the sublime source 
  of power resident in the Jewish scriptures. Thus the words of 
  several verses in the scriptures which are regarded as containing 
  an occult sense, are placed over each other, and the letters are 
  formed into new words by reading them vertically; or the words of 
  the text are arranged in squares in such a manner as to be read 
  vertically or otherwise. Words are joined together and re - divided, 
  and the initial and final letters of certain words are formed into 
  separate words. Again, every letter of the word is reduced to its 
  numerical value, and the word is explained by another of the same 
  quantity. Every letter of a word too is taken to be an initial of an 
  abbreviation of it. The twenty - two letters of the alphabet are 
  
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  divided into two halves, one half is placed above the other, and the 
  two letters which thus become associated are interchanged. This a 
  becomes 1, b, m, and so on. This cipher alphabet is called albm 
  from the first interchanged pairs. The commutation of the twenty - 
  two letters is effected by the last letter of the alphabet taking the 
  place of the first, the last but one the place of the second and so 
  forth. This cipher is called albah. These permutations and 
  combinations are much older than the Kabala, and obtained 
  amongst Jewish occultists from time immemorial. 
   
  Lastly, it should be pointed out that the Kabala has been 
  condemned nowhere more strongly than among the Jews 
  themselves. Jewish orthodoxy has always been suspicious of it, and 
  as k1r. A. E. Waite has well said; The -  best lesson we can learn 
  from it is the necessity of scrupulously separating the experimental 
  knowledge of the mysteries from their bizarre fields of 
  speculation." 
   
  Kai: The seneschal of King Arthur, known in the French romances 
  as Messire Queux, or Maitre Queux or Kuex. He is prominent in 
  the Morte d'Arthur.  This shows the clear Welsh origins and 
  linkage of much of the Aurthurian cycle, as Kai emanates from the 
  Mabinogion. In the tale of I - Cilhwuh and Olwen in the 
  Mabinogion, he is identified with a personage whose " breath 
  lasted nine nights and days under water " and who " could exist 
  nine nights and nine days without sleep." A wound from his sword 
  could not be cured; he could make himself as tall as the highest 
  tree, and so great was the heat of his nature that, during rain, 
  whatever he carried remained dry. Originally a deity, a rain - and - 
  thunder god, he had apparently degenerated, through a series of 
  mythological processes, into a mere hero. 
   
  Kale-Thaungto was said to be a town of wizards in lower Burma. 
   
  Kalki: The final Avatar of  Lord Vishnu, the Hindu God, will 
  incarnate himself as Kalki, the machine-man, who will come riding 
  his white horse and with his blazing sword in his hands. This is 
  supposed to be a future avatar of Lord Vishnu. At the end of Kali 
  Yuga (present eon) He will punish all evil doers in this world, 
  destroy this world and recreate the universe in a golden age. 
   
  Kostchtchie, or "Deathless" : A Russian or Romanian  goblin of the 
  bogle-boe species. This horrid monster is described aas having a 
  death's head and fleshless skeleton, "through which is seen the 
  black blood flowing and the yellow heart beating." He is armed 
  with an iron club, with which he knocks down all who come in his 
  path. In spite of his ugliness, he is said to be a great admirer of 
  young girls and women. He is avaricious, hates old and young 
  alike, and particularly those who are fortunate. His dwelling is said 
  to be amongst the mountains of the Koskels and the Caucasus, 
  where his treasure is concealed. 
   
  Kapila: believed by the Hindus to be the god Vishnu, son of 
  Brahman, in the fifth of his twenty - four incarnations. He wrote a 
  series of philosophical propositions known as the Sittras, in which 
  he states it is by philosophical study alone that one may attain 
  union with the deity. 
   
   Key of Solomon the King: A magical treatise of mediaeval origin, 
  of which a number of manuscripts are extant. It is supposed to be 
  the work of King Solomon (q.v.), but is manifestly of comparatively 
  modern origin, and was probably written in the fourteenth or 
  fifteenth century. It is permeated with late Jewish ideas, and its 
  chief intention appears to be the finding of treasure, and the 
  making of such experiments as have for their object the 
  interference with the free hill of others. The power of the Divine 
  Name is much in evidence, and the entire work is an absurd 
  combination of pomposity and nonsense. 
   
  The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, is much more 
  noteworthy. Its earliest examples date from the seventeenth 
  century, but may draw on very legitimate older sources, and it 
  invokes the hierarchies of the abyss by legions and millions. It is 
  divided into four parts, which control the offices of all spirits at the 
  will of the operator. The first part, Goetia, contains forms of 
  conjuration for seventy - two demons with an account of their 
  powers and offices. The second part, Theurgia Goetia, deals with 
  the spirits of the cardinal points, who are of mixed nature. The 
  third book is called the Pauline Art the significance of which name 
  is unaccountable. It deals with the angels of the hours of the day 
  and night, and of the signs of the Zodiac. The fourth part is entitled 
  Almadel, which enumerates four other choirs of spirits. The usual 
  homilies regarding purity of life are insisted upon, as is the 
  circumstance that none of the conjurations shall be applied to the 
  injury of another. 
   
  Khalb: The Egyptian name for the shadow, which at death was 
  supposed to quit the body to continue a separate existence of its 
  own. It was represented under the form of a sunshade. 
   
  Lady of Lawers: One of the Breadalbane family, of Scottish origin, 
  and married to Campbell of Lawers. This gentlewoman was 
  believed to be gifted with prophetic powers, and her prophecies are 
  said to be written in a book shaped like a barrel and kept in the 
  charter room of Taymouth Castle: it is named " The Red Book of 
  Balloch."  
   
  Laburum: is a kabbalistic sign, embodied in the Great Magical 
  Monogram which is the seventh and most important pantacle of the 
  Enchiridion. 
      
  Lamb: Dy. Lamb was a noted sorcerer in the time of Charles the 
  First. The famous Richard Baxter, in his Certainty of the World of 
  Spirits, printed in the 1690s, has recorded an appropriate instance 
  of the miraculous performance of this man. Meeting two of his 
  acquaintance in the street, and they having intimated a desire to 
  witness some examples of his skill, he invited them home with 
  him. He then conducted them into an inner room, where presently, 
  to their no small surprise, they saw a tree spring up in the middle 
  of the apartment. They had scarcely ceased wondering at this 
  phenomenon, when in a moment there appeared three diminutive 
  men, with little axes in their hands for the purpose of cutting down 
  this tree. The tree was felled; and the doctor dismissed his guests, 
  fully satisfied of the solidity of his pretensions. That very night, 
  however, a tremendous hurricane arose, causing the house of one 
  of the guests to rock from side to side, with every appearance that 
  the building would come down, and bury him and his wife in the 
  ruins. The wife in great terror asked " Were you not at Dr. Lamb's 
  to - day ? " The husband confessed it was true. " And did you not 
  bring something away from his house ? " The husband owned that, 
  when the little men felled the tree, he had picked up some of the 
  chips, and put them in his pocket. Nothing now remained to be 
  done but to produce the chips, and get rid of them as fast as they 
  could. This ceremony performed, the whirlwind immediately 
  ceased, and the remainder of the night passed quietly. 
   
  Dy. Lamb at length became so odious by his reputation for these 
  infernal practices, that the populace rose upon him in 1640, and 
  
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  tore him to pieces in the streets.. Nordid the effects of his ill - fame 
  terminate here. Thirteen years after, a woman, who had been his 
  servant maid, was apprehended on a charge of witchcraft, was 
  tried, and in expiation of her crime was executed at Tyburn. 
   
  Lamps, Magic: There dwelt at Paris in the time of St. Louis, a 
  famous jewish Rabbi called Jachiel, a great manufacturer of 
  prodigies, who was regarded by the Jews as one of their saints, and 
  by the Parisians as a sorcerer. During the night when everyone was 
  asleep, he was wont to work by the light of a magic lamp which 
  cast through his chamber a glorious that of day itself. He never 
  replenished this lamp with oil, nor otherwise attended to it, and 
  folks began to hint that he had acquired it through diabolic 
  agencies. If anyone chanced to knock at his door during the night 
  they noticed that the lamp threw out sparks of light of various 
  colours, but if they continued to rap the lamp failed and the Rabbi 
  turning from his work touched a large nail in the middle of his 
  table which connected magically with the knocker on the street - 
  door, giving to the person who rapped upon it something of the 
  nature of an electric shock.   The Rabbi also fashioned a menorah 
  after the fashion of the Jews which was of a most miraculous 
  nature.  It required tallow candles like any other candelabra, but 
  once lit, this “Lamp of the Maccabees” could not be extinguished 
  by accident, nor would any light or other such device about it fail. 
   
  Lamps of this description were supposed to be known to the 
  Rosicrucians, and it is said that in opening the tomb of a daughter 
  of Cicero several lamps were found burning upon it. It is of course 
  possible that the light from these was luminous or phosphorescent 
  and not living flame. The magic lamp of Aladdin will occur to 
  everyone. in this connection; and romance abounds in such 
  vehicles of light 
   
  Lapis Exilis - the stone from which the Graal is said to be made. It 
  is this stone which causes the phoenix to renew her youth. Lapis 
  Exilis, according to Wolfram von Esclienbach, was synonymous 
  with the Holy Grail. 
   
  Lapis Judaicus : Also identified with the Graal and the Talismanic 
  stone of inexhaustible feeding power. It is sometimes called 
  Theolithos, and seems but another name for the Lapis Exilis (q.v.) 
  It has been confounded with the Phoenix stone. Another legend 
  clings to it: it is said to have fallen from the crown of Lucifer, as he 
  was banished from heaven, and remains in the keeping of the 
  angels of the air. 
   
   Lascaris: (Alchemist of the Eighteenth Century.) It is impossible 
  to determine the date at which this mysterious personage was born, 
  or -  to say, exactly, whence he came and where he chiefly lived. 
  He is commonly supposed to have been active about the beginning 
  of the eighteenth century, while Germany is held to have been the 
  principal scene of his activities; but everything recorded 
  concerning him reads like a romance, and suggests the middle 
  ages rather than the day before yesterday. Sometimes he assured 
  people that he was of Oriental origin, sometimes he maintained 
  that his native land was the Ionian Isles, and that he was a scion of 
  the Greek royal house of Lascaris; while on other occasions he 
  declared that he was an archimandrite of a convent in the Island of 
  Mytilene, and that his object in coming to Europe was to solicit 
  alms for, the ransom of Christian prisoners in the East. Such was 
  his tale when, about 1700, he commenced wandering in Germany, 
  and, while sojourning at - Berlin, he happened to fall ill and sent 
  for medical aid. This appeared shortly in the shape of a young 
  apothecary, Johann Friedrich Betticher by name, who chanced to 
  be deeply interested in alchemy, so a friendship sprang up 
  between physician and patient and ere Lascaris left the Prussian 
  capital he gave Betticher a packet of transmuting powder, at the 
  same time instructing him how to use it successfully, yet refraining 
  from telling him how to manufacture the powder itself. Nothing 
  daunted, Betticher set to work speedily, concocted considerable 
  quantities of gold and silver, grew rich, and was raised to the 
  peerage; while simultaneously he began to find his society, and 
  more especially his services as a scientist, courted by kings and 
  nobles. Meanwhile, however, his supply of the precious powder 
  had run short, and being unable to make more he found his 
  reputation waning apace; while worse still, he had spent his newly 
  - acquired wealth speedily, and now he found himself reduced to 
  penury. Ultimately he was incarcerated, but during his period of 
  durance vile he set himself to the manufacture of porcelain, and by 
  the sale of this he eventually restored his fallen fortunes. 
   
  We presume naturally that it was gratitude to his physician which 
  inspired the crafty alchemist to give  Betticher the powder, but why 
  did Lascaris make an analogous present at a later date ? The 
  recipient on this occasion being one Schmolz de Dierbach, a 
  lieutenant - colonel in the Polish Army. He, like the German 
  apothecary, succeeded in making a quantity of gold, and, though 
  we hear no more about him after this transmutation, we learn that a 
  certain Baron de Creux was likewise favoured by Lascaris, the 
  Baron's experiments proving just as successful as those of the 
  others aforesaid. Nor were these the only people on whom our 
  alchemist bestowed his indulgence, for one Domenico Manuel, the 
  son of a Neapolitan mason, was likewise given a packet of 
  transmutatory powder, and, armed thus, he wandered through 
  Spain, Belgium, and Austria, performing operations before princes 
  and noblemen, and reaping wealth accordingly. Pride was the 
  inevitable result of this, and though there is no reason to suppose 
  that any patent of nobility was ever conferred on Domenico, we 
  find him styling himself now Comte Gautano, now Comte di 
  Ruggiero; while in one town he maintained that he was a Prussian 
  major - general, and elsewhere he declared that he was field - 
  marshal of the Bavarian forces. Going to Berlin in the course of his 
  perambulations, he offered to make gold in the presence of the 
  king; but alas his operation proved utterly futile, and he was 
  hanged as a charlatan in consequence. This was in 1706 and in the 
  same year, according to tradition, Lascaris himself performed some 
  successful transmutations before a German politician named 
  Liebknech, a citizen of Wurtembourg. Nothing further is heard of 
  the mysterious Greek alchemist, however, so it may be assumed 
  that he died soon after these events. His was a curious career 
  indeed: his generosity having scarcely a parallel in the whole 
  history of hermetic philosophy. 
   
   Le Normand, Marie: Known as " The Sybil of the Faubourg Saint 
  Germain, " was born at Alencon in 1772 and died at Paris in 1843. 
  She was one of the most famous occultists and diviners of her day; 
  but it might justly be said that her art was much more the product 
  of sound judgment than of any supernatural gift. She predicted 
  their futures to Marat, Robespierre, and St. just, but we hear no 
  more of her under the Directory. When Josephine Beauharnais 
  came into prominence as the intended wife of Napoleon, Mlle. Le 
  Normand was received at all those houses and salons where the 
  future empress had any influence. Josephine was extremely 
  credulous, and used to read her own fortunes to herself on the 
  cards; but when she found that Mme. Le Normand was an adept at 
  this art, she often had her in attendance to assist her in it. Even 
  
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  Napoleon himself who was not without his own superstitions, had 
  his horoscope read by her. She soon set up her own salon in Paris 
  where she read people's fortunes by means of the cards. It is not 
  stated whether these cards were of the nature of Tarot cards, but it 
  is more than likely that they were; but we know that she 
  occasionally divined the fortunes of others through playing the 
  games of piquet, sept, and other card games. She did not hide her 
  methods from others, but the Parisian society of her day appears to 
  have thought that her power of divination lay not in the cards she 
  manipulated but in her personality. It has been stated by Migne 
  that she did use the Tarot, but as he calls them " German cards, " 
  one cannot attach much importance to his statement. After the fall 
  of the Emperor she was the rage amongst the Russian, German and 
  English officers in Paris, and even the Emperor Alexander and 
  other potentates consulted her. Shortly after this she went to 
  Brussels, where she read the fortune of the Prince of Orange, but 
  as she tried to cheat the customs she soon found herself the 
  occupant of a Belgian prison. By the year 1830 she had become 
  quite forgotten, and when the newspapers announced her death on 
  June 25th, 1843, the majority of people failed to remember her 
  name. There is very little doubt that she was a harmless charlatan, 
  though several contemporary historians appear to consider that she 
  possessed mischievous tendencies; but the air of omniscience and 
  mystery with which she surrounded herself was so absurd that by 
  the majority of people she was looked upon, probably with justice, 
  as a mere impostor. 
   
  Leannan Sith: Gaelic words meaning " fairy sweetheart " who may 
  be of either sex. Mortals are advised to have nothing to do with 
  such beings, as no good ever comes of the connection so on., as the 
  fairy lover is pleased with his or her mortal, all goes well, but when 
  offended, life may be the forfeit. 
   
  Levi, Eliphas: Alphonse Louis Constant, better known by his pen - 
  name of Eliphas Levi, was a French occultist of the nineteenth 
  century, who has been called " the last of the magi." He was born 
  about 1810, the son of a shoemaker and through the good offices of 
  the parish priest was educated for the church at St. Sulpice. In due 
  course h became a deacon, taking a vow of celibacy. Shortly after 
  this he was expelled from St. Sulpice for teaching doctrines 
  contrary to those of the Church. How he lived during th ensuing 
  years is not known, but about 1839 under the influence of a 
  political and socialistic prophet name Ganneau, he wrote a 
  pamphlet entitled The Gospel Liberty, for which he received six 
  months imprisonment In Paris, notwithstanding his vow of 
  celibacy, he married a beautiful girl of sixteen, who afterwards had 
  the marriage annulled. It was probably not until Madame Constant 
  had left him that he studied the occult sciences. At all events his 
  writings previous to this show little trace occult influence. In 1855 
  he published his Doctrine of  Transcendental Magic, followed in 
  1856 by the Ritual Transcendental Magic, and several other works 
  key to western occultism for the next three quarters of a century.  
  Most of his works have been translated by Mr. A. E. Waite. He 
  died in 1875. 
   
  Levitation: A term in use among spiritualists to denote the raising 
  in the air of the human body or other objects without visible 
  means, and presumably through the agency of disembodied spirits. 
  Thus the levitation of tables and other more or less weighty objects 
  is a common feat among - physical " mediums, whether or not a 
  supernatural explanation be required. The witches of olden times, 
  too, were popularly supposed to make use of some occult mode of 
  locomotion in their nocturnal travels, being transported through the 
  air by the arts of their master, the Devil. And the poltergeist was 
  also thought to suspend in the air, without visible means of 
  support, the agent through whom he manifested himself. As a 
  spiritualistic phenomenon levitation of the human body became 
  known at an early stage of the movement, being recorded in 
  connection with the medium Gordon so early as 1851. But the most 
  important of levitated mediums was D. D. Horne, and many 
  accounts of his feats in this direction are given by witnesses who 
  were themselves convinced of their genuineness. It may be noted, 
  however, that levitations usually occurred in a darkened séance - 
  room, when the only indication ef any untoward happening was 
  furnished by the medium's own exclamations, by the fact that his 
  voice seemed to come from high in the air, and sometimes by his 
  boots scraping the back of a chair or the hand of one of the sitters. 
  The Rev. Stainton Moses, who also was levitated on several 
  occasions, seems to have held his séances in darkness also, or at 
  most by the light of the fire. Mrs. Guppy (nee Nicholls) was before 
  her marriage several times levitated, notwithstanding the fact that 
  she was extremely stout, and a curious story concerning a later 
  levitation is told in a letter in the Echo of June 8th, 1871, for 
  whose (anonymous) author's trustworthiness the editor vouches. 
  About that time the writer attended a circle with Messrs. Herne 
  and Williams as mediums, the spirits present being the famous 
  John and Katie King. One of the sitters jokingly expressed a wish 
  that Mrs. Guppy (then in her home some three miles distant) might 
  be brought to the seance - room, and to this Katie King was heard 
  to assent. While the company were laughing at the absurdity of the 
  idea, there was a loud bump, followed by shrieks and 
  exclamations. A match was struck, and there in the centre of the 
  table stood Mrs. Guppy, an account - book in one hand, a pen in 
  the other, and apparently in a state of trance. Less than three 
  minutes elapsed between the expression of the wish and the 
  appearance of Mrs. Guppy. The writer adds: " The possibility of 
  her being concealed in the room is as absurd as the idea of her 
  acting in collusion with the media." 
   
  Pseudo - historical instances of levitation may be found in 
  abundance, especially among the early saints. St. Dunstan, 
  archbishop of Canterbury, was observed to rise from the ground 
  shortly before his death in 988. St. Bernard Ptolomei, St. Philip 
  Benitas, St. Albert of Sicily, and St. Dominic, founder of the 
  Dominican order, were all seen to be levitated while engaged in 
  their devotions. An ecstatic nun " rose from the ground with so 
  much impetuosity, that five or six of the sisters could hardly hold 
  her down." It is related by his biographers that Savonarola, shortly 
  before he perished at the stake, remained suspended at a 
  considerable height above the floor of his dungeon, absorbed in 
  prayer. And such instances might easily be multiplied. 
   
  Lewis, Matthew Gregory: known as "Monk " Lewis,English Author 
  (1775 - 1818). Matthew Gregory Lewis was born in London in 
  1775. His father was Matthew Lewis, deputy secretary of war, and 
  proprietor of several valuable estates in Jamaica; while his mother 
  was Anna Maria Sewell, a lady of cultured tastes, devoted to music 
  and various other arts. The future author showed precocity while 
  yet a child, and on reaching boyhood he was sent to Westminster 
  School, but while he was there an ugly cloud rose to dim his 
  horizon, his parents quarrelling and agreeing to separate. Matthew 
  contrived to remain friendly with both his father and mother, and 
  in 1771 he visited Paris, while about the same time he made his 
  first literary efforts, and in 1792 he went to Weimar in Germany 
  where he made the acquaintance of Goethe, and also learnt 
  German thoroughly. Two years later he was appointed attached to 
  the British Embassy at the Hague, and while staying, there he 
  wrote his mystical story, Ambrosio, or the Monk, which earned him 
  
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  his now familiar sobriquet of " Monk Lewis; - while in 1796 he 
  entered Parliament as member for Hindon, in Wiltshire, and 
  during the next few years he necessarily resided chiefly in London, 
  or near it, becoming friendly the while with most of the notable 
  people of the day. Meantime his interest in the occult had been 
  developing apace, and in 1798 there was staged at Drury 
  Lane a play of his, Castle Spectre, in which ghosts and the like play 
  a prominent part, and which won great popularity among people 
  interested in things of that nature; while in 1788 lie issued his 
  Tales of Terror, and in 1801 a volume entitled Tales of Wonder, 
  this being virtually an anthology of popular occult verses, some of 
  which were supplied by Sir Walter Scott and others of which were 
  Supplied by Lord Ormond. 
   
  In 1812 Lewis's father died, and the author accordingly found 
  himself a very rich man. His conscience was troubled, 
  nevertheless, by the fact that his wealth was derived from slave 
  labour, and so, in 1815, he sailed to Jamaica, intent on making 
  arrangements for the generous treatment of the negroes on his 
  estates. Returning to England in 1816, he went soon afterwards to 
  Geneva, where he met Byron and Shelley, while in 1818 he paid a 
  last visit to the West Indies, and died at sea while returning home. 
   
   
  Lost Word of Lost Word of Kabbalism - Lost Word in Masonry. A 
  word relating to some mystic plan, which though it is held to  have 
  disappeared, will at some time be restored, and will then make the 
  whole system plain. It is not really lost,  only withheld for a 
  season. In the same way the Graal 
  was not lost, but 
  withdrawn to its own place and the search for it occupied the 
  noblest figures in chivalry. It represents the Key to the enigma of 
  Creation ; in terms of Christianity, the Kingdom of Heaven. 
   
  Libellus Merlin: (Little Book of Merlin.) A Latin tract on the 
  subject of the prophecies of Merlin written by Geoffrey of 
  Monmouth about 1135. Geoffrey prefaces his account of the 
  prophecies with one concerning the deeds of a supernatural youth 
  named Ambrosius whom he deliberately confounded with Merlin, 
  though historic evidence tends to indicate that the deeds belong to 
  Merlin, but the historical figure of Ambrosius is another person 
  altogether – likely this indicates some association between 
  Ambrosius and Merlin which must have become blurred by 
  Geoffrey’s time.   
   
  In the manuscript by Geoffrey, Vortigern, King of the Britons, asks 
  Ambrose Merlin the meaning, of a vision in which appear two 
  dragons red and white in combat. Merlin replies that the Red 
  Dragon signifies the British race which would be conquered by the 
  Saxon, represented by the White Dragon. A long prophetic 
  rhapsody follows, relating chiefly to the Saxon wars, and with this 
  the work, as given in the Seventh Book of Geoffrey's Historia 
  Regum Britanniae, concludes. It was, however, known in Iceland 
  before 1218 in a form independent of the Historia. Likely the 
  association, and the prophecies represent information preserved by 
  the Welsh (from whence land Geoffrey hailed), in oral tradition, 
  though it is also thought possible that Geoffrey drew from a 
  supposed book on Merlin by Taliesin, which has been supposed for 
  reasons which are not entirely unclear to have eventually made its 
  way to Spain, perhaps with the Briton colony established in Galicia 
  in the seventh century. 
   
  Litanies of the Sabbath: On Wednesdays and Saturdays, if the 
  accounts speak truly, it was the custom to sing at the witches' 
  Sabbath the following Litanies: 
   
  Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan, have pity on us. 
   
  Baal, prince of the seraphim; Baalberith, prince of the cherubim; 
  Astaroth, prince of the thrones; Rosier, prince of denominations; 
  Carreau, prince of the powers; Belial, prince of the virtues; Perrier, 
  prince of the principalities; Oliver, prince of the arch angels; 
  Junier, prince of the angels; Sarcueil, Fume - bouche, Pierre - le - 
  Feu, Carniveau, Terrier, Contellier, Candelier, Behemoth, Oilette, 
  Belphegor, Sabathan, Garandier, Dolers, Pierre - Fort, Axaphat, 
  Prisier, Kakos, Lucesme, pray for us. 
   
  It must be remarked that Satan is evoked in these litanies only in 
  company with a crowd of others. 
   
  Lilith: According to Wierus and other demonologists, Lilith was 
  the prince or princess who presided over the demons known as 
  succubi. The demons under Lilith bore the same name as their 
  chief, and sought to destroy newborn infants. For this reason the 
  Jews wrote on the four corners of a birth - chamber a formula to 
  drive Lilith away. 
   
  Little World: The name given to a secret society which conspired 
  in England, in the eighteenth century, to reestablish the Stuart 
  dynasty. Many stories are told of this society as, for instance, that 
  the devil presided over their assemblies in person. The members 
  were Freemasons, and are supposed to have had Templar and 
  Rosicrucian ties, seeking to re-establish a Catholic monarchy.  
  Elements of this group ended up dispersed to the New World, and 
  France, where flickers could be seen as late as the late 19th 
  century, and some remnants endure today. 
   
  It should not be mistaken that the goal of these societies was 
  chiefly a Stuart restoration after about 1804.  Rather there is every 
  evidence that the formerly political lodges took on an occult 
  nature, and became heirs to secrets formerly held by the Stuart 
  Kings, including the disposition of the Templar Treasure by Henry 
  Sinclair of Rosslyn.  MacGregor Mathers (q.v.) of the Golden Dawn 
  was deeply involved with these societies, though not in a chiefly 
  political manner.   
   
  London Dialectical Society: In 1869 an important enquiry into the 
  phenomena of spiritualism was undertaken by the London 
  Dialectical Society. A committee of more than thirty members - 
  including Alfred Russel Wallace, Sergeant Cox, Charles 
  Bradlaugh, H. G. Atkinson, and Dr. James Edmunds - was formed, 
  and resolved itself into six subcommittees. During the eighteen 
  months over which their labours extended, the committee received 
  a large quantity of evidence from believers in the phenomena, but 
  very little from those antagonistic to the spirit hypothesis. In " The 
  Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritualism, " published by the 
  Society, particulars are given both of the members' own 
  experiences and of testimonies from witnesses whose character and 
  position made their evidence valuable. Practically every form of 
  manifestation, both physical and automatic, is covered in the 
  report. 
   
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  A frequent visitor to Landsberg Prison where Hitler was writing 
  Mein Kampf with the help of Rudolf Hess, was General Karl 
  Haushofer, a university professor and director of the Munich 
  Institute of Geopolitics. Haushofer, Hitler, and Hess had long 
  conversations together. Hess also kept records of these 
  conversations. Hitler's demands for German "Living Space" in the 
  east at the expense of the Slavic nations were based on the 
  geopolitical theories of the learned professor.  
   
  Haushofer was also inclined toward the esoteric. as military 
  attache in Japan, he had studied Zen-Buddhism. He had also gone 
  through initiations at the hands of Tibetan Lamas. He became 
  Hitler's second "esoteric mentor", replacing Dietrich Eckart. In 
  Berlin, Haushofer had founded the Luminous Lodge or the Vril 
  Society. The lodge's objective was to explore the origins of the 
  Aryan race and to perform exercises in concentration to awaken 
  the forces of "Vril". Haushofer was a student of the Russian 
  magician and metaphysician Gregor Ivanovich Gurdyev (George 
  Gurdjieff).  
   
  Both Gurdjeiff and Haushofer maintained that they had contacts 
  with secret Tibetan Lodges that possessed the secret of the 
  "Superman". The lodge included Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, 
  Himmler, Goring, and Hitler's subsequent personal physician Dr. 
  Morell. Hitler's unusual powers of suggestion become more 
  understandable if one keeps in mind that he had access to the 
  "secret" psychological techniques of the esoteric lodges. Haushofer 
  taught him the techniques of Gurdjieff which, in turn, were based 
  on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan Lamas- and 
  familiarized him with the Zen teaching of the Japanese Society of 
  the Green Dragon.  
   
  The name of the Vril Society is based on an 1873 novel by Bulwer-
  Lytton (the author of Zanoni), Vril: the Coming Race, which told of 
  a hollow earth, and gave the Vril-ya slogan -- 'No happiness 
  without  order, no order without authority, no authority without 
  unity.'  
   
  The Society also believed that Vril was the language spoken by the 
  Atlanteans or Thulians. It was composed of sounds and clicks.  
   
  The Vril Society teaches secret revelations, the coming of the new 
  age, the coming of the spear of destiny, the magical violet black 
  stone, the black iron dagger of the Old Prussian Pagan faith which 
  is also the symbol of Set, and making contact with ancient peoples 
  and distant worlds.  
   
  The Vril Society believes that their source of power is the Black 
  Sun, an infinite beam of light which though invisible to the human 
  eye is real.  It may also represent an underground furnace which 
  gives energy to the races within the earth, and is identified with 
  the forge of the God Velnius of the Old Prussian pantheon. 
   
  The Vril emblem is the 'Black Sun.’ The Black Sun symbol can be 
  found in many Babylonian and Assyrian places of worship. They 
  depict the Black Sun - the godhead's inner light in the form of a 
  cross. This was not much different from the German's Knight's 
  Cross.  
   
  There are many legends that the Vril society became privy around 
  1934 to an extraterrestrial spacecraft which crashed in the Black 
  Forest region of Germany.  They are said to have engineered super 
  weapons or other great discoveries from it.   
   
  Lycanthropy: The transformation of a human being into an  animal. 
  The term is derived from the Greek words, likos a wolf, and 
  anthropos a man, but it is employed regarding a transformation into 
  any animal shape. It is chiefly in these countries where wolves are 
  numerous that we find such tales concerning them. (See Wer - 
  wolf.) But in India, and some parts of Asia, the tiger takes the 
  place of the wolf; in Russia and elsewhere the bear, and in Africa 
  the leopard. 
   
  It is usually savage animals regarding which these beliefs are 
  prevalent, but even, harmless ones also figure in them. There is 
  considerable confusion as to whether such transformations were 
  voluntary, or involuntary, temporary or permanent. The man as 
  transformed into the animal may be the very individual himself, or, 
  on the other hand may be only his double, that is his spirit may 
  enter the animal and his body remain unchanged. Magicians and 
  witches were credited with the power of transforming themselves 
  into wolves and other animal shapes, and it was asserted that if the 
  animal were wounded that the marks of the wound would be 
  discovered upon the wizard's body. 
   
  In France, particularly in Brittany, there were supposed to be 
  certain sorcerers who had the means to turn themselves into a wolf, 
  and also hereditary wer-wolves who roamed the night on the 
  occasion of the full moon, or at other magical conjuctions, for 
  example only on Candlemas Eve.  And these persons were said to 
  possess supernatural powers and strength even when they were not 
  taking the form of the wolf. 
   
  The belief is current amongst many savage tribes that every 
  individual possesses an animal form which he enters at death, or at 
  will. This is effected either by magic or natural agency. 
   
  As has been said, the wolf is a common form of animal 
  transformation in Europe. In ancient Greece the belief was 
  associated with the dog, which took the place of the wolf. Other 
  similar beliefs are found in India and Java and in the former 
  country we find the wer - wolf in a sort of vampire form. 
   
  Guyon relates the history of an enchanter who used to change 
  himself into different beasts. 
   
  " Certain people, " said he, " persuaded Ferdinand, first Emperor 
  of that name, to command the presence of a Polish enchanter and 
  magician in the town of Nuremberg to learn the result of a 
  difference he had with the Turks, concerning the kingdom of 
  Hungary; and not only did the magician make use of divination, 
  but performed various other marvels, so that the king did not wish 
  to see him, but the courtiers introduced him into his chamber. ' 
  There he did many wonderful things, among others, he transformed 
  himself into a horse, anointing himself with some grease, then he 
  took the shape of an ox, and thirdly that of a lion, . all in less than 
  an hour. The emperor was so terrified by these transformations that 
  he commanded that the magician should be immediately 
  dismissed, and declined to hear the future from the lips of such a 
  rascal." 
   
  " It need no longer be doubted, " adds the same writer,  that Lucius 
  Apuleius Plato was a sorcerer, and that he  was transformed into an 
  ass, forasmuch as he was charged  with it before the proconsul of 
  Africa, in the time of the  Emperor Antonine I., in the year 150 
  A.D., as Apollonius  of Tyana, long before, in the year 60, was 
  charged before  Domitian with the same crime. And more than 
  three  years after, the rumour persisted to the time of St. Augus-
  
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  tine, who was an African, who has written and confirmed  it; as 
  also in his time the father of one Prestantius was transformed into a 
  horse, as the said Prestantius declared.  Augustine's father having 
  died, in a short time the son had wasted the greater part of his 
  inheritance in  the pursuit of the magic arts, and in order to flee 
  poverty he sought to marry a rich widow named Pudentille, for 
  such  a long time that at length she consented. Soon after, her only 
  son and heir, the child of her former marriage, died.  These things 
  came about in a manner which led people to, think that he had by 
  means of magic entrapped Pudentille, who had been wooed in vain 
  by several illustrious people, in  order to obtain the wealth of her 
  son. It was also said that the profound knowledge he possessed - 
  for he was able to solve difficult questions which left other men 
  bewildered  was obtained from a demon or familiar spirit he 
  possessed.  Further, certain people said they had seen him do 
  many  marvellous things, such as making himself invisible, trans-
  forming himself into a horse or into a bird, piercing his body  with 
  a sword without wounding himself, and similar performances. He 
  was at last accused by one Sicilius Emilianus, the censor, before 
  Claudius Maximus, proconsul of  Africa, who was said to be a 
  Christian; but nothing was  found against him.  
   
  Now, that he had been transformed into an ass, St. Augustine 
  regards as indubitable, he having read it in certain true and 
  trustworthy authors, and being besides of the same country; and 
  this transformation happened to him in Thessaly before he was 
  versed in magic, through the spell of a sorceress, who sold him, 
  and who recovered him to his former shape after he had served in 
  the capacity of an ass for some years, having the same powers and 
  habits of eating and braying as other asses, but with a mind still 
  sane and reasonable as he himself attested. And at last to show 
  forth his case, and to lend probability to the rumour, he wrote a 
  book entitled The Golden Ass, a melange of fables and dialogues, 
  to expose the vices of the men of his time, which he had heard of, 
  or seen, during his transformation, with many of the labours and 
  troubles he had suffered while in the shape of an ass. 
   
  " However that may be, St. Augustine in the book of the City of 
  God, book XVIII., chapters XVII. and XVIII., relates that in his 
  time there were in the Alps certain sorceresses who gave a 
  particular kind of cheese to the passers by, who, on partaking of it, 
  were immediately changed into asses or other beasts of burden, 
  and were made to carry heavy weights to certain places. When 
  their task was over, they were permitted to regain their human 
  shape." 
   
  The bishop of Tyre, historian, writes that in his time, probably 
  about 1220, some Englishmen were sent by their king to the aid of 
  the Christians who were fighting in the Holy Land, and that on 
  their arrival in a haven of the island of Cyprus a sorceress 
  transformed a young English soldier into an ass. He, wishing to 
  return to his companions in the ship, was chased away with blows 
  from a stick, whereupon he returned to the sorceress who made use 
  of him, until someone noticed that the ass kneeled in a church and 
  did various other things which only a reasoning being could do. 
  The sorceress who followed him was taken on suspicion before the 
  authorities, was obliged to give him his human form three years 
  after his transformation, and was forthwith executed." 
   
  "We read, " says Loys Guyon,  - that Ammonius, a peripatetic 
  philosopher, about the time of Lucius Septimius Severus, in the 
  year 196 A.D., had present at his lessons an ass whom he taught. I 
  should think that this ass had been at one time a man, and that he 
  quite understood what Ammonius taught, for these transformed 
  persons retain their reason, unimpaired, as St. Augustine and other 
  writers have assured us." 
   
  " Fulgose writes, book VIII., chapter II., that in the time of Pope 
  Leon, who lived about the year 930, there were in the Black Forest 
  region of Germany two sorceresses who used thus to change their 
  guests into beasts, and on one occasion she changed a young 
  mountebank into an ass, who, preserving his human 
  understanding, gave a great deal of amusement to the passers - by. 
  A neighbour of the sorceresses bought the ass at a good price, but 
  was warned by them that he must not take the beast to a river, or 
  he would lose it. Now the ass escaped one day and running to a 
  near - by lake plunged into the water, when he returned to his own 
  shape. Apuleius says that he regained his human form by eating 
  roses. 
   
  " There are still to be seen in Egypt asses which are led into the 
  market - place to perform various feats of agility and tricks, 
  understanding all the commands they receive, and executing them: 
  such as to point out the most beautiful woman of the company, and 
  many other things that one would hardly believe; and Belon, a 
  physician, relates in his observations that he has seen them, and 
  others also,  - who have been there, and who have affirmed the 
  same to me." 
   
  " One day there was brought to St. Macarius, the Egyptian, " says 
  Calmet, " an honest woman who had been transformed into a mare 
  by the wicked art of a magician. Her husband and all who beheld 
  her believed that she had really been changed into a mare. This 
  woman remained for three days without taking any food, whether 
  suitable for a horse or for a human being. She was brought to the 
  priests of the place, who could suggest no remedy. So they led her 
  to the cell of St. Macarius, to whom God had revealed that she was 
  about to come. His disciples wished to send her away, thinking her 
  a mare, and they warned the saint of her approach, and the reason 
  for her journey. He said to them: ' It is you who are the animals, 
  who think you see that which is not; this woman is not changed, 
  but your eyes are bewitched." As he spoke he scattered holy water 
  on the head of the woman, and all those present saw her in her true 
  shape. He had something given her to eat and sent her away safe 
  and sound with her husband." 
   
  Lugh: An Irish deity.  The following story is told of him.   
   
  'Nuada of the Silver Hand, he was holding a great feast at 
  Teamhair one time, after he was back in the kingship. And there 
  were two door-keepers at Teamhair, Gamal, son of Figal, and 
  Camel, son of Riagall. And a young man came to the door where 
  one of them was, and bade him bring him in to the king. "Who are 
  you yourself?" said the door-keeper. I am Lugh, son of Cian of the 
  Tuatha de Danaan, and of Ethlinn, daughter of Balor, King of the 
  Fomor," he said; " and I am foster-son of Taillte, daughter of the 
  King of the Great Plain, and of Echaid the Rough, son of Duach." 
  "What are you skilled in?" said the door-keeper; "for no one 
  without an art comes into Teamhair." "Question me," said Lugh; "I 
  am a carpenter." "We do not want you; we have a carpenter 
  ourselves, Luchtar, son of Luachaid." "Then I am a smith" "We 
  have a smith ourselves, Colum Cuaillemech of the Three New 
  Ways." "Then I am a champion." "That is no use to us; we have a 
  champion before, Ogma, brother to the king." "Question me again," 
  he said; "I am a harper." "That is no use to us; we have a harper 
  ourselves, Abhean, son of Bicelmos, that the Men of the Three 
  
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  Gods brought from the bills." "I am a poet," he said then, "and a 
  teller of tales." "That is no use to us; we have a teller of tales 
  ourselves, Erc, son of Ethaman." "And I am a magician." "That is 
  no use to us; we have plenty of magicians and people of power." "I 
  am a physician," he said. "That is no use; we have Diancecht for 
  our physician." "Let me be a cup-bearer," he said. "We do not want 
  you; we have nine cup-bearers ourselves." "I am a good worker in 
  brass". "We have a worker in brass ourselves, that is Credne Cerd." 
   
  Then Lugh said: "Go and ask the king if he has anyone man that 
  can do all these things, and if he has, I will not ask to come into 
  Teamhair." The door-keeper went into the king’s house then and 
  told him all that. "There is a young man at the door," he said, "and 
  his name should be the Ildánach, the Master of all Arts, for all the 
  things the people of your house can do, he himself is able to do 
  every one of them." "Try him with the chess-boards," said Nuada. 
  So the chess-boards were brought out, and every game that was 
  played, Lugh won it. And when Nuada was told that, he said: "Let 
  him in, for the like of him never came into Teamhair before." 
   
  Then the door-keeper let him pass, and he came into the king’s 
  house and sat down in the seat of knowledge. And there was a great 
  flag-stone there that could hardly be moved by four times twenty 
  yoke of oxen, and Ogma took it up and hurled it out through the 
  house so that it lay on the outside of Teamhair, as a challenge to 
  Lugh. But Lugh hurled it back again that it lay in the middle of the 
  king’s house. He played the harp for them then, and he had them 
  laughing and crying, till he put them asleep at the end with a 
  sleepy tune. And when Nuada saw all these things Lugh could do, 
  he began to think that by his help the country might get free of the 
  taxes and the tyranny put on it by the Fomor. And it is what he did, 
  he came down from his throne, and he put Lugh on it in his place, 
  for the length of thirteen days, the way they might all listen to the 
  advice he would give. 
   
  This now is the story of the birth of Lugh. The time the Fomor used 
  to be coming to Ireland, Balor of the Strong Blows, or, as some 
  called him, of the Evil Eye, was living on the Island of the Tower of 
  Glass. There was danger for ships that went near that island, for 
  the Fomor would come out and take them. And some say the sons 
  of Nemed in the old time, before the Firbolgs were in Ireland, 
  passed near it in their ships, and what they saw was a tower of 
  glass in the middle of the sea, and on the tower something that had 
  the appearance of men, and they went against it with Druid spells 
  to attack it. And the Fomor worked against them with Druid spells 
  of their own; and the Sons of Nemed attacked the tower, and it 
  vanished, and they thought it was destroyed. But a great wave rose 
  over them then, and all their ships went down and all that were in 
  them. 
   
    
   
  And the tower was there as it was before, and Balor living in it. 
  And it is the reason he was called "of the Evil Eye," there was a 
  power of death in one of his eyes, so that no person could look at it 
  and live. It is the way it got that power, he was passing one time by 
  a house where his father’s Druids were making spells of death, and 
  the window being open he looked in, and the smoke of the 
  poisonous spells was rising up, and it went into his eye. And from 
  that time he had to keep it closed unless he wanted to be the death 
  of some enemy, and then the men that were with him would lift the 
  eyelid with a ring of ivory. 
   
  Now a Druid foretold one time that it was by his own grandson he 
  would get his death. And he had at that time but one child, a 
  daughter whose name was Ethlinn; and when he heard what the 
  Druid said, he shut her up in the tower on the island. And he put 
  twelve women with her to take charge of her and to guard her, and 
  he bade them never to let her see a man or hear the name of a man. 
   
  So Ethlinn was brought up in the tower, and she grew to be very 
  beautiful; and sometimes she would see men passing in the 
  currachs, and sometimes she would see a man in her dreams. But 
  when she would speak of that to the women, they would give her no 
  answer. 
   
  So there was no fear on Balor, and be went on with war and 
  robbery as he was used, seizing every ship that passed by, and 
  sometimes going over to Ireland to do destruction there. 
   
  Now it chanced at that time there were three brothers of the Tuatha 
  de Danaan living together in a place that was called Druim na 
  Teine, the Ridge of the Fire, Goibniu and Samthainn and Cian. 
  Cian was a lord of land, and Goibniu was the smith that had such a 
  great name. Now Clan had a wonderful cow, the Glas Gaibhnenn, 
  and her milk never failed. And every one that heard of her coveted 
  her, and many had tried to steal her away, so that she had to be 
  watched night and day. 
   
  And one time Cian was wanting some swords made, and he went to 
  Goibniu’s forge, and he brought the Glas Gaibhnenn with him, 
  holding her by a halter. When he came to the forge his two 
  brothers were there together, for Samthainn had brought some steel 
  to have weapons made for himself; and Cian bade Samthainn to 
  hold the halter while he went into the forge to speak with Goibniu. 
   
  Now Balor bad set his mind for a long time on the Glas Gaibhnenn, 
  but he had never been able to get near her up to this time. And he 
  was watching not far off, and when he saw Samthainn holding the 
  cow, he put on the appearance of a little boy, having red hair, and 
  came up to him and told him he heard his two brothers that were in 
  the forge saying to one another that they would use all his steel for 
  their own swords, and make his of iron. "By my word," said 
  Samthainn, "they will not deceive me so easily. Let you hold the 
  cow, little lad," he said, "and I will go in to them." With that he 
  rushed into the forge, and great anger on him. And no sooner did 
  Balor get the halter in his hand than he set out, dragging the Glas 
  along with him, to the strand, and across the sea to his own island. 
   
  When Cian saw his brother coming in he rushed out, and there he 
  saw Balor and the Glas out in the sea. And he had nothing to do 
  then but to reproach his brother, and to wander about as if his wits 
  had left him, not knowing what way to get his cow back from Balor. 
  At last he went to a Druid to ask an advice from him; and it is what 
  the Druid told him, that so long as Balor lived, the cow would 
  never be brought back, for no one would go within reach of his Evil 
  Eye. 
   
  Cian went then to a woman-Druid, Birog of the Mountain, for her 
  help. And she dressed him in a woman’s clothes, and brought him 
  across the sea in a blast of wind, to the tower where Ethlinn was. 
  Then she called to the women in the tower, and asked them for 
  shelter for a high queen she was after saving from some hardship, 
  and the women in the tower did not like to refuse a woman of the 
  Tuatha de Danaan, and they let her and her comrade in. Then 
  Birog by her enchantments put them all into a deep sleep, and 
  Cian went to speak with Ethlinn. And when she saw him she said 
  
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  that was the face she had seen in her dreams. So she gave him her 
  love; but after a while he was brought away again on a blast of 
  wind. 
   
  And when her time came, Ethlinn gave birth to a son. And when 
  Balor knew that, he bade his people put the child in a cloth and 
  fasten it with a pin, and throw him into a current of the sea. And as 
  they were carrying the child across an arm of the sea, the pin 
  dropped out, and the child slipped from the cloth into the water, 
  and they thought he was drowned. But he was brought away by 
  Birog of the Mountain, and she brought him to his father Cian; and 
  he gave him to be fostered by Taillte, daughter of the King of the 
  Great Plain. It is thus Lugh was born and reared. 
   
  And some say Balor came and struck the head off Cian on a white 
  stone, that has the blood marks on it to this day; but it is likely it 
  was some other man he struck the head off, for it was by the sons of 
  Tuireann that Cian came to his death. 
   
    
   
  And after Lugh had come to Teamhair, and made his mind up to 
  join with his father’s people against the Fomor, he put his mind to 
  the work; and he went to a quiet place in Grellach Dollaid, with 
  Nuada and the Dagda, and with Ogma; and Goibniu and Diancecht 
  were called to them there. A full year they stopped there, making 
  their plans together in secret, the way the Fomor would not know 
  they were going to rise against them till such time as all would be 
  ready, and till they would know what their strength was. And it is 
  from that council the place got the name afterwards of "The 
  Whisper of the Men of Dea". 
   
  And they broke up the council, and agreed to meet again that day 
  three years, and everyone of them went his own way, and Lugh 
  went back to his own friends, the sons of Manannan. 
   
    
   
  And it was a good while after that, Nuada was holding a great 
  assembly of the people on the Hill of Uisnech, on the west side of 
  Teamhair. And they were not long there before they saw an armed 
  troop coming towards them from the east, over the plain; and there 
  was a young man in front of the troop, in command over the rest, 
  and the brightness of his face was like the setting sun, so that they 
  were not able to look at him because of its brightness. 
   
  And when he came nearer they knew it was Lugh Lamh-Fada, of 
  the Long Hand, that had come back to them, and along with him 
  were the Riders of the Sidhe from the Land of Promise, and his 
  own foster-brothers, the sons of Manannan, Sgoith Gleigeil, the 
  White Flower, and Goitne Gorm-Shuileach, the Blue-eyed Spear, 
  and Sine Sindearg, of the Red Ring, and Donall Donn-Ruadh, of 
  the Red-brown Hair. And it is the way Lugh was, he had 
  Manannan’s horse, the Aonbharr, of the One Mane, under him, that 
  was as swift as the naked cold wind of spring, and the sea was the 
  same as dry land to her, and the rider was never killed off her 
  back. And he had Manannan’s breast-plate on him, that kept 
  whoever was wearing it from wounds, and a helmet on his head 
  with two beautiful precious stones set in the front of it and one at 
  the back, and when he took it off, his forehead was like the sun on 
  a dry summer day. And he had Manannan’s sword, the 
  Freagarthach, the Answerer, at his side, and no one that was 
  wounded by it would ever get away alive; and when that sword was 
  bared in a battle, no man that saw it coming against him had any 
  more strength than a woman in child-birth. 
   
  And the troop came to where the King of Ireland was with the 
  Tuatha de Danaan, and they welcomed one another. 
   
  And they were not long there till they saw a surly, slovenly troop 
  coining towards them, nine times nine of the messengers of the 
  Fomor, that were coming to ask rent and taxes from the men of 
  Ireland; and the names of the four that were the hardest and the 
  most cruel were Eine and Eathfaigh and Coron and Compar; and 
  there was such great dread of these four on the Tuatha de Danaan, 
  that not one of them would so much as punish his own son or his 
  foster-son without leave from them. 
   
  They came up then to where the King of Ireland was with the 
  Riders of the Sidhe, and the king and all the Tuatha de Danaan 
  stood up before them. And Lugh of the Long Hand said: "Why do 
  you rise up before that surly, slovenly troop, when you did not rise 
  up before us?" 
   
  "It is needful for us to do it," said the king; "for if there was but a 
  child of us sitting before them, they would not think that too small 
  a cause for killing him." "By my word," said Lugh, "there is a great 
  desire coming on me to kill themselves." "That is a thing would 
  bring harm on us," said the king, "for we would meet our own death 
  and destruction through it." "It is too long a time you have been 
  under this oppression," said Lugh. And with that he started up and 
  made an attack on the Fomor, killing and wounding them, till he 
  had made an end of eight nines of them, but he let the last nine go 
  under the protection of Nuada the king. "And I would kill you 
  along with the others," he said, "but I would sooner see you go with 
  messages to your own country than my own people, for fear they 
  might get any ill-treatment." 
   
  So the nine went back then till they came to Lochlann, where the 
  men of the Fomor were, and they told them the story from 
  beginning to end, and how a young well-featured lad had come into 
  Ireland and had killed all the tax-gatherers but themselves, "and it 
  is the reason he let us off," they said, "that we might tell you the 
  story ourselves." 
   
  "Do you know who is the young man?" said Balor of the Evil Eye 
  then. 
   
  "I know well," said Ceithlenn, his wife; "he is the son of your 
  daughter and mine. And it was foretold." she said, "that from the 
  time he would come into Ireland, we would never have power there 
  again for ever." 
   
  Then the chief men of the Fomor went into a council, Eab, son of 
  Neid, and Seanchab, grandson of Neid, and Sital Salmhor, and 
  Liath, son of Lobais, and the nine poets of the Fomor that had 
  learning and the gift of foreknowledge, and Lobais the Druid, and 
  Balor himself, and his twelve white-mouthed sons, and Ceithlenn 
  of the Crooked Teeth, his queen. 
   
  And it was just at that time Bres and his father Elathan were come 
  to ask help of the Fomor, and Bres said: "I myself will go tor 
  Ireland, and seven great battalions of the Riders of the Fomor 
  along with me, and I will give battle to this Ildánach, this master of 
  all arts, and I will strike his bead off and bring it here to you, to the 
  green of Berbhe." "It would be a fitting thing for you to do," said 
  
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  they all. "Let my ships be made ready for me," said Bres, "and let 
  food and provisions be put in them." 
   
  So they made no delay, but went and got the ships ready, and they 
  put plenty of food and drink in them, and the two swift Luaths were 
  sent out to gather the army to Bres. And when they were all 
  gathered, they made ready their armour and their weapons, and 
  they set out for Ireland. 
   
  And Balor the king followed them to the harbour, and he said: 
  "Give battle to that Ildánach, and strike off his head; and tie that 
  island that is called Ireland to the back of your ships, and let the 
  destroying water take its place, and put it on the north side of 
  Lochlann, and not one of the Men of Dea will follow it there to the 
  end of life and time." 
   
  Then they pushed out their ships and put up their painted sails, 
  and went out from the harbour on the untilled country, on the 
  ridges of the wide-lying sea, and they never turned from their 
  course till they came to the harbour of Eas Dara. And from that 
  they sent out an army through West Connacht and destroyed it 
  altogether, through and through. And the King of Connacht at that 
  time was Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda. 
   
   
   
  Lytton, Bulwer: Author (1803 - 1873). According to his baptismal 
  certificate, the full name of this once famous author was Edward 
  George Earle Lytton Bulwer - Lytton, and in signing some of his 
  early writings he used all these names with occasional variations in 
  their order, an act which was regarded by many people as 
  springing from pride and pompousness, and which elicited the 
  withering satire of Thackeray in Punch. Lytton was born at London 
  in 1803, and his father was a Norfolk squire, Bulwer of Heydon 
  Hall (associated with the English occultist and adventurer John 
  Heydon); while his mother was Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, a lady 
  who claimed kinship with Constantine Waredwyr the semi - 
  mythical hero who led the Britons or Welsh against the Angles in 
  the fourth century.  
   
  As a child the future novelist was delicate, but he learnt to read at 
  a surprisingly early age, and began to write verses before he was 
  ten years old. Going first to a small private school at Fulham, he 
  soon passed on to another one at Rottingdean; and here he 
  continued to manifest literary tastes, Byron and Scott being his 
  chief idols at this time. So clever was the boy thought, indeed, that 
  his relations decided it would be a mistake to send him to a public 
  school; and accordingly he was placed with a tutor at Ealing, under 
  whose care he progressed rapidly with his studies. Thereafter he 
  proceeded to Cambridge, where he took his degree easily, and won 
  many academic laurels, while on leaving the University he 
  travelled for a while in Scotland and in France, and then bought a 
  commission in the army. He sold it soon afterwards, however, 
  while in 1827 he was married, and now he began to devote himself 
  seriously to writing, his first publications of note being the novels 
  of Falkland, Pelham and Eugene A - yam. These won an instant 
  success, and placed considerable wealth in the author's hands, the 
  result being that in 1831 he entered parliament as liberal member 
  for St. Ives, Huntingdonshire; and during the next ten years he was 
  an active policitian yet found time to produce a host of stories, for 
  instance The Last Days of Pompei and Ernest Maltravers, Zanoni 
  and The Last of the Barons. These were followed shortly by The 
  Caxtons, and simultaneously Lytton achieved some fame as a 
  dramatist, perhaps his best play being The Lady of Lyons; while in 
  1851 he was instrumental in founding a scheme for pensioning 
  authors, in 1862 he increased his reputation greatly by his novel 
  entitled A Strange Story, and four years later his services to 
  literature and politics were rewarded by a peerage. He now began 
  to work at yet another story, Kenelm Chillingly, but his health was 
  beginning to fail, and he died in 1873 at Torquay. 0 
   
   The works cited above constitute but a fragment of  Lytton's 
  voluminous achievement. Besides further novels  too numerous to 
  mention, he issued several volumes of  verses notably Ismael and 
  The New Union, while he did translations from German, Spa - ash 
  and Italian, he produced a  history of Athens, he contributed to 
  endless periodicals,  and was at one time editor of The New 
  Monthly Magazine.  But albeit so busy throughout the whole of his 
  career, and  while winning - vast fame and opulence, Lytton's life 
  was  not really a happy one, various causes conducing to make it  
  otherwise. Long before meeting his wife he fell in love with  a 
  young girl who died prematurely, and this loss seems to  have left 
  an indelible sear on his heart, while his marriage  was anything but 
  a successful one, the pair being divorced  comparatively soon after 
  their union. Now as a mere  child Lytton had evinced a 
  predilection for mysticism,  while he had surprised his mother 
  once by asking her  whether she was - not sometimes overcome by 
  the sense of  her own identity " (almost exactly the same question 
  was  put to his nurse in boyhood by another mystic, William  Bell 
  Scott); Lytton sedulously developed his leaning  towards the 
  occult, and it is evervwhere manifest in his  literary output. It 
  transpires, for example, in his poem  The Tale of a Dreamer, and 
  again in Kenelm. Chillingly,  while in A Strange Story he tries to 
  give a scientific  colouring to old - fashioned magic.  
   
  Madre Natura: An old and powerful secret society society, of Italy, 
  who worshipped and idealised nature, and which seems to have 
  been founded by members of the ancient Italian priesthood. It had 
  a tradition that one of the Popes as Cardinal de Medid became a 
  member of the fraternity, and for this there is good documentary 
  evidence. It accepted the allegorical interpretation which the 
  Neo-Platonists had placed upon the Pagan creeds during the first 
  ages of Christianity. 
   
  Maekay, Gallatin: A disciple of Albert Pike and one of the leaders 
  of Masonry in Charleston, U.S.A. who was charged by Miss Diana 
  Vaughan, Dr. Bataille and others with the practice of Satanism and 
  sorcery - charges entirely without foundation.   
   
  Magi: Priests of ancient Persia, and the cultivators of the w1sdom 
  of Zoroaster. They were instituted by Cyrus when he founded the 
  new Persian empire, and are supposed to have been of the Median 
  race. . Schlegel says (Philosophy of History), " they were not so 
  much a hereditary sacerdotal caste as an order or association, 
  divided into various and successive ranks and grades, such as 
  existed in the mysteries  - the grade of apprenticeship - that of 
  mastership - that of perfect mastership." In short, they were a 
  theosophical college; and either its professors were indifferently " 
  magi, " or magicians, and " wise men " or they were distinguished 
  into two classes by those names. Their name pronounced 
   
  Mogh " by the modern Persians, and " Magh " by the ancients 
  signified " Wise, " and such is the interpretation of it given by the 
  Greek and Roman writers. Stobaeus expressly calls the science of 
  the magi, the service of the gods, so Plato. According to 
  Ennemoser, " Magiusiah, .Madschusie, signified the office and 
  knowledge of the priest, who was called " Mag, Magius, Magiusi, " 
  and afterwards “Magician." Brucker maintains that the primitive 
  
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  meaning of the word is " fire worshipper, " "' worship of the light, " 
  an erroneous opinion. In the modern Persian the word is " Mog, " 
  and " Mogbed " signifies high priest. The high priest of the Parsees 
  at Surat, even at the present day, is called, " Mobed." Others derive 
  the word from "Megh ... .. Mehab " signifying something which is 
  great and noble, and Zoroaster's disciples were called " 
  Meghestom." Salverte states that these Mobeds are still named in 
  the Pebivi dialect " Magoi." They were divided into three classes: - 
  Those who abstained from all animal food; those who never ate of 
  the flesh of any tame animals; and those who made no scruple to 
  eat any kind of meat. A belief in the transmigration of the soul was 
  the foundation of this abstinence. They professed the science of 
  divination, and for that purpose met together and consulted in their 
  temples. They professed to make truth the great object of their 
  study; for that alone, they said, can make man like God " whose 
  body resembles light, as his soul 'Or spirit resembles truth." They 
  condemned all images, and those who said that the gods are male 
  and female; they had neither temples nor altars, but worshipped 
  the sky, as a representative of the Deity, on the tops of mountains; 
  they also sacrificed to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and winds, 
  says Herodotus, meaning, no doubt that they adored the heavenly 
  bodies and the elements. This was probably before the time of 
  Zoroaster, when the religion of Persia seems to have resembled 
  that of ancient India. Their hymns in praise of the Most High 
  exceeded, according to Dio Chrysostom, the sublimity of anything 
  in Homer or Hesiod. They exposed their dead bodies to wild 
  beasts. It is a question " whether the old Persian doctrine and 
  wisdom or tradition of light did not undergo material alterations in 
  the hands of its Median restorer, Zoroaster; or whether this 
  doctrine was preserved in all its purity by the order of the magi." 
  He then remarks that on them devolved the important trust of the 
  monarch's education, which must necessarily have given them 
  great weight and influence in the state. They were in high credit at 
  the " Persian gates " - for that was the Oriental name given to the 
  capital of the empire, and the abode of the prince - and they took 
  the most active part in all the factions that encompassed the 
  throne, or that were formed in the vicinity of the court. In Greece, 
  and even in Egypt, the sacerdotal fraternities and associations of 
  initiated, formed by the mysteries, had in general but an indirect, 
  though not unimportant influence on affairs of state; but in the 
  Persian monarchy they acquired a complete political ascendency. 
  Religion, philosophy, and the sciences were all in their bands, 
  they were the universal physicians who healed the sick in body 
  and in spirit, and, in strict consistency with that character, 
  ministered to the state, which is only the man again in a larger 
  sense. The three grades of the magi alluded to are called - by 
  Herber the " disciples, " the" professed, " and the" masters." They 
  were originally from Bactria, where they governed a little state by 
  laws of their own choice, and by their incorporation in the Persian 
  empire_ they greatly promoted the consolidation of the conquests 
  of Cyrus. Their fall dates from the reign of Darius Hystaspes, about 
  500 B.C., by whom they were fiercely persecuted; this produced an 
  emigration which extended to Cappadocia on the one hand, and to 
  India on the other, but they were still of so much consideration at a 
  later period, as to provoke the jealousy of Alexander the Great.  
   
  Magia Posthumia  - A treatise on Vampirism published at Olmutz 
  in 1706, and written by Ferdinand de Schertz. Reviewin, it Calmet 
  (q.v.) says in his Dissertation on Vampi-yes: ."The author relates a 
  story of a woman that died in a certain village, after having 
  received all the sacraments, and was buried with the usual 
  ceremonies, in the Churchyard. About four days after her death, 
  the inhabitants of the village were affrighted with an uncommon 
  noise and outcry, and saw a spectre, sometimes in the shape of a 
  dog, and sometimes in that of a man, which appeared to great 
  multitudes of people, and put them to excessive pain by squeezing 
  their throats, and pressing their breasts, almost to suffocation. 
  There were several whose bodies he bruised all over, and reduced 
  them to the utmost weakness, so that they grew pale, lean, and 
  disfigured. His fury was sometimes so great as not to spare the very 
  beasts, for cows were frequently found beat to the earth, half dead ; 
  at other times with their tails tied to one another, and their hideous 
  lowings sufficiently expressed the pain they felt. Horses were often 
  found almost wearied to death, foaming with sweat, and out of 
  breath, as if they had been running a long and tiresome race; and 
  these calamities continued for several months." 
   
  The author of the treatise examines into the subject in the capacity 
  of a lawyer, and discusses both the matter of fact and the points of 
  law arising from it. He is clearly of opinion that if the suspected 
  person was really the author of these noises, disturbances, and acts 
  of cruelty, the law will justify the burning of the body, as is 
  practised in the case of other spectres which come again and 
  molest the living. He relates also several stories of apparitions of 
  this sort, and particularises the mischiefs done by them. One, 
  among others, is of a herdsman of the village of Blow near the town 
  of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared for a considerable time 
  together, and called upon several persons, who all died within 
  eight days. At last, the inhabitants of Blow dug up the herdsman's 
  body, and fixed it in the ground, with a stake driven through it. The 
  man, even in this condition, laughed at the people that were 
  employed about him, and told them they were very obliging to 
  furnish him with a stick to defend himself from them. The same 
  night he extricated himself from the stake, frightened several 
  persons by appearing to them, and occasioned the death of many 
  more than he had hitherto done. He was then delivered into the 
  hands of the hangman, who put him into a cart, in order to burn 
  him without the town. As they went along, the carcass shrieked in 
  the most hideous manner, and threw about its arms and legs, as if 
  it had been alive, and upon being again run through with a stake, it 
  gave a loud cry, and a great quantity of fresh, florid blood issued 
  from the wound. At last the body was burnt, to ashes, and this 
  execution put a final stop to the spectre's appearing and infesting 
  the village. 
   
  The same method has been practised in other places, where these 
  apparitions have been seen, and upon taking them out of the 
  ground, their bodies have seemed fresh and florid, their limbs 
  pliant and flexible, without any worms or putrefaction, but not 
  without a great stench. The author quotes several other writers, 
  who attest what he, relates concerning these spectres, which, he 
  says, still appear in the mountains of Silesia and Moravia. They are 
  seen, it seems, both by day and night, and the things which 
  formerly belonged to them are observed to stir and change their 
  place, without any person's being seen to touch them. And, the 
  only remedy in these cases, is to cut off the head, and burn the 
  body of the persons that are supposed to appear. 
   
   
   Magic: Short for " magic art, " from Greek magein the science and 
  religion of the priests of Zoroaster; or, according to Skeat, from 
  Greek megas, great, thus signifying the great " science. 
   
  History  - The earliest traces of magical practice are found in the 
  European eaves of the middle Palaeolithic Age. These belong to 
  the last interglacial period of the Pleistocene period, which has 
  
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  been named the Aurignacian, after the cave - dwellers of Aurignac, 
  whose skeletons, artifacts and drawings link them with the 
  Bushmen of South Africa. In the cave of Gargas, near Bagneres de 
  Luchon, occur, in addition to spirited and realistic drawings of 
  animals, numerous imprints of human hands in various stages of 
  mutilation. Some hands had been first smeared with a. sticky 
  substance and then pressed on the rock; others had been held in 
  position to be dusted round with red ochre, or black pigment. Most 
  of the imprinted hands have mutilated fingers; in some cases the 
  first and second joints of one or more fingers are wanting; in others 
  the stumps only of all fingers remain. A close study of the hand 
  imprints makes it evident that they are not to be regarded as those 
  of lepers. There can be little doubt that the joints were removed for 
  a specific purpose, and on this point there is general agreement 
  among anthropologists. A clue to the mystery is obtained by the 
  magical custom among the Bushmen of similarly removing finger 
  joints. Mr. G. W. Stow in his The Native Races of South Africa 
  makes reference to this strange form of sacrifice. He once came 
  into contact with a number of Bushmen who "had all lost the first 
  joint of the little finger " which had been removed with a " stone 
  knife " with purpose to ensure a safe journey to the spirit world. 
  Another writer tells of an old Bushman woman whose little fingers 
  of both hands had been mutilated, three joints in all having been 
  removed. She explained that each joint had been sacrificed as a 
  daughter died to express her sorrow. No doubt, however, there was 
  a deeper meaning in the custom than she cared to confess. F. Boas 
  in his Report on the N.W. Tribes of Canada gives evidence of the 
  custom among these peoples. When frequent deaths resulted from 
  disease, the Canadian Indians were wont to sacrifice the joints of 
  their little fingers so as, they explained, " to cut off the deaths." 
  Among the Indian Madigas (Telugu Pariahs) the evil eye is averted 
  by sacrificers who dip their hands in the blood of goats or sheep 
  and impress them on either side of a house door. This custom is 
  not unknown even to Brahmans. Impressions of hands are also 
  occasionally seen on the walls of Indian Mohammedan mosques. 
  As among the N.W. Canadian tribes, the hand ceremony is most 
  frequently practised in India when epidemics make a heavy toll of 
  lives. The Bushmen also remove finger joints when stricken with 
  sickness. In Australia, where during initiation ceremonies the 
  young men have teeth knocked out and bodies scarred, the women 
  of some tribes mutilate the little fingers of daughters with purpose 
  to influence their future careers. Apparently the finger chopping 
  customs, of Palaeolithic times had a magical significance. On some 
  of the paintings in the Aurignacian eaves appear symbol which 
  suggest the slaying with spears and cutting up oil animals. 
  Enigmatical signs are another feature. Of special interest are the 
  figures of animal - headed demons, some with hands upraised in 
  the Egyptian attitude of adoration, and others apparently dancing 
  like the animal headed dancing gods of the Bushmen. In the 
  Marclonlas. Palaeolithic cave there are semi - human faces of 
  angry demons with staring eyes and monstrous noses. In the 
  Spanish Cave at Cogul several figures of women wearing half - 
  length skirts and s6ulder shawls, are represented dancing round a 
  nude male. So closely do these females resemble such as usually 
  appear in Bushmen paintings that they might well, but for their 
  location, be credited to, this interesting people. Religious dances 
  among the Bushman tribes are associated with marriage, birth and 
  burial ceremonies; they are also performed to exorcise demons in 
  cases of sickness. " Dances are to us what prayers are to you, " an 
  elderly Bushman once informed a European., Whether the cave 
  drawings and wood, bone and ivory carvings of the Magdalenian, or 
  late Palaeolithic period at the close of the last ice epoch, are of 
  magical significance is a problem on which there is no general 
  agreement. It is significant to find, however, that several carved 
  ornaments bearing animal figures or enigmatical signs are 
  perforated as if worn as charms. On a piece of horn found at 
  Lorthet, Hautes Pyrenees, are beautiful incised drawings of 
  reindeer and salmon' above which appear mystical symbols. An 
  ape - like demon carved on bone was found at Mas d'Azil: on a 
  reindeer horn from Laugenic Basse a prostrate man with a tail is 
  creeping up on all fours towards a grazing bison. These are some of 
  the instances which lend colour to the view that late Palaeolithic 
  art had its origin in magical beliefs and practices - that hunters 
  carved on the handles of weapons and implements, or scratched on 
  cave walls, the images of the animals they desired to capture - 
  sometimes with the secured co - operation of demons, and 
  sometimes with the aid of magical spells. 
   
  Coming to historic times we know that the ancient Egyptians (See 
  Egypt) possessed a highly -  developed magical system, as did the 
  Babylonians (See Semites), and other pristine civilizations. Indeed 
  from these the medieval European system of magic was finally 
  evolved. Greece and Rome (both of which see) also possessed 
  distinct national systems, which in some measure were branches of 
  their religions; and thus like the Egyptian and Babylonian were 
  preserves of the priesthood. 
   
  Magic in early Europe was, of course, merely an appendage of the 
  various religious systems which obtained throughout that 
  continent; and it was these systems which later generated into 
  witchcraft (q.v.) But upon the foundation of Christianity, the 
  church soon began to regard the practice of magic as foreign to the 
  spirit of its religion. Thus the Thirty - sixth Canon of the 
  (Ecumenical Council held at Laodicea in 364 A.D. forbids clerks 
  and priests to become magicians, enchanters, mathematicians or 
  astrologers. It orders, moreover, that the Church shall expel from 
  its bosom those who employ ligatures or phylacteries, because it 
  says phylacteries are the prisons of the soul. The Fourth Canon of 
  the Council of Oxia, A.D. 525, prohibited the consultation of 
  sorcerers, augurs, diviners, and divinations made with wood or 
  bread; and the Sixtieth Canon of the Council of Constantinople 
  A.D. 692, excommunicated for a period of six years diviners, and 
  those who had recourse to them. The prohibition was repeated by 
  the Council of Rome in 721. The Forty - second Canon of the 
  Council of Tours in 613 is to the effect that the priests shall teach 
  to the people the inefficacy of magical practices to restore the 
  health of men or animals, and later Councils practically endorsed 
  the church's earlier views. 
   
  It does not appear, however, that what may be called mediaeval 
  magic " took final and definite shape until about the twelfth 
  century. Modelled upon the systems in vogue among the 
  Byzantines and Moors of Spain, which were evolved from the 
  Alexandrian system, what might be called the " oriental " type of 
  magic gained footing in Europe, and quite superseded the earlier 
  and semi - barbarian systems in use among the various countries of 
  that continent, most of which, as has been said, were the relics of 
  older pagan practice and ritual. To these relics clung the witch and 
  the wizard and the professors of lesser magic; whereas among the 
  disciples of the imported system we find the magician - black and 
  white, the necromancer and the sorcerer. The manner in which the 
  theosophy and the magic of the East was imported was probably 
  two - fold; first, there is good evidence that it was imported into 
  Europe by persons returning from the Crusades; and secondly, we 
  know that in matters of wisdom Byzantium fell heir to Alexandria, 
  and that from Constantinople magic was disseminated throughout 
  Europe, along with other sciences. It is not necessary to deal in the 
  course of this article with the history of witchcraft and lesser 
  
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  sorcery, as that has already been done in the article witchcraft " 
  (q.v, ); and we will confine ourselves strictly to the history of the 
  higher branches of magic. But it is competent to remark that 
  Europe had largely obtained its magical practices from the orient 
  through Christianity, from Jewish and early Semitic sources; and it 
  is an open question' how far eastern demonology coloured that of 
  the Catholic Church. 
   
  Mediaeval magic of the higher type has practically no landmarks 
  save a series of great names. Its tenets experienced but little 
  alteration during six centuries. From the eighth to the thirteenth 
  century, there does not appear to have been much persecution of 
  the professors of magic, but after that period the opinions of the 
  church underwent a radical change, and the life of the magus was 
  fraught with considerable danger. However, it is pretty clear that 
  he was not victimised in the same manner as his lesser brethren, 
  the sorcerers and wizards; but we find Paracelsus consistently 
  baited by the medical profession of his day, Agrippa constantly 
  persecuted, and even mystics like Boehme imprisoned and ill - 
  used. It is difficult at this distance to estimate the enormous vogue 
  that magic experienced, whether for good or evil during the middle 
  ages. Although severely punished, if discovered or if its professors 
  became sufficiently notorious to court persecution, the power it 
  seems to have conferred upon them was eagerly sought by scores of 
  people - the majority of whom were quite unfitted for its practice, 
  and clumsily betrayed themselves into the hands of the authorities. 
  In the article entitled " Black Magic, " we have outlined the history 
  of that lesser magic known as sorcery or " black magic, " and there 
  have shown what persecutions overtook those who practised it. 
   
  As has already been mentioned, the history of higher magic in 
  Europe is a matter of great names, and these are somewhat few. 
  They do not include alchemists, who are strictly speaking not 
  magicians, as their application of arcane laws was particular and 
  not universal; but this is not to say that some alchemists were not 
  also magicians. The two great names which stand out in the history 
  of European magic are those of Paracelsus and Agrippa, who 
  formulated the science of mediaeval  - magic in its entirety. They 
  were also the greatest practical magicians of the middle ages, as 
  apart from pure mystics, alchemists and others, and their 
  thaumaturgic and necromantic experiences were probably never 
  surpassed. With these mediaeval magic comes to a close and the 
  further history of the science in Europe will be found outlined in 
  the division of this article entitled " Modern Magic." 
   
  Scientific Theories regarding the Nature of Magic. General 
  agreement as to the proper definition of magic is wanting, as it 
  depends upon the view taken of religious belief. According to 
  Frazer, magic and religion are one and the same thing, or are so 
  closely allied as to be almost identical. This may be true of peoples 
  in a savage or barbarian condition of society, but can scarcely 
  apply to magic and religion as fully fledged, as for example in 
  mediaeval times, however fundamental may be their original unity. 
  The objective theory of magic would regard it as entirely distinct 
  from religion, possessed of certain well - marked attributes, and 
  traceable to mental processes differing from those from which the 
  religious idea springs. Here and there the two have become fused 
  by the super - imposition of religious upon magical practice.  - The 
  objective idea of magic, in short, rests on the belief that it is based 
  on magical laws which are supposed to operate with the regularity 
  of those of natural science. The subjective view, on the other hand, 
  is that many practices seemingly magical are in reality religious, 
  and that no rite can be called magical which is not so designated 
  by its celebrant or agent. It has been said that religion consists of 
  an appeal to the gods, whereas magic is the attempt to force their 
  compliance. Messrs. Hubert and Mauss believe that magic is 
  essentially traditional. Holding as they do that the primitive mind 
  is markedly unoriginal, they have satisfied themselves that magic 
  is therefore an art which does not exhibit any frequent changes 
  amongst primitive folk, and is fixed by its laws. Religion, they say, 
  is official and organised, magic prohibited and secret. Magical 
  power appears to them to be determined by the contiguity, 
  Similarity and contrast of the object of the act, and the object to be 
  effected. Frazer believes all magic to be based on the law of 
  sympathy - that is the assumption that things act on one another at 
  a distance because of their being secretly. linked together by 
  invisible bonds. He divides sympathetic magic into homeopathic 
  magic and contagious magic. The first is imitative or mimetic, and 
  may be practised by itself; but the latter usually necessitates the 
  application of the imitative principle. Well known instances of 
  mimetic magic are the forming of wax figures in the likeness of an 
  enemy, which are destroyed in the hope that he will perish. 
  Contagious magic may be instanced by the savage anointing the 
  weapon which caused a wound instead of the wound itself, in the 
  belief that the blood on the weapon continues to feel with the blood 
  on the body. Mr. L. Marillier divides magic into three classes: the 
  magic of the word or act; the magic of the human being 
  independent of rite or formula; and the magic which demands a 
  human being of special powers and the use of ritual. Mr. A. 
  Lehmann believes magic to be a practice of superstition, and 
  founds it in illusion. The fault of all these theories is that they 
  strive after too great an exactness, and that they do not allow 
  sufficiently for the feeling of wonder and awe which is native to the 
  human mind. Indeed they designate this " strained attention." We 
  may grant that the attention of savages to a magical rite is " 
  strained, " so strained is it in some cases that it terrifies them into 
  insanity; and it would seem therefore as if the limits of " attention " 
  were overpassed. and as if it shaded into something very much 
  deeper. Moreover it is just possible that in future it may be granted 
  that so - called sympathetic magic does not partake of the nature of 
  magic at all, but has greater affinities (owing to its strictly natural 
  and non - supernatural character) with pseudoscience. 
   
  Magic is recognised by many savage peoples as a force rather than 
  an art, - a thing which impinges upon the thought of man from 
  outside. It would appear that many barbarian tribes believe in what 
  would seem to be a great reservoir of magical power, the exact 
  nature of which they are not prepared to specify. Thus amongst 
  certain American - Indian tribes we find a force called Orenda or 
  spiritforce. Amongst the ancient Peruvians, everything sacred was 
  huaca and possessed of magical power. In Melanesia, we find a 
  force spoken of called mana, transmissible and contagious, which 
  may be seen in the form of flames or even heard. The Malays use 
  the word kramat to signify the same thing; and the Malagasy the 
  term hasma, Some of the tribes round Lake Tanganyika believe in 
  such a force, which they call ngai, and Australian tribes have many 
  similar terms, such as churinga and boolya. To hark back to 
  America, we find in Mexico the strange creed named nagualism, 
  which partakes of the same conception - everything nagual is 
  magical or possesses an inhere - it spiritual force of its own. 
   
  Theories of. the Origin of Magic - Many theories have been 
  advanced regarding the origin of magic - some authorities 
  believing that it commenced with the idea of personal superiority; 
  others through animistic beliefs (See Animism); and still others 
  through such ideas as that physical pains, for which the savage 
  
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  could not account, were supposed to be inflicted by invisible 
  weapons. This last theory is, of course, in itself, merely animistic. 
  It does not seem, however, that writers on the subject have given 
  sufficient attention to the great influence exerted on the mind of 
  man by odd or peculiar occurrences. We do not for a moment care 
  to advance the hypothesis that magic entirely originated from such 
  a source, but we believe that it was a powerful factor in the growth 
  of magical belief. To which, too, animism and taboo contributed 
  their quota. The cult of the dead too and their worship would soon 
  become fused with magical practice, and a complete demonology 
  would thus speedily arise. 
   
  The Dynamics of Magic - Magical practice is governed by well - 
  marked laws limited in number. It possesses many classes of 
  practitioner; as, for example, the diviner or augur, whose duties ate 
  entirely different from those of the witch - doctor. Chief among 
  these laws, as has been already hinted, is that of sympathy, which, 
  as has been said, must inevitably be sub - divided into the laws of 
  similarity, contiguity and antipathy. The law of similarity and 
  homeopathy is again divisible into two sections: (i) - the 
  assumption that like produces like - an illustration of which is the 
  destruction of a model in the form of an enemy; and (2) - the idea 
  that like cures like - for instance, that the stone called the 
  bloodstone can staunch the flow of bleeding. The law dealing I 
  with antipathy rests on the assumption that the application of a 
  certain object or drug expels its contrary. There remains 
  contiguity, which is based on the concept that whatever has once 
  formed part of an object continues to form part of it. Thus if a 
  magician can obtain a portion of a person's hair, he can work woe 
  upon him through the invisible bonds which are supposed to 
  extend between him and the hair in the sorcerer's possession. It is 
  well - known that if the animal familiar of a witch be wounded, that 
  the wound will react in a sympathetic manner on the witch herself. 
  This is called " repercussion." 
   
  Another widespread belief is that if the magician procures the 
  name of a person that he can gain magical dominion over him. 
  This, of course, arose from the idea that the name of an individual 
  was identical with himself. The doctrine of the Incommunicable 
  Name, the hidden name of the god or magician, is well instanced 
  by many legends in Egyptian history, - the deity usually taking 
  extraordinary care to keep his name secret, in order that no one 
  might gain power over him. The spell or incantation is connected 
  with this concept, and with these, in a lesser degree, may be 
  associated magical gesture, which is usually introduced for the 
  purpose of accentuating the spoken word. Gesture is often 
  symbolic or sympathetic; it is sometimes the reversal of a religious 
  rite, such as marching against the sun, which is known as walking 
  " widdershins." The method of pronouncing rites is, too, one of 
  great importance. Archaic or foreign expressions are usually found 
  in spells ancient and modern; and the tone in which the 
  incantation is spoken, no less than its exactness, is also important. 
  To secure exactness rhythm was often employed, which had the 
  effect of aiding memory. 
   
  The Magician. - In early society, the magician, which term 
  includes the shaman, medicine - man, piage, witchdoctor, et 
  cetera, may hold his position by hereditary right; by an accident of 
  birth, as being the seventh son of a seventh son; to revelation from 
  the gods; or through mere mastery of ritual. In savage life we find 
  the shaman a good deal of a medium, for instead of summoning the 
  powers of the air at his bidding as did the magicians of medieval 
  days, he seems to find it necessary to throw himself into a state of 
  trance and seek them in their own sphere. The magician is also 
  often regarded as possessed by an animal or supernatural being. 
  The duties of the priest and magician are often combined in 
  primitive society, but it cannot be too strongly asserted that where 
  a religion has been superseded, the priests of the old cult are, for 
  those who have taken their places, nothing but magicians. We do 
  not hear much of beneficent magic among savage peoples, and it is 
  only in Europe that White Magic may be said to have gained any 
  hold. 
   
  Mediaeval Definition of Magic. - The definitions of magic 
  vouchsafed by the great magicians of medieval and modern times 
  naturally differ greatly from those of anthropologists. 
   
   For example Eliphas Levi says in his History of Magic: " Magic 
  combines in a single science that which is most certain in 
  philosophy with that which is eternal, and infallible in religion. It 
  reconciles perfectly an incontestably those two terms so opposed 
  on the firs view - faith and reason, science and belief, authority an 
  liberty. It furnishes the human mind with an instrument of 
  philosophical and religious certainty, as exact as mathematics, and 
  even accounting for the infallibility of mathematics themselves 
  There is an incontestable truth 
  and there is an infallible method of knowing that truth while those 
  who attain this knowledge and adopt it as rule of life, can endow 
  their life with a sovereign power which can make them masters of 
  all inferior things, o wandering spirits, or in other words, arbiters 
  and kings o the world." Paracelsus says regarding magic: " The 
  magical is a great hidden wisdom, and reason is a great open folly. 
  No armour shields against magic for it strike, at the inward spirit of 
  life. Of this we may rest assured that through full and powerful 
  imagination only can w bring the spirit of any man into an image. 
  No conjuration no rites are needful; circle - making and the 
  scattering o incense are mere humbug and jugglery. The human 
  spirit is so great a thing that no man can express it; eternal an 
  unchangeable as God Himself is the mind of man; an could we 
  rightly comprehend the mind of man, nothing would be impossible 
  to us upon the earth. Through fait the imagination is invigorated 
  and completed, for it really happens that every doubt mars its 
  perfection. Faith must strengthen imagination, for faith establishes 
  the will Because man did not perfectly believe and imagine, the 
  result is that arts are uncertain when they might be wholly certain." 
  Agrippa also regarded magic as the true road to communion with 
  God - thus linking it with mysticism. 
   
  Modern Magic: With the death of Agrippa in 1535 the old school 
  of magicians may be said to have ended. But that is not to say that 
  the traditions of magic were not handed on to others who were 
  equally capable of preserving them We must carefully discriminate 
  at this juncture between those practitioners of magic whose minds 
  were illuminated by a high mystical ideal, and persons of doubtful 
  occult position, like the Comte de Saint - Germain and others. At 
  the beginning of the seventeenth century we find many great 
  alchemists in practice, who were also devoted to the researches of 
  transcendental magic, which they carefully and successfully 
  concealed under the veil of hermetic experiment. These were 
  Michael Meyer, Campe, Robert Flood, Cosmopolite, D'Espagnet, 
  Samuel Norton, Baron de Beausoleil, and Van Helmont; another 
  illustrious name is also that of Philalethes. The eighteenth century 
  was rich in occult personalities, as for example the alchemist 
  Lascaris (q.v.) Martines de Pasqually, and Louis de SaintMartin 
  (q.v.) who founded the Martinist school, which still exists under 
  the grandmastership of Papus. After this magic merges for the 
  moment into mesmerism, and many of the secret magical societies 
  which abounded in Europe about this period practised animal 
  
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  magnetism as well as astrology, Kabalism and ceremonial magic. 
  Indeed mesmerism powerfully influenced mystic life in the time of 
  its chief protagonist, and the mesmerists of the first era are in 
  direct line with the Martinist and the mystical magicians of the late 
  eighteenth century. Indeed mysticism and magnetism are one and 
  the same thing, in the persons of some of these occultists (See 
  Secret Tradition) the most celebrated of which were Cazotte, 
  Ganneau, Comte, Wronski, Du Potet, Hennequin, Comte 
  d'Ourches, and Baron die Guldenstubbe, and last of the initiates 
  known to us, Eliplias Levi (all of which see). 
   
  That Black Magic and sorcery are still practised is a well - known 
  fact, which requires no amplification in this 
  place: but what of that higher magic which has, at least in modern 
  times attracted so many gifted minds ? We cannot say that the true 
  line of magical adepts ended with Levi, as at no time in the world's 
  history are these known to the vulgar; but we may be certain that 
  the great art is practised in secret as sedulously as ever in the past, 
  and that men of temperament as exalted as in the case of the 
  magicians of older days still privately pursue that art, which, like 
  its sister religion, is none the less celestial because it has been 
  evolved from lowly origins in the mind of man, whose spirit with 
  the match of time reflects ever more strongly the light of heaven, as 
  the sea at first dimly reddened by the dawn, at length mirrors the 
  whole splendour of day. 
   
  Magic Darts: The Laplanders, who passed at one time for great 
  magicians, were said to launch lead darts, about a finger - length, 
  against their absent enemies, believing that with the magic darts 
  they were sending grevious pains and maladies. (See Magic.) 
   
   Magical Diagrams: These were geometrical designs, representing 
  the mysteries of deity and creation, therefore supposed to be of 
  special virtue in rites of evocation and conjuration. 
   
  The chief of these were the Triangle, the Double Triangle, forming 
  a six - pointed star and known as the Sign or Seal of Solomon; the 
  Tetragram a four - pointed star formed by the interlacement of two 
  pillars; and the Pentagram, a five - pointed star. 
   
  These signs were traced on paper or parchment, or engraved on 
  metals and glass and consecrated to their various uses by special 
  rites. 
   
  The Triangle was based on the idea of trinity as found in all things, 
  in deity, time and creation. The triangle was generally traced on 
  the ground with the magic sword or rod, as in circles of evocation 
  where the triangle was drawn within it and according to the 
  position of the magician at its point or base so the spirits were 
  conjured from heaven or hell. 
   
  The Double Triangle, the Sign of Solomon, symbolic of the 
  Macrocosm, was formed by the interlacement of two triangles, thus 
  its points constituted the perfect number six. The magicians wore 
  it, bound on their brows and breasts during the ceremonies and it 
  was engraved on the silver reservoir of the magic lamp. 
   
  The Tetragram was symbolic of the four elements and used in the 
  conjuration of the elementary spirits - sylphs of the air, undines of 
  the water, the fire salamanders and gnomes of the earth. In 
  alchemy it represented the magical elements, salt, sulphur, 
  mercury and azoth; in mystic philosophy the ideas Spirit, Matter, 
  Motion and Rest; in hieroglyphs the man, eagle, lion and bull. 
   
  'I he Pentagram, the sign of the Microcosm, was held to be the 
  most powerful means of conjuration in any rite. It may represent 
  evil as well as good, for while with one point in the ascendant it 
  was the sign of Christ, with two points iii the ascendant it was the 
  sign of Satan. By the use of the pentagram in these positions the 
  powers of light or darkness were evoked. The pentagram was said 
  to be the star which led the Magi to the manger where the infant 
  Christ was laid. 
   
