ISIS UNVEILED:
A MASTER-KEY
TO THE
MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.
BY
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
“Cecy est un livre de bonne Foy.”--MONTAIGNE.
VOL. II.--_THEOLOGY._
FOURTH EDITION.
NEW YORK:
J. W. BOUTON, 706 BROADWAY.
LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH.
1878.
COPYRIGHT, BY
J. W. BOUTON.
1877.
TROW’S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO.,
PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS,
_205-213 East 12th St._,
NEW YORK.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE iv
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson and Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
Volume Second.
_THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF RELIGION._
CHAPTER I.
THE CHURCH: WHERE IS IT?
Church statistics 1
Catholic “miracles” and spiritualistic “phenomena” 4
Christian and Pagan beliefs compared 10
Magic and sorcery practised by Christian clergy 20
Comparative theology a new science 25
Eastern traditions as to Alexandrian Library 27
Roman pontiffs imitators of the Hindu Brahm-âtma 30
Christian dogmas derived from heathen philosophy 33
Doctrine of the Trinity of Pagan origin 45
Disputes between Gnostics and Church Fathers 51
Bloody records of Christianity 53
CHAPTER II.
CHRISTIAN CRIMES AND HEATHEN VIRTUES.
Sorceries of Catherine of Medicis 55
Occult arts practised by the clergy 59
Witch-burnings and auto-da-fé of little children 62
Lying Catholic saints 74
Pretensions of missionaries in India and China 79
Sacrilegious tricks of Catholic clergy 82
Paul a kabalist 91
Peter not the founder of Roman church 91
Strict lives of Pagan hierophants 98
High character of ancient “mysteries” 101
Jacolliot’s account of Hindu fakirs 103
Christian symbolism derived from Phallic worship 109
Hindu doctrine of the Pitris 114
Brahminic spirit-communion 115
Dangers of _untrained_ mediumship 117
CHAPTER III.
DIVISIONS AMONGST THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.
Resemblance between early Christianity and Buddhism 123
Peter never in Rome 124
Meanings of “Nazar” and “Nazarene” 129
Baptism a derived right 134
Is Zoroaster a generic name? 141
Pythagorean teachings of Jesus 147
The Apocalypse kabalistic 147
Jesus considered an adept by some Pagan philosophers
and early Christians 150
Doctrine of permutation 152
The meaning of God-Incarnate 153
Dogmas of the Gnostics 155
Ideas of Marcion, the “heresiarch” 159
Precepts of Manu 163
Jehovah identical with Bacchus 165
CHAPTER IV.
ORIENTAL COSMOGONIES AND BIBLE RECORDS.
Discrepancies in the Pentateuch 167
Indian, Chaldean and Ophite systems compared 170
Who were the first Christians? 178
Christos and Sophia-Achamoth 183
Secret doctrine taught by Jesus 191
Jesus never claimed to be God 193
New Testament narratives and Hindu legends 199
Antiquity of the “Logos” and “Christ” 205
Comparative Virgin-worship 209
CHAPTER V.
MYSTERIES OF THE KABALA.
En-Soph and the Sephiroth 212
The primitive wisdom-religion 216
The book of Genesis a compilation of Old World legends 217
The Trinity of the Kabala 222
Gnostic and Nazarene systems contrasted with Hindu myths 225
Kabalism in the book of Ezekiel 232
Story of the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter found
in the history of Christna 241
Untrustworthy teachings of the early Fathers 248
Their persecuting spirit 249
CHAPTER VI.
ESOTERIC DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM PARODIED IN CHRISTIANITY.
Decisions of Nicean Council, how arrived at 251
Murder of Hypatia 252
Origin of the fish-symbol of Vishnu 256
Kabalistic doctrine of the Cosmogony 264
Diagrams of Hindu and Chaldeo-Jewish systems 265
Ten mythical Avatars of Vishnu 274
Trinity of man taught by Paul 281
Socrates and Plato on soul and spirit 283
True Buddhism, what it is 288
CHAPTER VII.
EARLY CHRISTIAN HERESIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES.
Nazareans, Ophites, and modern Druzes 291
Etymology of IAO 298
“Hermetic Brothers” of Egypt 307
True meaning of Nirvana 319
The Jaïna sect 321
Christians and Chrestians 323
The Gnostics and their detractors 325
Buddha, Jesus, and Apollonius of Tyana 341
CHAPTER VIII.
JESUITRY AND MASONRY.
The _Sohar_ and Rabbi Simeon 348
The Order of Jesuits and its relation to some of the
Masonic orders 352
Crimes permitted to its members 355
Principles of Jesuitry compared with those of Pagan
moralists 364
Trinity of man in Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ 367
Freemasonry no longer esoteric 372
Persecution of Templars by the Church 381
Secret Masonic ciphers 395
Jehovah not the “Ineffable Name” 398
CHAPTER IX.
THE VEDAS AND THE BIBLE.
Nearly every myth based on some great truth 405
Whence the Christian Sabbath 406
Antiquity of the Vedas 410
Pythagorean doctrine of the potentialities of numbers 417
“Days” of _Genesis_ and “Days” of Brahma 422
Fall of man and the Deluge in the Hindu books 425
Antiquity of the Mahâbhârata 429
Were the ancient Egyptians of the Aryan race? 434
Samuel, David, and Solomon mythical personages 439
Symbolism of Noah’s Ark 447
The Patriarchs identical with zodiacal signs 459
All Bible legends belong to universal history 469
CHAPTER X.
THE DEVIL-MYTH.
The devil officially recognized by the Church 477
Satan the mainstay of sacerdotalism 480
Identity of Satan with the Egyptian Typhon 483
His relation to serpent-worship 489
The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead 493
The Hindu devil a metaphysical abstraction 501
Satan and the Prince of Hell in the Gospel of Nicodemus 515
CHAPTER XI.
COMPARATIVE RESULTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
The age of philosophy produced no atheists 530
The legends of three Saviours 537
Christian doctrine of the Atonement illogical 542
Cause of the failure of missionaries to convert
Buddhists and Brahmanists 553
Neither Buddha nor Jesus left written records 559
The grandest mysteries of religion in the Bagaved-gita 562
The meaning of regeneration explained in the
Satapa-Brâhmana 565
The sacrifice of blood interpreted 566
Demoralization of British India by Christian
missionaries 573
The Bible less authenticated than any other sacred book 577
Knowledge of chemistry and physics displayed by Indian
jugglers 583
CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Recapitulation of fundamental propositions 587
Seership of the soul and of the spirit 590
The phenomenon of the so-called spirit-hand 594
Difference between mediums and adepts 595
Interview of an English ambassador with a reïncarnated
Buddha 598
Flight of a lama’s astral body related by Abbé Huc 604
Schools of magic in Buddhist lamaseries 609
The unknown race of Hindu Todas 613
Will-power of fakirs and yogis 617
Taming of wild beasts by fakirs 622
Evocation of a living spirit by a Shaman, witnessed
by the writer 626
Sorcery by the breath of a Jesuit Father 633
Why the study of magic is almost impracticable in
Europe 635
Conclusion 635
PREFACE TO PART II.
Were it possible, we would keep this work out of the hands of many
Christians whom its perusal would not benefit, and for whom it was not
written. We allude to those whose faith in their respective churches
is pure and sincere, and those whose sinless lives reflect the
glorious example of that Prophet of Nazareth, by whose mouth the
spirit of truth spake loudly to humanity. Such there have been at all
times. History preserves the names of many as heroes, philosophers,
philanthropists, martyrs, and holy men and women; but how many more
have lived and died, unknown but to their intimate acquaintance,
unblessed but by their humble beneficiaries! These have ennobled
Christianity, but would have shed the same lustre upon any other faith
they might have professed--for they were higher than their creed. The
benevolence of Peter Cooper and Elizabeth Thompson, of America, who
are not orthodox Christians, is no less Christ-like than that of the
Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, of England, who is one. And yet, in
comparison with the millions who have been accounted Christians, such
have always formed a small minority. They are to be found at this day,
in pulpit and pew, in palace and cottage; but the increasing
materialism, worldliness and hypocrisy are fast diminishing their
proportionate number. Their charity, and simple, child-like faith in
the infallibility of their Bible, their dogmas, and their clergy,
bring into full activity all the virtues that are implanted in our
common nature. We have personally known such God-fearing priests and
clergymen, and we have always avoided debate with them, lest we might
be guilty of the cruelty of hurting their feelings; nor would we rob a
single layman of his blind confidence, if it alone made possible for
him holy living and serene dying.
An analysis of religious beliefs in general, this volume is in
particular directed against theological Christianity, the chief
opponent of free thought. It contains not one word against the pure
teachings of Jesus, but unsparingly denounces their debasement into
pernicious ecclesiastical systems that are ruinous to man’s faith in
his immortality and his God, and subversive of all moral restraint.
We cast our gauntlet at the dogmatic theologians who would enslave
both history and science; and especially at the Vatican, whose
despotic pretensions have become hateful to the greater portion of
enlightened Christendom. The clergy apart, none but the logician, the
investigator, the dauntless explorer should meddle with books like
this. Such delvers after truth have the courage of their opinions.
ISIS UNVEILED.
_PART TWO.--RELIGION._
CHAPTER I.
“Yea, the time cometh, that whomsoever killeth you, will
think that he doeth God service.”--_Gospel according to
John_, xvi., 2.
“Let him be ANATHEMA ... who shall say that human Sciences
ought to be pursued in such a spirit of freedom that one
may be allowed to hold as true their assertions even when
opposed to revealed doctrines.”--_Œcumenical Council of
1870._
“GLOUC.--The Church! Where is it?”--_King Henry VI._, Act
i., Sc. 1.
In the United States of America, sixty thousand (60,428) men are
paid salaries to teach the Science of God and His relations to His
creatures.
These men contract to impart to us the knowledge which treats of the
existence, character, and attributes of our Creator; His laws and
government; the doctrines we are to believe and the duties we are
to practice. Five thousand (5,141) of them,[1] with the prospect of
1273 theological students to help them in time, teach this science
according to a formula prescribed by the Bishop of Rome, to five
million people. Fifty-five thousand (55,287) local and travelling
ministers, representing fifteen different denominations,[2] each
contradicting the other upon more or less vital theological
questions, instruct, in their respective doctrines, thirty-three
million (33,500,000) other persons. Many of these teach according
to the canons of the cis-Atlantic branch of an establishment which
acknowledges a daughter of the late Duke of Kent as its spiritual
head. There are many hundred thousand Jews; some thousands of
Orientals of all kinds; and a very few who belong to the Greek
Church. A man at Salt Lake City, with nineteen wives and more than
one hundred children and grandchildren, is the supreme spiritual
ruler over ninety thousand people, who believe that he is in frequent
intercourse with the gods--for the Mormons are Polytheists as well as
Polygamists, and their chief god is represented as living in a planet
they call Colob.
The God of the Unitarians is a bachelor; the Deity of the
Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and the other orthodox
Protestant sects a spouseless Father with one Son, who is identical
with Himself. In the attempt to outvie each other in the erection
of their sixty-two thousand and odd churches, prayer-houses, and
meeting-halls, in which to teach these conflicting theological
doctrines, $354,485,581 have been spent. The value of the Protestant
parsonages alone, in which are sheltered the disputants and their
families, is roughly calculated to approximate $54,115,297. Sixteen
million (16,179,387) dollars, are, morever, contributed every year
for current expenses of the Protestant denominations only. One
Presbyterian church in New York cost a round million; a Catholic
altar alone, one-fourth as much!
We will not mention the multitude of smaller sects, communities, and
extravagantly original little heresies in this country which spring
up one year to die out the next, like so many spores of fungi after a
rainy day. We will not even stop to consider the alleged millions of
Spiritualists; for the majority lack the courage to break away from
their respective religious denominations. These are the back-door
Nicodemuses.
And now, with Pilate, let us inquire, What is truth? Where is it to
be searched for amid this multitude of warring sects? Each claims to
be based upon divine revelation, and each to have the keys of the
celestial gates. Is either in possession of this rare truth? Or, must
we exclaim with the Buddhist philosopher, “There is but one truth on
earth, and it is unchangeable: and this is--that there is _no_ truth
on it!”
Though we have no disposition whatever to trench upon the ground that
has been so exhaustively gleaned by those learned scholars who have
shown that every Christian dogma has its origin in a heathen rite,
still the facts which they have exhumed, since the enfranchisement
of science, will lose nothing by repetition. Besides, we propose to
examine these facts from a different and perhaps rather novel point
of view: that of the old philosophies as esoterically understood.
These we have barely glanced at in our first volume. We will use them
as the standard by which to compare Christian dogmas and miracles
with the doctrines and phenomena of ancient magic, and the modern
“New Dispensation,” as Spiritualism is called by its votaries. Since
the materialists deny the phenomena without investigation, and since
the theologians in admitting them offer us the poor choice of two
palpable absurdities--the Devil and miracles--we can lose little by
applying to the theurgists, and they may actually help us to throw a
great light upon a very dark subject.
Professor A. Butlerof, of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg,
remarks in a recent pamphlet, entitled _Mediumistic Manifestations_,
as follows: “Let the facts (of modern spiritualism) belong if you
will to the number of those which were more or less known by the
ancients; let them be identical with those which in the dark ages
gave importance to the office of Egyptian priest or Roman augur; let
them even furnish the basis of the sorcery of our Siberian Shaman;
... let them be all these, and, if they are _real facts_, it is
no business of ours. All the facts in nature _belong to science_,
and every addition to the store of science enriches instead of
impoverishing her. If humanity has once admitted a truth, and then in
the blindness of self-conceit denied it, to return to its realization
is a step forward and not backward.”
Since the day that modern science gave what may be considered the
death-blow to dogmatic theology, by assuming the ground that religion
was full of mystery, and mystery is unscientific, the mental state
of the educated class has presented a curious aspect. Society seems
from that time to have been ever balancing itself upon one leg, on
an unseen tight-rope stretched from our visible universe into the
invisible one; uncertain whether the end hooked on faith in the
latter might not suddenly break, and hurl it into final annihilation.
The great body of nominal Christians may be divided into three
unequal portions: materialists, spiritualists, and Christians proper.
The materialists and spiritualists make common cause against the
hierarchical pretensions of the clergy; who, in retaliation, denounce
both with equal acerbity. The materialists are as little in harmony
as the Christian sects themselves--the Comtists, or, as they call
themselves, the positivists, being despised and hated to the last
degree by the schools of thinkers, one of which Maudsley honorably
represents in England. Positivism, be it remembered, is that
“religion” of the future about whose founder even Huxley has made
himself wrathful in his famous lecture, _The Physical Basis of Life_;
and Maudsley felt obliged, in behalf of, to express himself thus: “It
is no wonder that scientific men should be anxious to disclaim Comte
as their law-giver, and to protest against such a king being set up
to reign over them. Not conscious of any personal obligation to his
writings--conscious how much, in some respects, he has misrepresented
the spirit and pretensions of science--they repudiate the allegiance
which his enthusiastic disciples would force upon them, and which
popular opinion is fast coming to think a natural one. They do
well in thus making a timely assertion of independence; for if it
be not done soon, it will soon be too late to be done well.”[3]
When a materialistic doctrine is repudiated so strongly by two such
materialists as Huxley and Maudsley, then we must think indeed that
it is absurdity itself.
Among Christians there is nothing but dissension. Their various
churches represent every degree of religious belief, from the
omnivorous credulity of blind faith to a condescending and high-toned
deference to the Deity which thinly masks an evident conviction of
their own deific wisdom. All these sects believe more or less in the
immortality of the soul. Some admit the intercourse between the two
worlds as a fact; some entertain the opinion as a sentiment; some
positively deny it; and only a few maintain an attitude of attention
and expectancy.
Impatient of restraint, longing for the return of the dark ages,
the Romish Church frowns at the _diabolical_ manifestations, and
indicates what she would do to their champions had she but the power
of old. Were it not for the self-evident fact that she herself is
placed by science on trial, and that she is handcuffed, she would
be ready at a moment’s notice to repeat in the nineteenth century
the revolting scenes of former days. As to the Protestant clergy, so
furious is their common hatred toward spiritualism, that as a secular
paper very truly remarks: “They seem willing to undermine the public
faith in all the spiritual phenomena of the past, as recorded in the
_Bible_, if they can only see the pestilent modern heresy stabbed to
the heart.”[4]
Summoning back the long-forgotten memories of the Mosaic laws, the
Romish Church claims the monopoly of miracles, and of the right
to sit in judgment over them, as being the sole heir thereto by
direct inheritance. The _Old Testament_, exiled by Colenso, his
predecessors and contemporaries, is recalled from its banishment. The
prophets, whom his Holiness the Pope condescends at last to place,
if not on the same level with himself, at least at a less respectful
distance,[5] are dusted and cleaned. The memory of all the diabolical
abracadabra is evoked anew. The blasphemous _horrors_ perpetrated
by Paganism, its phallic worship, thaumaturgical wonders wrought
by Satan, human sacrifices, incantations, witchcraft, magic, and
sorcery are recalled and DEMONISM is confronted with _spiritualism_
for mutual recognition and identification. Our modern demonologists
conveniently overlook a few insignificant details, among which is the
undeniable presence of heathen phallism in the Christian symbols. A
strong spiritual element of this worship may be easily demonstrated
in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of
God; and a physical element equally proved in the fetish-worship of
the holy _limbs_ of Sts. Cosmo and Damiano, at Isernia, near Naples;
a successful traffic in which _ex-voto_ in wax was carried on by the
clergy, annually, until barely a half century ago.[6]
We find it rather unwise on the part of Catholic writers to
pour out their vials of wrath in such sentences as these: “In a
multitude of pagodas, the phallic stone, ever and always assuming,
like the Grecian _batylos_, the brutally indecent form of the
_lingham_ ... the Maha Deva.”[7] Before casting slurs on a symbol
whose profound metaphysical meaning is too much for the modern
champions of that religion of sensualism _par excellence_, Roman
Catholicism, to grasp, they are in duty bound to destroy their
oldest churches, and change the form of the cupolas of their own
temples. The Mahody of Elephanta, the Round Tower of Bhangulpore,
the minarets of Islam--either rounded or pointed--are the originals
of the _Campanile_ column of San Marco, at Venice, of the Rochester
Cathedral, and of the modern Duomo of Milan. All of these steeples,
turrets, domes, and Christian temples, are the reproductions of the
primitive idea of the _lithos_, the upright phallus. “The western
tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London,” says the author of _The
Rosicrucians_, “is one of the double _lithoi_ placed always in
front of every temple, Christian as well as heathen.”[8] Moreover,
in all Christian Churches, “particularly in Protestant churches,
where they figure most conspicuously, the two tables of stone of the
Mosaic Dispensation are placed over the altar, side by side, as a
united stone, the tops of which are rounded.... The right stone is
_masculine_, the left _feminine_.” Therefore neither Catholics nor
Protestants have a right to talk of the “indecent forms” of heathen
monuments so long as they ornament their own churches with the
symbols of the Lingham and Yoni, and even write the laws of their God
upon them.
Another detail not redounding very particularly to the honor of the
Christian clergy might be recalled in the word Inquisition. The
torrents of human blood shed by this _Christian_ institution, and
the number of its human sacrifices, are unparalleled in the annals of
Paganism. Another still more prominent feature in which the clergy
surpassed their masters, the “heathen,” is _sorcery_. Certainly in
no Pagan temple was black magic, in its real and true sense, more
practiced than in the Vatican. While strongly supporting exorcism as
an important source of revenue, they neglected magic as little as
the ancient heathen. It is easy to prove that the _sortilegium_, or
sorcery, was widely practiced among the clergy and monks so late as
the last century, and is practiced occasionally even now.
Anathematizing every manifestation of occult nature outside the
precincts of the Church, the clergy--notwithstanding proofs to the
contrary--call it “the work of Satan,” “the snares of the fallen
angels,” who “rush in and out from the bottomless pit,” mentioned by
John in his kabalistic _Revelation_, “from whence arises a smoke as
the smoke of a great furnace.” “_Intoxicated by its fumes, around
this pit are daily gathering millions of Spiritualists, to worship at
“the Abyss of Baal._”[9]
More than ever arrogant, stubborn, and despotic, now that she has
been nearly upset by modern research, not daring to interfere with
the powerful champions of science, the Latin Church revenges herself
upon the unpopular phenomena. A despot without a victim, is a word
void of sense; a power which neglects to assert itself through
outward, well-calculated effects, risks being doubted in the end.
The Church has no intention to fall into the oblivion of the ancient
myths, or to suffer her authority to be too closely questioned. Hence
she pursues, as well as the times permit, her traditional policy.
Lamenting the enforced extinction of her ally, the Holy Inquisition,
she makes a virtue of necessity. The only victims now within reach
are the Spiritists of France. Recent events have shown that the meek
spouse of Christ never disdains to retaliate on helpless victims.
Having successfully performed her part of _Deus-ex-Machina_ from
behind the French Bench, which has not scrupled to disgrace itself
for her, the Church of Rome sets to work and shows in the year
1876 what she can do. From the whirling tables and dancing pencils
of profane Spiritualism, the Christian world is warned to turn to
the divine “miracles” of Lourdes. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical
authorities utilize their time in arranging for other more easy
triumphs, calculated to scare the superstitious out of their senses.
So, acting under orders, the clergy hurl dramatic, if not very
impressive anathemas from every Catholic diocese; threaten right
and left; excommunicate and curse. Perceiving, finally, that her
thunderbolts directed even against crowned heads fall about as
harmlessly as the Jupiterean lightnings of Offenbach’s _Calchas_,
Rome turns about in powerless fury against the victimized _protégés_
of the Emperor of Russia--the unfortunate Bulgarians and Servians.
Undisturbed by evidence and sarcasm, unbaffled by proof, “the
lamb of the Vatican” impartially divides his wrath between the
liberals of Italy, “the impious whose breath has the stench of the
sepulchre,”[10] the “schismatic Russian _Sarmates_,” and the heretics
and spiritualists, “who worship at the bottomless pit where the great
Dragon lies in wait.”
Mr. Gladstone went to the trouble of making a catalogue of what he
terms the “flowers of speech,” disseminated through these Papal
discourses. Let us cull a few of the chosen terms used by this
vicegerent of Him who said that, “whosoever shall say _Thou fool_,
shall be in danger of hell-fire.” They are selected from authentic
discourses. Those who oppose the Pope are “wolves, Pharisees,
thieves, liars, hypocrites, dropsical children of Satan, sons of
perdition, of sin, and corruption, satellites of Satan in human
flesh, monsters of hell, demons incarnate, stinking corpses, men
issued from the pits of hell, traitors and Judases led by the spirit
of hell; children of the deepest pits of hell,” etc., etc.; the
whole piously collected and published by Don Pasquale di Franciscis,
whom Gladstone has, with perfect propriety, termed, “an accomplished
professor of _flunkeyism_ in things spiritual.”[11]
Since his Holiness the Pope has such a rich vocabulary of
invectives at his command, why wonder that the Bishop of Toulouse
did not scruple to utter the most undignified falsehoods about the
Protestants and Spiritualists of America--people doubly odious to a
Catholic--in his address to his diocese: “Nothing,” he remarks, “is
more common in an era of unbelief than to see a _false revelation
substitute itself for the true one_, and minds neglect the teachings
of the Holy Church, to devote themselves to the study of divination
and the occult sciences.” With a fine episcopal contempt for
statistics, and strangely confounding in his memory the audiences
of the revivalists, Moody and Sankey, and the patrons of darkened
seance-rooms, he utters the unwarranted and fallacious assertion
that “it has been proven that Spiritualism, in the United States,
has caused one-sixth of all the cases of suicide and insanity.”
He says that it is not possible that the spirits “teach either an
exact science, because they are lying demons, or a useful science,
because the character of the word of Satan, like Satan himself, is
sterile.” He warns his dear _collaborateurs_, that “the writings in
favor of Spiritualism are under the ban;” and he advises them to let
it be known that “to frequent spiritual circles with the intention
of accepting the doctrine, is to apostatize from the Holy Church,
and assume the risk of excommunication;” finally, says he, “Publish
the fact that the teaching of no spirit should prevail against that
of the pulpit of Peter, which is the teaching of the Spirit of God
Himself!!”
Aware of the many false teachings attributed by the Roman Church to
the Creator, we prefer disbelieving the latter assertion. The famous
Catholic theologian, Tillemont, assures us in his work that “all the
illustrious Pagans are condemned to the eternal torments of hell,
_because_ they lived before the time of Jesus, and, therefore, could
not be benefited by the redemption!!” He also assures us that the
Virgin Mary personally testified to this truth over her own signature
in a letter to a saint. Therefore, this is also a revelation--“the
Spirit of God Himself” teaching such charitable doctrines.
We have also read with great advantage the topographical descriptions
of _Hell and Purgatory_ in the celebrated treatise under that name
by a Jesuit, the Cardinal Bellarmin. A critic found that the author,
who gives the description from a _divine_ vision with which he was
favored, “appears to possess all the knowledge of a land-measurer”
about the secret tracts and formidable divisions of the “bottomless
pit.” Justin Martyr having actually committed to paper the heretical
thought that after all Socrates might not be altogether fixed in
hell, his Benedictine editor criticises this too benevolent father
very severely. Whoever doubts the Christian charity of the Church
of Rome in this direction is invited to peruse the _Censure_ of
the Sorbonne, on Marmontel’s _Belisarius_. The _odium theologicum_
blazes in it on the dark sky of orthodox theology like an aurora
borealis--the precursor of God’s wrath, according to the teaching of
certain mediæval divines.
We have attempted in the first part of this work to show, by
historical examples, how completely men of science have deserved
the stinging sarcasm of the late Professor de Morgan, who remarked
of them that “they wear the priest’s cast-off garb, dyed to escape
detection.” The Christian clergy are, in like manner, attired in the
cast-off garb of the _heathen_ priesthood; acting diametrically in
opposition to their _God’s_ moral precepts, but nevertheless, sitting
in judgment over the whole world.
When dying on the cross, the martyred Man of Sorrows forgave his
enemies. His last words were a prayer in their behalf. He taught his
disciples to curse not, but to bless, even their foes. But the heirs
of St. Peter, the self constituted representatives on earth of that
same meek Jesus, unhesitatingly curse whoever resists their despotic
will. Besides, was not the “Son” long since crowded by them into the
background? They make their obeisance only to the Dowager Mother,
for--according to their teaching--again through “the direct Spirit
of God,” she alone acts as a mediatrix. The Œcumenical Council of
1870 embodied the teaching into a dogma, to disbelieve which is to
be doomed forever to the ‘bottomless pit.’ The work of Don Pasquale
di Franciscis is positive on that point; for he tells us that, as
the Queen of Heaven owes to the present Pope “the finest gem in her
coronet,” since he has conferred on her the unexpected honor of
becoming suddenly immaculate, there is nothing she cannot obtain from
her Son for “her Church.”[12]
Some years ago, certain travellers saw in Barri, Italy, a statue
of the Madonna, arrayed in a flounced pink skirt over a swelling
_crinoline_! Pious pilgrims who may be anxious to examine the
regulation wardrobe of their God’s mother may do so by going to
Southern Italy, Spain, and Catholic North and South America. The
Madonna of Barri must still be there--between two vineyards and a
_locanda_ (gin-shop). When last seen, a half-successful attempt had
been made to clothe the infant Jesus; they had covered his legs with
a pair of dirty, scollop-edged pantaloons. An English traveller
having presented the “Mediatrix” with a green silk parasol, the
grateful population of the _contadini_, accompanied by the village
priest, went in procession to the spot. They managed to stick the
sunshade, opened, between the infant’s back and the arm of the
Virgin which embraced him. The scene and ceremony were both solemn
and highly refreshing to our religious feelings. For there stood
the image of the goddess in its niche, surrounded with a row of
ever-burning lamps, the flames of which, flickering in the breeze,
infect God’s pure air with an offensive smell of olive oil. The
Mother and Son truly represent the two most conspicuous idols of
_Monotheistic_ Christianity!
For a companion to the idol of the poor _contadini_ of Barri, go
to the rich city of Rio Janeiro. In the Church of the Duomo del
Candelaria, in a long hall running along one side of the church,
there might be seen, a few years ago, another Madonna. Along the
walls of the hall there is a line of saints, each standing on a
contribution-box, which thus forms a fit pedestal. In the centre
of this line, under a gorgeously rich canopy of blue silk, is
exhibited the Virgin Mary leaning on the arm of Christ. “Our Lady” is
arrayed in a very _décolleté_ blue satin dress with short sleeves,
showing, to great advantage, a snow-white, exquisitely-moulded
neck, shoulders, and arms. The skirt equally of blue satin with
an overskirt of rich lace and gauze puffs, is as short as that of
a ballet-dancer; hardly reaching the knee, it exhibits a pair of
finely-shaped legs covered with flesh colored silk tights, and blue
satin French boots with very high red heels! The blonde hair of this
“Mother of God” is arranged in the latest fashion, with a voluminous
_chignon_ and curls. As she leans on her Son’s arm, her face is
lovingly turned toward her Only-Begotten, whose dress and attitude
are equally worthy of admiration. Christ wears an evening dress-coat,
with swallow-tail, black trousers, and low cut white vest; varnished
boots, and white kid gloves, _over one of which_ sparkles a rich
diamond ring, worth many thousands we must suppose--a precious
Brazilian jewel. Above this body of a modern Portuguese dandy, is a
head with the hair parted in the middle; a sad and solemn face, and
eyes whose patient look seems to reflect all the bitterness of this
last insult flung at the majesty of the Crucified.[13]
The Egyptian Isis was also represented as a Virgin Mother by her
devotees, and as holding her infant son, Horus, in her arms. In some
statues and _basso-relievos_, when she appears alone she is either
completely nude or veiled from head to foot. But in the Mysteries,
in common with nearly every other goddess, she is entirely veiled
from head to foot, as a symbol of a mother’s chastity. It would
not do us any harm were we to borrow from the ancients some of the
poetic sentiment in their religions, and the innate veneration they
entertained for _their_ symbols.
It is but fair to say at once that the last of the _true_ Christians
died with the last of the direct apostles. Max Müller forcibly asks:
“How can a missionary in such circumstances meet the surprise and
questions of his pupils, unless he may point to that seed,[14] and
tell them what Christianity was meant to be? unless he may show that,
like all other religions, Christianity too, has had its history; that
the Christianity of the nineteenth century is not the Christianity
of the middle ages, and that the Christianity of the middle ages was
not that of the early Councils; that the Christianity of the early
Councils was not that of the Apostles, and that what has been said by
Christ, that alone was well said?”[15]
Thus we may infer that the only characteristic difference between
modern Christianity and the old heathen faiths is the belief of the
former in a personal devil and in hell. “The Aryan nations had no
devil,” says Max Müller. “Pluto, though of a sombre character, was a
very respectable personage; and Loki (the Scandinavian), though a
mischievous person, was not a fiend. The German Goddess, Hell, too,
like Proserpine, had once seen better days. Thus, when the Germans
were indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the Semitic Seth,
Satan or Diabolus, they treated him in the most good-humored way.”
The same may be said of hell. Hades was quite a different place
from our region of eternal damnation, and might be termed rather an
intermediate state of purification. Neither does the Scandinavian
_Hel_ or Hela, imply either a state or a place of punishment;
for when Frigga, the grief-stricken mother of Bal-dur, the white
god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows
(Hades) sent Hermod, a son of Thor, in quest of her beloved child,
the messenger found him in the inexorable region--alas! but still
comfortably seated on a rock, and reading a book.[16] The Norse
kingdom of the dead is moreover situated in the higher latitudes of
the Polar regions; it is a cold and cheerless abode, and neither the
gelid halls of Hela, nor the occupation of Baldur present the least
similitude to the blazing hell of eternal fire and the miserable
“damned” sinners with which the Church so generously peoples it.
No more is it the Egyptian Amenthes, the region of judgment and
purification; nor the Onderâh--the abyss of darkness of the Hindus;
for even the fallen angels hurled into it by Siva, are allowed
by Parabrahma to consider it as an intermediate state, in which
an opportunity is afforded them to prepare for higher degrees of
purification and redemption from their wretched condition. The
Gehenna of the _New Testament_ was a locality outside the walls of
Jerusalem; and in mentioning it, Jesus used but an ordinary metaphor.
Whence then came the dreary dogma of hell, that Archimedean lever
of Christian theology, with which they have succeeded to hold in
subjection the numberless millions of Christians for nineteen
centuries? Assuredly not from the Jewish Scriptures, and we appeal
for corroboration to any well-informed Hebrew scholar.
The only designation of something approaching hell in the _Bible_
is _Gehenna_ or Hinnom, a valley near Jerusalem, where was situated
Tophet, a place where a fire was perpetually kept for sanitary
purposes. The prophet Jeremiah informs us that the Israelites used
to sacrifice their children to Moloch-Hercules on that spot; and
later we find Christians quietly replacing this divinity by their
god of _mercy_, whose wrath will not be appeased, unless the Church
sacrifices to him her unbaptized children and sinning sons on the
altar of “eternal damnation!”
Whence then did the divine learn so well the conditions of hell, as
to actually divide its torments into two kinds, the _pæna damni_ and
pænæ sensus, the former being the privation of the beatific vision;
the latter the _eternal_ pains _in a lake of fire and brimstone_?
If they answer us that it is in the _Apocalypse_ (xx. 10), we are
prepared to demonstrate whence the theologist John himself derived
the idea, “And _the devil_ that deceived them was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone, where _the beast_ and the false prophet are
and shall be tormented for ever and ever,” he says. Laying aside the
esoteric interpretation that the “devil” or tempting demon meant
our own earthly body, which after death will surely dissolve in the
_fiery_ or ethereal elements,[17] the word “eternal” by which our
theologians interpret the words “for ever and ever” does not exist in
the Hebrew language, either as a word or meaning. There is no Hebrew
word which properly expresses _eternity_; עולם _oulam_, according to
Le Clerc, only imports a time whose beginning or end is not known.
While showing that this word does not mean _infinite_ duration, and
that in the _Old Testament_ the word _forever_ only signifies a long
time, Archbishop Tillotson has completely perverted its sense with
respect to the idea of hell-torments. According to his doctrine, when
Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be suffering “eternal fire,” we must
understand it only in the sense of that fire not being extinguished
till both cities were entirely consumed. But, as to hell-fire the
words must be understood in the strictest sense of infinite duration.
Such is the decree of the learned divine. For the duration of the
punishment of the wicked must be proportionate to the eternal
happiness of the righteous. So he says, “These (speaking of the
wicked) “shall go away εις κόλασιν αιῶνιον into _eternal_ punishment;
but the righteous εις ζωην αιωνιον into life eternal.”
The Reverend T. Surnden,[18] commenting on the speculations of his
predecessors, fills a whole volume with unanswerable arguments,
tending to show that the locality _of Hell is in the sun_. We suspect
that the reverend speculator had read the _Apocalypse_ in bed,
and had the nightmare in consequence. There are two verses in the
_Revelation of John_ reading thus: “And the fourth angel poured out
his vial upon the sun, and power was given him to scorch men with
fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name
of God.”[19] This is simply Pythagorean and kabalistic allegory. The
idea is new neither with the above-mentioned author nor with John.
Pythagoras placed the “sphere of purification in the sun,” which
sun, with its sphere, he moreover locates in the middle of the
universe,[20] the allegory having a double meaning: 1. Symbolically,
the central, spiritual sun, the Supreme Deity. Arrived at this region
every soul becomes purified of its sins, and unites itself forever
with its spirit, having previously suffered throughout all the lower
spheres. 2. By placing the sphere of _visible_ fire in the middle
of the universe, he simply taught the heliocentric system which
appertained to the Mysteries, and was imparted only in the higher
degree of initiation. John gives to his Word a purely kabalistic
significance, which no “Fathers,” except those who had belonged to
the Neo-platonic school, were able to comprehend. Origen understood
it well, having been a pupil of Ammonius Saccas; therefore we see him
bravely denying the perpetuity of hell-torments. He maintains that
not only men, but even devils (by which term he meant disembodied
human sinners), after a certain duration of punishment shall be
pardoned and finally restored to heaven.[21] In consequence of this
and other such heresies Origen was, as a matter of course, exiled.
Many have been the learned and truly-inspired speculations as to the
locality of hell. The most popular were those which placed it in the
centre of the earth. At a certain time, however, skeptical doubts
which disturbed the placidity of faith in this highly-refreshing
doctrine arose in consequence of the meddling scientists of those
days. As a Mr. Swinden in our own century observes, the theory was
inadmissible because of two objections: 1st, that a fund of fuel
or sulphur sufficient to maintain so furious and constant a fire
could not be there supposed; and, 2d, that it must want the nitrous
particles in the air to sustain and keep it alive. “And how,” says
he, “can a fire be eternal, when, by degrees, the whole substance of
the earth must be consumed thereby?”[22]
The skeptical gentleman had evidently forgotten that centuries ago
St. Augustine solved the difficulty. Have we not the word of this
learned divine that hell, nevertheless, _is_ in the centre of the
earth, for “God supplies the central fire with air _by a miracle_?”
The argument is unanswerable, and so we will not seek to upset it.
The Christians were the first to make the existence of Satan a dogma
of the Church. And once that she had established it, she had to
struggle for over 1,700 years for the repression of a mysterious
force which it was her policy to make appear of diabolical origin.
Unfortunately, in manifesting itself, this force invariably tends
to upset such a belief by the ridiculous discrepancy it presents
between the alleged cause and the effects. If the clergy have not
over-estimated the real power of the “Arch-Enemy of God,” it must be
confessed that he takes mighty precautions against being recognized
as the “Prince of Darkness” who aims at our souls. If modern
“spirits” are devils at all, as preached by the clergy, then they can
only be those “poor” or “stupid devils” whom Max Müller describes as
appearing so often in the German and Norwegian tales.
Notwithstanding this, the clergy fear above all to be forced to
relinquish this hold on humanity. They are not willing to let us
judge of the tree by its fruits, for that might sometimes force
them into dangerous dilemmas. They refuse, likewise, to admit,
with unprejudiced people, that the phenomena of Spiritualism has
unquestionably spiritualized and reclaimed from evil courses many an
indomitable atheist and skeptic. But, as they confess themselves,
what is the use in a Pope, if there is no Devil?
And so Rome sends her ablest advocates and preachers to the rescue
of those perishing in “the bottomless pit.” Rome employs her
cleverest writers for this purpose--albeit they all indignantly
deny the accusation--and in the preface to every book put forth by
the prolific des Mousseaux, the French Tertullian of our century,
we find undeniable proofs of the fact. Among other certificates of
ecclesiastical approval, every volume is ornamented with the text
of a certain original letter addressed to the very pious author by
the world-known Father Ventura de Raulica, of Rome. Few are those
who have not heard this famous name. It is the name of one of the
chief pillars of the Latin Church, the ex-General of the Order of the
Theatins, Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Examiner of
Bishops, and of the Roman Clergy, etc., etc., etc. This strikingly
characteristic document will remain to astonish future generations by
its spirit of unsophisticated demonolatry and unblushing sincerity.
We translate a fragment verbatim, and by thus helping its circulation
hope to merit the blessings of Mother Church:[23]
“MONSIEUR AND EXCELLENT FRIEND:
“The greatest victory of Satan was gained on that day when
he succeeded in making himself denied.
“To demonstrate the existence of Satan, is to reëstablish
_one of the fundamental dogmas of the Church_, which serve
as a basis for Christianity, and, without which, Satan would
be but a name....
“Magic, mesmerism, magnetism, somnambulism, spiritualism,
spiritism, hypnotism ... are only other names for SATANISM.
“To bring out such a truth and show it in its proper light,
is to unmask the enemy; it is to unveil the immense danger
of certain practices, _reputed innocent_; it is to deserve
well in the eyes of humanity and of religion.
“FATHER VENTURA DE RAULICA.”
A-men!
This is an unexpected honor indeed, for our American “controls” in
general, and the innocent “Indian guides” in particular. To be thus
introduced in Rome as princes of the Empire of Eblis, is more than
they could ever hope for in other lands.
Without in the least suspecting that she was working for the future
welfare of her enemies--the spiritualists and spiritists--the Church,
some twenty years since, in tolerating des Mousseaux and de Mirville
as the biographers of the Devil, and giving her approbation thereto,
tacitly confessed the literary copartnership.
M. the Chevalier Gougenot des Mousseaux, and his friend and
collaborateur, the Marquis Eudes de Mirville, to judge by their long
titles, must be aristocrats _pur sang_, and they are, moreover,
writers of no small erudition and talent. Were they to show
themselves a little more parsimonious of double points of exclamation
following every vituperation, and invective against Satan and his
worshippers, their style would be faultless. As it is, the crusade
against the enemy of mankind was fierce, and lasted for over twenty
years.
What with the Catholics piling up their psychological phenomena to
prove the existence of a personal devil, and the Count de Gasparin,
an ancient minister of Louis Philippe, collecting volumes of other
facts to prove the contrary, the spiritists of France have contracted
an everlasting debt of gratitude toward the disputants. The existence
of an unseen spiritual universe peopled with invisible beings has now
been demonstrated beyond question. Ransacking the oldest libraries,
they have distilled from the historical records the quintessence
of evidence. All epochs, from the Homeric ages down to the present
day, have supplied their choicest materials to these indefatigable
authors. In trying to prove the authenticity of the miracles wrought
by Satan in the days preceding the Christian era, as well as
throughout the middle ages, they have simply laid a firm foundation
for a study of the phenomena in our modern times.
Though an ardent, uncompromising enthusiast, des Mousseaux unwittingly
transforms himself into the tempting demon, or--as he is fond of
calling the Devil--the “serpent of _Genesis_.” In his desire to
demonstrate in every manifestation the presence of the Evil One, he
only succeeds in demonstrating that Spiritualism and magic are no new
things in the world, but very ancient twin-brothers, whose origin must
be sought for in the earliest infancy of ancient India, Chaldea,
Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, and Greece.
He proves the existence of “spirits,” whether these be angels or
devils, with such a clearness of argument and logic, and such
an amount of evidence, historical, irrefutable, and strictly
authenticated, that little is left for spiritualist authors who may
come after him. How unfortunate that the scientists, who believe
neither in devil nor spirit, are more than likely to ridicule M. des
Mousseaux’s books without reading them, for they really contain so
many facts of profound scientific interest!
But what can we expect in our own age of unbelief, when we find
Plato, over twenty-two centuries ago, complaining of the same? “Me,
too,” says he, in his _Euthyphron_, “when I say anything in the
public assembly concerning divine things, _and predict to them_ what
is going to happen, they ridicule as mad; and although _nothing that
I have predicted has proved untrue_, yet they envy all such men as we
are. However, we ought not to heed, but pursue our own way.”
The literary resources of the Vatican and other Catholic repositories
of learning must have been freely placed at the disposal of these
modern authors. When one has such treasures at hand--original
manuscripts, papyri, and books pillaged from the richest heathen
libraries; old treatises on magic and alchemy; and records of all the
trials for witchcraft, and sentences for the same to rack, stake, and
torture, it is mighty easy to write volumes of accusations against
the Devil. We affirm on good grounds that there are hundreds of the
most valuable works on the occult sciences, which are sentenced to
eternal concealment from the public, but are attentively read and
studied by the privileged who have access to the Vatican Library.
The laws of nature are the same for heathen sorcerer as for Catholic
saint; and a “miracle” may be produced as well by one as by the
other, without the slightest intervention of God or devil.
Hardly had the manifestations begun to attract attention in Europe,
than the clergy commenced their outcry that their traditional enemy
had reappeared under another name, and “divine miracles” also began
to be heard of in isolated instances. First they were confined to
humble individuals, some of whom claimed to have them produced
through the intervention of the Virgin Mary, saints and angels;
others--according to the clergy--began to suffer from _obsession_
and _possession_; for the Devil must have his share of fame as
well as the Deity. Finding that, notwithstanding the warning, the
_independent_, or so-called spiritual phenomena went on increasing
and multiplying, and that these manifestations threatened to
upset the carefully-constructed dogmas of the Church, the world
was suddenly startled by extraordinary intelligence. In 1864, a
whole community became possessed of the Devil. Morzine, and the
awful stories of its demoniacs; Valleyres, and the narratives of
its well-authenticated exhibitions of sorcery; and those of the
Presbytere de Cideville curdled the blood in Catholic veins.
Strange to say, the question has been asked over and over again,
why the “divine” miracles and most of the obsessions are so strictly
confined to Roman Catholic dioceses and countries? Why is it that
since the Reformation there has been scarcely one single divine
“miracle” in a Protestant land? Of course, the answer we must expect
from Catholics is, that the latter are peopled by _heretics_, and
abandoned by God. Then why are there no more Church-miracles in
Russia, a country whose religion differs from the Roman Catholic
faith but in external forms of rites, its fundamental dogmas being
identically the same, except as to the emanation of the Holy
Ghost? Russia has her accepted saints and thaumaturgical relics,
and miracle-working images. The St. Mitrophaniy of Voroneg is an
authenticated miracle-worker, but his miracles are limited to
healing; and though hundreds upon hundreds have been healed _through
faith_, and though the old cathedral is full of magnetic effluvia,
and whole generations will go on _believing_ in his power, and some
persons will always be healed, still no such miracles are heard of
in Russia as the Madonna-walking, and Madonna letter-writing, and
statue-talking of Catholic countries. Why is this so? Simply because
the emperors have strictly forbidden that sort of thing. The Czar,
Peter the Great, stopped every spurious “divine” miracle with one
frown of his mighty brow. He declared he would have _no false_
miracles played by the holy _icones_ (images of saints), and they
disappeared forever.[24]
There are cases on record of isolated and independent phenomena
exhibited by certain images in the last century; the latest was the
bleeding of the cheek of an image of the Virgin, when a soldier of
Napoleon cut her face in two. This miracle, alleged to have happened
in 1812, in the days of the invasion by the “grand army,” was the
final farewell.[25] But since then, although the three successive
emperors have been pious men, their will has been respected, and
the images and saints have remained quiet, and hardly been spoken
of except as connected with religious worship. In Poland, a land of
furious ultramontanism, there were, at different times, desperate
attempts at miracle-doing. They died at birth, however, for the
argus-eyed police were there; a Catholic miracle in Poland, made
public by the priests, generally meaning political revolution,
bloodshed, and war.
Is it then, not permissible to at least suspect that if, in one
country divine miracles may be arrested by civil and military law,
and in another they _never occur_, we must search for the explanation
of the two facts in some natural cause, instead of attributing them
to either god or devil? In our opinion--if it is worth anything--the
whole secret may be accounted for as follows. In Russia, the clergy
know better than to bewilder their parishes, whose piety is sincere
and faith strong without miracles; they know that nothing is better
calculated than the latter to sow seeds of distrust, doubt, and
finally of skepticism which leads directly to atheism. Moreover
the climate is less propitious, and the magnetism of the average
population too positive, _too healthy_, to call forth _independent_
phenomena; and fraud would not answer. On the other hand, neither in
Protestant Germany, nor England, nor yet in America, since the days
of the Reformation, has the clergy had access to any of the Vatican
secret libraries. Hence they are all but poor hands at the magic of
Albertus Magnus.
As for America being overflowed with sensitives and mediums, the
reason for it is partially attributable to climatic influence
and especially to the physiological condition of the population.
Since the days of the Salem witchcraft, 200 years ago, when the
comparatively few settlers had pure and unadulterated blood in their
veins, nothing much had been heard of “spirits” or “mediums” until
1840.[26] The phenomena then first appeared among the ascetic and
exalted Shakers, whose religious aspirations, peculiar mode of life,
moral purity, and physical chastity all led to the production of
independent phenomena of a psychological as well as physical nature.
Hundreds of thousands, and even millions of men from various climates
and of different constitutions and habits, have, since 1692, invaded
North America, and by intermarrying have substantially changed the
physical type of the inhabitants. Of what country in the world do the
women’s constitutions bear comparison with the delicate, nervous, and
sensitive constitutions of the feminine portion of the population of
the United States? We were struck on our arrival in the country with
the semi-transparent delicacy of skin of the natives of both sexes.
Compare a hard-working Irish factory girl or boy, with one from a
genuine American family. Look at their hands. One works as hard as
the other; they are of equal age, and both seemingly healthy; and
still, while the hands of the one, after an hour’s soaping, will show
a skin little softer than that of a young alligator, those of the
other, notwithstanding constant use, will allow you to observe the
circulation of the blood under the thin and delicate epidermis. No
wonder, then, that while America is the conservatory of sensitives
the majority of its clergy, unable to produce divine or any other
miracles, stoutly deny the possibility of any phenomena except those
produced by tricks and juggling. And no wonder also that the Catholic
priesthood, who are practically aware of the existence of magic
and spiritual phenomena, and believe in them while dreading their
consequences, try to attribute the whole to the agency of the Devil.
Let us adduce one more argument, if only for the sake of
circumstantial evidence. In what countries have “divine miracles”
flourished most, been most frequent and most stupendous? Catholic
Spain, and Pontifical Italy, beyond question. And which more than
these two, has had access to ancient literature? Spain was famous for
her libraries; the Moors were celebrated for their profound learning
in alchemy and other sciences. The Vatican is the storehouse of an
immense number of ancient manuscripts. During the long interval of
nearly 1,500 years they have been accumulating, from trial after
trial, books and manuscripts confiscated from their sentenced
victims, to their own profit. The Catholics may plead that the books
were generally committed to the flames; that the treatises of famous
sorcerers and enchanters perished with their accursed authors. But
the Vatican, if it could speak, could tell a different story. It
knows too well of the existence of certain closets and rooms, access
to which is had but by the very few. It knows that the entrances to
these secret hiding-places are so cleverly concealed from sight in
the carved frame-work and under the profuse ornamentation of the
library-walls, that there have even been Popes who lived and died
within the precincts of the palace without ever suspecting their
existence. But these Popes were neither Sylvester II., Benedict IX.,
John XX., nor the VIth and VIIth Gregory; nor yet the famous Borgia
of toxicological memory. Neither were those who remained ignorant of
the hidden lore friends of the sons of Loyola.
Where, in the records of European Magic, can we find cleverer
enchanters than in the mysterious solitudes of the cloister? Albert
Magnus, the famous Bishop and conjurer of Ratisbon, was never
surpassed in his art. Roger Bacon was a monk, and Thomas Aquinas one
of the most learned pupils of Albertus. Trithemius, Abbot of the
Spanheim Benedictines, was the teacher, friend, and confidant of
Cornelius Agrippa; and while the confederations of the Theosophists
were scattered broadcast about Germany, where they first originated,
assisting one another, and struggling for years for the acquirement
of esoteric knowledge, any person who knew how to become the favored
pupil of certain monks, might very soon be proficient in all the
important branches of occult learning.
This is all in history and cannot be easily denied. Magic, in all its
aspects, was widely and nearly openly practiced by the clergy till
the Reformation. And even he who was once called the “Father of the
Reformation,” the famous John Reuchlin,[27] author of the _Mirific
Word_ and friend of Pico di Mirandola, the teacher and instructor of
Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon, was a kabalist and occultist.
The ancient _Sortilegium_, or divination by means of _Sortes_
or lots--an art and practice now decried by the clergy as an
abomination, designated by _Stat. 10 Jac._ as felony,[28] and by
_Stat. 12 Carolus II._ excepted out of the general pardons, on the
ground of being _sorcery_--was widely practiced by the clergy and
monks. Nay, it was sanctioned by St. Augustine himself, who does
not “disapprove of this method of learning futurity, provided it be
not used for worldly purposes.” More than that, he confesses having
practiced it himself.[29]
Aye; but the clergy called it _Sortes Sanctorum_, when it was
they who practiced it; while the _Sortes Prænestinæ_, succeeded
by the _Sortes Homericæ_ and _Sortes Virgilianæ_, were abominable
_heathenism_, the worship of the Devil, when used by any one else.
Gregory de Tours informs us that when the clergy resorted to the
_Sortes_ their custom was to lay the _Bible_ on the altar, and to
pray the Lord that He would discover His will, and disclose to them
futurity in one of the verses of the book. Gilbert de Nogent writes
that in his days (about the twelfth century) the custom was, at
the consecration of bishops, to consult the _Sortes Sanctorum_, to
thereby learn the success and fate of the episcopate. On the other
hand, we are told that the _Sortes Sanctorum_ were condemned by the
Council of Agda, in 506. In this case again we are left to inquire,
in which instance has the infallibility of the Church failed? Was it
when she prohibited that which was practiced by her greatest saint
and patron, Augustine, or in the twelfth century, when it was openly
and with the sanction of the same Church practiced by the clergy for
the benefit of the bishop’s elections? Or, must we still believe that
in both of these contradictory cases the Vatican was inspired by the
direct “spirit of God?”
If any doubt that Gregory of Tours approved of a practice that
prevails to this day, more or less, even among strict Protestants,
let them read this: “Lendastus, Earl of Tours, who was for ruining
me with Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs
against me, I withdrew to my oratory under a deep concern, where I
took the _Psalms_.... My heart revived within me when I cast my eyes
on this of the seventy-seventh _Psalm_: ‘He caused them to go on with
confidence, whilst the sea swallowed up their enemies.’ Accordingly,
the count spoke not a word to my prejudice; and leaving Tours that
very day, the boat in which he was, sunk in a storm, but his skill in
swimming saved him.”
The sainted bishop simply confesses here to having practiced a bit of
sorcery. _Every mesmerizer knows the power of will during an intense
desire bent on any particular subject._ Whether in consequence of
“co-incidents” or otherwise, the opened verse suggested to his mind
revenge by drowning. Passing the remainder of the day in “deep
concern,” and possessed by this all-absorbing thought, the saint--it
may be unconsciously--exercises his will on the subject; and thus
while imagining in the accident the hand of God, he simply becomes
a sorcerer exercising his magnetic will which reacts on the person
feared; and the count barely escapes with his life. Were the accident
decreed by God, the culprit would have been drowned; for a simple
bath could not have altered his malevolent resolution against St.
Gregory had he been very intent on it.
Furthermore, we find anathemas fulminated against this lottery of
fate, at the council of Varres, which forbids “all ecclesiastics,
under pain of excommunication, to perform that kind of divination,
or to pry into futurity, by looking into any book, or writing,
whatsoever.” The same prohibition is pronounced at the councils of
Agda in 506, of Orleans, in 511, of Auxerre in 595, and finally at
the council of Aenham in 1110; the latter condemning “sorcerers,
witches, diviners, such as occasioned death by magical operations,
and who practiced fortune-telling by the holy-book lots;” and the
complaint of the joint clergy against de Garlande, their bishop at
Orleans, and addressed to Pope Alexander III., concludes in this
manner: “Let your apostolical hands put on strength to _strip naked_
the iniquity of this man, that the curse prognosticated on the day of
his consecration may overtake him; for the gospels being opened on
the altar _according to custom_, the first words were: _and the young
man, leaving his linen cloth, fled from them naked_.”[30]
Why then roast the lay-magicians and consulters of books, and
canonize the ecclesiastics? Simply because the mediæval as well as
the modern phenomena, manifested through laymen, whether produced
through occult knowledge or happening independently, upset the claims
of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches to divine miracles.
In the face of reiterated and unimpeachable evidence it became
impossible for the former to maintain successfully the assertion
that seemingly miraculous manifestations by the “good angels” and
God’s direct intervention could be produced exclusively by her chosen
ministers and holy saints. Neither could the Protestant well maintain
on the same ground that miracles had ended with the apostolic ages.
For, whether of the same nature or not, the modern phenomena claimed
close kinship with the biblical ones. The magnetists and healers of
our century came into direct and open competition with the apostles.
The Zouave Jacob, of France, had outrivalled the prophet Elijah in
recalling to life persons who were seemingly dead; and Alexis, the
somnambulist, mentioned by Mr. Wallace in his work,[31] was, by his
lucidity, putting to shame apostles, prophets, and the Sibyls of old.
Since the burning of the last witch, the great Revolution of France,
so elaborately prepared by the league of the secret societies and
their clever emissaries, had blown over Europe and awakened terror
in the bosom of the clergy. It had, like a destroying hurricane,
swept away in its course those best allies of the Church, the Roman
Catholic aristocracy. A sure foundation was now laid for the right of
individual opinion. The world was freed from ecclesiastical tyranny
by opening an unobstructed path to Napoleon the Great, who had given
the deathblow to the Inquisition. This great slaughter-house of the
Christian Church--wherein she butchered, in the name of the Lamb, all
the sheep arbitrarily declared scurvy--was in ruins, and she found
herself left to her own responsibility and resources.
So long as the phenomena had appeared only sporadically, she had
always felt herself powerful enough to repress the consequences.
Superstition and belief in the Devil were as strong as ever, and
Science had not yet dared to publicly measure her forces with those
of supernatural Religion. Meanwhile the enemy had slowly but surely
gained ground. All at once it broke out with an unexpected violence.
“Miracles” began to appear in full daylight, and passed from their
mystic seclusion into the domain of natural law, where the profane
hand of Science was ready to strip off their sacerdotal mask. Still,
for a time, the Church held her position, and with the powerful help
of superstitious fear checked the progress of the intruding force.
But, when in succession appeared mesmerists and somnambulists,
reproducing the physical and mental phenomenon of ecstasy, hitherto
believed to be the special gift of saints; when the passion for
the turning tables had reached in France and elsewhere its climax
of fury; when the psychography--alleged spiritual--from a simple
curiosity had developed itself and settled into an unabated interest,
and finally ebbed into religious mysticism; when the echoes aroused
by the first raps of Rochester, crossing the oceans, spread until
they were re-percussed from nearly every corner of the world--then,
and only then, the Latin Church was fully awakened to a sense of
danger. Wonder after wonder was reported to have occurred in the
spiritual circles and the lecture-rooms of the mesmerists; the sick
were healed, the blind made to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to
hear. J. R. Newton in America, and Du Potet in France, were healing
the multitude without the slightest claim to divine intervention. The
great discovery of Mesmer, which reveals to the earnest inquirer the
mechanism of nature, mastered, as if by magical power, organic and
inorganic bodies.
But this was not the worst. A more direful calamity for the Church
occurred in the evocation from the upper and nether worlds of a
multitude of “spirits,” whose private bearing and conversation gave
the direct lie to the most cherished and profitable dogmas of the
Church. These “spirits” claimed to be the identical entities, in a
disembodied state, of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, friends
and acquaintances of the persons viewing the weird phenomena. The
Devil seemed to have no objective existence, and this struck at the
very foundation upon which the chair of St. Peter rested.[32] Not a
spirit except the mocking mannikins of Planchette would confess to
the most distant relationship with the Satanic majesty, or accredit
him with the governorship of a single inch of territory. The clergy
felt their prestige growing weaker every day, as they saw the people
impatiently shaking off, in the broad daylight of truth, the dark
veils with which they had been blindfolded for so many centuries.
Then finally, fortune, which previously had been on their side in the
long-waged conflict between theology and science, deserted to their
adversary. The help of the latter to the study of the occult side of
nature was truly precious and timely, and science has unwittingly
widened the once narrow path of the phenomena into a broad highway.
Had not this conflict culminated at the nick of time, we might have
seen, reproduced on a miniature scale the disgraceful scenes of the
episodes of Salem witchcraft and the Nuns of Loudun. As it was, the
clergy were muzzled.
But if science has unintentionally helped the progress of the occult
phenomena, the latter have reciprocally aided science herself. Until
the days when newly-reincarnated philosophy boldly claimed its place
in the world, there had been but few scholars who had undertaken
the difficult task of studying comparative theology. This science
occupies a domain heretofore penetrated by few explorers. The
necessity which it involved of being well acquainted with the dead
languages, necessarily limited the number of students. Besides, there
was less popular need for it so long as people could not replace the
Christian orthodoxy by something more tangible. It is one of the most
undeniable facts of psychology, that the average man can as little
exist out of a religious element of some kind, as a fish out of the
water. The voice of truth, “a voice stronger than the voice of the
mightiest thunder,” speaks to the inner man in the nineteenth century
of the Christian era, as it spoke in the corresponding century B.C.
It is a useless and unprofitable task to offer to humanity the
choice between a future life and annihilation. The only chance that
remains for those friends of human progress who seek to establish
for the good of mankind a faith, henceforth stripped entirely of
superstition and dogmatic fetters is to address them in the words
of Joshua: “Choose ye this day whom you will serve; whether the gods
which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell.”[33]
“The science of religion,” wrote Max Müller in 1860, “is only just
beginning.... During the last fifty years the authentic documents
of the most important religions in the world _have been recovered
in a most unexpected and almost miraculous manner_.[34] We have now
before us the Canonical books of Buddhism; the _Zend-Avesta_ of
Zoroaster is no longer a sealed book; and the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_
have revealed a state of religions anterior to the first beginnings
of that mythology which in Homer and Hesiod stands before us as a
mouldering ruin.”[35]
In their insatiable desire to extend the dominion of blind faith, the
early architects of Christian theology had been forced to conceal, as
much as it was possible, the true sources of the same. To this end
they are said to have burned or otherwise destroyed all the original
manuscripts on the _Kabala_, magic, and occult sciences upon which
they could lay their hands. They ignorantly supposed that the most
dangerous writings of this class had perished with the last Gnostic;
but some day they may discover their mistake. Other authentic and as
important documents will perhaps reäppear in a “most unexpected and
almost miraculous manner.”
There are strange traditions current in various parts of the East--on
Mount Athos and in the Desert of Nitria, for instance--among certain
monks, and with learned Rabbis in Palestine, who pass their lives in
commenting upon the _Talmud_. They say that not all the rolls and
manuscripts, reported in history to have been burned by Cæsar, by
the Christian mob, in 389, and by the Arab General Amru, perished as
it is commonly believed; and the story they tell is the following:
At the time of the contest for the throne, in 51 B.C., between
Cleopatra and her brother Dionysius Ptolemy, the Bruckion, which
contained over seven hundred thousand rolls, all bound in wood and
_fire-proof_ parchment, was undergoing repairs, and a great portion
of the original manuscripts, considered among the most precious,
and which were not duplicated, were stored away in the house of one
of the librarians. As the fire which consumed the rest was but the
result of accident, no precautions had been taken at the time. But
they add, that several hours passed between the burning of the fleet,
set on fire by Cæsar’s order, and the moment when the first buildings
situated near the harbor caught fire in their turn; and that all the
librarians, aided by several hundred slaves attached to the museum,
succeeded in saving the most precious of the rolls. So perfect and
solid was the fabric of the parchment, that while in some rolls the
inner pages and the wood-binding were reduced to ashes, of others
the parchment binding remained unscorched. These particulars were
all written out in Greek, Latin, and the Chaldeo-Syriac dialect, by
a learned youth named Theodas, one of the scribes employed in the
museum. One of these manuscripts is alleged to be preserved till
now in a Greek convent; and the person who narrated the tradition
to us had seen it himself. He said that many more will see it
and learn where to look for important documents, when a certain
prophecy will be fulfilled; adding, that most of these works could
be found in Tartary and India.[36] The monk showed us a copy of the
original, which, of course, we could read but poorly, as we claim
but little erudition in the matter of dead languages. But we were
so particularly struck by the vivid and picturesque translation of
the holy father, that we perfectly remember some curious paragraphs,
which run, as far as we can recall them, as follows:--“When the Queen
of the Sun (Cleopatra) was brought back to the half-ruined city,
after the fire had devoured the _Glory of the World_; and when she
saw the mountains of books--or rolls--covering the half-consumed
steps of the _estrada_; and when she perceived that the inside was
gone and the indestructible covers alone remained, she wept in rage
and fury, and cursed the meanness of her fathers who had grudged the
cost of the real Pergamos for the inside as well as the outside of
the precious rolls.” Further, our author, Theodas, indulges in a joke
at the expense of the queen for believing that nearly all the library
was burned; when, in fact, hundreds and thousands of the choicest
books were safely stored in his own house and those of other scribes,
librarians, students, and philosophers.
No more do sundry very learned Copts scattered all over the East in
Asia Minor, Egypt, and Palestine believe in the total destruction
of the subsequent libraries. For instance, they say that out of
the library of Attalus III. of Pergamus, presented by Antony to
Cleopatra, not a volume was destroyed. At that time, according to
their assertions, from the moment that the Christians began to
gain power in Alexandria--about the end of the fourth century--and
Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, began to insult the national gods, the
Pagan philosophers and learned theurgists adopted effective measures
to preserve the repositories of their sacred learning. Theophilus,
a bishop, who left behind him the reputation of a most rascally and
mercenary villain, was accused by one named Antoninus, a famous
theurgist and eminent scholar of occult science of Alexandria, with
bribing the slaves of the Serapion to steal books which he sold to
foreigners at great prices. History tells us how Theophilus had
the best of the philosophers, in A.D. 389; and how his successor
and nephew, the no less infamous Cyril, butchered Hypatia. Suidas
gives us some details about Antoninus, whom he calls Antonius, and
his eloquent friend Olympus, the defender of the Serapion. But
history is far from being complete in the miserable remnants of
books, which, crossing so many ages, have reached our own learned
century; it fails to give the facts relating to the first five
centuries of Christianity which are preserved in the numerous
traditions current in the East. Unauthenticated as these may appear,
there is unquestionably in the heap of chaff much good grain. That
these traditions are not oftener communicated to Europeans is not
strange, when we consider how apt our travellers are to render
themselves antagonistic to the natives by their skeptical bearing
and, occasionally, dogmatic intolerance. When exceptional men like
some archæologists, who knew how to win the confidence and even
friendship of certain Arabs, are favored with precious documents,
it is declared simply a “coincidence.” And yet there are widespread
traditions of the existence of certain subterranean, and immense
galleries, in the neighborhood of Ishmonia--the “petrified City,”
in which are stored numberless manuscripts and rolls. For no amount
of money would the Arabs go near it. At night, they say, from the
crevices of the desolate ruins, sunk deep in the unwatered sands of
the desert, stream the rays from lights carried to and fro in the
galleries by no human hands. The Afrites study the literature of the
antediluvian ages, according to their belief, and the Djin learns
from the magic rolls the lesson of the following day.
The _Encyclopedia Britannica_, in its article on Alexandria, says:
“When the temple of Serapis was demolished ... the valuable library
was _pillaged_ or destroyed; and _twenty_ years afterwards[37] the
_empty shelves_ excited the regret ... etc.” But it does not state
the subsequent fate of the _pillaged_ books.
In rivalry of the fierce Mary-worshippers of the fourth century,
the modern clerical persecutors of liberalism and “heresy” would
willingly shut up all the heretics and their books in some modern
Serapion and burn them alive.[38] The cause of this hatred is
natural. Modern research has more than ever unveiled the secret. “Is
not the worship of saints and angels now,” said Bishop Newton, years
ago, “in all respects the same that the worship of demons was in
former times? The name only is different, the thing is identically
the same ... the very same temples, the very same images, which were
once consecrated to Jupiter and the other demons, are now consecrated
to the Virgin Mary and other saints ... the whole of Paganism is
converted and applied _to Popery_.”
Why not be impartial and add that “a good portion of it was adopted
by Protestant religions also?”
The very apostolic designation _Peter_ is from the Mysteries. The
hierophant or supreme pontiff bore the Chaldean title פתר, _peter_,
or interpreter. The names Phtah, Peth’r, the residence of Balaam,
Patara, and Patras, the names of oracle-cities, _pateres_ or
_pateras_ and, perhaps, Buddha,[39] all come from the same root.
Jesus says: “Upon this _petra_ I will build my Church, and the
gates, or rulers of Hades, shall not prevail against it;” meaning by
_petra_ the rock-temple, and by metaphor, the Christian Mysteries;
the adversaries to which were the old mystery-gods of the underworld,
who were worshipped in the rites of Isis, Adonis, Atys, Sabazius,
Dionysus, and the Eleusinia. No _apostle_ Peter was ever at Rome; but
the Pope, seizing the sceptre of the _Pontifex Maximus_, the keys of
Janus and Kubelé, and adorning his Christian head with the cap of
the _Magna Mater_, copied from that of the tiara of Brahmâtma, the
Supreme Pontiff of the Initiates of old India, became the successor
of the Pagan high priest, the real Peter-Roma, or _Petroma_.[40]
The Roman Catholic Church has two far mightier enemies than the
“heretics” and the “infidels;” and these are--Comparative Mythology
and Philology. When such eminent divines as the Rev. James Freeman
Clarke go so much out of their way to prove to their readers that
“Critical Theology from the time of Origen and Jerome ... and the
Controversial Theology during fifteen centuries, has not consisted in
accepting on authority the opinions of other people,” but has shown,
on the contrary, much “acute and comprehensive reasoning,” we can but
regret that so much scholarship should have been wasted in attempting
to prove that which a fair survey of the history of theology upsets
at every step. In these “controversies” and critical treatment of the
doctrines of the Church one can certainly find any amount of “acute
reasoning,” but far more of a still acuter sophistry.
Recently the mass of cumulative evidence has been re-inforced to an
extent which leaves little, if any, room for further controversy. A
conclusive opinion is furnished by too many scholars to doubt the
fact that India was the _Alma-Mater_, not only of the civilization,
arts, and sciences, but also of all the great religions of antiquity;
Judaism, and hence Christianity, included. Herder places the cradle
of humanity in India, and shows Moses as a clever and relatively
_modern_ compiler of the ancient Brahmanical traditions: “The river
which encircles the country (India) is the sacred Ganges, which
all Asia considers as the paradisaical river. There, also, is the
biblical Gihon, which is none else but the Indus. The Arabs call it
so unto this day, and the names of the countries watered by it are
yet existing among the Hindus.” Jacolliot claims to have translated
every ancient palm-leaf manuscript which he had the fortune of
being allowed by the Brahmans of the pagodas to see. In one of his
translations, we found passages which reveal to us the _undoubted
origin of the keys_ of St. Peter, and account for the subsequent
adoption of the symbol by their Holinesses, the Popes of Rome.
He shows us, on the testimony of the _Agrouchada Parikshai_, which he
freely translates as “the _Book of Spirits_” (Pitris), that centuries
before our era the _initiates_ of the temple chose a Superior
Council, presided over by the Brahm-âtma or supreme chief of all
these _Initiates_. That this pontificate, which could be exercised
only by a Brahman who had reached the age of eighty years;[41] that
the Brahm-âtma was sole guardian of the mystic formula, _résumé_ of
every science, contained in the three mysterious letters,
=A=
=U= =M=
which signify _creation_, _conservation_, and _transformation_. He
alone could expound its meaning in the presence of the initiates
of the third and supreme degree. Whomsoever among these initiates
revealed to a profane a single one of the truths, even the smallest
of the secrets entrusted to his care, was put to death. He who
received the confidence had to share his fate.
“Finally, to crown this able system,” says Jacolliot, “there existed
a word still more superior to the mysterious monosyllable--A U M, and
which rendered him who came into the possession of its key nearly the
equal of Brahma himself. The Brahm-âtma alone possessed this key, and
transmitted it in a sealed casket to his successor.
“This unknown word, of which no human power could, even to-day, when
the Brahmanical authority has been crushed under the Mongolian and
European invasions, to-day, when each pagoda has its Brahm-âtma,[42]
_force the disclosure_, was engraved in a golden triangle and
preserved in a sanctuary of the temple of Asgartha, whose Brahm-âtma
alone held the keys. He also bore upon his tiara _two crossed keys_
supported by two kneeling Brahmans, symbol of the precious deposit
of which he had the keeping.... This word and this triangle were
engraved upon the tablet of the ring that this religious chief wore
as one of the signs of his dignity; it was also framed in a golden
sun on the altar, where every morning the Supreme Pontiff offered
the sacrifice of the sarvameda, or sacrifice to all the forces of
nature.”[43]
Is this clear enough? And will the Catholics still maintain that it
was the Brahmans of 4,000 years ago who copied the ritual, symbols,
and dress of the Roman Pontiffs? We would not feel in the least
surprised.
Without going very far back into antiquity for comparisons, if we
only stop at the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, and contrast
the so-called “heathenism” of the third Neo-platonic Eclectic School
with the growing Christianity, the result may not be favorable to
the latter. Even at that early period, when the new religion had
hardly outlined its contradictory dogmas; when the champions of the
bloodthirsty Cyril knew not themselves whether Mary was to become
“the Mother of God,” or rank as a “demon” in company with Isis; when
the memory of the meek and lowly Jesus still lingered lovingly in
every Christian heart, and his words of mercy and charity vibrated
still in the air, even then the Christians were outdoing the Pagans
in every kind of ferocity and religious intolerance.
And if we look still farther back, and seek for examples of true
_Christism_, in ages when Buddhism had hardly superseded Brahmanism
in India, and the name of Jesus was only to be pronounced three
centuries later, what do we find? Which of the holy pillars of the
Church has ever elevated himself to the level of religious tolerance
and noble simplicity of character of some heathen? Compare, for
instance, the Hindu Asoka, who lived 300 B.C., and the Carthaginian
St. Augustine, who flourished three centuries after Christ. According
to Max Müller, this is what is found engraved on the rocks of Girnar,
Dhauli, and Kapurdigiri:
“Piyadasi, the king beloved of the gods, desires that the ascetics
_of all creeds_ might reside in all places. All these ascetics
profess alike the command which people should exercise over
themselves, and the purity of the soul. _But people have different
opinions and different inclinations._”
And here is what Augustine wrote after his baptism: “Wondrous depth
of thy words! whose surface, behold! is before us, inviting to
little ones; yet are they a wondrous depth, O my God, a wondrous
depth! It is awful to look therein; yes ... an awfulness of honor,
and a trembling of love. Thy enemies [read Pagans] thereof I _hate_
vehemently; Oh, _that thou wouldst slay them_ with thy two-edged
sword, that they might no longer be enemies to it; for _so do I love
to have them slain_.”[44]
Wonderful spirit of Christianity; and that from a Manichean converted
to the religion of one who even on his cross prayed for his enemies!
Who the enemies of the “Lord” were, according to the Christians, is
not difficult to surmise; the few inside the Augustinian fold were
His new children and favorites, who had supplanted in His affections
the sons of Israel, His “chosen people.” The rest of mankind were
His natural foes. The teeming multitudes of heathendom were proper
food for the flames of hell; the handful within the Church communion,
“heirs of salvation.”
But if such a proscriptive policy was just, and its enforcement was
“sweet savor” in the nostrils of the “Lord,” why not scorn also
the Pagan rites and philosophy? Why draw so deep from the wells of
wisdom, dug and filled up to brim by the same heathen? Or did the
fathers, in their desire to imitate the chosen people whose time-worn
shoes they were trying to fit upon their feet, contemplate the
reënaction of the spoliation-scene of the _Exodus_? Did they propose,
in fleeing from heathendom as the Jews did from Egypt, to carry off
the valuables of its religious allegories, as the “chosen ones” did
the gold and silver ornaments?
It certainly does seem as if the events of the first centuries of
Christianity were but the reflection of the images thrown upon
the mirror of the future at the time of the Exodus. During the
stormy days of Irenæus, the Platonic philosophy, with its mystical
submersion into Deity, was not so obnoxious after all to the new
doctrine as to prevent the Christians from helping themselves to its
abstruse metaphysics in every way and manner. Allying themselves with
the ascetical theurapeutæ--forefathers and models of the Christian
monks and hermits, it was in Alexandria, let it be remembered, that
they laid the first foundations of the purely Platonic trinitarian
doctrine. It became the Plato-Philonean doctrine later, and such as
we find it now. Plato considered the divine nature under a three-fold
modification of the _First Cause_, the reason or _Logos_, and the
soul or spirit of the universe. “The three archial or original
principles,” says Gibbon,[45] “were represented in the Platonic
system as three gods, united with each other by a mysterious and
ineffable generation.” Blending this transcendental idea with the
more hypostatic figure of the _Logos_ of Philo, whose doctrine was
that of the oldest Kabala, and who viewed the King Messiah, as the
metatron, or “the angel of the Lord,” the _Legatus_ descended in
flesh, but not the _Ancient of Days_ Himself;[46] the Christians
clothed with this mythical representation of the Mediator for the
fallen race of Adam, Jesus, the son of Mary. Under this unexpected
garb his personality was all but lost. In the modern Jesus of the
Christian Church, we find the ideal of the imaginative Irenæus, not
the adept of the Essenes, the obscure reformer from Galilee. We see
him under the disfigured Plato-Philonean mask, not as the disciples
heard him on the mount.
So far then the heathen philosophy had helped them in the building
of the principal dogma. But when the theurgists of the third
Neo-platonic school, deprived of their ancient Mysteries, strove
to blend the doctrines of Plato with those of Aristotle, and by
combining the two philosophies added to their theosophy the primeval
doctrines of the Oriental _Kabala_, then the Christians from rivals
became persecutors. Once that the metaphysical allegories of Plato
were being prepared to be discussed in public in the form of Grecian
dialectics, all the elaborate system of the Christian trinity would
be unravelled and the divine prestige completely upset. The eclectic
school, reversing the order, had adopted the inductive method; and
this method became its death-knell. Of all things on earth, logic and
reasonable explanations were the most hateful to the new religion of
mystery; for they threatened to unveil the whole ground-work of the
trinitarian conception; to apprise the multitude of the doctrine of
emanations, and thus destroy the unity of the whole. It could not be
permitted, and it was not. History records the _Christ_-like means
that were resorted to.
The universal doctrine of emanations, adopted from time immemorial
by the greatest schools which taught the kabalistic, Alexandrian,
and Oriental philosophers, gives the key to that panic among the
Christian fathers. That spirit of Jesuitism and clerical craft, which
prompted Parkhurst, many centuries later, to suppress in his _Hebrew
Lexicon_ the true meaning of the first word of _Genesis_, originated
in those days of war against the expiring Neo-platonic and eclectic
school. The fathers had decided to pervert the meaning of the word
“_daimon_,”[47] and they dreaded above all to have the esoteric and
true meaning of the word _Rasit_ unveiled to the multitudes; for if
once the true sense of this sentence, as well as that of the Hebrew
word _asdt_ (translated in the Septuagint “_angels_,” while it
means emanations),[48] were understood rightly, the mystery of the
Christian trinity would have crumbled, carrying in its downfall the
new religion into the same heap of ruins with the ancient Mysteries.
This is the true reason why dialecticians, as well as Aristotle
himself, the “prying philosopher,” were ever obnoxious to Christian
theology. Even Luther, while on his work of reform, feeling the
ground insecure under his feet, notwithstanding that the dogmas had
been reduced by him to their simplest expression, gave full vent to
his fear and hatred for Aristotle. The amount of abuse he heaped
upon the memory of the great logician can only be equalled--never
surpassed--by the Pope’s anathemas and invectives against the
liberals of the Italian government. Compiled together, they might
easily fill a copy of a new encyclopædia with models for monkish
diatribes.
Of course the Christian clergy can never get reconciled with a
doctrine based on the application of strict logic to discursive
reasoning. The number of those who have abandoned theology on this
account has never been made known. They have asked questions and
been forbidden to ask them; hence, separation, disgust, and often a
despairing plunge into the abyss of atheism. The Orphean views of
ether as chief _medium between_ God and created matter were likewise
denounced. The Orphic Æther recalled too vividly the _Archeus_,
the Soul of the World, and the latter was in its metaphysical
sense as closely related to the emanations, being the first
manifestation--Sephira, or Divine Light. And when could the latter be
more feared than at that critical moment?
Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Chalcidius, Methodius, and Maimonides,
on the authority of the _Targum_ of Jerusalem, the orthodox and
greatest authority of the Jews, held that the first two words in
the book of _Genesis_--B-RASIT, mean _Wisdom_, or the _Principle_.
And that the idea of these words meaning “_in the beginning_” was
never shared but by the profane, who were not allowed to penetrate
any deeper into the esoteric sense of the sentence. Beausobre,
and after him Godfrey Higgins, have demonstrated the fact. “All
things,” says the _Kabala_, “are derived from one great Principle,
and this principle is the _unknown_ and _invisible_ God. From Him a
substantial power immediately proceeds, which is the _image of God_,
and the source of all subsequent emanations. This second principle
sends forth, by the _energy_ (or _will_ and _force_) of emanation,
other natures, which are more or less perfect, according to their
different degrees of distance, in the scale of emanation, from the
First Source of existence, and which constitute different worlds,
or orders of being, all united to the eternal power from which they
proceed. _Matter is nothing more than the most remote effect of the
emanative energy_ of the Deity. The material world receives its form
from the immediate agency of powers far beneath the First Source of
Being[49].... Beausobre[50] makes St. Augustine the Manichean say
thus: ‘And if by _Rasit_ we understand the _active Principle_ of the
creation, instead of its _beginning_, in such a case we will clearly
perceive that Moses never meant to say that heaven and earth were
the first works of God. He only said that God created heaven and
earth _through the Principle_, who is His Son. It is not the _time_
he points to, but to the immediate author of the creation.’ Angels,
according to Augustine, were created _before_ the firmament, and
according to the esoteric interpretation, the heaven and earth were
created after that, evolving from the _second_ Principle or the
Logos--the creative Deity. “The word _principle_,” says Beausobre,
“does not mean that the heaven and earth were created before
anything else, for, to begin with, the _angels_ were created before
that; but that God did everything through His Wisdom, which is His
_Verbum_, and which the Christian _Bible_ named the _Beginning_,”
thus adopting the exoteric meaning of the word abandoned to the
multitudes. The _Kabala_--the Oriental as well as the Jewish--shows
that a number of _emanations_ (the Jewish Sephiroth) issued from the
_First_ Principle, the chief of which was _Wisdom_. This Wisdom is
the Logos of Philo, and Michael, the chief of the Gnostic Eons; it
is the Ormazd of the Persians; _Minerva_, goddess of wisdom, of the
Greeks, who emanated from the head of Jupiter; and the second Person
of the Christian Trinity. The early Fathers of the Church had not
much to exert their imagination; they found a ready-made doctrine
that had existed in every theogony for thousands of years before
the Christian era. Their trinity is but the trio of Sephiroth, the
first three kabalistic _lights_ of which Moses Nachmanides says, that
“_they have never been seen by any one_; there is not any defect in
them, nor any disunion.” The first eternal number is the Father, or
the Chaldean primeval, invisible, and incomprehensible _chaos_, out
of which proceeded the _Intelligible_ one. The Egyptian Phtah, or
“the _Principle of Light_--not the light itself, and the Principle
of Life, though himself _no_ life.” The _Wisdom_ by which the Father
created the heavens is the _Son_, or the kabalistic androgynous
Adam Kadmon. The Son is at once the male _Ra_, or Light of Wisdom,
Prudence or _Intelligence_, Sephira, the female part of Himself;
while from this dual being proceeds the third emanation, the Binah or
Reason, the second Intelligence--the Holy Ghost of the Christians.
Therefore, strictly speaking, there is a TETRAKTIS or quaternary,
consisting of the Unintelligible First monad, and its triple
emanation, which properly constitute our Trinity.
How then avoid perceiving at once, that had not the Christians
purposely disfigured in their interpretation and translation the
Mosaic _Genesis_ to fit their own views, their religion, with its
present dogmas, would have been impossible? The word Rasit, once
taught in its new sense of the _Principle_ and not the _Beginning_,
and the anathematized doctrine of emanations accepted, the position
of the second trinitarian personage becomes untenable. For, if the
angels are the _first_ divine emanations from the Divine Substance,
and were in existence _before_ the Second Principle, then the
anthropomorphized _Son_ is at best an emanation like themselves,
and cannot be God _hypostatically_ any more than our visible works
are ourselves. That these metaphysical subtleties never entered
into the head of the honest-minded, sincere Paul, is evident; as
it is furthermore evident, that like all learned Jews he was well
acquainted with the doctrine of emanations and never thought of
corrupting it. How can any one imagine that Paul identified the _Son_
with the _Father_, when he tells us that God made Jesus “a _little
lower_ than the angels” (_Hebrews_ ii. 9), and a _little higher_ than
Moses! “For this MAN was counted worthy of more glory than Moses”
(_Hebrews_ iii. 3). Of whatever, or how many forgeries, interlined
later in the _Acts_, the Fathers are guilty we know not; but that
Paul never considered Christ more than a man “full of the Spirit of
God” is but too evident: “In the _arche_ was the _Logos_, and the
Logos was adnate to the Theos.”
_Wisdom_, the first emanation of En-Soph; the Protogonos, the
Hypostasis; the Adam Kadmon of the kabalist, the Brahma of the Hindu;
the Logos of Plato, and the “_Beginning_” of St. John--is the
Rasit--ראשית, of the _Book of Genesis_. If rightly interpreted it
overturns, as we have remarked, the whole elaborate system of
Christian theology, for it proves that behind the _creative_ Deity,
there was a HIGHER god; a planner, an architect; and that the former
was but His executive agent--a simple POWER!
They persecuted the Gnostics, murdered the philosophers, and
burned the kabalists and the masons; and when the day of the great
reckoning arrives, and the light shines in darkness, what will they
have to offer in the place of the departed, expired religion? What
will they answer, these pretended monotheists, these worshippers
and _pseudo_-servants of the one living God, to their Creator? How
will they account for this long persecution of them who were the
true followers of the grand Megalistor, the supreme great master
of the Rosicrucians, the FIRST of masons. “For he is the Builder
and Architect of the Temple of the universe; He is the _Verbum
Sapienti_.”[51]
“Every one knows,” wrote the great Manichean of the third century,
Fauste, “that the Evangeliums were written neither by Jesus Christ,
nor his apostles, but long after their time by some unknown persons,
who, judging well that they would hardly be believed when telling of
things they had not seen themselves, headed their narratives with
the names of the apostles or of disciples contemporaneous with the
latter.”
Commenting upon the subject, A. Franck, the learned Hebrew scholar
of the Institute and translator of the _Kabala_, expresses the same
idea. “Are we not authorized,” he asks, “to view the _Kabala_ as
a precious remnant of religious philosophy of the Orient, which,
transported into Alexandria, got mixed to the doctrine of Plato, and
under the usurped name of Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens,
converted and consecrated by St. Paul, was thus enabled to penetrate
into the mysticism of the mediæval ages?”[52]
Says Jacolliot: “What is then this religious philosophy of
the Orient, which has penetrated into the mystic symbolism of
Christianity? We answer: This philosophy, the traces of which we find
among the Magians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Hebrew kabalists
and the Christians, is none other than that of the Hindu Brahmans,
the sectarians of the _pitris_, or the spirits of the invisible
worlds which surround us.”[53]
But if the Gnostics were destroyed, the _Gnosis_, based on the
secret science of sciences, still lives. It is the earth which
helps the woman, and which is destined to open her mouth to swallow
up mediæval Christianity, the usurper and assassin of the great
master’s doctrine. The ancient _Kabala_, the Gnosis, or traditional
_secret_ knowledge, was never without its representatives in any age
or country. The trinities of initiates, whether passed into history
or concealed under the impenetrable veil of mystery, are preserved
and impressed throughout the ages. They are known as Moses, Aholiab,
and Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, as Plato, Philo, and
Pythagoras, etc. At the Transfiguration we see them as Jesus, Moses,
and Elias, the three Trismegisti; and three kabalists, Peter, James,
and John--whose _revelation_ is the key to all wisdom. We found them
in the twilight of Jewish history as Zoroaster, Abraham, and Terah,
and later as Henoch, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Who, of those who ever studied the ancient philosophies, who
understand intuitionally the grandeur of their conceptions, the
boundless sublimity of their views of the Unknown Deity, can hesitate
for a moment to give the preference to their doctrines over the
incomprehensible dogmatic and contradictory theology of the hundreds
of Christian sects? Who that ever read Plato and fathomed his Το Ὀν,
“_whom no person has seen except the Son_,” can doubt that Jesus was a
disciple of the same secret doctrine which had instructed the great
philosopher? For, as we have shown before now, Plato never claimed to
be the inventor of all that he wrote, but gave credit for it to
Pythagoras, who, in his turn, pointed to the remote East as the source
whence he derived his information and his philosophy. Colebrooke shows
that Plato confesses it in his epistles, and says that he has taken
his teachings from ancient and sacred doctrines![54] Moreover, it is
undeniable that the theologies of all the great nations dovetail
together and show that each is a part of “one stupendous whole.” Like
the rest of the initiates we see Plato taking great pains to conceal
the true meaning of his allegories. Every time the subject touches the
greater secrets of the Oriental _Kabala_, secret of the true cosmogony
of the universe and of the _ideal_, preëxisting world, Plato shrouds
his philosophy in the profoundest darkness. His _Timæus_ is so
confused that no one but an _initiate_ can understand the secret
meaning. And Mosheim thinks that Philo has filled his works with
passages directly contradicting each other for the sole purpose of
concealing the true doctrine. For once we see a critic on the right
track.
And this very trinitarian idea, as well as the so bitterly denounced
doctrine of emanations, whence their remotest origin? The answer is
easy, and every proof is now at hand. In the sublime and profoundest
of all philosophies, that of the universal “Wisdom-Religion,” the
first traces of which, historical research now finds in the old
pre-Vedic religion of India. As the much-abused Jacolliot well
remarks, “It is not in the religious works of antiquity, such as the
_Vedas_, the _Zend Avesta_, the _Bible_, that we have to search for
the exact expression of the ennobling and sublime beliefs of those
epochs.”[55]
“The holy primitive syllable, composed of the three letters A--U--M.,
in which is contained the Vedic Trimurti (Trinity), must be kept
secret, like another triple Veda,” says Manu, in book xi., sloka 265.
Swayambhouva is the unrevealed Deity; it is the Being existent
through and of itself; he is the central and immortal germ of
all that exists in the universe. Three trinities emanate and are
confounded in him, forming a Supreme _unity_. These trinities, or the
triple _Trimurti_, are: the Nara, Nari, and Viradyi--the _initial_
triad; the Agni, Vaya, and Sourya--the _manifested_ triad; Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva, the _creative_ triad. Each of these triads becomes
less metaphysical and more adapted to the vulgar intelligence as
it descends. Thus the last becomes but the symbol in its concrete
expression; the necessarianism of a purely metaphysical conception.
Together with Swayambhouva, they are the ten _Sephiroth_ of the
Hebrew kabalists, the ten Hindu Pragâpatis--the En-Soph of the
former, answering to the great _Unknown_, expressed by the mystic A U
M of the latter.
Says Franck, the translator of the _Kabala_:
“The ten Sephiroth are divided into _three classes_, each of them
presenting to us the divinity _under a different aspect_, the whole
still remaining an _indivisible Trinity_.
“The first three Sephiroth are purely intellectual in metaphysics,
they express the absolute identity of existence and thought, and form
what the modern kabalists called the intelligible world--which is the
first manifestation of God.
“The three that follow, make us conceive God in one of their aspects,
as the identity of goodness and wisdom; in the other they show to us,
in the Supreme good, the origin of beauty and magnificence (in the
creation). Therefore, they are named the _virtues_, or the _sensible
world_.
“Finally, we learn, by the last three Sephiroth, that the Universal
Providence, that the Supreme artist is also _absolute Force_, the
all-powerful cause, and that, at the same time, this cause _is the
generative element of all that is_. It is these last Sephiroth that
constitute the _natural world_, or nature in its essence and in its
_active_ principle, _Natura naturans._”[56]
This kabalistic conception is thus proved identical with that of the
Hindu philosophy. Whoever reads Plato and his _Dialogue_ Timæus, will
find these ideas as faithfully re-echoed by the Greek philosopher.
Moreover, the injunction of secrecy was as strict with the kabalists,
as with the initiates of the Adyta and the Hindu Yogis.
“Close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of _this_ (the mystery),
and thy heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud; and if thy heart has
escaped thee, bring it back to its place, for such is the object of
our alliance” (_Sepher Jezireh_, _Book of Creation_).
“This is a secret which gives death: close thy mouth lest thou
shouldst reveal to the vulgar; compress thy brain lest something
should escape from it and fall outside” (_Agrouchada-Parikshai_).
Truly the fate of many a future generation hung on a gossamer
thread, in the days of the third and fourth centuries. Had not the
Emperor sent in 389 to Alexandria a rescript--which was forced from
him by the Christians--for the destruction of every idol, our own
century would never have had a Christian mythological Pantheon of
its own. Never did the Neo-platonic school reach such a height of
philosophy as when nearest its end. Uniting the mystic theosophy
of old Egypt with the refined philosophy of the Greeks; nearer to
the ancient Mysteries of Thebes and Memphis than they had been for
centuries; versed in the science of soothsaying and divination,
as in the art of the Therapeutists; friendly with the acutest men
of the Jewish nation, who were deeply imbued with the Zoroastrian
ideas, the Neo-platonists tended to amalgamate the old wisdom of the
Oriental _Kabala_ with the more refined conceptions of the Occidental
Theosophists. Notwithstanding the treason of the Christians, who
saw fit, for political reasons, after the days of Constantine, to
repudiate their tutors, the influence of the new Platonic philosophy
is conspicuous in the subsequent adoption of dogmas, the origin
of which can be traced but too easily to that remarkable school.
Though mutilated and disfigured, they still preserve a strong family
likeness, which nothing can obliterate.
But, if the knowledge of the occult powers of nature opens the
spiritual sight of man, enlarges his intellectual faculties, and
leads him unerringly to a profounder veneration for the Creator,
on the other hand ignorance, dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and a
childish fear of looking to the bottom of things, invariably leads to
fetish-worship and superstition.
When Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, had openly embraced the cause
of Isis, the Egyptian goddess, and had anthropomorphized her into
Mary, the mother of God; and the trinitarian controversy had taken
place; from that moment the Egyptian doctrine of the emanation of
the creative God out of Emepht began to be tortured in a thousand
ways, until the Councils had agreed upon the adoption of it as it
now stands--the disfigured Ternary of the kabalistic Solomon and
Philo! But as its origin was yet too evident, the _Word_ was no
longer called the “Heavenly man,” the _primal_ Adam Kadmon, but
became the Logos--Christ, and was made as old as the “Ancient of the
Ancient,” his father. The _concealed_ WISDOM became identical with
its emanation, the DIVINE THOUGHT, and made to be regarded coëqual
and coëternal with its first manifestation.
If we now stop to consider another of the fundamental dogmas of
Christianity, the doctrine of atonement, we may trace it as easily
back to heathendom. This corner-stone of a Church which had believed
herself built on a firm rock for long centuries, is now excavated
by science and proved to come from the Gnostics. Professor Draper
shows it as hardly known in the days of Tertullian, and as having
“_originated_ among the Gnostic heretics.”[57] We will not permit
ourselves to contradict such a learned authority, farther than to
state that it _originated_ among them no more than their “anointed”
Christos and Sophia. The former they modelled on the original of
the “King Messiah,” the male principle of wisdom, and the latter on
the third Sephiroth, from the Chaldean _Kabala_,[58] and even from
the Hindu Brahma and Sara-âsvati,[59] and the Pagan Dionysus and
Demeter. And here we are on firm ground, if it were only because it
is now proved that the _New Testament_ never appeared in its complete
form, such as we find it now, till 300 years after the period of
apostles,[60] and the _Sohar_ and other kabalistic books are found to
belong to the first century before our era, if not to be far older
still.
The Gnostics entertained many of the Essenean ideas; and the
Essenes had their “greater” and “minor” Mysteries at least two
centuries before our era. They were the _Isarim_ or _Initiates_,
the descendants of the Egyptian hierophants, in whose country they
had been settled for several centuries before they were converted
to Buddhistic monasticism by the missionaries of King Asoka, and
amalgamated later with the earliest Christians; and they existed,
probably, before the old Egyptian temples were desecrated and ruined
in the incessant invasions of Persians, Greeks, and other conquering
hordes. The hierophants had their _atonement_ enacted in the Mystery
of Initiation ages before the Gnostics, or even the Essenes, had
appeared. It was known among hierophants as the BAPTISM OF BLOOD, and
was considered not as an atonement for the “fall of man” in Eden,
but simply as an expiation for the past, present, and future sins of
ignorant but nevertheless polluted mankind. The hierophant had the
option of either offering his pure and sinless life as a sacrifice
for his race to the gods whom he hoped to rejoin, or an animal
victim. The former depended entirely on their own will. At the last
moment of the solemn “new birth,” the initiator passed “the word” to
the initiated, and immediately after that the latter had a weapon
placed in his right hand, and was ordered _to strike_.[61] This is
the true origin of the Christian dogma of atonement.
Verily the “Christs” of the pre-Christian ages were many. But they
died unknown to the world, and disappeared as silently and as
mysteriously from the sight of man as Moses from the top of Pisgah,
the mountain of Nebo (oracular wisdom), after he had laid his hands
upon Joshua, who thus became “full of the spirit of wisdom” (_i.e._,
_initiated_).
Nor does the Mystery of the Eucharist pertain to Christians alone.
Godfrey Higgins proves that it was instituted many hundreds of
years before the “Paschal Supper,” and says that “the sacrifice of
bread and wine was common to many ancient nations.”[62] Cicero
mentions it in his works, and wonders at the strangeness of the rite.
There had been an esoteric meaning attached to it from the first
establishment of the Mysteries, and the Eucharistia is one of the
oldest rites of antiquity. With the hierophants it had nearly the
same significance as with the Christians. Ceres was _bread_, and
Bacchus was _wine_; the former meaning regeneration of life from the
seed, and the latter--the grape--the emblem of wisdom and knowledge;
the accumulation of the spirit of things, and the fermentation
and subsequent strength of that esoteric knowledge being justly
symbolized by wine. The mystery related to the drama of Eden; it is
said to have been first taught by Janus, who was also the first to
introduce in the temples the sacrifices of “bread” and “wine” in
commemoration of the “fall into generation” as the symbol of the
“seed.” “I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman,” says Jesus,
alluding to the secret knowledge that could be imparted by him. “I
will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I
drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
The festival of the Eleusinian Mysteries began in the month of
Boëdromion, which corresponds with the month of September, the time
of grape-gathering, and lasted from the 15th to the 22d of the month,
_seven_ days.[63] The Hebrew festival of the Feast of Tabernacles
began on the 15th and ended on the 22d of the month of Ethanim, which
Dunlap shows as derived from Adonim, Adonia, Attenim, Ethanim;[64]
and this feast is named in _Exodus_ (xxiii. 16) the feast of
_ingatherings_. “All the men of Israel assembled unto King Solomon at
the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the _seventh_.”[65]
Plutarch thinks the feast of the booths to be the Bacchic rites, not
the Eleusinian. Thus “Bacchus was directly called upon,” he says.
The _Sabazian_ worship was _Sabbatic_; the names Evius, or Hevius,
and Luaios are identical with _Hivite_ and _Levite_. The French name
Louis is the Hebrew _Levi_; Iacchus again is Iao or Jehovah; and Baal
or Adon, like Bacchus, was a phallic god. “Who shall ascend into the
hill (the high place) of the Lord?” asks the holy king David, “who
shall stand in the place of his _Kadushu_ קדשו”? (_Psalms_ xxiv. 3).
Kadesh may mean in one sense to _devote, hallow, sanctify_, and even
to initiate or to set apart; but it also means the ministers of
lascivious rites (the Venus-worship) and the true interpretation of
the word Kadesh is bluntly rendered in _Deuteronomy_ xxiii. 17;
_Hosea_ iv. 14; and _Genesis_ xxxviii., from verses 15 to 22. The
“holy” Kadeshuth of the _Bible_ were identical as to the duties of
their office with the Nautch-girls of the later Hindu pagodas. The
Hebrew _Kadeshim_ or galli lived “by the house of the Lord, where the
women wove hangings for the grove,” or bust of Venus-Astartè, says
verse the seventh in the twenty-third chapter of 2 Kings.
The dance performed by David round the ark was the “circle-dance”
said to have been prescribed by the Amazons for the Mysteries. Such
was the dance of the daughters of Shiloh (_Judges_ xxi. 21, 23 _et
passim_), and the leaping of the prophets of Baal (_1 Kings_ xviii.
26). It was simply a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it
denoted the motion of the planets round the sun. That the dance was a
Bacchic frenzy is apparent. Sistra were used on the occasion, and the
taunt of Michael and the king’s reply are very expressive. “The king
of Israel uncovered himself before his maid-servants as one of the
_vain_ (or debauched) fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself.” And he
retorts: “I will play (act wantonly) before יהוה, and I will be yet
more vile than this, and I will be base in my own sight.” When we
remember that David had sojourned among the Tyrians and Philistines,
where their rites were common; and that indeed he had conquered that
land away from the house of Saul, by the aid of mercenaries from their
country, the countenancing and even, perhaps, the introduction of such
a Pagan-like worship by the weak “psalmist” seems very natural. David
knew nothing of Moses, it seems, and if he introduced the
Jehovah-worship it was not in its monotheistic character, but simply
as that of one of the many gods of the neighboring nations--a tutelary
deity to whom he had given the preference, and chosen among “all other
gods.”
Following the Christian dogmas seriatim, if we concentrate our
attention upon one which provoked the fiercest battles until its
recognition, that of the Trinity, what do we find? We meet it, as
we have shown, northeast of the Indus; and tracing it to Asia Minor
and Europe, recognize it among every people who had anything like
an established religion. It was taught in the oldest Chaldean,
Egyptian, and Mithraïtic schools. The Chaldean Sun-god, Mithra, was
called “Triple,” and the trinitarian idea of the Chaldeans was a
doctrine of the Akkadians, who, themselves, belonged to a race which
was the first to conceive a metaphysical trinity. The Chaldeans
are a tribe of the Akkadians, according to Rawlinson, who lived in
Babylonia from the earliest times. They were Turanians, according
to others, and instructed the Babylonians into the first notions of
religion. But these same Akkadians, who were they? Those scientists
who would ascribe to them a Turanian origin, make of them the
inventors of the cuneiform characters; others call them Sumerians;
others again, respectively, make their language, of which (for
very good reasons) no traces whatever remain--Kasdean, Chaldaic,
Proto-Chaldean, Kasdo-Scythic, and so on. The only tradition worthy
of credence is that these Akkadians instructed the Babylonians in
the Mysteries, and taught them the sacerdotal or _Mystery_-language.
These Akkadians were then simply a tribe of the Hindu-Brahmans, now
called Aryans--their vernacular language, the Sanscrit[66] of the
Vedas; and the sacred or Mystery-language, that which, even in our
own age, is used by the Hindu fakirs and initiated Brahmans in their
magical evocations.[67] It has been, from time immemorial, and still
is employed by the initiates of all countries, and the Thibetan lamas
claim that it is in this tongue that appear the mysterious characters
on the leaves and bark of the sacred Koumboum.
Jacolliot, who took such pains to penetrate the mysteries of the
Brahmanical initiation in translating and commenting upon the
_Agrouchada-Parikshai_, confesses the following:
“It is pretended also, without our being able to verify the
assertion, that the magical evocations were pronounced in a
particular language, and that it was forbidden, under pain of death,
to translate them into vulgar dialects. The rare expressions that
we have been able to catch like--_L’rhom_, _h’hom_, _sh’hrum_,
_sho’rhim_, are in fact most curious, and do not seem to belong to
any known idiom.”[68]
Those who have seen a fakir or a lama reciting his mantras and
conjurations, know that he never pronounces the words audibly when
preparing for a phenomenon. His lips move, and none will ever hear
the terrible formula pronounced, except in the interior of the
temples, and then in a cautious whisper. This, then, was the language
now respectively baptized by every scientist, and, according to his
imaginative and philological propensities, Kasdeo-Semitic, Scythic,
Proto-Chaldean, and the like.
Scarcely two of even the most learned Sanscrit philologists are
agreed as to the true interpretation of Vedic words. Let one put
forth an essay, a lecture, a treatise, a translation, a dictionary,
and straightway all the others fall to quarrelling with each other
and with him as to his sins of omission and commission. Professor
Whitney, greatest of American Orientalists, says that Professor
Müller’s notes on the _Rig Veda Sânhita_ “are far from showing that
sound and thoughtful judgment, that moderation and economy which
are among the most precious qualities of an exegete.” Professor
Müller angrily retorts upon his critics that “not only is the joy
embittered which is the inherent reward of all _bona fide_ work, but
selfishness, malignity, aye, _even untruthfulness_, gain the upper
hand, and the healthy growth of science is stunted.” He differs “in
many cases from the explanations of Vedic words given by Professor
Roth” in his _Sanscrit Dictionary_, and Professor Whitney shampooes
both their heads by saying that there are, unquestionably, words and
phrases “as to which both alike will hereafter be set right.”
In volume i. of his _Chips_, Professor Müller stigmatizes all
the _Vedas_ except the _Rik_, the _Atharva-Veda_ included, as
“theological twaddle,” while Professor Whitney regards the latter
as “the most comprehensive and valuable of the four collections,
next after the _Rik_.” To return to the case of Jacolliot. Professor
Whitney brands him as a “bungler and a humbug,” and, as we remarked
above, this is the very general verdict. But when the _Bible dans
l’Inde_ appeared, the Société Académique de Saint Quentin requested
M. Textor de Ravisi, a learned Indianist, ten years Governor of
Karikal, India, to report upon its merits. He was an ardent Catholic,
and bitterly opposed Jacolliot’s conclusions where they discredited
the Mosaic and Catholic revelations; but he was forced to say:
“Written with good faith, in an easy, vigorous, and passionate style,
of an easy and varied argumentation, the work of M. Jacolliot is
of absorbing interest ... a learned work on known facts and with
familiar arguments.”
Enough. Let Jacolliot have the benefit of the doubt when such very
imposing authorities are doing their best to show up each other as
incompetents and literary journeymen. We quite agree with Professor
Whitney that “the truism, that [for European critics?] it is far
easier to pull to pieces than to build up, is nowhere truer than in
matters affecting the archæology and history of India.”[69]
Babylonia happened to be situated on the way of the great stream
of the earliest Hindu emigration, and the Babylonians were one of
the first peoples benefited thereby.[70] These Khaldi were the
worshippers of the Moon-god, Deus Lunus, from which fact we may
infer that the Akkadians--if such must be their name--belonged to
the race of the Kings of the Moon, whom tradition shows as having
reigned in Pruyay--now Allahabad. With them the trinity of Deus Lunus
was manifested in the three lunar phases, completing the quaternary
with the fourth, and typifying the death of the Moon-god in its
gradual waning and final disappearance. This death was allegorized
by them, and attributed to the triumph of the genius of evil over
the light-giving deity; as the later nations allegorized the death
of their Sun-gods, Osiris and Apollo, at the hands of Typhon and the
great Dragon Python, when the sun entered the winter solstice. Babel,
Arach, and Akkad are names of the sun. The _Zoroastrian Oracles_ are
full and explicit upon the subject of the Divine Triad. “A triad of
Deity shines forth throughout the whole world, of which a Monad is
the head,” admits the Reverend Dr. Maurice.
“For from this Triad, in the bosoms, are all things governed,” says
a Chaldean oracle. The Phos, Pur, and Phlox, of Sanchoniathon,[71]
are Light, Fire, and Flame, three manifestations of the Sun who is
_one_. Bel-Saturn, Jupiter-Bel, and Bel or Baal-Chom are the Chaldean
trinity;[72] The Babylonian Bel was regarded in the Triune aspect
of Belitan, Zeus-Belus (the mediator) and Baal-Chom who is Apollo
Chomæus. This was the Triune aspect of the ‘Highest God,’ who is,
according to Berosus, either El (the Hebrew), Bel, Belitan, Mithra,
or Zervana, and has the name πατηρ, “the Father.”[73] The Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva,[74] corresponding to Power, Wisdom, and Justice,
which answer in their turn to Spirit, Matter, Time, and the Past,
Present, and Future, can be found in the temple of Gharipuri;
thousands of dogmatic Brahmans worship these attributes of the Vedic
Deity, while the severe monks and nuns of Buddhistic Thibet recognize
but the sacred trinity of the three cardinal virtues: _Poverty_,
_Chastity_, and _Obedience_, professed by the Christians, practiced by
the Buddhists and some Hindus alone.
The Persian triplicate Deity also consists of three persons, Ormazd,
Mithra, and Ahriman. “That is that principle,” says Porphyry,[75]
“which the author of the _Chaldaic Summary_ saith, ‘_They conceive
there is one principle of all things, and declare that is one and
good._’” The Chinese idol Sanpao, consists of three equal in all
respects;[76] and the Peruvians “supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one
in three, and three in one,” says Faber.[77] The Egyptians have their
Emepht, Eicton, and Phta; and the triple god seated on the Lotos can
be seen in the St. Petersburg Museum, on a medal of the Northern
Tartars.
Among the Church dogmas which have most seriously suffered of late
at the hands of the Orientalists, the last in question stands
conspicuous. The reputation of each of the three personages of the
anthropomorphic godhead as an original revelation to the Christians
through Divine will, has been badly compromised by inquiry into its
predecessors and origin. Orientalists have published more about the
similarity between Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Christianity than was
strictly agreeable to the Vatican. Draper’s assertion that “Paganism
was modified by Christianity, Christianity by Paganism,”[78] is being
daily verified. “Olympus was restored but the divinities passed under
other names,” he says, treating of the Constantine period. “The more
powerful provinces insisted on the adoption of their time-honored
conceptions. Views of the trinity in accordance with the Egyptian
traditions were established. Not only was the adoration of Isis under
a new name restored, but even her image, standing on the crescent
moon, reappeared. The well-known effigy of that goddess with the
infant Horus in her arms has descended to our days, in the beautiful
artistic creations of the Madonna and child.”
But a still earlier origin than the Egyptian and Chaldean can be
assigned to the Virgin “Mother of God,” Queen of Heaven. Though Isis
is also by right the Queen of Heaven, and is generally represented
carrying in her hand the Crux Ansata composed of the mundane cross,
and of the Stauros of the Gnostics, she is a great deal younger
than the celestial virgin, Neith. In one of the tombs of the
Pharaohs--Rhameses, in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk, in Thebes,
Champollion, Junior, discovered a picture, according to his opinion
the most ancient ever yet found. It represents the heavens symbolized
by the figure of a woman bedecked with stars. The birth of the Sun is
figured by the form of a little child, issuing from the bosom of its
“Divine Mother.”
In the _Book of Hermes_, “Pimander” is enunciated in distinct and
unequivocal sentences, the whole trinitarian dogma accepted by the
Christians. “The light is me,” says Pimander, the DIVINE THOUGHT. “I
am the _nous_ or intelligence, and I am thy god, and I am far older
than the human principle which escapes from the shadow. I am the
germ of thought, the resplendent WORD, the SON of God. Think that
what thus sees and hears in thee, is the _Verbum_ of the Master, it
is the Thought, which is God the Father.... The celestial ocean, the
ÆTHER, which flows from east to west, is the Breath of the Father,
the life-giving Principle, the HOLY GHOST!” “For they are not at all
separated and their union is LIFE.”
Ancient as may be the origin of Hermes, lost in the unknown days of
Egyptian colonization, there is yet a far older prophecy, directly
relating to the Hindu Christna, according to the Brahmans. It is,
to say the least, strange that the Christians claim to base their
religion upon a prophecy of the _Bible_, which exists nowhere in
that book. In what chapter or verse does Jehovah, the “Lord God,”
promise Adam and Eve to send them a Redeemer who will save humanity?
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman,” says the Lord God to
the serpent, “and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
In these words there is not the slightest allusion to a Redeemer,
and the subtilest of intellects could not extract from them, as they
stand in the third chapter of _Genesis_, anything like that which
the Christians have contrived to find. On the other hand, in the
traditions and _Manu_, Brahma promises directly to the first couple
to send them a Saviour who will teach them the way to salvation.
“It is from the lips of a messenger of Brahma, who will be born
in Kuroukshetra, Matsya, and the land of Pantchola, also called
Kanya-Cubja (mountain of the Virgin), that all men on earth will
learn their duty,” says _Manu_ (book ii., slokas 19 and 20).
The Mexicans call the Father of their Trinity Yzona, the Son Bacab,
and the Holy Ghost Echvah, “and say they received it (the doctrine)
from their ancestors.”[79] Among the Semitic nations we can trace the
trinity to the prehistorical days of the fabled Sesostris, who is
identified by more than one critic with Nimrod, “the mighty hunter.”