  'lhe preparation and consecration of this sign for use in magical 
  rites is prescribed with great detail. It might be composed of seven 
  metals, the ideal form for its expression; or traced in pure gold 
  upon white marble, never before used for any purpose. It might 
  also be drawn with vermilion upon lambskin without a blemish 
  prepared under the auspice3 of the Sun. The sign was next 
  consecrated with the four elements; breathed on five times; dried 
  by the smoke of five perfumes, incense, myrrh, aloes, sulphur and 
  camohor. The names of five genii were breathed above it, and then 
  the sign was placed successively at the north, south, east and west 
  and centre of the astronomical cross pronouncing the letters of the 
  sacred tetragram and various Kabalistic names. 
   
  It was believed to be of great efficacy in terrifying phantoms if 
  engraved upon glass, and the magicians traced it on their doorsteps 
  to prevent evil spirits from entering and the good from departing. 
   
  This symbol has been used by all secret and occult societies, by 
  the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, down to the Freemasons of to - 
  day. Modern Occultists translate the meaning of the pentagram as 
  symbolic of the human soul and its relation to God. 
   
  The symbol is placed with one point in the ascendant. That point 
  represents the Great Spirit, God. A line drawn from there to the left 
  - hand angle at base is the descent of spirit into matter in its lowest 
  form, whence it ascends to right - hand angle typifying matter in its 
  highest form, the brain of man. From here a line is drawn across 
  the figure to left angle representing man's development in intellect, 
  and progress in material civilization, the point of danger, from 
  which all nations have fallen into moral corruption, signified by the 
  descent of the line to right angle at base. But the soul of man being 
  derived from God cannot remain at this point, but must struggle 
  upward, as is symbolised by the line reaching again to the apex, 
  God, whence it issued. 
   
  Magical Instruments and Accessories: In magical rites these were 
  considered of the utmost importance. Indispensable to the efficacy 
  of the ceremonies were the altar, the chalice, the tripod, the 
  censer; the lamp, rod, sword, and magic fork or trident; the sacred 
  fire and consecrated oils; the incense and the candles. 
   
  The altar might be of wood or stone, but if of the latter, theft of 
  stone that has never been worked or hewn or even touched by the 
  hammer. 
   
  The chalice might be of different metals, symbolic of the object of 
  the rites. Where the purpose was evil, a black chalice was used as 
  in the profane masses of sorcerers and witches. In some talismans 
  the chalice is engraved as a symbol of the moon. 
   
  The tripod and its triangular stand was also made in symbolic 
  metals. 
   
  
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  The censer might be of bronze, but preferably of silver. 
   
  In the construction of the lamp, gold, silver, brass and iron must be 
  used, iron for the pedestal, brass for the mirror, silver for the 
  reservoir and at the apex a golden triangle. Various symbols were 
  traced upon it, including an androgynous figure about the pedestal, 
  a serpent devouring its, own tail, and the Sign of Solomon. 
   
  The rod must be specially fashioned of certain woods and then 
  consecrated to its magical uses. A perfectly straight branch of 
  almond or hazel was to be chosen. This was cut before the tree 
  blossomed, and cut with a golden sickle in the early dawn. 
  Throughout its length must be run a long needle of magnetized 
  iron; at one end there should be affixed a triangular prism, to the 
  other, one of black resin, and rings of copper and zinc bound about 
  it. At the new moon it must be consecrated by a magician who 
  already possesses a consecrated rod. 
   
  The secret of the construction and consecration of magical rods 
  was jealously guarded by all magicians and the rod itself was 
  displayed as little as possible, being usually concealed in the 
  flowing sleeve of the magician's robe. 
   
  The sword must be wrought of unalloyed steel, with copper handle 
  in the form of a crucifix. Mystical signs were engraved on guard 
  and blade and its consecration took place on a Sunday in full 
  rays~ of the sun, when the sword was thrust into a sacred fire of 
  cypress and laurel, then moistened with the blood of a snake, 
  polished, and next, together with branches of vervain, swathed in 
  silk. The sword was generally used in the service of Black Magic. 
   
  The magic fork or trident used in necromancy was also fashioned 
  of hazel or almond, cut from the tree at one blow with an unused 
  knife, from whose blade must - be fashioned the three prongs. 
  Witches and sorceresses are usually depicted using the trident in 
  their infernal rites. 
   
  The fire was lit with charcoal on which were cast branches of trees, 
  symbolic of the end desired. In Black Magic these generally 
  consisted of cypress, alderwood, broken crucifixes and desecrated 
  hosts. 
   
  Oil for anointing mon, galingale and purest oil of Olive. Unguents 
  were used by sorcerers and witches, who smeared their brows, 
  breasts and wrists with a mixture composed of human fat and blood 
  of corpses, combined with aconite, belladonna and poisonous 
  fungi, thinking thereby to make themselves invisible. 
   
  Incense might be of any odoriferous woods and herbs, such as 
  cedar, rose, citron, aloes, cinnamon, sandal, reduced to a fine 
  powder, together with incense and storax. In Black Magic, alum, 
  sulphur and asafetida were used as incense. 
   
  The candles, belonging solely to practices of Black Magic were 
  moulded from human fat and set in candlesticks of ebony carved in 
  the form of a crescent. 
   
  Bowls also were used in these ceremonies, fashioned of different 
  metals, their shape symbolic of the heavens. In necromantic rites 
  skulls of criminals were used, generally to hold the blood of some 
  victim or sacrifice. 
   
  Magical Numbers: Certain numbers and their combination were 
  held to be of magical power, by virtue of their representation of 
  divine and creative mysteries. 
   
  The doctrines of Pythagoras furnished the basis for much of this 
  belief. According to his theory  - numbers contained the elements 
  of all things, of the natural and spiritual worlds and of the 
  sciences. The real numerals of the universe are the primaries one 
  to ten and in their combination the reason of all else may be found. 
  To, the Pythagoreans One represented unity, therefore God; Two 
  was duality, the Devil; Four was sacred and holy, the number on 
  which they swore their most solemn oaths; Five was their symbol of 
  marriage. They also attributed certain numbers to the gods, planets 
  and elements; one represented the Sun, two the Moon; while five 
  was fire, six the earth, eight the air, and twelve water. 
   
  Cornelius Agrippa in his Work Occult Philosophy published in 
  1533, discourses upon numbers as those characters by whose 
  proportion all things were formed. He enumerates the virtues of 
  numerals as displayed in nature, instancing the herb cinquefoil, 
  which by the power of the number five exorcises devils, allays 
  fever and forms an antidote to poisons. Also the virtue of seven as 
  in the power of the seventh son to cure king's evil. 
   
  One was the origin and common measure of all things. It is 
  indivisible not to be multiplied. In the universe there is one God 
  one supreme intelligence in the intellectual world, man in the 
  sidereal world, one Sun; one potent instrument and agency in the 
  elementary world, the philosopher's stone; one chief member in the 
  human world, the heart; and one sovereign prince in the nether 
  world, Lucifer. 
   
  Two was the number of marriage, charity and social communion. It 
  was also regarded sometimes as an unclean number; beasts of the 
  field went into the Ark by twos.  
   
  Three had a mysterious value as shown in Time's trinity  - Past, 
  Present and Future; in that of Space - length, breadth and 
  thickness; in the three heavenly virtues faith, hope and charity; in 
  the three worlds of man brain, the intellectual; heart, the celestial; 
  and body, elemental. 
   
  Four signifies solidity and foundation. There are four 3easons, four 
  elements, four cardinal points, four evangelists. 
   
  Five, as it divides ten, the sum of all numbers, is also the number 
  of justice. There are five senses; the Stigmata, the wounds of Christ 
  were five; the name of the Deity the Pentagram is composed of five 
  letters; it also is a protection against beasts of prey. 
   
  Six is the sign of creation, because the world was completed in six 
  days. It is the perfect number, because it alone by addition of its 
  half, its third and its sixth reforms itself. It also represents 
  servitude by reason of the Divine injunction " Six days shalt thou 
  labour." 
   
  Seven is a miraculous number, consisting of one, unity, and six, 
  sign of perfection. It represents life because it contains body, 
  consisting of four elements, spirit, flesh, bone and humour; and 
  soul, made up of three elements, passion, desire and reason. The 
  seventh day was that on which God rested from his work of 
  creation. 
   
  
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  Eight represents justice and fullness. Divided, its halves are equal; 
  twice divided, it is still even. In the Beatitude eight is the number 
  of those mentioned - peace - makers, they who strive after 
  righteousness, the meek, the persecuted, the poor, the merciful, 
  the poor in spirit, and they that mourn. 
   
  Nine is the number of the muses and of the moving spheres. 
   
  Ten is completeness because one cannot count beyond it except by 
  combinations formed with other numbers. In the ancient mysteries 
  ten days of initiation were prescribed. In ten is found evident signs 
  of a Divine principle. 
   
  Eleven is the number of the commandments, while Twelve is the 
  number of signs in the Zodiac, of the apostles, of the tribes of 
  Israel, of the gates of Jerusalem. 
   
  This theory of numbers Agrippa applied to the casting of 
  horoscopes. Divination by numbers was one of the favourite 
  methods employed in the Middle Ages. 
   
  In magical rites, numbers played a great part. The instruments, 
  vestments and ornaments must be duplicated. The power of the 
  number three is found in the magic triangle: in the three prongs of 
  the trident and fork; and in the threefold repetition of names in 
  conjurations. Seven was also of great influence, the seven days of 
  the week each representing the period most suitable for certain 
  evocations and these corresponded to the seven magical works; 1. - 
  works of light and riches; 2 - works of divination and mystery; 3 - 
  works of skill, science and eloquence; 4 - works of wrath and 
  chastisement 5 - works of love; 6 - works of ambition and intrigue 
  7 - works of malediction and death. 
   
  Magical Papyri:  "handbooks," on magic in Greek and Demotic 
  collected in late antiquity. Few have been widely published, 
  though some were published by Budge. A look at the contents of 
  this collection reveals a bewildering variety of spells and charms, 
  including, inter alia, rites for acquiring familar spirits, restraining 
  spells against spirits, spells for divination and obtaining of 
  revelations, love charms, numerous healing spells for various 
  ailments, curses (especially to inflict the victim with insomnia), 
  spells for victory at games and competitions, and even 
  contraceptive spells.  These represent the epitome of pre-Christian 
  esoteric learning in the Mediterranean.   
   
  Magical Union of Cologne: A society stated in a MS. of the 
  Rosicrucians at Cologne to have been founded in that city in the 
  year 1115. In the Rosenkreutzey in seiner blosse of Weise it is 
  stated that the initiates wore a triangle as symbolising power, 
  wisdom and love. The more exalted orders amon -  them were 
  called Magos, and these held the greater mysteries of the 
  fraternity. 
   
  Magical Vestments and Appurtenances: These were prescribed 
  needful adjuncts to magical rites, whose colour, name, form and 
  substance, symbolic of certain powers and elements, added, it was 
  supposed, greater efficacy to the evocations. 
   
  Abraham the Jew, a magician of the Mliddle Ages, pre - scribed a 
  tunic of white linen, with upper robe of scarlet and girdle of white 
  silk. A crown or fillet of silk and gold was to be worn on the head 
  and the perfumes cast on the fire might be incense, aloes, storax, 
  cedar, citron or rose. 
   
  According to other authorities on the subject it was advisable to 
  vary colour of robe and employ certain jewels and other 
  accessories according to the. symbolism of the end desired. A 
  magician of the nineteenth century, Eliphas Levi, gives a detailed 
  description of ritual, from which the following is taken. 
   
  If the rites were those of White Magic and performed on a Sunday, 
  then the vestment should be of purple, the tiara, bracelets and ring 
  of gold, the latter set with a chrysolith or ruby. Laurel, heliotrope 
  and sunflowers are the symbolic flowers, while other details 
  include a carpet of lionskins and fans of sparrow - hawk feathers. 
  The appropriate perfumes are incense, saffron, cinnamon and red 
  sandal. 
   
  If, however, the ceremonial took place on a Monday, the Day of the 
  Moon, then the robe must be of white embroidered with silver and 
  the tiara of yellow silk emblazoned with silver characters; while 
  the wreaths were to be woven of moonwort and yellow ranunculi. 
  The jewels appropriate to the occasion were pearls, crystals and 
  selenite; the perfumes, camphor, amber, aloes, white sandal and 
  seed of cucumber. 
   
  In evocations concerning transcendent knowledge, green was the 
  colour chosen for the vestment, or it might be green shot with 
  various colours. The chief ornament was a necklace of pearls and 
  hollow glass beads enclosing mercury. Agate was the symbolic 
  jewel; narcissus, lily, herb mercury, fumitory, and marjoram the 
  flowers; whilst the perfumes must be benzoin, mace and storax. 
   
  For operations connected with religious and political matters, the 
  magician must don a robe of scarlet and bind on his brow a brass 
  tablet inscribed with various characters. His ring must be studded 
  with an emerald or sapphire, and he must burn for incense, balm, 
  ambergris, grain of paradise and saffron. For garlands and wreaths, 
  oak, poplar, fig and pomegranate leaves should be entwined. 
   
  If the ceremonial dealt with amatory affairs, the vestment must be 
  of sky - blue, the ornaments of copper, and the crown of violets. 
  The Magic ring must be set with a turquoise, while the tiara and 
  clasps were wrought of lapis - lazuli and beryl. Roses, myrtle and 
  olive were the symbolic flowers, and fans must be made of 
  swanfeathers. 
   
  If vengeance was desired on anyone, then robes must be worn 
  whose colour was that of blood, flame or rust, belted with steel, 
  with bracelets and ring of the same metal. The tiara must be bound 
  with gold and the wreaths woven of absinthe and rue. 
   
  To bring misfortune and death on a person, the vestment must be 
  black and the neck encircled with lead. The ring must be set with 
  an onyx and the garlands twined of cypress, ash and hellebore; 
  whilst the perfumes to be used were sulphur, scammony, alum and 
  asafetida. 
   
  For purposes of Black Magic, a seamless and sleeveless robe of 
  black was donned, while on the head was worn a leaden cap 
  inscribed with the signs of the Moon, Venus and Saturn. The 
  wreaths were of vervain and cypress; and the perfumes burned 
  were aloes, camphor and storax. 
   
  Maier, Michael: A German Alchemist born at Rindsburg in 
  Holstein about the 1580 He was one of the principal figures in the 
  
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  Rosicrucian controversy in Germany and the greatest adept of his 
  time. He diligently pursued the study of medicine in his youth and 
  settling at Rostock practised with such success that the Emperor 
  Rudolph appointed him as his physician, ennobling him later for 
  his services. Some adepts eventually succeeded in luring him from 
  the practical work he followed so long into the mazy and tortuous 
  paths of alchemy. In order to confer with those whom he suspected 
  were possessed of the transcendent mysteries he travelled all over 
  Germany. The Biographic Univeyselle states that in pursuit of 
  these " ruinous absurdities " he sacrificed his health, fortune and 
  time. On a visit to England he became acquainted with Robert 
  Fludd the Kentish Mystic. 
   
  In the controversy which convulsed Germany on the appearance of 
  his Rosicrucian Manifestoes, he took a vigorous and enthusiastic 
  share and wrote several works in defence of the mysterious society. 
  He is alleged to have travelled in order to seek for members of the 
  " College of Teutonic Philosophers R.C., " and failing to find them 
  formed a brotherhood of his own, based on the form of the Fama I, 
  'Yalernibus. There is no adequate authority for this statement, but 
  it is believed that he eventually, towards the end of. his life, was 
  initiated into the genuine order. A posthumous pamphlet of Maier's 
  called Ulysses was published by one of his personal friends in 
  1624. There was added to the same volume the substance of two 
  pamphlets already published in German but which in view of their 
  importance were now translated into Latin for the benefit of the 
  European literati. The first pamphlet was entitled Colloquium 
  Rhodostauroticum trium personarium per Famem el Confessionem 
  quadamodo revelatain de Fraternitate Rosae Crucis. The second 
  was an Echo Colloquii by Hilarion on behalf of the Rosicrucian 
  Fraternity. From these pamphlets it appears that Maier was 
  admitted as a member of the mystical order. He became the most 
  profuse writer on alchemy of his time. He died in the year 1622. 
  Most of his works, many of which are adorned with curious plates, 
  are obscure with the exception of his Rosicrucian Apologies. (See 
  Rosicrucians.) 
   
  Malleus Malificarum: A large volume published in Germany at the 
  end of the fifteenth century, written by two inquisitors under the 
  papal bull against witchcraft of 1484, Jacob Sprenger and 
  Henricus Institor. Says Natright concerning it: " In this celebrated 
  work, the doctrine of witchcraft. was first reduced to a regular 
  system, and it was the model and groundwork of all that was 
  written on the subject long aftter the date which saw its first 
  appearance. Its writers enter largely into the much - disputed 
  question of the nature of demons; set forth the causes which lead 
  them to seduce men in this manner; and show why women are most 
  prone to listen to their proposals, by reasons, which prove that the 
  inquisitors had but a mean estimate of the softer sex. 
   
  Mananan : Son of the Irish sea-god Lir, magician and owner of 
  strange possessions. His magical galley "Ocean-sweeper " steered 
  by the wishes of its occupant ; his horse Aonban, able to travel on 
  sea or land ; and his sword Fragarach, a match for any mail; were 
  brought by Lugh from "The Land of the Living" (Fairyland), also 
  associated with Hy Breasil. As lord of the sea he was the Irish 
  Charon, and his colour-changing cloak would flap gaily as he 
  marched with heavy tread round the camp of the hostile force 
  invading Erin. He is comparable with the Cymric Manawiddan and 
  resembles the Hellenic Proteus. 
   
  The Marsi a people skilled in magical practices and sorceries able 
  to charm poisonous snakes by the means of song according to 
  Pliny. 
   
  Martian Language : A language purporting to be that of the 
  inhabitants of the planet Mars, written and spoken by the medium 
  known as Holme Smith. Holme, the medium studied by a 
  celebrated investigator, M. Flournoy, professor of psychology at 
  Geneva, had in 1892 joined a spiritualistic circle, where she 
  developed marvellous mediumistic powers. In 1896, after 
  Professor Flournoy had begun his investigations, she was spirited 
  during a trance to the planet Mars, and thereafter described to the 
  circle the manners and customs and appearance of the Martians. 
  She learned their language, which she wrote and spoke with case 
  and consistency. Unlike most of the " unknown tongues " 
  automatically produced the Martian language was intelligible, its 
  words were used consistently, and on the whole it had every 
  appearance of a genuine language.  
   
  Maranos : A Jewish secret -fraternity which arose in Spain in the 
  fourteenth and fifteenth centuries during the persecution of the 
  Hebrew race in that country. Its members met in the greatest 
  secrecy at inns, disguised, and used grips, signs and passwords. 
   
  Materialisation: A term denoting the formation by a spirit of a 
  temporary physical organisation, visible and palpable, by means of 
  which it can come into touch with material objects. Materialisation 
  is the most important of the physical phenomena of spiritualism, 
  and in its earlier stages was confined to the materialising of heads 
  and hands, or vague luminous figures. In common with much of the 
  physical phenomena, it had its origin in America, where it was 
  known at a comparatively early period in the history of the 
  movement. So early as 186o seances were held with the Fox sisters 
  by Robert Dale Owen and others, at which veiled and luminous 
  figures were witnessed. One sitter, Mr. Livermore, saw and 
  recognised the spirit of his dead wife many times during a series of 
  seances with Kate Fox, extending over some six years. In this case, 
  however, there were no other sitters, and the seances were held in 
  the dark, the whole atmosphere being peculiarly favourable to 
  fraud. In 1871 another American medium, Mrs. Andrews, held 
  sittings at which materialised forms were seen, and in the following 
  year Mrs. Guppy and another medium attempted the production of 
  a similar phenomenon in England, but without marked success. 
  The mediums, Herne and Williams, succeeded a few months later 
  in materialising shadowy forms and faces in a dark seanceroom. It 
  was, however, Miss Florence Cook, to whose phenomena Sir 
  William Crookes has so abundantly testified, who was to give the 
  most remarkable demonstration of this form of spirit manifestation. 
  Miss Cook was, at the commencement of her spiritualistic career, a 
  young girt of sixteen or seventeen years, described by a 
  contemporary writer as " a pretty, Jewish - like little girl." She was 
  at that time a private medium, -  though at the outset she held 
  some materialisation seances with Herne. From her childhood, it 
  was said, she had been attended by a spirit girl, who stated that 
  her name on earth had been Annie Morgan, but that her name in 
  the spirit - world was Katie King. Under the latter name Miss 
  Cook's control was destined to become very famous in spiritualistic 
  circles. Usually the medium was put in a sort of cupboard, or 
  cabinet, tied to her chair, and the cords sealed. A short interval 
  would ensue, during which the sitters sang spiritualistic hymns, 
  and at length there would emerge from the cabinet a form clad in 
  flowing white draperies, and not to be distinguished from an 
  ordinary human being. On one occasion a seance was held at Mr. 
  Cook's house, at which several distinguished spiritualists were 
  present. Among the invited guests was Mr. W. Volckman, who 
  thought to test for himself the good faith of the medium and the 
  genuineness of " Katie. -  After some forty minutes close 
  
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  observance of the materialised spirit Mr. Vorckman concluded that 
  Miss Cook and Katie were one and the same, and just as the white 
  - robed figure was about to return to the cabinet he rushed forward 
  and seized her. His indignant fellow - sitters released the " spirit, " 
  the light was extinguished, and in the confusion that, followed. the 
  spirit disappeared. Miss Cook was found a few minutes later bound 
  as when she was placed in the cabinet, the cords unbroken, the 
  seat intact. She wore a black dress, and there was no trace of white 
  draperies in the cabinet. Sir William Crookes, whose investigations 
  into the phenomena of this medium extended over a period of some 
  years, had better opportunity of examining Katie's pretensions than 
  Volckman had, and he had left it on record that the spirit form was 
  taller than the medium, had a larger face and longer fingers; and 
  whereas Florence Cook had black hair and a dark complexion, 
  Katie's complexion was fair, and her hair a light auburn. Moreover 
  Sir William, enjoying as he did the complete confidence of  Katie, 
  had on more than one occasion the privilege of seeing her and Miss 
  Cook at the same time. But Miss Cook was not the only medium 
  who was controlled by Katie King, who, along with her father, John 
  King, became in time a most popular spirit with materialisation 
  mediums. From that time onwards materialisation was extensively 
  practised both by private and professional mediums, among the 
  number being Mrs. Showers and her daughter, Rita, Miss Lottie 
  Fowler, William Eglinton and D. D. Home; while in recent years 
  materializations are stated to have occurred in the presence of 
  Eusapia Palladino. Many sitters claimed to see in these draped 
  figures and veiled faces the form and features of deceased relatives 
  and friends, though frequently there was but the smallest ground 
  for such a claim -  - parents recognised their daughter by her hair, 
  a man recognised his mother by the sort of cap she wore, and so 
  on. There is no doubt that fraud entered, and still enters, very 
  largely into materialisation seances. Lay figures, muslin draperies, 
  false hair, and similar properties have been found in the 
  possession of mediums; accomplices have been smuggled into the 
  seance - room; lights are frequently turned low or extinguished 
  altogether.. Add to this ihe fact that other spirits besides " Katie " 
  have on being grasped resolved themselves into the person of the 
  medium, and it will be seen that scepticism is not altogether 
  unjustified. Then, as already mentioned, the rash and premature 
  recognition of deceased friends in draped forms whose 
  resemblance to the medium is clear to the less - interested 
  observer has also done much to ruin the case for genuine spirit 
  materialisation. Yet that there is a case we must believe on the 
  assertion of some of the most distinguished of modern 
  investigators, men fully alive to the possibilities of fraud, trained to 
  habits of correct observation. M. Flammarion felt constrained to 
  attribute the materialisation he had witnessed in the presence of 
  Eusapia Palladino to fluidic emanations from the medium's person, 
  while judging the recognition accorded to them the result of 
  illusion. Others state that the physical organisation formed by the 
  spirit is composed of fine particles of matter drawn from the 
  material world. By way of explaining the numerous exposures that 
  have been made from time to time various theories of a more or 
  less ingenious character have been advanced by spiritualists. In a 
  case of obvious fraud they declare that the spirits have controlled 
  the medium to secrete wigs and draperies in the cabinet. If a spirit 
  on being held by a sitter proves to be the medium herself an 
  explanation is also forthcoming. The medium, it is said, imparts to 
  the spirit a certain portion of her vital ~energy, so that the spirit 
  may " manifest." When the latter is ruthlessly grasped these two 
  portions of the medium's vital spirits tend to re - unite, so that 
  either the medium will draw the spirit into the cabinet, or the spirit 
  will draw the medium out. 1he reason that the union generally 
  takes place without the cabinet is that the medium has imparted to 
  the control more of her energy than she had retained. 
   
  Mathers, Samuel Lidell MacGregor:  
  Samual Liddel Mathers was born in 1854 at what is now 108 De 
  Beauvoir Road, London, N.I.. His birthday is January the eighth, 
  making him a Capricorn. Mathers claimed to be a descendant of 
  the clan MacGregor and of Highland Scottish blood. Thus, this is 
  why he added the name "MacGregor." Mathers, according to 
  William Butler Yeats, had two ruling passions in his life: "magic 
  and the theory of war." (It is interesting to note that although 
  Mathers studied and wrote about military techniques, he was a 
  strong vegetarian and avid anti-vivasectionist.) 
   
  It was Mathers who made the first English translation of Knorr Von 
  Rosenroth's, "Kabbalah Denudata." This work was commissioned 
  by Dr. Woodman and Dr. Westcott. It was about that time that the 
  first discussions of the Golden Dawn were taking place. Mathers 
  had an additional mentor who probably had the most impact on his 
  life. This was Dr. Anna Kingsford (1846 - 1888), and it was to her 
  that he dedicated the "Kabbalah Unveiled." 
   
  Dr. Anna Kingsford was one of the early fighters for women's 
  rights. This characteristic was adopted by Mathers who demanded 
  that women share equally in all ways in the Golden Dawn. She was 
  also an anti-vivisectionist and a vegetarian. And, at a time when 
  almost every male in English society smoked a pipe or cigar, 
  Mathers was a non-smoker. Without a doubt that Dr. Kingsford, as 
  a friend and as the leader of the Hermetic Society, was of great 
  influence on the young and impressionable MacGregor Mathers. 
   
  Mathers used two mottos in the Golden Dawn. One was his Outer 
  Order motto and was the motto of the entire MacGregor clan. The 
  other comes from a mars talisman. They are respectfully: S.R.M.D. 
  which stands for S' Rioghail Mo Dhrem, meaning "Royal is my 
  race." D.D.C.F. which stands for Deo Duce Comite Ferro, meaning 
  "God as my guide, my companion a sword."  
   
  Mathers dedicated his entire life to the Western Mystery Tradition 
  and to the magical way of life. He was not only the Chief of the 
  Second Order of the Golden Dawn, he was the author of almost all 
  of the important Golden Dawn teachings and documents. He 
  masterfully took a dry system of angelic magic brought forth by the 
  early British Astrologer Dr. John Dee and developed it into what 
  may very well be one of the most powerful magical systems in the 
  world. 
   
  Much of what we know of the Tarot comes from Mathers and his 
  wife. Today, we take the Tarot for granted, but without the ground 
  breaking work of Mathers and the Golden Dawn, our Tarot 
  symbolism might be basic and trite. Also, the Z Documents of the 
  Order were gigantic contributions in the area of magical methods 
  and techniques. To this day, most reputable sources on invocation, 
  skrying, divination etc. borrow from the Z Documents knowingly or 
  unknowingly.  
   
  Mathers was an eccentric. He loved the drama of good ritual. He 
  often dressed in his Highlander garb when working on or with the 
  Celtic pantheon, and was associated with the Little World (q.v.). 
  Later, he would change his living decor to Egyptian as he 
  produced the public invocation to Isis in Paris as an exhibition for 
  the 1900 World's Fair. These invocations were very successful, 
  and it was Mathers who brought forth the Egyptian pantheon into 
  
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  the Golden Dawn. 
   
  Mathers was able to read and translate English, Hebrew, Latin, 
  French, Celtic, Coptic and Greek.  
  His works include: Practical Instruction in Infantry Campaigning 
  Exercise (1884), The Tarot: A Short Treatise on Reading Cards 
  (French), The Fall of Granada: A Poem in Six Duans (1885)  The 
  Qabbalah Unveiled (1888) - Originally in Chaldee, but Mathers 
  translated the seventeenth century version of the Kabbala Dunatta 
  by Knorr Von Rosenroth from Latin, Egyptian Symbolism 
  (Published in Paris), The Grimoire of Armadel, The Tarot, Its 
  Occult Significance and Methods of Play (1888), The Key of 
  Solomon the King: Clavicula Solomonis (1889), The Sacred Magic 
  of Abramelin the Mage (1896) (See Abraham the Jew)  
   
  Mathers has been much maligned by authors such as Aliester 
  Crowley. Even many modern authors have portrayed a negative 
  view of him. However, many of these authors had connections to 
  organizations that broke away from Mathers and the Golden Dawn. 
   
  S.L. MacGregor Mathers, in many ways, remains somewhat of a 
  private individual. No one really knows how he died. Violet Firth 
  (Dion Fortune) claimed it was from the Spanish Influenza of 1918, 
  but at best this is probably just a guess on her part. His wife, 
  Moina Mathers claimed he was coherent right up unto the time of 
  his death and that exhaustion from years of work with the secret 
  Chiefs of the Third Order was responsible.  
   
  Mathers, Moina:  Born Mina Bergson on February 28, 1865, in 
  Geneva, Switzerland. She was the fourth out of seven children. Her 
  parents, Michel Gabriel Bergson and Katherine Levison, were an 
  Irish-Jewish couple who migrated from Dublin, Paris; and it was 
  probably from her mother that Moina adopted her inclination 
  towards the spiritual. Due to her father's fervent search for 
  opportunity in which he could support his growing family by 
  utilizing his musical talents, Moina was but two-and-a-half years 
  old when they returned to Paris. However, even after seven years of 
  hard work, Paris failed in providing a constant job, which resulted 
  in the family moving again, but this time permanently, to a London 
  suburb in 1873. 
    
  Though art had always been an interest and a talent to Moina, it 
  was not until the age of 15 that she actually decided to study and 
  refine her ability. She attended Slade High School, and it was here 
  that she became best friends with the famous Annie Horniman, 
  who later on would be the main financial support for both her and 
  S. L. MacGregor Mathers, in the building of the Hermetic Order of 
  the Golden Dawn. Inspired and enthusiastic, Moina was able to 
  obtain a scholarship and four certificates for drawing. It was her 
  dream that one day she would be able to carry on a successful art 
  career, yet, her future beckoned a different twist of fate when she 
  met the man who would change her life, forever, one day in a visit 
  to the British Museum. 
   
  It was in 1888, while emersing herself in the study of Egyptian art, 
  or some say, while engaging herself in the famous reading room, 
  that she first met MacGregor Mathers, the one who would set her 
  destiny and who, uncannily resembled her brother, noted 
  Philosopher Henri Bergson, despite the strong disapproval of her 
  parents, owing to Mathers' lack of a steady income, as from the 
  neglected and jealous best friend, Annie Horniman, the two were 
  joined in marriage on June 16, 1890, in the library of the 
  Horniman Museum. Now, Mina Bergson became Moina Mathers  
   
  Their relationship was an unusual one indeed, yet it was a sacred 
  and unique bond that few individuals get to experience. They were 
  partners in the truest sense of the word. In fact, Moina believed 
  that she halved a soul with Mathers, and would refer to him as her 
  husband, friend and teacher. At the onset of their relationship, 
  both had made an agreement to abstain from any sexual 
  intercourse. This, however, created no barriers against their 
  intimate closeness with one another. There is no certain reason 
  known as to why the idea of sex repulsed her, but one may deduce 
  that she was, perhaps abused as a child. If so, then the motto that 
  she went by, "Vestiga Nulla Retrorsum," meaning "I never retrace 
  my steps," may indicate the unwilliness to reflect upon a painful 
  past. This, however, may not be the case at all, for it may instead 
  denote the steadfast and inner strength that one must have in order 
  to bury the mundane life and carry the cross upon the pathway to 
  perfection – doing the Great Work. This would require self-
  sacrifice, and self-sacrifice was something that Moina was familiar 
  with. In fact, she gave up the dream of one day having a 
  prosperous art career in order that the Hermetic Order of the 
  Golden Dawn would flourish under the applied use of her artistic 
  talents in the service of Divine Light. It was Moina who constantly 
  kept busy with the making of Temple furnishings, both in London 
  and Paris, with regalia and diagrams for the grade material, such 
  as tarot cards. Perhaps one of the greatest contributions on an 
  artistic level was the creation of the color scales of the Order and 
  the painting of several vaults. Some of the vaults she painted under 
  the instruction of Mathers, included those of the Isis Urania, 
  Ahathor, Alpha et Omega, and possibly Alpha et Omega. 
   
  In addition to the great artistic contributions to the Hermetic Order 
  of the Golden Dawn, Moina supplied much of the Inner Order 
  information through the use of her clairvoyant skills. Working as a 
  team, with Mathers as the mage and Moina as the scrying sibyl, 
  they brought forth material from the inner planes which formed the 
  basis of the Second Order. 
   
  These accomplishments, however, do not fully reveal the 
  remarkable traits of Moina Mathers. In addition to being talented 
  in the area of art and mediumship, she was a very noteworthy 
  teacher and magician, and was fluent in French, German, and 
  English. When she spoke, it was with a voice of resonance of 
  which without a doubt, proved her knowledgeable. Her demeanor 
  would be that of great calmness that evoked a certain presence of 
  inner power. She had a captivating presence, especially when she 
  "incarnated" the High Priestess of Anari, in the Isis Rites 
  composed by Mathers and Bois. Those close to her would comment 
  on how charming and sweet she was, and there is no doubt that she 
  fit the role of Isis with her springy brown hair, darkly glowing skin, 
  and blue eyes. 
   
  Claiming Guidance by the Secret Chiefs, it was in 1892 that the 
  Mathers moved to Paris where they established the Ahathoor 
  Temple two years later. Though, through most of their life together 
  they experienced a impovershed lifestyle, it was here that the 
  conditions were for some time taken to an extreme. This change of 
  location was, perhaps, one of the gravest mistakes made, for it 
  allowed the seeds of dissension to grow as a cancer among the 
  unattended "children" back at the Isis-Urania Temple. The 
  advanced esoteric knowledge given to them seemed beyond their 
  capacity to comprehend or take seriously in the manner it was 
  designed for. The turn of the century did prove fatal for the 
  Mathers for it involved schism, and three major disasters that 
  revolved around MacGregor Mathers, litigations and unwanted 
  publicity. Also, at this time, the Mathers, moreso than ever, lived 
  
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  from one location to the next with the conditions gradually 
  worsening. 
   
  It is unknown for certain whether or not Moina returned with 
  MacGregor for two years to London sometime in 1910, but chances 
  dictated that she remain in Paris to run the Temple. After many 
  legal affairs involving scandals and battles with Crowley over 
  publication of certain G.D. doctrine, Mathers returned to Paris in 
  1912, and six years later, died on November 20, 1918.  
   
   Feeling disoriented without her husband's direction, Moina 
  Mathers, nevertheless, continued the work in his footsteps and 
  established the Alpha et Omega Lodge, of which she ran somewhat 
  successfully for 9 years after returning to London in 1919. Though 
  she feared occult attack "due to the years of strenuous inner planes 
  work with her husband," it appears that she attempted to continue 
  the communication within the spiritual planes through the help of 
  a certain mysterious Frater X, since others had proved unsuitable 
  for the task. Indeed, Dion Fortune was one of them who claimed 
  that Moina was responsible for the murder of a Miss Netta Fornario 
  by means of black magic. Of course, this accusation was ludicrous 
  since the death of Moina occurred 18 months previous to the 
  incident. 
   
  Deeply impoverished in 1927, Moina's health began to drastically 
  decline, and soon, began refusing all food.  She died at St. Mary 
  Abbott's Hospital on July 25, 1928. 
   
  Medium: A person supposed to be qualified in some special 
  manner to form a link between the dead and the living, Through 
  him the spirits of the departed may communicate with their friends 
  still on earth, either by making use of the material organism of the 
  medium himself (" automatic phenomena ") or by producing in the 
  physical world certain manifestations which cannot be explained 
  by known physical laws. The essential qualification of a medium is 
  an abnormal sensitiveness, which enables him to be readily " 
  controlled - by disembodied spirits. For this reason mediums are 
  also known as sensitives. There is some doubt as to whether 
  mediumship is an inherent faculty, or whether it may be acquired; 
  and among some spiritualists at least, the belief is held that all 
  men are mediums, though in varying degrees, and consequently 
  that all are in communication with the spirits, from whom proceeds 
  what we call " inspiration." Those who are ordinarily designated " 
  mediums " are but gifted with the common faculty in a higher 
  degree than their fellows. 
   
  Melusina: The most famous of the fays of France. Being 
  condemned to turn into a serpent from the waist downwards every 
  Saturday, she made her husband, Count Raymond of Lusignan, 
  promise never to come near her on a Saturday. This prohibition 
  finally exciting his curiosity and suspicion, he hid himself and 
  witnessed his wife's transformation. Melusina was now compelled 
  to quit her mortal husband and destined to wander about as a 
  spectre till the day of doom. It is said also that the count immured 
  her in the dungeon of his castle. 
   
  Mercury: Or quicksilver.  A metal which has been known of for 
  many centuries, and which has played an important part in the 
  history of alchemy. In its refined state it forms a coherent, very 
  mobile liquid. The early alchemists believed that nature formed all 
  metals of mercury, and that it is a living and feminine principle. It 
  went through many processes, and the metal evolved was pure or 
  impure according to the locality of its production. 
   
  Merlin: An enchanter of Britain who dwelt at the court of King 
  Arthur. His origin is obscure, but early legends concerning him 
  agree that he was the offspring of Satan, and he is invariably 
  associated with the air.  His association with Arthur is 
  indisputable, but it is suggested that he was also  He was probably 
  an early Celtic god, who in process of time came to be regarded as 
  a great sorcerer. There appears to have been more than one Merlin, 
  and we must discriminate between the Merlin of Arthurian 
  romance and Merlin Caledonius; but it is probable that originally 
  the two conceptions sprang from the one idea.  The "Seal of Merlin" 
  the letter V with a crown over it, is thought to stand for an 
  association with the Roman Legions or the Dux Bellorum.   
   
  Metempsychosis, or Transmigration: The passing of the soul at 
  death into another body than the one it has vacated. The belief in 
  metempsychosis was very wide - spread in ancient times, and still 
  survives in Braminism and Buddhism, as well as in European folk 
  - tales and superstitions. 
   
  Mines, Haunted: The belief that mines are haunted is an ancient 
  and universal one, probably arising from the many weird sounds 
  and echoes which are heard in them, and the perpetual gloom. 
  Sometimes the haunting spectres are gigantic creatures with 
  frightful fiery eyes. Such was the German " Bergm6nch, a terrible 
  figure in the garb of a monk, who could, however, appear in 
  ordinary human shape to those towards whom he was well - 
  disposed." Frequently weird knockings are heard in the mines. In 
  Germany these are attributed to the Kobolds, small black beings of 
  a malicious disposition. White hares or rabbits are also seen at 
  times. The continual danger attending the life underground is 
  productive of many supernatural warnings, " which generally take 
  the form of mysterious voices. In the Midland Counties of England 
  the " Seven Whistlers ... are well known and their warnings 
  solemnly attended to. A light blue flame settling on a. full coal - 
  tub was called " Bluecap, " and his work was to move the coaltub 
  towards the trolley - way. Bluecap did not give his services for 
  nothing. Every fortnight his wages were left in a corner of the mine, 
  and duly appropriated. A more mischievous elf was " Cutty 
  Soames, " who would cut the traces, or soams, yoking an assistant 
  putter to the tub. Basilisks, whose terrible eyes would strike, the, 
  miner dead, were another source of dread to the worker 
  underground. These, as well as the other mysterious foes who dealt 
  fatal blows, may be traced to the dreaded, but by no means ghostly, 
  fire - damp. Mines of the precious metals are still more jealously 
  guarded by the supernatural beings. Gnomes the creatures of the 
  earth - element, are the special guardians of subterranean treasure, 
  and they are not over - anxious that their province be disturbed. 
  Mines containing precious stones are equally well looked after. 
  The Indians of Peru declare that evil spirits haunt the emerald 
  mines, while a mine in the neighbourhood of Los Esmeraldos was 
  said to be guarded by a frightful dragon. It has also been stated 
  that the poisonous fumes and gases which ofttimes destroy the 
  lives of miners are baleful influences radiated by evil spirits. 
   
  Mirabills; Libor: The greater part of this book is attributed to Saint 
  Clement. It is a collection of. predictions concerning the saints and 
  the sibyls. It is surprising to find in the edition of 1522 a prophecy 
  of the French Revolution. The expulsion and abolition of the 
  nobility, the violent death of the king and queen, the persecution of 
  the clergy, the suppression of convents, are all mentioned therein, 
  followed by a further prophecy that the eagle coming from distant 
  lands would re - establish order in France. 
  
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  Mirendola, Glaeomo Pieus da: Italian Astrologer and Kabalist 
  (1463 - 1494). This astrologer's family played a prominent part in 
  a number of the civil wars which convulsed medieval Italy, while 
  they owned extensive lands in the neighbourhood of Modena, the 
  most valuable of their possessions being a castle bearing their own 
  name of Mirandola; and it was here, in the year 1463, that 
  Giacomo was born. He appears to have been something of an 
  Admirable Crichton, never showing any fondness for playing 
  children's games, but devoting himself to study from the very 
  outset; and, according to tradition, before he was out of his teens 
  he had mastered jurisprudence and mathematics, he had waded far 
  into the seas of philosophy and theology, and had even dabbled in 
  those occult sciences wherewith his name was destined to be 
  associated afterwards. A boy of this kind naturally felt small 
  inclination to remain at home, and so it is not surprising to find 
  that Giacomo soon left his brothers to look after the family estates, 
  and proceeded to various universities in Italy and France. While in 
  the latter country his interest in astrology and the like deepened 
  apace, thanks partly to his making a close study of the works of 
  Raymond Lully; and in 1486 Giacomo went to Rome, where he 
  delivered a series of lectures on various branches of science. 
  While thus engaged his erudition won high praise from some of his 
  hearers, but certain members of the clergy suspected him of 
  heresy, reported his doings to the Inquisition, and even sought to 
  have him excommunicated. The pope, however was of course 
  rather averse to quarrelling with a member of so powerful a family 
  as the Mirandolas, and accordingly he waived violent measures, 
  instead appointing a body of Churchmen to argue with the 
  scientist. A, lengthy altercation ensued, and throughout it the jury 
  displayed the most consummate ignorance, it being recorded, 
  indeed that some of them imagined that "Kabal " was a man, who 
  had written against Christianity, and that the Kabalists were the 
  disciples of this hypothetic; person. Giacomo must have been 
  deeply chagrined by this stupidity on the part of his, opponents, he 
  must have felt that to argue with such people was utterly vain; yet 
  he published a defence of the ideas and theories promulgated in 
  his lectures, and in 1493 the pope, Alexander VI., brought the 
  affair to a conclusion by granting the offender absolution. 
  Thereupon Mirandola went to live at Florence, and here he stayed 
  until his demise in 1494, occasionally essaying alchemy, but 
  chiefly busy with further kabalistic studies. 
   
  Mishna., The: A compilation of Hebrew oral traditions, written 
  about the end of the second century by a certain Rabbi of Galilee, . 
  Its doctrines are said by the Jews to be of great antiquity and they 
  believe it to be the oral law delivered by God to A - loses, at the 
  same time as he received the written law. It forms the framework of 
  the Talmud. 
   
  Mopses, The: A secret association imported into Germany, which 
  celebrated the rites of the gnostic Sabbath. It replaced the 
  Kabalistic " goat " by the Hermetic " dog " as an object of worship. 
  The candidate for the order was brought into the circle of adepts 
  with the eyes bandaged in the midst of a great uproar, and after 
  saluting the idol was initiated. The sign of recognition was a 
  grimace. The whole doctrine of the society was that of black magic. 
  The Mopses. recruited only among Catholics, and for the oath at 
  reception they substituted a solemn engagement on honour to 
  reveal no secrets of the order, - the practices of which much 
  resembled the Sabbath of mediaeval sorcerers. 
   
  Mormonism (Church of Latter Day Saints): The LDS church has its 
  roots in the person of Joseph Smith Jr. He was born in Vermont on 
  Dec, 23, 1805 and is responsible for the creation of an American 
  religious empire beginning in 1830. 
   
  A brief version of Mormon History.  Around 600 BC the two 
  families of Lehi and Ishmael left Israel and landed on the 
  southwest corner of South America. Nephi and Laman, two sons of 
  Lehi, had a fight and God showed his displeasure with this and 
  cursed the Lamanites with black skin, the ancestors of the 
  American Indian. God guided the Nephites north and were in 
  central America during the time of Christ. Just after his crucifixion 
  Christ came to America and converted both Nephites and 
  Lamanites. A hundred and fifty years later apostate lamanites and 
  religious Nephites had a war and in 384 AD the nephites were 
  wiped of the face of the earth. 
    
  During the war of 384 a prophet and priest of the Nephites named 
  Moroni, noticed that they were going to be destroyed. He gathered 
  records of his predecessors, made an abbreviated history, wrote it 
  on some golden plates and gave it to his son Moroni who hid them 
  in a hill near Palmyra New York. Fifteen hundred years later this 
  Moroni appeared as an angel to Joseph Smith and told him where 
  to find the plates. Upon finding the plates he was given the Urim 
  and the Thummin, with which he could use to translate the 
  hieroglyphics into English. This became the book of Mormon. 
   
  Smith had more than one vision. The first forms the basis for the 
  Mormons belief in the nature of God and Christ. The second 
  relates this phenomonal claim of the plates and the book of 
  Mormon.  
   
  Ether 1:34-37 tells us of how the Jaredites did not want their 
  language confounded at the tower of Babel. They journeyed to the 
  new world and continued to speak in the pure language of Adam.  
  ( Ether 1:33 Which Jared came forth with his brother and their 
  families, with some others and their families,from the great tower, at 
  the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore 
  inhis wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the 
  earth; and according to the word ofthe Lord the people were 
  scattered. 34 And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty 
  man, and a man highly favored of the Lord,Jared, his brother, said 
  unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we 
  may notunderstand our words. 35 And it came to pass that the 
  brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had 
  compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the language 
  of Jared; and Jared and hisbrother were not confounded. 36 Then 
  Jared said unto his brother: Cry again unto the Lord, and it may be 
  that he will turn awayhis anger from them who are our friends, that 
  he confound not their language. 37 And it came to pass that the 
  brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had 
  compassion upon their friends and their families also, that they were 
  not confounded. 38 And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto 
  his brother, saying: Go and inquire of theLord whether he will drive 
  us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto 
  himwhither we shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry 
  us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth? And if it so 
  be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for 
  ourinheritance. 39 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did 
  cry unto the Lord according to that whichhad been spoken by the 
  mouth of Jared. 40 And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the 
  brother of Jared, and had compassion upon him, ) 
   
  On another occasion these Jaredites were told by God to build a 
  barge, and sail to the now known american continent. Ether 6:5,8 
  relates that they were propelled by a furious ceaseless wind. ( 
  
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  Ether 6:4 ...and it came to pass that when they had done all these 
  things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into 
  the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God. 5 And it 
  came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a 
  furious wind blow uponthe face of the waters, towards the promised 
  land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves ofthe sea before the 
  wind. 6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the 
  depths of the sea, because of themountain waves which broke upon 
  them, and also the great and terrible tempests which werecaused by 
  the fierceness of the wind. 7 And it came to pass that when they were 
  buried in the deep there was no water that could hurtthem, their 
  vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like 
  unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about 
  by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and hedid bring them 
  forth again upon the top of the waters. 8 And it came to pass that 
  the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land 
  whilethey were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth 
  before the wind. 9 And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the 
  brother of Jared did sing praises unto theLord, and he did thank 
  and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, 
  they didnot cease to praise the Lord. 10 And thus they were driven 
  forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither 
  whalethat could mar them; and they did have light continually, 
  whether it was above the water or under the water. 11 And thus they 
  were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the 
  water. 12 And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. ) 
   
  Joseph Smith has said that the mormon theology of God is that 
  "God the Father has a body of flesh and bone as tangible as man". 
  Orson Pratt has said "The substance of which God is composed is 
  wholly material". Brigham Roberts has said that "man is the 
  offspring of Diety not in a mystical sense but actually..." King 
  Follet said "God was once as we are now". Lastly a quote from 
  Brigham Young, "When our father Adam came to the garden of 
  Eden he came into it with a celestial body and brought one of his 
  many wives with him".  The Mormon God has climbed the ladder 
  of life just like man is now doing men are his his physical 
  descendants and in time will become like him who has a glorified 
  body of flesh and bone.  
   
  Mormon Temple ritual heavily resembles Freemasonry, including 
  some of the same terms and practices.  The Mormon practice 
  would justify these resemblances with a claim to inheritance from 
  Solomon, however practically speaking, Smith must have had 
  access to a great deal of Masonic material in the early 19th century 
   
  Morgan le Fay: Sister of Arthur and wife of King Urien of Gore. 
  Arthur gave, into her keeping the scabbard of his sword Excalibur, 
  but she gave it to Sir Accolon whom she loved and had a forged 
  scabbard made. Arthur, however, recovered the real sheath, but 
  was again deceived by her. She figures as, a Queen of the Land of 
  Faerie and as such appears in French and Italian romance. It was 
  she who, on one occasion, threw Excalibur into a lake. She usually 
  presents her favourites with a ring and retains them by her side as 
  does Venus in Tannhaiiser. Her myth is a parallel of that of Eos 
  and Tithonus and is probably derived from a sun and dawn myth. 
   
  Moses, Rev. William Stainton: One of the best known mediums 
  connected with modern spiritualism, and probably, after Home, 
  one of the most successful. He was born in 1839, at Donington, in 
  Lincolnshire, the son of a schoolmaster, and was educated at 
  Bedford Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford. He made 
  good progress at the University, but before his final examination 
  his health broke dowr4 and he was forced to go abroad. On his 
  return he graduated Master of Arts, and in 1863 was ordained. 
  From that time until 1870 he was a curate, first in the Isle of Man 
  and afterwards in Dorsetshire. Again his health gave way, and he 
  was obliged to abandon parish work, and seek a change of 
  occupation. In 1870 he became tutor to the son of Dr. and Mrs. 
  Stanhope Speer, with whom he resided, and who were henceforth 
  among his staunchest supporters. A year or two later he was 
  appointed English master in University College School, but 
  increasing iii - health compelled him to retire in 1899. Towards 
  the close of his life Mr. Moses suffered greatly from depression and 
  kindred nervous disorders. His life as a clergyman and as a 
  schoolmaster was beyond reproach, and his duties were discharged 
  in a way that won respect alike for his intelligence and efficiency. 
   
  His attention was first directed to spiritualism by the reading of R. 
  Dale Owen's book on The Debatable Land, in 1872. He attended 
  numerous seances, held by such mediums as Home, and soon 
  afterwards he himself developed powerful mediumistic tendencies, 
  and gave seances to the Speers and a few select friends. The best 
  accounts of his sittings are those written by Dr. and Mrs. Speers 
  who kept separate records of the performances, and there are 
  occasional accounts by others who were admitted to the circle. The 
  phenomena were at first confined to raps and levitations of 
  furniture, but gradually the manifestations became more varied 
  and more pronounced. Toilet articles in Mr. Moses' room moved 
  about of themselves and formed a cross on his bed, "apports " of 
  perfume, pincushions, pearls, and other articles were brought by 
  the spirits, and the medium himself would float about the room. 
  Towards the end of the year " spirit lights " began to make their 
  appearance, and seem to have created a profound impression on 
  the sitters, though to judge from the descriptions they give, it 
  would seem that Mr. Podmore's explanation of "bottles of 
  phosphorus" is not far from the truth. Musical instruments also 
  were heard playing in the air, besides raps, thuds, and other 
  noises. 
   
  Perhaps his most important manifestations, however, were the 
  automatic writings published under the title of Spirit Teachings. 
  These purported to come from several spirits, " Imperator, " " 
  Rector, " and others, and were mostly of a theological caste. 
  Though of a high ethical tendency, they evinced a departure from 
  Christianity, and suggested the religion of spiritualism as the only 
  rational human creed. Unlike many automatic writings Mr. Moses' 
  productions were not written in extravagantly high - flown 
  language, nor were they altogether meaningless. But it must be 
  remembered that he was a man of education and not likely to fail 
  into such errors. 
   
  He was instrumental in the founding of the British National 
  Association of Spiritualism, and to serve on the Councils of the 
  Psychological Society, and the Society for Psychical Research. He 
  severed his connection with the latter body, however, because of 
  the position they took up with regard to certain professional 
  mediums. He was also president of the London Spiritual Alliance 
  from 1884 onwards. Among his most popular works, besides Spirit 
  Teachings, were Psychography, Spirit Identity, and The 
  Higher.Aspects of Spiritualism. 
   
  Why did Stainton Moses become a medium ? There are few 
  questions more puzzling than, this to the student of spiritual 
  psychology. That professional mediums, and those private 
  mediums who have anything to gain by their performances, should 
  
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  carry on deception from year to year, is comprehensible. But that a 
  clergyman, who had hitherto, led an uneventful and exemplary life, 
  should deliberately and, systematically practise a series of puerile 
  tricks for the purpose of mystifying his friends, is certainly not so. 
  We are forced to admit, then, either that his observers were victims 
  to hallucination and self - deception, or that the phenomena he 
  produced were genuine manifestations from the spirit - world. 
   
  Mountain Cove Community, The: A spiritualistic community 
  founded in Mountain Cove, Fayette Co., Virginia, in the autumn of 
  1851, under the leadership of the Rev. James Scott and, the Rev. 
  T. L. Harris. Both mediums had. settled in Auburn in the previous 
  year, and had obtained. a considerable following. While Harris was 
  absent in New York the command to form a community at 
  Mountain Cove was given through the mediumship of Scott, and 
  about a hundred persons accompanied him to Virginia. The 
  members were obliged to deliver up all their possessions, again at 
  the command of the spirits. Dissensions arose and pecuniary 
  difficulties were experienced, and only the advent of T. L. Harris 
  in the summer of 1852 saved the community from dissolution. 
  However, the dissensions and difficulties remained, and early in 
  1853 the community finally broke up. 
   
  Necromancy: Or divination by means of the spirits of the dead, 
  from the Greek words nekros, dead; and manteia, divination. It is 
  through its Italian form nigromancia that it came to be known as 
  the "Black Art." With the Greeks it originally signified the descent 
  into Hades in order to consult the dead rather than summoning the 
  dead into the mortal sphere again. The art is of almost universal 
  usage. Considerable difference of opinion exists among modern 
  adepts as to the exact methods to be properly pursued in the 
  necromantic art, and it must be borne in mind that necromancy, 
  which in the Middle Ages was called sorcery, shades into modern 
  spiritualistic practice. There is no doubt however, that necromancy 
  is the touch - stone of occultism,  
  for if, after careful preparation the adept can carry through to a 
  successful issue, the raising of the soul from the other world, he 
  has proved the value of his art. It would be fruitless in this place to 
  enter into a psychological discussion as to whether this feat is 
  possible of accomplishment or not, and we will confine ourselves to 
  the material which has been placed at our disposal by the sages of 
  the past, who have left full details as to how the process should be 
  approached. 
   
  In the case of a compact existing between the conjuror and the 
  devil, no ceremony is necessary, as the familiar is ever at hand to 
  do the behests of his masters. This, however, is never the case with 
  the true sorcerer, who preserves his independence, and trusts to 
  his profound knowledge of the art and his powers of command; his 
  object therefore is to " constrain " some spirit to appear before him, 
  and to guard himself from the danger of provoking such beings. 
  The magician, it must be understood always has an assistant, and 
  every article fiamed is prepared according to rules well known in 
  the black art. In the first place they are to fix upon a spot proper 
  for such a purpose; which must be either in a subterraneous vault, 
  hung round with black, and lighted by a magical torch; or else in 
  the centre of some thick wood or desert, or upon some extensive 
  unfrequented plain,  - where several roads meet, or amidst the 
  ruins of ancient castles, abbeys, monasteries, etc., or amongst the 
  rocks on the sea shore, in some private detached churchyard, or 
  any other solemn, melancholy place between the hours of twelve 
  and one in the night, either when the moon shines very bright, or 
  else when the elements are disturbed with storms of thunder, 
  lightning, wind, and rain; for, in these places, times, and seasons, 
  it is contended that spirits can with less difficulty manifest 
  themselves to mortal eyes, and continue visible with "he least pain, 
  in this elemental external world. 
   
  When the proper time and place is fixed on, a magic circle is to be 
  formed, within which, the master and his associate are carefully to 
  retire. The dimensions of the circle are as follow: - A piece of 
  ground is usually chosen, nine feet square, at the full extent of 
  which parallel lines are drawn one within the other, having sundry 
  crosses and triangles described between them, close to which is 
  formed the first or outer circle, then, about half - a - foot within the 
  same, a second circle is described, and within that another square 
  correspondent to the first, the centre of which is the seat or spot 
  where the master and associate are to be placed " The vacancies 
  formed by the various lines and angles of the figure are filled up 
  with the holy names of God, having a crosses and triangles 
  described between them. The reason assigned by magicians and 
  others for the institution and use of circles, is, that so much ground 
  being blessed and consecrated by such holy words and ceremonies 
  as they make use of in forming it, hath a secret force to expel all 
  evil spirits from the bounds thereof, and, being sprinkled with pure 
  sanctified water, the ground is purified from all uncleanness; 
  besides, the holy names of God being written over every part of it, 
  its force becomes so powerful that no evil spirit hath ability to 
  break through. it, or to get at the magician or his companion, by 
  reason of the antipathy in nature they bear to these sacred names. 
  And the reason given for the triangles is, that if the spirit be not 
  easily brought to speak the truth, they may by the exorcist be 
  conjured to enter the same, where, by virtue of the names of the 
  essence and divinity of God, they can speak nothing but what is 
  true and right. The circle, therefore, according to this account of it, 
  is the principal fort and shield of the magician, from which he is 
  not, at the peril of his life, to depart, till he has completely 
  dismissed the spirit, particularly if he be of a fiery or infernal 
  nature. Instances are recorded of many who perished by this 
  means; particularly " Chiancungi, " the famous Egyptian fortune - 
  teller, who was so famous in England in the 17th century. He 
  undertook for a wager, to raise up the spirit " Bokim, " and having 
  described the circle, he seated his sister Napula by him as his 
  associate. After frequently repeating the forms of exorcism, and 
  calling upon the spirit to appear, and nothing as yet answering his 
  demand, they grew impatient of the business, and quitted the 
  circle, but it cost them their lives; for they were instantaneously 
  seized and crushed to death by that infernal spirit, who happened 
  not to be sufficiently constrained till that moment, to manifest 
  himself to human eyes." 
   
  There is a prescribed form of consecrating the magic circle, which 
  we omit as unnecessary in a general illustration. The proper attire 
  or " pontificalibus " of a magician, is an ephod made of fine white 
  linen, over that a priestly robe of black bombazine, reaching to the 
  ground, with the two seals of the earth drawn correctly upon virgin 
  parchment, and affixed to the breast of his outer vestment. Round 
  his waist is tied a broad consecrated girdle, with the names Ya, Ya, 
  - Aie, Aaie, - Elibra, - Elchim, - Sadai,  - Pah Adonai, - tuo robore, 
  - Cinctus sum. Upon his shoes must be written Tetragrammaton, 
  with crosses round about; upon his head a high - crowned cap of 
  sable silk, and in his hand a Holy Bible, printed or written in pure 
  Hebrew. Thus attired, and standing within the charmed circle, the 
  magician repeats the awful form of exorcism; and presently, the 
  infernal spirits make strange and frightful noises, howlings, 
  tremblings, flashes, and most dreadful shrieks and yells, as the 
  forerunner of their becoming visible. Their first appearance is 
  generally in the form of fierce and terrible lions or tigers, vomiting 
  
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  forth fire, and roaring hideously about the circle; all which time 
  the exorcist must not suffer any tremour of dismay; for, in that 
  case, they will gain the ascendency, and the consequences may 
  touch his life. On the contrary, he must summon up a share of 
  resolution, and continue repeating all the forms of constriction and 
  confinement, until they are drawn nearer to the influence of the 
  triangle, when their forms will change to appearances less 
  ferocious and frightful, and become more submissive and tractable. 
  When the forms of conjuration have in this manner been 
  sufficiently repeated, the spirits forsake their bestial shapes, and 
  enter the human form, appearing like naked men of gentle 
  countenance and behaviour, yet is the magician to be warily on his 
  guard that they deceive him not by such mild gestures, for they are 
  exceedingly fraudulent and deceitful in their dealings with those 
  who constrain them to appear without compact, having nothing in 
  view but to suborn his mind, or accomplish his destruction. With 
  great care also must the spirit be discharged after the ceremony is 
  finished, and he has answered all the demands made upon him. 
  The magician must wait patiently till he has passed through all the 
  terrible forms which announce his coming, and only when the last 
  shriek has died away, and every trace of fire and brimstone has 
  disappeared, may he leave the circle and depart home in safety. If 
  the ghost of a deceased person is to be raised, the grave must be 
  resorted to at midnight, and a different form of conjuration is 
  necessary. Still another, is the infernal sacrament for " any corpse 
  that hath hanged, drowned, or otherwise made away with itself;" 
  and in this case the conjurations are performed over the body, 
  which will at last arise, and standing upright, answer with a faint 
  and hollow voice the questions that are put to it. 
   
  Eliphas Levi, in his Ritual of Transcendent Magic says that 
  "evocations should always have a motive and a becoming end, 
  otherwise they are works of darkness and folly, dangerous for 
  health and reason." The permissible motive of an evocation may be 
  either love or intelligence. Evocations of love require less 
  apparatus and are in every respect easier. The procedure is as 
  follows: " We must, in the first place, carefully collect the 
  memorials of him (or her) whom. we desire to behold, the articles 
  he used, and on which his impression remains; we must also 
  prepare an apartment in which the person lived, or otherwise one 
  of a similar kind, and place his portrait veiled in white therein, 
  surrounded with his favourite flowers, which must be renewed 
  daily. A fixed date must then be observed, either the birthday of 
  the person, or that day which was most fortunate for his and our 
  own affection, one of which we may believe that his soul, however 
  blessed elsewhere, cannot lose the remembrance; this must be the 
  day for the evocation, and we must provide for it during the space 
  of fourteen days. Throughout this period we must refrain from 
  extending to anyone the same proofs of affection which we have the 
  right to expect from the dead; we must observe strict chastity, live 
  in retreat, and take only one modest  - and light collation daily. 
  Every evening at the same hour we must shut ourselves in the 
  chamber consecrated to the memory of the lamented person, using 
  only one small light, such as that of a funeral lamp or taper. This 
  light should be placed behind us, the portrait should be uncovered 
  and we should remain before it for an hour, in silence; finally, we 
  should fumigate the apartment with a little good incense, and go 
  out backwards. On the morning of the day fixed for the evocation, 
  we should adorn ourselves as if for a festival, not salute anyone 
  first, make but a single repast of bread, wine, and roots, or fruits; 
  the cloth should be white, two covers should be laid, and one 
  portion of the bread broken should be set aside; a little wine 
  should also be placed in the glass of the person we design to 
  invoke. The meal must be eaten alone in the chamber of 
  evocations, and in presence of the veiled portrait; it must be all 
  cleared away at the end, except the glass belonging to the dead 
  person, and his portion of bread, which must be placed before the 
  portrait. In the evening, at the~ hour for the regular visit, we must 
  repair in silence to the chamber, light a clear fire of cypress - 
  wood, and cast incense seven times thereon, pronouncing the name 
  of the person. whom we desire to behold. The lamp must then be 
  extinguished, and the fire permitted to die out. On this day the 
  portrait must not be unveiled. When the flame is extinct, put more 
  incense on the ashes, and invoke God according to the forms of the 
  religion to which the dead person belonged, and according to the 
  ideas which he himself possessed of God. While making this 
  prayer we must identify ourselves with the evoked person, speak as 
  he spoke, believe in a sense as he believed; then, after a silence of 
  fifteen minutes, we must speak to him as if he were present, with 
  affection and with faith, praying him to manifest to us. Renew this 
  prayer mentally, covering the face with both hands; then call him 
  thrice with a loud voice; tarry on our knees, the eyes closed and 
  covered, for some minutes; then call again thrice upon him in a 
  sweet and affectionate tone, and slowly open the eyes. Should 
  nothing result, the same experiment must be renewed in the 
  following year, and if necessary a third time, when it is certain that 
  the desired apparition will be obtained, and the longer it has been 
  delayed the more realistic and striking it will be. 
   
  " Evocations of knowledge and intelligence are made with more 
  solemn ceremonies. If concerned with a celebrated personage, we 
  must meditate for twenty - one days upon his life and writings, 
  form an idea of his appearance, converse with him mentally, and 
  imagine his answers; carry his portrait, or at least his name, about 
  us; follow a vegetable diet for twenty - one days, and a severe fast 
  during the last seven. We must next construct the magical oratory. 
  This oratory must be invariably darkened; but if we operate in the 
  daytime, we may leave a narrow aperture on the side where the sun 
  will shine at the hour of the evocation and place a triangular prism 
  before the opening, and a crystal globe, filled with water, before 
  the prism. If the operation be arranged for the night the magic 
  lamp must be so placed that its single ray shall upon the altar 
  smoke. The purpose of the preparations is to furnish the magic 
  agent with elements of corporeal appearance, and to ease as much 
  as possible the tension of imagination, which, could not be exalted 
  without danger into the absolute illusion of dream. For the rest, it 
  will be easily understood that a beam of sunlight, or the ray of a 
  lamp, coloured variously, and falling upon curling and irregular 
  smoke, can in no way create a perfect image. The chafing - dish 
  containing the sacred fire should be in the centre of the oratory, 
  and the altar of perfumes close by. The operator must turn towards 
  the east to pray, and the west to invoke; he must be either alone or 
  assisted by two persons preserving the strictest silence; he must 
  wear the magical vestments, which we have described in the 
  seventh chapter, and must be crowned with vervain and gold. He 
  should bathe before the operation, and all his under garments must 
  be of the most intact and scrupulous cleanliness. The ceremony 
  should begin with a prayer suited to the genius of the spirit about 
  to be invoked and one which would be approved by himself if he 
  still lived. For example, it would be impossible to evoke Voltaire 
  by reciting prayers in the style of St. Bridget. For the great men of 
  antiquity, we may see the hymns of Cleanthes or Orpheus, with the 
  adjuration terminating the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. In our 
  own evocation of Apollonius, we used the magical philosophy of 
  Patricius for the ritual, containing the doctrines of Zoroaster and 
  the writings of Hermes Trismegistus. We recited the Nuctemeron 
  
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  of Apollonius in Greek with a loud voice and added the following 
  conjuration: 
   
  " Vouchsafe to be present, O Father of All, and thou Thrice Mighty 
  Hermes, Conductor of the Dead. Asclepius son of Hephaistus, 
  Patron of the Healing Art; and thou Osiris, Lord of strength and 
  vigour, do thou thyself be present too. Arnebascenis, Patron of 
  Philosophy, and yet again Asclepius, son of Imuthe, who presidest 
  over poetry. 
   
  Apollonius, Apollonius, Apollonius, Thou teachest the Magic of 
  Zoroaster, son of Oromasdes; and this is the worship of the Gods." 
   
  For tile evocation of spirits belonging to religions issued from 
  Judaism, the following kabalistic invocation of Solomon should be 
  used, either in Hebrew, or in any other tongue with which the spirit 
  in question is known to have been familiar: 
   
  " Powers of the Kingdom, be ye under my left foot and in my right 
  hand ! Glory and Eternity, take me by the two shoulders, and 
  direct me in the paths of victory ! Mercy and justice, be ye the 
  equilibrium and splendour of my life! Intelligence and Wisdom, 
  crown me! Spirits of Malchuth, lead me betwixt the two pillars 
  upon which rests the whole edifice of the temple! Angels of Netsah 
  and Hod, strengthen me upon the cubic stone of Jesod ! 0 
  Gedulael! 0 Geburael ! 0 Tiphereth ! Binael, be thou my love! 
  Ruach Hochmael, be thou my light! Be that which thou art and 
  thou shalt be, 0 Ketheriel! Tschim, assist me in the name of Saddai 
  ! Cherubim, be my strength in the name of Adonai ! Beni - Elohim, 
  be my brethren in the name of the Son, and by the power of 
  Zebaoth ! Eloim, do battle for me in the name of Tetragyammation! 
  Malachim, protect me in the name of Jod He Vau He ! Seraphim, 
  cleanse my love in the name of Elvoh! Hasmalim, enlighten me 
  with the splendours of Eloi and Shechinach! Aralim, act 1 
  Ophanim, revolve and shine! Hajoth a Kadosh, cry, speak, roar, 
  bellow I Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Saddai, Ado - nai, Joichavah! 
  Eieazereie: Hallelu - jah, Hallelu - jah, Hallelu - jah. Amen.' 
   
  It should be remembered above all, in conjurations, that the names 
  of Satan, Beelzebub, Adramelek, and others do not designate 
  spiritual unities, but legions of impure spirits. 
   
  " Our name is legion, for we are many, " says the spirit of darkness 
  in the Gospel. Number constitutes the law, and progress takes 
  place inversely in hell - that is to say, the most advanced in 
  Satanic development, and consequently the most degraded, are the 
  least intelligent and feeblest. Thus, a fatal law drives the demons 
  downward when they wish and believe themselves to be ascending. 
  So also those who term themselves chiefs are the most impotent 
  and despised of all. As to the horde of perverse spirits, they 
  tremble before an unknown, invisible, incomprehensible, 
  capricious, implacable chief, who never explains his law, whose 
  arm is ever stretched out to strike those who fail to understand 
  him. They give this phantom the names of Baal, Jupiter, and even 
  others more venerable, which cannot, without profanation, be 
  pronounced in hell. But this Phantom is only a shadow and 
  remnant of God, disfigured by their willful perversity, and 
  persisting in their imagination like a vengeance of justice and a 
  remorse of truth. 
   
  " When the evoked spirit of light manifests with dejected or 
  irritated countenance, we must offer him a moral sacrifice, that is, 
  be inwardly disposed to renounce whatever offends him; and 
  before leaving the oratory, we must dismiss him, saying: " May 
  peace be with thee! I have not wished to trouble thee; do thou 
  torment me not. I shall labour to improve myself as to anything that 
  vexes thee. I pray, and will still pray, with thee and for thee, Pray 
  thou also both with and for me, and return to thy great slumber, 
  expecting that day when we shall wake together. Silence and adieu 
  ! " 
   
  Christian, in his Historie de le magie (Paris, 1870) says 
   
  The place chosen for the evocation is not an unimportant point. 
  The most auspicious is undoubtedly that room which contains the 
  last traces of the lamented person. If it be impossible to fulfill this 
  condition, we must go in search of some isolated rural retreat 
  which corresponds in orientation and aspect, as well as 
  measurement, with the mortuary chamber. 
   
  " The window must be blocked with boards of olive wood, 
  hermetically joined, so that no exterior light may penetrate. The 
  ceiling, the four interior walls, and the floor must be draped with 
  tapestry of emerald green silk, which the operator must himself 
  secure with copper nails, invoking no assistance from strange 
  hands, because, from this moment, he alone may enter into this 
  spot set apart from all, the arcane Oratory of the Magus. The 
  furniture which belonged to the deceased, his favourite possessions 
  and trinkets, the things on which his final glance may be supposed 
  to have rested - all these must be assiduously collected and 
  arranged in the order which they occupied at the time of his death. 
  If none of these souvenirs can be obtained, a faithful likeness of 
  the departed being must at least be procured, it must be full 
  length, and must be depicted in the dress and colours which he 
  wore during the last period of his life. This portrait must be set up 
  on the eastern wall by means of copper fasteners, must be covered 
  with a veil of white silk, and must be surmounted with a crown of 
  those flowers which were most loved by the deceased. 
   
  " Before this portrait there must be erected an altar of white 
  marble, supported by four columns which must terminate in bull's 
  feet. A five - pointed star must be emblazoned on the slab of the 
  altar, and must be composed of pure copper plates. The place in 
  the centre of the star, between the plates, must be large enough to 
  receive the pedestal of "a cup - shaped copper chafing - dish, 
  containing desiccated fragments of laurel wood and alder. By the 
  side of the dish be placed a censer full of incense. The skin of a  - 
  white and spotless ram must be stretched beneath the altar, and on 
  it must be emblazoned another pentagram drawn with parallel lines 
  of azure blue, golden yellow, emerald green, and purple red. 
   
  " A copper tripod must be erected in the middle of the Oratory; it 
  must be perfectly triangular in form, it must be surmounted by 
  another and similar chafing - dish, which must likewise contain a 
  quantity of dried olive wood. 
   
  " A high candelabrum of copper must be placed by the wall on the 
  southern side, and must contain a single taper of purest white wax, 
  which must alone illuminate the mystery of the evocation. 
   
  " The white colour of the altar, of the ram's skin, and of the veil, is 
  consecrated to Gabriel, the planetary archangel of the moon, and 
  the Genius of mysteries; the green of the copper and the tapestries 
  is dedicated to the Genius of Venus. 
   
  " The altar and tripod must both be encompassed by a magnetized 
  iron chain, and by three garlands composed of the foliage and 
  blossoms of the myrtle, the olive, and the rose. 
  
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  " Finally, facing the portrait, and on the eastern side, there must be 
  a canopy, also draped with emerald silk, and supported by two 
  triangular columns of olive wood, plated with purest copper. On 
  the North and South sides, between each of these columns and the 
  wall, the tapestry must fall in long folds to the ground, forming a 
  kind of tabernacle; which must be open on the eastern side. At the 
  foot of each column there must be a sphinx of white marble, with a 
  cavity in the top of the head to receive spices for burning. It is 
  beneath this canopy that the apparitions will manifest, and it 
  should be remembered that the Magus must turn to the east for 
  prayer, and to the west for evocation. 
   
  " Before entering this little sanctuary, devoted to the  - religion of 
  remembrance, the operator must be clothed in a vestment of azure, 
  fastened by clasps of copper, enriched with a single emerald. He 
  must wear upon his head a tiara surrounded by a floriated circle of 
  twelve emeralds, and a crown of violets. On his breast must be the 
  talisman of Venus depending from a ribbon of azure silk. On the 
  annular finger of his left hand must be a copper ring containing a 
  turquoise. His feet must be covered with shoes of azure silk, and 
  he must be provided with a fan of swan's feathers to dissipate, if 
  needful, the smoke of the perfumes. 
   
  " The Oratory and all its objects must be consecrated on a Friday, 
  during the hours which are set apart to the Genius of Venus. This 
  consecration is performed by burning violets and roses in a fire of 
  olive wood. A shaft must be provided in the Oratory for the passage 
  of the smoke, but care must be taken to prevent the admission of 
  light through this channel. 
   
  " When these preparations are finished, the operator must impose 
  on himself a retreat of one - and - twenty days, beginning on the 
  anniversary of the death of the beloved being. During this period 
  he must refrain from conferring on any one the least of those marks 
  of affection which he was accustomed to bestow on the departed he 
  must be absolutely chaste, alike in deed and thought he must take 
  daily but one repast, consisting of bread, wine, toots, And fruits. 
  These three conditions are indispensable to success in evocation, 
  and their accomplishment requires complete isolation. 
   
  " Every day, shortly before mid - night, the Magus must assume his 
  consecrated dress. On the stroke of the mystic hour, - he must 
  enter the Oratory, bearing a lighted candle in his right hand, and 
  in the other an hour - glass. The candle must be fixed in the 
  candelabra, and the hour - glass on the altar to register the flight of 
  time. The operator must then proceed to replenish the garland and 
  the floral crown. Then he shall unveil the portrait, and erect it 
  immovable in front of the altar, being thus with his face to the 
  East, he shall softly go over in his mind the cherished recollections 
  he possesses of the beloved and departed being. 
   
  " When the upper reservoir of the hour - glass is empty the time of 
  contemplation will be over. By the flame of the taper the operator 
  must then kindle the laurel wood and alder in the chafing - dish 
  which stands on the altar; then, taking a pinch of incense from the 
  censer, let him cast it thrice upon the fire, repeating the following 
  words:' Glory be to the Father of life universal in the splendour of 
  the infinite altitude, and peace in the twilight of the immeasurable 
  depths to all Spirits of good will ! ' 
   
  " Then he shall cover the portrait, and taking up his candle in his 
  hand, shall depart from the Oratory, walking backward at a slow 
  pace as far as the threshold. The same ceremony must be fulfilled 
  at the same hour during every day of the retreat, and at each visit 
  the crown which is above the portrait, and the garlands of the altar 
  and tripod must be carefully renewed. The withered leaves and 
  flowers must be burnt each evening in a room adjoining the 
  Oratory. 
   
  " When the twenty - first day has arrived, the Magus must do his 
  best to have no communication with any one, but if this be 
  impossible, he must not be the first to speak, and he must postpone 
  all business till the morrow. On the stroke of noon, he must arrange 
  a small circular table in the Oratory, and cover it with a new 
  napkin of unblemished whiteness. It must be garnished with two 
  copper chalices, an entire loaf, and a crystal flagon of the purest 
  wine. The bread must be broken and not cut, and the wine emptied 
  in equal portions into the two cups. Half of this mystic communion, 
  which must be his sole nourishment on this supreme day, shall be 
  offered by the operator to the dead, and by the light of the one 
  taper lie must eat his own share, standing before the veiled 
  portrait. Then he shall retire as before, walking backward as far as 
  the threshold, and leaving the ghost's share of the bread and wine 
  upon the table. 
   
  " When the solemn hour of the evening has at length arrived the 
  Magus shall carry into the Oratory some well dried cypress wood, 
  which he shall set alight on the altar and the tripod. Three pinches 
  of incense shall be cast on the altar flame in honour of the 
  Supreme Potency which manifests itself by Ever Active 
  Intelligence and by Absolute Wisdom. When the wood of the two 
  chafing - dishes has been reduced to embers, he must renew the 
  triple offering of incense on the altar, and must cast some seven 
  times on the fire in the tripod; at each evaporation of the 
  consecrated perfume he must repeat the previous doxology, and 
  then turning to the East, he must call upon God by the prayer of 
  that religion which was professed by the person whom he desires to 
  evoke. 
   
  " When the prayers are over he must reverse his position and with 
  his face to the West, must enkindle the chafing dishes on the head 
  of each sphinx, and when the cypress is fully ablaze he must heap 
  over it well - dried violets and roses. Then let him extinguish the 
  candle which illuminates the Oratory, and falling on his knees 
  before the canopy, between the two columns, let him mentally 
  address the beloved person with a plenitude of faith and affection. 
  Let him solemnly entreat it to appear and renew this interior 
  adjuration seven times, under the auspices of the seven 
  providential Genii, endeavouring during the whole of the time to 
  exalt his soul above the natural weakness of humanity. 
   
  " Finally, the operator, with closed eyes, and with hands covering 
  his face, must call the invoked person in a loud but gentle voice, 
  pronouncing three times all the names which he bore. 
   
  " Some moments after the third appeal, he must extend his arms in 
  the form of a cross, and lifting up his eyes, he will behold the 
  beloved being, in a recognisable manner, in front of him. That is to 
  say, he will perceive that ethereal substance separated from the 
  perishable terrestrial body, the fluidic envelope of the soul, which 
  Kabalistic initiates have termed the Perispirit. This substance 
  preserves the human form but is emancipated from human 
  infirmities, and is energised by the special characteristics whereby 
  the imperishable individuality of our essence is manifested. 
  
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  Evoked and Evoker can then inter - communicate intelligibly by a 
  mutual and mysterious thought - transmission. 
   
  " The departed soul will give counsel to the operator it will 
  occasionally reveal secrets which may be beneficial to those whom 
  it loved on earth, but it will answer no question which has 
  reference to the desires of the flesh; it will discover no buried 
  treasures, nor will it unveil the secrets of a third person; it is silent 
  on the mysteries of the superior existence to which it has now 
  attained. In certain cases, it will, however, declare itself either 
  happy or in punishment. If  - it be the latter, it will ask for the 
  prayer of the Magus, or for some religious observance, which we 
  must unfailingly fulfill. Lastly, it will indicate the time when the 
  evocation may be renewed. 
   
  When it has disappeared, the operator must turn to the East, 
  rekindle the fire on the altar, and make a final offering of incense. 
  Then he must detach the crown and the garands, take up his 
  candle, and retire with his face to the West till he is out of the 
  Oratory. His last duty is to burn the final remains of the flowers 
  and leaves. Their ashes, united to those which have been collected 
  during the time of retreat, must be mixed with myrtle seed, and 
  secretly buried in a field at a depth which will secure it from 
  disturbance of the ploughshare." 
   
  The last two examples are, of course, those of " white necrornancy. 
  The procedure followed by savage tribes is of course totally 
  different. Among certain Australian tribes the necromants are 
  called Birraark. It is said that a Birraark was supposed to be 
  initiated by the " mrarts " (ghosts) when they met him wandering in 
  the bush. It was from the ghosts that he obtained replies to 
  questions concerning events passing at a distance, or yet to 
  happen, which mi ght be of interest or moment to his tribe. An 
  account of a spiritual seance in the bush is given in Kamilaroi and 
  Kurnai - (p. 254) " The fires were let down; the Birraark uttered 
  the cry ' Coo - ee' at intervals. At length a distant reply was heard, 
  and shortly afterwards the saimd as of persons jumping on the 
  ground in succession. A voice was then heard in the gloom asking 
  in a strange intonation ' What is wanted ? ' At the termination of 
  the seance, the spirit voice said, ' We are going.' Finally, the 
  Birraark was found in the top' of an almost inaccessible tree, 
  apparently asleep."  
   
  In Japan, ghosts can be raised in various ways. One mode is to " 
  put into an andon " (a paper lantern in a frame), " a hundred 
  rushlights, and repeat an incantation of a hundred lines. One of 
  these rushlights is taken out at the end of each line, and the would 
  - be ghost - seer then goes out in the dark with one light still 
  burning, and blows it out, when the ghost ought to appear. Girls 
  who have lost their lovers by death often try that sorcery. 
   
  The mode of procedure as practised in Scotland was thus. The 
  haunted room was made ready. He, " who was to do the daring 
  deed, about nightfall entered the room, bearing, with him a table, a 
  chair, a candle, a compass, a crucifix if one could be got, and a 
  Bible. With the compass he cast a circle on the middle of the floor, 
  large enough to hold the chair and the table. He placed within the 
  circle the chair and the table, and on the table he laid the Bible 
  and the crucifix beside the lighted candle. If he had not a crucifix, 
  then he drew the figure of a cross on the floor within the circle. 
  When all this was done, he rested himself on the chair, opened the 
  Bible, and waited for the coming of the spirit. - Exactly at midnight 
  the spirit came. Sometimes the door opened slowly, and there 
  glided in noiselessly a lady sheeted in white, with a face of woe 
  and told her story to the man on his asking her in the name of God 
  what she wanted. What she wanted was done in the morning, and 
  the spirit rested ever after. Sometimes the spirit rose from the floor, 
  and sometimes came forth from the wall. One there was who burst 
  into the room with a strong bound, danced wildly round the circle, 
  and flourished a whip round the man's head, but never dared to 
  step within the circle. During a pause in his frantic dance he was 
  asked, in God's name, what he wanted. He ceased his dance and 
  told his wishes. His wishes were carried out, and the spirit was in 
  peace." 
   
  In Wraxall's " Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, 
  and Vienna " there is an amusing account of the raising of the 
  ghost of the Chevalier de Saxe. Reports had been circulated that at 
  his palace at Dresden there was secreted a large sum of money, 
  and it was urged that if his spirit could be compelled to appear, 
  interesting secrets might be extorted from him. Curiosity, 
  combined with avarice, accordingly prompted his principal heir, 
  Prince Charles, to try the experiment, and, on the appointed night, 
  Schrepfer was the operator in raising the apparition. He 
  commenced his proceedings by retiring into the corner of the 
  gallery, where, kneeling down with many mysterious ceremonies, 
  lie invoked the spirit to appear. At length a loud clatter was heard 
  at all the windows on the outside, resembling more the effect 
  produced by a number of wet fingers drawn over the edge of 
  glasses than anything else to which it could well be compared. 
  This sound announced the arrival of the good spirits, and was 
  shortly followed by a yell of a frightful and unusual nature, which 
  indicated the presence of malignant spirits. Schrepfer continued 
  his invocations, when " the door suddenly opened with violence. 
  and something that resembled a black ball or globe rolled into the 
  room. It was enveloped in smoke or cloud, in the midst of which 
  appeared a human face, like the countenance of the Chevalier de 
  Saxe, from which issued a loud and angry voice, exclaiming in 
  German, " Carl, was wollte du mit mich ? " - " Charles, what would 
  thou do with me ? " By reiterated exorcisms Schrepfer finally 
  dismissed the apparition, and the terrified spectators dispersed 
  fully convinced of his magical powers. 
   
  New Motor, The: A strange machine constructed in 1854 by John 
  Murray Spear (q.v.) at the instigation of the " Association of 
  Electricizers, " one of the bands of spirits by whom he was 
  controlled. It was to derive its motive power from the magnetic 
  store of nature, and was therefore to be as independent of artificial 
  sources of energy as was the human body. `Ihe machine was 
  hailed as a god - the " Physical Saviour of the race, " the " New 
  Messiah "and a certain lady, in obedience to a vision, went to the 
  High Rock (Lynn, Mass.) whereon stood the New Motor, and for 
  two hours suffered " birth - pangs, " whereby she judged that the 
  essence of her spiritual being was imparted to the machine. At the 
  end of that time it was averred that pulsations were apparent in the 
  molor. A. J. Davis expressed the belief that the design was the 
  work of spirits of a mechanical turn of mind, butwas of no practical 
  value. The New Motor was fin - ally smashed by the inhabitants of 
  Randolph (N.Y.) whither it had been taken. In all it cost its builder 
  some two thousand dollars. In common fairness to the Spiritualists 
  it may be said that the majority had no sympathy whatever with 
  such an absurd scheme. 
   
  Notariqon: a form of Literal Qabalah. A method for obtaining the 
  hidden meanings of Hebrew words by viewing them as acronyms of 
  phrases, or vice versa. The word is derived from the Latin notarius 
  or "shorthand writer." 
   
  
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  Oak Tree: The from time immemorial has held a high place as a 
  sacred tree. The Druids worshipped the oak, and performed many 
  of their rites under the shadow of its branches. When Augustine 
  preached Christianity to the ,ancient Britons, he stood under an 
  oak tree. The ancient 
   
  Hebrews evidently held the oak as a sacred tree. There is a 
  tradition that Abraham received his heavenly visitors under an 
  oak. Rebekah's nurse was buried under an oak, called afterwards 
  the oak of weeping. Jacob buried the idols of Shechem under an 
  oak. It was under the oak of Ophra, Gideon saw the angel sitting, 
  who gave him instructions as to what he was to do to free Israel. 
  When Joshua and Israel made a covenant to serve God, a great 
  stone was set up in evidence under an oak that was by the 
  sanctuary of the Lord. The prophet sent to prophesy against 
  Jeroboam was found at Bethel sitting under an oak. Saul and his 
  sons were buried under an oak, and, according to Isaiah, idols 
  were made of oak wood. Abimelech was made kin., by the oak that 
  was in Shechem. During the eighteenth century its influence in 
  curing diseases was believed in. The toothache could be cured by 
  boring with a nail the tooth or gum till blood came, and 'then 
  driving the nail into an oak tree. A child with rupture could be 
  cured by splitting an oak branch, and passing the child through the 
  opening backwards three times ; if the splits grew together 
  afterwards, the child would be cured. 
   
  Odyle (also Od, Odic Force, Odyllic Force): The term first used by 
  Baron von Reichenbach to denote the subtle effluence which he 
  supposed to emanate from every substance in, the universe, 
  particularly from the stars and planets, and from crystals, magnets 
  and the human body. The odyle was perceptible only to sensitives, 
  in whom it produced vague feelings of heat or cold, according to 
  the substance from which it radiated; or a sufficiently sensitive 
  person might perceive the odyllic light, a clear flame~ of definite 
  colour, issuing from the human finger - tips, the poles of the 
  magnet, various metals, chemicals, etc., and hovering like a 
  luminous cloud over new - made graves. The colours varied with 
  each substance; thus silver and gold had a white flame; cobalt, a 
  blue; copper and iron, a red. The English mesmerists speedily 
  applied Reichenbach's methods to their own sensitives, with 
  results that passed their expectations. The thoroughness of 
  Reichenbach's experiments, and the apparent soundness of his 
  scientific methods, made a deep impression of the public mind. 
  The objections cf Brall, who at this time advanced his theory of 
  suggestion, were ignored by the protagonists of odyle. In after 
  years, when spiritualism had established itself in America, there 
  remained a group of " rational " defenders of the movement, who 
  attributed the phenomena of spiritualism as well as those of the 
  poltergeist to the action of odylic force. Table - turning and 
  rapping were also referred to this emanation by many who laughed 
  to scorn Faraday's theory of unconscious muscular action. Others 
  again,  regarded the so - called " spirit " intelligences producing 
  the manifestations as being compounded of odylic vapours 
  emanating from the medium, and probably connected with an all - 
  pervading thought - atmosphere - an idea sufficiently like the " 
  cosmic fluid " of the early magnetists 
   
  Ointment, Witches': It was believed in medieval times that all the 
  wonders performed by witches - i.e., changing themselves into 
  animals, being transported through the air, etc.were wrought by 
  anointing themselves with a potent salve. As ointments are still 
  used in Oriental countries as a means of inducing visions, it is 
  possible that something of the kind may account for the 
  hallucinations which the witches seem to have experienced. Lord 
  Verularn says, " The ointment, that witches use, is reported to be 
  made of the fat of chidren, digged out of their graves; of the juices 
  of smallage, wolfebane, and cinque foil, mingled with the meal of 
  fine wheat: but I suppose that the soporiferous medicines are likest 
  to do it, which are hen - bane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, 
  tobacco, opium, saffron, Poplar leaves, etc." 
   
  Ophir: Ophir is the location of King Solomon's legendary Gold 
  Mines.  The ships of King Hiram of Tyre brought gold from Ophir; 
  and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and 
  precious stones. It is suggested that Ophir was given to Solomon by 
  the Queen of Sheba, though this is unclear.   
   
  The magnificent stone citadel of Great Zimbabwe, the country's 
  most famous ancient city and inspiration for King Solomon's 
  Mines,. Were discovered in 1871, the explorers were unwilling to 
  believe that Africans could have built anything this grand. They 
  speculated it was the Biblical land of Ophir, site of King Solomon's 
  legendary gold mines. In fact, at the beginning of the century, it 
  had already been shown that Great Zimbabwe was the capital of a 
  vast and thriving medieval African state that lasted over 300 years. 
  At its height in the 15th century, it had a population as large as 
  many of Europe's great cities.  
   
  The Queen of Sheba, known as Makeda, Is supposed to have 
  travelled from Axum in Ethiopia to visit King Solomon in 
  Jerusalem. During her stay, Solomon not only dazzled her with his 
  wisdom, but also tricked her by a clever ruse into having sexual 
  relations with him. The Queen conceived a son, whom she bore 
  upon her return to Axum. When he reached maturity, this son, 
  Menelik, journeyed to Jerusalem to meet his father. At the 
  completion of Menelik's visit, Solomon commanded that the first-
  born sons of the priests and elders of Israel accompany him to 
  Aksum. Before setting out, however, Menelik and his companions 
  led by Azariah, the son of the High Priest, stole the Ark of the 
  Covenant from the Temple. Thus, the glory of Zion passed from 
  Jerusalem and the Children of Israel to the new Zion, Axum. 
   
  H. Rider Haggard published a stirring fictional account of the 
  mines in the late 19th century. 
   
  Oracles: Shrines where a god speaks to human beings through the 
  mouths of priests or priestesses. The con6ept of the god become 
  vocal in this manner was by no means confined to Greece or Egypt. 
  Our object here is to deal with the most celebrated oracles of all 
  nations as well as those of antiquity. Probably all the primitive 
  gods those, that is to say, of the fetish class, now under 
  consideration - were consulted as oracles; it is certain that they 
  derived this character in a state of animism and that they 
  transmitted it to gods of the most advanced type. In early times the 
  great question was whether man would have food on the morrow or 
  no; perhaps the first oracle was the spirit which directed the 
  hungry savage in his hunting and fishing expeditions. The 
  Esquimaux still consult spirits for this purpose, and their wizards 
  are as familiar with the art of giving ambiguous replies to their 
  anxious clients as were the well - informed keepers of the or 'cles 
  of Greece. As advancement proceeded, the direction of the gods 
  was obtained in all the affairs of private and public life. 
   
  Greece: . - The Oracle of Delphi. When Jupiter was once desirous 
  to ascertain the central point of the earth, he despatched two 
  eagles, or two crows, as they are named by Strabo. The messengers 
  
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  took flight in opposite courses, from sunrise and sunset; and they 
  met at Delphi, which place was thenceforward dignified with the 
  title " The navel of the earth; " an " umbilicus " being represented 
  in white marble within its celebrated temple. Delphi thus became a 
  place of great distinction, but it was not yet oracular, till the fumes 
  which issued from a neighbouring cave were first discovered by a 
  shepherd named Coretas. His attention was forcibly attracted to a 
  spot round which whenever his goats were browsing they 
  gambolled and bleated more than was their wont. Whether these 
  fumes arose in consequence of an earthquake, or whether -  they 
  were generated by demoniacal art is not to be ascertained; but the 
  latter hypothesis is thought by Clasen to be the more probable of 
  the two. Coretas, on approaching the spot, was seized with ecstacy, 
  and uttered words which were deemed inspired. It was not long 
  before the danger arising in consequence of the excitement of 
  curiosity among the neigbbours, the deadly stupefaction often 
  produced among those who inhaled the fumes without proper 
  caution, and the inclination which it aroused in some to plunge 
  themselves into the depths of the cavern below, occasioned the 
  fissure to be covered by a sort of table, having a hole in the centre, 
  and called a tripod, so that those who wished toi try the experiment 
  could resort there in safety. Eventually a young girl, of 
  unsophisticated manners, became the chosen medium of the 
  responses, now deemed oracular and called Pythian, as proceeding 
  from Apollo, the slayer of Python, to w1ioni. Delphi was 
  consecrated. A sylvan bower of laurel branches was erected over 
  the spot, and at length the marble temple and the priesthood of 
  Delphi arose where the Pythoness, seated on her throne, could be 
  charged with the divine - and was thus rendered the vehicle of 
  Apollo's dictation. 
   
  As the oracle became more celebrated, its prophetic machinery 
  was constructed of more costly materials. The tripod was then 
  formed of gold, but the lid, which was placed in its hollow rim, in 
  order to afford the Pythoness a more secure seat, continued to be 
  made of brass. She prepared herself by drinking out of a sacred 
  fountain (Castalia), adjoining the crypt, the waters of which were 
  reserved for her only, and in which she bathed her hair; by 
  chewing a laurel leaf, and by circling her brows with a laurel 
  crown. The person who made inquiry from the oracle, first offered 
  a victim, and then having written his question in a note - book, 
  handed it to the Pythoness, before she ascended the tripod; and he 
  also as well as the priestess, wore a laurel crown. In early times the 
  oracle spoke only in one month of the year, named " Byssus, " in 
  which it originated; and at first only on the seventh day of that 
  month, which was esteemed the birth - day of Apollo, and was 
  called " Polypthonus." 
   
  Virginity was at first an indispensable requisite in the Pythoness; 
  on account, as Diodorus tells us, of the purity of that state and its 
  relation to Diana; moreover, because virgins were thought better 
  adapted than others of their sex to keep oracular mysteries secret 
  and inviolate. But an untoward accident having occurred to one of 
  these consecrated damsels, the guardians of the temple, in order, 
  as they imagined, to prevent its repetition for the future, permitted 
  no one to fulfil the duties of the office till she had attained the 
  mature age of fifty; they still indulged her, however, with the use of 
  a maiden's habit. The response was always delivered in Greek. 
   
  Oracle of Dodona. Another celebrated oracle, that of Jupiter, was 
  at Dodona, in Epirus, from which Jupiter derived the name of 
  Dodonus. It was situated at the foot of Mount Tomarus, in a wood 
  of oaks; and there the answers were given by an old woman under 
  the name of Pelias. Pelias means dove in the Attic dialect, from 
  which the fable arose, that the doves prophesied in the groves of 
  Dodona. According to Herodotus, this legend contains the 
  following incident, which gave rise to the oracle: - Two priestesses 
  of Egyptian Thebes were carried .away by Phoenician merchants; 
  one of them was conveyed to Libya, where she founded the oracle 
  of Jupiter Ammon; the other to Greece. The latter one remained in 
  the Dodonian wood, which was much frequented on account of the 
  acorns. There she had a temple built at the foot of an oak in honour 
  of Jupiter, whose priestess she had been in Thebes; and here 
  afterwards a regular oracle was founded. He adds, that this 
  priestess was called a dove, because her language could not be 
  understood. The Dodonid and African oracles were certainly 
  connected, and Herodotus distinctly states, that the manner of 
  prophecy in Dodona was the same as that in Egyptian Thebes. 
  Diana was worshipped in Dodona in conjunction with Zeus, and a 
  female figure was associated with Amun in the Libyan Ammonium. 
  Besides this, the dove was the bird of Aphrodite, the Diana of 
  Zeus, or the Mosaic divine love, which saved mankind from 
  complete destruction. According to other authors, there was a 
  wondrous intoxicating spring at Dodona; and in later times more 
  material means were employed to produce the prophetic spirit. 
   
  Several copper bowls, nam6ly, were placed upon a column, and the 
  statue of a boy beside them. When the wind moved a rod or 
  scourge having three bones attached to chains, it struck upon the 
  metallic bowls, the sound of which was heard by the applicants. 
  These Dodonian tones gave rise to a proverb ops Dodonaum - an 
  unceasing babbler. 
   
  The oracle at Dodona was dedicated to the Pelasgian Zeus, who 
  was worshipped here at the same time as the almighty ruler of the 
  world, and as the friendly associate of mankind. In the course of 
  the theogonic process, Diana was associated with him as his wife, - 
  the mother of Aphrodite. The servants of Zeus were Selles, the 
  priests of Diana, the so - called Peliades. According to Homer, the 
  Selles inhabited the sanctum at Dodona, sleeping upon the earth, 
  and with naked unwashed feet; they served the Pelasgian Zeus. It 
  is probable that they slept upon the earth on the hides of newly - 
  sacrificed animals, to receive prophetic dreams, as was customary 
  at other places, Calchos and Oropus, with many others. 
   
  As regards the mantic of Dodona, it was partly natural, from the 
  excitement of the mind, partly artificial. Of the latter we may 
  mention three modes - the ancient oak of Zeus, with its prophetic 
  doves, the miraculous spring, and the celebrated Dodonian bowls 
  of brass. 
   
  The far - spreading, speaking tree, the incredible wonder, as 
  Aeschylus calls it, was an oak, a lofty beautiful tree, with 
  evergreen leaves and sweet edible acorns, which according to the 
  belief of the Greeks and Romans, were the first sustenance of 
  mankind. The Pelasgi regarded this tree as the tree of life. In this 
  tree the god was supposed to reside, and the rustling of its leaves 
  and the voices of birds showed his presence. When the questioners 
  entered, the oak rustled, and the Peliades said, " Thus speaks 
  Zeus." Incense was burned beneath it, which may be compared to 
  the altar of Abraham under the oak Ogyges, which had stood there 
  since the world's creation. According to the legend, sacred doves 
  continually inhabited the tree, like the Marsoor oracle at Tiora 
  Mattiene, where a sacred hawk foretells futurity from the top of a 
  wooden pillar. 
   
  At the foot of the oak a cold spring gushes as it were from its roots, 
  and from its murmur the inspired priestesses prophesied. 
  
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  Of this miraculous fountain it is related, that lighted torches being 
  thrust into it were extinguished, and that extinguished torches were 
  re - lit; it also rose and fell at various seasons. " That extinction 
  and rekindling has, " says Lassaulx, " perhaps the mystical 
  signification that the usual sober life of the senses must be 
  extinguished, that the prophetic spirit dormant in the soul may be 
  aroused. The torch of human existence must expire, that a divine 
  one may be lighted; the human must die that the divine may be 
  born; the destruction of individuality is the awakening of God in 
  the soul, or, as the mystics say, the setting of sense is the rising of 
  truth." 
   
  The extinguishing of a burning light shows that the spring 
  contained carbonic acid gas, which possesses stupifying and 
  deadly properties, like all exhalations arising especially from 
  minerals. The regular rising and sinking of the water is a frequent 
  phenomenon, and has been observed from the earliest ages. 
   
  It appears that predictions were drawn from the tones of the 
  Dodonian brass bowls, as well as from the rustling of the sacred 
  oak and the murmuring of the sacred well. 
   
  The Dodonian columns, with that which stood upon them, appears 
  to express the following: - The medium sized brazen bowl was a 
  hemisphere, and symbolised of heaven, the boy - like male statue a 
  figure of the Demiurgos, or constructor of the universe; the bell - 
  like notes a symbol of the harmony of the universe and music of 
  the spheres. That the Demiurgos is represented as a boy is quite in 
  the spirit of Eupto - Pelasgian theology as it reigned in 
  Samothrace. The miraculous bell told all who came to Dodona to 
  question the god that they were on holy ground, must inquire with 
  pure hearts, and be silent when the god replied. It is easily 
  imagined that these tones, independent and uninfluenced by 
  human will, must have made a deep impression upon the minds of 
  pilgrims -  Those who questioned the god were also obliged to take 
  a purificatory bath in the temple, similar to that by which the 
  Delphian Pythia prepared herself for prophecy. 
   
  Besides this artificial soothsaying from signs, natural divination by 
  the prophetic movements of the mind was practised. Where there 
  are prophesying priestesses, there must also be ecstatic ones, 
  similar to those in the magnetic state. Sophocles calls the 
  Dodonean priestesses divinely inspired: Plato (Phaedrus) says, 
  more decidedly, that the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses 
  at Dodona had done much good in sacred madness, in private and 
  public affairs, to their country, but in their senses little or nothing. 
  We may see from this that the Delphian Pythia, as well as the 
  Dodonian priestesses, did not give their oracles in the state of 
  common waking consciousness, but in real ecstasy, to which the 
  frequent incense - and drink -  - offerings would assist. Aristides 
  states, still more clearly than the others, that the priestesses at 
  Dodona neither knew, before being seized upon by the spirit, what 
  would be said, nor remembered afterwards, when their natural 
  consciousness returned, what they had uttered; so that all others, 
  rather than they, knew it. 
   
  Oracle of Jupiter Trophonius. - Trophonius, according to 
  Pausanias, was the most skilful architect of his day. Concerning 
  the origin of his oracle there are many opinions. Some say he was 
  swallowed up by an earthquake in the cave which afterwards 
  became prophetic; others, that after. having completed the Adyturn 
  of Apollo at Delphi (a very marvellous specimen of his 
  workmanship, which Dr. Clarke thought might at some time be 
  discovered on account of its singularity), be declined asking any 
  specific pay, but modestly requested the god to grant him whatever 
  was the greatest benefit a man could receive; and in three days 
  afterwards he was found dead. This oracle was discovered after two 
  years of scarcity in its neighbourhood, when the Pythoness ordered 
  the starving population, who applied to her, to consult Trophonius 
  in Lebada. The deputation sent for that purpose could not discover 
  any trace of such an oracle, till Saon, the oldest among them, 
  obtained the desired information by following the Right of a swarm 
  of bees. The responses were given by the genius of Trophonius to 
  the inquirer, who was compelled to descend into a cave, of the 
  nature of which Pausanias has left a very lively representation. The 
  votary resided for a certain number of days in a sanctuary of good 
  fortune, in which he underwent customarv lustrations, abstained 
  from hot baths, but dipped in the river Hercyna, and was 
  plentifully supplied with meat from the victims which he 
  sacrificed. Many, indeed, were the sacred personages whom he was 
  bound to propitiate with blood; among them were Trophonius 
  himself and his sons, Apollo, Saturn, Jupiter, Vasileus, Juno 
  Henioche, and Ceres Europa, who is affirmed to have been the. 
  nurse of Trophonius. From an inspection of the entrails, a 
  soothsayer pronounced whether Trophonius was in fit humour for 
  consultation. None of the - oracles however favourable they might 
  have 'been, were of the slightest avail, unless a ram, immolated to 
  Agamedes at the mouth of the cave on the very night of the 
  descent, proved auspicious. When that propitious signal had been 
  given the priests led the inquirer to the river Hercyna, where he 
  was anointed and washed by two Lebadaean youths, thirteen years 
  of age, named " Hermai.” He was then carried farther to the two 
  spring - heads of the stream, and there he drank first of Lethe, in 
  order that he might forget all past events and present his mind to 
  the oracle as a "tabula rasa"; and secondly of Mnemosyne, that he 
  might firmly retain remembrance of every occurrence which was 
  about to happen within the cave. An image, reputed to be the 
  workmanship of Dwdalus, was then exhibited to him, and so great 
  was its sanctity, that no other eyes but those of a person about to 
  undertake the adventure of the cave were ever permitted to behold 
  it. Next he was clad in a linen robe, girt with ribbons, and shod 
  with sandals peculiar to the country. The entrance to the oracle 
  was a very narrow aperture in a grove on the summit of a mountain, 
  protected by a marble parapet about two cubits in height, and by 
  brazen spikes above it. The upper part of the cave was artificial, 
  like an oven, but no steps were cut in the rock, and the descent 
  was made by a ladder brought to the spot on each occasion. On 
  approaching the mouth of the adytum itself the adventurer lay flat, 
  and holding in each hand some honeyed cakes, first inserted his 
  feet into the aperture, then drew his knees and the remainder of his 
  body after them, till he was caught by some hidden force, and 
  carried downward as if by a whirlpool. The responses were given 
  sometimes by a vision, sometimes by words; and a forcible exit was 
  then made through the original entrance, and in like manner feet 
  foremost. There was only a single instance on record of any person 
  who had descended failing to return and that one deserved his fate 
  . for his object was to discover treasure, not to consult the Oracle. 
  Immediately on issuing from the cavern, the inquirer was placed 
  on a seat called that of Mnemosyne, not far from the entrance, and 
  there the priests demanded a relation of everything which he had 
  seen and heard; he was then carried once again to the sanctuary of 
  good fortune, where he remained for some time overpowered by 
  terror and lost in forgetfulness. By degrees his powers of intellect 
  returned, and, in contradiction to the received opinion, he 
  recovered the power of smiling. 
  
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  Dr. Clarke, in his visit to Lebadaea, found everything belonging to 
  the hieron of Trophonius in its original state, excepting that the 
  narrow entrance to the adytum was choked with rubbish. The 
  Turkish governor was afraid of a popular commotion if he gave 
  permission for cleansing this aperture. Mr. Cripps, however, 
  introduced the whole length of his body into the cavity, and by 
  thrusting a long pole before him found it utterly stopped. The 
  waters of Lethe and Mnemosyne at present supply the 
  washerwomen of Lebadea. 
   
  Oracles of Delos and Branchus. - The oracle of " Delos, " 
  notwithstanding its high reputation, had few peculiarities: its 
  virtue was derived from the nativity of Apollo and Diana in that 
  island. At Dindyma, or Didyma, near Miletus, Apollo presided over 
  the oracle of the " Branchidx, " so called from either one of his 
  sons or of his favourites Branchus of Thessaly, whom be instructed 
  in soothsaying while alive, and canonized after death. The 
  responses were given by a priestess who bathed and fasted for 
  three days before consultation, and then sat upon an axle or bar, 
  with a charming - rod in her hand, and inhaling the steam from a 
  hot spring. Offerings and ceremonies were necessary to render the 
  inspiration effectual, including baths, fasting, and solitude, and 
  Iamblichus censures those who despise them. 
   
  Oracle of the Claian Apollo at Colophon. - Of the oracle of Apollo 
  at Colophon, Iamblichus relates that it prophesied by drinking of 
  water. " It is known that a subterranean spring exists there, from 
  which the prophet drinks; after he has done so, and has performed 
  many consecrations and sacred customs on certain night  he 
  predicts the future; but he is invisible to all who are present. That 
  this water can induce prophecy is clear, but how it happens, no 
  one knows, says the proverb." It might appear that the divine spirit 
  pervades this water, but it is not so. God is in all things, and is 
  reflected in this spring, thereby giving it the prophetic power. This 
  inspiration of the water is not of an entirely divine nature, for it 
  only prepares us and purifies the light of the soul, so that we are fit 
  to receive the divine spirit. There the divine presence is of such a 
  nature that it punishes every one who is capable of receiving the 
  god. The soothsayer uses this  - spirit like a work - tool over which 
  he has no control. After the moment of prediction be does not 
  always remember that which has passed; often he can scarcely 
  collect his faculties. Long before the water - drinking, the 
  soothsayer must abstain day and night from food, and observe 
  religious customs, which are impossible to ordinary people, by 
  which means he is made capable of receiving the god. It is only in 
  this manner that he is able to hold the mirror of his sov! to the 
  radiance of free inspiration." 
   
  Oracle of Amphiaraus - Another very celebrated oracle was that of 
  Amphiaraus, who distinguished himself so much in the Theban 
  war. He was venerated at Oropus, in Boeotia, as a seer. This oracle 
  was consulted more in sickness than on any other occasion. The 
  applicants had here, also, to lie upon the skin of a sacrificed ram, 
  and during sleep had the remedies of their diseases revealed to 
  them. Not only, however, were sacrifices and lustrations performed 
  here, but the priests prescribed other preparations bv which the 
  minds of the sleepers were to be enlightened. Thev had to fast one 
  day, and refrain from wine three. Amphilochus, as son of 
  Amphiaraus, had a similar oracle at Mallos, in Cilicia, which 
  Pausanias calls the most trustworthy and credible of the age. 
  Plutarch speaks of the oracles of Amphilochus and Mopsus as 
  being in a very flourishing state; and Lucian mentions that all 
  those who wished to question the oracle had to lay down two oboes. 
   
  Egyptian Oracles. - The oracles of Ancient Egypt were as 
  numerous as those of Greece. It must have been due to foreign 
  influence that the oracle, that played so important a part in the 
  Greek world at this time, was also thoroughly established on the 
  banks of the Nile. Herodotus knew of no fewer than seven gods in 
  Egypt who spake by oracles. Of these, the most reliable was 
  considered to give an intimation of their intentions by means of 
  remarkable events. These are carefully observed by the Egyptians, 
  who write down what follows upon these prodigies. They also 
  consider that the fate of a person is fixed by the day of his birth, for 
  every day belongs, to a special god. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon 
  at the oasis of that name and the same deity at Thebes existed from 
  the twentieth to the twenty - second Dynasty. He was consulted not 
  onl3T concerning the fate of empires but upon such trifling matters 
  as the identification of a thief. In all serious matters, however, it 
  was sought to ascertain his views. Those about to make their wills 
  sought his oracle, and judgments were ratified by his word. 
   
   " According to the inscriptions, intercourse between king and god 
  was arranged as follows: - The King present himself before the god 
  and preferred a direct question, so framed as to admit of an answer 
  by simple yes or no; in reply the god nodded an affirmative, or 
  shook his head innegation. This has suggested the idea that the 
  oracles were worked by manipulating statues of divinities mechan-
  ically set in motion by the priests. But as yet no suchstatues have 
  been found in the Valley of the Nile, and contrivances of this kind 
  could have had no other object than to deceive the people, - a 
  supposition apparently excluded in this case by the fact that it was 
  customary for the king to visit the god alone and in secret. 
  Probably the king presented himself on such occasions before the 
  sacred animal in which the god was incarnate, believing that the 
  divine will would be manifested by its movements."The Apis bull 
  also possessed oracles. Bes, too, god of pleasure or of the senses, 
  had an oracle at Abydos. 
   
  Ameyican Oracles. - Among the American races the oracle was 
  frequently encountered. All the principal gods 
  of aboriginal America universally act as oracles. With the ancient 
  inhabitants of Peru, the huillcas partook of the nature Of oracles, 
  Many of these were serpents, trees, and rivers, the noises made by 
  which appeared to the primitive Peru Vians - as, indeed, they do to 
  primitive folk all over the world - to be of the quality of articulate 
  speech. Both  - the Huillcamayu and the Apurimac rivers at Cuzco 
  were huillca oracles of this kind, as their names, " Huillcariver " 
  and " Great Speaker, " denote. These oracles often set the mandate 
  of the Inca himself at defiance, occasionally supporting popular 
  opinion against his policy. 
   
  The Peruvian Indians of the Andes range within recent generations 
  continued to adhere to the superstitions they had inherited from 
  their fathers. A rare and interesting account of these says that they 
  " admit an evil being, the inhabitant of the centre of the earth, 
  whom they consider as the author of their misfortunes, and at the 
  mention of whose name they tremble. The most shrewd among 
  them take advantage of this belief to obtain respect, and represent 
  themselves as his delegates. Under the denomination of mohanes, 
  or agoreros, they are consulted even on the most trivial occasions. 
  They preside over the intrigues of love, the health of the 
  community, and the taking of the field. Whatever repeatedly 
  occurs to defeat their prognostics, falls on themselves; and they are 
  wont to pay for their deceptions very dearly. They chew a species 
  of vegetable called piripiri, and throw it into the air, accompanying 
  this act by certain recitals and incantations, to injure some, to, 
  
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  benefit others, to procure rain and the inundation of rivers, or, on 
  the other hand, to occasion settled weather, and a plentiful store of 
  agricultural productions. Any such result, having been casually 
  verified on a single occasion, suffices to confirm the Indians in 
  their faith, although they may have been cheated a thousand times. 
   
  There is an instance on record of how the huillca could refuse on 
  occasion to recognise even royalty itself. Manco, the Inca who had 
  been given the kingly power by Pizarro, offered a sacrifice to one of 
  these oracular shrines. The oyacle refused to recognise him, 
  through the medium of its guardian priest, stating that Manco was 
  not the rightful Inca. Xlanco therefore caused the oracle, which 
  was in the shade of a rock, to be thrown down, whereupon its 
  guardian spirit emerged in the form of a parrot and flew away. It is 
  probable that the bird thus liberated had been taught by the priests 
  to answer to the questions of those who came to consult the shrine. 
  But we learn that on Manco commanding that the parrot should be 
  pursued it sought another rock, which opened to receive it, and the 
  spirit of the huillca was transferred to this new abode. 
   
  Like the greater idols of Mexico, most of the principal huacas of 
  Peru seem to have been also oracles. The guardians of the great 
  speaking huacas appear to have exercised in virtue of their office 
  an independent influence which was sometimes sufficiently 
  powerful to resist the Apu - Ccapac Inca himself. It was perhaps 
  natural that they should be the exponents of the popular feeling 
  which supported them, rather than of the policy of the sovereign 
  chiefs, whose interest it was to suppress them: there was even a 
  tradition that the Huillac - umu, a venerable huillac whom the rest 
  acknowledged as their head, had in old times possessed 
  jurisdiction over the supreme war - chiefs. 
   
  Many Indian tribes employ fetishes as oracles, and among the 
  ancient Mexicans practically all the great gods were oracular. 
   
  Ordo Templi Orientis:  The letters O.T.O. stand for Ordo Templi 
  Orientis, the Order of Oriental Templars, or Order of the Temple of 
  the East. In 1895, Karl Kellner (1850-1905), a wealthy Austrian 
  industrialist and paper chemist, as well as a high-grade Mason, 
  founded the Ordo Templi Orientis. Kellner had traveled widely in 
  the East, where he met three adepts who instructed him specific 
  magical practices. Kellner's efforts to develop the Order were later 
  assisted by Franz Hartmann, Heinrich Klein and Theodore Reuss, 
  who had worked together prior to joining the O.T.O. The Order was 
  first proclaimed in 1902 in Reuss's Masonic publication, 
  'Oriflamme'.  
   
  On Kellner's death, Reuss succeeded him as Outer Head [O.H.O.]. 
  The 'Jubilee' edition of the 'Oriflamme', published in 1912, 
  announced that the Order taught secret of sexual magic.  
   
  Theodore Reuss was an interesting character. Born June 28, 1855 
  in Augsburg, he entered Masonry in 1876. He was a singer, 
  journalist and possibly a spy for the Prussian political police, 
  infiltrating the Socialist League founded by Karl Marx's daughter 
  and her husband. Reuss was later associated with William Wynn 
  Westcott, a leader of the Golden Dawn, who later introduced him 
  to John Yarker. Yarker chartered Reuss to found the Rites of 
  Memphis and Mizraim in Germany. After several attempts to 
  concretize various Masonic Rites, Reuss settled on the 
  development of the O.T.O. 
   
  The Order experienced reasonably steady growth under Reuss' 
  leadership. For example, he chartered Papus in France, Rudolph 
  Steiner in Berlin and H. Spencer Lewis in the USA. In 1912, the 
  historic meeting between Reuss and Crowley occurred. Crowley 
  wrote that Reuss came to him and accused him of revealing Order 
  secrets.  The two instead got along well, and when Crowley looked 
  at it afresh, the initiated interpretation of sexual magick unfolded 
  itself to him for the first time. Reuss appointed Crowley as 
  “Supreme and Holy King” of all the English speaking world, and it 
  was this authorization that he invoked when publishing the 
  material of the Equinox. 
   
  Reuss resigned as Outer Head of the Order in 1922 after suffering 
  a stroke and named Crowley his successor. All was well until 1925 
  when Crowley’s personal messianic vision, the Book of the Law 
  was translated into German. Liber Legis was supposed to have 
  been dictated to Crowley by an ancient Atlantean spirit known as 
  Aiwass at the Great Pyramid in 1904. 
   
  Reactions to Liber Legis caused a break in the continuity of the 
  Order. Many members split with the new O.H.O. over the book, 
  which Crowley was actively promulgating through the Order. He 
  had earlier revised the Order rituals at Reuss's request, deeply 
  infusing the doctrines of the New Aeon revelation. 
   
  Crowley published many of his most important works under the 
  imprimatur of the O.T.O.. He reformulated its long-term goals and 
  mission and came to view the O.T.O. as the "ark" for preserving the 
  distillation of the world's cultures into the future. 
   
  Palladium, Order of : A masonic diabolic order, also entitled the 
  Sovereign-Council of Wisdom, founded in Paris on  May 2oth, 
  1737. It initiated women under the name of companions of 
  Penelope. The fact that it existed is  proved by the circumstance 
  that Ragou, the Masonic antiquary, published its ritual. 
   
  Paracelsus: In the history of alchemy there is not a more striking or 
  picturesque figure than Auroelus Philippus Theophrastus 
  Paracelstis Bombast von Hohenheim, the illustrious physician and 
  exponent of the hermetic philosophy who has chosen to go down to 
  fame under the name of Paracelsus. He was born at Einsideln, near 
  Zurich, in the year 1493. His father, the natural son of a prince, 
  himself practice the " art of medicine, " and was desirous that his 
  only son should follow the same profession. To the fulfilment of 
  that desire was directed the early training of Paracelsus - a training 
  which fostered his imaginative rather than his practical tendencies, 
  and which first cast his mind into the alchemical mould. It did not 
  take him long to discover that the medical traditions of the time 
  were but empty husks from which all substance had long since 
  dried away. " I considered with myself, " he says, " that if there 
  were no teacher of medicine in the world, how would I set about to 
  learn the art ? No otherwise than in the great open book of nature, 
  written with the finger of God." Having thus freed himself from the 
  constraining bonds of an outworn medical orthodoxy, whose chief 
  resources were bleeding, purging, and emetics, he set about 
  evolving a new system to replace the old, and in order that he 
  might study the book of nature to better advantage he travelled 
  extensively from 1513 to 1524, visiting almost every part of the 
  known world, studying metallurgy, chemistry, and medicine, and 
  consorting with vagabonds of every description. He was brought 
  before the Chain of Tartary, conversed with the magicians of Egypt 
  and Arabia, and is said to have even reached India. At length his 
  protracted wanderings came to a close, and in 1524 he settled in 
  
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  Basle, then a favourite resort of scholars and physicians, where he 
  was appointed to fill the chair of medicine at the University. Never 
  had Basle witnessed a more brilliant, erratic professor. His inflated 
  language, his eccentric behaviour, the splendour of his 
  conceptions flashing through a fog of obscurity, at once attracted 
  and repelled, and gained for him friends and enemies. His 
  antipathy to the Galenic school became ever more pronounced, 
  and the crisis came when he publicly burned the works of Galen 
  and Avicenna in a brazen vase into which he had cast nitre and 
  sulphur. By such a proceeding he incurred the hatred of his more 
  conservative brethren, and cut himself off forever from the 
  established school of medicine. He continued his triumphant 
  career, however, till a conflict with the magistrates brought it to an 
  abrupt close. He was forced to flee from Basle, and thereafter 
  wandered from place to place, gaining a living as best he might. An 
  element of mystery surrounds the manner of his death, which took 
  place in 1541, but the best authenticated account states that he 
  was poisoned at the instigation of the medical faculty. 
   
  But interesting as were the events of his life, it is to his work that 
  most attention is due. Not only was he the founder of the modern 
  science of medicine; the magnetic theory of Mesmer, the " astral " 
  theory of modern spiritualists, the philosophy of Descartes, were 
  all foreshadowed in the fantastic, yet not always illogical, teaching 
  of Paracelsus. He revived the " microcosmic " theory of ancient 
  Greece, and sought to prove the human body analogous to the Solar 
  System, by establishing a connection between the seven organs of 
  the body and the seven planets. He preached the doctrines of the 
  efficacy of will - power and the imagination in such words as these: 
  " It is possible that my spirit, without the help of my body, and 
  through an ardent will alone, and without a sword, can stab and 
  wound others. It is also possible that I can bring the spirit of my 
  adversary into an image and then hold him up or lame him at my 
  pleasure." " Resolute imagination is the beginning of all magical 
  operations." " Because men do not perfectly believe and imagine, 
  the result is, that arts are uncertain when they might be wholly 
  certain." The first principle of his doctrine is the extraction of the 
  quintessence, or philosophic mercury, from every material body. 
  He believed that if the quintessence were drawn from each animal, 
  plant, and mineral, the combined result would equal the universal 
  spirit, or " astral body " in man, and that a draught of the extract 
  would renew his youth. He came at length to the conclusion that " 
  astral bodies " exercised a mutual influence on each other, and 
  declared that he himself had communicated with the dead, and  - 
  with living persons at a considerable distance. He was the first to 
  connect this influence with that of the magnet, and to use the word 
  "magnetism" with its present application. It was on this foundation 
  that Mesmer built his theory of magnetic influence. While 
  Paracelsus busied himself with such problems, however, he did not 
  neglect the study and practice of medicine. Indeed, astrology and 
  the magnet entered largely into his treatment. When he was sought 
  by a patient, his first care was to consult the planets, where the 
  disease had its origin, and if the patient were a woman he took it 
  for granted that the cause of her malady lay in the moon. His 
  anticipation of the philosophy of Descartes, consisted in his theory 
  that by bringing the various elements of the human body into 
  harmony with the elements of nature - fire, light, earth, etc - old 
  age and death might be indefinitely postponed. His experiment in 
  the extraction of its essential spirit from the poppy resulted in the 
  production of laudanum, which he prescribed freely in the form of 
  " three black pills." The recipes which he gives for the 
  Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, and various universal 
  remedies, are exceedingly obscure.  
   
  He is deservedly celebrated as the first physician to use opium and 
  mercury, and to recognise the value of sulphur. He applied himself 
  also to the solution of a problem which still exercises the minds of 
  scientific men - whether it is possible to produce life from 
  inorganic matter. Paracelsus asserted that it was, and has, left on 
  record a quaint recipe for a homunculus, or artificial man. By a 
  peculiar treatment of certain " spagyric substances"  - which he has 
  unfortunately omitted to specify - he declared that he could 
  produce a perfect human child in, miniature. Speculations such as 
  these, medical, alchemical and philosophical, were scattered so 
  profusely throughout his teaching that we are compelled to admit 
  that here was a master - mind, a genius, who was a charlatan only 
  incidentally, by reason of training and temperament. Let it be 
  remembered that he lived in an age when practically all scholars 
  and physicians were wont to impose on popular ignorance, and we 
  cannot but remark that Paracelsus displayed, under all his 
  arrogant exterior, a curious singleness of purpose, and a real desire 
  to penetrate the mysteries of science. He has left on record the 
  principal points of the philosophy on which he founded his 
  researches in his " Archidoxa Medicina." It contains the leading 
  rules of the art of healing, as he practised and preached them. " I 
  had resolved, " he says, " to give ten books to the ' Archidoxa., ' but 
  I have reserved the tenth in my head. It is a treasure which men 
  are not worthy to possess, and shall only be given to the world 
  when they shall have abjured Aristotle, Avicenna, and Galen, and 
  promised a perfect submission to Paracelsus." The world did not 
  recant, but Paracelsus relented, and at the entreaty of his disciples 
  published this tenth book, the key to the nine others, but a key 
  which might pass for a lock. and for a lock which we cannot even 
  pick. It is entitled the " Tenth Book o f the Arch - Doclyines ; or, 
  On the Secret Mysteries of Nature." A brief summary of it is - as 
  follows: 
   
  He begins by supposing and ends by establishing that there is a 
  universal spirit infused into the veins of man, forming within us a 
  species of invisible body, of which our visible body, which it 
  directs and governs at its will, is but the wrapping - the casket. 
  This universal spirit is not simple - not more simple, for instance, 
  than the number ioo, which is a collection of units. Where, then, 
  are the spiritual units of which our complex spirit is composed ? 
  Scattered in plants and minerals.. but principally in metals. There 
  exists in these inferior productions of the earth a host of sub - 
  spirits which sum themselves up in us, as the universe does in 
  God. So the science of the philosopher has simply to unite them to 
  the body - to disengage them from the grosser matter which clogs 
  and confines them, to separate the pure from the impure. 
   
  To separate the pure from the impure is, in other words, to seize 
  upon the soul of the heterogeneous bodies - to evolve their " 
  predestined element, " " the seminal essence of beings ... .. the first 
  being, or quintessence." 
   
  To understand this latter word " quintessence, " it is needful for the 
  reader to know that every body, whatever it may be, is composed of 
  four elements, and that the essence compounded of these elements 
  forms a fifth, which is the soul of the mixed bodies, or, in other 
  words, its  mercury, " " I have shown, " says Paracelsus, " in my 
  book of ' Elements, ' that the quintessence is the same thing as 
  mercury. There is in mercury whatever wise men seek." That is, 
  not the mercury of modern chemists, but a philosophical mercury 
  of which every body has its own. " There are as many mercuries as 
  there are things. The mercury of a vegetable, a mineral, or an 
  animal of the 
   
  
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  same kind, although strongly resembling each other, does not 
  precisely resemble another mercury, and it is for this reason that 
  vegetables, minerals, and animals of the same species are not 
  exactly alike. . . . The true mercury of philosophers is the radical 
  humidity of each body, and its veritable essence." 
   
  Paracelsus now sought for a plant worthy of holding in the 
  vegetable kingdom the same rank as gold in the metallic  - a plant 
  whose " predestined element " should unite in itself the virtues of 
  nearly all the vegetable essences. Although this was not easy to 
  distinguish, he recognised at a glance - we know not by what signs 
  - the supremacy of excellence in the melissa, and first decreed to it 
  that pharmaceutical crown which at a later period the Carmelites 
  ought to have consecrated. How he obtained this new specific may 
  be seen in the Life of Paracels - us, by Savarien: 
   
  " He took some balm - mint in flower, which he had taken care to 
  collect before the rising of the sun. He pounded it in a mortar, 
  reduced it to an impalpable dust, poured it into a long - necked 
  vial which he sealed hermetically, and placed it to digest (or settle) 
  for forty hours in a heap of horse - dung. This time expired, he 
  opened the vial, and found there a matter which he reduced into a 
  fluid by pressing it, separating it from its impurities by exposure to 
  the slow heat of a bain - mayie. The grosser parts sunk to the 
  bottom, and he drew off the liqueur which floated on the top, 
  filtering it through some cotton. This liqueur having been poured 
  into a bottle he added to it the fixed salt, which he had drawn from 
  the same plant when dried. There remained nothing more but to 
  extract from this liqueur the first lief or being of the plant. For this 
  purpose Paracelsus mixed the liqueur with so much' water of salt' 
  (understand by this the mercurial element or radical humidity of 
  the salt), put it in a matrass, exposed it for six weeks to the sun, 
  and finally, at the expiration of this term, discovered a last 
  residuum which was decidedly, according to him, the "the, life or 
  supreme essence of the plant. But at all events, is certain that what 
  he found in his matrass was the genie or spirit he required; and 
  with the surplus, if there were any, we need not concern 
  ourselves." 
   
  Those who may wish to know what this genie was like, are 
  informed that it as exactly resembled, as two drops of water, the 
  spirit of aromatic wine known to - day as absinthe suisse. It was a 
  liquid green as emerald, - green, the bright colour of hope and 
  spring - time. Unfortunately, it failed as a specific in the conditions 
  indispensable for an elixir of immortality; but it was a preparation 
  more than half celestial, which almost rendered old age 
  impossible. 
   
  By means and manipulations as subtle and ingenious as those 
  which he employed upon the melissa, Paracelsus did not draw, but 
  learned to extract, the " predestined element " of plants which 
  ranked much higher in the vegetable aristocracy, - the " first life - 
  of the gillyflower, the cinnamon, the myrrh, the scammony, the 
  celandine. All these supreme essences, which, according to the 5th 
  book of " Archidoxa, " unite with a mass of magisteries " as 
  precious as they are rude, are the base of so many specifics, 
  equally reparative and regenerative. This depends upon the 
  relationship which exists between the temperament of a privileged 
  plant and the temperament of the individual who asks of it his 
  rejuvenescence. 
   
  However brilliant were the results of his discoveries, those he 
  obtained or those he thought he might obtain, they are for 
  Paracelsus but the a b c of Magic. To the eyes of so consummate an 
  alchemist vegetable life is nothing; it is the mineral - the metallic 
  life - which is all. So me may assure ourselves that it was in his 
  power to seize the first life - principle of the moon, the sun, Mars, 
  or Saturn; that is, of silver, gold, iron, or lead. It was equally facile 
  for him to - grasp the fife of the precious stones, the bitumens, the 
  sulphurs, and even that of animals. 
   
  Paracelsus sets forth several methods of obtaining this great 
  arcanum. Here is the shortest and most simple as recorded by 
  Incola Francus: 
   
  Take some mercury, or at least the element of mercury, separating 
  the pure from the impure, and afterwards pounding it to perfect 
  whiteness. Then you shall sublimate it with sal - ammoniac, and 
  this so many times as may be necessary to resolve it into a fluid. 
  Calcine it, coagulate it, and again dissolve it, and let it strain in a 
  pelican during a philosophic month, until it thickens and assumes 
  the form of a hard substance. Thereafter this form of stone is 
  incombustible, and nothing can change or alter it; the metallic 
  bodies which it penetrates become fixed and incombustible, for 
  this material is incombustible, and changes the imperfect metals 
  into metal perfect. Although I have given the process in few words, 
  the thing itself demands a long toil, and many difficult 
  circumstances, which I have expressly omitted, not to weary the 
  reader, who ought to be very diligent and intelligent if he wishes to 
  arrive at the accomplishment of this great work." 
   
  Payacelsus himself tells us in his " Archidoxa, " when explaining 
  his own recipe for the completion of it, and profiting by the 
  occasion to criticise his fellow - workers. 
   
  " I omit, " he writes, " what I have said in different places on the 
  theory of the stone; I will say only that this arcanum does not 
  consist in the blast (rouille) or flowers of antimony. It must be 
  sought in the mercury of antimony, which, when it is carried to 
  perfection, is nothing else than the heaven of metals; for even as 
  the heaven gives life to plants and minerals, so does the pure 
  quintessence of antimony vitrify everything. This is why the 
  Deluge was not able to deprive any substance of its virtue or 
  properties, for the heaven being the life of all beings, there is 
  nothing superior to it which can modify or destroy it. 
   
  " Take the antimony, purge it of its arsenical impurities in an iron 
  vessel until the coagulated mercury of the antimony appears quite 
  white, and is distinguishable by the star which appears in the 
  superficies of the regulus, or semi - metal. But although this 
  regulus, which is the element of mercury, has in itself a veritable 
  hidden life, nevertheless these things are in virtue, and not  - 
  actually. 
   
  " Therefore, if you wish to reduce the power to action, you must 
  disengage the life which is concealed in it by a living fire like to 
  itself, or with a metallic vinegar. To discover this fire many 
  philosophers have proceeded differently, but agreeing to the 
  foundations of the art, have arrived at the desired end. For some 
  with great labour have drawn forth the quintessence of the 
  thickened mercury of the regulus of, antimony, and by this means 
  have reduced to action the mercury of the antimony: others have 
  considered that there was a uniform quintessence in the other 
  minerals, as for example in the fixed sulphur of the vitriol, or the 
  stone of the magnet, and having extracted the quintessence, have 
  .afterwards matured and exalted their heaven with it, and reduced 
  
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  it to action. Their process is good, and has had its result. 
  Meanwhile this fire - this corporeal life - which they seek with toil, 
  is found much more easily and in much greater perfection in the 
  ordinary mercury, which appears through its perpetual fluidity - a 
  proof that it possesses a very powerful fire and a celestial life 
  similar to that which lies hidden in the regulus of the antimony. 
  Therefore. he who would wish to exalt our metallic heaven, starred, 
  to its greatest completeness, and to reduce into action its potential 
  virtues, he must first extract from ordinary mercury its corporeal 
  life, which is a celestial fire; that is to say the quintessence of 
  quicksilver, or, in other words, the metallic vinegar, that has 
  resulted from its dissolution in the water which originally produced 
  it, and which is its own mother; that is to say, he must dissolve it in 
  the arcanurn of the salt I have described, and mingle it with the ' 
  stomach of Anthion, which is the spirit of vinegar, and in this 
  menstruum melt and filter and consistent mercury of the antimony, 
  strain it in the said liquor, and finally reduce it into crystals of a 
  yellowish green, of which we have spoken in our manual." 
   
  As regards the Philosopher's Stone, he gives the following formula: 
   
  " Take, " said he, " the electric mineral not yet mature (antimony), 
  put it in its sphere, in the fire with the iron, to remove its ordures 
  and other superfluities, and purge it as much as you can, following 
  the rules of chymistry, so that it may not suffer by the aforesaid 
  impurities. Make, in a word, the regulus with the mark. This done, 
  cause it to dissolve in the ' stomach of the ostrich ' (vitriol), which 
  springs from the earth and is fortified in its virtue by the I 
  sharpness of the eagle ' (the metallic vinegar or essence of 
  mercury). As soon as the essence is perfected, and when after its 
  dissolution it has taken the colour of the herb called calendule, do 
  not forget to reduce it into a spiritual luminous essence, which 
  resembles amber. After this, add to it of the ' spread eagle ' one 
  half the weight of the election before its preparation, and 
  frequently distil the, stomach of the ostrich ' into the matter, and 
  thus the election will become much more spiritualized. When the I 
  stomach of the ostrich ' is weakened by the labour of digestion, we 
  must strengthen it and frequently distil it. Finally, when it has lost 
  all its impurity, add as much tartarized quintessence as will rest 
  upon your fingers, until it throws off its impurity and rises with it. 
  Repeat this process until the preparation becomes white, and this 
  will suffice; for you shall see yourself as gradually it rises in the 
  form of the ' exalted eagle, ' and with little trouble converts itself in 
  its form (like sublimated mercury); and that is what we are 
  seeking. 
   
  " I tell you in truth that there is no greater remedy in medicine 
  than that which lies in this election, and that there is nothing like 
  it in the whole world. But not to digress from my purpose, and not 
  to leave this work imperfect, observe the manner in which you 
  ought to operate." 
   
  " The election then being destroyed, as I have said, to arrive at the 
  desired end (which is, to make of it a universal medicine for 
  human as well as metallic bodies), take your election, rendered 
  light and volatile by the method above described. 
   
  " Take of it as much as you would wish to reduce it to its 
  perfection, and put it in a philosophical egg of glass, and seal it 
  very tightly, that nothing of it may respire; put it into an athanor 
  until of itself it resolves into a liquid, in such a manner that in the 
  middle of this sea there may appear a small island, which daily 
  diminishes, and finally, all shall be changed to a colour black as 
  ink. This colour is the raven, or bird which flies at night without 
  wings, and which, through the celestial dew, that rising continually 
  falls back by a constant circulation, changes into what is called ' 
  the head of the raven, ' and afterwards resolves into the tail of the 
  peacock, ' then it assumes the hue of the tail of a peacock, ' and 
  afterwards the colour of the ' feathers of a swan '; finally acquiring 
  an extreme redness, which marks its fiery nature, and in virtue of 
  which it expels all kinds of impurities, and strengthens feeble 
  members. This preparation, according to all philosophers, is made 
  in a single vessel, over a single furnace, with an equal and 
  continual fire, and this medicine, which is more than celestial, 
  cures all kinds of infirmities, as well. in human as metallic bodies; 
  wherefore no one can understand or  - attain such an arcanum 
  without the help of God for its virtue is ineffable and divine." 
   
   Pasqually, Martinez de: (Kabalist and Mystic). [1715 ? - 17791. 
  The date of Marlinez Pasqualis' birth is not known definitely while 
  even his nationality is a matter of uncertainty. It is commonly 
  supposed, however, that he was born about 1715, somewhere in 
  the south of France; while several writers have maintained that his 
  parents were Portuguese Jews, but this theory has frequently been 
  contested. It is said that from the outset he evinced a predilection 
  for mysticism in its various forms, while it is certain that, in 1754, 
  he instituted a Kabalistic rite, which was gleaned from Hebraic 
  studies, and whose espousers were styled Cohens, this being 
  simply the Hebrew for priests. He propagated this rite in divers 
  masonic lodges of France, notably those of Marseilles, Toulouse, 
  Bordeaux and Paris; while in 1768 we find him settled in the 
  French capital, gathering round him many people addicted to 
  mysticism, and impregnating them with his theories. His sojourn 
  here was cut short eventually, nevertheless, for he heard that some 
  property had been bequeathed to him in the island of St. 
  Dorninique, and lie hastened thither with intent to assert his 
  rights; but he did not return to France, his death occurring in 1779 
  at Port - au - Prince, the principal town in the island aforesaid. 
   
  Pasqually is credited with having written a book, but this was 
  never published. As regards the philosophy which he promulgated. 
  he appears to have believed partiy in the inspiration of the 
  Scriptures, the downfill of the angels, the theory of original sin, 
  together with the doctrine of justification by faith; but he seems to 
  have held that man existed in an elemental state long before the 
  creation detailed in Genesis, and was gradually evolved into his 
  present form. In short, Pasqually was something of an anticipator 
  of endless modern theorists; nor did he fail to find a disciple who 
  regarded him as a prophet and master, this being Louis Claude de 
  St. Martin, a theosophist frequently styled in France " le 
  philosophe inconnu, " who founded the sect known as Martinistes. 
  The reader will find some account of St. Martin in an article 
  headed with his name. 
   
  Phantom Islands: 
  Back in 1687 the English pirate Captain Edward Davis discovered 
  an island with "a, long sandy beach and cocoanut palms." The 
  location was given as latitude 270 S, and about five hundred miles 
  west of the South American coast. Another island with high peaks 
  was observed approximately twelve leagues away to the west. 
   
  Davis was in a hurry and he decided not to land since he had 
  ample provisions. Since he was known to be an experienced, 
  trustworthy navigator, his report was accepted and for fifty years 
  the charts of the sea showed the location of "Davis Land." There 
  was one big problem, however. No one could find it. 
   
  
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  While searching for it in 1722, the Dutch Admiral Roggeveen 
  discovered Easter Island on Easter Sunday and gave his landfall 
  its 1oliday name. But the admiral said that Easter could not be 
  Davis Land. Easter was 2, 000 miles from the mainland and the 
  nearest land is the rocks of Sala – y - Gomez 250 miles to the east. 
   
  In 1802 a Captain Gwyn reported that the rocks of Sala - y - 
  Gomez had been erroneously charted. He had found that the rocks 
  were three hundred miles west and fifty miles south of Easter 
  Island. Mariners made a search. The rocks were found at their 
  charted location, while there was no trace of rocks at the location 
  given by Gwyn. 
   
  A small uninhabited island was reported by Juan Fernandez in 
  1576 off the South American coast, observed while be was on a 
  voyage from Callao to Valparaiso. It was never found, but in 1809 
  the ship Guinevere found a reef in the general area that may have 
  been the remains of an island. 
   
  Captain Pinocebio, in 1879, announced his discovery of Podesta 
  Island, which be named after his vessel. Its location was given as 
  870 miles due west of Valparaiso, Chile, a lonely part of the sea far 
  from shipping lanes. 
   
  The Italian captain said the island was oval in shape, about three - 
  quarters of a mile in circumference and forty feet in height. The, 
  Italian Hydrograpbic Office claimed that the captain's navigation 
  could not have been in error more than a few miles. It might have 
  been Davis Land, , although there was no other island nearby. 
   
  But the island has not been found since the original report, and it 
  was removed from charts in 1935. 
   
  Again, in 1912, the S.S. Glewalon, a large English vessel, steamed 
  into Valparaiso harbor with the news that land bad been sighted off 
  the coast and not far from Easter Island. All officers aboard bad 
  checked the calculations which were turned over to harbor 
  authorities. 
   
  Apparently a new island had arisen from the sea, but the training 
  ship Baquedano searched for the new land for three weeks without 
  success. Soundings in the region revealed a depth of around ten 
  thousand feet. 
   
  Finally, northwest of this area and just north of the Equator, there 
  was Sarah Ann Island. It would be in the path of totality during the 
  solar eclipse which will occur June 8, 1937, and astronomers were 
  anxious to establish an observation post there since there were no 
  other nearby islands. 
   
  During the summer of 1932 vessels of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet 
  searched for Sarah Ann, but finally gave up. Once again an island 
  was removed from the charts.  
   
  Then there are the Auroras, a group of three islands said to lie in 
  the South Atlantic about halfway between the Falklands and South 
  Georgia. They were first reported in 1762 by the whaler Aurora. 
  Later sightings were logged by the vessels San Miguel in 1769, 
  again by the Aurora in 1774, by the Pearl in 1779, and by the 
  Dolores and Princess in 1790. 
   
  The Spanish surveying ship Atrevida fixed their position in 1794 
  and its officers made detailed charts and sketches of the three 
  islands. But searches conducted in 1820 and 1822 and by 
  exploring vessels since have all failed to uncover any trace of the 
  islands that were the scene of Edgar Allen Poe's story Arthur 
  Gordon Pym." The last report of them was an observation made in 
  1856 by the brig Helen Baird. 
   
  Several phantom islands were once charted in the area four 
  hundred to five hundred miles south of Tasmania. One group, the 
  Royal Company Islands, were eliminated from charts in 1904. In 
  this same area, Nimrod Island was discovered in 1828 by Captain 
  Eilbech and named after his ship 
   
  Five years later Captain John Biscoe found marine vegetation and 
  numerous birds at the location given, but no islands. Two antarctic 
  explorers, Shackleton in 1909 and Scott in 1913, made 
  unsuccessful searches, and soundings disclosed a two mile depth. 
  Nimrod was dropped from charts in 1922. 
   
  In 1860 the U.S.S. Levant sailed from Hawaii for Panama and 
  vanished in the area bounded by the 133rd to the 138th meridians 
  west and the 15th to 20th parallels north. Within this 30, 000 
  square - mile region, the warship was believed to have been 
  wrecked on an uncharted island. A search by the U.S.S. Albatross 
  and the cruiser Tacoma failed to reveal any trace of the warship or 
  of islands. 
   
  In this area, however, whalers had reported islands named Bunker, 
  New, Sultan, Eclipse, Roca and others unnamed. One of the 
  unnamed islands was reported by a British mariner, DeGreaves, in 
  1859 as located twelve hundred miles southeast of Honolulu. None 
  of these islands has been found by exploring vessels. 
   
  Other phantom islands in, the South Pacific never found include 
  Sprague, Monks, Favorite, Duke of York, Dangerous, Grand Duke 
  Alexander, Little Paternosters, Marqueen, Massacre, and Mortlock. 
   
  The U.S. government in 1858 listed over a dozen islands in the 
  South Pacific as "pertaining to the United States under the act of 
  Aug. 18, 1856." Not one of these islands has ever been found 
   
  Accounts of most of the phantom islands we have been considering 
  will be found in Gould's Oddities, referred to earlier, and in Karl 
  Baarslag's Islands of Adventure. 
   
  It is Baarslag, moreover, who tells us about Onaneuse or Hunter 
  Island, a perfect isle, if it could be found, for escapists from 
  civilization. Its alleged location is lat. 150 31' S.; long. 1760 111 
  W., and the nearest land is Niaufou or "tin can" island. 
   
  Hunter was discovered in 1823 by Captain Hunter of the Donna 
  Carmelita. The captain said it was inhabited by intelligent and 
  cultivated Polynesians who had the curious custom of amputating 
  the little finger of the left hand at the second joint. He added that 
  the land was fertile, with plenty of cocoanut palms and breadfruit. 
  Hunter should have remamed in his paradise; no one else has been 
  able to find it. 
   
  Well over a century ago Father Santa Clara, at the Rosario Mission 
  near St. Francis Bay, California, told Captain Charles Morrell 
  about the St. Vincent Islands where the priest had resided for a 
  time. They had been discovered by Antonio Martinus in 1789 at 
  lat. 70 21' N. and long. 1270 4' W., while on a voyage from 
  
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  Panama to China. Father Clara said they were inhabited, well - 
  wooded, and with good harbors. 
   
  Morrell made his search in 1825. At the location given all he found 
  was discolored water 120 fathoms deep. There are no other islands 
  within hundreds of miles, and Morrell searched the area for  - over 
  a month. But the St. Vincents had vanished 
   
  There is pathos in the story of the Tuanaki Islands, a part of the 
  Cook group in the South Pacific, that disappeared around the 
  middle of the last century. They were three low - lying adjoining 
  islands of tropical beauty located southeast of Rarotonga, about 
  halfway to Mangaia. 
   
  The Tuanakis were inhabited by Polynesians unspoiled by the 
  white man's avarice, afflictions, and anomalies. However, 
  according to the Rev. William Gill (Gems of the Coral Islands, 
  1865), missionaries were en route to the islands in 1844 when 
  their schooner failed to locate them. 
   
  In the Rarotongan Records of the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, published in 
  Honolulu in 1916 by the Polynesian Society, the account of a 
  sailor of Aitutaki who visited the islands in 1842 is given. It is an 
  echo from the abyss of yesterday, a voice from the past about an 
  island that has vanished forever: 
   
  Two years have passed since I saw that island. We went thither by 
  way of Rurutu Island, and, when we found it, our captain ... 
  lowered a boat into which we descended. There were seven of us. 
  No one was on the beach. I was sent inland and saw the house of 
  the Ariki, or high chief, full of men; I told the chief I came from 
  Araura [an old name of Aitutakil. 
   
  There were no women inside, as they had a separate house. "We do 
  not kill men; we only know how to dance and sing; we know 
  nothing of war, " said the chief. The captain afterwards went 
  inland, and we slept there that night, taking some food - fowls, 
  pigs, yams and bananas. We were six days ashore there. 
   
  Their water is scraped up in a bowl or in the leaf of the giant taro. 
  Their dialect is that of, Mangaia, and they wear the tiputa [or 
  poncho], and use the same kind of fans as at Mangaia. It takes one 
  night and a day to reach Tuanaki from Mangaia. 
   
  The story of the Tuanakis is told by Professor H. Macmillan Brown 
  in his book The Riddle of the Pacific, and is repeated from this 
  source by Lewis Spence in his work The Problem of Lemuria. 
   
  Destruction must have come to these enchanting islands between 
  1842 and 1884. And it must have come suddenly since the 
  Polynesians are expert sailors and no survivors appeared at other 
  islands. 
   
  Several former inhabitants of the Tuanaki Islands, who left in their 
  youth, died at Rarotonga during the present century. 
   
  But time and tide are relentless, and even island paradises are 
  transient. Other islands will appear - and vanish. Terra is not 
  always firma, especially among the protean islands dotting our 
  great seas." 
   
  And far from the lanes of commercial and tourist travel, chilled by 
  ice and snow, or warm and fragrant beneath the sun, there may still 
  be islands waiting in solitude to be discovered. 
   
  One is known as Fata Morgana and it has been seen since the 
  sixteenth century in the Straits of Messina, between Sicily and the 
  Italian mainland. Apparently it is a harbor city with white walls, 
  glistening palaces, and inhabitants. A popular legend is that the 
  city is the kingdom of King Arthur's sister, Morgan Le Fay, who 
  was a fairy, and that it lies on the bottom of the strait. 
   
  Another is the "Phantom City of Alaska." 
   
  Known to the Alaskan Indians for generations, its repeated 
  appearances in the vicinity of the Muir Glacier indicate a fixed 
  position somewhere, but it cannot be identified with any city now 
  existing on earth. 
   
  "Whether this city exists in some unknown world on the other side 
  of the North Pole or not, " states a report written in 1897, "it is a 
  fact that this wonderful mirage occurs from time to time yearly ... 
  (it is) like some immense city of the past." 
   
  Willoughby, an early pioneer, learned of the mirage from the 
  Indians. He unsuccessfully attempted to photograph it in 1887. 
  Another witness, C. W. Thornton of Seattle, wrote: "It required no 
  effort of the imagination to liken it to a city, but was so distinct that 
  it required, instead, faith to believe it was not in reality a city." 
   
  Alexander Badlam, in his book Wonders of Alaska, tells of two 
  prospectors near the glacier who saw a reflection of the mysterious 
  city in a pan of quicksilver. 
   
  In 1889 L. R. French, of Chicago, succeeded in photographing the 
  mirage near Mt. Fairweather. He wrote: "We could see plainly 
  houses, well - defined streets and trees. Here and there rose tall 
  spires over large buildings, which appeared to be ancient mosques 
  or cathedrals . . . It did, not look like a modem city, but more like 
  an ancient European city." 
   
   Bound for London from New Orleans, the United States freighter 
  American Scientist, on August 22, 1948, slowed to quarter - speed 
  at lat. 46. 231 N., long. 370 201 W., approximately 550 miles 
  northwest of the Azores. The charts showed a depth of 21400 
  fathoms. 
   
  But this was the legendary location of an island considered a myth 
  by modern geographers and historians - once known as Mayda and 
  later as Asmaida - the treasure island of the seven cities. 
   
  Under the captain's direction, the echo - sounder was brought into 
  operation. It registered only twenty fath0msl As the ship slowly 
  proceeded ' the sounding device traced the shape of an island 
  about 120 feet below the surface for twenty minutes. 
   
  The freighter was turned around for another run over the location. 
  This time the depth was fifteen fathoms, but as the vessel 
  continued back over its course for thirty - five minutes the depth 
  varied from fifteen to thirty - five fathoms before it again revealed 
  the usual mid - Atlantic depths. This apparently confirmed the 
  legend that the island was twenty - eight miles in length. 
   
  The American Scientist radioed a report of its discovery, and the 
  message was picked up by another U.S. freighter, the S.S. 
  Southland, steaming along the same course two days behind the 
  Scientist. The captain of the second freighter decided to check the 
  report. He, got readings of twenty nine to thirty - five fathoms, and 
  
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  in what may have been the island's harbor, a sounding of ninety 
  fathoms. 
   
  The reports of these two vessels are listed in the U.S. Hydrographic 
  Office Notices, to Mariners as No. 32 (4352) and No. 42 (5592). 
   
  There is, an orthodox history of men and events, and there is a 
  bidden history embodied in myth and legend. With scholarship 
  and the spade, truth is frequently brought out of the shadows. Troy, 
  for example, was considered a myth until Heinrich Schhemann, 
  who could not forget "the surge and thunder of the Odyssey, " 
  brought once more into the light of the sun the ancient walls and 
  towers of Ilium. 
   
  And so it may be with Mayda, the golden isle of refuge. 
   
  We are indebted to Lawrence D. Hills and his extensive research 
  for this remarkable story. His article appeared in Fate magazine, 
  June, 1958. 
   
  In A.D. 734 the Moors were conquering, Spain and Tortugal. As 
  the Mohammedan hordes advanced, the Bishop of Oporto, 
  Portugal, with six other bishops and chosen refugees, prepared to 
  flee and preserve the Christian faith in exile. Provisions and water, 
  livestock and seeds, were loaded on several vessels. 
   
  The ships set sail for the "Purples, " now known as the Azores, as 
  the Moorish cavalry entered the city. With only 
   
  the sun for a compass, the vessels missed the then uninhabited 
  Azores. At this point the refugees vanished from orthodox history. 
  Some historians believe  - they were lost at sea, others that they 
  may have reached the West Indies, but 
   
  there is no evidence that they ever reached the New World. Over 
  seven centuries later - in 1447 - a Portuguese freighter under the 
  command of Captain Antonio Leone was bound for Lisbon from the 
  Mediterranean when it was struck by a severe storm. With a 
  broken mast, the helpless vessel was driven far to the west. When 
  the gale had passed. Captain Leone tried to reach the Azores, but 
  missed the islands, and the ship was blown to the northwest. At 
  last be reached a low, crescent - shaped volcanic island "where the 
  people spake the Portuguese tongue and asked if the - Moors did 
  yet trouble Spain." 
   
  On the twenty - eight - mile - long island there were seven 
  communities, each with a bishop and' "cathedral" built of basalt 
  rocks mortared with burnt seashell lime. The island was well - 
  populated - seven centuries includes twenty - eight generations. 
  When the captain and his crew attended Mass, they were 
  astonished to see large gold crucifixes and candlesticks and gold 
  embroidered altar cloths. 
   
  Captain Leone and his men were on the island for several weeks 
  repairing their vessel. During this period white quartz sand was 
  taken from the beach to scrub the decks. Later, after the vessel 
  sailed for Lisbon, the origin of the islands gold was revealed when 
  gold particles were discovered in the sand. Apparently the island's 
  geological formation was similar to that of the Cape Verdes. 
   
  Despite the gold dust, little attention was paid by mariners to the 
  discovery. After all, it was a self - contained island that provided 
  no market and was inhabited by civilized Catholics who could 
  hardly be converted and sold as slaves. But the island was placed 
  on ocean charts, and since longitude could not be determined at 
  that time except by dead - reckoning, it was placed at various spots 
  along latitude 46 degrees north. 
   
  The island had apparently been sighted before Antonio Leone's 
  visit. Arab sailors of the eleventh century had reported it, and 
  Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, had it in his Description of the 
  World written in 1154. He called the island "Main." In addition, 
  Bretons had noticed the island and called it "Mayda" or "Asmaida." 
   
  In 1474 the Florentine map maker, Toscanelh, sent a copy of his 
  latest map to Columbus. It included the island. With the map was 
  the following erroneous note: "From the island of Antillia, which 
  you call the Seven Cities, to the most noble Island of Cipango 
  (Japan) are 10 spaces which makes 2, 500 miles." 
   
  Again, the island is clearly marked to the northeast of the Azores 
  on one of the first globes made in 1492 by Martin Behaim of 
  Nuremberg. Behaim had lived on the Azores for fourteen years. 
  This last statement is important for two reasons: first, it is evidence 
  against the later theory that Mayda was actually St. Miguel in the 
  Azores; second, because the two American freighters in 1948 
  found the sunken island at the location marked on Behaim's globe. 
   
  In 1498 - six years after the first voyage of Columbus to the New 
  World - Pedro de Ayala, Spanish Ambassador to the court of Henry 
  VII, told King Ferdinand that the sailors of Bristol, England, had 
  "fitted out every year, two, three or four caravels in search of . . . 
  the Seven Cities." Apparently they had no success, and one 
  wonders if this is the origin of the legend of the "Seven Cities of 
  Cibola” so long sought for in the New World. 
   
  The island, at this time, may have been slowly sinking. The 
  Spanish geographer, Galvario, reported in 1555 that "this island is 
  -  not now seen." From this time on charts still bore the name of 
  Mayda, but it was listed as a rock or group of rocks. Hills says its 
  last appearance under this name was on a map of the Atlantic 
  published in New York in 1814 by E. M. Blunt. 
   
  The confusion that Mayda has produced among geographers is 
  illustrated by Lieutenant Commander Gould in his book Oddities. 
  Gould says that Mayda was "probably a distorted version of 
  Bermuda, and was long a source of puzzlement to cartographers in 
  general, (but it) turned up smilingly in the middle of the Bay of 
  Biscay on a map published at Chicago so recently as 1906." The 
  Bay of Biscay is off the coast of France. 
   
  Early in the nineteenth century the name of Mayda was dropped 
  from charts after the vessel Barenetha was wrecked on a 
  submerged rock at the location. This rock, probably the last of the 
  island to sink beneath the surface, was thereafter marked on charts 
  as Barenetha Rock. The rock was last reported above water in 
  1813 by the captain of the British ship Crompton.' 
   
  To see if the rock still existed in 1873, Captain Urquhart of the 
  American vessel Trimountain altered his course. This action 
  brought him to the vicinity just in time to rescue the passengers 
  and crew of the French liner Ville de Paris which was sinking after 
  a collision with the British barque Loch Earn. 
   
  If Maydi had sunk slowly, it would seem the inhabitants would 
  have prepared to escape. No survivors turned up at the Azores or 
  
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  elsewhere. More than likely it sank quickly during a submarine 
  earthquake. There have been a number of severe shocks in this 
  general area, including the historic one of 1638. There were six 
  earthquakes in this region in the nineteenth century. 
   
  Philosopher's Stone: A substance which enabled adepts in alchemy 
  to compass the transmutation of metals. (See Alchemy.) It was 
  imagined by the alchemists that some one definite substance was 
  essential to the success of the transmutation of metals. By the 
  application or admixture of this substance all metals might be 
  transmuted into gold or silver. It was often designated the Powder 
  of Projection. Zosimus, who lived at the commencement of the fifth 
  century is one of the first who alludes to it. He says that the stone 
  is a powder or liquor formed of diverse metals, infusioned under a 
  favourable constellation. The Philosopher's Stone was supposed to 
  contain the secret not only of transmutation, but of health and We, 
  for through its agency could be dis, 'illed the Elixir of Life. It was 
  the touchstone of existence. The author of a Treatise on 
  Philosophical and Hermetic Chemistry, published in Paris in 1725 
  says: " Modern philosophers have extracted from the interior of 
  mercury a fiery spirit, mineral, vegetable and mutliplicative, in a 
  humid concavity in which is found the primitive mercury or the 
  universal quintessence. In the midst of this spirit resides the 
  spiritual fluid This is the mercury of the philosophers, which is not 
  solid like a metal, nor soft like quicksilver, but between the two. 
  They have retained for a long time this secret, which is the 
  commencement, the middle, and the end of their work. It is 
  necessary then to proceed first to purge the mercury with salt and 
  with ordinary salad vinegar, to sublime it with vitriol and saltpetre, 
  to dissolve it in aqua - fortis, to sublime it alain, to calcine it and 
  fix it, to put away part of it in salad oil, to distill this liquor for the 
  purpose of separating the spiritual water, air, and fire, to fix the 
  mercurial body in the spiritual water or to distill the spirit of liquid 
  mercury found in it, to putrefy all, and then to raise and exalt the 
  spirit with non - odorous white sulphur that is to say, sal - 
  ammoniac - to dissolve this sal - ammoniac in the spirit of liquid 
  mercury which when distilled becomes the liquor known as the 
  Vinegar of the Sages, to make it pass from gold to antimony three 
  times and afterwards to reduce it by heat, lastly to steep this warm 
  gold in very harsh vinegar and allow it to putrefy. On the surface of 
  the vinegar it will raise itself in the form of fiery earth of the colour 
  of oriental pearls. This is the first operation in the grand work. For 
  the second operation; take in the name of God one part of gold and 
  two parts of the spiritual water, charged with the sal - ammoniac, 
  mix this noble confection in a vase of crystal of the shape of an 
  egg: warm over a soft but continuous fire, and the fiery water will 
  dissolve little by little the gold; this forms a liquor which is called 
  by the sages chaos " containing the elementary qualities - cold, 
  dryness, heat and humidity. Allow this composition to putrefy until 
  it becomes black; this blackness is known as the ' crow's head ' 
  and the ' darkness of the sages, ' and makes known to the artist that 
  he is on the right track. It was also known as the ' black earth.' It 
  must be boiled once more in a vase as white as snow; this stage of 
  the work is called the ' swan, ' and from it arises the white liquor, 
  which is divided into two parts - one white for the manufacture of 
  silver, the other red for the manufacture of gold.  Now you have 
  accomplished the work, and you possess the Philosopher's Stone. 
   
  " In these diverse operations, one finds many byproducts; among 
  these is the ' green. lion ' which is called also 'azoph, ' and which 
  draws gold from the more ignoble elements; the ' red lion ' which 
  converts the metal into gold; the ' head of the crow, ' called also the 
  ' black veil of the ship of Theseus, ' which appearing forty days 
  before the. end of the operation predicts its success; the white 
  powder which transmutes the white metals to fine silver; the red 
  elixir with which gold is made; the white elixir which also makes 
  silver, and which procures long fe - it is also called the ' white 
  daughter of the philosopher . 
   
  In the lives of the various alchemists we find many notices of the 
  Powder of Projection in connection with those adepts who were 
  supposed to have arrived at the solution of the grand arcanum. 
  Thus in the Life of Alexandel Scion, a Scotsman who came from 
  Port Seton, near Edinburgh, we find that on his various travels on 
  the continent he employed in his alchemical experiments a 
  blackish powder, the application of which turned any metal given 
  him into gold. Numerous instances are on record of Seton's 
  projections, the majority of  - which are verified with great 
  thoroughness. On one occasion whilst in Holland, he went with 
  some friends from the house at which he was residing to undertake 
  an alchemical experiment at another house near by. On the way 
  thither a quantity of ordinary zinc was purchased, and this Seton 
  succeeded in projecting into pure gold by the application of his 
  powder. A like phenomenon was undertaken by him at Cologne, 
  and elsewhere throughout Germany, and the extremest torture 
  could not wring from him the secret of the quintessence he 
  possessed . His pupil or assistant, Sendivogius, made great efforts 
  to obtain the secret from him before he died, but all to no purpose. 
  However, out of gratitude Seton bequeathed him what remained of 
  his marvellous powder, which was employed by his Polish 
  successor with the same results as had been achieved in his own 
  case. The wretched Sendivogius fared badlv, however, when the 
  powder at last came to an end. He had used it chiefly in liquid 
  form, and into this he had dipped silver coins which immediately 
  had become the purest gold. indeed it is on record that one coin, of 
  which he had only immersed the half, remained for many years as 
  a signal instance of the claims of alchemy in a museum or 
  collection somewhere in South Germany. The half of this doubloon 
  was gold, while the undipped portion had remained silver; but the 
  notice concerning it is scarcely of a satisfactory nature. When the 
  powder gave out, Sendivogius was driven to the desperate 
  expedient of gilding the coins, which, report says, he had 
  heretofore transmuted by legitimate means, arid this very naturally 
  brought upon him the wrath of those who had trusted him.   
   
  In the Tale o f the Anonymous Adept we also find a powder in use, 
  and indeed the powder seems to have been the favoured form of 
  the transmuting agency. The term Philosopher’s Slone probably 
  arose from some Eastern talismanic legend. Yet we find in 
  Egyptian alchemy the oldest - the idea of the black powder - the 
  detritus or oxide of all the metals mingled.  
   
  The Philosopher's Stone had a spiritual as well as a material 
  conception attached to it, and indeed spiritual alchemy is 
  practically identified with it; but we do not find the first 
  alchemists, nor those of medieval times, possessed of any spiritual 
  ideas; their hope was to manufacture real gold, and it is only in 
  later times that we find the altruistic idea creeping in, to the 
  detriment of the physical one. Symbolic language was largely used 
  by both schools, however, and we must not imagine that because 
  an alchemical writer employs symbolical figures of speech that he 
  is of tile transcendental school, as his desire was merely to be 
  understanded of his brother adepts, and to conserve his secret from 
  the vulgar. 
   
  Powder of Projection: A powder which assisted the alchemist in 
  the transmutation of base metal into pure gold.  
   
  
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  Powder of Sympathy: A remedy which, by its application to the 
  weapon which had caused a wound, was supposed to cure the hurt. 
  This method was in vogue during the reigns of James I. and 
  Charles I., and its chief exponent was a gentleman named Sir 
  Kenelm Digby. An abstract of his theory, contained in an address 
  given before an assembly of nobles and learned men at Montpellier 
  in France, may be seen in Petti, rew's Superstitions connected with 
  Medicine and Surgeyy. The following is the recipe for the powder: 
  - " Take Roman vitriol six or eight ounces, beat it very small in a 
  mortar, sift it through a fine sieve when the sun enters Leo; keep it 
  in the heat of the sun by day, and dry by night." This art has been 
  treated by some authors with belief, and by others with unbelieving 
  wit: Wrenfels says: - " If the superstitious person be wounded. by 
  any chance, he applies the salve, not to the wound, but, what is 
  more effectual to, the weapon by which he received it." 
   
  Precipitation of Matter: One of the phenomena of spiritualism 
  which least admits of a rational explanation is that known as the - 
  passing of solids through solids." The statement of the hypothetical 
  fourth dimension of space is an attempt at a solution of the 
  problem; so also is the theory of " precipitation of matter." The 
  latter suggests that before one solid body passes through another it 
  is resolved into its component atoms, to be precipitated in its 
  original form when the passage is accomplished. M. Camille 
  Flarnmarion found a parallel to this process in the passage of a 
  piece of ice - a solid - through a napkin. The ice passes through 
  the napkin in the form of water, and may afterwards be re - frozen. 
  This is matter passing 
   
  Psychic Body: A spiritualistic term variously applied to an 
  impalpable body which clothes the soul on the " great dissolution, " 
  or to the soul itself. Sergeant Cox in his .Mechanism of Man 
  declares that the soul - quite distinct from mind, or intelligence, 
  which is only a function of the brain - is composed of attenuated 
  matter, and has the same form as the physical body, which it 
  permeates in every part. From the soul radiates the psychic force, 
  by means of which all the wonders of spiritualism are performed. 
  Through its agency man becomes endowed with telekinetic .and 
  clairvoyant powers, and with its aid he can affect such natural 
  forces as gravitation. When free of the body the soul can travel at a 
  lightning speed, nor is it hindered by such material objects as 
  stone walls or closed doors. The psychic body is also regarded as 
  an intermediary between the physical body and the soul, a sort of 
  envelope, more material than the soul itself, which encloses it at 
  death. It is this envelope, the psychic body or neyvengeist, which 
  becomes visible at a materialisation by attracting to itself other and 
  still more material particles. In time the psychic body decays just 
  as did the physical, and leaves the soul free. During the trance the 
  soul leaves the body, but the vital functions are continued by the 
  psychic body. 
   
  Psychical Research: A term covering all scientific investigation 
  into the obscure phenomena connected with the so - called " 
  supernatural, " undertaken with a view to their elucidation. Certain 
  of these phenomena are known all over the world, and have 
  remained practically unaltered almost since prehistoric times. 
  Such are the phenomena of levitation, the fire - ordeal, crystal - 
  gazing, thoughtreading and apparitions, and whenever these were 
  met with there was seldom lacking the critical enquiry of some  - 
  psychical researcher, not borne away on the tide of popular 
  credulity, but reserving some of his judgment for the impartial 
  investigation of the manifestations. Thus Gaule, in his Select Cases 
  of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft (London, 1646), 
  says: "But the more prodigious or stupendous (of the feats 
  mentioned in the witches' confessions) are effected meerly by the 
  devill; the witch all the while either in a rapt ecstasies, a charmed 
  sleep, or a melancholy dreame; and the witches' imagination, 
  phantasie, common  - sense, only deluded with what is now done, 
  or pretended." And a few other writers of the same period  - arrived 
  at a similar conclusion. The result of many of these mediaeval 
  records was to confirm the genuineness of the phenomena 
  witnessed, but here and there, even in those days, there were 
  sceptics who refused to see in them any supernatural significance. 
  Poltergeist disturbances, again, came in for a large share of 
  attention and investigation, to which, indeed, they seemed to lend 
  themselves.  
   
  The case of the Drummer of Tedworth was examined by Joseph 
  Glanvil, and the results set forth in his Sadducisintus Triumphatus, 
  published in 1668. The Epworth Case, which occurred in the 
  house of John Wesley's father, called forth many comments, as did 
  also the Cock Lane Ghost, the Stockwell Poltergeist and many 
  others. The Animal Magnetists and their successors the 
  Mesmerists may, in a manner, be considered psychical 
  researchers, since these variants of hypnosis were the fruits of 
  prolonged investigation into the phenomena which indubitably 
  existed in connection with the trance state. If their speculations 
  were wild and their enquiries failed to elicit the truth of the matter, 
  it was but natural, at that stage of scientific progress, that they 
  should be so. And here and there even in the writings of 
  Paracelsus and Mesmer we find that they had glimpses of scientific 
  truths which were in advance of their age, foreshadowings of 
  scientific discoveries  -, Nhich were to prove the triumph of future 
  generations. The former, for example, states in his writings: - By 
  the magic power of the will, a person on this side of the ocean may 
  make a person on the other side hear what is said on this side . . . . 
  . The ethereal body of a man may know what another man thinks at 
  a distance of ioo miles and more." This reads uncommonly like an 
  anticipation of telepathy, which has attained to such remarkable 
  prominence in recent years, though it is not now generally 
  attributed to " the ethereal body of a man." Such things as these 
  would seem to entitle many of the mesmerists and the older 
  mystics to the designation of " psychical researchers." 
   
  As knowledge increased and systematized methods came into use 
  these enquiries became ever more searching and more fruitful in 
  definite results. The introduction of modern spiritualism in 1848 
  undoubtedly gave a remarkable impetus to Psychical research. The 
  movement was so widespread, its effects so apparent, that it was 
  inevitable but that some man of science should be drawn into an 
  examination of the alleged phenomena. Thus we find engapd in the 
  investigation of spiritualism Carpenter, Faraday and De Morgan, 
  and on the Continent Count de Gasparin, M. Thury and Zoller. One 
  of the most important of individual investigators was undoubtedly 
  Sir William Crookes, who worked independently for some time 
  before the founding of the Society for Psychical Research. 
   
  However, although much good work was done by independent 
  students of " psychic science, " as it came to be called, and by 
  such societies as the Dialectical Society (q.v.) and the 
  Psychological Society, (q.v.), it was not until 1882 that a concerted 
  and carefully - organised attempt was made to elucidate those 
  obscure problems which had so Ion., puzzled the wits of learned 
  and simple. In that year was founded the Society for Psychical 
  Research, with the object of examining in a scientific and impartial 
  spirit the realm of the supernatural. Tne following passage from the 
  
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  Society's original prospectus, quoted by Air. Podmore in his 
  Naturalisation of the Supernatural, indicates with sufficient 
  clearness its aim and proposed methods. It has been widely felt 
  that the present is an opportune time for making an organised and 
  sytematic attempt to investigate that large group of debatable 
  phenomena designated by such terms as mesmeric, psychic, and 
  spiritualistic. 
   
  " From the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses, past 
  and present, including observations recently 
  made by scientific men of eminence in various countries, there 
  appears to be, amid much delusion and deception, an important 
  body of remarkable phenomena, which are prima facie 
  inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis, and which, if 
  incontestably established, would be of the highest possible value. 
   
  " The task of examining such residual phenomena has often been 
  undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific 
  society organised on a sufficiently broad basis." 
   
  The first president of the Society was Professor Henry Sidgwick, 
  and among later presidents were Professor Balfour Stewart, 
  Professor William James, Sir William Crookes, Mr. A. J. Balfour, 
  Professor Richet and Sir Oliver Lodge, while prominent among the 
  original members were Frank Podmore, F. W. H. Myers, Edmund 
  Gurney, Professor Barrett, Rev. Stainton Moses and Mrs. Sidgwick. 
  Lord Rayleigh and Andrew Lang were also early members of the 
  Society. Good work was done in America in connection with the 
  Society by Dr. Hodgson and Professor Hyslop. On the continent 
  Lombroso, Maxwell, Camille Flammarion, and Professor Richet - 
  all men of the highest standing in their respective branches of 
  science - conducted exhaustive researches into the phenomena of 
  spiritualism, chiefly in connection with the Italian medium 
  Eusapia Palladino. 
   
  At first the members of the Society for Psychical Research found it 
  convenient to work in concert, but as they became more conversant 
  with the broad outlines of the subject, it was judged necessary for 
  certain sections or individuals to specialise in various branches. 
  The original plan sketched roughly in 1882 grouped the 
  phenomena under five different heads, each of which was placed 
  under the direction of a separate Committee. 
   
  1. - An examination of the nature and extent of any influence 
  which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from any 
  generally recognised mode of perception. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, 
  Professor W. F. Barrett.) 
   
  2 - The study of hypnotism, and the forms of so - called mesmeric 
  trance, with its alleged insensibility to pain; clairvoyance, and 
  other allied - phenomena. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, Dr. G, Wyld.) 
   
  3. - A critical revision of Reichenbach's researches with certain 
  organisations called " sensitive, " and an inquiry whether such 
  organisations possess any power of perception beyond a highly - 
  exalted sensibility of the recognised sensory organs. (Hon. See. of 
  Committee, Walter H. Coffin.) 
   
  4. - A careful investigation of any reports, resting on strong 
  testimony, regarding apparitions at the moment of death, or 
  regarding disturbances in houses reputed to be haunted. (Hon. 
  Sec. of Committee, Hensleigh Wedgwood.) 
   
  5. - An enquiry into the various physical phenomena commonly 
  called spiritualistic; with an attempt to discover their causes and 
  general laws. (Hoa. Sec., Dr. C. Lockhart Robertson.) 
   
  Besides these there was a Committee appointed to consider the 
  literature of the subject, having as its honorary secretaries Edmund 
  Gurney and Frederic W. H. Myers, who, with Mr. Podmore, 
  collected a number of historic instances. Of the various heads, 
  however, the first is now generally considered the most important, 
  and is certainly that which has yielded the best results to 
  investigators. In the case of hypnotism it is largely through the 
  exertions of psychical researchers that it has been admitted to the 
  sphere of legitimate physiology, whereas it was formerly classed 
  amon, doubtful phenomena, even at the time the Society was 
  founded. The examination of Reichenbach's claims to having 
  discovered a new psychic fluid or force 
   
  odyle (q.v.) - wh'ch issued like flame from the points of a magnet 
  or the human finger - tips, was at length abandoned, nothing 
  having been found to verify his conclusions which, however, 
  previous to this had been largely accepted. The investigations in 
  connection with apparitions and haunted houses, and with the 
  spiritualistic phenomena, are still proceeding, though on the whole 
  no definite conclusion has been arrived at. Though the members of 
  the Society undertook to carry out their investigations in an 
  entirely unbiased spirit, and though those members who joined the 
  Society originally as avowed spiritualists soon dropped out, yet 
  after prolonged and exhaustive research the opinion of the various 
  investigators often showed marked divergence. So far from being 
  pledged to accept a spirit, or any other hypothesis, it was expressly 
  stated in a note appended to the prospectus that " Membership of 
  this Society does not imply the acceptance of any particular 
  explanation of the phenomena investigated, nor any belief as to the 
  operation, in the physical world, of forces other than those 
  recognised by Physical Science." Nevertheless Mr. Myers and Sir 
  Oliver Lodge, to take two notable instances, found the evidence 
  sufficient to convince them of the operation in the physical world 
  of disembodied intelligences, who manifest themselves through the 
  organism of the " medium " or sensitive." Mr. Podmore, on the 
  other hand, was the exponent of a telepathic theory. Any phase of 
  the " manifestations " which was not explicable by means of such 
  known physiological facts as suggestion and hypercesthesia, the so 
  - called " subconscious whispering, " exaltation of memory and 
  automatism, or the unfamiliar but presumably natural telepathy, 
  must, according to him, fall under the grave suspicion of fraud. His 
  theory of poltergeists, for example, by which he regards these 
  uncanny disturbances as being the work of naughty children, does 
  not admit the intervention of a mischievous disembodied spirit. In 
  coincident hallucination, again, he considers telepathy a suitable 
  explanation, as well as in all cases of " personation " by the 
  medium. His view - one that was shared by Andrew Lang and 
  others - was that if telepathy were once established the spirit 
  hypothesis would not only be unnecessary, but impossible of proof. 
   
  The most important of telepathic experiments were those 
  conducted by Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick in 1889 - 91. The 
  percipients were hypnotised by Mr. G. A. Smith, who also acted as 
  agent, and the matter to be transmitted consisted at first of 
  numbers and later of mental pictures. The agent and percipient 
  were generally separated by a screen, or were sometimes in 
  different rooms, though the results in the latter case were 
  perceptibly less satisfactory. On the whole, however, the 
  percentage of correct guesses was far above that which the doctrine 
  of chance warranted, and the experiments did much to encourage a 
  
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  belief that some hitherto unknown mode of communication existed. 
  More recently the trance communication of Mrs. Piper would seem 
  to point to some such theory, though Mr. Myers, Dr. Hodgson and 
  Dr. Hyslop, who conducted a very profound investigation into those 
  communications, were inclined to believe that the spirits of the 
  dead were the agencies in this case. Telepathy cannot yet be 
  considered as proved. At the best it is merely a surmise, which, if 
  it could be established, would provide a natural explanation for 
  much of the so - called occult phenomena. Even it's most ardent 
  protagonists admit that its action is extremely uncertain and 
  experiment correspondingly difficult. Nevertheless, each year sees 
  an increasing body of scientific and popular opinion favourable to 
  the theory, so that we may hope that the surmised mode of 
  communication may at last be within a reasonable distance of 
  becoming an acknowledged fact. The machinery of telepathy is 
  generally supposed to be in the form of ethereal vibrations, or " 
  brain waves, " acting in accordance with natural laws, though Mr. 
  Gerald Balfour and others incline to an entirely metamorphosed 
  theory, urging, e.g., that the action does not conform to the law of 
  inverse squares. 
   