Manetho makes the oracle rebuke the king, when the latter asks, “Tell
me, O thou strong in fire, who before me could subjugate all things?
and who shall after me?” And the oracle saith thus: “First God, then
the Word, and then ‘the Spirit.’”[80]
In the foregoing lies the foundation of the fierce hatred of the
Christians toward the “Pagans” and the theurgists. Too much had
been _borrowed_; the ancient religions and the Neo-platonists
had been laid by them under contribution sufficiently to perplex
the world for several thousand years. Had not the ancient creeds
been speedily obliterated, it would have been found impossible to
preach the Christian religion as a New Dispensation, or the direct
Revelation from God the Father, through God the Son, and under the
influence of God the Holy Ghost. As a political exigence the Fathers
had--to gratify the wishes of their rich converts--instituted even
the festivals of Pan. They went so far as to accept the ceremonies
hitherto celebrated by the Pagan world in honor of the _God of the
gardens_, in all their primitive _sincerity_.[81] It was time to
sever the connection. Either the Pagan worship and the Neo-platonic
theurgy, with all ceremonial of magic, must be crushed out forever,
or the Christians become Neo-platonists.
The fierce polemics and single-handed battles between Irenæus and the
Gnostics are too well known to need repetition. They were carried on
for over two centuries after the unscrupulous Bishop of Lyons had
uttered his last religious paradox. Celsus, the Neo-platonist, and a
disciple of the school of Ammonius Saccas, had thrown the Christians
into perturbation, and even had arrested for a time the progress of
proselytism by successfully proving that the original and purer forms
of the most important dogmas of Christianity were to be found only in
the teachings of Plato. Celsus accused them of accepting the worst
superstitions of Paganism, and of interpolating passages from the
books of the Sybils, without rightly understanding their meaning. The
accusations were so plausible, and the facts so patent, that for a
long time no Christian writer had ventured to answer the challenge.
Origen, at the fervent request of his friend, Ambrosius, was the
first to take the defense in hand, for, having belonged to the same
Platonic school of Ammonius, he was considered the most competent
man to refute the well-founded charges. But his eloquence failed,
and the only remedy that could be found was to destroy the writings
of Celsus themselves.[82] This could be achieved only in the fifth
century, when copies had been taken from this work, and many were
those who had read and studied them. If no copy of it has descended
to our present generation of scientists, it is not because there is
none extant at present, but for the simple reason that the monks of a
certain Oriental church on Mount Athos will neither show nor confess
they have one in their possession.[83] Perhaps they do not even know
themselves the value of the contents of their manuscripts, on account
of their great ignorance.
The dispersion of the Eclectic school had become the fondest hope of
the Christians. It had been looked for and contemplated with intense
anxiety. It was finally achieved. The members were scattered by the
hand of the monsters Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, and his nephew
Cyril--the murderer of the young, the learned, and the innocent
Hypatia![84]
With the death of the martyred daughter of Theon, the mathematician,
there remained no possibility for the Neo-platonists to continue
their school at Alexandria. During the life-time of the youthful
Hypatia her friendship and influence with Orestes, the governor
of the city, had assured the philosophers security and protection
against their murderous enemies. With her death they had lost their
strongest friend. How much she was revered by all who knew her for
her erudition, noble virtues, and character, we can infer from the
letters addressed to her by Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, fragments
of which have reached us. “My heart yearns for the presence of your
divine spirit,” he wrote in 413 A. D., “which more than anything else
could alleviate the bitterness of my fortunes.” At another time he
says: “Oh, my mother, my sister, my teacher, my benefactor! My soul
is very sad. The recollection of my children I have lost is killing
me.... When I have news of you and learn, as I hope, that you are
more fortunate than myself, I am at least only half-unhappy.”
What would have been the feelings of this most noble and worthy
of Christian bishops, who had surrendered family and children and
happiness for the faith into which he had been attracted, had a
prophetic vision disclosed to him that the only friend that had been
left to him, his “mother, sister, benefactor,” would soon become an
unrecognizable mass of flesh and blood, pounded to jelly under the
blows of the club of Peter the Reader--that her youthful, innocent
body would be cut to pieces, “the flesh scraped from the bones,” by
oyster-shells and the rest of her cast into the fire, by order of the
same Bishop Cyril he knew so well--Cyril, the CANONIZED Saint!![85]
There has never been a religion in the annals of the world with
such a bloody record as Christianity. All the rest, including the
traditional fierce fights of the “chosen people” with their next
of kin, the idolatrous tribes of Israel, pale before the murderous
fanaticism of the alleged followers of Christ! Even the rapid
spread of Mahometanism before the conquering sword of the Islam
prophet, is a direct consequence of the bloody riots and fights
among Christians. It was the intestine war between the Nestorians
and Cyrilians that engendered Islamism; and it is in the convent of
Bozrah that the prolific seed was first sown by Bahira, the Nestorian
monk. Freely watered by rivers of blood, the tree of Mecca has grown
till we find it in the present century overshadowing nearly two
hundred millions of people. The recent Bulgarian atrocities are but
the natural outgrowth of the triumph of Cyril and the Mariolaters.
The cruel, crafty politician, the plotting monk, glorified by
ecclesiastical history with the aureole of a martyred saint. The
despoiled philosophers, the Neo-platonists, and the Gnostics,
daily anathematized by the Church all over the world for long and
dreary centuries. The curse of the unconcerned Deity hourly invoked
on the magian rites and theurgic practice, and the Christian
clergy themselves using _sorcery_ for ages. Hypatia, the glorious
maiden-philosopher, torn to pieces by the Christian mob. And such
as Catherine de Medici, Lucrezia Borgia, Joanna of Naples, and the
Isabellas of Spain, presented to the world as the faithful daughters
of the Church--some even decorated by the Pope with the order of the
“Immaculate Rose,” the highest emblem of womanly purity and virtue,
a symbol sacred to the Virgin-mother of God! Such are the examples
of human justice! How far less blasphemous appears a total rejection
of Mary as an immaculate goddess, than an idolatrous worship of her,
accompanied by such practices.
In the next chapter we will present a few illustrations of sorcery,
as practiced under the patronage of the Roman Church.
CHAPTER II.
“They undertake by scales of miles to tell
The bounds, dimensions, and extent of hell;
* * * * *
Where bloated souls in smoky durance hung
Like a Westphalia gammon or neat’s tongue,
To be redeemed with masses and a song.”
--OLDHAM: _Satires upon the Jesuits_.
“_York._--But you are more inhuman, more inexorable--
O, ten times more--than tigers of Hyrcania.”
--_King Henry VI._, Part Third, Act i., Scene iv.
“_War._--And hark ye, Sirs; because she is a maid
Spare for no faggots, let there be enough;
Place barrels of pitch upon the fatal stake.”
--_King Henry VI._, Part First, Act v., Scene iv.
In that famous work of Bodin, on sorcery,[86] a frightful story is
told about Catherine of Medicis. The author was a learned publicist,
who, during twenty years of his life, collected authentic documents
from the archives of nearly every important city of France, to make
up a complete work on sorcery, magic, and the power of various
“demons.” To use an expression of Eliphas Levi, his book offers a
most remarkable collection of “bloody and hideous facts; acts of
revolting superstition, arrests, and executions of stupid ferocity.”
“Burn every body!” the Inquisition seemed to say--God will easily
sort out His own! Poor fools, hysterical women, and idiots were
roasted alive, without mercy, for the crime of “magic.” But, “at the
same time, how many great culprits escaped this unjust and sanguinary
_justice_! This is what Bodin makes us fully appreciate.”
Catherine, the pious Christian--who has so well deserved in the eyes
of the Church of Christ for the atrocious and never-to-be-forgotten
massacre of St. Bartholomew--the Queen Catherine, kept in her
service an apostate Jacobin priest. Well versed in the “black art,”
so fully patronized by the Medici family, he had won the gratitude
and protection of his pious mistress, by his unparalleled skill in
killing people at a distance, by torturing with various incantations
their wax simulacra. The process has been described over and over
again, and we scarcely need repeat it.
Charles was lying sick of an incurable disease. The queen-mother who
had everything to lose in case of his death, resorted to necromancy,
and consulted the oracle of the “bleeding head.” This infernal
operation required the decapitation of a child who must be possessed
of great beauty and purity. He had been prepared in secret for his
first communion, by _the chaplain_ of the palace, who was apprised
of the plot, and at midnight of the appointed day, in the chamber
of the sick man, and in presence only of Catherine and a few of her
confederates, the “devil’s mass” was celebrated. Let us give the
rest of the story as we find it in one of Levi’s works: “At this
mass, celebrated before the image of the demon, having under his feet
a reversed cross, the sorcerer consecrated two wafers, one black
and one white. The white was given to the child, whom they brought
clothed as for baptism, and who was murdered upon the very steps of
the altar, immediately after his communion. His head, separated from
the trunk by a single blow, was placed, all palpitating, upon the
great black wafer which covered the bottom of the paten, then placed
upon a table where some mysterious lamps were burning. The exorcism
then began, and the demon was charged to pronounce an oracle, and
reply by the mouth of this head to a secret question that the king
dared not speak aloud, and that had been confided to no one. Then a
feeble voice, a strange voice, which had nothing of human character
about it, made itself audible in this poor little martyr’s head.” The
sorcery availed nothing; the king died, and--Catherine remained the
faithful daughter of Rome!
How strange, that des Mousseaux, who makes such free use of
Bodin’s materials to construct his formidable indictment against
Spiritualists and other sorcerers, should have overlooked this
interesting episode!
It is a well-attested fact that Pope Sylvester II. was publicly
accused by Cardinal Benno with being a sorcerer and an enchanter.
The brazen “oracular head” made by his Holiness was of the same kind
as the one fabricated by Albertus Magnus. The latter was smashed to
pieces by Thomas Aquinas, not because it was the work of or inhabited
by a “demon,” but because the spook who was fixed inside, by mesmeric
power, talked incessantly, and his verbiage prevented the eloquent
saint from working out his mathematical problems. These heads and
other talking statues, trophies of the magical skill of monks and
bishops, were fac-similes of the “animated” gods of the ancient
temples. The accusation against the Pope was proved at the time. It
was also demonstrated that he was constantly attended by “demons”
or spirits. In the preceding chapter we have mentioned Benedict
IX., John XX., and the VIth and VIIth Gregory, who were all known
as magicians. The latter Pope, moreover, was the famous Hildebrand,
who was said to have been so expert at “shaking lightning out of
his sleeve.” An expression which makes the venerable spiritualistic
writer, Mr. Howitt, think that “it was the origin of the celebrated
thunder of the Vatican.”
The magical achievements of the Bishop of Ratisbon and those of
the “angelic doctor,” Thomas Aquinas, are too well known to need
repetition; but we may explain farther how the “illusions” of the
former were produced. If the Catholic bishop was so clever in making
people believe on a bitter winter night that they were enjoying the
delights of a splendid summer day, and cause the icicles hanging from
the boughs of the trees in the garden to seem like so many tropical
fruits, the Hindu magicians also practice such biological powers unto
this very day, and claim the assistance of neither god nor devil.
Such “miracles” are all produced by the same human power that is
inherent in every man, if he only knew how to develop it.
About the time of the Reformation, the study of alchemy and magic
had become so prevalent among the clergy as to produce great
scandal. Cardinal Wolsey was openly accused before the court and the
privy-council of confederacy with a man named Wood, a sorcerer, who
said that “_My Lord Cardinale had suche a rynge that whatsomevere he
askyd of the Kynges grace that he hadd yt_;” adding that “_Master
Cromwell, when he ... was servaunt in my lord cardynales housse ...
rede many bokes and specyally the boke of Salamon ... and studied
mettells and what vertues they had after the canon of Salamon_.” This
case, with several others equally curious, is to be found among the
Cromwell papers in the Record Office of the Rolls House.
A priest named William Stapleton was arrested as a conjurer, during
the reign of Henry VIII., and an account of his adventures is still
preserved in the Rolls House records. The Sicilian priest whom
Benvenuto Cellini calls a necromancer, became famous through his
successful conjurations, and was never molested. The remarkable
adventure of Cellini with him in the Colosseum, where the priest
conjured up a whole host of devils, is well known to the reading
public. The subsequent meeting of Cellini with his mistress, as
predicted and brought about by the conjurer, at the precise time
fixed by him, is to be considered, as a matter of course, a “curious
coincidence.” In the latter part of the sixteenth century there
was hardly a parish to be found in which the priests did not study
magic and alchemy. The practice of exorcism to cast out devils “in
imitation of Christ,” who by the way never used exorcism at all,
led the clergy to devote themselves openly to “sacred” magic in
contradistinction to black art, of which latter crime were accused
all those who were neither priests nor monks.
The occult knowledge gleaned by the Roman Church from the once fat
fields of theurgy she sedulously guarded for her own use, and sent to
the stake only those practitioners who “poached” on her lands of the
_Scientia Scientiarum_, and those whose sins could not be concealed
by the friar’s frock. The proof of it lies in the records of history.
“In the course only of fifteen years, between 1580 to 1595, and only
in the single province of Lorraine, the President Remigius burned
900 witches,” says Thomas Wright, in his _Sorcery and Magic_. It was
during these days, prolific in ecclesiastical murder and unrivalled
for cruelty and ferocity, that Jean Bodin wrote.
While the orthodox clergy called forth whole legions of “demons”
through magical incantations, unmolested by the authorities, provided
they held fast to the established dogmas and taught no heresy, on the
other hand, acts of unparalleled atrocity were perpetrated on poor,
unfortunate fools. Gabriel Malagrida, an old man of eighty, was burnt
by these evangelical Jack Ketches in 1761. In the Amsterdam library
there is a copy of the report of his famous trial, translated from
the Lisbon edition. He was accused of sorcery and illicit intercourse
with the Devil, who had “disclosed to him _futurity_.” (?) The
prophecy imparted by the Arch-Enemy to the poor visionary Jesuit is
reported in the following terms: “The culprit hath confessed that the
demon, under the form of the blessed Virgin, having commanded him to
write the life of Antichrist (?), told him that he, Malagrida, was
a second John, but more clear than John the Evangelist; that there
were to be three Antichrists, and that the last should be born at
Milan, of a monk and a nun, in the year 1920; that he would marry
Proserpine, one of the infernal furies,” etc.
The prophecy is to be verified forty-three years hence. Even were
all the children born of monks and nuns really to become antichrists
if allowed to grow up to maturity, the fact would seem far less
deplorable than the discoveries made in so many convents when the
foundations have been removed for some reason. If the assertion of
Luther is to be disbelieved on account of his hatred for popery, then
we may name discoveries of the same character made quite recently in
Austrian and Russian Poland. Luther speaks of a fish-pond at Rome,
situated near a convent of nuns, which, having been cleared out by
order of Pope Gregory, disclosed, at the bottom, over six thousand
infant skulls; and of a nunnery at Neinburg, in Austria, whose
foundations, when searched, disclosed the same relics of celibacy and
chastity!
“_Ecclesia non novit Sanguinem!_” meekly repeated the scarlet-robed
cardinals. And to avoid the spilling of blood which horrified them,
they instituted the Holy Inquisition. If, as the occultists maintain,
and science half confirms, our most trifling acts and thoughts are
indelibly impressed upon the eternal mirror of the astral ether,
there must be somewhere, in the boundless realm of the unseen
universe, the imprint of a curious picture. It is that of a gorgeous
standard waving in the heavenly breeze at the foot of the great
“white throne” of the Almighty. On its crimson damask face a cross,
symbol of “the Son of God who died for mankind,” with an _olive_
branch on one side, and a sword, stained to the hilt with human
gore, on the other. A legend selected from the _Psalms_ emblazoned
in golden letters, reading thus: “_Exurge, Domine, et judica causam
meam._” For such appears the standard of the Inquisition, on a
photograph in our possession, from an original procured at the
Escurial of Madrid.
Under this Christian standard, in the brief space of fourteen years,
Tomas de Torquemada, the confessor of Queen Isabella, burned over
ten thousand persons, and sentenced to the torture eighty thousand
more. Orobio, the well-known writer, who was detained so long in
prison, and who hardly escaped the flames of the Inquisition,
immortalized this institution in his works when once at liberty in
Holland. He found no better argument against the Holy Church than to
embrace the Judaic faith and submit even to circumcision. “In the
cathedral of Saragossa,” says a writer on the Inquisition, “is the
tomb of a famous inquisitor. Six pillars surround the tomb; _to each
is chained a Moor_, as preparatory to being burned.” On this St.
Foix ingenuously observes: “If ever the Jack Ketch of any country
should be rich enough to have a splendid tomb, this might serve as
an excellent model!” To make it complete, however, the builders of
the tomb ought not to have omitted a bas-relief of the famous horse
which was burnt for sorcery and witchcraft. Granger tells the story,
describing it as having occurred in his time. The poor animal “had
been taught to tell the spots upon cards, and the hour of the day by
the watch. Horse and owner were both indicted by the sacred office
for dealing with the Devil, and both were burned, with a great
ceremony of _auto-da-fé_, at Lisbon, in 1601, as wizards!”
This immortal institution of Christianity did not remain without
its Dante to sing its praise. “Macedo, a Portuguese Jesuit,” says
the author of _Demonologia_, “has discovered the origin of the
Inquisition, in the terrestrial Paradise, and presumes to allege that
God was the first who began the functions of an inquisitor over Cain
and the workmen of Babel!”
Nowhere, during the middle ages, were the arts of magic and sorcery
more practiced by the clergy than in Spain and Portugal. The Moors
were profoundly versed in the occult sciences, and at Toledo,
Seville, and Salamanca, were, once upon a time, the great schools
of magic. The kabalists of the latter town were skilled in all the
abstruse sciences; they knew the virtues of precious stones and
other minerals, and had extracted from alchemy its most profound
secrets.
The authentic documents pertaining to the great trial of the
Marechale d’Ancre, during the regency of Marie de Medicis, disclose
that the unfortunate woman perished through the fault of the
priests with whom, like a true Italian, she surrounded herself.
She was accused by the people of Paris of sorcery, because it had
been asserted that she had used, after the ceremony of exorcism,
newly-killed white cocks. Believing herself constantly bewitched,
and being in very delicate health, the Marechale had the ceremony of
exorcism publicly applied to herself in the Church of the Augustins;
as to the birds, she used them as an application to the forehead on
account of dreadful pains in the head, and had been advised to do so
by Montalto, the Jew physician of the queen, and the Italian priests.
In the sixteenth century, the Curé de Barjota, of the diocese of
Callahora, Spain, became the world’s wonder for his magical powers.
His most extraordinary feat consisted, it was said, in transporting
himself to any distant country, witnessing political and other
events, and then returning home to predict them in his own country.
He had a familiar demon, who served him faithfully for long years,
says the _Chronicle_, but the curé turned ungrateful and cheated him.
Having been apprised by his demon of a conspiracy against the Pope’s
life, in consequence of an intrigue of the latter with a fair lady,
the curé transported himself to Rome (in his double, of course) and
thus saved his Holiness’ life. After which he repented, confessed his
sins to the gallant Pope, and _got absolution_. “On his return he was
delivered, as a matter of form, into the custody of the inquisitors
of Logroño, but was acquitted and restored to his liberty very soon.”
Friar Pietro, a Dominican monk of the fourteenth century--the
magician who presented the famous Dr. Eugenio Torralva, a physician
attached to the house of the admiral of Castile, with a _demon_ named
Zequiel--won his fame through the subsequent trial of Torralva. The
procedure and circumstances attendant upon the extraordinary trial
are described in the original papers preserved in the Archives of
the Inquisition. The Cardinal of Volterra, and the Cardinal of Santa
Cruz, both saw and communicated with Zequiel, who proved, during the
whole of Torralva’s life, to be a pure, kind, elemental spirit, doing
many beneficent actions, and remaining faithful to the physician to
the last hour of his life. Even the Inquisition acquitted Torralva,
on that account; and, although an immortality of fame was insured
to him by the satire of Cervantes, neither Torralva nor the monk
Pietro are fictitious heroes, but historical personages, recorded in
ecclesiastical documents of Rome and Cuença, in which town the trial
of the physician took place, January the 29th 1530.
The book of Dr. W. G. Soldan, of Stuttgart, has become as famous in
Germany, as Bodin’s book on _Demonomania_ in France. It is the most
complete German treatise on witchcraft of the sixteenth century. One
interested to learn the secret machinery underlying these thousands
of legal murders, perpetrated by a clergy who pretended to believe
in the Devil, and succeeded in making others believe in him, will
find it divulged in the above-mentioned work.[87] The true origin of
the daily accusations and death-sentences for sorcery are cleverly
traced to personal and political enmities, and, above all, to the
hatred of the Catholics toward the Protestants. The crafty work of
the Jesuits is seen at every page of the bloody tragedies; and it
is in Bamberg and Würzburg, where these worthy sons of Loyola were
most powerful at that time, that the cases of witchcraft were most
numerous. On the next page we give a curious list of some victims,
many of whom were children between the ages of seven and eight
years, and Protestants. “Of the multitudes of persons who perished
at the stake in Germany during the first half of the seventeenth
century for sorcery, the crime of many was their attachment to the
religion of Luther,” says T. Wright, “... and the petty princes
were not unwilling to seize upon any pretense to fill their coffers
... the persons most persecuted being those whose property was a
matter of consideration.... At Bamberg, as well as at Würzburg, the
bishop was a sovereign prince in his dominions. The Prince-Bishop,
John George II., who ruled Bamberg ... after several unsuccessful
attempts to root out Lutheranism, distinguished his reign by a
series of sanguinary witch-trials, which disgrace the annals of that
city.... We may form some notion of the proceedings of his worthy
agent,[88] from the statement of the most authentic historians, that
between 1625 and 1630, not less than 900 trials took place in the
two courts of Bamberg and Zeil; and a pamphlet published at Bamberg
by authority, in 1659, states the number of persons whom Bishop John
George had caused to be burned for sorcery, to have been 600.”[89]
Regretting that space should prevent our giving one of the most
curious lists in the world of burned witches, we will nevertheless
make a few extracts from the original record as printed in Hauber’s
_Bibliotheca Magica_. One glance at this horrible catalogue of
murders in Christ’s name, is sufficient to discover that out of
162 persons burned, more than one-half of them are designated as
_strangers_ (_i.e._, Protestants) in this hospitable town; and of
the other half we find _thirty-four children_, the oldest of whom
was fourteen, the youngest _an infant_ child of Dr. Schütz. To make
the catalogue shorter we will present of each of the twenty-nine
_burnings_, but the most remarkable.[90]
IN THE FIRST BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.
Old Ancker’s widow.
The wife of Liebler.
The wife of Gutbrodt.
The wife of Höcker.
IN THE SECOND BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.
Two strange women (names unknown).
The old wife of Beutler.
IN THE THIRD BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.
Tungersleber, a minstrel.
Four wives of citizens.
IN THE FOURTH BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.
A strange man.
IN THE FIFTH BURNING, NINE PERSONS.
Lutz, an eminent shop-keeper.
The wife of Baunach, a senator.
IN THE SIXTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
The fat tailor’s wife.
A strange man.
A strange woman.
IN THE SEVENTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
A strange girl of twelve years old.
A strange man, a strange woman.
A strange bailiff (Schultheiss).
Three strange women.
IN THE EIGHTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
Baunach, a senator, the fattest citizen in Würzburg.
A strange man.
Two strange women.
IN THE NINTH BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.
A strange man.
A mother and daughter.
IN THE TENTH BURNING, THREE PERSONS.
Steinacher, a very rich man.
A strange man, a strange woman.
IN THE ELEVENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.
Two women and two men.
IN THE TWELFTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.
Two strange women.
IN THE THIRTEENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.
A little girl nine or ten years old.
A younger girl, her little sister.
IN THE FOURTEENTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.
The mother of the two little girls before mentioned.
A girl twenty-four years old.
IN THE FIFTEENTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.
A boy twelve years of age, in the first school.
A woman.
IN THE SIXTEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A boy of ten years of age.
IN THE SEVENTEENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.
A boy eleven years old.
A mother and daughter.
IN THE EIGHTEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
Two boys, twelve years old.
The daughter of Dr. Junge.
A girl of fifteen years of age.
A strange woman.
IN THE NINETEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A boy of ten years of age.
Another boy, twelve years old.
IN THE TWENTIETH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
Göbel’s child, the most beautiful girl in Würzburg.
Two boys, each twelve years old.
Stepper’s little daughter.
IN THE TWENTY-FIRST BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A boy fourteen years old.
The little son of Senator Stolzenberger.
Two alumni.
IN THE TWENTY-SECOND BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
Stürman, a rich cooper.
A strange boy.
IN THE TWENTY-THIRD BURNING, NINE PERSONS.
David Croten’s boy, nine years old.
The two sons of the prince’s cook, one fourteen, the other ten
years old.
IN THE TWENTY-FOURTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
Two boys in the hospital.
A rich cooper.
IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A strange boy.
IN THE TWENTY-SIXTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
Weydenbush, a senator.
The little daughter of Valkenberger.
The little son of the town council bailiff.
IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
A strange boy.
A strange woman.
Another boy.
IN THE TWENTY-EIGHTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
The infant daughter of Dr. Schütz.
A blind girl.
IN THE TWENTY-NINTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.
The fat noble lady (Edelfrau).
A doctor of divinity.
_Item._
⎧ “Strange” men and women, _i.e._,
⎪ _Protestants_, 28
⎪ Citizens, apparently all WEALTHY people, 100
_Summary_: ⎨ Boys, girls, and little children, 34
⎪ ---
⎩ In nineteen months, 162 persons.
“There were,” says Wright, “little girls of from seven to ten years
of age among the witches, and _seven and twenty_ of them were
convicted and burnt,” at some of the other _brände_, or burnings.
“The numbers brought to trial in these terrible proceedings were so
great, and they were treated with so little consideration, that it
was usual not even to take the trouble of setting down their names,
but they were cited as the accused No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and so
on.[91] The Jesuits took their confessions in private.”
What room is there in a theology which exacts such holocausts
as these to appease the bloody appetites of its priests for the
following gentle words:
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for
of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” “Even so it is not the will of
your Father ... that one of these little ones should perish.” “But
whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it
_were better for him that a millstone were hanged_ about his neck and
that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.”
We sincerely hope that the above words have proved no vain threat to
these child-burners.
Did this butchery in the name of their Moloch-god prevent these
treasure-hunters from resorting to the black art themselves? Not in
the least; for in no class were such consulters of “familiar” spirits
more numerous than among the clergy during the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries. True, there were some Catholic priests
among the victims, but though these were generally accused of having
“been led into practices too dreadful to be described,” it was not
so. In the twenty-nine burnings above catalogued we find the names of
_twelve vicars_, _four_ canons, and two doctors of divinity _burnt
alive_. But we have only to turn to such works as were published at
the time to assure ourselves that each popish priest executed was
accused of “damnable heresy,” _i.e._, a tendency to reformation--a
crime more heinous far than sorcery.
We refer those who would learn how the Catholic clergy united
duty with pleasure in the matter of exorcisms, revenge, and
treasure-hunting, to volume II., chapter i., of W. Howitt’s _History
of the Supernatural_. “In the book called _Pneumatologia Occulta et
Vera_, all the forms of adjuration and conjuration were laid down,”
says this veteran writer. He then proceeds to give a long description
of the favorite _modus operandi_. The _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute
Magie_ of the late Eliphas Levi, treated with so much abuse and
contempt by des Mousseaux, tells nothing of the weird ceremonies
and practices but what was practiced legally and with the tacit if
not open consent of the Church, by the priests of the middle ages.
The exorcist-priest entered a circle at midnight; he was clad in
a new surplice, and had a consecrated band hanging from the neck,
covered with sacred characters. He wore on the head a tall pointed
cap, on the front of which was written in Hebrew the holy word,
Tetragrammaton--the ineffable name. It was written with a new pen
dipped in the blood of a white dove. What the exorcists most yearned
after, was to release miserable spirits _which haunt spots where
hidden treasures lie_. The exorcist sprinkles the circle with the
blood of a black lamb and a white pigeon. The priest had to adjure
the evil spirits of hell--Acheront, Magoth, Asmodei, Beelzebub,
Belial, and all the damned souls, in the mighty names of Jehovah,
Adonay, Elohah, and Sabaioth, which latter was the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, who dwelt in the Urim and Thummim. When the damned
souls flung in the face of the exorcist that he was a sinner, and
could not get the treasure from them, the priest-sorcerer had to
reply that “all his sins were washed out in the blood of Christ,[92]
and he bid them depart as cursed ghosts and damned flies.” When the
exorcist dislodged them at last, the poor soul was “comforted in the
name of the Saviour, and _consigned to the care of good angels_,”
who were less powerful, we must think, than the exorcising Catholic
worthies, “and the rescued treasure, of course, was secured for the
Church.”
“Certain days,” adds Howitt, “are laid down in the calendar of the
Church as most favorable for the practice of exorcism; and, if the
devils are difficult to drive, a fume of sulphur, assafœtida, bear’s
gall, and rue is recommended, which, it was presumed, would outstench
even devils.”
This is the Church, and this the priesthood, which, in the nineteenth
century, pays 5,000 priests to teach the people of the United States
the infidelity of science and the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome!
We have already noticed the confession of an eminent prelate that the
elimination of Satan from theology would be fatal to the perpetuity
of the Church. But this is only partially true. The Prince of Sin
would be gone, but sin itself would survive. If the Devil were
annihilated, the _Articles of Faith_ and the _Bible_ would remain.
In short there would still be a pretended divine revelation, and the
necessity for self-assumed inspired interpreters. We must, therefore,
consider the authenticity of the _Bible_ itself. We must study its
pages, and see if they, indeed, contain the commands of the Deity,
or but a compendium of ancient traditions and hoary myths. We must
try to interpret them for ourselves--if possible. As to its pretended
interpreters, the only possible assimilation we can find for them in
the _Bible_ is to compare them with the man described by the wise
King Solomon in his _Proverbs_, with the perpetrator of these “six
things ... yea _seven_ ... which doth the Lord hate,” and which are
an abomination unto Him, to wit: “A _proud_ look, a _lying_ tongue,
and hands that shed _innocent blood_; an heart _that deviseth wicked
imaginations_, feet that be swift in running to mischief; a _false
witness_ that speaketh lies, and _he that soweth discord among
brethren_” (_Proverbs_ vi. 16, 17, 18, 19).
Of which of these accusations are the long line of men who have left
the imprint of their feet in the Vatican guiltless?
“When the demons,” says Augustine, “_insinuate_ themselves in the
creatures, they begin by conforming themselves _to the will of every
one_.... In order to attract men, they begin by seducing them, by
simulating obedience.... _How could one know, had he not been taught
by the demons themselves_, what they like or what they hate; _the
name which attracts, or that which forces them into obedience_;
all this art, in short, of _magic_, the whole science of the
magicians?”[93]
To this impressive dissertation of the “saint,” we will add that
no magician has ever denied that he had learned the _art_ from
“spirits,” whether, being a medium, they acted independently on him,
or he had been initiated into the science of “evocation” by his
fathers who knew it before himself. But who was it then that taught
the exorcist? The priest who clothes himself with an authority not
only over the magician, but even over all these “spirits,” whom he
calls demons and _devils_ as soon as he finds them obeying any one
but himself? He must have learned somewhere from some one that power
which he pretends to possess. For, “... _how could one know had he
not been taught by the demons themselves ... the name which attracts,
or that which forces them into obedience?_” asks Augustine.
Useless to remark that we know the answer beforehand: “Revelation
... _divine_ gift ... the Son of God; nay, God Himself, through His
direct Spirit, who descended on the apostles as the Pentecostal fire,
and who is now alleged to overshadow every priest who sees fit to
exorcise for either glory or a gift. Are we then to believe that
the recent scandal of public exorcism, performed about the 14th of
October, 1876, by the senior priest of the Church of the Holy Spirit,
at Barcelona, Spain, was also done under the direct superintendence
of the Holy Ghost?[94] It will be urged that the “bishop was not
cognizant of this freak of the clergy;” but even if he were, how
could he have protested against a rite considered since the days of
the apostles, one of the most holy prerogatives of the Church of
Rome? So late as in 1852, only twenty-five years ago, these rites
received a public and solemn sanction from the Vatican, and a new
_Ritual of Exorcism_ was published in Rome, Paris, and other Catholic
capitals. Des Mousseaux, writing under the immediate patronage of
Father Ventura, the General of the Theatines of Rome, even favors
us with lengthy extracts from this famous ritual, and explains the
reason _why_ it was enforced again. It was in consequence of the
revival of Magic under the name of Modern Spiritualism. The bull of
Pope Innocent VIII. is exhumed, and translated for the benefit of
des Mousseaux’s readers. “We have heard,” exclaims the Sovereign
Pontiff, “that a great number of persons of both sexes have feared
not to enter into relations with the spirits of hell; and that, by
their practice of sorcery ... they strike with sterility the conjugal
bed, destroy the germs of humanity in the bosom of the mother, and
throw spells on them, and set a barrier to the multiplication of
animals ... etc., etc.;” then follow curses and anathemas against the
practice.
This belief of the Sovereign Pontiffs of an enlightened Christian
country is a direct inheritance by the most ignorant multitudes
from the southern Hindu rabble--the “heathen.” The diabolical arts
of certain kangalins (witches) and jadūgar (sorcerers) are firmly
believed in by these people. The following are among their most
dreaded powers: to inspire love and hatred at will; to send a devil
to take possession of a person and torture him; to expel him; to
cause sudden death or an incurable disease; to either strike cattle
with or protect them from epidemics; to compose philtres that will
either strike with sterility or provoke unbounded passions in men and
women, etc., etc. The sight alone of a man said to be such a sorcerer
excites in a Hindu profound terror.
And now we will quote in this connection the truthful remark of
a writer who passed years in India in the study of the origin of
such superstitions: “Vulgar magic in India, like a degenerated
infiltration, goes hand-in-hand with the most ennobling beliefs
of the sectarians of the _Pitris_. It was the _work of the lowest
clergy_, and designed to hold the populace in a perpetual state of
fear. It is thus that in all ages and under every latitude, side by
side with philosophical speculations of the highest character, one
always finds _the religion of the rabble_.”[95] In India it was the
work of the _lowest clergy_; in Rome, that of the _highest Pontiffs_.
But then, have they not as authority their greatest saint, Augustine,
who declares that “whoever believes not in the evil spirits, refuses
to believe in Holy Writ?”[96]
Therefore, in the second half of the nineteenth century, we find the
counsel for the Sacred Congregation of Rites (exorcism of demons
included), Father Ventura de Raulica, writing thus, in a letter
published by des Mousseaux, in 1865:
“We are in full magic! and under false names; the Spirit
of lies and impudicity goes on perpetrating his horrible
deprecations.... The most grievous feature in this is that
among the most serious persons they do not attach the
importance to the strange phenomena which they deserve,
these manifestations that we witness, and which become with
every day more weird, striking, as well as most fatal.
“I cannot sufficiently admire and praise, from this
standpoint, the zeal and courage displayed by you in your
work. The facts which you have collected are calculated to
throw light and conviction into the most skeptical minds;
and after reading this remarkable work, written with so
much learnedness and consciousness, blindness is no longer
possible.
“If anything could surprise us, it would be the
indifference with which these phenomena have been treated
by _false_ Science, endeavoring, as she has, to turn into
ridicule so grave a subject; the childish simplicity
exhibited by her in the desire to explain the facts by
absurd and contradictory hypotheses....[97]
[Signed] “_The Father Ventura de Raulica_, etc., etc.”
Thus encouraged by the greatest authorities of the Church of Rome,
ancient and modern, the Chevalier argues the necessity and the
efficacy of exorcism by the priests. He tries to demonstrate--_on
faith_, as usual-- that the power of the spirits of hell is closely
related to certain rites, words, and formal signs. “In the diabolical
Catholicism,” he says “as well as in the _divine_ Catholicism,
potential grace is _bound_ (_liée_) to certain signs.” While the
power of the Catholic priest proceeds from God, that of the Pagan
priest proceeds from the Devil. The Devil, he adds, “is forced to
submission” before the holy minister of God--“_he dares not_ LIE.”[98]
We beg the reader to note well the underlined sentence, as we mean
to test its truth impartially. We are prepared to adduce proofs,
undeniable and undenied even by the Popish Church--forced, as she
was, into the confession--proofs of hundreds of cases in relation
to the most solemn of her dogmas, wherein the “spirits” lied from
beginning to end. How about certain holy relics authenticated by
visions of the blessed Virgin, and a host of saints? We have at hand
a treatise by a pious Catholic, Jilbert de Nogen, on the relics of
saints. With honest despair he acknowledges the “great number of
false relics, as well as false legends,” and severely censures the
inventors of these lying miracles. “It was on the occasion _of one
of our Saviour’s teeth_,” writes the author of _Demonologia_, “that
de Nogen took up his pen on this subject, by which the monks of St.
Medard de Soissons pretended to work miracles; a pretension which he
asserted to be as chimerical as that of several persons who believed
they possessed the navel, and other parts less comely, of the body of
Christ.”[99]
“A monk of St. Antony,” says Stephens,[100] “having been at
Jerusalem, saw there several relics, among which was a bit of _the
finger of the Holy Ghost_, as sound and entire as it had ever been;
the snout of the seraph that appeared to St. Francis; one of the
nails of a cherub; one of the ribs of the _Verbum caro factum_ (the
Word made flesh); some rays of the star that appeared to the three
kings of the East; a phial of St. Michael’s sweat, that exuded when
he was fighting against the Devil, etc. ‘All which things,’ observes
the monkish treasurer of relics, ‘I have brought with me home very
devoutly.’”
And if the foregoing is set aside as the invention of a Protestant
enemy, may we not be allowed to refer the reader to the History
of England and authentic documents which state the existence of a
relic not less extraordinary than the best of the others? Henry III.
received from the Grand Master of the Templars a phial containing
a small portion of the sacred blood of Christ which he had shed
upon the cross. It was attested to be genuine by the seals of the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. The procession bearing the
sacred phial from St. Paul’s to Westminster Abbey is described by the
historian: “Two monks received the phial, and deposited it in the
Abbey ... which made all England shine with glory, dedicating it to
God and St. Edward.”
The story of the Prince Radzivil is well known. It was the undeniable
deception of the monks and nuns surrounding him and his own confessor
which made the Polish nobleman become a Lutheran. He felt at first so
indignant at the “heresy” of the Reformation spreading in Lithuania,
that he travelled all the way to Rome to pay his homage of sympathy
and veneration to the Pope. The latter presented him with a precious
box of relics. On his return home, his confessor saw the Virgin, who
descended from her glorious abode for the sole purpose of blessing
these relics and authenticating them. The superior of the neighboring
convent and the mother-abbess of a nunnery both saw the same vision,
with a reënforcement of several saints and martyrs; they prophesied
and “felt the Holy Ghost” ascending from the box of relics and
overshadowing the prince. A demoniac provided for the purpose by the
clergy was exorcised in full ceremony, and upon being touched by the
box immediately recovered, and rendered thanks on the spot to the
Pope and the Holy Ghost. After the ceremony was over the guardian
of the treasury in which the relics were kept, threw himself at the
feet of the prince, and confessed that on their way back from Rome he
had lost the box of relics. Dreading the wrath of his master, he had
procured a similar box, “which he had filled with the small bones of
dogs and cats;” but seeing how the prince was deceived, he preferred
confessing his guilt to such blasphemous tricks. The prince said
nothing, but continued for some time testing--not the relics, but his
confessor and the vision-seers. Their mock raptures made him discover
so thoroughly the gross impositions of the monks and nuns that he
joined the Reformed Church.
This is history. Bayle shows that when the Roman Church is no longer
able to deny that there have been false relics, she resorts to
sophistry, and replies that if false relics have wrought miracles
it is “because of the good intentions of the believers, who thus
obtained from God a reward of their good faith!” The same Bayle
shows, by numerous instances, that whenever it was proved that
several bodies of the same saint, or three heads of him, or three
arms (as in the case of Augustine) were said to exist in different
places, and that they could not well be all authentic, the cool and
invariable answer of the Church was that they were all genuine;
for “God had multiplied and miraculously reproduced them for the
greater glory of His Holy Church!” In other words they would have
the faithful believe that the body of a deceased saint may, through
divine miracle, acquire the physiological peculiarities of a
crawfish!
We fancy that it would be hard to demonstrate to satisfaction that
the visions of Catholic saints, are, in any one particular instance,
better or more trustworthy than the average visions and prophecies of
our modern “mediums.” The visions of Andrew Jackson Davis--however
our critics may sneer at them--are by long odds more philosophical
and more compatible with modern science than the Augustinian
speculations. Whenever the visions of Swedenborg, the greatest among
the modern seers, run astray from philosophy and scientific truth, it
is when they most run parallel with theology. Nor are these visions
any more useless to either science or humanity than those of the
great orthodox saints. In the life of St. Bernard it is narrated
that as he was once in church, upon a Christmas eve, he prayed that
the very hour in which Christ was born might be revealed to him; and
when the “true and correct hour came, he saw the divine babe appear
in his manger.” What a pity that the divine babe did not embrace
so favorable an opportunity to fix the correct day and year of his
death, and thereby reconcile the controversies of his putative
historians. The Tischendorfs, Lardners, and Colensos, as well as
many a Catholic divine, who have vainly squeezed the marrow out of
historical records and their own brains, in the useless search, would
at least have had something for which to thank the saint.
As it is, we are hopelessly left to infer that most of the beatific
and divine visions of the _Golden Legend_, and those to be found in
the more complete biographies of the most important “saints,” as well
as most of the visions of our own persecuted seers and seeresses,
were produced by ignorant and undeveloped “spirits” passionately
fond of personating great historical characters. We are quite ready
to agree with the Chevalier des Mousseaux, and other unrelenting
persecutors of magic and spiritualism in the name of the Church, that
modern spirits are often “lying spirits;” that they are ever on hand
to humor the respective hobbies of the persons who communicate with
them at “circles;” that they _deceive_ them and, therefore, are not
_always_ good “spirits.”
But, having conceded so much, we will now ask of any impartial
person: is it possible to believe at the same time that the _power_
given to the exorcist-priest, that supreme and _divine_ power of
which he boasts, has been given to him by God for the purpose of
deceiving people? That the prayer pronounced by him _in the name of
Christ_, and which, forcing the _demon_ into submission, makes him
reveal himself, is calculated at the same time to make the devil
confess _not the truth_, but that only which it is the _interest of
the church to which the exorcist belongs_, should _pass for truth_?
And this is what invariably happens. Compare, for instance, the
responses given by the demon to Luther, with those obtained from the
devils by St. Dominick. The one argues against the private mass,
and upbraids Luther with placing the Virgin Mary and saints before
Christ, and thus dishonoring the Son of God;[101] while the demons
exorcised by St. Dominick, upon seeing the Virgin whom the holy
father had also evoked to help him, roar out: “Oh! our enemy! oh!
our damner! ... why didst thou descend from heaven to torment us?
Why art thou so powerful an intercessor for sinners! Oh! _thou most
certain and secure way to heaven_ ... thou commandest us _and we are
forced to confess_ that nobody is damned who only perseveres in thy
holy worship, etc., etc.”[102] Luther’s “Saint Satan” assures him
that while believing in the transubstantiation of Christ’s body and
blood he had been worshipping merely bread and wine; and the _devils_
of all the Catholic saints promise _eternal damnation_ to whomsoever
disbelieves or even so much as doubts the dogma!
Before leaving the subject, let us give one or two more instances
from the _Chronicles of the Lives of the Saints_, selected from such
narratives as are fully accepted by the Church. We might fill volumes
with proofs of undeniable confederacy between the exorcisers and the
demons. Their very nature betrays them. Instead of being independent,
crafty entities, bent on the destruction of men’s souls and spirits,
the majority of them are simply the elementals of the kabalists;
creatures with no intellect of their own, but faithful mirrors of
the WILL which evokes, controls, and guides them. We will not waste
our time in drawing the reader’s attention to doubtful or obscure
thaumaturgists and exorcisers, but take as our standard one of the
greatest saints of Catholicism, and select a bouquet from that same
prolific conservatory of pious lies, _The Golden Legend_, of James de
Veragine.[103]
St. Dominick, the founder of the famous order of that name, is one of
the mightiest saints on the calendar. His order was the first that
received a solemn confirmation from the Pope,[104] and he is well
known in history as the associate and counsellor of the infamous
Simon de Montford, the papal general, whom he helped to butcher the
unfortunate Albigenses in and near Toulouse. The story goes that
this saint and the Church after him, claim that he received from the
Virgin, _in propriâ personâ_, a rosary, whose virtues produced such
stupendous miracles that they throw entirely into the shade those of
the apostles, and even of Jesus himself. A man, says the biographer,
an abandoned sinner, was bold enough to doubt the virtue of the
Dominican rosary; and for this unparalleled blasphemy was punished
on the spot by having 15,000 devils take possession of him. Seeing
the great suffering of the tortured demoniac, St. Dominick forgot the
insult and called the devils to account.
Following is the colloquy between the “blessed exorcist” and the
demons:
_Question._--How did you take possession of this man, and how many
are you?
_Answer of the Devils._--We came into him for having spoken
disrespectfully of the rosary. We are 15,000.
_Question._--Why did so many as 15,000 enter him?
_Answer._--Because there are fifteen decades in the rosary which he
derided, etc.
_Dominick._--Is not all true I have said of the virtues of the rosary?
_Devils._--Yes! Yes! (_they emit flames through the nostrils of the
demoniac_). Know all ye Christians that Dominick never said one word
concerning the rosary that is not most true; and know ye further,
that if you do not believe him, great calamities will befall you.
_Dominick._--Who is the man in the world the Devil hates the most?
_Devils._--(_In chorus._) Thou art the very man (_here follow verbose
compliments_).
_Dominick._--Of which state of Christians are there the most damned?
_Devils._--In hell we have merchants, pawnbrokers, fraudulent
bankers, grocers, Jews, apothecaries, etc., etc.
_Dominick._--Are there any priests or monks in hell?
_Devils._--There are a great number of priests, but _no monks_, with
the exception of such as have transgressed the rule of their order.
_Dominick._--Have you any Dominicans?
_Devils._--Alas! alas! we have not one yet, but we expect a great
number of them after their devotion is a little cooled.
We do not pretend to give the questions and answers literally, for
they occupy twenty-three pages; but the substance is here, as may
be seen by any one who cares to read the _Golden Legend_. The full
description of the hideous bellowings of the demons, their enforced
glorification of the saint, and so on, is too long for this chapter.
Suffice it to say that as we read the numerous questions offered by
Dominick and the answers of the demons, we become fully convinced
that they corroborate in every detail the unwarranted assertions and
support the interests of the Church. The narrative is suggestive.
The legend graphically describes the battle of the exorcist with the
legion from the bottomless pit. The sulphurous flames which burst
forth from the nose, mouth, eyes, and ears, of the demoniac; the
sudden appearance of over a hundred angels, clad in golden armor;
and, finally, the descent of the blessed Virgin herself, in person,
bearing a golden rod, with which she administers a sound thrashing
to the demoniac, to force the devils to confess that of herself
which we scarcely need repeat. The whole catalogue of theological
truths uttered by Dominick’s devils were embodied in so many articles
of faith by his Holiness, the present Pope, in 1870, at the last
Œcumenical Council.
From the foregoing it is easy to see that the only substantial
difference between infidel “mediums” and orthodox saints lies in the
relative usefulness of the _demons_, if demons we must call them.
While the Devil faithfully supports the Christian exorcist in his
_orthodox_ (?) views, the modern spook generally leaves his medium
in the lurch. For, by lying, he acts _against_ his or her interests
rather than otherwise, and thereby too often casts foul suspicion on
the genuineness of the mediumship. Were modern “spirits” _devils_,
they would evidently display a little more discrimination and cunning
than they do. They would act as the _demons_ of the saint which,
compelled by the ecclesiastical magician and by the power of “the
name ... which forces them into submission,” _lie in accordance with
the direct interest_ of the exorcist and his church. The moral of the
parallel we leave to the sagacity of the reader.
“Observe well,” exclaims des Mousseaux, “that there are _demons_
which sometimes will speak the truth.” “The exorcist,” he adds,
quoting the _Ritual_, “must command the demon to tell him whether he
is detained in the body of the demoniac through some magic art, or by
_signs_, or any objects which usually serve for this evil practice.
In case the exorcised person has swallowed the latter, he must vomit
them back; and if they are not in his body, the demon must indicate
the proper place where they are to be found; and having found them
they must be burned.”[105] Thus some demons reveal the existence of
the bewitchment, tell who is its author, and indicate the means to
destroy the _malefice_. But beware to ever resort, in such a case,
to magicians, sorcerers, or mediums. You must call to help you but
the minister of your Church! “The Church believes in magic, as you
well see,” he adds, “since she expresses it so formally. And those
who _disbelieve in magic_, can they still hope to share the faith of
their own Church? And who can teach them better? To whom did Christ
say: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations ... and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the world?’”[106]
Are we to believe that he said this but to those who wear these
black or scarlet liveries of Rome? Must we then credit the story
that this power was given by Christ to Simon Stylites, the saint who
sanctified himself by perching on a pillar (_stylos_) sixty feet
high, for thirty-six years of his life, without ever descending
from it, in order that, among other miracles stated in the _Golden
Legend_, he might cure a _dragon_ of a sore eye? “Near Simon’s pillar
was the dwelling of a dragon, so very venomous that the stench was
spread for miles round his cave.” This ophidian-hermit met with an
accident; he got a thorn in his eye, and, becoming blind, crept to
the saint’s pillar, and pressed his eye against it for three days,
without touching any one. Then the blessed saint, from his aërial
seat, “_three feet in diameter_,” ordered earth and water to be
placed on the dragon’s eye, out of which suddenly emerged a thorn
(or stake), a cubit in length; when the people saw the “miracle”
they glorified the Creator. As to the grateful dragon, he arose and,
“having adored God for two hours, returned to his cave”[107]--a
half-converted ophidian, we must suppose.
And what are we to think of that other narrative, to disbelieve
in which is “_to risk one’s salvation_,” as we were informed by a
Pope’s missionary, of the Order of the Franciscans? When St. Francis
preached a sermon in the wilderness, the birds assembled from the
four cardinal points of the world. They warbled and applauded every
sentence; they sang a holy mass in chorus; finally they dispersed
to carry the glad tidings all over the universe. A grasshopper,
profiting by the absence of the Holy Virgin, who generally kept
company with the saint, remained perched on the head of the “blessed
one” for a whole week. Attacked by a ferocious wolf, the saint, who
had no other weapon but the sign of the cross which he made upon
himself, instead of running away from his rabid assailant, began
arguing with the beast. Having imparted to him the benefit to be
derived from the holy religion, St. Francis never ceased talking
until the wolf became as meek as a lamb, and even shed tears of
repentance over his past sins. Finally, he “stretched his paws in the
hands of the saint, followed him like a dog through all the towns
in which he preached, and became half a Christian!”[108] Wonders
of zoölogy! a horse turned sorcerer, a wolf and a dragon turned
Christians!
These two anecdotes, chosen at random from among hundreds, if
rivalled are not surpassed by the wildest romances of the Pagan
thaumaturgists, magicians, and spiritualists! And yet, when
Pythagoras is said to have subdued animals, even wild beasts, merely
through a powerful mesmeric influence, he is pronounced by one-half
of the Catholics a bare-faced impostor, and by the rest a sorcerer,
who worked magic in confederacy with the Devil! Neither the she-bear,
nor the eagle, nor yet the bull that Pythagoras is said to have
persuaded to give up eating beans, were alleged to have answered with
human voices; while St. Benedict’s “black raven,” whom he called
“brother,” argues with him, and croaks his answers like a born
casuist. When the saint offers him one-half of a poisoned loaf, the
raven grows indignant and reproaches him in Latin as though he had
just graduated at the Propaganda!
If it be objected that the _Golden Legend_ is now but half supported
by the Church; and that it is known to have been compiled by the
writer from a collection of the lives of the saints, for the most
part unauthenticated, we can show that, at least in one instance,
the biography is no legendary compilation, but the history of one
man, by another one who was his contemporary. Jortin and Gibbons
demonstrated years ago, that the early fathers used to select
narratives, wherewith to ornament the lives of their apocryphal
saints, from Ovid, Homer, Livy, and even from the unwritten popular
legends of Pagan nations. But such is not the case in the above
instances. St. Bernard lived in the twelfth century, and St. Dominick
was nearly contemporaneous with the author of the _Golden Legend_.
De Veragine died in 1298, and Dominick, whose exorcisms and life he
describes so minutely, instituted his order in the first quarter
of the thirteenth century. Moreover, de Veragine was Vicar-General
of the Dominicans himself, in the middle of the same century, and
therefore described the miracles wrought by his hero and patron but a
few years after they were alleged to have happened. He wrote them in
the same convent; and while narrating these wonders he had probably
fifty persons at hand who had been eye-witnesses to the saint’s mode
of living. What must we think, in such a case, of a biographer who
seriously describes the following: One day, as the blessed saint was
occupied in his study, the Devil began pestering him, in the shape of
a flea. He frisked and jumped about the pages of his book until the
harassed saint, unwilling as he was to act unkindly, even toward a
devil, felt compelled to punish him by fixing the troublesome devil
on the very sentence on which he stopped, by clasping the book. At
another time the same devil appeared under the shape of a monkey.
He grinned so horribly that Dominick, in order to get rid of him,
ordered the devil-monkey to take the candle and hold it for him
until he had done reading. The poor imp did so, and held it until it
was consumed to the very end of the wick; and, notwithstanding his
pitiful cries for mercy, the saint compelled him to hold it till his
fingers were burned to the bones!
Enough! The approbation with which this book was received by the
Church, and the peculiar sanctity attributed to it, is sufficient to
show the estimation in which veracity was held by its patrons. We
may add, in conclusion, that the finest quintessence of Boccaccio’s
_Decameron_ appears prudery itself by comparison with the filthy
realism of the _Golden Legend_.
We cannot regard with too much astonishment the pretensions of
the Catholic Church in seeking to convert Hindus and Buddhists to
Christianity. While the “heathen” keeps to the faith of his fathers,
he has at least the one redeeming quality--that of not having
apostatized for the mere pleasure of exchanging one set of idols
for another. There may be for him some novelty in his embracing
Protestantism; for in that he gains the advantage, at least, of
limiting his religious views to their simplest expression. But when
a Buddhist has been enticed into exchanging his Shoe Dagoon for the
Slipper of the Vatican, or the eight hairs from the head of Gautama
and Buddha’s tooth, which work miracles, for the locks of a Christian
saint, and a tooth of Jesus, which work far less clever miracles, he
has no cause to boast of his choice. In his address to the Literary
Society of Java, Sir T. S. Raffles is said to have narrated the
following characteristic anecdote: “On visiting the great temple
on the hills of Nangasaki, the English commissioner was received
with marked regard and respect by the venerable patriarch of the
northern provinces, a man eighty years of age, who entertained him
most sumptuously. On showing him round the courts of the temple, one
of the English officers present heedlessly exclaimed, in surprise,
‘Jesus Christus!’ The patriarch turning half round, with a placid
smile, bowed significantly, with the expression: ‘We know your Jasus
Christus! Well, don’t obtrude him upon us in our temples, and we
remain friends.’ And so, with a hearty shake of the hands, these two
opposites parted.”[109]
There is scarcely a report sent by the missionaries from India,
Thibet, and China, but laments the diabolical “obscenity” of the
heathen rites, their lamentable impudicity; all of which “are so
strongly suggestive of devil-worship,” as des Mousseaux tells us. We
can scarcely be assured that the morality of the Pagans would be in
the least improved were they allowed a free inquiry into the life
of say the psalmist-king, the author of those sweet _Psalms_ which
are so rapturously repeated by Christians. The difference between
David performing a phallic dance before the holy ark--emblem of the
female principle--and a Hindu Vishnavite bearing the same emblem on
his forehead, favors the former only in the eyes of those who have
studied neither the ancient faith nor their own. When a religion
which compelled David to cut off and deliver two hundred foreskins of
his enemies before he could become the king’s son-in-law (_1 Sam._
xviii.) is accepted as a standard by Christians, they would do well
not to cast into the teeth of heathen the impudicities of their
faiths. Remembering the suggestive parable of Jesus, they ought to
cast the beam out of their own eye before plucking at the mote in
their neighbor’s. The sexual element is as marked in Christianity
as in any one of the “heathen religions.” Certainly, nowhere in
the _Vedas_ can be found the coarseness and downright immodesty of
language, that Hebraists now discover throughout the Mosaic _Bible_.
It would profit little were we to dwell much upon subjects which
have been disposed of in such a masterly way by an anonymous author
whose work electrified England and Germany last year;[110] while as
regards the particular topic under notice, we cannot do better than
recommend the scholarly writings of Dr. Inman. Albeit one-sided, and
in many instances unjust to the ancient heathen, Pagan, and Jewish
religions, the _facts_ treated in the _Ancient and Pagan Christian
Symbolism_, are unimpeachable. Neither can we agree with some English
critics who charge him with an intent to destroy Christianity. If
by _Christianity_ is meant the external religious forms of worship,
then he certainly seeks to destroy it, for in his eyes, as well as in
those of every truly religious man, who has studied ancient exoteric
faiths, and their symbology, Christianity is pure heathenism, and
Catholicism, with its fetish-worshipping, is far worse and more
pernicious than Hinduism in its most idolatrous aspect. But while
denouncing the exoteric forms and unmasking the symbols, it is not
the religion of Christ that the author attacks, but the artificial
system of theology. We will allow him to illustrate the position in
his own language, and quote from his preface:
“When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer,” he
says, “they were, we are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being
driven through the body; but experience showed them to have such
tenacity of life that they rose, again and again, notwithstanding
renewed impalement, and were not ultimately laid to rest till wholly
burned. In like manner, the regenerated heathendom, which dominates
over the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, has risen again and again,
after being transfixed. Still cherished by the many, it is denounced
by the few. Amongst other accusers, I raise my voice against the
Paganism which exists so extensively in ecclesiastical Christianity,
and will do my utmost to expose the imposture.... In a vampire story
told in _Thalaba_, by Southey, the resuscitated being takes the form
of a dearly-beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged to kill her with
his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form of the
loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like manner,
when I endeavor to destroy the current heathenism, which has assumed
the garb of Christianity, _I do not attack real religion_.[111] Few
would accuse a workman of malignancy, who cleanses from filth the
surface of a noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to
touch a nasty subject, yet even they will rejoice when some one else
removes the dirt. Such a scavenger is wanted.”[112]
But is it merely Pagans and heathen that the Catholics persecute,
and about whom, like Augustine, they cry to the Deity, “Oh, my God!
_so do I wish Thy enemies to be slain?_” Oh, no! their aspirations
are more Mosaic and Cain-like than that. It is against their next of
kin in faith, against their schismatic brothers that they are now
intriguing within the walls which sheltered the murderous Borgias.
The _larvæ_ of the infanticidal, parricidal, and fratricidal Popes
have proved themselves fit counsellors for the Cains of Castelfidardo
and Mentana. It is now the turn of the Slavonian Christians, the
Oriental Schismatics--the Philistines of the Greek Church!
His Holiness the Pope, after exhausting, in a metaphor of
self-laudation, every point of assimilation between the great
biblical prophets and himself, has finally and truly compared himself
with the Patriarch Jacob “wrestling against his God.” He now crowns
the edifice of Catholic piety by openly sympathizing with the Turks!
The vicegerent of God inaugurates his infallibility by encouraging,
in a true Christian spirit, the acts of that Moslem David, the
modern Bashi Bazuk; and it seems as if nothing would more please his
Holiness than to be presented by the latter with several thousands of
the Bulgarian or Servian “foreskins.” True to her policy to be all
things to all men to promote her own interests, the Romish Church
is, at this writing (1876), benevolently viewing the Bulgarian and
Servian atrocities, and, probably, manœuvring with Turkey against
Russia. Better Islam, and the hitherto-hated Crescent over the
sepulchre of the Christian god, than the Greek Church established
at Constantinople and Jerusalem as the state religion. Like a
decrepit and toothless ex-tyrant in exile, the Vatican is eager for
any alliance that promises, if not a restoration of its own power,
at least the weakening of its rival. The axe its inquisitors once
swung, it now toys with in secret, feeling its edge, and waiting,
and hoping against hope. In her time, the Popish Church has lain with
strange bedfellows, but never before now sunk to the degradation of
giving her moral support to those who for over 1200 years spat in her
face, called her adherents “infidel dogs,” repudiated her teachings,
and denied godhood to her God!
The press of even Catholic France is fairly aroused at this
indignity, and openly accuses the Ultramontane portion of the
Catholic Church and the Vatican of siding, during the present Eastern
struggle, with the Mahometan against the Christian. “When the
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the French Legislature spoke some mild
words in favor of the Greek Christians, he was only applauded by the
liberal Catholics, and received coldly by the Ultramontane party,”
says the French correspondent of a New York paper.
“So pronounced was this, that M. Lemoinne, the well-known editor of
the great liberal Catholic journal, the _Débats_, was moved to say
that the Roman Church felt more sympathy for the Moslem than the
schismatic, just as they preferred an infidel to the Protestant.
‘There is at bottom,’ says this writer, ‘a great affinity between
the _Syllabus_ and the _Koran_, and between the two heads of the
faithful. The two systems are of the same nature, and are united on
the common ground of a one and unchangeable theory.’ In Italy, in
like manner, the King and Liberal Catholics are in warm sympathy with
the unfortunate Christians, while the Pope and Ultramontane faction
are believed to be inclining to the Mahometans.”
The civilized world may yet expect the apparition of the materialized
Virgin Mary within the walls of the Vatican. The so often-repeated
“miracle” of the Immaculate Visitor in the mediæval ages has recently
been enacted at Lourdes, and why not once more, as a _coup de grâce_
to all heretics, schismatics, and infidels? The miraculous wax taper
is yet seen at Arras, the chief city of Artois; and at every new
calamity threatening her beloved Church, the “Blessed Lady” appears
personally, and lights it with her own fair hands, in view of a whole
“biologized” congregation. This sort of “miracle,” says E. Worsley,
wrought by the Roman Catholic Church, “being most certain, and never
doubted of by any.”[113] Neither has the private correspondence with
which the most “Gracious Lady” honors her friends been doubted. There
are two precious missives from her in the archives of the Church. The
first purports to be a letter in answer to one addressed to her by
Ignatius. She confirms all things learned by her correspondent from
“her friend”--meaning the Apostle John. She bids him hold fast to
his vows, and adds as an inducement: “_I and John will come together
and pay you a visit._”[114]
Nothing was known of this unblushing fraud till the letters were
published at Paris, in 1495. By a curious accident it appeared
at a time when threatening inquiries began to be made as to the
genuineness of the fourth Synoptic. Who could doubt, after such
a confirmation from headquarters! But the climax of effrontery
was capped in 1534, when another letter was received from the
“Mediatrix,” which sounds more like the report of a lobby-agent to a
brother-politician. It was written in excellent Latin, and was found
in the Cathedral of Messina, together with the image to which it
alludes. Its contents run as follows:
“Mary Virgin, Mother of the Redeemer of the world, to the
Bishop, Clergy, and the other faithful of Messina, sendeth
health and benediction from _herself_ and son:[115]
“Whereas ye have been mindful of establishing the worship
of me; now this is to let you know that by so doing ye
have found great favor in my sight. I have a long time
reflected with pain upon your city, which is exposed to
much danger from its contiguity to the fire of Etna, and I
have often had words about it with my son, for he was vexed
with you because of your guilty neglect of my worship,
so that he would not care a pin about my intercession.
Now, however, that you have come to your senses, and have
happily begun to worship me, he has conferred upon me the
right to become your everlasting protectress; but, at the
same time, I warn you to mind what you are about, and give
me no cause of repenting of my kindness to you. The prayers
and festivals instituted in my honor please me tremendously
(_vehementer_), and if you faithfully persevere in these
things, and provided you oppose to the utmost of your
power, the heretics which now-a-days are spreading through
the world, by which both my worship and that of the other
saints, male and female, are so endangered, you shall enjoy
my perpetual protection.
“In sign of this compact, I send you down from Heaven the
image of myself, cast by celestial hands, and if ye hold
it in the honor to which it is entitled, it will be an
evidence to me of your obedience and your faith. Farewell.
Dated in Heaven, whilst sitting near the throne of my son,
in the month of December, of the 1534th year from his
incarnation.
“MARY VIRGIN.”
The reader should understand that this document is no anti-Catholic
forgery. The author from whom it is taken,[116] says that the
authenticity of the missive “is attested by the Bishop himself, his
Vicar-General, Secretary, and six Canons of the Cathedral Church of
Messina, all of whom have signed that attestation with their names,
and confirmed it upon oath.
“Both the epistle and image were found upon the high altar, where
they had been placed by angels from heaven.”
A Church must have reached the last stages of degradation, when such
sacrilegious trickery as this could be resorted to by its clergy, and
accepted with or without question by the people.
No! far from the man who feels the workings of an immortal spirit
within him, be such a religion! There never was nor ever will be
a truly philosophical mind, whether of Pagan, heathen, Jew, or
Christian, but has followed the same path of thought. Gautama-Buddha
is mirrored in the precepts of Christ; Paul and Philo Judæus are
faithful echoes of Plato; and Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus won their
immortal fame by combining the teachings of all these grand masters
of true philosophy. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,”
ought to be the motto of all brothers on earth. Not so is it with
the interpreters of the _Bible_. The seed of the Reformation was
sown on the day that the second chapter of _The Catholic Epistle of
James_, jostled the eleventh chapter of the _Epistle to the Hebrews_
in the same _New Testament_. One who believes in Paul cannot believe
in James, Peter, and John. The Paulists, to remain Christians with
their apostle, must withstand Peter “to the face;” and if Peter
“was to be blamed” and _was wrong_, then he was not infallible.
How then can his successor (?) boast of his infallibility? Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every
house divided against itself must fall. A plurality of masters has
proved as fatal in religions as in politics. What Paul preached, was
preached by every other mystic philosopher. “Stand _fast therefore
in the liberty_ wherewith Christ hath made us free, and _be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage_!” exclaims the honest
apostle-philosopher; and adds, as if prophetically inspired: “But if
ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one
of another.”
That the Neo-platonists were not always despised or accused of
demonolatry is evidenced in the adoption by the Roman Church of their
very rites and theurgy. The identical evocations and incantations
of the Pagan and Jewish Kabalist, are now repeated by the Christian
exorcist, and the theurgy of Iamblichus was adopted word for word.
“Distinct as were the Platonists and Pauline Christians of the
earlier centuries,” writes Professor A. Wilder, “many of the more
distinguished teachers of the new faith were deeply tinctured with
the philosophical leaven. Synesius, the Bishop of Cyrene, was
the disciple of Hypatia. _St. Anthony reiterated the theurgy of
Iamblichus._ The _Logos_, or word of the _Gospel according to John_,
was a Gnostic personification. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and
others of the fathers drank deeply from the fountains of philosophy.
The ascetic idea which carried away the Church was like that which
was practiced by Plotinus ... all through the middle ages there rose
up men who accepted the interior doctrines which were promulgated by
the renowned teacher of the Academy.”[117]
To substantiate our accusation that the Latin Church first despoiled
the kabalists and theurgists of their magical rites and ceremonies,
before hurling anathemas upon their devoted heads, we will now
translate for the reader fragments from the forms of _exorcism_
employed by kabalists and Christians. The identity in phraseology,
may, perhaps, disclose one of the reasons why the Romish Church has
always desired to keep the faithful in ignorance of the meaning of
her Latin prayers and ritual. Only those directly interested in
the deception have had the opportunity to compare the rituals of
the Church and the magicians. The best Latin scholars were, until
a comparatively recent date, either churchmen, or dependent upon
the Church. Common people could not read Latin, and even if they
could, the reading of the books on magic was prohibited, under
the penalty of anathema and excommunication. The cunning device
of the confessional made it almost impossible to consult, even
surreptitiously, what the priests call a _grimoire_ (a devil’s
scrawl), or _Ritual of Magic_. To make assurance doubly sure, the
Church began destroying or concealing everything of the kind she
could lay her hands upon.
The following are translated from the _Kabalistic Ritual_, and that
generally known as the _Roman Ritual_. The latter was promulgated in
1851 and 1852, under the sanction of Cardinal Engelbert, Archbishop
of Malines, and of the Archbishop of Paris. Speaking of it, the
demonologist des Mousseaux says: “It is the ritual of Paul V.,
revised by the most learned of modern Popes, by the contemporary of
Voltaire, Benedict XIV.”[118]
KABALISTIC. ROMAN CATHOLIC.
(Jewish and Pagan.)
_Exorcism of Salt._ _Exorcism of Salt._[119]
The Priest-Magician blesses The Priest blesses the
the Salt, and says: _Salt_ and says: “_Creature
“_Creature of Salt_,[120] in of Salt_, I exorcise thee in
thee may remain the the name of the living God
<sc>WISDOM</sc> (of God); ... _become the health of
and may it preserve from all the soul and of the body_!
corruption _our minds and_ Everywhere where thou art
_bodies_. Through Hochmael (חכמאל thrown _may the unclean
God of wisdom), and the spirit be put to flight_....
power of _Ruach_ Hochmael _Amen._”
(Spirit of the Holy Ghost)
may the Spirits of matter
(bad spirits) before it
recede.... _Amen._”
_Exorcism of Water Exorcism of Water._
(and Ashes)._
“Creature of the Water, I “Creature of the water, in
exorcise thee ... by _the the name of the Almighty
three names_ which are God, the Father, the Son,
Netsah, Hod, and Jerod and the Holy Ghost ... _be
(kabalistic trinity), in the exorcised_.... I adjure thee
beginning and in the end, by in the name of the Lamb ...
Alpha and Omega, which are (the magician says _bull_ or
in the Spirit Azoth (Holy ox--_per alas Tauri_) of the
Ghost, or the ‘_Universal Lamb that trod upon the
Soul_’), I exorcise and basilisk and the aspic, and
adjure thee.... Wandering who crushes under his foot
eagle, may the Lord command the lion and the dragon.”
thee by the _wings of the
bull and his flaming
sword_.” (The cherub placed
at the east gate of Eden.)
_Exorcism of an _Exorcism of the Devil._
Elemental Spirit._
“Serpent, in the name of the * * * * *
Tetragrammaton, the Lord; He “O Lord, let him who carries
commands thee, by the angel along with him the terror,
and the lion. flee, struck in his turn by
terror and defeated. O thou,
“Angel of darkness, obey, who art the Ancient Serpent
and run away with this holy ... tremble before the hand
(exorcised) water. Eagle in of him who, having triumphed
chains, obey this sign, and of the tortures of hell (?)
retreat before the breath. _devictis gemitibus and
Moving serpent, crawl at my inferni_, recalled the souls
feet, or be tortured by to light.... The more whilst
_this sacred fire_, thou decay, the more
evaporate before this holy terrible will be thy torture
incense. Let water return to ... by Him who reigns over
water (the elemental spirit the living and the dead ...
of water); let the fire and who will judge the
burn, and the air circulate; century by fire, _sæculum
let the earth return to per ignem_, etc. In the name
earth by the virtue of the of the Father, Son, and the
Pentagram, which is the Holy Ghost. _Amen._”[121]
Morning Star, and in the
name of the tetragrammaton
which is traced in the
centre of _the Cross of
Light_. _Amen._”
It is unnecessary to try the patience of the reader any longer,
although we might multiply examples. It must not be forgotten that we
have quoted from the latest revision of the _Ritual_, that of 1851-2.
If we were to go back to the former one we would find a far more
striking identity, not merely of phraseology but of ceremonial form.
For the purpose of comparison we have not even availed ourselves
of the ritual of ceremonial magic of the _Christian_ kabalists of
the middle ages, wherein the language modelled upon a belief in the
divinity of Christ is, with the exception of a stray expression here
and there, identical with the Catholic Ritual.[122] The latter,
however, makes one improvement, for the originality of which the
Church should be allowed all credit. Certainly nothing so fantastical
could be found in a ritual of magic. “Give place,” apostrophizing
the “Demon,” it says, “give place to Jesus Christ ... thou _filthy,
stinking, and ferocious beast_ ... dost thou rebel? Listen and
tremble, Satan; enemy of the faith, enemy of the human race,
introducer of death ... root of all evil, promoter of vice, soul
of envy, origin of avarice, cause of discord, prince of homicide,
whom God curses; author of incest and sacrilege, inventor of all
obscenity, _professor_ of the most detestable actions, _and Grand
Master of Heretics_ (_!!_) (_Doctor Hæreticorum!_) What! ... dost
thou still stand? Dost dare to resist, and thou knowest that Christ,
our Lord, is coming?... Give place to Jesus Christ, give place to
the Holy Ghost, which, by His blessed Apostle Peter, has flung thee
down before the public, in the person of Simon the Magician” (_te
manifeste stravit in Simone mago_).[123]
After such a shower of abuse, no devil having the slightest feeling
of self-respect could remain in such company; unless, indeed, he
should chance to be an Italian Liberal, or King Victor Emmanuel
himself; both of whom, thanks to Pius IX., have become anathema-proof.
It really seems too bad to strip Rome of all her symbols at once;
but justice must be done to the despoiled hierophants. Long before
the sign of the Cross was adopted as a Christian symbol, it was
employed as a secret sign of recognition among neophytes and adepts.
Says Levi: “The sign of the Cross adopted by the Christians does not
belong exclusively to them. It is kabalistic, and represents the
oppositions and quaternary equilibrium of the elements. We see by
the occult verse of the _Pater_, to which we have called attention
in another work, that there were originally two ways of making it,
or, at least, two very different formulas to express its meaning--one
reserved for priests and initiates; the other given to neophytes
and the profane. Thus, for example, the _initiate_, carrying his
hand to his forehead, said: _To thee_; then he added, _belong_; and
continued, while carrying his hand to the breast--_the kingdom_;
then, to the left shoulder--_justice_; to the right shoulder--_and
mercy_. Then he joined the two hands, adding: _throughout the
generating cycles: ‘Tibi sunt Malchut, et Geburah et Chassed per
Æonas’_--a sign of the Cross, _absolutely_ and magnificently
kabalistic, which the profanations of Gnosticism made the militant
and official Church completely _lose_.”[124]
How fantastical, therefore, is the assertion of Father Ventura,
that, while Augustine was a Manichean, a philosopher, ignorant of
and refusing to humble himself before the sublimity of the “grand
Christian revelation,” he knew nothing, understood naught of God,
man, or universe; “... he remained poor, small, obscure, sterile,
and wrote nothing, did nothing really grand or useful.” But, hardly
had he become a Christian “... when his reasoning powers and
intellect, enlightened at the _luminary of faith_, elevated him to
the most sublime heights of philosophy and theology.” And his other
proposition that Augustine’s genius, as a consequence, “developed
itself in all its grandeur and prodigious fecundity ... his intellect
radiated with that immense splendor which, reflecting itself in his
immortal writings, has never ceased for one moment during fourteen
centuries to illuminate the Church and the world!”[125]
Whatever Augustine was as a Manichean, we leave Father Ventura to
discover; but that his accession to Christianity established an
everlasting enmity between theology and science is beyond doubt.
While forced to confess that “the Gentiles had possibly something
_divine_ and true in their doctrines,” he, nevertheless, declared
that for their superstition, idolatry, and pride, they had “to
be detested, and, unless they improved, to be punished by divine
judgment.” This furnishes the clew to the subsequent policy of the
Christian Church, even to our day. If the Gentiles did not choose
to come into the Church, all that was divine in their philosophy
should go for naught, and the divine wrath of God should be visited
upon their heads. What effect this produced is succinctly stated
by Draper: “No one did more than this Father to bring science and
religion into antagonism; it was mainly he who diverted the _Bible_
from its true office--a guide to purity of life--and placed it in
the perilous position of being the arbiter of human knowledge, an
audacious tyranny over the mind of man. The example once set, there
was no want of followers; the works of the Greek philosophers were
stigmatized as profane; the transcendently glorious achievements
of the Museum of Alexandria were hidden from sight by a cloud of
ignorance, mysticism, and unintelligible jargon, out of which there
too often flashed the destroying lightnings of ecclesiastical
vengeance.”[126]
Augustine and Cyprian[127] admit that Hermes and Hostanes believed in
one true god; the first two maintaining, as well as the two Pagans,
that he is invisible and incomprehensible, except spiritually.
Moreover we invite any man of intelligence--provided he be not a
religious fanatic--after reading fragments chosen at random from the
works of Hermes and Augustine on the Deity, to decide which of the
two gives a more philosophical definition of the “unseen Father.” We
have at least one writer of fame who is of our opinion. Draper calls
the Augustinian productions a “rhapsodical conversation” with God; an
“incoherent dream.”[128]
Father Ventura depicts the saint as attitudinizing before an
astonished world upon “the most sublime heights of philosophy.” But
here steps in again the same unprejudiced critic, who passes the
following remarks on this colossus of Patristic philosophy. “Was it
for this preposterous scheme,” he asks, “this product of ignorance
and audacity, that the works of the Greek philosophers were to be
given up? It was none too soon that the great critics who appeared
at the Reformation, by comparing the works of these writers with one
another, brought them to their proper level, and taught us to look
upon them all with contempt.”[129]
For such men as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Apollonius, and even
Simon Magus, to be accused of having formed a pact with the Devil,
whether the latter personage exist or not, is so absurd as to need
but little refutation. If Simon Magus--the most problematical of all
in an historical sense--ever existed otherwise than in the overheated
fancy of Peter and the other apostles, he was evidently no worse than
any of his adversaries. A difference in religious views, however
great, is insufficient _per se_ to send one person to heaven and the
other to hell. Such uncharitable and peremptory doctrines might have
been taught in the middle ages; but it is too late now for even the
Church to put forward this traditional scarecrow. Research begins to
suggest that which, if ever verified, will bring eternal disgrace on
the Church of the Apostle Peter, whose very imposition of herself
upon that disciple must be regarded as the most unverified and
unverifiable of the assumptions of the Catholic clergy.
The erudite author of _Supernatural Religion_ assiduously endeavors
to prove that by _Simon Magus_ we must understand the apostle Paul,
whose Epistles were secretly as well as openly calumniated by Peter,
and charged with containing “_dysnoëtic_ learning.” The Apostle of
the Gentiles was brave, outspoken, sincere, and very learned; the
Apostle of Circumcision, cowardly, cautious, _insincere_, and very
ignorant. That Paul had been, partially, at least, if not completely,
initiated into the theurgic mysteries, admits of little doubt. His
language, the phraseology so peculiar to the Greek philosophers,
certain expressions used but by the initiates, are so many sure
ear-marks to that supposition. Our suspicion has been strengthened by
an able article in one of the New York periodicals, entitled _Paul
and Plato_,[130] in which the author puts forward one remarkable
and, for us, very precious observation. In his _Epistles to the
Corinthians_ he shows Paul abounding with “expressions suggested
by the initiations of Sabazius and Eleusis, and the lectures
of the (Greek) philosophers. He (Paul) designates himself an
_idiotes_--a person unskilful in the Word, but not in the _gnosis_
or philosophical learning. ‘We speak wisdom among the perfect or
initiated,’ he writes; ‘not the wisdom of this world, nor of the
archons of this world, but divine wisdom in a mystery, secret--which
_none of the Archons of this world knew_.’”[131]
What else can the apostle mean by these unequivocal words, but
that he himself, as belonging to the _mystæ_ (initiated), spoke of
things shown and explained only in the Mysteries? The “divine wisdom
in a mystery which none of the _archons of this world knew_,” has
evidently some direct reference to the _basileus_ of the Eleusinian
initiation who _did know_. The _basileus_ belonged to the staff of
the great hierophant, and was an _archon_ of Athens; and as such was
one of the chief _mystæ_, belonging to the _interior_ Mysteries, to
which a very select and small number obtained an entrance.[132] The
magistrates supervising the Eleusinians were called archons.
Another proof that Paul belonged to the circle of the “Initiates”
lies in the following fact. The apostle had his head shorn at
Cenchrea (where Lucius, _Apuleius_, was initiated) because “he
had a vow.” The _nazars_--or set apart--as we see in the Jewish
Scriptures, had to cut their hair which they wore long, and which “no
razor touched” at any other time, and sacrifice it on the altar of
initiation. And the nazars were a class of Chaldean theurgists. We
will show further that Jesus belonged to this class.
Paul declares that: “According to the grace of God which is given
unto me, as a wise _master-builder_, I have laid the foundation.”[133]
This expression, master-builder, used only _once_ in the whole
_Bible_, and by Paul, may be considered as a whole revelation. In the
Mysteries, the third part of the sacred rites was called _Epopteia_,
or revelation, reception into the secrets. In substance it means that
stage of divine clairvoyance when everything pertaining to this earth
disappears, and earthly sight is paralyzed, and the soul is united
free and pure with its Spirit, or God. But the real significance of
the word is “overseeing,” from οπτομαι--_I see myself_. In Sanscrit
the word _evâpto_ has the same meaning, as well as _to obtain_.[134]
The word _epopteia_ is a compound one, from Επι--upon, and οπτομαι--to
look, or an overseer, an inspector--also used for a master-builder.
The title of master-mason, in Freemasonry, is derived from this, in
the sense used in the Mysteries. Therefore, when Paul entitles himself
a “master-builder,” he is using a word pre-eminently kabalistic,
theurgic, and masonic, and one which no other apostle uses. He thus
declares himself an _adept_, having the right to _initiate_ others.
If we search in this direction, with those sure guides, the Grecian
Mysteries and the _Kabala_, before us, it will be easy to find the
secret reason why Paul was so persecuted and hated by Peter, John,
and James. The author of the _Revelation_ was a Jewish kabalist _pur
sang_, with all the hatred inherited by him from his forefathers
toward the Mysteries.[135] His jealousy during the life of Jesus
extended even to Peter; and it is but after the death of their
common master that we see the two apostles--the former of whom
wore the Mitre and the Petaloon of the Jewish Rabbis--preach so
zealously the rite of circumcision. In the eyes of Peter, Paul, who
had humiliated him, and whom he felt so much his superior in “Greek
learning” and philosophy, must have naturally appeared as a magician,
a man polluted with the “_Gnosis_,” with the “wisdom” of the Greek
Mysteries--hence, perhaps, “Simon[136] the Magician.”
As to Peter, biblical criticism has shown before now that he had
probably no more to do with the foundation of the Latin Church at
Rome, than to furnish the pretext so readily seized upon by the
cunning Irenæus to benefit this Church with the new name of the
apostle--_Petra_ or _Kiffa_, a name which allowed so readily, by an
easy play upon words, to connect it with _Petroma_, the double set
of stone tablets used by the hierophant at the initiations, during
the final Mystery. In this, perhaps, lies concealed the whole secret
of the claims of the Vatican. As Professor Wilder happily suggests:
“In the Oriental countries the designation פתר, Peter (in Phœnician
and Chaldaic, an interpreter) appears to have been the title of this
personage (the hierophant).... There is in these facts some reminder
of the peculiar circumstances of the Mosaic Law ... and also of the
claim of the Pope to be the successor of Peter, the hierophant or
interpreter of the Christian religion.”[137]
As such, we must concede to him, to some extent, the right to be such
an interpreter. The Latin Church has faithfully preserved in symbols,
rites, ceremonies, architecture, and even in the very dress of her
clergy, the tradition of the Pagan worship--of the public or exoteric
ceremonies, we should add; otherwise her dogmas would embody more
sense and contain less blasphemy against the majesty of the Supreme
and Invisible God.
An inscription found on the coffin of Queen Mentuhept, of the
eleventh dynasty (2250 B.C.), now proved to have been transcribed
from the seventeenth chapter of the _Book of the Dead_ (dating not
later than 4500 B.C.), is more than suggestive. This monumental text
contains a group of hieroglyphics, which, when interpreted, read thus:
=PTR.= =RF.= =SU.=
Peter- ref- su.
Baron Bunsen shows this sacred formulary mixed up with a whole
series of glosses and various interpretations on a monument forty
centuries old. “This is identical with saying that the record (the
true interpretation) was at that time no longer intelligible.... We
beg our readers to understand,” he adds, “that a sacred text, a hymn,
containing the words of a departed spirit, existed in such a state
about 4,000 years ago ... as to be all but unintelligible to royal
scribes.”[138]
That it was unintelligible to the uninitiated among the latter is as
well proved by the confused and contradictory glossaries, as that it
was a “mystery”-word, known to the hierophants of the sanctuaries,
and, moreover, a word chosen by Jesus, to designate the office
assigned by him to one of his apostles. This word, PTR, was partially
interpreted, owing to another word similarly written in another group
of hieroglyphics, on a stele, the sign used for it being an opened
eye.[139] Bunsen mentions as another explanation of PTR--“to show.”
“It appears to me,” he remarks, “that our PTR is literally the old
Aramaic and Hebrew ‘Patar’, which occurs in the history of Joseph as
the specific word for _interpreting_; whence also _Pitrum_ is the
term for interpretation of a text, a dream.”[140] In a manuscript of
the first century, a combination of the Demotic and Greek texts,[141]
and most probably one of the few which miraculously escaped the
Christian vandalism of the second and third centuries, when all such
precious manuscripts were burned as magical, we find occurring in
several places a phrase, which, perhaps, may throw some light upon
this question. One of the principal heroes of the manuscript, who
is constantly referred to as “the Judean Illuminator” or Initiate,
Τελειωτὴς, is made to communicate but with his _Patar_; the latter
being written in Chaldaic characters. Once the latter word is coupled
with the name _Shimeon_. Several times, the “Illuminator,” who rarely
breaks his contemplative solitude, is shown inhabiting a Κρύπτη
(cave), and teaching the multitudes of eager scholars standing
outside, not orally, but through this _Patar_. The latter receives the
words of wisdom by applying his ear to a circular hole in a partition
which conceals the teacher from the listeners, and then conveys them,
with explanations and glossaries, to the crowd. This, with a slight
change, was the method used by Pythagoras, who, as we know, never
allowed his neophytes to see him during the years of probation, but
instructed them from behind a curtain in his cave.
But, whether the “Illuminator” of the Græco-Demotic manuscript is
identical with Jesus or not, the fact remains, that we find him
selecting a “mystery”-appellation for one who is made to appear later
by the Catholic Church as the janitor of the Kingdom of Heaven and
the interpreter of Christ’s will. The word Patar or Peter locates
both master and disciple in the circle of initiation, and connects
them with the “Secret Doctrine.” The great hierophant of the ancient
Mysteries never allowed the candidates to see or hear him personally.
He was the Deus-ex-Machina, the presiding but invisible Deity,
uttering his will and instructions through a second party; and
2,000 years later, we discover that the Dalaï-Lamas of Thibet had
been following for centuries the same traditional programme during
the most important religious mysteries of lamaism. If Jesus knew
the secret meaning of the title bestowed by him on Simon, then he
must have been initiated; otherwise he could not have learned it;
and if he was an initiate of either the Pythagorean Essenes, the
Chaldean Magi, or the Egyptian Priests, then the doctrine taught by
him was but a portion of the “Secret Doctrine” taught by the Pagan
hierophants to the few select adepts admitted within the sacred adyta.
But we will discuss this question further on. For the present we
will endeavor to briefly indicate the extraordinary similarity--or
rather identity, we should say--of rites and ceremonial dress of
the Christian clergy with that of the old Babylonians, Assyrians,
Phœnicians, Egyptians, and other Pagans of the hoary antiquity.
If we would find the model of the Papal tiara, we must search the
annals of the ancient Assyrian tablets. We invite the reader to give
his attention to Dr. Inman’s illustrated work, _Ancient Pagan and
Modern Christian Symbolism_. On page sixty-four, he will readily
recognize the head-gear of the successor of St. Peter in the coiffure
worn by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, “where it appears crowned
by an emblem of the _male_ trinity” (the Christian Cross). “We may
mention, in passing,” adds Dr. Inman, “that, as the Romanists adopted
the mitre and the tiara from ‘the cursed brood of Ham,’ so they
adopted the Episcopalian crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the
artistic form with which they clothe their angels from the painters
and urn-makers of Magna Grecia and Central Italy.”
Would we push our inquiries farther, and seek to ascertain as much
in relation to the nimbus and the tonsure of the Catholic priest
and monk?[142] We shall find undeniable proofs that they are solar
emblems. Knight, in his _Old England Pictorially Illustrated_, gives
a drawing by St. Augustine, representing an ancient Christian bishop,
in a dress probably identical with that worn by the great “saint”
himself. The _pallium_, or the ancient stole of the bishop, is the
feminine sign when worn by a priest in worship. On St. Augustine’s
picture it is bedecked with Buddhistic crosses, and in its whole
appearance it is a representation of the Egyptian =T= (tau), assuming
slightly the figure of the letter =Y=. “Its lower end is the mark of
the masculine triad,” says Inman; “the right hand (of the figure) has
the forefinger extended, like the Assyrian priests while doing homage
_to the grove_.... When a male dons the pallium in worship, he becomes
the representative of the trinity in the unity, the _arba_, or mystic
four.”[143]
“Immaculate is our Lady Isis,” is the legend around an engraving
of Serapis and Isis, described by King, in _The Gnostics and their
Remains_, Ἡ ΚΥΡΙΑ ΙϹΙϹ ΑΓΝΗ “... the very terms applied afterwards to
that personage (the Virgin Mary) who succeeded to her form, titles,
symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Thus, her devotees carried into the
new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation
to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately,
the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed.” “The ‘Black
Virgins,’ so highly reverenced in certain French cathedrals ...
proved, when at last critically examined, basalt figures of
Isis!”[144]
Before the shrine of Jupiter Ammon were suspended tinkling bells,
from the sound of whose chiming the priests gathered the auguries; “A
golden bell and a pomegranate ... round about the hem of the robe,”
was the result with the Mosaic Jews. But in the Buddhistic system,
during the religious services, the gods of the Deva Loka are always
invoked, and invited to descend upon the altars by the ringing of
bells suspended in the pagodas. The bell of the sacred table of Siva
at Kuhama is described in Kailasa, and every Buddhist vihara and
lamasery has its bells.
We thus see that the bells used by Christians come to them directly
from the Buddhist Thibetans and Chinese. The beads and rosaries
have the same origin, and have been used by Buddhist monks for over
2,300 years. The _Linghams_ in the Hindu temples are ornamented upon
certain days with large berries, from a tree sacred to Mahadeva,
which are strung into rosaries. The title of “nun” is an Egyptian
word, and had with them the actual meaning; the Christians did not
even take the trouble of translating the word _Nonna_. The aureole
of the saints was used by the antediluvian artists of Babylonia,
whenever they desired to honor or deify a mortal’s head. In a
celebrated picture in Moore’s _Hindoo Pantheon_, entitled, “Christna
nursed by Devaki, from a highly-finished picture,” the Hindu Virgin
is represented as seated on a lounge and nursing Christna. The hair
brushed back, the long veil, and the golden aureole around the
Virgin’s head, as well as around that of the Hindu Saviour, are
striking. No Catholic, well versed as he might be in the mysterious
symbolism of iconology, would hesitate for a moment to worship at
that shrine the Virgin Mary, the mother of his God![145] In Indur
Subba, the south entrance of the Caves of Ellora, may be seen to this
day the figure of Indra’s wife, Indranee, sitting with her infant
son-god, pointing the finger to heaven with the same gesture as the
Italian Madonna and child. In _Pagan and Christian Symbolism_, the
author gives a figure from a mediæval woodcut--the like of which we
have seen by dozens in old psalters--in which the Virgin Mary, with
her infant, is represented as the Queen of Heaven, on the crescent
moon, emblem of virginity. “Being before the sun, she almost eclipses
its light. Than this, nothing could more completely identify the
Christian mother and child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno,
and a host of other Pagan goddesses, who have been called ‘Queen of
Heaven,’ ‘Queen of the Universe,’ ‘Mother of God,’ ‘Spouse of God,’
‘the Celestial Virgin,’ ‘the Heavenly Peace-Maker,’ etc.”[146]
Such pictures are not purely astronomical. They represent the male
god and the female goddess, as the sun and moon in conjunction, “the
union of the triad with the unit.” The horns of the cow on the head
of Isis have the same significance.
And so above, below, outside, and inside, the Christian Church, in
the priestly garments, and the religious rites, we recognize the
stamp of exoteric heathenism. On no subject within the wide range of
human knowledge, has the world been more blinded or deceived with
such persistent misrepresentation as on that of antiquity. Its hoary
past and its religious faiths have been misrepresented and trampled
under the feet of its successors. Its hierophants and prophets, mystæ
and epoptæ,[147] of the once sacred adyta of the temple shown as
demoniacs and devil-worshippers. Donned in the despoiled garments
of the victim, the Christian priest now anathematizes the latter
with rites and ceremonies which he has learned from the theurgists
themselves. The Mosaic _Bible_ is used as a weapon against the people
who furnished it. The heathen philosopher is cursed under the very
roof which has witnessed his initiation; and the “monkey of God”
(_i.e._, the devil of Tertullian), “the originator and founder of
magical theurgy, the science of illusions and lies, whose father
and author is the demon,” is exorcised with holy water by the hand
which holds the identical _lituus_[148] with which the ancient
augur, after a solemn prayer, used to determine the regions of
heaven, and evoke, in the name of the HIGHEST, the minor god (now
termed the Devil), who unveiled to his eyes futurity, and enabled
him to prophesy! On the part of the Christians and the clergy it is
nothing but shameful ignorance, prejudice, and that contemptible
pride so boldly denounced by one of their own reverend ministers, T.
Gross,[149] which rails against all investigation “as a useless or
a criminal labor, when it must be feared that they will result in
the overthrow of preëstablished systems of faith.” On the part of
the scholars it is the same apprehension of the possible necessity
of having to modify some of their erroneously-established theories
of science. “Nothing but such pitiable prejudice,” says Gross,
“can have thus misrepresented the theology of heathenism, and
distorted--nay, caricatured--its forms of religious worship. It is
time that posterity should raise its voice in vindication of violated
truth, and that the present age should learn a little of that common
sense of which it boasts with as much self-complacency as if the
prerogative of reason was the birthright only of modern times.”
All this gives a sure clew to the real cause of the hatred felt by the
early and mediæval Christian toward his Pagan brother and dangerous
rival. We hate but what we fear. The Christian thaumaturgist once
having broken all association with the Mysteries of the temples and
with “these schools so renowned for magic,” described by St.
Hilarion,[150] could certainly expect but little to rival the Pagan
wonder-workers. No apostle, with the exception perhaps of healing by
mesmeric power, has ever equalled Apollonius of Tyana; and the scandal
created among the apostles by the miracle-doing Simon Magus, is too
notorious to be repeated here again. “How is it,” asks Justin Martyr,
in evident dismay, “how is it that the talismans of Apollonius (the
τελεσματα) have power in certain members of creation, for they
prevent, _as we see_, the fury of the waves, and the violence of the
winds, and the attacks of wild beasts; and whilst our Lord’s miracles
are preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius _are most
numerous_, and actually manifested in present facts, so as to lead
astray all beholders?”[151] This perplexed martyr solves the problem
by attributing very correctly the efficacy and potency of the charms
used by Apollonius to his profound knowledge of the sympathies and
antipathies (or repugnances) of nature.
Unable to deny the evident superiority of their enemies’ powers, the
fathers had recourse to the old but ever successful method--that
of slander. They honored the theurgists with the same insinuating
calumny that had been resorted to by the Pharisees against Jesus.
“Thou hast a dæmon,” the elders of the Jewish Synagogue had said to
him. “Thou hast the Devil,” repeated the cunning fathers, with equal
truth, addressing the Pagan thaumaturgist; and the widely-bruited
charge, erected later into an article of faith, won the day.
But the modern heirs of these ecclesiastical falsifiers, who charge
magic, spiritualism, and even magnetism with being produced by a
demon, forget or perhaps never read the classics. None of our bigots
has ever looked with more scorn on the _abuses_ of magic than did the
true initiate of old. No modern or even mediæval law could be more
severe than that of the hierophant. True, he had more discrimination,
charity, and justice, than the Christian clergy; for while banishing
the “unconscious” sorcerer, the person troubled with a demon, from
within the sacred precincts of the adyta, the priests, instead of
mercilessly burning him, took care of the unfortunate “possessed
one.” Having hospitals expressly for that purpose in the neighborhood
of temples, the ancient “medium,” if obsessed, was taken care of and
restored to health. But with one who had, by conscious _witchcraft_,
acquired powers dangerous to his fellow-creatures, the priests of
old were as severe as justice herself. “Any person _accidentally_
guilty of homicide, or of any crime, or convicted of _witchcraft_,
was excluded from the Eleusinian Mysteries.”[152] And so were they
from all others. This law, mentioned by all writers on the ancient
initiation, speaks for itself. The claim of Augustine, that all the
explanations given by the Neo-platonists were invented by themselves
is absurd. For nearly every ceremony in their true and successive
order is given by Plato himself, in a more or less covered way.
The Mysteries are as old as the world, and one well versed in the
esoteric mythologies of various nations can trace them back to the
days of the ante-Vedic period in India. A condition of the strictest
virtue and purity is required from the _Vatou_, or candidate in India
before he can become an initiate, whether he aims to be a simple
fakir, a _Purohita_ (public priest) or a _Sannyâsi_, a saint of the
second degree of initiation, the most holy as the most revered of
them all. After having conquered, in the terrible trials preliminary
to admittance to the inner temple in the subterranean crypts of his
pagoda, the sannyâsi passes the rest of his life in the temple,
practicing the eighty-four rules and ten virtues prescribed to the
Yogis.
“No one who has not practiced, during his whole life, the ten virtues
which the divine Manu makes incumbent as a duty, can be initiated
into the Mysteries of the council,” say the Hindu books of initiation.
These virtues are: “Resignation; the act of rendering good for
evil; temperance; probity; purity; chastity; repression of the
physical senses; the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; that of
the _Superior_ soul (spirit); worship of truth; abstinence from
anger.” These virtues must alone direct the life of a true Yogi. “No
unworthy adept ought to defile the ranks of the holy initiates by
his presence for twenty-four hours.” The adept becomes guilty after
having once broken any one of these vows. Surely the exercise of such
virtues is inconsistent with the idea one has of _devil_-worship and
lasciviousness of purpose!
And now we will try to give a clear insight into one of the chief
objects of this work. What we desire to prove is, that underlying
every ancient popular religion was the same ancient wisdom-doctrine,
one and identical, professed and practiced by the initiates of every
country, who alone were aware of its existence and importance. To
ascertain its origin, and the precise age in which it was matured, is
now beyond human possibility. A single glance, however, is enough to
assure one that it could not have attained the marvellous perfection
in which we find it pictured to us in the relics of the various
esoteric systems, except after a succession of ages. A philosophy
so profound, a moral code so ennobling, and practical results so
conclusive and so uniformly demonstrable is not the growth of a
generation, or even a single epoch. Fact must have been piled upon
fact, deduction upon deduction, science have begotten science, and
myriads of the brightest human intellects have reflected upon the
laws of nature, before this ancient doctrine had taken concrete
shape. The proofs of this identity of fundamental doctrine in the
old religions are found in the prevalence of a system of initiation;
in the secret sacerdotal castes who had the guardianship of mystical
words of power, and a public display of a phenomenal control over
natural forces, indicating association with preterhuman beings. Every
approach to the Mysteries of all these nations was guarded with the
same jealous care, and in all, the penalty of death was inflicted
upon initiates of any degree who divulged the secrets entrusted
to them. We have seen that such was the case in the Eleusinian
and Bacchic Mysteries, among the Chaldean Magi, and the Egyptian
hierophants; while with the Hindus, from whom they were all derived,
the same rule has prevailed from time immemorial. We are left in no
doubt upon this point; for the _Agrushada Parikshai_ says explicitly,
“Every initiate, to whatever degree he may belong, who reveals the
great sacred formula, must be put to death.”
Naturally enough, this same extreme penalty was prescribed in all the
multifarious sects and brotherhoods which at different periods have
sprung from the ancient stock. We find it with the early Essenes,
Gnostics, theurgic Neo-platonists, and mediæval philosophers;
and in our day, even the Masons perpetuate the memory of the old
obligations in the penalties of throat-cutting, dismemberment,
and disemboweling, with which the candidate is threatened. As the
Masonic “master’s word” is communicated only at “low breath,” so the
selfsame precaution is prescribed in the Chaldean _Book of Numbers_
and the Jewish _Mercaba_. When initiated, the neophyte was led by
an _ancient_ to a secluded spot, and there the latter whispered _in
his ear_ the great secret.[153] The Mason swears, under the most
frightful penalties, that he will not communicate the secrets of any
degree “to a brother of an _inferior degree_;” and the _Agrushada
Parikshai_ says: “Any initiate of the third degree who reveals before
the prescribed time, to the initiates of the second degree, the
superior truths, must be put to death.” Again, the Masonic apprentice
consents to have his “tongue torn out by the roots” if he divulge
anything to a profane; and in the Hindu books of initiation, the same
_Agrushada Parikshai_, we find that any initiate of the first degree
(the lowest) who betrays the secrets of his initiation, to members of
other castes, for whom the science should be a closed book, must have
“his _tongue cut out_,” and suffer other mutilations.
As we proceed, we will point out the evidences of this identity of
vows, formulas, rites, and doctrines, between the ancient faiths.
We will also show that not only their memory is still preserved in
India, but also that the Secret Association is still alive and as
active as ever. That, after reading what we have to say, it may be
inferred that the chief pontiff and hierophant, the _Brahmâtma_, is
still accessible to those “who know,” though perhaps recognized by
another name; and that the ramifications of his influence extend
throughout the world. But we will now return again to the early
Christian period.
As though he were not aware that there was any esoteric significance
to the exoteric symbols, and that the Mysteries themselves were
composed of two parts, the lesser at Agræ, and the higher ones at
Eleusinia, Clemens Alexandrinus, with a rancorous bigotry that
one might expect from a renegade Neo-platonist, but is astonished
to find in this generally honest and learned Father, stigmatized
the Mysteries as indecent and diabolical. Whatever were the rites
enacted among the neophytes before they passed to a higher form of
instruction; however misunderstood were the trials of _Katharsis_
or purification, during which they were submitted to every kind of
probation; and however much the immaterial or physical aspect might
have led to calumny, it is but wicked prejudice which can compel a
person to say that under this external meaning there was not a far
deeper and spiritual significance.
It is positively absurd to judge the ancients from our own standpoint
of propriety and virtue. And most assuredly it is not for the
Church--which now stands accused by all the modern symbologists of
having adopted precisely these same emblems in their coarsest aspect,
and feels herself powerless to refute the accusations--to throw the
stone at those who were her models. When men like Pythagoras, Plato,
and Iamblichus, renowned for their severe morality, took part in the
Mysteries, and spoke of them with veneration, it ill behooves our
modern critics to judge them so rashly upon their merely external
aspect. Iamblichus explains the worst; and his explanation, for an
unprejudiced mind, ought to be perfectly plausible. “Exhibitions of
this kind,” he says, “in the Mysteries were designed to free us from
licentious passions, by gratifying the sight, and at the same time
vanquishing all evil thought, through _the awful sanctity_ with which
these rites were accompanied.”[154] “The wisest and best men in the
Pagan world,” adds Dr. Warburton, “are unanimous in this, that the
Mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest ends by the
worthiest means.”[155]
In these celebrated rites, although persons of both sexes and all
classes were allowed to take a part, and a participation in them
was even obligatory, very few indeed attained the higher and final
initiation. The gradation of the Mysteries is given us by Proclus
in the fourth book of his _Theology of Plato_. “The perfective rite
τελετη, precedes in order the initiation--_Muesis_--and the initiation,
_Epopteia_, or the final apocalypse (revelation).” Theon of Smyrna, in
_Mathematica_, also divides the mystic rites into five parts: “the
first of which is the previous purification; for _neither are the
Mysteries communicated to all_ who are willing to receive them; ...
there are certain persons who are prevented by the voice of the crier
(κηρυξ) ... since it is necessary that such as are not expelled from
the Mysteries should first be refined by certain purifications which
the reception of the sacred rites succeeds. The third part is
denominated _epopteia_ or reception. And the fourth, which is the end
and design of the revelation, is _the binding of the head and fixing
of the crowns_[156] ... whether after this he (the initiated person)
becomes ... an hierophant or sustains some other part of the
sacerdotal office. But the fifth, which is produced from all these,
_is friendship and interior communion with God_.” And this was the
last and most awful of all the Mysteries.
There are writers who have often wondered at the meaning of this
claim to a “friendship and interior communion with God.” Christian
authors have denied the pretensions of the “Pagans” to such
“communion,” affirming that only Christian saints were and are
capable of enjoying it; materialistic skeptics have altogether
scoffed at the idea of both. After long ages of religious materialism
and spiritual stagnation, it has most certainly become difficult
if not altogether impossible to substantiate the claims of either
party. The old Greeks, who had once crowded around the Agora of
Athens, with its altar to the “Unknown God,” are no more; and their
descendants firmly believe that they have found the “Unknown” in the
Jewish Jehova. The divine ecstasies of the early Christians have made
room for visions of a more modern character, in perfect keeping with
progress and civilization. The “Son of man” appearing to the rapt
vision of the ancient Christian as coming from the seventh heaven, in
a cloud of glory, and surrounded with angels and winged seraphim, has
made room for a more prosaic and at the same time more business-like
Jesus. The latter is now shown as making morning calls upon Mary and
Martha in Bethany; as seating himself on “the _ottoman_” with the
younger sister, a lover of “ethics,” while Martha goes off to the
kitchen to cook. Anon the heated fancy of a blasphemous Brooklyn
preacher and harlequin, the Reverend Dr. Talmage, makes us see her
rushing back “with besweated brow, a pitcher in one hand and the
tongs in the other ... into the presence of Christ,” and blowing him
up for not caring that her sister hath left her “to serve alone.”[157]
From the birth of the solemn and majestic conception of the
unrevealed Deity of the ancient adepts to such caricatured
descriptions of him who died on the Cross for his philanthropic
devotion to humanity, long centuries have intervened, and their
heavy tread seems to have almost entirely obliterated all sense of
a spiritual religion from the hearts of his professed followers. No
wonder then, that the sentence of Proclus is no longer understood by
the Christians, and is rejected as a “vagary” by the materialists,
who, in their negation, are less blasphemous and atheistical than
many of the reverends and members of the churches. But, although the
Greek _epoptai_ are no more, we have now, in our own age, a people
far more ancient than the oldest Hellenes, who practice the so-called
“preterhuman” gifts to the same extent as did their ancestors far
earlier than the days of Troy. It is to this people that we draw the
attention of the psychologist and philosopher.
One need not go very deep into the literature of the Orientalists to
become convinced that in most cases they do not even suspect that
in the arcane philosophy of India there are depths which they have
not sounded, and _cannot_ sound, for they pass on without perceiving
them. There is a pervading tone of conscious superiority, a ring
of contempt in the treatment of Hindu metaphysics, as though the
European mind is alone enlightened enough to polish the rough diamond
of the old Sanscrit writers, and separate right from wrong for the
benefit of their descendants. We see them disputing over the external
forms of expression without a conception of the great vital truths
these hide from the profane view.
“As a rule, the Brahmans,” says Jacolliot, “rarely go beyond the
class of _grihesta_ [priests of the vulgar castes] and _purohita_
[exorcisers, divines, prophets, and evocators of spirits]. And
yet, we shall see ... once that we have touched upon the question
and study of manifestations and phenomena, that these initiates
of the _first_ degree (the lowest) attribute to themselves, and
in appearance possess faculties developed to a degree which has
never been equalled in Europe. As to the initiates of the second
and especially of the third category, they pretend to be enabled to
ignore time, space, and to command life and death.”[158]
Such initiates as these M. Jacolliot _did not meet_; for, as he says
himself, they only appear on the most solemn occasions, and when the
faith of the multitudes has to be strengthened by phenomena of a
superior order. “They are never seen, either in the neighborhood of,
or even inside the temples, except at the grand quinquennial festival
of the fire. On that occasion, they appear about the middle of the
night, on a platform erected in the centre of the sacred lake, like
so many phantoms, and by their conjurations they illumine the space.
A fiery column of light ascends from around them, rushing from earth
to heaven. Unfamiliar sounds vibrate through the air, and five or
six hundred thousand Hindus, gathered from every part of India to
contemplate these demigods, throw themselves with their faces buried
in the dust, invoking the souls of their ancestors.”[159]
Let any impartial person read the _Spiritisme dans le Monde_, and
he cannot believe that this “implacable rationalist,” as Jacolliot
takes pride in terming himself, said one word more than is warranted
by what he had seen. His statements support and are corroborated by
those of other skeptics. As a rule, the missionaries, even after
passing half a lifetime in the country of “devil-worship,” as they
call India, either disingenuously _deny_ altogether what they cannot
help knowing to be true, or ridiculously attribute phenomena to this
power of the Devil, that outrival the “miracles” of the apostolic
ages. And what do we see this French author, notwithstanding his
incorrigible rationalism, forced to admit, after having narrated the
greatest wonders? Watch the fakirs as he would, he is compelled to
bear the strongest testimony to their perfect honesty in the matter
of their miraculous phenomena. “Never,” he says, “have we succeeded
in detecting a single one in the act of deceit.” One fact should be
noted by all who, without having been in India, still fancy they
are clever enough to expose the fraud of _pretended_ magicians.
This skilled and cool observer, this redoubtable materialist, after
his long sojourn in India, affirms, “We unhesitatingly avow that we
have not met, either in India or in Ceylon, a single European, even
among the oldest residents, who has been able to indicate the means
employed by these devotees for the production of these phenomena!”
And how should they? Does not this zealous Orientalist confess to us
that even he, who had every available means at hand to learn many
of their rites and doctrines at first hand, failed in his attempts
to make the Brahmans explain to him their secrets. “All that our
most diligent inquiries of the Pourohitas could elicit from them
respecting the acts of their superiors (the invisible initiates of
the temples), amounts to very little.” And again, speaking of one of
the books, he confesses that, while purporting to reveal all that
is desirable to know, it “falls back into mysterious formulas, in
combinations of magical and occult letters, the secret of which it
has been impossible for us to penetrate,” etc.
The fakirs, although they can never reach beyond the first degree of
initiation, are, notwithstanding, the only agents between the living
world and the “silent brothers,” or those initiates who never cross
the thresholds of their sacred dwellings. The Fūkara-Yogis belong
to the temples, and who knows but these cenobites of the sanctuary
have far more to do with the psychological phenomena which attend the
fakirs, and have been so graphically described by Jacolliot, than the
_Pitris_ themselves? Who can tell but that the fluidic spectre of the
ancient Brahman seen by Jacolliot was the Scin-lecca, the spiritual
_double_, of one of these mysterious sannyâsi?
Although the story has been translated and commented upon by
Professor Perty, of Geneva, still we will venture to give it in
Jacolliot’s own words: “A moment after the disappearance of the
hands, the fakir continuing his evocations (_mantras_) more earnestly
than ever, a cloud like the first, but more opalescent and more
opaque, began to hover near the small brasier, which, by request of
the Hindu, I had constantly fed with live coals. Little by little it
assumed a form entire human, and I distinguished the spectre--for I
cannot call it otherwise--of an old Brahman sacrificator, kneeling
near the little brasier.
“He bore on his forehead the signs sacred to Vishnu, and around his
body the triple cord, sign of the initiates of the priestly caste. He
joined his hands above his head, as during the sacrifices, and his
lips moved as if they were reciting prayers. At a given moment, he
took a pinch of perfumed powder, and threw it upon the coals; it must
have been a strong compound, for a thick smoke arose on the instant,
and filled the two chambers.
“When it was dissipated, I perceived the spectre, which, two steps
from me, was extending to me its fleshless hand; I took it in mine,
making a salutation, and I was astonished to find it, although bony
and hard, warm and living.
“‘Art thou, indeed,’ said I at this moment, in a loud voice, ‘an
ancient inhabitant of the earth?’
“I had not finished the question, when the word AM (yes) appeared
and then disappeared in letters of fire, on the breast of the old
Brahman, with an effect much like that which the word would produce
if written in the dark with a stick of phosphorus.
“‘Will you leave me nothing in token of your visit?’ I continued.
“The spirit broke the triple cord, composed of three strands of
cotton, which begirt his loins, gave it to me, and vanished at my
feet.”[160]
“Oh Brahma! what is this mystery which takes place every night?...
When lying on the matting, with eyes closed, the body is lost
sight of, and the soul escapes to enter into conversation with the
Pitris.... Watch over it, O Brahma, when, forsaking the resting body,
it goes away to hover over the waters, to wander in the immensity
of heaven, and penetrate into the dark and mysterious nooks of the
valleys and grand forests of the Hymavat!” (_Agroushada Parikshai._)
The fakirs, when belonging to some particular temple, never act but
under orders. Not one of them, unless he has reached a degree of
extraordinary sanctity, is freed from the influence and guidance of
his guru, his teacher, who first initiated and instructed him in
the mysteries of the _occult_ sciences. Like the _subject_ of the
European mesmerizer, the average fakir can never rid himself entirely
of the psychological influence exercised on him by his guru. Having
passed two or three hours in the silence and solitude of the inner
temple in prayer and meditation, the fakir, when he emerges thence,
is mesmerically strengthened and prepared; he produces wonders far
more varied and powerful than before he entered. The “master” has
_laid his hands upon him_, and the fakir feels strong.