   The subject of hallucinations, coincidental or otherwise, has also 
  been largely investigated in recent years, and hasbeen found to be 
  closely connected with the question of telepathy. Apparitions were 
  in former times regarded asthe " doubles " or " ethereal bodies " of 
  the persons they represented, but they are not now considered to 
  be otherwise than subjective. Nevertheless the study of " coinci-
  dental hallucinations hallucinatory apparitionswhich coincide with 
  the death of the person represented, or with some other crises in 
  his life - raises the question asto whether the agent may not 
  produce such an hallucination in the mind of the percipient by the 
  exercise of telepathicinfluence, which may be judged to be more 
  powerful during an emotional crisis. Now hallucinations have been 
  shown to be fairly common among sane people, about one person 
  in ten having experienced one or more. But the chancesthat such 
  an hallucination should coincide with the death of the person it 
  represents are about, 1 in 10.000; that is, if no other factor than 
  chance determines their ratio. With a view to ascertaining whether 
  coincidental hallucinations did actually bear a higher proportion to 
  the total number of hallucinations than chance would justify, the 
  Societyfor Psychical Research took a census in 1889 and the three 
  or four years immediately following. Professor Sidgwick and a 
  committee of members of the Society conducted the investigations 
  and printed forms were distributed anion, 410 accredited agents of 
  the Society, including, besides its own members, many medical 
  men and others belonging to the professional classes, all of whom 
  gave their services without fee in the interests of science. In all 
  some 17, 000persons were questioned, and neptive as well as 
  affirmative answers were sent in just as they were received, the 
  agent sbeing specially instructed to make no discrimination 
  between nthe various replies. Out of 8372 men 655 had had an 
  hallucination, and io29 out of 8628 women - 9.9   of thetotal. 
  When ample allowance had been made for defects of memory with 
  regard to early hallucinations by multiplying the 322 recognised 
  and definite cases by 4, it was found that 62 coincided with a 
  death; but, again makingallowances, this number was reduced to 
  30. Thus we coincidental hallucination in 43 where, there being 
  nocausal connection we should expect 1 in 18, 000. Clearly, then, 
  if these figures be taken, there must be some causalconnection 
  between the death and the apparition, whetherit be a spiritualistic 
  or telepathic theory that may be used.Though it be true that 
  memory plays strange tricks, yet isit difficult to understand how 
  persons of education andstanding could write down and attest 
  minutes and datedrecords of events that never happened. 
   
  Apart from telepathy, which because it postulates the working of a 
  hitherto unknown natural law, takes premier place, perhaps the 
  most interesting field of research is that of automatism. Trance 
  writings and utterances have been known since the earliest times, 
  when they were attributed to demoniac possession, or, sometimes, 
  angelic possession. By means of planchette, ouija, and such 
  contrivances many people are able to write automatically and 
  divulge information which they themselves were unaware of 
  possessing. But here again the phenomena are purely subjective, 
  and are the result of  dissociation, such as may be induced in 
  hypnosis. In this state exaltation of the memory may occur, and 
  thus account for such phenomena as the speaking in foreign 
  tongues with which the agent is but ill - acquainted. Or, 
  conceivably, cerebral dissociation may produce a sensitiveness to 
  telepathic influences, as would seem apparent in the case of 
   
  Mrs. Piper, whose automatic productions in writing and speaking 
  have supplied investigators with plentiful material of recent years, 
  and have done more, perhaps, than anything else to stimulate an 
  interest in so - called spiritualistic phenomena. In connection with 
  the " physical " phenomena - probably no less the result of 
  automatism than the " subjective, " though in a different direction - 
  the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino has been carefully studied 
  by many eminent investigators both in Great Britain and on the 
  Continent, with the result that Camille Flammarion, Professor 
  Richet, Sir Oliver Lodge - to mention only a fewhave satisfied 
  themselves with regard to the genuineness of some of her 
  phenomena. 
   
  On the whole, even if psychical research has not succeeded in 
  demonstrating such matters as the immortality of the soul or the 
  possibility of communication between the living and the dead, it 
  has done good work in widening the field of psychology and 
  therapeutics and in gaining admission for that doctrine of 
  suggestion which since the tune of Bertrand and Braid had never 
  been openly received and deknowledged by the medical 
  profession. Many of the obscure phenomena attending mesmerism, 
  magnetism, witchcraft, poltergeists, and kindred subjects have 
  been brought into line with modern scientific knowledge. Little 
  more than thirty years ' has elapsed since the Society for Psychical 
  Research was founded, and probably in time to come it will 
  accomplish still more, both in conducting experiments and 
  investigations in connection with psychic phenomena, and in 
  educating the public in the use of scientific methods and habits of 
  thought in their dealings with the " supernatural." 
   
  Psychometry: A term used by spiritualists to denote the faculty, 
  supposed to be common among mediums, of reading the 
  characters, surroundings, etc. of persons by holding in the hand 
  small objects, such as a watch or ring, which they have had in their 
  possession. The honour of having discovered the psychometric 
  faculty belongs to Dr. J. R. Buchanan, who classed it among the 
  sciences, and gave it the name it bears. His theory is based on the 
  belief that everything that has ever existed, every object, scene, 
  event, that has occurred since the beginning of the world, has left 
  on the ether or astral light a trace of its being, indelible while the 
  world endures; and not only on the ether, but likewise on more 
  palpable objects, trees and stones and all manner of things. Sounds 
  also, and perfumes leave impressions on their surroundings. just as 
  a photograph may be taken on a plate and remain invisible till it 
  
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  has been developed, so may those psychometric " photographs " 
  remain impalpable till the developing process has been applied. 
  And that which is to bring them to light is the mind of the medium. 
  All mediums are said to possess the psychometric faculty in a 
  greater or less degree. One authority, Professor William Denton, 
  has declared that he found it in, one man in every ten, and four 
  women in ten. Dr. Buchanan's earliest experiments, with his own 
  students, showed that some of them were able to distinguish the, 
  different metals merely by holding them in their hands. On 
  medical substances being put into their hands they exhibited such 
  symptoms as might have been occasioned if the substances were 
  swallowed. Later he found that some among them could diagnose a 
  patient's disease simply by holding his hand. Many persons of his 
  acquaintance, on pressing a letter against their forehead, could tell 
  the character and surroundings of the writer, the circumstances 
  under which, the letter was written and other particulars. Some 
  very curious stories are told of fossilised bones and teeth revealing 
  to the sensitives the animal's they represent in the midst of their 
  prehistoric surroundings. Professor Denton gave to his wife and 
  mother - in - law meteoric fragments and other substances, 
  wrapped in paper and thoroughly mixed to preclude the possibility 
  of telepathy, which caused them to see the appropriate pictures. 
  Many mediums who have since practised psychometry have 
  become famous in their line. As has been said, the modus is to 
  hold in the hand or place against the forehead some small object, 
  such as a fragment of clothing, a letter, or a watch, when the 
  appropriate visions are seen. Psychometrists may be entranced, 
  but are generally in a condition scarcely varying from the normal. 
  The psychometric pictures, printed presumably on the article to be 
  psychometrised, have been likened to pictures borne in the 
  memory, seemingly faded, yet ready to start into vividness when 
  the right spring is touched. We may likewise suppose that the 
  rehearsal of bygone tragedies so frequently witnessed in haunted 
  houses, is really a psychometric picture which at the original 
  occurrence impressed itself on the room. The same may be said of 
  the sounds and perfumes which haunt certain houses. 
   
  Rahu: Whose name means " the tormenter, " is one of the Hindoo 
  devils. He is worshipped as a means of averting the attacks of evil 
  spirits; and appears to be of a truly devilish character. 
   
  Rakshasa: An Indian demon. In one of the Indian folktales he 
  appears black as soot, with hair yellow as the lightning, looking 
  like a thunder - cloud. He had made himself a wreath of entrails; 
  he wore a sacrificial cord of hair; he was gnawing the flesh of a -  
  man's head and drinking blood out of a skull. In another story 
  these Brahma Rakshasas have formidable tusks, flaming hair, and 
  insatiable hunger, They wander about the forests catching animals 
  and eating them. Mr. Campbell tells a Mahrata legend of a master 
  who became a Brahmapayusha in order to teach grammar to a 
  pupil. He haunted a house at Benares, and the pupil went to take 
  lessons from him. He promised to teach him the whole science in a 
  year on condition that he never left the house. One day the boy 
  went out and learned that the house was haunted, and that he was 
  being taught by a ghost. The boy returned and was ordered by tie 
  preceptor to take his bones to Gaya, and perform the necessary 
  ceremonies for the emancipation of his soul. This he did, and the 
  uneasy spirit of the learned man was laid. 
   
  Raphael, the Angel: In the prophecy of Enoch it is said that: " 
  Raphael presides over the spirits of men." In the Jewish rabbinic - 
  al legend of the angelic hierarchies Raphael is the medium 
  through which the power of Tsebaoth, or the Lord of hosts, passes 
  into the sphere of the sun, giving motion, heat and brightness to it.. 
   
  Red Man: The demon of the tempests. He is supposed to be furious 
  when the rash voyager intrudes on his solitude, and to show his 
  anger in the winds and storms.   
   
  Napoleon arranged to spend the night in the Great Pyramid, and 
  there he was greeted by a red apparition, which apparently 
  frightened him, or told him things he did not wish to hear.  It is 
  interesting to note that the “Red Ghost” which approached 
  Napoleon did so at exactly the same place where Aliester Crowley 
  received the “Revelation of the new Aeon” from the spirit 
  “Aiwass.” 
   
  The French peasants believed that a mysterious little red man 
  appeared to Napoleon to announce coming reverses 
   
  Robert the Devil: was son of a Duke and Duchess of Normandy. 
  He was endowed with marvellous physical strength, which he used 
  only to minister to his evil passions. Explaining to him the cause of 
  his wicked impulses, his mother told him that he had been born in 
  answer to prayers addressed to the devil. He now sought religious 
  advice, and was directed by the Pope to a hermit who ordered him 
  to maintain complete silence, to take his food from the mouths of 
  dogs, to feign madness and to provoke abuse from common people 
  without attempting to retaliate. He became court fool to the Roman 
  Emperor and three times delivered the city from Saracen 
  invasions, having, in each case, been prompted to fight by a 
  heavenly message. The emperor's dumb daughter was given speech 
  in order to identify the saviour of the city with the court fool, but 
  he refused his due recompense, as well as her hand in marriage, 
  and went back to the hermit, his former confessor. The. French 
  Romance of Robert le Diable is one of the oldest forms of this 
  legend. 
   
  Rocail: Said to have been the younger brother of Seth, the son of 
  Adam. The circumstances attending his history are picturesque 
  and unique. A Dive, or. giant of Mount Caucasus, finding himself 
  in difficulties, applied for aid to the human race. Rocail offered his 
  services to the giant, and so acceptable did these prove that the 
  Dive made his benefactor grand vizier. For a long period he 
  governed the giant's realm with entire success, and reached a 
  position of dignity and honour. However, when he felt himself 
  growing old he desired to leave behind him a. more lasting 
  monument than public respect, so he built a magnificent palace 
  and sepulchre. The palace he peopled with statues, which, by the 
  power of magic, he made to walk and talk, and act in all ways as 
  though they were living men, as, indeed, all who beheld them 
  judged them to be.  
   
  Rochester Rappings: The outbreak of rappings which occurred in 
  Hydesville, near Rochester, N.Y., in 1848, and which is popularly 
  known as the Rochester Rappings, is of peculiar importance, not 
  because of its intrinsic superiority to any other poltergeistic 
  disturbance, but because it inaugurates the movement of Modern 
  Spiritualism. Hydesville is a small village in Arcadia, Wayne 
  County, N.Y., and there, in 1848, there lived one John D. Fox, with 
  his wife and two young daughters, Margaretta, aged fifteen, and 
  Kate, aged twelve. Their house was a small wooden structure 
  previously tenanted by one Michael Weekman, who afterwards 
  avowed that he had frequently been dis turbed by knockings; and 
  other strange sounds in the Hydesville house. Towards the end of 
  March, 1848, the Fox family were much disturbed by mysterious 
  rappings, and on the evening of the 31st they went to bed early, 
  hoping to get some undisturbed sleep. But the rappings broke out 
  
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  even more vigorously than they had done on the previous 
  occasions, and Mrs. Fox, much alarmed and excited when the raps 
  manifested signs of intelligence, decided to call in her neighbours 
  to witness the phenomenon. The, neighbours heard the raps as 
  distinctly as did the Foxes themselves. When the sounds had 
  indicated that they were directed by some sort of intelligence it 
  was no difficult matter to get into communication with the unseen. 
  Questions were asked by the " sitters " of this informal " seance" 
  and if the answer were in the affirmative, raps were heard, if in the 
  negative, the silence remained unbroken. By this means the 
  knocker indicated that he was a spirit, the spirit of a pedlar who 
  had been murdered for his money by a former resident in the 
  house. It also answered correctly other questions put to it, relating 
  to the ages of those present and other particulars concerning 
  persons who lived in the neighbourhood. In the few days 
  immediately following hundreds of people made their way to 
  Hydesville to witness the marvel. Fox's married son, David, who 
  lived about two miles from his father's house, has left a statement 
  to the effect that the Fox family, following the directions of the 
  raps, which indicated that the pedlar was buried in the cellar, had 
  begun to dig therein early in April, but were stopped by water. 
  Later, however, hair, bones, and teeth were found in the cellar. 
  Vague rumours were afloat that a pedlar had visited the village one 
  winter, had been seen in the kitchen of the house afterwards 
  tenanted by the Foxes, and had mysteriously disappeared, without 
  fulfilling his promise to the villagers to return next day. But of real 
  evidence there was not a scrap, whether for the murder or for the 
  existence of the pedlar, particulars of whose life were furnished by 
  the raps. Soon after these happenings Kate Fox went to Auburn, 
  and Margaretta to Rochester, N.Y., where lived her married sister, 
  Mrs. Fish (formerly Mrs. Underhill), and at both places outbreaks 
  of rappings occurred. New mediums sprang up, circles were 
  formed, and soon Spiritualism was fairly started on its career. 
   
  Rome: Magical practice was rife amongst the Romans. Magic was 
  the motive power of their worship which was simply an organized 
  system of magical rites for communal end;. It was the basis of their 
  mode of thought and outlook upon the world, it entered into every 
  moment and action of their daily life, it affected their laws and 
  customs. This ingrained tendency instead of diminishing, 
  developed to an enormous extent, into a great system of 
  superstition, and in the later years led to a frenzy for strange gods, 
  borrowed from all countries. In times of misfortune and disaster the 
  Romans were always ready to borrow a god if so be his favours 
  promised more than those of their own deities. Though there was a 
  strong conservative element in the native character, though the " 
  custom of the elders " was strongly upheld by the priestly 
  fraternity, yet this usually gave way before the will and temper of 
  the people. Thus, as a rock shows its geological history by its 
  differing strata, so the theogony of the Roman gods tells its tale of 
  the race who conceived it. There are pre - historic nature deities, 
  borrowed from the indigenous tribes, gods of the Sabines, from 
  whom the young colony stole its wives; gods of the Etruscans, of 
  the Egyptians, Greeks and Persians. The temple of Jupiter on the 
  Capitol contained the altar of a primitive deity, a stone - god, 
  Terminus, the spirit of boundaries: in the temple of Diana of the 
  Grove, a fountain nymph was worshipped. Instances of this 
  description are numerous.,  
   
  Spirits. - In addition to the gods, there were spirits to be 
  propitiated. Indeed the objects offered to the Roman for adoration 
  were numberless. Apuleius gives a description of this when he tells 
  of a country road where one might meet an altar wreathed with 
  flowers, a cave hung with garlands, an oak tree laden with horns of 
  cattle, a hill marked by fences as sacred, a log rough - hewn into 
  shape, an altar of turf smoking with libations or a stone anointed 
  with oil. Every single action of man's daily life had a presiding 
  spirit; commerce and husbandry likewise, There was eating Ednea, 
  drinking Potina; there were spirits of departure, of journeying, of 
  approaching and homecoming. In commerce there was Xlercurius, 
  the spirit of gain, of money, Pecunia; in farming, the spirits of 
  cutting, grinding, sowing and bee - keeping. A deity presided over 
  streets and highways; there was a goddess of the sewers, Cloacina; 
  a spirit of bad smells, Mephitis. Spirits of evil must also be 
  propitiated by pacificatory rites, such as Robigo, the spirit of 
  mildew; in Rome there was an altar to Fever and Bad Fortune. 
  From the country came Silvanus, god of farms and woods, and his 
  Fauns and nymphs with Picus, the wood - pecker god who had fed 
  the twins Romulus and Remus with berries - all these were 
  possessed of influences and were approached with peculiar rites. 
  The names of these spirits were inscribed on tablets, 
  indigitamenta, which were in the charge of the pontiffs, who thus 
  knew which spirit to evoke according to the need. 'Most of these 
  spirits were animistic in origin. 
   
  The Roman Worship consisted of magical rites destined to 
  propitiate the powers controlling mankind; to bring man into touch 
  with them, to renew his life and that which supported it, the land 
  with its trees, corn and cattle, to stop that process of degeneration 
  constantly set in motion by evil influences. Everything connected 
  with it typified this restoration. The Priests who represented the 
  life of the community, were therefore bound by strict observances 
  from endangering it in any way. Rules as to attire, eating and touch 
  were numerous. Sacrifices were systematised according to the end 
  desired and the deity invoked. There were rules as to whether the 
  victim must be young or full - grown, male or female; oxen were to 
  be offered to Jupiter and Mars; swine to Juno, to Ceres the 
  corngoddess and to Silvanus. At one shrine a cow in calf was 
  sacrificed and the ashes of the unborn young were of special 
  magical efficacy. Human sacrifice existed within historical times. 
  After the battle of Cannoe the Romans had sought to divert 
  misfortune by burying two Greeks alive in the cattle - market while 
  in the time of Julius Caesar two men were put to death with 
  sacrificial solemnities by the Pontiff and Flamen of Mars. Again, in 
  the time of Cicero and Horace boys were killed for magical 
  purposes. Fire possessed great virtue and was held sacred in the 
  worship of Vesta, in early belief Vesta being the fire itself; it 
  presided over the family hearth; it restored purity and conferred 
  protection. Blood had the same quality and smeared on the face of 
  the god symbolised and brought about the one - ness of the deity 
  with the community. On great occasions the Statue of Jupiter was 
  treated thus: the priests of Bellona made incisions in their 
  shoulders and sprinkled the blood upon the image; the face of a 
  triumphant general was painted with vermilion to represent blood. 
  Kneeling and prostration brought one into direct contact with the 
  earth of the sacred place. Music was also used as a species of 
  incantation, probably deriving its origin in sound made to drive 
  away evil spirits. Dancing too was of magical efficacy. In Rome 
  there were colleges of dancers for the purposes of religion, youths 
  who danced in solemn measure about the altars, who, in the sacred 
  month of Mars took part in the festivals and went throughout the 
  city dancing and singing. One authority states four kinds of " holy 
  solemnity', ; sacrifice, sacred banquets, public festivals and 
  games. Theatrical performances also belonged to this category, in 
  one instance being used as a means of diverting a pestilence. The 
  sacred banquets were often decreed by the Senate as thanks giving 
  
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  to the gods. Tables were spread with a sumptuous repast in the 
  public places and were first offered to ther statues of the deities 
  seated around. The festivals were numerous, all of a magical and 
  symbolic nature. In the spring there was the Parilia when fires of 
  straw were lighted, through which persons passed to be purified; 
  the Cerealia, celebrated with sacrifice and offerings to Ceres, the 
  corn - goddess, and followed by banquets. The Lupercalia, the 
  festival of raunus, was held in February and symbolised the 
  wakening of Spring and growth. Goats were slain as sacrifice and 
  with their blood the Luperci, youths clad in skins, smeared their 
  faces. They took thongs of the goat - skin and laughing wildly 
  rushed through the city striking the crowd, Roman matrons 
  believing that the blows thus received rendered them prolific. 
  Juno, the goddess of marriage and childbirth also had her festival, 
  the Matronalia, celebrated by the women of Rome. There were the 
  festivals of the dead when the door leading to the other world was 
  opened, the stone removed from its entrance in the Comitium, and 
  the shades coming forth were appeased with offerings. On these 
  days three times in the year, when the gods of gloom were abroad, 
  complete cessation from all work was decreed, no battle could be 
  fought nor ship set sail neither could a man marry. To the Sacred 
  Gaines were taken the statues of the gods in gorgeous procession, 
  chariots of silver, companies of priests, youths singing and 
  dancing. The gods viewed the games reclining on couches. The 
  Chariot races also partook of the nature of rites. After the races in 
  the Field of Mars came one of the most important Roman rites, the 
  sacrifice of the October Horse. The right - hand horse of the 
  victorious team was sacrificed to Mars, and the tail of the animal, 
  running with blood, carried to the Altar of the Regia. The blood 
  was stored in the temple of Vesta till the following spring and used 
  in the sacrifice of the festival of Parilia. This sacrifice was 
  essentially magical, all citizens present being looked upon as 
  purified by the blood - sprinkling and lustral bonfire. The Roman 
  outlook upon life was wholly coloured by magic. Bodily foes had 
  their counterpart in the unseen world, wandering spirits of the 
  dead, spirits of evil, the anger of innocently offended deities, the 
  menace of the evil eye. Portents and prodigies were everywhere. In 
  the heavens strange things might be seen. The sun had been 
  known to double, even treble itself; its light turn to blood, or a 
  magical halo to appear round the orb. Thunder - and lightning 
  were always fraught with presage; Jove was angered when he 
  opened the heavens and hurled his bolts to earth. Phantoms, too, 
  hovered amid the clouds; -  a great fleet of ships had been seen 
  sailing over the marshes. Upon the Campagna the gods were 
  observed in conflict, and afterwards tracks of the combatants were 
  visible across the plain. Unearthly voices were heard amid the 
  mountains and groves; cries of portent had sounded within the 
  temples. Blood haunted the Roman imagination. Sometimes it was 
  said to have covered the land as a mantle, the standing corn was 
  dyed with blood, the rivers and fountains flowed with it, while 
  walls and statues were covered with a bloody sweat. The flight and 
  song of birds might be foretelling the decrees of Fate; unappeased 
  spirits of the dead were known to lurk near and steal away the 
  souls of men and then they too were " dead." All these happenings 
  were attributable to the gods and spirits, who, if the portent be one 
  of menace, must be propitiated, if one of good fortune, thanked 
  with offerings. Down to the later times this deep belief in the 
  occurrence of prodigies persisted. When Otho set out for Italy, 
  Rome rang with reports of a gigantic phantom rushing forth from 
  the Temple of Juno; of the Statue of Julius turning from east to 
  west. 
   
  Augury - Divination was connected with the Roman worship. There 
  was a spot on the Capitol from which the augur with veiled head 
  read the auspices in the flight of birds. Augurs also accompanied 
  armies and fleets and read the omens before an engagement was 
  entered upon. Divination was also practised by reading the 
  intestines of animals, by dreams, by divine possession as in the 
  case of the Oracles when prophecies were uttered. These had been 
  gathered together in the Sibylline books (q.v.), 'and were consulted 
  as oracles by the State. With the worship of Fortune were 
  connected the Lots of Prameste. The questions put to the goddess 
  were answered by means of oaken lots which a boy drew from a 
  case made of sacred wood. The fortune - tellers also used a narrow 
  - necked urn which, filled with water, only allowed one lot at a 
  time to rise. Astrologerss from Chaldea were also much sought 
  after and were attached to the kingly and noble houses. Familiar 
  things of everyday life were of magical import. Words, Numbers, 
  odd ones specially for the Kalends, Nones and Ides were so 
  arranged as to fall upon odd days; louch was binding and so 
  recognised in the law of Rome, as the grasp of a thing sold, from a 
  slave to a turf of distant estate; and knotting and twisting of thread 
  was injurious so that women must never pass by cornfields twisting 
  their spindles, they must not even be uncovered. There was a 
  strange sympathy between the trees and mankind, and great 
  honour was paid to the sacred trees of Rome. On the oak tree of 
  Jupiter the triumphant general hung the shield and arms of his 
  fallen foe; while the hedges about the Temple of Diana at Nemi 
  were covered with votive offerings. The trees also harboured the 
  spirits of the dead who came forth as dreams to the souls of men. 
  Pliny the elder says in this matter " Trees have a soul since nothing 
  on earth lives without one. They are the temples of spirits and the 
  simple countryside dedicates still a noble tree to some god. The 
  various kinds of trees are sacred to their protecting spirits: the oak 
  to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, olive to Minerva, myrtle to Venus, 
  white poplar to Hercules." These trees therefore partook of the 
  nature of their presiding spirits and it was desirable to bring about 
  communion with their magical influence, as in the spring when 
  laurel boughs were hung at the doors of the flamens and pontiffs 
  and in the temple of Vesta where they remained hanging till the 
  following year. Trees and their leaves were also possessed of 
  healing and purifying value; laurel was used for the latter quality 
  as in the Roman triumphs the fasces of the commander, the spears 
  and javelins of legionaries were wreathed with its branches to 
  purify them from the blood of the enemy. Man himself had a 
  presiding spirit, his genius, each woman her " juno " the Saturnalia 
  was really a holiday for this " other self." The Roman kept his 
  birthday in honour of his genius, offering frankincense, cakes and 
  unmixed wine on an altar garlanded with flowers and making 
  solemn prayers for the coming year. City and village had their 
  genii, also bodies of men from the senate to the scullions. 
   
   Death was believed to be the life and soul enticed away by 
  revengeful ghosts, hence death would never occur save by such 
  agencies. The dead therefore must be appeased with offerings or 
  else they wander abroad working evil among the living. This belief 
  is present in Ovid's lines:" Once upon a time the great feast of the 
  dead was not observed and the manes failed to receive the 
  customary gifts, the fruit, the salt, the corn steeped in unmixed 
  wine, the violets. The injured spirits revenged themselves on the 
  living and the city was encircled with the funeral fires of their 
  victims. The townsfolk heard their grandsires complaining in the 
  quiet hours of the night, and told each other how the unsubstantial 
  troop of monstrous spectres rising from their tombs, shrieked along 
  the city streets and up and down the fields." Beans were used in 
  the funeral feasts. They were supposed to harbour the souls of the 
  dead, and the bean - blossom to be inscribed with characters of 
  mourning. 
  
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  Dreams were considered of great importance by the Romans; many 
  historical instances of prophetic dreams may be found. They were 
  thought to be like birds, the " bronze - coloured " hawks; they were 
  also thought to be the souls of human beings visiting others in their 
  sleep; also the souls of the dead returning to earth. In Virgil much 
  may be found on this subject; Lucretius tried to find a scientific 
  reason for them; Cicero, though writing in a slighting manner of the 
  prevalent belief in these manifestations of sleep, yet records 
  dreams of his own, which events proved true. 
   
  Sorcery in all its forms, love - magic and death - magic was rife 
  amongst all classes, besides necromantic practices. There were 
  charms and spells for everything under the sun; the rain - charm of 
  the pontiffs consisting of the throwing of puppets into the Tiber; 
  the charm against thunder - bolts compounded of onions, hair and 
  sprats; the charm against an epidemic when the matrons of Rome 
  swept the temple - floors with their hair; and many more down to 
  the simple love - charm strung round the neck of the country 
  maiden. 
   
  Witches were prevalent. The poets often chose these sinister 
  figures for their subjects, as when Horace describes the ghastly 
  rites of two witches in the cemetery of the Esquiline. Under the 
  light of the new moon they crawl about looking for poisonous herbs 
  and bones; they call the spectres to a banquet consisting of a black 
  lamb torn to pieces with their teeth, and after, these phantoms 
  must answer the questions of the sorceresses. They make images of 
  their victims and pray to the infernal powers for help; hounds and 
  snakes glide over the ground, the moon turns to blood, and as the 
  images are melted so the lives of the victims ebb away. Virgil gives 
  a picture of a sorceress performing love - magic by  - means of a 
  waxen image of the youth whose love she desired. Lucan in his 
  Pharsalia treats of Thessaly, notorious in all ages for sorcery and 
  draws a terrific figure - Erichtho, a sorceress of illimitable powers, 
  one whom even the gods obeyed, to whom the forces of earth and 
  heaven were bond - slaves; and Fate waiting her least command. 
  Both Nero and Agrippina his mother were reported to have had 
  recourse to the infamous arts of sorcery; while in the New 
  Testament may be found testimony as to these practices in Rome. 
  The attitude of the cultured class towards magic is illustrated by an 
  illuminating passage to be found in the writings of Pliny the elder. 
  He says " The art of magic has prevailed in most ages and in most 
  parts of the globe. Let no one wonder that it has wielded very great 
  authority inasmuch as it embraces three other sources of influence. 
  No one doubts that it took its rise in medicine and sought to cloak 
  itself in the garb of a science more profound and holy than the 
  common run. It added to its tempting promises the force of 
  religion, after which the human race is groping, especially at this 
  time. Further it has brought in the arts of astrology and divination. 
  For everyone desires to know what is to come to him and believes 
  that certainty can be gained by consulting the stars. Having in this 
  way taken captive the feelings of man by a triple chain it has 
  reached such a pitch that it rules over all the world and in the 
  East, governs the King of Kings. 
   
  Rosen, Paul: A sovereign Grand Inspector - General of the 33rd 
  degree of the French rite of Masonry, who in 1888 decided that 
  Masonry was diabolic in conception, and to prove his strictures 
  published a work called Satan et Cie. The Satanism credited to 
  Masonry by Rosen is social anarchy and the destruction of the 
  Catholic religion. 
   
  Rosicrucians: The idea of a Rosicrucian Brotherhood has probably 
  aroused more interest in the popular mind than that of any other 
  secret society of kindred nature: but much of the commonly 
  believed legend of the  brotherhood is extremely doubtful. The very 
  name of Rosicrcian seems to have exercised a spell upon people of 
  an imaginative nature for nearly two hundred and fifty years, and a 
  great deal of romantic fiction has clustered around the fraternity: 
  such as for example Lord Lytton's romance of Zanoni; Shelley's 
  novel St. Iroyne  the Rosicrucian, Harrison Ainsworth’s Auyiol, 
  and similar works. 
   
  The name Rosicruician is utilised by mystics to some extent as the 
  equivalent of magus, but in its more specific application it was the 
  title of a member of a suppositions society which arose in the late 
  sixteenth century. There are several theories regarding the 
  derivation of the name. The most commonly accepted appears to be 
  that it was derived from the appellation of the supposed founder, 
  Christian Rosenkreuze; but as his history has been proved to be 
  wholly fabulous, this theory must fall to the ground. Mosheim, the 
  historian, gave it as his opinion that the name was formed from the 
  Latin words ros, dew,  - crux a cross; on the assumption that the 
  alchemical dew of the philosophers was the most powerful 
  dissolvent of gold, while the cross was equivalent to light. It is 
  more probable that the name Rosicrucian is derived from rosa a 
  rose, and crux a cross, and we find that tile general symbol of the 
  supposed order was a rose crucified in the centre of a cross. In an 
  old Rosicrucian book of the last century, we further find the 
  symbol of a red cross - marked heart in the centre of an open rose, 
  which Mr. A. E. Waite believes to be a development of the 
  monogram of Martin Luther, which was a cross - crowned heart 
  rising from the centre of an open rose.   To some extent it may be 
  presumed that Rosicrucianism represents the esoteric-intellectual 
  arm of the Reformation as Templarism represents that of the 
  Catholic Church, and Freemasonry that of the enlightenment.  
  However, the Rosicrucian ideal drifted back into the Catholic 
  world, finding its most fertile foothold in Catholic France. 
   
  History of the Supposed Brotherhood.  - Practically nothing 
  definite was known concerning the Rosicrucian Brotherhood before 
  the publication of Mr. Waite's work The Real History of the 
  Rosicrucians in 1887. Prior to that a great deal had been written 
  concerning the fraternity, and shortly before Mr. Waite produced 
  his well - known book another had made its appearance under the 
  title of  The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries by the late Mr. 
  Hargrave Jennings. This book was merely a farrago of the wildest 
  absurdities, rendered laughable by the ridiculous attitude of the 
  author, who pretended to the guardianship of abysmal occult 
  secrets. It was typical of most writings regarding the fraternity of 
  the Rosy Cross, and as the Westminster Review wittily remarked 
  in its notice of the volume, it deals with practically everything 
  under the sun except the Rosicrucians. Mr. Waite's work, the 
  result of arduous personal research, has gathered together all that 
  can possibly be known regarding the Rosicrucians, and his facts 
  are drawn from manuscripts, in some cases discovered by himself, 
  and from skilful analogy. As it is the only authority on the subject 
  worth speaking about, we shall attempt to outline its conclusions. 
   
  We find then that the name " Rosicrucian " was unknown 
  previously to the year 1598. The history of the movement 
  originates in Germany, where in the town of Cassel in the year 
  1614 the professors of magic and mysticism, the theosophists and 
  alchemists, were surprised by the publication of a pamphlet 
  bearing the title The Fama of the Fraternity of the Meritorious 
  
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  Order of the Rosy Cross Addressed to the Learned in General and 
  the Governors of Europe. It purported to be a message from certain 
  anonymous adepts who were deeply concerned for the condition of 
  mankind, and who greatly desired its moral renewal and 
  perfection. It proposed that all men of learning throughout the 
  world should join forces for the establishment of a synthesis of 
  science, through which would be discovered the perfect method of 
  all tile arts. The squabblings and quarrellings of the literati of the 
  period were to be forgone, and the antiquated authorities of the 
  elder world to be discredited. It pointed out that a reformation had 
  taken place in religion, that the church had been cleansed, and 
  that a similar new career was open to science. All this was to be 
  brought about by the assistance of the illuminated Brotherhood tile 
  children of light who had been initiated in the mysteries of the 
  Grand Orient, and would lead the age to perfection. 
   
  The fraternity kindly supplied an account of its history. The head 
  and front of the movement was one C.R.C. of Teutonic race, a 
  magical hierophant of the highest rank, who in the fifth year of his 
  age had been placed in a convent, where he learned the 
  Humanities. At the age of fifteen, lie accompanied one, Brother P. 
  A. L. on his travels to the Holy Land; but the brother died at 
  Cyprus to the great grief of C.R.C., who, however resolved to 
  undertake the arduous journey himself. Arriving at Damascus, he 
  there obtained knowledge of a secret circle of theosophists who 
  dwelt in an unknown city of Arabia called Damcar, who were 
  expert in all magical arts. Turning aside from his quest of the Holy 
  Sepulchre, the lad made up his mind to trace these illuminati and 
  sought out certain Arabians who carried him to the city of Damear. 
  There he arrived at the age of sixteen years, and was graciously 
  welcomed by the magi, who intimated to him that they had long 
  been expecting him, and relating to him several passages in his 
  past life. They proceeded to initiate him into the mysteries of 
  occult science, and lie speedily became acquainted with Arabic, 
  from which tongue he translated the divine book M into Latin. 
  After three years of mystic instruction, he departed from the 
  mysterious city for Egypt, whence he sailed to Fez as the wise men 
  of Damcar had instructed him to do. There he fell in with other 
  masters who taught him how to evoke the elemental spirits. After a 
  further two years' sojourn at Fez, his period of initiation was over, 
  and he proceeded to Spain to confer with the wisdom of that 
  country, and convince its professors of the errors of their ways. 
  Unhappily, the scholarhood of Spain turned its back upon him with 
  loud laughter, and intimated to him that it had earned the 
  principles and practice of the black art from a much higher 
  authority, namely Satan himself, who had unveiled to them the 
  secrets of necromancy within the walls of the university of 
  Salamanca. With noble indignation he shook the dust of Spain 
  from his feet, and turned his face to other countries only, alas, to 
  find the same treatment within their boundaries. At last he sought 
  his native land of Germany where he pored over the great truths he 
  had learned in solitude and seclusion, and reduced his universal 
  philosophy to writing. Five years of a hermit's life, however, only 
  served to strengthen him in his opinions, and he could not but feel 
  that one who had achieved the transmutation of metals and had 
  manufactured the elixir of life was designed for a nobler purpose 
  than rumination in solitude. Slowly and carefully he began to 
  collect around him assistants who became the nucleus of the 
  Rosicrcuian fraternity. When he had gathered four of these persons 
  into the brotherhood they invented amongst them a magical 
  language, a cipher writing of equal magical potency, and a large 
  dictionary replete with occult wisdom. They erected a House of the 
  Holy Ghost, healed the sick, and initiated further members, and 
  then betook themselves as missionaries to the various countries of 
  Europe to disseminate their wisdom. In course of time their 
  founder, C.R.C., breathed his last, and for a hundred and twenty 
  years the secret of his burial place was concealed. The original 
  members also died one by one, and it was not until the third 
  generation of adepts had arisen that the tomb of their illustrious 
  founder was unearthed during the re - building of one of their 
  secret dwellings. The vault in which this tomb was found was 
  illuminated by the sun of the magi, and inscribed with magical 
  characters. The body of the illustrious founder was discovered in 
  perfect preservation, and a number of marvels were discovered 
  buried beside him, which convinced the existing members of the 
  fraternity that it was their duty to make these publicly known to -  
  the world. It was this discovery which immediately inspired the 
  brotherhood to make its existence public in the circular above 
  alluded to, and they invited all worthy persons to apply to them for 
  initiation. They refused, however, to supply their names and 
  addresses, and desired that those who wished for initiation could 
  signify their intention by the publication of printed letters which 
  they would be certain to notice. In conclusion they assured the, 
  public of the circumstance that they were believers in the reformed 
  Church of Christ, and denounced in the most solemn manner all 
  pseudo - occultists and alchemists. Understood as a symbolic 
  legend rather than literal fact, the Fama is a moving account of the 
  rise of rationalist magic in late medieval Europe. 
   
  This Fama created tremendous excitement among the occultists of 
  Europe, and a large number of pamphlets were published 
  criticising and defending the society and its manifesto, in which it 
  was pointed out there were a number of discrepancies. To begin 
  with no such city as Damcar existed within the bounds of Arabia: 
  Where, it was asked, was the House of the Holy Ghost, which the 
  Rosicrucsians stated had been seen by 100, 000 persons and was 
  yet concealed from the world?  C.R.C., the founder, as a boy of 
  fifteen must have achieved great occult skill to have astonished the 
  magi of Damcar. But despite these objections considerable credit 
  was given to the Rosicrucian publication. After a lapse of a year 
  appeared the Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, addressed 
  to the learned in Europe. This offered initiation by gradual stages 
  to selected applicants, and discovered its ultra Protestant character 
  by what an old Scots divine was wont to call a " dig at the Pope, " 
  whom it publicly execrated, expressing the pious hope that his 
  "asinine braying " would finally be put a stop to by tearing him to 
  pieces with nails. In the following year, 1616, The Chymical 
  Nuptials of Christian Rosencruetz was published, purporting to be 
  incidents in the life of the mysterious founder of the Brotherhood of 
  the Rosy Cross. But the chymical marriage makes Christian 
  Rosencreutz all old man when he achieved initiation, and this 
  hardly squares with the original account of his life as given in the 
  Fama. By this time a number of persons had applied for initiation, 
  but had received no answer to their application. As many of these 
  believed themselves to be alchemical and magical adepts, great 
  irritation arose among the brotherhood, and it was generally 
  considered that the whole business was a hoax. By 1620, the 
  Rosicrucians and their publication had lapsed into absolute 
  obscurity. 
   
  Numerous theories have been put forward as to the probable 
  authorship of these manifestoes, and it has been generally 
  considered that the theologian Andreae produced them as a kind of 
  laborious jest; but this view is open to so many objections that it 
  may be dismissed summarily. Their authorship has also been 
  claimed for Taulerus Joachim Jange, and Egidius Guttmann; but 
  the individual in whose imagination originated the Brotherhood of 
  the Rosy Cross will probably for ever remain unknown. It is 
  
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  however, unlikely that the manifesto was of the nature of a hoax, 
  because it bears upon its surface the marks of intense earnestness, 
  and the desire for philosophical and spiritual reformation; and it is 
  not unlikely that it sprang from some mystic of the Lutheran school 
  who desired the cooperation of like - minded persons. Mr. Waite 
  thinks there is fair presumptive evidence to show that some 
  corporate body such as the Rosicrucian Brotherhood did exist: but 
  as he states that the documents which are the basis of this belief 
  give evidence also that the association did not originate as it 
  pretended, and was devoid of the powers which it claimed, this 
  hypothesis seems in the highest degree unlikely. Such a document 
  would more probably emanate from one individual, and it is almost 
  impossible to conceive that a body of men professing such aims 
  and objects as the manifesto lays claim to could possibly have lent 
  themselves to such a farrago of absurdity as the history of C.R.C. A 
  great many writers have credited the brotherhood with immense 
  antiquity; but as the publisher of the manifesto places its origin so 
  late as the fifteenth century, there is little necessity to take these 
  theories into consideration. 
   
  So far as can be gleaned from their publications, the Rosicrucians, 
  or the person in whose imagination they existed, were believers in 
  the doctrines of Paracelsus. They believed in alchemy, astrology 
  and occult forces in nature and their credence in these is identical 
  with the doctrines of the great master of modern magic. They were 
  thus essentially modern in their theosophical beliefs, just as they 
  were modern in their religious ideas. Mr. Waite thinks it possible 
  that in Nuremburg in the year 1598 a Rosicrucian Society was 
  founded by a mystic and alchemist named Simon Studion, possibly 
  in collaboration with Egidius Guttmann, under the title of Alilitia 
  Crucifera Evangelica, which held periodical meetings in that city. 
  Its proceedings are reported in an unprinted work of Studion's, and 
  in opinions and objects it was identical with the supposed 
  Rosicrucian Society. " Evidently, " he says, "the Rosicrucian 
  Society of 1614 was a transfiguration or development of the sect 
  established by Simon Studion." But there is no good evidence for 
  this statement. After a lapse of nearly a century, the Rosicrucians 
  reappeared in Germany. In 1710 a certain Sincerus Racatus or 
  Sigmund Richter, published A Perfect and True Preparation of the 
  Philosophical Stone according to the Secret Methods of the 
  Brotherhood of the Golden and Rosy Cross, and annexed to this 
  treatise were the rules of the Rosicrucian Society for the initiation 
  of new members. Mr. Waite is of opinion that these rules are 
  equivalent to a proof of the society's existence at the period, and 
  that they help to establish the important fact that it still held its 
  meetings at Nuremburg, where it was originally established by 
  Studion. In 1785, the publication of The Secret Symbols of the 
  Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries took 
  place at Altona, showing in Mr. Waite's opinion that the mysterious 
  brotherhood still existed; but this was their last manifesto. These 
  things are certainly of the nature of proof, but they are so scanty 
  that any reasonable and workable hypothesis that such a society 
  ever existed can scarcely be founded upon them. For all we know 
  to the contrary they may be publications of enthusiastic and 
  slightly unbalanced pseudo - mystics, and nothing definite can be 
  gleaned from their existence. 
   
  In 1618 Henrichus Neuhuseus published a Latin pamphlet, which 
  stated that the Rosicrucian adepts had migrated to India, and 
  present - day Theosophists will have it that they exist now in the 
  table - lands of Tibet. It is this sort of thing which altogether 
  discredits occultism in the eyes of the public. Without the slightest 
  shadow of proof of any kind, such statements are wildly 
  disseminated; and it has even been alleged that the Rosicrucians 
  have developed into a Tibetan Brotherhood, and have exchanged 
  Protestant Christianity for esoteric Buddhism Mr. Waite 
  humorously states that he has not been able to trace the eastern 
  progress of the Brotherhood further than the Isle of Mauritius, 
  where it is related in a curious manuscript a certain Comte De 
  Chazal initiated a Dr. Sigismund Bacstrorn into the mysteries of 
  the Rose Cross Order in 1794; but we know nothing about the 
  Comte de Chazal or his character, and it is just possible that Dr. 
  Bacstrom might have been one of those deluded persons who in all 
  times and countries have been willing to purchase problematical 
  honours. From the Fama and Confessio, we glean some definite 
  ideas of the occult conceptions of the Rosicrucians. In these 
  documents we find the doctrine of the Microcosmus (clearly a 
  Qabbalistic influence), which considers man as containing the 
  potentialities of the whole universe. This is a distinctly Paracelsian 
  belief. We also find the belief of the doctrine of Elemental Spirits, 
  which many people wrongly think originated with the 
  Rosicrucians; but which was probably reintroduced by Paracelsus. 
  We also find that the manifestoes contain the doctrine of the 
  Signatura Rerum, which also is of Paracelsian origin. This is the 
  magical writing referred to in the Fama; and the mystic characters 
  of that book of nature, which, according to the Confessio, stand 
  open for all eyes, but can be read or understood by only the very 
  few. These characters are the seal of God imprinted on the 
  wonderful work of creation, on the heavens and earth, and on  - all 
  beasts. It would appear too, that some form of practical magic was 
  known to the Brotherhood. They were also, according to 
  themselves, alchemists, for they had achieved the transmutation of 
  metals and the manufacture of the elixir of life. 
   
  In England the Rosicrucian idea was taken up by Fludd, who wrote 
  a spirited defence of the Brotherhood; by Vaughan who translated 
  the Fama and the Confessio; and by John Heydon, who furnished a 
  peculiarly quaint and interesting account of the Rosicrucians in 
  The Wise Man's Crown; and further treatises regarding their 
  alchemical skill and medical ability in El Hauayevna, or The 
  English Physitian's Tutor, and A New Method of Rosie Crucian 
  Physich, London 1658. In France Rosicrucianism ran a like 
  course. It has been stated by Bulile and others that there was much 
  connection between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. 
   
  A pseudo - Rosicrucian Society existed in England before the year 
  1836, and this was remodelled about the middle of last century 
  under the title " The Rosicrucian Society of England." To join this 
  it is necessary to be a Mason. The officers of the society consist of 
  three magi, a master general for the first and second orders, a 
  deputy master general, a treasurer, a secretary and seven ancients. 
  The assisting officers number a precentor, organist, torchbearer, 
  herald, and so forth. The society is composed of nine -  grades or 
  classes. It published a little quarterly magazine from 1868 to 
  1879, which in an early number stated that the society was " 
  calculated to meet the requirements of those worthy masons who 
  wished to study the science and antiquities of the craft, and trace it 
  through its successive developments to the present time; also to 
  cull information from all the records extant from those mysterious 
  societies which had their existence in the dark ages of the world 
  when might meant right." These objects were, however, fulfilled in 
  a very perfunctory manner, if the magazine of the association is 
  any criterion of its work. For this publication is filled with occult 
  serial stories, reports of masonic meetings and verse. Mr. Waite 
  states that the most notable circumstance connected with this 
  society is the complete ignorance which seems to have prevailed 
  
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  among its members generally concerning everything connected 
  with Rosicrucians. The prime movers of the association were 
  Robert Wentworth Little, Frederick Hockley, Kenneth Mackenzie 
  and Hargrave Jennings, and in the year 1872 they seem to have 
  become conscious that their society had not borne out its original 
  intention. By this time the Yorkshire College and East of Scotland 
  College at Edinburgh, had been founded - one does not know with 
  what results. " This harmless association, " says Mr. Waite, " 
  deserves a mild sympathy at the hands of the student of occultism. 
  its character, " he continues, " could hardly have deceived the 
  most credulous of its postulants. Some of its members wrapped 
  themselves in darkness and mystery, proclaimed themselves 
  Rosicrucians with intent to deceive. These persons found a few - 
  very few - believers and admirers. Others assert that the society is 
  a cloak to something else the last resource of cornered credulity 
  and exposed imposture. Nevertheless we must conclude that 
  among the fakirs and pretenders, some of these gentlemen, 
  particularly Hockley, had glimmerings of a greater knowledge. 
   
  There are similar associations in other parts of Europe, and also in 
  America: e.g., the Societas Rosicruciara of Boston, " and a 
  contemporary New York organisation which was founded by Anton 
  Lomay in 1897, who was also heavily associated with the esoteric 
  elements of the “Little World” (q.v.) But in the concluding pages 
  of Mr. Waite's book we find the following passage: "On the faith of 
  a follower of Honnes, I can promise that nothing shall be held back 
  from these true Sons of the Doctrine, the sincere seekers after 
  light, who are empowered to preach the supreme Arcana of the 
  psychic world with a clean heart and an earnest aim. True 
  Rosicrucians and true alchemical adepts, if there be any in 
  existence at this day, will not resent a new procedure when 
  circumstances have been radically changed. -  Mr. Waite appeals 
  to these students of occultism who are men of method as well of 
  imagination to assist him in clearing away the dust and rubbish 
  which have accumulated during centuries of oblivion in the silent 
  sanctuaries of the transcendental sciences, that the traditional 
  secrets of nature may shine forth in the darkness of doubt and 
  uncertainty to illuminate the straight and narrow avenues which 
  communicate between the seen and the unseen. 
   
  Russia:   The Czars have long had an interest in the esoteric, and 
  despite a long association with the Eastern Church, maintained 
  elements of the Pan-Slavic Paganism characteristic of the Grand 
  Duchy of Lithuania (where it survived into comparatively late 
  medieval times), along with residual elements from the ice bound 
  north whence the Russ originated, bearing semblances to Lapp 
  practices.  Many of the sacred and secular artifacts of the Czars 
  were considered to have magical import, perhaps the most 
  significant being the Crystals of Rurik, which were said to have 
  come from the uttermost north with Rurik, the founder of the 
  Czarist dynasty.  Much has been written of the degree to which the 
  late Czar was much absorbed with the Mystic Rasputin, which 
  represents the final abasement of a long line of rulers who kept 
  court wizards of some description or another in order to maintain 
  their rule. 
   
  Spiritualism was first introduced into Russia by persons who had 
  become interested in the subject whilst abroad through witnessing 
  manifestations of psychic phenomena and acquaintance with the 
  works of Allan Kardec, the French exponent of Spiritualism. From 
  the first the new doctrine found its followers chiefly among 
  members of the professions and the aristocracy, finally including 
  the reigning monarch of that time, Alexander H. with many of his 
  family and entourage as devoted adherents. Because of the 
  immense influence of such converts the progress of Spiritualism in 
  Russia was made smoother than it otherwise would have been in a 
  country where the laws of Church and State are nothing if not 
  despotic and disposed to look upon anything new in matters 
  religious, intellectual or merely of general interest as partaking of a 
  revolutionary character, Even so, much of the spiritualistic 
  propaganda, manifestations and publications were prosecuted 
  under various ruses and subterfuges such as the circulation of a 
  paper entitled " The Rebus, ', professedly devoted to innocent 
  rebuses and charades and only incidentally mentioning 
  Spiritualism the real object of its being. Chief amongst the 
  distinguished devotees of the subject was Prince Wittgenstein, 
  aide - de - camp and trusted friend of Alexander, who not only 
  avowed his beliefs openly but arranged for various mediums to give 
  seances before the Emperor, one of these being the well - known 
  D. D. Home. So impressed was the Czar that, it is said, from that 
  time onwards he consulted mediums and their prophetic powers as 
  to the advisability or otherwise Of any contemplated change or step 
  in his life doubtless helped or driven to such dependence on 
  mediums by the uncertain conditions under which occupants of the 
  Russian throne seem to exist.   
   
  " Another Russian of high position socially and officially, M. 
  Aksakof, interested himself in the matter in ways many and 
  various, arranging seances to which he invited the scientific men of 
  the University, editing a paper Psychische Studien, of necessity 
  published abroad; translating Swedenborg's works into Russian 
  beside various French, American and English works on the same 
  subject and thus becoming a leader in the movement. Later, with 
  his friends, M. M. Boutlerof and Wagner, professors respectively of 
  chemistry and zoology at the University of St. Petersburg, he 
  specially commenced a series of seances for the investigation of 
  the phenomena in an experimental manner and a scientific 
  committee was formed under the leadership of Professor Mendleyef 
  who afterwards issued an adverse report on the matter, accusing 
  the mediums of trickery and their followers of easy credulity and 
  the usual warfare proceeded between the scientific investigators 
  and spiritual enthusiasts." 
   
  M. Aksakof's commission was reported upon unfavourably by M. 
  Mendeleyef, but the former protested against the report. 
   
  At the other extreme of the Social scale among the peasantry and 
  uneducated classes generally, the grossest superstition exists, an 
  ineradicable belief in supernatural agencies and cases are often 
  reported in the columns of Russian Papers of wonder - working, 
  obsession and various miraculous happenings, all ascribed, 
  according to their character, to demoniac or angelic influence, or 
  in the districts where the inhabitants are still pagan to local deities 
  and witchcraft. 
   
  Saint Germain, Comte de: Born probably about 1710, one of the 
  most celebrated mystic adventurers of modern times. Like 
  Cagliostro and others of his kind almost nothing is known 
  concerning his origin, but there is reason to believe that he was a 
  Portuguese or Spanish Jew. There are, however, hints that he was 
  of royal birth, but these have never been substantiated. One thing 
  is fairly certain, and that is that he was an accomplished spy, for 
  he resided at many European Courts, spoke several languages 
  fluently, and was even sent upon diplomatic missions by Louis XV. 
  He had always abundance of funds at his command, and is alluded 
  to by Grimm as the most capable and able man he had ever known. 
  He pretended to have lived for centuries, to have known Solomon, 
  the Queen of Sheba and many other persons of antiquity; but 
  
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  although obviously a charlatan, the accomplishments upon which 
  he based his reputation were in many ways real and considerable. 
  Especially was this the case as regards chemistry, a science in 
  which he was certainly an adept, and he pretended to have a secret 
  for removing the flaws from diamonds, and to be able to transmute 
  metals, and of course he possessed the secret of the elixir of life. 
  He is mentioned by Horace Walpole as being in London about 
  1743, and as being arrested as a Jacobite spy, who was later 
  released – his associations are considered to have been a 
  foundation of the “Little World” (q.v.). Walpole writes of him: "He 
  is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole, a somebody who came into 
  a great fortune in Mexico, journeyed to Constantinople, a priest, a 
  fiddler, a vast nobleman." Five years after his London experience, 
  he attached himself to the court of Louis XV. where he exercised 
  considerable influence, over that monarch, and was employed by 
  him upon several secret missions. He was distinctly the fashion 
  about this time, for Europe was greatly inclined to the pursuit of 
  the occult at this epoch; and as he combined mystical conversation 
  with a pleasing character, and not a little flippancy, he was the 
  rage. But he ruined his chances at the French court by interfering 
  in a dispute between Austria and France, and was forced to remove 
  himself to England. He resided in London for one or two years, but 
  we trace him to St. Petersburg, 1762, where he is said to have 
  assisted in the conspiracy which placed Catherine II on the 
  Russian throne, providing some thing which he had got from 
  Mexico or the Americas which supplemented the traditional 
  “energies” of the Crystals of Rurik.  
   
  After this he travelled in Germany where he is said in the Memoirs 
  of Cagliostro to have become the founder of freemasonry, and to 
  have initiated Cagliostro into that rite. (See Cagliostro.) If 
  Cagliostro's account can be credited, he set about the business 
  with remarkable splendour, and not a little bombast, posing as a " 
  deity, " and behaving in a manner calculated to gladden 
  pseudomystics of the age. He was nothing if not theatrical, and it is 
  probably for this reason that he attracted the Landgrave Charles of 
  Hesse, who set aside a residence for the study of the occult 
  sciences. He died at Schleswig somewhere between the yeasrs 
  1780 and 1785, but the exact date of his death and its 
  circumstances, or even certainty, are unknown. 
   
  A notable circumstance regarding him was that he possessed a 
  magnificent collection of precious stones, which some consider to 
  be artificial, but which others better able to judge believe to have 
  been genuine. Thus he presented Louis XV with a diamond worth 
  10, 000 livres. All sorts of stories were in circulation concerning 
  him. one old lady professed to have encountered him at Venice 
  fifty years before, where he posed as a man of 60, and even his 
  valet was supposed to have discovered the secret of immortality. 
  On one occasion a visitor rallied this man upon his master being 
  present at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, asking him if it were 
  the case. "You - forget, sir, " was the reply, “I have only been in 
  the Comte's service a century." 
   
   St. Martin, Louis Claude de: French Mystic and Author, 
  commonly known as " le' philosophe inconnu." (1743-1803). The 
  name of Louis de St. Martin is a familiar one, more familiar, 
  perhaps, than that of almost any other French mystic; and this is 
  partly due to his having been a voluminous author, and partly to 
  his being virtually the founder of a sect, " the Martinistes "; while 
  again, St. Beuve wrote about him in his Causeries du Lundi, and 
  this has naturally brought him under wide notice. 
   
  Born in 1734 at Amboise, St. Martin came of a family of some 
  wealth and of gentle birth. His mother died while he was a child, 
  but this proved anything but unfortunate for him; for his step - 
  mother besides lavishing a wealth of affection on him, early 
  discerned his rare intellectual gifts, and made every effort to 
  nurture them. " C'est h, elle, he wrote afterwards in manhood, " quo 
  je dois peut - etre tout mon bonheur, puisque c'est elle quo m'a 
  donne les premiers ments de cette education douce, attentive et 
  pieuse, qui m'a fait aimer de Dieu et des hommes." The boy was 
  educated at the College de Pontlevoy, where he read with interest 
  numerous books of a mystical order, one which impressed him 
  particularly being Abbadie's Art de se Connailre Soimmame; and 
  at first he intended to make law his profession, but he soon 
  decided on a military career instead, and accordingly entered the 
  army. A little before taking this step he had affiliated himself with 
  the freemasons and, on his regiment being sent to garrison 
  Bordeaux, he became intimate with certain new rites which the 
  Portuguese Jew, Martinez Pasqually (q.v.), had lately introduced 
  into the masonic lodge there. For a while St. Martin was deeply 
  interested, not just in the aforesaid but in the philosophy of 
  Pasqually; yet anon he declared that the latter's disciples were 
  inclined to be too materialistic, and soon he was deep in the 
  writings of Swedenborg, in whom he found a counsellor more to his 
  taste. The inevitable result of studies of this nature was that he 
  began to feel a great distaste for regimental life, and so, in 1771, 
  he resigned his commission, determining to devote the rest of his 
  life to philosophical speculations. He now began writing a book, 
  which was published in 1775, at Edinburgh, at this time on the eve 
  of becoming a centre of literary activity of all sorts. 
   
  The young author's next important step was to pay a visit to 
  England, and thence in 1787 he went to Italy along with Prince 
  Galitzin, with whom he had lately become friendly. They stayed 
  together for some time at Rome, and then St. Martin left for 
  Strassburg, his intention being to study German there, for he had 
  recently grown interested in the teaching of Jacob Boehme, and he 
  was anxious to study the subject thoroughly. Very soon he had 
  achieved this end, and at a later date, indeed, he translated a 
  number of the German mystic's writings into French - . but 
  meanwhile returning to France, he found his outlook suddenly 
  changed, the revolution breaking out in 1789, and a reign of terror 
  setting in. No one was safe, and St. Martin was arrested at Paris, 
  simply on account of his being a gentleman by birth; but his 
  affiliation with the freemasons, and the surprising intervention of 
  the American Ambassador, stood him in good stead in this hour of 
  need, and he was liberated by a decree of the ninth Thermidor. 
  Accordingly he resumed activity with his pen, and in 1792 he 
  issued a new book, Nouvel Homme; while two years later he was 
  commissioned to go to his native Amboise, 'inspect the archives 
  and libraries of the monasteries in that region, and draw up 
  .occasional reports on the subject. Shortly afterwards he was 
  appointed  professeur at the Ecole Noymale in Paris, in 
  consequence bf which he now made his home in that town; and 
  among others with whom he became .acquainted there was 
  Chateaubriand, of whose writing, he was an enthusiastic devotee, 
  but who, on his parts appears to have received the mystic with his 
  usual haughty coldness. St. Martin did not lack a large circle of 
  admirers, however, and he continued to work hard, publishing in 
  1795 one of his most important books, which was succeeded in 
  1800 by two speculative treatises, Ecce Homo and L'Esprit des 
  Choses. Then, in 1802, he issued yet another volume, Ministre de 
  I'Homme Esprit; but in the following year his labours were brought 
  to an abrupt close, for while staying at Annay, not far from Paris, 
  
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  with a friend called La Salle, he succumbed to an apopleptic 
  seizure. After his death it was found that he had left a considerable 
  mass of manuscripts behind him, and some of these were issued by 
  his executors in 1807, while in 1862 a collection of his letters 
  appeared. 
   
  St. Martin was never married, but he appears to have exercised a 
  most extraordinary fascination over women; and in fact divers 
  scandalous stories are told in this relation, some of them 
  implicating various courtly dames of the French nobility of the 
  Empire. As a philosopher St. Martin found a host of disciples 
  among his contemporaries, these gradually forming themselves 
  almost into a distinct sect, and, as observed before, acquiring the 
  name of " Martinistes." What, then, was the teaching of their leader 
  ? and what the nature of the tenets promulgated in his voluminous 
  writings ? It is difficult to give an epitome in so limited a space as 
  that at disposal here, but turning to the author's I' Homwe du Dusiy 
  (1790), and again to his Tableau natural des Rappoyts qui Existent 
  Entre Die, et L'Homme, et L'Univers (1782), we find this pair 
  tolerably representative of all his writing, and their key - note may 
  certainly be defined as consisting in aspiration. Man is divine 
  despite the fall recounted in the Scriptures, dormant within him 
  lies a lofty quality of which he is too often scarcely conscious, and 
  it is incumbent on him to develop this quality, striving thereafter 
  without ceasing, and waiving the while everything pertaining to the 
  category of materialism - such is the salient principle in St. 
  Martin's teaching, a principle which seems literally trite nowadays, 
  for it has been propounded by a host of modern mystics, notably 
  A.E. in The Hero in Man. In writing in this wise, the French mystic 
  undoubtedly owed a good deal to Swendenborg, while obligations 
  to Boheme are of course manifest throughout his later works; and, 
  while his debt to Martinez Pasqually has probably been 
  exaggerated somewhat, there is no doubt that the Portuguese Jew 
  influenced him greatly for a while, the latter's teaching coming to 
  him at a time when he was still very young and susceptible, and 
  fresh from readings of Abbadie. 
   
  Seance: A sitting held for the purpose of communicating with the 
  dead, an essential requirement being that at least one member of 
  the company be possessed of mediumistic powers. Antiquity 
  furnishes many examples of  - what may be called " seances " - 
  e.g., Saul's consultation with the Witch of Endor - but the term is 
  generally used only in connection with modern spiritualism. When, 
  in 1848, the Fox family at Hydesville called in their neighbours to 
  listen to the mysterious sounds which have since become famous 
  as the " Rochester Rappings, " the gathering was too informal to be 
  called a seance, though all the necessary elements were present; 
  but within the next two or three years the contagion spread 
  throughout a large part of the eastern states, many " circles " (q.v.) 
  were formed, and the phenomena which was in the first instance 
  apparently spontaneous was now deliberately induced. In the early 
  stages of the movement these seances were conducted by private 
  mediums, who took no fee for their performances, but later 
  professional mediums arose whose siances were open to the public 
  on the payment of a fee. Both public and private seances 
  continued, and still continue, to be an indispensable feature of 
  spiritualism. 
   
  Besides the presence of a medium there are other conditions which 
  must be observed if the seance is to be productive of phenomena. 
  The chief of these is, perhaps, the darkness or semi - darkness of 
  the seance - room, though this is by no means an invariable 
  condition. The reason given by spiritualists is that light interferes 
  with the manifestations of the spirits, though a less charitable 
  construction is sometimes put upon the insistent demand for 
  darkness. Sometimes the actual seance is preceded by playing or 
  singing, a proceeding which one of Rome's sitters states always 
  gave us a good seance." That this playing and singing was not 
  without its purpose we may readily infer, for a state of expectancy 
  and increased receptivity might easily be induced thereby, and it 
  may be recalled, en passant, that D'Eslon and other disciples of 
  Mesmer enjoined their patients to sing, or had some instrument 
  played while the patients were seated around the baquet, or 
  magnetic tub. To return to the seance; the sitters take their places 
  around a table and join hands, thus forming a "chain." The Baron 
  do Guldenstubbe, in giving directions for the forming of a circle 
  and the conducting of a seance, says that in order to form a chain, 
  the twelve persons each place their right hand on the table and 
  their left hand on that of their neighbour, thus making a circle 
  round the table. Observe that the medium or mediums, if there be 
  more than one, are entirely isolated from those who form the 
  chain." Dr. Lapponi, in his Hypnotism and Spiritism, says: He (the 
  medium) then invites some of his assistants to place their hands on 
  the table in the following manner. The two thumbs of each person 
  are to be touching each other, and each little finger is to be in 
  communication with the little fingers of the persons on either side. 
  He himself completes the chain with his two hands. The hands of 
  all to - ether rest on the edge of the table." Sometimes, again, as in 
  the seances for table - turning and talking, the chain is formed 
  simply by all the operators placing their finger - tips on the table. 
  When the spirits have announced their presence by raps, tilting of 
  the table, and so on, the chain may or may not be broken, but so 
  long as it remains unbroken the sitters are entirely at the mercy of 
  the spirits. 
   
  The phenomena which are thereafter witnessed are so diverse and 
  varied that scarcely any account of a sence precisely matches 
  another in detail, yet undoubtedly they all belong to certain well - 
  defined classes. In the sphere of physical " phenomena we have 
  the movements of furniture, beginning with the table round which 
  the members of the circle are seated, and affecting, perhaps, all 
  the furniture in the room. These antics of inanimate objects in the 
  seance - room are often practically identical with the spontaneous 
  outbreaks of the poltergeist. Then there are the levitations (q.v.) 
  both of the human body and of furniture and inanimate things. We 
  are told of heavy wardrobes being raised to the ceiling without 
  visible agency, and of several mediums floating upwards in like 
  manner. Elongation (q.v.) is another phenomenon of the 
  seanceroom, an increase or apparent increase, of from a few inches 
  to a foot taking place in the medium's height. Locked doors and 
  cupboards are opened without keys, and without any trace of 
  violence. Apports (q.v.) of small objects flowers, fruit, jewels, 
  anything, in fact - are brought from a distance through closed doors 
  and barred windows, or abstracted in mysterious fashion from 
  sealed boxes. 
   
  Inanimate things show in their actions an almost human 
  intelligence. Heavy objects become light enough to be raised by 
  the touch of a finger, light articles become so weighty that the 
  combined force of all present will not suffice to lift them. The 
  medium can hold live coals in his hand, or in his handkerchief, 
  without either being burned. Instruments are played upon when no 
  visible hand is near them, or music is produced from the empty air 
  without any instruments at all. Luminous hands and faces float in 
  tile air, sometimes recognised by the sitters as belonging to 
  deceased friends and relatives, and touchings and caresses are 
  felt. A breeze suddenly springs up in the seance - room though the 
  doors and windows are still closed - and curtains and the clothes of 
  
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  the sitters are inflated. If the seance is an especially successful 
  one, complete spirit forms may be materialised. If the latter 
  manifestation is to be asked for, a small cabinet is usually 
  provided, into which the medium retires. Soon afterwards the filmy 
  spirit form or forms are seen to issue from the cabinet, and in them 
  the sitters frequently behold lost friends or relatives. The spirit 
  forms will move about the room, allow themselves to be touched, 
  and will, on occasion, even converse with their friends in the flesh, 
  and give away locks of their hair and fragments of their clothing. 
  Again, the materialisation may take place in the open, a small 
  luminous cloud being first perceived, which gradually develops 
  into a complete human figure; or, as has been known to happen, 
  the spirit may seem to issue from the medium's side, and remain 
  united to him by a gossamer filament. In most cases the head and 
  chin are shrouded in white draperies, only a portion of the face 
  being, visible. (See Materialisation.) 
   
  The automatic or " psychical " phenomena are of a different nature. 
  Certain manifestations, such as table tiltings (q.v.), rapping (q.v.), 
  and -  slate - writing (q.v.), where the communication does riot 
  apparently come through the medium's organism, partake of the 
  character of both physical " and " psychical " phenomena. Purely " 
  psychical " manifestations are the automatic writing and speaking 
  of the medium. Sometimes the latter falls spontaneously into a 
  trance, and delivers spirit messages while in that state, or the 
  medium may remain to all appearances in a normal condition. Not 
  Only writings and utterances, but drawings and musical 
  compositions may be produced automatically, and though 
  automatism of this sort is by no means confined to the seance - 
  room it still plays a large part therein, and is especially in favour 
  with the more serious - minded spiritualists, to whom 
  communications from the spirit - world are of greater importance 
  than the tricks of household furniture. 
   
  A representative account of one of the seances of D. D. Home 
  (q.v.), is given by H. D. Jencken in Human Nature, February, 
  1867, as follows: 
   
  " Mr. Home had passed into the trance still so often witnessed, 
  rising from his seat, he laid hold of an armchair, which he held at 
  arms' length, and was then lifted about three feet clear of the 
  ground; travelling thus suspended in space, he placed the chair 
  next Lord Adare, and made a circuit round those in the room, 
  being lowered and raised as he passed each of us. One of those 
  present measured the elevation, and passed his leg and arm under 
  Mr. Home's feet. The elevation lasted front four to five minutes. On 
  resuming his seat, Mr. Home addressed Captain Wynne, 
  communicating news to him of which the departed alone could 
  have been cognisant. 
   
  " The spirit form that had been seen reclining on the sofa, now 
  stepped up to Mr. Home and mesmerised him; a hand was then 
  seen luminously visible over his head, about 8 inches in a vertical 
  line from his head. The trance state of Mr. Home now assumed a 
  different character; gently rising he spoke a few words to those 
  present, and then opening the door proceeded into the corridor; a 
  voice then said: - ' He will go out of this window and come in at 
  that window.' The only one who heard the voice was the Master of 
  Lindsay, and a cold shudder seized upon him as he contemplated 
  the possibility of this occurring, a feat which the great height of the 
  third floor windows in Ashley Place rendered more than ordinarily 
  perilous. The others present, however, having closely questioned 
  him as to what he had heard, he at first replied, ' I dare not tell 
  you, ' when, to the amazement of all, a voice said, You must tell; 
  tell directly.' The Master then said, Yes; yes, terrible to say, he will 
  go out at that window and come in at this; do not be frightened, be 
  quiet.' Mr. Home now re - entered the room, and opening the 
  drawing - room window, was pushed out demi - horizontally into 
  space, and carried from one window of the drawing - room to the 
  farther mosik window of the adjoining room. This feat being 
  performed at a height of about sixty feet from the ground, naturally 
  caused a shudder in all present. The body of Mr. Home, when it 
  appeared at the window of the adjoining room, was shunted into 
  the room feet foremost the window being only 18 inches open. As 
  soon as he had recovered his footing he laughed and said, ' I 
  wonder what a policeman would have said had he seen me go 
  round and round like a teetotum!' The scene was, however, too 
  terrible - too strange, to elicit a smile cold beads of perspiration 
  stood on every brow, while a feeling pervaded all as if some great 
  danger had passed; the nerves of those present had been kept in a 
  state of tension that refused to respond to a joke. A change now 
  passed over Mr. Home, one often observable during the trance 
  states, indicative, no doubt, of some other power operating on his 
  system. Lord Adare had in the meantime stepped up to the open 
  window S in the adjoining room to close it - the cold air, as it came 
  pouring in, chilling the room; when, to his surprise, he only found 
  the window 18 to 24 inches open! This puzzled him, for how could 
  Mr. Home have passed outside through a window only 18 to 24 
  inches open. Mr. Home, however .soon set his doubts at rest; 
  stepping up to Lord Adare he said, ' No, no; I did not close the 
  window; I passed thus into the air outside.' An invisible power then 
  supported Mr. Home all but horizontally in space, and thrust his 
  body into space through the open window, head - foremost, 
  bringing him back again feet foremost into the room, shunted not 
  unlike a shutter into a basement below. The circle round the table 
  having re - formed, a cold current of air passed over those present, 
  like the rushing of winds. This repeated itself several times. The 
  cold blast of air, or electric fluid, or call it what you may, was 
  accompanied by a loud whistle like a gust of wind on the mountain 
  top, or through the leaves of the forest in late autumn; the sound 
  was deep, sonorous, and powerful in the extreme, and a shudder 
  kept passing over those present, who all heard and felt it. This 
  rushing sound lasted quite ten minutes, in broken intervals of one 
  or two minutes. All present were much surprised; and the interest 
  became intensified by the unknown tongues in which Mr. Home 
  now conversed. Passing from one language to another in rapid 
  succession, he spoke for ten minutes in unknown languages " A 
  spirit form now became distinctly visible; it stoo next to the Master 
  of Lindsay, clad, as seen on former occasions, in a long robe with a 
  girdle, the feet scarcely touching the ground, the outline of the face 
  only clear, and the tones of the voice, though sufficiently distinct to 
  be understood, whispered rather than spoken. Other voices were 
  now heard, and large globes of phosphorescent lights passed slowly 
  through the room." 
   
  The following extract is taken from an account of a seance held by 
  Professor Lombroso with the famous Italian medium, Eusapia 
  Paladino. 
   
  " After a rather long wait the table began to move, slowly at first, - 
  a matter explained by the scepticism, not to say the positively 
  hostile spirit, of those who were this night in a seance circle for the 
  first time. Then little by little, the movements increased in 
  intensity. M. Lombroso proved the levitation of the table, and 
  estimated at twelve or fifteen pounds the resistance to the pressure 
  
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  which he had to make with his hands in order to overcome that 
  levitation. 
   
  " This phenomenon of a heavy body sustained in the air, off its 
  centre of gravity and resisting a pressure of twelve or fifteen 
  pounds, very much surprised and astonished the learned 
  gentleman, who attributed it to the action of an unknown magnetic 
  force. 
   
  " At my request, taps and scratchings were heard in the table. This 
  was a new cause for astonishment, and led the gentlemen to 
  themselves call for the putting out of the candles in order to 
  ascertain whether the intensity of the noises would be increased, as 
  had been stated. All remained seated and in contact. 
   
  " In a dim light which did not hinder the most careful surveillance, 
  violent blows were first heard at the middle point of the table. Then 
  a bell placed upon a round table, at a distance of a yard to the left 
  of the medium (in such a way that she was placed behind and to 
  the right of M. Lombroso), rose into the air, and went tinkling over 
  the heads of the company, describing a circle around our table 
  where it finally came to rest." 
   
  At this seance members of the company also felt themselves 
  pinched and their clothes plucked, and experienced the touchings 
  of invisible hands on their faces and fingers. The accuracy of the 
  account - written by M. Ciolfi - was testified to by Professor 
  Lombroso himself. M. J. 
   
  Second Sight: The faculty of foreseeing future events which is 
  supposed to belong to certain individuals in the Scottish 
  Highlands. The belief in second sight dates back to a very early 
  period in the history of these regions, and is still very far from 
  being extinct, even in the more accessible parts. Saving the name, 
  there is but little in second sight that is peculiar to the Celts of 
  Scotland, for it is allied to the clairvoyance, prophetic vision, 
  soothsaying, and so on, which have existed from time immemorial 
  in practically every part of the world. Yet the second sight has 
  certain distinctive features of its own. It may, for instance, be 
  either congenital or acquired. In the former case it generally falls 
  to the seventh son of a seventh son, by reason, probably, of the 
  potency of the mystic number seven. Sometimes a Highlander may 
  find himself suddenly endowed with the mysterious faculty. A 
  person gifted with second sight is said to be" fey." Generally there 
  is no apparent departure from the normal consciousness during the 
  vision, though sometimes a seer may complain of a feeling of 
  disquiet or uneasiness. A vision may be 
   
  Secret Fire: Described by Philostratus as issuing from a basin in a 
  well on the hill Athanor. A blue vapour rises from the well, 
  changing into all the colours of the rainbow. The bottom is strewn 
  with red arsenic; on it is the basin full of fire, and from it rises 
  flame without smell or smoke. Two stone, reservoirs are beside it, 
  one containing rain, the other wind.   An ancient Carthaginian 
  manuscript places it deep in Africa. 
   
  Servitor: Any magical entity created or called for (a) specific 
  purpose(s), no matter how narrow or broad the purpose(s). A 
  servitor will generally have a "built-in" period of existence which 
  may last anywhere from a few minutes to 'whenever the task is 
  compleat.' Servitors are generally created or called so that the 
  goal(s) can be acheived without constant worry/involvement on the 
  part of the summoner. 
   
   Secret Tradition: It has long been an article of faith with students 
  of occultism that the secret tenets of the various sciences 
  embraced within it have been preserved to modern times by a 
  series of adepts, who have handed them down from generation to 
  generation in their entirety. There is no reason to doubt this belief, 
  but that the adepts in question existed in one unbroken line, and 
  that they all professed similar principles is somewhat improbable. 
  But one thing is fairly certain, and that is, that proficiency in any 
  one of the occult sciences requires tuition from a master of that 
  branch. All serious writers on the subject are at one as regards 
  this. It is likely that in neolithic times societies existed among our 
  barbarian ancestors, similar in character to the Midiwiwin of the 
  North - American Indians, the snake - dancers of the Hopi of New 
  Mexico, or the numerous secret societies of aboriginal Australians. 
  This is inferred from the certainty that totemism existed amongst 
  neolithic peoples. Hicrophantic castes would naturally hand down 
  the tradition of the secret things of the Society from one generation 
  to another. The early mysteries of Egypt, Eleusis, Samothrace, 
  Cabiri, and so forth were merely the elaboration of such savage 
  mysteries. There would appear to have been throughout the ages, 
  what might be called, a fusion of occult beliefs: that when the 
  hierophants of one system found themselves in juxtaposition, or 
  even in conflict, with the professors of another, the systems in 
  question appear to have received much from one another. It has 
  been said that when the ancient mysteries are spoken about, it 
  should be understood that one and the same series of sacred 
  ceremonies is intended, one and the same initiatory processes and 
  revelations, and that what is true of one applies with equal 
  certainty to all the others. Thus Strabo records that the strange 
  orgies in honour of the mystic birth of Jupiter resembled those of 
  Bacchus, Ceres and Cybele; and the Orphic poems identified the 
  orgies of Bacchus with those of Ceres, Rhea, Venus and Isis. 
  Euripides also mentions that the rites of Cybeleare celebrated in 
  Asia Minor in an identical manner with the Grecians mysteries of 
  Dionysius and the Cretan rites of the Cabiri. The Rev. Geo. Oliver 
  in his History of Initiation affirms that the rites of the science 
  which is now received under the appellation of Freemasonry were 
  exercised in the antediluvian world, received by Noah, after the 
  Flood, practised by man at the building of Babel, conveniences for 
  which were undoubtedly contained in that edifice, and at the 
  dispersion spread with every settlement already deteriorated by the 
  gradual innovations of the Cabiric priests, and moulded into a 
  form, the great outlines of which are distinctly to be traced in the 
  mysteries of every heathen nation, and exhibit shattered remains of 
  the one true system, whence they were derived. This theory is of 
  course totally mischievous, and although there may have been 
  likenesses between the rites of certainty societies, the idea that all 
  sprang from one common source is absurd. One thing, however, is 
  fairly certain: anthropology permits us to believe that the concepts 
  of man, religious and mystical, are practically identical in 
  whatever part of the world he may exist, and there is every 
  possibility that the similarity between early mysteries results in 
  this manner, and that it brought about a strong resemblance 
  between the mystical systems of the older world. We have 
  satisfactory evidence that the ancient mysteries were receptacles of 
  a great deal of occult wisdom, symbolism, magical or semi - 
  magical rite, and mystical practice in general; and we are pretty 
  well assured that when these fell into desuetude among the more 
  intellectual classes of the various countries in which they obtained, 
  they were taken up and practised in secret by the lesser ranks of 
  society, even the lowest ranks, who are in all areas the most 
  conservative, and who clung faithfully to the ancient systems, 
  refusing to partake in the rites of the religions which had ousted 
  them. The same can be posited of magical practice. The principles 
  
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  of magic are universal, and there can be no reason to doubt that 
  these were handed on throughout the long centuries by hereditary 
  castes of priests, shamans, medicine men, magicians, sorcerers, 
  and witches. But the same evidence does not exist with regard to 
  the higher magic, concerning which much more difficult questions 
  arise. Was this handed on by means of secret societies, occult 
  schools or universities, or from adept to adept ?' We speak not of 
  the sorceries of empirics and savages, but of that spiritual magic 
  which, taken in its best sense, shades into mysticism. The schools 
  of Salamanca, the mystic colleges. of Alexandria, could not impart 
  the great truths of this science to their disciples: its nature is such 
  that communication by lecture would be worse than useless. It is 
  necessary to suppose then that it was imparted by oner adept to 
  another. But it is not likely that it arose at a, very early period in 
  the history of man. In his early psychological state he would not 
  require it; and we see no reason for belief that its professors came 
  into existence at an earlier period than some three or four thousand 
  years B.C. The undisturbed nature of Egyptian and Babylonian 
  civilisation leads to the belief that these countries brought forth a 
  long series of adepts in the higher magic. We know that Alexandria 
  fell heir to the works of these men, but it is unlikely that their 
  teachings were publicly disseminated in her public schools. 
  Individuals of high magical standing would however be in 
  possession of the occult knowledge of ancient Egypt, and that they 
  imparted this to the Greeks of Alexandria is certain. Later Hellenic 
  and Byzantine magical theory is distinctly Egyptian in character, 
  and we know that its esoteric forms were disseminated in Europe at 
  a comparatively early date, and that they placed all other native 
  systems in the background, where they were pursued in the shadow 
  by the aboriginal witch and sorcerer. We have thus outlined the 
  genealogy of the higher magic from early Egyptian times to the 
  European mediaeval period. Regarding alchemy, the evidence 
  from analogy is much more sure, and the same may be said as 
  regards astrology. These are sciences in which it is peculiarly 
  necessary to obtain the assistance of an adept if any excellence is 
  to be gained in their practice; and we know that the first originated 
  in Egypt, and the second in ancient Babylon. We are not aware of 
  the names of those early adepts who carried the sciences forward 
  until the days of Alexandria, but subsequent to that period the 
  identity of practically every alchemical and astrological 
  practitioner of any note is fully known. In the history of no science 
  is the sequence of its professors so clear as is the case in alchemy, 
  and the same might almost be said as regards astrology, whose 
  protagonists, if they have not been so famous, have at least been 
  equally conscientious. We must pass over in our consideration of 
  the manner in which occult science survived, the absurd legends 
  which presume to state how such societies as the Freemasons 
  existed from antediluvian times; and will content ourselves with 
  stating 'that the probabilities are that in the case of mystical 
  brotherhoods a long line of these existed from early times, the 
  traditions of which were practically similar. Many persons would 
  be members of several of these, and would import the conceptions 
  of one society into the heart of another, as we know Rosicrucian 
  ideas were imported into Masonry. (See Freemasonry.) We seem to 
  see in the mystic societies of the middle ages reflections of the 
  older Egyptian and classical mysteries, and there is nothing absurd 
  in the theory that the spirit and in some instances even the letter of 
  these descended to mediaeval and perhaps to present times. Such 
  organisations die much harder than any credit is given them for 
  doing. We know, for example, that Freemasonry was revolutionised 
  at one part of its career, about the middle of the seventeenth 
  century, by an influx of alchemists and astrologers, who crowded 
  out the operative members, and who strengthened the mystical 
  position of the brotherhood, and it is surely reasonable to suppose 
  that on the fall or desuetude of the ancient mysteries, their 
  disciples, looking eagerly for some method of saving their cults 
  from entire extinction, would join the ranks of some similar 
  society, or would keep alive the flame in secret; but the fact 
  remains that the occult idea was undoubtedly preserved through 
  the ages, that it was the same in essence amongst the believers in 
  all religions and all mysteries, and that to a great extent its trend 
  was in the one direction, so that the fusion of the older mystical 
  societies and their re - birth as a new brotherhood is by no means 
  an unlikely hypothesis. In the article on the Templars " for 
  example, we have tried to show the possibility of that brotherhood 
  having received its tenets from the East, where it sojourned for 
  such a protracted period. It seems very likely from what we le3rn 
  of its rites that they were oriental in origin, and we know that the 
  occult systems of Europe owed much to the Templars, who, 
  probably, after the fall of their own Order secretly formed others or 
  joined existing societies. Masons have a hypothesis that through 
  older origins they inherited from the Dionysian artificers, the 
  artizans of Byzantium, and the building brotherhoods of Western 
  Europe. To state this dogmatically as a fact would not be to gain so 
  much, credence for their theory as is due to that concerning the 
  dissemination of occult lore by the Templars; but it is much more 
  feasible in every way than the absurd legend concerning the rise of 
  Freemasonry at the time of the building of the Temple. Secret 
  societies of any description possess a strong attraction for a certain 
  class of mind, or else a merely operative handicraft society, such 
  as was mediaeval Masonry, would riot have been utilised so largely 
  by the mystics of that time. One of the chief reasons that we know 
  so little concerning these brotherhoods in mediaeval times is that 
  the charge of dabbling in the occult arts was a serious one in the 
  eyes of the law and the church, therefore they found it necessary to 
  carry on their practices in secret. But after the Reformation, a 
  modern spirit took possession of Europe, and the protagonists of 
  the occult sciences came forth from their caverns and practised in 
  the open light of day. In England, for example, numerous persons 
  avowed themselves alchemists; in Germany the Rosicrucians " sent 
  out a manifesto; in Scotland, Seton, a great master of the hermetic 
  art, arose: never had occultism possessed such a heyday. But it 
  was nearly a century later until further secret societies were 
  formed, such as the Academy of the Ancients and of the Mysteries 
  in 1767; the Knights of the True Light founded in Austria about 
  178o; the Knights and Brethren of Asia, which appeared in 
  Germany in the same year; the Order of Jerusalem which 
  originated in America in 1791; the Society of the Univers - 
  l’Aurora established at Paris in 1783. Besides being masonic, 
  these societies practised animal magnetism, astrology, Kabalism 
  and even ceremonial magic. Others were political, such as the 
  Illuminati, which came to such an inglorious end. But the 
  individual tradition was kept up by an illustrious line of adepts, 
  w1lo were much more instrumental in keeping alive the flame of 
  mysticism than even such societies as those we have mentioned. 
  Mesmer, Swedenborg, St. Martin, Pasqually, Willermoz, all 
  laboured to that end. We may regard all these as belonging to the 
  school of Christian magicians, as apart from those who practised 
  the rites of the grimoires or Jewish Kabalism. The line may be 
  carried back through Lavater, Eckartshausen, and so on to the 
  seventeenth century. These men. werc mystics besides being 
  practitioners of theurgic magic, and they combined in themselves 
  the knowledge of practically all the occult sciences. 
   