It may be shown, on the authority of many Brahmanical and Buddhist
sacred books, that there has ever existed a great difference between
adepts of the higher order, and purely psychological subjects--like
many of these fakirs, who are mediums in a certain qualified sense.
True, the fakir is ever talking of Pitris, and this is natural; for
they are his protecting deities. But are the Pitris _disembodied
human beings of our race_? This is the question, and we will discuss
it in a moment.
We say that the fakir may be regarded in a degree as a medium; for he
is--what is not generally known--under the direct mesmeric influence
of a living adept, his sannyâsi or guru. When the latter dies, the
power of the former, unless he has received the last transfer of
spiritual forces, wanes and often even disappears. Why, if it were
otherwise, should the fakirs have been excluded from the right of
advancing to the second and third degree? The lives of many of them
exemplify a degree of self-sacrifice and sanctity unknown and utterly
incomprehensible to Europeans, who shudder at the bare thought of
such self-inflicted tortures. But however shielded from control by
vulgar and earth-bound spirits, however wide the chasm between a
debasing influence and their self-controlled souls; and however well
protected by the seven-knotted magical bamboo rod which he receives
from the guru, still the fakir lives in the outer world of sin and
matter, and it is possible that his soul may be tainted, perchance,
by the magnetic emanations from profane objects and persons, and
thereby open an access to strange spirits and _gods_. To admit one
so situated, one not under any and all circumstances sure of the
mastery over himself, to a knowledge of the awful mysteries and
priceless secrets of initiation, would be impracticable. It would
not only imperil the security of that which must, at all hazards,
be guarded from profanation, but it would be consenting to admit
behind the veil a fellow being, whose mediumistic irresponsibility
might at any moment cause him to lose his life through an involuntary
indiscretion. The same law which prevailed in the Eleusinian
Mysteries before our era, holds good now in India.
Not only must the adept have mastery over himself, but he must
be able to control the inferior grades of spiritual beings,
nature-spirits, and earthbound souls, in short the very ones by whom,
if by any, the fakir is liable to be affected.
For the objector to affirm that the Brahman-adepts and the fakirs
admit that of themselves they are powerless, and can only act with
the help of disembodied human spirits, is to state that these Hindus
are unacquainted with the laws of their sacred books and even the
meaning of the word _Pitris_. The _Laws of Manu_, the _Atharva-Veda_,
and other books, prove what we now say. “All that exists,” says the
_Atharva-Veda_, “is in the power of the gods. The gods are under the
power of magical conjurations. The magical conjurations are under
the control of the Brahmans. Hence the gods are in the power of the
Brahmans.” This is logical, albeit seemingly paradoxical, and it is
the fact. And this fact will explain to those who have not hitherto
had the clew (among whom Jacolliot must be numbered, as will appear
on reading his works), why the fakir should be confined to the first,
or lowest degree of that course of initiation whose highest adepts,
or hierophants, are the _sannyâsis_, or members of the ancient
Supreme Council of Seventy.
Moreover, in Book I., of the Hindu _Genesis_, or _Book of Creation_
of _Manu_, the _Pitris_ are called the _lunar_ ancestors of the human
race. They belong to a race of beings different from ourselves, and
cannot properly be called “human spirits” in the sense in which the
spiritualists use this term. This is what is said of them:
“Then they (the gods) created the Jackshas, the Rakshasas, the
Pisatshas,[161] the Gandarbas[162] and the Apsaras, and the Asuras,
the Nagas, the Sarpas and the Suparnas,[163] and the Pitris--_lunar
ancestors of the human race_” (See _Institutes of Manu_, Book I.,
sloka 37, where the Pitris are termed “progenitors of mankind”).
The Pitris are a distinct race of spirits belonging to the
mythological hierarchy or rather to the kabalistical nomenclature,
and must be included with the good genii, the dæmons of the Greeks,
or the inferior gods of the invisible world; and when a fakir
attributes his phenomena to the Pitris, he means only what the
ancient philosophers and theurgists meant when they maintained
that all the “miracles” were obtained through the intervention of
the gods, or the good and bad dæmons, who control the powers of
nature, the _elementals_, who are subordinate to the power of him
“who knows.” A ghost or human phantom would be termed by a fakir
_palīt_, or _chutnā_, as that of a female human spirit _pichhalpāi_,
not _pitris_. True, _pitara_ means (plural) fathers, ancestors; and
pitrā-i is a kinsman; but these words are used in quite a different
sense from that of the Pitris invoked in the mantras.
To maintain before a devout Brahman or a fakir that any one can
converse with the spirits of the dead, would be to shock him with
what would appear to him blasphemy. Does not the concluding verse of
the _Bagavat_ state that this supreme felicity is alone reserved to
the holy sannyâsis, the gurus, and yogis?
“Long before they finally rid themselves of their mortal envelopes,
the souls who have practiced only good, such as those of the
sannyâsis and the vanaprasthas, acquire the faculty of conversing
with the souls which preceded them to the swarga.”
In this case the Pitris instead of genii are the spirits, or rather
souls, of the departed ones. But they will freely communicate only
with those whose atmosphere is as pure as their own, and to whose
prayerful _kalassa_ (invocation) they can respond without the risk of
defiling their own celestial purity. When the soul of the invocator
has reached the _Sayadyam_, or perfect identity of essence with the
Universal Soul, when matter is utterly conquered, then the adept
can freely enter into daily and hourly communion with those who,
though unburdened with their corporeal forms, are still themselves
progressing through the endless series of transformations included in
the gradual approach to the Paramâtma, or the grand Universal Soul.
Bearing in mind that the Christian fathers have always claimed for
themselves and their saints the name of “friends of God,” and knowing
that they borrowed this expression, with many others, from the
technology of the Pagan temples, it is but natural to expect them
to show an evil temper whenever alluding to these rites. Ignorant,
as a rule, and having had biographers as ignorant as themselves, we
could not well expect them to find in the accounts of their beatific
visions a descriptive beauty such as we find in the Pagan classics.
Whether the visions and objective phenomena claimed by both the
fathers of the desert and the hierophants of the sanctuary are to
be discredited, or accepted as facts, the splendid imagery employed
by Proclus and Apuleius in narrating the small portion of the final
initiation that they dared reveal, throws completely into the shade
the plagiaristic tales of the Christian ascetics, faithful _copies_
though they were intended to be. The story of the temptation of St.
Anthony in the desert by the female demon, is a parody upon the
preliminary trials of the neophyte during the _Mikra_, or minor
Mysteries of Agræ--those rites at the thought of which Clemens railed
so bitterly, and which represented the bereaved Demeter in search of
her child, and her good-natured hostess Baubo.[164]
Without entering again into a demonstration that in Christian, and
especially Irish Roman Catholic, churches[165] the same apparently
indecent customs as the above prevailed until the end of the last
century, we will recur to the untiring labors of that honest and
brave defender of the ancient faith, Thomas Taylor, and his works.
However much dogmatic Greek scholarship may have found to say
against his “mistranslations,” his memory must be dear to every
true Platonist, who seeks rather to learn the inner thought of the
great philosopher than enjoy the mere external mechanism of his
writings. Better classical translators may have rendered us, in more
correct phraseology, Plato’s _words_, but Taylor shows us Plato’s
_meaning_, and this is more than can be said of Zeller, Jowett, and
their predecessors. Yet, as writes Professor A. Wilder, “Taylor’s
works have met with favor at the hands of men capable of profound
and recondite thinking; and it must be conceded that he was endowed
with a superior qualification--that of an intuitive perception of the
interior meaning of the subjects which he considered. Others may have
known more Greek, but he knew more Plato.”[166]
Taylor devoted his whole useful life to the search after such
old manuscripts as would enable him to have his own speculations
concerning several obscure rites in the Mysteries corroborated by
writers who had been initiated themselves. It is with full confidence
in the assertions of various classical writers that we say that
ridiculous, perhaps licentious in some cases, as may appear ancient
worship to the modern critic, it ought not to have so appeared to the
Christians. During the mediæval ages, and even later, they accepted
pretty nearly the same without understanding the secret import of
its rites, and quite satisfied with the obscure and rather fantastic
interpretations of their clergy, who accepted the exterior form
and distorted the inner meaning. We are ready to concede, in full
justice, that centuries have passed since the great majority of the
Christian clergy, who _are not allowed to pry into God’s mysteries
nor seek to explain_ that which the Church has once accepted and
established, have had the remotest idea of their symbolism, whether
in its exoteric or esoteric meaning. Not so with the head of the
Church and its highest dignitaries. And if we fully agree with
Inman that it is “difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics who
sanctioned the publication of such prints[167] could have been as
ignorant as modern ritualists,” we are not at all prepared to believe
with the same author “that the latter, if they knew the real meaning
of the symbols commonly used by the Roman Church, would _not_ have
adopted them.”
To eliminate what is plainly derived from the sex and nature worship
of the ancient heathens, would be equivalent to pulling down the
whole Roman Catholic image-worship--the _Madonna_ element--and
reforming the faith to Protestantism. The enforcement of the late
dogma of the Immaculation was prompted by this very secret reason.
The science of symbology was making too rapid progress. Blind
faith in the Pope’s infallibility and in the immaculate nature
of the Virgin and _of her ancestral female lineage to a certain
remove_ could alone save the Church from the indiscreet revelations
of science. It was a clever stroke of policy on the part of the
vicegerent of God. What matters it if, by “conferring upon her such
an honor,” as Don Pascale de Franciscis naïvely expresses it, he has
made a goddess of the Virgin Mary, an Olympian Deity, who, having
been by her very nature placed in the impossibility of sinning,
can claim no virtue, no personal merit for her purity, precisely
for which, as we were taught to believe in our younger days, she
was chosen among all other women. If his Holiness has deprived her
of this, perhaps, on the other hand, he thinks that he has endowed
her with at least one physical attribute not shared by the other
virgin-goddesses. But even this new dogma, which, in company with the
new claim to _infallibility_, has quasi-revolutionized the Christian
world, is not original with the Church of Rome. It is but a return to
a hardly-remembered _heresy_ of the early Christian ages, that of the
Collyridians, so called from their _sacrificing cakes_ to the Virgin,
whom they claimed to _be Virgin-born_.[168] The new sentence, “O,
Virgin Mary, _conceived without sin_,” is simply a tardy acceptance
of that which was at first deemed a “_blasphemous heresie_” by the
orthodox fathers.
To think for one moment that any of the popes, cardinals, or other
high dignitaries “were not aware” from the first to the last of the
external meanings of their symbols, is to do injustice to their
great learning and their spirit of Machiavellism. It is to forget
that the emissaries of Rome will never be stopped by any difficulty
which can be skirted by the employment of Jesuitical artifice.
The policy of complaisant conformity was never carried to greater
lengths than by the missionaries in Ceylon, who, according to the
Abbé Dubois--certainly a learned and competent authority--“conducted
the images of the Virgin and Saviour on triumphal cars, imitated
from the orgies of Juggernauth, and introduced the dancers from the
Brahminical rites into the ceremonial of the church.”[169] Let us at
least thank these black-frocked politicians for their consistency in
employing the car of Juggernauth, upon which the “wicked heathen”
convey the _lingham_ of Siva. To have used _this_ car to carry in its
turn the Romish representative of the female principle in nature,
is to show discrimination and a thorough knowledge of the oldest
mythological conceptions. They have blended the two deities, and thus
represented, in a Christian procession, the “heathen” Brahma, or Nara
(the father), Nari (the mother), and Viradj (the son).
Says Manu: “The Sovereign Master who exists through himself, divides
his body into two halves, male and female, and from the union of
these two principles is born Viradj, the Son.”[170]
There was not a Christian Father who could have been ignorant of
these symbols in their physical meaning; for it is in this latter
aspect that they were abandoned to the ignorant rabble. Moreover,
they all had as good reasons to suspect the occult symbolism
contained in these images; although as none of them--Paul excepted,
perhaps--had been initiated they could know nothing whatever about
the nature of the final rites. Any person revealing these mysteries
was put to death, regardless of sex, nationality, or creed. A
Christian father would no more be proof against _an accident_ than a
Pagan _Mysta_ or the Μύστης.
If during the _Aporreta_ or preliminary arcanes, there were some
practices which might have shocked the pudicity of a Christian
convert--though we doubt the sincerity of such statements--their
mystical symbolism was all sufficient to relieve the performance
of any charge of licentiousness. Even the episode of the Matron
Baubo--whose rather eccentric method of consolation was immortalized
in the minor Mysteries--is explained by impartial mystagogues quite
naturally. Ceres-Demeter and her earthly wanderings in search of
her daughter are the euhemerized descriptions of one of the most
metaphysico-psychological subjects ever treated of by human mind.
It is a mask for the transcendent narrative of the initiated seers;
the celestial vision of the freed soul of the initiate of the last
hour describing the process by which the soul that has not yet been
incarnated descends for the first time into matter, “Blessed is he
who hath seen those _common concerns_ of the underworld; he knows
both the end of life and its divine origin from Jupiter,” says
Pindar. Taylor shows, on the authority of more than one initiate,
that the “dramatic performances of the Lesser Mysteries were
designed by their founders, to signify _occultly_ the condition of
the unpurified soul invested with an earthly body, and enveloped
in a material and physical nature ... that the soul, indeed, till
purified by philosophy, suffers death through its union with the
body.”
The body is the sepulchre, the prison of the soul, and many Christian
Fathers held with Plato that the soul is _punished_ through its union
with the body. Such is the fundamental doctrine of the Buddhists and
of many Brahmanists too. When Plotinus remarks that “when the soul
has descended into generation (from its _half_-divine condition)
she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the
opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged
in which is nothing more than to fall into dark mire;”[171] he only
repeats the teachings of Gautama-Buddha. If we have to believe the
ancient initiates at all, we must accept their interpretation of the
symbols. And if, moreover, we find them perfectly coinciding with
the teachings of the greatest philosophers and that which we know
symbolizes the same meaning in the modern Mysteries in the East, we
must believe them to be right.
If Demeter was considered the intellectual soul, or rather the
_Astral_ soul, half emanation from the spirit and half tainted with
matter through a succession of spiritual evolutions--we may readily
understand what is meant by the Matron Baubo, the Enchantress, who
before she succeeds in reconciling the soul--Demeter, to its new
position, finds herself obliged to assume the sexual forms of an
infant. Baubo is _matter_, the physical body; and the intellectual,
as yet pure astral soul can be ensnared into its new terrestrial
prison but by the display of innocent babyhood. Until then, doomed to
her fate, Demeter, or _Magna-mater_, the Soul, wonders and hesitates
and suffers; but once having partaken of the magic potion prepared
by Baubo, she forgets her sorrows; for a certain time she parts with
that consciousness of higher intellect that she was possessed of
before entering the body of a child. Thenceforth she must seek to
rejoin it again; and when the age of reason arrives for the child,
the struggle--forgotten for a few years of infancy--begins again. The
astral soul is placed between matter (body) and the highest intellect
(its immortal spirit or _nous_). Which of those two will conquer? The
result of the battle of life lies between the triad. It is a question
of a few years of physical enjoyment on earth and--if it has begotten
abuse--of the dissolution of the earthly body being followed by death
of the astral body, which thus is prevented from being united with
the highest spirit of the triad, which alone confers on us individual
immortality; or, on the other hand, of becoming immortal mystæ;
initiated before death of the body into the divine truths of the
after life. Demi-gods below, and GODS above.
Such was the chief object of the Mysteries represented as diabolical
by theology, and ridiculed by modern symbologists. To disbelieve that
there exist in man certain arcane powers, which, by psychological
study he can develop in himself to the highest degree, become an
hierophant and then impart to others under the same conditions of
earthly discipline, is to cast an imputation of falsehood and lunacy
upon a number of the best, purest, and most learned men of antiquity
and of the middle ages. What the hierophant was allowed to see at the
last hour is hardly hinted at by them. And yet Pythagoras, Plato,
Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, and many others knew and affirmed
their reality.
Whether in the “inner temple,” or through the study of theurgy
carried on privately, or by the sole exertion of a whole life of
spiritual labor, they all obtained the practical proof of such divine
possibilities for man fighting his battle with life on earth to win a
life in the eternity. What the last _epopteia_ was is alluded to by
Plato in _Phædrus_ (64); “... being initiated in those _Mysteries_,
which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all mysteries ... we
were freed from the molestations of evils which otherwise await us
in a future period of time. Likewise, in consequence of this divine
_initiation_, we became _spectators_ of entire, simple, immovable,
and _blessed visions_, resident in a pure light.” This sentence shows
that they saw _visions_, gods, spirits. As Taylor correctly observes,
from all such passages in the works of the initiates it may be
inferred, “that the most sublime part of the _epopteia_ ... consisted
in beholding the gods themselves invested with a resplendent light,”
or highest planetary spirits. The statement of Proclus upon this
subject is unequivocal: “In all the initiations and mysteries, the
gods exhibit many forms of themselves, and appear in _a variety of
shapes_, and sometimes, indeed, a formless light of themselves is
held forth to the view; sometimes this light is according _to a human
form_, and sometimes it proceeds into a different shape.”[172]
“Whatever is _on earth is the resemblance and_ SHADOW _of something
that is in the sphere_, while that resplendent thing (the prototype
of the soul-spirit) remaineth in _unchangeable_ condition, it is well
also with its shadow. But when the _resplendent one_ removeth far
from its shadow life removeth from the latter to a distance. And yet,
that very light is the shadow of something still more resplendent
than itself.” Thus speaks _Desatir_, the Persian _Book of Shet_,[173]
thereby showing its identity of esoteric doctrines with those of the
Greek philosophers.
The second statement of Plato confirms our belief that the Mysteries
of the ancients were identical with the Initiations, as practiced
now among the Buddhists and the Hindu adepts. The highest visions,
the most _truthful_, are produced, not through _natural_ ecstatics
or “mediums,” as it is sometimes erroneously asserted, but through
a regular discipline of gradual initiations and development of
psychical powers. The Mystæ were brought into close union with
those whom Proclus calls “mystical natures,” “resplendent gods,”
because, as Plato says, “we were ourselves pure and immaculate, being
liberated from this _surrounding vestment_, which we denominate body,
and to which we are now bound like an oyster to its shell.”[174]
So the doctrine of planetary and terrestrial Pitris was revealed
_entirely_ in ancient India, as well as now, only at the last moment
of initiation, and to the adepts of superior degrees. Many are the
fakirs, who, though pure, and honest, and self-devoted, have yet
never seen the astral form of a purely _human pitar_ (an ancestor or
father), otherwise than at the solemn moment of their first and last
initiation. It is in the presence of his instructor, the guru, and
just before the _vatou_-fakir is dispatched into the world of the
living, with his seven-knotted bamboo wand for all protection, that
he is suddenly placed face to face with the unknown PRESENCE. He sees
it, and falls prostrate at the feet of the evanescent form, but is
not entrusted with the great secret of its evocation; for it is the
supreme mystery of the holy syllable. The AUM contains the evocation
of the Vedic triad, the _Trimurti_ Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, say the
Orientalists;[175] it contains the evocation of _something more real
and objective than this triune abstraction_--we say, respectfully
contradicting the eminent scientists. It is the trinity of man
himself, on his way to become immortal through the solemn union of
his inner triune SELF--the exterior, gross body, the husk not even
being taken in consideration in this human trinity.[176] It is,
when this trinity, in anticipation of the final triumphant reunion
beyond the gates of corporeal death became for a few seconds a UNITY,
that the candidate is allowed, at the moment of the initiation, to
behold his future self. Thus we read in the Persian _Desatir_, of
the “Resplendent one;” in the Greek philosopher-initiates, of the
Augoeides--the self-shining “blessed vision resident in the pure
light;” in Porphyry, that Plotinus was united to his “god” six times
during his lifetime; and so on.
“In ancient India, the mystery of the triad, known but to the
initiates, could not, under the penalty of death, be revealed to the
vulgar,” says Vrihaspati.
Neither could it in the ancient Grecian and Samothracian Mysteries.
_Nor can it be now._ It is in the hands of the adepts, and must
remain a mystery to the world so long as the materialistic savant
regards it as an undemonstrated fallacy, an insane hallucination, and
the dogmatic theologian, a snare of the Evil One.
_Subjective_ communication with the human, god-like spirits of those
who have preceded us to the silent land of bliss, is in India divided
into three categories. Under the spiritual training of a guru or
sannyâsi, the vatou (disciple or neophyte) begins _to feel_ them.
Were he not under the immediate guidance of an adept, he would be
controlled by the invisibles, and utterly at their mercy, for among
these subjective influences he is unable to discern the good from the
bad. Happy the sensitive who is sure of the purity of his spiritual
atmosphere!
To this subjective consciousness, which is the _first_ degree, is,
after a time, added that of clairaudience. This is the _second_
degree or stage of development. The sensitive--when not naturally
made so by psychological training--now audibly hears, but is still
unable to discern; and is incapable of verifying his impressions, and
one who is unprotected the tricky powers of the air but too often
delude with semblances of voices and speech. But the guru’s influence
is there; it is the most powerful shield against the intrusion of the
_bhutná_ into the atmosphere of the vatou, consecrated to the pure,
human, and celestial Pitris.
The _third_ degree is that when the fakir or any other candidate
both feels, hears, and sees; and when he can at will produce the
_reflections_ of the Pitris on the mirror of astral light. All
depends upon his psychological and mesmeric powers, which are always
proportionate to the intensity of his _will_. But the fakir will
never control the Akasa, the spiritual life-principle, the omnipotent
agent of every phenomenon, in the same degree as an adept of the
third and highest initiation. And the phenomena produced by the
will of the latter do not generally run the market-places for the
satisfaction of open-mouthed investigators.
The unity of God, the immortality of the spirit, belief in salvation
only through our works, merit and demerit; such are the principal
articles of faith of the Wisdom-religion, and the ground work of
Vedaism, Buddhism, Parsism, and such we find to have been even that
of the ancient Osirism, when we, after abandoning the popular sun-god
to the materialism of the rabble, confine our attention to the _Books
of Hermes_, the thrice-great.
“The THOUGHT concealed as yet the world in silence and darkness....
Then the Lord who exists through Himself, and _who is not to be
divulged to the external senses of man_; dissipated darkness, and
manifested the perceptible world.”
“He that can be perceived only by the spirit, that escapes the
organs of sense, who is without visible parts, eternal, the soul of
all beings, that none can comprehend, displayed His own splendor”
(_Manu_, book i., slokas, 6-7).
Such is the ideal of the Supreme in the mind of every Hindu
philosopher.
“Of all the duties, the principal one is to acquire the knowledge of
the supreme soul (the spirit); it is the first of all sciences, _for
it alone confers on man immortality_” (_Manu_, book xii., sloka 85).
And our scientists talk of the Nirvana of Buddha and the Moksha of
Brahma as of a complete annihilation! It is thus that the following
verse is interpreted by some materialists.
“The man who recognizes the _Supreme Soul_, in his own soul, as well
as in that of all creatures, and who is equally just to all (whether
man or animals) obtains the happiest of all fates, that to be finally
_absorbed_ in the bosom of Brahma” (_Manu_, book xii., sloka 125).
The doctrine of the Moksha and the Nirvana, as understood by the
school of Max Müller, can never bear confronting with numerous
texts that can be found, if required, as a final refutation. There
are sculptures in many pagodas which contradict, point-blank, the
imputation. Ask a Brahman to explain Moksha, address yourself to
an educated Buddhist and pray him to define for you the meaning of
Nirvana. Both will answer you that in every one of these religions
Nirvana represents the dogma of the spirit’s immortality. That,
to reach the Nirvana means absorption into the great universal
soul, the latter representing a _state_, not an individual being
or an anthropomorphic god, as some understand the great EXISTENCE.
That a spirit reaching such a state becomes a _part_ of the
integral _whole_, but never loses its individuality for all that.
Henceforth, the spirit lives spiritually, without any fear of further
modifications of form; for form pertains to matter, and the state of
_Nirvana_ implies a complete purification or a final riddance from
even the most sublimated particle of matter.
This word, _absorbed_, when it is proved that the Hindus and
Buddhists believe in the _immortality_ of the spirit, must
necessarily mean intimate union, not annihilation. Let Christians
call them idolaters, if they still dare do so, in the face of science
and the latest translations of the sacred Sanscrit books; they have
no right to present the speculative philosophy of ancient sages as
an inconsistency and the philosophers themselves as illogical fools.
With far better reason we can accuse the ancient Jews of utter
_nihilism_. There is not a word contained in the Books of Moses--or
the prophets either--which, taken literally, implies the spirit’s
immortality. Yet every devout Jew hopes as well to be “gathered into
the bosom of A-Braham.”
The hierophants and some Brahmans are accused of having administered
to their epoptai strong drinks or anæsthetics to produce visions
which shall be taken by the latter as realities. They did and do use
sacred beverages which, like the Soma-drink, possess the faculty
of freeing the astral form from the bonds of matter; but in those
visions there is as little to be attributed to hallucination as
in the glimpses which the scientist, by the help of his optical
instrument, gets into the microscopic world. A man cannot perceive,
touch, and converse with pure spirit through any of his bodily
senses. Only spirit alone can talk to and see spirit; and even our
astral soul, the _Doppelganger_, is too gross, too much tainted
yet with earthly matter to trust entirely to its perceptions and
insinuations.
How dangerous may often become _untrained_ mediumship, and how
thoroughly it was understood and provided against by the ancient
sages, is perfectly exemplified in the case of Socrates. The old
Grecian philosopher was a “medium;” hence, he had never been
initiated into the Mysteries; for such was the rigorous law. But he
had his “familiar spirit” as they call it, his _daimonion_; and this
invisible counsellor became the cause of his death. It is generally
believed that if he was not initiated into the Mysteries it was
because he himself neglected to become so. But the _Secret Records_
teach us that it was because he could not be admitted to participate
in the sacred rites, and precisely, as we state, on account of his
mediumship. There was a law against the admission not only of such
as were convicted of deliberate _witchcraft_[177] but even of those
who were known to have “a familiar spirit.” The law was just and
logical, because a genuine medium is more or less irresponsible;
and the eccentricities of Socrates are thus accounted for in some
degree. A medium must be _passive_; and if a firm believer in his
“spirit-guide” he will allow himself to be ruled by the latter,
not by the rules of the sanctuary. A _medium_ of olden times, like
the modern “medium” was subject to be _entranced_ at the will and
pleasure of the “power” which _controlled_ him; therefore, he could
not well have been entrusted with the awful secrets of the final
initiation, “never to be revealed under the penalty of death.” The
old sage, in unguarded moments of “spiritual inspiration,” revealed
that which he had never learned; and was therefore put to death as an
atheist.
How then, with such an instance as that of Socrates, in relation
to the visions and spiritual wonders at the epoptai, of the Inner
Temple, can any one assert that these seers, theurgists, and
thaumaturgists were all “spirit-mediums?” Neither Pythagoras,
Plato, nor any of the later more important Neo-platonists; neither
Iamblichus, Longinus, Proclus, nor Apollonius of Tyana, were ever
mediums; for in such case they would not have been admitted to
the Mysteries at all. As Taylor proves--“This assertion of divine
visions in the Mysteries is clearly confirmed by Plotinus. And in
short, that magical evocation formed a part of the sacerdotal office
in them, and that this was universally believed by all antiquity
long before the era of the later Platonists,” shows that apart from
natural “mediumship,” there has existed, from the beginning of time,
a mysterious science, discussed by many, but known only to a few.
The use of it is a longing toward our only true and real home--the
after-life, and a desire to cling more closely to our parent spirit;
abuse of it is sorcery, witchcraft, _black_ magic. Between the two is
placed natural “mediumship;” a soul clothed with imperfect matter, a
ready agent for either the one or the other, and utterly dependent
on its surroundings of life, constitutional heredity--physical as
well as mental--and on the nature of the “spirits” it attracts around
itself. A blessing or a curse, as fate will have it, unless the
medium is purified of earthly dross.
The reason why in every age so little has been generally known of
the mysteries of initiation, is twofold. The first has already been
explained by more than one author, and lies in the terrible penalty
following the least indiscretion. The second, is the superhuman
difficulties and even dangers which the daring candidate of old
had to encounter, and either conquer, or die in the attempt, when,
what is still worse, he did not lose his reason. There was no real
danger to him whose mind had become thoroughly spiritualized, and
so prepared for every terrific sight. He who fully recognized the
power of his immortal spirit, and never doubted for one moment its
omnipotent protection, had naught to fear. But woe to the candidate
in whom the slightest physical fear--sickly child of matter--made
him lose sight and faith in his own invulnerability. He who was not
wholly confident of his moral fitness to accept the burden of these
tremendous secrets was doomed.
The _Talmud_ gives the story of the four Tanaïm, who are made, in
allegorical terms, to enter into _the garden of delights_; _i.e._, to
be initiated into the occult and final science.
“According to the teaching of our holy masters the names of the four
who entered the garden of delight, are: Ben Asai, Ben Zoma, Acher,
and Rabbi Akiba....
“Ben Asai looked and--lost his sight.
“Ben Zoma looked and--lost his reason.
“Acher made depredations in the plantation” (mixed up the whole and
failed). “But Akiba, who had entered in peace, came out of it in
peace, for the saint whose name be blessed had said, ‘This old man is
worthy of serving us with glory.’”
“The learned commentators of the _Talmud_, the Rabbis of the
synagogue, explain that the _garden of delight_, in which those
four personages are made to enter, is but that mysterious science,
the most terrible of sciences _for weak intellects, which it leads
directly to insanity_,” says A. Franck, in his _Kabbala_. It is not
the pure at heart and he who studies but with a view to perfecting
himself and so more easily acquiring the promised immortality,
who need have any fear; but rather he who makes of the science of
sciences a sinful pretext for worldly motives, who should tremble.
_The latter will never withstand the kabalistic evocations of the
supreme initiation._
The licentious performances of the thousand and one early Christian
sects, may be criticised by partial commentators as well as the
ancient Eleusinian and other rites. But why should they incur the
blame of the theologians, the Christians, when their own “Mysteries”
of “the divine incarnation with Joseph, Mary, and the angel” in
a sacred _trilogue_ used to be enacted in more than one country,
and were famous at one time in Spain and Southern France? Later,
they fell like many other once secret rites into the hands of the
populace. It is but a few years since, during every Christmas week,
Punch-and-Judy-boxes, containing the above named personages, an
additional display of the infant Jesus in his manger, were carried
about the country in Poland and Southern Russia. They were called
_Kaliadovki_, a word the correct etymology of which we are unable
to give unless it is from the verb _Kaliadovât_, a word that we as
willingly abandon to learned philologists. We have seen this show in
our days of childhood. We remember the three king-Magi represented
by three dolls in powdered wigs and colored tights; and it is from
recollecting the simple, profound veneration depicted on the faces
of the pious audience, that we can the more readily appreciate the
honest and just remark by the editor, in the introduction to the
_Eleusinian Mysteries_, who says: “It is ignorance which leads to
profanation. Men ridicule what they do not properly understand....
The undercurrent of this world is set toward one goal; and inside of
human credulity--call it human weakness, if you please--is a power
almost infinite, a holy faith capable of apprehending the supremest
truths of all existence.”
If that abstract sentiment called _Christian charity_ prevailed in
the Church, we would be well content to leave all this unsaid. We
have no quarrel with Christians whose faith is sincere and whose
practice coincides with their profession. But with an arrogant,
dogmatic, and dishonest clergy, we have nothing to do except to see
the ancient philosophy--antagonized by modern theology in its puny
offspring--Spiritualism--defended and righted so far as we are able,
so that its grandeur and sufficiency may be thoroughly displayed. It
is not alone for the esoteric philosophy that we fight; nor for any
modern system of moral philosophy, but for the inalienable right of
private judgment, and especially for the ennobling idea of a future
life of activity and accountability.
We eagerly applaud such commentators as Godfrey Higgins, Inman, Payne
Knight, King, Dunlap, and Dr. Newton, however much they disagree
with our own mystical views, for their diligence is constantly being
rewarded by fresh discoveries of the Pagan paternity of Christian
symbols. But otherwise, all these learned works are useless. Their
researches only cover half the ground. Lacking the true key of
interpretation they see the symbols only in a physical aspect. They
have no password to cause the gates of mystery to swing open; and
ancient spiritual philosophy is to them a closed book. Diametrically
opposed though they be to the clergy in their ideas respecting it, in
the way of interpretation they do little more than their opponents
for a questioning public. Their labors tend to strengthen materialism
as those of the clergy, especially the Romish clergy, do to cultivate
belief in diabolism.
If the study of Hermetic philosophy held out no other hope of reward,
it would be more than enough to know that by it we may learn with
what perfection of justice the world is governed. A sermon upon this
text is preached by every page of history. Among all there is not
one that conveys a deeper moral than the case of the Roman Church.
The divine law of compensation was never more strikingly exemplified
than in the fact that by her own act she has deprived herself of
the only possible key to her own religious mysteries. The assumption
of Godfrey Higgins that there are two doctrines maintained in the
Roman Church, one for the masses and the other--the esoteric--for the
“perfect,” or the initiates, as in the ancient Mysteries, appears
to us unwarranted and rather fantastic. They have lost the key, we
repeat; otherwise no terrestrial power could have prostrated her, and
except a superficial knowledge of the means of producing “miracles,”
her clergy can in no way be compared in their wisdom with the
hierophants of old.
In burning the works of the theurgists; in proscribing those who
affect their study; in affixing the stigma of demonolatry to magic
in general, Rome has left her exoteric worship and _Bible_ to be
helplessly riddled by every free-thinker, her sexual emblems to be
identified with coarseness, and her priests to unwittingly turn
magicians and even sorcerers in their exorcisms, which are but
necromantic evocations. Thus retribution, by the exquisite adjustment
of divine law, is made to overtake this scheme of cruelty, injustice,
and bigotry, through her own suicidal acts.
True philosophy and divine truth are convertible terms. A religion
which dreads the light cannot be a religion based on either truth
or philosophy--hence, it must be false. The ancient Mysteries were
mysteries to the profane only, whom the hierophant never sought nor
would accept as proselytes; to the initiates the Mysteries became
explained as soon as the final veil was withdrawn. No mind like
that of Pythagoras or Plato would have contented itself with an
unfathomable and incomprehensible mystery, like that of the Christian
dogma. There can be but one truth, for two small truths on the same
subject can but constitute one great error. Among thousands of
exoteric or popular conflicting religions which have been propagated
since the days when the first men were enabled to interchange their
ideas, not a nation, not a people, nor the most abject tribe, but
after their own fashion has believed in an Unseen God, the First
Cause of unerring and immutable laws, and in the immortality of our
spirit. No creed, no false philosophy, no religious exaggerations,
could ever destroy that feeling. It must, therefore, be based upon
an absolute truth. On the other hand, every one of the numberless
religions and religious sects views the Deity after its own fashion;
and, fathering on the unknown its own speculations, it enforces these
purely human outgrowths of overheated imagination on the ignorant
masses, and calls them “revelation.” As the dogmas of every religion
and sect often differ radically, they cannot be _true_. And if
untrue, what are they?
“The greatest curse to a nation,” remarks Dr. Inman, “is not _a bad
religion_, but a form of faith which prevents manly inquiry. I know
of no nation of old that was priest-ridden which did not fall under
the swords of those who did not care for hierarchs.... The greatest
danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at vice,
and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their
votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that
they should do to him, and _allows no one to interfere between him
and his Maker_, all will go well with the world.”[178]
CHAPTER III.
“KING.--Let us from point to point this story know.”
--_All’s Well That Ends Well._--Act v., Scene 3.
“He is the One, self-proceeding; and from Him all things proceed.
And in them He Himself exerts His activity; no mortal
BEHOLDS HIM, but HE beholds all!”--_Orphic Hymn._
“And Athens, O Athena, is thy own!
Great Goddess hear! and on my darkened mind
Pour thy pure light in measure unconfined;
That sacred light, O all-proceeding Queen,
Which beams eternal from thy face serene.
My soul, while wand’ring on the earth, inspire
With thy own blessed and impulsive fire!”
--PROCLUS; TAYLOR: _To Minerva_.
“Now _faith_ is the substance of things.... By faith the harlot
Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had
_received the spies in peace_.”--_Hebrews_ xi. 1, 31.
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man hath faith, and have
not works? _Can_ FAITH _save him_?... Likewise also was not Rahab
the harlot _justified by works_, when she had received the
messengers, and had sent them out another way?”--_James_ ii. 14, 25.
Clement describes Basilides, the Gnostic, as “a philosopher devoted
to the contemplation of divine things.” This very appropriate
expression may be applied to many of the founders of the more
important sects which later were all engulfed in one--that stupendous
compound of unintelligible dogmas enforced by Irenæus, Tertullian,
and others, which is now termed Christianity. _If these must be
called heresies, then early Christianity itself must be included
in the number._ Basilides and Valentinus preceded Irenæus and
Tertullian; and the two latter Fathers had less facts than the
two former Gnostics to show that their _heresy_ was plausible.
Neither divine right nor truth brought about the triumph of their
Christianity; fate alone was propitious. We can assert, with entire
plausibility, that there is not one of all these sects--Kabalism,
Judaism, and our present Christianity included--but sprung from
the two main branches of that one mother-trunk, the once universal
religion, which antedated the Vedaic ages--we speak of that
prehistoric Buddhism which merged later into Brahmanism.
The religion which the primitive teaching of the early few apostles
most resembled--a religion preached by Jesus himself--is the elder of
these two, Buddhism. The latter as taught in its primitive purity,
and carried to perfection by the last of the Buddhas, Gautama, based
its moral ethics on three fundamental principles. It alleged that
1, every thing existing, exists from natural causes; 2, that virtue
brings its own reward, and vice and sin their own punishment; and,
3, that the state of man in this world is probationary. We might
add that on these three principles rested the universal foundation
of every religious creed; God, and individual immortality for
every man--if he could but win it. However puzzling the subsequent
theological tenets; however seemingly incomprehensible the
metaphysical abstractions which have convulsed the theology of every
one of the great religions of mankind as soon as it was placed on a
sure footing, the above is found to be the essence of every religious
philosophy, with the exception of later Christianity. It was that
of Zoroaster, of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Jesus, and even of Moses,
albeit the teachings of the Jewish law-giver have been so piously
tampered with.
We will devote the present chapter mainly to a brief survey of the
numerous sects which have recognized themselves as Christians; that
is to say, that have believed in a _Christos_, or an ANOINTED ONE.
We will also endeavor to explain the latter appellation from the
kabalistic standpoint, and show it reappearing in every religious
system. It might be profitable, at the same time, to see how much the
earliest apostles--Paul and Peter, agreed in their preaching of the
new Dispensation. We will begin with Peter.
We must once more return to that greatest of all the Patristic
frauds; the one which has undeniably helped the Roman Catholic Church
to its unmerited supremacy, viz.: the barefaced assertion, in the
teeth of historical evidence, that Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome.
It is but too natural that the Latin clergy should cling to it, for,
with the exposure of the fraudulent nature of this pretext, the dogma
of apostolic succession must fall to the ground.
There have been many able works of late, in refutation of this
preposterous claim. Among others we note Mr. G. Reber’s, _The Christ
of Paul_, which overthrows it quite ingeniously. The author proves,
1, that there was no church established at Rome, until the reign
of Antoninus Pius; 2, that as Eusebius and Irenæus both agree that
Linus was the second Bishop of Rome, into whose hands “the blessed
apostles” Peter and Paul committed the church after building it,
it could not have been at any other time than between A.D. 64 and
68; 3, that this interval of years happens during the reign of
Nero, for Eusebius states that Linus held this office twelve years
(_Ecclesiastical History_, book iii., c. 13), entering upon it A.D.
69, one year after the death of Nero, and dying himself in 81. After
that the author maintains, on very solid grounds, that Peter could
not be in Rome A.D. 64, for he was then in Babylon; wherefrom he
wrote his first Epistle, the date of which is fixed by Dr. Lardner
and other critics at precisely this year. But we believe that his
best argument is in proving that it was not in the character of the
cowardly Peter to risk himself in such close neighborhood with Nero,
who “was feeding the wild beasts of the Amphitheatre with the flesh
and bones of Christians”[179] at that time.
Perhaps the Church of Rome was but consistent in choosing as her
titular founder the apostle who thrice denied his master at the
moment of danger; and the only one, moreover, except Judas, who
provoked Christ in such a way as to be addressed as the “Enemy.”
“Get thee behind me, SATAN!” exclaims Jesus, rebuking the taunting
apostle.[180]
There is a tradition in the Greek Church which has never found favor
at the Vatican. The former traces its origin to one of the Gnostic
leaders--Basilides, perhaps, who lived under Trajan and Adrian, at
the end of the first and the beginning of the second century. With
regard to this particular tradition, if the Gnostic is Basilides,
then he must be accepted as a sufficient authority, having claimed
to have been a disciple of the Apostle Matthew, and to have had for
master Glaucias, a disciple of St. Peter himself. Were the narrative
attributed to him authenticated, the London Committee for the
Revision of the Bible would have to add a new verse to _Matthew_,
_Mark_, and _John_, who tell the story of Peter’s denial of Christ.
This tradition, then, of which we have been speaking, affirms that,
when frightened at the accusation of the servant of the high priest,
the apostle had thrice denied his master, and the cock had crowed,
Jesus, who was then passing through the hall in custody of the
soldiers, turned, and, looking at Peter, said: “Verily, I say unto
thee, Peter, thou shalt deny me throughout the coming ages, and never
stop until thou shalt be old, and shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.” The
latter part of this sentence, say the Greeks, relates to the Church
of Rome, and prophesies her constant apostasy from Christ, under the
mask of false religion. Later, it was inserted in the twenty-first
chapter of _John_, but the whole of this chapter had been pronounced
a forgery, even before it was found that this _Gospel_ was never
written by John the Apostle at all.
The anonymous author of _Supernatural Religion_, a work which in
two years passed through several editions, and which is alleged to
have been written by an eminent theologian, proves conclusively
the spuriousness of the four gospels, or at least their complete
transformation in the hands of the too-zealous Irenæus and his
champions. The fourth gospel is completely upset by this able author;
the extraordinary forgeries of the Fathers of the early centuries
are plainly demonstrated, and the relative value of the synoptics
is discussed with an unprecedented power of logic. The work carries
conviction in its every line. From it we quote the following: “We
gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief in the
reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain, pure and unimpaired,
the treasure of Christian morality, we relinquish nothing but the
debasing elements added to it by human superstition. We are no
longer bound to believe a theology which outrages reason and moral
sense. We are freed from base anthropomorphic views of God and His
government of the Universe, and from Jewish Mythology we rise to
higher conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being, hidden
from our finite minds, it is true, in the impenetrable glory of
Divinity, but whose laws of wondrous comprehensiveness and perfection
we ever perceive in operation around us.... The argument so often
employed by theologians, that Divine revelation is necessary for man,
and that certain views contained in that revelation are required for
our moral consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the
revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing absolutely
necessary for man is TRUTH, and to that, and that alone, must our
moral consciousness adapt itself.”[181]
We will consider farther in what light was regarded the Divine
revelation of the Jewish _Bible_ by the Gnostics, who yet believed
in Christ in their own way, a far better and less blasphemous one
than the Roman Catholic. The Fathers have forced on the believers
in Christ a _Bible_, the laws prescribed in which he was the first
to break; the teachings of which he utterly rejected; and for which
crimes he was finally crucified. Of whatever else the Christian world
can boast, it can hardly claim logic and consistency as its chief
virtues.
The fact alone that Peter remained to the last an “apostle of the
circumcision,” speaks for itself. _Whosoever else might have built
the Church of Rome it was not Peter._ If such were the case, the
successors of this apostle would have to submit themselves to
circumcision, if it were but for the sake of consistency, and to
show that the claims of the popes are not utterly groundless, Dr.
Inman asserts that report says that “in our Christian times popes
have to be privately perfect,”[182] but we do not know whether it is
carried to the extent of the Levitical Jewish law. The first fifteen
Christian bishops of Jerusalem, commencing with James and including
Judas, were all circumcised Jews.[183]
In the _Sepher Toldos Jeshu_,[184] a Hebrew manuscript of great
antiquity, the version about Peter is different. Simon Peter, it
says, was one of their own brethren, though he had somewhat departed
from the laws, and the Jewish hatred and persecution of the apostle
seems to have existed but in the fecund imagination of the fathers.
The author speaks of him with great respect and fairness, calling
him “a faithful servant of the living God,” who passed his life in
austerity and meditation, “living in Babylon at the summit of a
tower,” composing hymns, and preaching charity. He adds that Peter
always recommended to the Christians not to molest the Jews, but
as soon as he was dead, behold another preacher went to Rome and
pretended that Simon Peter had altered the teachings of his master.
He invented a burning hell and threatened every one with it; promised
miracles, but worked none.
How much there is in the above of fiction and how much of truth, it
is for others to decide; but it certainly bears more the evidence
of sincerity and fact on its face, than the fables concocted by the
fathers to answer their end.
We may the more readily credit this friendship between Peter and
his late co-religionists as we find in _Theodoret_ the following
assertion: “The Nazarenes are Jews, honoring the ANOINTED (Jesus) as
a _just man_ and using the _Evangel_ according to Peter.”[185] Peter
was a Nazarene, according to the _Talmud_. He belonged to the sect of
the later Nazarenes, which dissented from the followers of John the
Baptist, and became a rival sect; and which--as tradition goes--was
instituted by Jesus himself.
History finds the first Christian sects to have been either Nazarenes
like John the Baptist; or Ebionites, among whom were many of the
relatives of Jesus; or Essenes (Iessaens) the Therapeutæ, healers,
of which the Nazaria were a branch. All these sects, which only in
the days of Irenæus began to be considered heretical, were more or
less kabalistic. They believed in the expulsion of demons by magical
incantations, and practiced this method; Jervis terms the Nabatheans
and other such sects “wandering Jewish exorcists,”[186] the Arabic
word _Nabæ_, meaning to wander, and the Hebrew נבא naba, to
prophesy. The _Talmud_ indiscriminately calls all the Christians
_Nozari_.[187] All the Gnostic sects equally believed in magic.
Irenæus, in describing the followers of Basilides, says, “They use
images, invocations, incantations, and all other things pertaining
unto magic.” Dunlap, on the authority of Lightfoot, shows that Jesus
was called _Nazaraios_, in reference to his humble and mean external
condition; “for Nazaraios means separation, alienation from other
men.”[188]
The real meaning of the word nazar נזר signifies to vow or consecrate
one’s self to the service of God. As a noun it is a _diadem_ or emblem
of such consecration, a head so consecrated.[189] Joseph was styled a
_nazar_.[190] “The head of Joseph, the vertex of the nazar among his
brethren.” Samson and Samuel (שמו־אל שצשון Semes-on and Semva-el) are
described alike as _nazars_. Porphyry, treating of Pythagoras, says
that he was purified and initiated at Babylon by Zar-adas, the head of
the sacred college. May it not be surmised, therefore, that the
Zoro-Aster was the _nazar_ of Ishtar, Zar-adas or Na-Zar-Ad,[191]
being the same with change of idiom? Ezra, or עזרא, was a priest and
scribe, a hierophant; and the first Hebrew colonizer of Judea
was זרובבל Zeru-Babel or the Zoro or nazar of Babylon.
The Jewish Scriptures indicate two distinct worships and religions
among the Israelites; that of Bacchus-worship under the mask of
Jehovah, and that of the Chaldean initiates to whom belonged some
of the _nazars_, the theurgists, and a few of the prophets. The
headquarters of these were always at Babylon and Chaldea, where two
rival schools of Magians can be distinctly shown. Those who would
doubt the statement will have in such a case to account for the
discrepancy between history and Plato, who of all men of his day
was certainly one of the best informed. Speaking of the Magians, he
shows them as instructing the Persian kings of Zoroaster, as the
son or priest of Oromasdes; and yet Darius, in the inscription at
Bihistun, boasts of having restored the cultus of Ormazd and put down
the Magian rites! Evidently there were two distinct and antagonistic
Magian schools. The oldest and the most esoteric of the two being
that which, satisfied with its unassailable knowledge and secret
power, was content to apparently relinquish her exoteric popularity,
and concede her supremacy into the hands of the reforming Darius.
The later Gnostics showed the same prudent policy by accommodating
themselves in every country to the prevailing religious forms, still
secretly adhering to their own essential doctrines.
There is another hypothesis possible, which is that Zero-Ishtar
was the high priest of the Chaldean worship, or Magian hierophant.
When the Aryans of Persia, under Darius Hystaspes, overthrew the
Magian Gomates, and _restored_ the Masdean worship, there ensued an
amalgamation by which the Magian Zoro-astar became the Zara-tushra
of the _Vendidad_. This was not acceptable to the other Aryans, who
adopted the Vedic religion as distinguished from that of _Avesta_.
But this is but an hypothesis.
And whatever Moses is now believed to have been, we will demonstrate
that he was an initiate. The Mosaic religion was at best a
sun-and-serpent worship, diluted, perhaps, with some slight
monotheistic notions before the latter were forcibly crammed into the
so-called “inspired Scriptures” by Ezra, at the time he was alleged to
have _re_written the Mosaic books. At all events the _Book of Numbers_
was a later book; and there the sun-and-serpent worship is as plainly
traceable as in any Pagan story. The tale of the fiery serpents is an
allegory in more than one sense. The “serpents” were the _Levites_ or
_Ophites_, who were Moses’ bodyguard (see _Exodus_ xxxii. 26); and the
command of the “Lord” to Moses to hang the heads of the people “before
the Lord against the sun,” which is the emblem of this Lord, is
unequivocal.
The nazars or prophets, as well as the Nazarenes, were an
anti-Bacchus caste, in so far that, in common with all the initiated
prophets, they held to the spirit of the symbolical religions and
offered a strong opposition to the idolatrous and exoteric practices
of the dead letter. Hence, the frequent stoning of the prophets by
the populace and under the leadership of those priests who made a
profitable living out of the popular superstitions. Otfried Müller
shows how much the Orphic Mysteries differed from the _popular_
rites of Bacchus,[192] although the _Orphikoi_ are known to have
followed the worship of Bacchus. The system of the purest morality
and of a severe asceticism promulgated in the teachings of Orpheus,
and so strictly adhered to by his votaries, are incompatible with
the lasciviousness and gross immorality of the popular rites. The
fable of Aristæus pursuing Eurydiké into the woods where a serpent
occasions her death, is a very plain allegory, which was in part
explained at the earliest times. Aristæus is _brutal power_, pursuing
Eurydiké, the esoteric doctrine, into the woods where the serpent
(emblem of every sun-god, and worshipped under its grosser aspect
even by the Jews) kills her; _i.e._, forces truth to become still
more esoteric, and seek shelter in the Underworld, which is not
the hell of our theologians. Moreover, the fate of Orpheus, torn
to pieces by the Bacchantes, is another allegory to show that the
gross and popular rites are always more welcome than divine but
simple truth, and proves the great difference that must have existed
between the esoteric and the popular worship. As the poems of both
Orpheus and Musæus were said to have been lost since the earliest
ages, so that neither Plato nor Aristotle recognized anything
authentic in the poems extant in their time, it is difficult to say
with precision what constituted their peculiar rites. Still we have
the oral tradition, and every inference to draw therefrom; and this
tradition points to Orpheus as having brought his doctrines from
India. As one whose religion was that of the oldest Magians--hence,
that to which belonged the initiates of all countries, beginning with
Moses, the “sons of the Prophets,” and the ascetic _nazars_ (who
must not be confounded with those against whom thundered Hosea and
other prophets) to the Essenes. This latter sect were Pythagoreans
before they rather degenerated, than became perfected in their
system by the Buddhist missionaries, whom Pliny tells us established
themselves on the shores of the Dead Sea, ages before his time, “_per
sæculorum millia_.” But if, on the one hand, these Buddhist monks
were the first to establish monastic communities and inculcate the
strict observance of dogmatic conventual rule, on the other they
were also the first to enforce and popularize those stern virtues so
exemplified by Sakya-muni, and which were previously exercised only
in isolated cases of well-known philosophers and their followers;
virtues preached two or three centuries later by Jesus, practiced by
a few Christian ascetics, and gradually abandoned, and even entirely
forgotten by the Christian Church.
The _initiated_ nazars had ever held to this rule, which had to be
followed before them by the adepts of every age; and the disciples
of John were but a dissenting branch of the Essenes. Therefore,
we cannot well confound them with all the nazars spoken of in the
_Old Testament_, and who are accused by Hosea with having separated
or consecrated themselves to _Bosheth_ בשת (see Hebrew text); which
implied the greatest possible abomination. To infer, as some critics
and theologians do, that it means to separate one’s self to _chastity_
or continence, is either to advisedly pervert the true meaning, or to
be totally ignorant of the Hebrew language. The eleventh verse of the
first chapter of Micah half explains the word in its veiled
translation: “Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, etc.,” and in
the original text the word is _Bosheth_. Certainly neither Baal, nor
Iahoh Kadosh, with his _Kadeshim_, was a god of ascetic virtue, albeit
the _Septuaginta_ terms them, as well as the _galli_--the perfected
priests--τετελεσμένους, the _initiated_ and the _consecrated_.[193]
The great _Sod_ of the _Kadeshim_, translated in _Psalm_ lxxxix. 7, by
“assembly of the saints,” was anything but a mystery of the
“_sanctified_” in the sense given to the latter word by Webster.
The Nazireate sect existed long before the laws of Moses, and
originated among people most inimical to the “chosen” ones of
Israel, viz., the people of Galilee, the ancient _olla-podrida_ of
idolatrous nations, where was built Nazara, the present Nazareth.
It is in Nazara that the ancient Nazorïa or Nazireates held their
“Mysteries of Life” or “assemblies,” as the word now stands in
the translation,[194] which were but the secret mysteries of
initiation,[195] utterly distinct in their practical form from the
popular Mysteries which were held at Byblus in honor of Adonis. While
the true _initiates_ of the ostracised Galilee were worshipping the
true God and enjoying transcendent visions, what were the “chosen”
ones about? Ezekiel tells it to us (chap. viii) when, in describing
what he saw, he says that the _form_ of a hand took him by a lock of
his head and transported him from Chaldea unto Jerusalem. “And there
stood seventy men of the senators of the house of Israel.... ‘Son of
man, hast thou seen what the ancients ... do in the dark?’” inquires
the “Lord.” “At the door of the house of the Lord ... behold there
sat women weeping for Tammuz” (Adonis). We really cannot suppose
that the Pagans have ever surpassed the “chosen” people in certain
shameful _abominations_ of which their own prophets accuse them so
profusely. To admit this truth, one hardly needs even to be a Hebrew
scholar; let him read the _Bible_ in English and meditate over the
language of the “holy” prophets.
This accounts for the hatred of the later Nazarenes for the orthodox
Jews--followers of the _exoteric_ Mosaic Law--who are ever taunted
by this sect with being the worshippers of Iurbo-Adunai, or Lord
Bacchus. Passing under the disguise of _Adoni-Iachoh_ (original
text, _Isaiah_ lxi. 1), Iahoh and Lord Sabaoth, the Baal-Adonis, or
Bacchus, worshipped in the groves and _public sods_ or Mysteries,
under the polishing hand of Ezra becomes finally the later-vowelled
Adonai of the Massorah--the One and Supreme God of the Christians!
“Thou shalt not worship the Sun who is named Adunai, says the _Codex_
of the Nazarenes; whose name is also _Kadush_[196] and El-El. This
Adunai will elect to himself a nation and congregate _in crowds_ (his
worship will be exoteric) ... Jerusalem will become the refuge and
city of the _Abortive_, who shall perfect themselves (circumcise)
with a sword ... and shall adore Adunai.”[197]
The oldest Nazarenes, who were the descendants of the Scripture
_nazars_, and whose last prominent leader was John the Baptist,
although never very orthodox in the sight of the scribes and
Pharisees of Jerusalem were, nevertheless, respected and left
unmolested. Even Herod “feared the multitude” because they regarded
John as a prophet (_Matthew_ xiv. 5). But the followers of Jesus
evidently adhered to a sect which became a still more exasperating
thorn in their side. It appeared as a heresy _within_ another
heresy; for while the nazars of the olden times, the “Sons of the
Prophets,” were Chaldean kabalists, the adepts of the new dissenting
sect showed themselves reformers and innovators from the first.
The great similitude traced by some critics between the rites and
observances of the earliest Christians and those of the Essenes may
be accounted for without the slightest difficulty. The Essenes, as we
remarked just now, were the converts of Buddhist missionaries who had
overrun Egypt, Greece, and even Judea at one time, since the reign
of Asoka the zealous propagandist; and while it is evidently to the
Essenes that belongs the honor of having had the Nazarene reformer,
Jesus, as a pupil, still the latter is found disagreeing with his
early teachers on several questions of formal observance. He cannot
strictly be called an Essene, for reasons which we will indicate
further on, neither was he a nazar, or Nazaria of the older sect.
What Jesus _was_, may be found in the _Codex Nazaræus_, in the unjust
accusations of the Bardesanian Gnostics.
“Jesu is _Nebu_, the false Messiah, the destroyer of the old orthodox
religion,” says the _Codex_.[198] He is the founder of the sect of
the new nazars, and, as the words clearly imply, a follower of the
Buddhist doctrine. In Hebrew the word _naba_ נבא means to speak of
inspiration; and נבו is _nebo_, a god of wisdom. But Nebo is also
_Mercury_, and _Mercury is Buddha_ in the Hindu monogram of planets.
Moreover, we find the Talmudists holding that Jesus was inspired by
the genius of Mercury.[199]
The Nazarene reformer had undoubtedly belonged to one of these
sects; though, perhaps, it would be next to impossible to decide
absolutely which. But what is self-evident is that he preached the
philosophy of Buddha-Sakyamûni. Denounced by the later prophets,
cursed by the Sanhedrim, the nazars--they were confounded with others
of that name “who separated themselves unto that shame,”[200] they
were secretly, if not openly persecuted by the orthodox synagogue.
It becomes clear why Jesus was treated with such contempt from
the first, and deprecatingly called “the Galilean.” Nathaniel
inquires--“Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (_John_
i. 46) at the very beginning of his career; and merely because he
knows him to be a _nazar_. Does not this clearly hint, that even the
older nazars were not really Hebrew religionists, but rather a class
of Chaldean theurgists? Besides, as the _New Testament_ is noted
for its mistranslations and transparent falsifications of texts,
we may justly suspect that the word Nazareth was substituted for
that of _nasaria_, or nozari. That it originally read “Can any good
thing come from a nozari, or Nazarene;” a follower of St. John the
Baptist, with whom we see him associating from his first appearance
on the stage of action, after having been lost sight of for a period
of nearly twenty years. The blunders of the _Old Testament_ are as
nothing to those of the _gospels_. Nothing shows better than these
self-evident contradictions the system of pious fraud upon which
the superstructure of the Messiahship rests. “This _is Elias_ which
was for to come,” says Matthew of John the Baptist, thus forcing an
ancient kabalistic tradition into the frame of evidence (xi. 14). But
when addressing the Baptist himself, they ask him (_John_ i. 16),
“Art thou Elias?” “And he saith _I am not_!” Which knew best--John or
his biographer? And which is divine revelation?
The motive of Jesus was evidently like that of Gautama-Buddha, to
benefit humanity at large by producing a religious reform which
should give it a religion of pure ethics; the true knowledge of God
and nature having remained until then solely in the hands of the
esoteric sects, and their adepts. As Jesus used _oil_ and the Essenes
never used aught but pure water,[201] he cannot be called a strict
Essene. On the other hand, the Essenes were also “set apart;” they
were healers (_assaya_) and dwelt in the desert as all ascetics did.
But although he did not abstain from wine he could have remained a
Nazarene all the same. For in chapter vi. of _Numbers_, we see that
after the priest has waved a part of the hair of a Nazorite for a
wave-offering before the Lord, “after that a Nazarene may drink
wine” (v. 20). The bitter denunciation by the reformer of the people
who would be satisfied with nothing is worded in the following
exclamation: “John came neither eating nor drinking and they say: ‘He
hath a devil.’... The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they
say: ‘Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber.’” And yet he was
an Essene and Nazarene, for we not only find him sending a message
to Herod, to say that he was one of those who cast out demons, and
who performed cures, but actually calling himself a prophet and
declaring himself equal to the other prophets.[202]
The author of _Sod_ shows Matthew trying to connect the appellation
of Nazarene with a prophecy,[203] and inquires “Why then does
Matthew state that the prophet said he should be called _Nazaria_?”
Simply “because he belonged to that sect, and a prophecy would
confirm his claims to the Messiahship.... Now it does not appear
that the prophets anywhere state that the Messiah will be called a
_Nazarene_.”[204] The fact alone that Matthew tries in the last verse
of chapter ii. to strengthen his claim that Jesus dwelt in Nazareth
_merely to fulfil a prophecy_, does more than weaken the argument, it
upsets it entirely; for the first two chapters have sufficiently been
proved later forgeries.
Baptism is one of the oldest rites and was practiced by all the
nations in their Mysteries, as sacred ablutions. Dunlap seems to
derive the name of the _nazars_ from nazah, sprinkling; Bahak-Zivo
is the genius who called the world into existence[205] out of
the “dark water,” say the Nazarenes; and Richardson’s _Persian,
Arabic, and English Lexicon_ asserts that the word _Bahak_ means
“raining.” But the Bahak-Zivo of the Nazarenes cannot be traced
so easily to Bacchus, who “was the rain-god,” for the nazars were
the greatest opponents of Bacchus-worship. “Bacchus is brought up
by the Hyades, the rain-nymphs,” says Preller;[206] who shows,
furthermore, that[207] at the conclusion of the religious Mysteries,
the priests baptized (washed) their monuments and anointed them
with oil. All this is but a very indirect proof. The Jordan baptism
need not be shown a substitution for the _exoteric_ Bacchic rites
and the libations in honor of Adonis or Adoni--whom the Nazarenes
abhorred--in order to prove it to have been a sect sprung from the
“Mysteries” of the “Secret Doctrine;” and their rites can by no means
be confounded with those of the Pagan populace, who had simply fallen
into the idolatrous and unreasoning faith of all plebeian multitudes.
John was the prophet of these Nazarenes, and in Galilee he was termed
“the Saviour,” but he was not the founder of that sect which derived
its tradition from the remotest Chaldeo-Akkadian theurgy.
“The early plebeian Israelites were Canaanites and Phœnicians,
with the same worship of the Phallic gods--Bacchus, Baal or Adon,
Iacchos--Iao or Jehovah;” but even among them there had always
been a class of _initiated_ adepts. Later, the character of this
plebe was modified by Assyrian conquests; and, finally, the Persian
colonizations superimposed the Pharisean and Eastern ideas and
usages, from which the _Old Testament_ and the Mosaic institutes
were derived. The Asmonean priest-kings promulgated the canon of the
_Old Testament_ in contradistinction to the _Apocrypha_ or Secret
Books of the Alexandrian Jews--kabalists.[208] Till John Hyrcanus
they were Asideans (Chasidim) and Pharisees (Parsees), but then
they became Sadducees or Zadokites--asserters of sacerdotal rule as
contradistinguished from rabbinical. The Pharisees were lenient and
intellectual, the Sadducees, bigoted and cruel.
Says the _Codex_: “John, son of the Aba-Saba-Zacharia, conceived
by his mother _Anasabet_ in her hundredth year, had baptized for
_forty-two years_[209] when Jesu Messias came to the Jordan to
be baptized with John’s baptism.... But he will _pervert John’s
doctrine_, changing the baptism of the Jordan, and perverting the
sayings of justice.”[210]
The baptism was changed from _water_ to that of the Holy Ghost,
undoubtedly in consequence of the ever-dominant idea of the Fathers
to institute a reform, and make the Christians distinct from St.
John’s Nazarenes, the Nabatheans and Ebionites, in order to make
room for new dogmas. Not only do the Synoptics tell us that Jesus
was baptizing the same as John, but John’s own disciples complained
of it, though surely Jesus cannot be accused of following a purely
Bacchic rite. The parenthesis in verse 2d of John iv., “... though
Jesus himself baptized not,” is so clumsy as to show upon its face
that it is an interpolation. Matthew makes John say that he that
should come after him would not baptize them with water “but with
_the Holy Ghost_ and fire.” Mark, Luke, and John corroborate these
words. Water, fire, and spirit, or Holy Ghost, have all their origin
in India, as we will show.
Now there is one very strange peculiarity about this sentence. It
is flatly denied in _Acts_ xix. 2-5. Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria,
belonged to the sect of St. John’s disciples; he had been baptized,
and instructed others in the doctrines of the Baptist. And yet when
Paul, cleverly profiting by his absence at Corinth, finds certain
disciples of Apollos’ at Ephesus, and asks them whether they received
_the Holy Ghost_, he is naïvely answered, “We have not so much as
heard whether there be any Holy Ghost!” “Unto what then were you
baptized?” he inquires. “_Unto John’s baptism_,” they say. Then Paul
is made to repeat the words attributed to John by the Synoptics; and
these men “were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,” exhibiting,
moreover, at the same instant, the usual polyglot gift which
accompanies the descent of the Holy Ghost.
How then? St. John the Baptist, who is called the “precursor,” that
“the prophecy might be fulfilled,” the great prophet and martyr,
whose words ought to have had such an importance in the eyes of his
disciples, announces the “Holy Ghost” to his listeners; causes crowds
to assemble on the shores of the Jordan, where, at the great ceremony
of Christ’s baptism, the promised “Holy Ghost” appears within the
opened heavens, and the multitude hears the voice, and yet there are
disciples of St. John who have “never so much as _heard_ whether
there be any Holy Ghost!”
Verily the disciples who wrote the _Codex Nazaræus_ were right.
Only it is not Jesus himself, but those who came after him, and who
concocted the _Bible_ to suit themselves, that “_perverted_ John’s
doctrine, _changed_ the baptism of the Jordan, and perverted the
sayings of justice.”
It is useless to object that the present _Codex_ was written
centuries after the direct apostles of John preached. So were our
_Gospels_. When this astounding interview of Paul with the “Baptists”
took place, Bardesanes had not yet appeared among them, and the sect
was not considered a “heresy.” Moreover, we are enabled to judge how
little St. John’s promise of the “Holy Ghost,” and the appearance of
the “Ghost” himself, had affected his disciples, by the displeasure
shown by them toward the disciples of Jesus, and the kind of rivalry
manifested from the first. Nay, so little is John himself sure of the
identity of Jesus with the expected Messiah, that after the famous
scene of the baptism at the Jordan, and the oral assurance by the
_Holy Ghost_ Himself that “_This is my beloved Son_” (_Matthew_ iii.
17), we find “the Precursor,” in _Matthew_ xi., sending two of his
disciples from his prison to inquire of Jesus: “Art thou _he_ that
should come, or do we look _for another_!!”
This flagrant contradiction alone ought to have long ago satisfied
reasonable minds as to the putative divine inspiration of the _New
Testament_. But we may offer another question: If baptism is the
sign of regeneration, and an ordinance instituted by Jesus, why do
not Christians now baptize as Jesus is here represented as doing,
“with the Holy Ghost and with fire,” instead of following the custom
of the Nazarenes? In making these palpable interpolations, what
possible motive could Irenæus have had except to cause people to
believe that the appellation of Nazarene, which Jesus bore, came only
from his father’s residence at Nazareth, and not from his affiliation
with the sect of _Nazaria_, the healers?
This expedient of Irenæus was a most unfortunate one, for from time
immemorial the prophets of old had been thundering against the
baptism of fire as practiced by their neighbors, which imparted the
“spirit of prophecy,” or the Holy Ghost. But the case was desperate;
the Christians were universally called Nazoræns and Iessaens
(according to Epiphanius), and Christ simply ranked as a Jewish
prophet and healer--so self-styled, so accepted by his own disciples,
and so regarded by their followers. In such a state of things there
was no room for either a new hierarchy or a new God-head; and since
Irenæus had undertaken the business of manufacturing both, he had to
put together such materials as were available, and fill the gaps with
his own fertile inventions.
To assure ourselves that Jesus was a true Nazarene--albeit with ideas
of a new reform--we must not search for the proof in the translated
_Gospels_, but in such original versions as are accessible.
Tischendorf, in his translation from the Greek of _Luke_ iv. 34,
has it “Iesou Nazarene;” and in the Syriac it reads “Iasoua, thou
_Nazaria_.” Thus, if we take in account all that is puzzling and
incomprehensible in the four _Gospels_, revised and corrected as they
now stand, we shall easily see for ourselves that the true, original
Christianity, such as was preached by Jesus, is to be found only in
the so-called Syrian heresies. Only from them can we extract any
clear notions about what was primitive Christianity. Such was the
faith of Paul, when Tertullus the orator accused the apostle before
the governor Felix. What he complained of was that they had found
“that man a mover of sedition ... a ringleader of _the sect of the
Nazarenes_;”[211] and, while Paul denies every other accusation, he
confesses that “after the way which they call heresy, _so worship I
the God of my fathers_.”[212] This confession is a whole revelation.
It shows: 1, that Paul admitted belonging to the sect of the
Nazarenes; 2, that he worshipped the _God of his fathers_, not the
trinitarian Christian God, of whom he knows nothing, and who was not
invented until after his death; and, 3, that this unlucky confession
satisfactorily explains why the treatise, _Acts of the Apostles_,
together with John’s _Revelation_, which at one period was utterly
rejected, were kept out of the canon of the _New Testament_ for such
a length of time.
At Byblos, the neophytes as well as the hierophants were, after
participating in the Mysteries, obliged to fast and remain in
solitude for some time. There was strict fasting and preparation
before as well as after the Bacchic, Adonian, and Eleusinian orgies;
and Herodotus hints, with fear and veneration about the LAKE of
Bacchus, in which “they (the priests) made at night exhibitions of
his life and sufferings.”[213] In the Mithraic sacrifices, during
the initiation, a preliminary scene of death was simulated by the
neophyte, and it preceded the scene showing him himself “being born
again by the rite _of baptism_.” A portion of this ceremony is still
enacted in the present day by the Masons, when the neophyte, as the
Grand Master Hiram Abiff, lies dead, and is raised by the strong grip
of the lion’s paw.
The priests were circumcised. The neophyte could not be initiated
without having been present at the solemn Mysteries of the LAKE. The
Nazarenes were baptized in the Jordan; and could not be baptized
elsewhere; they were also circumcised, and had to fast before as well
as after the purification by baptism. Jesus is said to have fasted
in the wilderness for forty days, immediately after his baptism. To
the present day, there is outside every temple in India, a lake,
stream, or a reservoir full of holy water, in which the Brahmans and
the Hindu devotees bathe daily. Such places of consecrated water are
necessary to every temple. The bathing festivals, or _baptismal_
rites, occur twice every year; in October and April. Each lasts ten
days; and, as in ancient Egypt and Greece, the statues of their
gods, goddesses, and idols are immersed in water by the priests; the
object of the ceremony being to wash away from them the sins of their
worshippers which they have taken upon themselves, and which pollute
them, until washed off by holy water. During the Arâtty, the bathing
ceremony, the principal god of every temple is carried in solemn
procession to be baptized in the sea. The Brahman priests, carrying
the sacred images, are followed generally by the Maharajah--barefoot,
and nearly naked. _Three times_ the priests enter the sea; the third
time they carry with them the whole of the images. Holding them up
with prayers repeated by the whole congregation, the Chief Priest
plunges the statues of the gods _thrice_ in the name of the _mystic
trinity_, into the water; after which they are purified.[214] The
Orphic hymn calls _water_ the greatest purifier of men and gods.
Our Nazarene sect is known to have existed some 150 years B.C., and
to have lived on the banks of the Jordan, and on the eastern shore
of the Dead Sea, according to Pliny and Josephus.[215] But in King’s
_Gnostics_, we find quoted another statement by Josephus from verse
13, which says that the Essenes had been established on the shores of
the Dead Sea “for thousands of ages” before Pliny’s time.[216]
According to Munk the term “Galilean” is nearly synonymous with that
of “Nazarene;” furthermore, he shows the relations of the former with
the Gentiles as very intimate. The populace had probably gradually
adopted, in their constant intercourse, certain rites and modes
of worship of the Pagans; and the scorn with which the Galileans
were regarded by the orthodox Jews is attributed by him to the same
cause. Their friendly relations had certainly led them, at a later
period, to adopt the “Adonia,” or the sacred rites over the body
of the lamented Adonis, as we find Jerome fairly lamenting this
circumstance. “Over Bethlehem,” he says, “the grove of Thammuz,
that is of Adonis, was casting its shadow! And in the GROTTO where
formerly the infant Jesus cried, the lover of Venus was being
mourned.”[217]
It was after the rebellion of Bar Cochba, that the Roman Emperor
established the Mysteries of Adonis at the Sacred Cave in Bethlehem;
and who knows but this was the _petra_ or rock-temple on which the
church was built? The Boar of Adonis was placed above the gate of
Jerusalem which looked toward Bethlehem.
Munk says that the “Nazireate was an institution established before
the laws of Musah.”[218] This is evident; as we find this sect not
only mentioned but minutely described in _Numbers_ (chap. vi.). In
the commandment given in this chapter to Moses by the “Lord,” it is
easy to recognize the rites and laws of the Priests of Adonis.[219]
The abstinence and purity strictly prescribed in both sects are
identical. Both allowed their hair _to grow long_[220] as the Hindu
cœnobites and fakirs do to this day, while other castes shave their
hair and abstain on certain days from wine. The prophet Elijah, a
Nazarene, is described in _2 Kings_, and by Josephus as “a hairy man
girt with a girdle of leather.”[221] And John the Baptist and Jesus
are both represented as wearing very long hair.[222] John is “clothed
with camel’s hair” and wearing a girdle of hide, and Jesus in a long
garment “without any seams” ... “and very white, like snow,” says
Mark; the very dress worn by the Nazarene Priests and the Pythagorean
and Buddhist Essenes, as described by Josephus.
If we carefully trace the terms _nazar_, and _nazaret_, throughout
the best known works of ancient writers, we will meet them in
connection with “Pagan” as well as Jewish adepts. Thus, Alexander
Polyhistor says of Pythagoras that he was a disciple of the Assyrian
_Nazaret_, whom some suppose to be Ezekiel. Diogenes Laërtius states
most positively that Pythagoras, after being initiated into all
the Mysteries of the Greeks and barbarians, “went into Egypt and
afterward visited the Chaldeans and Magi;” and Apuleius maintains
that it was Zoroaster who instructed Pythagoras.
Were we to suggest that the Hebrew _nazars_, the railing prophets of
the “Lord,” had been initiated into the so-called Pagan mysteries,
and belonged (or at least a majority of them) to the same Lodge
or circle of adepts as those who were considered idolaters; that
their “circle of prophets” was but a collateral branch of a secret
association, which we may well term “international,” what a
visitation of Christian wrath would we not incur! And still, the case
looks strangely suspicious.
Let us first recall to our mind that which Ammianus Marcellinus, and
other historians relate of Darius Hystaspes. The latter, penetrating
into Upper India (Bactriana), learned pure rites, and stellar and
cosmical sciences from Brachmans, and communicated them to the
Magi. Now Hystaspes is shown in history to have crushed the Magi;
and introduced--or rather forced upon them--the pure religion of
Zoroaster, that of Ormazd. How is it, then, that an inscription
is found on the tomb of Darius, stating that he was “teacher and
hierophant of magic, or magianism?” Evidently there must be some
historical mistake, and history confesses it. In this imbroglio of
names, Zoroaster, the teacher and instructor of Pythagoras, can be
neither the Zoroaster nor Zarathustra who instituted sun-worship
among the Parsees; nor he who appeared at the court of Gushtasp
(Hystaspes) the alleged father of Darius; nor, again, the Zoroaster
who placed his magi above the kings themselves. The oldest
Zoroastrian scripture--the _Avesta_--does not betray the slightest
traces of the reformer having ever been acquainted with any of the
nations that subsequently adopted his mode of worship. He seems
utterly ignorant of the neighbors of Western Iran, the Medes, the
Assyrians, the Persians, and others. If we had no other evidences of
the great antiquity of the Zoroastrian religion than the discovery
of the blunder committed by some scholars in our own century, who
regarded King Vistaspa (Gushtasp) as identical with the father of
Darius, whereas the Persian tradition points directly to Vistaspa as
to the last of the line of Kaianian princes who ruled in Bactriana,
it ought to be enough, for the Assyrian conquest of Bactriana took
place 1,200 years B.C.[223]
Therefore, it is but natural that we should see in the appellation
of Zoroaster not a name but a generic term, whose significance must
be left to philologists to agree upon. _Guru_, in Sanscrit, is a
spiritual teacher; and as Zuruastara means in the same language he
who worships the sun, why is it impossible, that by some natural
change of language, due to the great number of different nations
which were converted to the sun worship, the word _guru-astara_, the
spiritual teacher of sun-worship, so closely resembling the name of
the founder of this religion, became gradually transformed in its
primal form of Zuryastara or Zoroaster? The opinion of the kabalists
is that there was but one Zarathustra and many _guruastars_ or
spiritual teachers, and that one such _guru_, or rather _huru_aster,
as he is called in the old manuscripts, was the instructor of
Pythagoras. To philology and our readers we leave the explanation
for what it is worth. Personally we believe in it, as we credit on
this subject kabalistic tradition far more than the explanation of
scientists, no two of whom have been able to agree up to the present
year.
Aristotle states that Zoroaster lived 6,000 years before Christ;
Hermippus of Alexandria, who is said to have read the genuine books
of the Zoroastrians, although Alexander the Great is accused of
having destroyed them, shows Zoroaster as the pupil of Azonak
(Azon-ach, or the Azon-God) and as having lived 5,000 years before
the fall of Troy. Er or Eros, whose vision is related by Plato in the
_Republic_, is declared by Clement to have been Zordusth. While the
Magus who dethroned Cambyses was a Mede, and Darius proclaims that he
put down the Magian rites to establish those of Ormazd, Xanthus of
Lydia declares Zoroaster to have been the chief of the Magi!
Which of them is wrong? or are they all right, and only the modern
interpreters fail to explain the difference between the Reformer
and his apostles and followers? This blundering of our commentators
reminds us of that of Suetonius, who mistook the Christians for one
Christos, or _Crestos_, as he spells it, and assured his readers that
Claudius banished him for the disturbance he made among the Jews.
Finally, and to return again to the _nazars_, Zaratus is mentioned
by Pliny in the following words: “He was Zoroaster and _Nazaret_.”
As Zoroaster is called _princeps_ of the Magi, and _nazar_ signifies
separated or consecrated, is it not a Hebrew rendering of _mag_?
Volney believes so. The Persian word _Na-zaruan_ means millions of
years, and refers to the Chaldean “Ancient of Days.” Hence the name
of the Nazars or Nazarenes, who were consecrated to the service of
the Supreme one God, the kabalistic En-Soph, or the Ancient of Days,
the “Aged of the aged.”
But the word _nazar_ may also be found in India. In Hindustani
_nazar_ is sight, internal or _supernatural_ vision; _nazar band-ī_
means fascination, a mesmeric or magical spell; and _nazarān_ is the
word for sightseeing or vision.
Professor Wilder thinks that as the word _Zeruana_ is nowhere to
be found in the _Avesta_, but only in the later Parsi books, it
came from the Magians, who composed the Persian sacred caste in
the Sassan period, but were originally Assyrians. “Turan, of the
poets,” he says, “I consider to be Aturia, or Assyria; and that Zohak
(Az-dahaka, Dei-okes, or Astyages), the Serpent-king, was Assyrian,
Median, and Babylonian--when those countries were united.”
This opinion does not, however, in the least implicate our statement
that the secret doctrines of the Magi, of the pre-Vedic Buddhists, of
the hierophants of the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes, and of the adepts
of whatever age and nationality, including the Chaldean kabalists
and the Jewish _nazars_, were _identical_ from the beginning. When
we use the term _Buddhists_, we do not mean to imply by it either
the exoteric Buddhism instituted by the followers of Gautama-Buddha,
nor the modern Buddhistic religion, but the secret philosophy of
Sakyamuni, which in its essence is certainly identical with the
ancient wisdom-religion of the sanctuary, the pre-Vedic Brahmanism.
The “schism” of Zoroaster, as it is called, is a direct proof
of it. For it was no _schism_, strictly speaking, but merely a
partially-public exposition of strictly monotheistic religious
truths, hitherto taught only in the sanctuaries, and that he had
learned from the Brahmans. Zoroaster, the primeval institutor of
sun-worship, cannot be called the founder of the dualistic system;
neither was he the first to teach the unity of God, for he taught but
what he had learned himself with the Brahmans. And that Zarathustra
and his followers, the Zoroastrians, “had been settled in India
before they immigrated into Persia,” is also proved by Max Müller.
“That the Zoroastrians and their ancestors started from India,” he
says, “during the Vaidik period, can be proved as distinctly as that
the inhabitants of Massilia started from Greece.... Many of the gods
of the Zoroastrians come out ... as mere reflections and deflections
of the primitive and authentic gods of the _Veda_.”[224]
If, now, we can prove--and we can do so on the evidence of the
_Kabala_ and the oldest traditions of the wisdom-religion, the
philosophy of the old sanctuaries--that all these gods, whether of
the Zoroastrians or of the _Veda_, are but so many personated _occult
powers_ of nature, the faithful servants of the adepts of secret
wisdom--Magic--we are on secure ground.
Thus, whether we say that Kabalism and Gnosticism proceeded from
Masdeanism or Zoroastrianism, it is all the same, unless we meant
the _exoteric_ worship--which we do not. Likewise, and in this
sense, we may echo King, the author of the _Gnostics_, and several
other archæologists, and maintain that both the former proceeded
from _Buddhism_, at once the simplest and most satisfying of
philosophies, and which resulted in one of the purest religions of
the world. It is only a matter of chronology to decide which of these
religions, differing but in external form, is the oldest, therefore
the least adulterated. But even this bears but very indirectly, if
at all, on the subject we treat of. Already some time before our
era, the adepts, except in India, had ceased to congregate in large
communities; but whether among the Essenes, or the Neo-platonists,
or, again, among the innumerable struggling sects born but to die,
the same doctrines, identical in substance and spirit, if not always
in form, are encountered. By _Buddhism_, therefore, we mean that
religion signifying literally the doctrine of wisdom, and which
by many ages antedates the metaphysical philosophy of Siddhârtha
Sakyamuni.
After nineteen centuries of enforced eliminations from the canonical
books of every sentence which might put the investigator on the true
path, it has become very difficult to show, to the satisfaction
of exact science, that the “Pagan” worshippers of Adonis, their
neighbors, the Nazarenes, and the Pythagorean Essenes, the healing
Therapeutes,[225] the Ebionites, and other sects, were all, with very
slight differences, followers of the ancient theurgic Mysteries. And
yet by analogy and a close study of the _hidden_ sense of their rites
and customs, we can trace their kinship.
It was given to a contemporary of Jesus to become the means of
pointing out to posterity, by his interpretation of the oldest
literature of Israel, how deeply the kabalistic philosophy agreed
in its esoterism with that of the profoundest Greek thinkers. This
contemporary, an ardent disciple of Plato and Aristotle, was Philo
Judæus. While explaining the Mosaic books according to a purely
kabalistic method, he is the famous Hebrew writer whom Kingsley calls
the Father of New Platonism.
It is evident that Philo’s Therapeutes are a branch of the Essenes.
Their name indicates it--Ἐσσαῖοι, _Asaya_, physician. Hence, the
contradictions, forgeries, and other desperate expedients to reconcile
the prophecies of the Jewish canon with the Galilean nativity and
godship.
Luke, who was a physician, is designated in the Syriac texts as
_Asaia_, the Essaian or Essene. Josephus and Philo Judæus have
sufficiently described this sect to leave no doubt in our mind that
the Nazarene Reformer, after having received his education in their
dwellings in the desert, and been duly initiated in the Mysteries,
preferred the free and independent life of a wandering _Nazaria_, and
so separated or _inazarenized_ himself from them, thus becoming a
travelling Therapeute, a Nazaria, a healer. Every Therapeute, before
quitting his community, had to do the same. Both Jesus and St. John
the Baptist preached the end of the Age;[226] which proves their
knowledge of the secret computation of the priests and kabalists, who
with the chiefs of the Essene communities alone had the secret of the
duration of the cycles. The latter were kabalists and theurgists;
“they had their _mystic_ books, and predicted future events,” says
Munk.[227]
Dunlap, whose personal researches seem to have been quite successful
in that direction, traces the Essenes, Nazarenes, Dositheans, and
some other sects as having all existed before Christ: “They rejected
pleasures, _despised riches_, _loved one another_, and more than
other sects, neglected wedlock, deeming the conquest of the passions
to be virtuous,”[228] he says.
These are all virtues preached by Jesus; and if we are to take the
gospels as a standard of truth, Christ was a metempsychosist “or
_re-incarnationist_--again like these same Essenes, whom we see were
Pythagoreans in all their doctrines and habits. Iamblichus asserts
that the Samian philosopher spent a certain time at Carmel with
them.[229] In his discourses and sermons, Jesus always spoke in
parables and used metaphors with his audience. This habit was again
that of the Essenians and the Nazarenes; the Galileans who dwelt
in cities and villages were never known to use such allegorical
language. Indeed, some of his disciples being Galileans as well as
himself, felt even surprised to find him using with the people such a
form of expression. “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?”[230]
they often inquired. “Because, it is given unto you to know the
Mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given,”
was the reply, which was that of an initiate. “Therefore, I speak
unto them in parables; because, they seeing, see not, and hearing,
they hear not, neither do they understand.” Moreover, we find Jesus
expressing his thoughts still clearer--and in sentences which are
purely Pythagorean--when, during the _Sermon on the Mount_, he says:
“Give ye not that which is sacred to the dogs,
Neither cast ye your pearls before swine;
For the swine will tread them under their feet
And the dogs will turn and rend you.”
Professor A. Wilder, the editor of Taylor’s _Eleusinian Mysteries_,
observes “a like disposition on the part of Jesus and Paul to
classify their doctrines as esoteric and exoteric, the Mysteries
of the Kingdom of God ‘for the apostles,’ and ‘parables’ for the
multitude. ‘We speak wisdom,’ says Paul, ‘among them that _are
perfect_’ (or initiated).”[231]
In the Eleusinian and other Mysteries the participants were always
divided into two classes, the _neophytes_ and the _perfect_. The
former were sometimes admitted to the preliminary initiation: the
dramatic performance of Ceres, or the soul, descending to Hades.[232]
But it was given only to the “_perfect_” to enjoy and learn the
Mysteries of the divine _Elysium_, the celestial abode of the
blessed; this Elysium being unquestionably the same as the “Kingdom
of Heaven.” To contradict or reject the above, would be merely to
shut one’s eyes to the truth.
The narrative of the Apostle Paul, in his second _Epistle to
the Corinthians_ (xii. 3, 4), has struck several scholars, well
versed in the descriptions of the mystical rites of the initiation
given by some classics, as alluding most undoubtedly to the final
_Epopteia_.[233] “I knew a certain man--_whether in body or outside
of body_, I know not: God knoweth--who was rapt into Paradise, and
heard things ineffable αρρητα ρηματα, _which it is not lawful for a
man to repeat_.” These words have rarely, so far as we know, been
regarded by commentators as an allusion to the beatific visions of an
“_initiated_” seer. But the phraseology is unequivocal. These things
“_which it is not lawful to repeat_,” are hinted at in the same words,
and the reason for it assigned, is the same as that which we find
repeatedly expressed by Plato, Proclus, Iamblichus, Herodotus, and
other classics. “We speak WISDOM only among them who are PERFECT,”
says Paul; the plain and undeniable translation of the sentence being:
“We speak of the profounder (or final) esoteric doctrines of the
Mysteries (which were denominated _wisdom_) only among them who are
_initiated_.”[234] So in relation to the “man who was rapt into
Paradise”--and who was evidently Paul himself[235]--the Christian word
Paradise having replaced that of Elysium. To complete the proof, we
might recall the words of Plato, given elsewhere, which show that
before an initiate could see the gods in their purest light, he had to
become _liberated_ from his body; _i.e._, to separate his astral soul
from it.[236] Apuleius also describes his initiation into the
Mysteries in the same way: “I approached the confines of death; and,
having trodden on the threshold of Proserpina, returned, having been
carried through all the elements. In the depths of midnight I saw the
sun glittering with a splendid light, together with _the infernal and
supernal gods_, and to these divinities approaching, I paid the
tribute of devout adoration.”[237]
Thus, in common with Pythagoras and other hierophant reformers,
Jesus divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric. Following
faithfully the Pythagoreo-Essenean ways, he never sat at a meal
without saying “grace.” “The priest prays before his meal,” says
Josephus, describing the Essenes. Jesus also divided his followers
into “neophytes,” “brethren,” and the “perfect,” if we may judge by
the difference he made between them. But his career at least as a
public Rabbi, was of a too short duration to allow him to establish
a regular school of his own; and with the exception, perhaps, of
John, it does not seem that he had initiated any other apostle.
The Gnostic amulets and talismans are mostly the emblems of the
apocalyptic allegories. The “seven vowels” are closely related to
the “seven seals;” and the mystic title Abraxas, partakes as much of
the compositian of _Shem Hamphirosh_, “the holy word” or ineffable
name, as the name called: The word of God, that “_no man knew but he
himself_,”[238] as John expresses it.
It would be difficult to escape from the well-adduced proofs that the
_Apocalypse_ is the production of an initiated kabalist, when this
_Revelation_ presents whole passages taken from the _Books of Enoch_
and _Daniel_, which latter is in itself an abridged imitation of the
former; and when, furthermore, we ascertain that the Ophite Gnostics
who rejected the _Old Testament_ entirely, as “emanating from an
inferior being (Jehovah),” accepted the most ancient prophets, such
as Enoch, and deduced the strongest support from this book for
their religious tenets, the demonstration becomes evident. We will
show further how closely related are all these doctrines. Besides,
there is the history of Domitian’s persecutions of magicians and
philosophers, which affords as good a proof as any that John was
generally considered a kabalist. As the apostle was included among
the number, and, moreover, conspicuous, the imperial edict banished
him not only from Rome, but even from the continent. It was not the
Christians whom--confounding them with the Jews, as some historians
will have it--the emperor persecuted, but the astrologers and
kabalists.[239]
The accusations against Jesus of practicing the magic of Egypt were
numerous, and at one time universal, in the towns where he was known.
The Pharisees, as claimed in the _Bible_, had been the first to
fling it in his face, although Rabbi Wise considers Jesus himself a
Pharisee. The _Talmud_ certainly points to James the Just as one of
that sect.[240] But these partisans are known to have always stoned
every prophet who denounced their evil ways, and it is not on this
fact that we base our assertion. These accused him of sorcery, and of
driving out devils by Beelzebub, their prince, with as much justice
as later the Catholic clergy had to accuse of the same more than one
innocent martyr. But Justin Martyr states on better authority that
the men of his time _who were not Jews_ asserted that the miracles
of Jesus were performed by magical art--μαγικὴ φαντασία--the very
expression used by the skeptics of those days to designate the feats
of thaumaturgy accomplished in the Pagan temples. “They even ventured
to call him a magician and a deceiver of the people,” complains the
martyr.[241] In the _Gospel of Nicodemus_ (the _Acta Pilate_), the
Jews bring the same accusation before Pilate. “Did we not tell thee he
was a magician?”[242] Celsus speaks of the same charge, and as a
Neo-platonist believes in it.[243] The Talmudic literature is full of
the most minute particulars, and their greatest accusation is that
“Jesus could fly as easily in the air as others could walk.”[244] St.
Austin asserted that it was generally believed that he had been
initiated in Egypt, and that he wrote books concerning magic, which he
delivered to John.[245] There was a work called _Magia Jesu Christi_,
which was attributed to Jesus[246] himself. In the _Clementine
Recognitions_ the charge is brought against Jesus that he did not
perform his miracles as a Jewish prophet, but as a magician, _i.e._,
an initiate of the “heathen” temples.[247]
It was usual then, as it is now, among the intolerant clergy of
opposing religions, as well as among the lower classes of society,
and even among those patricians who, for various reasons had been
excluded from any participation of the Mysteries, to accuse,
sometimes, the highest hierophants and adepts of sorcery and black
magic. So Apuleius, who had been initiated, was likewise accused of
witchcraft, and of carrying about him the figure of a skeleton--a
potent agent, as it is asserted, in the operations of the black art.
But one of the best and most unquestionable proofs of our assertion
may be found in the so-called _Museo Gregoriano_. On the sarcophagus,
which is panelled with bas-reliefs representing the miracles of
Christ,[248] may be seen the full figure of Jesus, who, in the
resurrection of Lazarus, appears beardless “and equipped with a wand
in the received guise of a _necromancer_ (_?_) whilst the corpse of
Lazarus is swathed in bandages exactly as an Egyptian mummy.”
Had posterity been enabled to have several such representations
executed during the first century when the figure, dress, and
every-day habits of the Reformer were still fresh in the memory
of his contemporaries, perhaps the Christian world would be more
Christ-like; the dozens of contradictory, groundless, and utterly
meaningless speculations about the “Son of Man” would have been
impossible; and humanity would now have but one religion and one
God. It is this absence of all proof, the lack of the least positive
clew about him whom Christianity has deified, that has caused the
present state of perplexity. No pictures of Christ were possible
until after the days of Constantine, when the Jewish element was
nearly eliminated among the followers of the new religion. The Jews,
apostles, and disciples, whom the Zoroastrians and the Parsees had
inoculated with a holy horror of any form of images, would have
considered it a sacrilegious blasphemy to represent in any way or
shape their master. The only authorized image of Jesus, even in the
days of Tertullian, was an allegorical representation of the “Good
Shepherd,”[249] which was no portrait, but the figure of a man with a
jackal-head, like Anubis.[250] On this gem, as seen in the collection
of Gnostic amulets, the Good Shepherd bears upon his shoulders the
lost lamb. He seems to have a human head upon his neck; but, as King
correctly observes, “it only _seems so_ to the uninitiated eye.” On
closer inspection, he becomes the double-headed Anubis, having one
head human, the other a jackal’s, whilst his girdle assumes the form
of a serpent rearing aloft its crested head. “This figure,” adds the
author of the _Gnostics_, etc., “had two meanings--one obvious for
the vulgar; the other mystical, and recognizable by the _initiated
alone_. It was perhaps the signet of some chief teacher or
apostle.”[251] This affords a fresh proof that the Gnostics and early
_orthodox_ (?) Christians were not so wide apart in their _secret
doctrine_. King deduces from a quotation from _Epiphanius_, that even
as late as 400 A.D. it was considered an atrocious sin to attempt to
represent the bodily appearance of Christ. Epiphanius[252] brings it
as an idolatrous charge against the Carpocratians that “they kept
painted portraits, and _even gold and silver images_, and _in other
materials_, which they pretended to be portraits of Jesus, and made
by Pilate after the likeness of Christ.... These they keep in secret,
along with Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and setting them all
up together, they worship and offer sacrifices unto them _after the
Gentiles’ fashion_.”
What would the pious Epiphanius say were he to resuscitate and
step into St. Peter’s Cathedral at Rome! Ambrosius seems also very
desperate at the idea--that some persons fully credited the statement
of Lampridius that Alexander Severus had in his private chapel an
image of Christ among other great philosophers. “That the Pagans
should have preserved the likeness of Christ,” he exclaims, “but the
disciples have neglected to do so, is a notion the mind shudders to
entertain, much less to believe.”
All this points undeniably to the fact, that except a handful
of self-styled Christians who subsequently won the day, all the
civilized portion of the Pagans who knew of Jesus honored him as
a philosopher, an _adept_ whom they placed on the same level with
Pythagoras and Apollonius. Whence such a veneration on their part
for a man, were he simply, as represented by the Synoptics, a poor,
unknown Jewish carpenter from Nazareth? As an incarnated God there
is no single record of him on this earth capable of withstanding the
critical examination of science; as one of the greatest reformers,
an inveterate enemy of every theological dogmatism, a persecutor
of bigotry, a teacher of one of the most sublime codes of ethics,
Jesus is one of the grandest and most clearly-defined figures on the
panorama of human history. His age may, with every day, be receding
farther and farther back into the gloomy and hazy mists of the past;
and his theology--based on human fancy and supported by untenable
dogmas may, nay, must with every day lose more of its unmerited
prestige; alone the grand figure of the philosopher and moral
reformer instead of growing paler will become with every century
more pronounced and more clearly defined. It will reign supreme and
universal only on that day when the whole of humanity recognizes but
one father--the UNKNOWN ONE above--and one brother--the whole of
mankind below.
In a pretended letter of Lentulus, a senator and a distinguished
historian, to the Roman senate, there is a description of the
personal appearance of Jesus. The letter itself, written in horrid
Latin, is pronounced a bare-faced forgery; but we find therein an
expression which suggests many thoughts. Albeit a forgery it is
evident that whosoever invented it has nevertheless tried to follow
tradition as closely as possible. The hair of Jesus is represented
in it as “wavy and curling ... flowing down upon his shoulders,” and
as “_having a parting in the middle of the head after the fashion of
the Nazarenes_.” This last sentence shows: 1. That there was such a
tradition, based on the biblical description of John the Baptist,
the _Nazaria_, and the custom of this sect. 2. Had Lentulus been
the author of this letter, it is difficult to believe that Paul
should never have heard of it; and had he known its contents, he
would never have pronounced it a _shame_ for men to wear their hair
long,[253] thus shaming his Lord and Christ-God. 3. If Jesus did
wear his hair long and parted in the middle of the forehead, after
the fashion of the Nazarenes (as well as John, the only one of his
apostles who followed it), then we have one good reason more to say
that Jesus must have belonged to the sect of the Nazarenes, and been
called NASARIA for this reason and not because he was an inhabitant
of Nazareth; for they never wore their hair long. The Nazarite, who
_separated_ himself unto the Lord, allowed “no razor to come upon his
head.” “He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his
head grow,” says _Numbers_ (vi. 5). Samson was a Nazarite, _i.e._,
vowed to the service of God, and in his hair was his strength.
“No razor shall come upon his head; the child shall be a Nazarite
unto God from the womb” (_Judges_ xiii. 5). But the final and most
reasonable conclusion to be inferred from this is that Jesus, who was
so opposed to all the orthodox Jewish practices, would _not_ have
allowed his hair to grow had he not belonged to this sect, which
in the days of John the Baptist had already become a heresy in the
eyes of the Sanhedrim. The _Talmud_, speaking of the Nazaria, or the
Nazarenes (who had abandoned the world like Hindu yogis or hermits)
calls them a sect of physicians, of wandering exorcists; as also does
Jervis. “They went about the country, living on alms and performing
cures.”[254] Epiphanius says that the Nazarenes come next in heresy
to the Corinthians whether having existed “before them or after them,
nevertheless _synchronous_,” and then adds that “all Christians at
that time were equally called _Nazarenes_!”[255]
In the very first remark made by Jesus about John the Baptist, we
find him stating that he is “Elias, which was for to come.” This
assertion, if it is not a later interpolation for the sake of having
a prophecy fulfilled, means again that Jesus was a kabalist; unless
indeed we have to adopt the doctrine of the French spiritists and
suspect him of believing in reïncarnation. Except the kabalistic
sects of the Essenes, the Nazarenes, the disciples of Simeon Ben
Iochaï, and Hillel, neither the orthodox Jews, nor the Galileans,
believed or knew anything about the doctrine of _permutation_. And
the Sadducees rejected even that of the resurrection.
“But the author of this _restitutionis_ was Mosah, our master, upon
whom be peace! Who was the _revolutio_ (transmigration) of Seth and
Hebel, that he might cover the nudity of his Father Adam--_Primus_,”
says the _Kabala_.[256] Thus, Jesus hinting that John was the
_revolutio_, or transmigration of Elias, seems to prove beyond any
doubt the school to which he belonged.
Until the present day uninitiated Kabalists and Masons believe
permutation to be synonymous with transmigration and metempsychosis.
But they are as much mistaken in regard to the doctrine of the true
Kabalists as to that of the Buddhists. True, the _Sohar_ says in one
place, “All souls are subject to transmigration ... men do not know
the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He; they do not know that they
are brought before the tribunal, both before they enter this world
and after they quit it,” and the Pharisees also held this doctrine,
as Josephus shows (_Antiquities_, xviii. 13). Also the doctrine of
Gilgul, held to the strange theory of the “Whirling of the Soul,”
which taught that the bodies of Jews buried far away from the Holy
Land, still preserve a particle of soul which can neither rest nor
quit them, until it reaches the soil of the “Promised Land.” And this
“whirling” process was thought to be accomplished by the soul being
conveyed back through an actual evolution of species; transmigrating
from the minutest insect up to the largest animal. But this was an
_exoteric_ doctrine. We refer the reader to the _Kabbala Denudata_
of Henry Khunrath; his language, however obscure, may yet throw some
light upon the subject.
But this doctrine of permutation, or _revolutio_, must not be
understood as a belief in reïncarnation. That Moses was considered
the transmigration of Abel and Seth, does not imply that the
kabalists--those who were _initiated_ at least--believed that
the identical spirit of either of Adam’s sons reappeared under
the corporeal form of Moses. It only shows what was the mode of
expression they used when hinting at one of the profoundest mysteries
of the Oriental Gnosis, one of the most majestic articles of faith
of the Secret Wisdom. It was purposely veiled so as to half conceal
and half reveal the truth. It implied that Moses, like certain
other god-like men, was believed to have reached the highest of all
states on earth:--the rarest of all psychological phenomena, the
perfect union of the immortal spirit with the terrestrial _duad_ had
occurred. The trinity was complete. A _god_ was incarnate. But how
rare such incarnations!
That expression, “Ye are gods,” which, to our biblical students,
is a mere abstraction, has for the kabalists a vital significance.
Each immortal spirit that sheds its radiance upon a human being is
a god--the Microcosmos of the Macrocosmos, part and parcel of the
Unknown God, the First Cause of which it is a direct emanation. It
is possessed of all the attributes of its parent source. Among these
attributes are omniscience and omnipotence. Endowed with these,
but yet unable to fully manifest them while in the body, during
which time they are obscured, veiled, limited by the capabilities
of physical nature, the thus divinely-inhabited man may tower far
above his kind, evince a god-like wisdom, and display deific powers;
for while the rest of mortals around him are but _overshadowed_ by
their divine SELF, with every chance given to them to become immortal
hereafter, but no other security than their personal efforts to
win the kingdom of heaven, the so chosen man has already become an
immortal while yet on earth. His prize is secured. Henceforth he will
live forever in eternal life. Not only he may have “dominion”[257]
over all the works of creation by employing the “excellence” of the
NAME (the ineffable one) but be higher in this life, not, as Paul is
made to say, “a little lower than the angels.”[258]
The ancients never entertained the sacrilegious thought that such
perfected entities were incarnations of the One Supreme and for ever
invisible God. No such profanation of the awful Majesty entered into
their conceptions. Moses and his antitypes and types were to them
but complete men, gods on earth, for their _gods_ (divine spirits)
had entered unto their hallowed tabernacles, the purified physical
bodies. The disembodied spirits of the heroes and sages were termed
gods by the ancients. Hence, the accusation of polytheism and
idolatry on the part of those who were the first to anthropomorphize
the holiest and purest abstractions of their forefathers.
The real and hidden sense of this doctrine was known to all the
initiates. The Tanaïm imparted it to their elect ones, the Isarim, in
the solemn solitudes of crypts and deserted places. It was one of the
most esoteric and jealously guarded, for human nature was the same
then as it is now, and the sacerdotal caste as confident as now in
the supremacy of its knowledge, and ambitious of ascendency over the
weaker masses; with the difference perhaps that its hierophants could
prove the legitimacy of their claims and the plausibility of their
doctrines, whereas now, _believers_ must be content with blind faith.
While the kabalists called this mysterious and rare occurrence of the
union of spirit with the mortal charge entrusted to its care, the
“descent of the Angel Gabriel” (the latter being a kind of generic
name for it), the _Messenger of Life_, and the angel Metatron; and
while the Nazarenes termed the same Abel-Zivo,[259] the _Delegatus_
sent by the Lord of Celsitude, it was universally known as the
“Anointed Spirit.”
Thus it is the acceptation of this doctrine which caused the Gnostics
to maintain that Jesus was a man overshadowed by the Christos or
Messenger of Life, and that his despairing cry from the cross “Eloi,
Eloi, Lama Sabachthani,” was wrung from him at the instant when he
felt that this inspiring Presence had finally abandoned him, for--as
some affirmed--his faith _had_ also abandoned him when on the cross.
The early Nazarenes, who must be numbered among the Gnostic sects,
believing that Jesus was a prophet, held, nevertheless, in relation
to him the same doctrine of the divine “overshadowing,” of certain
“men of God,” sent for the salvation of nations, and to recall them
to the path of righteousness. “The Divine mind is eternal,” says the
_Codex_,[260] “And it is pure light, and poured out through splendid
_and immense space_ (pleroma). It is Genetrix of the Æons. But one
of them went to matter (chaos) stirring up confused (turbulentos)
movements; and by a certain portion of _heavenly_ light fashioned
it, properly constituted for use and appearance, but the beginning
of every evil. The Demiurg (of matter) claimed divine honor.[261]
Therefore Christus (“the anointed”), the prince of the Æons (powers),
was sent (expeditus), who _taking on the person_ of a most devout
Jew, Iesu, _was to conquer him_; but who having _laid it_ (the body)
_aside_, departed on high.” We will explain further on the full
significance of the name Christos and its mystic meaning.
And now, in order to make such passages as the above more
intelligible, we will endeavor to define, as briefly as possible,
the dogmas in which, with very trifling differences, nearly all the
Gnostic sects believed. It is in Ephesus that flourished in those
days the greatest college, wherein the abstruse Oriental speculations
and the Platonic philosophy were taught in conjunction. It was a
focus of the universal “secret” doctrines; the weird laboratory
whence, fashioned in elegant Grecian phraseology, sprang the
quintessence of Buddhistic, Zoroastrian, and Chaldean philosophy.
Artemis, the gigantic concrete symbol of theosophico-pantheistic
abstractions, the great mother Multimamma, androgyne and patroness
of the “Ephesian writings,” was conquered by Paul; but although the
zealous converts of the apostles pretended to burn all their books on
“curious arts,” τα περιεργα, enough of these remained for them to
study when their first zeal had cooled off. It is from Ephesus that
spread nearly all the _Gnosis_ which antagonized so fiercely with the
Irenæan dogmas; and still it was Ephesus, with her numerous collateral
branches of the great college of the Essenes, which proved to be the
hot-bed of all the kabalistic speculations brought by the Tanaïm from
the captivity. “In Ephesus,” says Matter, “the notions of the
Jewish-Egyptian school, and the semi-Persian speculations of the
kabalists had then recently come to swell the vast conflux of Grecian
and Asiatic doctrines, so there is no wonder that teachers should have
sprung up there who strove to combine the religion newly preached by
the apostle with the ideas there so long established.”
Had not the Christians burdened themselves with the _Revelations_
of a little nation, and accepted the Jehovah of Moses, the Gnostic
ideas would never have been termed _heresies_; once relieved of their
dogmatic exaggerations the world would have had a religious system
based on pure Platonic philosophy, and surely something would then
have been gained.
Now let us see what are the greatest _heresies_ of the Gnostics. We
will select Basilides as the standard for our comparisons, for all
the founders of other Gnostic sects group round him, like a cluster
of stars borrowing light from their sun.
Basilides maintained that he had had all his doctrines from the
Apostle Matthew, and from Peter through Glaucus, the disciple of the
latter.[262] According to Eusebius,[263] he published twenty-four
volumes of _Interpretations upon the Gospels_,[264] all of which
were burned, a fact which makes us suppose that they contained
more truthful matter than the school of Irenæus was prepared to
deny. He asserted that the unknown, eternal, and uncreated Father
having first brought forth _Nous_, or Mind, the latter emanated
from itself--the _Logos_. The Logos (the Word of John) emanated
in its turn _Phronesis_, or the Intelligences (Divine-human
spirits). From Phronesis sprung _Sophia_, or feminine wisdom, and
_Dynamis_--strength. These were the personified attributes of the
Mysterious godhead, the Gnostic quinternion, typifying the five
spiritual, but intelligible substances, personal virtues or beings
external to the unknown godhead. This is preëminently a kabalistic
idea. It is still more Buddhistic. The earliest system of the
Buddhistic philosophy--which preceded by far Gautama-Buddha--is based
upon the uncreated substance of the “Unknown,” the A’di Buddha.[265]
This eternal, infinite Monad possesses, as proper to his own essence,
five acts of wisdom. From these it, by five separate acts of Dhyân,
emitted five Dhyani Buddhas; these, like A’di Buddha, are quiescent
in their system (passive). Neither A’di, nor either of the five
Dhyani Buddhas, were ever incarnated, but seven of their emanations
became Avatars, _i.e._, were incarnated on this earth.
Describing the Basilidean system, Irenæus, quoting the Gnostics,
declares as follows:
“When the uncreated, _unnamed_ Father saw the corruption of mankind,
he sent his first-born _Nous_, into the world, in the form of Christ,
for the redemption of all who believe in him, out of the power of
those who fabricated the world (the Demiurgus, and his six sons, the
planetary genii). He appeared amongst men as the man, Jesus, and
wrought miracles. This Christ did _not die_ in person, but Simon
the Cyrenian suffered in his stead, _to whom he lent his bodily
form_; for the Divine Power, the Nous of the Eternal Father, _is not
corporeal_, and _cannot die_. Whoso, therefore, maintains that Christ
has died, is still the bondsman of ignorance; whoso denies the same,
he is free, and hath understood the purpose of the Father.”[266]
So far, and taken in its abstract sense, we do not see anything
blasphemous in this system. It may be a _heresy_ against the theology
of Irenæus and Tertullian,[267] but there is certainly nothing
sacrilegious against the religious idea itself, and it will seem to
every impartial thinker far more consistent with divine reverence
than the anthropomorphism of actual Christianity. The Gnostics were
called by the orthodox Christians, _Docetæ_, or Illusionists, for
believing that Christ did not, nor could, suffer death actually--in
physical body. The later Brahmanical books contain, likewise,
much that is repugnant to the reverential feeling and idea of the
Divinity; and as well as the Gnostics, the Brahmans explain such
legends as may shock the divine dignity of the Spiritual beings
called gods by attributing them to _Maya_ or illusion.
A people brought up and nurtured for countless ages among all the
psychological phenomena of which the civilized (!) nations read,
but reject as incredible and worthless, cannot well expect to have
its religious system even understood--let alone appreciated. The
profoundest and most transcendental speculations of the ancient
metaphysicians of India and other countries, are all based on that
great Buddhistic and Brahmanical principle underlying the whole of
their religious metaphysics--_illusion_ of the senses. Everything
that is finite is illusion, all that which is eternal and infinite is
reality. Form, color, that which we hear and feel, or see with our
mortal eyes, exists only so far as it can be conveyed to each of us
through our senses. The universe for a man born blind does not exist
in either form or color, but it exists in its _privation_ (in the
Aristotelean sense), and is a reality for the spiritual senses of
the blind man. We all live under the powerful dominion of phantasy.
Alone the highest and invisible _originals_ emanated from the thought
of the Unknown are real and permanent beings, forms, and ideas; on
earth, we see but their reflections; more or less correct, and ever
dependent on the physical and mental organization of the person who
beholds them.
Ages untold before our era, the Hindu Mystic Kapila, who is
considered by many scientists as a skeptic, because they judge him
with their habitual superficiality, magnificently expressed this idea
in the following terms:
“Man (physical man) counts for so little, that hardly anything can
demonstrate to him his proper existence and that of nature. Perhaps,
that which we regard as the universe, and the divers beings which
seem to compose it, have nothing real, and are but the product of
continued illusion--_maya_--of our senses.”
And the modern Schopenhauer, repeating this philosophical idea,
10,000 years old now, says: “Nature is non-existent, _per se_....
Nature is the infinite illusion of our senses.” Kant, Schelling, and
other metaphysicians have said the same, and their school maintains
the idea. The objects of sense being ever delusive and fluctuating,
cannot be a reality. Spirit alone is unchangeable, hence--alone
is no illusion. This is pure Buddhist doctrine. The religion of
the _Gnosis_ (knowledge), the most evident offshoot of Buddhism,
was utterly based on this metaphysical tenet. Christos suffered
_spiritually_ for us, and far more acutely than did the illusionary
Jesus while his body was being tortured on the Cross.
In the ideas of the Christians, Christ is but another name for Jesus.
The philosophy of the Gnostics, the initiates, and hierophants
understood it otherwise. The word Christos, Χριστος, like all Greek
words, must be sought in its philological origin--the Sanscrit. In
this latter language _Kris_ means sacred,[268] and the Hindu deity was
named Chris-na (the pure or the sacred) from that. On the other hand,
the Greek _Christos_ bears several meanings, as anointed (pure oil,
_chrism_) and others. In all languages, though the synonym of the word
means pure or sacred essence, it is the first emanation of the
invisible Godhead, manifesting itself tangibly in spirit. The Greek
Logos, the Hebrew Messiah, the Latin Verbum, and the Hindu Viradj (the
son) are identically the same; they represent an idea of collective
entities--of flames detached from the one eternal centre of light.
“The man who accomplishes pious but interested acts (with the sole
object of his salvation) may reach the ranks of the _devas_
(saints);[269] but he who accomplishes, disinterestedly, the same
pious acts, finds himself ridden forever of the five elements” (of
matter). “Perceiving the Supreme Soul in all beings and all beings in
the Supreme Soul, in offering his own soul in sacrifice, he identifies
himself with the Being who shines in his own splendor” (_Manu_, book
xii., slokas 90, 91).
Thus, Christos, as a unity, is but an abstraction: a general idea
representing the collective aggregation of the numberless
spirit-entities, which are the direct emanations of the infinite,
invisible, incomprehensible FIRST CAUSE--the individual spirits of
men, erroneously called the souls. They are the divine sons of God, of
which some only overshadow mortal men--but this the majority--some
remain forever planetary spirits, and some--the smaller and rare
minority--unite themselves during life with some men. Such God-like
beings as Gautama-Buddha, Jesus, Tissoo, Christna, and a few others
had united themselves with their spirits permanently--hence, they
became gods on earth. Others, such as Moses, Pythagoras, Apollonius,
Plotinus, Confucius, Plato, Iamblichus, and some Christian saints,
having at intervals been so united, have taken rank in history as
demi-gods and leaders of mankind. When unburthened of their
terrestrial tabernacles, their freed souls, henceforth united forever
with their spirits, rejoin the whole shining host, which is bound
together in one spiritual solidarity of thought and deed, and called
“the anointed.” Hence, the meaning of the Gnostics, who, by saying
that “Christos” suffered spiritually for humanity, implied that his
Divine Spirit suffered mostly.
Such, and far more elevating were the ideas of Marcion, the great
“Heresiarch” of the second century, as he is termed by his opponents.
He came to Rome toward the latter part of the half-century, from A.D.
139-142, according to Tertullian, Irenæus, Clemens, and most of his
modern commentators, such as Bunsen, Tischendorf, Westcott, and many
others. Credner and Schleiermacher[270] agree as to his high and
irreproachable personal character, his pure religious aspirations and
elevated views. His influence must have been powerful, as we find
Epiphanius writing more than two centuries later that in his time the
followers of Marcion were to be found throughout the whole world.[271]
The danger must have been pressing and great indeed, if we are to
judge it to have been proportioned with the opprobrious epithets
and vituperation heaped upon Marcion by the “Great African,” that
Patristic Cerberus, whom we find ever barking at the door of the
Irenæan dogmas.[272] We have but to open his celebrated refutation of
Marcion’s _Antitheses_, to acquaint ourselves with the _fine-fleur_
of monkish abuse of the Christian school; an abuse so faithfully
carried through the middle ages, to be renewed again in our present
day--at the Vatican. “Now, then, ye hounds, yelping at the God of
Truth, whom the apostles cast out, to all your questions. These are
the bones of contention which ye gnaw,” etc.[273] “The poverty of
the Great African’s arguments keeps pace with his abuse,” remarks
the author of _Supernatural Religion_.[274] “Their (the Father’s)
religious controversy bristles with misstatements, and is turbid with
pious abuse. Tertullian was a master of his style, and the vehement
vituperation with which he opens and often interlards his work
against ‘the impious and sacrilegious Marcion,’ offers anything but a
guarantee of fair and legitimate criticism.”
How firm these two Fathers--Tertullian and Epiphanius--were on their
theological ground, may be inferred from the curious fact that they
intemperately both vehemently reproach “the beast” (Marcion) “with
erasing passages from the _Gospel of Luke_ which never were in _Luke_
at all.”[275] “The lightness and inaccuracy,” adds the critic, “with
which Tertullian proceeds, are all the better illustrated by the
fact that not only does he accuse Marcion falsely, but _he actually
defines the motives_ for which he expunged a passage _which never
existed_; in the same chapter he also similarly accuses Marcion of
erasing (from _Luke_) the saying that Christ had not come to destroy
the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, and he actually
repeats the charge on two other occasions.[276] Epiphanius also
commits the mistake of reproaching Marcion with omitting from _Luke_
what is only found in _Matthew_.”[277]
Having so far shown the amount of reliance to be placed in the
Patristic literature, and it being unanimously conceded by the
great majority of biblical critics that what the Fathers fought
for was not _truth_, but their own interpretations and unwarranted
assertions,[278] we will now proceed to state what were the views
of Marcion, whom Tertullian desired to annihilate as the most
dangerous _heretic_ of his day. If we are to believe Hilgenfeld, one
of the greatest German biblical critics, then “From the critical
standing-point one must ... consider the statements of the Fathers
of the Church only as expressions of their _subjective view_, which
itself requires proof.”[279]
We can do no better nor make a more correct statement of facts
concerning Marcion than by quoting what our space permits from
_Supernatural Religion_, the author of which bases his assertions
on the evidence of the greatest critics, as well as on his own
researches. He shows in the days of Marcion “two broad parties in the
primitive Church”--one considering Christianity “a mere continuation
of the law, and dwarfing it into an Israelitish institution, a narrow
sect of Judaism;” the other representing the glad tidings “as the
introduction of a new system, applicable to all, and supplanting the
Mosaic dispensation of the law by a universal dispensation of grace.”
These two parties, he adds, “were popularly represented in the early
Church, by the two apostles Peter and Paul, and their antagonism is
faintly revealed in the _Epistle to the Galatians_.”[280]
Marcion, who recognized no other _Gospels_ than a few _Epistles
of Paul_, who rejected totally the anthropomorphism of the _Old
Testament_, and drew a distinct line of demarcation between the old
Judaism and Christianity, viewed Jesus neither as a King, Messiah
of the Jews, nor the son of David, who was in any way connected
with the law or prophets, “but a divine being sent to reveal to man
a spiritual religion, wholly new, and a God of goodness and grace
hitherto unknown.” The “Lord God” of the Jews in his eyes, the
Creator (Demiurgos), was totally different and distinct from the
Deity who sent Jesus to reveal the divine truth and preach the glad
tidings, to bring reconciliation and salvation to all. The mission of
Jesus--according to Marcion--was to abrogate the Jewish “Lord,” who
“was opposed to the God and Father of Jesus Christ as _matter is to
spirit, impurity to purity_.”
Was Marcion so far wrong? Was it blasphemy, or was it intuition,
divine inspiration in him to express that which every honest heart
yearning for truth, more or less feels and acknowledges? If in his
sincere desire to establish a purely spiritual religion, a universal
faith based on unadulterated truth, he found it necessary to make
of Christianity an entirely new and separate system from that of
Judaism, did not Marcion have the very words of Christ for his
authority? “No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment
... for the rent is made worse.... Neither do men put new wine into
old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and
the bottles perish; but _they put new wine into new bottles_, and
both are preserved.” In what particular does the jealous, wrathful,
revengeful God of Israel resemble the unknown deity, the God of mercy
preached by Jesus;--_his_ Father who is in Heaven, and the Father
of all humanity? This Father alone is the God of spirit and purity,
and, to compare Him with the subordinate and capricious Sinaitic
Deity is an error. Did Jesus ever pronounce the name of Jehovah? Did
he ever place _his_ Father in contrast with this severe and cruel
Judge; his God of mercy, love, and justice, with the Jewish genius
of retaliation? Never! From that memorable day when he preached his
Sermon on the Mount, an immeasurable void opened between his God
and that other deity who fulminated his commands from that other
mount--Sinai. The language of Jesus is unequivocal; it implies not
only rebellion but defiance of the Mosaic “Lord God.” “Ye have
heard,” he tells us, “that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and
a tooth for a tooth: but _I say_ unto you, That ye resist not evil:
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also. Ye have heard that it hath been said [by the same “Lord
God” on Sinai]: Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But _I say_ unto you; Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you” (_Matthew_ v.).
And now, open _Manu_ and read:
“Resignation, _the action of rendering good for evil_, temperance,
probity, purity, repression of the senses, the knowledge of the
_Sastras_ (the holy books), that of the supreme soul, truthfulness
and abstinence from anger, such are the ten virtues in which consists
duty.... Those who study these ten precepts of duty, and after
having studied them conform their lives thereto, will reach to the
supreme condition” (_Manu_, book vi., sloka 92).
If _Manu_ did not trace these words many thousands of years before
the era of Christianity, at least no voice in the whole world will
dare deny them a less antiquity than several centuries B.C. The same
in the case of the precepts of Buddhism.
If we turn to the _Prâtimoksha Sûtra_ and other religious tracts of
the Buddhists, we read the ten following commandments:
1. Thou shalt not kill any living creature.
2. Thou shalt not steal.
3. Thou shalt not break thy vow of chastity.
4. Thou shalt not lie.
5. Thou shalt not betray the secrets of others.
6. Thou shalt not wish for the death of thy enemies.
7. Thou shalt not desire the wealth of others.
8. Thou shalt not pronounce injurious and foul words.
9. Thou shalt not indulge in luxury (sleep on soft beds or be lazy).
10. Thou shalt not accept gold or silver.[281]
“Good master, what shall I do that I may have eternal life?” asks a
man of Jesus. “Keep the commandments.” “Which?” “Thou shalt do no
murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou
shalt not bear false witness,”[282] is the answer.
“What shall I do to obtain possession of Bhodi? (knowledge of eternal
truth)” asks a disciple of his Buddhist master. “What way is there to
become an Upasaka?” “Keep the commandments.” “What are they?” “Thou
shalt abstain all thy life from murder, theft, adultery, and lying,”
answers the master.[283]
Identical injunctions are they not? Divine injunctions, the living up
to which would purify and exalt humanity. But are they more divine
when uttered through one mouth than another? If it is god-like to
return good for evil, does the enunciation of the precept by a
Nazarene give it any greater force than its enunciation by an Indian,
or Thibetan philosopher? We see that the Golden Rule was not original
with Jesus; that its birth-place was India. Do what we may, we cannot
deny Sakya-Muni Buddha a less remote antiquity than several centuries
before the birth of Jesus. In seeking a model for his system of
ethics why should Jesus have gone to the foot of the Himalayas rather
than to the foot of Sinai, but that the doctrines of Manu and
Gautama harmonized exactly with his own philosophy, while those of
Jehovah were to him abhorrent and terrifying? The Hindus taught to
return _good for evil_, but the Jehovistic command was: “An eye for
an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth.”
Would Christians still maintain the identity of the “Father” of
Jesus and Jehovah, if evidence sufficiently clear could be adduced
that the “Lord God” was no other than the Pagan Bacchus, Dionysos?
Well, this identity of the Jehovah at Mount Sinai with the god
Bacchus is hardly disputable. The name יהוה is Yava or Iao,
according to Theodoret, which is the _secret_ name of the Phœnician
Mystery-god;[284] and it was actually adopted from the Chaldeans with
whom it also was the secret name of the creator. Wherever Bacchus
was worshipped there was a tradition of Nysa and a cave where he was
reared. Beth-San or Scythopolis in Palestine had that designation;
so had a spot on Mount Parnassus. But Diodorus declares that Nysa
was between Phœnicia and Egypt; Euripides states that Dionysos came
to Greece from India; and Diodorus adds his testimony: “Osiris was
brought up in Nysa, in Arabia the Happy; he was the son of Zeus, and
was named from his father (nominative Zeus, genitive _Dios_) and the
place Dio-Nysos”--the Zeus or Jove of Nysa. This identity of name
or title is very significant. In Greece Dionysos was second only to
Zeus, and Pindar says:
“So Father Zeus governs all things, and Bacchus he governs also.”
But outside of Greece Bacchus was the all-powerful “Zagreus, the
highest of gods.” Moses seems to have worshipped him personally
and together with the populace at Mount Sinai; unless we admit
that he was an _initiated_ priest, an adept, who knew how to lift
the veil which hangs behind all such exoteric worship, but kept
the secret. “_And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it
Jehovah_-NISSI!” or _Iao-Nisi_. What better evidence is required to
show that the Sinaitic god was indifferently Bacchus, Osiris, and
Jehovah? Mr. Sharpe appends also his testimony that the place where
Osiris was born “was Mount Sinai, called by the Egyptians Mount
Nissa.” The Brazen Serpent was a _nis_, נחש, and the month of
the Jewish Passover _nisan_.
If the Mosaic “Lord God” was the only living God, and Jesus His only
Son, how account for the rebellious language of the latter? Without
hesitation or qualification he sweeps away the Jewish _lex talionis_
and substitutes for it the law of charity and self-denial. If the
_Old Testament_ is a divine revelation, how can the _New Testament_
be? Are we required to believe and worship a Deity who contradicts
himself every few hundred years? Was Moses inspired, or was Jesus
_not_ the son of God? This is a dilemma from which the theologians
are bound to rescue us. It is from this very dilemma that the
Gnostics endeavored to snatch the budding Christianity.
Justice has been waiting nineteen centuries for intelligent
commentators to appreciate this difference between the orthodox
Tertullian and the Gnostic Marcion. The brutal violence, unfairness,
and bigotry of the “great African” repulse all who accept his
Christianity. “How can a god,” inquired Marcion, “break his own
commandments? How could he consistently prohibit idolatry and
image-worship, and still cause Moses to set up the brazen serpent?
How command: Thou shalt not steal, and then order the Israelites to
_spoil_ the Egyptians of their gold and silver?” Anticipating the
results of modern criticism, Marcion denies the applicability to
Jesus of the so-called Messianic prophecies. Writes the author of
_Supernatural Religion_:[285] “The Emmanuel of Isaiah is not Christ;
the ‘Virgin,’ his mother, is simply a ‘young woman,’ an alma of the
temple; and the sufferings of the servant of God (_Isaiah_ lii.
13-liii. 3) are not predictions of the death of Jesus.”[286]
CHAPTER IV.
“Nothing better than those MYSTERIES, by which, from a
rough and fierce life, we are polished to gentleness
(humanity, kindness), and softened.”--CICERO: _de Legibus_,
ii., 14.
“Descend, O Soma, with that stream with which thou lightest
up the Sun.... Soma, a Life Ocean spread through All, thou
fillest creative the Sun with beams.”--_Rig-Veda_, ii., 143.
“... the beautiful Virgin ascends, with long hair, and
she holds two ears in her hand, and sits on a seat and
feeds a BOY as yet little, and suckles him and gives him
food.”--AVENAR.
It is alleged that the _Pentateuch_ was written by Moses, and yet
it contains the account of his own death (_Deuteronomy_ xxxiv. 6);
and in _Genesis_ (xiv. 14), the name Dan is given to a city, which
_Judges_ (xviii. 29), tells us was only called by that name at that
late day, it having previously been known as Laish. Well might Josiah
have rent his clothes when he had heard the words of the Book of the
Law; for there was no more of Moses in it than there is of Jesus in
the _Gospel according to John_.
We have one fair alternative to offer our theologians, leaving them
to choose for themselves, and promising to abide by their decision.
Only they will have to admit, either that Moses was an impostor,
or that his books are forgeries, written at different times and
by different persons; or, again, that they are full of fraudulent
interpolations. In either case the work loses all claims to be
considered divine _Revelation_. Here is the problem, which we quote
from the _Bible_--the word of the God of Truth:
“And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name
of God Almighty, but by my name of JEHOVAH was I not known to them”
(_Exodus_ vi. 3), spake God unto Moses.
A very startling bit of information that, when, before arriving
at the book of _Exodus_, we are told in _Genesis_ (xxii. 14) that
“Abraham called the name of that place”--where the patriarch
had been preparing to cut the throat of his only-begotten
son--“JEHOVAH-jireh!” (Jehovah sees.) Which is the inspired
text?--both cannot be--which the forgery?
Now, if both Abraham and Moses had not belonged to the same holy
group, we might, perhaps, help theologians by suggesting to them
a convenient means of escape out of this dilemma. They ought to
call the reverend Jesuit Fathers--especially those who have been
missionaries in India--to their rescue. The latter would not be for
a moment disconcerted. They would coolly tell us that beyond doubt
Abraham had heard the name of Jehovah and _borrowed_ it from Moses.
Do they not maintain that it was they who invented the _Sanscrit_,
edited _Manu_, and composed the greater portion of the _Vedas?_
Marcion maintained, with the other Gnostics, the fallaciousness of
the idea of an incarnate God, and therefore denied the corporeal
reality of the living body of Christ. His entity was a mere
_illusion_; it was not made of human flesh and blood, neither was it
born of a human mother, for his divine nature could not be polluted
with any contact with sinful flesh.[287] He accepted Paul as the
only apostle preaching the pure gospel of truth, and accused the
other disciples of “depraving the pure form of the gospel doctrines
delivered to them by Jesus, mixing up matters of the Law with the
words of the Saviour.”[288]
Finally we may add that modern biblical criticism, which
unfortunately became really active and serious only toward the end
of the last century, now generally admits that Marcion’s text of the
only gospel he knew anything about--that of Luke, is far superior and
by far more correct than that of our present Synoptics. We find in
_Supernatural Religion_ the following (for every Christian) startling
sentence: “We are, therefore, _indebted to Marcion for the correct
version even of ‘the Lords Prayer_.’”[289]
If, leaving for the present the prominent founders of Christian
sects, we now turn to that of the Ophites, which assumed a definite
form about the time of Marcion and the Basilideans, we may find
in it the reason for the _heresies_ of all others. Like all other
Gnostics, they rejected the Mosaic _Bible_ entirely. Nevertheless,
their philosophy, apart from some deductions original with several
of the most important founders of the various branches of Gnosticism
was not new. Passing through the Chaldean kabalistic tradition,
it gathered its materials in the Hermetic books, and pursuing its
flight still farther back for its metaphysical speculations, we
find it floundering among the tenets of Manu, and the earliest
Hindu ante-sacerdotal genesis. Many of our eminent antiquarians
trace the Gnostic philosophies right back to Buddhism, which does
not impair in the least either their or our arguments. We repeat
again, _Buddhism is but the primitive source of Brahmanism_. It
is not against the primitive _Vedas_ that Gautama protests. It is
against the sacerdotal and official state religion of his country;
and the Brahmans, who in order to make room for and give authority
to the castes, at a later period crammed the ancient manuscripts
with interpolated slokas, intended to prove that the castes were
predetermined by the Creator by the very fact that each class of men
was issued from a more or less noble limb of Brahma. Gautama-Buddha’s
philosophy was that taught from the beginning of time in the
impenetrable secresy of the inner sanctuaries of the pagodas. We need
not be surprised, therefore, to find again, in all the fundamental
dogmas of the Gnostics, the metaphysical tenets of both Brahmanism
and Buddhism. They held that the _Old Testament_ was the revelation
of an inferior being, a subordinate divinity, and did not contain a
single sentence of their _Sophia_, the Divine Wisdom. As to the _New
Testament_, it had lost its purity when the compilers became guilty
of interpolations. The revelation of divine truth was sacrificed by
them to promote selfish ends and maintain quarrels. The accusation
does not seem so very improbable to one who is well aware of the
constant strife between the champions of circumcision and the “Law,”
and the apostles who had given up Judaism.
The Gnostic Ophites taught the doctrine of Emanations, so hateful
to the defenders of the unity in the trinity, and _vice versa_. The
Unknown Deity with them had _no name_; but his first female emanation
was called Bythos or Depth.[290] It answered to the Shekinah of the
kabalists, the “Veil” which conceals the “Wisdom” in the _cranium_
of the highest of the _three_ heads. As the Pythagorean Monad, this
_nameless_ Wisdom was the _Source_ of Light, and _Ennoia_ or Mind,
is Light itself. The latter was also called the “Primitive Man,”
like the Adam Kadmon, or ancient Adam of the _Kabala_. Indeed, if
man was created after his likeness and in the image of God, then
this God was like his creature in shape and figure--hence, he is the
“Primitive man.” The first Manu, the one evolved from Swayambhuva,
“he who exists unrevealed in his own glory,” is also, in one sense,
the primitive man, with the Hindus.
Thus the “nameless and the unrevealed,” Bythos, his female
reflection, and Ennoia, the revealed Mind proceeding from both, or
their Son are the counterparts of the Chaldean first triad as well as
those of the Brahmanic Trimurti. We will compare: in all the three
systems we see
THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE as the ONE, the primordial germ, the unrevealed
and grand ALL, existing through himself. In the
INDIAN PANTHEON.
Brahma-Zyaus.
THE CHALDEAN.
Ilu, Kabalistic En-Soph.
IN THE OPHITE.
The Nameless, or Secret Name.
Whenever the Eternal awakes from its slumber and desires to manifest
itself, it divides itself into male and female. It then becomes in
every system
THE DOUBLE-SEXED DEITY, The universal Father and Mother.
IN INDIA.
Brahma.
Nara (male), Nari (female).
IN CHALDEA.
Eikon or En-Soph.
Anu (male), Anata (female).
IN THE OPHITE SYSTEM.
Nameless Spirit.
Abrasax (male), Bythos (female).
From the union of the two emanates a third, or creative Principle--the
SON, or the manifested Logos, the product of the Divine Mind.
IN INDIA.
Viradj, the Son.
IN CHALDEA.
Bel, the Son.
OPHITE SYSTEM.
Ophis (another name for Ennoia), the Son.
Moreover, each of these systems has a triple male trinity, each
proceeding separately through itself from one female Deity. So, for
instance:
IN INDIA.
The Trinity--Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, are blended into ONE, who
is _Brahmä_, (neuter gender), creating and being created
through the Virgin Nari (the mother of perpetual fecundity).
IN CHALDEA.
The trinity--Anu, Bel, Hoa (or Sin, Samas, Bin), blend into
ONE who is Anu (double-sexed) through the Virgin Mylitta.
IN THE OPHITE SYSTEM.
The trinity consisted of the Mystery named Sigè, Bythos,
Ennoia. These become ONE who is _Abrasax_, from the Virgin
_Sophia_ (or _Pneuma_), who herself is an emanation of Bythos
and the Mystery-god and emanates through them, Christos.
To place it still clearer, the Babylonian System recognizes first--the
ONE (Ad, or Ad-ad), who is never named, but only acknowledged in
thought as the Hindu Swayambhuva. From this he becomes manifest as Anu
or Ana--the one above all--Monas. Next comes the Demiurge called Bel
or Elu, who is the active power of the Godhead. The third is the
principle of Wisdom, Hea or Hoa, who also rules the sea and the
underworld. Each of these has his divine consort, giving us Anata,
Belta, and Davkina. These, however, are only like the _Saktis_, and
not especially remarked by theologists. But the female principle is
denoted by Mylitta, the Great Mother, called also Ishtar. So with the
three male gods, we have the Triad or Trimurti, and with Mylitta
added, the _Arba_ or Four (Tetraktys of Pythagoras), which perfects
and potentializes all. Hence, the above-given modes of expression. The
following Chaldean diagram may serve as an illustration for all
others:
⎧ Anu, ⎫ Mylitta--Arba-il,
Triad ⎨ Bel, ⎬ or
⎩ Hoa, ⎭ Four-fold God,
become, with the Christians,
⎧God the Father, ⎫ Mary, or mother of these three Gods
Trinity ⎨God the Son, ⎬ since they are one,
⎩God the Holy Ghost,⎭ or, the Christian Heavenly Tetraktys.
Hence, Hebron, the city of the Kabeiri was called Kirjath-Arba, city
of the Four. The Kabeiri were Axieros--the noble Eros, Axiokersos,
the worthy horned one, Axiokersa, Demeter and Kadmiel, Hoa, etc.
The Pythagorean ten denoted the Arba-Il or Divine Four, emblematized
by the Hindu Lingham: Anu, 1; Bel, 2; Hoa, 3, which makes 6. The
triad and Mylitta as 4 make the ten.
Though he is termed the “Primitive Man,” Ennoia, who is like the
Egyptian Pimander, the “Power of the Thought Divine,” the first
intelligible manifestation of the Divine Spirit in material form,
he is like the “Only-Begotten” Son of the “Unknown Father,” of all
other nations. He is the emblem of the first appearance of the divine
Presence in his own works of creation, tangible and visible, and
therefore comprehensible. The mystery-God, or the ever-unrevealed
Deity fecundates through His will Bythos, the unfathomable and
infinite depth that exists in silence (Sigè) and darkness (for our
intellect), and that represents the abstract idea of all nature, the
ever-producing Cosmos. As neither the male nor female principle,
blended into the idea of a double-sexed Deity in ancient conceptions,
could be comprehended by an ordinary human intellect, the theology of
every people had to create for its religion a Logos, or manifested
word, in some shape or other. With the Ophites and other Gnostics
who took their models direct from more ancient originals, the
unrevealed Bythos and her male counterpart produce Ennoia, and
the three in their turn produce Sophia,[291] thus completing the
Tetraktys, which will emanate Christos, the very essence of the
Father Spirit. As the unrevealed One, or concealed Logos in its
latent state, he has existed from all eternity in the Arba-Il, the
metaphysical abstraction; therefore, he is ONE with all others as a
unity, the latter (including all) being indifferently termed Ennoia,
Sigè (silence), Bythos, etc. As the revealed one, he is Androgyne,
Christos, and Sophia (Divine Wisdom), who descend into the man Jesus.
Both Father and Son are shown by Irenæus to have loved the beauty
(_formam_) of the primitive woman,[292] who is Bythos--Depth--as
well as Sophia, and as having produced conjointly Ophis and Sophia
(double-sexed unity again), male and female wisdom, one being
considered as the unrevealed Holy Spirit, or elder Sophia--the
_Pneuma_--the intellectual “Mother of all things;” the other the
revealed one, or _Ophis_, typifying divine wisdom fallen into matter,
or God-man--Jesus, whom the Gnostic Ophites represented by the
serpent (Ophis).
Fecundated by the Divine Light of the Father and Son, the highest
spirit and Ennoia, Sophia produces in her turn two other emanations--
one perfect Christos, the second imperfect Sophia-Achamoth,[293]
from חכמות hakhamoth (simple wisdom), who becomes the mediatrix
between the intellectual and material worlds.
Christos was the mediator and guide between God (the Higher), and
everything spiritual in man; Achamoth--the younger Sophia--held the
same duty between the “Primitive man,” Ennoia and matter. What was
mysteriously meant by the general term, _Christos_, we have just
explained.
Delivering a sermon on the “Month of Mary,” we find the Rev.
Dr. Preston, of New York City, expressing the Christian idea
of the female principle of the trinity better and more clearly
than we could, and substantially in the spirit of an ancient
“heathen” philosopher. He says that the “plan of the redemption
made it necessary that a mother should be found, and Mary stands
pre-eminently alone as the only instance when a creature was
necessary to the consummation of God’s work.” We will beg the right
to contradict the reverend gentleman. As shown above, thousands of
years before our era it was found necessary by all the “heathen”
theogonies to find a female principle, a “mother” for the triune
male principle. Hence, Christianity does not present the “only
instance” of such a consummation of God’s work--albeit, as this
work shows, there was more philosophy and less materialism, or
rather anthropomorphism, in it. But hear the reverend Doctor express
“heathen” thought in Christian ideas. “He” (God), he says, “prepared
her (Mary’s) virginal and celestial purity, for a mother defiled
could not become the mother of the Most High. The holy virgin,
even in her childhood, was more pleasing than all the Cherubim and
Seraphim, and from infancy to the maturing maidenhood and womanhood
she grew more and more pure. By her very sanctity she reigned over
the heart of God. _When the hour came, the whole court of heaven was
hushed, and the trinity listened for the answer of Mary, for without
her consent the world could not have been redeemed._”
Does it not seem as if we were reading Irenæus explaining the Gnostic
“_Heresy_, which taught that the Father and Son loved the beauty
(_formam_) of the celestial Virgin?” or the Egyptian system, of
Isis being both wife, sister, and mother of Osiris--Horus? With the
Gnostic philosophy there were but _two_, but the Christians have
improved and perfected the system by making it completely “heathen,”
for it is the Chaldean Anu--Bel--Hoa, merging into Mylitta. “Then
while this month (of Mary),” adds Dr. Preston, “begins in the
paschal season--the month when nature decks herself with fruits and
flowers, the harbingers of a bright harvest--let us, too, begin for
a golden harvest. In this month the dead comes up out of the earth,
figuring the resurrection; so, when we are kneeling before the altar
of the holy and immaculate Mary, let us remember that there should
come forth from us the bud of promise, the flower of hope, and the
imperishable fruit of sanctity.”
This is precisely the substratum of the Pagan thought, which, among
other meanings, emblematized by the rites of the resurrection
of Osiris, Adonis, Bacchus, and other slaughtered sun-gods, the
resurrection of all nature in spring, the germination of seeds that
had been dead and sleeping during winter, and so were allegorically
said to be kept in the underworld (Hades). They are typified by the
three days passed in hell before his resurrection by Hercules, by
Christ, and others.
This derivation, or rather _heresy_, as it is called in Christianity,
is simply the Brahmanic doctrine in all its archaic purity. Vishnu,
the second personage of the Hindu trinity, is also the Logos, for
he is made subsequently to incarnate himself in Christna. And
Lakmy (or Lakshmy) who, as in the case of Osiris, and Isis, of
En-Soph and Sephira, and of Bythos and Ennoia, is both his wife,
sister, and daughter, through this endless correlation of male
and female creative powers in the abstruse metaphysics of the
ancient philosophies--is Sophia-Achamoth. Christna is the mediator
promised by Brahma to mankind, and represents the same idea as
the Gnostic Christos. And Lakmy, Vishnu’s spiritual half, is the
emblem of physical nature, the universal mother of all the material
and revealed forms; the mediatrix and protector of nature, like
Sophia-Achamoth, who is made by the Gnostics the mediatrix between
the Great Cause and Matter, as Christos is the mediator between him
and spiritual humanity.
This Brahmano-Gnostic tenet is more logical, and more consistent with
the allegory of _Genesis_ and the fall of man. When God curses the
first couple, He is made to curse also the earth and everything that
is on it. The _New Testament_ gives us a Redeemer for the first sin
of mankind, which was punished for having sinned; but there is not a
word said about a Saviour who would take off the unmerited curse from
the earth and the animals, which had never sinned at all. Thus the
Gnostic allegory shows a greater sense of both justice and logic than
the Christian.
In the Ophite system, Sophia, the Androgyne Wisdom, is also the
female spirit, or the Hindu female Nari (Narayana), moving on the
face of the waters--chaos, or future matter. She vivifies it from
afar, but not touching the abyss of darkness. She is unable to do
so, for Wisdom is purely intellectual, and cannot act directly on
matter. Therefore, Sophia is obliged to address herself to her
Supreme Parent; but although life proceeds primally from the Unseen
Cause, and his Ennoia, neither of them can, any more than herself,
have anything to do with the lower chaos in which matter assumes its
definite shape. Thus, Sophia is obliged to employ on the task her
_imperfect_ emanation, Sophia-Achamoth, the latter being of a mixed
nature, half spiritual and half material.
The only difference between the Ophite cosmogony and that of
the St. John Nazarenes is a change of names. We find equally an
identical system in the _Kabala_, the _Book of Mystery_ (_Liber
Mysterii_).[294] All the three systems, especially that of the
kabalists and the Nazarenes, which were the _models_ for the Ophite
Cosmogony, belong to the pure Oriental Gnosticism. The _Codex
Nazaræus_ opens with: “The Supreme King of Light, Mano, the great
first one,”[295] etc., the latter being the emanation of Ferho--the
unknown, formless LIFE. He is the chief of the Æons, from whom
proceed (or shoot forth) five refulgent rays of Divine light. Mano is
_Rex Lucis_, the Bythos-Ennoia of the Ophites. “_Unus est Rex Lucis
in suo regno, nec ullus qui eo altior, nullus qui ejus similitudinem
retulerit, nullus qui sublatis oculis, viderit Coronam quæ in ejus
capite est._” He is the Manifested Light around the highest of the
three kabalistic heads, the concealed wisdom; from him emanate
the three _Lives_. Æbel Zivo is the revealed Logos, Christos the
“Apostle Gabriel,” and the first Legate or messenger of light. If
Bythos and Ennoia are the Nazarene Mano, then the dual-natured, the
semi-spiritual, semi-material Achamoth must be Fetahil when viewed
from her spiritual aspect; and if regarded in her grosser nature, she
is the Nazarene “Spiritus.”
Fetahil,[296] who is the reflection of his father, Lord Abatur, the
_third_ life--as the elder Sophia is also the third emanation--is
the “newest-man.” Perceiving his fruitless attempts to create a
perfect material world, the “Spiritus” calls to one of her progeny,
the Karabtanos--Ilda-Baoth--who is without sense or judgment (“blind
matter”), to unite himself with her to create something definite out
of this confused (_turbulentos_) matter, which task she is enabled to
achieve only after having produced from this union with Karabtanos
the seven stellars. Like the six sons or genii of the Gnostic
Ilda-Baoth, they then frame the material world. The same story is
repeated over again in Sophia-Achamoth. Delegated by her purely
spiritual parent, the elder Sophia, to create the world of _visible
forms_, she descended into chaos, and, overpowered by the emanation
of matter, lost her way. Still ambitious to create a world of matter
of her own, she busied herself hovering to and fro about the dark
abyss, and imparted life and motion to the inert elements, until she
became so hopelessly entangled in matter that, like Fetahil, she is
represented sitting immersed in mud, and unable to extricate herself
from it; until, by the contact of matter itself, she produces the
_Creator_ of the material world. He is the Demiurgus, called by the
Ophites Ilda-Baoth, and, as we will directly show, the parent of the
Jewish God in the opinion of some sects, and held by others to be the
“Lord God” Himself. It is at this point of the kabalistic-gnostic
cosmogony that begins the Mosaic _Bible_. Having accepted the Jewish
_Old Testament_ as their standard, no wonder that the Christians were
forced by the exceptional position in which they were placed through
their own ignorance, to make the best of it.
The first groups of Christians, whom Renan shows numbering but from
seven to twelve men in _each church_, belonged unquestionably to the
poorest and most ignorant classes. They had and could have no idea of
the highly philosophical doctrines of the Platonists and Gnostics,
and evidently knew as little about their own newly-made-up religion.
To these, who if Jews, had been crushed under the tyrannical dominion
of the “law,” as enforced by the elders of the synagogues, and if
Pagans had been always excluded, as the lower castes are until now
in India, from the religious mysteries, the God of the Jews and
the “Father” preached by Jesus were all one. The contention which
reigned from the first years following the death of Jesus, between
the two parties, the Pauline and the Petrine--were deplorable. What
one did, the other deemed a sacred duty to undo. If the _Homilies_
are considered apocryphal, and cannot very well be accepted as an
infallible standard by which to measure the animosity which raged
between the two apostles, we have the _Bible_, and the proofs
afforded therein are plentiful.
So hopelessly entangled seems Irenæus in his fruitless endeavors to
describe, to all outward appearance at least, the true doctrines of
the many Gnostic sects of which he treats and to present them at the
same time as abominable “heresies,” that he either deliberately,
or through ignorance, confounds all of them in such a way that
few metaphysicians would be able to disentangle them, without the
_Kabala_ and the _Codex_ as the true keys. Thus, for instance, he
cannot even tell the difference between the Sethianites and the
Ophites, and tells us that they called the “God of all,” “_Hominem_,”
a MAN, and his mind the SECOND man, or the “_Son of man_.” So does
Theodoret, who lived more than two centuries after Irenæus, and who
makes a sad mess of the chronological order in which the various
sects succeeded each other.[297] Neither the Sethianites, (a branch
of the Jewish Nazarenes) nor the Ophites, a purely Greek sect, have
ever held anything of the kind. Irenæus contradicts his own words by
describing in another place the doctrines of Cerinthus, the direct
disciple of Simon Magus. He says that Cerinthus taught that the world
was not created by the FIRST GOD, but by a virtue (virtus) or power,
an Æon so distant from the First Cause that he was even ignorant of
HIM who _is above all things_. This Æon subjected Jesus, he begot him
physically through Joseph from one who was not a virgin, but simply
the wife of that Joseph, and Jesus was born like all other men.
Viewed from this physical aspect of his nature, Jesus was called the
“son of man.” It is only after his _baptism_, that _Christos_, the
anointed, descended from the Princeliness of above, in the figure of
a dove, and then announced the UNKNOWN Father through Jesus.[298]
If, therefore, Jesus was physically considered as a son of man, and
spiritually as the Christos, who overshadowed him, how then could
the “GOD OF ALL,” the “_Unknown_ Father,” be called by the Gnostics
_Homo_, a MAN, and his Mind, Ennoia, the SECOND man, or _Son of
man_? Neither in the Oriental _Kabala_, nor in Gnosticism, was the
“God of all” ever anthropomorphized. It is but the first, or rather
the second emanations, for Shekinah, Sephira, Depth, and other
first-manifested female virtues are also emanations, that are termed
“primitive men.” Thus Adam Kadmon, Ennoia (or Sigè), the _logoi_ in
short, are the “only-begotten” ones but not the _Sons_ of man, which
appellation properly belongs to Christos the son of Sophia (the
elder) and of the primitive man who produces him through his own
vivifying light, which emanates from the source or _cause_ of all,
hence the _cause_ of his light also, the “Unknown Father.” There
is a great difference made in the Gnostic metaphysics between the
first unrevealed Logos and the “anointed,” who is Christos. Ennoia
may be termed, as Philo understands it, the _Second_ God, but he
alone is the “Primitive and First man,” and by no means the Second
one, as Theodoret and Irenæus have it. It is but the inveterate
desire of the latter to connect Jesus in every possible way, even in
the _Hæresies_, with the _Highest_ God, that led him into so many
falsifications.
Such an identification with the _Unknown_ God, even of Christos,
the anointed--the Æon who overshadowed him--let alone of the man
Jesus, never entered the head of the Gnostics nor even of the direct
apostles and of Paul, whatever later forgeries may have added.
How daring and desperate were many such deliberate falsifications was
shown in the first attempts to compare the original manuscripts with
later ones. In Bishop Horseley’s edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s works,
several manuscripts on theological subjects were cautiously withheld
from publication. The article known as _Christ’s Descent into Hell_,
which is found in the later Apostles’ Creed, is not to be found in
the manuscripts of either the fourth or sixth centuries. It was an
evident interpolation copied from the fables of Bacchus and Hercules
and enforced upon Christendom as an article of faith. Concerning it
the author of the preface to the _Catalogue of the Manuscripts of
the King’s Library_ (preface, p. xxi.) remarks: “I wish that the
insertion of the article of _Christ’s Descent into Hell_ into the
Apostles’ Creed could be as well accounted for as the _insertion_ of
the _said_ verse” (_First Epistle of John_, v. 7).[299]
Now, this verse reads: “For there are three that bear record in
Heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost; and these three are
one.” This verse, which has been “appointed to be read in churches,”
is now known to be spurious. It is not to be found in any Greek
manuscript, save one at Berlin, which was transcribed from some
interpolated paraphrase between the lines. In the first and second
editions of Erasmus, printed in 1516 and 1519, this allusion to
these three heavenly witnesses is _omitted_; and the text is not
contained in any Greek manuscript which was written earlier than the
fifteenth century.[300] It was not mentioned by either of the Greek
ecclesiastical writers nor by the early Latin fathers, so anxious to
get at every proof in support of their trinity; and it was omitted
by Luther in his German version. Edward Gibbon was early in pointing
out its spurious character. Archbishop Newcome rejected it, and the
Bishop of Lincoln expresses his conviction that it is spurious.[301]
There are twenty-eight Greek authors--Irenæus, Clemens, and
Athanasius included, who neither quote nor mention it; and seventeen
Latin writers, numbering among them Augustine, Jerome, Ambrosius,
Cyprian, and Pope Eusebius, who appear utterly ignorant of it. “It
is evident that if the text of the heavenly witnesses had been known
from the beginning of Christianity the ancients would have eagerly
seized it, inserted it in their creeds, quoted it repeatedly against
the heretics, and selected it for the brightest ornament of every
book that they wrote upon the subject of the Trinity.”[302]
Thus falls to the ground the strongest trinitarian pillar. Another
not less obvious forgery is quoted from Sir Isaac Newton’s words by
the editor of the _Apocryphal New Testament_. Newton observes “that
what the Latins have done to this text (_First Epistle of John_, v.),
the Greeks have done to that of St. Paul (_Timothy_ iii. 16).” For,
by changing ΟΣ into ΘΣ, the abbreviation of Θεος (God), in the
Alexandrian manuscript, from which their subsequent copies were made,
they now read, “_Great is the mystery of godliness_, GOD _manifested
in the flesh_;” whereas all the churches, for the first four or five
centuries, and the authors of all the ancient versions, Jerome, as
well as the rest, read: “Great is the mystery of godliness WHICH WAS
_manifested in the flesh_.” Newton adds, that now that the disputes
over this forgery are over, they that read GOD made manifest in the
flesh, instead of the _godliness which was_ manifested in the flesh,
think this passage “one of the most obvious and pertinent texts for
the business.”
And now we ask again the question: Who were the first Christians?
Those who were readily converted by the eloquent simplicity of Paul,
who promised them, with the name of Jesus, _freedom_ from the narrow
bonds of ecclesiasticism. They understood but one thing; they were
the “children of promise” (_Galatians_ iv. 28). The “allegory” of
the Mosaic _Bible_ was unveiled to them; the covenant “from the
Mount Sinai which gendereth _to bondage_” was Agar (Ibid., 24), the
old Jewish synagogue, and she was “in bondage with her children”
to Jerusalem, the new and the free, “the mother of us all.” On the
one hand the synagogue and the law which persecuted every one who
dared to step across the narrow path of bigotry and dogmatism;
on the other, Paganism[303] with its grand philosophical truths
concealed from sight; unveiling itself but to the few, and leaving
the masses hopelessly seeking to discover who was _the_ god, among
this overcrowded pantheon of deities and sub-deities. To others,
the apostle of circumcision, supported by all his followers, was
promising, if they obeyed the “law,” a life hereafter, and a
resurrection of which they had no previous idea. At the same time
he never lost an occasion to contradict Paul without naming him,
but indicating him so clearly that it is next to impossible to
doubt whom Peter meant. While he may have converted some men, who
whether they had believed in the Mosaic resurrection promised by
the Pharisees, or had fallen into the nihilistic doctrines of the
Sadducees, or had belonged to the polytheistic heathenism of the
Pagan rabble, had no future after death, nothing but a mournful
blank, we do not think that the work of contradiction, carried on
so systematically by the two apostles, had helped much their work
of proselytism. With the educated thinking classes they succeeded
very little, as ecclesiastical history clearly shows. Where was
the truth; where the inspired word of God? On the one hand, as we
have seen, they heard the apostle Paul explaining that of the two
covenants, “which things are an allegory,” the old one from Mount
Sinai, “which gendereth unto bondage,” was _Agar_ the bondwoman; and
Mount Sinai itself answered to “Jerusalem,” which now is “in bondage”
with her circumcised children; and the new covenant meant Jesus
Christ--the “Jerusalem which is above and free;” and on the other
Peter, who was contradicting and even abusing him. Paul vehemently
exclaims, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son” (the old _law_ and the
synagogue). “The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the freewoman.” “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free; be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage.... Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing!” (_Gal._ v. 2). What do we find
Peter writing? Whom does he mean by saying, “These who speak great
swelling words of vanity.... While they promise them _liberty_, they
themselves are servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome,
of the same is he brought in bondage.... For if _they have escaped_
the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour, they are again entangled therein, and overcome ... it had
_been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness_,
than after they have known it to turn from the holy _commandment
delivered unto them_” (_Second Epistle_).
Peter certainly cannot have meant the Gnostics, for they had never
seen “the holy commandment delivered unto them;” Paul had. They
never promised any one “liberty” from bondage, but Paul had done so
repeatedly. Moreover the latter rejects the “old covenant,” Agar the
bondwoman; and Peter holds fast to it. Paul warns the people against
the _powers_ and _dignities_ (the lower angels of the kabalists); and
Peter, as will be shown further, respects them and _denounces those
who do not_. Peter preaches circumcision, and Paul forbids it.
Later, when all these extraordinary blunders, contradictions,
dissensions and inventions were forcibly crammed into a frame
elaborately executed by the episcopal caste of the new religion,
and called Christianity; and the chaotic picture itself cunningly
preserved from too close scrutiny by a whole array of formidable
Church penances and anathemas, which kept the curious back under the
false pretense of sacrilege and profanation of divine mysteries;
and millions of people had been butchered in the name of the God of
mercy--then came the Reformation. It certainly deserves its name in
its fullest paradoxical sense. It abandoned Peter and alleges to
have chosen Paul for its only leader. And the apostle who thundered
against the old law of bondage; who left full liberty to Christians
to either observe the Sabbath or set it aside; who rejects everything
anterior to John the Baptist, is now the professed standard-bearer
of Protestantism, which holds to the _old_ law more than the Jews,
imprisons those who view the Sabbath as Jesus and Paul did, and
outvies the synagogue of the first century in dogmatic intolerance!
But who then _were_ the first Christians, may still be asked?
Doubtless the Ebionites; and in this we follow the authority of
the best critics. “There can be little doubt that the author (of
the _Clementine Homilies_) was a representative of Ebionitic
Gnosticism, which _had once been the purest form of primitive
Christianity_....”[304] And who were the Ebionites? The pupils
and followers of the early Nazarenes, the kabalistic Gnostics. In
the preface to the _Codex Nazaræus_, the translator says: “That
also the Nazarenes did not reject ... the Æons is natural. For of
the Ebionites who acknowledged them (the Æons), these were the
instructors.”[305]
We find, moreover, Epiphanius, the Christian Homer of _The Heresies_,
telling us that “Ebion had the opinion of the Nazarenes, the form
of the Cerinthians (who fable that the world was put together by
angels), and the appellation of Christians.”[306] An appellation
certainly more correctly applied to them than to the orthodox
(so-called) Christians of the school of Irenæus and the later
Vatican. Renan shows the Ebionites numbering among their sect all
the surviving relatives of Jesus. John the Baptist, his cousin and
_precursor_, was the accepted Saviour of the Nazarenes, and their
prophet. His disciples dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and
the scene of the baptism of the Jordan is clearly and beyond any
question proved by the author of _Sod, the Son of the Man_, to have
been the site of the Adonis-worship.[307] “Over the Jordan and beyond
the lake dwelt the Nazarenes, a sect said to have existed already at
the birth of Jesus, and to have counted him among its number. They
must have extended along the east of the Jordan, and southeasterly
among the Arabians (_Galat._ i. 17, 21; ii. 11), and Sabæans in the
direction of Bosra; and again, they must have gone far north over the
Lebanon to Antioch, also to the northeast to the Nazarian settlement
in Berœa, where St. Jerome found them. In the desert the Mysteries
of Adonis may have still prevailed; in the mountains Aiai Adonai was
still a cry.”[308]
“Having been united (conjunctus) to the Nazarenes, each (Ebionite)
imparted to the other out of his own wickedness, and decided that
Christ _was of the seed of a man_,” writes Epiphanius.
And if they did, we must suppose they knew more about their
contemporary prophet than Epiphanius 400 years later. Theodoret,
as shown elsewhere, describes the Nazarenes as Jews who “honor the
Anointed as a just man,” and use the _evangel_ called “_According to
Peter_.” Jerome finds the authentic and original _evangel_, written
in Hebrew, by Matthew the apostle-publican, in the library collected
at Cæsarea, by the martyr Pamphilius. “_I received permission from
the Nazaræans_, who at Berœa of Syria used this (gospel) to translate
it,” he writes toward the end of the fourth century.[309] “In the
_evangel_ which the _Nazarenes_ and _Ebionites_ use,” adds Jerome,
“which recently I translated from Hebrew into Greek,[310] and which
is called by most persons the _genuine Gospel of Matthew_,” etc.
That the apostles had received a “secret doctrine” from Jesus, and
that he himself taught one, is evident from the following words of
Jerome, who confessed it in an unguarded moment. Writing to the
Bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, he complains that “a difficult
work is enjoined, since this translation has been commanded me
by your Felicities, which _St. Matthew himself, the Apostle and
Evangelist_, DID NOT WISH TO BE OPENLY WRITTEN. For if it had not
been SECRET, he (Matthew) would have added to the _evangel_ that
which he gave forth was his; but he made up this book sealed up in
the Hebrew characters, which he put forth _even in such a way_ that
the book, written in Hebrew letters and _by the hand of himself_,
might be possessed _by the men most religious_, who also, in the
course of time, received it from those who preceded them. But this
very book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its
_text_ they related some one way and some another.”[311] And he adds
further on the same page: “And it happened that this book, having
been published by a disciple of Manichæus, named Seleucus, who also
wrote falsely _The Acts of the Apostles_, exhibited matter not for
edification, but for destruction; and that this book was approved
in a synod which the ears of the Church properly refused to listen
to.”[312]
He admits, himself, that the book which he authenticates as being
written “_by the hand of Matthew_;” a book which, notwithstanding
that he translated it twice, was nearly unintelligible to him, for
it was arcane or _a secret_. Nevertheless, Jerome coolly sets down
every commentary upon it, except his own, as _heretical_. More than
that, Jerome knew that this _original Gospel of Matthew_ was the
expounder of the only true doctrine of Christ; and that it was the
work of an evangelist who had been the friend and companion of Jesus.
He knew that if of the two _Gospels_, the Hebrew in question and the
Greek belonging to our present Scripture, one was spurious, hence
heretical, it was not that of the Nazarenes; and yet, knowing all
this, Jerome becomes more zealous than ever in his persecutions of
the “Hæretics.” Why? Because to accept it was equivalent to reading
the death-sentence of the established Church. The _Gospel according
to the Hebrews_ was but too well known to have been the only one
accepted for four centuries by the Jewish Christians, the Nazarenes
and the Ebionites. And neither of the latter accepted the _divinity_
of Christ.
If the commentaries of Jerome on the Prophets, his famous _Vulgate_,
and numerous polemical treatises are all as trustworthy as this
version of the _Gospel according to Matthew_, then we have a divine
revelation indeed.
Why wonder at the unfathomable mysteries of the Christian religion,
since it is perfectly _human_? Have we not a letter written by one
of the most respected Fathers of the Church to this same Jerome,
which shows better than whole volumes their traditionary policy?
This is what _Saint_ Gregory of Nazianzen wrote to his friend and
confidant _Saint_ Jerome: “Nothing can impose better on a people
than _verbiage_; the less they understand the more they admire. Our
fathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, but what
circumstances and necessity forced them to.”
But to return to our Sophia-Achamoth and the belief of the genuine,
primitive Christians.
After having produced Ilda-Baoth, Ilda from ילד, a child, and Baoth
from בויץ, the egg, or בהות, _Baoth_, a waste, a desolation,
Sophia-Achamoth suffered so much from the contact with matter,
that after extraordinary struggles she escapes at last out of the
muddy chaos. Although unacquainted with the pleroma, the region
of her mother, she reached the middle space and succeeded in
shaking off the material parts which have stuck to her spiritual
nature; after which she immediately built a strong barrier
between the world of intelligences (spirits) and the world of
matter. Ilda-Baoth, is thus the “son of darkness,” the creator of
our sinful world (the physical portion of it). He follows the
example of Bythos and produces from himself six stellar spirits
(sons). They are all in his own image, and reflections one of the
other, which become darker as they successively recede from their
father. With the latter, they all inhabit seven regions disposed
like a ladder, beginning under the middle space, the region of
their mother, Sophia-Achamoth, and ending with our earth, the
_seventh_ region. Thus they are the genii of the seven planetary
spheres of which the lowest is the region of our earth (the
sphere which surrounds it, our æther). The respective names of
these genii of the spheres are _Iòve_ (Jehovah), _Sabaoth_,
_Adonai_, _Eloi_, _Ouraios_, _Astaphaios_.[313] The first four,
as every one knows, are the mystic names of the Jewish “Lord
God,”[314] he being, as C. W. King expresses it, “thus degraded
by the Ophites into the appellations of the subordinates of the
Creator; “the two last names are those of the genii of fire and
water.”
Ilda-Baoth, whom several sects regarded as the God of Moses, was
not a pure spirit; he was ambitious and proud, and rejecting the
spiritual light of the middle space offered him by his mother
Sophia-Achamoth, he set himself to create a world of his own. Aided
by his sons, the six planetary genii, he fabricated man, but this one
proved a failure. It was a monster; soulless, ignorant, and crawling
on all fours on the ground like a material beast. Ilda-Baoth was
forced to implore the help of his spiritual mother. She communicated
to him a ray of her divine light, and so animated man and endowed him
with a soul. And now began the animosity of Ilda-Baoth toward his
own creature. Following the impulse of the divine light, man soared
higher and higher in his aspirations; very soon he began presenting
not the image of his Creator Ilda-Baoth but rather that of the
Supreme Being, the “primitive man,” Ennoia. Then the Demiurgus was
filled with rage and envy; and fixing his jealous eye on the abyss of
matter, his looks envenomed with passion were suddenly reflected in
it as in a mirror; the reflection became animate, and there arose out
of the abyss Satan, serpent, Ophiomorphos--“the embodiment of envy
and of cunning. He is the union of all that is most base in matter,
with the hate, envy, and craft of a spiritual intelligence.”[315]
After that, always in spite at the perfection of man, Ilda-Baoth
created the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, vegetable,
and animal, with all evil instincts and properties. Impotent to
annihilate the Tree of Knowledge, which grows in his sphere as in
every one of the planetary regions, but bent upon detaching “man”
from his spiritual protectress, Ilda-Baoth forbade him to eat of its
fruit, for fear it should reveal to mankind the mysteries of the
superior world. But Sophia-Achamoth, who loved and protected the man
whom she had animated, sent her own genius Ophis, in the form of a
serpent to induce man to transgress the selfish and unjust command.
And “man” suddenly became capable of comprehending the mysteries of
creation.
Ilda-Baoth revenged himself by punishing the first pair, for man,
through his _knowledge_, had already provided for himself a companion
out of his spiritual and material half. He imprisoned man and woman
in a dungeon of matter, in the body so unworthy of his nature,
wherein man is still enthralled. But Achamoth protected him still.
She established between her celestial region and “man,” a current of
divine light, and kept constantly supplying him with this _spiritual_
illumination.
Then follow allegories embodying the idea of dualism, or the
struggle between good and evil, spirit and matter, which is found in
every cosmogony, and the source of which is again to be sought in
India. The types and antitypes represent the heroes of this Gnostic
Pantheon, borrowed from the most ancient mythopœic ages. But, in
these personages, Ophis and Ophiomorphos, Sophia and Sophia-Achamoth,
Adam-Kadmon, and Adam, the planetary genii and the divine Æons, we
can also recognize very easily the models of our biblical copies--the
euhemerized patriarchs. The archangels, angels, virtues and powers,
are all found, under other names, in the _Vedas_ and the Buddhistic
system. The Avestic Supreme Being, Zero-ana, or “Boundless Time,” is
the type of all these Gnostic and kabalistic “Depths,” “Crowns,” and
even of the Chaldean En-Soph. The six Amshaspands, created through
the “Word” of Ormazd, the “First-Born,” have their reflections in
Bythos and his emanations, and the antitype of Ormazd--Ahriman and
his devs also enter into the composition of Ilda-Baoth and his six
_material_, though not wholly evil, planetary genii.
Achamoth, afflicted with the evils which befall humanity,
notwithstanding her protection, beseeches the celestial mother
Sophia--her antitype--to prevail on the unknown DEPTH to send down
Christos (the son and emanation of the “Celestial Virgin”) to the
help of perishing humanity. Ilda-Baoth and his six sons of matter
are shutting out the divine light from mankind. Man must be saved.
Ilda-Baoth had already sent his own agent, John the Baptist, from the
race of Seth, whom he protects--as a prophet to his people; but only
a small portion listened to him--the Nazarenes, the opponents of the
Jews, on account of their worshipping Iurbo-Adunai.[316] Achamoth
had assured her son, Ilda-Baoth, that the reign of Christos would
be only temporal, and thus induced him to send the forerunner, or
precursor. Besides that, she made _him cause_ the birth of the _man_
Jesus from the Virgin Mary, her own type on earth, “for the creation
of a material personage could only be the work of the Demiurgus, not
falling within the province of a higher power. As soon as Jesus was
born, Christos, the perfect, uniting himself with Sophia (wisdom
and spirituality), descended through the seven planetary regions,
assuming in each an analogous form, and concealing his true nature
from their genii, while he attracted into himself the sparks of
divine light which they retained in their essence. Thus, Christos
entered into the _man_ Jesus at the moment of his baptism in the
Jordan. From that time Jesus began to work miracles; before that, he
had been completely ignorant of his mission.”[317]
Ilda-Baoth, discovering that Christos was bringing to an end his own
kingdom of matter, stirred up the Jews against him, and Jesus was put
to death.[318] When on the Cross, Christos and Sophia left his body
and returned to their own sphere. The material body of the man Jesus
was abandoned to the earth, but he himself was given a body made
up of _æther_ (astral soul). “Thenceforward he consisted of merely
_soul_ and _spirit_,” which was the reason why the disciples did not
recognize him after the resurrection. In this spiritual state of a
_simulacrum_, Jesus remained on earth for eighteen months after he
had risen. During this last sojourn, “he received from Sophia that
perfect knowledge, that true Gnosis, _which he communicated to the
very few among the apostles_ who were capable of receiving the same.”
“Thence, ascending up into the middle space, he sits on the right
hand of Ilda-Baoth, but unperceived by him, and there collects all
the souls which shall have been purified by the knowledge of Christ.
When he has collected all the spiritual light that exists in matter,
out of Ilda-Baoth’s empire, the redemption will be accomplished and
the world will be destroyed. Such is the meaning of the re-absorption
of all the spiritual light into the pleroma or fulness, whence it
originally descended.”
The foregoing is from the description given by Theodoret and adopted
by King in his _Gnostics_, with additions from Epiphanius and
Irenæus. But the former gives a very imperfect version, concocted
partly from the descriptions of Irenæus, and partly from his own
knowledge of the later Ophites, who, toward the end of the third
century, had blended already with several other sects. Irenæus also
confounds them very frequently, and the real theogony of the Ophites
is given by none of them correctly. With the exception of a change
in names, the above-given theogony is that of all the Gnostics, and
also of the Nazarenes. Ophis is but the successor of the Egyptian
_Chnuphis_, the Good Serpent with a lion’s radiating head, and was
held from days of the highest antiquity as an emblem of wisdom, or
Thauth, the instructor and Saviour of humanity, the “Son of God.” “Oh
men, live soberly ... win your immortality!” exclaims Hermes, the
thrice-great Trismegistus. “Instructor and guide of humanity, I will
lead you on to salvation.” Thus the oldest sectarians regarded Ophis,
the Agathodæmon, as identical with Christos; the serpent being the
emblem of celestial wisdom and eternity, and, in the present case,
the antitype of the Egyptian Chnuphis-serpent. These Gnostics, the
earliest of our Christian era, held: “That the supreme Æon, having
emitted other Æons out of himself, one of them, a female, _Prunnikos_
(concupiscence), descended into the chaos, whence, unable to escape,
she remained suspended in the mid-space, being too clogged by matter
to return above, and not falling lower where there was nothing in
affinity with her nature. She then produced her son Ilda-Baoth,
the God of the Jews, who, in his turn, produced seven Æons, or
angels,[319] who created the seven heavens.”
In this plurality of heavens the Christians believed from the first,
for we find Paul teaching of their existence, and speaking of a man
“caught up to the _third_ heaven” (_2 Corin._, xiii.). From these
seven angels Ilda-Baoth shut up all that was above him, lest they
should know of anything superior to himself.[320] They then created
man in the image of their Father,[321] but prone and crawling on
the earth like a worm. But the heavenly mother, Prunnikos, wishing
to deprive Ilda-Baoth of the power with which she had unwittingly
endowed him, infused into man a celestial spark--the spirit.
Immediately man rose upon his feet, soared in mind beyond the limits
of the seven spheres, and glorified the Supreme Father, _Him that is
above Ilda-Baoth_. Hence, the latter, full of jealousy, cast down
his eyes upon the lowest stratum of matter, and begot a potency in
the form of a serpent, whom they (the Ophites) call his son. Eve,
obeying him as the son of God, was persuaded to eat of the Tree of
Knowledge.[322]
It is a self-evident fact that the serpent of the _Genesis_, who
appears suddenly and without any preliminary introduction, must
have been the antitype of the Persian Arch-Devs, whose head is
Ash-Mogh, the “two-footed serpent of lies.” If the _Bible_-serpent
had been deprived of his limbs before he had tempted woman unto sin,
why should God specify as a punishment that he should go “upon his
belly?” Nobody supposes that he walked upon the extremity of his tail.
This controversy about the supremacy of Jehovah, between the
Presbyters and Fathers on the one hand, and the Gnostics, the
Nazarenes, and all the sects declared heterodox, as a last resort, on
the other, lasted till the days of Constantine, and later. That the
peculiar ideas of the Gnostics about the _genealogy_ of Jehovah, or
the proper place that had to be assigned, in the Christian-Gnostic
Pantheon, to the God of the Jews, were at first deemed neither
blasphemous nor heterodox is evident in the difference of opinions
held on this question by Clemens of Alexandria, for instance, and
Tertullian. The former, who seems to have known of Basilides better
than anybody else, saw nothing heterodox or blamable in the mystical
and transcendental views of the new Reformer. “In his eyes,” remarks
the author of _The Gnostics_, speaking of Clemens, “Basilides was
not a heretic, _i.e._, an innovator as regards the doctrines of the
Christian Church, but a mere theosophic philosopher, who sought to
express _ancient truths_ under new forms, and perhaps to combine
them with the new faith, the truth of which he could admit without
necessarily renouncing the old, exactly as is the case with the
learned Hindus of our day.”[323]
Not so with Irenæus and Tertullian.[324] The principal works of the
latter _against the Heretics_, were written after his separation
from the Catholic Church, when he had ranged himself among the
zealous followers of Montanus; and teem with unfairness and bigoted
prejudice.[325] He has exaggerated every Gnostic opinion to a
monstrous absurdity, and his arguments are not based on coercive
reasoning but simply on the blind stubbornness of a partisan fanatic.
Discussing Basilides, the “pious, god-like, theosophic philosopher,”
as Clemens of Alexandria thought him, Tertullian exclaims: “After
this, Basilides, the _heretic_, broke loose.[326] He asserted that
there is a Supreme God, by name Abraxas, by whom Mind was created,
whom the Greeks call _Nous_. From her emanated the Word; from the
Word, Providence; from Providence, Virtue and Wisdom; from these
two again, Virtues, _Principalities,[327] and Powers_ were made;
thence infinite productions and emissions of angels. Among the lowest
angels, indeed, and those that made this world, he sets _last of all_
the god of the Jews, whom he denies to be God himself, affirming that
he is but one of the angels.”[328]
It would be equally useless to refer to the direct apostles of
Christ, and show them as holding in their controversies that Jesus
never made any difference between his “Father” and the “Lord-God” of
Moses. For the _Clementine Homilies_, in which occur the greatest
argumentations upon the subject, as shown in the disputations alleged
to have taken place between Peter and Simon the Magician, are now
also proved to have been falsely attributed to Clement the Roman.
This work, if written by an Ebionite--as the author of _Supernatural
Religion_ declares in common with some other commentators[329]--must
have been written either far later than the Pauline period,
generally assigned to it, or the dispute about the identity of
Jehovah with God, the “Father of Jesus,” have been distorted by
later interpolations. This disputation is in its very essence
antagonistic to the early doctrines of the Ebionites. The latter, as
demonstrated by Epiphanius and Theodoret, were the direct followers
of the Nazarene sect[330] (the Sabians), the “Disciples of John.”
He says, unequivocally, that the Ebionites believed in the _Æons_
(emanations), that the Nazarenes were _their instructors_, and that
“each imparted to the other out of his own wickedness.” Therefore,
holding the same beliefs as the Nazarenes did, an Ebionite would not
have given even so much chance to the doctrine supported by Peter in
the _Homilies_. The old Nazarenes, as well as the later ones, whose
views are embodied in the _Codex Nazaræus_, never called Jehovah
otherwise than _Adonai_, _Iurbo_, the God of the _Abortive_[331]
(the orthodox Jews). They kept their beliefs and religious tenets
so _secret_ that even Epiphanius, writing as early as the end of
the fourth century,[332] confesses his ignorance as to their real
doctrine. “Dropping the name of Jesus,” says the Bishop of Salamis,
“they neither call themselves _Iessaens_, nor continue to hold the
name of the Jews, nor name themselves Christians, but _Nazarenes_....
The resurrection of the dead is confessed by them ... but concerning
Christ, _I cannot say_ whether they think him a _mere man_, or as the
_truth is_, confess that he was born through the _Holy Pneuma_ from
the Virgin.”[333]
While Simon Magus argues in the _Homilies_ from the standpoint of
every Gnostic (Nazarenes and Ebionites included), Peter, as a true
apostle of circumcision, holds to the old Law and, as a matter of
course, seeks to blend his belief in the divinity of Christ with his
old Faith in the “Lord God” and ex-protector of the “chosen people.”
As the author of _Supernatural Religion_ shows, the Epitome,[334]
“a blending of the other two, probably intended to purge them from
heretical doctrine”[335] and, together with a great majority of
critics, assigns to the _Homilies_, a date not earlier than the end
of the third century, we may well infer that they must differ widely
with their original, if there ever was one. Simon the Magician proves
throughout the whole work that the Demiurgus, the Architect of the
World, is not the highest Deity; and he bases his assertions upon
the words of Jesus himself, who states repeatedly that “no man knew
the Father.” Peter is made in the _Homilies_ to repudiate, with a
great show of indignation, the assertion that the Patriarchs were
not deemed worthy to know the Father; to which Simon objects again
by quoting the words of Jesus, who thanks the “Lord of Heaven and
earth that what was concealed from the wise” he has “revealed to
babes,” proving very logically that according to these very words the
Patriarchs could not have known the “Father.” Then Peter argues, in
his turn, that the expression, “what is _concealed_ from the wise,”
etc., referred to the concealed _mysteries_ of the creation.[336]
This argumentation of Peter, therefore, had it even emanated from
the apostle himself, instead of being a “religious romance,” as the
author of _Supernatural Religion_ calls it, would prove nothing
whatever in favor of the identity of the God of the Jews, with the
“Father” of Jesus. At best it would only demonstrate that Peter had
remained from first to last “an apostle of circumcision,” a Jew
faithful to his old law, and a defender of the _Old Testament_. This
conversation proves, moreover, the weakness of the cause he defends,
for we see in the apostle a man who, although in most intimate
relations with Jesus, can furnish us nothing in the way of direct
proof that he ever thought of teaching that the all-wise and all-good
Paternity he preached was the morose and revengeful thunderer of
Mount Sinai. But what the _Homilies_ do prove, is again our assertion
that there was a secret doctrine preached by Jesus to the few who
were deemed worthy to become its recipients and custodians. “And
Peter said: ‘We remember that our Lord and teacher, as commanding,
said to us, guard the mysteries for me, and the sons of my house.
Wherefore also he explained to his disciples, _privately_, the
_mysteries of the kingdoms of the heavens_.’”[337]
If we now recall the fact that a portion of the Mysteries of the
“Pagans” consisted of the απορῥήτα, _aporrheta_, or secret discourses;
that the secret _Logia_ or discourses of Jesus contained in the
original _Gospel according to Matthew_, the meaning and interpretation
of which St. Jerome confessed to be “a difficult task” for him to
achieve, were of the same nature; and if we remember, further, that to
some of the interior or final Mysteries only a very select few were
admitted; and that finally it was from the number of the latter that
were taken all the ministers of the holy “Pagan” rites, we will then
clearly understand this expression of Jesus quoted by Peter: “Guard
_the Mysteries for me and the sons of my house_,” _i.e._, of my
doctrine. And, if we understand it rightly, we cannot avoid thinking
that this “secret” doctrine of Jesus, even the technical expressions
of which are but so many duplications of the Gnostic and Neo-platonic
mystic phraseology--that this doctrine, we say, was based on the same
transcendental philosophy of Oriental _Gnosis_ as the rest of the
religions of those and earliest days. That none of the later Christian
sects, despite their boasting, were the inheritors of it, is evident
from the contradictions, blunders, and clumsy repatching of the
mistakes of every preceding century by the discoveries of the
succeeding one. These mistakes, in a number of manuscripts claimed to
be authentic, are sometimes so ridiculous as to bear on their face the
evidence of being pious forgeries. Thus, for instance, the utter
ignorance of some patristic champions of the very gospels they claimed
to defend. We have mentioned the accusation against Marcion by
Tertullian and Epiphanius of mutilating the _Gospel_ ascribed to Luke,
and erasing from it that which is now proved to have never been in
that Gospel at all. Finally, the method adopted by Jesus of speaking
in parables, in which he only followed the example of his sect, is
attributed in the _Homilies_ to a prophecy of _Isaiah_! Peter is made
to remark: “For Isaiah said: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, and I
will utter things that have been kept secret from the foundation of
the world.’” This erroneous reference to Isaiah of a sentence given in
_Psalms_ lxxviii. 2, is found not only in the apocryphal _Homilies_,
but also in the Sinaitic _Codex_. Commenting on the fact in the
_Supernatural Religion_, the author states that “Porphyry, in the
third century, twitted Christians with this erroneous ascription by
their inspired evangelist to Isaiah of a passage from a _Psalm_, and
reduced the Fathers to great straits.”[338] Eusebius and Jerome tried
to get out of the difficulty by ascribing the mistake to an “ignorant
scribe;” and Jerome even went to the length of asserting that the name
of Isaiah never stood after the above sentence in any of the old
codices, but that the name of Asaph was found in its place, only
“_ignorant_ men had removed it.”[339] To this, the author again
observes that “the fact is that the reading ‘Asaph’ for ‘Isaiah’ is
not found in any manuscript extant; and, although ‘Isaiah’ has
_disappeared_ from all but a few obscure codices, it cannot be denied
that the name anciently stood in the text. In the Sinaitic _Codex_,
which is probably the earliest manuscript extant ... and which is
assigned to the fourth century,” he adds, “the prophet _Isaiah_ stands
in the text by the first hand, _but is erased_ by the second.”[340]
It is a most suggestive fact that there is not a word in the so-called
sacred _Scriptures_ to show that Jesus was actually regarded as a God
by his disciples. Neither before nor after his death did they pay him
divine honors. Their relation to him was only that of disciples and
“master;” by which name they addressed him, as the followers of
Pythagoras and Plato addressed their respective masters before them.
Whatever words may have been put into the mouths of Jesus, Peter,
John, Paul, and others, there is not a single act of adoration
recorded on their part, nor did Jesus himself ever declare his
identity with _his Father_. He accused the Pharisees of _stoning_
their prophets, not of deicide. He termed himself the son of God, but
took care to assert repeatedly that they were all the children of God,
who was the Heavenly Father of all. In preaching this, he but repeated
a doctrine taught ages earlier by Hermes, Plato, and other
philosophers. Strange contradiction! Jesus, whom we are asked to
worship as the one living God, is found, immediately after his
Resurrection, saying to Mary Magdalene: “I am not yet ascended _to my
Father_; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto _my
Father_ and _your_ Father, and to _my_ God and _your_ God!” (_John_
xx. 17.)
Does this look like identifying himself with his Father? “_My_
Father and _your_ Father, _my_ God and _your_ God,” implies, on
his part, a desire to be considered on a perfect equality with his
brethren--nothing more. Theodoret writes: “The hæretics agree with
us respecting the beginning of all things.... But they say there is
not one Christ (God), but one above, and the other below. And this
last _formerly dwelt in many_; but _the Jesus_, they at one time say
is _from_ God, at another they call him a SPIRIT.”[341] This spirit
is the Christos, the _messenger_ of life, who is sometimes called
the Angel _Gabriel_ (in Hebrew, the mighty one of God), and who took
with the Gnostics the place of the Logos, while the Holy Spirit was
considered _Life_.[342] With the sect of the Nazarenes, though,
the Spiritus, or Holy Ghost, had less honor. While nearly every
Gnostic sect considered it a Female Power, whether they called it
_Binah_, נינה, _Sophia_, the Divine Intellect, with the Nazarene sect
it was the _Female Spiritus_, the astral light, the genetrix of all
things of _matter_, the chaos in its evil aspect, made _turbido_ by
the Demiurge. At the creation of man, “it was light on the side of
the FATHER, and it was light (material light) on the side of the
MOTHER. And this is the ‘_two-fold_ man,’”[343] says the _Sohar_.
“That day (the last one) will perish the seven badly-disposed
stellars, also the sons of man, who have confessed the _Spiritus_,
the Messias (false), the Deus, and the MOTHER of the SPIRITUS shall
perish.”[344]
Jesus enforced and illustrated his doctrines with signs and
wonders; and if we lay aside the claims advanced on his behalf by
his deifiers, he did but what other kabalists did; and only _they_
at that epoch, when, for two centuries the sources of prophecy
had been completely dried up, and from this stagnation of public
“miracles” had originated the skepticism of the unbelieving sect of
the Sadducees. Describing the “heresies” of those days, Theodoret,
who has no idea of the hidden meaning of the word Christos, the
_anointed_ messenger, complains that they (the Gnostics) assert
_that this Messenger or Delegatus changes his body from time to
time_, “_and goes into other bodies, and at each time is differently
manifested_. And these (the overshadowed prophets) use incantations
and invocations of various demons and baptisms in the confession
of their principles.... They embrace astrology and magic, and the
mathematical error,” (?) he says.[345]
This “mathematical error,” of which the pious writer complains,
led subsequently to the rediscovery of the heliocentric system,
erroneous as it may still be, and forgotten since the days of
another “magician” who taught it--Pythagoras. Thus, the wonders of
healing and the thaums of Jesus, which he imparted to his followers,
show that they were learning, in their daily communication with
him, the theory and practice of the new ethics, day by day, and in
the familiar intercourse of intimate friendship. Their faith was
progressively developed, like that of all neophytes, simultaneously
with the increase of knowledge. We must bear in mind that Josephus,
who certainly must have been well informed on the subject, calls
the skill of expelling demons “a science.” This growth of faith is
conspicuously shown in the case of Peter, who, from having lacked
enough faith to support him while he could walk on the water from the
boat to his Master, at last became so expert a thaumaturgist, that
Simon Magus is said to have offered him money to teach him the secret
of healing, and other wonders. And Philip is shown to have become an
Æthrobat as good as Abaris of Pythagorean memory, but less expert
than Simon Magus.
Neither in the _Homilies_ nor any other early work of the apostles,
is there anything to show that either of his friends and followers
regarded Jesus as anything more than a prophet. The idea is as
clearly established in the _Clementines_. Except that too much room
is afforded to Peter to establish the identity of the Mosaic God
with the Father of Jesus, the whole work is devoted to Monotheism.
The author seems as bitter against Polytheism as against the claim
to the divinity of Christ.[346] He seems to be utterly ignorant of
the Logos, and his speculation is confined to Sophia, the Gnostic
wisdom. There is no trace in it of a hypostatic trinity, but the
same overshadowing of the Gnostic “wisdom (Christos and Sophia) is
attributed in the case of Jesus as it is in those of Adam, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.[347] These personages are
all placed on one level, and called ‘true prophets,’ and the seven
pillars of the world.” More than that, Peter vehemently denies the
fall of Adam, and with him, the doctrine of atonement, as taught by
Christian theology, utterly falls to the ground, _for he combats it
as a blasphemy_.[348] Peter’s theory of sin is that of the Jewish
kabalists, and even, in a certain way, Platonic. Adam not only never
sinned, but, “as a true prophet, possessed of the Spirit of God,
which afterwards was in Jesus, _could not_ sin.”[349] In short, the
whole of the work exhibits the belief of the author in the kabalistic
doctrine of permutation. The _Kabala_ teaches the doctrine of
transmigration of the spirit.[350] “Mosah is the _revolutio_ of Seth
and Hebel.”[351]
“Tell me who it is who brings about the _re-birth_ (the revolutio)?”
is asked of the wise Hermes. “God’s Son, the _only man_, through the
will of God,” is the answer of the “heathen.”[352]
“God’s son” is the immortal spirit assigned to every human being. It
is this divine entity which is the “_only man_,” for the casket which
contains our soul, and the soul itself, are but half-entities, and
without its overshadowing both body and astral soul, the two are but
an animal _duad_. It requires a trinity to form the complete “man,”
and allow him to remain immortal at every “re-birth,” or _revolutio_,
throughout the subsequent and ascending spheres, every one of which
brings him nearer to the refulgent realm of eternal and _absolute_
light.
“God’s FIRST-BORN, who is the ‘holy Veil,’ the ‘Light of Lights,’ it
is he who sends the revolutio of the Delegatus, for he is the _First
Power_,” says the kabalist.[353]
“The pneuma (spirit) and the dunamis (power), which is from the God,
it is right to consider nothing else than the _Logos_, who is _also_
(?) First-begotten to the God,” argues a Christian.[354]
“Angels and powers are in heaven!” says Justin, thus bringing forth
a purely kabalistic doctrine. The Christians adopted it from the
_Sohar_ and the hæretical sects, and if Jesus mentioned them, it
was not in the official synagogues that he learned the theory,
but directly in the kabalistic teachings. In the Mosaic books,
very little mention is made of them, and Moses, who holds direct
communications with the “Lord God,” troubles himself very little
about them. The doctrine was a secret one, and deemed by the orthodox
synagogue heretical. Josephus calls the Essenes heretics, saying:
“Those admitted among the Essenes must swear to communicate their
doctrines to no one any otherwise _than as he received them himself_,
and equally to preserve the books _belonging to their sect_, and the
_names of the angels_.”[355] The Sadducees did not believe in angels,
neither did the uninitiated Gentiles, who limited their Olympus to
gods and demi-gods, or “spirits.” Alone, the kabalists and theurgists
hold to that doctrine from time immemorial, and, as a consequence,
Plato, and Philo Judæus after him, followed first by the Gnostics,
and then by the Christians.
Thus, if Josephus never wrote the famous interpolation forged by
Eusebius, concerning Jesus, on the other hand, he has described in
the Essenes all the principal features that we find prominent in
the Nazarene. When praying, they sought solitude.[356] “When thou
prayest, enter into thy closet ... and pray to thy Father which is in
secret” (_Matthew_ vi. 6). “Everything spoken by them (Essenes) is
stronger than an oath. Swearing is shunned by them” (_Josephus_ II.,
viii., 6). “But I say unto you, swear not at all ... but let your
communication be yea, yea; nay, nay” (_Matthew_ v. 34-37).
The Nazarenes, as well as the Essenes and the Therapeutæ, believed
more in their own interpretations of the “hidden sense” of the more
ancient Scriptures, than in the later laws of Moses. Jesus, as we
have shown before, felt but little veneration for the commandments of
his predecessor, with whom Irenæus is so anxious to connect him.
The Essenes “enter into the houses of _those whom they never saw
previously_, as if they were their intimate friends” (_Josephus_ II.,
viii., 4). Such was undeniably the custom of Jesus and his disciples.
Epiphanius, who places the Ebionite “heresy” on one level with that
of the Nazarenes, also remarks that the Nazaraioi come next to the
Cerinthians,[357] so much vituperated against by Irenæus.[358]
Munk, in his work on _Palestine_, affirms that there were 4,000
Essenes living in the desert; that they had their mystical books,
and predicted the future.[359] The Nabatheans, with very little
difference indeed, adhered to the same belief as the Nazarenes and
the Sabeans, and all of them honored John the Baptist more than
his successor Jesus. The Persian Iezidi say that they originally
came to Syria from Busrah. They use baptism, and believe in seven
archangels, though paying at the same time reverence to Satan. Their
prophet Iezed, who flourished long prior to Mahomet,[360] taught that
God will send a messenger, and that the latter would reveal to him
a book which is already written in heaven from the eternity.[361]
The Nabatheans inhabited the Lebanon, as their descendants do to
the present day, and their religion was from its origin purely
kabalistic. Maimonides speaks of them as if he identified them with
the Sabeans. “I will mention to thee the writings ... respecting
the belief and institutions of the _Sabeans_,” he says. “The most
famous is the book _The Agriculture of the Nabathæans_, which has
been translated by Ibn Wahohijah. This book is full of heathenish
foolishness.... It speaks of the preparations of TALISMANS, the
drawing down of the powers of the SPIRITS, MAGIC, DEMONS, and ghouls,
which make their abode in the desert.”[362]
There are traditions among the tribes living scattered about _beyond_
the Jordan, as there are many such also among the descendants of the
Samaritans at Damascus, Gaza, and at Naplosa (the ancient Shechem).
Many of these tribes have, notwithstanding the persecutions of
eighteen centuries, retained the faith of their fathers in its
primitive simplicity. It is there that we have to go for traditions
based on _historical_ truths, however disfigured by exaggeration
and inaccuracy, and compare them with the religious legends of the
Fathers, which they call revelation. Eusebius states that before
the siege of Jerusalem the small Christian community--comprising
members of whom many, if not all, knew Jesus and his apostles
personally--took refuge in the little town of Pella, on the opposite
shore of the Jordan. Surely these simple people, separated for
centuries from the rest of the world, ought to have preserved their
traditions fresher than any other nations! It is in Palestine that
we have to search for the _clearest_ waters of Christianity, let
alone its source. The first Christians, after the death of Jesus, all
joined together for a time, whether they were Ebionites, Nazarenes,
Gnostics, or others. They had no Christian dogmas in those days, and
their Christianity consisted in believing Jesus to be a prophet,
this belief varying from seeing in him simply a “just man,”[363] or
a holy, inspired prophet, a vehicle used by Christos and Sophia to
manifest themselves through. These all united together in opposition
to the synagogue and the tyrannical technicalities of the Pharisees,
until the primitive group separated in two distinct branches--which,
we may correctly term the Christian kabalists of the Jewish Tanaïm
school, and the Christian kabalists of the Platonic Gnosis.[364] The
former were represented by the party composed of the followers of
Peter, and John, the author of the _Apocalypse_; the latter ranged
with the Pauline Christianity, blending itself, at the end of the
second century, with the Platonic philosophy, and engulfing, still
later, the Gnostic sects, whose symbols and misunderstood mysticism
overflowed the Church of Rome.
Amid this jumble of contradictions, what Christian is secure in
confessing himself such? In the old Syriac _Gospel according to Luke_
(iii. 22), the Holy Spirit is said to have descended in the likeness
of a dove. “Jesua, full of the sacred Spirit, returned from Jordan,
and the Spirit led him into the desert” (old Syriac, _Luke_ iv. 1,
_Tremellius_). “The difficulty,” says Dunlap, “was that the Gospels
declared that John the Baptist saw the Spirit (the Power of God)
descend upon Jesus after he had reached manhood, and if the Spirit
then first descended upon him, there was some ground for the opinion
of the Ebionites and Nazarenes who denied his _preceding_ existence,
and refused him the attributes of the LOGOS. The Gnostics, on the
other hand, objected to the flesh, but conceded the Logos.”[365]
John’s _Apocalypsis_, and the explanations of sincere Christian
bishops, like Synesius, who, to the last, adhered to the Platonic
doctrines, make us think that the wisest and safest way is to hold
to that sincere primitive faith which seems to have actuated the
above-named bishop. This best, sincerest, and most unfortunate of
Christians, addressing the “Unknown,” exclaims: “Oh Father of the
Worlds ... Father of the Æons ... _Artificer of the Gods_, it is holy
to praise!” But Synesius had Hypatia for instructor, and this is why
we find him confessing in all sincerity his opinions and profession
of faith. “The rabble desires nothing better than to be deceived....
As regards myself, therefore, _I will always be a philosopher with
myself_, but I _must be priest_ with the people.”
“Holy is God the Father of all being, holy is God, whose wisdom is
carried out into execution by his own Powers!... Holy art Thou, who
through the Word had created all! Therefore, I believe in Thee, and
bear testimony, and go into the LIFE and LIGHT.”[366] Thus speaks
Hermes Trismegistus, the heathen divine. What Christian bishop could
have said better than that?
The apparent discrepancy of the four gospels as a whole, does not
prevent every narrative given in the _New Testament_--however much
disfigured--having a ground-work of truth. To this, are cunningly
adapted details made to fit the later exigencies of the Church. So,
propped up partially by indirect evidence, still more by blind faith,
they have become, with time, articles of faith. Even the fictitious
massacre of the “Innocents” by King Herod has a certain foundation
to it, in its allegorical sense. Apart from the now-discovered fact
that the whole story of such a massacre of the Innocents is bodily
taken from the Hindu _Bagaved-gitta_, and Brahmanical traditions, the
legend refers, moreover, allegorically, to an historical fact. King
Herod is the type of Kansa, the tyrant of Madura, the maternal uncle
of Christna, to whom astrologers predicted that a son of his niece
Devaki would deprive him of his throne. Therefore he gives orders to
kill the male child that is born to her; but Christna escapes his
fury through the protection of Mahadeva (the great God) who causes
the child to be carried away to another city, out of Kansa’s reach.
After that, in order to be sure and kill the right boy, on whom he
failed to lay his murderous hands, Kansa has all the male newborn
infants within his kingdom killed. Christna is also worshipped by the
gopas (the shepherds) of the land.
Though this ancient Indian legend bears a very suspicious resemblance
to the more modern biblical romance, Gaffarel and others attribute
the origin of the latter to the persecutions during the Herodian
reign of the kabalists and the _Wise men_, who had not remained
strictly orthodox. The latter, as well as the prophets, were
nicknamed the “Innocents,” and the “Babes,” on account of their
holiness. As in the case of certain degrees of modern Masonry, the
adepts reckoned their grade of initiation by a _symbolic_ age. Thus
Saul who, when chosen king, was “a choice and goodly man,” and “from
his shoulders upward was higher than any of the people,” is described
in Catholic versions, as “child of _one year_ when he began to
reign,” which, in its literal sense, is a palpable absurdity. But in
_1 Samuel_ x., his anointing by Samuel and initiation are described;
and at verse 6th, Samuel uses this significant language: “... the
Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesy with
them, _and shalt be turned into another man_.” The phrase above
quoted is thus made plain--he had received one degree of initiation
and was symbolically described as “a child one year old.” The
Catholic _Bible_, from which the text is quoted, with charming candor
says in a foot-note: “It is extremely difficult to explain” (meaning
that Saul was a child of one year). But undaunted by any difficulty
the Editor, nevertheless, does take upon himself to explain it, and
adds: “_A child of one year._ That is, _he was good and like an
innocent child_.” An interpretation as ingenious as it is pious; and
which if it does no good can certainly do no harm.[367]
If the explanation of the kabalists is rejected, then the whole
subject falls into confusion; worse still--for it becomes a direct
plagiarism from the Hindu legend. All the commentators have agreed
that a litteral massacre of young children is nowhere mentioned in
history; and that, moreover, an occurrence like that would have made
such a bloody page in Roman annals that the record of it would have
been preserved for us by every author of the day. Herod himself was
subject to the Roman law; and undoubtedly he would have paid the
penalty of such a monstrous crime, with his own life. But if, on the
one hand, we have not the slightest trace of this fable in history,
on the other, we find in the official complaints of the Synagogue
abundant evidence of the persecution of the initiates. The _Talmud_
also corroborates it.
The Jewish version of the birth of Jesus is recorded in the
_Sepher-Toldos Jeshu_ in the following words:
“Mary having become the mother of a Son, named Jehosuah, and the boy
growing up, she entrusted him to the care of the Rabbi Elhanan, and
the child progressed in knowledge, for he was well gifted with spirit
and understanding.
“Rabbi Jehosuah, son of Perachiah, continued the education of
Jehosuah (Jesus) after Elhanan, and _initiated_ him in the _secret_
knowledge;” but the King, Janneus, having given orders to slay all
the initiates, Jehosuah Ben Perachiah, fled to Alexandria, in Egypt,
taking the boy with him.
While in Alexandria, continues the story, they were received in the
house of a rich and learned lady (personified Egypt). Young Jesus
found her beautiful, notwithstanding “_a defect in her eyes_,” and
declared so to his master. Upon hearing this, the latter became so
angry that his pupil should find in the land of bondage anything
good, that “he cursed him and drove the young man from his presence.”
Then follow a series of adventures told in allegorical language,
which show that Jesus supplemented his initiation in the Jewish
_Kabala_ with an additional acquisition of the secret wisdom of
Egypt. When the persecution ceased, they both returned to Judea.[368]
The real grievances against Jesus are stated by the learned author of
_Tela Ignea Satanæ_ (the fiery darts of Satan) to be two in number:
1st, that he had discovered the great Mysteries of their Temple, by
having been initiated in Egypt; and 2d, that he had profaned them by
exposing them to the vulgar, who misunderstood and disfigured them.
This is what they say:[369]
“There exists, in the sanctuary of the living God, a cubical stone,
on which are sculptured the holy characters, the combination of
which gives the explanation of the attributes and powers of the
incommunicable name. This explanation is the secret key of all the
occult sciences and forces in nature. It is what the Hebrews call the
_Scham hamphorash_. This stone is watched by two lions of gold, who
roar as soon as it is approached.[370] The gates of the temple were
never lost sight of, and the door of the sanctuary opened but once
a year, to admit the High Priest alone. But Jesus, who had learned
in Egypt the ‘great secrets’ at the initiation, forged for himself
invisible keys, and thus was enabled to penetrate into the sanctuary
unseen.... He copied the characters on the cubical stone, and hid
them in his thigh;[371] after which, emerging from the temple, he
went abroad and began astounding people with his miracles. The dead
were raised at his command, the leprous and the obsessed were healed.
He forced the stones which lay buried for ages at the bottom of
the sea to rise to the surface until they formed a mountain, from
the top of which he preached.” The _Sepher Toldos_ states further
that, _unable to displace_ the cubical stone of the sanctuary, Jesus
fabricated one of clay, which he showed to the nations and passed it
off for the true cubical stone of Israel.
This allegory, like the rest of them in such books, is written
“_inside and outside_”--it has its secret meaning, and ought to be
read two ways. The kabalistic books explain its mystical meaning.
Further, the same Talmudist says, in substance, the following: Jesus
was thrown in prison,[372] and kept there forty days; then flogged
as a seditious rebel; then stoned as a blasphemer in a place called
Lud, and finally allowed to expire upon a cross. “All this,” explains
Levi, “because he revealed to the people the truths which they
(the Pharisees) wished to bury for their own use. He had divined
the occult theology of Israel, had compared it with the wisdom
of Egypt, and found thereby the reason for a universal religious
synthesis.”[373]
However cautious one ought to be in accepting anything about Jesus
from Jewish sources, it must be confessed that in some things they
seem to be more correct in their statements (whenever their direct
interest in stating facts is not concerned) than our good but too
jealous Fathers. One thing is certain, James, the “Brother of the
Lord,” is silent about the _resurrection_. He terms Jesus nowhere
“Son of God,” nor even Christ-God. Once only, speaking of Jesus, he
calls him the “Lord of Glory,” but so do the Nazarenes when writing
about their prophet _Iohanan bar Zacharia_, or John, son of Zacharias
(St. John Baptist). Their favorite expressions about their prophet
are the same as those used by James when speaking of Jesus. A man “of
the seed of a man,” “Messenger of Life,” of light, “my Lord Apostle,”
“King sprung of Light,” and so on. “Have not the faith of our _Lord_
JESUS Christ, _the Lord of Glory_” etc., says James in his epistle
(ii. 1), presumably addressing Christ as GOD. “Peace to thee, my
_Lord_, JOHN Abo Sabo, Lord of Glory!” says the _Codex Nazaræus_
(ii., 19), known to address but a prophet. “Ye have condemned and
killed the _Just_,” says James (v. 6). “Iohanan (John) is the _Just_
one, he comes in the way of _justice_,” says Matthew (xxi. 32, Syriac
text).
James does not even call Jesus _Messiah_, in the sense given to
the title by the Christians, but alludes to the kabalistic “King
Messiah,” who is Lord of Sabaoth[374] (v. 4), and repeats several
times that the “Lord” will come, but identifies the latter nowhere
with Jesus. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord ... be patient, for the coming of the Lord _draweth nigh_” (v.
7, 8). And he adds: “Take, my brethren, the prophet (Jesus) _who
has spoken in the name of the Lord_ for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience.” Though in the present version the
word “prophet” stands in the plural, yet this is a deliberate
falsification of the original, the purpose of which is too evident.
James, immediately after having cited the “prophets” as an example,
adds: “Behold ... ye have _heard_ of the patience of Job, and _have
seen the end_ of the Lord”--thus combining the examples of these two
admirable characters, and placing them on a perfect equality. But we
have more to adduce in support of our argument. Did not Jesus himself
glorify the prophet of the Jordan? “What went ye out for to see? A
prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.... Verily,
I say unto you, among them that are born _of women_ there hath not
risen a greater than John the Baptist.”
And of whom was he who spoke thus born? It is but the Roman Catholics
who have changed Mary, the mother of Jesus, into a _goddess_. In the
eyes of all other Christians she was a woman, whether his own birth
was immaculate or otherwise. According to strict logic, then, Jesus
confessed John _greater_ than himself. Note how completely this
matter is disposed of by the language employed by the Angel Gabriel
when addressing Mary: “Blessed art thou among _women_.” These words
are unequivocal. He does not adore her as the Mother of God, nor does
he call her _goddess_; he does not even address her as “Virgin,” but
he calls her _woman_, and only distinguishes her above other women as
having had better fortune, through her purity.
The Nazarenes were known as Baptists, Sabians, and John’s Christians.
Their belief was that the Messiah was not the Son of God, but simply
a prophet who would follow John. “Johanan, the Son of the Abo
Sabo Zachariah, shall say to himself, ‘Whoever will believe in my
_justice_ and my BAPTISM shall be joined to my association; he shall
share with me the seat which is the abode of life, of the supreme
Mano, and of living fire” (_Codex Nazaræus_, ii., p. 115). Origen
remarks “there are some who said of John (the Baptist) that he was
the _anointed_ (Christus).[375] The Angel Rasiel of the kabalists
is the Angel _Gabriel_ of the Nazarenes, and it is the latter who
is chosen of all the celestial hierarchy by the Christians to
become the messenger of the ‘annunciation.’ The genius sent by the
‘Lord of Celsitude’ is Æbel Zivo, whose name is also called GABRIEL
Legatus.”[376] Paul must have had the sect of the Nazarenes in mind
when he said: “And last of all he (Jesus) was seen of me also, as _of
one born out of due time_” (_1 Corinth._, xv. 8), thus reminding his
listeners of the expression usual to the Nazarenes, who termed the
Jews “the abortions, or born out of time.” Paul prides himself of
belonging to a hæresy.[377]
When the metaphysical conceptions of the Gnostics, who saw in Jesus
the Logos and the anointed, began to gain ground, the earliest
Christians separated from the Nazarenes, who accused Jesus of
perverting the doctrines of John, and changing the baptism of the
Jordan.[378] “Directly,” says Milman, “as it (the Gospel) got
_beyond_ the borders of Palestine, and the name of ‘Christ’ had
acquired sanctity and veneration in the Eastern cities, he became
a kind of _metaphysical impersonation_, while the religion lost
its purely moral cast and assumed the character of a _speculative
theogony_.”[379] The only half-original document that has reached us
from the primitive apostolic days, is the _Logia_ of Matthew. The
real, genuine doctrine has remained in the hands of the Nazarenes,
in this _Gospel of Matthew_ containing the “secret doctrine,” the
“Sayings of Jesus,” mentioned by Papias. These sayings were, no
doubt, of the same nature as the small manuscripts placed in the
hands of the neophytes, who were candidates for the Initiations into
the Mysteries, and which contained the _Aporrheta_, the revelations
of some important rites and symbols. For why should Matthew take such
precautions to make them “_secret_” were it otherwise?
Primitive Christianity had its grip, pass-words, and degrees of
initiation. The innumerable Gnostic gems and amulets are weighty
proofs of it. It is a whole symbolical science. The kabalists were
the first to embellish the universal Logos,[380] with such terms
as “Light of Light,” the Messenger of LIFE and LIGHT,[381] and we
find these expressions adopted _in toto_ by the Christians, with the
addition of nearly all the Gnostic terms such as Pleroma (fulness),
Archons, Æons, etc. As to the “First-Born,” the First, and the
“Only-Begotten,” these are as old as the world. Origen shows the
word “Logos” as existing among the Brachmanes. “The _Brachmanes_ say
that the God is _Light_, not such as one sees, nor such as the sun
and fire; but they have the _God_ LOGOS, not the articulate, the
Logos of the Gnosis, through whom the highest MYSTERIES of the Gnosis
are seen by the wise.”[382] The _Acts_ and the fourth _Gospel_ teem
with Gnostic expressions. The kabalistic: “God’s first-born emanated
from the Most High,” together with _that which is the “Spirit of
the Anointing;”_ and again “they called him the anointed of the
Highest,”[383] are reproduced in Spirit and substance by the author
of the _Gospel according to John_. “That was _the true light_,” and
“the light shineth in darkness.” “And the WORD _was made flesh_.”
“And his _fulness_ (pleroma) have all we received,” etc. (_John_ i.
et seq.).
The “Christ,” then, and the “Logos” existed ages before Christianity;
the Oriental Gnosis was studied long before the days of Moses, and we
have to seek for the origin of all these in the archaic periods of
the primeval Asiatic philosophy. Peter’s second _Epistle_ and Jude’s
fragment, preserved in the _New Testament_, show by their phraseology
that they belong to the kabalistic Oriental Gnosis, for they use
the same expressions as did the Christian Gnostics who built a part
of their system from the Oriental _Kabala_. “Presumptuous are they
(the Ophites), self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of
DIGNITIES,” says Peter (2d Epistle ii. 10), the original model for
the later abusive Tertullian and Irenæus.[384] “Likewise (even as
Sodom and Gomorrah) also these _filthy_ dreamers defile the flesh,
despise DOMINION and speak evil of DIGNITIES,” says Jude, repeating
the very words of Peter, and thereby expressions consecrated in the
_Kabala_. _Dominion_ is the “Empire,” the _tenth_ of the kabalistic
sephiroth.[385] The _Powers_ and Dignities are the subordinate genii
of the Archangels and Angels of the _Sohar_.[386] These emanations
are the very life and soul of the _Kabala_ and Zoroastranism; and
the _Talmud_ itself, in its present state, is all borrowed from the
_Zend-avesta_. Therefore, by adopting the views of Peter, Jude, and
other Jewish apostles, the Christians have become but a dissenting
sect of the Persians, for they do not even interpret the meaning
of all such _Powers_ as the true kabalists do. Paul’s warning his
converts against the worshipping of angels, shows how well he
appreciated, even so early as his period, the dangers of borrowing
from a metaphysical doctrine the philosophy of which could be rightly
interpreted but by its well-learned adherents, the Magi and the
Jewish Tanaïm. “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and _worshipping of angels_, intruding into those things
which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,”[387]
is a sentence laid right at the door of Peter and his champions. In
the _Talmud_, Michael is Prince of Water, who has _seven_ inferior
spirits subordinate to him. He is the patron, the guardian angel of
the Jews, as Daniel informs us (v. 21), and the Greek Ophites, who
identified him with their Ophiomorphos, the personified creation
of the envy and malice of Ilda-Baoth, the Demiurgus (Creator of
the _material_ world), and undertook to prove that he was also
Samuel, the Hebrew prince of the evil spirits, or Persian devs, were
naturally regarded by the Jews as blasphemers. But did Jesus ever
sanction this belief in angels except in so far as hinting that they
were the messengers and subordinates of God? And here the origin of
the later splits between Christian beliefs is directly traceable to
these two early contradictory views.
Paul, believing in all such occult powers in the world “unseen,”
but ever “present,” says: “Ye walked according to the ÆON of this
world, according to the _Archon_ (Ilda-Baoth, the _Demiurg_) that
has the domination of the air,” and “We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against the _dominations_, the _powers_; the lords of
darkness, the mischievousness of spirits in the upper regions.” This
sentence, “Ye were dead in sin and error,” for “ye walked according
to the _Archon_,” or Ilda-Baoth, the God and creator of matter of
the Ophites, shows unequivocally that: 1st, Paul, notwithstanding
some dissensions with the more important doctrines of the Gnostics,
shared more or less their cosmogonical views on the emanations; and
2d, that he was fully aware that this Demiurge, whose Jewish name
was Jehovah, was _not_ the God preached by Jesus. And now, if we
compare the doctrine of Paul with the religious views of Peter and
Jude, we find that, not only did they worship Michael, the Archangel,
but that also they _reverenced_ SATAN, because the latter was also,
before his fall, an angel! This they do quite openly, and abuse
the Gnostics[388] for speaking “evil” of him. No one can deny the
following: Peter, when denouncing those who are not afraid to speak
evil of “_dignities_,” adds immediately, “Whereas angels, which
are greater in power and might, _bring not railing accusations_
against them (the dignities) before the Lord” (ii. 11). Who are the
dignities? Jude, in his general epistle, makes the word as clear as
day. The _dignities_ are the DEVILS!! Complaining of the disrespect
shown by the Gnostics to the _powers_ and _dominions_, Jude argues
in the very words of Peter: “And yet, Michael, the Archangel, when
contending _with the devil_, he disputed about the body of Moses,
_durst not bring against him a railing accusation_, but said, The
Lord rebuke thee” (i. 9). Is this plain enough? If not, then we have
the _Kabala_ to prove who were the _dignities_.
Considering that _Deuteronomy_ tells us that the “_Lord_” Himself
buried Moses in a valley of Moab (xxxiv. 6), “and no man knoweth of
his sepulchre unto this day,” this biblical _lapsus linguæ_ of Jude
gives a strong coloring to the assertions of some of the Gnostics.
They claimed but what was secretly taught by the Jewish kabalists
themselves; to wit: that the highest supreme God was unknown and
invisible; “the King of Light is a closed eye;” that Ilda-Baoth, the
Jewish second Adam, was the real Demiurge; and that Iao, Adonai,
Sabaoth, and Eloi were the quaternary emanation which formed the
unity of the God of the Hebrews--Jehovah. Moreover, the latter was
also called Michael and Samael by them, and regarded but as an angel,
several removes from the Godhead. In holding to such a belief, the
Gnostics countenanced the teachings of the greatest of the Jewish
doctors, Hillel, and other Babylonian divines. Josephus shows the
great deference of the official Synagogue in Jerusalem to the wisdom
of the schools of Central Asia. The colleges of Sora, Pumbiditha, and
Nahaidea were considered the headquarters of esoteric and theological
learning by all the schools of Palestine. The Chaldean version of
the _Pentateuch_, made by the well-known Babylonian divine, Onkelos,
was regarded as the most authoritative of all; and it is according
to this learned Rabbi that Hillel and other Tanaïm after him held
that the Being who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, on Mount
Sinai, and who finally buried him, was the _angel_ of the Lord,
Memro, and not the Lord Himself; and that he whom the Hebrews of
the _Old Testament_ mistook for _Iahoh_ was but His messenger, one
of His sons, or emanations. All this establishes but one logical
conclusion--namely, that the Gnostics were by far the superiors
of the disciples, in point of education and general information;
even in a knowledge of the religious tenets of the Jews themselves.
While they were perfectly well-versed in the Chaldean wisdom, the
well-meaning, pious, but fanatical as well as ignorant disciples,
unable to fully understand or grasp the religious spirit of their own
system, were driven in their disputations to such convincing logic
as the use of “brute beasts,” “sows,” “dogs,” and other epithets so
freely bestowed by Peter.
Since then, the epidemic has reached the apex of the sacerdotal
hierarchy. From the day when the founder of Christianity uttered the
warning, that he who shall say to his brother, “Thou fool, shall
be in danger of hell-fire,” all who have passed as its leaders,
beginning with the ragged fishermen of Galilee, and ending with
the jewelled pontiffs, have seemed to vie with each other in the
invention of opprobrious epithets for their opponents. So we find
Luther passing a final sentence on the Catholics, and exclaiming
that “The Papists are all asses, put them in whatever form you like;
whether they are boiled, roasted, baked, fried, skinned, hashed,
they will be always the same asses.” Calvin called the victims he
persecuted, and occasionally burned, “malicious barking dogs, full of
bestiality and insolence, base corrupters of the sacred writings,”
etc. Dr. Warburton terms the Popish religion “an impious farce,” and
Monseigneur Dupanloup asserts that the Protestant Sabbath service is
the “Devil’s mass,” and all clergymen are “thieves and ministers of
the Devil.”
The same spirit of incomplete inquiry and ignorance has led the
Christian Church to bestow on its most holy apostles, titles assumed
by their most desperate opponents, the “Hæretics” and Gnostics.
So we find, for instance, Paul termed the vase of election “_Vas
Electionis_,” a title chosen by _Manes_,[389] the greatest heretic of
his day in the eyes of the Church, Manes meaning, in the Babylonian
language, the chosen vessel or receptacle.[390]
So with the Virgin Mary. They were so little gifted with originality,
that they copied from the Egyptian and Hindu religions their several
apostrophes to their respective Virgin-mothers. The juxtaposition of
a few examples will make this clear.
HINDU.
_Litany of our Lady Nari: Virgin._ (_Also Devanaki._)
1. Holy Nari--Mariāma, Mother of perpetual fecundity.
2. Mother of an incarnated God--Vishnu (Devanaki).
3. Mother of Christna.
4. Eternal Virginity--Kanyabâva.
5. Mother--Pure Essence, Akasa.
6. Virgin most chaste--Kanya.
7. Mother Taumatra, of the _five_ virtues or elements.
8. Virgin Trigana (of the three elements, power or richness,
love, and mercy).
9. Mirror of Supreme Conscience--Ahancara.
10. Wise Mother--Saraswati.
11. Virgin of the white Lotos, Pedma or Kamala.
12. Womb of Gold--Hyrania.
13. Celestial Light--Lakshmi.
14. Ditto.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe--Sakti.
16. Mother soul of all beings--Paramatma.
17. Devanaki is conceived without sin, and immaculate
herself. (According to the Brahmanic fancy.)
EGYPTIAN.
_Litany of our Lady Isis: Virgin._
1. Holy Isis, universal mother--Muth.
2. Mother of Gods--Athyr.
3. Mother of Horus.
4. Virgo generatrix--Neith.
5. Mother-soul of the universe--Anouké.
6. Virgin sacred earth--Isis.
7. Mother of all the virtues--Thmei, with the same
qualities.
8. Illustrious Isis, most powerful, merciful, just. (_Book
of the Dead._)
9. Mirror of Justice and Truth--Thmei.
10. Mysterious mother of the world--_Buto_ (secret wisdom).
11. Sacred Lotos.
12. Sistrum of Gold.
13. Astarté (Syrian), Astaroth (Jewish).
14. Argua of the Moon.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe--Sati.
16. Model of all mothers--Athor.
17. Isis is a Virgin Mother.
ROMAN CATHOLIC.
_Litany of our Lady of Loretto: Virgin._
1. Holy Mary, mother of divine grace.
2. Mother of God.
3. Mother of Christ.
4. Virgin of Virgins.
5. Mother of Divine Grace.
6. Virgin most chaste.
7. Mother most pure.
Mother undefiled.
Mother inviolate.
Mother most amiable.
Mother most admirable.
8. Virgin most powerful.
Virgin most merciful.
Virgin most faithful.
9. Mirror of Justice.
10. Seat of Wisdom.
11. Mystical Rose.
12. House of Gold.
13. Morning Star.
14. Ark of the Covenant.
15. Queen of Heaven.
16. Mater Dolorosa.
17. Mary conceived without sin. (In accordance with later
orders.)
If the Virgin Mary has her nuns, who are consecrated to her and bound
to live in chastity, so had Isis her nuns in Egypt, as Vesta had hers
at Rome, and the Hindu Nari, “mother of the world hers.” The virgins
consecrated to her cultus--the Devadasi of the temples, who were the
nuns of the days of old--lived in great chastity, and were objects of
the most extraordinary veneration, as the holy women of the goddess.
Would the missionaries and some travellers reproachfully point to the
modern Devadasis, or Nautch-girls? For all response, we would beg
them to consult the official reports of the last quarter century,
cited in chapter II., as to certain discoveries made at the razing
of convents, in Austria and Italy. Thousands of infants’ skulls were
exhumed from ponds, subterranean vaults, and gardens of convents.
Nothing to match _this_ was ever found in heathen lands.
Christian theology, getting the doctrine of the archangels and angels
directly from the Oriental _Kabala_, of which the Mosaic _Bible_ is
but an allegorical screen, ought at least to remember the hierarchy
invented by the former for these personified emanations. The hosts of
the Cherubim and Seraphim, with which we generally see the Catholic
Madonnas surrounded in their pictures, belong, together with the
Elohim and Beni Elohim of the Hebrews, to the _third_ kabalistic
world, _Jezirah_. This world is but one remove higher than _Asiah_,
the fourth and lowest world, in which dwell the grossest and most
material beings--the _klippoth_, who delight in evil and mischief,
and whose chief is _Belial_!
Explaining, in his way, of course, the various “heresies” of the
first two centuries, Irenæus says: “Our Hæretics hold ... that
PROPATOR is known but to the _only-begotten_ son, that is to the
_mind_” (the nous). It was the Valentinians, the followers of the
“profoundest doctor of the Gnosis,” Valentinus, who held that “there
was a perfect AIÔN, who existed before Bythos, or Buthon (the Depth),
called Propator.” This is again kabalistic, for in the _Sohar_ of
Simon Ben Iochaï, we read the following: “_Senior occultatus est
et absconditus; Microprosopus manifestus est, et non manifestus_”
(Rosenroth: _The Sohar Liber Mysteries_, iv., 1).
In the religious metaphysics of the Hebrews, the Highest One is an
abstraction; he is “without form or being,” “with no likeness with
anything else.”[391] And even Philo calls the Creator, the _Logos_
who stands next God, “the SECOND God.” “The _second_ God who is his
WISDOM.”[392] God is NOTHING, he is nameless, and therefore called
_Ain-Soph_--the word _Ain_ meaning _nothing_.[393] But if, according
to the older Jews, Jehovah is _the_ God, and He manifested Himself
several times to Moses and the prophets, and the Christian Church
anathematized the Gnostics who denied the fact--how comes it, then,
that we read in the fourth gospel that “_No man hath seen God_ AT ANY
TIME, but the _only-begotten_ Son ... he hath declared him?” The very
words of the Gnostics, in spirit and substance. This sentence of St.
John--or rather whoever wrote the gospel now bearing his name--floors
all the Petrine arguments against Simon Magus, without appeal. The
words are repeated and emphasized in chapter vi.: “_Not that any
man hath seen the Father_, save he which is of God, he (Jesus) hath
seen the Father” (46)--the very objection brought forward by Simon
in the _Homilies_. These words prove that either the author of the
fourth evangel had no idea of the existence of the _Homilies_, or
that he was _not_ John, the friend and companion of Peter, whom he
contradicts point-blank with this emphatic assertion. Be it as it
may, this sentence, like many more that might be profitably cited,
blends Christianity completely with the Oriental Gnosis, and hence
with the KABALA.
While the doctrines, ethical code, and observances of the Christian
religion were all appropriated from Brahmanism and Buddhism, its
ceremonials, vestments, and pageantry were taken bodily from Lamaism.
The Romish monastery and nunnery are almost servile copies of similar
religious houses in Thibet and Mongolia, and interested explorers
of Buddhist lands, when obliged to mention the unwelcome fact,
have had no other alternative left them but, with an anachronism
unsurpassed in recklessness, to charge the offense of plagiarism upon
the religious system their own mother Church had despoiled. This
makeshift has served its purpose and had its day. The time has at
last come when this page of history must be written.