  With Mesmer began the revival of a science which cannot be 
  altogether regarded as occult, when consideration is given to its 
  
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  modern developments, but which powerfully influenced the mystic 
  life of his and many later days. The mesmerists of the first era are 
  in direct line with the Martimsts and the mystical magicians of the 
  France of the late eighteenth century. Indeed in the persons of 
  some English mystics, such as Greatrakes, mysticism and 
  magnetism are one and the same thing. But upon " Hypnotism, " to 
  give it its modern name, becoming numbered with the more 
  practical sciences, persons of ~ mystical cast of mind appear to 
  have, to a great extent, deserted it. Hypnotism does not bear the 
  same relation to mesmerism and magnetism as modern chemistry 
  does to alchemy; but the persons who practise it nowadays are as 
  dissimilar to the older professors of the science as is the modern 
  practitioner oi chemistry to the mediaeval alchemist. This is 
  symptomatic of the occult sciences, that they despise that 
  knowledge which is " exact " in the common sense of the term. 
  Their practitioners do not delight in labouring upon a science, the 
  laws of which are already known, cut and dried. The student of 
  occultism, as a rule, possesses all the attributes of an explorer. The 
  occult sciences have from time to time deeply enriched the exact 
  sciences, but these enrichments have been acts of intellectual 
  generosity. It is in effect as if the occultist made a present of them 
  to the scientist, but did not desire to be troubled with their future 
  development in any way. Occultism of the higher 
   
  Setna, Papyrus of: A papyrus of very ancient date, dealing with the 
  personality of Prince Setna Kha - em - ust, son of Rameses H. of 
  Egypt, and said to have been discovered by him under the head of 
  a mummy in the Necropolis at Memphis. Says Wiedemann 
  concerning it: The first text, which has been known to us since 
  1867, tells that this prince, being skilled and zealous in the 
  practice of necromancy, was one day exhibiting his acquirements 
  to the learned men of the court, when an old man told him of a 
  magic book containing two spells written by the hand of Thoth 
  himself, the god of wisdom. He who repeated the first spell 
  bewitched thereby heaven and earth and the realm of night, the 
  mountains and the depth of the sea; he knew the fowls of the air 
  and every creeping thing; he saw the fishes, for a divine power 
  brought them up out of the depth. He who read the second spell 
  should have power to resume his earthly shape, even though he 
  dwelt in the grave; to see the sun rising in the sky with all the gods 
  and the moon in the form wherein she displays herself. Setna 
  inquired where this book was to be found, and learned that it was 
  lying in the tomb of Nefet - ka - Ptah, a son of King Mer - neb - 
  ptah (who is nowhere else named), and that any attempt to take 
  away Cie book would certainly meet with obstinate resistance. 
  These difficulties did not withhold Setna from the adventure. He 
  entered the tomb of Nefer - ka - Ptall, where he found not only the 
  dead mail, but the ka of his wife Ahuri and their son, though these 
  f latter had been buried in Koptos. But as in many other tales 
  among many other peoples, success brought no, blessing to the 
  man who had disturbed the repose of the dead. Setna fell in love 
  with the daughter of a priest at Memphis, who turned out to be a 
  witch, and took advantage of his intimate connection with her to 
  bring him to ignominy and wretchedness. At length the prince 
  recognised and repented of the sacrilege he had committed in 
  carrying off the book, and brought it back to Nefer - ka - Ptah. In 
  the hope of atoning to some exten~ for his sin he journeyed to 
  Koptos, and finding the graves of the wife and child of Nefer - ka - 
  Ptah, he solemnly restored their mummies to the tomb of the father 
  and husband, carefully closing the tomb he had so sacrilegiously d 
  isturbed. The second text, edited two years ago by Griffith from a 
  London papyrus, is also genuinely Egyptian in its details. Three 
  magic tales, interwoven one with another, are brought into 
  connection with Saosiri, the supernaturally born son of Setna. In 
  the first, Saosiri, who was greatly Setna's superior in the arts of 
  magic, led his father down into the underworld. They penetrated 
  into the judgment - hall of Osiris, where the sights they saw 
  convinced Setna that a glorious future awaited the poor man who 
  should cleave to righteousness, while he who led an evil life on 
  earth, though rich and powerful, must expect a terrible doom. 
  Saosiri next succeeded in saving his father, and with him all 
  Egypt, from great difficulty by reading without breaking the seal of 
  a closed letter brought by an Ethiopian magician, whom he thus 
  forced to recognise the superior power of Egypt. The last part of the 
  text tells of a powerful magician once dwelling in Ethiopia who 
  modelled in wax a litter with four bearers to whom he gave his lif6. 
  He sent them to Egypt, and at his command they sought out 
  Pharaoh in his palace, carried him off to Ethiopia, and, after giving 
  him five hundred blows with a cudgel, conveyed him during the 
  same night back to Memphis. Next morning the king displayed the 
  weals on his back to his courtiers, one of whom, Horns by name, 
  was sufficiently skilled in the use of amulets to ward off by their 
  means an immediate repetition of the outrage. Horns then set forth 
  to bring from Hermopolis, the all - powerful magic book of the god 
  Thoth, and by its aid he succeeded in treating the Ethiopian king 
  as the Ethiopian sorcerer had treated Pharaoh. The foreign 
  magician then hastened to Egypt to engage in a contest with Horns 
  in magic tricks. His skill was shown to be inferior, and in the end 
  he and his mother received permission to return to Ethiopia under 
  a so emn promise not to set foot on Egyptian territory for a space of 
  fifteen hundred years. 
   
  Seton (or Sethon) Alexander: was one of the very few alchemists 
  who succeeded in the great experiment of the transmutation of 
  metals. He took his name from the village of Seton, which is stated 
  to have been in the vicinity of Edinburgh and close to the sea - 
  shore, so that one may reasonably conclude that the little fishing 
  community of  Port Seton is meant, although Camden in his 
  Brittania states that that was the name of his house. In the year 
  1601, the crew of a Dutch vessel had the misfortune to be wrecked 
  on the .coast near his dwelling, and Seton personally rescued 
  several, of them, lodged them in his house, and treated them with 
  great kindness, ultimately sending them back to Holland at his 
  own expense. In the following year he visited Holland, and 
  renewed his acquaintance with at least one of the ship - wrecked 
  crew, James Haussen, the pilot, who lived at Arksun. Haussen, 
  determined on repaying him for the hospitality he had received in 
  Scotland, entertained him for some time in his house, and to him 
  Seton disclosed the information that he was a master of the art of 
  alchemy, and proved his words by performing several 
  transmutations. Haussen, full of the matter, confided it to one 
  Venderlinden, a physician of Enkhuysen, to whom he showed a 
  piece of gold which he had himself seen transmuted from lead. 
  This Venderlinden's grandson in turn, showed to the celebrated 
  author, D. G. Morhoff, who wrote a letter concerning it to Langlet 
  du Fresnoy, author of the Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique. 
   
  Seton visited Amsterdam and Rotterdam, travelled by sea to Italy, 
  and thence through Switzerland to Germany, accompanied by a 
  professed sceptic of alchemy, one Wolfgang Dienheim, whom he 
  convinced of the error of his views at Basle before several of its 
  principal inhabitants. This person has described Seton, and from 
  the pen picture he gives of him we can discern a typical Scot of the 
  seventeenth century. " Seton, " he says, " was short but stout, and 
  high - coloured, with a pointed beard, but despite his corpulence, 
  his expression was spiritual and exalted." " He was, " adds 
  Dienheim, " a native of Molier, in an island of the ocean." One 
  wonders if Molier is the German's corruption of Lothian. 
  
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  Several experiments of importance were now demonstrated by 
  Seton. In one of these the celebrated physician Zwinger himself 
  brought the lead which was to be transmuted from his own house. 
  A common crucible was obtained at a goldsmith's, and ordinary 
  sulphur was bought on the road to the house where the experiment 
  was to take place. Seton handled none of these materials and took 
  no part in the operation except to give to those who followed his 
  directions a small packet of powder which transformed the lead 
  into the purest gold of exactly the same weight. Zwinger appears to 
  have been absolutely convinced of the genuine nature of the 
  experiment, for he wrote an account of it to his friend Dr. 
  Schobinger, which appears in Lonig's Ephemerides. Shortly after 
  this Seton left Basle, and changing his name went to Strasbourg, 
  whence he travelled to Cologne, lodging with one Anton 
  Bordemann, who was by way of being an alchemist. In this city he 
  was sufficiently imprudent to blazon his knowledge far and wide, - 
  on one occasion producing six ounces of gold through the 
  application of one grain of his magical powder. The circumstance 
  seems to have made an impression on at least one of the savants of 
  the Cathedral City, for Theobald de Hoghelande in his Historia, 
  Aliquot Transmutalionis Meitalica, which was published at 
  Cologne in 1604, alludes to it. 
   
  Seton then went to Hamburg, whence he travelled south to Munich, 
  where something more important than alchemy engaged his 
  attention, for he eloped with the daughter of a citizen, whom he 
  married. The young Elector of Saxony, Christian IL had heard of 
  Seton's brilliant alchemical successes and invited him to his court, 
  but Seton, loath to leave his young wife, sent his friend, William 
  Hamilton, probably a brother - Scot, in his stead, with a supply of 
  the transmuting agent. In the presence of the whole Court, 
  Hamilton undertook and carried through an experiment with 
  perfect success and the gold then manufactured resisted every 
  known test. This naturally only whetted the Elector's desire to see 
  and converse with the magus, and a pressing invitation, which 
  amounted to a command, was dispatched to Seton, who, thus 
  rendered unable to refuse, betook himself to the electoral court. He 
  was received there with every mark of honour, but it soon became 
  evident to him that Christian II. had only invited him thither for 
  the purpose of extracting from him the nature of his giand secret, 
  but Seton, as an adept in the mysteries of alchemy, remained true 
  to his high calling, and flatly refused to gratify the Elector's greed. 
  Promises of preferment and threats were alike indifferent to him, 
  and in the end the Elector, in a passion, ordered him to be 
  imprisoned in a tower, where he was guarded by forty soldiers. 
  There he was subjected to every conceivable species of torture, but 
  all to no purpose. The rack, the fire, and the scourge, failed to 
  extort from him the methods by which he had achieved the grand 
  arcanum. Quite as exhausted as his victim, the Elector at last 
  forbore, and left the unfortunate Scot in peace. 
   
  At this juncture a Moravian chemist, Michael Sendivogius, who 
  happened to be in Dresden heard of Seton's terrible experiences 
  and possessed sufficient influence to obtain permission to visit 
  him. Himself a searcher after the philosopher's stone, he 
  sympathised deeply with the adept, and proposed to him that he 
  should attempt to effect his rescue. To this Seton agreed, and 
  promised that if he were, fortunate enough to escape, he would 
  reward Sendivogius with his secret. The Moravian travelled back to 
  Cracow, where he resided, sold up his property, and returned to 
  Dresden, where he lodged near Seton's place of confinement, 
  entertaining the soldiers who guarded the alchemist, and 
  judiciously bribing those who were directly concerned in his 
  imprisonment. At last he judged that the time was ripe to attempt 
  Seton's salvation. He feasted the guards in a manner so liberal that 
  all of them were soon in a condition of tipsy carelessness. He then 
  hastened to the tower in which Seton was imprisoned, but found 
  him unable to walk, through the severity of his tortures. He 
  therefore supported him to a carriage which stood waiting, and 
  which they gained without being observed. They halted at Seton's 
  house to take up his wife, who had in her possession some of the 
  all - important powder, and whipping up the horses, sped as swiftly 
  as possible to Cracow, which they reached in safety. When quietly 
  settled in that city, Sendivogius reminded Seton of his promise to 
  assist him in in his alchemical projects, but was met with a stern 
  refusal, Seton explaining to him that it was impossible for him as 
  an adept to reveal to his rescuer the terms of such an awful 
  mystery. The health of the alchemist was, however, shattered by 
  the dreadful torments through which he had passed, and which he 
  survived only for about two years, presenting the remains of his 
  magical precipitate to his preserver. The possession of this powder 
  only made Sendivogius more eager than ever to penetrate the 
  mysteries of the grand arcanum. He married Seton's widow, 
  perhaps with the idea that she was in possession of her late 
  husband's occult knowledge, but if so he was doomed to 
  disappointment for she was absolutely ignorant of the matter. Seton 
  had left behind him, however, a treatise entitled The New Light of 
  Alchymy, which Sendivogius laid hands on and published as his 
  own. In its pages he thought he saw a method of increasing the 
  powder, but to his intense disappointment and disgust, he only 
  succeeded in lessening - it. With what remained, however, he 
  posed as a successful projector of the grand mystery, and 
  proceeded with much splendour from court to court in a sort of 
  triumphal procession. In his own country of Moravia, he was 
  imprisoned, but escaped. His powder, however, was rapidly 
  diminishing, but he still continued his experiments. Borel in his 
  work on French Antiquities mentions that he saw a crown piece 
  which had been partially dipped into a mixture of the powder 
  dissolved in spirits of wine, and that the part steeped in the elixir 
  was of gold, was porous, and was not soldered or otherwise 
  tampered with. The powder done, Sendivogius degenerated into a 
  mere charlatan, pretending that he could manufacture gold, and 
  receiving large sums on the strength of being able to do so. He 
  survived until the year 1646 when he died at Parma at the age Of 
  84. Seton's New Light of Alchymy would appear, from an 
  examination of it, to deny that the philosopher's stone was to be 
  achieved by the successful transmutation of metals. It says: 
   
  " The extraction of the soul out of gold or silver, by. what vulgar 
  way of alchymy soever, is but a mere fancy, On the contrary, he 
  which, in a philosophical way, can without any fraud, and 
  colourable deceit, make it that it 
  shall really tinge the basest metal, whether with gain or without 
  gain, with the colour of gold or silver (abiding all requisite tryals 
  whatever), hath the gates of Nature opened to him for the enquiring 
  into further and higher secrets, and with the blessing of God to 
  obtain them." 
   
  Shelta Thari: An esoteric language spoken by the tinkers of Great 
  Britain, and possibly a descendant of an " inner language 
  employed by the ancient Celtic Druids or bards. it was in 1876 
  that the first hint of the existence of Shelia Thari reached the cars 
  of that prince of practical philologists, Charles Godfrey Leland. It 
  seems strange that George Borrow had never stumbled upon the 
  language, and that fact may be taken as a strong proof of the 
  
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  jealousy with which the nomadic classes guarded it. Leland relates 
  how he and, Professor E. H. Palmer were wandering on the beach 
  at Aberystwyth when they met a tramp, who heard them indulging 
  in a conversation in Romany. Leland questioned the man as to how 
  he gained a living, and he replied, " Shelkin gallopas." The words 
  were foreign even to the master of dialect, and he inquired their 
  import. " Why, " said the man, " it means selling ferns. That is 
  tinker's language or Tinkers Thari. I thought as you knew Romany, 
  you might understand it. The right name for the tinkers' language 
  is Shelta." " It was, " says Leland, " with the feelings of Columbus 
  the night before he discovered America that I heard the word 
  Shelta, and I asked the fern - dealer if he could talk it." The man 
  replied " A little, " and on the spot the philologist collected a 
  number of words and phrases from the fern - seller which gave him 
  sufficient insight into the language to prove to him that it was 
  absolutely different from Romany. The Celtic origin of the dialect 
  soon began to commend itself to Leland, and he attempted to 
  obtain from the man some verse or jingle in it, possibly for the 
  purpose of observing its syntactical arrangement. But all he was 
  able to drag from his informant were some rhymes of no 
  philological value, and he found he had soon pumped the tramp 
  dry. It was in America that Leland nearly terrified a tinker out of 
  his wits by speaking to him in the lost dialect. The man, 
  questioned as to whether he could speak Shelia, admitted the soft 
  impeachment. He proved to be an Irishman, Owen Macdonald by 
  name, and he furnished Leland with an invaluable list of several 
  hundred words. But Leland could not be sure upon which of the 
  Celtic languages the dialect was based. Owen Macdonald declared 
  to him that it was a fourth language, which had nothing~ in 
  common with old Irish, Welsh, or Gaelic, and hazarded the 
  information that it was the idiom of the " Ould Picts, " but this 
  appears to be rather too conjectural for the consumption of the 
  philologist. Shelia is not a jargon, for it can be spoken 
  grammatically without using English, as in the British form of 
  Romany. Pictish in all probability was not a Celtic language, nor 
  even an Aryan one, however intimately it may have been affected 
  by Celtic speech in the later stages of its existence. Leland's 
  discovery was greeted in some quarters with inextinguishable 
  laughter. The Saturday Review jocosely suggested that he had 
  been " sold, " and that old Irish had been palmed off on him for a 
  mysterious lingo. He put this view of the matter before his tinker 
  friend, who replied with grave solemnity, " And what'd I be after 
  making two languages av thim for, if there was but wan av thim ? " 
  Since Leland's day much has been done to reclaim this mysterious 
  tongue, chiefly through the investigations of Mr. John Sampson and 
  Professor Kuno Meyer. The basis of these investigations rested on 
  the fact that the tinker caste of Great Britain and Ireland was a 
  separate class - so separate indeed as almost to form a race by 
  itself. For hundreds of years, possibly, this fraternity existed with 
  nearly all its ancient characteristics, and on the general disuse of 
  Celtic speech had conserved it as a secret dialect. The peculiar 
  thing concerning Shelta is the extent of territory over which it is 
  spoken. That it is known rather extensively in London itself was 
  discovered by Leland, who heard it spoken by two small boys in 
  the Euston Road. They were not Gypsies, and Leland found out 
  that one of them spoke the language with great fluency. Since 
  Leland's discoveries Shelta has been to some extent mapped out 
  into dialects, one of the most important of which is that of Ulster. It 
  would be difficult to explain in the course of such an article as this 
  exactly how long the Ulster dialect of this strange and ancient 
  tongue differs from that in use in other parts of Great Britain and 
  Ireland. But that it does so is certain. Nearly eighteen years ago 
  Mr. John Sampson' of Liverpool, a worthy successor to Borrow and 
  Leland, and a linguist of repute, collected a number of sayings and 
  proverbs from two old Irish tinkers - John Barlow and Phil Murray 
  - which he distinctly states are in the Ulster dialect of Shelia. Some 
  of these may be quoted to provide the reader with specimens of the 
  language: - Krish gyukera have muni Sheldru - Old beggars have 
  good Shelta. Stimera dhi - ilsha, stimera aga dhi - ilsha - If you're a 
  piper, have your own pipe. Miso granhes thaber - The traveller 
  knows the road. Thom Blorne mjesh Nip gloch - Every Protestant 
  isn't an Orangeman. Nus a dhabjon dhuilsha - The blessing of God 
  on you. Misli, gami gra dhi - il - Be off, and bad luck to you. 
   
  There seems to be considerable reason to believe that the tinker 
  (or more properly " tinkler ") class of Great Britain sprang from the 
  remnants of its ancient Celtic inhabitants, and differed as 
  completely from the Gypsy, or Romany, race as one people can 
  well differ from another. This is almost conclusively proved by the 
  criterion of speech, for Shelia is a Celtic tongue and that Romany 
  is a dialect of Northern Hindustan is not open to doubt. Those who 
  now speak Romany habitually almost invariably make use of 
  Shelia as well, but that only proves that the two nomadic races, 
  having occupied the same territory for hundreds of years, had 
  gained a knowledge of each other's languages. Who, then, were the 
  original progenitors of the tinkers ? Whoever they were, they were 
  a Celticspeaking race, and probably a nomadic one. Shelia has 
  been referred to as the language of the ancient bards of Ireland, the 
  esoteric tongue of an Irish priesthood. Leland puts forward the 
  hypothesis that the Shelta - speaking tinker is a descendant of a 
  prehistoric guild of bronze - workers. This, he thinks, accounts in 
  part for his secretiveness as regards his language. In Italy to this 
  very day the tinker class is identified with the itinerant bronze 
  workers. The tinker fraternity of Great Britain and Ireland existed 
  with perhaps nearly all its ancient characteristics until the advent 
  of railroads. But long before this it had probably amalgamated to a 
  great extent with the Gypsy population, and the two languages had 
  become common to the two peoples. This is the only explanation 
  that can be given for the appearance of Shelia, a Celtic language, 
  in the non Celtic portions of Great Britain. That it originated in 
  Ireland appears to be highly probable, for in no other part of these 
  islands during the later Celtic period was there a state of 
  civilisation sufficiently advanced to permit of the existence of a 
  close corporation of metal - workers possessing a secret language. 
  Moreover, the affinities of Shelia appear to be with old Irish more 
  than with any other Celtic dialect. There is one other theory that 
  presents itself in connection with the origin of Shelia, and that is, 
  that it is the modern descendant of the language of the " Ould Picts 
  " mentioned by Owen Macdonald, Leland's tinker friend. It has by 
  no means been proved that Pictish was a non - Aryan language, 
  and, despite the labours of Professor Rhys, we are as far off as ever 
  from any definite knowledge concerning the idiom spoken by that 
  mysterious people. But there are great difficulties in the way of 
  accepting the hypothesis of the Pictish origin of Shelia, the chief 
  am6ng them being its obvious Irish origin. There were, it is known, 
  Picts in the North of Ireland, but they were almost certainly a small 
  and barbarous colony, and a very unlikely community to form a 
  metal - working confraternity, possessing the luxury of a private 
  dialect. It still remains for the Celtic student to classify Shelia. It 
  may prove to be " Pictish, " strongly influenced by the Gaelic of 
  Ireland and Scotland. A comparison with Basque and the dialect of 
  the Iberian 
   
  Shernhamphorash: In the Talmud, the external term representing 
  the hidden word of power, by whose virtues it were possible to 
  create a new world. But it is lost to man, though even sounds 
  approximating to it have a magic power, and can give to him who 
  pronounces them dominion in the spirit - world. Some of the 
  
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  Rabbis say that the word of power contains twelve letters, others, 
  forty - two, and yet others seventy - two; but these are the letters of 
  the divine alphabet, which God created from certain luminous 
  points made by the concentration of the primal universal Light. 
   
  Sibylline Books: The manuscripts which embodied the secrets of 
  human destiny, the work of the or prophetesses of the ancient 
  world. According to Tacitus, these books were first preserved in 
  the Capitol. When it was burnt down, the precious leaves of Fate 
  were preserved, and removed to the temple of Apollo Palatinus. 
  Their after - fate is enshrouded in mystery, but it would seem that 
  the Cumean books existed until 339 A.D., when they were 
  destroyed by Stilikon. Augustus sent three ambassadors  - Paulus 
  Gabinus, Marcus Otacillius, and into Asia, Attica, and Italy but 
  especially to the Erythraean Sibyl, to collect whatever could be 
  discovered of the Sibylline Oracles, to replace those which had 
  been lost or burnt. The books are of two kinds; namely, the books 
  of the elder Sibyls, that is, of the earlier Greek and Roman times; 
  and the later, which were much falsified, and disfigured with 
  numerous interpolations. 
   
  Of the latter, eight books in Greek and Latin are still said to be 
  extant. Those which are preserved in Rome had been collected 
  from various places, at various times, and contained predictions of 
  future events couched in the most mysterious of symbolic 
  languages. At first they were permitted only to be read by 
  descendants of Apollo, but later by the priests, until their care was 
  entrusted to certain officials, who only replied to inquiries at the 
  command of the Senate, in cases of extraordinary emergency. They 
  were two at first, and named duumviri: these were appointed by 
  Tarquinius Superbus. Two hundred and thirteen years afterwards, 
  ten more were appointed to their guardianship, and Sulla increased 
  the number to fifteen. 
   
  Solomon: The connection of Solomon, son of David, the King of 
  Israel, with magical practice, although it does not possess any 
  Biblical authority, has yet a very considerable body of oriental 
  tradition behind it. It is supposed, however, that the Jewish 
  Solomon has in many cases been confounded with a still older and 
  mythical figure. Then the Arabs and Persians have legends of a 
  prehistoric race who were ruled by seventy - two monarchs of the 
  name of Suleiman, of whom the last reigned one thousand years. " 
  It does not seem, " says Yarker, " that these Suleimans who are par 
  excellence the rulers of all Djinn, Afreets and other elemental 
  spirits, bear any relationship to the Israelite King." The name, he 
  says, is found in that of a god of the Babylonians and the late Dr. 
  Kenealy, the translator of Hafiz, says that the earliest Aryan 
  teachers were named Mohn, Bodles or Solymi, and that Suleiman -  
  was an ancient title of royal power, synonymous with " Sultan " or " 
  Pharaoh." A Persian legend states that ins the mountains of Kaf, 
  which can only be reached by the magic ring of Solomon, there is a 
  gallery built by the giant Arzeak, where one kept the statues of a 
  race who were ruled by the Suleiman or wise Kings of the East. 
  There is a great chair or throne of Solomon hewn out of the solid 
  rock, on the confines of the Afghanistan and India called the Takht 
  - i -  Suleiman or throne of Solomon, its ancient Aryan name being 
  Shank - er Acharga. It is to these older Suleiman's then, that we 
  must probably look for a connection with the tradition of occultism, 
  and it is not unlikely that the legend relating to Solomon and his 
  temple have been confused with these, and that the protagonists of 
  the antiquity of Free masonry, who date their cult from the 
  building of Solomon's Temple, have confounded some still older 
  rite or mystery relating to the ancient dynasty of Suleiman with the 
  circum stances of the masonic activities of the Hebrew monarch. " 
  God, " says Josephus, " enabled Solomon to learn that skill which 
  expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He 
  composed such incantations, also, by which distempers are 
  alleviated, and he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, 
  by which they drive away daemons, so that they never return. And 
  this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a 
  certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing 
  people that were demoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian and his 
  sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The 
  manner of the cure was this. He put a ring that had a root of one of 
  these sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils; and when the 
  man fell down immediately, he adjured him to return unto him no 
  more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the 
  incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would 
  persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a 
  power, he set, a little way off, a cup, or basin full of water, and 
  commanded the daemon as he went out of the man, to overturn it, 
  and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man." 
  Some pretended fragments of these conjuring books of Solomon are 
  noticed in the " Codex Pseudepigraphus " of Fabricius, and 
  Josephus himself has described one of the anti-daemoniacal roots, 
  which must remind the reader of the perils attendant on gathering 
  the " mandrake." The Koran alleges that Solomon had power over 
  the winds, and that he rode on his throne throughout the world 
  during the day, and the wind brought it back every night to 
  Jerusalem. This throne was placed on a carpet of green silk, of a 
  prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient to afford standing - 
  room to all Solomon's army, the men on his right hand and the Jinn 
  on his left. An army of the most beautiful birds hovered near the 
  throne, forming a kind of canopy over it, and the attendants, to 
  screen the king and his soldiers from the sun. A certain number of 
  evil spirits were also made subject to him, whose business it was to 
  dive for pearls, and perform other work. We are also informed, on 
  the same authority, that the devils, having received permission to 
  tempt Solomon, in which they were not successful, conspired to 
  ruin his character. They wrote several books of magic, and hid 
  them under his throne; and when he died they told the chief men 
  among the Jews that if they wished to ascertain the manner in 
  which Solomon obtained his absolute power over men, Genii, and 
  the winds, they should dig under his throne. They did so and found 
  the books, abounding with the most impious superstitions. The 
  more learned and enlightened refused to participate in the 
  practices described in those books, but they were willingly adopted 
  by the common people. The Mahomedans assert that the Jewish 
  priests published this scandalous story concerning Solomon, which 
  was believed till Mahomet, by God's command, declared him to 
  have been no idolater. 
   
  Solomon, it is further maintained by the Mahomedans, brought a 
  thousand horses from Damascus and other cities he conquered, 
  though some say they were left to him by his father David, who 
  seized them from the Amalekites;and others pretend that they 
  came out of the Red Sea, andwere provided with wings. The King 
  wished to inspect hishorses, and ordered them to be paraded 
  before him; and their symmetry and beauty so much occupied his 
  attention that gazed on them after sunset, and thus neglected 
  evening prayers till it was too late. When sensible of his omission, 
  he Was so greatly concerned at it that he ordered all the horses to 
  be killed as an offering to God, except a hundred of the best of 
  them. This, we are informed, procured for I - Lim an ample 
  recompense, as he received for the loss of his horses dominion over 
  the winds. 
  
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  The following tradition is narrated by the Mahomedan 
  commentators relative to the building of the temple of Jerusalem. 
  According to them, David laid the foundations of it, and when he 
  died he left it to be finished by Solomon. That prince employed 
  Jinn, and not men, in the work; and this idea might probably 
  originate from what is said in the First Book of Kings (vi., 7) that 
  the Temple was " built of stone, made ready before it was brought 
  thither, so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of 
  iron, heard in the house while it was building "; and the Rabbins 
  notice a worm which, they pretend, assisted the workmen, the 
  power of which was such as to cause the rocks and stones to 
  separate in chiselled blocks. Solomon, while engaged in the 
  erection of the Temple, found his end approaching, and he prayed 
  that his death might be concealed from the Jinn till the building 
  was finished. His request was granted. He died while in the act of 
  praying, and leaning on his staff, which supported his body in that 
  posture for a whole year, and the Jinn, who supposed him to be 
  still alive, continued their work. At the expiration of the year the 
  edifice was completed, when a worm which had entered the staff, 
  ate it through, and to the amazement even of the Jinn the body fell 
  to the ground, and the King was discovered to be dead. 
   
  The inhabitants of the valley of Lebanon believe that the 
  celebrated city and temple of Baalbec were erected by the Jinn 
  under Solomon's direction. The object of the erection of Baalbec is 
  variously stated, one tradition affirming that it was intended to be a 
  residence for the Egyptian princess whom Solomon married, and 
  another that it was built for the Queen of Sheba. 
   
  Solomon, Mirror of: The method of making the Mirror of Solomon, 
  which is used for purposes of divination, is as follows: Take a 
  shining and well - polished plate of fine steel, slightly concave, 
  and with the blood of a white pigeon inscribe at the four corners 
  the names - Jehovah, Eloym, Metatron, Adonay. Place the mirror in 
  a clean and white cloth, and when you behold a new moon during 
  the first hour after sunset, repeat a prayer that the angel Anaa may 
  command and ordain his companions to act as they are instructed; 
  that is, to assist the operator in divining, from the mirror. Then cast 
  upon burning coals a suitable perfume, at the same time uttering a 
  prayer. Repeat this thrice, then breathe upon the mirror and evoke 
  the angel Anael. The sign of the cross is then made upon the 
  operator and upon the mirror for forty - five days in succession - at 
  the end of which period Ana6l appears in the form of  - a beautiful 
  child to accomplish the operator's wishes. Sometimes he appears 
  on the fourteenth day, according to the devotion and fervour of the 
  operator. The perfume used in evoking him is saffron. 
   
  Spells:  Spells, incantations, a written or spoken formula of words 
  supposed to be capable of magical effects. 
  Anglo - saxon spell, a saying or story, hence a form of Words; 
  Icelandic, spell, a saying; Gothic, spill, a fable. 
   
  The conception of spells appears to have arisen in the idea that 
  there is some natural and intimate connection between words and 
  the things signified by them. Thus if one repeats the name of a 
  supernatural being the effect will be analogous to that produced by 
  the being itself. It is assumed that all things are in sympathy, and 
  act and react upon one another, things that have once been in 
  contact continue to act on each other even after the contact has 
  been removed. That certain names unknown to man, of gods, demi 
  - gods, and demons, if discovered can be used against them by the 
  discoverer, was believed in Ancient Egypt. Spells or enchantments 
  can be divided into several classes as follows: (i) Protective spells; 
  (2) the curse or taboo; (3) Spells by which a person, animal or 
  object is to be injured or transformed; (4) Spells to procure some 
  minor end, or love - spells, the curing of persons and cattle, etc. 
   
  The power of the spoken word is implicitly believed in by all 
  primitive peoples, especially if it emanates from a known professor 
  of the art of magic, and if it be in a language or dialect unknown. 
  Thus the magicians of Ancient Egypt employed foreign words for 
  their incantations, such as Tharthar, thamara, thatha, mommon, 
  thanabotha, opranu, brokhrex, abranazukhel, " which occurs at the 
  end of a spell the purpose of which is to bring dreams. The 
  magicians and sorcerers of the middle ages likewise employed 
  gibberish of a similar kind, as do the medicine men of the North 
  American Indians at the present day. The reason for the spell 
  being usually couched in a well - known formula, is probably 
  because experience found that that and no other formula was 
  efficacious. Thus in Ancient Egypt not only were the formulae of 
  spells well fixed, but I he exact tone of voice in which thpy were to 
  be pronounced was specially taught. The power of a spell remains 
  until such time as it is broken by an antidote or exorcism. 
  Therefore it is not a passing thing. 
   
  (1) The protective spell. - The commonest form of this is an 
  incantation, usually rhymed, imploring the protection of certain 
  gods, saints, or beneficent beings, who in waking or sleeping hours 
  will guard the speaker from maleficent powers, such as Matthew, 
  Mark, Luke and John, Bless the bed that I lie on." 
   
  Of a deeper significance are these supposed to be spoken by the 
  dead Egyptian on his journey through Amenti by which he wards 
  off the evil beings who would hinder his way, and so the serpent 
  who would bite the dead is addressed thus " O serpent come not 
  Geb and Shu stand against thee. Thou hast eaten mice. That is 
  loathsome to the Gods. Thou hast gnawed the bones of a putrid 
  cat." The Book of the Dead says, " Whoever readeth the spells 
  daily over himself, he is whole -  upon earth, he escapes from 
  death, and never doth anything evil meet him, " says Budge in 
  Egyptian Magic, P. 128. - We. learn how great was the confidence 
  which the deceased placed in his words of power, and also that the 
  sources from which they sprang were the gods of Thoth and Isis. It 
  will be remembered the Thoth is called the " scribe of the gods, " 
  the " lord of writing, " the " master of papyrus, " the " maker of the 
  palette and the ink - jar, " the " lord of divine words, " i.e., the holy 
  writings or scriptures, and as he was the lord of books and master 
  of the power of speech, he was considered to be the possessor of all 
  knowledge both human and divine. At the creation of the world it 
  was he who reduced to words the will of the unseen and unknown 
  creative Power, and who uttered them in such wise that the 
  universe came into being and it was he who proved himself by the 
  exercise of his knowledge to be the protector and the friend of 
  Osiris, and of Isis, and of their son Horns. From the evidence of 
  the texts we know that it was no' by physical might that Thoth 
  helped these three gods, but by giving them words of power and 
  instructing them how to use them. We know that Osiris vanquished 
  his foes, and that he re - constituted his body and became the king 
  of the underworld and god of the dead, but he was only able to do 
  these things by means of the words of power which Thoth had 
  given to him, and which he had taught him to pronounce properly" 
  and m a proper tone of voice. It is this belief which makes the 
  deceased cry out, " Hail, Thoth, who maddest Osiris victorious 
  over his enemies, make thou Ani to be victorious over his enemies 
  in the presence of the great and sovereign princes who are in Tattu, 
  or in any other place." Without the words of power given to him by 
  Thoth, Osiris would have been powerless under the attacks of his 
  
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  foes, and similarly the dead mail, who was always identified with 
  Osiris, would have passed out of existence at his death but for tile 
  words of power provided by the writings that were buried with him. 
  In the judgment Scene it is Thoth who reports to the gods the result 
  of the weighing of the heart in the balance, and who has supplied 
  its owner with the words which he has uttered in his supplications, 
  and whatever can be said in favour of the deceased he says to the 
  gods, and whatever can be done for him he does. But apart from 
  being the protector and friend of Osiris, Thoth was the refuge to 
  which Isis fled in her trouble. The words of a hymn declare that 
  she knew" how to turn aside evil hap, " and that she was - strong of 
  tongue and uttered the words of power which she knew with correct 
  pronunciation, and halted not in her speech, and was perfect both 
  in giving the command, and in saying the word, " but this 
  description only proves that she had been instructed by Thoth in 
  the art of uttering words of power with effect, and to him, indeed, 
  she owed more than this. Spells to keep away disease are of this 
  class. 
   
  The amulets found upon Egyptian mummies, and the inscriptions 
  on Gnostic gems are for the most part of a protective nature. (See 
  Egypt and Gnostics.) The protective spell may be said to be an 
  amulet in words, and is often found in connection with the amulet, 
  on which it is inscribed. 
   
  (2) The curse of taboo. - (a) The word of blighting, the damaging 
  word. (b) The word of prohibition or restriction. 
   
  (3) The curse is of the nature of a spell, even if it be not in the 
  shape of a definite formula. Thus we have the Highland curses: " A 
  bad meeting to you." " Bad understanding to you." " A down mouth 
  be yours " which are certainly popular as formulae. 
   
  Those who had seen old women, of the Madge Wildfire School, 
  cursing and banning, say their manner is well calculated to inspire 
  terror. Some fifteen or twenty years ago, a party of tinkers 
  quarreled and fought, first among themselves, and then with some 
  Tiree villagers. In the excitement a tinker wife threw off her cap 
  and allowed her hair to fall over her shoulders in wild disorder. 
  She then bared her knees, and falling on them to the ground, in a 
  praying attitude, poured forth a torrent of wishes that struck awe 
  into all who heard her. She imprecated " Drowning by sea and 
  conflagration by land; may you never see a son to follow your body 
  to the graveyard, or a daughter to mourn your death. I have made 
  my wish before this, and I will make it now, and there was not yet a 
  day I did not see my wish fulfilled." Curses employed by witches 
  usually inferred a blight upon the person cursed, their flocks, their 
  herds and crops. Barrenness, too, was frequently called down upon 
  women.  
   
  A curse or spell is believed in the Scottish Highlands to become 
  powerless over his own volition, is alive and awake but moves and 
  acts as if asleep." Curses or spells which inferred death were 
  frequently mentioned in works which deal with Medimval Magic.  
   
  (4) The Taboo, the word of prohibition or restriction. This is found 
  in the mystic expression " thou shalt not." Thus a number of the 
  commandments are taboos, and the Book of Leviticus teems with 
  them. The taboo is the don't " applied to children - a curb on 
  primitive desire. To break a taboo was to bring dire misfortune 
  upon oneself, and often upon one's family. 
   
  Of injuring or transformation of a person, animal or object there are 
  copious examples. These were nearly affected by a spell of a given 
  formula. Thus no less than twelve chapters of the Book of the Dead 
  (chapters LXXVIL to LXXXVIII) are devoted to providing the 
  deceased with words of power, the recital of which was necessary 
  to enable him to transform himself into various animal and human 
  forms. The Rev. S. Baring Gould in his Book of Folklore, page 57, 
  says, that in such cases the consequence of a spell being cast on 
  an individual requiring him or her to become a beast or a monster 
  with no escape except under conditions difficult - of execution or 
  of obtaining. To this 
   
  category belong a number of so - called fairy tales, that actually are 
  folk - tales. And these do not all pertain to Aryan peoples for 
  wherever magical arts are believed to be all - powerful, there one 
  of its greatest achievements is the casting of a spell so as to alter 
  completely the appearance of the Person on whom it is cast, so that 
  this individual becomes an animal. One need only recall the story 
  in the Ayabian Nights of the Calenders and the three noble ladies 
  of Bagdad, in which the wicked sisters are transformed into bitches 
  that have to be thrashed every day. Of this class are the stories of " 
  Beauty and the Beast and " The Frog Prince." 
   
  (5) Spells to procure some minor end, love - spells, etc., Love - 
  spells were engraved on metal tables by the Gnostics, and the 
  magicians of the middle ages. Instances of these are to be found in 
  The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abraham the Jew (q.v.) Spells 
  were often employed to imprison evil spirits. 
   
  The later Jews have many extravagant opinions and legends 
  relating to this subject, which they appear to have derived in a 
  great measure from the Babylonians. Josephus affirms that it was 
  generally believed by his countrymen that Solomon left behind him 
  many spells, which had the power of terrifying and expelling evil 
  spirits. The Rabbins also almost uniformly describe Solomon as an 
  accomplished magician. It is probable that the belief in the power 
  of spells and incantations became general among the Jews during 
  the captivity, and that the invention of them is attributed to 
  Solomon, as a more creditable personage than the deities of the 
  Assyrians. Those fictions acquired currency, not only among the 
  Arabs, Persians, and other Mohammedan nations, but, in process 
  of time, also in many Christian communities. They were first 
  adopted by the Gnostics and similar sects, in whose creed 
  heathenism preponderated over Christianity; and, in the dark ages, 
  they found their way among the Catholics; principally by means of 
  the Pseudo - gospels and fabulous legends of saints. An incident in 
  the life of St. Margaret will suffice as a specimen. This holy virgin, 
  having vanquished an evil spirit who assaulted her, demanded his 
  name. " My name, " replied the demon, " is Veltis, and I am one of 
  those whom Solomon, by virtue of his spells, confined in a copper 
  caldron at Babylon; but when the Babylonians, in the hope of 
  finding treasures, dug up the caldron and opened it, we all made 
  our escape. Since that time, our efforts have been directed to the 
  destruction of righteous persons; and I have long been striving to 
  turn thee from the course which thou hast embraced." The reader 
  of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments.' will be immediately 
  reminded of the story of the ` Fisherman." The Oriental origin of 
  many similar legends, e.g., of St. George of Cappadocia, is equally 
  obvious. 
   
  Spiritualism: Spiritualism in its modern aspect has for its basic 
  principles the belief in the continuance of life after death, and the 
  possibility of communication between the dead and the living, 
  
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  through the agency of a medium or psychic, a person qualified in 
  some unknown manner to be the mouthpiece of supernatural 
  beings. On this foundation has been raised the belief known as 
  spiritualism, variously regarded as a religion or a philosophy. 
  Besides the speaking (or writing, drawing, etc.) indirectly through 
  the agency of the medium, there are also Physical manifestations, 
  such as the materialisation of spirit forms, and apports, " (q.v.) the 
  so - called " direct " writing, moving of inanimate objects without 
  contact, and other phenomena of a like nature. The word " 
  spiritism " used in France to denote spiritualism, is in this country 
  only applied to the theories of Allen Kardec a well - known 
  spiritualist who believed in re - incarnation, or to an inferior phase 
  of spiritualism, in which only physical manifestations are sought, 
  and the religious and ethical significance of the subject ignored. 
   
  Though the movement in its present form dates no further back 
  than 1848, it is possible to trace its ancestry to witchcraft, 
  demoniac possession, poltergeistic disturbances, and animal 
  magnetism. In these all the phenomena of spiritualism may be 
  found, though the disturbing influences were not in the earlier 
  instances identified with the spirits of the deceased. Many famous 
  outbreaks of an epidemic nature, such as that among the Tremblers 
  of the Cevennes and the Convulsionaries of St. Medard, which to 
  the beholders showed clear indications of demonic possession, had 
  in their symptoms considerable analogy with modern spiritualism. 
  They were accompanied by spontaneous trance or ecstasy, 
  utterance of long - winded discourses, and speaking in unknown 
  tongues, all of which are to be found in the seance - room. The 
  fluency of speech, especially of these ignorant peasants, has been 
  equalled, if not surpassed, by the outpourings of the unlearned 
  medium under the influence of her " control." In such cases the 
  symptoms were generally referred either to angelic or diabolic 
  possession, and most frequently to the latter. Witches also were 
  supposed to hold converse with the Devil, and many aspects of 
  witchcraft - and notably the part played in the persecution of 
  suspects by young women and children - show an obvious 
  relationship to those poltergeistic disturbances which were the 
  connecting link between early forms of possession and modern 
  spiritualism. Cases in which children of morbid tendencies pretend 
  to be the victims of a witch are to be found in every record of 
  witchcraft. It was the poltergeist (q.v.), however, who showed most 
  affinity to the " control " of the mediumistic circle. For at least the 
  past few centuries poltergeist disturbances have occurred from 
  time to time, and the mischievous spirit's favourite modes of 
  manifesting itself have been singularly akin to those adopted by 
  the spirit control of our days. Again, both spirits require the agency 
  of a medium for the production of their phenomena, and it is in the 
  immediate presence of the medium th?t the phenomena generally 
  make their appearance. 
   
  Magnetism: - Partly evolving from these phases of spirit 
  manifestation, and partly running parallel with them, was, an 
  extensive movement whose significance, from the spiritualist point 
  of view, is very considerable. The doctrine of animal magnetism 
  was, said to have originated with Paracelsus, and was much in 
  favour with the old alchemists, The actual magnet was not greatly 
  used, but was regarded as a symbol of the magnetic philosophy, 
  which rested on the idea of a force or fluid radiating from the 
  heavenly bodies, human beings, and indeed, from every substance, 
  animate or inanimate, by means of which all things interacted upon 
  one another. While the mystics were engaged in formulating a 
  magnetic philosophy, there were others, such as Valentine 
  Greatrakes, who cured diseases, claiming their power as a divine 
  gift, and not connecting it with the rationalist ideas of the 
  alchemists. These two phases of magnetism united and came to a 
  height in the work of Franz Antoine Mesmer, who in 1766 
  published his De planetarium influxu, a treatise on the influence of 
  the planets on the human body. His ideas were essentially those of 
  the magnetic philosophers, and his cures probably on a level with 
  those of Valentine Greatrakes, but into both theory and practice he 
  infused new life and won for himself the recognition, if not of the 
  learned societies, at least of the general public. To him is due that 
  application of the magnetic system which resulted in the discovery 
  of the induced hypnotic trance, whose bearing on spiritualism is 
  obvious and important. In 1784 a commission was appointed by 
  the French Government to consider magnetism as practised by 
  Mesmer and his followers but its report only served to cast 
  discredit on the science, and exclude it from scientific discussion. 
  Until the third decade of the nineteenth century the rationalist 
  explanations of Mesmerism concerned themselves entirely with a 
  fluid or force emanating from the person of the operator, and even 
  visible to the clairvoyant eye, but in 1823 Alexandre Bertrand, a. 
  Paris physician, published a Traile du Somnanibalisme, and in 
  1826 a treatise, in which he established the relationship between 
  ordinary sleep - walking, somnambulism associated with disease, 
  and epidemic ecstasy, and advanced the doctrine now generally 
  accepted - that of suggestion, Magnetism was by this time 
  receiving a good deal of attention all over Europe. A second 
  French Commission appointed in 1825 presented in 1831 a report 
  which, though of no great value, contained a unanimous testimony 
  to the actuality of the phenomena. In Germany also magnetism was 
  practised to a considerable extent, and rationalist explanations 
  found some acceptance. There was a class however more numerous 
  in Germany than elsewhere, who inclined 'towards a spiritualistic 
  explanation of Mesmeric phenomena. Indeed, the belief in spirit - 
  intercourse had grown tip beside magnetism from its earliest 
  conception, in opposition to the theory of a magnetic fluid. In the 
  earlier phases of " miraculous " healing the cures Were, as has 
  been said, ascribed to the divine gift of the operator, who expelled 
  the evil spirits from the patient. In epidemic cases in religious 
  communities - as well as in individual instances, the spirits were 
  questioned both on personal matters and on abstract theological 
  questions. A detailed account of the trance utterances of an 
  hypnotic subject was given in 1787 in the journals of the Swedish 
  Exegetical and Philanthropic Society. The society naturally 
  inclined to the doctrines of their countryman, Emanuel 
  Swedenborg, Niho was the first to identify the " spirits " with the 
  souls of deceased men and women. In Germany Dr. Kerner 
  experimented with Frederica Hauffe, the " Seeress of Prevorst " 
  (q.v.), in whose presence phy3ical manifestations took place, and 
  who described the conditions of the soul after death and the 
  constitution of man - the physical body, the soul, spirit, an ethereal 
  body which clothes the soul after death - theories afterward 
  elaborated by spiritualists. Other German investigators J. H. Jung 
  (Jung - Stilling), Dr. C. R6mer, and Dr. Heinreic Werner, recorded 
  the phenomenon of clairvoyance in their somnambules. A French 
  spiritualist, Alphonse Cahagnet produced some of the best 
  evidence which spiritualism ca show, his accounts being as 
  remarkable for their sincerity and good - faith as for the 
  intelligence they display. 
   
  Magnetism received but little attention in England, til the third 
  decade of the nineteenth century. Towards th end of the eighteenth 
  century Dr. Bell, Loutherbourg, an others, practised the science in 
  this country, but for about thirty years - from 1798 to 1828 - it was 
  quite neglected In the latter year Richard Chenevix, an Irishman, 
  gav mesmeric demonstrations. Dr. Elliotson, of Universit College 
  Hospital, practised mesmerism with his somnambules, the sisters 
  
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  Okey, and though he first believed in th magnetic fluid, he 
  afterwards became a spiritualist. In1843 two journals dealing with 
  the subject were founded  - the Zoist and the Phreno - magnet. 
  Most of the English magnetists of the time believed in a physical 
  explanation  - of the phenomena. In 1845 Dr. Reichenbach 
  published his researches, claiming to demonstrate the existence of 
  acculanation which he called odylic or odic force radiating from 
  every substance. This effluence could be seen by clairvoyants, and 
  had definite colours, and produced a feeling of heat or cold. 
  Working on individual lines, Braid arrived at the same conclusions 
  as Bertrand had done, and demonstrated the power of suggestion in 
  magnetic " experiments, but his theories were neglected as 
  Bertrand's had been. By the medical profession, especially, the 
  whole matter was freely ridiculed, and declared to be fraudulent. 
  There is no doubt that their attitude would have changed - it had, 
  indeed, already begun to do so - but for the wave of spiritualism 
  that swept over America and Europe, and magnified the 
  extravagant attendant phenomena of the trance state and so 
  obscured its true significance and scientific value. 
   
   It will thus be seen not only that magnetism contained the germs 
  of spiritualistic phenomena, but that in many cases the phenomena 
  were identical with those of spiritualism in its present stage of 
  development. Trance speaking was well - known, physical 
  manifestations, thoughless frequently met with, were also 
  witnessed, as in the case of Fran Hauffe; and clairvoyance ' was 
  regarded as a common adjunct of the trance. In later years, as has 
  been seen, the so - called " magnetic " phenomena were largely 
  attributed to the agency of the spirits of the deceased. For such an 
  obviously supernormal faculty as clairvoyance - by means of which 
  the subject professed himself able to see what was going on at a 
  distance, or to distinguish objects carefully concealed from his 
  normal sight - even such men as Bertrand and Braid do not seem 
  to have offered an adequate explanation, nor have they refuted the 
  evidence for it, though it was extensively practised both in France 
  and England. Indeed, there sprang up in these, countries a class 
  who specialised in clairvoyance, and still further prepared the way 
  for spiritualism. 
   
  Early American Spiritualism. - What is generally regarded as the 
  birth of modern spiritualism took place in America in 1848. In that 
  year an outbreak of rapping occurred in the home of the Fox 
  family, at Hydesville, in Arcadia, Wayne County, N.Y. -  The 
  household comprised John Fox, his wife, and their two young 
  daughters, Margaretta and Kate, aged fifteen and twelve years 
  respectively, and the house itself was a small wooden erection. On 
  the 31st March, 1848, Mrs. Fox summoned her neighbours to hear 
  the knockings, which had disturbed the family for a few days past. 
  On being questioned the raps manifested signs of intelligence, and 
  it was finally elicited that the disturbing influence was the spirit of 
  a pedlar, done to death by a former resident of the house at 
  Hydesville for the sake of his money. It was afterwards said that in 
  April of the same year the Foxes, while digging in their cellar at 
  the instigation of the spirits, had discovered therein fragments of 
  hair, teeth, and bones, supposed to be those of a human being, but 
  the statement was not properly verified, and the evidence for the 
  murder was but small. – The neighbours of the Fox family, 
  however, were deeply impressed by the " revelations, " and, by way 
  of a test, questioned the spirits on such matters as the ages of their 
  acquaintances, questions which were answered, apparently, with 
  some correctness. Soon afterwards Margaretta Fox visited her 
  married sister, Mrs. Fish, at Rochester, New York, where the 
  knockings broke out as vigorously as they had done at Hydesville. 
  Her sister Catherine visited some friends at Auburn, and here, too, 
  the rappings were heard. Many persons found themselves 
  possessed of mediumistic powers, and the manifestations spread 
  like an epidemic, till in a few years they were witnessed in most of 
  the eastern states. Numerous circles were formed by private 
  individuals, and professional mediums became ever more 
  abundant. Mrs. Fox and her three daughters continued to hold the 
  place of honour in the spiritualistic world, and gave exhibitions in 
  many large towns. In 1850, while they were at Buffalo, some 
  professors of the Buffalo University showed that the raps could be 
  produced by the medium's joints, and shortly afterwards Mrs. 
  Norman Culver, a relative by marriage of the Fox family, declared 
  that Margaretta Fox had shown her how the rappings were obtained 
  by means of the joints. She also alleged that Catherine Fox had 
  told her that in a seance at Rochester where the medium's ankles 
  were held to prevent fraud, a Dutch servant maid had rapped in 
  the cellar on a signal from the medium. This latter statement was 
  hotly denied by the spiritualists, but no reputation was attempted 
  with regard to the other allegations. Many mediums confessed that 
  they had resorted to trickery, but the tide of popular favour in 
  America held to the actuality of the manifestations. These, as time 
  went on, became more varied and complex. Table - turning and 
  tilting (q.v.) in part replaced the simpler phenomena of raps. 
  Playing on musical instruments by invisible hands, " direct " spirit 
  writing, bell - ringing, levitation, and materialisation of spirit 
  hands, are some of the phenomena which were witnessed and 
  vouched for by such distinguished sitters as judge Edmonds, the 
  Hon N. P. Tallmadge, Governor of Wisconsin, and William Lloyd 
  Garrison. We find the levitation of the medium Daniel D. Home 
  (q.v.) recorded at an early stage in his career. Slate - writing (q.v.) 
  and playing on musical instruments were also feats practised by 
  the spirits who frequented Koon's " spirit - room " (q.v.) in Dover, 
  Athens County, Ohio. At Keokuk, in Iowa, in 1854, two mediums 
  spoke in tongues identified on somewhat insufficient data, as " 
  Swiss, " Latin, and Indian languages, and henceforward trance - 
  speaking in their native language and in foreign tongues was much 
  practised by mediums. The recognised foreign tongues included 
  Latin and Greek French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and 
  Gaelic, but generally the trance utterances, when they were not in 
  English, were not recognised definitely as any known language, 
  and frequently the " spirits " themselves interpreted the " tongue." 
  The latter phenomena are evidently akin to the early outpourings 
  of the " possessed " or the articulate but meaningless fluency of 
  ecstatics during a religious epidemic. There have been cases, 
  however, where persons in a state of exaltation have spoken 
  fluently in a language of which they know but little in their normal 
  state. Many of the " spirit " writings were signed with he names of 
  great people - particularly Franklin, Swedenborg, Plato, Aristotle, 
  St. John and St. Paul. Trance lecturing before audiences was also 
  practised, books of inspirational utterances were published, and 
  poetry and drawings produced in abundance. These automatic 
  productions had a character of their own - they were vague, high - 
  sounding, incoherent, and distinctly reminiscent. In cases where 
  they displayed even a fair amount of merit, as in the poems of T. L. 
  Harris, it was pointed out that they were not beyond the capacity of 
  the medium in his normal state. As a rule they had a superficial 
  appearance of intelligence, but on analysis were. found to be 
  devoid of meaning. During the early years of spiritualism in 
  America the movement was largely noticed by the press, and many 
  periodicals devoted exclusively to spiritualism made their 
  appearance. The Spirit Messenger was first published in 049, Heat 
  and Light in 1851, the Shehinah in 1852, Spiritual Telegraph in 
  1853, Spirit World, under the title of the Spiritual Philosopher, in 
  
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  185o, under the editorship of Laroy Sunderland. From the 
  beginning of the movement those who accepted the actuality of the 
  phenomena ranged themselves into two separate schools, each 
  represented by a considerable body of opinion. The theory of the 
  first was frankly spiritualistic, the explanation of the second was 
  that of Mesmer, now appearing under various guises, with a more 
  or less definite flavour of contemporary scientific thought. These 
  two schools, as we have seen, had their foundation in the early 
  days of animal magnetism, when the rationalist ideas of the 
  magnetists -  were ranged against the theories of angelic or 
  diabolic possession. In America the suppositions " force of the 
  rationalists went by the name of " odylic force, " electro - 
  magnetism, " and so forth, and to it was attributed not only the 
  subjective phenomena, but the physical manifestations as well. 
  And poltergeistic disturbances occurring from time to time were 
  ascribed either to spirits or odylic force, as in the case of the 
  Ashtabula Poltergeist (q.v.). The Rev. Asa Mahan, one of the " 
  rationalists, " suggested that the medium read the thoughts of the 
  sitter by means of odylic force. The protagonists of a magnetic 
  theory attributed trance - speaking to the subject's own 
  intelligence, but after the birth of American spiritualism in 1848 a 
  spiritualistic interpretation was more commonly accepted. Not, 
  withstanding these conflicting theories, of which some were 
  certainly physical, practically nothing was done in the way of 
  scientific investigation, with the exception of the experiments 
  conducted by Dr. Hare, Professor of Chemistry in the University of 
  Pennsylvania, though they hardly deserved the name of " scientific 
  investigation." In 1857, when the experiments were made, Hare 
  was already advanced in years, and seems to have been easily 
  imposed upon. Very few exposures of fraud were made, partly 
  because the majority of the sitters accepted the phenomena with 
  unquestioning faith, and partly because the machinery with which 
  such detection might be made was not forthcoming. The 
  collaboration of skilful, trained, and disinterested investigators, 
  such as have recently applied themselves to the elucidation of 
  psychic problems, was entirely lacking in those days, and the 
  public was left to form its own conclusions. Spiritualism in 
  America was from the first intimately bound up with socialism. The 
  cult of spi7itualism was, in fact, the out - growth of the same state 
  of things which produced socialistic communities, and occasioned 
  the rise and fall of so many strange religions. Warren Chase, 
  Horace Greeley, T. L. Harris, and other prominent spiritualists 
  founded such communities, and the so - called " inspirational " 
  writings frequently gave directions for their coristruction. It was 
  characteristic of the nation and the time that the general trend of 
  religious and philosophic speculation should run on democratic 
  lines, The fixed standards of thought which obtained in Europe 
  were not recognised in America; everyone thought for himself, with 
  but little educational training on which to, base his ideas, and the 
  result was that the vigour of his speculation frequently outran its 
  discretion. As for the~ causes which made spiritualism more 
  popular and more, lasting than other strange doctrines of the time, 
  they are probably to be found in the special conditions which 
  prepared the way for spiritualism. Clairvoyants had made use of 
  rapping prior to the mediumship of the Fox girls, the induced 
  trance had only recently been brought to the notice of the 
  American people by lecturers, the clergy and others, accustomed 
  to departures from orthodoxy in every direction, found no difficulty 
  in admitting the intervention of good or evil spirits in human 
  affairs, while for those who refused to accept the spirit hypothesis a 
  satisfactory explanation of the phenomena was found in electricity, 
  electro - magnetism, or " odic force." 
   
  Spiritualism in England. - Though, as has been said, clairvoyants 
  and somnambules were sufficiently common in England prior to 
  the importation of spiritualism in its American form, the 
  phenomena were, nevertheless, interpreted mainly on rationalist 
  lines, and even when the spirit doctrine - which in those days had 
  but a small following became wide - spread and important, the 
  theory of any rational explanation was still represented. In 1852, 
  four years after the " Rochester Rappings, " a medium named Mrs. 
  Hayden was brought from America by a lecturer on " electro - 
  biology." Soon afterwards another professional medium, Mrs. 
  Roberts, crossed the Atlantic, and both ladies had a distinguished 
  client6le, and received substantial remuneration in the way of fees. 
  Many of the most influential journals published scornful comments 
  on these performances, but a belief in the genuineness of the 
  phenomena was expressed by one at least, Chambers's journal, in 
  an article~ by Robert Chambers himself. Professor deMorgan was 
  another distinguished witness who testified. to the actuality of the 
  phenomena, and its supernormal character, and yet others  - were 
  disposed to investigate. In 1853 an epidemic of table - turning 
  (q.v.) spread from the Continent to Britain, and attained to 
  immense popularity among all classes. So wide - spread did it 
  become that such men as Braid, Faraday and Carpenter turned 
  their, attention to it, and showed it to result from unconscious 
  muscular action. The " rationalist " explanation, be it said, was still 
  well to the fore, with talk of odylic force, electricity, or magnetism. 
  Faraday's experiments were ridiculed, and a pamphlet entitled 
  Table turning by Animal Magnetism demonstrated ran through 
  more than a hundred editions in one year. Elliotson. and the other 
  protagonists of mesmerism found an illustration of their own views 
  in table - turning. Those who inclined to a spiritualistic belief 
  found a spirit agency at work in the same phenomena; while a 
  band of clergymen, confessedly awaiting similar manifestations in 
  fulfilment of Scriptural prophecy, concluded that Satanic agency 
  was at the root of the matter, and had their conclusions supported 
  by the " spirits themselves, who confessed that they were fallen 
  angels, or the spirits of evil - doers. Among the earliest converts to 
  spiritualism were Sir Charles Isham, Dr. Ashburner, and the 
  socialist Robert Owen, at that time already over eighty years of 
  age, who published in 1854 the first number of The New Existence 
  of Man upon the Earth, intended as the organ of a sort of 
  millenium. to be brought about by the spirits. Automatic writing is 
  recorded at this period, one medium being a child of four, who 
  wrote in Latin. In the autumn of 1853 Mrs. Hayden returned to 
  America, and the practice of table - turning speedily declined. 
  Until 1860 little more is heard of spiritualism, though a few 
  journals were published in the interval. Owen continued to issue 
  his New Existence, in which, however, spiritualism was only a 
  secondary consideration. The Yorkshire Spiritual 
   
  Telegraph published at Keighley in 1855, ran till the end of 1859 
  (from 1857 under the name of the British Spiritual Telegraph). 
  There were also a few other periodicals which did not enjoy so long 
  a lease of life. But though the British books and papers dealing 
  with the subject were but few, the lack was supplied by American 
  productions, which were. largely read in this country. Mediums, as 
  well as literature, were imported from America, notable among 
  them being Daniel Dunglas Home (q.v.) who crossed over to 
  Britain in 1855 at the age of twenty - three, and who had already 
  acted as a medium in America for some four years. Many of those 
  who afterwards became prominent mediums were first coverted to 
  spiritualism at Home's seances. In the autumn of 1855 Home 
  returned to America, and in 1856 his place was taken by P. B. 
  Randolph, who attended the meetings of the Charing Cross Circle. 
  In 1859 came the Rev. T. L. Harris, deputed by the spirits to visit 
  
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  England. An English medium, named Mrs. Marshall, gave seances 
  professionally, but much less successfully than did Home and the 
  American mediums, though the phenomena were of a similar kind. 
  English spiritualists, however, did not court publicity, but 
  practised for the most part anonymously. The phenomena at these 
  seances resemble those in America - playing of instruments 
  without visible agency, materialisation of hands, table - turning, 
  and so on but on a much smaller scale. It was not so much these 
  physical manifestations, however, which inspired the confidence or 
  excited the credulity of early spiritualists, but rather the automatic 
  writing and speaking which, rare at first, afterwards became a 
  feature of mediumistic seances. So early as 1854 the trance 
  utterances of a medium named Annie were recorded by a circle of 
  Swedenborgians presided over by Elihu Rich. The importance 
  given at this stage of the movement to subjective phenomena must 
  be attributed to an imperfect understanding of unconscious 
  cerebration. Such men as Mr. Thomas Shorter, editor of the 
  Spiritual Magazine, failed to comprehend how the medium was 
  able to reason while in the trance state, and to perform intelligent 
  acts of which the normal consciousness knew nothing. Therefore 
  they adopted the spirit hypothesis. Mrs. de Morgan and Mrs. 
  Newton Crosland gave a ready credence to the automatic 
  utterances of their friends. Symbolic drawings were a feature of 
  Mrs. Crosland's circle, as was also the speaking in unknown 
  tongues, which were translated by the spirit through another 
  medium. 
   
  In 1860 a new spiritual era opened, and the whole subject came 
  into more prominence than it had done heretofore. This was due to 
  the increase in the number of British mediums and the emigration 
  to Britain of many American mediums, including the Davenport 
  Brothers and D. D. Home, who once more visited England in 1859. 
  Home was treated respectfully, Dot to say generously. by the bulk 
  of the press and by the public, and admitted to the highest grades 
  of society. Another American medium who practised about the 
  same time was J. R. M. Squire, whose manifestations were vouched 
  for by Dr. Lockhart Robertson. Other mediums there were, 
  however, such as Colchester and Foster, who practised trickery so 
  openly that the spiritualists themselves exposed their fraud, though 
  maintaining that at times the manifestations even of these mediums 
  were genuine. After Home, the most famous American mediums 
  were the brothers Davenport, who practised various forms of 
  physical mediumship. They took their places in a small cabinet, 
  bound band and foot to the satisfaction of the sitters. When the 
  lights were lowered, musical instruments were thrown about the 
  room and played upon and other physical phenomena were 
  apparent. When the sence was over and the lights once more 
  raised, the brothers Davenport were found securely fastened in 
  their cabinet. The manifestations were so skilfully produced that 
  many people hesitated whether to, regard them as clever conjuring 
  or spirit phenomena. At length, however, the Davenports were 
  exposed through the agency of a secret knot called the " Tom Fool's 
  knot, " which they were unable to untie, and which rendered the 
  necessary escape from their bonds impossible. Their career in 
  Britain was at an end. Shortly afterwards the conjuring 
  performances of Maskelyne and Cook, in emulation of the 
  Davenport Brothers, drove the spiritualists to conclude that they 
  also must be renegade mediums. Nativemediumship developed 
  much more slowly in England than that of the American 
  spiritualists. Mrs. Marshall was for a time practically the only 
  professional medium of standing in the country, though private 
  mediums were less rare. Notable among the latter were Mrs. 
  Everitt, Mr. Edward Child, and Miss Nichol, afterwards the second 
  wife of Mr. Guppy, who became a famous medium. During this 
  period poltergeistic disturbances were still recorded in which all 
  the familiar phenomena reappeared, but they were explained on 
  spiritualist lines. Crystal vision was practised and auras were 
  commonly seen by the medium round the heads of his friends. 
  Automatic writing, speaking, and drawing continued, and 
  inspirational addresses, etc., were published. In 1869 a new 
  impulse was given to spiritualism by the appearance of several 
  public mediums, chief among them being F. Herne, who devoted 
  his talents to the production of physical manifestations, and in 
  connection with whom we first see the phenomenon of " elongation 
  " (q.v.). Within a few years a number of other English mediums 
  sprang up - Eglinton, Monck, Rita, and many more, while Dr. 
  Slade, Annie Eva Fay, and Kate Fox (who afterwards married an 
  English barrister named Jencken) came over from America. In 
  x870 the Rev. W. Stainton Moses (" M. A. Oxon, ") destined to be 
  one of the greatest of English mediums, devoted himself to private 
  mediumship. In 1872 there was introduced into England, through 
  the agency of the Guppys, the practice of Spirit Photography (q.v.), 
  which had originated ten years earlier in America. To very many 
  people a photograph containing, in addition to the sitter's portrait, 
  a vague splotch of white, was conclusive evidence of the 
  materialisation of spirits. After numerous exposures the craze for 
  spirit photography declined and of late years little has been heard 
  of it, though in spasmodic fashion it sometimes shows evidence of 
  life. Slate - writing (q.v.) was a favourite mode of " direct " writing 
  and one extensively practised. Sittings were generally held in the 
  dark, and the sitters were enjoined to talk or sing, or perhaps a 
  musical box was played. Most of the records of these earlier 
  seances are singularly suggestive of fraud. In 1874 Mrs. Jencken 
  (Kate Fox) was staying at Brighton with her baby, aged about six 
  months, and it is related that the baby became a writing medium. 
  A facsimile of its writing was published in the Medium and 
  Daybreak of May 8th, 1874. In the same year came Mrs. Annie 
  Eva Fay whose feats resembled those of the Davenports. Another 
  celebrated medium was David Duguid, of Glasgow, who painted " 
  under control." In 1876 Henry Slade came from America, and 
  turned his attention chiefly to slate - writing. A few months after 
  his appearance in Britain Professor Ray Lankester detected him in 
  fraud, prosecuted him, and finally obliged him to leave the 
  country. But the crowning manifestation, the climax of spiritual 
  phenomena and apparently the most difficult of achievement, was 
  materialisation (q.v.) It began with the materialisation of heads, 
  hands, and arms, and proceeded to full materialisation. In 1872 
  Mrs. Guppy attempted this form of manifestation, but with no 
  conspicuous success. The mediums Herne and Williams also, 
  included it in their repertory, but a new and successful medium 
  made her appearance - Florence Cook, who materialised the spirits 
  of " John " and " Katie King." When, during a seance, Miss Cook 
  was seized by Mr. Volckman while impersonating a spirit, the 
  exposure drew from Sir William Crookes several letters testifying 
  to the honesty of the medium, with whom he had experimented, 
  and rather helped the cause of spiritualism than otherwise. Other 
  private mediums also gave materialisation seances, and from them 
  the contagion spread to their professional brethren, among whom 
  the most successful was undoubtedly William Eglinton. Miss Lottie 
  Fowler also attained to fame as a medium about the same time the 
  decade 18708o. These open seances offered a better opportunity to 
  the investigator, and though even in them some care was doubtless 
  exercised to prevent the intrusion of " adverse influences, " there 
  were a good many instances where a sceptic ventured to grasp the 
  spirit, and when this occurred spirit and medium were always 
  found to be one and the same. By way of apology for these 
  
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  untoward happenings the Spiritualist suggested that the spirit was 
  composed of emanations from the medium, and that when it was 
  grasped by the sitter spirit and medium would unite, the form 
  possessing most of the medium's force rejoining the other. Another 
  explanation, especially applicable to physical manifestations, was 
  that genuine mediums, giving professional seances, and forced to 
  produce the phenomena on .all occasions, would sometimes resort 
  to fraud when their mediumistic powers temporarily failed them. 
  This perfectly plausible excuse was always ready to meet a charge 
  of fraud. The subjective phenomena, as time advanced became less 
  in favour with investigators, who began really to understand its 
  subjective nature, but with spiritualists it remained the most 
  important form of manifestation The trance utterances of Home 
  (q.v.), Stainton Moses, and Miss Lottie Fowler were highly valued. 
  David Duguid, the celebrated painting medium, was controlled by 
  a new spirit, Hafed, Prince of Persia, whose life and adventures 
  were delivered through the medium. Prominent inspirational 
  speakers were Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, J. J. Morse, and Mrs. 
  Cora L. V. Tappan - Richmond. Among English periodicals 
  devoted to spiritualism were Human Nature, first issued in 1867; 
  the Medium and Daybreak, founded a few years later; the Spiritual 
  Magazine; and the Spiritualist (1867), edited by Mr. W. H. 
  Harrison, and treating the subject in a scientific manner. A still 
  more recent paper, Light, dates from 1881, and still remains one of 
  the principal organs of the movement. One of the earliest 
  investigators was Sir William Crookes, whose experiences with D. 
  D. Home are not to be lightly passed by. In 1863 Professor de 
  Morgan, in a preface to Mrs. do Morgan's book, From Matter to 
  Spirit, suggests the agency of some mysterious force, though he did 
  not become a spiritualist until afterwards. In 1868 Cromwell 
  Varley, the electrician, testified to the phenomena of Home. In the 
  following year the London Dialectical Society appointed a 
  Committee to enquire into the matter, whose members included 
  Alfred Russel Wallace (q.v.), Charles Bradlaugh, and Sergeant 
  Cox. The report of the committee stated that the subject was " 
  worthy of more serious and careful investigation than it has 
  hitherto received." Cromwell Varley, and the Research Committee 
  of the British National Association of Spiritualists carried out 
  various electrical and other tests, but as these have since been, 
  proved to be inadequate, it is not necessary to consider them in 
  detail. On the other hand Faraday and Tyndall, Huxley and 
  Carpenter, refused to have anything to do with the psychic 
  phenomena, and opposed the spiritualistic movement in a spirit of 
  intolerance which contrasted unfavourably with the attitude of its 
  scientific protagonists, Meanwhile the old rationalist school of 
  believers in magnetic or odylic emanations still lingered and were 
  represented by the Psychological Society (founded in 1875, and 
  came to an end in 1879), the writings of its president, Sergeant 
  Cox, and those of the well - known spiritualist, Mr. Samuel Guppy. 
  One other scientific man of the period is deserving of mention in 
  this connection. In 1876 Professor Barrett (now Sir William), 
  lecturing before the British Association, declared that 
  hypermsthesia and suggestion were not alone capable of explaining 
  the phenomena, and urged the necessity for appointing a 
  committee to investigate. However, his suggestion was not acted 
  upon, and in 1882 he called a conference to consider the question. 
  The direct result of this conference was the founding of the Society 
  for Psychical Research. Up to this point the English movement 
  differed from the American less in kind than in degree, for it was 
  altogether weaker and more restricted. Indeed, the difference in 
  the traditions of the two countries. and in the general temper of 
  their people, rendered it impossible that the movement should 
  spread here as rapidly as it had done in America, or that it should 
  be embraced with such fervour. It was not - probably for the same 
  reason - inimical to Christianity in England, but rather 
  supplementary to it, and there were those who claimed to be 
  converted to Christianity through its means.  
   
   The Society for Psychical Research.  - The history of the criticism 
  of occult phenomena in Great Britain from 1882to the present time 
  is intimately connected with the Society for Psychical Research, 
  and there is no development worthy of record which its members 
  have not investigated.It was the first body to make a united and 
  organised attempt to deal with what was called, for want of a better 
  name, psychic phenomena, in a purely scientific and impartial 
  spirit, free from the bias of pre - conceived ideas on the subject. It 
  was, indeed, expressly stated in their prospectus that the members 
  in no wise bound themselves to accept any one explanation, or to 
  recognise in the phenomena the working of any non - physical 
  agency. The first president of the Society was Professor Henry 
  Sidgwick, and the Council numbered among its members Edmund 
  Gurney, Frank Podmore, Frederic W. H. Myers, and Professor 
  Barrett; and the Rev. W. Stainton Moses, Morell Theobald, Dr. 
  George Wild, and Dawson Rogers, the latter four being 
  spiritualists. It may be mentioned, however, that the avowedly 
  spiritualistic members of the Society gradually dropped off. Other 
  presidents of the Society we're, Professor Balfour Stewart, the Rt. 
  Hon. A. J.Balfour, Professor William James, Sir William Crookes, 
  Sir Oliver Lodge, and Professor Barrett, several of these being 
  among the original members. The scope of the Psychical Research 
  Society was defined by the appointmentof six committees, as 
  follows: - (Y) Committee on Thought Transference; (2) Committee 
  on Hypnotism; (3) Committee on Reichenbach's Experiments; (4) 
  Committee on Apparitions, (5) Committee on Physical 
  (spiritualistic)Phenomena; and (6) a Committee to consider the 
  history and existing literature of the subject. The field of the 
  Society was thus a wide one, and it was still further enlarged in 
  later years, when a committee, headed by Dr.Richard Hodgson, 
  conducted an enquiry into Theosophy(q.v.). And the methods of 
  psychic research were applied to other matters also, which were 
  outside of the Society's original scope. In order to find an 
  explanation for this journeyed into the spiritualistic phenomena, its 
  member domain of psychology, and studied automatism, 
  hallucinations, and thought transference, one or other of which has 
  been proved to have an important bearing on much of the 
  spiritualistic phenomena, if not on all. They were also instrumental 
  in detecting a great deal of fraud in connection with mediumistic 
  performances, especially in such phenomena as slate - writing 
  (q.v.) and other " physical " manifestations. The explanation of 
  these, in fact, formed one of the chief aims of the Society. Though 
  at the time of its founding public mediumship seemed to have 
  declined; there was still more than enough phenomena for the 
  Society to investigate, and the testimony of Sir William 4Crookes 
  and others of standing and intellectual strength indicated that the 
  matter was at least a fit subject for investigation. In connection 
  with slate - writing, which many persons declared to be genuine 
  and so simple that fraud was impossible, Mr. S. J. Davey, a 
  member of the Society, gave a number of pseudo - seances. Having 
  been himself deceived for a time by the performances in that line 
  of the well - known medium, William Eglinton, and having at 
  length discovered the modus of his slate - writing feats, Mr. Davey 
  set himself to emulate the medium's manifestations." In the 
  interests of psychic research he undertook to give sittings, which 
  were carefully recorded by Dr. Hodgson. So well were the devices 
  of the professional mediums reproduced that none of the sitters 
  were able to detect the modus operandi of Davey's performances, 
  even though they were assured beforehand that it was simply a 
  conjuring trick. Such a demonstration could not fail to do more 
  
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  than any amount of argument to expose the "phenomenon" of slate - 
  writing. (See article on Slate - writing.) Excellent work was done 
  by the Society in the collection of evidence relating to apparitions 
  of the dead and the living, many of which are embodied in 
  Phantasms of the living, by Messrs. Myers, Podmore and Gurney. 
  A statistical enquiry on a large scale was undertaken by a 
  Committee of the Society in 1889. Some 17, 000 cases of 
  apparitions were collected by the committee and its assistants. The 
  main object in taking such a census was to obtain evidence for the 
  working of telepathy in veridical or coincidental apparitions, and 
  in order to make such evidence of scientific value, the utmost care 
  was taken to insure the impartiality and responsible character of 
  all who took part in the enquiry. The result was, that after every 
  precaution had been taken the apparitions coinciding with a death 
  or other crisis were found greatly to exceed the number which 
  could be ascribed to chance alone. (See also Psychical Research.) 
  But the most fruitful of the Society's researches were those 
  concerning telepathy (q.v.), or thought - transference, and it was 
  through the influence of its members that the doctrine of thought - 
  transference, so long known to the vague speculations of the old 
  magnetists and mesmerists, was first placed on a definite basis as a 
  problem worthy of scientific enquiry. Investigations into this matter 
  are still progressing, and trustworthy proof of such a mode of 
  communication would affect the scientific view of spiritualism to a 
  remarkable degree. Among the individual efforts of members of the 
  Society for Psychical Research the most complete and the most 
  successful were those conducted by Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick 
  in 1889 - 91. At the same time there was much to encourage the 
  belief in some " supernormal " agency, especially in the last 
  decade of the nineteenth century. The two mediums whose 
  manifestations led many able men in this country, in America, and 
  on the Continent, to conclude that the spirits of the dead were 
  concerned in their phenomena were the Italian medium Eusapia 
  Palladino (q.v.) and the American Mrs. Piper. In 1885 Professor 
  James, of Harvard, studied the case of Mrs. Piper (q.v.), and a few 
  years later Dr. Richard Hodgson of the American Society for 
  Psychical Research also investigated her case, the latter 
  commencing his investigations in an entirely sceptical spirit. Of all 
  the trance mediums she offers the best evidence for a supernatural 
  agency. Dr. Hodgson himself declared his belief that the spirits of 
  the dead spoke through the lips of the medium, and among others 
  who held that fraud alone would not account for the revelations 
  given by Mrs. Piper in the trance state were Professor James, Sir 
  Oliver Lodge, Mr. Myers and Professor J. H. Hyslop. On the other 
  hand, Mr. Podmore, while not admitting any supernormal agency, 
  suggests that telepathy may help to explain the matter, probably 
  aided by skilful observation and carefully - conducted enquiries 
  concerning the affairs of prospective sitters. Mrs. Sidgwick, again, 
  suggested that probably Mrs. Piper received telepathic 
  communications from the spirits of the dead, which she reproduced 
  in her automatic speaking and writing. The other medium was 
  Eusapia Palladino, who, after attracting considerable attention 
  from Professors Lombroso, Richet, Flammarion, and others on the 
  Continent, came to Britain in 1895. Several English scientific men 
  had already witnessed her telergic powers on the Continent, at the 
  invitation of Professor Charles Richet - Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr. 
  Myers, and others  - and of these Sir Oliver Lodge, at least, had 
  expressed himself as satisfied that no known agency was 
  responsible for her remarkable manifestations. The English sittings 
  were held at Cambridge, and as it was proved conclusively that the 
  medium made use of fraud, the majority of the investigators 
  ascribed her " manifestations " entirely to that. Later, however, in 
  1898, a further series of seances were held at Paris, and so 
  successfully that Richet, Myers, and Sir 0. Lodge once more 
  declared themselves satisfied of the genuineness of the 
  phenomena. A further account of this medium will be found under 
  a separate heading. Perhaps the most convincing evidence for the 
  working of some supernormal agency, however, is to be found in 
  the famous cross - correspondence experiments conducted in 
  recent years. Mr. Myers had suggested before he died that if a 
  control were to give the same message to two or more mediums, it 
  would go far to establish the independent existence of such control. 
  On the death of Professor Sidgwick (in August, 1800) and of Mr. 
  Myers (in January, 1801) it was thought that if mediums were 
  controlled by these, some agreement might be looked for in the 
  scripts. The first correspondences were found in the script of Mrs. 
  Thomson and Miss Rawson, the former in London, the latter in the 
  south of France. The Sidgwick control appeared for the first time to 
  these ladies on the same day, January 11th, 1801. On the 8th of 
  May, 1801 the Alyers control appeared in the script of Mrs. 
  Thompson and Mrs. Verrall, and later in that of Mrs. Piper and 
  others. So remarkable were the correspondences obtained in some 
  cases where there could not possibly be collusion between the 
  mediums, that it is difficult to believe that some discarnate 
  intelligence was not responsible for some, at least of the scripts.  
   
  See also the biographies of the various eminent spiritualists, 
  mediums, and investigators dealt with in this work, and the articles 
  on Telepathy, Hallucination, Table - turning, etc.  
   
  By far the most extraordinary experiments in connection with 
  psychic phenomena were those undertaken by Sir William 
  Crookes. Working under the most stringent conditions he and his 
  fellow experimenters assured themselves that entrance or exit to 
  the room in which their seances were held was impossible. Yet he 
  succeeded by the aid of a medium in obtaining the best possible 
  evidence of the presence of spirits or other entities in the 
  apartment. These were of a tangible nature and were actually 
  weighed by Sir William, who on one occasion even succeeded in 
  obtaining a portion of the protoplasmic matter from which these 
  entities were built up, which he kept in a box for several days. 
  These entities emerged from the body of the medium or from that 
  of one of the sitters, walked about, spoke, and even debated loudly 
  and noisily with Sir William and the other sitters on many different 
  topics over a prolonged space of time. They frequently vanished 
  through the floor. Sir William found their average weight to be 
  about one - third of that of a human being. These phenomena were 
  witnessed by numerous persons of the highest intelligence and 
  probity, among them, it is understood, some of exalted rank. A full 
  statement regarding the phenomena in all their details may be 
  found in Mr Gambier Bolton's interesting little volume Ghosts in 
  Solid Form. 
   
  No work of recent times furnishes the student of psychic research 
  with such a masterly conspectus of the subject a Sir William F. 
  Barrett's On the Threshold of the Unseen (1917). Expanded from 
  an address on the phenomena o spiritualism delivered some twenty 
  years ago, it cover the whole history of psychical research during 
  that period and a notice of it may well serve to complete this article 
  and furnish the reader with data concerning psychical research 
  during the present century. The introduction chapter briefly 
  reviews the work of eminent scientists an( provides a frank 
  statement of the present position of psychical research. Public 
  opinion regarding the quest, and th conflicting objections of 
  science and religion are briefly reviewed in chapters II. and III., 
  and are followed by a essay on the physical phenomena of 
  
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  spiritualism, which contains little that is not noticed in the present 
  article Chapter VIL, " On Certain more Disputable Phenomena of 
  Spiritualism, " deals with examples of the direct voice and direct 
  writing, materialization and spirit photography, al of which 
  phenomena have been termed ectoplasms by Professor Ochorowicz 
  of Warsaw. " By Ectoplasy, " say Sir William, " is meant the power 
  of forming outside the body of the medium a concentration of vital 
  energy or vitalized matter which operates temporarily in the same 
  way as the body from which it is drawn, so that visible audible or 
  tangible human - like phenomena are produced This is very much 
  like the ' psychic force' hypothesis under a new name. The chapter 
  " On the Canons of Evidence in Psychical Research " includes a 
  sentence which might well be taken to heart by the too sceptical: " 
  It is utterly unphilosophical to ridicule or deny well - attested 
  phenomena because they are inexplicable." Sir William shows how 
  the critical examination of psychic phenomena has languished 
  because of the lack of trained scientific observers, those devoting 
  themselves to the subject being for the most part persons of more 
  enthusiasm than judgment. The chapter on theories is eminently 
  useful. " I have never yet, " says the author, " met with anyone who 
  has seriously studied the evidence or engaged in prolonged 
  investigation of this subject who holds, that all mediums are 
  impostors.'" The theories examined to account for supernormal 
  phenomena include those of hallucination, which is only partially 
  admitted as a cause. Exo - neural action of the brain which is, 
  however, a sub - conscious action, an effect of the subliminal self, 
  but perhaps the viost interesting of the hypotheses which account 
  for these miraculous happenings is described as follows: " It may 
  be that the intelligence operating at a seance is a thought 
  projection of ourselves - that each one of us has his simulacrum in 
  the unseen; that with the growth of our life and character here a 
  ghostly image of oneself is growing up in the invisible world." The 
  Problem of Mediumship is the subject of the tenth chapter. 
  Objection is taken to the word " medium, " not only because of its 
  associations, but for more scientific reasons. A separate division of 
  the book is occupied with the phenomenal evidence afforded by 
  apparitions, automatic writing, supernormal messages, and the 
  evidence of identity in the discarnate condition and of survival 
  after death. The last portion of the volume brings the question of 
  human personality up to date, especially as regards its higher 
  aspects, the conclusion being that only the barrier of our sense 
  perceptions, a " threshold of sensibility, " divides us from the world 
  beyond our normal consciousness, just as " the organism of an 
  oyster constitutes a threshold which shuts it out from the greater 
  part of our sensible world." As regards the question of immortality 
  it is concluded that " Life can exist in the unseen, " but it does not 
  follow that spirit communications teach us the necessary and 
  inherent immortality of the soul. " If we accept the evidence for ' 
  identity, ' that some we have known on earth are still living and 
  near us, " we have still to remember that " entrance on a life after 
  death does not necessarily mean immortality, that is eternal 
  persistence of our personality, nor does it prove that survival after 
  death extends to all. Obviously no experimental evidence can ever 
  demonstrate either of these beliefs, though it may and does remove 
  the objections raised as to the possibility of survival." 
   
  Towards the end of 1916 a great sensation was made not only in 
  occult but in general circles by the publication by Sir Oliver Lodge 
  of a memoir upon his son, the late Lieutenant Raymond Lodge, 
  who was killed near Ypres in September, 1915. The book is 
  divided into three parts, the first of which contains a history of the 
  brief life of the subject of the memoir. The second part details 
  numerous records of sittings both in the company of mediums and 
  at the table by Sir Oliver Lodge and members of his family, and it 
  is claimed that in these many evidences of the personal survival of 
  his son were obtained, that the whole trend of the messages was 
  eloquent of his personality and that although if the evidential 
  matter were taken apart for examination single isolated proofs 
  would not be deemed conclusive, yet when taken in a body it 
  provides evidential material of an important nature. There is 
  certainly ground for this contention and it must be admitted that 
  proofs of identity are more valuable when experienced by those 
  who were familiar with the subject during his earthly career. But to 
  those who have not had this opportunity the balance of the 
  evidence seems meagre and it is notable that in this especial case 
  most of the tests of real value broke down when put into practice. 
  The third part of the book deals with the scientific material relating 
  to the life after death which is reviewed and summarized in a spirit 
  of great fairness, although a natural bias towards belief in, 
  immortality is not a little obvious. In this the work differs from that 
  by Sir William Barrett, with its wholly scientific attitude and its 
  greater natural ability to discern dialectical weaknesses, but it is 
  far from being unscientific in character. On the other hand Sir 
  Oliver - Lodge's work is inspired throughout by an enthusiasm 
  which if not entirely absent in that of Sir William Barrett, is 
  certainly not conspicuous in that writer's treatise. Sir Oliver's 
  enthusiasm is, indeed, that of a Columbus or a Galileo. Throughout 
  the centuries the pioneer and discoverer have been uplifted and 
  assisted more by faith than by reason, and it is probably because of 
  his abounding faith in human immortality that Sir Oliver Lodge 
  will in future be regarded as perhaps the greatest pioneer in 
  psychic science, not only of his own generation but of many 
  generations.  
   
  Spiritualism as a Religion - Spiritualism was, and is, regarded by 
  its adherents as a religion, or a supplement to an existing religion, 
  imposing certain moral obligations and offering new and far - 
  reaching revelations on the conditions of existence beyond the 
  grave. The continuity of life after death is, of course, one of its 
  most important tenets, though not a distinctive one; since on it 
  depend most of the world's creeds and religions. But the 
  spiritualist's ideas concerning the nature of the life of the freed 
  soul are peculiar to his creed. The soul, or spirit, is composed of a 
  sort of attenuated matter, inhabiting the body and resembling it in 
  form. On the death of the body the soul withdraws itself, without 
  however, undergoing any direct change, and for a l6nger or shorter 
  period remains on the " earth plane." But the keynote of the spirit - 
  world is progress; so after a time the spirit proceeds to the lowest " 
  discarnate plane, " and from that to a higher and a higher, 
  gradually evolving into a purer and nobler type, until at length it 
  reaches the sphere of pure spirit. Another central belief of 
  spiritualism is that the so - called - dead " can, and do, 
  communicate with the living, through the agency of mediums, and 
  can produce in the physical world certain phenomena depending 
  for their operation on no known physical laws. To the earnest 
  spiritualist, requiring no further proof of the reality of hip creed, 
  the subjective phenomena, as they are called, comprising trance - 
  speaking, writing, etc., are of vastly greater importance than the 
  physical manifestations, just as the latter are more in favour with 
  psychical researchers, because of the better opportunities they 
  offer for investigation. From the trance - speaking of the medium 
  are gathered those particulars of the spirit world which to the 
  outsider present one of the most unattractive pictures extant of that 
  domain. The spirit life is, in fact, represented as a pale and 
  attenuated reproduction of earthly life, conducted in a highly 
  rarified atmosphere. Trance drawings, purporting to depict spirit 
  scenes, afford a description no less flattering than the written 
  picture. From their exalted spheres the spirits are cognisant of the 
  
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  doings of their fellow - men still on earth, and are at all times 
  ready to aid and counsel the latter. This they can do only through 
  the medium, who is a link between the seen and the unseen, 
  perhaps through some quality of supernormal sensitiveness. There 
  are those who maintain that those mediums who hold seances and 
  become the direct mouthpieces of the spirits are only 
  supereminently endowed with a faculty common to all humanity - 
  that all men are mediums in a greater or less degree, and that all 
  inspiration, whether good or bad, comes from the spirits. It is in 
  connection with this idea of the universality of mediumship that 
  the effect of spiritualism on the morals and daily life of its 
  adherents is most clearly seen. For the spirits are naturally 
  attracted to those mediums whose qualities resemble their own. 
  Enlightened spirits from the highest spheres seek high - souled 
  and earnest mediums through whom to express themselves, while 
  mediums who use their divine gifts for a base end are sought by 
  the lowest and wickedest human spirits, or by beings termed " 
  elementals, " who do not even reach the human standard of 
  goodness. Indeed, it is stated that the lower spirits communicate 
  with the living much more readily than do the higher, by reason of 
  a certain gross or material quality which binds them to earth. The 
  path of the medium is thus beset with many difficulties, and it is 
  essential that he should be principled and sincere, a creature of 
  pure life and high ideals, so that the circle of his " controls " be 
  select. For not only do the tricky " elementals " deceive the sitters 
  and the investigators with their lying ways, but they ofttimes drive 
  the medium himself to fraud, so that under their control he 
  secretes " apports " about his person, and materialises false beards 
  and dirty muslin. And as it is with the full - fledged medium, so 
  with the normal individual. If he is to insure that the source of his 
  inspiration be a high one he must live in such a way that only the 
  best spirits will control him, and so his impulses shall be for his 
  own good and the betterment of the race. It will thus be seen that 
  spiritualism is in itself a complete religion; but it also combines 
  well with other religions and creeds. In America the spiritualistic 
  and the socialistic elements mingled harmoniously and many of the 
  socialistic communities were founded by spiritualists. Other sects 
  there were which associated themselves with spiritualism during 
  the early history of the movement in America, and rumour - 
  somewhat unfairly, it must be admitted - would have associated 
  with it some less creditable ones, such as that which advocated 
  free Love. But the many forms which spiritualism took in America 
  were, as has been said, the product of the country and the time. In 
  other lands the forms were different. In England, for instance, 
  where wont and tradition were more happily settled, spiritualism 
  was regarded as by no means incompatible with Christianity but 
  rather as affording a fuller revelation of the Christian religion, a 
  view which the trance utterances of the medium confirmed. In 
  France, again, Allan Kardec's doctrine of re - incarnation blended 
  happily with the doctrines of spiritualism to produce spiritism. 
  Then we have the more modern example of theosophy (q.v.), a 
  blending of spiritualism with oriental religions. But all these varied 
  forms contain the central creed of spiritualism; the belief in the 
  continuance of life after the " great dissolution, " or death of the 
  body, and in continual progress; and in the fact of communication 
  between the freed spirit and living human beings. On the whole 
  spiritualists have shown themselves rather tolerant than otherwise 
  to those who were not of their band. On the one hand their 
  mediums did not hesitate to claim kinship with the wizards, 
  shamans and witchdoctors of savage lands, whom they hailed as 
  natural mediums; and on the other, there were many able and 
  sincere spiritualists who joined forces with the Psychical 
  Researcher, in the unflinching endeavour to expose fraud and get 
  at the truth. 
   