CHAPTER V.
“Learn to know all, but keep thyself unknown.”--GNOSTIC MAXIM.
“There is one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortals,
Whose form is not like unto man’s, and as unlike his nature;
But vain mortals imagine that gods _like themselves are begotten_
With human sensations, and voice, and corporeal members.”
--XENOPHANES: _Clem. Al. Strom._, v. 14, § 110.
“TYCHIADES.--Can you tell me the reason, Philocles, why most
men desire to lye, and delight not only to speak fictions
themselves, but give busie attention to others who do?
“PHILOCLES.--There be many reasons, Tychiades, which compell
some to speak lyes, because they see ’tis profitable.”--_A
Dialogue of Lucian._
“SPARTAN.--Is it to thee, or to God, that I must confess?
“PRIEST.--To God.
“SPARTAN.--Then, MAN, stand back!”--PLUTARCH: _Remarkable
Lacedemonian Sayings_.
We will now give attention to some of the most important Mysteries of
the _Kabala_, and trace their relations to the philosophical myths of
various nations.
In the oldest Oriental _Kabala_, the Deity is represented as three
circles in one, shrouded in a certain smoke or chaotic exhalation.
In the preface to the _Sohar_, which transforms the three primordial
circles into THREE HEADS, over these is described an exhalation or
smoke, neither black nor white, but colorless, and circumscribed
within a circle. This is the unknown Essence.[394] The origin of
the Jewish image may, perhaps, be traced to Hermes’ _Pimander_, the
Egyptian _Logos_, who appears within a cloud of a humid nature, with
a smoke escaping from it.[395] In the _Sohar_ the highest God is, as
we have shown in the preceding chapter, and as in the case of the
Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, a pure abstraction, whose objective
existence is denied by the latter. It is Hakama, the “SUPREME WISDOM,
that cannot be understood by reflection,” and that lies within and
without the CRANIUM of LONG FACE[396] (Sephira), the uppermost of the
three “Heads.” It is the “boundless and the infinite En-Soph,” the
No-Thing.
The “three Heads,” superposed above each other, are evidently taken
from the three mystic triangles of the Hindus, which also superpose
each other. The highest “head” contains the _Trinity in Chaos_, out
of which springs the manifested trinity. En-Soph, the unrevealed
forever, who is boundless and unconditioned, cannot create, and
therefore it seems to us a great error to attribute to him a
“creative thought,” as is commonly done by the interpreters. In every
cosmogony this supreme Essence is _passive_; if boundless, infinite,
and unconditioned, it can have no _thought_ nor _idea_. It acts not
as the result of volition, but in obedience to its own nature,
and _according to the fatality of the law of which it is itself
the embodiment_. Thus, with the Hebrew kabalists, En-Soph is
non-existent עַיִן, for it is incomprehensible to our finite intellects,
and therefore cannot exist to our minds. Its first emanation was
Sephira, the crown כתר. When the time for an active period had
come, then was produced a natural expansion of this Divine
essence from within outwardly, obedient to eternal and immutable
law; and from this eternal and infinite light (which to us is
darkness) was emitted a spiritual substance.[397] This was the
First Sephiroth, containing in herself the other nine ספירות Sephiroth,
or intelligences. In their totality and unity they represent the
archetypal man, Adam Kadmon, the πρωτόγονος, who in his individuality
or unity is yet dual, or bisexual, the Greek _Didumos_, for he is the
prototype of all humanity. Thus we obtain three trinities, each
contained in a “head.” In the first head, or face (the three-faced
Hindu Trimurti), we find _Sephira_, the first androgyne, at the apex
of the upper triangle, emitting _Hackama_, or Wisdom, a masculine and
active potency--also called Jah, יה--and _Binah_, בינה, or Intelligence,
a female and passive potency, also represented by the name Jehovah יהוה.
These three form the first trinity or “face” of the Sephiroth. This
triad emanated _Hesed_, חסד, or Mercy, a masculine active potency,
also called _El_, from which emanated _Geburah_ דין, or Justice, also
called Eloha, a feminine passive potency; from the union of these
two was produced Tiphereth תפארת, Beauty, Clemency, the Spiritual
Sun, known by the divine name _Elohim_; and the second triad, “face,”
or “head,” was formed. These emanating, in their turn, the masculine
potency _Netzah_, נצח, Firmness, or Jehovah Sabaoth, who issued the
feminine passive potency _Hod_, הוד, Splendor, or Elohim Sabaoth; the
two produced _Jesod_, יסוד, Foundation, who is the mighty living one
_El-Chai_, thus yielding the third trinity or “head.” The tenth
Sephiroth is rather a duad, and is represented on the diagrams as the
lowest circle. It is Malchuth or Kingdom, מלכות, and Shekinah שכינה,
also called Adonai, and _Cherubim_ among the angelic hosts. The first
“Head” is called the Intellectual world; the second “Head” is the
Sensuous, or the world of Perception, and the third is the Material or
Physical world.
“Before he gave any shape to the universe,” says the _Kabala_,
“before he produced any form, he was alone without any form and
resemblance to anything else. Who, then, can comprehend him, how
he was before the creation, since he was formless? Hence, it is
forbidden to represent him by any form, similitude, or even by his
sacred name, by a single letter, or a single point.... The Aged of
the Aged, the Unknown of the Unknown, has a form, and yet no form. He
has a form whereby the universe is preserved, and yet has no form,
because he cannot be comprehended. When he first assumed a form (in
Sephira, his first emanation), he caused nine splendid lights to
emanate from it.”[398]
And now we will turn to the Hindu esoteric Cosmogony and definition
of “Him who is, and yet is not.”
“From him who is,[399] from this immortal Principle which exists in
our minds but cannot be perceived by the senses, is born Purusha, the
Divine male and female, who became _Narayana_, or the Divine Spirit
moving on the water.”
Swayambhuva, the unknown essence of the Brahmans, is identical with
En-Soph, the unknown essence of the kabalists. As with the latter,
the ineffable name could not be pronounced by the Hindus, under the
penalty of death. In the ancient primitive trinity of India, that
which may be certainly considered as pre-Vedic, the _germ_ which
fecundates the _mother-principle_, the mundane egg, or the universal
womb, is called _Nara_, the Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, which
emanates from the primordial essence. It is like Sephira, the oldest
emanation, called the _primordial point_, and the _White Head_, for
it is the point of divine light appearing from within the fathomless
and boundless darkness. In _Manu_ it is “NARA, or the Spirit of God,
which moves on Ayana (Chaos, or place of motion), and is called
NARAYANA, or moving on the waters.”[400] In Hermes, the Egyptian, we
read: “In the beginning of the time there was naught in the chaos.”
But when the “_verbum_,” issuing from the void like a “colorless
smoke,” makes its appearance, then “this verbum moved on the humid
principle.”[401] And in _Genesis_ we find: “And darkness was upon
the face of the deep (chaos). And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.” In the _Kabala_, the emanation of the primordial
passive principle (Sephira), by dividing itself into two parts,
active and passive, emits Chochma-Wisdom and Binah-Jehovah, and in
conjunction with these two acolytes, which complete the trinity,
becomes the Creator of the abstract Universe; the physical world
being the production of later and still more material powers.[402] In
the Hindu Cosmogony, Swayambhuva emits Nara and Nari, its bisexual
emanation, and dividing its parts into two halves, male and female,
these fecundate the mundane egg, within which develops Brahma, or
rather Viradj, the Creator. “The starting-point of the Egyptian
mythology,” says Champollion, “is a triad ... namely, Kneph, Neith,
and Phtah; and Ammon, the male, the father; Muth, the female and
mother; and Khons, the son.”
The ten Sephiroth are copies taken from the ten Prâdjapatis created
by Viradj, called the “Lords of all beings,” and answering to the
biblical Patriarchs.
Justin Martyr explains some of the “heresies” of the day, but in a
very unsatisfactory manner. _He shows, however, the identity of all
the world-religions at their starting-points._ The first _beginning_
opens invariably with the _unknown_ and passive deity, producing
from himself a certain active power or virtue, “Rational,” which is
sometimes called WISDOM, sometimes the SON, very often God, Angel,
Lord, and LOGOS.[403] The latter is sometimes applied to the very
first emanation, but in several systems it proceeds from the first
androgyne or double ray produced at the beginning by the unseen.
Philo depicts this wisdom as male and female. But though its first
manifestation had a beginning, for it proceeded from _Oulom_[404]
(Aiôn, time), the highest of the Æons, when emitted from the Fathers,
it had remained with him _before all creations_, for it is part of
him.[405] Therefore, Philo Judæus calls Adam Kadmon “_mind_” (the
Ennoia of _Bythos_ in the Gnostic system). “The mind, let it be named
Adam.”[406]
Strictly speaking, it is difficult to view the Jewish _Book of
Genesis_ otherwise than as a chip from the trunk of the mundane tree
of universal Cosmogony, rendered in Oriental allegories. As cycle
succeeded cycle, and one nation after another came upon the world’s
stage to play its brief part in the majestic drama of human life,
each new people evolved from ancestral traditions its own religion,
giving it a local color, and stamping it with its individual
characteristics. While each of these religions had its distinguishing
traits, by which, were there no other archaic vestiges, the physical
and psychological status of its creators could be estimated, all
preserved a common likeness to one prototype. This parent cult was
none other than the primitive “wisdom-religion.” The Israelitish
_Scriptures_ are no exception. Their national history--if they can
claim any autonomy before the return from Babylon, and were anything
more than migratory septs of Hindu pariahs, cannot be carried back
a day beyond Moses; and if this ex-Egyptian priest must, from
theological necessity, be transformed into a Hebrew patriarch, we
must insist that the Jewish nation was lifted with that smiling
infant out of the bulrushes of Lake Moeris. Abraham, their alleged
father, belongs to the universal mythology. Most likely he is but one
of the numerous aliases of _Zeruan_ (Saturn), the king of the golden
age, who is also called the old man (emblem of time).[407]
It is now demonstrated by Assyriologists that in the old Chaldean
books Abraham is called Zeru-an, or Zerb-an--meaning one very rich in
gold and silver, and a mighty prince.[408] He is also called Zarouan
and Zarman--a decrepit old man.[409]
The ancient Babylonian legend is that Xisuthrus (Hasisadra of the
Tablets, or Xisuthrus) sailed with his ark to Armenia, and his son
Sim became supreme king. Pliny says that Sim was called Zeruan; and
Sim is Shem. In Hebrew, his name writes שם, _Shem_--a sign. Assyria
is held by the ethnologists to be the land of Shem, and Egypt called
that of Ham. Shem, in the tenth chapter of _Genesis_ is made the
father of all the children of Eber, of Elam (Oulam or Eilam), and
Ashur (Assur or Assyria). The “_nephelim_,” or fallen men, _Gebers_,
mighty men spoken of in _Genesis_ (vi. 4), come from _Oulam_, “men of
_Shem_.” Even Ophir, which is evidently to be sought for in the India
of the days of Hiram, is made a descendant of Shem. The records are
purposely mixed up to make them fit into the frame of the Mosaic
_Bible_. But _Genesis_, from its first verse down to the last, has
naught to do with the “chosen people;” it belongs to the world’s
history. Its appropriation by the Jewish authors in the days of the
so-called _restoration_ of the destroyed books of the Israelites, by
Ezra, proves nothing, and, until now, has been self-propped on an
alleged divine revelation. It is simply a compilation of the universal
legends of the universal humanity. Bunsen says that in the “Chaldean
tribe immediately connected with Abraham, we find reminiscences of
dates disfigured and misunderstood, as genealogies of single men, or
indications of epochs. The Abrahamic recollections go back at least
three millenia beyond the grandfather of Jacob.”[410]
Alexander Polyhistor says that Abraham was born at Kamarina or
_Uria_, a city of soothsayers, and _invented astronomy_. Josephus
claims the same for Terah, Abraham’s father. The tower of Babel was
built as much by the direct descendants of Shem as by those of the
“accursed” Ham and Canaan, for the people in those days were “one,”
and the “whole earth was of one language;” and Babel was simply an
astrological tower, and its builders were astrologers and adepts
of the primitive Wisdom-Religion, or, again, what we term Secret
Doctrine.
The Berosian Sybil says: Before the Tower, Zeru-an, Titan, and
Yapetosthe governed the earth, Zeru-an wished to be supreme, but his
two brothers resisted, when their sister, Astlik, intervened and
appeased them. It was agreed that Zeru-an should rule, but his male
children should be put to death; and strong Titans were appointed to
carry this into effect.
Sar (circle, saros) is the Babylonian god of the sky. He is also
Assaros or Asshur (the son of Shem), and Zero--Zero-ana, the
chakkra, or wheel, boundless time. Hence, as the first step taken by
Zoroaster, while founding his new religion, was to change the most
sacred deities of the Sanscrit _Veda_ into names of evil spirits, in
his Zend _Scriptures_, and even to reject a number of them, we find
no traces in the _Avesta_ of Chakkra--the symbolic circle of the sky.
Elam, another of the sons of Shem, is _Oulam_ עולם, and refers to an
order or cycle of events. In _Ecclesiastes_ iii. 11, it is termed
“world.” In _Ezekiel_ xxvi. 20, “of old time.” In _Genesis_ iii. 22,
the word stands as “forever;” and in chapter ix. 16, “eternal.”
Finally, the term is completely defined in _Genesis_ vi. 4, in the
following words: “There were _nephelim_ (giants, fallen men, or
Titans) on the earth.” The word is synonymous with Æon, αιων. In
_Proverbs_ viii. 23, it reads: “I was effused from _Oulam_, from
_Ras_” (wisdom). By this sentence, the wise king-kabalist refers to
one of the mysteries of the human spirit--the immortal crown of the
man-trinity. While it ought to read as above, and be interpreted
kabalistically to mean that the _I_ (or my eternal, immortal _Ego_),
the spiritual entity, was effused from the boundless and nameless
eternity, through the creative wisdom of the unknown God, it reads in
the canonical translation: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of
his way, before his works of old!” which is unintelligible nonsense,
without the kabalistic interpretation. When Solomon is made to say
that _I_ was “from the beginning ... while, as yet, he (the Supreme
Deity) had not made the earth nor the highest part of the dust of the
world ... I was there,” and “when he appointed the foundations of the
earth ... then I was by him, _as one brought up with him_,” what can
the kabalist mean by the “_I_,” but his own divine spirit, a drop
effused from that eternal fountain of light and wisdom--the universal
spirit of the Deity?
The thread of glory emitted by En-Soph from the highest of the
three kabalistic heads, through which “all things shine with
light,” the thread which makes its exit through Adam _Primus_, is
the individual spirit of every man. “I was daily his (En-Soph’s)
delight, rejoicing always before him ... and my delights were
_with the sons of men_,” adds Solomon, in the same chapter of the
_Proverbs_. The immortal spirit delights in the _sons of men_, who,
without this spirit, are but dualities (physical body and astral
soul, or that _life-principle_ which animates even the lowest of the
animal kingdom). But, we have seen that the doctrine teaches that
this spirit cannot unite itself with that man in whom matter and the
grossest propensities of his animal soul will be ever crowding it
out. Therefore, Solomon, who is made to speak under the inspiration
of his own spirit, that possesses him for the time being, utters
the following words of wisdom: “Hearken unto me, my son” (the dual
man), “blessed are they who keep my ways.... Blessed is the man that
heareth me, watching daily at my gates.... For whoso _findeth me,
findeth life_, and shall obtain favor of the Lord.... But he that
sinneth _against me_ wrongeth his _own soul_ ... and loves _death_”
(_Proverbs_ vii. 1-36).
This chapter, as interpreted, is made by some theologians, like
everything else, to apply to Christ, the “Son of God,” who states
repeatedly, that he who follows him obtains eternal life, and
conquers death. But even in its distorted translation it can be
demonstrated that it referred to anything but to the alleged Saviour.
Were we to accept it in this sense, then, the Christian theology
would have to return, _nolens volens_, to Averroism and Buddhism;
to the doctrine of emanation, in short; for Solomon says: “I was
effused” from Oulam and Rasit, both of which are a part of the
Deity; and thus Christ would not be as their doctrine claims, God
himself, but only an _emanation_ of Him, like the Christos of the
Gnostics. Hence, the meaning of the personified Gnostic Æon, the word
signifying cycles or determined periods in the eternity and at the
same time, representing a hierarchy of celestial beings--spirits.
Thus Christ is sometimes termed the “Eternal Æon.” But the word
“eternal” is erroneous in relation to the Æons. Eternal is that which
has neither beginning nor end; but the “Emanations” or Æons, although
having lived as absorbed in the divine essence from the eternity,
when once individually emanated, must be said to have a beginning.
They may be therefore _endless_ in this spiritual life, never eternal.
These endless emanations of the one First Cause, all of which were
gradually transformed by the popular fancy into distinct gods,
spirits, angels, and demons, were so little considered immortal,
that all were assigned a limited existence. And this belief, common
to all the peoples of antiquity, to the Chaldean Magi as well as
to the Egyptians, and even in our day held by the Brahmanists
and Buddhists, most triumphantly evidences the monotheism of the
ancient religious systems. This doctrine calls the life-period of
all the inferior divinities, “one day of Parabrahma.” After a cycle
of fourteen milliards, three hundred and twenty-millions of human
years--the tradition says--the trinity itself, with all the lesser
divinities, will be annihilated, together with the universe, and
cease to exist. Then another universe will gradually emerge from the
pralaya (dissolution), and men on earth will be enabled to comprehend
SWAYAMBHUVA as he is. Alone, this primal cause will exist forever, in
all his glory, filling the infinite space. What better proof could
be adduced of the deep reverential feeling with which the “heathen”
regard the one Supreme eternal cause of all things visible and
invisible.
This is again the source from which the ancient kabalists derived
identical doctrines. If the Christians understood _Genesis_ in
their own way, and, if accepting the texts literally, they enforced
upon the uneducated masses the belief in a creation of our world
out of nothing; and moreover assigned to it a _beginning_, it is
surely not the Tanaïm, the sole expounders of the hidden meaning
contained in the _Bible_, who are to be blamed. No more than any
other philosophers had they ever believed either in spontaneous,
limited, or _ex nihilo_ creations. The _Kabala_ has survived to
show that their philosophy was precisely that of the modern Nepäl
Buddhists, the Svâbhâvikas. They believed _in the eternity and the
indestructibility of matter_, and hence in many prior creations and
destructions of worlds, before our own. “There were old worlds which
perished.”[411] “From this we see that the Holy One, blessed be His
name, had successively created and destroyed sundry worlds, before
he created the present world; and when he created this world he
said: ‘This pleases me; the previous ones did not please me.’”[412]
Moreover, they believed, again like the Svâbhâvikas, now termed
Atheists, that every thing proceeds (is created) from its own nature
and that once that the first impulse is given by that Creative Force
inherent in the “Self-created substance,” or Sephira, everything
evolves out of itself, following its pattern, the more spiritual
prototype which precedes it in the scale of infinite creation. “The
indivisible point which has no limit, and cannot be comprehended
(for it is absolute), expanded from within, and formed a brightness
which served as a garment (a veil) to the indivisible points....
It, too, expanded from within.... Thus, _everything originated
through_ a constant upheaving agitation, and thus finally the world
originated.”[413]
In the later Zoroastrian books, after that Darius had restored both
the worship of Ormazd and added to it the purer magianism of the
primitive _Secret Wisdom_--חכמות־נסתרה, of which, as the inscription
tells us, he was himself a hierophant, we see again reappearing the
Zeru-ana, or boundless time, represented by the Brahmans in the
_chakkra_, or a circle; that we see figuring on the uplifted finger of
the principal deities. Further on, we will show the relation in which
it stands to the Pythagorean, mystical numbers--the first and the
last--which is a _zero_ (0), and to the greatest of the Mystery-Gods
IAO. The identity of this symbol alone, in all the old religions, is
sufficient to show their common descent from one primitive Faith.[414]
This term of “boundless time,” which can be applied but to the ONE who
has neither beginning nor end, is called by the Zoroastrians
Zeruana-Akarene, because he has always existed. “His glory,” they say,
is too exalted, his light too resplendent for either human intellect
or mortal eyes to grasp and see. His primal emanation is eternal light
which, from having been previously concealed in darkness, was called
out to manifest itself, and thus was formed Ormazd, “the King of
Life.” He is the first-born of boundless time, but like his own
antitype, or preëxisting spiritual idea, has lived within primitive
darkness from all eternity. His _Logos_ created the pure intellectual
world. After the lapse of three grand cycles[415] he created the
material world in six periods. The six Amshaspands, or _primitive_
spiritual men, whom Ormazd created in his own image, are the mediators
between this world and himself. Mithras is an emanation of the Logos
and the chief of the twenty-eight _izeds_, who are the tutelary angels
over the spiritual portion of mankind--the souls of men. The
_Ferouers_ are infinite in number. They are the ideas or rather the
ideal conceptions of things which formed themselves in the mind of
Ormazd or Ahuramazda before he willed them to assume a concrete form.
They are what Aristotle terms “privations” of forms and substances.
The religion of Zarathustra, as he is always called in the _Avesta_,
is one from which the ancient Jews have the most borrowed. In one of
the Yashts, Ahuramazda, the Supreme, gives to the seer as one of his
sacred names, _Ahmi_, “I am;” and in another place, _ahmi yat ahmi_,
“I am that I am,” as Jehovah is alleged to have given it to Moses.
This Cosmogony, adopted with a change of names in the Rabbinical
_Kabala_, found its way, later, with some additional speculations
of Manes, the half-Magus, half-Platonist, into the great body of
Gnosticism. The real doctrines of the Basilideans, Valentinians, and
the Marcionites cannot be correctly ascertained in the prejudiced
and calumnious writings of the Fathers of the Church; but rather
in what remains of the works of the Bardesanesians, known as the
Nazarenes. It is next to impossible, now that all their manuscripts
and books are destroyed, to assign to any of these sects its due part
in dissenting views. But there are a few men still living who have
preserved books and direct traditions about the Ophites, although
they care little to impart them to the world. Among the unknown sects
of Mount Lebanon and Palestine the truth has been concealed for more
than a thousand years. And their _diagram_ of the Ophite scheme
differs with the description of it given by Origen and hence with the
_diagram_ of Matter.[416]
The kabalistic trinity is one of the models of the Christian one.
“The ANCIENT whose name be sanctified, is with three heads, but
which make only one.”[417] _Tria capita exsculpa sunt, unum intra
alterum, et alterum supra alterum._ Three heads are inserted in one
another, and one over the other. The first head is the Concealed
Wisdom (_Sapientia Abscondita_). Under this head is the ANCIENT
(Pythagorean _Monad_), the most hidden of mysteries; a head which is
no head (_caput quod non est caput_); no one can know what that is
in this head. No intellect is able to comprehend this wisdom.[418]
This _Senior Sanctissimus_ is surrounded by the three heads. He is
the eternal LIGHT of the wisdom; and the wisdom is the source from
which all the manifestations have begun. These three heads, included
in ONE HEAD (which is no head); and these three are bent down
(overshadow) SHORT-FACE (the son) and through them all things shine
with light.[419] “En-Soph emits a thread from El or _Al_ (the highest
God of the Trinity), and the light follows the thread and enters, and
passing through makes its exit through Adam _Primus_ (Kadmon), who is
_concealed_ until the plan for arranging (_statum dispositionis_) is
ready; it threads through him from his head to his feet; and in him
(in the concealed Adam) is the figure of A MAN.”[420]
“Whoso wishes to have an insight into the sacred unity, let him
consider a flame rising from a burning coal or a burning lamp. He
will see first a two-fold light--a bright white, and a black or blue
light; the white light is _above_, and ascends in a direct light,
while the blue, or dark light, is _below_, and seems as the chair of
the former, yet both are so intimately connected together that they
constitute only one flame. The seat, however, formed by the blue
or dark light, is again connected with the burning matter which is
_under_ it again. The white light never changes its color, it always
remains white; but various shades are observed in the lower light,
whilst the lowest light, moreover, takes two directions; _above_,
it is connected with the white light, and _below_ with the burning
matter. Now, this is constantly consuming itself, and perpetually
ascends to the upper light, and thus everything merges into a single
unity.”[421]
Such were the ancient ideas of the trinity in the unity, as an
abstraction. Man, who is the microcosmos of the macrocosmos, or of
the archetypal heavenly man, Adam Kadmon, is likewise a trinity; for
he is _body_, _soul_, and _spirit_.
“All that is created by the ‘Ancient of the Ancients’ can live
and exist only by a male and a female,” says the Sohar.[422] He
alone, to whom no one can say, “Thou,” for he is the spirit of the
WHITE-HEAD in whom the “THREE HEADS” are united, is uncreated.
Out of the subtile fire, on one side of the White Head, and of
the “subtile air,” on the other, emanates Shekinah, his veil (the
femininized Holy Ghost). “This air,” says Idra Rabba, “is the most
occult (occultissimus) attribute of the Ancient of the Days.[423] The
Ancienter of the Ancienter is the _Concealed_ of the Concealed.[424]
All things are Himself, and Himself is concealed on every way.[425]
The _cranium_ of the WHITE-HEAD has no beginning, but its end has a
shining reflection and a _roundness_ which is our universe.”
“They regard,” says Klenker, “the first-born as man and wife, in
so far as his light includes in itself all other lights, and in so
far as his spirit of life or breath of life includes all other life
spirits in itself.”[426] The kabalistic Shekinah answers to the
Ophite Sophia. Properly speaking, Adam Kadmon is the Bythos, but in
this emanation-system, where everything is calculated to perplex
and place an obstacle to inquiry, he is the _Source_ of Light, the
first “primitive man,” and at the same time _Ennoia_, the Thought of
Bythos, the Depth, for he is Pimander.
The Gnostics, as well as the Nazarenes, allegorizing on the
personification, said that the _First_ and _Second_ man loved the
beauty of Sophia, (Sephira) the first woman, and thus the Father
and the Son fecundated the heavenly “Woman” and, from primal
darkness procreated the visible light (Sephira is the Invisible, or
Spiritual Light), “whom they called the ANOINTED CHRISTUM, or King
Messiah.”[427] This Christus is the _Adam of Dust_ before his fall,
with the spirit of the Adonai, his Father, and Shekinah Adonai,
his mother, upon him; for Adam Primus is Adon, Adonai, or Adonis.
The primal existence manifests itself by its wisdom, and produces
the _Intelligible_ LOGOS (all visible creation). This wisdom was
venerated by the Ophites under the form of a serpent. So far we see
that the first and second life are the two Adams, or the first and
the second man. In the former lies _Eva_, or the yet unborn spiritual
Eve, and she is within Adam _Primus_, for she is a part of himself,
who is androgyne. The Eva of dust, she who will be called in
_Genesis_ “the mother of all that live,” is _within_ Adam the Second.
And now, from the moment of its first manifestation, the LORD MANO,
the Unintelligible Wisdom, disappears from the scene of action. It
will manifest itself only as Shekinah, the GRACE; for the CORONA is
“the innermost Light of all Lights,” and hence it is darkness’s own
substance.[428]
In the _Kabala_, Shekinah is the ninth emanation of Sephira, which
contains the whole of the ten Sephiroth within herself. She belongs
to the third triad and is produced together with _Malchuth_ or
“Kingdom,” of which she is the female counterpart. Otherwise she is
held to be higher than any of these; for she is the “Divine Glory,”
the “veil,” or “garment,” of En-Soph. The Jews, whenever she is
mentioned in the _Targum_, say that she is the glory of Jehovah,
which dwelt in the tabernacle, manifesting herself like a visible
cloud; the “Glory” rested over the Mercy-Seat in the _Sanctum
Sanctorum_.
In the Nazarene or Bardesanian System, which may be termed the Kabala
within the Kabala, the Ancient of Days--_Antiquus Altus_, who is the
Father of the Demiurgus of the universe, is called the _Third_ Life,
or _Abatur_; and he is the Father of Fetahil, who is the architect
of the visible universe, which he calls into existence by the powers
of his genii, at the order of the “Greatest;” the Abatur answering
to the “Father” of Jesus in the later Christian theology. These two
superior _Lives_ then, are the crown within which dwells the greatest
_Ferho_. “Before any creature came into existence the Lord Ferho
existed.”[429] This one is the First Life, formless and invisible;
in whom the living Spirit of LIFE exists, the Highest GRACE. The two
are ONE from eternity, for they are the Light and the CAUSE of the
Light. Therefore, they answer to the kabalistic concealed _wisdom_,
and to the concealed Shekinah--the Holy Ghost. “This light, which
is manifested, is the garment of the Heavenly Concealed,” says Idra
Suta. And the “heavenly man” is the superior Adam. “No one knows his
paths except _Macroprosopus_” (Long-face)--the Superior _active_
god.[430] “Not as I am _written_ will I be read; in this world my
name will be written Jehovah and read Adonai,”[431] say the Rabbins,
very correctly. Adonai is the Adam Kadmon; he is FATHER and MOTHER
both. By this double mediatorship the Spirit of the “Ancient of the
Ancient” descends upon the _Microprosopus_ (Short-face) or the Adam
of Eden. And the “Lord God breathes into his nostrils the breath of
life.”
When the woman separates herself from her androgyne, and becomes a
distinct individuality, the first story is repeated over again. Both
the Father and Son, the two Adams, love her beauty; and then follows
the allegory of the temptation and fall. It is in the _Kabala_, as
in the Ophite system, in which both the Ophis and the Ophiomorphos
are emanations emblematized as serpents, the former representing
Eternity, Wisdom, and Spirit (as in the Chaldean Magism of
Aspic-worship and Wisdom-Doctrine in the olden times), and the latter
Cunning, Envy, and Matter. Both spirit and matter are serpents; and
Adam Kadmon becomes the Ophis who tempts himself--man and woman--to
taste of the “Tree of Good and Evil,” in order to teach them the
mysteries of spiritual wisdom. Light tempts Darkness, and Darkness
attracts Light, for Darkness is _matter_, and “the _Highest_ Light
shines not in its _Tenebræ_.” With knowledge comes the temptation
of the Ophiomorphos, and he prevails. The dualism of every existing
religion is shown forth by the fall. “I have gotten a man from _the
Lord_,” exclaims Eve, when the Dualism, Cain and Abel--evil and
good--is born. “And the Adam knew Hua, his woman (_astu_), and she
became pregnant and bore _Kin_, and she said: קינתי איש את־יהוה: _Kiniti
ais_ Yava.--I have gained or obtained a husband, even _Yava_--Is,
Ais--man.” “_Cum arbore peccati Deus creavit seculum._”
And now we will compare this system with that of the Jewish
Gnostics--the Nazarenes, as well as with other philosophies.
The ISH AMON, the pleroma, or the boundless circle within which lie
“all forms,” is the THOUGHT of the power divine; it works in SILENCE,
and suddenly light is begotten by darkness; it is called the SECOND
life; and this one produces, or generates the THIRD. This third light
is “the FATHER of all things that live,” as EUA is the “mother of
all that live.” He is the Creator who calls inert matter into life,
through his vivifying spirit, and, therefore, is called the ancient
of the world. Abatur is the Father who creates the first Adam, who
creates in his turn the second. Abatur opens a gate and walks to the
dark water (chaos), and looking down into it, the darkness reflects
the image of Himself ... and lo! a SON is formed--the Logos or
Demiurge; Fetahil, who is the builder of the _material_ world, is
called into existence. According to the Gnostic dogma, this was the
_Metatron_, the Archangel Gabriel, or messenger of life; or, as the
biblical allegory has it, the androgynous Adam-Kadmon again, the SON,
who, with his Father’s spirit, produces the ANOINTED, or Adam before
his fall.
When Swayambhuva, the “Lord who exists through himself,” feels
impelled to manifest himself, he is thus described in the Hindu
sacred books.
Having been impelled to produce various beings from his own divine
substance, he first manifested the waters which developed within
themselves a productive seed.
The seed became a germ bright as gold, blazing like the luminary with
a thousand beams; and in that egg he was born himself, in the form
of BRAHMA, the great principle of all the beings (_Manu_, book i.,
slokas 8, 9).
The Egyptian Kneph, or Chnuphis, Divine Wisdom, represented by a
serpent, produces an egg from his mouth, from which issues Phtha. In
this case Phtha represents the universal germ, as well as Brahmä,
who is of the neuter gender, when the final _a_ has a diaresis on
it;[432] otherwise it becomes simply one of the names of the Deity.
The former was the model of the THREE LIVES of the Nazarenes, as
that of the kabalistic “Faces,” PHARAZUPHA, which, in its turn,
furnished the model for the Christian Trinity of Irenæus and his
followers. The egg was the primitive matter which served as a
material for the building of the visible universe; it contained,
as well as the Gnostic Pleroma, the kabalistic Shekinah, the man
and wife, the spirit and life, “whose light includes all other
lights” or life-spirits. This first manifestation was symbolized
by a serpent, which is at first _divine_ wisdom, but, _falling
into generation_, becomes polluted. Phtha is the heavenly man, the
Egyptian Adam-Kadmon, or Christ, who, in conjunction with the female
Holy Ghost, the ZOE, produces the five elements, air, water, fire,
earth, and ether; the latter being a servile copy from the Buddhist
A’d, and his five Dhyana Buddhas, as we have shown in the preceding
chapter. The Hindu Swayambhuva-Nara, develops from himself the
_mother-principle_, enclosed within his own divine essence--Nari,
the immortal Virgin, who, when impregnated by his spirit, becomes
Taumâtra, the mother of the five elements--air, water, fire, earth,
and ether. Thus may be shown how from the Hindu cosmogony all others
proceed.
Knorr von Rosenroth, busying himself with the interpretation of the
_Kabala_, argues that, “In this first state (of secret wisdom),
the infinite God Himself can be understood as ‘Father’ (of the new
covenant). But the _Light_ being let down by the Infinite through
a canal into the ‘primal Adam,’ or _Messiah_, and joined with him,
can be applied to the name SON. And the influx emitted down from
him (the Son) to the lower parts (of the universe), can be applied
to the character of the Holy Ghost.”[433] Sophia-Achamoth, the
half-spiritual, half-material LIFE, which vivifies the inert matter
in the depths of chaos, is the Holy Ghost of the Gnostics, and the
_Spiritus_ (female) of the Nazarenes. She is--be it remembered--the
_sister_ of _Christos_, the perfect emanation, and both are children
or emanations of Sophia, the purely spiritual and intellectual
daughter of Bythos, the Depth. For the elder Sophia is Shekinah, the
Face of God, “God’s Shekinah, which is his image.”[434]
“The _Son_ Zeus-Belus, or Sol-Mithra is an image of the Father, an
emanation from the _Supreme Light_,” says Movers. “He passed for
Creator.”[435]
“Philosophers say the first air is _anima mundi_. But the garment
(Shekinah) is higher than the first air, since it is joined closer
to the En-Soph, the Boundless.”[436] Thus _Sophia_ is Shekinah, and
Sophia-Achamoth the _anima mundi_, the astral light of the kabalists,
which contains the spiritual and material germs of all _that is_. For
the Sophia-Achamoth, like _Eve_, of whom she is the prototype, is
“the mother of all that live.”
There are three trinities in the Nazarene system as well as in the
Hindu philosophy of the ante and early Vedic period. While we see
the few translators of the _Kabala_, the Nazarene _Codex_, and other
abstruse works, hopelessly floundering amid the interminable pantheon
of names, unable to agree as to a system in which to classify them,
for the one hypothesis contradicts and overturns the other, we can
but wonder at all this trouble, which could be so easily overcome.
But even now, when the translation, and even the perusal of the
ancient Sanscrit has become so easy as a point of comparison,
they would never think it possible that every philosophy--whether
Semitic, Hamitic, or Turanian, as they call it, has its key in the
Hindu sacred works. Still facts are there, and facts are not easily
destroyed. Thus, while we find the Hindu trimurti triply manifested as
Nara (or Para-Pouroucha), Agni, Brahma, the Father,
Nari (Mariama), Vaya, Vishnu, the Mother,
Viradj (Brahmä), Surya, Siva, the Son,
and the Egyptian trinity as follows:
Kneph (or Amon), Osiris, Ra (Horus), the Father,
Maut (or Mut), Isis, Isis, the Mother,
Khons, Horus, Malouli, the Son;[437]
the Nazarene System runs,
Ferho (Ish-Amon), Mano, Abatur, the Father,
Chaos (dark water), Spiritus (female), Netubto, the Mother,
Fetahil, Ledhaio, Lord Jordan, the Son.
The first is the concealed or non-manifested trinity--a pure
abstraction. The other the active or the one revealed in the results
of creation, proceeding out of the former--its spiritual prototype.
The third is the mutilated image of both the others, crystallized in
the form of human dogmas, which vary according to the exuberance of
the national materialistic fancy.
The Supreme Lord of splendor and of light, luminous and refulgent,
before which no other existed, is called Corona (the crown); Lord
Ferho, the unrevealed life which existed in the former from eternity;
and Lord Jordan--the spirit, the living water of grace.[438] He is
the one through whom alone we can be saved; and thus he answers
to the Shekinah, the spiritual garment of En-Soph, or the Holy
Ghost. These three constitute the trinity in _abscondito_. The
second trinity is composed of the three lives. The first is the
similitude of Lord Ferho, through whom he has proceeded forth;
and the second Ferho is the King of Light--MANO (_Rex Lucis_). He
is the heavenly life and light, and older than the Architect of
heaven and earth.[439] The second life is _Ish Amon_ (Pleroma), the
vase of election, containing the visible thought of the _Iordanus
Maximus_--the _type_ (or its intelligible reflection), the prototype
of the living water, who is the “spiritual Jordan.”[440] Third life,
which is produced by the other two, is ABATUR (_Ab_, the Parent or
Father). This is the mysterious and decrepit “Aged of the Aged,” the
“Ancient _Senem sui obtegentem et grandævum mundi_.” This latter
third Life is the Father of the Demiurge Fetahil, the Creator of
the world, whom the Ophites call Ilda-Baoth,[441] though Fetahil is
the _only-begotten one_, the reflection of the Father, Abatur, who
begets him by looking into the “dark water;”[442] but the Lord Mano,
“the Lord of loftiness, the Lord of all genii,” is higher than the
Father, in this kabalistic _Codex_--one is purely spiritual, the
other material. So, for instance, while Abatur’s “only begotten” one
is the genius Fetahil, the Creator of the physical world, Lord Mano,
the “Lord of Celsitude,” who is the son of Him, who is “the Father
of all who preach the Gospel,” produces also an “only-begotten” one,
the Lord Lehdaio, “a just Lord.” He is the Christos, the anointed,
who pours out the “grace” of the Invisible Jordan, the Spirit of the
_Highest Crown_.
In the Arcanum, “in the assembly of splendor, lighted by MANO, to
whom the scintillas of splendor owe their origin,” the genii who
live in light “rose, they went to the visible Jordan, and flowing
water ... they assembled for a counsel ... and called forth the
Only-Begotten Son of an imperishable image, and who cannot be
conceived by reflection, Lehdaio, the just Lord, and sprung from
Lehdaio, the just lord, whom the life had produced by his word.”[443]
Mano is the chief of the seven Æons, who are Mano (_Rex Lucis_)
Aiar Zivo, Ignis Vivus, Lux, Vita, Aqua Viva (the living water of
baptism, the genius of the Jordan), and Ipsa Vita, the chief of the
six genii, which form with him the mystic _seven_. The Nazarene Mano
is simply the copy of the Hindu first Manu--the emanation of Manu
Swayambhuva--from whom evolve in succession the six other Manus,
types of the subsequent races of men. We find them all represented by
the apostle-kabalist John in the “seven lamps of fire” burning before
the throne, which are the seven spirits of God,[444] and in the seven
angels bearing the seven vials. Again in Fetahil we recognize the
original of the Christian doctrine.
In the _Revelation_ of Joannes Theologos it is said: “I turned and
saw in the midst of the _seven_ candlesticks one like unto the Son
of man ... his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ... and his feet like unto
fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace” (i. 13, 14, 15). _John_
here repeats, as is well known, the words of Daniel and Ezekiel.
“The Ancient of Days ... whose hair was white as pure wool ... etc.”
And “the appearance of a _man_ ... above the throne ... and the
appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.”[445] The
fire being “the glory of the Lord.” Fetahil is son of the man, the
Third Life, and his upper part is represented as white as snow, while
standing near the throne of the living fire he has the appearance of
a flame.
All these “apocalyptic” visions are based on the description of
the “white head” of the Sohar, in whom the kabalistic trinity is
united. The white head, “which conceals in its cranium the spirit,”
and which is environed by subtile fire. The “appearance of a man”
is that of Adam Kadmon, through which passes the thread of light
represented by the fire. Fetahil is the _Vir Novissimis_ (the newest
man), the son of Abatur,[446] the latter being the “man,” or the
_third_ life,[447] now the third personage of the trinity. _John_
sees “one like unto the son of man,” holding in his right hand seven
stars, and standing between “seven golden candlesticks” (_Revelation_
i.). Fetahil takes his “stand on high,” according to the will of
his father, “the highest Æon who has seven sceptres,” and seven
genii, who astronomically represent the seven planets or stars. He
stands “shining in the garment of the Lord’s, resplendent by the
agency of the genii.”[448] He is the Son of his Father, Life, and
his mother, Spirit, or Light.[449] The Logos is represented in the
_Gospel according to John_ as one in whom was “_Life_, and the life
was the _light_ of men” (i. 4). Fetahil is the Demiurge, and his
father created the visible universe of matter through him.[450] In
the _Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians_ (iii. 9), God is said to have
“_created all things_ by Jesus.” In the _Codex_ the Parent-LIFE says:
“Arise, go, our son first-begotten, ordained for all creatures.”[451]
“As the living father hath sent me,” says Christ, “God sent his
only-begotten son that we might live.”[452] Finally, having
performed his work on earth, Fetahil reascends to his father Abatur.
“_Et qui, relicto quem procreavit mundo, ad Abatur suum patrem
contendit._”[453] “My father sent me ... I go to the Father,” repeats
Jesus.
Laying aside the theological disputes of Christianity which try to
blend together the Jewish Creator of the first chapter of _Genesis_
with the “Father” of the _New Testament_, Jesus states repeatedly
of his Father that “He is _in secret_.” Surely he would not have so
termed the ever-present “Lord God” of the Mosaic books, who showed
Himself to Moses and the Patriarchs, and finally allowed all the
elders of Israel to look on Himself.[454] When Jesus is made to
speak of the temple at Jerusalem as of his “Father’s house,” he does
not mean the physical building, which he maintains he can destroy
and then again rebuild in three days, but of the temple of Solomon;
the wise kabalist, who indicates in his _Proverbs_ that every man
is the temple of God, or of his own divine spirit. This term of the
“Father who is in secret,” we find used as much in the _Kabala_ as
in the _Codex Nazaræus_, and elsewhere. No one has ever seen the
wisdom concealed in the “Cranium,” and no one has beheld the “Depth”
(Bythos). Simon, the _Magician_, preached “one Father unknown to
all.”[455]
We can trace this appellation of a “secret” God still farther back.
In the _Kabala_ the “Son” of the _concealed_ Father who dwells in
light and glory, is the “Anointed,” the _Seir-Anpin_, who unites in
himself all the Sephiroth, he is Christos, or the Heavenly man. It
is through Christ that the Pneuma, or the Holy Ghost, creates “all
things” (_Ephesians_ iii. 9), and produces the four elements, air,
water, fire, and earth. This assertion is unquestionable, for we find
Irenæus basing on this fact his best argument for the necessity of
there being four gospels. There can be neither more nor fewer than
four--he argues. “For as there are four quarters of the world, and
four general winds (καθολικὰ πνεύματα) ... it is right that she (the
Church) should have four pillars. From which it is manifest that the
Word, _the maker of all_, he _who sitteth upon the Cherubim_ ... as
David says, supplicating his advent, ‘Thou that sittest between the
Cherubim, shine forth!’ For the Cherubim also are _four-faced_ and
their faces are symbols of the working of the Son of God.”[456]
We will not stop to discuss at length the special holiness of the
four-faced Cherubim, although we might, perhaps, show their origin
in all the ancient pagodas of India, in the _vehans_ (or vehicles)
of their chief gods; as likewise we might easily attribute the
respect paid to them to the kabalistic wisdom, which, nevertheless,
the Church rejects with great horror. But, we cannot resist the
temptation to remind the reader that he may easily ascertain the
several significances attributed to these Cherubs by reading the
_Kabala_. “When the souls are to leave their abode,” says the
_Sohar_, holding to the doctrine of the pre-existence of souls in the
world of emanations, “each soul separately appears before the Holy
King, dressed in a sublime form, with the features in which it is to
appear in this world. It is from this sublime form that the image
proceeds” (_Sohar_, iii., p. 104 ab). Then it goes on to say that the
types or forms of these faces are four in number--those of the angel
or man, of the lion, the bull, and the eagle. Furthermore, we may
well express our wonder that Irenæus should not have re-enforced his
argument for the four gospels--by citing the whole Pantheon of the
four-armed Hindu gods?
Ezekiel in representing his four animals, now called Cherubim,
as types of the four symbolical beings, which, in his visions
support the throne of Jehovah, had not far to go for his models.
The Chaldeo-Babylonian protecting genii were familiar to him; the
Sed, Alap or _Kirub_ (Cherubim), the bull, with the human face; the
Nirgal, human-headed lion; Oustour the Sphinx-man; and the Nathga,
with its eagle’s head. The religion of the masters--the idolatrous
Babylonians and Assyrians--was transferred almost bodily into the
revealed Scripture of the Captives, and from thence came into
Christianity.
Already, we find Ezekiel addressed by the likeness of the glory of
the Lord, “as Son of man.” This peculiar title is used repeatedly
throughout the whole book of this prophet, which is as kabalistic
as the “roll of a book” which the “Glory” causes him to eat. It is
written _within_ and _without_; and its real meaning is identical
with that of the _Apocalypse_. It appears strange that so much stress
should be laid on this peculiar appellation, said to have been
applied by Jesus to himself, when, in the symbolical or kabalistic
language, a prophet is so addressed. It is as extraordinary to
see Irenæus indulging in such graphic descriptions of Jesus as
to show him, “the maker of all, sitting upon a Cherubim,” unless
he identifies him with Shekinah, whose usual place was among the
Charoubs of the Mercy Seat. We also know that the Cherubim and
Seraphim are titles of the “Old Serpent” (the orthodox Devil) the
Seraphs being the burning or fiery serpents, in kabalistic symbolism.
The ten emanations of Adam Kadmon, called the Sephiroth, have all
emblems and titles corresponding to each. So, for instance, the last
two are Victory, or Jehovah-Sabaoth, whose symbol is the right column
of Solomon, the Pillar _Jachin_; while GLORY is the left Pillar,
or Boaz, and its name is “the Old Serpent,” and also “Seraphim and
Cherubim.”[457]
The “Son of man” is an appellation which could not be assumed
by any one but a kabalist. Except, as shown above, in the _Old
Testament_, it is used but by one prophet--Ezekiel, the kabalist.
In their mysterious and mutual relations, the Æons or Sephiroth
are represented in the _Kabala_ by a great number of circles, and
sometimes by the figure of a MAN, which is symbolically formed out of
such circles. This man is Seir-Anpin, and the 243 numbers of which
his figure consists relate to the different orders of the celestial
hierarchy. The original idea of this figure, or rather the model,
may have been taken from the Hindu Brahma, and the various castes
typified by the several parts of his body, as King suggests in his
_Gnostics_. In one of the grandest and most beautiful cave-temples
at Ellora, Nasak, dedicated to Vishvakarma, son of Brahma, is a
representation of this God and his attributes. To one acquainted with
Ezekiel’s description of the “likeness of four living creatures,”
every one of which had four faces and the hands of a man under
its wings, etc.,[458] this figure at Ellora must certainly appear
absolutely _biblical_. Brahma is called the father of “man,” as well
as Jupiter and other highest gods.
It is in the Buddhistic representations of Mount Meru, called by
the Burmese _Myé-nmo_, and by the Siamese _Sineru_, that we find
one of the originals of the Adam Kadmon, Seir-Anpin, the “heavenly
man,” and of all the Æons, Sephiroth, Powers, Dominions, Thrones,
Virtues, and Dignities of the _Kabala_. Between two pillars, which
are connected by an arch, the key-stone of the latter is represented
by a _crescent_. This is the domain in which dwells the Supreme
Wisdom of A’di Buddha, the Supreme and invisible Deity. Beneath this
highest central point comes the circle of the direct emanation of
the Unknown--the circle of Brahma with some Hindus, of the first
_avatar_ of Buddha, according to others. This answers to Adam Kadmon
and the ten Sephiroth. Nine of the emanations are encircled by the
tenth, and occasionally represented by pagodas, each of which bears
a name which expresses one of the chief attributes of the manifested
Deity. Then below come the seven stages, or heavenly spheres, each
sphere being encircled by a sea. These are the celestial mansions
of the _devatas_, or gods, each losing somewhat in holiness and
purity as it approaches the earth. Then comes Meru itself, formed of
numberless circles within three large ones, typifying the trinity of
man; and for one acquainted with the numerical value of the letters
in biblical names, like that of the “Great Beast,” or that of Mithra
μειθρας αβραξας, and others, it is an easy matter to establish the
identity of the Meru-gods with the emanations or Sephiroth of the
kabalists. Also the genii of the Nazarenes, with their special
missions, are all found on this most ancient mythos, a most perfect
representation of the symbolism of the “secret doctrine,” as taught in
archaic ages.
King gives a few hints--though doubtless too insufficient to teach
anything important, for they are based upon the calculations of
Bishop Newton[459]--as to this mode of finding out mysteries in the
value of letters. However, we find this great archæologist, who
has devoted so much time and labor to the study of Gnostic gems,
corroborating our assertion. He shows that the entire theory is
Hindu, and points out that the durga, or female counterpart of each
Asiatic god, is what the kabalists term active _Virtue_[460] in the
celestial hierarchy, a term which the Christian Fathers adopted and
repeated, without fully appreciating, and the meaning of which the
later theology has utterly disfigured. But to return to Meru.
The whole is surrounded by the Maha Samut, or the great sea--the
astral light and ether of the kabalists and scientists; and within
the central circles appears “the likeness of a man.” He is the
Achadoth of the Nazarenes, the twofold unity, or the androgyne man;
the heavenly incarnation, and a perfect representation of Seir-Anpin
(short-face), the son of _Arich Anpin_ (long-face).[461] This
likeness is now represented in many lamaseries by Gautama-Buddha,
the last of the incarnated avatars. Still lower, under the Meru,
is the dwelling of the great Naga, who is called _Rajah Naga_, the
king-serpent--the serpent of _Genesis_, the Gnostic Ophis--and the
goddess of the earth, Bhumây Nari, or Yâma, who waits upon the great
dragon, for she is Eve, “the mother of all that live.” Still lower
is the eighth sphere, the infernal regions. The uppermost regions
of Brahma are surrounded by the sun, moon, and planets, the seven
stellars of the Nazarenes, and just as they are described in the
_Codex_.
“The seven impostor-Dæmons who deceive the sons of Adam. The name of
one is _Sol_; of another _Spiritus Venereus_, Astro; of the third
_Nebu_, Mercurius _a false Messiah_; ... the name of a fourth is
Sin _Luna_; the fifth is _Kiun_, Saturnus; the sixth, Bel-Zeus;
the seventh, Nerig-_Mars_.”[462] Then there are “_Seven Lives_
procreated,” seven good Stellars, “which are from Cabar Zio, and
are those bright ones who shine in their own form and splendor
that pours from on high.... At the gate of the HOUSE OF LIFE the
throne is fitly placed for the Lord of Splendor, and there are THREE
habitations.”[463] The habitations of the _Trimurti_, the Hindu
trinity, are placed beneath the key-stone--the golden crescent, in
the representation of Meru. “And there was under his feet (of the God
of Israel) as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone” (_Exodus_
xxiv. 10). Under the crescent is the heaven of Brahma, all paved with
sapphires. The paradise of Indra is resplendent with a thousand suns;
that of Siva (Saturn), is in the northeast; his throne is formed of
lapis-lazuli and the floor of heaven is of fervid gold. “When he sits
on the throne he blazes with fire up to _the loins_.” At Hurdwar,
during the fair, in which he is more than ever Mahadeva, the highest
god, the attributes and emblems sacred to the Jewish “Lord God,” may
be recognized one by one in those of Siva. The Binlang stone,[464]
sacred to this Hindu deity, is an unhewn stone like the Beth-el,
consecrated by the Patriarch Jacob, and set up by him “for a pillar,”
and like the latter Binlang is _anointed_. We need hardly remind the
student that the _linga_, the emblem sacred to Siva and whose temples
are modelled after this form, is identical in shape, meaning, and
purpose with the “pillars” set up by the several patriarchs to mark
their adoration of the Lord God. In fact, one of these patriarchal
lithoï might even now be carried in the Sivaitic processions of
Calcutta, without its Hebrew derivation being suspected. The four
arms of Siva are often represented with appendages like wings; he has
_three_ eyes and a _fourth_ in the crescent, obtained by him at the
churning of the ocean, as Pâncha Mukhti Siva has four heads.
In this god we recognize the description given by Ezekiel, in the
first chapter of his book, of his vision, in which he beholds the
“likeness of a man” in the four living creatures, who had “four
faces, four wings,” who had one pair of “straight feet ... which
sparkled like the color _of burnished_ brass ... and their rings were
full of eyes round about them four.” It is the throne and heaven of
Siva that the prophet describes in saying “... and there was the
likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone ... and
I saw as the color of amber (gold) as the appearance of fire around
about ... from his loins even upward, and from the appearance of
his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire”
(_Ezekiel_ i. 27). “And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace” (_Revelation_ i. 15). “As for their faces ...
one had the face of a cherub, and the face of a lion ... they also
had the face of _an ox_ and the face of an eagle” (_Ezekiel_ i.
10, x. 14). This _fourfold_ appearance which we find in the two
_cherubims_ of gold on the two ends of the ark; these symbolic four
_faces_ being adopted, moreover, later, one by each evangelist, as
may be easily ascertained from the pictures of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John,[465] prefixed to their respective gospels in the Roman
Vulgate and Greek _Bibles_.
“Taaut, the great god of the Phœnicians,” says Sanchoniathon, “to
express the character of Saturn or Kronos, made his image having four
eyes ... two before, two behind, open and closed, and four wings, two
expanded, two folded. The eyes denote that the god sees in sleep, and
sleeps in waking; the position of the wings that he flies in rest,
and rests in flying.”
The identity of Saturn with Siva is corroborated still more when
we consider the emblem of the latter, the _damara_, which is an
hour-glass, to show the progress of time, represented by this god in
his capacity of a destroyer. The bull Nardi, the _vehan_ of Siva and
the most sacred emblem of this god, is reproduced in the Egyptian
Apis; and in the bull created by Ormazd and killed by Ahriman. The
religion of Zoroaster, all based upon the “secret doctrine,” is found
held by the people of Eritene; it was the religion of the Persians
when they conquered the Assyrians. From thence it is easy to trace
the introduction of this emblem of LIFE represented by the Bull, in
every religious system. The college of the Magians had accepted it
with the change of dynasty;[466] Daniel is described as a Rabbi, the
chief of the Babylonian astrologers and Magi;[467] therefore we see
the Assyrian little bulls and the attributes of Siva reappearing
under a hardly modified form in the cherubs of the Talmudistic Jews,
as we have traced the bull Apis in the sphinxes or cherubs of the
Mosaic Ark; and as we find it several thousand years later in the
company of one of the Christian evangelists, Luke.
Whoever has lived in India long enough to acquaint himself even
superficially with the native deities, must detect the similarity
between Jehovah and other gods besides Siva. As Saturn, the latter
was always held in great respect by the Talmudists. He was held in
reverence by the Alexandrian kabalists as the direct inspirer of the
law and the prophets; one of the names of Saturn was Israel, and we
will show, in time, his identity in a certain way with Abram, which
Movers and others hinted at long since. Thus it cannot be wondered at
if Valentinus, Basilides, and the Ophite Gnostics placed the dwelling
of their Ilda-Baoth, also a destroyer as well as a creator, in the
planet Saturn; for it was he who gave the law in the wilderness and
spoke through the prophets. If more proof should be required we
will show it in the testimony of the canonical _Bible_ itself. In
_Amos_ the “Lord” pours vials of wrath upon the people of Israel. He
rejects their burnt-offerings and will not listen to their prayers,
but inquires of Amos, “have ye offered unto _me_ sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?” “But ye
have borne the tabernacles of your Moloch and _Chiun_ your images,
the _star of your god_” (v. 25, 26). Who are Moloch and _Chiun_ but
Baal--Saturn--Siva, and _Chiun_, Kivan, the same Saturn whose star
the Israelites had made to themselves? There seems no escape in this
case; all these deities are identical.
The same in the case of the numerous Logoï. While the Zoroastrian
Sosiosh is framed on that of the tenth Brahmanical Avatar, and
the fifth Buddha of the followers of Gautama; and we find the
former, after having passed part and parcel into the kabalistic
system of king Messiah, reflected in the Apostle Gabriel of the
Nazarenes, and Æbel-Zivo, the Legatus, sent on earth by the Lord of
Celsitude and Light; all of these--Hindu and Persian, Buddhist and
Jewish, the Christos of the Gnostics and the Philonean Logos--are
found combined in “the Word made flesh” of the fourth _Gospel_.
Christianity includes all these systems, patched and arranged to meet
the occasion. Do we take up the _Avesta_--we find there the dual
system so prevalent in the Christian scheme. The struggle between
Ahriman,[468] Darkness, and Ormazd, Light, has been going on in the
world continually since the beginning of time. When the worst arrives
and Ahriman will seem to have conquered the world and corrupted all
mankind, _then will appear the Saviour_ of mankind, Sosiosh. He
will come seated upon a white horse and followed by an army of good
genii equally mounted on milk-white steeds.[469] And this we find
faithfully copied in the _Revelation_: “I saw heaven opened, and
beheld a _white horse_; and he that sat upon him was called faithful
and true.... And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon
white horses” (_Revelation_ xix. 11, 14). Sosiosh himself is but a
later Persian _permutation_ of the Hindu Vishnu. The figure of this
god may be found unto this day representing him as the Saviour, the
“Preserver” (the preserving spirit of God), in the temple of Rama.
The picture shows him in his tenth incarnation--the _Kalki avatar_,
which is yet to come--as an armed warrior mounted upon a white
horse. Waving over his head the sword destruction, he holds in his
other hand a discus, made up of rings encircled in one another, an
emblem of the revolving cycles or great ages,[470] for Vishnu will
thus appear but at the end of the _Kaliyug_, answering to the end of
the world expected by our Adventists. “And out of his mouth goeth
a sharp sword ... on his head were many crowns” (_Revelation_ xix.
12). Vishnu is often represented with several crowns superposed on
his head. “And I saw an angel standing on the Sun” (17). The _white
horse is the horse of the Sun_.[471] Sosiosh, the Persian Saviour, is
also born of a virgin,[472] and at the end of days he will come as
a Redeemer to regenerate the world, but he will be preceded by two
prophets, who will come to announce him.[473] Hence the Jews who had
Moses and Elias, are now waiting for the Messiah. “Then comes the
general _resurrection_, when the good will immediately enter into
this happy abode--the regenerated earth; and Ahriman and his angels
(the devils),[474] and the wicked, be purified by immersion in a
lake of molten metal.... Henceforward, all will enjoy unchangeable
happiness, and, headed by Sosiosh, ever sing the praises of the
Eternal One.”[475] The above is a perfect repetition of Vishnu
in his tenth avatar, for he will then throw the wicked into the
infernal abodes in which, after purifying themselves, they will be
pardoned--even those devils which rebelled against Brahma, and were
hurled into the bottomless pit by Siva,[476] as also the “blessed
ones” will go to dwell with the gods, over the Mount Meru.
Having thus traced the similarity of views respecting the Logos,
Metatron, and Mediator, as found in the _Kabala_ and the _Codex_
of the Christian Nazarenes and Gnostics, the reader is prepared to
appreciate the audacity of the Patristic scheme to reduce a purely
metaphysical figure into concrete form, and make it appear as if
the finger of prophecy had from time immemorial been pointing down
the vista of ages to Jesus as the coming Messiah. A theomythos
intended to symbolize the coming day, near the close of the great
cycle, when the “glad tidings” from heaven should proclaim the
universal brotherhood and common faith of humanity, the day of
regeneration--was violently distorted into an accomplished fact.
“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but _one, that is
God_,” says Jesus. Is this the language of a God? of the second
person in the Trinity, who is identical with the First? And if this
Messiah, or Holy Ghost of the Gnostic and Pagan Trinities, had come
in his person, what did he mean by distinguishing between himself
the “Son of man,” and the Holy Ghost? “And whosoever shall speak a
word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him
that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven,”
he says.[477] And how account for the marvellous identity of this
very language, with the precepts enunciated, centuries before, by
the Kabalists and the “Pagan” initiates? The following are a few
instances out of many.
“No one of the gods, no man or Lord, can be good, but _only God
alone_,” says Hermes.[478]
“To be a good man is impossible, God alone possesses this privilege,”
repeats Plato, with a slight variation.[479]
Six centuries before Christ, the Chinese philosopher Confucius said
that his doctrine was simple and easy to comprehend (_Lûn-yù_, chap.
5, § 15). To which one of his disciples added: “The doctrine of our
Master consists in having an invariable correctness of heart, and in
doing toward others as we would that they should do to us.”[480]
“Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles,”[481]
exclaims Peter, long after the scene of Calvary. “There was a _man_
sent from God, whose name was John,”[482] says the fourth _Gospel_,
thus placing the Baptist on an equality with Jesus. John the Baptist,
in one of the most solemn acts of his life, that of baptizing Christ,
thinks not that he is going to baptize _a God_, but uses the word man.
“This is he of whom I said, after me cometh _a man_.”[483] Speaking of
himself, Jesus says, “You seek to kill _me, a man_ that hath told you
the truth, which _I have heard of God_.”[484] Even the blind man of
Jerusalem, healed by the great thaumaturgist, full of gratitude and
admiration for his benefactor, in narrating the miracle does not call
Jesus God, but simply says, “... _a man_ that is called Jesus, made
clay.”[485]
We do not close the list for lack of other instances and proofs, but
simply because what we now say has been repeated and demonstrated by
others, many times before us. But there is no more incurable evil
than blind and unreasoning fanaticism. Few are the men who, like Dr.
Priestley, have the courage to write, “We find nothing like divinity
ascribed to Christ before Justin Martyr (A.D. 141), who, from being a
philosopher, became a Christian.”[486]
Mahomet appeared nearly six hundred years[487] after the presumed
deicide. The Græco-Roman world was still convulsed with religious
dissensions, withstanding all the past imperial edicts and forcible
Christianization. While the Council of Trent was disputing about the
_Vulgate_, the unity of God quietly superseded the trinity, and soon
the Mahometans outnumbered the Christians. Why? Because their prophet
never sought to identify himself with Allah. Otherwise, it is safe to
say, he would not have lived to see his religion flourish. Till the
present day Mahometanism has made and is now making more proselytes
than Christianity. Buddha Siddhârtha came as a simple mortal,
centuries before Christ. The religious ethics of this faith are now
found to far exceed in moral beauty anything ever dreamed of by the
Tertullians and Augustines.
The true spirit of Christianity can alone be fully found in Buddhism;
partially, it shows itself in other “heathen” religions. Buddha
never made of himself a god, nor was he deified by his followers.
The Buddhists are now known to far outnumber Christians; they are
enumerated at nearly 500,000,000. While cases of conversion among
Buddhists, Brahmanists, Mahometans, and Jews become so rare as to
show how sterile are the attempts of our missionaries, atheism and
materialism spread their gangrenous ulcers and gnaw every day deeper
at the very heart of Christianity. There are no atheists among
heathen populations, and those few among the Buddhists and Brahmans
who have become infected with materialism may always be found to
belong to large cities densely thronged with Europeans, and only
among educated classes. Truly says Bishop Kidder: “Were a wise man to
choose his religion from those who profess it, perhaps Christianity
would be the last religion he would choose!”
In an able little pamphlet from the pen of the popular lecturer, J.
M. Peebles, M.D., the author quotes, from the London _Athenæum_, an
article in which are described the welfare and civilization of the
inhabitants of Yarkand and Kashgar, “who seem virtuous and happy.”
“Gracious Heavens!” fervently exclaims the honest author, who
himself was once a Universalist clergyman, “Grant to keep Christian
missionaries _away_ from ‘happy’ and heathen Tartary!”[488]
From the earliest days of Christianity, when Paul upbraided the
_Church_ of Corinth for a crime “as is not so much as named among
the Gentiles--that one should have his father’s wife;” and for their
making a pretext of the “Lord’s Supper” for _debauch_ and drunkenness
(_1 Corinthians_, v. 1), the profession of the name of Christ has
ever been more a pretext than the evidence of holy feeling. However,
a correct form of this verse is: “Everywhere the lewd practice among
you is heard about, such a lewd practice as is nowhere among the
heathen nations--even the having or marrying of the father’s wife.”
The Persian influence would seem to be indicated in this language.
The practice existed “nowhere among the nations,” except in Persia,
where it was esteemed especially meritorious. Hence, too, the Jewish
stories of Abraham marrying his sister, Nahor, his niece, Amram his
father’s sister, and Judah his son’s widow, whose children appear to
have been legitimate. The Aryan tribes esteemed endogamic marriages,
while the Tartars and all barbarous nations required all alliances to
be exagamous.
There was but one apostle of Jesus worthy of that name, and that was
Paul. However disfigured were his _Epistles_ by dogmatic hands before
being admitted into the Canon, his conception of the great and divine
figure of the philosopher who died for his idea can still be traced
in his addresses to the various Gentile nations. Only, he who would
understand him better yet must study the Philonean _Logos_ reflecting
now and then the Hindu _Sabda_ (logos) of the Mimansa school.
As to the other apostles, those whose names are prefixed to the
_Gospels_--we cannot well believe in their veracity when we find them
attributing to their Master miracles surrounded by circumstances,
recorded, if not in the oldest books of India, at least in such
as antedated Christianity, and in the very phraseology of the
traditions. Who, in his days of simple and blind credulity, but
marvelled at the touching narrative given in the _Gospels according
to Mark_ and _Luke_ of the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus?
Who has ever doubted its originality? And yet the story is copied
entirely from the _Hari-Purana_, and is recorded among the miracles
attributed to Christna. We translate it from the French version:
“The King Angashuna caused the betrothal of his daughter, the
beautiful Kalavatti, with the young son of Vamadeva, the powerful
King of Antarvédi, named Govinda, to be celebrated with great pomp.
“But as Kalavatti was amusing herself in the groves with her
companions, she was stung by a serpent and died. Angashuna tore his
clothes, covered himself with ashes, and cursed the day when he was
born.
“Suddenly, a great rumor spread through the palace, and the following
cries were heard, a thousand times repeated: ‘_Pacya pitaram; pacya
gurum!_’ ‘The Father, the Master!’ Then Christna approached, smiling,
leaning on the arm of Ardjuna.... ‘Master!’ cried Angashuna, casting
himself at his feet, and sprinkling them with his tears, ‘See my poor
daughter!’ and he showed him the body of Kalavatti, stretched upon a
mat....
“‘Why do you weep?’ replied Christna, in a gentle voice. ‘_Do you not
see that she is sleeping?_ Listen to the sound of her breathing, like
the sigh of the night wind which rustles the leaves of the trees.
See, her cheeks resuming their color, her eyes, whose lids tremble as
if they were about to open; her lips quiver as if about to speak; she
is sleeping, I tell you; and hold! see, she moves, _Kalavatti! Rise
and walk!_’
“Hardly had Christna spoken, when the breathing, warmth, movement,
and life returned little by little, into the corpse, and the young
girl, obeying the injunction of the demi-god, rose from her couch
and rejoined her companions. But the crowd marvelled and cried out:
‘This is a god, since death is no more for him than sleep?’”[489]
All such parables are enforced upon Christians, with the addition of
dogmas which, in their extraordinary character, leave far behind them
the wildest conceptions of heathenism. The Christians, in order to
believe in a Deity, have found it necessary to kill their God, that
they themselves should live!
And now, the Supreme, unknown one, the Father of grace and mercy,
and his celestial hierarchy are managed by the Church as though they
were so many theatrical stars and supernumeraries under salary! Six
centuries before the Christian era, Xenophones had disposed of such
anthropomorphism by an immortal satire, recorded and preserved by
Clement of Alexandria:
“There is one God Supreme ...
Whose form is not like unto man’s, and as unlike his nature;
But vain mortals imagine that gods like themselves are begotten
With human sensations, and voice, and corporeal members;
So if oxen or lions had hands and could work in man’s fashion,
And trace out with chisel or brush their conception of Godhead
Then would horses depict gods like horses, and oxen like oxen,
Each kind the Divine with its own form and nature endowing.”[490]
And hear Vyasa--the poet-pantheist of India, who, for all the
scientists can prove, may have lived, as Jacolliot has it, some
fifteen thousand years ago--discoursing on Maya, the illusion of the
senses:
“All religious dogmas only serve to obscure the intelligence of
man.... Worship of divinities, under the allegories of which is
hidden respect for natural laws, drives away truth to the profit of
the basest superstitions” (_Vyasa Maya_).
It was given to Christianity to paint us God Almighty after the
model of the kabalistic abstraction of the “Ancient of Days.” From
old frescos on cathedral ceilings; Catholic missals, and other icons
and images, we now find him depicted by the poetic brush of Gustave
Doré. The awful, unknown majesty of Him, whom no “heathen” dared to
reproduce in concrete form, is figuring in our own century in _Doré’s
Illustrated Bible_. Treading upon clouds that float in mid-air,
darkness and chaos behind him and the world beneath his feet, a
majestic old man stands, his left hand gathering his flowing robes
about him, and his right raised in the gesture of command. He has
spoken the Word, and from his towering person streams an effulgence
of Light--the Shekinah. As a poetic conception, the composition does
honor to the artist, but does it honor God? Better, the chaos behind
Him, than the figure itself; for there, at least, we have a solemn
mystery. For our part, we prefer the silence of the ancient heathens.
With such a gross, anthropomorphic, and, as we conceive, blasphemous
representation of the First Cause, who can feel surprised at any
iconographic extravagance in the representation of the Christian
Christ, the apostles, and the putative Saints? With the Catholics St.
Peter becomes quite naturally the janitor of Heaven, and sits at the
door of the celestial kingdom--a ticket-taker to the Trinity!
In a religious disturbance which recently occurred in one of the
Spanish-American provinces, there were found upon the bodies of some
of the killed, passports signed by the Bishop of the Diocese and
addressed to St. Peter; bidding him “_admit the bearer as a true son
of the Church_.” It was subsequently ascertained that these unique
documents were issued by the Catholic prelate just before his deluded
parishioners went into the fight at the instigation of their priests.
In their immoderate desire to find evidence for the authenticity of
the _New Testament_, the best men, the most erudite scholars even
among Protestant divines, but too often fall into deplorable traps.
We cannot believe that such a learned commentator as Canon Westcott
could have left himself in ignorance as to Talmudistic and purely
kabalistic writings. How then is it that we find him quoting, with
such serene assurance as presenting “striking analogies to the
_Gospel of St. John_,” passages from the work of _The Pastor of
Hermas_, which are complete sentences from the kabalistic literature?
“The view which Hermas gives of Christ’s nature and work is no less
harmonious with apostolic doctrine, and it offers striking analogies
to the _Gospel of St. John_.... He (Jesus) is a rock higher than the
mountains, able to hold the whole world, ancient, and yet having a
new gate!... He is older than creation, so that he took counsel with
the Father about the creation which he made.... No one shall enter in
unto him otherwise than by his Son.”[491]
Now while--as the author of _Supernatural Religion_ well
proves--there is nothing in this which looks like a corroboration
of the doctrine taught in the fourth gospel, he omits to state that
nearly everything expressed by the pseudo-Hermas in relation to his
parabolic conversation with the “Lord” is a plain quotation, with
repeated variations, from the _Sohar_ and other kabalistic books. We
may as well compare, so as to leave the reader in no difficulty to
judge for himself.
“God,” says Hermas, “planted the vineyard, that is, He created the
people and gave them to His Son; and the Son ... himself cleansed
their sins, etc.;” _i.e._, the Son washed them in his blood, in
commemoration of which Christians drink wine at the communion. In the
_Kabala_ it is shown that the Aged of the Aged, or “_Long-Face_,”
plants a vineyard, the latter typifying mankind; and a vine, meaning
Life. The Spirit of “_King_ Messiah” is, therefore, shown as washing
his garments in _the wine_ from above, from the creation of the
world.[492] Adam, or A-Dam is “blood.” The life of the flesh is in
the blood (nephesh--soul), _Leviticus_ xvii. And Adam-Kadmon is
the Only-Begotten. Noah also plants a vineyard--the allegorical
hot-bed of future humanity. As a consequence of the adoption of the
same allegory, we find it reproduced in the Nazarene _Codex_. Seven
vines are procreated, which spring from Iukabar Ziva, and Ferho (or
Parcha) Raba waters them.[493] When the blessed will ascend among the
creatures of Light, they shall see Iavar-Zivo, _Lord of_ LIFE, and
the First VINE![494] These kabalistic metaphora are thus naturally
repeated in the _Gospel according to John_ (xv. 1): “I am the true
vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” In _Genesis_ (xlix.), the
dying Jacob is made to say, “The sceptre shall not depart from
Judah (the lion’s whelp), nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
until Shiloh (Siloh) comes.... Binding his colt unto _the vine_,
and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments _in
wine_, and his clothes _in the blood of grapes_.” Shiloh is “King
Messiah,” as well as the Shiloh in Ephraim, which was to be made the
capital and the place of the sanctuary. In _The Targum of Onkelos_,
the Babylonian, the words of Jacob read: “Until the _King Messiah_
shall come.” The prophecy has failed in the Christian as well as in
the kabalistico-Jewish sense. The sceptre has departed from Judah,
whether the Messiah has already or will come, unless we believe, with
the kabalists, that Moses was the first Messiah, who transferred his
soul to Joshua--Jesus.[495]
Says Hermas: “And, in the middle of the plain, he showed me a great
_white_ rock, which had risen out of the plain, and the rock was
higher than the mountains, rectangular, so as to be able to hold
the whole world; but that rock was old, having a gate hewn out of
it, and the hewing out of the gate seemed to me to be recent.” In
the _Sohar_, we find: “To 40,000 superior worlds the _white_ of the
skull of His Head (of the most Sacred Ancient _in absconditus_) is
extended.[496]... When _Seir_ (the first reflection and image of
his Father, the Ancient of the Ancient) will, through the mystery
of the seventy names of Metatron, descend into Iezirah (the third
world), he will open a new gate.... The Spiritus Decisorius will cut
and divide the garment (Shekinah) into two parts.[497]... At the
coming of King Messiah, from the sacred cubical stone of the Temple
a _white light_ will be arising during forty days. This will expand,
until _it encloses the whole world_.... At that time King Messiah
will allow himself to be revealed, and will be seen coming out of
the gate of the garden of Odan (Eden). ‘He will be revealed in the
land Galil.’[498]... When ‘he has made satisfaction for the sins of
Israel, he will lead them on through a _new gate_ to the seat of
judgment.’[499] At the _Gate of the House of Life_, the throne is
prepared for the Lord of Splendor.”[500]
Further on, the commentator introduces the following quotation:
“This _rock_ and this _gate_ are the Son of God. ‘How, Lord,’ I
said, ‘is the rock old and the gate new?’ ‘Listen,’ He said, ‘and
understand, thou ignorant man. The _Son of God is older than all of
his creation_, so that he was a Councillor with the Father in His
works of creation; and for this is he old.’”[501]
Now, these two assertions are not only purely kabalistic, without
even so much as a change of expression, but Brahmanical and Pagan
likewise. “_Vidi virum excellentem cœli terræque conditore natu
majorem._... I have seen the most excellent (superior) MAN, who
is older by birth than the maker of heaven and earth,” says the
kabalistic _Codex_.[502] The Eleusinian Dionysus, whose particular
name was _Iacchos_ (Iaccho, Iahoh)[503]--the God from whom the
liberation of souls was expected--was considered older than the
Demiurge. At the mysteries of the Anthesteria at the lakes (the
Limnæ), after the usual baptism by purification of water, the
_Mystæ_ were made to pass through to another door (gate), and
one particularly for that purpose, which was called “the gate of
Dionysus,” and that of “the _purified_.”
In the _Sohar_, the kabalists are told that the work-master, the
Demiurge, said to the Lord: “Let us make man after our image.”[504]
In the original texts of the first chapter of _Genesis_, it stands:
“And the _Elohim_ (translated as the Supreme God), who are the
highest gods or powers, said: Let us make man in _our_ (?) image,
after _our_ likeness.” In the _Vedas_, Brahma holds counsel with
Parabrahma, as to the best mode to proceed to create the world.
Canon Westcott, quoting Hermas, shows him asking: “And why is the
gate _new_, Lord? I said. ‘Because,’ he replied, ‘he was manifested
at the last of the days of the dispensation; for this cause the gate
was made new, in order that they who shall be saved might enter by it
into the Kingdom of God.’”[505] There are two peculiarities worthy
of note in this passage. To begin with, it attributes to “the Lord”
a false statement of the same character as that so emphasized by the
Apostle John; and which brought, at a later period, the whole of
the orthodox Christians, who accepted the apostolic allegories as
literal, to such inconvenient straits. Jesus, as Messiah, was _not_
manifested at the last of the days; for the latter are yet to come,
notwithstanding a number of divinely-inspired prophecies, followed
by disappointed hopes, as a result, to testify to his immediate
coming. The belief that the “last times” had come, was natural, when
once the coming of King Messiah had been acknowledged. The second
peculiarity is found in the fact that the _prophecy_ could have been
accepted at all, when even its approximate determination is a direct
contradiction of Mark, who makes Jesus distinctly state that neither
the angels, nor the Son himself, know of that day or that hour.[506]
We might add that, as the belief undeniably originated with the
_Apocalypse_, it ought to be a self-evident proof that it belonged to
the calculations peculiar to the kabalists and the Pagan sanctuaries.
It was the secret computation of a cycle, which, according to their
reckoning, was ending toward the latter part of the first century. It
may also be held as a corroborative proof, that the _Gospel according
to Mark_, as well as that ascribed to _John_, and the _Apocalypse_,
were written by men, of whom neither was sufficiently acquainted
with the other. The Logos was first definitely called _petra_ (rock)
by Philo; the word, moreover, as we have shown elsewhere, means,
in Chaldaic and Phœnician, “interpreter.” Justin Martyr calls him,
throughout his works, “angel,” and makes a clear distinction between
the Logos and God the Creator. “The Word of God is His Son ...
and he is also called Angel and Apostle, for he declares whatever
we ought to know (interprets), and is sent to declare whatever is
disclosed.”[507]
“Adan Inferior is distributed into its own paths, into thirty-two
sides of paths, yet it is not known to any one but _Seir_. But no one
knows the SUPERIOR ADAN nor His paths, except that Long Face”--the
Supreme God.[508] Seir is the Nazarene “genius,” who is called Æbel
Zivo; and Gabriel Legatus--also “Apostle Gabriel.”[509] The Nazarenes
held with the kabalists that even the Messiah who was to come did
not know the “_Superior_ Adan,” the concealed Deity; no one except
the _Supreme_ God; thus showing that above the Supreme Intelligible
Deity, there is one still more secret and unrevealed. Seir-Anpin
is the third God, while “Logos,” according to Philo Judæus, is
the second one.[510] This is distinctly shown in the _Codex_. The
false Messiah shall say: “I am Deus, son of Deus; my Father sent me
here.... I am the first _Legate_, I am Æbel Zivo, I am come from on
high! But distrust him; for he will not be Æbel Zivo. Æbel Zivo will
not permit himself to be seen in this age.”[511] Hence the belief
of some Gnostics that it was not Æbel Zivo (Archangel Gabriel) who
“_overshadowed_” Mary, but Ilda-Baoth, who formed the _material body_
of Jesus; _Christos_ uniting himself with him only at the moment of
baptism in the Jordan.
Can we doubt Nork’s assertion that “the Bereshith Rabba, the oldest
part of the Midrash Rabboth, _was known to the Church Fathers in a
Greek translation_?”[512]
But if, on the one hand, they were sufficiently acquainted with the
different religious systems of their neighbors to have enabled them
to build a new religion alleged to be distinct from all others,
their ignorance of the _Old Testament_ itself, let alone the more
complicated questions of Grecian metaphysics, is now found to have
been deplorable. “So, for instance, in _Matthew_ xxvii. 9 f., the
passage from _Zechariah_ xi. 12, 13, is attributed to Jeremiah,” says
the author of _Supernatural Religion_. “In _Mark_ i. 2, a quotation
from _Malachi_ iii. 1, is ascribed to Isaiah. In _1 Corinthians_,
ii. 9, a passage is quoted as _Holy Scripture_, which is not found in
the _Old Testament_ at all, but which is taken, as Origen and Jerome
state, from an apocryphal work, _The Revelation of Elias_ (Origen:
_Tract._ xxxv.), and the passage is similarly quoted by the so-called
_Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians_ (xxxiv.)”. How reliable are
the pious Fathers in their explanations of divers heresies may be
illustrated in the case of Epiphanius, who mistook the Pythagorean
sacred Tetrad, called in the Valentinian _Gnosis_, Kol-Arbas, for
a _heretic leader_.[513] What with the involuntary blunders, and
deliberate falsifications of the teachings of those who differed in
views with them; the canonization of the mythological Aura Placida
(gentle breeze), into a pair of Christian martyrs--St. Aura and St.
Placida;[514] the deification of a _spear_ and a _cloak_, under
the names of SS. Longimus and Amphibolus;[515] and the Patristic
quotations from prophets, of what was never in those prophets at all;
one may well ask in blank amazement whether the so-called religion of
Christ has ever been other than an incoherent dream, since the death
of the Great Master.
So malicious do we find the holy Fathers in their unrelenting
persecution of pretended “_hæresies_,”[516] that we see them telling,
without hesitation the most preposterous untruths, and inventing
entire narratives, the better to impress their own otherwise
unsupported arguments upon ignorance. If the mistake in relation to
the tetrad had at first originated as a simple consequence of an
unpremeditated blunder of Hippolytus, the explanations of Epiphanius
and others who fell into the same absurd error[517] have a less
innocent look. When Hippolytus gravely denounces the great heresy of
the Tetrad, Kol-Arbas, and states that the imaginary Gnostic leader
is, “Kalorbasus, who endeavors to explain religion by measures
and numbers,”[518] we may simply smile. But when Epiphanius, with
abundant indignation, elaborates upon the theme, “which is Heresy
XV.,” and pretending to be thoroughly acquainted with the subject,
adds: “A certain Heracleon follows after Colorbasus, which is Heresy
XVI.,”[519] then he lays himself open to the charge of deliberate
falsification.
If this zealous _Christian_ can boast so unblushingly of having
caused “_by his information_ seventy women, even of rank, to be
sent into exile, _through the seductions of some_ in whose number
he had himself been drawn into joining their sect,” he has left us
a fair standard by which to judge him. C. W. King remarks, very
aptly, on this point, that “it may reasonably be suspected that this
worthy renegade had in this case saved himself from the fate of his
fellow-religionists by turning evidence against them, on the opening
of the persecution.”[520]
And thus, one by one, perished the Gnostics, the only heirs to whose
share had fallen a few stray crumbs of the unadulterated truth of
primitive Christianity. All was confusion and turmoil during these
first centuries, till the moment when all these contradictory dogmas
were finally forced upon the Christian world, and examination was
forbidden. For long ages it was made a sacrilege, punishable with
severe penalties, often death, to seek to comprehend that which the
Church had so conveniently elevated to the rank of _divine_ mystery.
But since biblical critics have taken upon themselves to “set the
house in order,” the cases have become reversed. Pagan creditors now
come from every part of the globe to claim their own, and Christian
theology begins to be suspected of complete bankruptcy. Such is the
sad result of the fanaticism of the “orthodox” sects, who, to borrow
an expression of the author of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire,” never were, like the Gnostics, “the most polite, the most
learned, and most wealthy of the Christian name.” And, if not all
of them “smelt garlic,” as Renan will have it, on the other hand,
none of these Christian saints have ever shrunk from spilling their
neighbor’s blood, if the views of the latter did not agree with their
own.
And so all our philosophers were swept away by the ignorant and
superstitious masses. The Philaletheians, the lovers of truth,
and their eclectic school, perished; and there, where the young
Hypatia had taught the highest philosophical doctrines; and where
Ammonius Saccas had explained that “the _whole which Christ had in
view_ was to reinstate and restore to its primitive integrity the
wisdom of the ancients--to reduce within bounds the universally
prevailing dominion of superstition ... and to exterminate the
various errors that had found their way into the different popular
religions”[521]--there, we say, freely raved the οι πολλοι of
Christianity. No more precepts from the mouth of the “God-taught
philosopher,” but others expounded by the incarnation of a most cruel,
fiendish superstition.
“If thy father,” wrote St. Jerome, “lies down across thy threshold,
if thy mother uncovers to thine eyes the bosom which suckled thee,
trample on thy father’s lifeless body, trample on thy mother’s bosom,
and, with eyes unmoistened and dry, fly to the Lord who calleth
thee!!”
This sentence is equalled, if not outrivalled, by this other,
pronounced in a like spirit. It emanates from another father of
the early Church, the eloquent Tertullian, who hopes to see all
the “philosophers” in the gehenna fire of Hell. “What shall be the
magnitude of that scene!... How shall I laugh! How shall I rejoice!
How shall I triumph when I see so many illustrious kings who were
said to have mounted into heaven, groaning with Jupiter, their god,
in the lowest darkness of hell! Then shall the soldiers who have
persecuted the name of Christ burn in more cruel fire than any they
had kindled for the saints!”[522]
These murderous expressions illustrate the spirit of Christianity
till this day. But do they illustrate the teachings of Christ? By
no means. As Eliphas Levi says, “The God in the name of whom we
would trample on our mother’s bosom we must see in the hereafter, a
hell gaping widely at his feet, and an exterminating sword in his
hand.... Moloch burned children but a few seconds; it was reserved
to the disciples of a god who is alleged to have died to redeem
humanity on the cross, to create a new Moloch whose burning stake is
eternal!”[523]
That this spirit of true Christian love has safely crossed nineteen
centuries and rages now in America, is fully instanced in the case
of the rabid Moody, the revivalist, who exclaims: “I have a son, and
no one but God knows how I love him; but I would see those beautiful
eyes dug out of his head to-night, rather than see him grow up to
manhood and go down to the grave without Christ and without hope!!”
To this an American paper, of Chicago, very justly responds: “This is
the spirit of the inquisition, which we are told is dead. If Moody
in his zeal would ‘dig out’ the eyes of his darling son, to what
lengths may he not go with the sons of others, whom he may love less?
It is the spirit of Loyola, gibbering in the nineteenth century,
and prevented from lighting the fagot flame and heating red-hot the
instruments of torture only by the arm of law.”
CHAPTER VI.
“The curtains of Yesterday drop down, the curtains of
To-morrow roll up; but Yesterday and To-morrow both
_are_.”--_Sartor Resartus_: Natural Supernaturalism.
“May we not then be permitted to examine the authenticity
of the Bible? which since the second century has been put
forth as the criterion of scientific truth? To maintain
itself in a position so exalted, it must challenge human
criticism.”--_Conflict between Religion and Science._
“One kiss of Nara upon the lips of Nari and all Nature
wakes.”--VINA SNATI (A Hindu Poet).
We must not forget that the Christian Church owes its present
canonical _Gospels_, and hence its whole religious dogmatism, to
the _Sortes Sanctorum_. Unable to agree as to which were the most
divinely-inspired of the numerous gospels extant in its time, the
mysterious Council of Nicea concluded to leave the decision of the
puzzling question to miraculous intervention. This Nicean Council
may well be called mysterious. There was a mystery, first, in the
mystical number of its 318 bishops, on which Barnabas (viii. 11,
12, 13) lays such a stress; added to this, there is no agreement
among ancient writers as to the time and place of its assembly,
nor even as to the bishop who presided. Notwithstanding the
grandiloquent eulogium of Constantine,[524] Sabinus, the Bishop
of Heraclea, affirms that “except Constantine, the emperor, and
Eusebius Pamphilus, these bishops were a set of _illiterate,
simple_ creatures, that understood nothing;” which is equivalent
to saying that they were a set of fools. Such was apparently the
opinion entertained of them by Pappus, who tells us of the bit of
magic resorted to to decide which were the _true_ gospels. In his
_Synodicon_ to that Council Pappus says, having “promiscuously put
all the books that were referred to the Council for determination
under a communion-table in a church, they (the bishops) besought the
Lord that the _inspired_ writings might get upon the table, while the
spurious ones remained underneath, and _it happened accordingly_.”
But we are not told who kept the keys of the council chamber over
night!
On the authority of ecclesiastical eye-witnesses, therefore, we
are at liberty to say that the Christian world owes its “Word of
God” to a method of divination, for resorting to which the Church
subsequently condemned unfortunate victims as conjurers, enchanters,
magicians, witches, and vaticinators, and burnt them by thousands!
In treating of this truly divine phenomenon of the self-sorting
manuscripts, the Fathers of the Church say that God himself presides
over the _Sortes_. As we have shown elsewhere, Augustine confesses
that he himself used this sort of divination. But opinions, like
revealed religions, are liable to change. That which for nearly
fifteen hundred years was imposed on Christendom as a book, of which
every word was written under the direct supervision of the Holy
Ghost; of which not a syllable, nor a comma could be changed without
sacrilege, is now being retranslated, revised, corrected, and clipped
of whole verses, in some cases of entire chapters. And yet, as soon
as the new edition is out, its doctors would have us accept it as
a new “Revelation” of the nineteenth century, with the alternative
of being held as an infidel. Thus, we see that, no more _within_
than _without_ its precincts, is the infallible Church to be trusted
more than would be reasonably convenient. The forefathers of our
modern divines found authority for the _Sortes_ in the verse where
it is said: “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord;”[525] and now, their direct heirs hold
that “the whole disposing thereof is of the Devil.” Perhaps, they
are unconsciously beginning to endorse the doctrine of the Syrian
Bardesanes, that the actions of God, as well as of man, _are subject
to necessity_?
It was no doubt, also, according to strict “necessity” that the
Neo-platonists were so summarily dealt with by the Christian mob. In
those days, the doctrines of the Hindu naturalists and antediluvian
Pyrrhonists were forgotten, if they ever had been known at all,
to any but a few philosophers; and Mr. Darwin, with his modern
_discoveries_, had not even been mentioned in the prophecies. In
this case the law of the survival of the fittest was reversed; the
_Neo-platonists were doomed to destruction from the day when they
openly sided with Aristotle_.
At the beginning of the fourth century crowds began gathering at
the door of the academy where the learned and unfortunate Hypatia
expounded the doctrines of the divine Plato and Plotinus, and thereby
impeded the progress of Christian proselytism. She too successfully
dispelled the mist hanging over the religious “mysteries” invented by
the Fathers, not to be considered dangerous. This alone would have
been sufficient to imperil both herself and her followers. It was
precisely the teachings of this Pagan philosopher, which had been so
freely borrowed by the Christians to give a finishing touch to their
otherwise incomprehensible scheme, that had seduced so many into
joining the new religion; and now the Platonic light began shining
so inconveniently bright upon the pious patchwork, as to allow every
one to see whence the “revealed” doctrines were derived. But there
was a still greater peril. Hypatia had studied under Plutarch, the
head of the Athenian school, and had learned all the secrets of
theurgy. While she lived to instruct the multitude, no _divine_
miracles could be produced before one who could divulge the natural
causes by which they took place. Her doom was sealed by Cyril, whose
eloquence she eclipsed, and whose authority, built on degrading
superstitions, had to yield before hers, which was erected on the
rock of immutable natural law. It is more than curious that Cave, the
author of the _Lives of the Fathers_, should find it incredible that
Cyril sanctioned her murder on account of his “general character.” A
saint who will sell the gold and silver vessels of his church, and
then, after spending the money, lie at his trial, as he did, may
well be suspected of anything. Besides, in this case, the Church
had to fight for her life, to say nothing of her future supremacy.
Alone, the hated and erudite Pagan scholars, and the no less learned
Gnostics, held in their doctrines the hitherto concealed wires of all
these theological marionettes. Once the curtain should be lifted,
the connection between the old Pagan and the new Christian religions
would be exposed; and then, what would have become of the Mysteries
into which it is sin and blasphemy to pry? With such a coincidence
of the astronomical allegories of various Pagan myths with the
dates adopted by Christianity for the nativity, crucifixion, and
resurrection, and such an identity of rites and ceremonies, what
would have been the fate of the new religion, had not the Church,
under the pretext of serving Christ, got rid of the too-well-informed
philosophers? To guess what, if the _coup d’état_ had then failed,
might have been the prevailing religion in our own century would
indeed, be a hard task. But, in all probability, the state of things
which made of the middle ages a period of intellectual darkness,
which degraded the nations of the Occident, and lowered the European
of those days almost to the level of a Papuan savage--could not have
occurred.
The fears of the Christians were but too well founded, and their
pious zeal and prophetic insight was rewarded from the very first.
In the demolition of the Serapeum, after the bloody riot between
the Christian mob and the Pagan worshippers had ended with the
interference of the emperor, a Latin cross, of a perfect Christian
shape, was discovered hewn upon the granite slabs of the adytum.
This was a lucky discovery, indeed; and the monks did not fail to
claim that the cross had been hallowed by the Pagans in a “spirit
of prophecy.” At least, Sozomen, with an air of triumph, records
the fact.[526] But, archæology and symbolism, those tireless and
implacable enemies of clerical false pretences, have found in the
hieroglyphics of the legend running around the design, at least a
partial interpretation of its meaning.
According to King and other numismatists and archæologists, the
cross was placed there as the symbol of eternal life. Such a Tau, or
Egyptian cross, was used in the Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries.
Symbol of the dual generative power, it was laid upon the breast of
the initiate, after his “new birth” was accomplished, and the Mystæ
had returned from their baptism in the sea. It was a mystic sign
that his spiritual birth had regenerated and united his astral soul
with his divine spirit, and that he was ready to ascend in spirit
to the blessed abodes of light and glory--the Eleusinia. The Tau
was a magic talisman at the same time as a religious emblem. It
was adopted by the Christians through the Gnostics and kabalists,
who used it largely, as their numerous gems testify, and who had
the Tau (or handled cross) from the Egyptians, and the Latin cross
from the Buddhist missionaries, who brought it from India, where it
can be found until now, two or three centuries B.C. The Assyrians,
Egyptians, ancient Americans, Hindus, and Romans had it in various,
but very slight modifications of shape. Till very late in the
mediæval ages, it was considered a potent spell against epilepsy and
demoniacal possession; and the “signet of the living God,” brought
down in St. John’s vision by the angel ascending from the east to
“seal the servants of our God in their foreheads,” was but the same
mystic Tau--the Egyptian cross. In the painted glass of St. Dionysus
(France), this angel is represented as stamping this sign on the
forehead of the elect; the legend reads, SIGNVM ΤΑΥ. In King’s
_Gnostics_, the author reminds us that “this mark is commonly born
by St. Anthony, an _Egyptian_ recluse.”[527] What the real meaning
of the Tau was, is explained to us by the Christian St. John, the
Egyptian Hermes, and the Hindu Brahmans. It is but too evident
that, with the apostle, at least, it meant the “Ineffable Name,” as
he calls this “signet of the living God,” a few chapters further
on,[528] the “_Father’s name written in their foreheads_.”
The Brahmâtma, the chief of the Hindu initiates, had on his head-gear
two keys, symbol of the revealed mystery of life and death, placed
cross-like; and, in some Buddhist pagodas of Tartary and Mongolia,
the entrance of a chamber within the temple, generally containing the
staircase which leads to the inner daghôba,[529] and the porticos
of some _Prachida_[530] are ornamented with a cross formed of two
fishes, and as found on some of the zodiacs of the Buddhists. We
should not wonder at all at learning that the sacred device in the
tombs in the Catacombs, at Rome, the “Vesica piscis,” was derived
from the said Buddhist zodiacal sign. How general must have been
that geometrical figure in the world-symbols, may be inferred from
the fact that there is a Masonic tradition that Solomon’s temple
was built on three foundations, forming the “triple Tau,” or three
crosses.
In its mystical sense, the Egyptian cross owes its origin, as
an emblem, to the realization by the earliest philosophy of an
androgynous dualism of every manifestation in nature, which proceeds
from the abstract ideal of a likewise androgynous deity, while
the Christian emblem is simply due to chance. Had the Mosaic law
prevailed, Jesus should have been lapidated.[531] The crucifix was
an instrument of torture, and utterly common among Romans as it was
unknown among Semitic nations. It was called the “Tree of Infamy.” It
is but later that it was adopted as a Christian symbol; but, during
the first two decades, the apostles looked upon it with horror.[532]
It is certainly not the Christian Cross that John had in mind when
speaking of the “signet of the living God,” but the _mystic_ Tau--the
Tetragrammaton, or mighty name, which, on the most ancient kabalistic
talismans, was represented by the four Hebrew letters composing the
Holy Word.
The famous Lady Ellenborough, known among the Arabs of Damascus, and
in the desert, after her last marriage, as _Hanoum Medjouyé_, had a
talisman in her possession, presented to her by a Druze from Mount
Lebanon. It was recognized by a certain sign on its left corner,
to belong to that class of gems which is known in Palestine as a
“_Messianic_” amulet, of the second or third century, B.C. It is a
green stone of a pentagonal form; at the bottom is engraved a fish;
higher, Solomon’s seal;[533] and still higher, the four Chaldaic
letters----Jod, He, Vau, He, IAHO, which form the name of the Deity.
These are arranged in quite an unusual way, running from below
upward, in reversed order, and forming the Egyptian Tau. Around these
there is a legend which, as the gem is not our property, we are not
at liberty to give. The Tau, in its mystical sense, as well as the
_crux ansata_, is the _Tree of Life_.
[Illustration]
It is well known, that the earliest Christian emblems--before it was
ever attempted to represent the bodily appearance of Jesus--were
the Lamb, the Good Shepherd, and _the Fish_. The origin of the
latter emblem, which has so puzzled the archæologists, thus becomes
comprehensible. The whole secret lies in the easily-ascertained
fact that, while in the _Kabala_, the King Messiah is called
“Interpreter,” or Revealer of the mystery, and shown to be the
_fifth_ emanation, in the _Talmud_--for reasons we will now
explain--the Messiah is very often designated as “DAG,” or the
Fish. This is an inheritance from the Chaldees, and relates--as the
very name indicates--to the Babylonian Dagon, the man-fish, who was
the instructor and interpreter of the people, to whom he appeared.
Abarbanel explains the name, by stating that the sign of his
(Messiah’s) coming “is the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the
sign _Pisces_.”[534] Therefore, as the Christians were intent upon
identifying their Christos with the Messiah of the _Old Testament_,
they adopted it so readily as to forget that its true origin might
be traced still farther back than the Babylonian Dagon. How eagerly
and closely the ideal of Jesus was united, by the early Christians,
with every imaginable kabalistic and Pagan tenet, may be inferred
from the language of Clemens, of Alexandria, addressed to his brother
co-religionists.
When they were debating upon the choice of the most appropriate
symbol to remind them of Jesus, Clemens advised them in the following
words: “Let the engraving upon the gem of your ring be either _a
dove_, or _a ship running before the wind_ (the Argha), or _a fish_.”
Was the good father, when writing this sentence, laboring under the
recollection of Joshua, son of Nun (called _Jesus_ in the Greek and
Slavonian versions); or had he forgotten the real interpretation of
these Pagan symbols? Joshua, son of Nun, or Nave (_Navis_), could
have with perfect propriety adopted the image of a _ship_, or even
of a fish, for Joshua means Jesus, son of the fish-god; but it was
really too hazardous to connect the emblems of Venus, Astarte, and
all the Hindu goddesses--the _argha_, _dove_, and _fish_--with the
“immaculate” birth of their god! This looks very much as if in the
early days of Christianity but little difference was made between
Christ, Bacchus, Apollo, and the Hindu Christna, the incarnation of
Vishnu, with whose first avatar this symbol of the fish originated.
In the _Hari-purana_, in the _Bagaved-gitta_, as well as in several
other books, the god Vishnu is shown as having assumed the form of a
fish with a human head, in order to reclaim the _Vedas_ lost during
the deluge. Having enabled Visvamitra to escape with all his tribe
in the ark, Vishnu, pitying weak and ignorant humanity, remained
with them for some time. It was this god who taught them to build
houses, cultivate the land, and to thank the unknown Deity whom he
represented, by building temples and instituting a regular worship;
and, as he remained half-fish, half-man, all the time, at every
sunset he used to return to the ocean, wherein he passed the night.
“It is he,” says the sacred book, “who taught men, after the
diluvium, all that was necessary for their happiness.
“One day he plunged into the water and returned no more, for the
earth had covered itself again with vegetation, fruit, and cattle.
“But he had taught the Brahmas the secret of all things”
(_Hari-purana_).
So far, we see in this narrative the _double_ of the story given by
the Babylonian Berosus about Oannes, the fish-man, who is no other
than Vishnu--unless, indeed, we have to believe that it was Chaldea
which civilized India!
We say again, we desire to give nothing on our sole authority.
Therefore we cite Jacolliot, who, however criticised and contradicted
on other points, and however loose he may be in the matter of
chronology (though even in this he is nearer right than those
scientists who would have all Hindu books written since the Council
of Nicea), at least cannot be denied the reputation of a good
Sanscrit scholar. And he says, while analyzing the word _Oan_,
or Oannes, that _O_ in Sanscrit is an interjection expressing an
invocation, as O, Swayambhuva! O, God! etc; and _An_ is a radical,
signifying in Sanscrit a spirit, a being; and, we presume, what the
Greeks meant by the word _Dæmon_, a semi-god.
“What an extraordinary antiquity,” he remarks, “this fable of Vishnu,
disguised as a fish, gives to the sacred books of the Hindus;
especially in presence of the fact that the _Vedas_ and _Manu_ reckon
more _than twenty-five thousand years of existence_, as proved by the
most serious as the most authentic documents. Few peoples, says the
learned Halhed, have their annals more authentic or serious than the
Hindus.”[535]
We may, perhaps, throw additional light upon the puzzling question of
the fish-symbol by reminding the reader that according to _Genesis_
the first created of living beings, the first type of animal life,
was the fish. “And the Elohim said: ‘Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that _hath life_’ ... and God created
great whales ... and the morning and the evening were the _fifth
day_.” Jonah is swallowed by a big fish, and is cast out again three
days later. This the Christians regard as a premonition of the three
days’ sepulture of Jesus which preceded his resurrection--though
the statement of the three days is as fanciful as much of the rest,
and adopted to fit the well-known threat to destroy the temple and
rebuild it again in _three_ days. Between his burial and alleged
resurrection there intervened but _one day_--the Jewish Sabbath--as
he was buried on Friday evening and rose to life at dawn on Sunday.
However, whatever other circumstance may be regarded as a prophecy,
the story of Jonah cannot be made to answer the purpose.
“Big Fish” is Cetus, the latinized form of Keto-κητω and keto is
Dagon, Poseidon, the female gender of it being Keton Atar-gatis--the
Syrian goddess, and Venus, of Askalon. The figure or bust of Der-Keto
or Astarte was generally represented on the prow of the ships. Jonah
(the Greek Iona, or _dove_ sacred to Venus) fled to Jaffa, where the
god Dagon, the man-fish, was worshipped, and dared not go to Níneveh,
_where the dove was revered_. Hence, some commentators believe that
when Jonah was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a fish, we
must understand that he was picked up by one of these vessels, on
the prow of which was the figure of _Keto_. But the kabalists have
another legend, to this effect: They say that Jonah was a run-away
priest from the temple of the goddess where the dove was worshipped,
and desired to abolish idolatry and institute monotheistic worship.
That, caught near Jaffa, he was held prisoner by the devotees of
Dagon in one of the prison-cells of the temple, and that it is the
strange form of the cell which gave rise to the allegory. In the
collection of Mose de Garcia, a Portuguese kabalist, there is a
drawing representing the interior of the temple of Dagon. In the
middle stands an immense idol, the upper portion of whose body is
human, and the lower fish-like. Between the belly and the tail is an
aperture which can be closed like the door of a closet. In it the
transgressors against the local deity were shut up until further
disposal. The drawing in question was made from an old tablet covered
with curious drawings and inscriptions in old Phœnician characters,
describing this Venetian _oubliette_ of biblical days. The tablet
itself was found in an excavation a few miles from Jaffa. Considering
the extraordinary tendency of Oriental nations for puns and
allegories, is it not barely possible that the “big fish” by which
Jonah was swallowed was simply the cell within the belly of Dagon?
It is significant that this double appellation of “Messiah” and
“Dag” (fish), of the Talmudists, should so well apply to the Hindu
Vishnu, the “Preserving” Spirit, and the second personage of the
Brahmanic trinity. This deity, having already manifested itself, is
still regarded as the future Saviour of humanity, and is the selected
Redeemer, who will appear at its tenth incarnation or _avatar_, like
the Messiah of the Jews, to lead the blessed onward, and restore to
them the primitive _Vedas_. At his first avatar, Vishnu is alleged
to have appeared to humanity, in form like a fish. In the temple of
Rama, there is a representation of this god which answers perfectly
to that of Dagon, as given by Berosus. He has the body of a man
issuing from the mouth of a fish, and holds in his hands the lost
_Veda_. Vishnu, moreover, is the water-god, in one sense, the Logos
of the Parabrahm, for as the three persons of the manifested god-head
constantly interchange their attributes, we see him in the same
temple represented as reclining on the seven-headed serpent, Ananta
(eternity), and moving, like the _Spirit_ of God, on the face of the
primeval waters.
Vishnu is evidently the Adam Kadmon of the kabalists, for Adam is the
Logos or the first Anointed, as Adam Second is the King Messiah.
Lakmy, or Lakshmi, the passive or feminine counterpart of Vishnu,
the creator and the preserver, is also called Ada Maya. She is the
“Mother of the World,” Damatri, the Venus Aphrodite of the Greeks;
also Isis and Eve. While Venus is born from the sea-foam, Lakmy
springs out from the water at the churning of the sea; when born, she
is so beautiful that all the gods fall in love with her. The Jews,
borrowing their types wherever they could get them, made their first
woman after the pattern of Lakmy. It is curious that Viracocha, the
Supreme Being in Peru, means, literally translated, “foam of the sea.”
Eugene Burnouf, the great authority of the French school, announces
his opinion in the same spirit: “We must learn one day,” he observes,
“that all ancient traditions disfigured by emigration and legend,
belong to the history of India.” Such is the opinion of Colebrooke,
Inman, King, Jacolliot, and many other Orientalists.
We have said above, that, according to the secret computation
peculiar to the students of the hidden science, Messiah is the
fifth emanation, or potency. In the Jewish _Kabala_, where the ten
Sephiroth emanate from Adam Kadmon (placed below the crown), he comes
fifth. So in the Gnostic system; so in the Buddhistic, in which the
fifth Buddha--Maitree, will appear at his last advent to save mankind
before the final destruction of the world. If Vishnu is represented
in his forthcoming and last appearance as the _tenth_ avatar or
incarnation, it is only because every unit held as an androgyne
manifests itself doubly. The Buddhists who reject this dual-sexed
incarnation reckon but five. Thus, while Vishnu is to make his last
appearance in his tenth, Buddha is said to do the same in his fifth
incarnation.[536]
The better to illustrate the idea, and show how completely the real
meaning of the avatars, known only to the students of the secret
doctrine was misunderstood by the ignorant masses, we elsewhere
give the diagrams of the Hindu and Chaldeo-Kabalistic avatars and
emanations.[537] This basic and true fundamental stone of the
secret cycles, shows on its very face, that far from taking their
revealed _Vedas_ and _Bible_ literally, the Brahman-pundits, and
the Tanaïm--the scientists and philosophers of the pre-Christian
epochs--speculated on the creation and development of the world quite
in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the
natural selection of species, gradual development, and transformation.
We advise every one tempted to enter an indignant protest against
this affirmation to read more carefully the books of Manu, even in
the incomplete translation of Sir William Jones, and the more or less
careless one of Jacolliot. If we compare the Sanchoniathon Phœnician
Cosmogony, and the record of Berosus with the _Bhagavatta_ and
_Manu_, we will find enunciated exactly the same principles as those
now offered as the latest developments of modern science. We have
quoted from the Chaldean and Phœnician records in our first volume;
we will now glance at the Hindu books.
“When this world had issued out of darkness, the subtile elementary
principles produced the vegetal seed which animated first the plants;
from the plants, life passed into fastastical bodies which were born
_in the ilus of the waters_; then, through a series of forms and
various animals, it reached MAN.”[538]
“He (man, before becoming such) will pass successively through
plants, worms, insects, fish, serpents, tortoises, cattle, and wild
animals; such is the inferior degree.”
“Such, from Brahma down to the vegetables, are declared the
transmigrations which take place in this world.”[539]
In the Sanchoniathonian Cosmogony, men are also evolved out of the
ilus of the chaos,[540] and the same evolution and transformation of
species are shown.
And now we will leave the rostrum to Mr. Darwin: “I believe
that animals have descended from at most only four or five
progenitors.”[541]
Again: “I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic
beings which have ever lived on this earth, have descended from
some one primordial form.[542]... I view all beings, not as special
creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which
lived long _before the first bed of the Silurian system was
deposited_.”[543]
In short, they lived in the Sanchoniathonian chaos, and in the _ilus_
of Manu. Vyasa and Kapila go still farther than Darwin and Manu.
“They see in Brahma but the name of the universal germ; _they deny
the existence of a First Cause_; and pretend that everything in
nature found itself developed only in consequence of material and
fatal forces,” says Jacolliot.[544]
Correct as may be this latter quotation from Kapila, it demands a
few words of explanation. Jacolliot repeatedly compares Kapila and
Veda Vyasa with Pyrrho and Littré. We have nothing against such a
comparison with the Greek philosopher, but we must decidedly object
to any with the French Comtist; we find it an unmerited fling at
the memory of the great Aryan sage. Nowhere does this prolific
writer state the repudiation by either ancient or modern Brahmans of
God--the “unknown,” universal Spirit; nor does any other Orientalist
accuse the Hindus of the same, however perverted the general
deductions of our savants about Buddhistic atheism. On the contrary,
Jacolliot states more than once that the learned Pundits and educated
Brahmans have never shared the popular superstitions; and affirms
their unshaken belief in the unity of God and the soul’s immortality,
although most assuredly neither Kapila, nor the initiated Brahmans,
nor the followers of the Vedanta school would ever admit the
existence of an anthropomorphic creator, a “First Cause” in the
Christian sense. Jacolliot, in his _Indo-European and African
Traditions_, is the first to make an onslaught on Professor Müller,
for remarking that the Hindu gods were “masks without actors ...
names without being, and not beings without names.”[545] Quoting, in
support of his argument, numerous verses from the sacred Hindu books,
he adds: “Is it possible to refuse to the author of these stanzas a
definite and clear conception of the divine force, of the Unique
Being, master and Sovereign of the Universe?... Were the altars then
built to a metaphor?”[546]
The latter argument is perfectly just, so far as Max Müller’s
negation is concerned. But we doubt whether the French rationalist
understands Kapila’s and Vyasa’s philosophy better than the German
philologist does the “theological twaddle,” as the latter terms the
_Atharva-Veda_. Professor Müller and Jacolliot may have ever so great
claims to erudition, and be ever so familiar with Sanscrit and other
ancient Oriental languages, but both lack the key to the thousand
and one mysteries of the old secret doctrine and its philosophy.
Only, while the German philologist does not even take the trouble to
look into this magical and “theological twaddle,” we find the French
Indianist never losing an opportunity to investigate. Moreover,
he honestly admits his incompetency to ever fathom this ocean of
mystical learning. In its existence he not only firmly believes, but
throughout his works he incessantly calls the attention of science
to its unmistakable traces at every step in India. Still, though the
learned Pundits and Brahmans--his “revered masters” of the pagodas
of Villenoor and Chélambrum in the Carnatic,[547] as it seems,
positively refused to reveal to him the mysteries of the magical part
of the _Agrouchada-Parikshaï_,[548] and of Brahmâtma’s triangle,[549]
he persists in the honest declaration that everything is possible in
Hindu metaphysics, even to the Kapila and Vyasa systems having been
hitherto misunderstood.
M. Jacolliot weakens his assertion immediately afterward with the
following contradiction:
“We were one day inquiring of a Brahman of the pagoda of Chélambrum,
who belonged to the _skeptical school of the naturalists of Vyasa_,
whether he believed in the existence of God. He answered us, smiling:
‘_Aham eva param Brahma_’--I am myself a god.
“‘What do you mean by that?’
“‘I mean that every being on earth, however humble, is an immortal
portion of the immortal matter.’”[550]
The answer is one which would suggest itself to every ancient
philosopher, Kabalist and Gnostic, of the early days. It contains the
very spirit of the delphic and kabalistic commandment, for esoteric
philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and
will be. If persons believing the _Bible_ verse which teaches that
the “Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life,” reject at the same time the
idea that every atom of this dust, as every particle of this “living
soul,” contains “God” within itself, then we pity the logic of that
Christian. He forgets the verses which precede the one in question.
God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living
creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with
_life_, which is a breath of His own Spirit, and the _soul_ of the
animal. Humanity is the Adam Kadmon of the “Unknown,” His microcosm,
and His only representative on earth, and every man is a god on earth.
We would ask this French scholar, who seems so familiar with every
sloka of the books of Manu, and other Vedic writers, the meaning of
this sentence so well known to him:
“Plants and vegetation reveal a multitude of forms because of
their precedent actions; they are surrounded by darkness, but are
nevertheless endowed with an interior soul, and feel equally pleasure
and pain” (_Manu_, book i.).
If the Hindu philosophy teach the presence of a degree of _soul_ in
the lowest forms of vegetable life, and even in every atom in space,
how is it possible that it should deny the same immortal principle
to man? And if it once admit the immortal spirit in man, how can it
logically deny the existence of the parent source--I will not say the
first, but the eternal Cause? Neither rationalists nor sensualists,
who do not comprehend Indian metaphysics, should estimate the
ignorance of Hindu metaphysicians by their own.
The grand cycle, as we have heretofore remarked, includes the
progress of mankind from its germ in the primordial man of spiritual
form to the deepest depth of degradation he can reach--each
successive step in the descent being accompanied by a greater
strength and grossness of the physical form than its precursor--and
ends with the Flood. But while the grand cycle, or age, is running
its course, seven minor cycles are passed, each marking the evolution
of a new race out of the preceding one, on a new world. And each of
these races, or grand types of humanity, breaks up into subdivisions
of families, and they again into nations and tribes, as we see the
earth’s inhabitants subdivided to-day into Mongols, Caucasians,
Indians, etc.
Before proceeding to show by diagrams the close resemblance
between the esoteric philosophies of all the ancient peoples,
however geographically remote from each other, it will be useful
to briefly explain the real ideas which underlie all those symbols
and allegorical representations and have hitherto so puzzled the
uninitiated commentators. Better than anything, it may show that
religion and science were closer knit than twins in days of old;
that they were one in two and two in one from the very moment of
their conception. With mutually convertible attributes, science
was spiritual and religion was scientific. Like the androgyne man
of the first chapter of _Genesis_--“male and female,” passive and
active; created in the image of the Elohim. Omniscience developed
omnipotency, the latter called for the exercise of the former, and
thus the giant had dominion given him over all the four kingdoms of
the world. But, like the second Adam, these androgynes were doomed to
“fall and lose their powers” as soon as the two halves of the duality
separated. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge gives death without the
fruit of the Tree of Life. Man must know _himself_ before he can hope
to know the ultimate genesis even of beings and powers less developed
in their inner nature than himself. So with religion and science;
united two in one they were infallible, for the spiritual intuition
was there to supply the limitations of physical senses. Separated,
exact science rejects the help of the inner voice, while religion
becomes merely dogmatic theology--each is but a corpse without a
soul.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The esoteric doctrine, then, teaches, like Buddhism and Brahmanism,
and even the persecuted _Kabala_, that the one infinite and unknown
Essence exists from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious
successions is either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology
of Manu these conditions are called the “day” and the “night” of
Brahma. The latter is either “awake” or “asleep.” The Svâbhâvikas, or
philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in
Nepaul), speculate but upon the active condition of this “Essence,”
which they call Svabhâvât, and deem it foolish to theorize upon the
abstract and “unknowable” power in its passive condition. Hence they
are called atheists by both Christian theology and modern scientists;
for neither of the two are able to understand the profound logic of
their philosophy. The former will allow of no other God than the
personified _secondary_ powers which have blindly worked out the
visible universe, and which became with them the anthropomorphic God
of the Christians--the Jehovah, roaring amid thunder and lightning.
In its turn, rationalistic science greets the Buddhists and the
Svâbhâvikas as the “positivists” of the archaic ages. If we take a
one-sided view of the philosophy of the latter, our materialists
may be right in their own way. The Buddhists maintain that there
is _no_ Creator but an infinitude of _creative powers_, which
collectively form the one eternal substance, the _essence_ of which
is inscrutable--hence not a subject for speculation for any true
philosopher. Socrates invariably refused to argue upon the mystery
of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging
him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction.
Upon inaugurating an active period, says the _Secret Doctrine_, an
expansion of this Divine essence, _from within outwardly_, occurs
in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or
visible universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical
forces thus progressively set in motion. In like manner, when the
passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence
takes place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and
progressively undone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its
material dispersed; and “darkness,” solitary and alone, broods once
more over the face of the “deep.” To use a metaphor which will convey
the idea still more clearly, an outbreathing of the “unknown essence”
produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. _This
process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe
is but one of an infinite series which had no beginning and will have
no end._
Thus we are enabled to build our theories solely on the visible
manifestations of the Deity, on its objective natural phenomena.
To apply to these creative principles the term God is puerile and
absurd. One might as well call by the name of Benvenuto Cellini the
fire which fuses the metal, or the air that cools it when it is run
in the mould. If the inner and ever-concealed spiritual, and to our
minds abstract, Essence within these forces can ever be connected
with the creation of the physical universe, it is but in the sense
given to it by Plato. IT may be termed, at best, the framer of the
abstract universe which developed gradually in the Divine Thought
within which it had lain dormant.
In Chapter VIII. we will attempt to show the esoteric meaning of
_Genesis_, and its complete agreement with the ideas of other
nations. The six days of creation will be found to have a meaning
little suspected by the multitude of commentators, who have exercised
their abilities to the full extent in attempting to reconcile them by
turns with Christian theology and un-Christian geology. Disfigured as
the _Old Testament_ is, yet in its symbolism are preserved enough of
the original in its principal features to show the family likeness to
the cosmogonies of older nations than the Jews.
We here give the diagrams of the Hindu and the Chaldeo-Jewish
cosmogonies. The antiquity of the diagram of the former may be
inferred from the fact that many of the Brahmanical pagodas are
designed and built on this figure, called the “Sri-Iantara.”[551]
And yet we find the highest honors paid to it by the Jewish and
mediæval kabalists, who call it “Solomon’s seal.” It will be quite an
easy matter to trace it to its origin, once we are reminded of the
history of the king-kabalist and his transactions with King Hiram and
Ophir--the country of peacocks, gold, and ivory--for which land we
have to search in old India.
EXPLANATION OF THE TWO DIAGRAMS
REPRESENTING THE
CHAOTIC AND THE FORMATIVE PERIODS, BEFORE AND AFTER
OUR UNIVERSE BEGAN TO BE EVOLVED.
FROM THE ESOTERIC BRAHMANICAL, BUDDHISTIC, AND CHALDEAN
STANDPOINTS, WHICH AGREE IN EVERY RESPECT WITH THE EVOLUTIONARY
THEORY OF MODERN SCIENCE.
THE HINDU DOCTRINE. THE CHALDEAN DOCTRINE.
_The Upper Triangle_ _The Upper Triangle_
Contains the Ineffable Name. Contains the Ineffable Name.
It is the AUM--to be It is En-Soph, the
pronounced only mentally, Boundless, the Infinite,
under penalty of death. The whose name is known to no
Unrevealed Para-Brahma, the one but the initiated, and
Passive-Principle; absolute could not be pronounced
and unconditioned “mukta,” aloud under the penalty of
which cannot enter into the death.
condition of a Creator, as
the latter, in order to No more than Para-Brahma can
_think_, _will_, and _plan_, En-Soph create, for he is in
must be bound and the same condition of
conditioned (baddha); hence, non-being as the former; he
in one sense, be a finite is עין non-existent so long
being. “THIS (Para-Brahma) as he lies in his latent or
was absorbed in the passive state within _Oulom_
non-being, imperceptible, (the boundless and termless
without any distinct time); as such he is not the
attribute, non-existent for Creator of the visible
our senses. He was absorbed universe, neither is he the
in his (to us) eternal (to _Aur_ (Light). He will
himself) periodical, sleep,” become the latter when the
for it was one of the period of creation shall
“Nights of Brahma.” have compelled him to expand
Therefore he is not the the Force within himself,
_First_ but the Eternal according to the Law of
Cause. He is the Soul of which he is the embodiment
Souls, whom no being can and essence.
comprehend in this state.
But “he who studies the “Whosoever acquaints himself
secret Mantras and with ה״ד the Mercaba and the
comprehends the _Vâch_” (the _lahgash_ (secret speech or
Spirit or hidden voice of incantation),[552] will
the Mantras, the active learn the secret of
manifestation of the latent secrets.”
Force) will learn to
understand him in his
“revealed” aspect.
Both “THIS” and En-Soph, in their first manifestation of Light,
emerging from within Darkness, may be summarized in the Svabhâvât,
the Eternal and the uncreated Self-existing Substance which produces
all; while everything which is of its essence produces itself out of
its own nature.
_The Space Around the _The Space Around the
Upper Triangle._ Upper Triangle._
When the “Night of Brahma” When the active period had
was ended, and the time came arrived, En-Soph sent forth
for the Self-Existent to from within his own eternal
manifest _Itself_ by essence, Sephira, the active
revelation, it made its Power, called the Primordial
glory visible by sending Point, and the Crown,
forth from its Essence an _Keter_. It is only through
active Power, which, female her that the “Un-bounded
at first, subsequently Wisdom” could give a
becomes androgyne. It is concrete form to his
Aditi, the “Infinite,”[553] abstract Thought. Two sides
the Boundless, or rather the of the upper triangle, the
“Un-bounded.” Aditi is the right side and the base, are
“mother” of all the gods, composed of unbroken lines;
and Aditi is the Father and the third, the left side, is
the Son.[554] “Who will give dotted. It is through the
us back to the great Aditi, latter that emerges Sephira.
that I may see father and Spreading in every
mother?”[555] It is in direction, she finally
conjunction with the latter encompasses the whole
female, Force, that the triangle. In this emanation
Divine but latent Thought of the female active
produces the great principle from the left side
“Deep”--water. “Water is of the mystic triangle, is
born from a transformation foreshadowed the creation of
of light ... and from a Eve from Adam’s left rib.
_modification_ of the water Adam is the Microcosm of the
is born the earth,” says Macrocosm, and is created in
Manu (book i.). the image of the Elohim. In
the Tree of Life עצחיום the
“Ye are born of Aditi from triple triad is disposed in
the water, you who are born such a manner that the three
of the earth, hear ye all my male Sephiroth are on the
call.”[556] right, the three female on
the left, and the four
In this water (or primeval uniting principles in the
chaos) the “Infinite” centre. From the Invisible
androgyne, which, with the Dew falling from the Higher
Eternal Cause, forms the “Head” Sephira creates
first abstract Triad, primeval water, or chaos
rendered by AUM, deposited taking shape. It is the
the germ of universal life. first step toward the
It is the Mundane Egg, in solidification of Spirit,
which took place the which through various
gestation of Pūrūsha, or the modifications will produce
manifested Brahma. The germ earth.[557] “_It requires
which fecundated the earth and water to make a
_Mother_ Principle (the living soul_,” says Moses.
water) is called Nara, the
Divine Spirit or Holy When Sephira emerges like an
Ghost,[558] and the waters active power from within the
themselves, are an emanation latent Deity, she is female;
of the former, Nari, while when she assumes the office
the Spirit which brooded of a creator, she becomes a
over it is called male; hence, she is
Narayana.[559] androgyne. She is the
“Father and Mother Aditi,”
“In that egg, the great of the Hindu Cosmogony.
Power sat inactive a whole After brooding over the
_year of the Creator_, at “Deep,” the “Spirit of God”
the close of which, by his produces its own image in
thought alone, he caused the the water, the Universal
egg to divide itself.”[560] Womb, symbolized in _Manu_
The upper half became by the Golden Egg. In the
heaven, the lower, the earth kabalistic Cosmogony, Heaven
(both yet in their ideal, and Earth are personified by
not their manifested form). Adam Kadmon and the second
Adam. The first Ineffable
Thus, this second triad, Triad, contained in the
only another name for the abstract idea of the “Three
first one (never pronounced Heads,” was a “mystery
aloud), and which is the name.” It was composed of
real pre-Vedic and En-Soph, Sephira, and Adam
primordial _secret_ Kadmon, the Protogonos, the
Trimurti, consisted of latter being identical with
the former, when
Nara, Father-Heaven, bisexual.[561] In every
Nari, Mother-Earth, triad there is a male, a
Viradj, the Son--or Universe. female, and an androgyne.
Adam-Sephira is the Crown
The Trimurti, comprising (Keter). It sets itself to
Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the work of creation, by
the Preserver, and Siva, the first producing Chochmah,
Destroyer and Regenerator, Male Wisdom, a masculine
belongs to a later period. active potency, represented
It is an anthropomorphic by חה, jah, or the Wheels of
afterthought, invented for Creation, אפּוַים, from which
the more popular proceeds Binah, Intelligence,
comprehension of the female and passive potency,
uninitiated masses. The which is _Jehovah_, יהוה,
_Dikshita_, the initiate, whom we find in the _Bible_
knew better. Thus, also, the figuring as the Supreme. But
profound allegory under the this Jehovah is not the
colors of a ridiculous kabalistic Jodcheva. The
fable, given in the _binary_ is the fundamental
_Aytareya Brahmana_,[562] corner-stone of _Gnosis_. As
which resulted in the the binary is the Unity
representations in some multiplying itself and
temples of Brahm-Nara, self-creating, the kabalists
assuming the form of a bull, show the “Unknown” passive
and his daughter, En-Soph, as emanating from
Aditi-Nari, that of a himself, Sephira, which,
heifer, contains the same becoming visible light, is
metaphysical idea as the said to produce Adam Kadmon.
“fall of man,” or that of But, in the hidden sense,
the Spirit into Sephira and Adam are one and
generation--matter. The the same light, only latent
All-pervading Divine Spirit and active, invisible and
embodied under the symbols visible. The second Adam, as
of Heaven, the Sun, and Heat the human tetragram,
(fire)--the correlation of produces in his turn Eve,
cosmic forces--fecundates out of his side. It is this
Matter or Nature, the second triad, with which the
daughter of Spirit. And kabalists have hitherto
Para-Brahma himself has to dealt, hardly hinting at the
submit to and bear the Supreme and Ineffable One,
penance of the curses of the and never committing
other gods (Elohim) for such anything to writing. All
an incest. (See knowledge concerning the
corresponding column.) latter was imparted orally.
According to the immutable, It is the _second_ Adam,
and, therefore, fatal law, then, who is the unity
both Nara and Nari are represented by _Jod_, emblem
mutually Father and Mother, of the kabalistic male
as well as Father and principle, and, at the same
Daughter.[563] Matter, time, he is Chochmah,
through infinite _Wisdom_, while _Binah_ or
transformation, is the Jehovah is Eve; the first
gradual product of Spirit. Chochmah issuing from Keter,
The unification of one or the androgyne, Adam
Eternal Supreme Cause Kadmon, and the second,
required such a correlation; Binah, from Chochmah. If we
and if nature be the product combine with _Jod_ the three
or effect of that Cause, in letters which form the name
its turn it has to be of Eve, we will have the
fecundated by the same divine tetragram pronounced
divine Ray which produced IEVO-HEVAH, Adam and Eve, יחוה,
nature itself. The most Jehovah, male and female, or
absurd cosmogonical the idealization of humanity
allegories, if analyzed embodied in the first man.
without prejudice, will be Thus is it that we can prove
found built on strict and that, while the Jewish
logical necessarianism. kabalists, in common with
their initiated masters, the
“Being was born from Chaldeans and the Hindus,
not-being,” says a verse in adored the Supreme and
the _Rig-Veda_.[564] The Unknown God, in the sacred
first being had to become silence of their
androgyne and finite, by the sanctuaries, the ignorant
very fact of its creation as masses of every nation were
a being. And thus even the left to adore something
sacred Trimurti, containing which was certainly less
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva than the Eternal Substance
will have an end when the of the Buddhists, the
“night” of Para-Brahma so-called Atheists. As
succeeds the present “day,” Brahma, the deity manifested
or period of universal in the mythical _Manu_, or
activity. the first man (born of
Swayambhuva, or the
The second, or rather the Self-existent), is finite,
first, triad---as the so Jehovah, embodied in Adam
highest one is a pure and Eve, is but a _human_
abstraction--is the god. He is the symbol of
intellectual world. The Vâch humanity, a mixture of good
which surrounds it is a more with a portion of
definite transformation of unavoidable evil; of spirit
Aditi. Besides its occult fallen into matter. In
significance in the secret worshipping Jehovah, we
Mantrâm, Vâch is personified simply worship nature, as
as the active power of embodied in man,
Brahma proceeding from him. half-spiritual and
In the _Vedas_ she is made half-material, at best: we
to speak of herself as the are Pantheists, when not
supreme and universal soul. fetich worshippers, like the
“I bore the Father on the idolatrous Jews, who
head of the universal mind, sacrificed on high places,
and _my origin is in the in groves, to the
midst of the ocean_; and personified male and female
therefore do I pervade all principle, ignorant of IAO,
beings.... Originating all the Supreme “Secret Name” of
beings, I pass like the the Mysteries.
breeze (Holy Ghost). I am
above this heaven, beyond Shekinah is the Hindu Vâch,
this earth; and _what is the and praised in the same
Great One that am I_.”[565] terms as the latter. Though
Literally, Vâch is speech, shown in the kabalistic Tree
the power of awakening, of Life as proceeding from
through the metrical the ninth Sephiroth, yet
arrangement contained in Shekinah is the “veil” of
the number and syllables En-Soph, and the “garment”
of the Mantras,[566] of Jehovah. The “veil,” for
corresponding powers in it succeeded for long ages
the invisible world. In in concealing the real
the sacrificial Mysteries supreme God, the universal
Vâch stirs up the Brahma Spirit, and masking Jehovah,
(_Brahma jinvati_), or the exoteric deity, made the
the power lying latent at Christians accept him as the
the bottom of every magical “father” of the initiated
operation. It existed from Jesus. Yet the kabalists,
eternity as the Yajna (its as well as the Hindu
latent form), lying dormant _Dikshita_, know the power
in Brahma from of the Shekinah or Vâch,
“no-beginning,” and and call it the “secret
proceeded forth from him as wisdom,” חכמח־נסהדח.
Vâch (the active power). It
is the key to the The triangle played a
“Traividyâ,” the thrice prominent part in the
sacred science which teaches religious symbolism of every
the Yajus (the sacrificial great nation; for everywhere
Mysteries).[567] it represented the three
great principles--spirit,
Having done with the force, and matter; or the
unrevealed triad, and the active (male), passive
first triad of the (female), and the dual or
Sephiroth, called the correlative principle which
“intellectual world,” little partakes of both and binds
remains to be said. In the the two together. It was the
great geometrical figure _Arba_ or mystic “four,”[568]
which has the double the mystery-gods, the Kabeiri,
triangle in it, the central summarized in the unity of
circle represents the world one supreme Deity. It is
within the universe. The found in the Egyptian
double triangle belongs to pyramids, whose equal sides
one of the most important, tower up until lost in one
if it is not in itself the crowning point. In the
most important, of the kabalistic diagram the
mystic figures in India. It central circle of the
is the emblem of the Brahmanical figure is
Trimurti three in one. The replaced by the cross; the
triangle with its apex celestial perpendicular and
upward indicates the male the terrestrial horizontal
principle, downward the base line.[569] But the idea
female; the two typifying, is the same: Adam Kadmon is
at the same time, spirit and the type of humanity as a
matter. This world within collective totality within
the infinite universe is the the unity of the creative
microcosm within the God and the universal
macrocosm, as in the Jewish spirit.
_Kabala_. It is the symbol
of the womb of the universe, “Of him who is formless, the
the terrestrial egg, whose non-existent (also the
archetype is the golden eternal, but _not_ First
mundane egg. It is from Cause), is born the heavenly
within this spiritual bosom man.” But after he created
of mother nature that the form of the heavenly
proceed all the great man אדמעלאה, he “used it as
saviours of the a vehicle wherein to
universe--the avatars of the descend,” says the _Kabala_.
invisible Deity. Thus Adam Kadmon is the
avatar of the concealed
“Of him who is and yet is power. After that the
not, from the not-being, heavenly Adam creates or
Eternal Cause, is born the engenders by the combined
being Pouroucha,” says Manu, power of the Sephiroth, the
the legislator. Pouroucha is earthly Adam. The work of
the “divine male,” the creation is also begun by
_second_ god, and the Sephira in the creation of
avatar, or the Logos of the ten Sephiroth (who are
Para-Brahma and his divine the Pradjapatis of the
son, who in his turn _Kabala_, for they are
produced Viradj, the son, or likewise the Lords of all
the ideal type of the beings).
universe. “Viradj begins the
work of creation by The _Sohar_ asserts the
producing the ten same. According to the
Pradjapati, ‘the lords of kabalistic doctrine there
all beings.’” were old worlds (see Idra
Suta: _Sohar_, iii., p. 292
According to the doctrine of b). Everything will return
Manu, the universe is some day to that from which
subjected to a periodical it first proceeded. “All
and never-ending succession things of which this world
of creations and consists, spirit as well as
dissolutions, which periods body, will return to their
of creation are named principal, and the roots
Manvântara. from which they proceeded”
(_Sohar_, ii., 218 b). The
“It is the germ (which the kabalists also maintain the
Divine Spirit produced from indestructibility of matter,
its own substance) which albeit their doctrine is
never perishes in the being, shrouded still more
for it becomes the soul of carefully than that of the
Being, and at the period of Hindus. The creation is
_pralaya_ (dissolution) it eternal, and the universe is
returns to absorb itself the “garment,” or “the veil
again _into the Divine_ of God”--Shekinah; and the
Spirit, _which itself_ rests latter is immortal and
from all eternity within eternal as Him within whom
Swayambhuva, the it has ever existed. Every
‘Self-Existent’” world is made after the
(_Institutes of Manu_, pattern of its predecessor,
book i.). and each more gross and
material than the preceding
As we have shown, neither one. In the _Kabala_ all
the Svâbhâvikas, Buddhist were called sparks. Finally,
philosophers--nor the our present grossly
Brahmans believe in a materialistic world was
creation of the universe _ex formed.
nihilo_, but both believe in
the _Prakriti_, the In the Chaldean account of
indestructibility of matter. the period which preceded
the Genesis of our world,
The evolution of species, Berosus speaks of a time
and the successive when there existed nothing
appearance of various new but darkness, and an abyss
types is very distinctly of waters, filled with
shown in _Manu_. hideous monsters, “produced
of a two-fold principle ....
“From earth, heat, and These were creatures in
water, are born all which were combined the
creatures, whether animate limbs of every species of
or inanimate, produced by animals. In addition to
the germ which the Divine these fishes, reptiles,
Spirit drew from its own serpents, with other
substance. Thus has Brahma monstrous animals, which
established the series of assumed each other’s shape
transformations from the and countenance.”[571]
plant up to man, and from
man up to the primordial
essence.... Among them each
succeeding being (or
element) acquires the
quality of the preceding;
and in as many degrees as
each of them is advanced,
with so many properties is
it said to be endowed”
(_Manu_, book i., sloka
20).[570]
This, we believe, is the
veritable theory of the
modern evolutionists.
In the first book of Manu, we read: “Know that the sum of 1,000
divine ages, composes the totality of one day of Brahma; and that one
night is equal to that day.” One thousand divine ages is equal to
4,320,000,000 of human years, in the Brahmanical calculations.
“At the expiration of each night, Brahma, who has been asleep,
awakes, and through the sole energy of the motion causes to emanate
from himself the spirit, which in its essence _is_, and yet is not.”
“Prompted by the desire to create, the Spirit (first of the
emanations) operates the creation and gives birth to ether, which the
sages consider as having the faculty of transmitting sound.
“Ether begets air whose property is tangible, and which is necessary
to life.
“Through a transformation of the air, light is produced.
“From air and light, which begets heat, water is formed, and the
water is the womb of all the living germs.”
Throughout the whole immense period of progressive creation,
covering 4,320,000,000 years, ether, air, water and fire (heat), are
constantly forming matter under the never-ceasing impulse of the
Spirit, or the _unrevealed_ God who fills up the whole creation,
for he is in all, and all is in him. This computation, which was
secret and which is hardly hinted at even now, led Higgins into the
error of dividing every ten ages into 6,000 years. Had he added a
few more ciphers to his sums he might have come nearer to a correct
explanation of the neroses, or secret cycles.[572]
In the _Sepher Jezireh_, the kabalistic Book of Creation, the author
has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it, the Divine Substance
is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless
and absolute; and emitted from itself the Spirit. “One is the Spirit
of the living God, blessed be His Name, who liveth for ever! Voice,
Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit;”[573] and this is the
kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized
by the Fathers. From this triple ONE emanated the whole Cosmos.
First from ONE emanated number TWO, or Air, the creative element;
and then number THREE, _Water_, proceeded from the air; _Ether_
or _Fire_ complete the mystic four, the Arba-il.[574] “When the
Concealed of the Concealed wanted to reveal Himself, he first made a
point (primordial point, or the first Sephira, air or Holy Ghost),
shaped it into a sacred form (the ten Sephiroth, or the Heavenly
man), and covered it with a rich and splendid garment, _that is the
world_.”[575] “He maketh the wind His messengers, flaming Fire his
servants,” says the _Jezireh_, showing the cosmical character of the
later euhemerized angels,[576] and that the Spirit permeates every
minutest atom of the Cosmos.[577]
When the cycle of creation is run down, the energy of the manifested
word is weakening. He alone, the Unconceivable, is unchangeable (ever
latent), but the Creative Force, though also eternal, as it has been
in the former from “no beginning,” yet must be subject to periodical
cycles of activity and rest; as it had a _beginning_ in one of its
aspects, when it first emanated, therefore must also have an end.
Thus, the evening succeeds the day, and the night of the deity
approaches. Brahma is gradually falling asleep. In one of the books
of _Sohar_, we read the following:
“As Moses was keeping a vigil on Mount Sinai, in company with the
Deity, who was concealed from his sight by a cloud, he felt a great
fear overcome him and suddenly asked: ‘Lord, where art Thou ...
sleepest thou, O Lord?’ And the _Spirit_ answered him: ‘I never
sleep; were I to fall asleep for a moment _before my time_, all
the Creation would crumble into dissolution in one instant.’” And
Vamadeva-Modēly describes the “Night of Brahma,” or the second period
of the Divine Unknown existence, thus:
“Strange noises are heard, proceeding from every point.... These are
the precursors of the Night of Brahma; _dusk rises at the horizon_
and the Sun passes away behind the thirtieth degree of Macara (sign
of the zodiac), and will reach no more the sign of the _Minas_
(zodiacal _pisces_, or fish). The gurus of the pagodas appointed
to watch the rās-chakr (Zodiac), may now break their circle and
instruments, for they are henceforth useless.
“Gradually light pales, heat diminishes, uninhabitable spots multiply
on the earth, the air becomes more and more rarefied; the springs of
waters dry up, the great rivers see their waves exhausted, the ocean
shows its sandy bottom, and plants die. Men and animals decrease in
size daily. Life and motion lose their force, planets can hardly
gravitate in space; they are extinguished one by one, like a lamp
which the hand of the chokra (servant) neglects to replenish. Sourya
(the Sun) flickers and goes out, matter falls into dissolution
(pralaya), and Brahma merges back into Dyäus, the Unrevealed God, and
his task being accomplished, he falls asleep. Another day is passed,
night sets in and continues until the future dawn.
“And now again re-enter into the golden egg of His Thought, the germs
of all that exist, as the divine Manu tells us. During His peaceful
rest, the animated beings, endowed with the principles of action,
cease their functions, and all feeling (manas) becomes dormant. When
they are all absorbed in the SUPREME SOUL, this Soul of all the
beings sleeps in complete repose, till the day when it resumes its
form, and awakes again from its primitive darkness.”[578]
If we now examine the ten mythical avatars of Vishnu, we find them
recorded in the following progression:
1. Matsya-Avatar: as a fish. It will also be his tenth and last
avatar, at the end of the Kali-yug.
2. Kurm-Avatar: as a tortoise.
3. Varaha: as a boar.
4. Nara-Sing: as a _man-lion_; last animal stage.
5. Vamuna: as a dwarf; first step toward the human form.
6. Parasu-Rama: as a hero, but yet an imperfect man.
7. Rama-Chandra: as the hero of Ramayâna. Physically a perfect man;
his next of kin, friend and ally Hanoumā, the monkey-god. _The monkey
endowed with speech._[579]
8. Christna-Avatar: the Son of the Virgin Devanaguy (or Devaki) one
formed by God, or rather by the manifested Deity Vishnu, who is
identical with Adam Kadmon.[580] Christna is also called Kaneya, the
Son of the Virgin.
9. Gautama-Buddha, Siddhârtha, or Sakya-muni. (The Buddhists reject
this doctrine of their Buddha being an incarnation of Vishnu.)
10. This avatar has not yet occurred. It is expected in the future,
like the Christian Advent, the idea of which was undoubtedly copied
from the Hindu. When Vishnu appears for the last time he will come
as a “Saviour.” According to the opinion of some Brahmans he will
appear himself under the form of the horse Kalki. Others maintain
that he will be mounting it. This horse is the envelope of the
spirit of evil, and Vishnu will mount it, invisible to all, till he
has conquered it for the last time. The “Kalki-Avataram,” or the
last incarnation, divides Brahmanism into two sects. That of the
Vaïhnâva refuses to recognize the incarnations of their god Vishnu in
animal forms literally. They claim that these must be understood as
allegorical.
In this diagram of avatars we see traced the gradual evolution and
transformation of all species out of the ante-Silurian mud of Darwin
and the _ilus_ of Sanchoniathon and Berosus. Beginning with the
Azoic time, corresponding to the _ilus_ in which Brahma implants
the creative germ, we pass through the Palæozoic and Mesozoic
times, covered by the first and second incarnations as the fish and
tortoise; and the Cenozoic, which is embraced by the incarnations
in the animal and semi-human forms of the boar and man-lion; and we
come to the fifth and crowning geological period, designated as the
“era of mind, or age of man,” whose symbol in the Hindu mythology is
the dwarf--the first attempt of nature at the creation of man. In
this diagram we should follow the main-idea, not judge the degree of
knowledge of the ancient philosophers by the literal acceptance of
the popular form in which it is presented to us in the grand epical
poem of _Maha-Bharata_ and its chapter the _Bagaved-gitta_.
Even the four ages of the Hindu chronology contain a far more
philosophical idea than appears on the surface. It defines them
according to both the psychological or mental and the physical states
of man during their period. Crita-yug, the golden age, the “age of
joy,” or spiritual innocence of man; Treta-yug, the age of silver,
or that of fire--the period of supremacy of man and of giants and of
the sons of God; Dwapara-yug, the age of bronze--a mixture already
of purity and impurity (spirit and matter), the age of doubt; and at
last our own, the Kali-yug, or age of iron, of darkness, misery, and
sorrow. In this age, Vishnu had to incarnate himself in Christna,
in order to save humanity from the goddess Kali, consort of Siva,
the all-annihilating--the goddess of death, destruction, and human
misery. Kali is the best emblem to represent the “fall of man;”
the falling of spirit into the degradation of matter, with all its
terrific results. We have to rid ourselves of Kali before we can ever
reach “Moksha,” or Nirvana, the abode of blessed Peace and Spirit.
With the Buddhists the last incarnation is the fifth. When
Maitree-Buddha comes, then our present world will be destroyed; and
a new and a better one will replace it. The four arms of every Hindu
Deity are the emblems of the four preceding manifestations of our
earth from its invisible state, while its head typifies the fifth and
last _Kalki_-Avatar, when this would be destroyed, and the power of
Budh--Wisdom (with the Hindus, of Brahma), will be again called into
requisition to manifest itself--as a _Logos_--to create the future
world.
In this diagram, the male gods typify Spirit in its deific
attributes, while their female counterparts--the _Sakti_, represent
the active energies of these attributes. The _Durga_ (active virtue),
is a subtile, invisible force, which answers to Shekinah--the garment
of En-Soph. She is the Sakti through which the passive “Eternal”
calls forth the visible universe from its first ideal conception.
Every one of the three personages of the exoteric Trimurti are shown
as using their _Sakti_ as a _Vehan_ (vehicle). Each of them is for
the time being the form which sits upon the mysterious wagon of
Ezekiel.
Nor do we see less clearly carried out in this succession of avatars,
the truly philosophical idea of a simultaneous spiritual and physical
evolution of creatures and man. From a fish the progress of this dual
transformation carries on the physical form through the shape of a
tortoise, a boar, and a man-lion; and then, appearing in the dwarf of
humanity, it shows Parasu Rama physically, a perfect, spiritually,
an undeveloped entity, until it carries mankind personified by one
god-like man, to the apex of physical and spiritual perfection--a god
on earth. In Christna and the other Saviours of the world we see the
philosophical idea of the progressive dual development understood
and as clearly expressed in the _Sohar_. The “Heavenly man,” who is
the Protogonos, Tikkun, the first-born of God, or the universal Form
and Idea, engenders Adam. Hence the latter is god-born in humanity,
and endowed with the attributes of all the ten Sephiroth. These are:
Wisdom, Intelligence, Justice, Love, Beauty, Splendor, Firmness,
etc. They make him the Foundation or basis, “_the mighty living
one_,” אלחי, and the crown of creation, thus placing him as the
Alpha and Omega to reign over the “kingdom”--Malchuth. “Man is both
the import and the highest degree of creation,” says the _Sohar_. “As
soon as man was created, everything was complete, including the upper
and nether worlds, for everything is comprised in man. He unites in
himself all forms” (iii., p. 48 a).
But this does not relate to our degenerated mankind; it is only
occasionally that men are born who are the types of what man should
be, and yet is not. The first races of men were spiritual, and their
protoplastic bodies were not composed of the gross and material
substances of which we see them composed now-a-day. The first men
were created with all the faculties of the Deity, and powers far
transcending those of the angelic host; for they were the direct
emanations of Adam Kadmon, the primitive man, the Macrocosm; while
the present humanity is several degrees removed even from the earthly
Adam, who was the Microcosm, or “the little world.” Seir Anpin,
the mystical figure of the Man, consists of 243 numbers, and we
see in the circles which follow each other that it is the angels
which emanated from the “Primitive Man,” not the Sephiroth from
angels. Hence, man was intended from the first to be a being of
both a progressive and retrogressive nature. Beginning at the apex
of the divine cycle, he gradually began receding from the centre of
Light, acquiring at every new and lower sphere of being (worlds each
inhabited by a different race of human beings) a more solid physical
form and losing a portion of his _divine_ faculties.
In the “fall of Adam” we must see, not the personal transgression of
man, but simply the law of the dual evolution. Adam, or “Man,” begins
his career of existences by dwelling in the garden of Eden “dressed
in the celestial garment, which _is a garment of heavenly light_”
(_Sohar_, ii., 229 b); but when expelled he is “clothed” by God, or
the eternal law of Evolution or necessarianism, with coats of skin.
But even on this earth of material degradation--in which the divine
spark (Soul, a corruscation of the Spirit) was to begin its physical
progression in a series of imprisonments from a stone up to a man’s
body--if he but exercise his WILL and call his deity to his help, man
can transcend the powers of the angel. “Know ye not that we shall
judge angels?” asks Paul (_1 Corinthians_, vi. 3). The real man is
the Soul (Spirit), teaches the _Sohar_. “The mystery of the earthly
man is after the mystery of the heavenly man ... the wise can read
the mysteries in the human face” (ii., 76 a).
This is still another of the many sentences by which Paul must be
recognized as an initiate. For reasons fully explained, we give far
more credit for genuineness to certain Epistles of the apostles, now
dismissed as apocryphal, than to many suspicious portions of the
_Acts_. And we find corroboration of this view in the _Epistle of
Paul to Seneca_. In this message Paul styles Seneca “my respected
master,” while Seneca terms the apostle simply “brother.”
No more than the true religion of Judaic philosophy can be judged
by the absurdities of the exoteric _Bible_, have we any right to
form an opinion of Brahmanism and Buddhism by their nonsensical and
sometimes disgusting popular forms. If we only search for the true
essence of the philosophy of both _Manu_ and the _Kabala_, we will
find that Vishnu is, as well as Adam Kadmon, the expression of the
universe itself; and that his incarnations are but concrete and
various embodiments of the manifestations of this “Stupendous Whole.”
“I am the Soul, O, Arjuna. I am the Soul which exists in the heart of
all beings; and I am the beginning and the middle, and also the end
of existing things,” says Vishnu to his disciple, in _Bagaved-gitta_
(ch. x., p. 71).
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.... I am the first
and the last,” says Jesus to John (_Rev._ i. 6, 17).
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are a trinity in a unity, and, like the
Christian trinity, they are mutually convertible. In the esoteric
doctrine they are one and the same manifestation of him “whose name
is too sacred to be pronounced, and whose power is too majestic and
infinite to be imagined.” Thus by describing the avatars of one, all
others are included in the allegory, with a change of form but not of
substance. It is out of such manifestations that emanated the many
worlds that were, and that will emanate the one--which is to come.
Coleman, followed in it by other Orientalists, presents the seventh
avatar of Vishnu in the most caricatured way.[581] Apart from the
fact that the _Ramayana_ is one of the grandest epic poems in the
world--the source and origin of Homer’s inspiration--this avatar
conceals one of the most scientific problems of our modern day.
The learned Brahmans of India never understood the allegory of the
famous war between men, giants, and monkeys, otherwise than in the
light of the transformation of species. It is our firm belief that
were European academicians to seek for information from some learned
native Brahmans, instead of unanimously and incontinently rejecting
their authority, and were they, like Jacolliot--against whom they
have nearly all arrayed themselves--to seek for light in the oldest
documents scattered about the country in pagodas, they might
learn strange but not useless lessons. Let any one inquire of an
_educated_ Brahman the reason for the respect shown to monkeys--the
origin of which feeling is indicated in the story of the valorous
feats of Hanoumā, the generalissimo and faithful ally of the hero
of Ramayana,[582] and he would soon be disabused of the erroneous
idea that the Hindus accord deific honors to a monkey-_god_. He
would, perhaps, learn--were the Brahman to judge him worthy of an
explanation--that the Hindu sees in the ape but what Manu desired he
should: the transformation of species most directly connected with
that of the human family--a bastard branch engrafted on their own
stock before the final perfection of the latter.[583] He might learn,
further, that in the eyes of the educated “heathen” the spiritual
or _inner_ man is one thing, and his terrestrial, physical casket
another. That _physical_ nature, the great combination of physical
correlations of forces ever creeping on toward perfection, has to
avail herself of the material at hand; she models and remodels as she
proceeds, and finishing her crowning work in man, presents him alone
as a fit tabernacle for the overshadowing of the Divine spirit. But
the latter circumstance does not give man the right of life and death
over the animals lower than himself in the scale of _nature_, or
the right to torture them. Quite the reverse. Besides being endowed
with a soul--of which every animal, and even plant, is more or less
possessed--man has his immortal _rational_ soul, or _nous_, which
ought to make him at least equal in magnanimity to the elephant,
who treads so carefully, lest he should crush weaker creatures than
himself. It is this feeling which prompts Brahman and Buddhist alike
to construct hospitals for sick animals, and even insects, and to
prepare refuges wherein they may finish their days. It is this same
feeling, again, which causes the Jaïn sectarian to sacrifice one-half
of his life-time to brushing away from his path the helpless,
crawling insects, rather than recklessly deprive the smallest of
life; and it is again from this sense of highest benevolence and
charity toward the weaker, however abject the creature may be,
that they honor one of the natural modifications of their own dual
nature, and that later the popular belief in metempsychosis arose.
No trace of the latter is to be found in the _Vedas_; and the true
interpretation of the doctrine, discussed at length in _Manu_ and
the Buddhistic sacred books, having been confined from the first to
the learned sacerdotal castes, the false and foolish popular ideas
concerning it need occasion no surprise.
Upon those who, in the remains of antiquity, see evidence that modern
times can lay small claim to originality, it is common to charge a
disposition to exaggerate and distort facts. But the candid reader
will scarcely aver that the above is an example in point. There were
evolutionists before the day when the mythical Noah is made, in the
_Bible_, to float in his ark; and the ancient scientists were better
informed, and had their theories more logically defined than the
modern evolutionists.
Plato, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, the Eleatic schools of Greece, as well
as the old Chaldean sacerdotal colleges, all taught the doctrine of
the dual evolution; the doctrine of the transmigration of souls
referring only to the progress of man from world to world, after
death here. Every philosophy worthy of the name, taught that the
_spirit_ of man, if not the _soul_, was preëxistent. “The Essenes,”
says Josephus, “believed that the souls were immortal, and that they
descended from the ethereal spaces to be chained to bodies.”[584] In
his turn, Philo Judæus says, the “air is full of them (of souls);
those which are nearest the earth, descending to be tied to mortal
bodies, παλινδρομοῦσι αὖθις, return to other bodies, being desirous to
live in them.”[585] In the _Sohar_, the soul is made to plead her
freedom before God: “Lord of the Universe! I am happy in this world,
and do not wish to go into another world, where I shall be a handmaid,
and be exposed to all kinds of pollutions.”[586] The doctrine of fatal
necessity, the everlasting immutable Law, is asserted in the answer of
the Deity: “Against thy will thou becomest an embryo, and against thy
will thou art born.”[587] Light would be incomprehensible without
darkness, to make it manifest by contrast; good would be no good
without evil, to show the priceless nature of the boon; and so,
personal virtue could claim no merit, unless it had passed through the
furnace of temptation. Nothing is eternal and unchangeable, save the
Concealed Deity. Nothing that is finite--whether because it had a
beginning, or must have an end--can remain stationary. It must either
progress or recede; and a soul which thirsts after a reünion with its
spirit, which alone confers upon it immortality, must purify itself
through cyclic transmigrations, onward toward the only Land of Bliss and
Eternal Rest, called in the _Sohar_, “The Palace of Love,” היבל אהבת;
in the Hindu religion, “Moksha;” among the Gnostics, the “Pleroma of
eternal Light;” and by the Buddhists, Nirvana. The Christian calls it
the “Kingdom of Heaven,” and claims to have alone found the truth,
whereas he has but invented a new name for a doctrine which is coëval
with man.
The proof that the transmigration of the soul does not relate to
man’s condition on this earth _after_ death, is found in the _Sohar_,
notwithstanding the many incorrect renderings of its translators.
“All souls which have alienated themselves in heaven from the Holy
One--blessed be His Name--have thrown themselves into an abyss at
their very existence, and have anticipated the time when they are
to descend on earth.[588]... Come and see when the soul reaches
the abode of Love.... The soul could not bear this light, but for
the luminous mantle which she puts on. For, just as the soul, when
sent to this earth, puts on an earthly garment to preserve herself
here, so she receives above a shining garment, in order to be able
to look without injury into the mirror, whose light proceeds from
the Lord of Light.”[589] Moreover, the _Sohar_ teaches that the soul
cannot reach the abode of bliss, unless she has received the “holy
kiss,” or the re-union of the soul _with the substance from which
she emanated_--spirit. All souls are dual, and, while the latter
is a feminine principle, the spirit is masculine. While imprisoned
in body, man is a trinity, unless his pollution is such as to have
caused his divorce from the spirit. “Woe to the soul which prefers to
her divine husband (spirit), the earthly wedlock with her terrestrial
body,” records a text of the _Book of the Keys_.[590]
These ideas on the transmigrations and the trinity of man, were
held by many of the early Christian Fathers. It is the jumble made
by the translators of the _New Testament_ and ancient philosophical
treatises between soul and spirit, that has occasioned the many
misunderstandings. It is also one of the many reasons why Buddha,
Plotinus, and so many other initiates are now accused of having
longed for the total extinction of their souls--“absorption unto the
Deity,” or “reunion with the universal soul,” meaning, according
to modern ideas, annihilation. The animal soul must, of course, be
disintegrated of its particles, before it is able to link its purer
essence forever with the immortal spirit. But the translators of
both the _Acts_ and the _Epistles_, who laid the foundation of the
_Kingdom of Heaven_, and the modern commentators on the Buddhist
_Sutra of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness_, have
muddled the sense of the great apostle of Christianity, as of the
great reformer of India. The former have smothered the word φυχικος,
so that no reader imagines it to have any relation with _soul_; and
with this confusion of _soul_ and _spirit_ together, _Bible_ readers
get only a perverted sense of anything on the subject; and the
interpreters of the latter have failed to understand the meaning and
object of the Buddhist four degrees of Dhyâna.
In the writings of Paul, the entity of man is divided into a
trine--flesh, psychical existence or _soul_, and the overshadowing
and at the same time interior entity or SPIRIT. His phraseology is
very definite, when he teaches the _anastasis_, or the continuation
of life of those who have died. He maintains that there is a
_psychical_ body which is sown in the corruptible, and a spiritual
body that is raised in incorruptible substance. “The first man is
of the earth earthy, the second man from heaven.” Even James (iii.
15) identifies the soul by saying that its “wisdom descendeth not
from the above but is terrestrial, _psychical_, _demoniacal_” (see
Greek text). Plato, speaking of the Soul (_psuché_), observes that
“when she allies herself to the _nous_ (divine substance, a god, as
psuché is a goddess), she does everything aright and felicitously;
but the case is otherwise when she attaches herself to _Annoia_.”
What Plato calls _nous_, Paul terms the _Spirit_; and Jesus makes
the _heart_ what Paul says of the _flesh_. The natural condition of
mankind was called in Greek αποστασια; the new condition αναστασις. In
Adam came the former (death), in Christ the latter (resurrection), for
it is he who first publicly taught mankind the “Noble Path” to Eternal
life, as Gautama pointed the same Path to Nirvana. To accomplish both
ends there was but one way, according to the teachings of both.
“Poverty, chastity, contemplation or inner prayer; contempt for wealth
and the illusive joys of this world.”
“Enter on this Path and put an end to sorrow; verily the Path has
been preached by me, who have found out how to quench the darts of
grief. You yourselves must make the effort; _the Buddhas are only
preachers_. The thoughtful who enter the Path are freed from the
bondage of the Deceiver (Marâ).[591]
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction.... Follow me.... Every one
that heareth these sayings and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man” (_Matthew_ vii. and viii.). “_I can of mine own
self do nothing_” (_John_ v. 30). “The care of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches, choke the word” (_Matthew_ xiii. 22), say
the Christians; and it is only by shaking off all delusions that the
Buddhist enters on the “Path” which will lead him “away from the
restless tossing waves of the ocean of life,” and take him “to the
calm City of Peace, to the real joy and rest of Nirvana.”
The Greek philosophers are alike made misty instead of mystic by their
too learned translators. The Egyptians revered the Divine Spirit, the
One-Only One, as NOUT. It is most evident that it is from that word
that Anaxagoras borrowed his denominative _nous_, or, as he calls it,
Νοῦς αυτοκρατης--the Mind or Spirit self-potent, the αρχητης κινησεως.
“All things,” says he, “were in chaos; then came Νοῦς and introduced
order.” He also denominated this Νοῦς the One that ruled the many. In
his idea Νοῦς was God; and the _Logos_ was man, the emanation of the
former. The external powers perceived _phenomena_; the _nous_ alone
recognized _noumena_ or subjective things. This is purely Buddhistic
and esoteric.
Here Socrates took his clew and followed it, and Plato after
him, with the whole world of interior knowledge. Where the old
Ionico-Italian world culminated in Anaxagoras, the new world began
with Socrates and Plato. Pythagoras made the _Soul_ a self-moving
unit, with three elements, the _nous_, the _phren_ and the _thumos_;
the latter two, shared with the brutes; the former only, being his
essential _self_. So the charge that he taught transmigration is
refuted; he taught no more than Gautama-Buddha ever did, whatever the
popular superstition of the Hindu rabble made of it after his death.
Whether Pythagoras borrowed from Buddha, or Buddha from somebody
else, matters not; the esoteric doctrine is the same.
The Platonic School is even more distinct in enunciating all this.
The real selfhood was at the basis of all. Socrates therefore taught
that he had a δαιμόνιον (_daimonion_), a spiritual something which put
him in the road to wisdom. He himself knew nothing, but this put him
in the way to learn all.
Plato followed him with a full investigation of the principles of
being. There was an _Agathon_, Supreme God, who produced in his own
mind a _paradeigma_ of all things.
He taught that in man was “the immortal principle of the soul,” a
mortal body, and a “separate mortal kind of soul,” which was placed
in a separate receptacle of the body from the other; the immortal
part was in the head (_Timæus_ xix., xx.) the other in the trunk
(xliv.).
Nothing is plainer than that Plato regarded the interior man as
constituted of two parts--one always the same, formed of the same
entity as Deity, and one mortal and corruptible.
“Plato and Pythagoras,” says Plutarch, “distribute the soul into two
parts, the rational (noëtic) and irrational (_agnoia_); that that
part of the soul of man which is rational, is eternal; for though it
be not God, yet it is the product of an eternal deity, but that part
of the soul which is divested of reason (_agnoia_) dies.”
“Man,” says Plutarch, “is compound; and they are mistaken who think
him to be compounded of two parts only. For they imagine that the
understanding is a part of the soul, but they err in this no less
than those who make the soul to be a part of the body, for the
understanding (_nous_) as far exceeds the soul, as the soul is better
and diviner than the body. Now this composition of the soul (φυχη)
with the understanding (νοῦς) makes reason; and with the body,
passion; of which the one is the beginning or principle of pleasure
and pain, and the other of virtue and vice. Of these three parts
conjoined and compacted together, the earth has given the body, the
moon the soul, and the sun the understanding to the generation of man.
“Now of the deaths we die, _the one makes man two of three_, and the
other, _one_ of (out of) two. The former is in the region and
jurisdiction of Demeter, whence the name given to the Mysteries τελειν
resembled that given to death, τελευταν. The Athenians also heretofore
called the deceased sacred to Demeter. As for the _other death_ it is
in the moon or region of Persophoné. And as with the one the
terrestrial, so with the other the celestial Hermes doth dwell. This
suddenly and with violence plucks the soul from the body; but
Proserpina mildly and in a long time disjoins the understanding from
the soul. For this reason she is called _Monogenes_, _only-begotten_,
or rather _begetting one alone_; for the better part of man becomes
alone when it is separated by her. Now both the one and the other
happens thus according to nature. It is ordained by Faith that every
soul, whether with or without understanding (νοῦς), when gone out of
the body, should wander for a time, though not all for the same, in
the region lying between the earth and moon. For those that have been
unjust and dissolute suffer there the punishment due to their
offences; but the good and virtuous are there detained till they are
purified, and have, by expiation, purged out of them all the
infections they might have contracted from the contagion of the body,
as if from foul health, living in the mildest part of the air, called
the Meadows of Hades, where they must remain for a certain prefixed
and appointed time. And then, as if they were returning from a
wandering pilgrimage or long exile into their country, they have a
taste of joy, such as they principally receive who are initiated into
Sacred Mysteries, mixed with trouble, admiration, and each one’s
proper and peculiar hope.”
The _dæmonium_ of Socrates was this νοῦς, mind, spirit, or
understanding of the divine in it. “The νοῦς of Socrates,” says
Plutarch, “was pure and mixed itself with the body no more than
necessity required.... Every soul hath some portion of νοῦς, reason, a
man cannot be a man without it; but as much of each soul as is mixed
with flesh and appetite is changed and through pain or pleasure
becomes irrational. Every soul doth not mix herself after one sort;
some plunge themselves into the body, and so, in this life their whole
frame is corrupted by appetite and passion; others are mixed as to
some part, but the purer part [nous] still remains _without the body_.
It is not drawn down into the body, but it swims above and touches
(overshadows) the extremest part of the man’s head; it is like a cord
to hold up and direct the subsiding part of the soul, as long as it
proves obedient and is not overcome by the appetites of the flesh. The
part that is plunged into the body is called _soul_. But the
incorruptible part is called the _nous_ and _the vulgar think it is
within them_, as they likewise imagine the image reflected from a
glass to be in that glass. But the more intelligent, who know it to be
without, call it a Daëmon” (a god, a spirit).
“The soul, like to a dream, flies quick away, which it does not
immediately, as soon as it is separated from the body, but afterward,
when it is alone and divided from the understanding (_nous_)....
The soul being moulded and formed by the understanding (_nous_),
and itself moulding and forming the body, by embracing it on every
side, receives from it an impression and form; so that although it be
separated both from the understanding and the body, it nevertheless
so retains still its figure and resemblance for a long time, that it
may, with good right, be called its image.
“And of these souls the moon is the element, because souls resolve
into her, as the bodies of the deceased do into earth. Those, indeed,
who have been virtuous and honest, living a quiet and philosophical
life, without embroiling themselves in troublesome affairs, are
quickly resolved; because, being left by the nous, understanding, and
no longer using the corporeal passions, they incontinently vanish
away.”
We find even Irenæus, that untiring and mortal enemy of every Grecian
and “heathen” heresy, explain his belief in the trinity of man. The
perfect man, according to his views, consists of _flesh_, _soul_,
and _spirit_. “... carne, anima, spiritu, altero quidem figurante,
spiritu, altero quod formatur, carne. Id vero quod inter haec est
duo, est anima, quae aliquando subsequens spiritum elevatur ab eo,
aliquando autem consentient carni in terrenas concupiscentias”
(_Irenæus_ v., 1).
And Origen, in his _Sixth Epistle to the Romans_, says: “There is a
threefold partition of man, the body or flesh, the lowest part of our
nature, on which the old serpent by original sin inscribed the law
of sin, and by which we are tempted to vile things, and as oft as we
are overcome by temptations are joined fast to the Devil; the spirit,
in or by which we express the likeness of the divine nature in which
the very Best Creator, from the archetype of his own mind, engraved
with his finger (that is, his spirit), the eternal law of honesty; by
this we are joined (conglutinated) to God and made one with God. In
the third, the soul mediates between these, which, as in a factious
republic, cannot but join with one party or the other, is solicited
this way and that and is at liberty to choose the side to which it
will adhere. If, renouncing the flesh, it betakes itself to the party
of the spirit it will itself become spiritual, but if it cast itself
down to the cupidities of the flesh it will degenerate itself into
body.”
Plato (in _Laws_ x.) defines _soul_ as “the motion that is able
to move itself.” “Soul is the most ancient of all things, and the
commencement of motion.” “Soul was generated prior to body, and body
is posterior and secondary, as being, according to nature, ruled over
by the ruling soul.” “The soul which administers all things that are
moved in every way, administers likewise the heavens.”
“Soul then leads everything in heaven, and on earth, and in the sea,
by its movements--the names of which are, to will, to consider, to
take care of, to consult, to form opinions true and false, to be in
a state of joy, sorrow, confidence, fear, hate, love, together with
all such primary movements as are allied to these ... being a goddess
herself, she ever takes as an ally NOUS, a god, and disciplines all
things correctly and happily; but when with _Annoia_--not _nous_--it
works out everything the contrary.”
In this language, as in the Buddhist texts, the negative is treated
as essential existence. _Annihilation_ comes under a similar
exegesis. The positive state, is essential being but no manifestation
as such. When the spirit, in Buddhistic parlance, entered _nirvana_,
it lost objective existence but retained subjective. To objective
minds this is becoming absolute nothing; to subjective, NO-thing,
nothing to be displayed to sense.
These rather lengthy quotations are necessary for our purpose.
Better than anything else, they show the agreement between the
oldest “Pagan” philosophies--not “assisted by the light of divine
revelation,” to use the curious expression of Laboulaye in relation
to Buddha--and the early Christianity of some Fathers. Both Pagan
philosophy and Christianity, however, owe their elevated ideas on
the soul and spirit of man and the unknown Deity to Buddhism and the
Hindu Manu. No wonder that the Manicheans maintained that Jesus was
a permutation of Gautama; that Buddha, Christ, and Mani were one
and the same person,[592] for the teachings of the former two were
identical. It was the doctrine of old India that Jesus held to when
preaching the complete renunciation of the world and its vanities in
order to reach the kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana, where “men neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but live like the angels.”
It is the philosophy of Siddhârtha-Buddha again that Pythagoras
expounded, when asserting that the _ego_ (νοῦς) was eternal with God,
and that the soul only passed through various stages (Hindu
_Rupa-locas_) to arrive at the divine excellence; meanwhile the
_thumos_ returned to the earth, and even the _phren_ was eliminated.
Thus the _metempsychosis_ was only a succession of disciplines through
refuge-heavens (called by the Buddhists _Zion_),[593] to work off the
exterior mind, to rid the _nous_ of the _phren_, or soul, the Buddhist
“Winyanaskandaya,” _that principle that lives_ from _Karma_ and the
Skandhas (groups). It is the latter, the metaphysical personations of
the “deeds” of man, whether good or bad, which, after the death of his
body, incarnate themselves, so to say, and form their many invisible
but never-dying compounds into a new body, or rather into an ethereal
being, the _double_ of what man was _morally_. It is the astral body
of the kabalist and the “incarnated deeds” which form the new sentient
self as his _Ahancara_ (the ego, self-consciousness), given to him by
the sovereign Master (the breath of God) can never perish, for it is
immortal _per se_ as a spirit; hence the sufferings of the newly-born
_self_ till he rids himself of every earthly thought, desire, and
passion.
We now see that the “four mysteries” of the Buddhist doctrine have
been as little understood and appreciated as the “wisdom” hinted at
by Paul, and spoken “among them that are _perfect_” (initiated),
the “mystery-wisdom” which “none of the _Archons_ of this world
knew.”[594] The fourth degree of the Buddhist Dhyâna, the fruit of
Samâdhi, which leads to the utmost perfection, to _Viconddham_, a
term correctly rendered by Burnouf in the verb “_perfected_,”[595] is
wholly misunderstood by others, as well as in himself. Defining the
condition of Dhyâna, St. Hilaire argues thus:
“Finally, having attained the fourth degree, the ascetic possesses
no more this feeling of beatitude, however obscure it may be ...
he has also lost all memory ... he has reached impassibility, as
near a neighbor of Nirvana as can be.... However, this absolute
impassibility does not hinder the ascetic from acquiring, at
this very moment, _omniscience and the magical power; a flagrant
contradiction, about which the Buddhists_ no more disturb themselves
than about so many others.”[596]
And why should they, when these contradictions are, in fact, no
contradictions at all? It ill behooves us to speak of contradictions
in other peoples’ religions, when those of our own have bred, besides
the three great conflicting bodies of Romanism, Protestantism, and
the Eastern Church, a thousand and one most curious smaller sects.
However it may be, we have here a term applied to one and the same
thing by the Buddhist holy “mendicants” and Paul, the Apostle. When
the latter says: “If so be that I might attain the _resurrection_
from among the dead [the Nirvana], not as though I had already
attained, or were already _perfect_” (initiated),[597] he uses an
expression common among the initiated Buddhists. When a Buddhist
ascetic has reached the “fourth degree,” he is considered a rahat.
He produces every kind of phenomena by the sole power of his freed
spirit. A _rahat_, say the Buddhists, is one who has acquired the
power of flying in the air, becoming invisible, commanding the
elements, and working all manner of wonders, commonly, and as
erroneously, called _meipo_ (miracles). He is a _perfect_ man, a
demi-god. A god he will become when he reaches Nirvana; for, like the
initiates of both Testaments, the worshippers of Buddha know that
they “are gods.”
“Genuine Buddhism, overleaping the barrier between finite and
infinite mind, urges its followers to aspire, _by their own efforts_,
to that divine perfectibility of which it teaches that man is
capable, and by attaining which man becomes _a god_,” says Brian
Houghton Hodgson.[598]
Dreary and sad were the ways, and blood-covered the tortuous paths by
which the world of the Christians was driven to embrace the Irenæan
and Eusebian Christianity. And yet, unless we accept the views of
the ancient Pagans, what claim has our generation to having solved
any of the mysteries of the “kingdom of heaven?” What more does the
most pious and learned of Christians know of the future destiny and
progress of our immortal spirits than the heathen philosopher of old,
or the modern “Pagan” beyond the Himalaya? Can he even boast that
he knows as much, although he works in the full blaze of “divine”
revelation? We have seen a Buddhist holding to the religion of his
fathers, both in theory and practice; and, however blind may be
his faith, however absurd his notions on some particular doctrinal
points, later engraftings of an ambitious clergy, yet in practical
works his Buddhism is far more Christ-like in deed and spirit than
the average life of our Christian priests and ministers. The fact
alone that his religion commands him to “honor his own faith, but
never slander that of other people,”[599] is sufficient. It places
the Buddhist lama immeasurably higher than any priest or clergyman
who deems it his sacred duty to curse the “heathen” to his face, and
sentence him and his religion to “eternal damnation.” Christianity
becomes every day more a religion of pure emotionalism. The doctrine
of Buddha is entirely based on practical works. A general love of all
beings, human and animal, is its nucleus. A man who knows that unless
he toils for himself he has to starve, and understands that he has
no scapegoat to carry the burden of his iniquities for him, is ten
times as likely to become a better man than one who is taught that
murder, theft, and profligacy can be washed in one instant as white
as snow, if he but believes in a God who, to borrow an expression of
Volney, “once took food upon earth, and is now himself the food of
his people.”
CHAPTER VII.
“Of the tenets of the Druzes, nothing authentic has ever
come to light; the popular belief amongst their neighbors
is, that they adore an idol in the form of a calf.”--KING:
_The Gnostics and their Remains_.
“O ye Lords of Truth without fault, who are forever cycling
for eternity ... save me from the annihilation of this
Region of the _Two Truths_.”--_Egyptian Ritual of the Dead._
“Pythagoras correctly regarded the “Ineffable Name”
of God ... as the Key to the Mysteries of the
universe.”--PANCOAST: _Blue and Red Light_.
In the next two chapters we shall notice the most important of the
Christian secret sects--the so-called “Heresies” which sprang into
existence between the first and fourth centuries of our era.
Glancing rapidly at the Ophites and Nazareans, we shall pass to their
scions which yet exist in Syria and Palestine, under the name of
Druzes of Mount Lebanon; and near Basra or Bassorah, in Persia, under
that of Mendæans, or Disciples of St. John. All these sects have an
immediate connection with our subject, for they are of kabalistic
parentage and have once held to the secret “Wisdom Religion,”
recognizing as the One Supreme, the Mystery-God of the _Ineffable
Name_. Noticing these numerous secret societies of the past, we
will bring them into direct comparison with several of the modern.
We will conclude with a brief survey of the Jesuits, and of that
venerable nightmare of the Roman Catholic Church--modern Freemasonry.
All of these modern as well as ancient fraternities--present
Freemasonry excepted--were and are more or less connected with
magic--practically, as well as theoretically; and, every one of
them--Freemasonry _not_ excepted--was and still is accused of
demonolatry, blasphemy, and licentiousness.
Our object is not to write the history of either of them; but only
to compare these sorely-abused communities with the Christian sects,
past and present, and then, taking historical facts for our guidance,
to defend the secret science as well as the men who are its students
and champions against any unjust imputation.
One by one the tide of time engulfed the sects of the early
centuries, until of the whole number only one survived in its
primitive integrity. That one still exists, still teaches the
doctrine of its founder, still exemplifies its faith in works of
power. The quicksands which swallowed up every other outgrowth of
the religious agitation of the times of Jesus, with its records,
relics, and traditions, proved firm ground for this. Driven from
their native land, its members found refuge in Persia, and to day the
anxious traveller may converse with the direct descendants of the
“Disciples of John,” who listened, on the Jordan’s shore, to the “man
sent from God,” and were baptized and believed. This curious people,
numbering 30,000 or more, are miscalled “Christians of St. John,” but
in fact should be known by their old name of Nazareans, or their new
one of Mendæans.
To term them Christians, is wholly unwarranted. They neither believe
in Jesus as Christ, nor accept his atonement, nor adhere to his
Church, nor revere its “Holy Scriptures.” Neither do they worship
the Jehovah-God of the Jews and Christians, a circumstance which of
course proves that their founder, John the Baptist, did not worship
him either. And if not, what right has he to a place in the _Bible_,
or in the portrait-gallery of Christian saints? Still further, if
Ferho was his God, and he was “a man sent by God,” he must have been
sent by Lord Ferho, and in his name baptized and preached? Now, if
Jesus was baptized by John, the inference is that he was baptized
according to his own faith; therefore, Jesus too, was a believer in
Ferho, or Faho, as they call him; a conclusion that seems the more
warranted by his silence as to the name of his “Father.” And why
should the hypothesis that _Faho_ is but one of the many corruptions
of Fho or Fo, as the Thibetans and Chinese call Buddha, appear
ridiculous? In the North of Nepaul, Buddha is more often called _Fo_
than _Buddha_. The Book of _Mahawānsa_ shows how early the work of
Buddhistic proselytism began in Nepaul; and history teaches that
Buddhist monks crowded into Syria[600] and Babylon in the century
preceding our era, and that Buddhasp (Bodhisatva) the alleged
Chaldean, was the founder of Sabism or _baptism_.[601]
What the actual Baptists, _el-Mogtasila_, or Nazareans, do believe,
is fully set forth in other places, for they are the very Nazarenes
of whom we have spoken so much, and from whose _Codex_ we have
quoted. Persecuted and threatened with annihilation, they took refuge
in the Nestorian body, and so allowed themselves to be arbitrarily
classed as Christians, but as soon as opportunity offered, they
separated, and now, for several centuries have not even nominally
deserved the appellation. That they are, nevertheless, so called by
ecclesiastical writers, is perhaps not very difficult to comprehend.
They know too much of early Christianity to be left outside the
pale, to bear witness against it with their traditions, without the
stigma of heresy and backsliding being fastened upon them to weaken
confidence in what they might say.
But where else can science find so good a field for biblical research
as among this too neglected people? No doubt of their inheritance of
the Baptist’s doctrine; their traditions are without a break. What
they teach now, their forefathers taught at every epoch where they
appear in history. They are the disciples of that John who is said
to have foretold the advent of Jesus, baptized him, and declared
that the latchet of his shoe he (John) was not worthy to unloose. As
they two--the Messenger and the Messiah--stood in the Jordan, and
the elder was consecrating the younger--his own cousin, too, humanly
speaking--the heavens opened and God Himself, in the shape of a dove,
descended in a glory upon his “Beloved Son!” How then, if this tale
be true, can we account for the strange infidelity which we find
among these surviving Nazareans? So far from believing Jesus the Only
Begotten Son of God, they actually told the Persian missionaries,
who, in the seventeenth century, first discovered them to Europeans,
that the Christ of the _New Testament_ was “a false teacher,” and
that the Jewish system, as well as that of Jesus (?), came from
the realm of darkness! Who knows better than they? Where can more
competent living witnesses be found? Christian ecclesiastics would
force upon us an anointed Saviour heralded by John, and the disciples
of this very Baptist, from the earliest centuries, have stigmatized
this ideal personage as an impostor, and his putative Father,
Jehovah, “a spurious God,” the Ilda-Baoth of the Ophites! Unlucky
for Christianity will be the day when some fearless and honest
scholar shall persuade their elders to let him translate the contents
of their secret books and compile their hoary traditions! It is a
strange delusion that makes some writers think that the Nazareans
have no other sacred literature, no other literary relics than four
doctrinal works, and that curious volume full of astrology and magic
which they are bound to peruse at the sunset hour, on every Sol’s day
(Sunday).
This search after truth leads us, indeed, into devious ways. Many
are the obstacles that ecclesiastical cunning has placed in the way
of our finding the primal source of religious ideas. Christianity is
on trial, and has been, ever since science felt strong enough to act
as Public Prosecutor. A portion of the case we are drafting in this
book. What of truth is there in this Theology? Through what sects has
it been transmitted? _Whence was it primarily derived?_ To answer,
we must trace the history of the World Religion, alike through the
secret Christian sects as through those of other great religious
subdivisions of the race; _for the Secret Doctrine is the Truth_,
and that religion is nearest divine that has contained it with least
adulteration.
Our search takes us hither and thither, but never aimlessly do we
bring sects widely separated in chronological order, into critical
juxtaposition. There is one purpose in our work to be kept constantly
in view--the analysis of religious beliefs, and the definition of
their descent from the past to the present. What has most blocked the
way is Roman Catholicism; and not until the secret principles of this
religion are uncovered can we comprehend the iron staff upon which it
leans to steady its now tottering steps.
We will begin with the Ophites, Nazareans, and the modern Druzes.
The personal views of the author, as they will be presented in the
diagrams, will be most decidedly at variance with the prejudiced
speculations of Irenæus, Theodoret, and Epiphanius (the sainted
renegade, who sold his brethren), inasmuch as they will reflect the
ideas of certain kabalists in close relations with the mysterious
Druzes of Mount Lebanon. The Syrian _okhals_, or Spiritualists, as
they are sometimes termed, are in possession of a great many ancient
manuscripts and gems, bearing upon our present subject.
The first _scheme_--that of the Ophites--from the very start, as
we have shown, varies from the description given by the Fathers,
inasmuch as it makes Bythos or depth, a female emanation, and assigns
her a place answering to that of Pleroma, only in a far superior
region; whereas, the Fathers assure us that the Gnostics gave the
name of Bythos to the First Cause. As in the kabalistic system, it
represents the boundless and infinite void within which is concealed
in darkness the Unknown Primal motor of all. It envelops HIM like
a veil: in short we recognize again the “Shekinah” of the En-Soph.
Alone, the name of ΙΑΩ, Iao, marks the upper centre, or rather the
presumed spot where the Unknown One may be supposed to dwell. Around
the Iao, runs the legend, ϹΕΜΕϹ ΕΙΛΑΜ ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ. “The eternal
Sun-Abrasax” (the Central Spiritual Sun of all the kabalists,
represented in some diagrams of the latter by the circle of
Tiphereth).
From this region of unfathomable Depth, issues forth a circle formed
of spirals; which, in the language of symbolism, means a grand cycle,
κυκλος, composed of smaller ones. Coiled within, so as to follow the
spirals, lies the serpent--emblem of wisdom and eternity--the Dual
Androgyne: the cycle representing _Ennoia_ or the Divine mind, and the
Serpent--the Agathodaimon, Ophis--the Shadow of the Light. Both were
the Logoï of the Ophites; or the unity as Logos manifesting itself as
a double principle of good and evil; for, according to their views,
these two principles are immutable, and existed from all eternity, as
they will ever continue to exist.
This symbol accounts for the adoration by this sect of the Serpent,
as the Saviour, coiled either around the Sacramental loaf or a Tau.
As a unity, Ennoia and Ophis are the Logos; when separated, one
is the Tree of Life (Spiritual); the other, the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil. Therefore, we find Ophis urging the first human
couple--the material production of Ilda-Baoth, but which owed its
spiritual principle to Sophia-Achamoth--to eat of the forbidden
fruit, although Ophis represents Divine Wisdom.
The Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree
of Life, are all symbols transplanted from the soil of India. The
Arasa-Maram, the banyan tree, so sacred with the Hindus, since
Vishnu, during one of his incarnations, reposed under its mighty
shade, and there taught humanity philosophy and sciences, is called
the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the protective
umbrage of this king of the forests, the Gurus teach their pupils
their first lessons on immortality and initiate them in the mysteries
of life and death. The _Java_-ALEIM of the Sacerdotal College are
said, in the Chaldean tradition, to have taught the sons of men
to become like one of them. To the present day Foh-tchou,[602]
who lives in his Foh-Maëyu, or temple of Buddha, on the top of
“Kouin-long-sang,”[603] the great mountain, produces his greatest
religious miracles under a tree called in Chinese Sung-Ming-Shŭ, or
the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, for ignorance is death,
and knowledge alone gives immortality. This marvellous display
takes place every three years, when an immense concourse of Chinese
Buddhists assemble in pilgrimage at the holy place.
Ilda-Baoth, the “Son of Darkness,” and the creator of the material
world, was made to inhabit the planet Saturn, which identifies him
still more with the Jewish Jehovah, who was Saturn himself, according
to the Ophites, and is by them denied his Sinaitic name. From
Ilda-Baoth emanate six spirits, who respectively dwell with their
father in the seven planets. These are Saba--or Mars; Adonai--Sol,
or the Sun;[604] Ievo--the Moon; Eloi--Jupiter; Astaphoi--Mercury
(spirit of water); and Ouraïos--Venus, spirit of fire.[605]
In their functions and description as given, these seven planets
are identical with the Hindu _Sapta-Loca_, the seven places or
spheres, or the superior and inferior worlds; for they represent the
kabalistic seven spheres. With the Ophites, they belong to the lower
spheres. The monograms of these Gnostic planets are also Buddhistic,
the latter differing, albeit slightly, from those of the usual
astrological “houses.” In the explanatory notes which accompany the
diagram, the names of Cirenthius (the disciple of Simon Magus), of
Menander, and of certain other Gnostics, whose names are not to be
met with in the Patristic writings, are often mentioned; such as
Parcha (Ferho), for instance.[606]
The author of the diagram claims, moreover, for his sect, the
greatest antiquity, bringing forward, as a proof, that their
“forefathers” were the builders of all the “Dracontia” temples,
even of those beyond “the great waters.” He asserts that the “Just
One,” who was the mouthpiece of the Eternal Æon (Christos), himself
sent his disciples into the world, placing them under the double
protection of Sige (Silence, the Logos), and Ophis, the Agathodæmon.
The author alludes, no doubt, to the favorite expression of Jesus,
“be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” On the diagram, Ophis
is represented as the Egyptian Cnuphis or Kneph, called Dracontiæ. He
appears as a serpent standing erect on its tail, with a lion’s head,
crowned and radiated, and bearing on the point of each ray one of
the seven Greek vowels--symbol of the seven celestial spheres. This
figure is quite familiar to those who are acquainted with the Gnostic
gems,[607] and is borrowed from the Egyptian _Hermetic books_. The
description given in the _Revelation_, of one “like unto the Son of
Man,” with his seven stars, and who is the Logos, is another form of
Ophis.
The Nazarene diagram, except in a change of names, is identical
with that of the Gnostics, who evidently borrowed their ideas from
it, adding a few appellations from the Basiledean and Valentinian
systems. To avoid repetition, we will now simply present the two in
parallel.
Thus, we find that, in the Nazarene Cosmogony, the names of their
powers and genii stand in the following relations to those of the
Gnostics:
NAZARENE. GNOSTIC-OPHITE.
_First Trinity._ _First Unity in a Trinity._
Lord FERHO--the Life which IAO--the Ineffable Name of
is no Life--the Supreme God. the Unknown Deity--Abraxas,
The _Cause_ which produces and the “Eternal Spiritual
the Light, or the Logos _in Sun.” Unity enclosed within
abscondito_. The water of the Depth, Bythos, feminine
Jordanus Maximus--the water principle--the boundless
of Life, or Ajar, the circle, within which lie all
feminine principle. Unity in ideal forms. From this Unity
a Trinity, enclosed within emanates
the ISH AMON.
_Second Trinity._ _Second Trinity._
(The manifestation (Idem.)
of the first.)
1. Lord MANO--the King of 1. Ennoia--mind.
Life and Light--_Rex Lucis_.
First LIFE, or the primitive
man.
2. Lord Jordan--manifestation 2. Ophis, the Agathodæmon.
or emanation of Jordan
Maximus--the waters of
grace. Second LIFE.
3. The Superior Father-- 3. Sophia Androgyne--wisdom;
Abatur. Third LIFE. who, in her turn--fecundated
with the Divine Light--produces
This Trinity produces also a Christos and Sophia-Achamoth
duad--Lord Ledhoio, and (one perfect, the other
Fetahil, the genius (the imperfect), as an emanation.
former, a perfect emanation,
the latter, imperfect).
Lord Jordan--“the Lord of Sophia-Achamoth emanates
all Jordans,” manifests Ilda-Baoth--the Demiurge,
NETUBTO (Faith _without_ who produces material and
Works).[608] soulless creation. “Works
_without_ Faith” (or
grace).[608]
Moreover, the Ophite seven planetary genii, who emanated one from the
other, are found again in the Nazarene religion, under the name of
the “seven impostor-dæmons,” or stellars, who “will deceive all the
sons of Adam.” These are _Sol_; _Spiritus Venereus_ (Holy Spirit, in
her material aspect),[609] the mother of the “seven badly-disposed
stellars,” answering to the Gnostic Achamoth; _Nebu_, or Mercury, “a
false Messiah, who will deprave the ancient worship of God;”[610] SIN
(or Luna, or Shuril); KIUN (Kivan, or Saturn); Bel-Jupiter; and the
seventh, _Nerig_, Mars (_Codex Nazaræus_, p. 57).
The Christos of the Gnostics is the chief of the seven Æons,
St. John’s seven spirits of God; the Nazarenes have also their
seven genii or good Æons, whose chief is _Rex Lucis_, MANO, their
Christos. The _Sapta Rishis_, the seven sages of India, inhabit the
_Sapta-Poura_, or the seven celestial cities.
What less or more do we find in the Universal Ecclesia, until the
days of the Reformation, and in the Roman Popish Church after
the separation? We have compared the relative value of the Hindu
Cosmogony; the Chaldeo, Zoroastrian, Jewish _Kabala_; and that of
the so-termed Hæretics. A correct diagram of the Judaico-CHRISTIAN
religion, to enforce which on the heathen who have furnished it,
are expended such great sums every year, would still better prove
the identity of the two; but we lack space and are also spared the
necessity of proving what is already thoroughly demonstrated.
In the Ophite gems of King (_Gnostics_), we find the name of Iao
repeated, and often confounded with that of Ievo, while the latter
simply represents one of the genii antagonistic to Abraxas. In order
that these names may not be taken as identical with the name of
the Jewish Jehovah we will at once explain this word. It seems to
us surpassingly strange that so many learned archæologists should
have so little insisted that there was more than one Jehovah, and
disclaimed that the name originated with Moses. Iao is certainly a
title of the Supreme Being, and belongs _partially_ to the Ineffable
Name; but it neither originated with nor was it the sole property of
the Jews. Even if it had pleased Moses to bestow the name upon the
tutelar “Spirit,” the alleged protector and national deity of the
“Chosen people of Israel,” there is yet no possible reason why other
nationalities should receive Him as the Highest and One-living God.
But we deny the assumption altogether. Besides, there is the fact that
Yaho or Iao was a “mystery name” from the beginning, יהוה and יה never
came into use before King David. Anterior to his time, few or no
proper names were compounded with _iah_ or jah. It looks rather as
though David, being a sojourner among the Tyrians and Philistines
(_2 Samuel_), brought thence the name of Jehovah. He made Zadok
high-priest, from whom came the Zadokites or Sadducees. He lived and
ruled first at Hebron חברון, Habir-on or Kabeir-town, where the rites
of the four (mystery-gods) were celebrated. Neither David nor Solomon
recognized either Moses or the law of Moses. They aspired to build a
temple to יהוה, like the structures erected by Hiram to Hercules and
Venus, Adon and Astarte.
Says Fürst: “The very ancient name of God, Yâho, written in the Greek
Ιαω, appears, apart _from its derivation_, to have been an old mystic
name of the Supreme deity of the Shemites. (Hence it was told to Moses
when initiated at HOR-EB--the _cave_, under the direction of Jethro,
the Kenite or Cainite priest of Midian.) In an old religion of the
Chaldeans, whose remains are to be found amongst the Neo-platonists,
the highest divinity enthroned above the seven heavens, representing
the Spiritual Light-Principle (_nous_)[611] and also conceived as
Demiurgus,[612] was called Ιαω יחד, who was, like the Hebrew Yâho,
mysterious and unmentionable, and whose name was communicated to
the initiated. The Phœnicians had a Supreme God whose name was
trilateral and _secret_, and he was Ιαω.”[613]
But while Fürst insists that the name has a Semitic origin, there
are other scholars who trace it farther than he does, and look back
beyond the classification of the Caucasians.
In Sanscrit we have Jah and Jaya, or Jaa and Ja-ga, and this throws
light on the origin of the famous festival of the car of Jaga-nath,
commonly called Jaggernâth. Javhe means “he who is,” and Dr. Spiegel
traces even the Persian name of God, “Ahura,” to the root _ah_,[614]
which in Sanscrit is pronounced _as_, to breathe, and _asu_,
became, therefore, in time, synonymous with “Spirit.”[615] Rawlinson
strongly supports the opinion of an Aryan or Vedic influence on the
early Babylonian mythology. We have given, a few pages back, the
strongest possible proofs of the identity of Vishnu with Dag-on.
The same may be adduced for the title of Ιαω, and its Sanscrit root
traced in every country. JU or _Jovis_ is the oldest Latin name for
God. “As male he is Ju-_piter_, or _Ju_, the father, pitär being
Sanscrit for father; as feminine, Ju-_no_ or Ju, the comforter--דוח
being the Phœnician word for rest and comfort.”[616] Professor Max
Müller shows that although “Dyaus,” sky, does not occur as a masculine
in the ordinary Sanscrit, yet it does occur in the _Veda_, “and thus
bears witness to the early Aryan worship of Dyaus, the Greek Zeus”
(_The Veda_).
To grasp the real and primitive sense of the term ΙΑΩ, and the reason
of its becoming the designation for the most mysterious of all
deities, we must search for its origin in the figurative phraseology
of all the primitive people. We must first of all go to the most
ancient sources for our information. In one of the _Books of Hermes_,
for instance, we find him saying that the number TEN is the mother of
the soul, and that the _life_ and _light_ are therein united. For “the
number 1 (one) is born from the spirit, and the number 10 (ten) from
matter;”[617] “the unity has made the TEN, the TEN the unity.”[618]
The kabalistic _gemantria_--one of the methods for extracting the
hidden meaning from letters, words, and sentences--is arithmetical.
It consists in applying to the letters of a word the sense they bear
as numbers, in _outward_ shape as well as in their individual sense.
Moreover, by the _Themura_ (another method used by the kabalists) any
word could be made to yield its mystery out of its anagram. Thus,
we find the author of _Sepher Jezira_ saying, one or two centuries
before our era:[619] “ONE, the spirit of the _Alahim_ of Lives.”[620]
So again, in the oldest kabalistic diagrams, the _ten_ Sephiroth are
represented as wheels or circles, and Adam Kadmon, the primitive man,
as an _upright_ pillar. “Wheels and seraphim and the holy creatures”
(chioth), says Rabbi Akiba.[621] In another system of the same branch
of the symbolical _Kabala_, called Athbach--which arranges the
letters of the alphabet by pairs in three rows--all the couples in
the first row bear the numerical value _ten_; and in the system of
Simeon Ben-Shetah,[622] the uppermost couple--the most sacred of all,
is preceded by the Pythagorean cipher, one and a nought, or zero--10.
If we can once appreciate the fact that, among all the peoples of the
highest antiquity, the most natural conception of the First Cause
manifesting itself in its creatures, and that to this they could not
but ascribe the creation of all, was that of an androgyne deity; that
the male principle was considered the vivifying invisible spirit,
and the female, mother nature; we shall be enabled to understand
how that mysterious cause came at first to be represented (in the
picture-writings, perhaps) as the combination of the Alpha and Omega
of numbers, a decimal, then as IAO, a trilateral name, containing in
itself a deep allegory.
_IAO_, in such a case, would--etymologically considered--mean the
“Breath of Life,” generated or springing forth between an upright
male and an egg-shaped female principle of nature; for, in Sanscrit,
_as_ means “to be,” “to live or exist;” and originally it meant “to
breathe.” “From it,” says Max Müller, “in its original sense of
breathing, the Hindus formed ‘asu,’ breath, and ‘asura,’ the name of
God, whether it meant the breathing one or the giver of breath.”[623]
It certainly meant the latter. In Hebrew, “Ah” and “Iah” mean life.
Cornelius Agrippa, in his treatise on the _Preëminence of Woman_,
shows that “the word Eve suggests comparison with the mystic symbols
of the kabalists, the name of the woman having affinity with the
ineffable Tetragrammaton, the most sacred name of the divinity.”
Ancient names were always consonant with the things they represented.
In relation to the mysterious name of the Deity in question, the
hitherto inexplicable hint of the kabalists as to the efficacy of the
letter H, “which Abram took away from his wife Sarah” and “put _into
the middle of his own name_,” becomes clear.
It may perhaps be argued, by way of objection, that it is not
ascertained as yet at what period of antiquity the _nought_ occurs
for the first time in Indian manuscripts or inscriptions. Be
that as it may, the case presents circumstantial evidence of too
strong a character not to carry a conviction of probability with
it. According to Max Müller “the two words ‘cipher’ and ‘zero,’
which are in reality but one ... are sufficient to prove that our
figures are borrowed from the Arabs.”[624] Cipher is the Arabic
“cifron,” and means _empty_, a translation of the Sanscrit name
of the nought “synya,” he says. The Arabs had their figures from
Hindustan, and never claimed the discovery for themselves.[625] As
to the Pythagoreans, we need but turn to the ancient manuscripts
of Boëthius’s _Geometry_, composed in the sixth century, to find
in the Pythagorean numerals[626] the 1 and the _nought_, as
the first and final cipher. And Porphyry, who quotes from the
Pythagorean _Moderatus_,[627] says that the numerals of Pythagoras
were “hieroglyphical symbols, by means whereof he explained ideas
concerning the nature of things.”
Now, if the most ancient Indian manuscripts show as yet no trace of
decimal notation in them, Max Müller states very clearly that until
now he has found but nine letters (the initials of the Sanscrit
numerals) in them--on the other hand we have records as ancient to
supply the wanted proof. We speak of the sculptures and the sacred
imagery in the most ancient temples of the far East. Pythagoras
derived his knowledge from India; and we find Professor Max Müller
corroborating this statement, at least so far as allowing the
_Neo_-Pythagoreans to have been the first teachers of “ciphering”
among the Greeks and Romans; that “they, at Alexandria, or in Syria,
became acquainted with the Indian figures, and adapted them to the
Pythagorean abacus” (our figures). This cautious allowance implies
that Pythagoras himself was acquainted with but _nine_ figures. So
that we might reasonably answer that although we possess no certain
proof that the decimal notation was known to Pythagoras, who lived
on the very close of the archaic ages,[628] we yet have sufficient
evidence to show that the full numbers, as given by Boëthius, were
known to the Pythagoreans, even before Alexandria was built.[629]
This evidence we find in Aristotle, who says that “some philosophers
hold that ideas and numbers are of the same nature, and amount to
TEN in all.”[630] This, we believe, will be sufficient to show that
the decimal notation was known among them at least as early as four
centuries B.C., for Aristotle does not seem to treat the question as
an innovation of the “Neo-Pythagoreans.”
Besides, as we have remarked above, the representations of the
archaic deities, on the walls of the temples, are of themselves quite
suggestive enough. So, for instance, Vishnu is represented in the
Kurmavatara (his second avatar) as a tortoise sustaining a circular
pillar, on which the semblance of himself (Maya, or the illusion)
sits with all his attributes. While one hand holds a flower, another
a club, the third a shell, the fourth, generally the upper one, or
at the right--holds on his forefinger, extended as the cipher 1,
the _chakra_, or discus, which resembles a ring, or a wheel, and
might be taken for the nought. In his first avatar, the Matsyavatam,
when emerging from the fish’s mouth, he is represented in the same
position.[631] The ten-armed Durga of Bengal; the ten-headed Ravana,
the giant; Parvati--as Durga, Indra, and Indrani, are found with this
attribute, which is a perfect representation of the May-pole.[632]
The holiest of the temples among the Hindus, are those of Jaggarnâth.
This deity is worshipped equally by all the sects of India, and
_Jagg_arnâth is named “The Lord of the World.” He is the god of the
Mysteries, and his temples, which are most numerous in Bengal, are
all of a pyramidal form.
There is no other deity which affords such a variety of etymologies
as Iaho, nor a name which can be so variously pronounced. It is only
by associating it with the Masoretic points that the later Rabbins
succeeded in making Jehovah read “Adonaï”--or Lord. Philo Byblus
spells it in Greek letters ΙΕΥΩ--IEOV. Theodoret says that the
Samaritans pronounced it _Iabè_ (_Yahva_) and the Jews Yaho; which
would make it as we have shown I-ah-O. Diodorus states that “among the
Jews they relate that Moses called the God Ιαω.” It is on the
authority of the _Bible_ itself, therefore, that we maintain that
before his initiation by Jethro, his father-in-law, Moses had never
known the word Iaho. The future Deity of the sons of Israel calls out
from the burning bush and gives His name as “I am that I am,” and
specifies carefully that He is the “Lord God of the Hebrews” (_Exod._
iii. 18), not of the other nations. Judging him by his own acts,
throughout the Jewish records, we doubt whether Christ himself, had he
appeared in the days of the _Exodus_, would have been welcomed by the
irascible Sinaitic Deity. However, “The Lord God,” who becomes, on His
own confession, Jehovah only in the 6th chapter of _Exodus_ (verse 3)
finds his veracity put to a startling test in _Genesis_ xxii. 14, in
which _revealed_ passage Abraham builds an altar to _Jehovah-jireh_.
It would seem, therefore, but natural to make a difference between
the mystery-God Ιαω, adopted from the highest antiquity by all who
participated in the esoteric knowledge of the priests, and his
phonetic counterparts, whom we find treated with so little reverence
by the Ophites and other Gnostics. Once having burdened themselves
like the Azazel of the wilderness with the sins and iniquities of the
Jewish nation, it now appears hard for the Christians to have to
confess that those whom they thought fit to consider the “chosen
people” of God--their sole predecessors in monotheism--were, till a
very late period, as idolatrous and polytheistic as their neighbors.
The shrewd Talmudists have escaped the accusation for long centuries
by screening themselves behind the Masoretic invention. But, as in
everything else, truth was at last brought to light. We know now that
Ihoh יהוה must be read Iahoh and Iah, not Jehovah. Iah of the Hebrews
is plainly the Iacchos (Bacchus) of the Mysteries; the God “from whom
the liberation of souls was expected--Dionysus, Iacchos, Iahoh,
Iah.”[633] Aristotle then was right when he said: “Jon יהוה was
Oromasdes and Ahriman Pluto, for the God of heaven, Ahura-mazda, rides
on a chariot which the _Horse of the Sun_ follows.”[634] And Dunlap
quotes _Psalm_ lxviii. 4, which reads:
“Praise him by his name Iach (יה),
Who rides upon the heavens, as on a horse,”
and then shows that “the Arabs represented Iauk (Iach) by a horse.
The Horse of the Sun (Dionysus).”[635] Iah is a softening of Iach,
“he explains.” ח _ch_ and ה _h_ interchange; so _s_ softens to _h_.
The Hebrews express the idea of LIFE both by a _ch_ and an _h_; as
chiach, to be, hiah, to be; Iach, God of Life, Iah, “I _am_.”[636]
Well then may we repeat these lines of Ausonius:
“Ogugiâ calls me Bacchus; Egypt thinks me Osiris;
The Musians name me Ph’anax; the Indi consider me Dionysus;
The Roman Mysteries call me Liber; the Arabian race Adonis!”
And the chosen people Adoni and Jehovah--we may add.
How little the philosophy of the old secret doctrine was understood,
is illustrated in the atrocious persecutions of the Templars by the
Church, and in the accusation of their worshipping the Devil under
the shape of the goat--Baphomet! Without going into the old Masonic
mysteries, there is not a Mason--of those we mean who _do know
something_--but has an idea of the true relation that Baphomet bore
to Azâzêl, the scapegoat of the wilderness,[637] whose character
and meaning are entirely perverted in the Christian translations.
“This terrible and venerable name of God,” says Lanci,[638] librarian
to the Vatican, “through the pen of biblical glossers, has been a
_devil_, a mountain, a _wilderness_, and a _he-goat_.” In Mackenzie’s
_Royal Masonic Cyclopædia_, the author very correctly remarks that
“this word should be divided into Azaz and El,” for “it signifies
God of Victory, but is here used in the sense of _author of Death_,
in contrast to Jehovah, the _author of Life_; the latter received
a dead goat as an offering.”[639] The Hindu Trinity is composed of
three personages, which are convertible into one. The _Trimurti_
is one, and in its abstraction indivisible, and yet we see a
metaphysical division taking place from the first, and while Brahma,
though collectively representing the three, remains behind the
scenes, Vishnu is the Life-Giver, the Creator, and the Preserver,
and Siva is the _Destroyer_, and the _Death-giving_ deity. “Death
to the _Life-Giver_, life to the _Death-dealer_. The symbolical
antithesis is grand and beautiful,” says Gliddon.[640] “_Deus est
Dæmon inversus_” of the kabalists now becomes clear. It is but the
intense and cruel desire to crush out the last vestige of the old
philosophies by perverting their meaning, for fear that their own
dogmas should not be rightly fathered on them, which impels the
Catholic Church to carry on such a systematic persecution in regard
to Gnostics, Kabalists, and even the comparatively innocent Masons.
Alas, alas! How little has the divine seed, scattered broadcast by
the hand of the meek Judean philosopher, thrived or brought forth
fruit. He, who himself had shunned hypocrisy, warned against public
prayer, showing such contempt for any useless exhibition of the same,
could he but cast his sorrowful glance on the earth, from the regions
of eternal bliss, would see that this seed fell neither on sterile
rock nor by the way-side. Nay, it took deep root in the most prolific
soil; one enriched even to plethora with lies and human gore!
“For, if the truth of God hath more abounded, _through my lie_ unto
his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” naïvely inquires
Paul, the best and sincerest of all the apostles. And he then adds:
“_Let us do evil_, that good may come!” (_Romans_ iii. 7, 8). This
is a confession which we are asked to believe as having been a
direct inspiration from God! It explains, if it does not excuse, the
maxim adopted later by the Church that “it is an act of virtue to
deceive and lie, when by such means the interests of _the Church_
might be promoted.”[641] A maxim applied in its fullest sense by
that accomplished professor in forgery, the Armenian Eusebius; or
yet, that innocent-looking bible-kaleidoscopist--Irenæus. And these
men were followed by a whole army of pious assassins, who, in the
meanwhile, had improved upon the system of deceit, by proclaiming
that it was lawful even to kill, when by murder they could enforce
the new religion. Theophilus, “that perpetual enemy of peace and
virtue,” as the famous bishop was called; Cyril, Athanasius, the
murderer of Arius, and a host of other canonized “Saints,” were all
but too worthy successors of _Saint_ Constantine, who drowned his
wife in boiling water; butchered his little nephew; murdered, with
his own pious hand, two of his brothers-in-law; killed his own son
Crispus, bled to death several men and women, and smothered in a well
an old monk. However, we are told by Eusebius that this Christian
Emperor was rewarded by a _vision_ of Christ himself, bearing his
cross, who instructed him to march to other triumphs, inasmuch as he
would always protect him!
It is under the shade of the Imperial standard, with its famous sign,
“_In hoc signo vinces_,” that “_visionary_” Christianity, which
had crept on since the days of Irenæus, arrogantly proclaimed its
rights in the full blaze of the sun. The Labarum had most probably
furnished the model for the _true_ cross, which was “miraculously,”
and agreeably to the Imperial will, found a few years later. Nothing
short of such a remarkable vision, impiously doubted by some severe
critics--Dr. Lardner for one--and a fresh miracle to match, could
have resulted in the finding of a cross where there had never
before been one. Still, we have either to believe the phenomenon
or dispute it at the risk of being treated as infidels; and this,
notwithstanding that upon a careful computation we would find that
the fragments of the “true Cross” had multiplied themselves even
more miraculously than the five loaves in the invisible bakery, and
the two fishes. In all cases like this, where miracles can be so
conveniently called in, there is no room for dull fact. History must
step out that fiction may step in.
If the alleged founder of the Christian religion is now, after the
lapse of nineteen centuries, preached--more or less unsuccessfully
however--in every corner of the globe, we are at liberty to think
that the doctrines attributed to him would astonish and dismay him
more than any one else. A system of deliberate falsification was
adopted from the first. How determined Irenæus was to crush truth
and build up a Church of his own on the mangled remains of the seven
primitive churches mentioned in the _Revelation_, may be inferred
from his quarrel with Ptolemæus. And this is again a case of evidence
against which no blind faith can prevail. Ecclesiastical history
assures us that Christ’s ministry was but of three years’ duration.
There is a decided discrepancy on this point between the first three
synoptics and the fourth gospel; but it was left for Irenæus to show
to Christian posterity that so early as A.D. 180--the probable time
when this Father wrote his works against heresies--even such pillars
of the Church as himself either knew nothing certain about it, or
deliberately lied and falsified dates to support their own views.
So anxious was the worthy Father to meet every possible objection
against his plans, that no falsehood, no sophistry, was too much for
him. How are we to understand the following; and who is the falsifier
in this case? The argument of Ptolemæus was that Jesus was too young
to have taught anything of much importance; adding that “Christ
preached for _one year only_, and then suffered in the twelfth
month.” In this Ptolemæus was very little at variance with the
gospels. But Irenæus, carried by his object far beyond the limits of
prudence, from a mere discrepancy between one and three years, makes
it _ten_ and even twenty years! “Destroying his (Christ’s) whole
work, and _robbing him of that age_ which is _both necessary_ and
more honorable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during
which also, as a teacher, he excelled all others.” And then, having
no certain data to furnish, he throws himself back on _tradition_,
and claims that Christ had preached for over TEN years! (book ii., c.
22, pp. 4, 5). In another place he makes Jesus fifty years old.
But we must proceed in our work of showing the various origins of
Christianity, as also the sources from which Jesus derived his own
ideas of God and humanity.
The Koinobi lived in Egypt, where Jesus passed his early youth. They
were usually confounded with the Therapeutæ, who were a branch of
this widely-spread society. Such is the opinion of Godfrey Higgins
and De Rebold. After the downfall of the principal sanctuaries,
which had already begun in the days of Plato, the many different
sects, such as the Gymnosophists and the Magi--from whom Clearchus
very erroneously derives the former--the Pythagoreans, the Sufis,
and the Reshees of Kashmere, instituted a kind of international
and universal Freemasonry, among their esoteric societies. “These
Rashees,” says Higgins, “are the Essenians, Carmelites, or Nazarites
of the temple.”[642] “That occult science known by ancient priests
under the name of _regenerating fire_,” says father Rebold, “... a
science that for more than 3,000 years was the peculiar possession of
the Indian and Egyptian priesthood, into the knowledge of which Moses
was initiated at Heliopolis, where he was educated; and Jesus among
the Essenian priests of Egypt or Judea; and by which these two great
reformers, _particularly the latter_, wrought many of the miracles
mentioned in the _Scriptures_.”[643]
Plato states that the mystic Magian religion, known under the name
of _Machagistia_, is the most uncorrupted form of worship in things
divine. Later, the Mysteries of the Chaldean sanctuaries were added
to it by one of the Zoroasters and Darius Hystaspes. The latter
completed and perfected it still more with the help of the knowledge
obtained by him from the learned ascetics of India, whose rites were
identical with those of the initiated Magi.[644] Ammian, in his
history of Julian’s Persian expedition, gives the story by stating
that one day Hystaspes, as he was boldly penetrating into the unknown
regions of Upper India, had come upon a certain wooded solitude, the
tranquil recesses of which were “occupied by those exalted sages,
the Brachmanes (or Shamans). Instructed by their teaching in the
science of _the motions of the_ world and of the heavenly bodies,
and in _pure religious rites_ ... he transfused them into the creed
of the Magi. The latter, coupling these doctrines with their _own
peculiar science of foretelling the future_, have handed down the
whole through their descendants to succeeding ages.”[645] It is from
these descendants that the Sufis, chiefly composed of Persians and
Syrians, acquired their proficient knowledge in astrology, medicine,
and the esoteric doctrine of the ages. “The Sufi doctrine,” says C.
W. King, “involved the grand idea of one universal creed which could
be secretly held under any profession of an outward faith; and, in
fact, took virtually the same view of religious systems as that in
which the ancient philosophers had regarded such matters.”[646]
The mysterious Druzes of Mount Lebanon are the descendants of all
these. Solitary Copts, earnest students scattered hither and thither
throughout the sandy solitudes of Egypt, Arabia Petræa, Palestine,
and the impenetrable forests of Abyssinia, though rarely met with,
may sometimes be seen. Many and various are the nationalities to
which belong the disciples of that mysterious school, and many the
side-shoots of that one primitive stock. The secresy preserved by
these sub-lodges, as well as by the one and supreme great lodge, has
ever been proportionate to the activity of religious persecutions;
and now, in the face of the growing materialism, their very existence
is becoming a mystery.[647]
But it must not be inferred, on that account, that such a mysterious
brotherhood is but a fiction, not even _a name_, though it remains
unknown to this day. Whether its affiliates are called by an
Egyptian, Hindu, or Persian name, it matters not. Persons belonging
to one of these sub-brotherhoods have been met by trustworthy, and
not unknown persons, besides the present writer, who states a few
facts concerning them, by the special permission of one _who has
a right to give it_. In a recent and very valuable work on secret
societies, K. R. H. Mackenzie’s _Royal Masonic Cyclopædia_, we find
the learned author himself, an honorary member of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2 (Scotland), and a Mason not likely to be
imposed upon, stating the following, under the head, _Hermetic
Brothers of Egypt_:
“An occult fraternity, which has endured from very ancient times,
having a hierarchy of officers, secret signs, and passwords,
and a peculiar method of instruction in science, religion, and
philosophy.... If we may believe those who, at the present time,
profess to belong to it, _the philosopher’s stone_, _the elixir of
life_, _the art of invisibility_, and the power of communication
directly with the ultramundane life, are parts of the inheritance
they possess. The writer has met with only three persons who
maintained the actual existence of this body of religious
philosophers, and who hinted that they themselves were actually
members. There was no reason to doubt the good faith of these
individuals--apparently unknown to each other, and men of moderate
competence, blameless lives, austere manners, and almost ascetic in
their habits. They all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five
years of age, and evidently of vast erudition ... their knowledge of
languages not to be doubted.... They never remained long in any one
country, but passed away without creating notice.”[648]
Another of such sub-brotherhoods is the sect of the Pitris, in
India. Known by name, now that Jacolliot has brought it into public
notice, it yet is more arcane, perhaps, than the brotherhood that Mr.
Mackenzie names the “Hermetic Brothers.” What Jacolliot learned of
it, was from fragmentary manuscripts delivered to him by Brahmans,
who had their reasons for doing so, we must believe. The _Agrouchada
Parikshai_ gives certain details about the association, as it was
in days of old, and, when explaining mystic rites and magical
incantations, explains nothing at all, so that the mystic L’om,
L’Rhum, Sh’hrum, and Sho-rim Ramaya-Namaha, remain, for the mystified
writer, as much a puzzle as ever. To do him justice, though, he fully
admits the fact, and does not enter upon useless speculations.
Whoever desires to assure himself that there now exists a religion
which has baffled, for centuries, the impudent inquisitiveness
of missionaries, and the persevering inquiry of science, let him
violate, if he can, the seclusion of the Syrian Druzes. He will find
them numbering over 80,000 warriors, scattered from the plain east
of Damascus to the western coast. They covet no proselytes, shun
notoriety, keep friendly--as far as possible--with both Christians
and Mahometans, respect the religion of every other sect or people,
but will never disclose their own secrets. Vainly do the missionaries
stigmatize them as infidels, idolaters, brigands, and thieves.
Neither threat, bribe, nor any other consideration will induce a
Druze to become a convert to dogmatic Christianity. We have heard of
two in fifty years, and both have finished their careers in prison,
for drunkenness and theft. They proved to be “real _Druzes_,”[649]
said one of their chiefs, in discussing the subject. There never
was a case of an _initiated_ Druze becoming a Christian. As to the
uninitiated, they are never allowed to even see the sacred writings,
and none of them have the remotest idea where these are kept. There
are missionaries in Syria who boast of having in their possession
a few copies. The volumes alleged to be the correct expositions
from these secret books (such as the translation by Petis de la
Croix, in 1701, from the works presented by Nasr-Allah to the French
king), are nothing more than a compilation of “secrets,” known more
or less to every inhabitant of the southern ranges of Lebanon and
Anti-Libanus. They were the work of an apostate Dervish, who was
expelled from the sect Hanafi, for improper conduct--the embezzlement
of the money of widows and orphans. The _Exposé de la Religion des
Druzes_, in two volumes, by Sylvestre de Sacy (1828), is another
net-work of hypotheses. A copy of this work was to be found, in 1870,
on the window-sill of one of their principal _Holowey_, or place
of religious meeting. To the inquisitive question of an English
traveller, as to their rites, the _Okhal_,[650] a venerable old man,
who spoke English as well as French, opened the volume of de Sacy,
and, offering it to his interlocutor, remarked, with a benevolent
smile: “Read this instructive and truthful book; I could explain to
you neither better nor more correctly the secrets of God and our
blessed Hamsa, than it does.” The traveller understood the hint.
Mackenzie says they settled at Lebanon about the tenth century, and
“seem to be a mixture of Kurds, Mardi-Arabs, and other semi-civilized
tribes. Their religion is compounded of Judaism, Christianity, and
Mahometanism. They have a regular order of priesthood and _a kind of
hierarchy_ ... there is a regular system of passwords and signs....
Twelve month’s probation, to which either sex is admitted, preceded
initiation.”
We quote the above only to show how little even persons as
trustworthy as Mr. Mackenzie really know of these mystics.
Mosheim, who knows as much, or we should rather say as little, as any
others, is entitled to the merit of candidly admitting that “their
religion is peculiar to themselves, and is involved in some mystery.”
We should say it was--rather!
That their religion exhibits traces of Magianism and Gnosticism is
natural, as the whole of the Ophite esoteric philosophy is at the
bottom of it. But the characteristic dogma of the Druzes is the
absolute unity of God. He is the essence of life, and although
incomprehensible and invisible, is to be known through _occasional
manifestations in human form_.[651] Like the Hindus they hold that
he was incarnated more than once on earth. Hamsa was the _precursor_
of the last manifestation to be (the tenth _avatar_)[652] not the
inheritor of Hakem, who is yet to come. Hamsa was the personification
of the “Universal Wisdom.” Boha-eddin in his writings calls him
Messiah. The whole number of his disciples, or those who at
different ages of the world have imparted wisdom to mankind, which
the latter as invariably have forgotten and rejected in course of
time, is one hundred and sixty-four (164, the kabalistic _s d k_).
Therefore, their stages or degrees of promotion after initiation
are five; the first three degrees are typified by the “three feet
of the candlestick of the inner Sanctuary, which holds the light of
the _five_ elements;” the last two degrees, the most important and
terrifying in their solemn grandeur belonging to the highest orders;
and the whole five degrees emblematically represent the said five
mystic Elements. The “three feet are the holy _Application_, the
_Opening_, and the _Phantom_,” says one of their books; on man’s
inner and outer soul, and his body, a phantom, a passing shadow. The
body, or matter, is also called the “Rival,” for “he is the minister
of sin, the Devil ever creating dissensions between the Heavenly
Intelligence (spirit) and the soul, which he tempts incessantly.”
Their ideas on transmigration are Pythagorean and kabalistic. The
spirit, or Temeami (the divine soul), was in Elijah and John the
Baptist; and the soul of Jesus was that of H’amsa; that is to say,
of the same degree of purity and sanctity. Until their resurrection,
by which they understand the day when the spiritual bodies of men
will be absorbed into God’s own essence and being (the Nirvana of the
Hindus), the souls of men will keep their astral forms, except the
few chosen ones who, from the moment of their separation from their
bodies, begin to exist as pure spirits. The life of man they divide
into soul, body, and intelligence, or mind. It is the latter which
imparts and communicates to the soul the divine spark from its H’amsa
(Christos).
They have seven great commandments which are imparted equally to all
the uninitiated; and yet, even these well-known articles of faith
have been so mixed up in the accounts of outside writers, that, in
one of the best Cyclopædias of America (Appleton’s), they are garbled
after the fashion that may be seen in the comparative tabulation
below; the spurious and the true order parallel:
CORRECT VERSION OF THE GARBLED VERSION
COMMANDMENTS AS IMPARTED REPORTED BY THE
ORALLY BY THE CHRISTIAN
TEACHERS.[653] MISSIONARIES AND
given in Pretended
Expositions.[654]
1. _The unity of God_, or the 1. (2) “‘Truth in words,’
infinite oneness of Deity. meaning in practice,
_only truth to the
religion and to the
initiated; it is lawful
to act and to speak
falsehood to men of
another creed_.”[655]
2. _The essential excellence 2. (7) “Mutual help,
of Truth._ watchfulness, and
protection.”
3. Toleration; right given to 3. (?) “To renounce all
all men and women to freely other religions.”[656]
express their opinions on
religious matters, and make
the latter subservient to
reason.
4. Respect to all men and 4. (?) “To be separate from
women according to their infidels of every kind,
character and conduct. not externally but only
in heart.”[657]
5. Entire submission to God’s 5. (1) “Recognize God’s
decrees. eternal unity.”
6. Chastity of body, mind, and 6. (5) “Satisfied with God’s
soul. acts.”
7. Mutual help under all 7. (5) “Resigned to God’s
conditions. will.”
As will be seen, the only exposé in the above is that of the great
ignorance, perhaps malice, of the writers who, like Sylvestre de
Sacy, undertake to enlighten the world upon matters concerning which
they know nothing.
“Chastity, honesty, meekness, and mercy,” are thus the four
theological virtues of all Druzes, besides several others demanded
from the initiates: “murder, theft, cruelty, covetousness, slander,”
the five sins, to which several other sins are added in the sacred
tablets, but which we must abstain from giving. The morality of
the Druzes is strict and uncompromising. Nothing can tempt one of
these Lebanon Unitarians to go astray from what he is taught to
consider his duty. _Their ritual being unknown to outsiders_, their
would-be historians have hitherto denied them one. Their “Thursday
meetings” are open to all, but no interloper has ever participated
in the rites of initiation which take place occasionally on Fridays
in the greatest secresy. Women are admitted to them as well as men,
and they play a part of great importance at the initiation of men.
The probation, unless some extraordinary exception is made, is long
and severe. Once, in a certain period of time, a solemn ceremony
takes place, during which all the elders and the initiates of the
highest two degrees start out for a pilgrimage of several days to a
certain place in the mountains. They meet within the safe precincts
of a monastery said to have been erected during the earliest times
of the Christian era. Outwardly one sees but old ruins of a once
grand edifice, used, says the legend, by some Gnostic sects as
a place of worship during the religious persecutions. The ruins
above ground, however, are but a convenient mask; the subterranean
chapel, halls, and cells, covering an area of ground far greater
than the upper building; while the richness of ornamentation, the
beauty of the ancient sculptures, and the gold and silver vessels
in this sacred resort, appear like “a dream of glory,” according to
the expression of an initiate. As the lamaseries of Mongolia and
Thibet are visited upon grand occasions by the holy shadow of “Lord
Buddha,” so here, during the ceremonial, appears the resplendent
ethereal form of Hamsa, the Blessed, which instructs the faithful.
The most extraordinary feats of what would be termed magic take place
during the several nights that the convocation lasts; and one of the
greatest mysteries--faithful copy of the past--is accomplished within
the discreet bosom of our mother earth; not an echo, nor the faintest
sound, not a glimmer of light betrays without the grand secret of the
initiates.
Hamsa, like Jesus, was a mortal man, and yet “Hamsa” and “Christos”
are synonymous terms as to their inner and hidden meaning. Both are
symbols of the _Nous_, the divine and higher soul of man--his spirit.
The doctrine taught by the Druzes on that particular question of the
duality of spiritual man, consisting of one soul mortal, and another
immortal, is identical with that of the Gnostics, the older Greek
philosophers, and other initiates.