  Subterranean Crypts and Temples: Subterranean resorts, crypts 
  and places of worship, have ever exercised a deep fascination upon 
  the mind of man. The mysteries of the Egyptian, and of other 
  peoples were held in underground crypts possibly for the purposes 
  of rendering these ceremonies still more secret and mysterious to 
  the mob. But also, perhaps, because it was essential to the privacy 
  they necessitated. The caves of Elephanta, the Catacombs and 
  similar subterranean edifices will also recur to the mind of the 
  reader. But the purpose of this article is to refer to several lesser 
  and perhaps more interesting underground meeting - places and 
  temples in various parts of the world. 
   
  Mr. Hargreave Jennings quoting Dr. Plot in his History of 
  Staffordshire, written in the third quarter of the seventeenth 
  century, gives an interesting account of a supposed Rosicrucian 
  crypt in that county, which, however, cannot be found in the work 
  alluded to. It is, however, given as an interesting imaginative 
  effort. A countryman was employed, at the close of a certain dull 
  summer's day, in digging a trench in a field in a valley, round 
  which the country rose into sombre, silent woods, vocal only with 
  the quaint cries of the infrequent magpies. It was some little time 
  after the sun had sunk, and the countryman was just about giving 
  over his labour for the day. In one or two of the last languid strokes 
  of his pick, the rustic came upon something stony and hard, which 
  struck a spark, clearly visible in the increasing gloom. At this 
  surprise, he resumed his labour, and, curiously enough, found a 
  large, flat stone in the centre of the field. This field was far away 
  from any of the farms or " cotes, " as they were called, with which 
  the now almost twilight country was sparingly dotted. In a short 
  time, he cleared the stone free of the grass and weeds which had 
  grown over it; and it proved to be a large, oblong slab, with an 
  immense iron ring fixed at one end in a socket. For half an hour 
  the countryman essayed to stir this stone in vain. At last he 
  bethought himself of some yards of rope which he had lying near 
  amongst his tools; and these he converted, being an ingenious, 
  inquisitive, inventive man, into a tackle - by means of which, and 
  by passing the sling round a bent tree in a line with the axis of the 
  stone, he contrived, in the last of the light, and with much 
  expenditure of toil to raise it. And then, greatly to his surprise, he 
  saw a large, deep, hollow place, buried in the darkness, which, 
  when his eyes grew accustomed a little to it, he discovered was the 
  top - story to a stone staircase, seemingly of extraordinary depth, 
  for he saw nothing below. The country - fellow had not the slightest 
  idea of where this could lead to; but being a man, though a rustic 
  and a clown, of courage, and most probably urged by his idea that 
  the stair - case led to some secret repository where treasure lay 
  buried, he descended the first few steps cautiously, and tried to 
  peer in vain down into the darkness. This seemed impenetrable, 
  but there was one object at a vast, cold distance below. Looking up 
  to the fresh air, and seeing the star Venus - the evening star - 
  shining suddenly like a planet, in encouraging, unexpected 
  brilliancy, although the sky had still some sunset - light in it, the 
  puzzled man left the upper ground and descended silently a fair, 
  though a somewhat broken stair - case. Here, at an angle, as near 
  as he could judge, of a hundred feet underground, he came upon a 
  square landing - place, with a niche in the wall; and then he saw a 
  further long stair - case, descending at right angles to the first stair 
  - case, and still going down into deep, cold, darkness. The man 
  cast a glance upwards, as if questioning the small segment of light 
  from the upper world which shot down whether he should continue 
  
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  his search, or desist and return. All was stillest of the still about 
  him but he saw no reason particularly to fear. So, imagining that he 
  would in some way soon penetrate the mystery, and feeling in the 
  darkness by his hands upon the wall, and by his toes first on each 
  step, he resolutely descended, and he deliberately counted two 
  hundred and twenty steps. He felt no difficulty in his breathing, 
  except a certain sort of aromatic smell of distant incense, that he 
  thought Egyptian, coming up now and then from below, as if from 
  another though a subterranean world. " Possibly, " thought he - for 
  he had heard of them - " the world of the mining gnomes; and I am 
  breaking in upon their secrets, which is forbidden for man." The 
  rustic, though courageous, was superstitious. 
   
  But, notwithstanding some fits of fear, the countryman went on, 
  and at a much lower angle he met a wall in his face; but, making a 
  turn to the right, with a singular credit to his nerves, the explorer 
  went down again. And now he saw at a vast distance below, at the 
  foot of a deeper staircase of stone, a steady though a pale light. 
  This was shining up as if from a star, or coming from the centre of 
  the earth. Cheered by this light, though absolutely astounded - 
  nay, frightened - at thus discovering light, whether natural or 
  artificial, in the deep bowels of the earth, the man again 
  descended, meeting a thin, humid trail of light, as it looked, 
  mounting up the centre line of the shining though mouldering old 
  stairs, which apparently had not been pressed by a human foot for 
  very many ages. He thought now, although it was probable only the 
  wind in some hidden recess, or creeping down some gallery, that 
  he heard a murmur overhead, as if of the uncertain rumble of 
  horses and of heavy wagons, or lumbering wains. Next moment, all 
  subsided into total stillness; but the distant light seemed to flicker, 
  as if in answer to the strange sound. Half a dozen times he paused 
  and turned as if he would remount -  - almost flee for his life 
  upwards, as he thought; for this might be the secret haunt of 
  robbers, or the dreadful abode of evil spirits. What if, in a few 
  moments, he should come upon some scene to affright, or alight in 
  the midst of desperate ruffians, or be caught by murderers. He 
  listened eagerly. He now almost bitterly repented his descent. Still 
  the light streamed at a distance, but still there was no sound to 
  interpret the meaning of the light, or to display the character of this 
  mysterious place, in which the countryman himself was entangled 
  hopelessly. 
   
  The discoverer by this time stood still in fear. But at last, 
  summoning courage, and recommending himself devoutly to God, 
  he determined to complete his discovery. Above, he had been 
  working in no strange place: the field he knew well, the woods 
  were very familiar to him, and his own hamlet and his family were 
  only a few miles distant He now hastily, and more in fear than 
  through courage, noisily with his feet descended the remainder of 
  the stairs; and the light grew brighter as he approached, until at 
  last, at another turn, he came upon a square chamber built up of 
  large hewn stones. He stopped, silent and awestruck. Here was a 
  flagged pavement and a somewhat lofty roof, gathering up into a 
  centre; in the groins of which was a rose, carved exquisitely in 
  some dark stone, or in marble. But what was this poor man's fright 
  when, making another sudden turn, from between the jambs, and 
  from under the large archivolt of a Gothic stone portal, light 
  streamed out over him with inexpressible brilliancy, shining over 
  every thing, and lighting up the place with brilliant radiance, like 
  an intense golden sunset. He started back. Then his limbs shook 
  and bent under him as he gazed with terror at the figure of a man, 
  whose face was hidden, as he sat in a studious attitude in a stone 
  chair, reading in a great book, with his elbow resting on a table 
  like a rectangular altar, in the light of a large, ancient iron lamp, 
  suspended by a thick chain to the middle of the roof. A cry of 
  alarm, which he could not suppress, escaped from the scared 
  discoverer, who involuntarily advanced one pace, beside himself 
  with terror. He was now within the illuminated chamber. As his 
  feet fell on the stone, the figure started bolt upright from his seated 
  position as if in awful astonishment. He erected his hooded head, 
  and showed himself as if in anger about to question the intruder. 
  Doubtful if what he saw were a reality, or whether he was not in 
  some terrific dream, the countryman advanced, without being 
  aware of it, another audacious step. The hooded man now thrust 
  out a long arm, as if in warning, and in a moment the discoverer 
  perceived that his hand was armed with an iron baton, and that he 
  pointed it as if tremendously to forbid further approach. Now, 
  however, the poor man, not being in a condition either to reason or 
  to restrain himself, with a cry, and in a passion of fear, took a third 
  fatal step; and as his foot descended on the groaning stone, which 
  seemed to give way for a moment under him, the dreadful man, or 
  image, raised his arm high like a machine, and with his truncheon 
  struck a prodigious blow upon the lamp, shattering it into a 
  thousand pieces, and leaving the place in utter darkness. 
   
  This was the end of this terrifying adventure. There was total 
  silence now, far and near. Only a long, low roll of thunder, or a 
  noise similar to thunder, seemed to begin from a distance, and 
  then to move with snatches, as if making turns; and it then 
  rumbled sullenly to sleep as if through unknown, inaccessible 
  passages. What these were - if any passages - nobody ever found 
  out. It was only suspected that this hidden place referred in some 
  way to the Rosicrucians, and that the mysterious people of that 
  famous order had there concealed some of their scientific secrets. 
  The place in Staffordshire became afterwards famed as the 
  sepulchre of one of the brotherhood, whom, for want of a more 
  distinct recognition or name, the people chose to call " 
  Rosicrucius, " in general reference to his order; and from the 
  circumstances of the lamp, and its sudden extinguishment by the 
  figure that started up, it was supposed that some Rosicrucian had 
  determined to inform posterity that he had penetrated to the secret 
  of the making of the ever - burning lamps of the ancients, - though, 
  not the moment that he disvlayed his knowledge, he took effectual 
  means that no one should reap any advantage from it. 
   
  The Jesuit priests of the early eighteenth century have left 
  descriptions of the well - known palace of Alitla in Central 
  America, which leave no doubt that in their time it contained many 
  subterranean chambers and one especially which appears to have 
  surpassed all others in the dreadful use, to which it was put. Father 
  Torquemada says of the place, ”When some monks of my order, 
  the Franciscan, passed, preaching and shriving through the 
  province of Zapoteca, whose capital city is Tehuantepec, they 
  came to a village which was called Mictlan, that is, underworld 
  (hell). Besides mentioning the large number of people in the 
  village they told of buildings which were prouder and more 
  magnificent than any which they had hitherto seen in New Spain. 
  Among them was the temple of the evil spirit and living rooms for 
  his demoniacal servants, and among other fine things there was a 
  hall with ornamented panels, which were constructed of stone in a 
  variety of arabesques and other very remarkable designs. There 
  were doorways there, each one of which was built of but three 
  stones, two upright at the sides and one across them, in such a 
  manner that, although these doorways were very high and broad, 
  the stone sufficed for their entire construction. They were so thick 
  and broad that we were assured there were few like them. There 
  was another hall in these buildings, or rectangular temples, which 
  was erected entirely on round stone pillars very high and very 
  
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  thick that two grown men could scarcely encircle them with their 
  arms, nor could one of them reach the finger - tips of the other. 
  These pillars were all in one piece and, it was said, the whole shaft 
  of the pillar measured 5 ells from top to bottom, and they were very 
  much like those of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, 
  very skillfully made and polished." 
   
  Father Burgoa is more explicit with regard to these subterranean 
  chambers. He says, " There were four chambers above ground and 
  four below. The latter were arranged according to their purpose in 
  such a way that one front chamber served as chapel and sanctuary 
  for the idols, which were placed on a great stone which served as 
  an altar. And for the most important feasts which they celebrated 
  with sacrifices, or at the burial of a king or great lord, the high 
  priest instructed the lesser priests or the subordinate temple 
  officials who served him to prepare the chapel and his vestments 
  and a large quantity of the incense used by them. And then he 
  descended with a great retinue, which none of the common people 
  saw him or dared to look in his face, convinced that if they did so 
  they would fall dead to the earth as a punishment for their 
  boldness. And when he entered the chapel they put on him a long 
  white cotton garment made like an alb, and over that a garment 
  shaped like a dalmatic, which was embroidered with pictures of 
  wild beasts and birds; and they put a cap on his head, and on his 
  feet a kind of shoe woven of many - colored feathers. And when he 
  had put on these garments he walked with solemn mien and 
  measured step to the altar, bowed low before the idols, renewed the 
  incense, and then in quite unintelligible murmurs (muy entre 
  dientes) he began to converse with these images, these depositories 
  of infernal spirits, and continued in this sort of prayer with hideous 
  grimaces and writhings, uttering inarticulate sounds, which filled 
  all present with fear and terror, till he came out of that diabolical 
  trance and told those standing around the lies and fabrications 
  which the spirit had imparted to him or which he had invented 
  himself. When human beings were sacrificed the ceremonies were 
  multiplied, and the assistants of the high priest stretched the 
  victim out upon the large stone, bareing his breast, which they tore 
  open with  a great stone knife, while the body writhed in fearful 
  convulsions and they laid the heart bare, ripping it out, and with it 
  the soul, which the devil took, while they carried the heart to the 
  high priest that he might offer it to the idols by holding it to their 
  mouths, among other ceremonies; and the body was thrown into the 
  burial - place of their " blessed, " as they called them. And if after 
  the sacrifice he felt inclined to detain those who begged any favor 
  he sent them word by the subordinate priests not to leave their 
  houses till their gods were appeased, and he commanded them to 
  do penance meanwhile, to fast and to speak with no woman, so 
  that, until this father of sin had interceded for the absolution of the 
  penitents and had declared them appeased they did not dare to 
  cross their threshold. 
   
  " The second (underground) chamber was the burial place of these 
  high priests, and third that of the kings of Theozapotlan, whom 
  they brought thither richly dressed in their best attire, feathers, 
  jewels, golden necklaces, and precious stones, placing a shield in 
  their left hand and a javelin in the right, just as they used them in 
  war. And at their burial rites great mourning prevailed; the 
  instruments which were played made mournful sounds; and with 
  loud wailing and continuous sobbing they chanted the life and 
  exploits of their lord until they laid him on the structure which 
  they had prepared for this purpose. 
   
  " The last (underground) chamber had a second door at the rear, 
  which led to a dark and gruesome room. This was closed with a 
  stone slab, which occupied the whole entrance. Through this door 
  they threw the bodies of the victims and of the great lords and 
  chieftains who had fallen in battle, and they brought them from the 
  spot where they fell, even when it was very far off, to this burial 
  place; and so great was the barbarous infatuation, of these Indians 
  that, in the belief of the happy life which awaited them, many who 
  were oppressed by diseases or hardships begged this infamous 
  priest to accept them as living sacrifices and allow them to enter 
  through that portal and roam about in the dark interior of the 
  mountains, to seek the great feasting - places of their forefathers. 
  And when anyone obtained this favour the servants of the high 
  priest led him thither with special ceremonies, and after they had 
  allowed him to enter through the small door they rolled the stone 
  before it again took leave of him, and the unhappy man, wandering 
  in that abyss of darkness, died of hunger and thirst, beginning 
  already in life the pain of his damnation; and on account of this 
  horrible abyss they called this village Liyobaa, The Cavern of 
  Death. 
   
  " When later there fell upon these people the light of the Gospel, 
  its servants took much trouble to instruct them to find out whether 
  this error, common to all these nations, still prevailed, and they 
  learned from the stories which had been handed down that all were 
  convinced that this damp cavern extended more than 30 leagues 
  underground, .and that its roof was supported by pillars. And there 
  were people, zealous prelates anxious for knowledge, who, in order 
  to convince these ignorant people of their terror, went into this 
  cave accompanied by a large number of people bearing lighted 
  torches and firebrands, and descended several large steps. And 
  they soon came upon many buttresses which formed a kind of 
  street. They had prudently brought a quantity of rope with them to 
  use as a guiding line, that they might not lose themselves in this 
  confusing labyrinth. And the putrefaction and the bad odour and 
  the dampness - of the earth were very great and there was also a 
  cold wind which blew out their torches And after they had gone a 
  short distance, fearing to be overpowered by the stench or to step 
  on poisonous reptiles, of which some had been seen, they resolved 
  to go out again and to completely wall up this back door of hell. 
  The four buildings above ground were the only ones which still 
  remained open, and they had a court and chambers like those 
  underground; and the ruins of these have lasted even to the 
  present day." 
   
   The vast subterranean vaults under the temple hill a Jerusalem 
  were probably used as a secret meeting - placby the Templars 
  during their occupation of the Holy City and it was perhaps there 
  that the strange Eastern rites of Baphomet (q.v.) which they later 
  affected were first celebrated. In his Recent Discoveries on the 
  Temple Hill the Rev. James King says, " On the occasion of a visit 
  to the Noble Sanctuary, the author had an opportunity of examining 
  the ancient masonry inside the wall at the south - east corner, as 
  well as the vast subterranean vault popularly known as Solomon's 
  stables. A small doorway under a little dome at the south - east 
  corner, admits by aflight of steps to a small chamber known as the 
  Mosque of the Cradle of our Lord, from the existence of a hollowed 
  stone which somewhat resembles a cradle, and a tradition that the 
  Virgin Mary remained in this chamber for sometime after her 
  purification in the Temple. Passing through the chamber, the 
  spacious vaults, which extend over an acre of ground, are reached. 
  These subterranean substructures consist of one hundred square 
  piers arranged in fifteen rows, each pier being five feet wide and 
  
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  composed of large marginal drafted stones, placed singly over each 
  other. The rows are connected by semi - circular arches, the 
  intercolumniations of which range from ten to twenty three feet. 
  The floor of these vaults is about forty - feet below the Haram 
  Arco., and more than a hundred feet above the great foundation 
  corner - stone. They are called Solomon's Stables by the Franks. 
  But the Moslems call the place, Al Masjed al Kadim, that is, The 
  Old Mosque. These vaults were used as stables by the Frank kings 
  and the Knights Templar, and holes in which rings were fastened 
  can still be traced on some of the piers.  Since the floor of 
  Solomon's Stables is upwards of a hundred feet above the 
  foundation stone, it seems highly probable that there exists another 
  system of vaults below, for the vast space from the rock upwards is 
  not likely to be filled with solid earth. Some allusion seems to be 
  made to these vaults in the writings of Procopius, a Greek historian 
  of the sixth century. He was born at Caesarea, in Palestine, about 
  500A.D., and as a young man went to Constantinople, where his 
  eminent talents brought him under the notice of the Emperor 
  Justinian. In 529 A.D. Justinian built a splendid church on the 
  Temple Hill, in honour of the Virgin  - Mary, and in the writings of 
  Procopius there is a full and detailed account of the edifice. The 
  historian relates that the fourth part of the ground required for the 
  building was wanting towards the south - east; the builders 
  therefore laid their foundations on the sloping ground, and con-
  structed a series of arched vaults, in order to raise the ground to 
  the level of the other parts of the enclosure. This account is 
  eminently descriptive of the subterranean vaults at tile south - cast 
  portion of the Haram, and, according to Mr. Fergusson, the stone - 
  work of these vaults certainly belongs to the age of Justinian. 
   
  Succubus: A demon who takes the shape of a woman. The Rabbi 
  Elias says that it is mentioned in certain writings that Adam was 
  visited during a hundred and thirty years by female demons, and 
  had intercourse with demons, spirits, spectres, lemurs, and 
  phantoms.  
   
   Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688 - I772: One of the greatest mystics of 
  all time, was born at Stockholm in Sweden ole the 29th January. 
  His father was a professor of theology at Upsala, and afterwards 
  Bishop of Scara, and in his time was charged with possessing 
  heterodox opinions. Swedenborg completed his education at the 
  university of Upsala in 1710, after which he visited England, 
  Holland, France and Germany. Five years later he returned to his 
  native town, and devoted much time to the study of natural science 
  and engineering, editing a paper entitled Daedalus hyperboreus 
  which dealt chiefly with mechanical inventions. About 1716, 
  Charles XII. appointed him to the Swedish Board of Mines. He 
  appears at this time to have had many activities. He published 
  various mathematical and mechanical works, and even took part in 
  the siege of Friederick shall in an engineering capacity. Originally 
  known as Swedenborg, he was elevated to the rank of the nobility 
  by Queen Ulrica and changed his name to Swedenborg. Sitting in 
  the House of Nobles, his political utterances had great weight, but 
  his tendencies were distinctly democratic. He busied himself 
  privately in scientific gropings for the explanation of the universe, 
  and published at least two works dealing with the origin of things 
  which are of no great account, unless as foreshadowing many 
  scientific facts and ventures of the future. Thus his theories 
  regarding light, cosmic atoms, geology and physics, were distinctly 
  in advance of his time, and had they been suitably disseminated 
  could not but have influenced scientific Europe. He even sketched 
  a flying machine, and felt confident that although it was unsuitable 
  to aerial navigation, if men of science applied themselves to the 
  problem, it would speedily be solved. It was in1734 that he 
  published his Prodonius Philosophia, treats of the relation of the 
  finite to the infinite and of the soul to the body. In this work he 
  seeks to establish a definite connection between the two as a 
  means of overcoming the difficulty of their relationship. The 
  spiritual and the divine appear to him as the supreme study of 
  man. He ransacked the countries of Europe in quest of the most 
  eminent teachers and the best books dealing with anatomy, for he 
  considered that in that science lay the germ of the knowledge of 
  soul and spirit. Through his anatomical studies he anticipated 
  certain modern views dealing with the functions of the brain, which 
  are most remarkable. 
   
  About the age of fifty - five a profound change overtook the 
  character of Swedenborg. Up to this time he had been a scientist, 
  legislator, and man of affairs; but now his enquiries into the region 
  of spiritual things were to divorce him entirely from practical 
  matters. His introduction into the spiritual world, his illumination, 
  was commenced by dreams and extraordinary visions. He heard 
  wonderful conversations and felt impelled to found a new church. 
  He says that the eyes of his spirit were so opened that he could see 
  heavens and hells, and converse with angels and spirits: but all his 
  doctrines relating to the New Church came directly from God 
  alone, while he was reading the gospels. He claimed that God 
  revealed Himself to him and told him that He had chosen him to 
  unveil the spiritual sense of the whole scriptures to man. From that 
  moment worldly knowledge was eschewed by Swedenborg and he 
  worked for spiritual ends alone. He resigned his several 
  appointments and retired upon half pay. Refreshing his knowledge 
  of the Hebrew tongue, he commenced his great works on the 
  interpretation of the scriptures. After the Year 1747 he lived in 
  Sweden, Holland and London, in which city he died on the .29th of 
  March 1772. He was butied in the Swedish Church in Prince's 
  Square, in the parish of St. George's in the East, and in April, 1908 
  his bones were removed, at the request of the Swedish government, 
  to Stockholm. 
   
  There can be no question as to the intrinsic honesty of 
  Swedenborg's mind and character. He was neither presumptuous 
  nor overbearing as regards his doctrines, but gentle and 
  reasonable. A man of few wants, his life was simplicity itself - his 
  food consisting for the most part of bread, milk and coffee. He was 
  in the habit of lying in a trance for days together, and day and 
  night had no distinctions for him. His mighty wrestlings with evil 
  spirits at times so terrified his servants, that they would seek the 
  most distant part of the house in refuge. But again he would 
  converse with benignant angels in broad daylight. We are badly 
  hampered regarding first - hand evidence of his spiritual life and 
  adventures - most of our knowledge being gleaned from other than 
  original sources. 
   
  So far from attempting to found a new church, or otherwise tamper 
  or interfere with existing religious systems, Swedenborg was of the 
  opinion that the members of all churches could belong to his New 
  Church in a spiritual sense. His works may be divided into: 
  expository volumes, notably The Apocalypse Revealed, The 
  Apocalypse Explained, and Arcana Celestia; books of spiritual 
  philosophy, such as Intercourse between the Soul and the Body 
  Divine Providence, and Divine Love and Wisdom; books dealing 
  with the hierarchy of supernatural spheres such as Heaven and 
  Hell and The Last judgment; and those which are purely doctrinal, 
  such as The New Jerusalem, The True Christian Religion, and 
  Canons of the New Church. Of these his Divine Love and Wisdom 
  is the volume which most succinctly presents his entire religious 
  systems. God he regards as the Divine Man. Spiritually He consists 
  
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  of infinite love, and corporeally of infinite wisdom. From the divine 
  love all things draw nourishment. The sun, as we know it, is merely 
  a microcosm of a spiritual sun which emanates from the Creator. 
  This spiritual sun is the source of love and knowledge, and the 
  natural sun is the source of nature; but whereas the first is alive, 
  the second is inanimate. There is no connection between the two, 
  worlds of nature and spirit unless in similarity of construction. 
  Love, wisdom, use; or end, cause and effect, are the three infinite 
  and uncreated degrees of being in God and man respectively. The 
  causes of all things exist in the spiritual sphere and their effects in 
  the natural sphere, and the end of all creation is that man may 
  become the image of his Creator, and of the cosmos as a whole. 
  This is to be effected by a love of the degrees above enumerated. 
  Man possesses two vessels or receptacles for the containment of 
  God - the Will for divine love, and the Understanding for divine 
  wisdom. Before the Fall, the flow of these virtues into the human 
  spirit was perfect, but through the intervention of the forces of evil, 
  and the sins of man himself, it was much interrupted. Seeking to 
  restore the connection between Himself and man, God came into 
  the world, as Man; for if He had ventured on earth in His unveiled 
  splendour, he would have destroyed the hells through which he 
  must proceed to redeem man, and this He did not wish to do, 
  merely to conquer them. The unity of God is an essential of the 
  Swedenborgian theology, and he thoroughly believes that God did 
  not return to His own place without leaving behind Him a visible 
  representative of Himself in the word of scripture, which is an 
  eternal incarnation, in a three - fold sense natural, spiritual and 
  celestial. Of this Swedenborg is the apostle; nothing was hidden 
  from him; he was aware of the appearance and conditions of other 
  worlds, good and evil, heaven and hell, and of the planets. " The 
  life of religion, " he says, " is to accomplish good." "The kingdom of 
  heaven is a kingdom of uses." One of the central ideas of his 
  system is known as the Doctrine of Correspondences. Everything 
  visible has belonging to it an appropriate spiritual reality. 
  Regarding this Vaughan says: " The history of man is an acted 
  parable; the universe, a temple covered with hieroglyphics. 
  Behmen, from the light which flashes on certain exalted moments, 
  imagines that he receives the key to these hidden significances - 
  that he can interpret the Signatura Rerum. But he does not see 
  spirits, or talk with angels. According to him, such 
  communications would be less reliable than the intuition he 
  enjoyed. Swedenborg takes opposite ground. ' What I relate, ' he 
  would say, ' comes from no such mere inward persuasion. I recount 
  the things I have seen. I do not labour to recall and to express the 
  manifestation made, me in some moment of ecstatic exaltation. I 
  write you down a plain statement of journeys and conversations in 
  the spiritual world, which have made the greater part of my daily 
  history for many years together. I take my stand upon experience. I 
  have proceeded by observation and induction as strict as that of 
  any man of science among you. Only it has been given me to enjoy 
  an experience reaching into two worlds - that of spirit, as well as 
  that of matter ....... 
   
  " According to Swedenborg, all the mythology and the symbolisms 
  of ancient times were so many refracted or fragmentary 
  correspondences - relics of that better day when every outward 
  object suggested to man's mind its appropriate divine truth. Such 
  desultory arid uncertain links between the seen and the unseen are 
  so many imperfect attempts toward that harmony of the two worlds 
  which he believed himself commissioned to reveal. The happy 
  thoughts of the artist, the imaginative analogies of the poet, are 
  exchanged with Swedenborg for an elaborate system. All the terms 
  and objects in the natural and spiritual worlds are catalogued in 
  pairs. This method, appears so much formal pedantry. Our fancies 
  will not work to order. The meaning and the life with which we 
  continually inform outward objects - those suggestions from sight 
  and sound, which make almost every man at times a poet - are our 
  own creations, a e determined by the mood of the hour, cannot be 
  imposed from without, cannot be arranged like the nomenclature of 
  a science. As regards the inner sense of scripture, at all events, 
  Swedenborg introduces some such yoke. In that province, however, 
  it is perhaps as well that those who are not satisfied with the 
  obvious sense should find some restraint for their imagination, 
  some method for their ingenuity, some guidance in a curiosity 
  irresistible to a certain class of minds. If an objector say, ' I do not 
  see why the ass should correspond to scientific truth, and the horse 
  to intellectual truth, ' Swedenborg will reply, ' This analogy rests 
  on no fancy of mine, but on actual experience and observation in 
  the spiritual world. I have always seen horses and asses present 
  and circumstanced, when, and according as, those inward qualities 
  were central.' But I do not believe that it was the design of 
  Swedenborg rigidly to determine the relationships by which men 
  are continually uniting the seen and unseen worlds. He probably 
  conceived it his mission to disclose to men the divinely - ordered 
  correspondences of scripture, the close relationship of man's 
  several states of being, and to make mankind more fully aware that 
  matter and spirit were associated, not only in the varying analogies 
  of imagination, but by the deeper affinity of eternal law. In this 
  way, he sought to impart an impulse rather than to prescribe a 
  scheme. His consistent followers will acknowledge that had he 
  lived to another age, and o6cupied a different social position, the 
  forms under which the spiritual world presented itself in him 
  would have been different. To a large extent, therefore, his 
  Memorable Relations must be regarded as true for him only - for 
  such a character, in such a day, though containing principles 
  independent of personal peculiarity and local colouring. It would 
  have been indeed inconsistent, had the Protestant who (as himself 
  a Reformer) essayed to supply the defects and correct the errors of 
  the Reformation - had he designed to prohibit all advance beyond 
  his own position." 
   
  The style of Swedenborg is clear - cut and incisive. He is never 
  overpowered by manifestations from the unseen. Whereas other 
  mystics are seized by fear or joy by these and become 
  incomprehensible, he is in his element, and when on the very 
  pinnacles of ecstasy can observe the smallest details with a 
  scientific eye. We know nowadays that a great many of his visions 
  do not square with scientific probabilities. Thus those which detail 
  his journeys among the planets and describe the flora and fauna, 
  let us say, of Mars, can be totally disproved, as we are aware that 
  such forms of life as he claims to have seen could not possibly 
  exist upon that planet. The question arises: Did the vast amount of 
  work accomplished by Swedenborg in the first half of his life lead 
  to more or less serious mental derangement ? There have been 
  numerous cases of similar injury through similar causes. But the 
  scientific exactness and clarity of his mind survived to the last. So 
  far as he knew science he applied it admirably and with minute 
  exactness to his system; but just as the science of Dante raises a 
  smile, so we feel slightly intolerant of Swedenborg's scientific 
  application to things spiritual. He was probably the only mystic 
  with a real scientific training; others had been adepts in chemistry 
  and kindred studies, but no mystic ever experienced such a long 
  and arduous scientific apprenticeship as Swedenborg. It colours 
  the whole of his system. It would be exceedingly difficult to say 
  whether he was more naturally a mystic or a scientist. In the first 
  part of his life we do not find him greatly exercised by spiritual 
  
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  affairs; and it is only when he had passed the meridian of human 
  days that he seriously began to consider matters supernatural. The 
  change to the life of a mystic, if not rapid was certainly not 
  prolonged: what then caused it ? We can only suspect that his 
  whole tendency was essentially mystical from the first, and that he 
  was a scientist by force of circumstance rather than because of any 
  other reason. The spiritual was constantly simmering within his 
  brain, but, as the world is ever with us, he found it difficult to 
  throw off the superincumbent mass of affairs, which probably 
  trammelled him for years. At length the fountains of his spirit 
  welled up so fiercely that they could no longer be kept back; and 
  throwing aside his scientific oars, he leaped into the spiritual 
  ocean which afterwards speedily engulfed him. There is perhaps 
  no analogy to be found to his case in the biography of science. We 
  cannot altogether unveil the springs of the man's spirituality, but 
  we know that they existed deep down in him. It has often been said 
  that he was a mere visionary, and not a mystic, in t e proper sense 
  of the word; but the terms of his philosophy dispose of this 
  contention; although in many ways it does not square with the 
  generally - accepted doctrines of mysticism, it is undoubtedly one 
  of the most striking and pregnant contributions to it. He is the 
  apostle of the divine humanity, and the "' Grand Man " is with him 
  the be - inning and end of the creative p'rpose. The originality of 
  his system is marked, and the detail with which he surrounded it 
  provides his followers of the present day with a greater body of 
  teaching than that of probably any other mystical master. 
   
  The following extracts from Swedenborg's works will assist the 
  reader in gaining some idea of his eschatology and general 
  doctrine: 
   
  " The universe is an image of God, and was made for use. 
  Providence is the government of the Lord in heaven and on earth. 
  It extends itself over all things, because there is only one fountain 
  of life, namely, the Lord, whose power supports all that exists. 
   
  " The influence of the Lord is according to a plan, and is invisible, 
  as is Providence, by which men are not constrained to believe, and 
  thus to lose their freedom. The influence of the Lord passes over 
  from the spiritual to the natural, and from the inward to the 
  outward. The Lord confers his influence on the good and the bad, 
  but the latter converts the good into evil, and the true into the false 
  for so is the creature of its will fashioned. 
   
  " In order to comprehend the origin and progress of this influence, 
  we must first know that that which proceeds from the Lord is the 
  divine sphere which surrounds us, and fills the spiritual and 
  natural world. All that proceeds from an object, and surrounds and 
  clothes it, is called its sphere. 
   
  " As all that is spiritual knows neither time nor space, it therefore 
  follows that the general sphere or the divine one has extended 
  itself from the first moment of creation to the last. This divine 
  emanation, which passed over from the spiritual to the natural, 
  penetrates actively and rapidly through the whole created world, to 
  the last grade of it, where it is yet to be found, and produces and 
  maintains all that is animal, vegetable, and mineral. Man is 
  continually surrounded by a sphere of his favourite propensities; 
  these unite themselves to the natural sphere of his body, so that 
  together they form one. The natural sphere surrounds every body of 
  nature, and all the objects of the three kingdoms. Thus it allies 
  itself to the spiritual world. This is the foundation of sympathy and 
  antipathy, of union and separation, according to which there are 
  amongst spirits presence and absence. 
   
  “The angel said to me that the sphere surrounded_men more 
  lightly on the back than on the breast, where it was thicker and 
  stronger. This sphere of influence, peculiar to man, operates also 
  in general and in particular around him by means of the will, the 
  understanding, and the practice,  
   
  " The sphere proceeding from God, which surrounds man and 
  constitutes his strength, while it thereby operates on his neighbour 
  and on the whole creation, is a sphere of peace and innocence; for 
  the Lord is peace and innocence. Then only is man consequently 
  able to make his influence effectual on his fellow man, when peace 
  and innocence rule in his heart, and he himself is in union with 
  heaven. This spiritual union is connected with the natural by a 
  benevolent man through the touch and the laying on of hands, by 
  which the influence of the inner man is quickened, prepared, and 
  imparted. The body communicates with others which are about it 
  through the body, and the spiritual influence diffuses itself chiefly 
  through the hands, because these are the most outward or ultimum 
  of man; and through him, as in the whole of nature, the first is 
  contained in the last, as the cause in the effect. The whole soul and 
  the whole body are contained in the hands as a medium of 
  influence. Thus our Lord healed the sick by laying on of hands, on 
  which account so many were healed by the touch; and thence from 
  the remotest times the consecration of priests and of all holy things 
  was effected by laying on of hand. According to the etymology of 
  the word, hands denote power. Man believes that his thoughts and 
  his will proceed from within him, whereas all this flows into him. If 
  he considered thin - s in their true form, he would ascribe evil to 
  hell, and good the Lord; he would by the Lord's grace recognise 
  good and evil within himself, and be happy. Pride alone has 
  denied the influence of God, and destroyed the human race." 
   
  In his work Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg speaks of influence and 
  reciprocities  - Correspondences. The action of correspondence is 
  perceptible in a man's countenance. In a countenance that has not 
  learned hypocrisy, all emotions are represented naturally 
  according to their true form; whence the face is called the mirror of 
  the soul. In the same way, what belongs to the understanding is 
  represented in the speech, and what belongs to the will in the 
  movements. Every expression in the face, in the speech, in the 
  movements, is called correspondence. By correspondence man 
  communicates with heaven, and he can thus communicate with the 
  angels if he possess the science of correspondence by means of 
  thought. In order that communication may exist between heaven 
  and man, the word is composed of nothing but correspondences, 
  for everything in the word is correspondent, the whole and the 
  parts; therefore he can learn secrets, of which he perceives nothing 
  in the literal sense; for in the word, there is, besides the literal 
  meaning, a spiritual meaning - one, of the world, the other of 
  heaven. Swedenborg had his visions and communications with the 
  angels and spirits by means of correspondence in the spiritual 
  sense. " Angels speak from the spiritual world, according to inward 
  thought; from wisdom, their speech flows in a tranquil stream, 
  gently and uninterruptedly, - they speak only in vowels the 
  heavenly angels in A and 0, the spiritual ones in E and 1, for the 
  vowels give tone to the speech, and by the tone the emotion is 
  expressed; the interruptions, on the other hand, corresponds with 
  creations of the mind; therefore we prefer, if the subject is lofty, for 
  instance of heaven or S God, even in human speech, the vowels U 
  and 0, etc. 
   
  Man, however, is united with heaven by means of the S  - word, 
  and forms thus the link between heaven and earth, between the 
  
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  divine and the natural." " But when angels speak spiritually with 
  me from heaven, they speak just as intelligently as the man by my 
  side. But if they turn away from man, he hears nothing more 
  whatever, even if they speak close to his ear. It is also remarkable 
  that several angels can speak to a man; they send down a spirit 
  inclined to man, and he thus hears them united." 
   
  In another place he says: - " There are also spirits called natural or 
  corporeal spirits; these have no connection with thought, like the 
  others, but they enter the body, possess all the senses, speak with 
  the mouth, and act with the limbs, for they know not but that 
  everything in that man is their own. These are the spirits by which 
  men are possessed. They were, however, sent by the Lord to hell; 
  whence in our days there are no more such possessed ones in 
  existence." 
   
  Swedenborg's further doctrines and visions of Harmonies, that is to 
  say, of heaven with men, and with all objects of nature; of the 
  harmony and correspondence of all thing with each other; of 
  Heaven, of Hell, and of the world of spirits; of the various states of 
  man after death, etc - are very characteristic, important, and 
  powerful. " His contemplations of the enlightened inward eye refer 
  less to everyday associations and objects of life (although he not 
  unfrequently predicted future occurrences), because his mind was 
  only directed to the highest spiritual subjects, in which indeed h6 
  had attained an uncommon degree of inward wakefulness, but is 
  therefore not understood or known, because he described his sights 
  so spiritually and unusually by language. His chapter on the 
  immensity of heaven attracts more especially because it contains a 
  conversation of spirits and angels about the planetary system. The 
  planets are naturally inhabited as well as the planet Earth, but the 
  inhabitants differ according to the various individual formation of 
  the planets. These visions on the inhabitants of the planets agree 
  most remarkably, and almost without exception with the 
  indications of a clairvoyant whom I treated magnetically. I do not 
  think that she knew Swedenborg; to which, however, I attach little 
  importance. The two seers perceived Mars in quite a different 
  manner. The magnetic seer only found images of fright and horror. 
  Swedenborg, on the other hand, describes them as the best of all 
  spirits of the planetary system. Their gentle, tender, zephyr - like 
  language, is more perfect, purer and richer in thought, and nearer 
  to the language of the angels, than others. These people associate 
  together, and judge each other by the physiognomy, which amongst 
  them is always the expression of the thoughts. They honour the 
  Lord as sole God, who appears sometimes on their earth." 
   
  " Of the inhabitants of Venus he says: - ' They are of two kinds; 
  some are gentle and benevolent, others wild, cruel and of gigantic 
  stature. The latter rob and plunder, and live by this means; the 
  former have so great a degree of gentleness and kindness that they 
  are always beloved by the good; thus they often see the Lord 
  appear in their own form on their earth.' It is remarkable that this 
  description of Venus agrees so well with the old fable, and with the 
  opinions and experience we have of Venus. 
   
  “The inhabitants of the Moon are small, like children of six or 
  seven years old; at the same time they have the strength of men 
  like ourselves. Their voice rolls like thunder, and the sound 
  proceeds from the belly, because the moon is in quite a different 
  atmosphere from the other planets." 
   
  Talisman: An inanimate object which is supposed to possess a 
  supernatural capacity of conferring benefits or powers in 
  contradistinction to the amulet (q.v.), the purpose of which is to 
  ward off evil. It was usually a disc of metal or stone engraved with 
  astrological or magical figures. Talismans were common in ancient 
  Egypt and Babylon. The virtues of astrological talismans were as 
  follows: The astrological figure of Mercury, engraven upon silver, 
  which is the corresponding metal, and according to the prescribed 
  rites, gave success in Merchandise; that of Mars gave victory to the 
  soldier; that of Venus, beauty, and so of the rest. All such 
  talismans likewise are more powerful in the hour of their planet's 
  ascendency. There are three general varieties of these potent 
  charms: The astronomical, having the characters of the heavenly 
  signs or constellations. 2. The magical, with extraordinary figures, 
  superstitious words, or the names of angels. 3. The mixed engraven 
  with celestial signs and barbarous words. Fosbrook, in his 
  Encyclopredia of Antiquities, adds two others: - 4. The sigilla 
  planelarum, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by 
  astrologers and fortunetellers; and 5. Hebrew names and 
  characters. As an example of the most powerful of the latter, may 
  be mentioned the sacred name of Jehovah. The famous tephillin or 
  phylacteries, used in Jewish devotion, and which were bound on 
  the head, the arm, and the hand, may be regarded as talismans, 
  and they were the subject of many traditional ceremonies. We may 
  also mention the mezuzoth or schedules for door - posts, and 
  another article of this description mentioned in the following 
  quotation from the Talmud: - " Whoever has the telphillin bound to 
  his head and arm, and the tsitsith thrown over his garments, and 
  the mezuza fixed on his door - post, is protected from sin. 
   
  Writing of talismans in his Occult Sciences, Mr. A. E. Waite says: 
   
  "1. The Talisman of the Sun must be composed of a pure and fine 
  gold, fashioned into a circular plate, and well polished on either 
  side. A serpentine circle, enclosed by a pentagram must be 
  engraved on the obverse side with diamond - pointed graving tool. 
  The reverse must bear a human head in the centre of the six - 
  pointed star of Solomon, which shall itself be surrounded with the 
  name of the solar intelligence Pi - Rho, written in the characters of 
  the Magi. This talisman is supposed to insure to its bearer the 
  goodwill of influential persons. It is a preservative against death by 
  heart disease, syncope, aneurism, and epidemic complaints. It 
  must be composed on a Sunday during the passage of the moon 
  through Leo, and when that luminary is in a favourable aspect with 
  Saturn and the Sun. The consecration consists in the exposure of 
  the talisman to the smoke of a perfume composed of cinnamon, 
  incense, saffron, and red sandal, burnt with laurel - wood, and 
  twigs of desiccated. heliotrope, in a new chafing - dish, which must 
  be ground into powder and buried in an isolated spot, after the 
  operation is finished. The talisman must be afterwards encased in 
  a satchel of bright yellow silk, which must be fastened on the 
  breast by an interlaced ribbon of the same material, tied in the 
  form of a cross. In all cases the ceremony should be preceded by 
  the conjuration of the Four, to which the reader has already been 
  referred. The form of consecration, accompanied by sprinkling 
  with holy water, may be rendered in the following manner: 
   
  " In the name of Elohim, and by the spirit of the living waters, be 
  thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal of will. 
   
  " Presenting it to the smoke of the perfumes: - By the brazen 
  serpent before which fell the serpents of fire, be thou unto me as a 
  sign of light and a seal of will. 
   
  
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  " Breathing seven times upon the talisman: - By the firmament and 
  the spirit of the voice, be thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal 
  of will. 
   
  " Lastly, when placing some grains of purified earth or salt upon 
  the pentacle: - In the name of the salt of the earth and by virtue of 
  the life eternal, be thou unto me as a sign of. light and a seal of 
  will. 
   
  " II. The Talisman of the Moon should be composed of a circular 
  and well - polished plate of the purest silver, being of the 
  dimensions of an ordinary medal. The image of a crescent, 
  enclosed in a pentagram, should be graven on the obverse side. On 
  the reverse side, a chalice must be encircled by the duadic seal of 
  Solomon, encompassed by the letters of the lunar genius Pi - Job. 
  This talisman is considered a protection to travellers, and to 
  sojourners in strange lands. It preserves from death by drowning, 
  by epilepsy, by dropsy, by apoplexy, and madness. The dangers of 
  a violent end which is predicted by Saturnian aspects in 
  horoscopes of nativity, may be removed by its means. It should be 
  composed on a Monday, when the moon is passing through the first 
  teri degrees of Capricormis or Virgo, and is also well aspected with 
  Saturn. Its consecration consists in exposure to a perfume 
  composed of white sandal, camphor, aloes, aniber, and pulverised 
  seed of cucumber, burnt with desiccated stalks of mugwort, 
  moonwort, and raminculus, in a new earthen chafing - dish, which 
  must be reduced, after the operation, into powder, and buried in a 
  deserted spot. The talisman. must be sewn up in a satchel of white 
  silk, and fixed on the breast by a ribbon of the same colour, 
  interlaced and tied in the form of a cross. 
   
  III. The Talisman of Afars must be composed of a well - polished 
  circular plate of the finest iron, and of the dimensions of an 
  ordinary medal. The symbol of a sword in the centre of a 
  pentagram must be engraved on the obverse side. A lion's head 
  surrounded by a six - pointed star must appear on the reverse face, 
  with the letters of the name Erotosi, the planetary genius of Mars, 
  above the outer angles. This talisman passes as a preservative 
  against all combinations of enemies. It averts the chance of death 
  in brawls and battles, in epidemics and fevers, and by corroding 
  ulcers. It also neutralizes the peril of a violent end as a punishment 
  for crime when it is foretold in the horoscope of the nativity. 
   
  " This talisman must be composed on a Tuesday, during the 
  passage of the moon through the ten first degrees of Aries or 
  Sagittarius, and when, moreover, it is favourably aspected with 
  Saturn and Mars. The consecration consists in its exposure to the 
  smoke of a perfume composed of dried absinth and rue, burnt in an 
  earthen vessel which has never been previously used, and which 
  must be broken into  - powder, and buried in a secluded place, 
  when the operation is completed. Finally, the talisman must be 
  sewn up in a satchel of red silk, and fastened on the breast with 
  ribbons of the same material folded and knotted in the form of a 
  cross. 
   
  " IV. The Talisman of Mercury must be formed of a circular plate 
  of fixed quicksilver, or according to another account of an amalgam 
  of silver, mercury, and pewter, of the dimensions of an ordinary 
  medal, well - polished on both sides. A winged caduceus, having 
  two serpents twining about it, must be engraved in the centre of a 
  pentagram on the obverse side. The other must bear a dog's head 
  within the star of Solomon, the latter being surrounded, vith the 
  name of the planetary genius, Pi - Hermes, written in the alphabet 
  of the Magi. This talisman must be composed on a Wednesday, 
  when the moon is passing through the ten first degrees of Gemini 
  or Scorpio, and is well aspected with Saturn and Mercury. The 
  consecration consists in its exposure to the smoke of a perfume 
  composed of benzoin, macis, and storax, burnt with the dried 
  stalks of the lily, the narcissus, furnitory, and marjolane, placed in 
  a clay chafing - dish which has never been devoted to any other 
  purpose, and which must, after the completion of the task, be 
  reduced to powder and buried in an undisturbed place. The 
  Talisman of Mercury is judged to be a defence in all species of 
  commerce and business industry. Buried under the ground in a 
  house of commerce, it will draw customers and prosperity. It 
  preserves all who wear it from epilepsy and madness, It averts 
  death by murder and poison; it is a safeguard against the schemes 
  of treason and it procures prophetic dreams when it is worn on the 
  head during sleep. It is fastened on the breast by a ribbon of 
  purple silk folded and tied in the form of a cross, and the talisman 
  is itself enclosed in a satchel of the same material.. 
   
  " V. The Talisman of Jupiter must be -  formed of a circular plate of 
  the purest English pewter, having the dimensions of an ordinary 
  medal, and being highly polished on either side. The image of a 
  four - pointed crown in the centre of a pentagram must be engraved 
  on the obverse side. On the other must be the head of an eagle in 
  the centre of the six - pointed star of Solomon, which must be 
  surrounded by the name of the planetary genius Pi - Zeous, written 
  in the arcane alphabet. 
   
  " This talisman must be composed on a Thursday, during the 
  passage of the moon through the first ten degrees of Libra, and 
  when it is also in a favourable aspect with Saturn and Jupiter. The 
  consecration consists in  - its exposure to the smoke of a perfume 
  composed of incense, ambergris; balm, grain of Paradise, saffron, 
  and macis, which is the second coat of the nutmeg. These must be 
  burnt with wood of the oak, poplar, fig tree, and pomegranate, and 
  placed in a new earthen dish, which must be ground into powder, 
  and buried in a quiet spot, at the end of the ceremony. The 
  talisman must be wrapped in a satchel of sky - blue silk, 
  suspended on the breast by a ribbon of the same material, folded 
  and fastened in the form of a cross. 
   
  " The Talisman of Jupiter is held to attract to the wearer the 
  benevolence and sympathy of everyone. It averts anxieties, favours 
  honourable enterprises, and augments well - being in proportion to 
  social condition. It is a protection against unforeseen accidents, 
  and the perils of a violent death when it is threatened by Saturn in 
  the horoscope of nativity. It also preserves from death by affections 
  of the liver, by inflammation of the lungs, and by that cruel 
  affection of the spinal marrow, which is termed tabes dorsalis in 
  medicine. 
   
  " VI. The Talisman of Venus must be formed of a circular plate of 
  purified and well - polished copper. It must be of the ordinary 
  dimensions of a medal, perfectly polished on both its sides. It must 
  bear on the obverse face the letter G inscribed in the alphabet of 
  the Magi, and enclosed in a pentagram. A dove must be engraved 
  on the reverse, in the centre of the six - pointed star, which must 
  be surrounded by the letters which compose the name of the 
  planetary Genius Suroth. This talisman must be composed on a 
  Friday, during the passage of the moon through the first ten 
  degrees of Taurus or Virgo, and when that luminary is well aspect 
  with Saturn and Venus. Its consecration consists in its exposure to 
  the smoke of a perfume composed of violets and roses, burnt with 
  olive wood in a new earthen chafing - dish, which must be ground 
  into powder at the end of the operation and buried in a solitary 
  
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  spot. The talisman must, finally, be sewn up in a satchel of green 
  or rose - coloured silk, which must be fastened on the breast by a 
  band of the same material, folded and tied in the form of a cross. 
   
  The Talisman of Venus is accredited with extraordinary power in 
  cementing the bonds of love and harmony between husbands and 
  wives. It averts from those who wear it the spite and machinations 
  of hatred. It preserves women from the terrible and fatal diseases 
  which are known as cancer. It averts from both men and women all 
  danger of death, to which they may be accidentally or purposely 
  exposed. It counterbalances the unfortunate presages which may 
  appear in the horoscope of nativity. Its last and most singular 
  quality is its power to change the animosity of an enemy into a love 
  and devotion which will be proof against every temptation, and it 
  rests on the sole condition that such a person should be persuaded 
  to partake of a liquid in which the talisman has been dipped. 
   
  " VII. The Talisman of Saturn must be composed of a circular plate 
  of refined and purified lead, being of the dimensions of an ordinary 
  medal, elaborately polished. On the obverse side must be engraven 
  with the diamond pointed tool which is requisite in all these 
  talismanic operations, the image of a sickle enclosed in a 
  pentagram. The reverse side must bear a bull's head, enclosed in 
  the star of Solomon, and surrounded by the mysterious letters 
  'which compose, in the alphabet of the Magi, the name of the 
  planetary Genius Tempha. The person who is intended to wear this 
  talisman must engrave it himself, without witnesses -, and without 
  taking any one into his confidence. 
   
  " This talisman must be composed on a Saturday when the moon is 
  passing through the first ten degrees of Taurus or Capricorn, and is 
  favourably aspected with Saturn. It must be consecrated by 
  exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of alum, asafetida, 
  cammon6e, and sulphur, which must be burnt with cypress, the 
  wood of the ash tree, and sprays of black hellebore, in a new 
  earthen chafing - dish, which must be reduced into powder at the 
  end of the performance, and buried in a deserted place. The 
  talisman must, finally, be sewn up in a satchel of black silk and 
  fastened on the breast with a ribbon of the same material, folded 
  and tied in the form of a cross. The Talisman of Saturn was 
  affirmed to be a safeguard against death by apoplexy and cancer, 
  decay in the bones, consumption, dropsy, paralysis, and decline; it 
  was also a preservative against the possibility of being entombed in 
  a trance, against the danger of violent death by secret crime, 
  poison, or ambush. If the head of the army in war - time were to 
  bury the Talisman of Saturn in a place which it was feared might 
  fall into the hands of the enemy, the limit assigned by the presence 
  of the talisman could not be overstepped by the opposing host, 
  which would speedily withdraw in discouragement, or in the face 
  of a determined assault."  
   
  Talmud, The: From the Hebrew lamad, to learn; the name of the 
  great code of Jewish civil and canonical law. It is divided into two 
  portions - the Mishna and the Gemaya; the former constituted the 
  text and the latter was a commentary and supplement. But besides 
  being the basis of a legal code, it is also a collection of Jewish 
  poetry and legend. The Mishna is a development of the laws 
  contained in the Pentateuch. It is divided into six sedayim or 
  orders, each containing a number of tractates, which are again 
  divided into peraqim or chapters. The sedarim are: (1) Zeraim, 
  which deals with agriculture; (2) Moed, with festivals and 
  sacrifices; (3) Nashim, with the law regarding women; (4) Nezaqin, 
  with civil law; (5) Qodashim, with the sacrificial law; and (6) 
  Tohoyoth or Tah, with purifications. The Mishna was supposed to 
  have been handed down by Ezra and to be in part the work of 
  Joshua, David or Solomon, and originally communicated orally by 
  the Deity in the time of Moses. There are two recensions - .the 
  Talmud of Jerusalem, and the -  Talmud of Babylon; which latter 
  besides the sedarim mentioned contains seven additional treatises 
  which are regarded as extra - canonical. The first is supposed to 
  have been finally edited towards the close of the fourth century 
  A.D., and the second by Rabbi Ashi, President of the Academy of 
  Syro in Babylon, somewhere in the fourth century. Though revised 
  from time to time before then, both versions have been greatly 
  corrupted through the interpolation of gross traditions. The 
  rabbinical decisions in the Mishna are entitled helacoth and the 
  traditional narratives haggadah, The cosmogony of the Talmud 
  assumes that the universe has been developed by means of a series 
  of cataclysms: world after world was destroyed until the Creator 
  made the present globe and saw that it was good. In the wonderful 
  treatise on the subject by Deutsch which first appeared in the 
  Quarterly Review in 1867, and is reprinted in his Lite7ary 
  Remains, the following passage appears: 
   
  " The how of the creation was not mere matter of speculation. The 
  co - operation of angels, whose existence was warranted by 
  Scripture, and a whole hierarchy of whom had been built up under 
  Persian influences, was distinctly denied. In a discussion about the 
  day of their creation, it is agreed on all hands that there were no  - 
  angels at first, lest men might say, ' Michael spanned out the 
  firmament on the south, and Gabriel to the north.' There is a 
  distinct foreshadowing of the Gnostic Demiurgos that antique link 
  between the Divine Spirit and the world of matter - to be found in 
  the Talmud. What with Plato were the Ideas, with Philo the Logos, 
  with the Kabalists the ' World of Aziluth, ' what the Gnostics called 
  more emphatically the wisdom (sophit), or power (dunamis), and 
  Plotinus the nous, that the Talmudical authors call Metatron. There 
  is a good deal, in the post - captivity Talmud, about the Angels, 
  borrowed from the Persian. The Archangels or Angelic princes are 
  seven:in number, and their Hebrew names and functions 
  correspond almost exactly to those of their Persian prototypes. 
  There are also hosts of ministering angels, the Persian Yazatas, 
  whose functions, besides that of being messengers, were two - fold 
   
  It would be impossible in this place to give a resume of the 
  traditional matter contained in the Talmud. Suffice, it to say that it 
  is of, great extent. It has been considered by some authorities that 
  a great many of the traditional tales have a magical basis, and that 
  magical secrets are contained in them; but this depends entirely 
  upon the interpretation put upon them, and the subject is one 
  which necessitates the closest possible study. 
   
  Tappan-Richmond, perhaps the best known of all the inspirational 
  speakers who have appeared since the beginning of the 
  spiritualistic movement. As a chil 
  , Mrs. Tappan-Richmond 
  - then Miss Scott-spent some time in the Hopedale Community 
  (q.v.), so that she was early initiated into the mysteries of 
  spiritualism. At the age of sixteen she went to New York, where 
  she lived for a time near Carthage, and became an "inspired " 
  lecturer on spiritualism in which capacity he soon became famous 
  throughout America. Coming to Britain in 1873 she was warmly 
  received by the spiritualists in that country and for a number of 
  years gave freqeunt trance discourses, characterised by their 
  rhythm and fluency, and the comparative clarity of their ideas. 
   
  
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   Tarot: Tarot, or Tarots, is the French name for a species of playing 
  cards, originally used for the purpose of divination, and still 
  employed by fortune - tellers form part of an ordinary pack in 
  certain countries of southern Europe, whence the name of tarocchi 
  given to an Italian game. The derivation of the word is uncertain. 
  One suggestion is that these cards were so called because they 
  were taroties on the back; that is, marked with plain or dotted lines 
  crossing diagonally. Confirmation of this theory may be found in 
  the German form of the word; a tarock - karte being a card 
  chequered on the back. Not improbably, however, there is here a 
  confusion between cause and effect. 
   
  De L'Hoste Ranking, who dismisses as " obviously worthless " the 
  explanations of Count de Gebelin, Vaillant and Mathers, refers the 
  name to the Hungarian Gipsy tar, a pack of cards, and thence to 
  the Hindustani. The figures on these cards are emblematic, and 
  are believed by many to embody the esoteric, religion of ancient 
  Egypt and India but on this subject there is much difference of 
  opinion. 
   
  " The tarot pack most in use, " observes Ranking, " consists of 
  seventy - eight cards, of which twenty - two are more properly 
  known as the tarots, and are considered as the ' keys ' of the tarot; 
  these correspond with the twenty two, letters of the Hebrew 
  alphabet, or, according to Falconnier and to Margiotta, with the ' 
  alphabet of the Magi.' The suits are four: wands, sceptres, or clubs, 
  answering to diamonds; cups, chalices, or goblets, answering to 
  hearts; swords, answering to spades; money, circles, or pentacles, 
  answering to clubs. Each suit consists of fourteen cards, the ace, 
  and nine others, and four court cards: king, queen, knight, and 
  knave. The four aces form the keys of their respective suits." As 
  already indicated, the, twenty - two " keys of the tarot, " which 
  consist of various emblematic figures, are assumed to be 
  hieroglyphic symbols of the occult meanings of the letters of the 
  Hebrew alphabet; or, alternatively, " the alphabet of the Magi." 
  Immense antiquity is claimed for these symbols, " observes 
  Ranking. " Alliette or (by transposition) Etteilla, a French mystic 
  of the beginning of the nineteenth century, ascribed their origin to 
  Hermes Trismegistus, under the name of The Book of Thoth, or 
  The Golden Booh of Hermes. Others have sought to identify the 
  tarot with the sibylline leaves." Raymond Lully (1235 - 1315) is 
  said to have based his great work, Ars Generalis sive Magna, on 
  the application of the occult philosophy contained in the tarot. 
   
  The idea that the tarot was introduced into Europe by the Gypsies 
  appears to have been first broached by Vaillant, who had lived for 
  many years among the Gypsies, by whom he was instructed in their 
  traditional lore. Much of the information thus obtained is 
  incorporated in Les Romes, histoire vraie des vrais Bohemiens (c. 
  1853), La Bible des Bohemiens (1860), and La Clef Magique de la 
  Fiction et du Fait (1863). Vaillant's theory has been fully accepted 
  by a Eench writer, Papus, " who published in 1889 Le Tarot des 
  Bohemiens Le Plus Ancien Livre du Monde; describing it as "la 
  clef absolue de la science occulte." "The Gypsies possess a Bible, " 
  he asserts; " yes, this card game called the Tarot which the 
  Gypsies possess is the Bible of Bibles. It is a marvellous book, as 
  Count de Gebelin and especially Vaillant have realized. Under the 
  names of Tarot, Thora, Rota, this game has formed successively the 
  basis of the synthetic teaching of all the ancient peoples." 
   
  Although it may not be possible to accept this dictum in its 
  entirety, it is of interest to note that Ranking concludes that these 
  and all other playing - cards were introduced into Europe by the 
  Gypsies. " 1 would submit, ' he says, writing in 1908, " that from 
  internal evidence we may deduce that the tarots were introduced 
  by a race speaking an Indian dialect; that the form of the Pope (as 
  portrayed in the tarots) shows they had been long in a country 
  where the orthodox Eastern Church predominated; and the form of 
  head - dress of the king, together with the shape of the eagle on the 
  shield, shows that this was governed by Russian Grand Dukes, who 
  had not yet assumed the Imperial insignia. This seems to me 
  confirmatory of the widespread belief that it is to the Gypsies we 
  are indebted for our knowledge of playing - cards." It will be seen 
  that this conclusion is based upon independent judgment. As 
  early, however, as 1865 - twO years after the appearance of 
  Vaillant's last book - E. S. Taylor supported the same hypothesis in 
  his History of Playing Cards. Willshire (Descriptive Catalogues of 
  Cards in the British Museum, 1877) controverts Taylor's 
  conclusion, on the ground that whether the Zingari be of Egyptian 
  or Indian origin, they did not appear in Europe before 1417, when 
  cards had been known for some time." But this objection is 
  nullified by the fact that the presence of Gypsies, in Europe is now 
  placed at a date considerably anterior to 1417. There was, for 
  example, a well - established Jeudum cinganorum, or Gypsy 
  barony, in the island of Corfu in the fourteenth century. 
   
  To examine in detail the various emblematic figures of the tarot 
  would demand a disproportionate amount of space. Ranking's 
  reference to the Pope and the King points to two of these twenty - 
  two figures. The others are: the Female Pope, the Queen, Osiris 
  Triumphant, The Wheel of Fortune, justice, Prudence, 
  Temperance, Strength, Marriage, The Philosopher, The juggler, 
  Death, The Devil, The Fool, The Lightning - struck Tower, The 
  Sun, The Moon, The Star, The Universe, The Last judgment. There 
  is great diversity of opinion, even among " initiates, " as to the 
  meaning of these symbols. They are very fully discussed in the 
  work of " Papus " already cited; to which the reader is specially 
  referred. On the whole, there is much to be said in favour of the 
  theory that the origin of the tarot is traceable to the esoteric 
  philosophy of the schools of ancient Egypt and Chaldea, by 
  whatever means it has found its way into Europe. 
   
  In addition to the works already cited, see Le Monde Primitif, by 
  Count de Gebelin, Vol. VIII., Paris, 1781 Les Origines des Cartes 
  a Jouer, by Merlin, Paris, 1869 The Tarot, by Mathers, London, 
  1888; L'Art de Tirer les Cartes, by Magus, Paris, 1895; Le 
  Walladisme, by Margistta, Grenoble, 1895; Magie, by Bourgeat, 
  Paris, 1895; Les XXIII. Lames Hermetiques du Tarot, by 
  Falconnier, Paris, 1896; A. E. Waite, Key to the Tarot, 1900; and 
  J. W. Brodie - Innes, The Tarot Cards, in the "Occult Review” 
   
  Tannhauser: A mediaeval German legend which relates how a 
  minstrel and knight of that name, passing by the Herselber, or Hill 
  of Venus, entered therein in answer to a call, and remained there 
  with the enchantress, living an unholy life. After a time he grew 
  weary of sin, and longing to return to clean living, he forswore the 
  worship of Venus and left her. He then made a pilgrimage to 
  Rome, to ask pardon of the Pope, but when he was told by Urban 
  IV., himself that the papal staff would as soon blossom as such a 
  sinner as Tannhauser be forgiven, he returned to Venus. Three 
  days later, the Pope's staff did actually blossom, and he sent 
  messengers into every country to find the despairing minstrel, but 
  to no purpose, Tannhauser had disappeared. The story has a 
  mythological basis which has been laid over by medieval Christian 
  thought, and the original hero of which has been displaced by a 
  more modern personage, just as the Venus of the existing legend is 
  the mythological Venus only in name. She is really the Lady 
  Holda, a German earth - goddess. Tannhauser was a "minnesinger 
  
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  " or love - minstrel of the middle of the thirteenth century. He was 
  very popular among the rainnesingers of that time and the restless 
  and intemperate life he led probably marked him out as the hero of 
  such a legend as has been recounted. He was the author of many 
  ballads of considerable excellence, which are published in the 
  second part of the " Minnesinger " (Von der Hagen, Leipsic, 1838) 
  and in the sixth volume of Haupt's Zeitschrift fur deutsches 
  Altheytum. The most authentic version of this legend is given in 
  Uhland's Alte hoch weid niedeydeutsche Volkslieder (Stuttgart 
  1845). 
   
  Tatwic Yoga: meaning " The Science of Breath." The title of a little 
  book translated from the Sanscrit some years ago by the Pandit 
  Rama Prasad. The "breath" referred to is the life - giving breath of 
  Brahman, and in it are contained the five elementary principles of 
  nature, corresponding to the five senses of man. These principles 
  are know as Tatwas, and of them the body is composed. The 
  knowledge of the Tatwas is believed to confer wonderful power; 
  and to this end all undertakings must be commenced at times 
  which are known to be propitious from the movements of the 
  Tatwas in the body. An important method of yoga practice is given 
  in the book, which will certainly assure marvellous results. 
   
  Temeraire, Charles Duke of Burgundy: He disappeared after the 
  battle of Morat; and it was said by his chroniclers that he was 
  carried off by the devil, like Roderick. Some maintained, however, 
  that he had withdrawn to a remote spot and become a hermit. 
   
  Templars: Officially the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple 
  of Solomon were a religious military order of knighthood 
  established at the time of the Crusades. It was founded during the 
  early years of the kingdom of Jerusalem, when the crusaders 
  controlled only a few strongholds in the Holy Land, and pilgrims to 
  the holy places were often endangered by marauding Muslim 
  bands. Pitying the plight of such pilgrims, eight or nine French 
  knights, led by Hugues de Payens, vowed in late 1119 or early 
  1120 to devote themselves to their protection and to form a 
  religious community for that purpose. Baldwin II, king of 
  Jerusalem, gave them quarters in a wing of the royal palace in the 
  area of the former Jewish Temple, and from this they derived their 
  name. 
   
  The Templars were divided into four classes: knights, sergeants, 
  chaplains, and servants. Only the knights wore the Templars' 
  distinctive regalia, a white surcoat marked with a red cross. The 
  Templars' order was headed by a grand master, and each temple, 
  or subsidiary (local) branch, of the order was ruled by a 
  commander who owed obedience to the grand master. Each 
  individual Templar took vows of poverty and chastity. 
   
  The Templars performed courageous service in the Holy Land, and 
  their numbers increased rapidly, partly because of the propaganda 
  writing of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote their rule of life. The 
  Templars had originally vowed obedience to the patriarch of 
  Jerusalem, but Pope Innocent II in 1139 placed the Templars 
  directly under the pope's authority: the Templars thus were 
  exempted from the jurisdiction of any bishop in whose diocese they 
  might hold property. Thenceforth the Templars rapidly diversified 
  their activities. They soon became a vital element in the defense of 
  the Christian crusader states of the Holy Land, and they garrisoned 
  every town of any size there. At their height the Templars 
  numbered about 20,000 knights. 
   
  The Templars also came to acquire considerable wealth. The kings 
  and great nobles of Spain, France, and England gave lordships, 
  castles, seigniories, and estates to the order, so that by the mid-
  12th century the Templars owned properties scattered throughout 
  western Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land. The 
  Templars' military strength enabled them to safely collect, store, 
  and transport bullion to and from Europe and the Holy Land, and 
  their network of treasure storehouses and their efficient transport 
  organization caused the Templars to be used as bankers both by 
  kings and by pilgrims to the Holy Land. In this way the order, with 
  its vast resources spread throughout every country in Christendom, 
  grew to wield great financial power. 
   
  The Templars were not without enemies, however. They had long 
  engaged in a bitter rivalry with the other great military order of 
  Europe, the Hospitalers, and by the late 13th century proposals 
  were being made to merge the two contentious orders into one. The 
  fall to the Muslims in 1291 of Acre, the last remaining crusader 
  stronghold in the Holy Land, removed much of the Templars' 
  reason for being. Moreover, by 1304 rumours of irreligious 
  practices and blasphemies committed by the Templars during their 
  secret rites of initiation had begun to circulate through Europe. At 
  this juncture, King Philip IV the Fair of France had every Templar 
  in France arrested on Oct. 13, 1307, and sequestered all the 
  Templars' property in France. The reasons why Philip sought to 
  destroy the Templars are unclear; he may have genuinely feared 
  their power, or he may have simply seen an opportunity to seize 
  their immense wealth, being chronically short of money himself. At 
  any rate, Philip accused the Templars of heresy and immorality 
  and had many of them tortured to secure false confessions to these 
  charges. Pope Clement V, himself a Frenchman, came under 
  strong pressure from Philip at this time, and in response the pope 
  ordered the arrest of the Templars in every country in November 
  1307. Philip eventually succeeded in having the pope suppress the 
  order (March 22, 1312), and the Templars' property throughout 
  Europe was transferred to the Hospitalers or confiscated by the 
  state. Many Templars were executed or imprisoned, and in 1314 
  the order's last grand master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the 
  stake. 
   
  The question of the guilt of the Templars has been a matter of 
  fierce controversy for centuries, but modern opinion inclines to the 
  idea that the Templars were victims of a highly unjust and 
  opportunistic persecution. 
   
  Survival into the Present Day - The Masonic Connection 
   
  It is widely rumored or believed that the Templar Order survived 
  into the present day. One theory shows a strong connection 
  between Freemasonry and the Templars, suggesting that the 
  central mysteries of Freemasonry, revolving around Hiram the 
  architect of the Temple of Solomon has a strong connection to 
  Freemasonry. The fact that some Templars sought, and were 
  granted, refuge in the Court of Robert the Bruce of Scotland gives 
  rise to a potential connection to Scottish Rite Masonry.  Also the 
  obvious Templar connotations of the Knights of the Christian 
  Rosenkruetz Myth of Rosicrucianism cannot be overlooked. 
   
  The Survival of the Templars and the Roman Catholic Church 
   
  Some modern literature tends to portray the Templars as a bitter 
  opponent to the Catholic Church – the masters who invented 
  
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  Masonry, and who relentlessly oppose the church that betrayed 
  them pursuing a secular or demon-worshipping path. 
   
  Other sources color the Templars as the Vatican “Secret Police” – 
  a top secret militant order designed to defend the papacy and the 
  Church.  This is obviously rather silly – the Pope, in the time of 
  the Templars, had a standing army (loyal to and paid by him as the 
  secular Prince of The Vatican States, not loyal to the Church at all) 
  and needed no “secret police” – it was not until comparatively 
  modern times the Papacy had any need to mask deeds of force and 
  arms in secrecy.  
   
  In reality the situation is much more confused. Without question 
  the Templars existed outside the church for some years after their 
  repression. Whatever else may be said about it, the repression was 
  real – which proves even to the most devout Catholic Scholar 
  nothing more than that some popes were able to be bought or 
  bribed to do wrong. 
   
  The Templars never “officially” re-emerged. There are several 
  reasons for this. The first is probably a tradition of secrecy that 
  grew up over a hundred years or so of active suppression. During 
  this period most of the Knights who were heavily involved with the 
  Templars lost communication – it can be reasonably assumed to be 
  the lower ranking Templars, particularly the Chaplains, almost all 
  of whom were allowed to join other orders, who maintained the 
  tradition.  
   
  Over the years, the Templars became a sort of “Freemasonry” 
  within Roman Catholicism. Templar “Brothers” would do favors 
  for other “Brothers.” In all probability several Popes have been 
  connected with the Templars, but from the 15th century on the 
  organization drew much of its power from its shadowy secrecy. To 
  have brought it into the open would have been to make it conform 
  to established rules, and forced its members – almost all of whom 
  belonged to some other order within the church, and a fair number 
  of whom were secular holders of some temporal authority – to 
  either leave or officially “join” a semi-monastic order. It cannot be 
  suggested that after the late 15th century the Templars ever desired 
  to be “legitimized.” 
   
  Arguably the Church might be better without the Templars. Just as 
  there are accusations that Freemasons are nothing more than an 
  “old boys network” to prey upon everyone else, it can be suggested 
  that the Templars represent nothing more than a political “alliance 
  of convenience” system within the Roman Catholic Church, a sort 
  of illicit trade union to consolidate political power. 
   
  But if that were solely the case, then the Templars would have 
  been eradicated, or have succeeded in largely gaining control of 
  the Church. Neither is true. The group remains shadowy, well 
  connected, and (since the 19th century) increasingly secular, and 
  obviously pursues goals of which the Church is merely an adjunct. 
  Yet its power and connections make it alluring and allow it to 
  easily recruit members.  
   
  It has been suggested, quite reasonably that the Templars allow an 
  “outlet” for powerful vestiges of Cartharism, Arianism, and other 
  Gnostic heresy within the church.  By allowing an unofficial 
  society to exist where these issues can be discussed and professed, 
  while that society by definition preserves its “secrecy” from the 
  world, the Church ensures that these doctrines are not widespread, 
  while resisting the need to purge some of the most mystical and 
  dynamic thinkers in the church who tend to be drawn towards 
  unorthodox ideas.   
   
  The Organization of the Templars 
   
  The modern order has four ranks - knights, sergeants, chaplains, 
  and servants, however the first rank functions as the nominal 
  “probationer” or “guest” rank and can be freely conferred with no 
  obligation other than secrecy. Only the three higher ranks have 
  modern significance, and the ranks of Sergeant and Chaplain – the 
  first two mysteries – are often conferred at the same time. 
   
  Servant – Probationer and Master of the First Mystery of the East  
  Chaplain – Journeyman and Master of the Second Mystery of the 
  South  
  Sergeant – Knight and Master of the Third Mystery of the West  
  Knight – Grand Master and Master of the Final Mystery of the 
  North 
   
  The Setting of the Temple 
   
  East – The Masonic Seal – the Symbol of the Temple and the 
  mystery of Hiram Azif  
  South – The Baphomet Idol – the Symbol of the Mystery of Sophia  
  West – The Cross – The Symbol of the Mystery of Blood  
  North – The Skull – The Symbol of the Mystery of Life and Death 
   
  Legends about the Templars 
   
  The Worship of Baphomet (see Baphomet) 
   
  The Atbash Cipher Theory  
   
  As early as 500 BC Scribes writing the book of Jeremiah used what 
  we now know to be the ATBASH cipher. This cipher is one of the 
  few used in the Hebrew language 
   
  If one writes the word Baphomet in Hebrew and remember Hebrew 
  letters read from right to left, the result is as shown below: 
   
  [taf] [mem] [vav] [pe] [bet] Baphomet In Hebrew Right to Left 
   
  Applying the Atbash cipher:  
   
  [alef] [yud] [pe] [vav] [shin] Results In Sophia a Greek Word 
  Written In Hebrew Right To Left 
   
  Although written in Hebrew it reads as the Greek word Sophia that 
  translates into "Wisdom" in English. However, there is another 
  connotation to the term, for Sophia was the Goddess and 
  considered to be the bride of God. It should be remembered that 
  their patron, St. Bernard of Clairvaux had an absolute obsession 
  with Mary and was responsible for her being named the queen of 
  Heaven and the Mother of God. 
   
  A Corruption Of The Name Mahomet (Mohammed) 
   
  Some scholars hold that Baphomet is Old French for Mohammed, 
  the Islamic prophet. Others contend that Baphomet is merely a 
  corruption or mispronunciation of the same name. In either case if 
  the Templars admitted to following Mohammed or Mahomet, then 
  they would clearly be heretics in the eyes of the inquisition. It is 
  almost certain that at least some members of the order adopted 
  Islamic practices from their involvement with them in Outremer. 
  
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  This still does not explain the connection with Baphomet as an 
  idol. 
   
  It is held that the Baphomet was an idol of one sort or another 
  venerated by the order. If the Templars converted to Islam as some 
  suggest, then an idol of Mohammed would not have been likely at 
  all. 
   
  A Corruption Of The Arabic Term, Abufihamat 
   
  The meaning of the word is "Father of Understanding" or "Father of 
  Wisdom." It is a term used to refer to a Sufi Master. In Arabic, 
  father is taken to mean source. If this is the case, this could imply 
  God. The Templars were quite likely to have come in contact with 
  Sufism while in the Holy Land and many believe they absorbed 
  some of their practices into the Templar rituals. 
   
  From The Greek Words, Baph and Metis 
   
  This theory claims that the word Baphomet is derived from two 
  Greek words Baph and Metis meaning "Baptism of Wisdom." The 
  Templars are said to have worshipped a head. One of the theories 
  stands that this head was none other than the head of John the 
  Baptist. If this were true, then some support could be laid towards 
  the Greek origin etymology.  
   
  A Latin Code For Solomon's Temple 
   
  The mid Victorian French esoteric writer Eliphas Levi believed the 
  name could be reversed, fleshed out and formed into a phrase that 
  made a reference to King Solomon's Temple.  
   
  Alphonse Louis Constant (Eliphas Levi) was born the son of a 
  shoemaker in 1810 and in his youth studied Roman Catholicism 
  with the intent of joining the Priesthood. He gave up the collar of 
  Catholicism to become an Esotericist in the nineteenth century. 
  Some claim he was thrown out of the Church for his heretical 
  views. 
   
  While alive he followed the esoteric path and adopted the 
  Cabbalistic pseudonym of Eliphas Lévi, which he claimed was a 
  Hebrew version of his, own name. Although known for many books 
  on ritual Magic, Lévi is perhaps best known for his work regarding 
  the alleged deity of the Knights Templar, the Baphomet. 
   
  Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in 
  symbolic form. His treatment of the Baphomet Mythos is best seen 
  in the illustration of the Baphomet which he used as a front piece 
  to one of his many books. Levi based the illustration on a Gargoyle 
  that appears on a building owned by the Templars; the Commandry 
  of Saint Bris le Vineux.  
   
  The Gargoyle is in the form of a bearded horned figure with 
  pendulous female breasts, wings and cloven feet. It sits in a 
  crossed-legged position which resembles statues of the Celtic stag 
  god, Cernnunnus or the Horned One, found in Gaul (France) 
  before the Roman occupation. 
   
  “The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on 
  the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two 
  hands forming the sign of hermeticism, the one pointing up to the 
  white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of 
  Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with 
  justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the 
  androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with 
  those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The 
  flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light 
  of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above 
  matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. 
  The ugly beast's head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose 
  materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the 
  punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according 
  to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod 
  standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body 
  covered with scales the water, the semi- circle above it the 
  atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is 
  represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this 
  sphinx of the occult sciences.” 
   
  Lévi believed that if one rearranged the letters in Baphomet by 
  reversing them you would get an abbreviated Latin phrase: 
   
  TEM OHP AB 
   
  He further believed that this would represent the Latin "Templi 
  omnivm hominum pacis abbas" or in English "The Father Of The 
  Temple Of Peace Of All Men". This he felt to be a reference to 
  King Solomon's Temple, which has the sole purpose of bringing 
  peace to the world. 
   
  Lévi's Baphomet Sigil 
   
  Not commonly know, is that Eliphas Lévi was the first to separate 
  the pentagram into good and evil applications. It was Lévi who first 
  incorporated his goat headed Baphomet into the inverted 
  pentagram attributing the qualities of evil to the new symbol.  
   
  Levi's illustrative representation of Baphomet found its way into A. 
  E. Waite's turn of the century Tarot deck as the Devil card and has 
  in the process added another page to the Baphomet Mythos and 
  perhaps added to demonizing something that may have had a more 
  innocent interpretation. 
   
  Modern Claims about the Baphomet by Author Nesta Webster 
   
  According to the controversial contemporary author, Nesta 
  Webster, Eliphas Lévi held the conviction that not only did the 
  Templars adore the Baphomet but anyone embracing the Occult 
  sciences did also. We see this in an alleged quote of his own words 
  taken from the works of Nesta Webster, who may well have taken it 
  out of context as so many such writers are want to do.  
   
  "Let us declare for the edification of the vulgar....and for the greater 
  glory of the Church which has persecuted the Templars, burned the 
  magicians and excommunicated the Freemasons, etc., let us say 
  boldly and loudly, that all the initiates of the occult sciences... have 
  adored do and always will adore that which is signified by this 
  frightful symbol [The Sabbatic Goat]. Yes, in our profound 
  conviction, the Grand Masters of the order of The Templars adored 
  Baphomet and caused him to be adored by their initiates." 
   
  Secret Societies and Subversive Movements Nesta H. Webster 
  (1924) The Christian Book Club 
   
  The Legend Of The Necromantic Skull Of Sidon 
   
  
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  The skull and cross-bones, are long known to have Templar and 
  latterly Masonic connections and were commonly used as a symbol 
  on Templar and Masonic grave sites in the past. The Skull and 
  Cross-bones, Masonic or not, point out to us all, our own mortality 
  and eventual death. This image of mortality was believed to figure 
  in Templar ritual.  
   
  It is well known that the order of the Templars was monastic in 
  nature and therefore forbidden to have involvement with women as 
  shown in the Templar Rule of Order. The legend of the "Skull of 
  Sidon" claims that one Templar knight had a relationship with a 
  woman who died. He dug up the woman's corpse and consummated 
  their relationship resulting in a most grisly birth nine months later. 
   
  This tale can be traced back to a twelfth century author named 
  Walter Mapp, an early chronicler of Templar history. Although the 
  story at that time was not connected with the Templar Knights, by 
  the time of their trials 1307-1314 CE it was well woven into the 
  Templar legend. In fact it was called upon during the actual trials 
  of the Templars. 
   
  A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; 
  but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this 
  wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. 
  Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for 
  he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed 
  time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones 
  of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him 
  'guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things', and so he 
  carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he 
  was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic 
  head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order. 
   
  The fact that the woman was an Armenian is of some significance. 
  She can be connected with the Armenian Church and its Paulician 
  sects. The Paulicians and the Bogomils were practitioners of 
  Catharism, which the church had all but wiped out during the 
  Albigensian Crusade. Since the church believed the Cathari to be 
  practitioners of the Black Mass and necromancy, the woman's 
  Armenian background would make the story a matter of guilt by 
  association. 
   
  The Blood of Mary Magdalene 
   
  Two concepts - that Jesus sired children, and that Jesus (Joshua 
  bar Joses - "Jesus" being a greek rendering of Yeheshuah or 
  'Joshua') physically survived, or meant to surviove the crucifixion 
  were central to several early branches of Christianity.  
   
  The Survival of Christ 
   
  In the beginning decades of Christianity, there existed no single 
  and unified doctrine of the new faith. There existed no orthodoxy 
  that had fashioned one commonly accepted definition or practice of 
  Christianity. There was no one Church “united under Christ.” In 
  short, Christianity was a religion trying to find itself, and there 
  existed various Christian communities, with diverse 
  understandings and interpretations, that were even vying with each 
  other for supremacy. During that early period, the Gnostic 
  Christians were one of those communities, and they were a strong 
  force and one of the prevailing movements at that time. One 
  example of Gnosticism’s early strength, around the middle of the 
  second century, was the consideration of its great teacher 
  Valentinus for election as the Bishop of Rome. But, though 
  Valentinus was very influential, by the end of his life he was 
  branded a heretic. The Gnostic Gospels are fifty-two sacred texts. 
  That they are strongly believed by scholars to have been compiled 
  very early in the beginning of Christian history places them, in 
  some minds, at a level equal to the New Testament books, in terms 
  of their consideration as legitimate Gospels of early Christianity. 
   
  Many Gnostic cults preserved as their central mystery the concept.  
  The Gospel of Philip, a fairly late Gnostic Gospel states implicitly 
  that Jesus physically survived the Crucifixion through a ruse and 
  was revived. 
   
  Basilides, who died in A.D. 140 is held to be the first great Gnostic 
  theologian, is was the first recorded exponent of the view that 
  someone else died on the cross other than Jesus. He claimed to 
  have received this teaching from a secret tradition going back to 
  the Apostle Peter. 
   
  The Progeny of Jesus 
   
  The suggestion that Jesus had one or more children is well 
  grounded in Gnostic tradition   The Gospel of Miriam and the 
  Gospel of Phillip suggest this.  Modern scholars have also pointed 
  out that it would have been difficult for Jesus to be accepted as a 
  teacher and a rabbi without having fulfilled the duty of marriage 
  and fathering children.    The suggestion that Jesus was married to, 
  or at least the lover of, Mary Magdalene is of course heretical from 
  a conventional point of view, but it is a widely supported Gnostic 
  legend.   Even the primary Gospels offer some support for the 
  existence of a special relationship between Mary and Jesus. 
   
  The Merovingian Kings 
   
  The Merovingian Dynasty were a line of Frankish kings who 
  conquered Gaul and surrounding lands beginning in A.D. 486 and 
  ruled until 751. The Franks were Germanic peoples, and Gaul was 
  a region that included present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, 
  and southwestern Germany. The name Merovingian comes from 
  Merovech, a relative of the first Merovingian ruler, Clovis I.  
   
  Clovis I was also the most powerful Merovingian king. He unified 
  the Franks under his rule. By the time he died in 511, he had 
  conquered northern and southwestern Gaul and additional land in 
  what is now western Germany. The kingdom was then divided 
  among four of Clovis' sons, who added southeastern Gaul and other 
  territory to the realm. However, a process of further dividing the 
  kingdom led to numerous civil wars that severely weakened the 
  dynasty. By the eighth century, the Merovingian Kings had little 
  real authority, and their role was largely religious and ceremonial. 
   
  In 751, the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, was replaced by 
  Pepin the Short, the first ruler from the Carolingian dynasty. There 
  is good reason to believe that Pepin, who had the title of “Mayor of 
  the Palace” (essentially Prime Minister) also had Merovingian 
  blod. 
   
  Like most Germanic Tribes, the descendants of Merovech claimed 
  rule by right of divine blood. In one story Merovech, is said to have 
  been the spawn of a "Quinotaur," a giant fish or a sea monster, who 
  raped his mother when she went out to swim in the ocean. This is 
  identified as a minor godling of some sort.  
   
  At one point, the Merovingian Kings claimed that Jesus sired 
  children, or at least a child by Mary of Magdala. Despite the lack 
  
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  of any firm evidence there is an enormously strong legend that 
  Mary settled in Marsala (Marseillies). The Merovingian line 
  claimed that through this infusion of blood they became heirs to 
  the House of David (the Royal line of Solomon and David) and 
  thus gained the divine right to rule Jerusalem. 
   
  Obviously, Jesus' bloodline spread to various other families of 
  European prominence as well, since the Merovingians were 
  intermarried with other ruling houses, and even outright conquest 
  seldom meant a total change in bloodlines (remember for example 
  that William of Normandy claimed England through marriage).  
   
  It could be safely asserted that there are at least a dozen families 
  in Britain and Europe today--with numerous collateral branches 
  who are of Merovingian lineage. These include the houses of 
  Hapsburg-Lorraine (present titular dukes of Lorraine and kings of 
  Jerusalem), Plantard, Luxembourg, Montpezat, Montesquiou, and 
  various others. The Sinclair family in Britain is also allied to the 
  bloodline as are various branches of the Stuarts. And the 
  Devonshire family, among others, would seem to have been privy 
  to the secret. It should be noted that the name "Sinclair" adds up to 
  666. All of these houses could presumably claim a pedigree from 
  Jesus. 
   
  The Templar connection is fairly secondary.  The Templars are the 
  “cognizant” descendants who sought to restore the Merovingian 
  bloodline, and potentially restore the Grail, and other secrets 
  known to the descendants of Mary of Magdala.   For this reason 
  they were repressed by the French Crown.  More likely they 
  preserved an element of the Gnostic faith of which Mary and some 
  other early Christians may have been the exponents, and which 
  reached France in the first century. 
   
  A Contemporary Source 
   
  In 1885, the Abbe Berenger Sauniere discovered a collection of 
  parchments beneath a church in Rennes-le-Chateau. One of the 
  complex ciphers and codes read: 'To Dagobert II King And To Sion 
  Belongs This Treasure And He Is There Dead.' Sauniere quickly 
  became part of the Parisian esoteric underground and extracted a 
  fortune from the Church, which was spent on unusual interior 
  designs that prominently featured unusually dark interpretations of 
  Christ's crucifixion.  
   
  The Templars Have, or Know the Location of, the Ark of the 
  Covenant 
   
  The last time that the Bible mentions the Ark is in 2 Chronicles 
  35:3 when King Josiah ordered that it should be returned to  the 
  temple. 
   
   "Put the Holy Ark in the house which Solomon the son of David 
  king of  Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your 
  shoulders." 
   
  We can date this event to around 623 BC and a number of 
  conclusions can reasonably be drawn from this record. 
   
  1. The temple priests had moved the Ark to safe keeping during 
  the preceding turbulent times and the Holy Ark was returned to 
  the temple because there is no  reference to the fact that it was not, 
  and that would have been an important event. 
   
  2. Those in authority, including King Josiah, were well aware that 
  the Ark had been safely hidden until the time that he ordered it to 
  be returned to the temple. The fairly off-hand manner in which this 
  event is dealt with indicates that it was not unusual to  hide the 
  Holy Ark during periods of crisis. 
   
  3. Whatever and wherever the hiding place was, it had 
  successfully protected the Ark between 950 BC when Solomon 
  built the first temple and 623 BC when King  Josiah gave his 
  direction to the temple priests.  
   
  We also know that thirty seven years later in 586, the Temple was 
  destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.   
   
  “n the tenth day of the fifth month, which was in the nineteenth year 
  of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain 
  of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, 
  came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord [the 
  Temple of Solomon], the king's house, and all the houses of 
  Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire 
   
  The patron of the Templars was the man who would be known as 
  Saint Bernard during his own lifetime was beginning his monastic 
  career with the Cistercians. The Cistercians monks were - at that 
  time - heavily  involved in deciphering Hebrew texts. The link 
  between the two strands was Hughes,  Count of Champagne. 
  Hughes began his adulthood as a monk before taking on the  
  mantle of Count. He first visited Jerusalem as a pilgrim in 1104 
  and only a few years  later nine of his vassals returned to found the 
  Knights Templar quartered in the Al  Aqsa mosque on Temple 
  Mount. Stories abound that the Templars spent the first 10 years or 
  so of their existence digging under Temple Mount.  
   
  Captain Wilson, Lieutenant Warren and a team of Royal Engineer 
  found strong support for these rumours. In 1867, they re-excavated 
  the area and uncovered tunnels extending vertically, from the Al 
  Aqsa mosque, for some 25 metres before fanning out under the 
  Dome of the Rock which is generally thought to be the site of King 
  Solomon's temple. Crusader artifacts found in these tunnels attest 
  to Templar involvement. 
   
  The earliest written copies of Masonic ritual state unequivocally 
  that the ancient masons found the Ark of the Covenant hidden in a 
  cave under the site of King Solomon's temple. 
   
  "In pursuance of your orders, we repaired to the secret vault, and 
  let down one of the companions as before. The sun at this time was 
  at its meridian height, the rays of which enabled him to discover a 
  small box, or chest, standing on a pedestal, curiously wrought, and 
  overlaid with gold: he gave the signal of ascending, and was 
  immediately drawn out. We have brought the ark up, for the 
  examination of the grand council." 
   
  To complete this particular aspect of the enquiry it only remains to 
  say that there is indeed just such a cave underneath the al-Sakhra 
  - the rock outcrop covered by the Dome of the Rock mosque; 
  which is believed to be the site of Araunah the Jebusite King's 
  threshing floor. 
   
  Having seen that the Ark could have been hidden and that it could 
  have been found by the Templars it only remains to ascertain 
  whether there is any more evidence to show that they did so. We 
  can start with the fact that in 1125 Count Hughes gave up all his 
  worldly wealth and travelled to Jerusalem to join the Templars 
  
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  under their Grand Master, Hughes de Payens, who had previously 
  been one of the Count's vassals. Around this time Payens visited 
  Europe and not only received Papal approval for the order of 
  Knights Templar - with considerable help from Bernard, but as he 
  travelled he had huge tracts of land settled on the order as gifts 
  from kings, princes and other nobility. Furthermore, hundreds if 
  not thousands of men signed away their worldly goods in order to 
  join the fledgling order. The Templars may not have found the Ark 
  but they had certainly gained possession of something of immense 
  religious importance. 
   
  The many written works histories of the Templars make frequent 
  mention of their "treasure." As the Holy Land finally fell to the 
  Muslims in 1291 mention is made of a Templar knight by the name 
  of Tibald Gaudin as having carried the "treasure" away. The clear 
  inference being that they placed money above people. The fact is 
  however that on arrival at Sidon, Gaudin was elected the next 
  Grand Master. There would have been ample financial reserves 
  held at Sidon, just as there was at every other preceptory; it simply 
  does not make sense to consider that the newly arrived Gaudin 
  would have warranted such promotion simply because he brought 
  some gold with him. If, on the other hand, he had saved the Ark of 
  the Covenant then promotion would have been a small reward. 
   
  The theme of the Templars saving their "treasure" at times of 
  greatest threat recurs shortly before their arrest by King Philip IV, 
  when it is said that they spirited away the Paris temple treasure in 
  a hay wagon. 
   
  Other Templar Legends 
   
  Other legends of the Templars abound.  The most widely repeated 
  is the story of the The Great Treasure of the Templars, which was 
  taken away from Paris in a Wagon.  The treasure must have been 
  something of more significance than gold, or the order was fairly 
  poor – one wagon simply would not hold that much gold.  
  Payments of royal ransoms at that time were typically carried by a 
  train of animals.   Certainly however the Templars had gold here 
  and there, though whether, and how much of it, they recovered is 
  beyond knowing 
   
  The Templars are also heavily associated with the Holy Grail, and 
  there are many legends that they know of its location, or serve as 
  its guardians.  The Templars have even been connected to Atlantis, 
  mostly through the suggestion that they are descended from the 
  Merovingian Kings. 
    
   
  Teraphim, The: Of the nature of oracles. The teraphim were taken 
  away from Jacob by his daughter, Rachel, and this mention of them 
  in the Bible is the earliest record we have of " magical " apparatus. 
  Their form is not known, nor the exact use to which they were put; 
  but from an allusion to them in Hosea, they were evidently not 
  idols. Spencer maintains that they were the same as the " Urim " of 
  Mosaic ritual; at any rate it seems likely that they were used as a 
  means of divination. 
   
  The Temple Church: The Temple Church, London, presents many 
  mythic figures, which have a Rosicrucian expression. In the 
  spandrels of the arches of the long church, besides the " Beaus6ant 
  " which is repeated in many places, there are the armorial figures 
  following; " Argent, on a cross gules, the Agnus Dei, or Paschal 
  Lamb, or, " Gules the Agnus Dei, displaying over the right 
  shoulder the standard of the Temple; or, a banner, triple cloven, 
  bearing a cross gules; " Azure, a cross prolonged potent issuant out 
  of the crescent moon argent, horns, upwards, on either side of the 
  cross, a star or." This latter figure signifies the Virgin Mary, and 
  displays the cross as rising like the pole, or mast of a ship (argha) 
  out of the midst of the crescent moon or navis biprora, curved at 
  both ends; " azure, scmee of estoiles or." The staff of the Grand 
  Master of the Templars, displayed a curved cross of four splays, or 
  blades, red upon white. The eight - pointed red Buddhist cross was 
  also one of the Templar ensigns. The Temple arches abound with 
  brandished estoiles, or stars, with wavy or crooked flames. The 
  altar at the east end of the Temple Church has a cross flourie, with 
  lower limb prolonged, or, on a field of estoiles, wavy; to the right is 
  the Decalogue, surmounted by the initials, A.O. (Alpha and 
  Omega), on the left are the monograms of the Saviour, I. C., X. C.; 
  beneath, is the Lord's Prayer. The whole altar displays feminine 
  colours and emblems, the Temple Church being dedicated to the 
  Virgin Maria. The winged horse, or Pegasus, argent, in a field 
  gules, is the badge of the Templars. The tombs of the Templars, 
  disposed around the circular church in London, are of that early 
  Norman shape called dos d'ane; their tops are triangular; the ridge 
  - moulding passes through the temples and out of the mouth of a 
  mask at the upper end, and issues out of the horned skull, 
  apparently of some purposely trodden creature. The head at the top 
  is shown in the " honour - point " of the cover of the tomb. There is 
  an amount of unsuspected meaning in every curve of these 
  Templar tombs. 
   
  Tephillin: In the Hebrew tongue means " attachments." They were 
  originally prayer thongs worn by the Jews at morning prayer - one 
  on the left arm and another on the head. They came to be regarded 
  as talismans and were used in many traditional ceremonies. The 
  Talmud says: " Whoever has the tephillin bound to his head and 
  arm . . . . . is protected from sin." 
   
  Teutons: The Teutonic or " Germanic " nations, embracing the 
  peoples of High and Low German speech, Dutch, Danes, and 
  Scandinavians, have always displayed and still display a marked 
  leaning towards the study and consideration of the occult. We are, 
  however, concerned here with their attitude towards the hidden 
  sciences in more ancient times, and must refer the reader to the 
  article on " Germany " and the other countries alluded to for 
  information upon mediaeval and modern occultism in them. 
   
  But little can be gleaned from the writings of classical authors 
  upon the subject, and it is not until we approach the middle ages, 
  the contemporary manuscripts concerning the traditions of an 
  earlier day, and the works of such writers as Snorre Sturluson and 
  Segmund (The Eddas) Saxo - Grammaticus, and such epics or 
  pseudo  - histories as The Nibelungenlied that we find any light 
  thrown upon the dark places of Teutonic magical practice and 
  belief. From the consideration of such authorities we arrive at 
  several basic conclusions: (i) That magic with the Teutons was non 
  - hierophantic, and was not in any respect the province of the 
  priesthood, as with the Celtic Druids; (2) That women were its 
  chief conservators; (3) That it principally resided in the study and 
  elucidation of the runic script, in the same manner as in early 
  Egypt it was part and parcel of the ability to decipher the 
  hieroglyphic characters. Passing from the first conclusion, which is 
  self - evident, as we discover all sorts and conditions of people 
  dabbling in magical practice, we find that to a great extent sorcery 
  for efforts seem to have been confined mostly to black magic - was 
  principally the province of women. This is to be explained, 
  perhaps, by the circumstance that only those who could read the 
  runes - that is, those who could read at all - were able to undertake 
  
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  the study of the occult, and that therefore the unlettered warrior, 
  too restless for the repose of study, was barred from all advance in 
  the subject. We find women in all ranks of life addicted to the 
  practice of sorcery, from the queen on the throne to the wise - 
  woman or witch dwelling apart from the community. Thus the 
  mother - in - law of Siegfried bewitches him by a draught, and 
  scores of similar instances could be adduced. At the same time the 
  general type of ancient Teutonic magic is not very high, it is 
  greatly hampered by human considerations, and is much at the 
  mercy of the human element on which it acts, and the very human 
  desires which call it forth. Indeed in many cases it is rendered 
  nugatory by the mere cunning of the' object upon which it is 
  wreaked. In fine it does not rise very much above the type of 
  sorcery in vogue among barbarian peoples at the present day. It is 
  surprising, however, with all these weaknesses, how powerful a 
  hold it contrived to get upon the popular imagination, which was 
  literally 'drenched with the belief in supernatural science. 
   
  Teutonic Knights: The Teutonic Order (usually, hospitale sancte 
  Marie Theutonicorum Jerosolimitanum - the Hospital of St. Mary of 
  the Germans of Jerusalem or der orden des Duschen huses - the 
  order of the German houses, in the sources) was one of the three 
  major knightly or military orders that originated and evolved 
  during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Templars and 
  Hospitallers are the other major orders.  
   
  The military orders were "true orders" of the Roman church 
  governed by regulations similar to those governing monks, 
  generally variants of the Benedictine or Augustinian Rules. For 
  most purposes, they were technically answerable only to the pope. 
  They did have some feudal responsibilities to lay and other clerical 
  entities as dictated by circumstances of place and time. Large 
  numbers of knights became monks but often were found in military 
  fortifications rather than monasteries. The members of most orders 
  took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  
   
  Origins of the Teutonic Order 
   
  According to tradition, early in the twelfth century a wealthy 
  German couple built a hospital in Jerusalem at their own expense 
  to care for poor and sick pilgrims who spoke German. The hospital 
  and an accompanying chapel were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 
  This story is similar to the traditions of the origin of the Hospital of 
  St. John of Jerusalem founded by Amalfitans. The German hospital 
  apparently was affiliated with the Hospital of St. John, at least, in 
  the observance of the rule of St. Augustine. After Saladin's 
  conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, there are no more records of the 
  German hospital there. There was no indication that the German 
  hospital ever had a military mission.  
   
  During the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade (probably 
  1190), Germans from Lubeck and Bremen established a field 
  hospital for German soldiers reportedly using ships' sails as cover 
  from the elements. Duke Frederick of Swabia placed his chaplain 
  Conrad in charge of the hospital and soon transformed the 
  organization into a religious order responsible to the local Latin 
  bishop. Although some scholars question its authenticity, Pope 
  Clement III (1187- -1191) apparently approved the Order on 
  February 6, 1191. The Order was taken under Pope Celestine III's 
  (1191--1198) protection on December 21, 1196, with the name of 
  the "Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem." The name 
  is possibly the only connection with the earlier German hospital 
  although some argue a more direct relationship with the earlier 
  hospital.  
   
  A ceremony purportedly held on March 5, 1198, altered the 
  Order's raison d'etre. The patriarch of Jerusalem, the king of 
  Jerusalem, the head of the crusading army, and the masters of the 
  Templars and the Hospital of St. John attended the celebration 
  establishing the Teutonic Knights as a military order. A bull by 
  Pope Innocent III (1198--1216) dated February 19, 1199, 
  confirmed the event and specified the Order would care for the 
  sick according to the rule of the Hospitallers. It would conduct its 
  other business by following the Templar rule and would wear the 
  Temple's distinctive white cloak. Its black cross would 
  differentiate the Teutonic Order from the Temple.  
   
  Internal Structure  
   
  During the first twenty years of its existence, the institutional 
  structure of the Order developed and stabilized. The Teutonic 
  Order followed the lead of the Templars and Hospitallers by 
  creating a system of provinces. Unlike monastic orders composed 
  of independent abbeys, the Teutonic Knights had a hierarchical 
  chain of command with commanderies (house, Kommende) at the 
  lowest level. Provinces or bailiwicks (Ballei, Komturei) were parts 
  of "countries" that composed the Order as a whole. Its first 
  independent rule was adopted in 1264.  
   
  The officials governing the Teutonic Order at the various levels 
  were commander (Komtur, preceptor) at the local level, province 
  commander (Landkomtur), national commander (Landmeister), 
  and grand master (Hochmeister, magister). The highest leadership 
  positions (including grand master, grand commander 
  [Grosskomtur], marshal [Ordensmarschall], draper or 
  quartermaster [Trapier], hospitaller [Spittler], and treasurer 
  [Tressler]) were elected by the general chapter.  
   
  Membership of this mostly German-speaking order was composed 
  of various, distinct classes: knights, priests, and other brothers (lay 
  brothers, sisters, and "familiars"). There was a large number of 
  people who supported the professed members of the Order, ranging 
  from auxiliary knights to slaves. The highest ranking were secular 
  knights, serving for free. Turcopoles (Greek for "son of Turk") were 
  originally probably lightly-armed, half-breed cavalry whose name 
  applied to Turkish mercenaries employed in the Byzantine army, 
  later the term was adopted by the military orders. There were 
  attendants called squires (knechte), and sergeants-at-arms. 
  Footsoldiers were usually coerced from the local peasantry. Sister-
  aids (halpswesteren) were employed as domestics as were 
  halpbrUderen; they took religious vows. Married and single lay 
  domestics also were employed by the Order. Artisans and laborers 
  (e.g., gardeners, carpenters, masons) worked for charity or wages. 
  Many serfs and slaves were owned by the Order.  
   
  Rapid Expansion  
   
  From the outset, the possessions and wealth of the Teutonic Order 
  grew astoundingly fast and its numbers skyrocketed, especially 
  under Grand Master Hermann von Salza (c. 1210--1239). Von 
  Salza was successful in gaining many favors for the Order because 
  he was a confidante to both the German emperor Frederick II 
  (1211--1250) and the popes. His immediate successors also did 
  well. Between 1215 and 1300, one or more commanderies were 
  founded each year, usually through gifts.  
  
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  The Teutonic Order was invited into Greece (1209), Hungary 
  (1211), and Prussia (1226) by secular rulers to perform military 
  duties on their behalf. In the Peloponnesus the Frankish Prince of 
  Achaia provided fiefs near Kalamata for the Teutonic Knights in 
  return for military service; there are traces of the Order's 
  continuous service there until 1500. The Hungarian King Andrew 
  II (1205--1235) expelled the Order in 1225 when it became strong 
  and may have threatened his rule. The conquest of Prussia began 
  in 1230 (after the Order's Grand Master was named prince of the 
  Holy Roman Empire) and lasted until 1283.  
   
  In addition to the Holy Land and these other "theaters of war," the 
  order's members could be found elsewhere in the Mediterranean 
  and western Europe: Armenia, Cyprus, Sicily, Apulia, Lombardy, 
  Spain, France, Alsace, Austria, Bohemia, the Lowlands, Germany, 
  and Livonia. Only in the frontier areas (the Holy Land, Armenia, 
  Greece, Hungary, Prussia, Spain, and Livonia) was military service 
  required of members.  
   
  By 1221 the German Order was given the same privileges as the 
  Templars and Hospitallers by Pope Honorius III (1216--1227). 
  Both senior orders fought the autonomy of the Teutonic Order until 
  about 1240. The German Order may not have quite equaled in 
  wealth and possessions the other two military orders which were 
  more than 80 years older, but it became the only other order to 
  rival them in international influence and activity.  
   
  The Baltic  
   
  After the crusaders were defeated at Acre in 1291, the Teutonic 
  Order moved its headquarters to Venice, a long-time ally. In 1309, 
  the Order moved again, this time to Marienburg in Prussia. Here 
  the Order had subdued the pagan inhabitants and established a 
  theocratic form of government.  
   
  The position of the knights in the Baltic region had been 
  strengthened in 1237 when a knightly order in Livonia, the 
  Brothers of the Sword (Schwertbr(der), joined the Teutonic Order. 
  The history of the German knights in Prussia and Livonia is one of 
  almost perpetual revolts, uprisings, raids, conquests, victories, and 
  defeats. Many secular knights from western Europe (e.g., 
  Chaucer's knight in the Canterbury Tales) would go to the Baltic to 
  help the Order in "crusading activities" for a season or more. The 
  Grand Master's prizes and feasting for especially heroic knights 
  became legendary and reminds one of various aspects of King 
  Arthur's knights of the Round Table.  
   
  During the fourteenth century, dozens of towns and about 2000 
  villages were created in Prussia by the Order. The Order was 
  successful in trade. For example, as a Hanseatic League 
  participant, it provided western Europe with some of its cheapest 
  grain.  
   
  The nations of Poland and Lithuania, perennial enemies of the 
  Order, became stronger and stronger in the late fourteenth and 
  early fifteenth centuries. In 1410 at Tannenberg, the Order was 
  crushed in a battle against a coalition led by these powers. The 
  result was a bankrupting of the Order and significant reduction in 
  its military and political capabilities. In 1467, the whole of western 
  Prussia was ceded to Poland and the eastern part acknowledged 
  the suzerainty of the king of Poland.   The conversion of the last 
  Pagan Lithuanians in 1410 left the Order with shallow grounds for 
  “crusading.” 
   
  1525 to 1797  
   
  Martin Luther's (1483-1546) Reformation affected the Teutonic 
  Order significantly. In 1525, Grand Master Albrecht von 
  Brandenburg converted to the Lutheran faith. He then was 
  enfoeffed by the Polish king as Duke of Prussia. As a medieval, 
  crusading entity, the German Order essentially ended at this time.  
   
  In 1526, the Teutonic Order master of the German lands became 
  the "Administrator of the Grandmastery in Prussia and Master in 
  German and Romance Countries." Mergentheim became the main 
  seat of the Order.  
   
  There was a great deal of confusion in Germany in the aftermath of 
  the Reformation, its resulting wars, and the political changes. The 
  bailiwicks of Saxony, Messe, and Thuringia became Protestant 
  until Napoleonic times. The office of Landkomtur alternated among 
  Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic leaders in the sixteenth and 
  seventeenth centuries. The bailiwick of Utrecht was Calvinist until 
  modern times. A new rule was adopted in 1606 in an attempt to 
  accommodate the changes in the Order.  
   
  In European affairs, from time to time, the Order still participated 
  militarily. Some 1000 troops were raised to help the Austrians 
  against the Turks. After 1696, there was a regiment of the "Grand 
  and German Master." But the numbers and wealth of the Order 
  dwindled. Little other military activity is recorded.  
   
  The French Revolution and After  
   
  As the anticlerical French government expanded its political 
  control in the 1790's, the Order lost its commanderies in Belgium 
  and those west of the Rhine (1797). Many east of the Rhine were 
  lost in 1805. In 1809, Napoleon dissolved the Order in all 
  countries under his dominion, leaving only the properties in the 
  Austrian Empire.  
   
  Even in Austria, the Order had to exist secretly for a number of 
  years until 1839 when Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I reconstituted 
  the Order as the Order of the Teutonic Knights (Deutscher 
  Ritterorden). The mission fulfilled by the Order was mainly the 
  caring for wounded soldiers.  
   
  In 1866, the "Honorable Knights of the Teutonic Order" was 
  founded. Knights were required to provide annual contributions for 
  hospitals. The Marianer des Deutschen Ordens, for women, was 
  created in 1871.  
   
  In 1914, some 1,500 sponsors from the Austrian nobility supported 
  the caregiving efforts of the Order. During World War I, the Order 
  took care of about 3,000 wounded soldiers in their facilities.  
   
  In 1923, masters of the Order were allowed to come from among 
  the clerics rather than the "knighthood" for the first time. The 
  Order's headquarters, treasury, and archives are now located in 
  Vienna, Austria. 
   
  Teutonic Order: Properly the Order of Teutons and Walvater 
  Teutonic Order of the Holy Grail.  In 1912, several German 
  occultists with radical anti-semitic inclinations decided to form a 
  "magic" lodge, which they named the Order of Teutons. the main 
  founders were Theodor Fritsch, a publisher of an anti-semitic 
  journal; Philipp Stauff, pupil of the racist Guido Von List, and 
  
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  Hermann Pohl, the order's chancellor. (Pohl would drop out three 
  years later to found his own bizarre lodge, the Walvater Teutonic 
  Order of the Holy Grail.) The Order of Teutons was organized 
  along the lines of the Free Masons or the Rosicrucians, having 
  differing degrees of initiation, only persons who could fully 
  document that they were of pure "aryan" ancestry were allowed to 
  join.  
   
  In 1915, Pohl was joined by Rudolf Blauer, who held a Turkish 
  passport and practiced sufi meditation. He also dabbled in 
  astrology and was an admirer of Lanz Von Liebenfels and Guido 
  Von List, both pathologically anti-semitic. Blauer went by the 
  name of Rudolf Freiherr Von Sebottendorf. He was very wealthy, 
  although the origin of his fortune is unknown. He became the 
  Grand Master of the Bavarian Order and he founded the Thule 
  Society, with Pohl's approval, in 1918.  
   
  Thule Society: Germanenorden and Thule Society 
   
  The Germanenorden and Thule Society are low level recruiting 
  fronts for more sophisticated and knowledgeable pro-Nazi Black 
  Lodges.   
   
  In late 19th and early 20th century Germany and Austria there 
  were many flourishing esoteric orders which sought to establish a 
  reborn Germanic identity and to reconnect the volk with its 
  repressed archetypes.  
   
  One of the most significant of these Orders was founded in 
  Germany in 1912 - the Germanenorden or German Order. From 
  this sprang the Thule Gesellschaft or Thule Society whose driving 
  force was Rudolf von Serbottendorff. He had been schooled in 
  occultism, Islamic mysticism, alchemy, Rosicrucianism and much 
  else, in Turkey, where he had also been initiated into 
  Freemasonry.  
   
  Thule served as the recruiting and political action front of the 
  Germananorden. Serbottendorff bought a failing Munich 
  newspaper, the Beobachter which he renamed the Volkische 
  Beobachter and it became the official newspaper of the NSDAP 
  (Nazi Party).  
   
  A movement to promote Thulian ideas among industrial workers 
  and to offset Marxism, was formed in 1918 - the Workers' Political 
  Circle - with Thulist Karl Harrer as chairman. From this came the 
  German Workers' Party in 1919. A year later this became the 
  NSDAP under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.  
   
  The Thule society was active as a political and military 
  organization during the brief Barvarian Socialist Coup in 1919-
  1920. On April 6, 1919, in Bavaria, left wing socialists and 
  anarchists proclaimed the Bavarian Socialist Republic. The brains 
  of the revolution were a group of writers who had little idea of 
  administration. Life in Munich grew chaotic. The counter-
  revolutionary forces, the whites, composed of various groups of 
  decommissioned soldiers known as "Frei Corps", defeated the 
  Bavarian Soviet within a matter of weeks. 
   
  The Thule Society was instrumental in this effort.    Their 
  propaganda effort was aided by a journalist, poet, and occult 
  student Dietrich Eckart, who was the major intellectual influence 
  on Hitler in the early years. The swastika flag adopted by the 
  NSDAP was the brain-child of another Thulist, Dr Krohn.  
   
  Journalist Karl Harrer was given the job of founding a political 
  "worker circle". He realized that the workers would reject any 
  program that was presented to them by a member of the 
  conservative "privileged" class. Harrer knew that the mechanic 
  Anton Drexler, who was working for the railroads, was a well-
  known anti-semite, chauvinist and proletarian. With drexler as 
  nominal chairman, Harrer founded the German Workers Party in 
  January 1919  
   
  The German Workers Party was only one of many associations 
  founded and controlled by the Thule Society. The Thule was the 
  "mother" to the German Socialist Party, led by Julius Streicher, 
  and the right-wing radical Oberland Free Corps. It published the 
  Munich observer, which later became the National Observer. 
  Hitler became the most prominent personality in the party. He 
  caused Harrer to drop out, and he pushed Drexler, the nominal 
  chairman, to the sidelines. He filled key positions with his own 
  friends from the Thule Society and the Army. During the summer 
  of 1920, upon his suggestion, the party was renamed the National 
  Socialist German Worker Party (NASDAP). The new name was 
  intended to equally attract nationalists and proletarians. 
   
   
  The Thule Society inner circle had the following beliefs 
   
  1) Thule was a legendary island in the far north, similar to 
  Atlantis, supposedly the center of a lost, high-level civilization. 
  But not all secrets of that civilization had been completely wiped 
  out. Those that remained were being guarded by ancient, highly 
  intelligent beings (similar to the "Masters" of Theosophy or the 
  White Brotherhood). The Roman historian Polybius (ca. 150 
  B.C.)made first mention of the "island, or point of land, six days' 
  sail north of Orcades" [Orkneys, Britain] observed during a voyage 
  by Pytheas in the late-4th Century B.C. 
   
  2) The truly initiated could establish contact with these beings by 
  means of magic-mystical rituals.  
   
  3) The "Masters" or "Ancients" allegedly would be able to endow 
  the initiated with supernatural strength and energy.  
   
  4) With the help of these energies the goal of the initiated was to 
  create a race of Supermen of "Aryan" stock who would exterminate 
  all "inferior" races.  
   
  5) An ascended master or deific force “the King of Fear” figures as 
  a patron in the Order. 
   
  Tulpa: The word "tulpa" comes from Tibetan Bhuddism, and is a 
  type of Thoughtform which, once created, assumes an existence 
  independent of its creator. Tulpas are generally created by the 
  experience of extreme emotions, and once manifest can be 
  extremely difficult (and sometimes "impossible") to destroy. Those 
  that are created intentionally tend to follow the pattern of fulfilling 
  their duties as expected at first, gradually adopting methods 
  outside their intended parameters, and eventually either fulfilling 
  their goals in ways that are compleatly outside their creators 
  wishes or ignoring them compleatly. Tulpas are not always "bad" 
  but they almost invariably become troublesome. 
   
  Runes: (German, rune; Anglo - Saxon run; Icelandic run). The 
  word is derived from an old Low German word raunen " to cut - or " 
  
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  to carve, " and as the runes in more ancient times were invariably 
  carved and not written, it latterly came to designate the characters 
  themselves. As has been said, comparatively few were able to 
  decipher them, and the elucidation was left to the curious, the 
  ambitious among the female sex, and the leisured few in general, 
  those perhaps including priests and lawmen. Consequently we find 
  the power to decipher them an object of mysterious veneration 
  among the ignorant and a belief that the ability to elucidate them 
  meant the possession of magical powers. The possessors of this 
  ability would in no wise minimise it, so that the belief in their 
  prowess would flourish. Again, it is clear that a certain amount of 
  patience and natural ability were necessary to the acquirement of 
  such an intricate script. 
   
  The tradition that they were connected with sorcery has, scarcely 
  yet died out in some parts of Iceland. In later times the word runes 
  came to be applied to all the alphabetical systems employed by the 
  Teutonic peoples before the introduction of Christianity. Their 
  origin is obscure, some authorities denying that it is Teutonic, and 
  asserting that they are merely a transformation or adaptation of the 
  Greek characters, and others that they have a Phoenician or even 
  cuneiform ancestry. That they are of non Teutonic origin is highly 
  probable, as may be inferred from their strong resemblance to 
  other scripts and from the circumstance that it is highly unlikely 
  that they could have been separately evolved by the Teutonic race 
  in the state of comparative barbarism in which it was when they 
  first came into general use. They have been divided into three 
  systems - English, German, and Scandinavian but the difference 
  between these is merely local. They were not employed in early 
  times for literary purposes, but for inscriptions only, which are 
  usually found on stone monuments, weapons, implements, and 
  personal ornaments and furniture. In England runic inscriptions 
  are found in the north only, where Scandinavian influence was 
  strongest. The first symbols of the runic alphabet have the powers 
  of the letters f, u, t, h, a, r, k, for which reason the order of the 
  runic letters is called not an alphabet but a futhark. The system is 
  symbolic. Thus its first quantity or letter pictures the head and 
  horns of an ox, and is called feoh after that animal, the second is 
  called ur, after the word for " bull, " the third thoru, a tree, the 
  others following os, a door; rad, a saddle, caen, a torch, all because 
  of some fancied resemblance to the objects, or, more properly 
  speaking, because they were probably derived or evolved from a 
  purely pictorial system in which the pictures of the animals or 
  objects enumerated above stood for the letters of the alphabet. 
  Since these were cut, some connection may be permitted between 
  Anglo - Saxon secgan, to say, and Latin secare, to cut, especially 
  when we find secret signatures made of old by merely cutting a 
  chip from the bark manuscript. In spelling, for example, the old 
  sense of spell " was a thin chip or shaving. Tacitus mentions that in 
  Teutonic divination a rod cut from a fruit - bearing tree was cut 
  into slips, and the slips, having marks on them, were thrown 
  confusedly on a white garment to be taken up with prayer to the 
  gods and interpreted as they were taken. A special use of light 
  cuttings for such fateful cross - readings or " Virgilian lots, " may 
  have given to spells " their particular association with the words of 
  the magician. 
   
  Belief in Nature Spirits: The scope of this work is entirely without 
  the consideration of mythology proper, that is to say that the 
  greater deities of the many human religious systems receive no 
  treatment save in several special circumstances. But the lesser 
  figures of mythology, those who enter into direct contact with man 
  and assist him, or are connected with him, in magical practice, 
  receive special and separate notice. Thus the duergar, or dwarfs 
  trolls, undines, nixies, and all the countless host of Teutonic folk - 
  lore are alluded to under their separate headings, and we have 
  here only to consider their general connection with Teutonic man 
  in his magical aspect. His belief in them was distinctly of an 
  animistic character. The dwarfs and trolls inhabited the recesses of 
  the mountains, caves, and the underworld. The nixies and undines 
  dwelt in the lakes, rivers, pools, and inlets of the sea. In general 
  these were friendly to man, but objected to more than an 
  occasional intercourse with him. Though not of the class of 
  supernatural being who obey the behests of man in answer to 
  magical summonses, these, especially the dwarfs, often acted as 
  his instructors in art - magic, and many instances of this are to be 
  met with in tales and romances, of early Teutonic origin. The 
  dwarfs were usually assisted by adventitious aids in their practice 
  of magic, such as belts which endowed the wearer with strength, 
  like that worn by King Laurin, shoes of swiftness, analogous to the 
  seven - league boots of folk - tale, caps of invisibility, and so forth. 
   
  Witchcraft:  - Witchcraft, with its accompaniment of  - diabolism 
  was much more in favour among the northern Teutons than it was 
  in Germany, and this circumstance has been attributed to their 
  proximity to the Finns (q.v.), a race notorious for its magical 
  propensities. In Norway, Orkney, and Shetland, we find the 
  practice of sorcery almost exclusively in the hands of women of 
  Finnish race, and there is little doubt that the Finns exercised 
  upon the Teutons of Scandinavia the mythic influence of a 
  conquered race, that is, they took full advantage of the terror 
  inspired in their conquerors by an alien and unfamiliar religion 
  and ritual, which partook largely of the magical. The principal 
  machinery of Teutonic witchcraft was the raising of storms, the 
  selling of pieces of knotted rope, each knot representing a wind, 
  divination and prophecy, acquiring invisibility, and such magical 
  practices as usually accompany a condition of semi - barbarism. In 
  the North of Scotland the Teutonic and Celtic magical systems may 
  be said to have met and fused, but not to have clashed as their 
  many points of resemblance outweighed their diffrences. As the 
  sea was the element of the people, we find it the chief element of 
  the witch of the northern Teutons. Thus we discover in the saga of 
  Frithjof, the two seawitches Heyde and Ham riding the storm and 
  sent by Helgi to raise a tempest which would drown Frithjof, and 
  taking the shape of a bear and a storm - eagle. In the saga of 
  Grettir the Strong we find a witch - wife, Thurid, sending adrift a 
  magic log which should come to Grettir's island, and which should 
  lead to his undoing. Animal transformation plays a considerable 
  part in Teutonic magic and witchcraft. In early Germany the witch 
  (hexe) seems to have been also a vampire. 
   
  Second Sight. - It was, however, in prophecy and divination that 
  the Teutons excelled, and this was More rife among the more 
  northern branches of the people than the southern. Prophetic 
  utterance was usually induced by ecstasy. But it was not the 
  professional diviner alone who was capable of supernatural vision. 
  Anyone under stress of excitement, and particularly if near death, 
  might become " fey, " that is prophetic, and great attention was 
  invariably paid to utterances made whilst in this condition. 
   
  Theomancy: The part of the Jewish Kabala which studies the 
  mysteries of the divine majesty and seeks the sacred names. He 
  who possesses this science knows the future, commands nature, 
  has full power over angels and demons, and can perform miracles. 
  The Rabbis claimed that it was by this means that Moses 
  performed so many marvels; that Joshua was able to stop the sun; 
  that Elias caused fire to fall from heaven, and raised the dead; that 
  Daniel closed the mouths of the lions; and that the three youths 
  
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  were not consumed in the furnace. However, although very expert 
  in the divine names, the Jewish rabbis no longer perform any of the 
  wonders done by their fathers. 
   
  Theosophical Society: was founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna 
  Blavatsky and Henry Steele Olcott. They met in America in 1874 
  where Colonel Olcott was engaged in spiritualistic investigation at 
  the house of the Eddy Brothers in Vermont. Madame Blavatsky  - 
  was, of course, deeply read in every thing pertaining to the occult 
  and similarity of tastes very naturally drew them together. 
  Scientific materialism was then engaging general attention and 
  making no little progress, and since theosophy is the antithesis of 
  materialism of any kind, it was decided that some society should 
  be formed to combat this movement. In May, 1875, a Miracle Club 
  was formed, but it was a failure. Later in the same year, in the 
  month of September, a fresh attempt was however, agreed on and 
  this was made in November with Col. Olcott as president, and 
  Madame Blavatsky as corresponding secretary, and a membership 
  of twenty. This attempt seemed also to be doomed to failure, many 
  members dropping off because no phenomena were manifested and 
  indeed only Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky remained with two 
  of the founders of the society and a few other members. Not 
  discouraged by this, however, they decided to amalgamate with the 
  Indian Society, but even this met with no more success, and it was 
  not till by a happy inspiration the society - was removed to India, 
  that it began to attract attention and make headway. From that time 
  its success was assured and, whatever opinions may be held of the 
  soundness of theosophical teaching, no doubt can be entertained of 
  the extent and influence of the society, which has numerous 
  members in lands so far apart and so different in spirit as America 
  and India, besides every other civilised country in the world. In 
  accordance with the spirit of theosophy, no dogma is demanded of 
  members save acceptance of the belief in the brotherhood of man, 
  so that Christian and Mohammedan may meet on equal terms 
  without any necessity of varying their peculiar religious beliefs. Its 
  activities include study of everything germane to theosophy, 
  religion, philosophy, laws of nature whether patent to all mankind 
  as in the domain of science, or hidden as yet from all but those 
  with special knowledge, as in the domain of the occult. (See 
  Theosophy.) 
   
  Theosophical Society of Agrippa: Agrippa (q.v.) established in 
  Paris and other centres a secret theosophical society, the rites of 
  admission to which were of a peculiar character. The fraternity also 
  possessed signs of recognition. Agrippa visited London in 1510, 
  and whilst there he established a branch of the order in that city. A 
  letter of Landulph's is extant in which he introduces to Agrippa a 
  native of Nuremberg resident at Lyons, and whom he hopes "may 
  be found worthy to become one of the brotherhood." 
   
  Theosophy: From the Greek theos, god, and sophia, wisdom a 
  philosophical - religious system which claims absolute knowledge 
  of the existence and nature of the deity, and is not to be 
  confounded with the later system evolved by the founders of the 
  Theosophical Society. This knowledge, it is claimed, may be 
  obtained by special individual revelation, or through the operation 
  of some higher faculty. It is the transcendent character of the 
  godhead of theosophical systems which differentiates them from 
  the philosophical systems of the speculative or absolute type, 
  which usually proceed deductively from the idea of God. God is 
  conceived.in theosophical systems as the transcendant source of 
  being, from whom man in his natural state is far removed. 
  Theosophy is practically another name for speculative mysticism. 
  Thus the Kabalistic and Neoplatonic conceptions of the divine 
  emanations are in reality theosophical, as are the mystical systems 
  of Bochme and Baader. 
   
  Theosophy has also come to signify the tenets and teachings of the 
  founders of the Theosophical Society. This Society was founded in 
  the United States in 1875 by Madame H. P. Blavatsky (q.v.), Col. 
  H. S. Olcott (q.v.) 
   
  Thomas the Rhymer: Scottish Soothsayer (circa, 1220.) It is 
  impossible to name the exact date which witnessed the advent of 
  the Scottish soothsayer, Thomas the Rhymer, who is well known on 
  account of his figuring in a fine old ballad, duly included in Sir 
  Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. But Thomas is 
  commonly supposed to have lived at the beginning of the thirteenth 
  century, that period being assigned because the name, " Thomas 
  Rimor do Ercildun, " is appended as witness to a deed, whereby 
  one " Petrus de Haga do Bemersyde " agrees to pay half a stone of 
  wax annually to the Abbot of Melrose, and this " Petrus " has been 
  identified with a person of that name known to have been living 
  about 1220. Ercildun is simply the old way of spelling Earlston, a 
  village in the extreme west of Berwickshire, hard by the line 
  demarking that county from Roxburgh; and it would seem that 
  Thomas held estates in this region, for he is mentioned as a landed 
  - proprietor by several early writers, most of whom add that he did 
  not hold his lands from the Crown, but from the Earls of Dunbar. 
  Be that as it may, Thomas probably spent the greater part of his 
  life in and around Earlston, and a ruined tower there, singularly 
  rich in ivy, is still pointed out as having been his home, and bears 
  his name; while in a wall of the village church there is a lichened 
  stone with the inscription “Auld Rhymour's Race Lies in this 
  Place, " and, according to local tradition, this stone was removed to 
  its present resting place from one in a much older church, long 
  since demolished. Nor are these things the only relics of the 
  soothsayer, a lovely valley some miles to the west of Earlston being 
  still known as " Rhymer's Glen "; and it is interestin -  to recall 
  that Turner painted a watercolour of this place. 
   
  Andro of Winton, in the Originale Cronykil of Scotland, also makes 
  mention of Thomas as a redoubtable prophet while Walter Bower, 
  the continuator of Fordun's Scolicromicon, recounts how once 
  Rhymer was asked by the Earl of Dunbar what another day would 
  bring forth, whereupon he foretold the death of the king, Alexander 
  III., and the very next morning news of his majesty's, decease was 
  noised abroad. Blind Harry's Wallace, written midway through the 
  fifteenth century, likewise contains an allusion to Thomas's 
  prophesying capacities. 
   
  A number of predictions attributed to Thomas the Rhymer are still 
  current, for instance that weird verse which Sir Walter Scott made 
  the motto of The Bride of Lammeymuir; and also a saying 
  concerning a Border family with which, as we have seen, the 
  soothsayer was at one time associated: 
   
  While some of the sayings attributed to Thomas, such as “Betide, 
  betide, whate'er betide, There'll aye be Haigs at Bemersyde, " are 
  couched in metre, yet there is really no sure proof that the 
  soothsayer was a poet. It is usually supposed that he acquired the 
  sobriquet of Rhymer because he was a popular minstrel in his day, 
  but the fact remains that Rymour was long a comparatively 
  common surname in Berwickshire, and, while it may have 
  originated with Thomas, the assumption has but slight foundation. 
  Again, the prophet of Earlston has been credited with a poem on 
  
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  the story of Sir Tristram, belonging to the Arthurian cycle of 
  romance, and the Advocate's Library contains a manuscript copy 6f 
  this probably written so early as 1300. However, while Sir Walter 
  Scott and other authorities believed in this ascription, it is quite 
  likely that the poem is but a paraphrase from some French 
  troubadour. For generations, however the Scottish peasantry 
  continued to be influenced by & sayings attributed to " True 
  Thomas, " as they named him, as is witnessed by the publication 
  during comparatively modern times of 1ooks containing the 
  prophecies which he is said to have uttered. 
   
  It is thought that Thomas died about 1297, and it is clear that he 
  had achieved a wide fame as a prophet, many references to his 
  skill in this relation being found in writers who lived comparatively 
  soon after him. A Harleian manuscript in the British Museum, 
  known to have been written before 1320, discloses the significant 
  phrase, "La Comtesse de Donbar demanda a Thomas de Essedoune 
  quant la guere descoce prendreit fyn”; - but the lady in question 
  was not a contemporary of the prophet.  
   
  Thian - ti - hil - or 
  Heaven and Earth League; an ancient esoteric society in China, 
  said to have still been in existence in 1674. The candidate before 
  reception had to answer 333 questions. It professed to continue a 
  system of brotherhood derived from ancient customs,  
   
  Thought - Reading:  must not be confused with telepathy, for, 
  though both terms are sometimes used synonymously, the latter 
  implies the direct action of one mind on another, independent of 
  the ordinary sense - channels, while no such restrictions are 
  contained in the term " thought - reading." In early times, when 
  outbursts of ecstatic frenzy were ascribed to demoniac possession, 
  we find the ecstatics credited with the power to read thoughts; 
  witches were supposed to be endowed with the same faculty; 
  Paracelsus and the early magnetists recognised its existence. The 
  advent of spiritualism gave to thought - reading a new impetus. It 
  was now the spirits who read the thoughts of the sitters and replied 
  to them with raps and table - turnings. Until quite recently, 
  however, thought - reading was attributed either to occultism or 
  fraud. Not only was the " ethereal vibration " theory unthought of, 
  but the phenomena of hypereesthesia and subconscious whispering 
  " were very imperfectly understood in their bearing on thought - 
  reading. Yet it is probable that these last offered a satisfactory 
  explanation in many cases, especially when the subject was 
  entranced. Professional thought - readers who performed on public 
  platforms indulged largely in fraud. (See Telepathy.) 
   
  Time Slipping: A phenomenon whereby persons find themselves 
  apparently in another time period, usually demonstrably the past.  
  This could be considered the inverse of the appearance of ghosts, 
  who appear to be living persons from the past.  The surroundings 
  usually seem substantial.  This phenomenon was experienced by 
  two Englishwomen visiting the Petite Trianon at Versailles in the 
  1920s, and is associated with a certain area of the City Park in the 
  U.S. City of New Orleans. 
   
  Tibet: In this country, the stronghold of Buddhism, all superstition 
  circles around the national religion, which at the same time has 
  absorbed into itself the aboriginal beliefs and demonology. 
  Nowhere perhaps has such a vast amount of pure superstition 
  crystallised around the kernel of Buddhism, - the pure doctrines of 
  which were found by the Hindu conquerors of the Tibetans to be 
  totally unsuited to the Hunnish aborigines of the country, who 
  before the advent of Buddhism were in the aministic stage of 
  religion. This was allowed to revive and rites and ceremonies, 
  charms and incantations, of the very nature which Buddha had so 
  strongly condemned, clustered quickly around his philosophy in 
  Tibet. From this sprang the lantya system, which is almost a purely 
  magical one. It was founded by Asanga, a monk of Peshawar, who 
  composed its gospel, the Yogachchara Bhumi Sastra in the sixth 
  century A.D. Basing his pantheon upon the debased system of 
  Buddhism then prevalent, Asanga reconciled it to native 
  requirements by placing a number of Saivite devil - gods and 
  goddesses in the lower Buddhistic heavens. These he made 
  subservient to the Buddha. His religion was speedily adopted by 
  the barbarian tribes of Tibet, who sacrificed readily to the deities 
  of this new religion. Very naturally they exaggerated the magical 
  side of it, their main object being to obtain supernatural power by 
  means of spoken spells and words of power. A very considerable 
  literature sprang up in connection with the new faith, which has 
  been scathingly commented upon by disciples of the purer 
  Buddhism as being nothing more or less than more barbarian 
  sorcery. Of course the monkish class of lamas found it impossible 
  altogether to ignore the tantra system, but Tsongkapa in the middle 
  of the fourteenth century unhesitatingly condemned the whole 
  system. The lamas had and have an esoteric form of Buddhism, 
  which has but little in common with the tantra system of the 
  people, but we find them at festivals and so on unbending so far as 
  to represent the various devils and fiends of this faith. As 
  literature, the tantras may be considered as a later development of 
  the puranas, but they are without any poetic value. They are 
  regarded as gospels by the Saktas, or worshippers of Kali, Durga or 
  Purvati the wife of Siva, or some other creative agency. They 
  abound in magical form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife. 
  There were originally sixty - four tantras, but as yet no satisfactory 
  scholarly examination has been made of them. 
   
  Tory Island:  An island off the coast of Ireland, of great 
  significance to the early Celtic and Christian cults.  - the earliest 
  evidence of settlement on Tory is a megalithic tomb which dates to 
  2500 BC. The first monastic settlement on Tory dates to the sixth 
  century AD, when St. Columcille founded a monastery on the 
  island. Monastic activity continued on Tory until the late 
  seventeenth century, when the Governor of Connaught and his 
  forces plundered and destroyed the monastery. There are 
  numerous monastic remains on the island, including the only 
  remaining round tower in Donegal as well as a number of churches 
  and oratories. One of only two Tau crosses in Ireland stands on 
  Tory. Tau crosses are T - shaped and date from the early Christian 
  period. 
   
  There is a spectacular promontory fort on Tory's eastern coast that 
  dates from the early Iron Age. It is traditionally renowned as 
  Balor's stronghold and is called Dún Bhaloir. There is a deep cleft 
  within the fort known as Príosún Balor into which Balor is said to 
  have thrown his prisoners. The rocky pinnacles of An Eochair 
  Mhór to the north look like giant soldiers and are known as 
  Saighdiúirí Bhaloir (Balor's soldiers). Balor is said to have buried 
  his gold within the fort.  
   
  Leac na Leannán is a large flat rock which juts out over the cliff 
  face within Dún Bhaloir. A wish is granted to anyone who stands 
  on top of it and turns around three times. A wish is also granted to 
  anyone who succeeds in throwing three successive stones onto the 
  rock. It is said that a stranger will be standing on Leac na Leannán 
  when it eventually falls. 
   
  In monastic times, penitents sometimes undertook a pilgrimage to 
  
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  Tory. On three successive mornings, pilgrims walked clockwise 
  around the island before sunrise, stopping at to pray and leave a 
  small stone at various sites. At the end of the pilgrimage, pilgrims 
  turned a sacred stone upside down. This stone was known as An 
  Glacach or Cloch Thoraí and was associated with St. Columcille. 
  Following the destruction of the monastery, the format of the 
  pilgrimage was inverted. Islanders believed they could place a 
  curse their enemies by walking around the island in an anti-
  clockwise direction and then upturning the stone. The stone 
  became known as Cloch na Mallacht - the Cursing Stone. Disasters 
  and shipwrecks have been attributed to this ritual, and in 1884 the 
  stone was hidden. Its location remains a closely guarded secret. 
   
  Balor of the Evil Eye - Balor was the Celtic god of darkness and 
  leader of the Formorians, an evil race who plagued Ireland from 
  their stronghold on Tory. Balor and his men are said to have taken 
  the Round Tower of Conan as their base on Tory, and Balor's name 
  is also associated with the island's fort. 
   
  Balor was very wicked and ugly. Like a cyclops, he had an eye in 
  the centre of his forehead. Balor was so evil that he could kill with 
  a single angry glance. When his eye became tired in battle, his 
  men held up his eyelid with ropes and pulleys so as not to lose the 
  advantage of his deathly powers. Balor had one child, a beautiful 
  daughter called Eithne. The druids predicted that Balor would 
  killed by Eithne's son. In attempt to escape this fate, Balor 
  imprisoned Eithne in a stone tower on the island and forbade any 
  man to approach her.  
   
  Three brothers lived on the mainland opposite Tory, Cian, a chief, 
  Gavida, a smith, and Mac Samhthann, a sailor. Gavida owned a 
  precious milch cow called Glas Gaibhnam, which was greatly 
  coveted by Balor. One day Cian went to Gavida's forge to have 
  some swords made, and brought the cow with him on the end of a 
  rope. Afraid of losing the cow, he asked his brother Mac 
  Samhthann to hold her. Balor, who had magically turned himself 
  into a small red-haired boy, offered to hold the cow for Mac 
  Samhthann. MacSamhthann did not recognise Balor in his magic 
  disguise and let him hold the cow. In an instant Balor escaped with 
  the cow and was back at Port na Glaise on Tory. 
   
  The three brothers were enraged when they discovered how they 
  had been tricked. Determined to retrieve the cow, Cian disguised 
  himself as a woman and was whisked to Tory by a druid. There he 
  won access to Eithne and the pair fell in love. Sometime later 
  Eithne gave birth to triplets. Having discovered that Cian was the 
  father of the children, Balor beheaded him on a large white rock. 
  He then wrapped the three babies in a sheet and threw them in a 
  whirlpool at Port an Deilig - the Harbour of the Pin. Unknown to 
  Balor, the fastening pin fell out and the eldest child, Lugh, was 
  washed ashore on the mainland, where he was rescued by Biroge 
  and raised by his uncle, Gavida. 
   
  Lugh, the Celtic god of light, knew that Balor had murdered his 
  father. Balor was not aware that Lugh was his grandson. One day, 
  Balor visited the forge, and began to brag about killing Cian and 
  his sons. Furious, Lugh drew a poker from the furnace and plunged 
  it through Balor's eye. It is said that the slopes of the mainland ran 
  red with Balor's blood, and the place where he died is known today 
  as Bloody Foreland. 
   
   
  Saint Columcille - Columcille, the famous saint and missionary 
  was born in Gartan, Co. Donegal around 521 AD. Columcille 
  founded many monasteries in Ireland, including one on Tory and 
  on Iona, where he died in 597. 
   
  According to legend, Columcille and two other saints, Dubhthach 
  and Beigbhile decided which of them should convert the Tory 
  islanders by casting their croziers from a hill in Machaire 
  Rabhartaigh on the mainland. Whoever could throw his crozier as 
  far as Tory would go to the island. As Columcille's crozier was the 
  only one to land on Tory, it was he who went to the island.  
   
  It is said that Oilill, the king of Tory, refused to allow Columcille 
  set foot on the island. He relented when Columcille told him that 
  all he needed was a plot the size of his cloak. When Columcille 
  placed his cloak on the ground, it spread out to cover the entire 
  island. This annoyed the king, who set a fierce dog on the saint. 
  Columcille destroyed the animal by making the sign of the cross 
  and after seeing such powers, the chief allowed himself to be 
  converted. 
   
  Tower of London: The jewel - room of the Tower of London is 
  reported to be haunted, and, in 1860, there was published in Notes 
  and Queries by the late Edmund Lenthal Swifte, Keeper of the 
  Crown Jewels the account of a spectral illusion witnessed by 
  himself in the Tower. He says that in October, 1817, he was at 
  supper with his wife, her sister, and his little boy, in the sitting - 
  room of the jewel - house, To quote his own words: " I had offered a 
  glass of wine and water to my wife, when, on putting it to her lips, 
  she exclaimed, ' Good God ! what is that. I looked up and saw a 
  cylindrical figure like a glass tube, seemingly about the thickness 
  of my arm, and hovering between the ceiling and the table; its 
  contents appeared to be a dense fluid, white and pale azure. This 
  lasted about two minutes, when it bean to move before my sister - 
  in - law; when, following the, oblong side of the table, before my 
  son and myself, passing behind my wife, it paused for a moment 
  over her right shoulder. Instantly crouching down, and with both 
  hands covering her shoulder, she shrieked out, 'Christ! it has 
  seized me!', " It was ascertained, " adds Mr. Swifte, " that no 
  optical action from the outside could have produced any 
  manifestation within, and hence the mystery has remained 
  unsolved."  
   
  The jewel-room is reputed to be the storage place of certain 
  artifacts of an ancient and arcane nature which are held by the 
  Crown. 
   
  Speaking of the Tower, we learn from the same source how " one of 
  the night sentries at, the jewel - house was alarmed by a figure like 
  a huge bear issuing from underneath the jewel - room door. He 
  thrust at it with his bayonet which stuck in the door. He dropped in 
  a fit and was carried senseless to the guard - room.... In another 
  day or two the brave and steady soldier died." 
   
  Trance Personalities: Trance messages purporting to come from 
  the medium's spirit control do not as a rule reveal a very definite 
  personality. The control reflects the thoughts and opinions of the 
  medium and the sitters, possesses little knowledge that they do not 
  possess, and is in general a somewhat colourless creature. Yet not 
  infrequently a trance medium is controlled by a spirit of distinct, 
  not to say distinguished, personality, whose education and culture 
  are on a much higher plane than the medium's own, and whose 
  ideas and opinions are quite independent. Such spirits are 
  generally given distinguishing names. They often control the 
  
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  medium alternately with other controls. On the other hand, the 
  medium has generally a monopoly of one or more of these spirits, 
  though sometimes one control may be shared by a number of 
  mediums. Among those who may justly be regarded as the common 
  property of the mediumistic fraternity are the spirits of certain 
  great men - Virgil, Socrates, Shakespeare, Milton, Benjamin 
  Franklin, Victor Hugo, Swedenborg, and so on. The messages 
  delivered through their control seldom resemble anything they 
  wrote during their lives. It would indeed be ludicrous to hold these 
  great men responsible for the feeble outpourings delivered in their 
  name. But these spirits come and go; it is perhaps hardly accurate 
  to call them trance peysonalilies at all. Among the best known of 
  the latter class are the spirits who purported to control the late Mr. 
  Stainton Moses - Imperator, Rector, Mentor, Prudens, and others. 
  What the real names of these controls may be is not known, for Mr. 
  Moses only revealed the secret to a few of his most intimate 
  friends. Imperator and Rector were amon, the controls of Mrs. 
  Piper in still more recent years, and indeed much of her automatic 
  discourse did not come directlv from the communicating spirits, 
  but was dictated by them to Rector. It is suggested, however, by Sir 
  Oliver Lodge and other authorities, that the controls of Mrs. Piper 
  are not identical with those of Stainton Moses, by whom were 
  written through his hand the well - known Spirit Teachings, but are 
  merely masqueraders. But Mrs. Piper has several interesting 
  trance personalities of her own, without borrowing from anybody. 
  One of her earliest controls was Sebastian Bach, but ere long lie 
  gave place to a spirit calling himself " Dr. Phinuit, " who hold sway 
  for a considerable time, but gave place in his turn to George 
  Pelham - " G.P." Pelham was a young author and journalist who 
  died suddenly in 1892. Soon after his death he purported to control 
  Mrs. Piper, and gave many striking proofs of his identity. He 
  constantly referred, with intimate knowledge, to the affairs of 
  Pelham, recognised his friends, and gave to each his due of 
  welcome. Not once, it is said, did he fail to recognise an 
  acquaintance, or give a greeting to one whom he did not know. 
  Many of Pelham's old friends did not hesitate to see in him that 
  which he claimed to be. Only on one occasion, when asked for the 
  names of two persons who had been associated with him in a 
  certain enterprise, "G.P. -  refused, saying that as there was 
  present one who knew the names, his mentioning them would be 
  referred to telepathy! Later, however, he gave the names - 
  incorrectly. When "G.P." ceased to take the principle part in the 
  control of Mrs. Piper, his place was taken by Rector and Imperator, 
  as mentioned above. Another well - known medium, Mrs. 
  Thompson, had as her chief control " Nelly, " a daughter of hers 
  who had died in infancy; also a Mrs. Cartwright, and others. These 
  controls of Mrs. Thomson are said not to have shown any very 
  individual characteristics, bull to resemble Mrs. Thomson herself 
  very strongly both in voice and manner of speech, though Mrs. 
  Verrall has stated that the impersonations gave an impression of 
  separate identity to the sitter. Mrs. Thomson's early trance 
  utterances were controlled by another band of spirits, with even 
  less individuality than those mentioned. Frequently the mediums 
  and investigators themselves, on reaching the discarnate plane, 
  become controls in their turn. The late Mr. Myers, Mr. Gurney, Dr. 
  Hodgson, and Professor Sidgwick purported to speak and write 
  through many mediums, notably through Mrs. Piper and Mrs. 
  Thompson, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. Many of there 
  statements made by these controls were correct, and some matters 
  revealed which were apparently outside the scope, of the medium's 
  normal knowledge, but at the same time several fatal discrepancies 
  were found to exist between the controls and those they were 
  supposed to represent. Thus the script produced by Mrs. Holland 
  contained grave warnings, purporting to come from Myers, against 
  Eusapia Palladino and her physical phenomena, whereas Myers 
  was known to hold in his lifetime opinions favourable to the 
  physical manifestations. On the whole these trance personalities 
  show themselves decidedly coloured by the personality of the 
  medium. In cases where the latter was acquainted with the control 
  the trance personality is proportionately strong, whereas when 
  there was no personal acquaintance it is often of a neutral tint, and 
  sometimes bad guesses are made, as when Mrs. Holland 
  represented the Gurney control as of a brusque and almost 
  discourteous temperament. But such instances must not be taken 
  as impeaching the medium's good faith. Even where the trance 
  personality is patently the product of the medium's own 
  consciousness, there is no reason to suppose that there is any 
  intentional deception. While in some of the most definite cases the 
  evidence for the operation of a discarnate intelligence is very good 
  indeed, and has proved satisfactory to many prominent 
  investigators. 
   
  Tree of Life, The, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and 
  Evil: Two of the trees planted by God in the Garden of Eden, 
  which were believed by St. Ambrose to be of mystical significance. 
  The former is understood to be the manifestation of God, and the 
  latter of the worldly wisdom to which our human nature is too apt 
  to incline. 
   
  Triad Society: An ancient esoteric society of China. The candidate 
  scantily clothed, is brought into a dark room by two members, who 
  lead him to the President, before whom he kneels. He is given a 
  living cock and a knife, and in this posture he takes a complicated 
  oath to assist his brethren in any emergency, even at the risk of his 
  life. He then cuts off the head of the cock, and mingles it with his 
  own, the three assisting individuals adding some of their own 
  blood. After being warned that death will be his portion should he 
  divulge the secrets of the society, he is initiated into them, and is 
  entrusted with the signs of recognition which are in triads. For 
  example a member must lift any object with three fingers only. 
  This society, originally altruistic, is now of a political character. 
   
  True Black Magic, Book of the: A Grimoire, which is simply an 
  adapted version of the Key of Solomon (q.v.) 
   
  Tsithsith, The: An article of apparel, believed to be endowed with 
  talismanic properties. A sentence in the Talmud runs thus: " 
  Whoever has the tephillin bound to his head and arm, and the 
  Isithsith thrown over his garments ..... is protected from sin. 
   
   Trithemius: The son of a German vine - grower, named 
  Heidenberg, received his Latinized appellation from Trittheim, a 
  village in the electorate of Treves, where he was born in 1462. He 
  might reasonably be included among those earnest and 
  enthusiastic souls who have persevered in the pursuit of knowledge 
  under difficulties; for his mother, marrying a second time, had no 
  love for the offspring of her first marriage. The young Trithemius 
  was ill - fed, ill clothed, and over - worked. All day he toiled in the 
  vineyards; but the nights he was able to devote to the acquisition of 
  knowledge, and then he stole away from his miserable home, and 
  perused what books he could beg or borrow, by the light of the 
  moon. As his mind expanded he became sensible of the vast stores 
  of learning to which his circumstances denied him access. He 
  could not rest content with the few grains of sand he had picked up 
  on the seashore. Extorting his small share of the patrimony 
  bequeathed by his father, he wandered away to Treves, entered 
  himself a student of its celebrated University, and assumed the 
  name of Trithemius. His progress was now as rapid as might be 
  
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  inferred probable from the intensity of his aspirations and 1he 
  keenness of his intellect. At the age of twenty he had acquired the 
  reputation of a scholara reputation which was of greater advantage 
  in the 15th than it is in the 2oth century. He was now desirous of 
  once more seeing the mother whom he did not love the less 
  because she had ill - used him, and in the winter of 1482 he 
  quitted the cloistered shade of Treves on a solitary journey to 
  Trittheim. It was a dark day, ending in a gloomy, fast - snowing 
  night, and the good student, on his arrival near Spannheim, found 
  the roads impassable. He sought refuge in a neighbouring 
  monastery. There the weather imprisoned him for several days. The 
  imprisonment proved so  - much to the liking of Trithemius, that he 
  voluntarily took the monastic vows, and retired from the world. In 
  the course of two years he was elected abbot, and devoting all his 
  little fortune to the repair and improvement of the monastery, he 
  gained the love and reverence of the brotherhood, whom he 
  inspired with his own love of learning. But after a rule of one - and 
  - twenty years, the monks forgot all his benefits, and remembered 
  only the severity of his discipline. They broke out in revolt, and 
  elected another abbot. The deposed Tritheinius quitted 
  Sparmheim, and wandered from place to place, until finally elected 
  Abbot of St. James of Wurzburg, where he died in 1516. 
   
  His fame as a magician rests on very innocent foundations He 
  devised a species of short - hand called steoganographia, which 
  the ignorant stigmatized as a cabalistical and necromantic writing, 
  concealing the most fearful secrets. He wrote a treatise on the 
  subject; another upon the supposed administration of the world by 
  its guardian angels - a revival of the good and evil geniuses of the 
  Ancients which William Lilly translated into English in 1647; a 
  third upon Geomancy, or divination by means of lines and circles 
  on the ground; a fourth upon Sorcery; and a fifth upon Alchemy. In 
  his work upon Sorcery he makes the earliest mention of the 
  popular story of Dr. Faustus, and records the torments he himself 
  occasionally suffered from the malice of a spirit named Hudekin. 
  He is said to have gratified the Emperor Maximilian with a vision 
  of his deceased wife, the beautiful Mary of Burgundy, and was 
  reputed to have defrayed the expenses of his monastic 
  establishment at Spannheim by the resources which the 
  Philosopher's Stone put at his disposal. His writings show him to 
  have been an amiable and credulous enthusiast but his sincere and 
  ardent passion for knowledge may well incline us to forgive the 
  follies which he only shared with most of the scholars and wise 
  men of his age. 
   
  Universities (Occult): In many works on the occult sciences 
  allusions are made to schools and universities for the instruction of 
  those who were drawn to them. Thus we are told that Salamanca 
  abounded in such schools; that Jechiel, a Jewish Rabbi of 
  medieval France, kept such a seminary; and there is reason to 
  believe that in all ages such institutions were by no means 
  uncommon. Balzac alludes to one of them in a well - known novel 
  The Secret of Ruggier, which he places at the time of Catherine de 
  Medici. He says, " At this epoch the occult sciences were 
  cultivated with an ardour which put to shame the incredulous spirit 
  of our century.... The universal protection accorded to these 
  sciences by the ruling sovereigns of the times was quite 
  remarkable." He goes onto say that at the commencement of the 
  sixteenth century Ruggier was the member of a secret university 
  for the study of the occult sciences, where astrologers, alchemists, 
  and others, studied several branches of hidden knowledge; but he 
  gives no details as to its locality, or as to the exact nature of its 
  curriculum. There is no doubt that during the Middle Ages many 
  extramural lecturers taught alchemy and kindred subjects at the 
  great universities. Thus Paracelsus lectured on alchemy at the 
  University of Basel, and he was preceded and followed there and 
  elsewhere by many illustrious professors of that and other occult 
  arts. M. Figuier in his work Alchemy and the A lchemists (See 
  Alchemy), alludes to a school in Paris frequented by alchemists, 
  which he himself attended in the middle of the last century. The 
  school - an ordinary chemical laboratory, through the day - became 
  in the evening a centre of the most elaborate alchemical study, 
  where Figuier met many alchemical students, visionary and 
  practical, with one of whom he had a prolonged argument, which 
  we have outlined at considerable length in the article " Alchemy." 
  Many professors of the occult sciences in early and later times 
  drew around them considerable bands of students and assistants 
  and formed distinct schools for the practice of magic and alchemy, 
  principally the latter. The College of Augurs in Rome and the 
  Calmecac of Ancient Mexico are distinct examples of institutions 
  for the study of at least one branch of occult science, and in this 
  connection the House of Wisdom of the Ismaelite sect at Cairo may 
  be mentioned. It is likely that in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, 
  institutions of the kind flourished more or less in secret. Mine. 
  Blavatsky insisted to the last that a great school " of illuminated 
  occult adepts flourished in Tibet but as nobody except herself and 
  her immediate friends ever saw them, or had any dealings with 
  them; and as all proof is against the existence of such a semi - 
  divine brotherhood, her statements must be taken as being 
  somewhat open to question. There is, however, no reason to doubt 
  that bodies of men who study the higher occultism do exist in 
  various Asiatic centres, whatever the nature of their powers, 
  supernormal or otherwise, may be. Vague rumours reach students 
  of occultism ever now and again of schools or colleges on the 
  continent of Europe, the purpose of which is to train aspirants in 
  the occult arts; but as definite information is seldom forthcoming 
  regarding these, they can only be merely alluded to here. The " 
  School for the Discovery of the Lost Secrets of Antiquity, " which 
  flourishes at Lotus - land, California, was founded by Catherine 
  Tingley late in the nineteenth century, and is under theosophical 
  r6gime. Numerous small bodies for the study of occultism exist in 
  every town of considerable size in Europe and America; bull these 
  cannot be dignified even by the name of " schools, " as they are for 
  the most part private affairs, the occultism of which is of an 
  extremely amateurish and innocent character. 
   
  Turning Back of Hades and Hecate, The: a magical papyri from 
  the collection of Harry Elkins Widener, formerly displayed at the 
  Allen Library of Harvard University, until it was stolen.  The 
  second century demotic manuscript literally describes itself as “a 
  ward against the curse of death,” but the papyrus is military in 
  nature, and claims to be a very powerful defensive tool having the 
  power to make an armed force nearly invincible.   
   
  Like most magical texts, the origin of the spell is shrouded in 
  History and Myth.  The spell in concept is called “The Spanish 
  Art,” for a single copy which existed in Spain around the time of 
  the Duke of Medina Sidona, and which was said to have been 
  gotten from a Kabbalist at the cost of his life.   Claims are made 
  that it probably originated (like most great spells) with Solomon 
  the King.   
   
  The spell is written about by Iamblichus, and the form in which it 
  was produced in Alexandria may legitimately date from the time of 
  Alexander the Great.  Another copy resided during the 19th century 
  
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  at the Bibliotheque Arsenale in Paris, but was lost sometime before 
  the Commune.   
   
  Typhonian ink: Called for frequently in the ancient Greek Magical 
  Papyri, A fiery red poppy, juice from an artichoke, seed of the 
  Egyptian acacia, red Typhon's ocher, unslaked quicklime, 
  wormwood with a single stem, gum, rainwater. 
   
  Univerecolum, The : An Americanm periodical having for its aim 
  "the establishment of a universal System of Truth, the Reform and 
  Reorganisation of Society." It made its first appearance in 
  December, 1847, under the editorship of Andrew Jackson Davis 
  (q.v.), and lived for about a year and a half. Its supporters and 
  contributors looked for a new revelation to supplement those of the 
  Old and New Testaments, Swedenborg and Fourier. Attention was 
  given in its pages to prophecy, clairvoyance, somnambulism and 
  trance phenomena generally, while it also taught " an interior and 
  spiritual philosophy " whose central idea was that God was the 
  infinitely intelligent Essence which pervaded all things-the 
  Universal Soul, expressing itself in the material universe and the 
  laws of nature as the human soul expresses itself through the 
  material body. Though the Rochester Rappings broke out some 
  time before the Univercoleum came to an end, the adherents of the 
  paper did not seem to connect the disturbances with their 
  propaganda. However, many of those who were associated with the 
  Univercoleum afterwards became editors of spiritualistic papers. In 
  July, 1849 the paper passed out of the hands of A. J. Davis, and 
  became The Present Age, under the editorship of W. M. Charming. 
   
  Urim and Thummim: A means of divination employed by the 
  ancient Hebrews, and which it was believed consisted of a species 
  of casting lots. Their form and method of use is uncertain, but from 
  passages in the Book of Samuel, it seems probable that (1) they 
  were used to determine guilt and innocence, and (2) that this was 
  done by means of categorical questions, to which the suspected 
  person answered " Yes " or " No." They appear to have been the 
  prerogative of the priesthood. 
   
  Valentine, Basil: This German adept in hermetic philosophy is 
  commonly supposed to have been born at Mayence towards the 
  close of the fourteenth century. As a young man he espoused holy 
  orders, and it is recorded that he entered the Abbey of St. Peter, at 
  Erfurt, and eventually became its Prior; but otherwise very little is 
  known concerning him, and even the date of his death is uncertain, 
  He appears to have been a very modest person, for according to 
  Olaus Borrichius, the author of Be Ortu et Progressu Chemim, 
  Valentine imprisoned all the manuscripts of his scientific writings 
  inside one of the pillars of the Abbey Church; and there they might 
  have remained for an indefinite period, but a thunderstorm 
  chanced ultimately to dislodge them from their curious hiding - 
  place. It is possible, of course, that this incarceration was not 
  altogether due to modesty on the writer's part, and arose rather 
  from his dreading a visitation from the Inquisition in the event of 
  their discovering his alchemistic proclivities; but be that as it may, 
  Valentine's works certainly mark him as a very shrewd man and a 
  capable scientist. In contradistinction to most analogous mediaeval 
  literature, his treatises are not all couched in Latin, some of them 
  being in high Dutch and others in the author's native German; and 
  prominent among those in the latter tongue is The Triumphal 
  Chariot of Antimony, first published at Leipsic in 1624. Herein 
  Valentine exalts antimony as an excellent medicine, while the 
  volume likewise embodies a lengthy metrical treatise on the 
  philosopher's stone, the writer contending that whoso would 
  discover and use this must do charitable deeds, mortify the flesh, 
  and pray without ceasing. 
   
  Vampire: (Russian Vampir, South Russian upuir, probably from 
  the root Pi, to drink, with the prefix va, or av.) A dead person who 
  returns in spirit form from the grave for the purpose of destroying 
  and sucking the blood of living .persons, or a living sorcerer who 
  takes a special form for the same purpose. The conception of the 
  vampire is rifest among Slavonic peoples, and especially in the 
  Balkan countries, and in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, 
  and in these territories from 1730 - 35 there was a well - marked 
  epidemic of vampirism, but it is by no means confined to them. In 
  White Russia and the Ukraine it is believed that vampires are 
  generally wizards or sorcerers, but in Bulgaria and Serbia it is 
  thought that any corpse over which a cat or a dog jumps or over 
  which a bird has flown is liable to become a vampire. In Greece a 
  vampire is known as a broncolaia or bourkabakos, which has been 
  identified with the Slavonic name for werewolf, ” vlkodlak, or 
  vukodlak. The vampire, too, is often supposed to steal the heart of 
  his victim and to roast it over a slow fire, thus causing interminable 
  amorous longings. 
   
  Where one instance is discovered it is almost invariably followed 
  by several others. This is accounted for by the circumstance that it 
  is believed that the victim of a vampire pines and dies and 
  becomes in turn a vampire himself after death, and so duly infects 
  others. On the disinterment of a suspected vampire various well - 
  known signs are looked for by experienced persons. Thus, if 
  several holes about the breadth of a man's finger, are observed in 
  the soil above the grave the vampire character of its occupant may 
  be suspected. On unearthing the corpse it is usually found with 
  wide - open eyes, ruddy and life - like complexion and lips and a 
  general appearance of freshness, and showing no signs of 
  corruption. it may also be found that the hair and nails have grown 
  as in life. On the throat two small livid marks may be looked for. 
  The coffin is also very often full of blood, the body has a swollen 
  and gorged appearance, and the shroud is frequently half - 
  devoured. The blood contained in the veins of the corpse is found 
  on examination to be in a fluid condition as in life, and the limbs 
  are pliant and flexible and have none of the rigidity of death. 
   
  Examples of Vampirism. - Many well - authenticated examples of 
  vampirism exist. Charles Ferdinand de Schertz in his work Magia 
  Posthuma printed at Olmutz in 1706 relates several stories of 
  apparitions of this sort, and particularises the mischief done by 
  them. One, among others, is of a herdsman of the village of Blow 
  near the town of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared for a 
  considerable length of time, and visited several persons, who all 
  died within eight days. At last, the inhabitants of Blow dug up the 
  herdsman's body, and fixed it in the ground with a stake driven 
  through it. The man, even in this condition, laughed at the people 
  that were employed about him, and told them they were very 
  obliging to furnish him with a stick with which to defend himself 
  from the dogs. The same night he extricated himself from the 
  stake, frightened several persons by appearing to them, and 
  occasioned the death of many more than he had hitherto done. He 
  was then delivered into the hands of the hangman, who put him 
  into a cart, in order to burn him without the town. As they went 
  along, the carcass shrieked in the most hideous manner, and threw 
  about its arms and legs, as if it had been alive; and upon being 
  again run through with a stake, it gave a loud cry, and a great 
  quantity of fresh, florid blood issued from the wound. At last, the 
  body was burned to ashes, and this execution put a final stop to the 
  spectre's appearing and infecting the village. 
  
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  Calmet in his Dissertation on Vampires appended to his 
  Dissertation upon Apparitions (English translation, 1759), gives 
  several well authenticated instances of vampirism is follows: 
   
  " It is now about fifteen years since a soldier, who was quartered in 
  the house of a Haidamack peasant, upon the frontiers of Hungary, 
  saw, as he was at the table with his landlord, a stranger come in 
  and sit down by them. The master of the house and the rest of the 
  company were strangely terrified, but the soldier knew not what to 
  make of it. the next day the peasant died, and, upon the soldier's 
  enquiring into the meaning of it, he was told that it was his 
  landlord's father, who had been dead and buried above ten years, 
  that came and sat down at table, and gave his son notice of his 
  death. 
   
  The soldier soon propagated the story through his regiment, and by 
  this means it reached the general officers, who commissioned the 
  count de Cabreras, a captain in Alandetti's regiment of foot, to 
  make an exact enquiry into the fact. The count, attended by several 
  officers, and took the, deposition of all the family, who 
  unanimously swore that the spectre was the landlord's father, and 
  that all the soldier had said was strictly true. The same was also 
  attested by all the inhabitants of the village. 
   
  In consequence of this the body of the spectre was dug up, and 
  found to be in the same state as if it has been but just dead, the 
  blood like that of a living person. The count de Cabreras ordered 
  its head to be cut off, and the corpse to be buried again. He then 
  proceeded to take depositions against other spectres of the same 
  sort, and particularly against a man who had been dead above 
  thirty years, and had made his appearance three several times in 
  his own house at meal - time. At his first visit he had fastened 
  upon the neck of his own brother, and sucked his blood; at his 
  second, he had treated one of his children in the same manner; 
  and the third time, he fastened upon a servant of the family, and 
  all three died upon the spot. 
   
  " Upon this evidence, the count gave orders that he should be dug 
  up, and being found, like the first, with his blood in a fluid state, 
  as if he had been alive, a great nail was drove through his temples, 
  and he was buried again. The count ordered a third to be burnt, 
  who, had been dead above sixteen years, and was found guilty of 
  murdering two of his own children by sucking their blood. The 
  commissioner then made his report to the general officers, who 
  sent a deputation to the emperor's court for further directions; and 
  the emperor dispatched an order for a court, consisting of officers, 
  lawyers, physicians, chirurgeons, and some divines, to go and 
  enquire into the cause of these extraordinary events, upon the 
  spot." The gentleman who acquainted me with all these particulars, 
  had them from the count de Cabreras himself, at Fribourg in 
  Brisgau, in the year 1730."Other instances alluded to by Calmet 
  are as follows 
   
  In the part of Hungary, known in Latin by the name of Oppida 
  Heidonum, on the other side of the Tibiscus, vulgarly called the 
  Teyss; that is, between that part of this river which waters the 
  happy country of Tockay, and the frontiers of Transylvania, the 
  people named Heydukes have a notion that there are dead persons, 
  called by them vampires, which suck the blood of the living, so as 
  to make them fall away visibly to skin and bones, while the 
  carcasses themselves, like leeches, are filled with blood to such a 
  degree that it comes out at all the apertures of their body. This 
  notion has lately been confirmed by several facts, which I think we 
  cannot doubt the truth of, considering the witnesses who attest 
  them. Some of the most considerable of these facts I shall now 
  relate. 
   
  About five years ago, an Heyduke, named Arnold Paul, an 
  inhabitant of Medreiga, was killed by a cart full of hay that fell 
  upon him. About thirty days after his death, four persons died 
  suddenly, with all the symptoms usually attending those who are 
  killed by vampires. It was then remembered that this Arnold Paul 
  had frequently told a story of his having been tormented by a 
  Turkish vampire, in the neighbourhood of Cassova, upon the 
  borders of Turkish Servia (for the notion is that those who have 
  been passive vampires in their life - time become active ones after 
  death; or, in other words, that those who have had their blood 
  sucked become suckers in their turn) but that he had been cured 
  by eating some of the earth upon the vampire's grave, and by 
  rubbing himself with his blood. This precaution, however, did not 
  hinder her from being guilty himself after his death; for, upon 
  digging up his corpse forty days after his burial, he was found to 
  have all the marks of an vampire. His body was fresh and ruddy, 
  his hair, beard, and nails were grown, and his veins were full of 
  fluid blood, which ran from all parts of his body upon the shroud 
  that he was buried in. The hadmagy, or bailiff of the village, who 
  was present at the digging up of the corpse, and was very expert in 
  the whole business of vampirism, ordered a sharp stake to be drove 
  quite through the body of the deceased, and to let it pass through 
  his heart, which was attended with a hideous cry from the carcass, 
  as if it had been alive. This ceremony being performed, they cut off 
  the head, and burnt the body to ashes. After this, they proceeded 
  in the same manner with the four other persons that died of 
  vampirism, lest they also should be troublesome. But all these 
  executions could not hinder this dreadful prodigy from appearing 
  again last year, at the distance of five years from its first breaking 
  out. In the space of three months, seventeen persons of different 
  ages and sexes died of vampirism, some without any previous 
  illness, and others after languishing two or three days. Among 
  others, it was said, that a girl, named Stanoska, daughter of the 
  Heyduke Jotuitzo, went to bed in perfect health, but awoke in the 
  middle of the night, trembling, and crying out that the son of the 
  Heyduke Millo, who died about nine weeks before, had almost 
  strangled her while she was asleep. From that time she fell into a 
  languishing state, and died at three days' end. Her evidence 
  against Millo's son was looked upon as a proof of his being a 
  vampire, and, upon digging up his body, he was found to be such. 
   
  "At a consultation of the principal inhabitants of the place, 
  attended by physicians and chirurgeons. it was considered how it 
  was possible that the plague of vampirism should break out afresh, 
  after the precautions that had been taken some years before: and, 
  at last, it was found out that the original offender, Arnold Paul, had 
  not only destroyed the four persons mentioned above, but had 
  killed several beasts, which the late vampires, and particularly the 
  son of Millo, had fed upon. Upon this foundation a resolution was 
  taken to dig up all the persons that had died within a certain time. 
  Out of forty were found seventeen, with all the evident tokens of 
  vampirism; and they had all stakes drove through their hearts, 
  their heads cut off, their bodies burnt, and their ashes thrown into 
  the river. 
   
  "All these several enquiries and executions were carried on with 
  all the forms of law, and attested by several officers who were in 
  garrison in that country, by the chirurgeon majors of the regiments, 
  
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  and by the principal inhabitants of the place. The original papers 
  were all sent, in January last, to the Imperial council of war at 
  Vienna, which had issued out a commission to several officers, to 
  enquire into the truth of the fact." 
   
  Methods of Extirpation. - The commonest methods of the 
  extirpation of vampires are - (a) beheading the suspected corpse; 
  (b) taking out the heart; (c) impaling the corpse with a white - 
  thorn stake (in Russia an aspen), and (d) burning it. Sometimes 
  more than one or all of these precautions is taken. Instances are on 
  record where the graves of as many as thirty or forty persons have 
  been disturbed during the course of an epidemic of vampirism and 
  their occupants impaled or beheaded. Persons who dread the visits 
  or attacks of a vampire sleep with a wreath made of garlic round 
  the neck, as that esculent is supposed to be especially obnoxious 
  to the vampire . When impaled the vampire is usually said to emit 
  a dreadful cry, but it has been pointed out that the gas from the 
  intestines may be forced through the throat by the entry of the 
  stake into the body, and that this may account for the sound. The 
  method of discovering a vampire's grave in Serbia is to place a 
  virgin boy upon a coal - black stallion which has never served a 
  mare and marking the spot where he will not pass. An officer 
  quartered in Wallachia wrote to Calmet as follows, giving him an 
  instance of this method: 
   
  "At the time when we were quartered at Temeswar in Wallachia, 
  there died of this disorder two dragoons of the company in which I 
  was cornet, and several more who had it would have died also, if 
  the corporal of the company had not put a stop to it, by applying a 
  remedy commonly made use of in that country. It is of a very 
  singular kind, and, though infallibly to be depended on, I have 
  never met with it in any Dispensatory. 
   
  "They pick out a boy, whom they judge to be too young to have lost 
  his maidenhead, and mount him bare upon a coal - black stone - 
  horse, which has never leaped a mare. This virgin - pair is led 
  about the church - yard, 2tnd across all the graves, and wherever 
  the animal stops, and refuses to go on, in spite of all the whipping 
  they can give him, they conclude they have discovered a vampire. 
  Upon opening the grave, they find a carcass as fleshy and fair as if 
  the person were only in a slumber. The next step is to cut off his 
  head with a spade, and there issues from the wound such a 
  quantity of fresh and florid blood, that one would swear they had 
  cut the throat of a man in full health and vigour. They then fill up 
  the pit, and it may be depended on that the disorder will cease, 
  and that all who were ill of it will gradually get strength, like 
  people that recover slowly after a long illness. Accordingly this 
  happened to our troopers, who were attacked with the distemper. I 
  was at that time commanding officer of the troop, the captain and 
  lieutenant being absent, and was extremely angry at the corporal 
  for having made this experiment without me. It was with great 
  difficulty that I prevailed with myself not to reward him with a 
  good cudgel, a thing of which the officers of the emperor's service 
  are usually very liberal. I would not, for the world, have been 
  absent upon this occasion, but there was now no remedy." 
   
  A Bulgarian belief is that a wizard or sorcerer may entrap a 
  vampire by placing in a bottle some food for which the vampire has 
  a partiality, and on his entry in the shape of fluff or straw, sealing 
  up, the flask and throwing it into the fire. 
   
  Scientific Theories of Vampirism. - The English custom of piercing 
  suicide's bodies with a stake would appear to be a survival of the 
  belief in vampirism. Such demons are also to be seen in the 
  Polynesian Iii, the Malayan hantu Penyardin, a dog - headed water 
  - demon, and the kephn of the Karens, which under the form of a 
  wizard's head and stomach devours human souls. Tylor considers 
  vampires to be " causes conceived in spiritual form to account for 
  specific facts of wasting disease." They can also be regarded them 
  as thunder - gods and spirits of the storm who during winter 
  slumber in their cloud - coffins to rise again in spring and draw 
  moisture from the clouds. But this theory will scarcely recommend 
  itself to anyone with even a slight knowledge of mythological 
  science. Calmet's difficulty in believing in vampires was that he 
  could not understand how a spirit could leave its grave and return 
  thence with ponderable matter in the form of blood, leaving no 
  traces showing that the surface of the earth above the grave had 
  been stirred. But this view might be combated by the theory of the 
  precipitation of matter. 
   
  Vaughan, Diana: Authoress of Memories of an ex - Palladist in 
  which she states that he was a member of a Satanist association of 
  Masonic origin in Charleston, U.S.A., pre -, sided over at one 
  period by Albert Pike (q.v.). Her pretentions, which will scarcely 
  bear a strict investigation, are that she was the chosen bride of 
  Asmodeus and was on terms of intimacy with Lucifer, the deity 
  worshipped by the Palladist confraternity. 
   
  Vaulderie: A connection with the Satanic powers, so called from 
  Robinet de Vaulse, a hermit, one of the first persons accused of the 
  crime. In 1453 the Prior of St. Germainen - Laye, Guillaume de 
  I'Allive, a doctor of theology, was accused of Vaulderie, and 
  sentenced to perpetual imprisonmeut. Six years later there was 
  burned at Lille a hermit named Alphonse, who preached heterodox 
  doctrines. Such were the preludes of a persecution which, in the 
  following year, the Vicar of the Inquisition, administrator of the 
  Diocese of Arras, seconded by the Count d'Etampes, Governor of 
  Artois, directed at first against loose women, but afterwards against 
  citizens, magistrates, knights, and especially the wealthy. The 
  procedures against the accused had almost always for their basis 
  some accusation of sorcery. Most of the unhappy creatures 
  confessed to have attended the " Witch's Sabbath, " and the strange 
  revelations wrung from them by torture, will give some idea of the 
  ceremonies which according to the popular tradition, were enacted 
  in the lurid festivals presided over by Satan. Here are some 
  extracts from the judgment pronounced at Arras in 146o upon five 
  women, a painter, and a poet, nick - named " an abb6 of little 
  sense, " and aged about seventy, and several others, who all 
  perished in the flames kindled by a barbarous ignorance and fed 
  by a cruel superstition. 
   