Outside the East we have met one initiate (and only one), who,
for some reasons best known to himself, does not make a secret of
his initiation into the Brotherhood of Lebanon. It is the learned
traveller and artist, Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York City. This
gentleman has passed many years in the East, four times visited
Palestine, and has travelled to Mecca. It is safe to say that he
has a priceless store of facts about the beginnings of the Christian
Church, which none but one who had had free access to repositories
closed against the ordinary traveller could have collected. Professor
Rawson, with the true devotion of a man of science, noted down
every important discovery he made in the Palestinian libraries,
and every precious fact orally communicated to him by the mystics
he encountered, and some day they will see the light. He has most
obligingly sent us the following communication, which, as the reader
will perceive, fully corroborates what is above written from our
personal experience about the strange fraternity incorrectly styled
the Druzes:
“34 BOND ST., NEW YORK, June 6, 1877.
“... Your note, asking me to give you an account of my
initiation into a secret order among the people commonly
known as Druzes, in Mount Lebanon, was received this
morning. I took, as you are fully aware, an obligation at
that time to conceal within my own memory the greater part
of the ‘mysteries,’ with the most interesting parts of the
‘instructions;’ so that what is left may not be of any
service to the public. Such information as I can rightfully
give, you are welcome to have and use as you may have
occasion.
“The probation in my case was, by _special dispensation_,
made one month, during which time I was ‘shadowed’ by a
priest, who served as my cook, guide, interpreter, and
general servant, that he might be able to testify to the
fact of my having strictly conformed to the rules in diet,
ablutions, and other matters. He was also my instructor
in the text of the ritual, which we recited from time to
time for practice, in dialogue or in song, as it may have
been. Whenever we happened to be near a Druze village, on
a Thursday, we attended the ‘open’ meetings, where men
and women assembled for instruction and worship, and to
expose to the world generally their religious practices.
I was never present at a Friday ‘close’ meeting before my
initiation, nor do I believe any one else, man or woman,
ever was, except by collusion with a priest, and that is
not probable, for a false priest forfeits his life. The
practical jokers among them sometimes ‘fool’ a too curious
‘Frank’ by a sham initiation, especially if such a one is
suspected of having some connection with the missionaries
at Beirut or elsewhere.
“The initiates include both women and men, and the
ceremonies are of so peculiar a nature that both sexes
are required to assist in the ritual and ‘work.’
The ‘furniture’ of the ‘prayer-house’ and of the
‘vision-chamber’ is simple, and except for convenience may
consist of but a strip of carpet. In the ‘Gray Hall’ (the
place is never named, and is underground, _not far_ from
Bayt-ed-Deen) there are some rich decorations and valuable
pieces of ancient furniture, the work of Arab silversmiths
five or six centuries ago, inscribed and dated. The day of
initiation must be a continual fast from daylight to sunset
in winter, or six o’clock in summer, and the ceremony is
from beginning to end a series of trials and temptations,
calculated to test the endurance of the candidate under
physical and mental pressure. It is seldom that any but the
young man or woman succeeds in ‘winning’ all the ‘prizes,’
since _nature will sometimes exert itself_ in spite of the
most stubborn will, and the neophyte fail of passing some
of the tests. In such a case the probation is extended
another year, when another trial is had.
“Among other tests of the neophyte’s self-control are the
following: Choice pieces of cooked meat, savory soup,
pilau, and other appetizing dishes, with sherbet, coffee,
wine, and water, are set, as if accidentally, in his way,
and he is left alone for a time with the tempting things.
To a hungry and fainting soul the trial is severe. But a
more difficult ordeal is when the seven priestesses retire,
all but one, the youngest and prettiest, and the door
is closed and barred on the outside, after warning the
candidate that he will be left to his ‘reflections,’ for
half an hour. Wearied by the long-continued ceremonial,
weak with hunger, parched with thirst, and a sweet
reaction coming after the tremendous strain to keep his
animal nature in subjection, this moment of privacy and of
temptation is brimful of peril. The beautiful young vestal,
timidly approaching, and with glances which lend a double
magnetic allurement to her words, begs him in low tones to
‘bless her.’ Woe to him if he does! A hundred eyes see him
from secret peep-holes, and only to the ignorant neophyte
is there the appearance of concealment and opportunity.
“There is no infidelity, idolatry, or other really bad
feature in the system. They have the relics of what was
once a grand form of nature-worship, which has been
contracted under a despotism into a secret order, hidden
from the light of day, and exposed only in the smoky glare
of a few burning lamps, in some damp cave or chapel under
ground. The chief tenets of their religious teachings are
comprised in seven ‘tablets,’ which are these, to state
them in general terms:
“1. The unity of God, or the infinite oneness of deity.
“2. The essential excellence of truth.
“3. The law of toleration as to all men and women in
opinion.
“4. Respect for all men and women as to character and
conduct.
“5. Entire submission to God’s decrees as to fate.
“6. Chastity of body and mind and soul.
“7. Mutual help under all conditions.
“These tenets are not printed or written. Another set is
printed or written to mislead the unwary, but with these we
are not concerned.
“The chief results of the initiation seemed to be a kind
of mental illusion or sleep-waking, in which the neophyte
saw, or thought he saw, the images of people who were
known to be absent, and in some cases thousands of miles
away. I thought (or perhaps it was my mind at work) I saw
friends and relatives that I knew at the time were in New
York State, while I was then in Lebanon. How these results
were produced I cannot say. They appeared in a dark room,
when the ‘guide’ was talking, the ‘company’ singing in
the next ‘chamber,’ and near the close of the day, when
I was tired out with fasting, walking, talking, singing,
robing, unrobing, seeing a great many people in various
conditions as to dress and undress, and with great mental
strain in resisting certain physical manifestations that
result from the appetites when they overcome the will, and
in paying close attention to the passing scenes, hoping
to remember them--so that I may have been unfit to judge
of any new and surprising phenomena, and more especially
of those apparently magical appearances which have always
excited my suspicion and distrust. I know the various
uses of the magic-lantern, and other apparatus, and took
care to examine the room where the ‘visions’ appeared to
me the same evening, and the next day, and several times
afterwards, and knew that, in my case, there was no use
made of any machinery or other means besides the voice of
the ‘guide and instructor.’ On several occasions afterward,
when at a great distance from the ‘chamber,’ the same
or similar visions were produced, as, for instance, in
Hornstein’s Hotel at Jerusalem. A daughter-in-law of a
well-known Jewish merchant in Jerusalem is an initiated
‘sister,’ and can produce the visions almost at will on any
one who will live strictly according to the rules of the
Order for a few weeks, more or less, according to their
nature, as gross or refined, etc.
“I am quite safe in saying that the initiation is so
peculiar that it could not be printed so as to instruct
one who had not been ‘worked’ through the ‘chamber.’ So it
would be even more impossible to make an exposé of them
than of the Freemasons. The real secrets are acted and not
spoken, and require several initiated persons to assist in
the work.
“It is not necessary for me to say how some of the notions
of that people seem to perpetuate certain beliefs of the
ancient Greeks--as, for instance, the idea that a man has
two souls, and many others--for you probably were made
familiar with them in your passage through the ‘upper’
and ‘lower chamber.’ If I am mistaken in supposing you an
‘initiate,’ please excuse me. I am aware that the closest
friends often conceal that ‘sacred secret’ from each other;
and even husband and wife may live--as I was informed
in Dayr-el-Kamar was the fact in one family there--for
twenty years together and yet neither know anything of
the initiation of the other. You, undoubtedly, have good
reasons for keeping your own counsel.
“Yours truly,
“A. L. RAWSON.”
Before we close the subject we may add that if a stranger ask for
admission to a “Thursday” meeting he will never be refused. Only, if
he is a Christian, the _okhal_ will open a _Bible_ and read from it;
and if a Mahometan, he will hear a few chapters of the _Koran_, and
the ceremony will end with this. They will wait until he is gone, and
then, shutting well the doors of their convent, take to their own
rites and books, passing for this purpose into their subterranean
sanctuaries. “The Druzes remain, even more than the Jews, a peculiar
people,” says Colonel Churchill,[658] one of the few fair and
strictly impartial writers. “They marry within their own race; they
are rarely if ever converted; they adhere tenaciously to their
traditions, and they baffle all efforts to discover their cherished
secrets.... The bad name of that caliph whom they claim as their
founder is fairly compensated by the pure lives of many whom they
honor as saints, and by the heroism of their feudal leaders.”
And yet the Druzes may be said to belong to one of the least esoteric
of secret societies. There are others far more powerful and learned,
the existence of which is not even suspected in Europe. There are
many branches belonging to the great “Mother Lodge” which, mixed
up with certain communities, may be termed secret sects within
other sects. One of them is the sect commonly known as that of
Laghana-Sastra. It reckons several thousand adepts who are scattered
about in small groups in the south of the Dekkan, India. In the
popular superstition, this sect is dreaded on account of its great
reputation for magic and sorcery. The Brahmans accuse its members of
atheism and sacrilege, for none of them will consent to recognize
the authority of either the _Vedas_ or _Manu_, except so far as
they conform to the versions in their possession, and which they
maintain are professedly the only original texts; the Laghana-Sastra
have neither temples nor priests, but, twice a month, every member
of the community has to absent himself from home for three days.
Popular rumor, originated among their women, ascribes such absences
to pilgrimages performed to their places of fortnightly resort. In
some secluded mountainous spots, unknown and inaccessible to other
sects, hidden far from sight among the luxurious vegetation of
India, they keep their bungalows, which look like small fortresses,
encircled as they are by lofty and thick walls. These, in their turn,
are surrounded by the sacred trees called _assonata_, and in Tamül
_arassa maram_. These are the “sacred groves,” the originals of those
of Egypt and Greece, whose initiates also built their temples within
such “groves” inaccessible to the profane.[659]
It will not be found without interest to see what Mr. John
Yarker, Jr., has to say on some modern secret societies among the
Orientals. “The nearest resemblance to the Brahmanical Mysteries,
is probably found in the very ancient ‘_Paths_’ of the Dervishes,
which are usually governed by twelve officers, the oldest ‘Court’
superintending the others by right of seniority. Here the master of
the ‘Court’ is called ‘_Sheik_,’ and has his deputies, ‘Caliphs,’
or successors, of which there may be many (as, for instance, in
the brevet degree of a Master Mason). The order is divided into at
least four columns, pillars, or degrees. The first step is that
of ‘Humanity,’ which supposes attention to the written law, and
‘annihilation in the _Sheik_.’ The second is that of the ‘Path,’
in which the ‘_Murid_,’ or disciple, attains spiritual powers and
‘self-annihilation’ into the ‘Peer’ or founder of the ‘Path.’ The
third stage is called ‘Knowledge,’ and the ‘_Murid_’ is supposed
to become inspired, called ‘annihilation into the Prophet.’ The
fourth stage leads him even to God, when he becomes a part of the
Deity and sees Him in all things. The first and second stages have
received modern subdivisions, as ‘Integrity,’ ‘Virtue,’ ‘Temperance,’
‘Benevolence.’ After this the Sheik confers upon him the grade of
‘Caliph,’ or Honorary Master, for in their mystical language, ‘the
man must die before the saint can be born.’ It will be seen that this
kind of mysticism is applicable to Christ as founder of a ‘Path.’”
To this statement, the author adds the following on the Bektash
Dervishes, who “often initiated the Janizaries. They wear _a small
marble cube spotted with blood_. Their ceremony is as follows: Before
reception a year’s probation is required, during which false secrets
are given to test the candidate; he has two godfathers _and is
divested of all metals and even clothing_; from the wool of a sheep a
cord is made for his neck, and a girdle for his loins; he is led into
the centre of a square room, presented as a slave, and seated upon
a large stone with twelve escallops; his arms are crossed upon his
breast, his body inclined forward, his right toes extended over his
left foot; after various prayers he is placed in a particular manner,
with his hand in a peculiar way in that of the Sheik, who repeats a
verse from the _Koran_: ‘Those who on giving thee their hand swear
to thee an oath, swear it to God, the hand of God is placed in
their hand; whoever violates this oath, will do so to his hurt, and
to whoever remains faithful God will give a magnificent reward.’
Placing the hand below the chin is their sign, perhaps in memory of
their vow. All use the double triangles. The Brahmans inscribe the
angles with their trinity, and they possess also the Masonic sign of
distress as used in France.”[660]
From the very day when the first mystic found the means of
communication between this world and the worlds of the invisible
host, between the sphere of matter and that of pure spirit, he
concluded that to abandon this mysterious science to the profanation
of the rabble was to lose it. An abuse of it might lead mankind to
speedy destruction; it was like surrounding a group of children with
explosive batteries, and furnishing them with matches. The first
self-made adept initiated but a select few, and kept silence with the
multitudes. He recognized his God and felt the great Being within
himself. The “Âtman,” the Self,[661] the mighty Lord and Protector,
once that man knew him as the “_I am_,” the “_Ego Sum_” the “_Ahmi_,”
showed his full power to him who could recognize the “_still small
voice_.” From the days of the primitive man described by the first
Vedic poet, down to our modern age, there has not been a philosopher
worthy of that name, who did not carry in the silent sanctuary of
his heart the grand and mysterious truth. If initiated, he learnt
it as a sacred science; if otherwise, then, like Socrates repeating
to himself, as well as to his fellow-men, the noble injunction,
“O man, know thyself,” he succeeded in recognizing his God within
himself. “Ye are gods,” the king-psalmist tells us, and we find
Jesus reminding the scribes that the expression, “Ye are gods,”
was addressed to other mortal men, claiming for himself the same
privilege without any blasphemy.[662] And, as a faithful echo, Paul,
while asserting that we are all “the temple of the living God,”[663]
cautiously adds, that after all these things are only for the “wise,”
and it is “unlawful” to speak of them.
Therefore, we must accept the reminder, and simply remark that even
in the tortured and barbarous phraseology of the _Codex Nazaræus_,
we detect throughout the same idea. Like an undercurrent, rapid and
clear, it runs without mixing its crystalline purity with the muddy
and heavy waves of dogmatism. We find it in the _Codex_, as well
as in the _Vedas_, in the _Avesta_, as in the _Abhidharma_, and in
_Kapila’s Sânkhya Sûtras_ not less than in the _Fourth Gospel_. We
cannot attain the “Kingdom of Heaven,” unless we unite ourselves
indissolubly with our _Rex Lucis_, the Lord of Splendor and of
Light, our Immortal God. We must first conquer immortality and
“take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence,” offered to our material
selves. “The first man is of the earth earthy; the _second_ man _is
from heaven_.... Behold, I show you a _mystery_,” says Paul (_1
Corinthians_, xv. 47). In the religion of Sakya-Mum, which learned
commentators have delighted so much of late to set down as purely
_nihilistic_, the doctrine of immortality is very clearly defined,
notwithstanding the European or rather Christian ideas about Nirvana.
In the sacred Jaïna books, of Patuna, the dying Gautama-Buddha is
thus addressed: “Arise into _Nirvi_ (Nirvana) from this decrepit
body into which thou hast been sent. Ascend into _thy former abode_,
O blessed Avatar!” This seems to us the very opposite of Nihilism.
If Gautama is invited to reäscend into his “former abode,” and this
abode is Nirvana, then it is incontestable that Buddhistic philosophy
does _not_ teach final annihilation. As Jesus is alleged to have
appeared to his disciples after death, so to the present day is
Gautama believed to descend from Nirvana. And if he has an existence
there, then this state cannot be a synonym for _annihilation_.
Gautama, no less than all other great reformers, had a doctrine for
his “elect” and another for the outside masses, though the main
object of his reform consisted in initiating all, so far as it was
permissible and prudent to do, without distinction of castes or
wealth, to the great truths hitherto kept so secret by the selfish
Brahmanical class. Gautama-Buddha it was whom we see the first in
the world’s history, moved by that generous feeling which locks the
whole humanity within one embrace, inviting the “poor,” the “lame,”
and the “blind” to the King’s festival table, from which he excluded
those who had hitherto sat alone, in haughty seclusion. It was he,
who, with a bold hand, first opened the door of the sanctuary to the
pariah, the fallen one, and all those “afflicted by men” clothed in
gold and purple, often far less worthy than the outcast to whom their
finger was scornfully pointing. All this did Siddhârtha six centuries
before another reformer, as noble and as loving, though less favored
by opportunity, in another land. If both, aware of the great danger
of furnishing an uncultivated populace with the double-edged weapon
of _knowledge which gives power_, left the innermost corner of the
sanctuary in the profoundest shade, who, that is acquainted with
human nature, can blame them for it? But while one was actuated by
prudence, the other was forced into such a course. Gautama left
the esoteric and most dangerous portion of the “secret knowledge”
untouched, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty, with the
certainty of having taught the essential truths, and having converted
to them one-third of the world; Jesus promised his disciples the
knowledge which confers upon man the power _of producing far greater
miracles than he ever did himself_, and he died, leaving but a few
faithful men, only half way to knowledge, to struggle with the world
to which they could impart but what they _half_-knew themselves.
Later, their followers disfigured truth still more than they
themselves had done.
It is not true that Gautama never taught anything concerning a
future life, or that he denied the immortality of the soul. Ask any
intelligent Buddhist his ideas on Nirvana, and he will unquestionably
express himself, as the well-known Wong-Chin-Fu, the Chinese orator,
now travelling in this country, did in a recent conversation with
us about _Niepang_ (Nirvana). “This condition,” he remarked, “we all
understand to mean a final reünion with God, coïncident with the
perfection of the human spirit by its ultimate disembarrassment of
matter. It is the very opposite of personal annihilation.”
Nirvana means the certitude of personal immortality in _Spirit_, not
in _Soul_, which, as a finite emanation, must certainly disintegrate
its particles a compound of human sensations, passions, and yearning
for some objective kind of existence, before the immortal spirit
of the _Ego_ is quite freed, and henceforth secure against further
transmigration in any form. And how can man ever reach this state so
long as the _Upadāna_, that state of longing for _life_, more life,
does not disappear from the sentient being, from the _Ahancara_
clothed, however, in a sublimated body? It is the “Upādana” or the
intense desire which produces WILL, and it is _will_ which develops
_force_, and the latter generates _matter_, or an object having
form. Thus the disembodied _Ego_, through this sole undying desire
in him, unconsciously furnishes the conditions of his successive
self-procreations in various forms, which depend on his mental state
and _Karma_, the good or bad deeds of his preceding existence,
commonly called “merit and demerit.” This is why the “Master”
recommended to his mendicants the cultivation of the four degrees of
Dhȳana, the noble “Path of the Four Truths,” _i.e._, that gradual
acquirement of stoical indifference for either life or death; that
state of spiritual self-contemplation during which man utterly loses
sight of his physical and dual individuality, composed of soul and
body; and uniting himself with his third and higher immortal self the
_real and heavenly man_ merges, so to say, into the divine Essence,
whence his own spirit proceeded like a spark from the common hearth.
Thus the Arhat, the holy mendicant, can reach Nirvana while yet
on earth; and his spirit, totally freed from the trammels of the
“psychical, terrestrial, _devilish_ wisdom,” as James calls it, and
being in its own nature omniscient and omnipotent, can on earth,
through the sole power of his _thought_, produce the greatest of
phenomena.
“It is the missionaries in China and India, who first started this
falsehood about Niepang, or Nïepana (Nirvana),” says Wong-Chin-Fu.
Who can deny the truth of this accusation after reading the works of
the Abbé Dubois, for instance? A missionary who passes forty years
of his life in India, and then writes that the “Buddhists admit
of no other God but the body of man, and have no other object but
the satisfaction of their senses,” utters an untruth which can be
proved on the testimony of the laws of the Talapoins of Siam and
Birmah; laws, which prevail unto this very day and which sentence a
sahân, or _punghi_ (a learned man; from the Sanscrit _pundit_), as
well as a simple Talapoin, to death by decapitation, for the crime
of unchastity. No foreigner can be admitted into their _Kyums_, or
Viharas (monasteries); and yet there are French writers, otherwise
impartial and fair, who, speaking of the great severity of the rules
to which the Buddhist monks are subjected in these communities, and
without possessing one single fact to corroborate their skepticism,
bluntly say, that “notwithstanding the great laudations bestowed upon
them (Talapoins) by certain travellers, merely on the _strength of
appearances_, I do not believe at all in their chastity.”[664]
Fortunately for the Buddhist talapoins, lamas, sahâns, upasampadas,[665]
and even samenaïras,[666] they have popular records and facts for
themselves, which are weightier than the unsupported personal opinion
of a Frenchman, born in Catholic lands, whom we can hardly blame for
having lost all faith in clerical virtue. When a Buddhist monk becomes
guilty (which does not happen once in a century, perhaps) of criminal
conversation, he has neither a congregation of tender-hearted members,
whom he can move to tears by an eloquent confession of his guilt, nor
a Jesus, on whose overburdened, long-suffering bosom are flung, as in
a common Christian dust-box, all the impurities of the race. No
Buddhist transgressor can comfort himself with visions of a Vatican,
within whose sin-encompassing walls black is turned into white,
murderers into sinless saints, and golden or silvery lotions can be
bought at the confessional to cleanse the tardy penitent of greater or
lesser offenses against God and man.
Except a few impartial archæologists, who trace a direct Buddhistic
element in Gnosticism, as in all those early short-lived sects
we know of very few authors, who, in writing upon primitive
Christianity, have accorded to the question its due importance. Have
we not facts enough to, at least, suggest some interest in that
direction? Do we not learn that, as early as in the days of Plato,
there were “Brachmans”--read Buddhist, Samaneans, Saman, or Shaman
missionaries--in Greece, and that, at one time, they had overflowed
the country? Does not Pliny show them established on the shores of
the Dead Sea, for “thousands of ages?” After making every necessary
allowance for the exaggeration, we still have several centuries B.C.
left as a margin. And is it possible that their influence should
not have left deeper traces in all these sects than is generally
thought? We know that the Jaïna sect claims Buddhism as derived
from its tenets--that Buddhism existed before Siddhârtha, better
known as Gautama-Buddha. The Hindu Brahmans who, by the European
Orientalists, are denied the right of knowing anything about their
own country, or understanding their own language and records better
than those who have never been in India, on the same principle as
the Jews are forbidden, by the Christian theologians, to interpret
their own Scriptures--the Brahmans, we say, have authentic records.
And these show the incarnation from the Virgin Avany of the first
Buddha--_divine light_--as having taken place more than some
thousands of years B.C., on the island of Ceylon. The Brahmans
reject the claim that it was an avatar of Vishnu, but admit the
appearance of a reformer of Brahmanism at that time. The story of
the Virgin Avany and her divine son, Sâkya-muni, is recorded in one
of the sacred books of the Cinghalese Buddhists--the _Nirdhasa_; and
the Brahmanic chronology fixes the great Buddhistic revolution and
religious war, and the subsequent spread of Sâkya-muni’s doctrine in
Thibet, China, Japan, and other places at 4,620 years B.C.[667]
It is clear that Gautama-Buddha, the son of the King of Kapilavastu,
and the descendant of the first Sakya, through his father, who was
of the Kshatriya, or warrior-caste, did not invent his philosophy.
Philanthropist by nature, his ideas were developed and matured while
under the tuition of Tir-thankara, the famous guru of the Jaïna sect.
The latter claim the present Buddhism as a diverging branch of their
own philosophy, and themselves, as the only followers of the first
Buddha who were allowed to remain in India, after the expulsion of
all other Buddhists, probably because they had made a compromise,
and admitted some of the Brahmanic notions. It is, to say the
least, curious, that three dissenting and inimical religions, like
Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jaïnism, should agree so perfectly in their
traditions and chronology, as to Buddhism, and that our scientists
should give a hearing but to their own unwarranted speculations and
hypotheses. If the birth of Gautama may, with some show of reason, be
placed at about 600 B.C., then the preceding Buddhas ought to have
some place allowed them in chronology. The Buddhas are not gods,
but simply individuals overshadowed by the spirit of Buddha--the
divine ray. Or is it because, unable to extricate themselves from the
difficulty by the help of their own researches only, our Orientalists
prefer to obliterate and deny the whole, rather than accord to the
Hindus the right of knowing something of their own religion and
history? Strange way of discovering truths!
The common argument adduced against the Jaïna claim, of having
been the source of the restoration of ancient Buddhism, that the
principal tenet of the latter religion is opposed to the belief of
the Jaïnas, is not a sound one. Buddhists, say our Orientalists,
deny the existence of a Supreme Being; the Jaïnas admit one, but
protest against the assumption that the “He” can ever interfere
in the regulation of the universe. We have shown in the preceding
chapter that the Buddhists do not deny any such thing. But if any
disinterested scholar could study carefully the Jaïna literature,
in their thousands of books preserved--or shall we say hidden--in
Rajpootana, Jusselmere, at Patun, and other places;[668] and
especially if he could but gain access to the oldest of their sacred
volumes, he would find a perfect identity of philosophical thought,
if not of popular rites, between the Jaïnas and the Buddhists. The
Adi-Buddha and Adinâtha (or Adiswara) are identical in essence and
purpose. And now, if we trace the Jaïnas back, with their claims to
the ownership of the oldest cave-temples (those superb specimens
of Indian architecture and sculpture), and their records of an
almost incredible antiquity, we can hardly refuse to view them in
the light which they claim for themselves. We must admit, that in
all probability they are the only true descendants of the primitive
owners of old India, dispossessed by those conquering and mysterious
hordes of white-skinned Brahmans whom, in the twilight of history, we
see appearing at the first as wanderers in the valleys of Jumna and
Ganges. The books of the Srawacs--the only descendants of the Arhâtas
or earliest Jaïnas, the naked forest-hermits of the days of old,
might throw some light, perhaps, on many a puzzling question. But
will our European scholars, so long as they pursue their own policy,
ever have access to the _right_ volumes? We have our doubts about
this. Ask any trustworthy Hindu how the missionaries have dealt with
those manuscripts which unluckily fell into their hands, and then see
if we can blame the natives for trying to save from desecration the
“gods of their fathers.”
To maintain their ground Irenæus and his school had to fight hard
with the Gnostics. Such, also, was the lot of Eusebius, who found
himself hopelessly perplexed to know how the Essenes should be
disposed of. The ways and customs of Jesus and his apostles exhibited
too close a resemblance to this sect to allow the fact to pass
unexplained. Eusebius tried to make people believe that the Essenes
were the first Christians. His efforts were thwarted by Philo Judæus,
who wrote his historical account of the Essenes and described them
with the minutest care, long before there had appeared a single
Christian in Palestine. But, if there were no _Christians_, there
were Chr_e_stians long before the era of Christianity; and the
Essenes belonged to the latter as well as to all other initiated
brotherhoods, without even mentioning the Christnites of India.
Lepsius shows that the word _Nofre_ means Chrēstos, “good,” and that
one of the titles of Osiris, “Onnofre,” must be translated “the
goodness of God made manifest.”[669] “The worship of Christ was
not universal at this early date,” explains Mackenzie, “by which I
mean that Christolatry had not been introduced; but the worship of
_Chrēstos_--the Good Principle--had preceded it by many centuries,
and even survived the general adoption of Christianity, as shown on
monuments still in existence.” ... Again, we have an inscription
which is pre-Christian on an epitaphial tablet (Spon. _Misc. Erud._,
Ant., x. xviii. 2). Υακινθε Λαρισαιων Δημοσιε Ηρως Χρηστε Χαιρε, and
de Rossi (_Roma Sotteranea_, tome i., tav. xxi.) gives us another
example from the catacombs--“Ælia Chreste, in Pace.”[670] And, _Kris_,
as Jacolliot shows, means in Sanscrit “sacred.”
The meritorious stratagems of the trustworthy Eusebius thus proved
lost labor. He was triumphantly detected by Basnage, who, says
Gibbon, “examined with the utmost critical accuracy the curious
treatise of Philo, which describes the Therapeutæ,” and found that
“by proving it was composed as early as the time of Augustus, he has
demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius and a crowd of modern Catholics,
that the Therapeutæ were neither Christians nor monks.”
As a last word, the _Christian_ Gnostics sprang into existence
toward the beginning of the second century, and just at the time
when the Essenes most mysteriously faded away, which indicated that
they were the identical Essenes, and moreover pure _Christists_,
viz.: they believed and were those who best understood what one of
their own brethren had preached. In insisting that the letter Iota,
mentioned by Jesus in _Matthew_ (v. 18), indicated a secret doctrine
in relation to the ten æons, it is sufficient to demonstrate to a
kabalist that Jesus belonged to the Freemasonry of those days; for
Ι, which is Iota in Greek, has other names in other languages; and is,
as it was among the Gnostics of those days, a pass-word, meaning the
SCEPTRE of the FATHER, in Eastern brotherhoods which exist to this
very day.
But in the early centuries these facts, if known, were purposely
ignored, and not only withheld from public notice as much as
possible, but vehemently denied whenever the question was forced upon
discussion. The denunciations of the Fathers were rendered bitter in
proportion to the truth of the claim which they endeavored to refute.
“It comes to this,” writes Irenæus, complaining of the Gnostics,
“they neither consent to Scripture nor tradition.”[671] And why
should we wonder at that, when even the commentators of the
nineteenth century, with nothing but fragments of the Gnostic
manuscripts to compare with the voluminous writings of their
calumniators, have been enabled to detect fraud on nearly every
page? How much more must the polished and learned Gnostics, with all
their advantages of personal observation and knowledge of fact, have
realized the stupendous scheme of fraud that was being consummated
before their very eyes! Why should they accuse Celsus of maintaining
that their religion was all based on the speculations of Plato, with
the difference that his doctrines were far more pure and rational
than theirs, when we find Sprengel, seventeen centuries later,
writing the following?--“Not only did they (the Christians) think to
discover the dogmas of Plato in the books of Moses, but, moreover,
they fancied that, by introducing Platonism into Christianity, they
would _elevate the dignity of this religion and make it more popular
among the nations_.”[672]
They introduced it so well, that not only was the Platonic philosophy
selected as a basis for the trinity, but even the legends and
mythical stories which had been current among the admirers of the
great philosopher--as a time-honored custom required in the eyes
of his posterity such an allegorical homage to every hero worthy
of deification--were revamped and used by the Christians. Without
going so far as India, did they not have a ready model for the
“miraculous conception,” in the legend about Periktionè, Plato’s
mother? In her case it was also maintained by popular tradition that
she had immaculately conceived him, and that the god Apollo was his
father. Even the annunciation by an angel to Joseph “in a dream,” the
Christians copied from the message of Apollo to Ariston, Periktionè’s
husband, that the child to be born from her was the offspring of that
god. So, too, Romulus was said to be the son of Mars, by the virgin
Rhea Sylvia.
It is generally held by all the symbolical writers that the Ophites
were found guilty of practicing the most licentious rites during
their religious meetings. The same accusation was brought against the
Manichæans, the Carpocratians, the Paulicians, the Albigenses--in
short, against every Gnostic sect which had the temerity to claim
the right to think for itself. In our modern days, the 160 American
sects and the 125 sects of England are not so often troubled with
such accusations; times are changed, and even the once all-powerful
clergy have to either bridle their tongues or prove their slanderous
accusations.
We have carefully looked over the works of such authors as Payne
Knight, C. W. King, and Olshausen, which treat of our subject; we
have reviewed the bulky volumes of Irenæus, Tertullian, Sozomen,
Theodoret; and in none but those of Epiphanius have we found any
accusation based upon direct evidence of an eye-witness. “They say;”
“_Some_ say;” “We have heard”--such are the general and indefinite
terms used by the patristic accusers. Alone Epiphanius, whose works
are invariably referred to in all such cases, seems to chuckle with
delight whenever he couches a lance. We do not mean to take upon
ourselves to defend the sects which inundated Europe at the eleventh
century, and which brought to light the most wonderful creeds; we
limit our defense merely to those Christian sects whose theories
were usually grouped under the generic name of _Gnosticism_. These
are those which appeared immediately after the alleged crucifixion,
and lasted till they were nearly exterminated under the rigorous
execution of the Constantinian law. The greatest guilt of these were
their syncretistic views, for at no other period of the world’s
history had truth a poorer prospect of triumph than in those days of
forgery, lying, and deliberate falsification of facts.
But before we are forced to believe the accusations, may we not
be permitted to inquire into the historical characters of their
accusers? Let us begin by asking, upon what ground does the Church
of Rome build her claim of supremacy for her doctrines over those
of the Gnostics? Apostolic succession, undoubtedly. The succession
_traditionally_ instituted by the direct Apostle Peter. But what if
this prove a fiction? Clearly, the whole superstructure supported
upon this one imaginary stilt would fall in a tremendous crash.
And when we do inquire carefully, we find that we must take the
word of Irenæus _alone_ for it--of Irenæus, who did not furnish one
single valid proof of the claim which he so audaciously advanced,
and who resorted for that to endless forgeries. He gives authority
neither for his dates nor his assertions. This Smyrniote worthy
has not even the brutal but sincere faith of Tertullian, for he
contradicts himself at every step, and supports his claims solely on
acute sophistry. Though he was undoubtedly a man of the shrewdest
intellect and great learning, he fears not, in some of his assertions
and arguments, to even appear an idiot in the eyes of posterity, so
long as he can “carry the situation.” Twitted and cornered at every
step by his not less acute and learned adversaries, the Gnostics, he
boldly shields himself behind blind faith, and in answer to their
merciless logic falls upon imaginary tradition invented by himself.
Reber wittily remarks: “As we read his misapplications of words and
sentences, we would conclude that he was a lunatic if we did not know
that he was something else.”[673]
So boldly mendacious does this “holy Father” prove himself in many
instances, that he is even contradicted by Eusebius, more cautious
if not more truthful than himself. He is driven to that necessity
in the face of unimpeachable evidence. So, for instance, Irenæus
asserts that Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, was a direct hearer of
St. John;[674] and Eusebius is compelled to show that Papias never
pretended to such a claim, but simply stated that he had received his
_doctrine from those who had known John_.[675]
In one point, the Gnostics had the best of Irenæus. They drove
him, through mere fear of inconsistency, to the recognition of
their kabalistic doctrine of atonement; unable to grasp it in its
allegorical meaning, Irenæus presented, with Christian theology as
we find it in its present state of “original sin _versus_ Adam,” a
doctrine which would have filled Peter with pious horror if he had
been still alive.
The next champion for the propagation of Apostolic Succession, is
Eusebius himself. Is the word of this Armenian Father any better than
that of Irenæus? Let us see what the most competent critics say of
him. And before we turn to modern critics at all, we might remind
the reader of the scurrilous terms in which Eusebius is attacked
by George Syncellus, the Vice-Patriarch of Constantinople (eighth
century), for his audacious falsification of the Egyptian Chronology.
The opinion of Socrates, an historian of the fifth century, is no
more flattering. He fearlessly charges Eusebius with perverting
historical dates, in order to please the Emperor Constantine. In his
chronographic work, before proceeding to falsify the synchronistic
tables _himself_, in order to impart to Scriptural chronology a more
trustworthy appearance, Syncellus covers Eusebius with the choicest
of monkish Billingsgate. _Baron Bunsen has verified the justness
if not justified the politeness of this abusive reprehension._ His
elaborate researches in the rectification of the _Egyptian List of
Chronology_, by Manetho, led him to confess that throughout his work,
the Bishop of Cæsarea “had undertaken, in a very _unscrupulous_ and
arbitrary spirit, to mutilate history.” “Eusebius,” he says, “is the
originator of that systematic theory of synchronisms which has so
often subsequently maimed and mutilated history in its procrustean
bed.”[676] To this the author of the _Intellectual Development of
Europe_ adds: “Among those who have been the most guilty of this
offense, the name of the celebrated Eusebius, the Bishop of Cæsarea
... should be designated!”[677]
It will not be amiss to remind the reader that it is the same
Eusebius who is charged with the interpolation of the famous
paragraph concerning Jesus,[678] which was so miraculously found,
in his time, in the writings of Josephus, the sentence in question
having till that time remained perfectly unknown. Renan, in his _Life
of Jesus_, expresses a contrary opinion. “I believe,” says he, “the
passage respecting Jesus to be authentic. _It is perfectly in the
style of Josephus_; and, _if_ this historian had made mention of
Jesus, it is _thus_ that he must have spoken of him.”
Begging this eminent scholar’s pardon, we must again contradict him.
Laying aside his cautious “_if_,” we will merely show that though
the short paragraph may possibly be genuine, and “perfectly in the
style of Josephus,” its several parentheses are most palpably later
forgeries; and “_if_” Josephus had made any mention of Christ at
all, it is _not_ thus that he would “have spoken of him.” The whole
paragraph consists of but a few lines, and reads: “At this time was
_Iasous_, a ‘WISE MAN,’[679] if, at least, _it is right to call him a
man_! (ἄνδρα) for he was a doer of surprising works, and a teacher of
such men as receive “the truths” with pleasure.... _This was the_
ANOINTED (!!). And, on an accusation by the first men among us, having
been condemned by Pilate to the cross, they did not stop loving him
who loved them. For _he appeared to them on the third day alive_, and
the divine prophets having said these and many other wonderful things
concerning him.”
This paragraph (of sixteen lines in the original) has two unequivocal
assertions and one qualification. The latter is expressed in the
following sentence: “If, at least, it is right to call him a
man.” The unequivocal assertions are contained in “This is the
ANOINTED,” and in that Jesus “appeared to them _on the third day
alive_.” History shows us Josephus as a thorough, uncompromising,
stiff-necked, orthodox Jew, though he wrote for “the Pagans.” It is
well to observe the false position in which these sentences would
have placed a true-born Jew, if they had really emanated from him.
Their “Messiah” was then and is still expected. The Messiah is the
_Anointed_, and _vice versa_. And Josephus is made to admit that the
“first men” among them have accused and crucified _their_ Messiah and
Anointed!! No need to comment any further upon such a preposterous
incongruity,[680] even though supported by so ripe a scholar as Renan.
As to that patristic fire-brand, Tertullian, whom des Mousseaux
apotheosizes in company with his other demi-gods, he is regarded
by Reuss, Baur, and Schweigler, in quite a different light. The
untrustworthiness of statement and inaccuracy of Tertullian, says
the author of _Supernatural Religion_, are often apparent. Reuss
characterizes his Christianism as “_âpre_, _insolent_, _brutal_,
_ferrailleur_.” It is without unction and without charity, sometimes
even _without loyalty_, when he finds himself confronted with
opposition. “If,” remarks this author, “in the second century all
parties except certain Gnostics were intolerant, Tertullian was the
most intolerant of all!”
The work begun by the early Fathers was achieved by the sophomorical
Augustine. His supra-transcendental speculations on the Trinity; his
imaginary dialogues with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
the _disclosures_ and covert allusions about his ex-brethren, the
Manicheans, have led the world to load Gnosticism with opprobrium,
and have thrown into a deep shadow the insulted majesty of the one
God, worshipped in reverential silence by every “heathen.”
_And thus is it that the whole pyramid of Roman Catholic dogmas rests
not upon proof, but upon assumption._ The Gnostics had cornered
the Fathers too cleverly, and _the only salvation of the latter
was a resort to forgery_. For nearly four centuries, the great
historians nearly cotemporary with Jesus had not taken the slightest
notice either of his life or death. Christians wondered at such an
unaccountable omission of what the Church considered the greatest
events in the world’s history. Eusebius saved the battle of the day.
Such are the men who have slandered the Gnostics.
The first and most unimportant sect we hear of is that of the
_Nicolaïtans_, of whom John, in the _Apocalypse_, makes the
voice in his vision say that he hates their doctrine.[681] These
Nicolaïtans were the followers, however, of Nicolas of Antioch, one
of the “seven” chosen by the “twelve” to make distribution from the
common fund to the proselytes at Jerusalem (_Acts_ ii. 44, 45, vi.
1-5), hardly more than a few weeks, or perhaps months, after the
Crucifixion;[682] and a man “of honest report, _full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom_” (verse 3). Thus it would appear that the “Holy
Ghost and wisdom” from on high, were no more a shield against the
accusation of “hæresy” than though they had never overshadowed the
“chosen ones” of the apostles.
It would be but too easy to detect what kind of heresy it was
that offended, even had we not other and more authentic sources
of information in the kabalistic writings. The accusation and
the precise nature of the “abomination” are stated in the second
chapter of the book of _Revelation_, verses 14, 15. The sin was
merely--_marriage_. John was a “virgin;” several of the Fathers
assert the fact on the authority of tradition. Even Paul, the most
liberal and high-minded of them all, finds it difficult to reconcile
the position of a married man with that of a faithful servant of God.
There is also “a difference between a wife and a virgin.”[683] The
latter cares “for the things of the Lord,” and the former only for
“how she may please her husband.” “If any man think that he behaveth
uncomely towards his virgin ... let them marry. Nevertheless, he that
standeth steadfast in his heart, and hath power over his own will,
and hath so decreed ... that he will keep _his virgin_, doeth well.”
So that he who marries “doeth well ... but he that giveth her not in
marriage _doeth better_.” “Art thou loosed from a wife?” he asks,
“seek not a wife” (27). And remarking that according to his judgment,
both will be happier if they do not marry, he adds, as a weighty
conclusion: “And I think also that I have the spirit of God” (40).
Far from this spirit of tolerance are the words of John. According to
his vision there are “but the hundred and forty and four thousand,
which were _redeemed_ from the earth,” and “these are they which
were not defiled with women; for _they were virgins_.”[684] This
seems conclusive; for except Paul there is not one of these primitive
_Nazari_, there “set apart” and vowed to God, who seemed to make
a great difference between “sin” within the relationship of legal
marriage, and the “abomination” of adultery.
With such views and such narrow-mindedness, it was but natural that
these fanatics should have begun by casting this _iniquity_ as a
slur in the faces of brethren, and then “bearing on progressively”
with their accusations. As we have already shown, it is only
Epiphanius whom we find giving such minute details as to the
Masonic “grips” and other signs of recognition among the Gnostics.
He had once belonged to their number, and therefore it was easy
for him to furnish particulars. Only how far the worthy Bishop is
to be relied upon is a very grave question. One need fathom human
nature but very superficially to find that there seldom was yet a
traitor, a renegade, who, in a moment of danger turned “State’s
evidence,” who would not lie as remorselessly as he betrayed. Men
never forgive or relent toward those whom they injure. We hate our
victims in proportion to the harm we do them. This is a truth as
old as the world. On the other hand, it is preposterous to believe
that such persons as the Gnostics, who, according to Gibbon, were
the wealthiest, proudest, most polite, as well as the most learned
“of the Christian name,” were guilty of the disgusting, libidinous
actions of which Epiphanius delights to accuse them. Were they even
like that “set of tatterdemalions, almost naked, with fierce looks,”
that Lucian describes as Paul’s followers,[685] we would hesitate to
believe such an infamous story. How much less probable then that men
who were Platonists, as well as Christians, should have ever been
guilty of such preposterous rites.
Payne Knight seems never to suspect the testimony of Epiphanius.
He argues that “if we make allowance for the willing exaggerations
of religious hatred, and consequent popular prejudice, the general
conviction that these sectarians had rites and practices of a
licentious character appears too strong to be entirely disregarded.”
If he draws an honest line of demarcation between the Gnostics of
the first three centuries and those mediæval sects whose doctrines
“rather closely resembled modern communism,” we have nothing to say.
Only, we would beg every critic to remember that if the Templars were
accused of that most “abominable crime” of applying the “holy kiss”
to the root of Baphomet’s tail,[686] St. Augustine is also suspected,
and on very good grounds, too, of having allowed his community to go
somewhat astray from the primitive way of administering the “holy
kiss” at the feast of the Eucharist. The holy Bishop seems quite too
anxious as to certain details of the ladies’ toilet for the “kiss” to
be of a strictly orthodox nature.[687] Wherever there lurks a true
and sincere religious feeling, there is no room for worldly details.
Considering the extraordinary dislike exhibited from the first by
Christians to all manner of cleanliness, we cannot enough wonder at
such a strange solicitude on the part of the holy Bishop for his
female parishioners, unless, indeed, we have to excuse it on the
ground of a lingering reminiscence of Manichean rites!
It would be hard, indeed, to blame any writer for entertaining such
suspicions of immorality as those above noticed, when the records
of many historians are at hand to help us to make an impartial
investigation. “Hæretics” are accused of crimes in which the Church
has more or less openly indulged even down to the beginning of our
century. In 1233 Pope Gregory IX. issued two bulls against the
Stedingers “for various _heathen_ and magical practices,”[688]
and the latter, as a matter of course, were exterminated in the
name of Christ and his Holy Mother. In 1282 a parish priest of
Inverkeithing, named John, performed rites on Easter day by far
worse than “magical.” Collecting a crowd of young girls, he forced
them to enter into “divine ecstasies” and Bacchanalian fury, dancing
the old Amazonian circle-dance around the figure of the heathen
“god of the gardens.” Notwithstanding that upon the complaint of
some of his parishioners he was cited before his bishop, he retained
his benefice because he proved that _such was the common usage of
the country_.[689] The Waldenses, those “earliest Protestants,”
were accused of the most unnatural horrors; burned, butchered, and
exterminated for calumnies heaped upon them by their accusers.
Meanwhile the latter, in open triumph, forming their heathen
processions of “Corpus Christi,” with emblems modelled on those of
Baal-Peor and “Osiris,” and every city in Southern France carrying,
in yearly processions on Easter days, loaves and cakes fashioned like
the so-much-decried emblems of the Hindu Sivites and Vishnites, as
late as 1825![690]
Deprived of their old means for slandering Christian sects whose
religious views differ from their own, it is now the turn of the
“heathen,” Hindus, Chinese, and Japanese, to share with the ancient
religions the honor of having cast in their teeth denunciations of
their “libidinous religions.”
Without going far for proofs of equal if not surpassing immorality,
we would remind Roman Catholic writers of certain _bas-reliefs_ on
the doors of St. Peter’s Cathedral. They are as brazen-faced as the
door itself; but less so than any author, who, knowing all this,
feigns to ignore historical facts. A long succession of Popes have
reposed their pastoral eyes upon these brazen pictures of the vilest
obscenity, through those many centuries, without ever finding the
slightest necessity for removing them. Quite the contrary; for we
might name certain Popes and Cardinals who made it a life-long study
to copy these heathen suggestions of “nature-gods,” in practice as
well as in theory.
In Polish Podolia there was some years ago, in a Roman Catholic
Church, a statue of Christ, in black marble. It was reputed to
perform miracles on certain days, such as having its hair and beard
grow in the sight of the public, and indulging in other _less_
innocent wonders. This show was finally prohibited by the Russian
Government. When in 1585 the Protestants took Embrun (Department of
the Upper Alps), they found in the churches of this town relics of
such a character, that, as the Chronicle expresses it, “old Huguenot
soldiers were seen to blush, several weeks after, at the bare
mention of the discovery.” In a corner of the Church of St. Fiacre,
near Monceaux, in France, there was--and it still is there, if we
mistake not--a seat called “the chair of St. Fiacre,” which had the
reputation of conferring fecundity upon barren women. A rock in the
vicinity of Athens, not far from the so-called “Tomb of Socrates,”
is said to be possessed of the same virtue. When, some twenty years
since, the Queen Amelia, perhaps in a merry moment, was said to
have tried the experiment, there was no end of most insulting abuse
heaped upon her, by a Catholic Padre, on his way through Syra to some
mission. The Queen, he declared, was a “superstitious heretic!” “an
abominable witch!” “Jezebel using magic arts.” Much more the zealous
missionary would doubtless have added, had he not found himself,
right in the middle of his vituperations, landed in a pool of mud,
outside the window. The virtuous elocutionist was forced to this
unusual transit by the strong arm of a Greek officer, who happened to
enter the room at the right moment.
There never was a great religious reform that was not pure at the
beginning. The first followers of Buddha, as well as the disciples
of Jesus, were all men of the highest morality. The aversion felt by
the reformers of all ages to vice under any shape, is proved in the
cases of Sâkya-muni, Pythagoras, Plato, Jesus, St. Paul, Ammonius
Sakkas. The great Gnostic leaders--if less successful--were not less
virtuous in practice nor less morally pure. Marcion, Basilides,[691]
Valentinus, were renowned for their ascetic lives. The Nicolaïtans,
who, if they did not belong to the great body of the Ophites,
were numbered among the small sects which were absorbed in it at
the beginning of the second century, owe their origin, as we have
shown, to Nicolas of Antioch, “a man of honest report, full of the
Holy Ghost and wisdom.” How absurd the idea that such men would
have instituted “libidinous rites.” As well accuse Jesus of having
promoted the similar rites which we find practiced so extensively
by the mediæval _orthodox_ Christians behind the secure shelter of
monastic walls.
If, however, we are asked to credit such an accusation against the
Gnostics, an accusation transferred with tenfold acrimony, centuries
later, to the unfortunate heads of the Templars, why should we not
believe the same of the orthodox Christians? Minucius Felix states
that “the first Christians were accused by the world of inducing,
during the ceremony of the “Perfect Passover,” each neophyte, on his
admission, to plunge a knife into an infant concealed under a heap of
flour; the body then serving for a banquet to the whole congregation.
After they had become the dominant party, they (the Christians)
transferred this charge to their own dissenters.”[692]
The real crime of heterodoxy is plainly stated by John in his
_Epistles_ and _Gospel_. “He that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh ... is a deceiver and _an antichrist_” (2 _Epistle_
7). In his previous _Epistle_, he teaches his flock that there are
_two_ trinities (7, 8)--in short, the Nazarene system.
The inference to be drawn from all this is, that the made-up and
dogmatic Christianity of the Constantinian period is simply an
offspring of the numerous conflicting sects, half-castes themselves,
born of Pagan parents. Each of these could claim representatives
converted to the so-called _orthodox_ body of Christians. And, as
every newly-born dogma had to be carried out by the majority of
votes, every sect colored the main substance with its own hue, till
the moment when the emperor enforced this _revealed_ olla-podrida,
of which he evidently did not himself understand a word, upon an
unwilling world as the _religion of Christ_. Wearied in the vain
attempt to sound this fathomless bog of international speculations,
unable to appreciate a religion based on the pure spirituality of
an ideal conception, Christendom gave itself up to the adoration of
brutal force as represented by a Church backed up by Constantine.
Since then, among the thousand rites, dogmas, and ceremonies copied
from Paganism, the Church can claim but one invention as thoroughly
original with her--namely, the doctrine of eternal damnation, and one
custom, that of the anathema. The Pagans rejected both with horror.
“An execration is a fearful and grievous thing,” says Plutarch.
“Wherefore, the priestess at Athens was commended for refusing to
curse Alkibiades (for desecration of the Mysteries) when the people
required her to do it; _for_, she said, _that she was a priestess of
prayers and not of curses_.”[693]
“Deep researches would show,” says Renan, “that nearly everything
in Christianity is mere baggage brought from the Pagan Mysteries.
The primitive Christian worship is nothing but a mystery. The whole
interior police of the Church, the degrees of initiation, the command
of silence, and a crowd of phrases in the ecclesiastical language,
have no other origin.... The revolution which overthrew Paganism
_seems_ at first glance ... an absolute rupture with the past ... but
_the popular faith saved its most familiar symbols from shipwreck_.
Christianity introduced, at first, so little change into the habits
of private and social life, that with great numbers in the fourth
and fifth centuries it remains uncertain whether they were Pagans
or Christians; many seem even to have pursued an irresolute course
between the two worships.” Speaking further of _Art_, which formed
an essential part of the ancient religion, he says that “_it had
to break with scarce one of its traditions_. Primitive Christian
art is really nothing but Pagan art in its decay, or in its lower
departments. The Good Shepherd of the catacombs in Rome is a copy
from the Aristeus, or from the Apollo Nornius, which figure in the
same posture on the Pagan sarcophagi, and still carries the flute of
Pan in the midst of the four half-naked seasons. On the Christian
tombs of the Cemetery of St. Calixtus, Orpheus charms the animals.
Elsewhere, the Christ as Jupiter-Pluto, and Mary as Proserpina,
receive the souls that Mercury, wearing the broad-brimmed hat and
carrying in his hand the rod of the soul-guide (_psychopompos_),
brings to them, in presence of the three fates. Pegasus, the symbol
of the apotheosis; Psyche, the symbol of the immortal soul; Heaven,
personified by an old man, the river Jordan; and Victory, figure on a
host of Christian monuments.”
As we have elsewhere shown, the primitive Christian community
was composed of small groups scattered about and organized in
secret societies, with passwords, grips, and signs. To avoid the
relentless persecutions of their enemies, they were obliged to seek
safety and hold meetings in deserted catacombs, the fastnesses of
mountains, and other safe retreats. Like disabilities were naturally
encountered by each religious reform at its inception. From the
very first appearance of Jesus and his twelve disciples, we see
them congregating apart, having secure refuges in the wilderness,
and among friends in Bethany, and elsewhere. Were Christianity not
composed of “_secret communities_,” from the start, history would
have more _facts_ to record of its founder and disciples than it has.
How little Jesus had impressed his personality upon his own century,
is calculated to astound the inquirer. Renan shows that Philo, who
died toward the year 50, and who was born many years earlier than
Jesus, living all the while in Palestine while the “glad tidings”
were being preached all over the country, according to the _Gospels_,
had never heard of him! Josephus, the historian, who was born three
or four years after the death of Jesus, mentions his execution
in a short sentence, and even those few words were altered “by a
_Christian hand_,” says the author of the _Life of Jesus_. Writing at
the close of the first century, when Paul, the learned propagandist,
is said to have founded so many churches, and Peter is alleged to
have established the apostolic succession, which the Irenæo-Eusebian
chronology shows to have already included three bishops of Rome,[694]
Josephus, the painstaking enumerator and careful historian of even
the most unimportant sects, entirely ignores the existence of a
Christian sect. Suetonius, secretary of Adrian, writing in the first
quarter of the second century, knows so little of Jesus or his
history as to say that the Emperor Claudius “banished all the Jews,
who were continually making disturbances, at the instigation of one
_Crestus_,” meaning Christ, we must suppose.[695] The Emperor Adrian
himself, writing still later, was so little impressed with the tenets
or importance of the new sect, that in a letter to Servianus he shows
that he believes the Christians to be worshippers of Serapis.[696]
“In the second century,” says C. W. King, “the syncretistic sects
that had sprung up in Alexandria, the very hot-bed of Gnosticism,
found out in Serapis a prophetic type of Christ as the Lord and
Creator of all, and Judge of the living and the dead.”[697] Thus,
while the “Pagan” philosophers had never viewed Serapis, or rather
the abstract idea which was embodied in him, as otherwise than a
representation of the Anima Mundi, the Christians anthropomorphized
the “Son of God” and his “Father,” finding no better model for him
than the idol of a Pagan myth! “There can be no doubt,” remarks the
same author, “that the head of Serapis, marked, as the face is,
by a grave and pensive majesty, supplied the first idea for the
conventional portraits of the Saviour.”[698]
In the notes taken by a traveller--whose episode with the monks
on Mount Athos we have mentioned elsewhere--we find that, during
his early life, Jesus had frequent intercourse with the Essenes
belonging to the Pythagorean school, and known as the Koinobi.
We believe it rather hazardous on the part of Renan to assert so
dogmatically, as he does, that Jesus “ignored the very name of
Buddha, of Zoroaster, of Plato;” that he had never read a Greek nor
a Buddhistic book, “although he had more than one element in him,
which, unawares to himself, proceeded from Buddhism, Parsism, and the
Greek wisdom.”[699] This is conceding half a miracle, and allowing
as much to chance and coincidence. It is an abuse of privilege,
when an author, who claims to write historical facts, draws
convenient deductions from hypothetical premises, and then calls
it a biography--a _Life_ of Jesus. No more than any other compiler
of legends concerning the problematical history of the Nazarene
prophet, has Renan one inch of secure foothold upon which to maintain
himself; nor can any one else assert a claim to the contrary,
except on inferential evidence. And yet, while Renan has not one
solitary fact to show that Jesus had never studied the metaphysical
tenets of Buddhism and Parsism, or heard of the philosophy of
Plato, his opponents have the best reasons in the world to suspect
the contrary. When they find that--1, all his sayings are in a
Pythagorean spirit, when not _verbatim_ repetitions; 2, his code of
ethics is purely Buddhistic; 3, his mode of action and walk in life,
Essenean; and 4, his mystical mode of expression, his parables, and
his ways, those of an initiate, whether Grecian, Chaldean, or Magian
(for the “Perfect,” who spoke the _hidden_ wisdom, were of the same
school of archaic learning the world over), it is difficult to escape
from the logical conclusion that he belonged to that same body of
initiates. It is a poor compliment paid the Supreme, this forcing
upon Him four gospels, in which, contradictory as they often are,
there is not a single narrative, sentence, or peculiar expression,
whose parallel may not be found in some older doctrine or philosophy.
Surely, the Almighty--were it but to spare future generations their
present perplexity--might have brought down with Him, at His _first
and only_ incarnation on earth, something original--something
that would trace a distinct line of demarcation between Himself
and the score or so of incarnate Pagan gods, who had been born of
virgins, had all been saviours, and were either killed, or otherwise
sacrificed themselves for humanity.
Too much has already been conceded to the emotional side of the
story. What the world needs is a less exalted, but more faithful
view of a personage, in whose favor nearly half of Christendom has
dethroned the Almighty. It is not the erudite, world-famous scholar,
whom we question for what we find in his _Vie de Jesus_, nor is
it one of his _historical_ statements. We simply challenge a few
unwarranted and untenable assertions that have found their way past
the emotional narrator, into the otherwise beautiful pages of the
work--a life built altogether on mere probabilities, and yet that
of one who, if accepted as an historical personage, has far greater
claims upon our love and veneration, fallible as he is with all his
greatness, than if we figure him as an omnipotent God. It is but in
the latter character that Jesus must be regarded by every reverential
mind as a failure.
Notwithstanding the paucity of old philosophical works now extant,
we could find no end of instances of perfect identity between
Pythagorean, Hindu, and _New Testament_ sayings. There is no lack
of proofs upon this point. What is needed is a Christian public
that will examine what will be offered, and show common honesty in
rendering its verdict. Bigotry has had its day, and done its worst.
“We need not be frightened,” says Professor Müller, “if we discover
traces of truth, traces even of Christian truth, among the sages and
lawgivers of other nations.”
After reading the following philosophical aphorisms, who can
believe that Jesus and Paul had never read the Grecian and Indian
philosophers?
SENTENCES FROM SEXTUS, THE VERSES FROM THE
PYTHAGOREAN, and other NEW TESTAMENT.[700]
Heathen.
1. “Possess not treasures, but 1. “Lay not up for yourselves
those things which no one treasures upon earth.
can take from you.” where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where
thieves break through and
steal” (_Matthew_ vi. 19).
2. “It is better for a part of 2. “And if thy hand offend
the body which contains thee, cut it off; it is
purulent matter, and better for thee to enter
threatens to infect the _unto life_ maimed, than go
whole, _to be burnt_, to hell,” etc. (_Mark_ ix.
than to continue so in 43).
_another state_ (life).”
3. “You have in yourself 3. “Know ye not ye are _the
something _similar to temple of God_, and that the
God_, and therefore use Spirit of God dwelleth in
yourself _as the temple you?” (_1 Corinthians_, iii.
of God_.” 16).
4. “The greatest honor which 4. “That ye may be the children
can be paid to God, is to of your Father, which is
know and imitate his in Heaven, be ye perfect
_perfection_.” even as your _Father is
perfect_” (_Matthew_ v.
45-48).
5. “What I do not wish men to 5. “Do ye unto others as ye
do to me, I also wish not would that others should do
to do to men” (_Analects to you.”
of Confucius_, p. 76; see
Max Müller’s _The Works
of Confucius_).
6. “The moon shines even in 6. “He maketh his sun to rise
the house of the wicked” on the evil and on the good,
(_Manu_). and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust” (_Matthew_
v. 45).
7. “They who give, have things 7. “Whosoever hath, to him
given to them; those who shall be given ... but
withhold, have things whosoever hath not, from him
taken from them” (Ibid.). shall be taken away”
(_Matthew_ xiii. 12).
8. “Purity of mind alone sees 8. “Blessed are the pure in
God” (Ibid.)--still a heart, for they shall see
popular saying in India. God” (_Matthew_ v. 8).
Plato did not conceal the fact that he derived his best philosophical
doctrines from Pythagoras, and that himself was merely the first to
reduce them to systematic order, occasionally interweaving with them
metaphysical speculations of his own. But Pythagoras himself got his
recondite doctrines, first from the descendants of Mochus, and later,
from the Brahmans of India. He was also initiated into the Mysteries
among the hierophants of Thebes, the Persian and Chaldean Magi. Thus,
step by step do we trace the origin of most of our Christian doctrines
to Middle Asia. Drop out from Christianity the personality of Jesus,
so sublime, because of its unparalleled simplicity, and what remains?
History and comparative theology echo back the melancholy answer, “A
crumbling skeleton formed of the oldest Pagan myths!”
While the mythical birth and life of Jesus are a faithful copy of
those of the Brahmanical Christna, his historical character of a
religious reformer in Palestine is the true type of Buddha in India.
In more than one respect their great resemblance in philanthropic and
spiritual aspirations, as well as external circumstances is truly
striking. Though the son of a king, while Jesus was but a carpenter,
Buddha was not of the high Brahmanical caste by birth. Like Jesus, he
felt dissatisfied with the dogmatic spirit of the religion of his
country, the intolerance and hypocrisy of the priesthood, their
outward show of devotion, and their useless ceremonials and prayers.
As Buddha broke violently through the traditional laws and rules of
the Brahmans, so did Jesus declare war against the Pharisees, and the
proud Sadducees. What the Nazarene did as a consequence of his humble
birth and position, Buddha did as a voluntary penance. He travelled
about as a beggar; and--again like Jesus--later in life he sought by
preference the companionship of publicans and sinners. Each aimed at a
social as well as at a religious reform; and giving a death-blow to
the old religions of his countries, each became the founder of a new
one.
“The reform of Buddha,” says Max Müller, “had originally much more of
a social than of a religious character. The most important element of
Buddhist reform has always been its social and moral code, not its
metaphysical theories. _That moral code is one of the most perfect
which the world has ever known_ ... and he whose meditations had been
how to deliver the soul of man from misery and the fear of death, had
delivered the people of India from a degrading thraldom and from
priestly tyranny.” Further, the lecturer adds that were it otherwise,
“Buddha might have taught whatever philosophy he pleased, and we
should hardly have heard his name. The people would not have minded
him, and his system would only have been a drop in the ocean of
philosophic speculation by which India was deluged at all times.”[701]
The same with Jesus. While Philo, whom Renan calls Jesus’s elder
brother, Hillel, Shammai, and Gamaliel, are hardly mentioned--Jesus
has become a God! And still, pure and divine as was the moral code
taught by Christ, it never could have borne comparison with that of
Buddha, but for the tragedy of Calvary. That which helped forward the
deification of Jesus was his dramatic death, the voluntary sacrifice
of his life, alleged to have been made for the sake of mankind, and
the later convenient dogma of the atonement, invented by the
Christians. In India, where life is valued as of no account, the
crucifixion would have produced little effect, if any. In a country
where--as all the Indianists are well aware--religious fanatics set
themselves to dying by inches, in penances lasting for years; where
the most fearful macerations are self-inflicted by fakirs; where young
and delicate widows, in a spirit of bravado against the government, as
much as out of religious fanaticism, mount the funeral pile with a
smile on their face; where, to quote the words of the great lecturer,
“Men in the prime of life throw themselves under the car of
Juggernâth, to be crushed to death by the idol they believe in, where
the plaintiff who cannot get redress starves himself to death at the
door of his judge; where the philosopher who thinks he has learned all
which this world can teach him, and who longs for absorption into the
Deity, quietly steps into the Ganges, in order to arrive at the other
shore of existence,”[702] in such a country even a voluntary
crucifixion would have passed unnoticed. In Judea, and even among
braver nations than the Jews--the Romans and the Greeks--where every
one clung more or less to life, and most people would have fought for
it with desperation, the tragical end of the great Reformer was
calculated to produce a profound impression. The names of even such
minor heroes as Mutius Scævola, Horatius Cocles, the mother of the
Gracchi, and others, have descended to posterity; and, during our
school-days, as well as later in life, their histories have awakened
our sympathy and commanded a reverential admiration. But, can we ever
forget the scornful smile of certain Hindus, at Benares, when an
English lady, the wife of a clergyman, tried to impress them with the
greatness of the sacrifice of Jesus, in giving _his_ life for us?
Then, for the first time the idea struck us how much the pathos of the
great drama of Calvary had to do with subsequent events in the
foundation of Christianity. Even the imaginative Renan was moved by
this feeling to write in the last chapter of his _Vie de Jesus_, a few
pages of singular and sympathetic beauty.[703]
Apollonius, a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, was, like him, an
enthusiastic founder of a new spiritual school. Perhaps less
metaphysical and more practical than Jesus, less tender and perfect in
his nature, he nevertheless inculcated the same quintessence of
spirituality, and the same high moral truths. His great mistake was to
confine them too closely to the higher classes of society. While to
the poor and the humble Jesus preached “Peace on earth and good will
to men,” Apollonius was the friend of kings, and moved with the
aristocracy. He was born among the latter, and himself a man of
wealth, while the “Son of man,” representing the people, “had not
where to lay his head;” nevertheless, the two “miracle-workers”
exhibited striking similarity of purpose. Still earlier than
Apollonius had appeared Simon Magus, called “the great Power of God.”
His “miracles” are both more wonderful, more varied, and better
attested than those either of the apostles or of the Galilean
philosopher himself. Materialism denies the fact in both cases, but
history affirms. Apollonius followed both; and how great and renowned
were his miraculous works in comparison with those of the alleged
founder of Christianity as the kabalists claim, we have history again,
and Justin Martyr, to corroborate.[704]
Like Buddha and Jesus, Apollonius was the uncompromising enemy
of all outward show of piety, all display of useless religious
ceremonies and hypocrisy. If, like the Christian Saviour, the sage of
Tyana had by preference sought the companionship of the poor and
humble; and if instead of dying comfortably, at over one hundred years
of age, he had been a voluntary martyr, proclaiming divine Truth from
a cross,[705] his blood might have proved as efficacious for the
subsequent dissemination of spiritual doctrines as that of the
Christian Messiah.
The calumnies set afloat against Apollonius, were as numerous as
they were false. So late as eighteen centuries after his death he was
defamed by Bishop Douglas in his work against miracles. In this the
Right Reverend bishop crushed himself against historical facts. If we
study the question with a dispassionate mind, we will soon perceive that
the ethics of Gautama-Buddha, Plato, Apollonius, Jesus, Ammonius Sakkas,
and his disciples, were all based on the same mystic philosophy.
That all worshipped one God, whether they considered Him as the
“Father” of humanity, who lives in man as man lives in Him, or as the
Incomprehensible Creative Principle; all led God-like lives. Ammonius,
speaking of his philosophy, taught that their school dated from the days
of Hermes, who brought his wisdom from India. It was the same mystical
contemplation throughout, as that of the Yogin: the communion of the
Brahman with his own luminous Self--the “Atman.” And this Hindu
term is again kabalistic, _par excellence_. Who is “Self?” is asked in
the _Rig-Veda_; “Self is the Lord of all things ... all things are
contained in this Self; all selves are contained in this Self. Brahmân
itself is but Self,”[706] is the answer. Says Idra Rabba: “All things
are Himself, and Himself is _concealed_ on every side.”[707] The “Adam
Kadmon of the kabalists contains in himself all the souls of the
Israelites, and he is himself in every soul,” says the _Sohar_.[708]
The groundwork of the Eclectic School was thus identical with the
doctrines of the Yogin, the Hindu mystics, and the earlier Buddhism of
the disciples of Gautama. And when Jesus assured his disciples that
“the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because _it seeth
Him not_, neither knoweth Him,” dwells _with_ and _in_ them, who “are
in Him and He in them,”[709] he but expounded the same tenet that we
find running through every philosophy worthy of that name.
Laboulaye, the learned and skeptical French savant, does not believe
a word of the miraculous portion of Buddha’s life; nevertheless, he has
the candor to speak of Gautama as being _only second to_ Christ in the
great purity of his ethics and personal morality. For both of these
opinions he is respectfully rebuked by des Mousseaux. Vexed at this
scientific contradiction of his accusations of demonolatry against
Gautama-Buddha, he assures his readers that “ce savant distingué n’a
point etudié cette question.”[710]
“I do not hesitate to say,” remarks in his turn Barthelemy St. Hilaire,
“that, except Christ alone, there is not among the founders of
religions, a figure either more pure or more touching than that of
Buddha. His life is spotless. His constant heroism equals his
convictions.... He is the perfect model of all the virtues he
preaches; his abnegation, his charity, his unalterable sweetness of
disposition, do not fail him for one instant. He abandoned, at the age
of twenty-nine, his father’s court to become a monk and a beggar ...
and when he dies in the arms of his disciples, it is with the serenity
of a sage who practiced virtue all his life, and who dies convinced of
having found the truth.”[711] This deserved panegyric is no stronger
than the one which Laboulaye himself pronounced, and which occasioned
des Mousseaux’s wrath. “It is more than difficult,” adds the former,
“to understand how men not assisted by revelation could have soared so
high and approached so near the truth.”[712] Curious that there should
be so many lofty souls “not assisted by revelation!”
And why should any one feel surprised that Gautama could die with
philosophical serenity? As the kabalists justly say, “Death does not
exist, and man never steps outside of universal life. Those whom we
think dead live still in us, as we live in them.... The more one lives
for his kind, the less need he fear to die.”[713] And, we might add,
that he who _lives_ for humanity does even more than him who dies for
it.
The _Ineffable name_, in the search for which so many kabalists--
unacquainted with any Oriental or even European adept--vainly consume
their knowledge and lives, dwells latent in the heart of every man.
This mirific name which, according to the most ancient oracles,
“rushes into the infinite worlds ακοιμητω στροφαλιγγι,” can be
obtained in a twofold way: by regular initiation, and through the
“small voice” which Elijah heard in the cave of Horeb, the mount of
God. And “when Elijah heard it he wrapped his _face in his mantle_ and
stood in the entering of the cave. And behold there came _the_ voice.”
When Apollonius of Tyana desired to hear the “small voice,” he used
to wrap himself up entirely in a mantle of fine wool, on which he placed
both his feet, after having performed certain magnetic passes, and
pronounced not the “name” but an invocation well known to every adept.
Then he drew the mantle over his head and face, and his translucid or
astral spirit was free. On ordinary occasions he wore wool no more than
the priests of the temples. The possession of the secret combination of
the “name” gave the hierophant supreme power over every being, human
or otherwise, inferior to himself in soul-strength. Hence, when Max
Müller tells us of the Quichè “Hidden majesty which was never to be
opened by human hands,” the kabalist perfectly understands what was
meant by the expression, and is not at all surprised to hear even this
most erudite philologist exclaim: “What it was we do not know!”
We cannot too often repeat that it is only through the doctrines of
the more ancient philosophies that the religion preached by Jesus may
be understood. It is through Pythagoras, Confucius, and Plato, that we
can comprehend the idea which underlies the term “Father” in the _New
Testament_. Plato’s ideal of the Deity, whom he terms the one
everlasting, invisible God, the Fashioner and Father of all
things,[714] is rather the “Father” of Jesus. It is this Divine Being
of whom the Grecian sage says that He can neither be envious nor the
originator of evil, for He can produce nothing but what is good and
just,[715] is certainly not the Mosaic Jehovah, the “_jealous_ God,”
but the God of Jesus, who “alone is good.” He extols His all-embracing,
divine power,[716] and His omnipotence, but at the same time intimates
that, as He is unchangeable, He can never desire to change his laws,
_i.e._, to extirpate evil from the world through a miracle.[717] He is
omniscient, and nothing escapes His watchful eye.[718] His justice,
which we find embodied in the law of compensation and retribution,
will leave no crime without punishment, no virtue without its
reward;[719] and therefore he declares that the only way to honor God
is to cultivate moral purity. He utterly rejects not only the
anthropomorphic idea that God could have a material body,[720] but
“rejects with disgust those fables which ascribe passions, quarrels,
and crimes of all sorts to the minor gods.”[721] He indignantly denies
that God allows Himself to be propitiated, or rather bribed, by
prayers and sacrifices.[722]
The _Phædrus_ of Plato displays all that man once was, and that which
he may yet become again. “Before man’s spirit sank into sensuality and
was embodied with it through the loss of his wings, he lived among the
gods in the airy [spiritual] world where everything is true and pure.”
In the _Timæus_ he says that “there was a time when mankind did not
perpetuate itself, but lived as pure spirits.” In the future world,
says Jesus, “they neither marry nor are given in marriage,” but “live
as the angels of God in Heaven.”
The researches of Laboulaye, Anquetil Duperron, Colebrooke, Barthelemy
St. Hilaire, Max Müller, Spiegel, Burnouf, Wilson, and so many
other linguists, have brought some of the truth to light. And now that
the difficulties of the Sanscrit, the Thibetan, the Singhalese, the
Zend, the Pehlevi, the Chinese, and even of the Burmese, are partially
conquered, and the _Vedas_, and the _Zend-Avesta_, the Buddhist texts,
and even Kapila’s _Sûtras_ are translated, a door is thrown wide open,
which, once passed, must close forever behind any speculative or
ignorant calumniators of the old religions. Even till the present
time, the clergy have, to use the words of Max Müller--“generally
appealed to the deviltries and orgies of heathen worship ... but they
have seldom, if ever, endeavored to discover the true and original
character of the strange forms of faith and worship which they call
the work of the devil.”[723] When we read the true history of Buddha
and Buddhism, by Müller, and the enthusiastic opinions of both
expressed by Barthelemy St. Hilaire, and Laboulaye; and when, finally,
a Popish missionary, an eye-witness, and one who least of all can be
accused of partiality to the Buddhists--the Abbé Huc, we mean--finds
occasion for nothing but admiration for the high individual character
of these “devil-worshippers;” we must consider Sakyâ-muni’s philosophy
as something more than the religion of fetishism and atheism, which
the Catholics would have us believe it. Huc was a missionary and it
was his first duty to regard Buddhism as no better than an outgrowth
of the worship of Satan. The poor Abbé was struck off the list of
missionaries at Rome,[724] after his book of travels was published.
This illustrates how little we may expect to learn the truth about the
religions of other people, through missionaries, when their accounts
are first revised by the superior ecclesiastical authorities, and the
former severely punished for telling the truth.
When these men who have been and still are often termed “the obscene
ascetics,” the devotees of different sects of India in short, generally
termed “Yogi,” were asked by Marco Polo, “how it comes that they
are not ashamed to go stark naked as they do?” they answered the
inquirer of the thirteenth century as a missionary of the nineteenth was
answered. “We go naked,” they say, “because naked we came into
the world, and we desire to have nothing about us that is of this world.
Moreover, we have no sin of the flesh to be conscious of, and therefore,
we are not ashamed of our nakedness any more than you are to show
your hand or your face. You who are conscious of the sins of the flesh,
do well to have shame, and to cover your nakedness.”[725]
One could make a curious list of the excuses and explanations of
the clergy to account for similarities daily discovered between Romanism
and heathen religions. Yet the summary would invariably lead to one
sweeping claim: The doctrines of Christianity were plagiarized by the
Pagans the world over! Plato and his older Academy stole the ideas
from the Christian revelation--said the Alexandrian Fathers!! The
Brahmans and Manu borrowed from the Jesuit missionaries, and the
_Bhagaved-gita_ was the production of Father Calmet, who transformed
Christ and John into Christna and Arjuna to fit the Hindu mind!! The
trifling fact that Buddhism and Platonism both antedated Christianity,
and the _Vedas_ had already degenerated into Brahmanism before the days
of Moses, makes no difference. The same with regard to Apollonius
of Tyana. Although his thaumaturgical powers could not be denied in the
face of the testimony of emperors, their courts, and the populations of
several cities; and although few of these had ever heard of the Nazarene
prophet whose “miracles” had been witnessed by a few apostles only,
whose very individualities remain to this day a problem in history, yet
Apollonius has to be accepted as the “monkey of Christ.”
If of really pious, good, and honest men, many are yet found among
the Catholic, Greek, and Protestant clergy, whose sincere faith has
the best of their reasoning powers, and who having never been among
heathen populations, are unjust only through ignorance, it is not so
with the missionaries. The invariable subterfuge of the latter is to
attribute to demonolatry the really Christ-like life of the Hindu and
Buddhist ascetics and many of the lamas. Years of sojourn among
“heathen” nations, in China, Tartary, Thibet, and Hindustan have
furnished them with ample evidence how unjustly the so-called
idolators have been slandered. The missionaries have not even the
excuse of sincere faith to give the world that they mislead; and, with
very few exceptions, one may boldly paraphrase the remark made by
Garibaldi, and say that: “_A priest knows himself to be an impostor,
unless he be a fool, or have been taught to lie from boyhood_.”
CHAPTER VIII.
“Christian and Catholic sons may accuse their fathers of the
crime of heresy ... although they may know that their
parents will be burnt with fire and put to death for it....
And not only may they refuse them food, _if they attempt to
turn them from the Catholic faith_, BUT THEY MAY ALSO JUSTLY
KILL THEM.”--_Jesuit Precept_ (F. STEPHEN FAGUNDEZ, in
_Præcepta Decalogi_. Lugduni, 1640).
“_Most Wise._--What hour is it?
“_Respect. K. S. Warden._--It is the first hour of the day,
the time when the veil of the temple was rent asunder, when
darkness and consternation were spread over the earth--when
the light was darkened--when the implements of Masonry were
broken--when the flaming star disappeared--when the cubic
stone was broken--when the ‘WORD’ was lost.”--
_Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit._
[Inline Illustration:]--JAH-BUH-LUN.
The greatest of the kabalistic works of the Hebrews--the _Sohar_ זהר--was
compiled by Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochaï. According to some critics, this
was done years before the Christian era; according to others only
after the destruction of the temple. However, it was completed only by
the son of Simeon, Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba; for
the work is so immense and the subjects treated so abstruse that even
the whole life of this Rabbi, called the Prince of kabalists, did not
suffice for the task. On account of its being known that he was in
possession of this knowledge, and of the _Mercaba_, which insured the
reception of the “Word,” his very life was endangered, and he had to
fly to the wilderness, where he lived in a cave for twelve years,
surrounded by faithful disciples, and finally died there amid signs
and wonders.[726]
But voluminous as is the work, and containing as it does the main
points of the secret and oral tradition, it still does not embrace it
all. It is well known that this venerable kabalist never imparted
the most important points of his doctrine otherwise than orally, and
to a very limited number of friends and disciples, including his only
son. Therefore, without the final initiation into the _Mercaba_ the
study of the _Kabala_ will be ever incomplete, and the _Mercaba_ can
be taught only in “darkness, in a deserted place, and after many and
terrific trials.” Since the death of Simeon Ben-Iochai this hidden
doctrine has remained an inviolate secret for the outside world.
Delivered _only as a mystery_, it was communicated to the candidate
orally, “_face to face and mouth to ear_.”
This Masonic commandment, “mouth to ear, and the word at low breath,”
is an inheritance from the Tanaïm and the old Pagan Mysteries. Its
modern use must certainly be due to the indiscretion of some renegade
kabalist, though the “word” itself is but a “substitute” for the
“lost word,” and is a comparatively modern invention, as we will
further show. The real sentence has remained forever in the sole
possession of the adepts of various countries of the Eastern and
Western hemispheres. Only a limited number among the chiefs of the
Templars, and some Rosicrucians of the seventeenth century, always in
close relations with Arabian alchemists and initiates, could really
boast of its possession. From the seventh to the fifteenth centuries
there was no one who could claim it in Europe; and although there
had been alchemists before the days of Paracelsus, he was the first
who had passed through the true initiation, that last ceremony which
conferred on the adept the power of travelling toward the “burning
bush” over the holy ground, and to “burn the golden calf in the fire,
grind it to powder, and strow it upon the water.” Verily, then,
this magic _water_, and the “lost word,” resuscitated more than one
of the pre-Mosaic Adonirams, Gedaliahs, and Hiram Abiffs. The real
word now substituted by _Mac Benac_ and Mah was used ages before
its pseudo-magical effect was tried on the “widow’s sons” of the
last two centuries. Who was, in fact, the first operative Mason of
any consequence? Elias Ashmole, _the last of the Rosicrucians and
alchemists_. Admitted to the freedom of the Operative Masons’ Company
in London, in 1646, he died in 1692. At that time Masonry was not
what it became later; it was neither a political nor a Christian
institution, but a true secret organization, which admitted into the
ties of fellowship all men anxious to obtain the priceless boon of
liberty of conscience, and avoid clerical persecution.[727] Not until
about thirty years after his death did what is now termed modern
Freemasonry see the light. It was born on the 24th day of June, 1717,
in the Apple-tree Tavern, Charles Street, Covent Garden, London. And
it was then, as we are told in Anderson’s _Constitutions_, that the
only four lodges in the south of England elected Anthony Sayer first
Grand Master of Masons. Notwithstanding its great youth, this grand
lodge has ever claimed the acknowledgment of its supremacy by the
whole body of the fraternity throughout the whole world, as the Latin
inscription on the plate put beneath the corner-stone of Freemasons’
Hall, London, in 1775, would tell to those who could see it. But of
this more anon.
In _Die Kabbala_, by Franck, the author, following its “esoteric
ravings,” as he expresses it, gives us, in addition to the
translations, his commentaries. Speaking of his predecessors, he says
that Simeon Ben-Iochai mentions repeatedly what the “companions” have
taught in the older works. And the author cites one “Ieba, the _old_,
and Hamnuna, the _old_.”[728] But what the two “old” ones mean, or
who they were, in fact, he tells us not, for he does not know himself.
Among the venerable sect of the Tanaïm, or rather the Tananim, the
wise men, there were those who taught the secrets practically and
initiated some disciples into the grand and final Mystery. But the
_Mishna Hagiga_, 2d section, say that the table of contents of
the _Mercaba_ “must only be delivered to wise old ones.”[729] The
_Gemara_ is still more dogmatic. “The more important secrets of the
Mysteries were not even revealed to all priests. Alone the initiates
had them divulged.” And so we find the same great secresy prevalent
in every ancient religion.
But, as we see, neither the _Sohar_ nor any other kabalistic volume
contains merely Jewish wisdom. The doctrine itself being the result
of whole millenniums of thought, is therefore the joint property
of adepts of every nation under the sun. Nevertheless, the _Sohar_
teaches practical occultism more than any other work on that
subject; not as it is translated though, and commented upon by its
various critics, but with the secret signs on its margins. These
signs contain the hidden instructions, apart from the metaphysical
interpretations and apparent absurdities so fully credited by
Josephus, who was never initiated, and gave out the _dead letter_ as
he had received it.[730]
The real practical magic contained in the _Sohar_ and other
kabalistic works, is only of use to those who read it _within_. The
Christian apostles--at least, those who are said to have produced
“miracles” _at will_[731]--had to be acquainted with this science.
It ill-behooves a Christian to look with horror or derision upon
“magic” gems, amulets, and other talismans against the “evil eye,”
which serve as charms to exercise a mysterious influence, either on
the possessor, or the person whom the magician desires to control.
There are still extant a number of such charmed amulets in public and
private collections of antiquities. Illustrations of convex gems,
with mysterious legends--the meaning of which baffles all scientific
inquiry--are given by many collectors. King shows several such in
his _Gnostics_, and he describes a white carnelian (chalcedony),
covered on both sides with interminable legends, to interpret which
would ever prove a failure; yes, in every case, perhaps, but that
of a Hermetic student or an adept. But we refer the reader to his
interesting work, and the talismans described in his plates, to
show that even the “Seer of Patmos” himself was well-versed in this
kabalistic science of talismans and gems. St. John clearly alludes
to the potent “white carnelian”--a gem well-known among adepts,
as the “_alba petra_,” or the stone of initiation, on which the
word “_prize_” is generally found engraved, as it was given to the
candidate who had successfully passed through all the preliminary
trials of a neophyte. The fact is, that no less than the _Book of
Job_, the whole _Revelation_, is simply an allegorical narrative of
the Mysteries and initiation therein of a candidate, who is John
himself. No high Mason, well versed in the different degrees, can
fail to see it. The numbers _seven_, _twelve_, and others are all
so many lights thrown over the obscurity of the work. Paracelsus
maintained the same some centuries ago. And when we find the “one
like unto the Son of man” saying (chap. ii. 17): “_To him that
overcometh_, will I give to eat of the _hidden manna_, and will
give him a WHITE STONE, and in the stone a new name written”--the
word--which _no man knoweth_ saving _he that receiveth it_, what
Master Mason can doubt but it refers to the last head-line of this
chapter?
In the pre-Christian Mithraïc Mysteries, the candidate who
fearlessly overcame the “_twelve_ Tortures,” which preceded the
final initiation, received a small round cake or wafer of unleavened
bread, symbolizing, _in one of its meanings_, the solar disk and
known as the heavenly bread or “manna,” and having figures traced
on it. A _lamb_, or a _bull_ was killed, and with the blood the
candidate had to be sprinkled, as in the case of the Emperor Julian’s
initiation. The _seven_ rules or mysteries were then delivered to
the “newly-born” that are represented in the _Revelation_ as the
seven seals which are opened “in order” (see chap. v. and vi.). There
can be no doubt that the Seer of Patmos referred to this ceremony.
The origin of the Roman Catholic amulets and “relics” blessed by
the Pope, is the same as that of the “Ephesian Spell,” or magical
characters engraved either on a stone or drawn on a piece of
parchment; the Jewish amulets with verses out of the Law, and called
_phylacteria_, φυλακτηρια and the Mahometan charms with verses of the
_Koran_. All these were used as protective magic spells; and worn by
the believers on their persons. Epiphanius, the worthy ex-Marcosian,
who speaks of these charms when used by the Manicheans as amulets,
that is to say, things worn round the neck (Periapta), and
“incantations and _such-like trickery_,” cannot well throw a slur upon
the “_trickery_” of the Pagans and Gnostics, without including the
Roman Catholic and Popish amulets.
But consistency is a virtue which we fear is losing, under Jesuit
influence, the slight hold it may ever have had on the Church. That
crafty, learned, conscienceless, terrible soul of Jesuitism, within
the body of Romanism, is slowly but surely possessing itself of the
whole prestige and spiritual power that clings to it. For the better
exemplification of our theme it will be necessary to contrast the
moral principles of the ancient Tanaïm and Theurgists with those
professed by the modern Jesuits, who practically control Romanism
to-day, and are the hidden enemy that would-be reformers must
encounter and overcome. Throughout the whole of antiquity, where,
in what land, can we find anything like this Order or anything even
approaching it? We owe a place to the Jesuits in this chapter on
secret societies, for more than any other they are a secret body,
and have a far closer connection with actual Masonry--in France and
Germany at least--than people are generally aware of. The cry of an
outraged public morality was raised against this Order from its very
birth.[732] Barely fifteen years had elapsed after the bull approving
its constitution was promulgated, when its members began to be driven
away from one place to the other. Portugal and the Low Countries got
rid of them, in 1578; France in 1594; Venice in 1606; Naples in 1622.
From St. Petersburg they were expelled in 1815, and from all Russia
in 1820.
It was a promising child from its very teens. What it grew up to be
every one knows well. The Jesuits have done more moral harm in this
world than all the fiendish armies of the mythical Satan. Whatever
extravagance may seem to be involved in this remark, will disappear
when our readers in America, who now know little about them, are
made acquainted with their principles (principio) and rules as
they appear in various works written by the Jesuits themselves. We
beg leave to remind the public that every one of the statements
which follow in quotation marks are extracted from authenticated
manuscripts, or folios printed by this distinguished body. Many
are copied from the large Quarto[733] published by the authority
of, and verified and collated by the Commissioners of the French
Parliament. The statements therein were collected and presented to
the King, in order that, as the “Arrest du Parlement du 5 Mars,
1762,” expresses it, “the elder son of the Church might be made aware
of the perversity of this doctrine.... A doctrine authorizing Theft,
Lying, Perjury, Impurity, every Passion and Crime, teaching Homicide,
Parricide, and Regicide, overthrowing religion in order to substitute
for it superstition, by favoring _Sorcery_, Blasphemy, Irreligion,
and Idolatry ... etc.” Let us then examine the ideas on _magic_ of
the Jesuits. Writing on this subject in his secret instructions,
Anthony Escobar[734] says:
“It is lawful ... to make use of the science acquired _through the
assistance of the Devil_, provided the preservation and use of that
knowledge do not depend upon the Devil, _for the knowledge is good
in itself, and the sin by which it was acquired has gone by_.”[735]
Hence, why should not a Jesuit cheat the Devil as well as he cheats
every layman?
“_Astrologers and soothsayers are either bound, or are not bound, to
restore the reward of their divination, if the event does not come to
pass._ I own,” remarks the _good_ Father Escobar, “that the former
opinion does not at all please me, because, when the astrologer or
diviner has exerted all the diligence _in the diabolic art_ which is
essential to his purpose, he has fulfilled his duty, whatever may
be the result. As the physician ... is not bound to restore his fee
... if his patient should die; so neither is the astrologer bound to
restore his charge ... except where he has used no effort, or was
ignorant of his diabolic art; because, when he has used his endeavors
he has not deceived.”[736]
Further, we find the following on astrology: “If any one affirms,
through conjecture founded upon the influence of the stars and the
character, disposition of a man, that he will be a soldier, an
ecclesiastic, or a bishop, _this divination may be devoid of all
sin_; because the stars and the disposition of the man may have the
power of inclining the human will to a certain lot or rank, but not
of constraining it.”[737]
Busembaum and Lacroix, in _Theologia Moralis_,[738] say, “Palmistry
may be considered lawful, if from the lines and divisions of the
hands it can ascertain the disposition of the body, and conjecture,
with probability, the propensities and affections of the soul.”[739]
This noble fraternity, which many preachers have of late so
vehemently denied to have ever been a _secret_ one, has been
sufficiently proved as such. Their constitutions were translated
into Latin by the Jesuit Polancus, and printed in the college of
the Society at Rome, in 1558. “They were jealously kept secret, the
greater part of the Jesuits themselves knowing only extracts from
them.[740] _They were never produced to the light until 1761, when
they were published by order of the French Parliament_ in 1761,
1762, in the famous process of Father Lavalette.” The degrees of the
Order are: I. Novices; II. Lay Brothers, or temporal Coadjutors;
III. Scholastics; IV. Spiritual Coadjutors; V. Professed of Three
Vows; VI. Professed of Five Vows. “There is also a secret class,
known only to the General and a few faithful Jesuits, which, perhaps
more than any other, contributed to the dreaded and mysterious power
of the Order,” says Niccolini. The Jesuits reckon it among the
greatest achievements of their Order that Loyola supported, by a
special memorial to the Pope, a petition for the reörganization of
that abominable and abhorred instrument of wholesale butchery--the
infamous tribunal of the Inquisition.
This Order of Jesuits is now all-powerful in Rome. They have been
reinstalled in the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical
Affairs, in the Department of the Secretary of State, and in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Pontifical Government was for
years previous to Victor Emanuel’s occupation of Rome entirely in
their hands. The Society now numbers 8,584 members. But we must
see what are their chief rules. By what is seen above, in becoming
acquainted with their mode of action, we may ascertain what the whole
Catholic body is likely to be. Says Mackenzie: “The Order has secret
signs and passwords, according to the degrees to which the members
belong, and as they wear no particular dress, it is very difficult
to recognize them, unless they reveal themselves as members of the
Order; for they may appear as Protestants or Catholics, democrats or
aristocrats, infidels or bigots, according to the special mission
with which they are entrusted. Their spies are everywhere, of all
apparent ranks of society, and they may appear learned and wise, or
simple or foolish, as their instructions run. There are Jesuits of
both sexes, and all ages, and it is a well-known fact that members of
the Order, of high family and delicate nurture, are acting as menial
servants in Protestant families, and doing other things of a similar
nature in aid of the Society’s purposes. We cannot be too much on our
guard, for the whole Society, being founded on a law of unhesitating
obedience, can bring its force on any given point with unerring and
fatal accuracy.”[741]
The Jesuits maintain that “the Society of Jesus is not of human
invention, _but it proceeded from him whose name it bears_. For Jesus
himself described that rule of life which the Society follows, _first
by his example_, and afterwards by his words.”[742]
Let, then, all pious Christians listen and acquaint themselves with
this alleged “rule of life” and precepts of their God, as exemplified
by the Jesuits. Peter Alagona (_St. Thomæ Aquinatis Summæ Theologiæ
Compendium_) says: “By the command of God it is lawful to kill an
innocent person, to steal, or commit ... (_Ex mandato Dei licet
occidere innocentem, furari, fornicari_); because he is the Lord of
life and death, and all things, _and it is due to him thus to fulfil
his command_” (Ex primâ secundæ, Quæst., 94).
“A man of a religious order, who for a short time lays aside his
habit _for a sinful purpose_, is free from heinous sin, and does not
incur the penalty of excommunication” (Lib. iii., sec. 2., Probl. 44,
n. 212).[743]
John Baptist Taberna (_Synopsis Theologiæ Practicæ_), propounds the
following question: “Is a judge bound to restore the bribe which he
has received for passing sentence?” _Answer: “If he has received the
bribe for passing an unjust sentence, it is probable that he may
keep it.... This opinion is maintained and defended by fifty-eight
doctors”_[744] (Jesuits).
We must abstain at present from proceeding further. So disgustingly
licentious, hypocritical, and demoralizing are nearly all of these
precepts, that it was found impossible to put many of them in print,
except in the Latin language.[745] We will return to some of the more
decent as we proceed, for the sake of comparison. But what are we to
think of the future of the Catholic world, if it is to be controlled
in word and deed by this villainous society? And that it is to be so,
we can hardly doubt, as we find the Cardinal Archbishop of Cambrai
loudly proclaiming the same to all the faithful? His pastoral has
made a certain noise in France; and yet, as two centuries have
rolled away since the _exposé_ of these infamous principles, the
Jesuits have had ample time to lie so successfully in denying the
just charges, that most Catholics will never believe such a thing.
The _infallible_ Pope, Clement XIV. (Ganganelli), suppressed them on
the 23d of July, 1773, and yet they came to life again; and another
equally infallible Pope, Pius VII., reëstablished them on the 7th of
August, 1814.
But we will hear what Monseigneur of Cambrai is swift to proclaim in
1876. We quote from a secular paper:
“Among other things, he maintains that _Clericalism, Ultramontanism,
and Jesuitism are one and the same thing--that is to say,
Catholicism_--and that the distinctions between them have been
created by the enemies of religion. There was a time, he says, when
a certain theological opinion was commonly professed in France
concerning the authority of the Pope. It was restricted to our
nation, and was of recent origin. The civil power during a century
and a half imposed official instruction. Those who profess these
opinions were called Gallicans, and those who protested were called
Ultramontanes, because they had their doctrinal centre beyond the
Alps, at Rome. To-day the distinction between the two schools is no
longer admissible. Theological Gallicanism can no longer exist, since
this opinion has ceased to be tolerated by the Church. _It has been
solemnly condemned, past all return, by the Œcumenical Council of the
Vatican. One cannot now be Catholic without being Ultramontane--and
Jesuit._”[746]
This settles the question. We leave inferences for the present, and
proceed to compare some of the practices and precepts of the Jesuits,
with those of individual mystics and organized castes and societies
of the ancient time. Thus the fair-minded reader may be placed in a
position to judge between them as to the tendency of their doctrines
to benefit or degrade humanity.
Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Chananea, who died about A.D. 72, openly declared
that he had performed “miracles” by means of the _Book of Sepher
Jezireh_, and challenged every skeptic.[747] Franck, quoting from the
Babylonian _Talmud_, names two other thaumaturgists, Rabbis Chanina
and Oshoi.[748]
Simon Magus was doubtless a pupil of the Tanaïm of Samaria, the
reputation which he left behind, together with the title given to
him of “the Great Power of God,” testifies strongly in favor of the
ability of his teachers. The calumnies so zealously disseminated
against him by the unknown authors and compilers of the _Acts_ and
other writings, could not cripple the truth to such an extent as to
conceal the fact that no Christian could rival him in thaumaturgic
deeds. The story told about his falling during an aërial flight,
breaking both his legs, and then committing suicide, is ridiculous.
Instead of praying mentally that it should so happen, why did not
the apostles pray rather that they should be allowed to outdo Simon
in wonders and miracles, for then they might have proved their
case far more easily than they did, and so converted thousands to
Christianity. Posterity has heard but one side of the story. Were the
disciples of Simon to have a chance, we might find, perhaps, that it
was Peter who broke both his legs, had we not known that this apostle
was too prudent ever to venture himself in Rome. On the confession
of several ecclesiastical writers, no apostle ever performed such
“supernatural wonders.” Of course pious people will say this only the
more proves that it was the “Devil” who worked through Simon.
Simon was accused of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, because he
introduced it as the “Holy Spiritus, the _Mens_ (Intelligence), or
the mother of all.” But we find the same expression used in the _Book
of Enoch_, in which, in contradistinction to the “Son of Man,” he
says “Son of the Woman.” In the _Codex_ of the Nazarenes, and in
the _Sohar_, as well in the _Books of Hermes_, the expression is
usual; and even in the apocryphal _Evangelium_ of the Hebrews we read
that Jesus himself admitted the sex of the Holy Ghost by using the
expression, “_My mother, the Holy Pneuma_.”
But what is the heresy of Simon, or what the blasphemies of all the
heretics, in comparison with that of the same Jesuits who have now
so completely mastered the Pope, ecclesiastical Rome, and the entire
Catholic world? Listen again to their profession of faith.
“Do what your conscience tells you to be good and commanded: if,
through invincible error, you believe lying or blasphemy to be
commanded by God, _blaspheme_.”[749]
“Omit to do what your conscience tells you is forbidden: omit the
worship of God, if you invincibly believe it to be prohibited by
God.”[750]
“There is an implied law ... obey an invincibly erroneous dictate
of conscience. As often as you believe invincibly that a lie is
commanded--_lie_.”[751]
“Let us suppose a Catholic to believe invincibly that the worship of
images is forbidden: in such a case our Lord Jesus Christ will be
obliged to say to him, “_Depart from me thou cursed ... because thou
hast worshipped mine image_.” So, neither, is there any absurdity in
supposing that Christ may say, “_Come thou blessed ... because thou
hast lied, believing invincibly, that in such a case I commanded the
lie_.”[752]
Does not this--but no! words fail to do justice to the emotions that
these astonishing precepts must awaken in the breast of every honest
person. Let silence, resulting from _invincible_ disgust, be our only
adequate tribute to such unparalleled moral obliquity.
The popular feeling in Venice (1606), when the Jesuits were driven
out from that city, expressed itself most forcibly. Great crowds
had accompanied the exiles to the sea-shore, and the farewell cry
which resounded after them over the waves, was, “_Ande in malora!_”
(Get away! and woe be to you.) “That cry was echoed throughout the
two following centuries;” says Michelet, who gives this statement,
“in Bohemia in 1618 ... in India in 1623 ... and throughout all
Christendom in 1773.”
In what particular was then Simon Magus a blasphemer, if he only did
that which his conscience invincibly told him was true? And in what
particular were ever the “Heretics,” or even _infidels_ of the worst
kind more reprehensible than the Jesuits--those of Caen,[753] for
instance--who say the following:
“The Christian religion is ... _evidently_ credible, but not
_evidently true_. It is evidently credible; for it is evident that
whoever embraces it is prudent. _It is not evidently true_; for it
either teaches obscurely, or the things which it teaches are obscure.
And they who affirm that the Christian religion is evidently true,
are obliged to confess that it is evidently false.”
“Infer from hence--
“1. That it is _not_ evident that there is now any true religion in
the world.
“2. That it is _not_ evident that of all religions existing upon
the earth, the Christian religion is the most true; for have you
travelled over all countries of the world, or do you know that others
have?...
* * * * *
“4. That it is _not_ evident that the predictions of the prophets
were given by inspiration of God; for what refutation will you bring
against me, if I deny that they were true prophecies, or assert that
they were only conjectures?
“5. That it is _not_ evident that the miracles were real, which
are recorded to have been wrought by Christ; although no one can
prudently deny them (Position 6).
“Neither is an avowed belief in Jesus Christ, in the Trinity, in all
the articles of Faith, and in the Decalogue, necessary to Christians.
The only explicit belief which was necessary to the former (Jews)
and is necessary to the latter (Christians) is 1, of God; 2, of a
rewarding God” (Position 8).
Hence, it is also more than “evident” that there are moments in the
life of the greatest liar when he may utter some truths. It is in
this case so perfectly exemplified by the “good Fathers,” that we can
see more clearly than ever whence proceeded the solemn condemnations
at the Œcumenical Council of 1870, of certain “heresies,” and the
enforcement of other articles of faith in which none believed less
than those who inspired the Pope to issue them. History has yet
perhaps to learn that the octogenarian Pope, intoxicated with the
fumes of his newly-enforced infallibility, was but the faithful echo
of the Jesuits. “An old man is raised trembling upon the _pavois_
of the Vatican;” says Michelet, “every thing becomes absorbed and
confined in him.... For fifteen centuries Christendom had submitted
to the spiritual yoke of the Church.... But that yoke was not
sufficient for them; they wanted the whole world to bend under the
hand of one master. Here my own words are too weak; I shall borrow
those of others. They (the Jesuits) wanted (this is the accusation
flung in their faces by the Bishop of Paris in the full Council of
Trent) _faire de l’épouse de Jesus Christ une prostituée aux volontés
d’un homme_.”[754]
They have succeeded. The Church is henceforth an inert tool, and
the Pope a poor weak instrument in the hands of this Order. But for
how long? Until the end comes, well may sincere Christians remember
the prophetic lamentations of the thrice-great Trismegistus over
his own country: “Alas, alas, my son, a day will come when the
sacred hieroglyphics will become but idols. _The world will mistake
the emblems of science for gods_, and accuse grand Egypt of having
worshipped hell-monsters. But those who will calumniate us thus, will
themselves worship Death instead of Life, folly in place of wisdom;
they will denounce love and fecundity, fill their temples with dead
men’s bones, as relics, and waste their youth in solitude and tears.
Their _virgins will be widows (nuns) before being wives_, and consume
themselves in grief; because men will have despised and profaned the
sacred mysteries of Isis.”[755]
How correct this prophecy has proved we find in the following Jesuit
precept, which again we extract from the Report of the Commissioners
to the Parliament of Paris:
“The more true opinion is, _that all inanimate and irrational things
may be legitimately worshipped_,” says Father Gabriel Vasquez,
treating of Idolatry. “If the doctrine which we have established
be rightly understood, not only may a painted image and every holy
thing, set forth by public authority for the worship of God, be
properly adored with God as the image of Himself, but also any other
thing of this world, whether it be inanimate and irrational, or in
its nature rational.”[756]
“Why may we not adore and worship with God, apart from danger,
anything whatsoever of this world; for God is in it according to
His essence ... [This is precisely what the Pantheist and Hindu
philosophy maintains.] and preserves it continually by His power;
and when we bow down ourselves before it and impress it with a kiss,
we present ourselves before God, the author of it, with the whole
soul, as unto the prototype of the image [follow instances of relics,
etc.].... To this we may add that, since everything of this world is
the work of God, and God is always abiding and working in it, we may
more readily conceive Him to be in it than a saint in the vesture
which belonged to him. And, therefore, _without regarding in any way
the dignity of the thing created, to direct our thoughts to God,
while we give to the creature the sign and mark of submission by a
kiss or prostration, is neither vain nor superstitious, but an act of
the purest religion_.”[757]
A precept this, which, whether or not doing honor to the Christian
Church, may at least be profitably quoted by any Hindu, Japanese, or
other heathen when rebuked for his worship of idols. We purposely
quote it for the benefit of our respected “heathen” friends who will
see these lines.
The prophecy of Hermes is less equivocal than either of the alleged
prophecies of Isaiah, which have furnished a pretext for saying that
the gods of all the nations were demons. Only, facts are stronger,
sometimes, than the strongest faith. All that the Jews learned, they
had from older nations than themselves. The Chaldean Magi were their
masters in the secret doctrine, and it was during the Babylonian
captivity that they learned its metaphysical as well as practical
tenets. Pliny mentions three schools of Magi: one that he shows to
have been founded at an unknown antiquity; the other established
by Osthanes and Zoroaster; the third by Moses and Jambres. And all
the knowledge possessed by these different schools, whether Magian,
Egyptian, or Jewish, was derived from India, or rather from both
sides of the Himalayas. Many a lost secret lies buried under wastes
of sand, in the Gobi Desert of Eastern Turkestan, and the wise men of
Khotan have preserved strange traditions and knowledge of alchemy.
Baron Bunsen shows that the origin of the ancient prayers and hymns
of the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ is _anterior_ to Menes, and
belongs, probably, to the pre-Menite Dynasty of Abydos, between 3100
and 4500 B.C. The learned Egyptologist makes the era of Menes, or
National Empire, as not later than 3059 B.C., and demonstrates that
“the system of Osirian worship and mythology was already formed”[758]
before this era of Menes.
We find in the hymns of this scientifically-established pre-Edenic
epoch (for Bunsen carries us back several centuries _beyond_ the
year of the creation of the world, 4004 B.C., as fixed by biblical
chronology) precise lessons of morality, identical in substance, and
nearly so in form of expression, with those preached by Jesus in
his Sermon on the Mount. We give the authority of the most eminent
Egyptologists and hierologists for our statement. “The inscriptions
of the twelfth Dynasty are filled with ritualistic formulæ,” says
Bunsen. Extracts from the Hermetic books are found on monuments
of the earliest dynasties, and “on those of the twelfth (dynasty)
portions of an _earlier_ ritual are by no means uncommon.... _To feed
the_ hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the
_dead_ ... _formed the first duty of a pious man_.... The doctrine of
the immortality of the soul is as old as this period” (Tablet, _Brit.
Mus._, 562).[759]
And far older, perhaps. It dates from the time when the soul was an
_objective_ being, hence when it could hardly be denied by _itself_;
when humanity was a spiritual race and death existed not. Toward the
decline of the cycle of life, the ethereal _man-spirit_ then fell
into the sweet slumber of temporary unconsciousness in one sphere,
only to find himself awakening in the still brighter light of a
higher one. But while the spiritual man is ever striving to ascend
higher and higher toward its source of being, passing through the
cycles and spheres of individual life, physical man had to descend
with the great cycle of universal creation until it found itself
clothed with the terrestrial garments. Thenceforth the soul was too
deeply buried under physical clothing to reässert its existence,
except in the cases of those more spiritual natures, which, with
every cycle, became more rare. And yet none of the pre-historical
nations ever thought of denying either the existence or the
immortality of the inner man, the real “self.” Only, we must bear
in mind the teachings of the old philosophies: the spirit alone is
immortal--the soul, _per se_, is neither eternal nor divine. When
linked too closely with the physical brain of its terrestrial casket,
it gradually becomes a _finite_ mind, a simple animal and sentient
life-principle, the _nephesh_ of the Hebrew _Bible_.[760]
The doctrine of man’s _triune_ nature is as clearly defined in
the Hermetic books as it is in Plato’s system, or again in that
of the Buddhist and Brahmanical philosophies. And this is one of
the most important as well as least understood of the doctrines of
Hermetic science. The Egyptian Mysteries, so imperfectly known by
the world, and only through the few brief allusions to them in
the _Metamorphosis of Apuleius_, taught the greatest virtues. They
unveiled to the aspirant in the “higher” mysteries of initiation that
which many of our modern Hermetic students vainly search for in the
kabalistic books, and which no obscure teachings of the Church, under
the guidance of the Order of Jesuits, will ever be able to unveil.
To compare, then, the ancient secret societies of the hierophants
with the artificially-produced hallucinations of those few followers
of Loyola, who were, perchance, sincere at the beginning of their
career, is to insult the former. And yet, in justice to them, we are
compelled to do so.
One of the most unconquerable obstacles to initiation, with the
Egyptians as with the Greeks, was any degree of murder. One of the
greatest titles to admission in the Order of Jesuits is a _murder_
in defence of Jesuitism. “_Children may kill their parents if they
compel them to abandon the Catholic faith._”
“Christian and Catholic sons,” says Stephen Fagundez, “may accuse
their fathers of the crime of heresy if they wish to turn them from
the faith, although they may know that their parents will be burned
with fire, and put to death for it, as Tolet teaches.... And not
only may they refuse them food ... _but they may also justly kill
them_.”[761]
It is well known that Nero, the Emperor, _had never dared_ seek
initiation into the Mysteries on account of the murder of Agrippina!
Under Section XIV. of the _Principles of the Jesuits_, we find on
_Homicide_ the following Christian principles inculcated by Father
Henry Henriquez, in _Summæ Theologiæ Moralis_. Tomus 1, Venetiis,
1600 (Ed. Coll. Sion): “If an adulterer, even though he should be an
ecclesiastic ... being attacked by the husband, kills his aggressor
... _he is not considered irregular_: _non ridetur irregularis_ (Lib.
XIV., _de Irregularitatæ_, c. 10, § 3).
“If a father were obnoxious to the State (being in banishment), and
to the society at large, and there were no other means of averting
such an injury, then I should approve of this” (for a son to kill his
father), says Sec. XV., _on Parricide and Homicide_.[762]
“It will be lawful for an ecclesiastic, or one of the religious
order, _to kill a calumniator_ who threatens to spread atrocious
accusations against himself or his religion,”[763] is the rule set
forth by the Jesuit Francis Amicus.
So far, good. We are informed by the highest authorities what a man
in the Catholic communion may do that the common law and public
morality stamp as criminal, and still continue in the odor of
Jesuitical sanctity. Now suppose we again turn the medal and see what
principles were inculcated by Pagan Egyptian moralists before the
world was blessed with these modern improvements in ethics.
In Egypt every city of importance was separated from its burial place
by a sacred lake. The same ceremony of judgment which the _Book of
the Dead_ describes as taking place in the world of Spirit, took
place on earth during the burial of the mummy. Forty-two judges or
assessors assembled on the shore and judged the departed “soul”
according to its actions when in the body, and it was only upon a
unanimous approval of this _post-mortem_ jury that the boatman, who
represented the Spirit of Death, could convey the justified defunct’s
body to its last resting-place. After that the priests returned
within the sacred precincts and instructed the neophytes upon the
probable solemn drama which was then taking place in the invisible
realm whither the soul had fled. The immortality of the spirit was
strongly inculcated by the Al-om-jah.[764] In the _Crata Nepoa_[765]
the following is described as the _seven_ degrees of the initiation.
After a preliminary trial at Thebes, where the neophyte had to pass
through many trials, called the “Twelve Tortures,” he was commanded
to govern his passions and never lose for a moment the idea of his
God. Then as a symbol of the wanderings of the unpurified soul,
he had to ascend several ladders and wander in darkness in a cave
with many doors, all of which were locked. When he had overcome
the dreadful trials, he received the degree of _Pastophoris_, the
second and third degrees being called the _Neocoris_, and the
_Melanephoris_. Brought into a vast subterranean chamber thickly
furnished with mummies lying in state, he was placed in presence
of the coffin which contained the mutilated body of Osiris covered
with blood. This was the hall called “Gates of Death,” and it is
most certainly to this mystery that the passages in the _Book of
Job_ (xxxviii. 17) and other portions of the _Bible_ allude when
these gates are spoken of.[766] In chapter x., we give the esoteric
interpretation of the “Book of Job,” which is the poem of initiation
_par excellence_.
“Have the gates of death been opened to thee?
Hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?”
asks the “Lord”--_i.e._, the Al-om-jah, the Initiator--of Job,
alluding to this third degree of initiation.
When the neophyte had conquered the terrors of this trial, he was
conducted to the “Hall of Spirits,” to be judged by them. Among
the rules in which he was instructed, he was commanded “_never to
either desire or seek revenge; to be always ready to help a brother
in danger, even unto the risk of his own life; to bury every dead
body; to honor his parents above all_; respect old age and protect
those weaker than himself; and finally, to ever bear in mind the
hour of death, and that of resurrection, in a new and imperishable
body.”[767] Purity and chastity were highly recommended, and
_adultery threatened with death_.
Then the Egyptian neophyte was made a _Kristophores_. In this degree
the mystery-name of IAO was communicated to him. The fifth degree
was that of _Balahala_, and he was instructed by Horus, in alchemy,
the “word” being _chemia_. In the sixth, the priestly dance in the
circle was taught him, in which he was instructed in astronomy, for
it represented the course of the planets. In the seventh degree, he
was initiated into the final Mysteries. After a final probation in a
building set apart for it, the _Astronomus_, as he was now called,
emerged from these sacred apartments called _Manneras_, and received
a cross--the _Tau_, which, at death, had to be laid upon his breast.