  "And the said Inquisition did say and declare, that those 
  hereinunder named had been guilty of Vaulderie in manner 
  following, that is to say: - 'That when they wished to go to the said 
  Vaulderie, they, with an ointment given to them by the devil, 
  anointed a small wooden rod and their palms and their hands; then 
  they put the wand between their legs, and soon they flew wherever 
  they wished to go, over fair cities, woods and streams; and the 
  devil carried them to the place where they should hold their 
  assembly, and in this place they found others, and tables placed, 
  loaded with wines and viands; and there they found a demon in the 
  form of a goat, a dog, an ape, or sometimes a man; and they made 
  their oblation and homage to the said demon, and adored him, and 
  yielded up to him their souls, and all, or at least some portion, of 
  their bodies; then, with burning candles in their hands, they kissed 
  the rear of the goat - devil . . . . . (Here the Inquisitor becomes 
  untranslatable) . . . . . And this homage done, they trod and 
  trampled upon the Cross, and befouled it with their spittle, in 
  
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  contempt of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Trinity, then turned their 
  backs towards heaven and the firmament in contempt of God. And 
  after they had all eaten and drunk well, they had carnal 
  intercourse all together, and even the devil assumed the guise of 
  man and woman, and had intercourse with both sexes. And many 
  other crimes, most filthy and detestable, they committed, as much 
  against God as against nature, which the said Inquisitor did not 
  dare to name, that innocent ears might not be told of such 
  villainous enormites. 
   
  Vehm - Gerichte: A secret tribunal which during the Middle Ages 
  exercised a peculiar jurisdiction in Germany and especially in 
  Westphalia. Its origin is quite uncertain. The sessions were often 
  held in secret, and the - uninitiated were forbidden to attend them 
  on pain of death. The most absurd stories have been circulated 
  concerning them, that they met in underground chambers and so 
  forth. These have been discounted by modern research. Far from 
  dabbling in the occult, these courts frequently punished persons 
  convicted of witchcraft and sorcery. 
   
  Veleda: A prophetess among the ancient Germans, of whom 
  Tacitus says: " She exercises a great authority, for women have 
  been held here from the most ancient times to be prophetic, and, 
  by excessive superstition, as divine. The fame of Veleda stood on 
  the very highest elevation, for she foretold to the Germans a 
  prosperous issue, but to the legions their destruction! Veleda dwelt 
  upon a high tower, whence messengers were dispatched bearing 
  her oracular counsels to those who sought them; but she herself 
  was rarely seen, and none was allowed to approach her. Cercalis is 
  said to have secretly begged her to let the Romans have better 
  success in war. The Romans, as well as those of her own race, set 
  great store on her prophecies, and sent her valuable gifts. In the 
  reign of the Emperor Vespasian she was honoured as a goddess." 
   
  Velds: An evil spirit who assaulted St. Margaret but was overcome 
  by her. On being asked by St. Margaret who he was and whence he 
  came, he replied: " My name is Vellis, and I am one of those whom 
  Solomon by virtue of his spells, confined in a copper cauldron at 
  Babylon; but when the Babylonians, in the hope of finding treasure 
  dug up the cauldron and opened it, we all made our escape. Since 
  that time our efforts have been directed to the destruction of 
  righteous persons; and I have long been striving to turn thee from 
  the course thou hast embraced." 
   
  Veritas Society in Holland 1869 was a gathering of spiritualists 
  and mediums for séances and a symposium. Madame Elise van 
  Calcar wrote articles in support of the society. 
   
  Vervain: A sacred herb with which the altars of Jupiter were 
  sprinkled. Water containing vervain was also sprinkled in houses 
  to cast out evil spirits. Among the druids particularly it was 
  employed in connection with many forms of superstition. They 
  gathered it at day - break, before the sun had risen. Later sorcerers 
  followed the same usage, and the demonologists believe that in 
  order to evoke demons it is necessary to be crowned with vervain. 
   
  Wallace Alfred Russel: A distinguished British naturalist, who 
  discovered the theory of evolution independent of Darwin. He was 
  born at Usk, in Monmouthshire, on the 8th of January, 1823. His 
  scientific studies included an enquiry into, the phenomena of 
  spiritualism, and he became a firm believer in the genuineness of 
  these manifestations. Dr. Wallace had unique opportunities for 
  studying these in connection with Mrs. Guppy, who, as Miss 
  Nichols, lived for a time with his sister. Among his works was one 
  entitled Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, published in 1881. Dr. 
  Wallace's views on psychic phenomena remained unchanged until 
  his death in 1903. His scientific position made him a tower of 
  strength to the spiritualists. 
   
  Wandering Jew, The: A mediaeval German legend which has 
  several forms. Through various writers, and differing in detail, the 
  essential features of the narratives which have, been handed down 
  to us, are the same. The legend is that as Christ was dragged on his 
  way to Calvary, he passed the house of a Jew, and stopping there, 
  sought to rest a little, being weary under the weight of his cross. 
  The Jew, however, inspired with the adverse enthusiasm of the 
  mob, drove Him on, and would not allow Him to rest there. Jesus, 
  looking at him, said, " I shall stand and rest, but thou shalt go till 
  the last day." Ever afterward& the Jew was compelled to wander 
  over the earth, till this prophecy should be fulfilled. 
   
  The legend of the Wandering Jew is to be regarded as the epic of 
  the Semite people in the Middle Ages. 
   
  In some parts of Germany we find the Wandering Jew identified 
  with the Wild Huntsman, whilst in several French districts that 
  mythical character is regarded as the wind of the night. The blast 
  in his horn, which, rushing through the valleys creates a hollow 
  booming sound not unlike a great bugle. In this legend we have in 
  all probability the, clue to the mythological side of the story of the 
  wandering Jew. Or perhaps the idea. of the Wanderin Jew has been 
  confused with that of the conception of the wind. The resemblance 
  between the two conceptions would be too strong to escape the 
  popular mind.  
   
  Voces Magicae: Embedded in the invocations of the Magical 
  Papyri are voces magicae, "magic words," (i. e., non-Greek words 
  and names which were considered to possess great power). The 
  origins of most voces magicae remain obscure, but in some cases 
  they must have been no more than playful gibberish (i.e., the 
  "phorba phorba" ) while other voces have been identified as Greek 
  transliterations of Egyptian, Hebrew, and Aramaic words. 
  Regardless of their individual origins, the fact that numerous such 
  "words" reappear time and again, in sources of varied date and 
  provenance, clearly demonstrates how such esoteric knowledge 
  was passed from one practitioner to the next, and from one culture 
  to another, to become an almost international "language" of ritual 
  power.  For example, we find the words "askei kataski," part of a 
  longer formula, of unknown provenance, known in antiquity as 
  "Ephesian letters," and found in numerous magical sources. 
   
  Waite, A. E.: English Christian mystic and writer on Masonic and 
  occult subjects, he wrote A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry : 
  Their Rites, Literature, and History and Emblematic Freemasonry. 
  A large collection of his writings and letters is in the Iowa Grand 
  Lodge Library, Ceder Rapids. USA.  
   
  Waite was received into the Golden Dawn in January 1891 
  although his attendance and involvement was sporadic. Entering 
  the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) in April, 1902, Waite 
  precipitated a schism in the Golden Dawn the following year. He 
  purged magic from the rituals, replacing it with mysticism. This 
  society, the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn, 
  was soon torn by further feuds and was dissolved by Waite in 
  1914, to be replaced by the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in 1915. 
  By this time there were some half dozen offshoots of the Original 
  
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  Golden Dawn, Waite's version being a minor note in the main 
  theme continued by the Order of the Stella Matutina of non-mason, 
  Dr. R.W. Felkin.  
   
  Waite travels and lectures in the United Kingdom. 
   
  Washington, George: Freemason and one of the leaders of 
  American independence, heavily influenced by contemporary 
  republican thinker Adam Weishaupt.  Washington himself, though 
  an enthusiastic modernist with an interest in the sciences, is not 
  known for any specific esoteric thought, though he beqeathed a 
  large masonic structure to the fledgeling republic.  He is best 
  known Esoterically for his "vision", reported by Anthony Sherman, 
  and published by Wesley Bradshaw in the National Review, Vol. 
  4, No. 12, December 1880. 
   
  The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on July 4, 1859, in 
  Independence Square. He was then 99 years old, and becoming 
  very feeble. But though so old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he 
  gazed upon Independence Hall, which he came to visit once more.  
  “Let us go into the hall,” he said. “I want to tell you an incident of 
  Washington’s life - one which no one alive knows of except myself; 
  and, if you live, you will before long, see it verified.  
  “From the opening of the Revolution we experienced all phases of 
  fortune, now good and now ill; one time victorious and another 
  conquered. The darkest period we had, I think, was when 
  Washington, after several reverses, retreated to Valley Forge, 
  where he resolved to spend the winter of 1777. Ah! I have often 
  seen our dear commander’s care-worn cheeks, as he would be 
  conversing with a confidential officer about the condition of his 
  poor soldiers. You have doubtless heard the story of Washington’s 
  going to the thicket to pray. Well, it was not only true, but he used 
  often to pray in secret for aid and comfort from God, the 
  interposition of whose Divine Providence brought us safely through 
  the darkest days of tribulation.  
  “One day, I remember well, the chilly winds whistled through the 
  leafless trees, though the sky was cloudless and the sun shone 
  brightly, he remained in his quarters nearly all the afternoon alone. 
  When he came out, I noticed that his face was a shade paler than 
  usual, and there seemed to be something on his mind of more than 
  ordinary importance. Returning just after dusk, he dispatched an 
  orderly to the quarters of the officer I mention who was presently in 
  attendance. After a preliminary conversation of about half an hour, 
  Washington, gazing upon his companion with that strange look of 
  dignity which he alone could command said to the latter:  
  “‘I do not know whether it is owing to anxiety of my mind, or what, 
  but this afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaged in 
  preparing a dispatch, something seemed to disturb me. Looking 
  up, I beheld standing opposite me a singularly beautiful female. So 
  astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed, 
  that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the 
  cause of her presence. A second, a third, and even a fourth time 
  did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my 
  mysterious visitor except a slight raising of her eyes.  
  “‘Presently I heard a voice saying, “Son of the Republic, look and 
  learn,” while at the same time my visitor extended her arm 
  eastwardly. I now beheld a heavy white vapor at some distance 
  rising fold upon fold. This gradually dissipated, and I looked upon 
  a strange scene. Before me lay spread out in one vast plain all the 
  countries of the world---Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. I saw 
  rolling and tossing, between Europe and America, the billows of 
  the Atlantic, and between Asia and America lay the Pacific.  
  “‘“Son of the Republic,” said the same mysterious voice as before, 
  “look and learn.” At that moment I beheld a dark, shadowy being, 
  like an angel, standing, or rather floating, in the hollow air, 
  between Europe and America. Dipping water out of the ocean in 
  the hollow of each hand, he sprinkled some upon America with his 
  right hand while with his left hand he cast some on Europe. 
  Immediately a cloud raised from these countries and joined in 
  mid-ocean. For a while it remained stationary, and then moved 
  slowly westward, until it enveloped America in its murky folds. 
  Sharp flashes of lightning gleamed through it at intervals, and I 
  heard the smothered groans and cries of the American people.  
  “‘A second time the angel dipped water from the ocean, and 
  sprinkled it out as before. The dark cloud was then drawn back to 
  the ocean, in whose heaving billows it sank from view. A third time 
  I heard the mysterious voice saying, “Son of the Republic, look 
  and learn.” I cast my eyes upon America and beheld villages and 
  towns and cities springing up one after another until the whole 
  land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was dotted with them. Again 
  I head the mysterious voice say, “Son of the Republic, the end of 
  the century cometh, look and learn.”  
   “‘At this the dark shadowy angel turned his face southward, and 
  from Africa I saw an ill-omened spectre approach our land. It 
  flitted slowly over every town and city of the latter. The inhabitants 
  presently set themselves in battle array against each other. As I 
  continued looking, I saw a bright angel, on whose brow rested a 
  crown of light, on which was traced the word “Union,” bearing the 
  American flag which he placed between the divided nation, and 
  said, “Remember ye are brethren.” Instantly, the inhabitants 
  casting from them their weapons became friends once more, and 
  united around the National Standard.  
  “‘And again I heard the mysterious voice saying, “Son of the 
  Republic, look and learn.” At this, the dark, shadowy angel placed 
  a trumpet to his mouth and blew three distinct blasts; and taking 
  water from the ocean, he sprinkled it upon Europe, Asia, and 
  Africa. Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene. From each of these 
  countries arose thick, black clouds that were soon joined into one. 
  And throughout this mass, there gleamed a dark red light by which 
  I saw hordes of armed men, who, moving with the cloud, marched 
  by land and sailed by sea to America, which country was 
  enveloped in the volume of cloud. And I dimly saw these vast 
  armies devastate the whole country, and burn the villages, towns 
  and cities that I beheld springing up.  
  “‘As my ears listened to the thundering of the cannon, clashing of 
  swords, and the shouts and cries of millions in mortal combat., I 
  again heard the mysterious voice saying, “Son of the Republic, 
  look and learn.” When the voice had ceased, the dark shadowy 
  angel placed his trumpet once more to his mouth, and blew a long 
  and fearful blast.  
  “‘Instantly a light as of a thousand suns shone down from above 
  me, and pierced and broke into fragments the dark cloud which 
  enveloped America. At the same moment the angel upon whose 
  head still shone the word “Union,” and who bore our national flag 
  in one hand and a sword in the other, descended from the heavens 
  attended by legions of white spirits. These immediately joined the 
  inhabitants of America, who I perceived were well-nigh overcome, 
  but who immediately taking courage again closed up their broken 
  ranks and renewed the battle. Again, amid the fearful noise of the 
  conflict, I heard the mysterious voice saying, “Son of the Republic, 
  look and learn.”  
  “‘As the voice ceased, the shadowy angel for the last time dipped 
  water from the ocean and sprinkled it upon America. Instantly the 
  dark cloud rolled back, together with the armies it had brought, 
  leaving the inhabitants of the land victorious.  
  “‘Then once more I beheld the villages, towns and cities, springing 
  up where I had seen them before, while the bright angel, plating 
  the azure standard he had brought in the midst of them, cried with 
  
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  a loud voice: “While the stars remain, and the heavens send down 
  dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last.” And taking from 
  his brow the crown on which was blazoned the word “Union,” he 
  placed it upon the Standard, while the people, kneeling down, said 
  “Amen.”  
  “‘The scene instantly began to fade and dissolve, and I at last saw 
  nothing but the rising, curling vapor I at first beheld. This also 
  disappearing, I found myself once more gazing upon the 
  mysterious visitor, who in the same voice I had heard before, said, 
  “Son of the Republic, what you have seen is thus interpreted. 
  Three great perils will come upon the Republic. The most fearful is 
  the third.”  
  “(The comment on his word ‘third’ is: The help against the THIRD 
  peril comes in the shape of Divine assistance; passing which, the 
  whole world united shall not prevail against her. Let every child of 
  the Republic learn to live for his God, his land and Union.)”  
   “‘With these words the vision vanished, and I started from my seat 
  and felt that I had seen a vision wherein had been shown me the 
  birth, progress, and destiny of the UNITED STATES.”  
   “Such, my friends,” concluded the venerable narrator, “were the 
  words I heard from Washington’s own lips, and America will do 
  well to profit by them.”  
   
  War, Occult Phenomena during the: A surprising number of ideas 
  regarding the supernatural have crystallized around the 
  circumstances of the war. Perhaps the most striking of these was 
  the alleged vision of angels at Mons. The first notice regarding 
  this, or at least the most important and public record of the 
  occurrence, was that contained in the Evening News for September 
  4, 1915, in which Mr. Machen described the evidence as given to 
  him by an officer who was in the retreat from Mons. This officer 
  was a member of a well - known army family and was a person of 
  great credibility, who stated that on August 26th, 1914, he was 
  fighting in the battle of Le Cateau, from which his division retired 
  in good order. "On the night of the 27th, " he says, " I was riding 
  along the column with two other officers.... As we rode along I 
  became conscious of the fact that in the fields on both sides of the 
  road along which we were marching I could see a very large body 
  of horsemen.... the other two officers had stopped talking. At last 
  one of them asked me if I saw anything in the fields. I told them 
  what I had seen. The third officer confessed that he, too, had been 
  watching these horsemen for the past twenty minutes. So 
  convinced were we that they were really cavalry, that at the next 
  halt one of the officers took a party of men out to reconnoitre and 
  found no one there. The night then grew darker and we saw no 
  more." 
   
  Mr. Harold Begbie in his book On the Side of the Angels states 
  that a vision of angels was seen in the retreat from Mons and gives 
  the narrative of a soldier, who states that an officer came up to him 
  " in a state of great anxiety " and pointed out to him a " strange 
  light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a 
  reflection of tha moon, not were there any clouds in the 
  neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see quite 
  distinctly three shapes, one in the centre having what looked liker 
  outspread wings. The other two were not so large, but were quite 
  plainly distinct from the centre one. They appeared to have a long, 
  loose - hanging garment of a golden tint and they were above the 
  German line facing us. We stood watching them for about three - 
  quarters of an hour." All the men in the battalion who saw this with 
  the exception of five were killed. Mr. Begbie goes on to say that he 
  was told by a nurse that a dying soldier spoke to her of the 
  reluctance of the Germans to attack our line, " because of the 
  thousands of troops behind us." This man had heard German 
  prisoners say so and fully believed in the phantasmal nature of 
  those supporting hosts. 
   
  In his monograph on the Bowmen at Mons, Mr. Machen put 
  forward the idea that those seen before the retreat from Mons were 
  the spirits of the English bowmen who had fought at Agincourt and 
  this idea gained wide prevalence, an interesting monograph being 
  written upon it by Mr. Ralph Shirley. Men from the front, too, have 
  stated to interviewers that phantasms of the dead frequently 
  appeared in the space between the German and British trenches 
  called " No Man's Land." 
   
  Mr. Shirley has also written an excellent pamphlet on Prophecies 
  and Omens of the Great War - dealing with the various oracular 
  utterances on the gigantic struggle, which may be referred to with 
  confidence. 
   
  Stories, too, were current in the earlier times of the war regarding 
  the appearance of saintly and protective figures resembling the 
  patrons of the several allied countries. Thus the English were 
  convinced that in certain engagements they had beheld the figure 
  of Saint George mounted on a white charger and the French were 
  equally sure that the figure in question was either Saint Denis or 
  Joan of Arc. Wounded men in base hospitals asked for medallions 
  or coins on which the likenesses of these saints were impressed in 
  order to verify the statements they made. 
   
  Wayland Smith: A famous character in German mythological 
  romance and father of Weltich, whom he trained in the art of 
  warfare and sent to the Court of Dietrich in Bern. To him he gave 
  the sword Miming and told him of a mermaid, his ancestress, to 
  whom he was to apply when in difficulty. He is also referred to in 
  the Sigfried story, being in company with a smith named Mimi, 
  when Sigfried joins the smithy. His workmanship is praised in the 
  Beowulf Saga and he is mentioned there and elsewhere as a maker 
  of impregnable armour. He is the supernatural smith of the 
  Teutonic peoples, and is comparable to Vulcan in Roman, and to 
  Hephaistos in Greek mythology. 
   
  Wellington, Eleanor: British author on the Occult, educated at 
  Shrewsbury College, Oxford.  She studied Analytic Psychotherapy 
  and is the author of a number of books, both historical and fiction.  
  Eleanor settled in Paris in the previous decade.  A student of the 
  Esoteric since her youth, she began writing after the war.   Her 
  first significant work, The Occult History of Great Britain (1920) 
  discusses ley lines, magickal orders and their major work 
  throughout Great Britain=s history, including claims of occult 
  involvement on the part of Drake in defeating the Spanish Armada.  
  The book is lacking in the detail that a serious student might 
  desire, however the subsequent Psychology and Western Hermetic 
  Orders (1922) is a more technically and historically oriented text 
  that is heavily influenced by the mystically oriented psychological 
  theories of Carl Jung, and  discusses how psychology is used 
  (consciously and unconsciously) by members and groups of 
  Western Orders.  Wellington poses the suggestion that a division 
  exists between Aancient@ (i.e., primitive or universal 
  unconscious) magic and other practice.  A third section deals with 
  the meaning of symbols. The Inner Temple (1925) is a how-to 
  book, aimed at the well read novice.  In Wellington, discusses the 
  theory and practice behind using one=s own Ainner temple@ and 
  how an Inner Temple is the center of many esoteric organizations.  
  Written exercises (meditations) guide the student into creating 
  
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  their own safe place for esoteric work, and the work teaches using 
  the Inner Temple as a defense.  Steps on the Invisible Path (1930) 
  is a companion, and presents a fairly readable application for more 
  advanced Hermetic Magic. 
   
  Wellington has also produced several works of fiction.  Her first,  
  Travels in the Æther (1926), concerns Robert a young man reading 
  for his degree in History from an esteemed university.  His studies 
  are interrupted when he comes across esoteric information which 
  allows him to save the life of a friend, and opens the door to his 
  initation. The Road Home Leads to the Unknown (1931) and The 
  Unseen Space Between (1934) add to his adventures.  The works 
  are readable fiction, though they can be accused of a certain 
  dryness that plagues esoteric fiction written by esotericists, and 
  they resemble the writings of Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) 
  more than more traditionally drawn fiction, such as that of 
  Algernon Blackwood.  The practised eye tends to see a story thinly 
  overlaid onto a blueprint for initiation.  This said, they are fully as 
  readable as Zanoni, and can be assumed to present much the same 
  opportunity to a younger generation as Bulwer-Lytton’s work.   
   
  Werwolf: A man temporarily or permanently transformed into a 
  wolf, from the Anglo - Saxon were, man, and wulf, a wolf. It is a 
  phase of Lycanthropy (q.v.), and in ancient and mediaeval times 
  was of very frequent occurrence. It was, of course, in Europe where 
  the wolf was one of the largest carnivorous animals, that the 
  superstition, gained currency, similar tales in other countries 
  usually introducing bears, tigers, and so forth. 
   
  The belief is probably a relic of early cannibalism. Communities of 
  semi - civilised people would begin to shun those who devoured 
  human flesh, and they would be ostracised and classed as wild 
  beasts, the idea that they had something in common with these 
  would grow, and the - conception that they were able to transform 
  themselves into veritable animals would be likely to arise 
  therefrom. 
   
  There were two kinds of werwolf, voluntary and involuntary. The 
  voluntary would be, as has been said, those persons who, because 
  of their taste for human flesh, had withdrawn from intercourse with 
  their fellows. These appeared to possess a certain amount of 
  magical power, or at least sufficient of it to transform themselves 
  into the animal shape at will. This they effected by merely 
  disrobing, by the taking off a girdle made of human skin, or, 
  putting on a similar belt of wolf - skin, obviously a substitute for an 
  entire wolf - skin. But we also hear of their donning the entire skin. 
  In other instances the body is rubbed with a magic ointment, or 
  water is drunk out of a wolf's footprint. The brains of the animal are 
  also eaten. Olaus Magnus says " that the werwolves of Livonia 
  drained a cup of beer on initiation, and repeated certain magic 
  words. In order to throw off the wolf shape the animal girdle was 
  removed, or else the magician merely muttered a certain formula. 
  In some instances the transformation was supposed to be the work 
  of Satan. 
   
  The superstition regarding werwolves seems to have been 
  exceedingly prevalent in France during the 16th century as is 
  evidenced by numerous trials, in some of which it is clearly shown 
  that murder and cannibalism took place. Self  - hallucination, too, 
  was accountable for some of these cases, the supposed werwolves 
  fully admitting that they had transformed themselves and had slain 
  numerous persons. But at the beginning of the 17th century, 
  commonsense came to the rescue, and persons making such 
  confessions were not credited. In Teutonic and Slavonic countries 
  it was complained by men of learning that werwolves did more 
  damage than the real criminals, and a regular " college " or 
  institution for the practice of the art of animal transformation was 
  attributed to them. 
   
  Involuntary werwolves were often persons transformed into an 
  animal shape because of the commission of sin, and condemned to 
  pass so many years in that form. Thus certain saints 
  metamorphosed sinners into wolves. In Armenia it is thought that 
  sinful women are condemned to pass seven years in the form of a 
  wolf. To such a woman a demon appears, bringing a wolf - skin. He 
  commands her to don it, from which moment she becomes a wolf 
  with all the nature of a wild beast, devouring her own children and 
  those of strangers, wandering forth at night, undeterred by locks, 
  bolts, or bars, returning only with morning to resume her human 
  form. 
   
  Romance, especially French romance, is full of werwolves, and one 
  of the most remarkable instances of this is the Lay by Marie de 
  France entitled Bisclavet, the Lay of a werwolf. 
   
  Many werwolves were innocent persons suffering through the 
  witchcraft of others. To regain their true form it was necessary for 
  them to kneel in one spot for a hundred years, to lose three drops 
  of blood, to be hailed as - a werwolf, to have the sign of the cross 
  made on their bodies, to be addressed thrice by their baptismal 
  names, or to be struck thrice on the forehead with a knife. 
   
  According to Donat de Hautemer, quoted by Goulart, there are 
  some lycanthropes who are so dominated by their melancholy 
  humour that they really believe themselves to be transformed into 
  wolves. This malady, according to the testimony of Aetius in his 
  sixth book, chapter XI., and Paulus in his third book, chapter 
  XVI., and other moderns, is a sort of melancholy, of a black and 
  dismal nature. Those who are attacked by it leave their homes in 
  the months of February, imitate wolves in almost every particular, 
  and wander all night long among the cemeteries and sepulchres, so 
  that one may observe a marvellous change in the mind and 
  disposition, and, above all in the depraved imagination, of the 
  lycanthrope. The memory, however, is still vigorous, as I have 
  remarked in one of this lycanthropic melancholiacs whom we call 
  werwolves. For one who was well acquainted with me was one day 
  seized with his affliction, and on meeting him I withdrew a little, 
  fearing that he might injure me. He, having glanced at me for a 
  moment, passed on followed by a crowd of people. On his shoulder 
  he carried the entire leg and thigh of a corpse. Having received 
  careful medical treatment, he was cured of this malady. On 
  meeting me on another occasion he asked me if I had not been 
  afraid when he met me at such and such a place, which made me 
  think that his memory was not hurt by the vehemence of his 
  disease, though his imagination was so greatly damaged." 
   
  "Guillaume de Brabant; in the narrative of Wier, repeated by 
  Goulart, has written in his History that a certain man of sense and 
  settled understanding was still so tormented by the evil spirit that 
  at a particular season of the year he would think himself a ravening 
  wolf, and would run here and there in the woods, caves and 
  deserts, chasing little children. It was said that this man was often 
  found running about in the deserts like a man out of his senses, 
  and that at last by the grace of God he came to himself and was 
  healed. There was also, as is related by job Fincel in the second 
  book On Miracles a villager near Paule in the year 1541, who 
  believed himself to be a wolf, and assaulted several men in the 
  fields, even killing some. Taken at last, though not without great 
  
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  difficulty, he stoutly affirmed that he was a wolf, and that the only 
  way in which ~e differed from other wolves was that they wore 
  their hairy coats on the outside, while he wore his between his skin 
  and his flesh. Certain persons, more inhuman and wolfish than he, 
  wished to test the truth of this story, and gashed his arms and legs 
  severely. Then, learning their mistake, and the innocence of the 
  melancholiac, they passed him over to the consideration of the 
  surgeons, in whose hands he died some days after. Those afflicted 
  with this disease are pale, with dark and haggard eyes, seeing only 
  with difficulty; the tongue is dry, and the sufferer very thirsty. 
  Pliny and others write that the brain of a bear excites such bestial 
  imaginations. It is even said that one was given to a Spanish 
  gentleman to cat in our times, which so disturbed his mind, that 
  imagining himself to be transformed into a bear, he fled to the 
  mountains and deserts." 
   
  " As for the lycanthropes, whose imagination was so damaged, " 
  says Goulart, " that by some Satanic efficacy they appeared wolves 
  and not men to those who saw them running about and doing all 
  manner of harm, Bodin maintains that the devil can change the 
  shape of one body into that of another, in the great power that God 
  gives him in this elementary world. He says, then, that there may 
  be lycanthropes who have really been transformed into wolves, 
  quoting various examples and histories to prove his contention. In 
  short, after many disputes, he believes in Colt's forms of 
  lycanthropy. And as for the latter, there is represented at the end of 
  this chapter the summary of his proposition, to wit, that men are 
  sometimes transformed into beasts, retaining in that form the 
  human reason; it may be that this comes about by the direct power 
  of God, or it may be that he gives this power to Satan, who carries 
  out his will, or rather his redoubtable judgments. And if we confess 
  (he says) the truths of the sacred history in Daniel, concerning the 
  transformation of Nebuchadnezzar, and the history of Lot's wife 
  changed into motionless stone, the changing of men into an ox or a 
  stone is certainly possible; and consequently the transformation to 
  other animals as well." 
   
  G. Peucer says in speaking of lycanthropy As for me I had formerly 
  regarded as ridiculous and fabulous the stories I had often heard 
  concerning the transformation of men into wolves; but I have learnt 
  from reliable sources, and from the testimony of trustworthy 
  witnesses, that such thin. - s are not at all doubtful or incredible, 
  since they tell of such transformations taking place twelve days 
  after Christmas in Livonia and the adjacent countries; as they have 
  been proved to be true by the confessions of those who have been 
  imprisoned and tortured for such crimes. Here is the manner in 
  which it is done. Immediately after Christmas day is past, a lame 
  boy goes round the country calling. these slaves of the devil, of 
  which there are a great number, and enjoining them to follow him. 
  If they procrastinate or go too slowly, there immediately appears a 
  tall man with a whip whose thongs are made of iron chains, with 
  which he urges them onwards, and sometimes lashes the poor 
  wretches so cruelly, that the marks of the whip remain on their 
  bodies till long afterwards, and cause them the greatest pain. As 
  soon as they have set out on their road, they are all changed into 
  wolves They travel in thousands, having for their conductor the 
  bearer of the whip, after whom they march. When they reach the 
  fields, they rush upon the tattle they find there, tearing and 
  carrying away all they can, and doing much other damage; but they 
  are not permitted to touch or wound persons. When they approach 
  any rivers, their guide separates the waters with his whip, so that 
  they seem to open up and leave a dry space by which to cross. At 
  the end of twelve days the whole band scatters, and everyone 
  returns to his home, having regained his own proper form. This 
  transformation, they say, comes about in this wise. The victims fall 
  suddenly on the ground as though they were taken with sudden 
  illness, and remain motionless and extended like corpses, deprived 
  of all feeling, for they neither stir, nor move from one place to 
  another, nor are in any wise transformed into wolves, thus 
  resembling carrion, for although they are rolled or shaken, they 
  give no sign of life." 
   
  Bodin relates several cases of lycanthropy and of men changed into 
  beasts. 
   
  "Pierre Mamot, in a little treatise he has written on sorcerers, says 
  that he has observed this changing of men into wolves, he being in 
  Savoy at the time. Henry of Cologne in a treatise described the 
  transformation as beyond doubt. And Ulrich in a little book 
  dedicated to the emperor Sigismund, writes of the dispute before 
  the emperor, and says that it was agreed, both on the ground of 
  reason, and of the experience of innumerable examples, that such 
  transformation was a fact; and he adds that he himself had seen a 
  lycanthrope at Constance, who was accused, convicted, 
  condemned, and finally executed after his confession. And several 
  books published in Germany say that one of the greatest kings of 
  Christendom, who is not long dead, and who had the reputation of 
  being one of the greatest sorcerers in the world, often changed into 
  a wolf." 
   
  " I remember that the attorney general of the King, Bourdin, has 
  narrated to me another which was sent to him from the Low 
  Countries, with the whole trial signed by the judge and the clerks, 
  of a wolf, which was struck by an arrow. on the thigh, and 
  afterwards found himself in bed, with the arrow (which he had torn 
  out), on regaining his human shape, and the arrow was recognised 
  by him who had fired it - the time and place testified by the 
  corifession of the person." 
   
  "Garnier, tried and condemned by the parliament of Dole, being in 
  the shape of a werwolf, caught a girl of ten or twelve years in a 
  vineyard of Chastenoy, a quarter of a league from Dole, and having 
  slain her with his teeth and claw - like hands, he ate part of her 
  flesh and carried the rest to his wife. A month later, in the same 
  form, he took another girl, and would have eaten her also, had he 
  not, as he himself confessed, been prevented by three persons who 
  happened to be passing by; and a fortnight after he strangled a boy 
  of ten in the vineyard of Gredisans, and ate his flesh; and in the 
  form of a man and not of a wolf, he killed another boy of twelve or 
  thirteen years in a wood of the village of Porouse with the intention 
  of eating him, but was again prevented. He was condemned to be 
  burnt, and the sentence was executed." 
   
  " At the parliament of Bezangon, the accused were Pierre Burgot 
  and Michel Verdun, who confessed to having 
  renounced God, and sworn to serve the devil. And Michel Verdun 
  led Burgos to the bord du Chastel Charlon where everyone carried 
  a candle of green wax which shone with a blue flame. There they 
  danced and offered sacrifices to the devil. Then after being 
  anointed they were turned into wolves, running with incredible 
  swiftness; then they were changed again into men, and suddenly 
  transformed back to wolves, 'when they enjoyed the society of 
  female wolves as much as they had done that of their wives. They 
  confessed also that Burgot had killed a boy of seven years with his 
  wolf - claws and teeth, intending to eat him, but the peasants gave 
  chase, and prevented him. Burgot and Verdun had eaten four girls 
  
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  between them; and they had caused people to die by the touch of a 
  certain powder." 
   
  "Job Fincel, in the eleventh book of his Marvels wrote that there 
  was at Padua a lycanthrope who was caught and his wolf - claws 
  cut, and at the same instant he found his arms and feet cut. That is 
  given to strengthen the case against the sorcerers of Vernon (1556) 
  who assembled themselves in an old and ruined chateau under the 
  shape of an infinite number of cats. There happened to arrive there 
  one evening four or five men, who decided to spend the night in 
  the place. They were awakened by a multitude of cats, who 
  assaulted them, killed one of their number, and wounded others. 
  The men, however, succeeded in wounding several of the cats, who 
  found on recovering their human shape that they were badly hurt. 
  And incredible as it may seem, the trial was not proceeded with." 
   
  " But the five inquisitors who had experimented in these causes 
  have left it in writing that there were three sorcerers in Strasbourg 
  who, in the guise of three large cats, assaulted a labourer, and in 
  defending himself he wounded and dispersed the cats, who found 
  themselves, at the same moment, laid on sick - beds, in the form 
  of, women severely wounded. At the trial they accused him who 
  had struck them, and he told the judges the hour and the place 
  where he had been assaulted by the cats, and how he had wounded 
  them." (See Lycanthropy.) 
   
  West Indian Islands: Magic and sorcery in the West Indian Islands 
  are wholly the preserve of the negro population, who possess 
  special magical cults called Obeah and Vaudoux, variants of West 
  African fetishism. The root idea of Obeahism and Vaudoux is the 
  worship and propitiation of, the snake - god Obi - a West African 
  word typifying the Spirit of Evil. Vaudoux or Voodoo is a form of 
  Obeah practised in Hayti, Santo Domingo, and the French West 
  Indies. Its rites are always accompanied by the sacrifice of fowls 
  and goats, and in only too many cases by the offering up of the - 
  goat without horns  - the human sacrifice, usually a young girl or 
  boy. The lonely groves and mountain caves where the devotees of 
  Vaudoux enjoy the orgies of a Walpurgis night seldom give up 
  their secrets.. There are two sects of Vaudoux - the white and the 
  red. The former, which only believes in the sacrifice of white fowls 
  and goats, is tolerated by the laws of Hayti, and its rites are as 
  commonly practised as those of the Catholic Church. But even the 
  red sect, which openly stands for human sacrifice, is seldom 
  interfered with. The authorities dare not suppress it, for their own 
  policemen and soldiers stand in awe of the " Papaloi, -  and - 
  Mamaloi " - the priests and priestess of the snake - god. More than 
  that, there have been Presidents of Hayti in recent years who 
  believed in Vaudoux. Hippolyte was even a " Papal - i " himself. 
  He beat the black goatskin drum in the streets of the capital to call 
  the faithful together to see him kill the sen - sel fowl. Another 
  president, Geffard, tried to do his duty and stamp out the cult. A 
  terrible revenge was taken upon him. His young daughter, Cora, 
  was shot 
   
  dead as she knelt in prayer before the altar of a church in Port - au 
  - Prince. To - day there is a temple of the red sect in the Haytian 
  capital near a triumphal arch, which is inscribed with the unctuous 
  words, " Liberty – education progress." Under British government 
  Obeah is in perforce takes forms less dangerous to the social order 
  than it does in Hayti; but it is none the less a constant public peril 
  in Jamaica and the other British West Indian Islands. It is a bitter 
  foe of religion, education and social advancement In olden days it 
  worked by means of wholesale poisoning, and in quite recent days 
  there have been not a few cases of Obeahmen seeking to do murder 
  in the old way. A favourite method of the Obeahmen, both in 
  Jamaica and Hayti, is to mix the infinitesimal hairs of the bamboo 
  in the food of persons who refuse to bow the knee to them. This 
  finally sets up malignant dysentery. If the afflicted one remains 
  contumacious, he dies; if he makes his peace with the Obeahman, 
  and gives him a handsome present, the slow process of poisoning 
  ceases, and he lives. In all the crises and troubles of life the negro 
  goes to the Obeahman. If he has to appear at the Police Court he 
  pays the Obeahman to go there also and " fix de eye " of the 
  magistrate, so that he will be discharged. Perhaps he has been 
  turned out of his office of deacon in the Baptist Chapel by a white 
  minister for immorality. In that case the Obeahman will arrange for 
  a choice collection of the most powerful spells such as dried 
  lizards, fowls' bones, and graveyard earth to be placed in the 
  minister's Bible for him to stare upon when he looks up the text of 
  his sermon. Then, if the Obeah works properly, the erring deacon 
  will be received back to office. Even coloured men of education 
  and official position are often tainted with Obeahism. They often 
  make use of - it for profit and to increase their power over the 
  ignorant negroes. The mulatto chairman of a Parochial Board - the 
  Jamaican equivalent of our County Council - was sent to goal for 
  practising Obeah only a few years ago. A prominent member of the 
  Kingston City Council was the leading Obeahman in the island - 
  the pontiff of the cult. He was so clever that the police could never 
  catch him, although he was supposed to make over 3,000 a year by 
  his nefarious practices. Once some detectives raided his place, but 
  he received timely warning and fled. 
   
  A writer to the press thus describes a "red" Vaudoux ceremony: " I 
  had seen the ' white ' ritual several times in Port - au - Prince and 
  elsewhere when at last I was permitted through the kindness of a 
  mulatto general, to witness the ' red ' rite. I was informed that only 
  cocks and goats would be sacrificed, and that turned out to be the 
  fact. The General conducted me to a small wood about three miles 
  from the town of Jacinel. By the light of kerosene oil flares I saw 
  about forty men and women gathered round a rude stone altar, on 
  which, twined around a cocomacacque stick, was the sacred green 
  snake. The ' Mamaloi, ' a tall, evil - looking negress, was dressed 
  in a scarlet robe, with a red turban on her head. She was dancing a 
  sinuous dance before the altar, and droning an ancient West 
  African chant, which the onlookers repeated. Rapidly she worked 
  herself up to a frantic pitch of excitement, pausing now and then to 
  take a drink from one of there rum bottles which passed freely from 
  hand to hand. At last she picked up a glittering machete from the 
  altar, and with her other hand seized a black cock held by a 
  bystander. She whirled the bird round her head violently until the 
  feathers were flying in all directions, and then severed the head 
  from the body with one swift stroke. The tense and horrible 
  excitement had kept the worshippers silent, but they burst into a 
  savage yell when the priestess pressed there bleeding neck of the 
  slaughtered fowl to her lips. Afterwards she dipped her finger in 
  the blood and made the sign of the cross on her forehead and 
  pressed it to the forehead of some of her disciples." 
   
  The obeah man can always be easily recognised by one who has 
  had much to do with negroes. He has an indescribably sinister 
  appearance. He is unwashed, ragged, often half mad, usually 
  diseased, and almost always has an ulcerated leg. This last, 
  indeed, is a badge of the tribe. Often he is a very old negro who 
  knew " slavery days " and more than half believes in his magical 
  pretensions. But not all are of this disreputable type. Even some of 
  the white planters themselves do not scorn to make use of obeah, 
  although, of course, they have no belief in it. The theft of growing 
  crops by the negroes is one of the greatest trials of their lives. 
  
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  Sometimes they adorn the  - trees round the edge of a " banana 
  piece" or orange grove with miniature coffins, old bones, bottles of 
  dirty water, and other obeah objects; and then the negroes will not 
  dare to enter and steal. An interesting report published in a 
  Jamaican journal during 1908 gives particulars of an obeah case of 
  possession or haunting as follows: 
   
  " The cause celebre at Half - way Tree Court, Jamaica recently, 
  was the case of Rex v. Charles Donaldson for; unlawfully 
  practising obeah. Robert Robinson, who stated that he was a 
  labourer living at Trench Pen, in the parish of St. Andrew, stated 
  that on Tuesday, the 8th ult., he was sitting down outside the May 
  Pen cemetery on the Spanish Town Road. He was on his way from 
  work, and had a white handkerchief tied around his head. He was 
  feeling sick, and that led him to sit down. While there sitting the 
  prisoner came to him. He did not know the man before, but he 
  began by asking him what was the matter. Witness replied, " I am 
  well sick." The prisoner said, " No, you are not sick; you have two 
  ghosts on you - one creole and one coolie." Witness told the 
  prisoner to go away and was left. He next saw prisoner on 
  Wednesday 9th. He came to him at Bumper Hall, where he was 
  working, and he said to him, " Man, how you find me here?" "Oh," 
  replied the prisoner, "if a man is in hell self I can find him; I come 
  for you to give me the job?" Witness then inquired, " What job ?" 
  and accused told him he wanted to take off the two ghosts." He 
  would do it for £25, and he killed " for any sum from £25 to £50. 
  He had worked for all classes - white, black, coolie, Chinese, etc. 
  Witness said he did not give him any " good consent - at the time, 
  but reported the matter after the accused left to Clark and Wright, 
  two witnesses in the case. Clark told him he must not scare the 
  man but go home. On Thursday, the 10th, the defendant came to 
  him at his yard at French Pen. The accused told him he would 
  come back to him to take off the ghost. He also told him to get a 
  bottle of rum and 5s. He (witness) consented to the arrangement. 
  The defendant began by taking off his jacket. He then opened his " 
  brief bag " and took out a piece of chalk. The accused then made 
  three marks on the table and took out a phial and a white stone. 
  The phial contained some stuff which appeared like quicksilver. 
  He arrayed his paraphernalia on the table. They consisted of a  - 
  large whisky bottle with some yellow stuff, a candle, a pack of 
  cards, a looking - glass, three cigarette pictures, a pocket knife, 
  etc. The accused also took out a whistle which he sounded, and 
  then placed the cards on the table. He then asked for the 5s. which 
  was given to him. He placed the coins on the cards around a 
  lighted candle. The pint of rum which he (witness) had brought 
  was on the table and prisoner poured some of it into a pan. He 
  went outside and sprinkled the rum at the four corner's of the 
  house. Accused came back in and said, " Papa! papa! your case is 
  very bad! There are two ghosts outside. The creole is bad, but the 
  coolie is ratherworse. But if he is made out of hell I will catch 
  him." 
   
  The prisoner then began to blow his whistle in a very funny way - a 
  way in which he had never heard a whistle blown before. He also 
  began to speak in an unknown tongue and to call up the ghosts. 
   
  Mr. Lake - " Aren't there a lot of you people who believe that 
  ghosts can harm and molest you ? 
   
  Witness - " No, I am not one." 
   
  Mr. Lake - " Did you not tell him that a duppy struck you on your 
  back and you heard voices calling you ?" 
   
  Witness - " He told me so." Continuing, witness said he had seen 
  all sorts of ghosts at all different times and of different kinds also. 
   
  Mr. Lake - " Of all different sexes, man and woman ? 
   
  Witness - " Yes; any man who can see ghosts will know a man 
  ghost from a woman ghost. Dem never walk straight." 
   
  Westcar Papyrus: An Egyptian Papyrus dating from the eighteenth 
  century B.C., devoted chiefly to tales of magic and enchantment. 
  The commencement and ending are wanting, yet enough of the 
  subject matter has survived to enable us to forma fairly correct 
  idea of the whole. Wiedemann says concerning it (Popular 
  Literature in Ancient Egypt): " The papyrus tells how Kheops - the 
  king whom notices of Greek writers have made universally famous 
  as the builder of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh - commands stories of 
  magic to be told to him. The first of these, of which the conclusion 
  only remains, is supposed to have occurred in the reign of King 
  T'eser of the Third Dynasty. The next, which is complete, belongs 
  to the reign of Nebka, a somewhat earlier king. In those days it 
  came to the cars of a great nobleman that his faithless wife was in 
  the habit of meeting her lover by the side of a lake. Being skilled 
  in magic he modelled a crocodile in wax and ordered one of his 
  servants to cast it into the water. It was immediately transformed 
  into a real crocodile and devoured the lover. Seven days later the 
  king was walking by the lake with his friend the nobleman, when 
  at the command of the latter the crocodile came to the shore and 
  laid its victim at their feet. The king shuddered at the sight of the 
  monster but at the touch of its maker it became once more a mere 
  figure of wax. Then the whole astonishing story was told to the 
  king, who thereupon granted the crocodile permission to take away 
  that which was its own. The creature plunged into the depths of the 
  lake and disappeared with the adulterer, while the guilty wife was 
  burnt to death and her ashes were scattered in the stream. 
   
  A tale of enchantment follows, the scene of which is laid during the 
  reign of King Sneferu, the predecessor of Kheops. The king was 
  one day taking his pleasure on a lake in a boat rowed by twenty 
  beautiful maidens, when one of the girls dropped a malachite 
  ornament into the water. The king promised to give her another in 
  its stead, but this did not content her, for she wanted her own jewel 
  and no other. A magician was summoned who repeated a spell by 
  the might of which he piled one half of the lake on the top of the 
  other, so that the water, which at first was twelve ells deep in the 
  middle of the lake, now stood twenty - four ells high. The jewel, 
  found lying in the mud in the dry portion of the lake, was restored 
  to its owner; and the magician having once more mumbled his 
  spell the water returned to its former place. 
   
  When Kheops had listened for some time with much interest to the 
  accounts of the strange events that had transpired in the days of 
  his predecessors, then stepped forward Prince Horduduf, who is 
  really known to us from the song in the tomb - temple of King 
  Antef as renowned for his wisdom. He told the king that all 
  marvels were not things of the past but that even then there was 
  living a magician named Deda, who was one hundred and ten years 
  old, and consumed every day five hundred loaves, a side of beef, 
  and a hundred jars of beer. 
   
  Kheops was so much interested that he sent the prince to escort 
  the magician to his presence. Deda obeyed the royal summons and 
  performed his chief feat before the king. This consisted in 
  
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  decapitating a pose, a duck, and an ox, and charming the heads 
  back again on to the bodies so that the creatures lived and 
  breathed as before. Kheops fell into talk with the magician, who 
  told him that the wife of a priest in Sakhebu was awaiting the birth 
  of three sons, children of the god Ra, who should one day sit on the 
  throne of Egypt. Deda sought to allay the king's natural distress at 
  Nis information by prophesying that only after the reigns of his son 
  and grandson should the power fall into the hands of the 
  descendants of the Sun - god. But Kheops was not to be consoled; 
  he inquired into the details of the story and announced that he 
  would himself travel to Sakhebu, no doubt with the ultimate 
  intention of finding an opportunity to put out of the way the 
  pretenders to his throne. 
   
  The scene of the sequel is laid in Sakhebu. The birth and infancy 
  of the three children are described in detail, and all sorts of 
  marvellous incidents are represented as influencing their fate. The 
  gods cared for the safety of the little ones. A maid to whom the 
  secret was known being enraged by a severe punishment inflicted 
  upon her, threatened to betray all to Kheops. Her own brother beat 
  her, and when she went down to the water she was carried off by a 
  crocodile. Here the papyrus ceases, but it is possible to a certain 
  extent to restore the conclusion. The names of the three children of 
  Ra show that they stand for the first three kings of the Fifth 
  Dynasty, the family that followed the house of Kheops. The 
  papyrus must therefore have told how the boys escaped all the 
  snares laid for their lives and in due time ascended the throne for 
  which they. were destined." 
   
  Wild Women: A species of nature spirits believed in by the 
  German peasantry. Says Keightley concerning them: "The Wilde 
  Frauen or Wild-women of Germany bear a very strong resemblance 
  to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia. Like them they are beautiful, 
  have fine flowing hair, live within hills, and only appear singly or 
  in the society of each other. They partake of the piety of character 
  we find among the German Dwarfs. 
   
  " The celebrated Wunderberg, or Uncterberg, on the great moor 
  near Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wildwomen. The 
  Wunderberg is said to be quite hollow, and supplied with stately 
  palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and springs of gold and 
  silver. Its inhabitants, besides the Wild-women, are little men, who 
  have charge of the treasures it contains, and who at midnight 
  repair to Salzburg to perform their devotions in the cathedral ; 
  giants, who used to come to the church of Grodich and exhort the 
  people to lead a godly and pious life ; and the great emperor 
  Charles V., with golden crown and sceptre, attended by knights 
  and lords. His grey beard has twice encompa,~sed the table at 
  which he sits, and when it has the third time grown round it, the 
  end of the world and the appearance of the Antichrist will take 
  place. 
   
  " The following is the only account we have of the Wild-women. 
   
  " The inhabitants of the village of Grodich and the peasantry of the 
  neighbourbood assert that frequently, about the year 1753, the 
  Wild-women used to come out of the Wunderburg to the boys and 
  girls that were keeping the cattle near the hole within Glanegg, and 
  give them bread to eat. 
   
  " The Wild-women used frequently to come to where the people 
  were reaping. They came down eagerly in the morning, and in the 
  evening, when the people left off work, they went back into the 
  Wunderburg without partaking of the supper. 
   
  " It once fell out near this hill, that a little boy was sitting on a 
  horse which his father had tethered on the headland of the field. 
  Then came the Wild-women out of the hill and wanted to take away 
  the boy by force. But the father, who was well acquainted with the 
  secrets of this hill, and what used to occur there, without any dread 
  hasted up to the women and took the boy from them, with these 
  words : ' What makes you presume to come so often out of the hill, 
  and now to take away my child with you ? What do you -want to do 
  with him ? ' The Wildwomen answered : ' He will be better with us, 
  and have better care taken of him than at home. We shall be very 
  fond of the boy, and he will meet with no injury' But the, father 
  would not let the boy out of his hands, and the, Wild-women went 
  away weeping bitterly. 
   
  " One time the Wild-aomen came out of the Wunderberg,. near the 
  place called the Kugel-mill, which is prettily situated on the side 
  of this hill, and took away a boy who was keeping cattle. This boy, 
  whom every one knew, was seen about a year after by some 
  wood-cutters, in a green dress, and sitting on a rock of this hill. 
  Next day they took his parents with them, intending to search the 
  hill for him, but they all went about it to no purpose, for the boy 
  never appeared any more." 
   
  Willow Tree: as migh be expected, had many superstitious notions 
  connected with it, since, according to the authorized version of the 
  English Bible, the Israelites are said to have hung their harps on 
  willow trees The weeping willow is said to have, ever since the 
  time of the Jews' captivity in Babylon, drooped its branches, in 
  sympathy with this circumstance. The common willow was held to 
  be under the protection of the devil, and it was said that, if any 
  were to cast a knot upon a young willow, and sit under it, and 
  thereupon renounce his or her baptism, the devil would confer 
  upon them supernatural power. 
   
  Windsor Castle: Windsor Castle is said to be the haunt of 
  numerous spectres. Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII., Charles I., and 
  some of the Georges have all been reputed to haunt the Castle, 
  while Herne the Hunter (q.v.) is also said to roam the Great Park. 
  An officer of the Foot Guards, while on duty, was once sitting in 
  the library reading in the gloaming when he declares he heard a 
  rustle of silken dress, and, looking up, saw the ghost of Queen 
  Elizabeth glide across the room. He buckled on his sword, and 
  reported the matter. The story attracted the attention of the country 
  for some weeks. Sir Richard Holmes and his assistants kept watch 
  for many nights, but the ghost did not re - appear. Not long ago a 
  housemaid in St. John's Tower thought she saw a ghost, and was so 
  frightened that she became ill, and had to be sent home. In 19o8 a 
  sentry discharged five rounds of ball cartridge at a figure which he 
  declared was a spectre which appeared on the terrace. 
   
  Witchcraft: (From Saxen Wicca, a contraction of witega, a prophet 
  or sorcerer.) The cult of persons who, by means of satanic 
  assistance or the aid of evil spirits or familiars, are enabled to 
  practise minor black magic. But the difference between the 
  sorcerer and the witch is that the former has sold his soul to Satan 
  for complete dominion over him for a stated period, whereas the 
  witch usually appears as the devoted and often badly treated 
  servant of the diabolic power. But she is often mistress of a 
  familiar, her bounden slave, and among certain savage peoples her 
  occult powers are self - evolved. The concept of witchcraft was 
  perhaps brought into being by the mythic influence of conquered 
  races. It closely resembles in ritual and practice the demonism of 
  savage races, from which it probably sprang.  That is, the non - 
  
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  Aryan peoples of Europe who preceded the Aryan population, 
  carrying on the practice and traditions of their religions, more or 
  less in secret, awoke in the Aryan mind the idea that such 
  practices were of a " magical " character. This idea they would not 
  fail to assist, and would probably exaggerate such details as most 
  strongly impressed the Aryan mind, to which their gods would 
  appear as " devils, " and their religious ritual as sorcery. This view 
  has been combatted on the ground that the gap betwixt, say, the 
  extinction of the pre - Aryan religion known as Druidism and the 
  first notices of witchcraft, is too great to bridge. But Druidism 
  continued to exist long after it was officially extinct, and British 
  witchcraft is its lineal successor. The theory is further advanced 
  that on the failure of the non Aryan priesthood novices would be 
  adopted from the invading race for the purpose of carrying on the 
  old religion.. It seems to the present writer that the circumstance 
  that the greater number of the upholders of this ancient tradition 
  were women points to the likelihood of an early custom of the 
  adoption or marriage of Aryan women by a non - Aryan people who 
  would prefer to recruit their novices and devotees from the more 
  plastic sex, naturally distrusting the masculine portion of an alien 
  people to fall in with their religious ideas, and that the almost 
  exclusive employment of women in the cult (in Britain, at least) 
  originated in this practice. Then individually all claimed to have 
  been initiated. Says Gomme, " I am, inclined to lay great stress 
  upon the act of initiation - It emphasises the idea of a caste distinct 
  from the general populace, and it postulates the existence of this 
  caste anterior to the time when those who practice their supposed 
  powers first come into notice. Carrying back this act of initiation 
  age after age, as the dismal records of witchcraft enable us to do 
  for some centuries, it is clear that the people from time to time thus 
  introduced into the witch caste carried on the practices and 
  assumed the functions of the caste even though they came to it as 
  novices and strangers. We thus arrive at an artificial means of 
  descent of a peculiar group of superstition, and it might be termed 
  initiatory descent." This concept, thinks Gomme (Folklore as an 
  Historical Science, P. 201 at seq.) was influenced in the Middle 
  Ages by another.  
   
  Traditional practices, traditional formulae, and traditional,  with 
  gifts of money. After this examination was passed, the demon 
  distributed among his worshippers unguents, powders, and other 
  articles for the perpetration of evil. A French witch, executed in 
  158o, confessed that some of her companions offered a sheep or a 
  heifer; and another, executed the following year, stated that 
  animals of a black colour were most acceptable. A third, executed 
  at Gerbeville in 1585, declared that no one was exempt from this 
  offering, and that the poorer sort offered a hen or a chicken, and 
  some even a lock of their hair, a little bird, or any trifle, they could 
  put their hands upon. Severe punishments followed the neglect of 
  this ceremony. In many instances, according to the confessions of 
  the witches, besides their direct worship of the devil, they were 
  obliged to show their abhorrence of the faith they had deserted by 
  trampling on the cross, and blaspheming the saints, and by other 
  profanations. 
   
  Before the termination of the meeting, the new witches received 
  their familiars, or imps, who they generally addressed as their " 
  little masters, " although they were bound to attend at the bidding 
  of the witches, and execute their desires. These received names, 
  generally of a popular character, such as were given to cats, and 
  dogs, and other pet animals and the similarity these names bear to 
  each other in different countries is very remarkable. 
   
  After all these preliminary ceremonies had been transacted, and a 
  great banquet was laid out, and the whole company fell to eating 
  and drinking and making merry. At times, every article of luxury 
  was placed before them, and they feasted in the most sumptuous 
  manner. Often, however, the meats served on the table were 
  nothing but toads and rats, and other articles of a revolting nature. 
  In general they had no salt, and seldom bread. But, even when best 
  served, the money and the victuals furnished by the demons were 
  of the most unsatisfactory character; a circumstance of which no 
  rational explanation is given. The coin when brought forth by open 
  daylight, was generally found to be nothing better than dried leaves 
  or bits of dirt; and, however, greedily they may have eaten at the 
  table, they commonly left the meeting in a state of exhaustion from 
  hunger. 
   
  The tables were next removed, and feasting gave way to wild and 
  uproarious dancing and revelry. The common dance, or carole, of 
  the middle ages appears to have been Performed by the persons 
  taking each other's hand in a circle, alternately a man and a 
  woman. This, probably the ordinary dance among the peasantry, 
  was the one generally practised at the Sabbaths of the witches, 
  with this peculiarity, that their backs instead of their faces were 
  turned inwards. The old writers endeavour to account for this, by 
  supposing that it was designed to prevent them from seeing and 
  recognising each other. But this, it is clear, was not the only dance 
  of the Sabbath; perhaps more fashionable ones were introduced for 
  witches in better conditions in society; and moralists of the 
  succeeding age maliciously insinuate that many dances of a not 
  very decorous character invented by the devil himself to heat the 
  imaginations of his victims, had subsequently been adopted in 
  classes in society who did not frequent the Sabbath. It may be 
  observed, as a curious circumstance that the modern waltz is first 
  traced among the meetings of the witches and their imps 1 It was 
  also confessed, in almost every case, that the dances at the 
  Sabbaths produced much greater fatigue than commonly arose 
  from such exercises. Many of the witches declared that, on their 
  return home, they were usually unable to rise from their bed for 
  two or three days. 
   
  Their music, also, was by no means of an ordinary character. The 
  songs were generally obscene, or vulgar, or ridiculous. Of 
  instruments there was considerable variety, but all partaking of the 
  burlesque character of the proceedings. " Some played the flute 
  upon a stick or bone; another was seen striking a horse's skull for a 
  lyre; there you saw them beating the drum on the trunk of an oak, 
  with a stick; here, others were blowing trumpets with the branches. 
  The louder the instrument, the greater satisfaction it gave; and the 
  dancing became wilder and wilder, until it merged into a vast 
  scene of confusion, and ended in scenes over which, though 
  minutely described in the old treatises on demonology, it will be 
  better to throw a veil." The witches separated in time to reach their 
  homes before cock - crow. 
   
  We then see that Satan had taken the place of the deities of the 
  older and abandoned cults of the non - Aryans, whose obscene 
  rites were attended by " initiated " or adopted " neophytes of a race 
  to the generality of which they were abominable, that witches often 
  worked by means of familiars, whose shapes they were able to 
  take, or by means of direct satanic agency. But there were probably 
  mythological elements in witchcraft as well. 
   
  Powers of Witches. - In the eyes of the populace the powers of 
  witches were numerous. The most peculiar of these were: The 
  
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  ability to blight by means of the evil eye (q.v.) the sale of winds to 
  sailors, power over animals, and capacity to transform themselves 
  into animal shapes. Thus, says Gomme - " The most usual 
  transformations are into cats and hares, and less frequently into 
  red deer, and these have taken the place of wolves. Thus, cat 
  transformations are found in Yorkshire, hare - transformations in 
  Devonshire, Yorkshire and Wales, and Scotland, deer - 
  transformations in Cumberland, raven - transformations in 
  Scotland, cattle - transformations in Ireland. Indeed the connection 
  between witches and the lower animals is a very close one, and 
  hardly anywhere in Europe does it occur that this connection is 
  relegated to a subordinate place. Story after story, custom after 
  custom is recorded as appertaining to witchcraft, and animal 
  transformation appears always. 
   
  Witches also possessed the power of making themselves invisible, 
  by means of a magic ointment supplied to them by the devil, and of 
  harming others by thrusting nails into a waxen image representing 
  them. 
   
  Witchcraft among Savage People - Witchcraft among savage 
  people is, of course, allied to the various cults of demonism in 
  vogue among. barbarian folk all over the world. These are 
  indicated in the various articles dealing with uncultured races. The 
  name witchcraft is merely a convenient English label for such 
  savage demon - cults, as is " witch - doctors " applied to those who 
  " smell out these practitioners of evil. 
   
  Evidence for Witchcraft. - The evidence for witchcraft, says 
  Podmore (Modern Spiritualism) falls under four main heads: (a) 
  the confessions of witches themselves; (b) the corroborative 
  evidence of lycanthropy, apparitions, etc.; (c) the witch - marks; 
  (d) the evidence of the evil effects produced upon the supposed 
  victims. 
   
  (a) - The confessions, as is notorious, were for the most part 
  extracted by torture, or by lying promises of release. In England, 
  where torture was not countenanced by the law, the ingenuity of 
  Matthew Hopkins and other professional witch - finders could 
  generally devise some equally efficient substitute, such as gradual 
  starvation, enforced sleeplessness, or the maintenance for hours of 
  a constrained and painful posture. But apart from these extorted 
  confessions, there is evidence that in some cases the accused 
  persons were actually driven by the accumulation of testimony 
  against them, by the pressure of public opinion, and the singular 
  circumstances in which they were placed, to believe and confess 
  that they were witches indeed. Some of the women in Salem who 
  had pleaded guilty to witchcraft explained afterwards, when the 
  persecution had died down and they were released, that they had 
  been consternated and affrighted even out of their reason " to 
  confess that of which they were innocent. And there were not a few 
  persons who voluntarily confessed to the practice of witchcraft, 
  nocturnal rides, compacts with the devil, and all the rest of it." The 
  most striking instances of this voluntary confession are afforded by 
  children. For even among the earlier writers on witchcraft the 
  opinion was not uncommonly held that the nocturnal rides and 
  banquets with the devil were merely delusions, thought the guilt of 
  the witch was not lessened thereby. And in the sixteenth centuries, 
  at least in English - speaking countries this belief seems to have 
  been generally alike by believers in witchcraft and their 
  opponents. Thus Gaule: " But the more prodigious or stupendous 
  (of the things narrated by witches in their confessions) are effected 
  merely by the devil; the witches all the while either in a rapt 
  ecstasic, a charmed sleepe, or a melancholy dreame; and the 
  witches imagination, phantasie, common sense, only deluded with 
  what is now done, or pretended. Even Antoinette Bourignon, 
  observing her scholars eat " great pieces of bread and butter " at 
  breakfast, pointed out to them that they could not have such good 
  appetites if they had really fed on dainty meats at the devil's 
  Sabbath the night before. 
   
  (b) - But if the witch's own account of her marvellous feats may be 
  explained as, at best, the vague remembrance of a nightmare, it is 
  hardly necessary to go beyond this explanation to account for the 
  prodigies reported by others. In most cases there is no need to 
  suppose even so much foundation for the marvels, since the 
  evidence (e.g., for lycanthropy) is purely traditional. And when we 
  get accounts at first hand, they are commonly concerned, not with 
  such matters as levitation, or transformation of hares into old 
  women, but merely with vague shapes seen in the dusk, or the 
  unexplained appearance of a black dog. Even so the evidence 
  comes almost exclusively from ignorant peasants, and is given 
  years after the events." 
   
  (c) - The evidence for " witch - marks " does not greatly concern 
  us. The insensible patches on which Matthew Hopkins and other 
  witch – finders relied may well have been genuine in some cases. 
  Such insensible areas are known to occur in hysterical subjects, 
  and the production of insensibility by means of suggestion is a 
  commonplace in modern times. The supposed witches' teats, which 
  the imps sucked, appear to have been found almost exclusively, 
  like the imps themselves, in the English  - speaking countries. Any 
  wart, boil, or swelling would probably form a sufficient warrant for 
  the accusation; we read in Cotton Mather of a jury of women 
  finding preternatural teat upon a witch's body, which could not be 
  discovered when a second search was made three or four hours 
  later, and of a witch's mark upon the finger of a small child, which 
  took the form of " a deep red spot, about the bigness of a flea - 
  bite." And the witch - mark which brought conviction to the mind 
  of Increase Mather in the case of George Burroughs was his ability 
  to hold a heavy gun at arm's length, and to carry a barrel of cider 
  from the canoe to the shore." 
   
  (d) - Of most of the evidence based upon the injuries suffered by 
  the witches' supposed victims, it is difficult to speak seriously. If a 
  man's cow ran dry, if his horse stumbled, his cart stuck in a gate, 
  his pigs or fowls sickened, if his child had a fit, his wife or himself 
  an unaccustomed pain, it was evidence acceptable in a court of law 
  against any old woman who might be supposed within the last 
  twelve months - or twelve years - to have conceived some cause of 
  offence against him and his. Follies of this kind are too well known 
  to need repetition. 
   
  But there is another feature of witchcraft, at any rate of the cases 
  occurring in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England 
  and America, which is not so well recognised, and which has a 
  more direct bearing upon our present inquiry - the predominant 
  part played in there initial stages of witch persecution by 
  malevolent or merely hysterical children and young women." 
   
  Symptoms of Bewitchment.  - Mr. Podmore remarks: 
   
  The symptoms of the alleged bewitchment were, in all these cases 
  monotonously alike. The victims would fall into fits or convulsions, 
  of a kind which the physicians called in were unable to diagnose or 
  to cure. In these fits the children would commonly call out on the 
  old woman who was the imaginary cause of their ailment; would 
  profess, at times, to see her shape present in the room, and would 
  
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  even stab at it with a knife or other weapon. (In the most 
  conclusive cases the record continues that the old woman, being 
  straightway sought for, would be found attempting to conceal a 
  corresponding wound on her person.) These fits, which sometimes 
  lasted, with slight intermission, for weeks together would be 
  increased in violence by the approach of the supposed witc; or, as 
  Hutchinson notes, by the presence of sympathetic spectators. The 
  fits, as was also commonly noted by contemporary chroniclers, 
  would diminish or altogether cease when the witch was imprisoned 
  or condemned; on the other hand, if the supposed witch were 
  released the victim would continue to suffer horrible tortures, 
  insomuch that at the Salem trials one old woman who had been 
  acquitted by the jury was, because of the hideous outcry from the 
  afflicted persons in court, straightway re - tried and condemned. 
  The witch's touch would always provoke severe attacks, indeed, 
  contact with the witch or the establishment of rapport between her 
  and the victim by means of some garment worn by the latter, as in 
  Mistress Faith Corbet's case, was generally regarded as an 
  essential pre - requisite of the enchantment. Once this rapport 
  established the mere look of the witch, or the direction of her evil 
  will would suffice. The afflicted in Salem were, as the Mathers 
  testify, much tortured in court by the malevolent glance of the poor 
  wretches on trial; and two ' visionary ' girl: added greatly to the 
  weight of the evidence by foretelling with singular accuracy, when 
  such or such of the afflicted persons then present would feel the 
  baneful influence, and howl for anguish. It should be added - 
  though the evidence as we now understand the word, for the fact 
  alleged is of course practically negligible - that it was commonly 
  reported that the witch's victim could, although blindfolded, 
  distinguish her tormentor by the touch alone from all other 
  persons, and could even foresee her approach and discern her 
  actions at a considerable distance. 
   
  " The effect of the convulsions and cataleptic attacks, which 
  modern science would unhesitatingly dismiss as being simply the 
  result of hysteria, was heightened in many cases by manifestations 
  of a more material kind. It was a common feature for the victim to 
  vomit pins, needles, wood, stubble, and other substances; or for 
  thorns or needles to be found embedded in her flesh. In a case 
  recorded by Glanvil an hysterical servant girl, Mary Longdon, in 
  addition to the usual fits, vomiting of pins, etc., was tormented by 
  stones being continually flung at her, which stones when they fell 
  to the ground straightway vanished. Her master bore witness in 
  court to the falling of the stones and their miraculous 
  disappearance. Moreover, the same Mary Longdon would 
  frequently be transported by an invisible power to the top of the 
  house, and there "laid on a board betwixt two Sollar beams," or 
  would be put into a chest, or half suffocated between two feather - 
  beds. 
   
  "Gross as these frauds appear to us, it is singular that for the most 
  part they remained undetected, and even, it would seem, 
  unsuspected, not merely by the ignorant peasants, for whose 
  benefit the play was acted in the first instance, but in the larger 
  theatre of a law court. But there are some notorious instances of 
  confession or detection. Edinund Robinson, the boy on whose 
  accusation the Lancashire witches were tried, subsequently 
  confessed to imposture. Other youths were detected with black 
  lead in their mouths when foaming in sham epileptic fits, colouring 
  their urine with ink, concealing crooked pins about their persons 
  in order to vomit them later, scratching the bed posts with their 
  toes, and surreptitiously eating to repletion during a pretended 
  fast. But commonly the spectators were so convinced beforehand of 
  the genuineness of such portents that they held it superfluous to 
  examine the claims of any particular performance of this kind on 
  their credence. 
   
  " It is difficult to know in such cases where self - deception ends 
  and where malevolent trickery begins. Nor would the examination 
  of these bygone outbreaks of hysteria trivial in themselves as 
  terrible in their consequences - be of interest in the present 
  connection, except for the fact that we find here the primitive form 
  of those Poltergeist manifestations which gave the popular impetus 
  in 1848 to the belief in Modern Spiritualism, and which are still 
  appealed by those who maintain the genuineness of the physical 
  manifestations of the seance room as instances of similar 
  phenomena occurring spontaneously." 
   
  Difference between British and Continental Witchcraft.The salient 
  difference between British and Continental witchcraft systems 
  seems to have been that whereas the former was an almost 
  exclusively female system, the Continental one favoured the 
  inclusion in the ranks of sorcerers (as foreign witches were called) 
  of the male element; this at least was the case in France and 
  Germany, but there is evidence that in Hungary and the Slavonic 
  countries, the female element was the more numerous. In Ireland 
  we find women also pre-eminent; this is probably to be accounted 
  for by the circumstance before noted that the non - alien 
  priesthoods in their decline became almost entirely dependent 
  upon the offices of women. But the various forms of witchcraft are 
  duly entered in the several articles dealing with European 
  countries. 
   
  Growth of Belief in Witchcraft. - It is significant that in early times 
  the supernatural side of witchcraft won little public credence. 
  People believed in such things as magical poisoning and the 
  raising of tempests by witches, but they refused to give credence to 
  such superstitions as that the witch rode through the air, or had 
  communion in any way with diabolic agency. As early as 800 A.D. 
  an Irish synod pronounced the belief of flight through the air and 
  vampirism, to be incompatible with Christian doctrine, and many 
  early writers like Stephen of Hungary and Regino state that flight 
  by night and kindred practices are merely a delusion. Indeed those 
  who held these beliefs were actively punished by penance. In face 
  of the later development of belief in witchcraft, this frank 
  scepticism is almost amazing, and it is most strange that the tenth 
  and eleventh centuries should have rejected superstitions 
  embraced widely by the sixteenth and seventeenth. 
   
  From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries we find the 
  conception of witchcraft and demonology greatly furthered and 
  assisted by the writings of scholars and the institution of the 
  Inquisition to deal with the rise of unbelief. A vast amount of 
  literature was circulated dealing with questions relating to magic 
  and sorcery, and regarding the habits and customs of witches, 
  magicians and practitioners in " black magic, " and many hairs 
  were split. The Church gladly joined in this campaign against what 
  it regarded as the forces of darkness, and indeed both accused and 
  accusers seem to have lingered under the most dreadful delusions 
  which were to cost society dear as a whole. The scholastic 
  conception of demonology was that the witch was not a woman but 
  a demon. Rationalism was at a discount and the ingenuity of 
  mediaeval scholars disposed of all objections to the phenomena of 
  witchcraft. The deities of pagan times were cited as practitioners of 
  sorcery, and erudition, especially in -  ecclesiastical circles, ran 
  riot on the subject. There also arose a class of judges or inquisitors 
  
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  like Bodin in France and Sprenger in Germany, who composed 
  lengthy treatises upon the manner of discovering witches, of 
  putting them to the test, and generally of presiding in witchcraft 
  trials. The cold - blooded cruelty of these textbooks on current 
  demonology can only be accounted for by the likelihood that their 
  authors felt themselves justified in their composition through 
  motives of fidelity to their church and religion. The awful terror 
  disseminated especially among the intelligent by the possibility of 
  a charge of witchcraft being brought against them at any moment 
  brought about an intolerable condition of things. The intellectual 
  might be arraigned at any time on a charge of witchcraft by any 
  rascal who cared to make it. Position or learning were no safeguard 
  against such a charge, and it is peculiar that the more thoughtful 
  and serious part of the population should not have made some 
  attempt to put a period to the dreadful condition of affairs brought 
  about by ignorance and superstition. Of course the principal 
  reason against their being able to do so was the fact that the whole 
  system was countenanced by the Church, in whose hands the 
  entire procedure of trials for witchcraft lay. 
   
  Strangely enough convents and monasteries were often the centres 
  of demoniac possession. The conception of the incubi and succubi 
  undoubtedly arose from the ascetic tortures of the monk and the 
  nun. Wholesale trials, too, of wretched people who were alleged to 
  attend Sabbatic orgies of the enemy of mankind on dreary heaths 
  were gone through with an elaborateness which spread terror in the 
  public mind. The tortures inflicted on those unfortunates were 
  generally of the most fiendish description, but they were supposed 
  to be for the good of the souls of those who bore them. In France 
  the majority of these trials took place in the fifteenth century; 
  whereas in England we find that most of them were current in the 
  seventeenth century. Full details regarding these will be found in 
  the articles France and England. The famous outburst of 
  fanaticism in New England under Cotton Mather in 1661 to 1692 
  was by no means the last in an English - speaking country, for in 
  1712 a woman was convicted of witchcraft in England, and in 
  Scotland the last trial and execution for sorcery took place in 1722. 
  In Spain we find burnings by the Inquisition in 1781; in Germany 
  as late as 1793, and as regards Latin South America a woman was 
  burned in Peru so recently as 1888. The death of the belief in 
  witchcraft was brought about by a more sane spirit of -  criticism 
  than had before obtained. Even the dull wits of the inquisitorial 
  and other courts began to see that the wretched creatures upon 
  whom they passed sentence either confessed because of the 
  extremity of torture they had to suffer, or else were under 
  hallucination regarding the nature of their connection with the 
  satanic power. Reginald Scot in his Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) 
  proved that the belief on thopart of the witch that she was a servant 
  of the Devil was purely imaginary, and in consequence drew upon 
  his work the wrath of the British Solomon, James L, who warmly 
  replied to him in his Demonologie. But Friedrich von Spee's Cautio 
  Criminalis, 1631, advanced considerations of still greater weight 
  from the rationalistic point of viewconsiderations of such weight 
  indeed that Bodin, the archdemonologist, denounced him and 
  demanded that he should be added to the long list of his victims. 
   
  Psychology of Witchcraft. - No doubt exists nowadays when the 
  conditions of savage witchcraft have been closely examined and 
  commented upon, that the witch and the sorcerer of the Middle 
  Ages, like their prototypes among the native races of Africa, 
  America, Asia and elsewhere, have a firmly - rooted belief in their 
  own magical powers, and in their connection with unseen and 
  generally diabolic agencies. It is a strange circumstance that in 
  many instances the confessions wrung from two or more witches, 
  when a number of them have been concerned in the same case, 
  have tallied with one another in almost every detail. This would 
  imply that these women suffered from collective hallucination, and 
  actually believed that they had seen the supernatural beings with 
  whom they confessed fellowship, and had gone through the rites 
  and acts for which they suffered. A period arrived in the mediaeval 
  campaign against witchcraft when it was admitted that the whole 
  system was one of hallucination; yet, said the demonologists, this 
  was no palliation of the offence, for it was equally as evil to 
  imagine such diabolic acts as actually to take part in them. 
   
  There is also evidence which would lead to the belief that the 
  witch possessed certain minor powers of hypnotism and telepathy, 
  which would give her real confidence in her belief that she wielded 
  magical terrors. Again the phenomena of spiritualism and the large 
  possibilities it offers for fraud suggest that some kindred system 
  might have been in use amongst the more shrewd or the leaders in 
  these Sabbatic meetings, which would thoroughly convince the 
  ignorant among the sisterhood of the existence in their midst of 
  diabolic powers. Trance and hysteria, drugs and salves, there is 
  good reason to believe, were also used unsparingly, but the~ great 
  source of witch belief undoubtedly exists in auto - suggestion, 
  fostered and fomented from ecclesiastical and scholastic sources, 
  and by no means lessened by popular belief. 
   
  Since the above article was written an exhaustive examination of 
  the phenomena of witchcraft has been made by Miss M. A. Murray, 
  lecturer on Egyptology at University College, London. Basing her 
  conclusions upon the suggestions of C. G. Leland, in his " Aradia, 
  or the Witches of Italy, " and those of other modern writers, she 
  inclines to the hypothesis that witchcraft  - was in reality the 
  modern and degraded descendant of an ancient nature - religion, 
  the rites of which were actually carried out in deserted places and 
  included child - sacrifice and other barbarous customs. In the 
  Satanic presence at such gatherings she sees the attendance of a 
  priest of the cu -  It. In brief, her hypothesis tends to prove the 
  actual reality of the witch - religion as against that of hallucination 
  which, until recently, was the explanation accepted by students of 
  the subject. Her remarks, too, upon the familiar, go to show that a 
  large body of proof exists for the belief that this conception also 
  rested upon actual occurrences. (See her papers in Man and 
  elsewhere.) 
   
  Recent researches on the part of the writer have convinced him of 
  the soundness of these views, but have added the conviction that 
  witchcraft religion was, in some manner, possessed of an 
  equestrian connection, the precise nature of which is still dark to 
  him. The broomstick appears to be the magical equivalent of a 
  horse, the witches occasionally rode to the Sabbath on horseback, 
  and one of the tests for a witch was to see if her eye held the 
  reflection or likeness of a horse. May it not be that the witch - 
  religion was the remnant of a prehistoric horse - totem cult? But 
  this is, after all, merely of the nature of surmise. The writer has 
  also found good evidence for the existence of a witchcult precisely 
  similar to that of Europe in pre - Columbian Mexico, and has even 
  encountered a picture of a naked witch with peaked cap riding on 
  a broomstick in the native Mexican painting known, which seems 
  to show that the witch - religion existed in the Americas. 
   
  Yap Islands: There have been countless cases where Americans 
  and Europeans have settled or been shipwrecked on south sea 
  islands and have there risen to the rank of ruler or king. But, 
  undoubtedly, the longest and most successful reign of all was that 
  of David O'Keefe, who ascended to the royal throne on the island 
  
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  of Yap. David O'Keefe was born in Tipperary and came to 
  Savannah, Georgia, as a young boy. Here he grew to manhood, 
  married a Savannah girl, and soon became the proud father of a 
  baby girl. 
   
  The spirit of adventure, however, burned within David and so he 
  sailed from Savannah bound for China in 1871. It was not David's 
  destiny to remain a sailor for his ship was wrecked near the Yap 
  group of is an and David alone was rescued by the natives. Being 
  also somewhat of a financial wizard as well as adventurer, David 
  soon controlled all the property of the native chiefs and thus 
  became king of the Yap. He designed his own regal coat of arms 
  and official flag with the letters O'K conspicuously placed on a 
  bright background. David never forgot that he was an American 
  first and king of the Yaps second for even above his own royal 
  ensign floated the American flag. David prospered as king and 
  soon built himself a huge castle on Terang, the main island of the 
  Yap group. He always provided for his wife and child by sending 
  home a large sum of money twice a year and each time renewed his 
  vow to his wife and their little girl. The chiefs of the islands soon 
  decided that King David should have a consort for it was not right 
  for a man to live alone and so they chose one of their most 
  beautiful maidens as a fitting bride. 
   
  Although King David protested very strongly (that's what he told 
  his wife when he wrote her of bigamous marriage) the marriage 
  soon took place and Queen Dollyboy took her place beside King 
  David on the throne. Despite his avowed displeasure in taking 
  another wife, David's marriage to Queen Dollyboy was blessed with 
  seven fine children. After ruling for 30 years, in 1901, King David 
  decided to return to Savannah. He wrote his American wife that he 
  would soon be home and set sail for Hong Kong accompanied by 
  two of his sons. Once more destiny stepped in to upset King 
  David's plans for he never reached Hong Kong. No one knows what 
  ever came of the ship except that it disappeared, without a trace. 
  After waiting for two years without receiving word from her 
  husband, Mrs. O'Keefe, number one, sent a lawyer to Yap. The 
  lawyer found that King David's estate was valued at a million 
  dollars and that he had wisely left a will disposing of his property. 
  Imagine the chagrin of Mrs. O'Keefe, number one, when she 
  learned that she had not been left a single penny. Her daughter, 
  however, happily married herself, was left a very generous legacy. 
  The bulk of his estate was left to Queen Dollyboy and her five 
  remaining children. 
   
  Y - Kim, Book of: A Chinese mystical book attributed to the 
  Emperor Fo-Hi, and ascribed to the year, 3468 B.C. It consists of 
  ten chapters, and is stated by Eliphas Levi in his History of Magic 
  to be a complement and an appendix to the Kabalistic Zohar, or 
  record of  the utterances of Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai. The Zohar, 
  says Levi, explains universal equilibrium, and the Y - Kim is the 
  hieroglyphic and ciphered demonstration thereof. The key to the 
  Y-Kim is a pantacle known as the Trigrams of Fo-Hi. In the 
  Vay-Ky of Leon-Tao-Yuen, composed in the Som dynasty (about 
  eleventh century) it is recounted that the Emperor Fo-Hi was one 
  day seated on the banks of a river, deep in meditation, when to him 
  there appeared an animal having the parts of both a horse and a 
  dragon. Its back was covered with scales, on each of which shone 
  the mystic Trigrammic symbol. This animal initiated the just and 
  righteous Fo - Hi into universal science. Number in its scales, he 
  combined the Trigrams in such a manner that there arose in his 
  mind a synthesis of sciences compared and united with one 
  another through the harmonies of nature. From this synthesis 
  sprang the tables of the Y - Kim. The numbers of Fo - Hi are 
  identical with those of the Kabala, and his pantacle is similar to 
  that of Solomon. His tables are in correspondence with the subject 
  - matter of the Sephir Yetzirah and the Zohar. The whole is a 
  commentary upon the Absolute which is concealed from the 
  profane, concludes Levi, but as he had little real acquaintance 
  with the subject, these analogies must be taken as of small value. 
   
  Yeats, William Butler: Irish Author and Mystic. William Butler 
  Yeats was born at Dublin in 1866, his father being John Yeats, a 
  talented portrait - painter whose works include a fine likeness of 
  Synge; and during his boyhood the future author lived chiefly at 
  his native town, and occasionally with his grandparents in County 
  Sligo. At first he intended to make painting his life's work, and 
  accordingly he entered the Dublin Art School; but he soon left it, 
  having realised that his true bent was for Literature; and in 1887 
  he went to London, where he became intimate with Mr. Arthur 
  Symons, and subsequently with Mr. George Moore. Prior to this 
  Mr. Yeats had issued a little play, Mosada; and now his gifts began 
  to develop apace, the result being sundry volumes of beautiful 
  poetry, notably The Wanderings of Oisin and The Wind among the 
  Reeds. At this time, also, the author began to show himself an 
  eminently thoughtful critic of literature; while in 1870 he 
  published a collection of Irish folk tales, and in the preface thereto 
  he observed in relation to his compatriots that " a true literary 
  consciousness - national to the centre - seems gradually to be 
  forming out of all this disguising and prettyfing this penumbra of 
  half - culture. We are preparing likely enough for a new Irish 
  literary movement . . . . ... Nor was the prophecy unfulfilled, for, 
  during the closing decade of the 19th century, the intellectuals of 
  Ireland began to manifest a tense interest in their country's 
  legendary lore, while simultaneously it transpired that the rising 
  generation of writers in Ireland included many men of fine 
  promise. Most of these last regarded Mr. Yeats as their leader, they 
  rallied round him, he returned from London to Ireland, and anon 
  he achieved the founding of the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin, 
  its raison d'91re being the staging of plays by the new school of 
  Hibernian authors. 
   
  This is not the place to detail the Irish artistic revival of the 
  nineties of last century, and the reader may be referred to the 
  monograph thereon by Mr. H. S. Krans, and more especially to Mr. 
  George Moores' Hail and Farewell. Passing to speak of Mr. Yeats' 
  contributions to the literature of Mysticism, these are mostly 
  contained in a volume of collected essays, Ideas of Good and Evil; 
  and prominent among them are studies of the mystic element in 
  Blake and Shelley, while another notable paper is one concerned 
  with " The Body of the Father Cfiristian Rosencrux." But still more 
  important than these, perhaps, is a long study of " Magic, " 
  contained in the same volume, and here the author begins by 
  bravely stating his creed: " I believe in the practice and philosophy 
  of what we have agreed to call magic, and what I must call the 
  evocation of spirits, though I do not know what they are, in the 
  power of creating magical illusions, in the visions of truth in the 
  depths of the mind when the eyes are closed ........ 
   
  After this declaration he tells how once an acquaintance of his, 
  gathering together a small party in a darkened room, held a mace 
  over " a tablet of many coloured squares, at the same time 
  repeating " a form of words "; and straightway Mr. Yeats found that 
  his " imagination began to move of itself, and to bring before me 
  vivid images ....... He goes on to descant on these visions, while in 
  the remainder of his essay he offers some details about 
  
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  superstitions in remote parts of Ireland; and also furnishes sundry 
  examples of thought - transmission and the like, most of them fresh 
  and interesting. 
   
  But the author's interest in the supernatural does not transpire only 
  in his prose, and, turning to his poems, one finds them permeated 
  by a curious kind of mysticism which is perhaps essentially Celtic. 
  For Mr. Yeats, it would seem, is only incidentally interested in 
  holding communications with the dead, or with the spirit - world; 
  yet, like old bards of his native Ireland, he seems to find inanimate 
  nature a living reality, he seems to have a strange intimacy 
  therewith. A dreamer of dreams and a beholder of visions, he 
  frequently crystalises these in his verse; but the mystic element in 
  his output consists pre - eminently in this, that he appears to hold 
  actual converse with all those things which to ordinary men are no 
  more than lifeless with flowers and trees, with rivers, lakes and 
  mountains. 
   
  Yoga, meaning " union, " is applied in theosophy to assistance 
  rendered to evolutionary process. The theosophical idea of 
  evolution postulates a universal consciousness from which 
  particular consciousness has come and to which each is returning 
  along the path of evolution. The journey along this path can be 
  quickened by the Yoga, the union of each particular with the 
  universal consciousness. By the concentration of thought on any 
  particular idea, that idea, in course of time becomes worked into 
  the constitution of the thinker, so that, if the thought be good he 
  will correspondingly help on the process of evolution. This general 
  principle, applied in the light of past experience to the multifarious 
  activities of the human mind, is of vast importance and influence 
  in the moulding of the characters both of individuals and 
  communities.  
   
  Zadkiel: One of the angels in the Jewish rabbinical legend of the 
  celestial hierarchies. He is the ruler of Jupiter, and through him 
  pass grace, goodness, mercy, piety, and munificence, and he 
  bestows clemency, benevolence and justice on all. 
   
  Zaebos: Grand count of the infernal regions. He appears in the 
  shape of a handsome soldier mounted on a crocodile. His head is 
  adorned with a ducal coronet. He is of a gentle disposition. 
   
  Zagam: Grand king and president of the.infernal regions. He 
  appears under the form of a bull with the wings of a griffin. He 
  changes water into wine blood into oil, the fool into a wise man, 
  lead into silver, and copper into gold. Thirty legions obey him. 
   
  Zedekias: Notwithstanding the credulity of the French people in 
  the reign of Pepin the Short, they refused to believe in the 
  existence of elementary spirits. The Kabalist Zedekias, being 
  minded to convince the world, thereupon commanded the sylphs to 
  become visible to all men. According to the Abbe de Villars, the 
  admirable creatures responded magnificently. They were beheld in 
  human form, Sometimes ranged in battle, whether marching in 
  good order, or under arms, or camping in superb pavilions and, 
  again, in aerial navies of marvellous structure, whose flying 
  flotillas sailed through the air, at the will of the Zephyrs. But the 
  ignorant generation to which they appeared failed entirely to 
  understand the significance of the strange spectatle. They believed 
  at first that the creatures were sorcerers who had betaken 
  themselves to aerial regions for the purpose of exciting storms and 
  sending down hail on the harvests. The sages and juris consuls 
  were of the popular opinion. The emperors shared the same idea, 
  which became so widespread that even the wise Charlemagne, and 
  after him Louis the Debonnair, imposed heavy penalties on these 
  supposed aerial tyrants.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/_GM Books/World Building & Game Design/ Misc D, E, F/Encyclopedia of Ancient & Forbidden Secrets.pdf