He was a hierophant.
We have read above the rules of these holy initiates of the
_Christian_ Society of Jesus. Compare them with those enforced upon
the Pagan postulant, and Christian (!) morality with that inculcated
in those mysteries of the Pagans upon which all the thunders of an
avenging Deity are invoked by the Church. Had the latter no mysteries
of its own? Or were they in any wise purer, nobler, or more inciting
to a holy, virtuous life? Let us hear what Niccolini has to say, in
his able _History of the Jesuits_, of the _modern_ mysteries of the
Christian cloister.[768]
“In most monasteries, and more particularly in those of the Capuchins
and reformed (reformati), there begins at Christmas a series of
feasts, which continues till Lent. All sorts of games are played,
the most splendid banquets are given, and in the small towns, above
all, the refectory of the convent is the best place of amusement for
the greater number of the inhabitants. At carnivals, two or three
very magnificent entertainments take place; the board so profusely
spread that one might imagine that Copia had here poured forth
the whole contents of her horn. It must be remembered that these
two orders live by alms.[769] The sombre silence of the cloister
is replaced by a confused sound of merrymaking, and its gloomy
vaults now echo with other songs than those of the psalmist. A ball
enlivens and terminates the feast; and, to render it still more
animated, and perhaps to show _how completely their vow of chastity
has eradicated all their carnal appetite_, some of the young monks
appear coquettishly dressed in the garb of the fair sex, and begin
the dance, along with others, transformed into gay cavaliers. _To
describe the scandalous scene which ensues would be but to disgust my
readers._ I will only say that I have myself often been a spectator
at such saturnalia.”
The cycle is moving down, and, as it descends, the physical and
bestial nature of man develops more and more at the expense of the
Spiritual Self.[770] With what disgust may we not turn from this
religious farce called modern Christianity, to the noble faiths of
old!
In the Egyptian _Funeral Ritual_ found among the hymns of the
_Book of the Dead_, and which is termed by Bunsen “that precious
and mysterious book,” we read an address of the deceased, in the
character of Horus, detailing all that he has done for his father
Osiris. Among other things the deity says:
“30. I have given thee thy _Spirit_.
31. I have given thee thy _Soul_.
32. I have given thee thy force (body),” etc.
In another place the entity, addressed as “Father” by the disembodied
soul, is shown to mean the “spirit” of man; for the verse says:
“I have made my soul come and speak with _his Father_,” its
_Spirit_.[771]
The Egyptians regarded their _Ritual_ as essentially a Divine
inspiration; in short, as modern Hindus do the _Vedas_, and modern
Jews their Mosaic books. Bunsen and Lepsius show that the term
_Hermetic_ means inspired; for it is Thoth, the Deity itself, that
speaks and reveals to his elect among men the will of God and the
arcana of divine things. Portions of them are expressly stated “to
have been written by the very finger of Thoth himself;” to have been
the work and composition of the great God.[772] “At a later period
their Hermetic character is still more distinctly recognized, and
on a coffin of the 26th Dynasty, Horus announces to the deceased
that Thoth himself has brought him the books of his divine words, or
Hermetic writings.”[773]
Since we are aware that Moses was an Egyptian priest, or at least
that he was learned in all their _wisdom_, we need not be astonished
that he should write in _Deuteronomy_ (ix. 10), “And the _Lord_
delivered unto me two tables of stones written with the finger of
GOD;” or to find in _Exodus_ xxxi., “And he (the Lord) gave unto
Moses ... two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the
finger of God.”
In the Egyptian notions, as in those of all other faiths founded on
philosophy, man was not merely, as with the Christians, a union of
soul and body; he was a trinity when spirit was added to it. Besides,
that doctrine made him consist of _kha_--body; _khaba_--astral form,
or shadow; _ka_--animal soul or life-principle; _ba_--the higher
soul; and _akh_--terrestrial intelligence. They had also a sixth
principle named _Sah_--or mummy; but the functions of this one
commenced only after the death of the body. After due purification,
during which the soul, separated from its body, continued to revisit
the latter in its mummified condition, this astral soul “became
a God,” for it was finally absorbed into “the Soul of the world.”
It became transformed into one of the creative deities, “the god
of Phtah,”[774] the Demiurgos, a generic name for the creators of
the world, rendered in the _Bible_ as the Elohim. In the _Ritual_
the good or purified _soul_, “in conjunction with its higher or
_uncreated_ spirit, is more or less the victim of the dark influence
of the dragon Apophis. If it has attained the final knowledge of the
heavenly and the infernal mysteries--the _gnosis_, _i.e._, complete
reünion with the spirit, it will triumph over its enemies; if not
the soul could not escape its _second death_. It is ‘the lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone’ (elements), into which those that
are cast undergo a ‘second death’”[775] (_Apocalypse_). This death is
the gradual dissolution of the astral form into its primal elements,
alluded to several times already in the course of this work. But
this awful fate can be avoided by the knowledge of the “Mysterious
Name”--the “Word,”[776] say the kabalists.
And what then was the penalty attached to the neglect of it? When a
man leads a naturally pure, virtuous life, there is none whatever;
except a delay in the world of spirits, until he finds himself
sufficiently purified to receive it from his Spiritual “Lord,” one
of the mighty Host. But if otherwise, the “soul,” as a half animal
principle, becomes paralyzed, and grows unconscious of its subjective
half--the Lord--and in proportion to the sensuous development of
the brain and nerves, sooner or later, it finally loses sight of
its divine mission on earth. Like the _Vourdalak_, or Vampire, of
the Servian tale, the brain feeds and lives and grows in strength
and power at the expense of its spiritual parent. Then the already
half-unconscious soul, now fully intoxicated by the fumes of earthly
life, becomes senseless, beyond hope of redemption. It is powerless
to discern the splendor of its higher spirit, to hear the warning
voice of its “guardian Angel,” and its “God.” It aims but at the
development and fuller comprehension of natural, earthly life; and
thus, can discover but the mysteries of physical nature. Its grief
and fear, hope and joy, are all closely blended with its terrestrial
existence. It ignores all that cannot be demonstrated by either its
organs of action, or sensation. It begins by becoming virtually dead;
it dies at last completely. It is _annihilated_. Such a catastrophe
may often happen long years before the final separation of the
_life_-principle from the body. When death arrives, its iron and
clammy grasp finds work with _life_ as usual; but there is no more a
soul to liberate. The whole essence of the latter has been already
absorbed by the vital system of the physical man. Grim death frees
but a spiritual corpse; at best an idiot. Unable either to soar
higher or awaken from lethargy, it is soon dissolved in the elements
of the terrestrial atmosphere.
Seers, righteous men, who had attained to the highest science of the
inner man and the knowledge of truth, have, like Marcus Antoninus,
received instructions “from the gods,” in sleep and otherwise.
Helped by the purer spirits, those that dwell in “regions of eternal
bliss,” they have watched the process and warned mankind repeatedly.
Skepticism may sneer; _faith_, based on _knowledge_ and spiritual
science, believes and affirms.
Our present cycle is preëminently one of such soul-deaths. We elbow
soulless men and women at every step in life. Neither can we wonder,
in the present state of things, at the gigantic failure of Hegel’s
and Schelling’s last efforts at some metaphysical construction of
a system. When facts, palpable and tangible facts of phenomenal
Spiritualism happen daily and hourly, and yet are denied by the
majority of “civilized” nations, little chance is there for the
acceptance of purely abstract metaphysics by the ever-growing crowd
of materialists.
In the book called by Champollion _Le Manifestation à la Lumière_,
there is a chapter on the _Ritual_ which is full of mysterious
dialogues, with addresses to various “Powers” by the soul. Among
these dialogues there is one which is more than expressive of the
potentiality of the “Word.” The scene is laid in the “Hall of the Two
Truths.” The “Door,” the “Hall of Truth,” and even the various parts
of the gate, address the soul which presents itself for admission.
They all forbid it entrance unless it tells them their mystery,
or mystic names. What student of the Secret Doctrines can fail to
recognize in these names an identity of meaning and purpose with
those to be met with in the _Vedas_, the later works of the Brahmans,
and the _Kabala_?
Magicians, Kabalists, Mystics, Neo-platonists and Theurgists of
Alexandria, who so surpassed the Christians in their achievements
in the secret science; Brahmans or Samaneans (Shamans) of old; and
modern Brahmans, Buddhists, and Lamaists, have all claimed that a
certain power attaches to these various names, pertaining to one
ineffable Word. We have shown from personal experience how deeply
the belief is rooted to this day in the popular mind all over
Russia,[777] that the Word works “miracles” and is at the bottom of
every magical feat. Kabalists mysteriously connect _Faith_ with it.
So did the apostles, basing their assertions on the words of Jesus,
who is made to say: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed
... nothing shall be impossible unto you,” and Paul, repeating the
words of Moses, tells that “the WORD is nigh thee, even in thy mouth,
and in thy heart; that is, the _word of faith_” (_Romans_ x. 8).
But who, except the initiates, can boast of comprehending its full
significance?
In our days it is as it was in olden times, to believe in the
biblical “miracles” requires _faith_; but to be enabled to produce
them one’s self demands a knowledge of the esoteric meaning of the
“word.” “If Christ,” say Dr. Farrar and Canon Westcott, “wrought no
miracles, then the _gospels_ are untrustworthy.” But even supposing
that he did work them, would that prove that gospels written by
others than himself are any more trustworthy? And if not, to what
purpose is the argument? Besides, such a line of reasoning would
warrant the analogy that miracles performed by other religionists
than Christians ought to make _their_ gospels trustworthy. Does not
this imply at least an equality between the Christian Scriptures and
the Buddhist sacred books? For these equally abound with phenomena
of the most astounding character. Moreover, the Christians have
no longer _genuine_ miracles produced through their priests, for
they have _lost the Word_. But many a Buddhist Lama or Siamese
Talapoin--unless all travellers have conspired to lie--has been and
now is able to duplicate every phenomenon described in the _New
Testament_, and even do more, without any pretence of suspension of
natural law or divine intervention either. In fact, Christianity
proves that it is as dead in faith as it is dead in works, while
Buddhism is full of vitality and supported by practical proofs.
The best argument in favor of the genuineness of Buddhist “miracles”
lies in the fact that Catholic missionaries, instead of denying them
or treating them as simple jugglery--as some Protestant missionaries
do have often found themselves in such straits as to be forced to
adopt the forlorn alternative of laying the whole on the back of
the Devil. And so belittled do the Jesuits feel themselves in the
presence of these genuine servants of God, that with an unparalleled
cunning, they concluded to act in the case of the Talapoins and
Buddhists as Mahomet is said to have acted with the mountain. “And
seeing that it would not move toward him, the Prophet moved himself
toward the mountain.” Finding that they could not catch the Siamese
with the birdlime of their pernicious doctrines in Christian garb,
they disguised themselves, and for centuries appeared among the poor,
ignorant people as Talapoins, until exposed. They have even voted and
adopted a resolution forthwith, which has now all the force of an
ancient article of faith. “Naaman, the Syrian,” say the Jesuits of
Caen, “did not dissemble his faith when he bowed the knee with the
king in the house of Rimmon; _neither do the Fathers of the Society
of Jesus dissemble, when they adopt the institute and the habit of
the Talapoins of Siam_” (nec dissimulant Patres S. J. Talapoinorum
Siamensium institutum vestemque affectantes.--_Position_ 9, 30 Jan.,
1693).
The potency contained in the _Mantras_ and the _Vâch_ of the Brahmans
is as much believed in at this day as it was in the early Vedic
period. The “Ineffable Name” of every country and religion relates
to that which the Masons affirm to be the mysterious characters
emblematic of the nine names or attributes by which the Deity was
known to the initiates. The Omnific Word traced by Enoch on the two
deltas of purest gold, on which he engraved two of the mysterious
characters, is perhaps better known to the poor, uneducated “heathen”
than to the highly accomplished Grand High Priests and Grand Z.’s of
the Supreme Chapters of Europe and America. Only why the companions
of the Royal Arch should so bitterly and constantly lament its loss,
is more than we can understand. This word of M. M. is, as they will
tell themselves, entirely composed of consonants. Hence, we doubt
whether any of them could ever have mastered its pronunciation, had
it even been “brought to light from the secret vault,” instead of its
several corruptions. However, it is to the land of Mizraim that the
grandson of Ham is credited with having carried the sacred delta of
the Patriarch Enoch. Therefore, it is in Egypt, and in the East alone
that the mysterious “Word” must be sought.
But now that so many of the most important secrets of Masonry have
been divulged by friend and foe, may we not say, without suspicion
of malice or ill-feeling, that since the sad catastrophe of the
Templars, no “Lodge” in Europe, still less in America, has ever known
anything worth concealing. Reluctant to be misunderstood, we say _no_
Lodge, leaving a few _chosen_ brethren entirely out of question. The
frantic denunciations of the Craft by Catholic and Protestant writers
appear simply ridiculous, as also the affirmation of the Abbé Barruel
that everything “betrays our Freemasons as the descendants of those
proscribed Knights” Templars of 1314. The _Memoirs of Jacobinism_ by
this Abbé, an eye-witness to the horrors of the first Revolution,
is devoted in great measure to the Rosicrucians and other Masonic
fraternities. The fact alone that he traces the modern Masons to
the Templars, and points them out as secret assassins, trained to
political murder, shows how little he knew of them, but how ardently
he desired, at the same time, to find in these societies convenient
scape-goats for the crimes and sins of another secret society which,
since its existence, has harbored more than one dangerous political
assassin--the Society of Jesus.
The accusations against Masons have been mostly half guess-work,
half-unquenchable malice and predetermined vilification. Nothing
conclusive and certain of a criminal character has been directly
proven against them. Even their abduction of Morgan has remained a
matter of conjecture. The case was used at the time as a political
convenience by huckstering politicians. When an unrecognizable corpse
was found in Niagara River, one of the chiefs of this unscrupulous
class, being informed that the identity was exceedingly questionable,
unguardedly exposed the whole plot by saying: “Well, no matter, _he’s
a good enough Morgan until after the election_!” On the other hand,
we find the Order of the Jesuits not only permitting, in certain
cases, but actually _teaching and inciting to “High treason and
Regicide.”_[778]
A series of _Lectures_ upon Freemasonry and its dangers, as delivered
in 1862, by James Burton Robertson, Professor of Modern History in
the Dublin University, are lying before us. In them the lecturer
quotes profusely as his authorities the said Abbé (Barruel, a natural
enemy of the Masons, _who cannot be caught at the confessional_),
and Robison, a well-known apostate-Mason of 1798. As usual with
every party, whether belonging to the Masonic or anti-Masonic side,
the traitor from the opposing camp is welcomed with praise and
encouragement, and great care is taken to whitewash him. However
convenient for certain political reasons the celebrated Committee
of the Anti-Masonic Convention of 1830 (U. S. of America) may have
found it to adopt this most Jesuitical proposition of Puffendorf that
“oaths oblige not when they are absurd and impertinent,” and that
other which teaches that “an oath obliges not if God does not accept
it,”[779] yet no truly honest man would accept such sophistry. We
sincerely believe that the better portion of humanity will ever bear
in mind that there exists a moral code of honor far more binding than
an oath, whether on the _Bible_, _Koran_, or _Veda_. The Essenes
never swore on anything at all, but their “ayes” and “nays” were as
good and far better than an oath. Besides, it seems surpassingly
strange to find nations that call themselves Christian instituting
customs in civil and ecclesiastical courts diametrically opposed to
the command of their God,[780] who distinctly forbids any swearing at
all, “neither by heaven ... nor by the earth ... nor by the head.”
It seems to us that to maintain that “an oath obliges not if God does
not accept it,” besides being an absurdity--as no man living, whether
he be fallible or infallible, can learn anything of God’s secret
thoughts--is _anti-Christian_ in the full sense of the word.[781] The
argument is brought forward only because it is convenient and answers
the object. Oaths will never be binding till each man will fully
understand that humanity is the highest manifestation on earth of the
Unseen Supreme Deity, and each man an incarnation of his God; and
when the sense of _personal_ responsibility will be so developed in
him that he will consider forswearing the greatest possible insult to
himself, as well as to humanity. No oath is now binding, unless taken
by one who, without any oath at all, would solemnly keep his simple
promise of honor. Therefore, to bring forward as authorities such
men as Barruel or Robison is simply obtaining the public confidence
under false pretenses. It is not the “spirit of _Masonic malice_
whose heart coins slanders like a mint,” but far more that of the
Catholic clergy and their champions; and a man who would reconcile
the two ideas of honor and perjury, in any case whatever, is not to
be trusted himself.
Loud is the claim of the nineteenth century to preëminence in
civilization over the ancients, and still more clamorous that of
the churches and their sycophants that Christianity has redeemed
the world from barbarism and idolatry. How little both are
warranted, we have tried to prove in these two volumes. The light
of Christianity has only served to show how much more hypocrisy and
vice its teachings have begotten in the world since its advent, and
how immensely superior were the ancients over us in every point of
honor.[782] The clergy, by teaching the helplessness of man, his
utter dependence on Providence, and the doctrine of atonement, have
crushed in their faithful followers every atom of self-reliance and
self-respect. So true is this, that it is becoming an axiom that the
most honorable men are to be found among atheists and the so-called
“infidels.” We hear from Hipparchus that in the days of _heathenism_
“the shame and disgrace that justly attended the violation of his
oath threw the poor wretch into a fit of madness and despair, so
that he cut his throat and perished by his own hands, and his memory
was so abhorred after his death that his body lay upon the shore of
the island of Samos, and had no other burial than the sands of the
sea.”[783] But in our own century we find ninety-six delegates to
the United States Anti-Masonic Convention, every one doubtless a
member of some Protestant Church, and claiming the respect due to
men of honor and gentlemen, offering the most Jesuitical arguments
against the validity of a Masonic oath. The Committee, pretending
to quote the authority of “the most distinguished guides in the
philosophy of morals, and claiming the most ample support of _the
inspired_[784] ... who wrote before Freemasonry existed,” resolved
that, as an oath was “a transaction between man on one part and the
Almighty Judge on the other,” and the Masons were all infidels and
“unfit for civil trust,” therefore their oaths had to be considered
illegal and not binding.[785]
But we will return to these _Lectures_ of Robertson and his charges
against Masonry. The greatest accusation brought against the latter
is that Masons reject a _personal_ God (this on the authority of
Barruel and Robison), and that they claim to be in possession of a
“secret to make men better and happier than Christ, his apostles and
his Church have made them.” Were the latter accusation but half true,
it might yet allow the consoling hope that they had really found
that secret by breaking off entirely from the mythical Christ of the
Church and the official Jehovah. But both the accusations are simply
as malicious as they are absurd and untrue; as we shall presently see.
Let it not be imagined that we are influenced by personal feeling
in any of our reflections upon Masonry. So far from this being the
case we unhesitatingly proclaim our highest respect for the original
purposes of the Order and some of our most valued friends are within
its membership. We say naught against Masonry as it should be, but
denounce it as, thanks to the intriguing clergy, both Catholic and
Protestant, it now begins to be. Professedly the most absolute of
democracies, it is practically the appanage of aristocracy, wealth,
and personal ambition. Professedly the teacher of true ethics, it is
debased into a propaganda of anthropomorphic theology. The half-naked
apprentice, brought before the master during the initiation of the
first degree, is taught that at the door of the lodge every social
distinction is laid aside, and the poorest brother is the peer of
every other, though a reigning sovereign or an imperial prince. In
practice, the Craft turns lickspittle in every monarchical country,
to any regal scion who may deign, for the sake of using it as a
political tool, to put on the once symbolical lambskin.
How far gone is the Masonic Fraternity in this direction, we can
judge from the words of one of its highest authorities. John Yarker,
Junior, of England; Past Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Greece;
Grand Master of the Rite of Swedenborg; also Grand Master of the
Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, and Heaven only knows what
else,[786] says that Masonry could lose nothing by “the adoption of
a higher (not pecuniary) standard of membership and morality, with
exclusion from the ‘purple’ of all who _inculcate frauds, sham,
historical degrees, and other immoral abuses_” (page 158). And again,
on page 157: “As the Masonic Fraternity is now governed, the Craft is
fast becoming the paradise of the _bon vivant_; of the ‘charitable’
hypocrite, who forgets the version of St. Paul, and decorates his
breast with the ‘charity jewel’ (having by this judicious expenditure
obtained the ‘purple’ he metes out judgment to other brethren of
greater ability and morality but less means); the manufacturer
of paltry Masonic tinsel; the rascally merchant who swindles in
hundreds, and even thousands, by appealing to the tender consciences
of those few who do regard their O. B.’s; and the Masonic ‘Emperors’
and other charlatans who make power or money out of the aristocratic
pretensions which they have tacked on to our institution--_ad
captandum vulgus_.”
We have no wish to make a pretence of exposing secrets long since
hawked about the world by perjured Masons. Everything vital, whether
in symbolical representations, rites, or passwords, as used in modern
Freemasonry, is known in the Eastern fraternities; though there
seems to be no intercourse or connection between them. If Medea is
described by Ovid as having “arm, breast, and knee made bare, left
foot slipshod;” and Virgil, speaking of Dido, shows this “Queen
herself ... now resolute on death, having one foot bare, etc.,”[787]
why doubt that there are in the East _real_ “Patriarchs of the
sacred Vedas,” explaining the esotericism of pure Hindu theology and
Brahmanism quite as thoroughly as European “Patriarchs?”
But, if there are a few Masons who, from study of kabalistic
and other rare works, and coming in personal communication with
“Brothers” from the far-away East, have learned something of
_esoteric_ Masonry, it is not the case with the hundreds of
American Lodges. While engaged on this chapter, we have received
most unexpectedly, through the kindness of a friend, a copy of Mr.
Yarker’s volume, from which passages are quoted above. It is brimful
of learning and, what is more, of _knowledge_, as it seems to us. It
is especially valuable at this moment, since it corroborates, in many
particulars, what we have said in this work. Thus, we read in it the
following:
“We think we have sufficiently established the fact of the connection
of Freemasonry with other speculative rites of antiquity, as well as
the antiquity and purity of the old English Templar-Rite of _seven
degrees_, and the spurious derivation of many of the other rites
therefrom.”[788]
Such high Masons need not be told, though Craftsmen in general
do, that the time has come to remodel Masonry, and restore those
ancient landmarks, borrowed from the early sodalities, which the
eighteenth century founders of speculative Freemasonry meant to have
incorporated in the fraternity. There are no longer any secrets left
unpublished; the Order is degenerating into a convenience for selfish
men to use, and bad men to debase.
It is but recently that a majority of the Supreme Councils of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite assembled at Lausanne, justly revolting
against such a blasphemous belief as that in a personal Deity,
invested with all human attributes, pronounced the following words:
“Freemasonry proclaims, as it has proclaimed from its origin, the
existence of a _creative principle_, under the name of the great
Architect of the universe.” Against this, a small minority has
protested, urging that “belief in a _creative principle_ is not _the
belief in God, which Freemasonry requires of every candidate_ before
he can pass its very threshold.”
This confession does not sound like the rejection of a personal God.
Could we have had the slightest doubt upon the subject, it would
be thoroughly dispelled by the words of General Albert Pike,[789]
perhaps the greatest authority of the day, among American Masons, who
raises himself most violently against this innovation. We cannot do
better than quote his words:
“This _Principe Createur_ is no new phrase--it is but an old term
revived. _Our adversaries, numerous and formidable_, will say, and
will have the right to say, that our _Principe Createur_ is identical
with the _Principe Generateur_ of the Indians and Egyptians, and
may fitly be symbolized as it was symbolized anciently, by the
Lingæ.... To accept this, in lieu of a personal God, is TO ABANDON
CHRISTIANITY, and _the worship of Jehovah_, and return to wallow in
the styes of Paganism.”
And are those of _Jesuitism_, then, so much cleaner? “Our
adversaries, numerous and formidable.” That sentence says all. Who
these so formidable enemies are, is useless to inquire. They are the
Roman Catholics, and some of the Reformed Presbyterians. To read what
the two factions respectively write, we may well ask which adversary
is the more afraid of the other. But, what shall it profit any one
to organize against a fraternity that does not even dare to have
a belief of its own for fear of giving offense? And pray, how, if
Masonic oaths mean anything, and Masonic penalties are regarded as
more than burlesque, can any adversaries, numerous or few, feeble
or strong, know what goes on inside the lodge, or penetrate beyond
that “brother terrible, or the tiler, who guards, with a drawn sword,
the portals of the lodge?” Is, then, this “brother terrible” no more
formidable than Offenbach’s _General Boum_, with his smoking pistol,
jingling spurs, and towering _panache_? Of what use the millions
of men that make up this great fraternity, the world over, if they
cannot be so cemented together as to bid defiance to all adversaries?
Can it be that the “mystic tie” is but a rope of sand, and Masonry
but a toy to feed the vanity of a few leaders who rejoice in ribbons
and regalia? Is its authority as false as its antiquity? It seems so,
indeed; and yet, as “even the fleas have smaller fleas to bite ’em,”
there are Catholic alarmists, even here, who pretend to fear Masonry!
And yet, these same Catholics, in all the serenity of their
traditional impudence, publicly threaten America, with its 500,000
Masons, and 34,000,000 Protestants, with a union of Church and
State under the direction of Rome! The danger which threatens the
free institutions of this republic, we are told, will come from
“the principles of Protestantism logically developed.” The present
Secretary of the Navy--the Hon. R. W. Thompson, of Indiana, having
actually dared, in his own free Protestant country, to publish a book
recently on _Papacy and the Civil Power_, in which his language is as
moderate as it is gentlemanly and fair, a Roman Catholic priest, at
Washington, D. C.--the very seat of Government--denounces him with
violence. What is better, a representative member of the Society
of Jesus, Father F. X. Weninger, D.D., pours upon his devoted head
a vial of wrath that seems to have been brought direct from the
Vatican cellars. “The assertions,” he says, “which Mr. Thompson
makes on the necessary antagonism between the Catholic Church and
free institutions, are characterized by pitiful ignorance and blind
audacity. He is reckless of logic, of history, of common sense,
of charity; and presents himself before the loyal American people
as a narrow-minded bigot. No scholar would venture to repeat the
stale calumnies which have so often been refuted.... In answer to
his accusations against the Church as the enemy of liberty, I tell
him that, if ever this country should become a Catholic country,
that is, if Catholics should ever be in the majority, and _have the
control of political power_, then he would see the principles of our
Constitution carried out to the fullest extent; he would see that
these States would be in very deed _United_. He would behold a people
living in peace and harmony; joined in the bonds of one faith, their
hearts beating in unison with love of their fatherland, with charity
and forbearance toward all, and respecting the rights and consciences
even of their slanderers.”
In behalf of this “Society of Jesus,” he advises Mr. Thompson to
send his book to the Czar, Alexander II., and to Frederick William,
Emperor of Germany. He may expect from them, as a token of their
sympathy, the orders of St. Andrew and of the Black Eagle. “From
clear-minded, self-thinking, patriotic Americans, he cannot expect
anything but the _decoration_ of their contempt. As long as American
hearts _will_ beat in American bosoms, and the blood of their fathers
_shall_ flow in their veins, such efforts as Thompson’s _shall_ not
succeed. True, genuine Americans will protect the Catholic Church in
this country and _will finally join it_.” After that, having thus,
as he seems to think, left the corpse of his impious antagonist
upon the field, he marches off emptying the dregs of his exhausted
bottle after the following fashion: “We leave the volume, whose
argument we have killed, as a carcass to be devoured by those Texan
buzzards--those stinking birds--we mean that kind of men who love to
feed on corruption, calumnies, and lies, and are attracted by the
stench of them.”
This last sentence is worthy to be added as an appendix to the
_Discorsi del Somma Pontifice Pio IX._, by Don Pasquale di
Franciscis, immortalized in the contempt of Mr. Gladstone.--_Tel
maître tel Valet!_
Moral: This will teach fair-minded, sober, and gentlemanly writers
that even so well-bred an antagonist as Mr. Thompson has shown
himself in his book, cannot hope to escape the only available weapon
in the Catholic armory--Billingsgate. The whole argument of the
author shows that while forcible, he intends to be fair; but he
might as well have attacked with a Tertullianistic violence, for his
treatment would not have been worse. It will doubtless afford him
some consolation to be placed in the same category with schismatic
and infidel emperors and kings.
While Americans, including Masons, are now warned to prepare
themselves to join the Holy Apostolic and Roman Catholic Church,
we are glad to know that there are some as loyal and respected as
any in Masonry who support our views. Conspicuous among them is our
venerable friend, Mr. Leon Hyneman, P. M., and a member of the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania. For eight or nine years he was editor of
the _Masonic Mirror and Keystone_, and is an author of repute. He
assures us personally that for over thirty years he has combated the
design to erect into a Masonic dogma, belief in a _personal_ God. In
his work, _Ancient York and London Grand Lodges_, he says (p. 169):
“Masonry, instead of unfolding professionally with the intellectual
advancement of scientific knowledge and general intelligence, has
departed from the original aims of the fraternity, and is apparently
inclining towards a sectarian society. That is plainly to be seen
... in the persistent determination not to expunge the sectarian
innovations interpolated in the Ritual.... It would appear that the
Masonic fraternity of this country are as indifferent to ancient
landmarks and usages of Masonry, as the Masons of the past century,
under the London Grand Lodge were.” It was this conviction which
prompted him, in 1856, when Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre, Grand
Hierophant of the Rite of Memphis, came to America and tendered
him the Grand Mastership of the Rite in the United States, and the
Ancient and Accepted Rite offered him an Honorary 33d--to refuse both.
The Temple was the last European secret organization which, as a
body, had in its possession some of the mysteries of the East. True,
there were in the past century (and perhaps still are) isolated
“Brothers” faithfully and secretly working under the direction of
Eastern Brotherhoods. But these, when they did belong to European
societies, invariably joined them for objects unknown to the
Fraternity, though at the same time for the benefit of the latter. It
is through them that modern Masons have all they know of importance;
and the similarity now found between the Speculative Rites of
antiquity, the mysteries of the Essenes, Gnostics, and the Hindus,
and the highest and oldest of the Masonic degrees well prove the
fact. If these mysterious brothers became possessed of the secrets of
the societies, they could never reciprocate the confidence, though in
their hands these secrets were safer, perhaps, than in the keeping
of European Masons. When certain of the latter were found worthy of
becoming affiliates of the Orient, they were secretly instructed and
initiated, but the others were none the wiser for that.
No one could ever lay hands on the Rosicrucians, and notwithstanding
the alleged discoveries of “secret chambers,” _vellums_ called
“T,” and of fossil knights with ever-burning lamps, this ancient
association and its true aims are to this day a mystery. Pretended
Templars and sham Rose-Croix, with a few genuine kabalists, were
occasionally burned, and some unlucky Theosophists and alchemists
sought and put to the torture; delusive confessions even were wrung
from them by the most ferocious means, but yet, the true Society
remains to-day as it has ever been, unknown to all, especially to its
cruelest enemy--the Church.
As to the modern Knights Templar and those Masonic Lodges which now
claim a direct descent from the ancient Templars, their persecution
by the Church was a farce from the beginning. They have not, nor
have they ever had any secrets, dangerous to the Church. Quite the
contrary; for we find J. G. Findel saying that the Scottish degrees,
or the Templar system, only dates from 1735-1740, and “_following its
Catholic tendency, took up its chief residence in the Jesuit College
of Clermont, in Paris_, and hence was called the Clermont system.”
The present Swedish system has also something of the Templar element
in it, but free from Jesuits and interference with politics; however,
it asserts that it has Molay’s Testament in the original, for a
Count Beaujeu, a nephew of Molay, _never heard of elsewhere_--says
Findel--transplanted Templarism into Freemasonry, and thus procured
for his uncle’s ashes a mysterious sepulchre. It is sufficient to
prove this a Masonic fable that on this pretended monument the day
of Molay’s funeral is represented as March 11, 1313, while the day
of his death was March 19, 1313. This spurious production, which is
neither genuine Templarism, nor genuine Freemasonry, has never taken
firm root in Germany. But the case is otherwise in France.
Writing upon this subject, we must hear what Wilcke has to say of
these pretensions:
“The present Knight Templars of Paris will have it, that they are
direct descendants from the ancient Knights, and endeavor to prove
this by documents, interior regulations, and secret doctrines.
Foraisse says the Fraternity of Freemasons was founded in Egypt,
Moses communicating the secret teaching to the Israelites, Jesus to
the Apostles, and thence it found its way to the Knight Templars.
Such inventions are necessary ... to the assertion that the
Parisian Templars are the offspring of the ancient order. All these
asseverations, unsupported by history, were fabricated _in the
High Chapter of Clermont_ (Jesuits), and preserved by the Parisian
Templars as a legacy left them by those political revolutionists, the
Stuarts and the Jesuits.” Hence we find the Bishops Gregoire[790] and
Münter[791] supporting them.
Connecting the modern with the ancient Templars, we can at best,
therefore, allow them an adoption of certain rites and ceremonies
of purely _ecclesiastical_ character after they had been cunningly
inoculated into that grand and antique Order by the clergy. Since
this desecration, it gradually lost its primitive and simple
character, and went fast to its final ruin. Founded in 1118 by the
Knights Hugh de Payens and Geoffrey de St. Omer, nominally for the
protection of the pilgrims, its true aim was the restoration of the
primitive secret worship. The true version of the history of Jesus,
and the early Christianity was imparted to Hugh de Payens, by the
Grand-Pontiff of the Order of the Temple (of the Nazarene or Johanite
sect), one named Theocletes, after which it was learned by some
Knights in Palestine, from the higher and more intellectual members
of the St. John sect, who were initiated into its mysteries.[792]
Freedom of intellectual thought and the restoration of one and
universal religion was their secret object. Sworn to the vow of
obedience, poverty, and chastity, they were at first the true Knights
of John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness and living on wild
honey and locusts. Such is the tradition and the true kabalistic
version.
It is a mistake to state that the Order became only later
anti-Catholic. It was so from the beginning, and the red cross on the
white mantle, the vestment of the Order, had the same significance
as with the initiates in every other country. It pointed to the four
quarters of the compass, and was the emblem of the universe.[793]
When, later, the Brotherhood was transformed into a Lodge, the
Templars had, in order to avoid persecution, to perform their own
ceremonies in the greatest secresy, generally in the hall of the
chapter, more frequently in isolated caves or country houses built
amidst woods, while the ecclesiastical form of worship was carried on
publicly in the chapels belonging to the Order.
Though of the accusations brought against them by order of Philip
IV., many were infamously false, the main charges were certainly
correct, from the stand-point of what is considered by the Church,
_heresy_. The present-day Templars, adhering strictly as they do to
the _Bible_, can hardly claim descent from those who did not believe
in Christ, as God-man, or as the Saviour of the world; who rejected
the miracle of his birth, and those performed by himself; who did not
believe in transubstantiation, the saints, holy relics, purgatory,
etc. The Christ Jesus was, in their opinion, a false prophet, but
the man Jesus a Brother. They regarded John the Baptist as their
patron, but never viewed him in the light in which he is presented in
the _Bible_. They reverenced the doctrines of alchemy, astrology,
magic, kabalistic talismans, and adhered to the secret teachings of
their chiefs in the East. “In the last century,” says Findel, “when
Freemasonry erroneously supposed herself the daughter of Templarism,
great pains were taken to regard the Order of Knights-Templars
as innocent.... For this purpose not only legends and unrecorded
events were fabricated, but pains were taken to repress the truth.
The Masonic admirers of the Knights-Templars bought up the whole of
the documents of the lawsuit published by Moldenwaher, because they
proved the culpability of the Order.”[794]
This culpability consisted in their “heresy” against the Roman
Catholic Church. While the real “Brothers” died an ignominious death,
the spurious Order which tried to step into their shoes became
exclusively a branch of the Jesuits under the immediate tutelage of
the latter. True-hearted, honest Masons, ought to reject with horror
any connection, let alone descent from these.
“The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,” writes Commander
Gourdin,[795] “sometimes called the Knights Hospitallers, and the
Knights of Malta, were not Freemasons. On the contrary, they seem
to have been inimical to Freemasonry, for in 1740, the Grand Master
of the Order of Malta caused the Bull of Pope Clement XII. to be
published in that island, and forbade the meetings of the Freemasons.
On this occasion several Knights and many citizens left the island;
and in 1741, the Inquisition persecuted the Freemasons at Malta. The
Grand Master proscribed their assemblies under severe penalties, and
six Knights were banished from the island in perpetuity for having
assisted at a meeting. In fact, unlike the Templars, they had not
even a secret form of reception. Reghellini says that he was unable
to procure a copy of the secret Ritual of the Knights of Malta. The
reason is obvious--there was none!”
And yet American Templarism comprises three degrees. 1, Knight of
the Red Cross; 2, Knight Templar; and 3, Knight of Malta. It was
introduced from France into the United States, in 1808, and the first
_Grand Encampment General_ was organized on June 20, 1816, with
Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York, as Grand Master.
This inheritance of the Jesuits should hardly be boasted of. If the
Knights Templar desire to make good their claims, they must choose
between a descent from the “heretical,” anti-Christian, kabalistic,
primitive Templars, or connect themselves with the Jesuits,
and nail their tesselated carpets directly on the platform of
ultra-Catholicism! Otherwise, their claims become a mere pretense.
So impossible does it become for the originators of the _ecclesiastical_
pseudo-order of Templars, invented, according to Dupuy, in France, by
the adherents of the Stuarts, to avoid being considered a branch of
the Order of the Jesuits, that we are not surprised to see an
anonymous author, rightly suspected of belonging to the Jesuit Chapter
at Clermont, publishing a work in 1751, in Brussels, on the lawsuit of
the Knights Templar. In this volume, in sundry mutilated notes,
additions, and commentaries, he represents the _innocence_ of the
Templars of the accusation of “heresy,” thus robbing them of the
greatest title to respect and admiration that these early
free-thinkers and martyrs have won!
This last pseudo-order was constituted at Paris, on the 4th of
November, 1804, by virtue of a _forged Constitution_, and ever
since it has “contaminated genuine Freemasonry,” as the highest
Masons themselves tell us. _La Charte de transmission_ (tabula aurea
Larmenii) presents the outward appearance of such extreme antiquity
“that Gregoire confesses that if all the other relics of the Parisian
treasury of the Order had not silenced his doubts as to their ancient
descent, the sight of this charter would at the very first glance
have persuaded him.”[796] The first Grand Master of this spurious
Order was a physician of Paris, Dr. Fahre-Palaprat, who assumed the
name of Bernard Raymond.
Count Ramsay, a Jesuit, was the first to start the idea of the
Templars being joined to the Knights of Malta. Therefore, we read
from his pen the following:
“Our forefathers (!!!), the Crusaders, assembled in the Holy Land
from all Christendom, wished to unite in a fraternity embracing
all nations, that when bound together, heart and soul, for mutual
improvement, they might, in the course of time, represent one single
intellectual people.”
This is why the Templars are made to join the St. John’s Knights, and
the latter got into the craft of Masonry known as St. John’s Masons.
In the _Sceau Rompu_, in 1745, we find, therefore, the following most
impudent falsehood, worthy of the Sons of Loyola: “The lodges were
dedicated to St. John, because _the Knights_-Masons had in the holy
wars in Palestine joined the Knights of St. John.”
In 1743, the Kadosh degree was invented at Lyons (so writes Thory,
at least), and “it represents the _revenge of the Templars_.” And
here we find Findel saying that “the Order of Knights Templars had
been abolished in 1311, and to that epoch they were obliged to have
recourse when, after the banishment of several Knights from Malta,
in 1740, because they were Freemasons, it was no longer possible to
keep up a connection with the Order of St. John, or Knights of Malta,
then in the plenitude of their power _under the sovereignty of the
Pope_.”
Turning to Clavel, one of the best Masonic authorities, we read:
“It is clear that the erection of the French Order of the Knight
Templars is not more ancient than the year 1804, and that it cannot
lay any legitimate claim to being the continuation of the so-called
society of ‘la petite Resurrection des Templiers,’ nor this latter,
either, extend back to the ancient Order of the Knights Templars.”
Therefore, we see these pseudo-Templars, under the guidance of the
worthy Father Jesuits, forging in Paris, 1806, the famous charter of
Larmenius. Twenty years later, this nefast and subterranean body,
guiding the hand of assassins, directed it toward one of the best and
greatest princes in Europe, whose mysterious death, unfortunately for
the interests of truth and justice, has never been--for political
reasons--investigated and proclaimed to the world as it ought to
have been. It is this prince, a Freemason himself, who was the last
depository of the secrets of the true Knights Templar. For long
centuries these had remained unknown and unsuspected. Holding their
meetings once every _thirteen_ years, at Malta, and their Grand
Master advising the European brothers of the place of _rendezvous_
but a few hours in advance, these representatives of the once
mightiest and most glorious body of Knights assembled on the fixed
day, from various points of the earth. _Thirteen_ in number, in
commemoration of the year of the death of Jacques Molay (1313), the
now Eastern brothers, among whom were crowned heads, planned together
the future religious and political fate of the nations; while the
Popish Knights, their murderous and bastard successors, slept soundly
in their beds, without a dream disturbing their guilty consciences.
“And yet,” says Rebold, “notwithstanding the confusion they had
created (1736-72), the Jesuits had accomplished but one of their
designs, viz.: _denaturalyzing and bringing into disrepute the
Masonic Institution_. Having succeeded, as they believed, in
destroying it in one form, they were determined to use it in another.
With this determination, they arranged the systems styled ‘Clerkship
of the Templars,’ an amalgamation of the different histories, events,
and characteristics of the crusades mixed with the reveries of the
alchemists. _In this combination Catholicism governed all, and the
whole fabrication moved upon wheels, representing the great object
for which the Society of Jesus was organized._”[797]
Hence, the rites and symbols of Masonry which though “Pagan” in
origin, are all applied to and all flavor of Christianity. A Mason
has to declare his belief in a _personal_ God, Jehovah, and in the
Encampment degrees also in Christ, before he can be accepted in
the Lodge, while the Johanite Templars believed in the unknown and
invisible Principle, whence proceeded the Creative Powers misnamed
_gods_, and held to the Nazarene version of Ben-Panther being the
sinful father of Jesus, who thus proclaimed himself “the son of god
and of humanity.”[798] This also accounts for the fearful oaths of
the Masons taken _on the Bible_, and for their lectures servilely
agreeing with the Patriarcho-Biblical Chronology. In the American
Order of Rose Croix, for instance, when the neophyte approaches
the altar, the “Sir Knights are called to order, and the captain
of the guard makes his proclamation.” “To the glory of the sublime
architect of the universe (Jehovah-Binah?), under the auspices of the
Sovereign Sanctuary of _Ancient_ and _Primitive_ Freemasonry,” etc.,
etc. Then the Knight Orator strikes 1 and tells the neophyte that
the antique legends of Masonry date back FORTY centuries; claiming
no greater antiquity for the oldest of them than 622 A.M., at which
time he says Noah was born. Under the circumstances this will be
regarded as a liberal concession to chronological preferences. After
that Masons[799] are apprised that it was about the year 2188 B.C.,
that Mizraim led colonies into Egypt, and laid the foundation of the
Kingdom of Egypt, which kingdom lasted 1,663 years (!!!). Strange
chronology, which, if it piously conforms with that of the _Bible_,
disagrees entirely with that of history. The mythical nine names of
the Deity, imported into Egypt, according to the Masons, only in the
twenty-second century B.C., are found on monuments reckoned twice as
old by the best Egyptologists. Nevertheless we must take at the same
time into consideration, that the Masons are themselves ignorant of
these names.
The simple truth is that modern Masonry is a sadly different thing
from what the once universal secret fraternity was in the days when
the Brahma-worshippers of the AUM, exchanged grips and passwords with
the devotees of TUM, and the adepts of every country under the sun
were “Brothers.”
What was then that mysterious name, that mighty “word” through whose
potency the Hindu as well as the Chaldean and Egyptian initiate
performed his wonders? In chapter cxv. of the Egyptian _Funeral
Ritual_, entitled “The chapter of coming out to the Heaven ... and
of knowing the Spirits of An” (Heliopolis), Horus says: “I knew the
Spirits of An. The greatly glorious does not pass over it ... unless
the gods give me the WORD.” In another hymn the soul, transformed,
exclaims: “Make road for me to Rusta. I am the Great One, dressed
as the Great One. I have come! I have come! Delicious to me are the
kings of Osiris. I am creating the water (through the power of the
_Word_).... Have I not seen the hidden secrets ... I have given truth
to the Sun. I am clear. I am adored for my purity” (cxvii.-cxix. The
chapters of the going into and coming out from the Rusta). In another
place the mummy’s roll expresses the following: “I am the Great God
(spirit) existing of myself, the creator of _His Name_.... I know the
name of this Great God that is there.”
Jesus is accused by his enemies of having wrought miracles, and shown
by his own apostles to have expelled _demons_ by the power of the
INEFFABLE NAME. The former firmly believed that he had stolen it
in the Sanctuary. “And he cast the spirits with his _word_ ... and
healed all that were sick” (_Matthew_ xviii. 16). When the Jewish
rulers ask Peter (_Acts_ iv. 7): “By what power, or by what _name_,
have ye done this?” Peter replies, “By the NAME of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth.” But does this mean the name of Christ, as the interpreters
would make us believe; or does it signify, “by the NAME which was
in the possession of Jesus of Nazareth,” the initiate, who was
accused by the Jews to have learned it but who had it really through
initiation? Besides, he states repeatedly that all that he does he
does in “_His Father’s Name_,” not in his own.
But who of the modern Masons has ever heard it pronounced? In their
own _Ritual_, they confess that they never have. The “Sir Orator”
tells the “Sir Knight,” that the passwords which he received in
the preceding degrees are all “so many corruptions” of the true
name of God engraved on the triangle; and that therefore they have
adopted a “substitute” for it. Such also is the case in the Blue
Lodge, where the Master, representing King Solomon, agrees with King
Hiram that the Word * * * “shall be used as a _substitute_ for the
Master’s word, until wiser ages shall discover the true one. What
Senior Deacon, of all the thousands who have assisted in bringing
candidates from darkness to light; or what Master who has whispered
this mystic “word” into the ears of supposititious Hiram Abiffs,
while holding them on the five points of fellowship, has suspected
the real meaning of even this substitute, which they impart “at low
breath?” How few new-made Master Masons but go away imagining that
it has some occult connection with the “marrow in the bone.” What
do they know of that mystical personage known to some adepts as the
“venerable MAH,” or of the mysterious Eastern Brothers who obey him,
whose name is abbreviated in the first syllable of the three which
compose the Masonic substitute--The MAH, who lives at this very day
in a spot unknown to all but initiates, and the approaches to which
are through trackless wildernesses, untrodden by Jesuit or missionary
foot, for it is beset by dangers fit to appall the most courageous
explorers? And yet, for generations this meaningless jingle of vowels
and consonants has been repeated in noviciate ears, as though it
possessed even so much potency as would deflect from its course a
thistle-down floating in the air! Like Christianity, Freemasonry is a
corpse from which the spirit long ago fled.
In this connection, place may well be given to a letter from Mr.
Charles Sotheran, Corresponding Secretary of the New York Liberal
Club, which was received by us on the day after the date it bears.
Mr. Sotheran is known as a writer and lecturer on antiquarian,
mystical, and other subjects. In Masonry, he has taken so many of the
degrees as to be a competent authority as regards the Craft. He is 32
∴ A. and P. R., 94 ∴ Memphis, K. R✠, K. Kadosh, M. M. 104, Eng., etc.
He is also an initiate of the modern English Brotherhood of the Rosie
Cross and other secret societies, and Masonic editor of the _New York
Advocate_. Following is the letter, which we place before the Masons
as we desire that they should see what one of their own number has to
say:
“NEW YORK PRESS CLUB, January 11th, 1877.
“In response to your letter, I willingly furnish the
information desired with respect to the antiquity and
present condition of Freemasonry. This I do the more
cheerfully since we belong to the same secret societies,
and you can thus better appreciate the necessity for the
reserve which at times I shall be obliged to exhibit. You
rightly refer to the fact that Freemasonry, no less than
the effete theologies of the day, has its fabulous history
to narrate. Clogged up as the Order has been by the rubbish
and drift of absurd biblical legends, it is no wonder
that its usefulness has been impaired and its work as a
civilizer hampered. Fortunately the great anti-Masonic
excitement that raged in the United States during a portion
of this century, forced a considerable band of workers to
delve into the true origin of the Craft, and bring about
a healthier state of things. The agitation in America
also spread to Europe and the literary efforts of Masonic
authors on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Rebold,
Findel, Hyneman, Mitchell, Mackenzie, Hughan, Yarker and
others well-known to the fraternity, is now a matter of
history. One effect of their labors has been, in a great
measure, to bring the history of Masonry into an open
daylight, where even its teachings, jurisprudence, and
ritual are no longer secret from those of the ‘profane,’
who have the wit to read as they run.
“You are correct in saying that the _Bible_ is the ‘great
light’ of European and American Masonry. In consequence
of this the theistic conception of God and the biblical
cosmogony have been ever considered two of its great
corner-stones. Its chronology seems also to have been based
upon the same pseudo-revelation. Thus Dr. Dalcho, in one of
his treatises asserts that the principles of the Masonic
Order were presented at and coëval with the creation. It
is therefore not astonishing that such a pundit should
go on to state that God was the first Grand Master, Adam
the second, and the last named initiated Eve into the
Great Mystery, as I suppose many a Priestess of Cybelè
and ‘Lady’ Kadosh were afterward. The Rev. Dr. Oliver,
another Masonic authority, gravely records what may be
termed the minutes of a Lodge where Moses presided as Grand
Master, Joshua as Deputy Grand Master, and Aholiab and
Bezaleel as Grand Wardens! The temple at Jerusalem, which
recent archæologists have shown to be a structure with
nothing like the pretended antiquity of its erection, and
incorrectly called after a monarch whose name proves his
mystical character, Sol-Om-On (the name of the sun in three
languages), plays, as you correctly observe, a considerable
share in Masonic mystery. Such fables as these, and the
traditional Masonic colonization of ancient Egypt, have
given the Craft the credit of an illustrious origin to
which it has no right, and before whose forty centuries
of legendary history, the mythologies of Greece and Rome
fade into insignificance. The Egyptian, Chaldean, and other
theories necessary to each fabricator of ‘high degrees’
have also each had their short period of prominence. The
last ‘axe to grind’ has consecutively been the fruitful
mother of unproductiveness.
“We both agree that all the ancient priesthoods had their
esoteric doctrines and secret ceremonies. From the Essenic
brotherhood, an evolution of the Hindu Gymnosophists,
doubtless proceeded the Solidarities of Greece and Rome as
described by so-called ‘Pagan’ writers. Founded on these
and copying them in the matter of ritual, signs, grips,
passwords, etc., were developed the mediæval guilds.
Like the present livery companies of London, the relics
of the English trade-guilds, the operative Masons were
but a guild of workmen with higher pretensions. From the
French name ‘Maçon,’ derived from ‘Mas,’ an old Norman
noun meaning ‘a house,’ comes our English ‘Mason,’ a house
builder. As the London companies alluded to present now
and again the Freedom of the ‘_Liveries_’ to outsiders, so
we find the trade-guilds of Masons doing the same. Thus
the founder of the Ashmolean Museum was made free of the
Masons at Warrington, in Lancashire, England, on the 16th
October, 1646. The entrance of such men as Elias Ashmole
into the Operative Fraternity paved the way for the great
‘Masonic Revolution of 1717,’ when SPECULATIVE Masonry
came into existence. The Constitutions of 1723 and 1738,
by the Masonic impostor Anderson, were written up for the
newly-fledged and first Grand Lodge of ‘Free and Accepted
Masons’ of England, from which body all others over the
world hail to-day.
“These bogus constitutions, written by Anderson, were
compiled about then, and in order to palm off his miserable
rubbish yclept history, on the Craft, he had the audacity
to state that nearly all the documents relating to Masonry
in England had been destroyed by the 1717 reformers.
Happily, in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, and
other public institutions, Rebold, Hughan and others
have discovered sufficient evidence in the shape of old
Operative Masonic charges to disprove this statement.
“The same writers, I think, have conclusively upset the
tenability of two other documents palmed upon Masonry,
namely, the spurious charter of Cologne of 1535, and
the forged questions, supposed to have been written by
Leylande, the antiquary, from a MS. of King Henry VI. of
England. In the last named, Pythagoras is referred to as
having--‘formed a great lodge, at Crotona, and made many
Masons, some of whom travelled into France, and there made
many, from whence, in process of time, the art passed
into England.’ Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St.
Paul’s Cathedral, London, often called the ‘Grand Master
of Freemasons,’ was simply the Master or President of the
London Operative Masons Company. If such a tissue of fable
could interweave itself into the history of the Grand
Lodges which now have charge of the first three symbolical
degrees, it is hardly astonishing that the same fate
should befall nearly all of the High Masonic Degrees which
have been aptly termed ‘an incoherent medley of opposite
principles.’
“It is curious to note too that most of the bodies which
work these, such as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
the Rite of Avignon, the Order of the Temple, Fessler’s
Rite, the ‘Grand Council of the Emperors of the East and
West--Sovereign Prince Masons,’ etc., etc., are nearly all
the offspring of the sons of Ignatius Loyola. The Baron
Hundt, Chevalier Ramsay, Tschoudy, Zinnendorf, and numerous
others who founded the grades in these rites, worked under
instructions from the General of the Jesuits. The nest
where these high degrees were hatched, and no Masonic rite
is free from their baleful influence more or less, was the
Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris.
“That bastard foundling of Freemasonry, the ‘Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite,’ which is unrecognized by the Blue
Lodges was the enunciation, primarily, of the brain of the
Jesuit Chevalier Ramsay. It was brought by him to England
in 1736-38, to aid the cause of the Catholic Stuarts.
The rite in its present form of thirty-three degrees
was reorganized at the end of the eighteenth century by
some half dozen Masonic adventurers at Charleston, South
Carolina. Two of these, Pirlet a tailor, and a dancing
master named Lacorne, were fitting predecessors for a
later resuscitation by a gentleman of the name of Gourgas,
employed in the aristocratic occupation of a ship’s
clerk, on a boat trading between New York and Liverpool.
Dr. Crucefix, _alias_ Goss, the _inventor_ of certain
patent medicines of an objectionable character, ran the
institution in England. The powers under which these
worthies acted was a document claimed to have been signed
by Frederick the Great at Berlin, on May 1st, 1786, and by
which were revised the Masonic Constitution and Status of
the High Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. This
paper was an impudent forgery and necessitated the issuing
of a protocol by the Grand Lodges of the Three Globes of
Berlin, which conclusively proved the whole arrangement to
be false in every particular. On claims supported by this
supposititious document, the Ancient and Accepted Rite
have swindled their confiding brothers in the Americas
and Europe out of thousands of dollars, to the shame and
discredit of humanity.
“The modern Templars, whom you refer to in your letter,
are but mere magpies in peacock’s plumes. The aim of
the Masonic Templars is the sectarianization, or rather
the Christianizing of Masonry, a fraternity which is
supposed to admit the Jew, Parsee, Mahometan, Buddhist,
in fact every religionist within its portals who accepts
the doctrine of a personal god, and spirit-immortality.
According to the belief of a section, if not all the
Israelites, belonging to the Craft in America--Templarism
is Jesuitism.
“It seems strange, now that the belief in a personal God
is becoming extinct, and that even the theologian has
transformed his deity into an indescribable nondescript,
that there are those who stand in the way of the general
acceptation of the sublime pantheism of the primeval
Orientals, of Jacob Boehme, of Spinoza. Often in the
Grand Lodge and subordinate lodges of this and other
jurisdictions, the old doxology is sung, with its ‘Praise
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ to the disgust of Israelites
and free-thinking brethren, who are thus unnecessarily
insulted. This could never occur in India, where the great
light in a lodge may be the _Koran_, the _Zend-Avesta_,
or one of the _Vedas_. The sectarian Christian spirit
in Masonry must be put down. To-day there are German
Grand Lodges which will not allow Jews to be initiated,
or Israelites from foreign countries to be accepted as
brethren within their jurisdiction. The French Masons
have, however, revolted against this tyranny, and the
Grand Orient of France does now permit the atheist and
materialist to fellowship in the Craft. A standing rebuke
upon the claimed universality of Masonry is the fact that
the French brethren are now repudiated.
“Notwithstanding its many faults--and speculative
Masonry is but human, and therefore fallible--there is
no institution that has done so much, and is yet capable
of such great undertakings in the future, for human,
religious, and political improvement. In the last century
the Illuminati taught, ‘peace with the cottage, war with
the palace,’ throughout the length and breadth of Europe.
In the last century the United States was freed from the
tyranny of the mother country by the action of the Secret
Societies more than is commonly imagined. Washington,
Lafayette, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, were Masons. And
in the nineteenth century it was Grand Master Garibaldi,
33, who unified Italy, working in accordance with the
spirit of the faithful brotherhood, as the Masonic, or
rather carbonari, principles of ‘liberty, equality,
humanity, independence, unity,’ taught for years by brother
Joseph Mazzini.
“Speculative Masonry has much, too, within its ranks to
do. One is to accept woman as a co-worker of man in the
struggle of life, as the Hungarian Masons have done lately
by initiating the Countess Haideck. Another important
thing is also to recognize practically the brotherhood of
all humanity by refusing none on account of color, race,
position, or creed. The dark-skinned should not be only
theoretically the brother of the light. The colored Masons
who have been duly and regularly raised stand at every
lodge-door in America craving admission, and they are
refused. And there is South America to be conquered to a
participation in the duties of humanity.
“If Masonry be, as claimed, a progressive science and a
school of pure religion, it should ever be found in the
advance guard of civilization, not in the rear. If it
be but an empirical effort, a crude attempt of humanity
to solve some of the deepest problems of the race, and
no more, then it must give place to fitter successors,
perchance one of those that you and I know of, one that may
have acted the prompter at the side of the chiefs of the
Order, during its greatest triumphs, whispering to them as
the dæmon did in the ear of Socrates.
“Yours most Sincerely,
“CHARLES SOTHERAN.”
Thus falls to ruins the grand epic poem of Masons, sung by so many
mysterious Knights as another revealed gospel. As we see, the
Temple of Solomon is being undermined and brought to the ground by
its own chief “Master Masons,” of this century. But if, following
the ingenious exoteric description of the _Bible_, there are yet
Masons who persist in regarding it as once an actual structure,
who, of the students of the esoteric doctrine will ever consider
this mythic temple otherwise than an allegory, embodying the secret
science? Whether or not there ever was a real temple of that name,
we may well leave to archæologists to decide; but that the detailed
description thereof in _1 Kings_ is purely allegorical, no serious
scholar, proficient in the ancient as well as mediæval jargon of the
kabalists and alchemists, can doubt. The building of the Temple of
Solomon is the symbolical representation of the gradual acquirement
of the _secret_ wisdom, or magic; the erection and development of
the spiritual from the earthly; the manifestation of the power and
splendor of the spirit in the physical world, through the wisdom and
genius of the builder. The latter, when he has become an adept, is a
mightier king than Solomon himself, the emblem of the sun or _Light_
himself--the light of the real subjective world, shining in the
darkness of the objective universe. This is the “Temple” which can be
reared _without the sound of the hammer, or any tool of iron being
heard in the house while it is “in building.”_
In the East, this science is called, in some places, the
“seven-storied,” in others, the “nine-storied” Temple; every story
answers allegorically to a degree of knowledge acquired. Throughout
the countries of the Orient, wherever magic and the wisdom-religion
are studied, its practitioners and students are known among their
craft as Builders--for they build the temple of knowledge, of secret
science. Those of the adepts who are active, are styled practical or
_operative_ Builders, while the students, or neophytes are classed
as _speculative_ or theoretical. The former exemplify in works their
control over the forces of inanimate as well as animate nature; the
latter are but perfecting themselves in the rudiments of the sacred
science. These terms were evidently borrowed at the beginning by the
unknown founders of the first Masonic guilds.
In the now popular jargon, “Operative Masons” are understood to be
the bricklayers and the handicraftsmen, who composed the Craft down
to Sir Christopher Wren’s time; and “Speculative Masons,” all members
of the Order, as now understood. The sentence attributed to Jesus,
“Thou art Peter ... upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” disfigured, as it is,
by mistranslation and misinterpretation, plainly indicates its real
meaning. We have shown the signification of _Pater_ and _Petra_, with
the hierophants--the interpretation traced on the tables of stone
of the final initiation, was handed by the initiator to the chosen
future interpreter. Having acquainted himself with its mysterious
contents, which revealed to him the mysteries of creation, the
initiated became a _builder_ himself, for he was made acquainted
with the _dodecahedron_, or the geometrical figure on which the
universe was built. To what he had learned in previous initiations
of the use of the rule and of architectural principles, was added a
cross, the perpendicular and horizontal lines of which were supposed
to form the foundation of the spiritual temple, by placing them
across the junction, or central primordial point, the element of
all existences,[800] representing the first concrete idea of deity.
Henceforth he could, as a Master builder (see _1 Corinthians_, iii.
10), erect a temple of wisdom on that rock of _Petra_, for himself;
and having laid a sure foundation, let “another build thereon.”
The Egyptian hierophant was given a square head-dress, which he
had to wear always, and a square (see Mason’s marks), without
which he could never go abroad. The perfect _Tau_ formed of the
perpendicular (descending male ray, or spirit) a horizontal line
(or matter, female ray), and the mundane circle was an attribute of
Isis, and, it is but at his death that the Egyptian cross was laid
on the breast of his mummy. These square hats are worn unto this
day by the Armenian priests. The claim that the cross is purely a
Christian symbol introduced after our era, is strange indeed, when
we find Ezekiel stamping the foreheads of the men of Judah, who
feared the Lord (_Ezekiel_ ix. 4), with the _signa Thau_, as it is
translated in the Vulgate. In the ancient Hebrew this sign was formed
thus [Illustration] but in the original Egyptian hieroglyphics as a
perfect Christian cross [Illustration]. In the _Revelation_, also,
the “Alpha and Omega” (spirit and matter), the first and the last,
stamps the name of his Father in the foreheads of the _elect_.
And if our statements are wrong, if Jesus was not an initiate, a
Master-builder, or Master-Mason as it is now called, how comes it,
that on the most ancient cathedrals we find his figure with Mason’s
marks about his person? In the Cathedral of Santa Croce, Florence,
over the main portal can be seen the figure of Christ holding a
perfect square in his hand.
The surviving “Master-builders” of the _operative_ craft of the true
Temple, may go literally _half-naked_ and wander _slipshod_ for
ever--now not for the sake of a puerile ceremony, but because, like
the “Son of man,” they have not where to lay their heads--and yet be
the only surviving possessors of the “Word.” Their “cable-tow” is
the sacred triple cord of certain Brahman-Sannyâsi, or the string on
which certain lamas hang their _yu-stone_; but with these apparently
valueless talismans, not one of them would part for all the wealth of
Solomon and Sheba. The seven-knotted bamboo stick of the fakir can
become as powerful as the rod of Moses “which was created between
the evenings, and on which was engraven and set forth the great and
glorious NAME, with which he was to do the wonders in Mizraim.”
But these “operative workmen” have no fear that their secrets will
be disclosed by treacherous ex-high priests of chapters, though
their generation may have received them through others than “Moses,
Solomon, and Zerubbabel.” Had Moses Michael Hayes, the Israelite
Brother who introduced Royal Arch Masonry into this country (in
December. 1778),[801] had a prophetic presentiment of future
treasons, he might have instituted more efficacious obligations than
he has.
Truly, the grand omnific Royal Arch word, “_long lost but now
found_,” has fulfilled its prophetic promise. The password of that
degree is no more “I AM THAT I AM.” It is now simply “I was but am no
more!”
[Illustration]
That we may not be accused of vain boasting, we shall give the
keys to several of the secret ciphers of the most exclusive and
important of the so-called higher Masonic degrees. If we mistake
not, these have never before been revealed to the outside world
(except that of the Royal Arch Masons, in 1830), but have been most
jealously guarded within the various Orders. We are under neither
promise, obligation, nor oath, and therefore violate no confidence.
Our purpose is not to gratify an idle curiosity; we wish merely to
show Masons and the affiliates of all other Western societies--the
Company of Jesus included--that it is impossible for them to be
secure in the possession of any secrets that it is worth an Eastern
Brotherhood’s while to discover. Inferentially, it may also show them
that if the latter can lift the masks of European societies, they are
nevertheless successful in wearing their own visors; for, if any one
thing is universally acknowledged, it is that the real secrets of
not a single surviving ancient brotherhood are in possession of the
profane.
Some of these ciphers were used by the Jesuits in their secret
correspondence at the time of the Jacobin conspiracy, and when
Masonry (the alleged successor to the Temple) was employed by the
Church for political purposes.
Findel says (see his _History of Freemasonry_, p. 253) that in the
eighteenth century, “besides the modern Knights Templar, we see the
Jesuits ... disfiguring the fair face of Freemasonry. Many Masonic
authors, who were fully cognizant of the period, and knew exactly
all the incidents occurring, positively assert that then and still
later the Jesuits exercised a pernicious influence, or at least
endeavored to do so, upon the fraternity.” Of the Rosicrucian Order
he remarks, upon the authority of Prof. Woog, that its “aim at first
... was nothing less than the support and advancement of Catholicism.
_When this religion manifested a determination entirely to repress
liberty of thought_ ... the Rosicrucians enlarged their designs
likewise to check, if possible, the progress of this widely-spreading
enlightenment.”
In the _Sincerus Renatus_ (the truly converted) of S. Richter, of
Berlin (1714), we note that laws were communicated for the government
of the “Golden Rosicrucians,” which “bear unmistakable evidences of
Jesuitical intervention.”
We will begin with the cryptographs of the “Sovereign Princes Rose
Croix,” also styled _Knights of St. Andrew, Knights of the Eagle and
Pelican, Heredom, Rosæ Crucis, Rosy Cross, Triple Cross, Perfect
Brother, Prince Mason, and so on_. The “Heredom Rosy Cross” also
claims a Templar origin, in 1314.[802]
CIPHER OF THE
S ∴ P ∴ R ∴ C ∴
[Illustration]
a b c d e f g h ij k l m n
[Illustration]
o p q r s t uv x y z &.
CIPHER OF THE KNIGHT ROSE CROIX OF HEREDOM
(of Kilwining).
_0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17_
a b c d e f g h i j ba (or) k kb kc kd ke kf kg kh
_600 700 800 900 1000_
gl hl il jl m
CIPHER OF THE KNIGHTS KADOSH.
(Also White and Black Eagle and Grand Elected Knight Templar.)
_70 2 3 12 15 20 30 33 38 9 10 40_
a b c d e f g h i k l m
_60 80 81 82 83 48 85 86 90 91 94 95_
n o p q r s t u v x y z
The Knights Kadosh have another cipher--or rather hieroglyph--which,
in this case, is taken from the Hebrew, possibly to be the more in
keeping with the _Bible_ Kadeshim of the Temple.[803]
[Illustration: HIEROGLYPH OF THE K ∴ KAD ∴]
As for the Royal Arch cipher, it has been exposed before now, but we
may well present it slightly amplified.
The cipher consists of certain combinations of right angles, with or
without points or dots. Following is the basis of its
[Illustration: _Formation._]
Now, the alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, and these two signs
being dissected, form thirteen distinct characters, thus:
[Illustration:
_1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13_]
A point placed within each gives thirteen more, thus:
[Illustration:
_1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13_]
Making a total of twenty-six, equal to the number of letters in the
English alphabet.
There are two ways, at least, of combining and using these characters
for the purposes of secret correspondence. One method is to call the
first sign, [In-line illustration] a; the same, with a point, ⟓ b,
etc. Another is to apply them, in their regular course, to the first
half of the alphabet, [In-line illustration] a, ⊓ b, and so on, to m;
after which, repeat them with a dot, beginning with ⟓ n, [In-line
illustration] o, etc., to ⋖ z.
The alphabet, according to the first method, stands thus:
[Illustration:]
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
[Illustration:]
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
According to the second method, thus:
[Illustration:]
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
[Illustration:]
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Besides these signs, the French Masons, evidently under the tuition
of their accomplished masters--the Jesuits, have perfected this
cipher in all its details. So they have signs even for commas,
diphthongs, accents, dots, etc., and these are
[Illustration:]
&c æ œ w ç ´ ` ^ - . , ; : ∴ ?
Let this suffice. We might, if we chose, give the cipher alphabets
with their keys, of another method of the Royal Arch Masons, strongly
resembling a certain Hindu character; of the G ∴ El ∴ of the Mystic
City; of a well-known form of the Devanagari script of the (French)
Sages of the Pyramids; and of the Sublime Master of the Great Work,
and others. But we refrain; only, be it understood, for the reason
that some of these alone of all the side branches of the original
Blue Lodge Freemasonry, contain the promise of a useful future. As
for the rest, they may and will go to the ash-heap of time. High
Masons will understand what we mean.
We must now give some proofs of what we have stated, and demonstrate
that the word Jehovah, if Masonry adheres to it, will ever remain as
a substitute, never be identical with the lost mirific name. This
is so well known to the kabalists, that in their careful etymology
of the יהוה they show it beyond doubt to be only one of the many
substitutes for the real name, and composed of the two-fold name of
the first androgyne--Adam and Eve, Jod (or Yodh), Vau and He-Va--the
female serpent as a symbol of Divine Intelligence proceeding from the
ONE-Generative or _Creative_ Spirit.[804] Thus, Jehovah is not the
sacred name at all. Had Moses given to Pharaoh the _true_ “name,” the
latter would not have answered as he did, for the Egyptian
King-Initiates knew it as well as Moses, who had learned it with them.
_The_ “name” was at that time the common property of the adepts of all
the nations in the world, and Pharaoh knew certainly the “name” of the
Highest God mentioned in the _Book of the Dead_. But instead of that,
Moses (if we accept the allegory of _Exodus_ literally), gives Pharaoh
the name of _Yeva_, the expression or form of the Divine name used by
all the _Targums_ as passed by Moses. Hence Pharaoh’s reply: “And who
is that _Yeva_[805] that I should obey his voice?”
“Jehovah” dates only from the Masoretic innovation. When the Rabbis,
for fear that they should lose the keys to their own doctrines, then
written exclusively in consonants, began to insert their vowel-points
in their manuscripts, they were utterly ignorant of the true
pronunciation of the NAME. Hence, they gave it the sound of _Adonah_,
and made it read _Ja-ho-vah_. Thus the latter is simply a fancy, a
perversion of the Holy Name. And how could they know it? Alone, out
of all their nation the high priests had it in their possession, and
respectively passed it to their successors, as the Hindu Brahmaâtma
does before his death. Once a year only, on the day of atonement,
the high priest was allowed to pronounce it in a whisper. Passing
behind the veil into the inner chamber of the sanctuary, the Holy
of Holies, with trembling lips and downcast eyes he called upon the
dreaded NAME. The bitter persecution of the kabalists, who received
the precious syllables after deserving the favor by a whole life of
sanctity, was due to a suspicion that they misused it. At the opening
of this chapter we have told the story of Simeon Ben-Iochaï, one
of the victims to this priceless knowledge, and see how little he
deserved his cruel treatment.
The _Book of Jasher_, a work--as we are told by a very learned Hebrew
divine, of New York--composed in Spain in the twelfth century as
“a popular tale,” and that had not “the sanction of the Rabbinical
College of Venice,” is full of kabalistical, alchemical, and magical
allegories. Admitting so much, it must still be said that there are
few popular tales but are based on historical truths. The _Norsemen
in Iceland_, by Dr. G. W. Dasent, is also a collection of popular
tales, but they contain the key to the primitive religious worship
of that people. So with the _Book of Jasher_. It contains the whole
of the _Old Testament_ in a condensed form, and as the Samaritans
held, _i.e._, the five _Books of Moses_, without the Prophets.
Although rejected by the orthodox Rabbis, we cannot help thinking
that, as in the case of the apocryphal _Gospels_, which were written
earlier than the canonical ones, the _Book of Jasher_ is the true
original from which the subsequent _Bible_ was in part composed. Both
the apocryphal _Gospels_ and _Jasher_, are a series of religious
tales, in which miracle is heaped upon miracle, and which narrate
the popular legends as they first originated, without any regard
to either chronology or dogma. Still both are corner-stones of the
Mosaic and Christian religions. That there was a _Book of Jasher_
prior to the Mosaic _Pentateuch_ is clear, for it is mentioned in
_Joshua_, _Isaiah_, and _2 Samuel_.
Nowhere is the difference between the Elohists and Jehovists so
clearly shown as in _Jasher_. Jehovah is here spoken of as the
Ophites held him to be, a Son of Ilda-Baoth, or Saturn. In this
Book, the Egyptian Magi, when asked by Pharaoh “Who is he, of whom
Moses speaks as the _I am_?” reply that the God of Moses “we have
learned, is the Son of the Wise, the Son of ancient kings” (ch.
lxxix. 45).[806] Now, those who assert that _Jasher_ is a forgery of
the twelfth century--and we readily believe it--should nevertheless
explain the curious fact that, while the above text is _not_ to be
found in the _Bible_, the answer to it _is_, and is, moreover,
couched in unequivocal terms. At _Isaiah_ xix. 11, the “Lord God”
complains of it very wrathfully to the prophet, and says: “Surely
the princes of Zoan _are fools_, the counsel of the wise counsellors
of Pharaoh is become brutish; how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the
Son of the Wise, the Son of ancient kings?” which is evidently a
reply to the above. At _Joshua_ x. 13, _Jasher_ is referred to in
corroboration of the outrageous assertion that the sun stood still,
and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves. “Is
not this written in the _Book of Jasher_?” says the text. And at 2
_Samuel_, i. 19, the same book is again quoted. “Behold,” it says,
“it is written in the _Book of Jasher_.” Clearly, _Jasher_ must have
existed; it must have been regarded as authority; must have been
older than Joshua; and, since the verse in _Isaiah_ unerringly points
to the passage above quoted, we have at least as much reason to
accept the current edition of _Jasher_ as a transcription, excerpt,
or compilation of the original work, as we have to revere the
Septuagint _Pentateuch_, as the primitive Hebraic sacred records.
At all events, Jehovah is not the ancient of the ancient, or “aged
of the aged,” of the _Sohar_; for we find him, in this book,
counselling with God the Father as to the creation of the world. “The
work-master spoke to the Lord. Let us make man after our image”
(_Sohar_ i., fol. 25). Jehovah is but the Metatron, and perhaps, not
even the highest, but only one of the Æons; for he whom Onkelos calls
_Memro_, the “Word,” is not the _exoteric_ Jehovah of the _Bible_,
nor is he Jahve יַהְוֶה the Existing One.
It was the secresy of the early kabalists, who were anxious to
screen the real Mystery name of the “Eternal” from profanation, and
later the prudence which the mediæval alchemists and occultists were
compelled to adopt to save their lives, that caused the inextricable
confusion of divine names. This is what led the people to accept
the Jehovah of the _Bible_ as the name of the “One living God.”
Every Jewish elder, prophet, and other man of any importance knew
the difference; but as the difference lay in the vocalization of
the “name,” and its right pronunciation led to death, the common
people were ignorant of it, for no initiate would risk his life by
teaching it to them. Thus the Sinaitic deity came gradually to be
regarded as identical with “Him whose name is known but to the wise.”
When Capellus translates: “Whosoever shall pronounce the name of
Jehovah, shall suffer death,” he makes two mistakes. The first is in
adding the final letter _h_ to the name, if he wants this deity to
be considered either male or androgynous, for the letter makes the
name feminine, as it really should be, considering it is one of the
names of Binah, the third emanation; his second error is in asserting
that the word _nokeb_ means only to pronounce _distinctly_. It means
to pronounce _correctly_. Therefore, the biblical name Jehovah may
be considered simply a _substitute_, which, as belonging to one of
the “powers” got to be viewed as that of the “Eternal.” There is
an evident mistake (one of the very many), in one of the texts in
_Leviticus_, which has been corrected by Cahen, and which proves that
the interdiction did not at all concern the name of the exoteric
Jehovah, whose numerous other names could also be pronounced without
any penalty being incurred.[807] In the vicious English version, the
translation runs thus: “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord,
shall surely be put to death,” _Levit._ xxiv. 16. Cahen renders it
far more correctly, thus: “And he that blasphemeth the name of the
_Eternal_ shall die,” etc. The “Eternal” being something higher than
the exoteric and personal “Lord.”[808]
As with the Gentile nations, the symbols of the Israelites were ever
bearing, directly or indirectly, upon sun-worship. The exoteric
Jehovah of the _Bible_ is a _dual_ god, like all the other gods;
and the fact that David--who is entirely ignorant of Moses--praises
his “Lord,” and assures him that the “Lord _is_ a great God, and a
great King above all gods,” may be of a very great importance to the
descendants of Jacob and David, but their national God concerns us in
no wise. We are quite ready to show the “Lord God” of Israel the same
respect as we do to Brahma, Zeus, or any other secondary deity. But
we decline, most emphatically, to recognize in him either the Deity
worshipped by Moses, or the “Father” of Jesus, or yet the “Ineffable
Name” of the kabalists. Jehovah is, perhaps, one of the _Elohim_,
who was concerned in the _formation_ (which is not creation) of the
universe, one of the architects who built from pre-existing matter,
but he never was the “Unknowable” Cause that created “bara,” in the
night of the Eternity. These Elohim first form and bless; then they
_curse_ and _destroy_; as one of these Powers, Jehovah is therefore
by turns beneficent and malevolent; at one moment he punishes and
then repents. He is the antitype of several of the patriarchs--of
Esau and of Jacob, the allegorical twins, emblems of the ever
manifest dual principle in nature. So Jacob, who is Israel, is the
left pillar--the feminine principle of Esau, who is the right pillar
and the male principle. When he wrestles with Malach-Iho, the Lord,
it is the latter who becomes the _right_ pillar, and Jacob-Israel
names God; although the _Bible_-interpreters have endeavored to
transform him into a mere “angel of the Lord” (_Genesis_ xxxii.),
Jacob conquers him--as matter will but too often conquer spirit--but
his _thigh_ is put out of joint in the fight.
The name of Israel has its derivation from Isaral or Asar, the
Sun-God, who is known as Suryal, Surya, and Sur. Isra-el means
“striving with God.” The “sun rising upon Jacob-Israel,” is the
_Sun_-God Isaral, fecundating _matter_ or earth, represented by the
_female_-Jacob. As usual, the allegory has more than one hidden
meaning in the _Kabala_. Esau, Æsaou, Asu, is also the sun. Like the
“Lord,” Esau fights with Jacob and prevails not. The God-_Sun_ first
strives against, and then rises on him in covenant.
“And as he passed over Penuel, _the sun rose upon him_, and he
(Jacob) _halted upon his thigh_” (Genesis xxxii. 31). _Israel_ Jacob,
opposed by his brother Esau, is _Samael_, and “the names of Samael
are Azazel and _Satan_” (the opposer).
If it will be argued that Moses was unacquainted with the Hindu
philosophy and, therefore, could not have taken Siva, the regenerator
and the destroyer, as his model for Jehovah, then we must admit that
there was some miraculous international intuition which prompted
every nation to choose for its exoteric national deity the dual
type we find in the “Lord God” of Israel. All these fables speak
for themselves. Siva, Jehovah, Osiris, are all the symbols of the
active principle in nature _par excellence_. They are the forces
which preside at the formation or _regeneration_ of matter and its
destruction. They are the types of Life and Death, ever fecundating
and decomposing under the never-ceasing influx of the _anima mundi_,
the Universal intellectual Soul, the invisible but ever-present
spirit which is behind the correlation of the blind forces. This
spirit alone is immutable, and therefore the forces of the universe,
cause and effect, are ever in perfect harmony with this one great
Immutable Law. Spiritual Life is the one primordial principle
_above_; Physical Life is the primordial principle _below_, but
they are one under their dual aspect. When the Spirit is completely
untrammelled from the fetters of correlation, and its essence has
become so purified as to be re-united with its CAUSE, it may--and yet
who can tell whether it really will--have a glimpse of the Eternal
Truth. Till then, let us not build ourselves idols in our own image,
and accept the shadows for the Eternal Light.
The greatest mistake of the age was to attempt a comparison of the
relative merits of all the ancient religions, and scoff at the
doctrines of the _Kabala_ and other superstitions.
But truth is stranger than fiction; and this world-old adage finds
its application in the case in hand. The “wisdom” of the archaic
ages or the “secret doctrine” embodied in the _Oriental Kabala_, of
which, as we have said, the Rabbinical is but an abridgment, did
not die out with the Philoletheans of the last Eclectic school.
The _Gnosis_ lingers still on earth, and its votaries are many,
albeit unknown. Such secret brotherhoods have been mentioned before
Mackenzie’s time, by more than one great author. If they have been
regarded as mere fictions of the novelist, that fact has only helped
the “brother-adepts” to keep their incognito the more easily. We
have personally known several of them who, to their great merriment
had had the story of their lodges, the communities in which they
lived, and the wondrous powers which they had exercised for many
long years, laughed at and denied by unsuspecting skeptics to their
very faces. Some of these brothers belong to the small groups of
“travellers.” Until the close of the happy Louis-Philippian reign,
they were pompously termed by the Parisian garçon and trader, the
_nobles étrangers_, and as innocently believed to be “Boyards,”
Valachian “Gospodars,” Indian “Nabobs,” and Hungarian “Margraves,”
who had gathered at the capital of the civilized world to admire
its monuments and partake of its dissipations. There are, however,
some _insane_ enough to connect the presence of certain of these
mysterious guests in Paris with the great political events that
subsequently took place. Such recall at least as very remarkable
coincidences, the breaking out of the Revolution of ‘93, and the
earlier explosion of the South Sea Bubble, soon after the appearance
of “noble foreigners,” who had convulsed all Paris for more or less
longer periods, by either their mystical doctrines or “supernatural
gifts.” The St. Germains and Cagliostros of this century, having
learned bitter lessons from the vilifications and persecutions of the
past, pursue different tactics now-a-days.
But there are numbers of these mystic brotherhoods which have
naught to do with “civilized” countries; and it is in their unknown
communities that are concealed the skeletons of the past. These
“adepts” could, if they chose, lay claim to strange ancestry, and
exhibit verifiable documents that would explain many a mysterious
page in both sacred and profane history. Had the keys to the hieratic
writings and the secret of Egyptian and Hindu symbolism been known to
the Christian Fathers, they would not have allowed a single monument
of old to stand unmutilated. And yet, if we are well informed--and
we think we are--there was not one such in all Egypt, but the secret
records of its hieroglyphics were carefully registered by the
sacerdotal caste. These records still exist, though “not extant” for
the general public, though perhaps the monuments may have passed away
for ever out of human sight.
Of forty-seven tombs of the kings, near Gornore, recorded by the
Egyptian priests on their sacred registers, only seventeen were known
to the public, according to Diodorus Siculus, who visited the place
about sixty years B.C. Notwithstanding this _historical_ evidence,
we assert that the whole number exist to this day, and the royal
tomb discovered by Belzoni among the sandstone mountains of Biban
el-Melook (Melech?) is but a feeble specimen of the rest. We will
add, furthermore, that the Arab-Christians, the monks, scattered
around in their poor, desolate convents on the borderland of the
great Lybian Desert, know of the existence of such unbetrayed relics.
But they are Copts, sole remnants of the true Egyptian race, and the
Copt predominating over the Christian monk in their natures, they
keep silent; for what reason it is not for us to tell. There are some
who believe that their monkish attire is but a blind, and that they
have chosen these desolate homes among arid deserts and surrounded
by Mahometan tribes, for some ulterior purposes of their own. Be
it as it may, they are held in great esteem by the Greek monks of
Palestine; and there is a rumor current among the Christian pilgrims
of Jerusalem, who throng the Holy Sepulchre at every Easter, that
the holy fire from heaven will never descend so _miraculously_ as
when these monks of the desert are present to draw it down by their
prayers.[809]
“The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
by force.” Many are the candidates at the doors of those who are
supposed to know the path that leads to the secret brotherhoods.
The great majority are refused admittance, and these turn away
interpreting the refusal as an evidence of the non-existence of
any such secret society. Of the minority accepted, more than
two-thirds fail upon trial. The seventh rule of the ancient
Rosicrucian brotherhoods, which is universal among all true secret
societies: “the Rosy-Crux becomes and is not _made_,” is more than
the generality of men can bear to have applied to them. But let no
one suppose that of the candidates who fail, any will divulge to
the world even the trifle they may have learned, as some Masons do.
None know better than themselves how unlikely it is that a neophyte
should ever talk of what was imparted to him. Thus these societies
will go on and hear themselves denied without uttering a word until
the day shall come for them to throw off their reserve and show how
completely they are masters of the situation.
CHAPTER IX.
“All things are governed in the bosom of this triad.”--LYDUS:
_De Mensibus_, 20.
“Thrice let the heaven be turned on its perpetual axis.”--
OVID: _Fast_ iv.
“And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here _seven_ altars,
and prepare me here _seven_ oxen and _seven_ rams.”--
_Numbers_ xxiii. 1, 2.
“In _seven_ days all creatures who have offended me shall
be destroyed by a deluge, but thou shalt be secured in a
vessel miraculously formed; take, therefore ... and with
_seven_ holy men, your respective wives, and pairs of
all animals, enter the ark without fear; then shalt thou
know God face to face, and all thy questions shall be
answered.”--_Bagavedgitta._
“And the Lord said, I will destroy man ... from the face
of the earth.... But with thee will I establish my
covenant.... Come thou and all thy house into the ark....
For yet _seven_ days and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth.”--_Genesis_ vi., vii.
“The Tetraktys was not only principally honored because all
symphonies are found to exist within it, but also because
it appears to contain the nature of all things.”--THEOS. OF
SMYRNA: _Mathem._, p. 147.
Our task will have been ill-performed if the preceding chapters have
not demonstrated that Judaism, earlier and later Gnosticism,
Christianity, and even Christian Masonry, have all been erected upon
identical cosmical myths, symbols, and allegories, whose full
comprehension is possible only to those who have inherited the key
from their inventors.
In the following pages we will endeavor to show how much these have
been misinterpreted by the widely-different, yet intimately-related
systems enumerated above, in fitting them to their individual needs.
Thus not only will a benefit be conferred upon the student, but a
long-deferred, and now much-needed act of justice will be done to
those earlier generations whose genius has laid the whole human race
under obligation. Let us begin by once more comparing the myths of the
_Bible_ with those of the sacred books of other nations, to see which
is the original, which copies.
There are but two methods which, correctly explained, can help us to
this result. They are--the _Vedas_, Brahmanical literature and the
Jewish _Kabala_. The former has, in a most philosophical spirit,
conceived these grandiose myths; the latter borrowing them from the
Chaldeans and Persians, shaped them into a history of the Jewish
nation, in which their spirit of philosophy was buried beyond the
recognition of all but the elect, and under a far more absurd form
than the Aryan had given them. The _Bible_ of the Christian Church is
the latest receptacle of this scheme of disfigured allegories which
have been erected into an edifice of superstition, such as never
entered into the conceptions of those from whom the Church obtained
her knowledge. The abstract fictions of antiquity, which for ages had
filled the popular fancy with but flickering shadows and uncertain
images, have in Christianity assumed the shapes of real personages,
and become accomplished facts. Allegory, metamorphosed, becomes sacred
history, and Pagan myth is taught to the people as a revealed
narrative of God’s intercourse with His chosen people.
“The myths,” says Horace in his _Ars Poetica_, “have been invented by
wise men to strengthen the laws and teach moral truths.” While Horace
endeavored to make clear the very spirit and essence of the ancient
myths, Euhemerus pretended, on the contrary, that “myths were the
legendary history of kings and heroes, transformed into gods by the
admiration of the nations.” It is the latter method which was
inferentially followed by Christians when they agreed upon the
acceptation of euhemerized patriarchs, and mistook them for men who
had really lived.
But, in opposition to this pernicious theory, which has brought forth
such bitter fruit, we have a long series of the greatest philosophers
the world has produced: Plato, Epicharmus, Socrates, Empedocles,
Plotinus, and Porphyry, Proclus, Damascenus, Origen, and even
Aristotle. The latter plainly stated this verity, by saying that a
tradition of the highest antiquity, transmitted to posterity under the
form of various myths, teaches us that the first principles of nature
may be considered as “gods,” for the _divine_ permeates all nature.
All the rest, details and personages, were added later for the clearer
comprehension of the vulgar, and but too often with the object of
supporting laws invented in the common interest.
Fairy tales do not exclusively belong to nurseries; all mankind--except
those few who in all ages have comprehended their hidden meaning and
tried to open the eyes of the superstitious--have listened to such
tales in one shape or the other and, after transforming them into
sacred symbols, called the product RELIGION!
We will try to systematize our subject as much as the ever-recurring
necessity to draw parallels between the conflicting opinions that have
been based on the same myths will permit. We will begin by the book of
_Genesis_, and seek for its hidden meaning in the Brahmanical
traditions and the Chaldeo-Judaïc _Kabala_.
The first Scripture lesson taught us in our infancy is that God
created the world in six days, and rested on the _seventh_. Hence, a
peculiar solenmity is supposed to attach to the seventh day, and the
Christians, adopting the rigid observances of the Jewish sabbath, have
enforced it upon us with the substitution of the first, instead of the
seventh day of the week.
All systems of religious mysticism are based on numerals. With
Pythagoras, the Monas or unity, emanating the duad, and thus forming
the trinity, and the quaternary or Arba-il (the mystic _four_),
compose the number seven. The sacredness of numbers begins with the
great First--the ONE, and ends only with the nought or zero--symbol of
the infinite and boundless circle which represents the universe. All
the intervening figures, in whatever combination, or however
multiplied, represent philosophical ideas, from vague outlines down to
a definitely-established scientific axiom, relating either to a moral
or a physical fact in nature. They are a key to the ancient views on
cosmogony, in its broad sense, including man and beings, and the
evolution of the human race, spiritually as well as physically.
The number _seven_ is the most sacred of all, and is, undoubtedly, of
Hindu origin. Everything of importance was calculated by and fitted
into this number by the Aryan philosophers--ideas as well as
localities. Thus they have the
_Sapta-Rishi_, or seven sages, typifying the seven diluvian primitive
races (post-diluvian as some say).
_Sapta-Loka_, the seven inferior and superior worlds, whence each of
these Rishis proceeded, and whither he returned in glory before
reaching the final bliss of Moksha.[810]
_Sapta-Kula_, or seven castes--the Brahmans assuming to represent the
direct descendants of the highest of them.[811]
Then, again, the Sapta-Pura (seven holy cities); Sapta-Duipa (seven
holy islands); Sapta-Samudra (the seven holy seas); Sapta-Parvata (the
seven holy mountains); Sapta-Arania (the seven deserts); Sapta-Vruksha
(the seven sacred trees); and so on.
In the Chaldeo-Babylonian incantation, this number reappears again as
prominently as among the Hindus. The number is _dual_ in its
attributes, _i.e._, holy in one of its aspects it becomes nefast under
other conditions. Thus the following incantation we find traced on the
Assyrian tablets, now so correctly interpreted.
“The evening of evil omen, the region of the sky, which produces
misfortune....
“Message of pest.
“Deprecators of Nin-Ki-gal.
“The seven gods of the vast sky.
“The seven gods of the vast earth.
“The seven gods of blazing spheres.
“The seven gods of celestial legion.
“The seven gods maleficent.
“The seven phantoms--bad.
“The seven phantoms of maleficent flames....
“Bad demon, bad _alal_, bad _gigim_, bad _telal_ ... bad god, bad
_maskim_.
“Spirit of seven heavens remember.... Spirit of seven earths remember
... etc.”
This number reappears likewise on almost every page of _Genesis_,
and throughout the Mosaic books, and we find it conspicuous (see
following chapter) in the _Book of Job_ and the Oriental _Kabala_.
If the Hebrew Semitics adopted it so readily, we must infer that it
was not blindly, but with a thorough knowledge of its secret meaning;
hence, that they must have adopted the doctrines of their “heathen”
neighbors as well. It is but natural, therefore, that we should seek
in _heathen_ philosophy for the interpretation of this number, which
again reappeared in Christianity with its _seven_ sacraments, _seven_
churches in Asia Minor, _seven_ capital sins, _seven_ virtues (four
cardinal and three theological), etc.
Have the _seven_ prismatic colors of the rainbow seen by Noah no
other meaning than that of a covenant between God and man to refresh
the memory of the former? To the kabalist, at least, they have a
significance inseparable from the seven labors of magic, the seven
upper spheres, the seven notes of the musical scale, the seven
numerals of Pythagoras, the seven wonders of the world, the seven
ages, and even the seven steps of the Masons, which lead to the Holy
of Holies, after passing the flights of _three_ and _five_.
Whence the identity then of these enigmatical, ever-recurring
numerals that are found in every page of the Jewish Scriptures, as
in every ola and sloka of Buddhistic and Brahmanical books? Whence
these numerals that are the soul of the Pythagorean and Platonic
thought, and that no unilluminated Orientalist nor biblical student
has ever been able to fathom? And yet they have a key ready in
their hand, did they but know how to use it. Nowhere is the mystical
value of human language and its effects on human action so perfectly
understood as in India, nor any better explained than by the authors
of the oldest _Brahmanas_. Ancient as their epoch is now found to
be, they only try to express, in a more concrete form, the abstract
metaphysical speculations of their own ancestors.
Such is the respect of the Brahmans for the sacrificial mysteries,
that they hold that the world itself sprang into creation as a
consequence of a “sacrificial word” pronounced by the First Cause.
This word is the “Ineffable name” of the kabalists, fully discussed
in the last chapter.
The secret of the _Vedas_, “Sacred Knowledge” though they may be, is
impenetrable without the help of the _Brahmanas_. Properly speaking,
the _Vedas_ (which are written in verse and comprised in four books)
constitute that portion called the _Mantra_, or magical prayer, and
the _Brahmanas_ (which are in prose) contain their key. While the
Mantra part is alone holy, the Brahmana portion contains all the
theological exegesis, and the speculations and explanations of the
sacerdotal. Our Orientalists, we repeat, will make no substantial
progress toward a comprehension of Vedic literature until they place
a proper valuation upon works now despised by them; as, for instance,
the _Aitareya_ and _Kaushîtaki Brâhmanas_, which belong to the
_Rig-Veda_.
Zoroaster was called a _Manthran_, or speaker of Mantras, and,
according to Haug, one of the earliest names for the Sacred
Scriptures of the Parsis was _Mânthra-speñta_. The power and
significance of the Brahman who acts as the Hotri-priest at the
Soma-Sacrifice, consists in his possession and full knowledge of the
uses of the sacred word or speech--_Vâch_. The latter is personified
in Sara-isvati, the wife of Brahma, who is the goddess of the sacred
or “Secret Knowledge.” She is usually depicted as riding upon a
peacock with its tail all spread. The eyes upon the feathers of the
bird’s tail, symbolize the sleepless eyes that see all things. To one
who has the ambition of becoming an adept of the “Secret doctrines,”
they are a reminder that he must have the hundred eyes of Argus to
see and comprehend all things.
And this is why we say that it is not possible to solve fully the
deep problems underlying the Brahmanical and Buddhistic sacred books
without having a perfect comprehension of the esoteric meaning of
the Pythagorean numerals. The greatest power of this Vâch, or Sacred
Speech, is developed according to the form which is given to the
Mantra by the officiating Hotri, and this form consists wholly in
the numbers and syllables of the sacred metre. If pronounced slowly
and in a certain rhythm, one effect is produced; if quickly and with
another rhythm, there is a different result. “Each metre,” says Haug,
“is the invisible master of something visible in this world; it is,
as it were, its exponent and ideal. This great significance of the
metrical speech is derived from the number of syllables of which it
consists, for each thing has (just as in the Pythagorean system) a
certain numerical proportion. All these things, metres (chhandas),
stomas, and prishthas, are liable to be as eternal and divine as the
words themselves they contain. The earliest Hindu divines did not
only believe in a primitive revelation of the words of the sacred
texts, but even in that of the various forms. These forms, along with
their contents, the everlasting _Veda_-words, are symbols expressive
of things of the invisible world, and in several respects comparable
to the Platonic ideas.”
_This testimony from an unwilling witness shows again the identity
between the ancient religions as to their secret doctrine._ The
Gâyatri metre, for example, consists of _thrice eight_ syllables, and
is considered the most sacred of metres. It is the metre of Agni,
the fire-god, and becomes at times the emblem of Brahma himself,
the chief creator, and “fashioner of man” in his own image. Now
Pythagoras says that “The number eight, or the Octad, is the first
cube, that is to say, squared in all senses, as a die, proceeding
from its base two, or even number; _so is man four-square or
perfect_.” Of course few, except the Pythagoreans and kabalists,
can fully comprehend this idea; but the illustration will assist
in pointing out the close kinship of the numerals with the Vedic
_Mantras_. The chief problems of every theology lie concealed
beneath this imagery of fire and the varying rhythm of its flames.
The burning bush of the _Bible_, the Zoroastrian and other sacred
fires, Plato’s universal soul, and the Rosicrucian doctrines of both
soul and body of man being evolved out of fire, the reasoning and
immortal element which permeates all things, and which, according to
Herakleitus, Hippocrates, and Parmenides, is God, have all the same
meaning.
Each metre in the _Brahmanas_ corresponds to a number, and as shown
by Haug, as it stands in the sacred volumes, is a prototype of some
visible form on earth, and its effects are either good or evil. The
“sacred speech” can save, but it can kill as well; its many meanings
and faculties are well known but to the _Dikshita_ (the adept), who
has been initiated into many mysteries, and whose “spiritual birth”
is completely achieved; the Vâch of the _mantra_ is a spoken power,
which awakes another corresponding and still more occult power, each
allegorically personified by some god in the world of spirits, and,
according as it is used, responded to either by the gods or the
_Rakshasas_ (bad spirits). In the Brahmanical and Buddhist ideas,
a curse, a blessing, a vow, a desire, an idle thought, can each
assume a visible shape and so manifest itself _objectively_ to the
eyes of its author, or to him that it concerns. Every sin becomes
incarnated, so to say, and like an avenging fiend persecutes its
perpetrator.
There are words which have a destructive quality in their very
syllables, as though objective things; for every sound awakens
a corresponding one in the invisible world of spirit, and the
repercussion produces either a good or bad effect. Harmonious rhythm,
a melody vibrating softly in the atmosphere, creates a beneficent and
sweet influence around, and acts most powerfully on the psychological
as well as physical natures of every living thing on earth; it reacts
even on inanimate objects, for matter is still spirit in its essence,
invisible as it may seem to our grosser senses.
So with the numerals. Turn wherever we will, from the Prophets to the
Apocalypse, and we will see the biblical writers constantly using the
numbers _three_, _four_, _seven_, and _twelve_.
And yet we have known some partisans of the _Bible_ who maintained
that the _Vedas_ were copied from the Mosaic books![812] The _Vedas_,
which are written in Sanscrit, a language whose grammatical rules and
forms, as Max Müller and other scholars confess, were _completely
established_ long before the days when the great wave of emigration
bore it from Asia all over the Occident, are there to proclaim their
parentage of every philosophy, and every religious institution
developed later among Semitic peoples. And which of the numerals
most frequently occur in the Sanscrit chants, those sublime hymns to
creation, to the unity of God, and the countless manifestations of
His power? ONE, THREE, and SEVEN. Read the hymn by Dirghatamas.
“TO HIM WHO REPRESENTS ALL THE GODS.”
“The _God_ here present, our blessed patron, our sacrificer, has
a brother who spreads himself in mid-air. There exists a _third_
Brother whom we sprinkle with our libations.... It is he whom I have
seen master of men and armed with _seven_ rays.”[813]
And again:
“_Seven_ Bridles aid in guiding a car which has but ONE wheel, and
which is drawn by a single horse that shines with _seven_ rays. The
wheel has _three_ limbs, an immortal wheel, never-wearying, whence
hang all the worlds.”
“Sometimes _seven_ horses drag a car of _seven_ wheels, and _seven_
personages mount it, accompanied by _seven_ fecund nymphs of the
water.”
And the following again, in honor of the fire-god--_Agni_, who is so
clearly shown but a spirit subordinate to the ONE God.
“Ever ONE, although having _three_ forms of double nature
(androgynous)--he rises! and the priests offer to _God_, in the act
of sacrifice, their prayers which reach the heavens, borne aloft by
Agni.”
Is this a coincidence, or, rather, as reason tells us, the result
of the derivation of many national cults from one primitive,
universal religion? A _mystery_ for the uninitiated, the _unveiling_
of the most sublime (because correct and true) psychological and
physiological problems for the initiate. Revelations of the personal
spirit of man which is divine because that spirit is not only the
emanation of the ONE Supreme God, but is the only God man is able,
in his weakness and helplessness, to comprehend--to feel _within_
himself. This truth the Vedic poet clearly confesses, when saying:
“The Lord, Master of the universe and full of wisdom, has entered
with me (into me)--weak and ignorant--and has formed me of
_himself_ in that place[814] where the spirits obtain, by the help
of _Science_, the peaceful enjoyment of the _fruit_, as sweet as
ambrosia.”
Whether we call this fruit “an apple” from the Tree of Knowledge, or
the _pippala_ of the Hindu poet, it matters not. It is the fruit of
esoteric wisdom. Our object is to show the existence of a religious
system in India for many thousands of years before the exoteric
fables of the Garden of Eden and the Deluge had been invented. Hence
the identity of doctrines. Instructed in them, each of the initiates
of other countries became, in his turn, the founder of some great
school of philosophy in the West.
Who of our Sanscrit scholars has ever felt interested in discovering
the real sense of the following hymns, palpable as it is: “_Pippala_,
the sweet fruit of that tree upon which come _spirits_ who love the
_science_ (?) and where _the gods produce all marvels_. This is a
mystery for him _who knows not the Father_ of the world.”
Or this one again:
“These stanzas bear at their head a title which announces that
they are consecrated to the _Viswadévas_ (that is to say, to all
the gods). He who knows not the Being whom I sing _in all his
manifestations_, will comprehend nothing of my verses; those who do
know HIM are not strangers to this reünion.”
This refers to the reünion and parting of the immortal and mortal
parts of man. “The immortal Being,” says the preceding stanza, “is in
the cradle of the mortal Being. The two eternal spirits go and come
everywhere; only some men know the one without knowing the other”
(_Dirghatamas_).
Who can give a correct idea of Him of whom the _Rig-Veda_ says:
“That which is One the wise call it in divers manners.” That One is
sung by the Vedic poets in all its manifestations in nature; and the
books considered “childish and foolish” teach how at will to call the
beings of wisdom for our instruction. They teach, as Porphyry says:
“a liberation from all terrene concerns ... a flight of the _alone_
to the ALONE.”
Professor Max Müller, whose every word is accepted by his school
as philological gospel, is undoubtedly right in one sense when in
determining the nature of the Hindu gods, he calls them “masks
without an actor ... names without being, not beings without
names.”[815] For he but proves thereby the monotheism of the ancient
Vedic religion. But it seems to us more than dubious whether he or
any scientist of his school needed hope to fathom the old Aryan[816]
thought, without an accurate study of those very “masks.” To the
materialist, as to the scientist, who for various reasons endeavors
to work out the difficult problem of compelling facts to agree with
either their own hobbies or those of the _Bible_, they may seem
but the empty shells of phantoms. Yet such authorities will ever
be, as in the past, the unsafest of guides, except in matters of
exact science. The _Bible_ patriarchs are as much “masks without
actors,” as the pragâpatis, and yet, if the living personage behind
these masks is but an abstract shadow there is an idea embodied in
every one of them which belongs to the philosophical and scientific
theories of ancient wisdom.[817] And who can render better service in
this work than the native Brahmans themselves, or the kabalists?
To deny, point-blank, any sound philosophy in the later Brahmanical
speculations upon the _Rig-Veda_, is equivalent to refusing to
ever correctly understand the mother-religion itself, which gave
rise to them, and which is the expression of the inner thought of
the direct ancestors of these later authors of the _Brahmanas_. If
learned Europeans can so readily show that all the Vedic gods are
but empty masks, they must also be ready to demonstrate that the
Brahmanical authors were as incapable as themselves to discover these
“actors” anywhere. This done, not only the three other sacred books
which Max Müller says “do not deserve the name of _Vedas_,” but the
_Rig-Veda_ itself becomes a meaningless jumble of words; for what
the world-renowned and subtile intellect of the ancient Hindu sages
failed to understand, no modern scientist, however learned, can hope
to fathom. Poor Thomas Taylor was right in saying that “philology is
not philosophy.”
It is, to say the least, illogical to admit that there is a hidden
thought in the literary work of a race perhaps ethnologically
different from our own; and then, because it is utterly unintelligible
to us whose spiritual development during the several thousand
intervening years has bifurcated into quite a contrary direction--deny
that it has any sense in it at all. But this is precisely what, with
all due respect for erudition, Professor Max Müller and his school do
in this instance, at least. First of all, we are told that, albeit
cautiously and with some effort, yet we may still walk in the
footsteps of these authors of the _Vedas_. “We shall feel that we are
brought face to face and mind to mind with men yet intelligible to us
_after we have freed ourselves from our modern conceits_. We shall not
succeed always; words, verses, nay whole hymns in the _Rig-Veda_, will
and must remain to us a dead letter.... For, with a few exceptions ...
the whole world of the Vedic ideas is so entirely beyond our own
intellectual horizon, that instead of translating, we can as yet only
guess and combine.”[818]
And yet, to leave us in no possible doubt as to the true value of
his words, the learned scholar, in another passage, expresses his
opinion on these same Vedas (with one exception) thus: “The only
important, the only real Veda, is the _Rig-Veda_--the other so-called
_Vedas_ deserve the name of _Veda_ no more than the _Talmud_ deserves
the name of _Bible_. Professor Müller rejects them as unworthy of
the attention of any one, and, as we understand it, on the ground
that they contain chiefly “sacrificial formulas, charms, and
incantations.”[819]
And now, a very natural question: Are any of our scholars prepared
to demonstrate that, so far, they are intimately acquainted with the
hidden sense of these perfectly absurd “sacrificial formulas, charms,
and incantations” and magic nonsense of _Atharva-Veda_? We believe
not, and our doubt is based on the confession of Professor Müller
himself, just quoted. If “the whole world of the Vedic ideas [the
_Rig-Veda_ cannot be included alone in this _world_, we suppose] is
so entirely beyond our own [the scientists’] intellectual horizon
that, instead of translating, we can as yet only guess and combine;”
and the _Yagur-Veda_, _Sama-Veda_, and _Atharva-Veda_ are “childish
and foolish;”[820] and the _Brahmanas_, the _Sûtras Yâska_, and
_Sâyana_, “though _nearest in time_ to the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_,
indulge in the most frivolous and ill-judged interpretations,” how
can either himself or any other scholar form any adequate opinion
of either of them? If, again, the authors of the _Brahmanas_, the
nearest in time to the Vedic hymns, were already incompetent to offer
anything better than “ill-judged interpretations,” then at what
period of history, where, and by whom, were written these grandiose
poems, whose mystical sense has died with their generations? Are
we, then, so wrong in affirming that if sacred texts are found in
Egypt to have become--even to the priestly scribes of 4,000 years
ago--wholly unintelligible,[821] and the _Brahmanas_ offer but
“childish and foolish” interpretations of the _Rig-Veda_, at least as
far back as that, then, 1st, both the Egyptian and Hindu religious
philosophies are of an untold antiquity, far antedating ages
cautiously assigned them by our students of comparative mythology;
and, 2d, the claims of ancient priests of Egypt and modern Brahmans,
as to their age, are, after all, correct.
We can never admit that the three other _Vedas_ are less worthy of
their name than the Rig-hymns, or that the _Talmud_ and the _Kabala_
are so inferior to the _Bible_. The very name of the _Vedas_ (the
literal meaning of which is _knowledge_ or _wisdom_) shows them
to belong to the literature of those men who, in every country,
language, and age, have been spoken of as “those who know.” In
Sanscrit the third person singular is _véda_ (he knows), and the
plural is _vidá_ (they know). This word is synonymous with the Greek
θεοσέβεια which Plato uses when speaking of the _wise_--the magicians;
and with the Hebrew Hakamin, חכמים (wise men). Reject the
_Talmud_ and its old predecessor the _Kabala_, and it will be simply
impossible ever to render correctly one word of that _Bible_ so much
extolled at their expense. But then it is, perhaps, just what its
partisans are working for. To banish the _Brahmanas_ is to fling away
the key that unlocks the door of the _Rig-Veda_. The _literal_
interpretation of the _Bible_ has already borne its fruits; with the
_Vedas_ and the Sanscrit sacred books in general it will be just the
same, with this difference, that the absurd interpretation of the
_Bible_ has received a time-honored right of eminent domain in the
department of the ridiculous; and will find its supporters, against
light and against proof. As to the “heathen” literature, after a few
more years of unsuccessful attempts at interpretation, its religious
meaning will be relegated to the limbo of exploded superstitions, and
people will hear no more of it.
We beg to be clearly understood before we are blamed and criticised
for the above remarks. The vast learning of the celebrated Oxford
professor can hardly be questioned by his very enemies, yet we
have a right to regret his precipitancy to condemn that which he
himself confesses “entirely beyond our own intellectual horizon.”
Even in what he considers a ridiculous blunder on the part of the
author of the _Brahmanas_, other more spiritually-disposed persons
may see quite the reverse. “_Who_ is the greatest of the gods? Who
shall first be praised by our songs?” says an ancient Rishi of the
_Rig-Veda_; mistaking (as Prof. M. imagines) the interrogative
pronoun “Who” for some divine name. Says the Professor: “A place
is allotted in the sacrificial invocations to a god ‘Who,’ and
hymns addressed to him are called ‘Whoish hymns.’” And is a god
“Who” less natural as a term than a god “I am?” or “Whoish” hymns
less reverential than “I-amish” psalms? And who can prove that
this is really a blunder, and not a premeditated expression? Is it
so impossible to believe that the strange term was precisely due
to a reverential awe which made the poet hesitate before giving a
name, as form to that which is justly considered as the highest
abstraction of metaphysical ideals--God? Or that the same feeling
made the commentator who came after him to pause and so leave the
work of anthropomorphizing the “Unknown,” the “WHO,” to future human
conception? “These early poets thought more for themselves--than
for others,” remarks Max Müller himself. “They sought rather, in
their language, to be true to their own thought than to please
the imagination of their hearers.”[822] Unfortunately it is this
very thought which awakes no responsive echo in the minds of our
philologists.
Farther, we read the sound advice to students of the _Rig-Veda_
hymns, to collect, collate, sift, and reject. “Let him study the
commentaries, the _Sûtras_, the _Brahmanas_, and even later works,
in order to exhaust all the sources from which information can be
derived. He [the scholar] _must not despise the traditions of the
Brahmans_, even where their misconceptions ... are palpable.... Not
a corner in the _Brahmanas_, the _Sûtras_, _Yâska_, and _Sâyana_,
should be left unexplored _before we propose a rendering of our
own_.... When the scholar has done his work, the poet and philosopher
must take it up and finish it.”[823]
Poor chance for a “philosopher” to step into the shoes of a learned
philologist and presume to correct _his_ errors! We would like to
see what sort of a reception the most learned Hindu scholar in India
would have from the educated public of Europe and America, if he
should undertake to correct a savant, after he had sifted, accepted,
rejected, explained, and declared what was good, and what “absurd and
childish” in the sacred books of his forefathers. That which would
finally be declared “Brahmanic misconceptions,” by the conclave of
European and especially German savants, would be as little likely to
be reconsidered at the appeal of the most erudite pundit of Benares
or Ceylon, as the interpretation of Jewish Scripture by Maimonides
and Philo-Judæus, by Christians after the Councils of the Church
had accepted the mistranslations and explanations of Irenæus and
Eusebius. What pundit, or native philosopher of India should know his
ancestral language, religion, or philosophy as well as an Englishman
or a German? Or why should a Hindu be more suffered to expound
Brahmanism, than a Rabbinical scholar to interpret Judaism or the
Isaïan prophecies? Safer, and far more trustworthy translators can be
had nearer home. Nevertheless, let us still hope that we may find at
last, even though it be in the dim future, a European philosopher to
sift the sacred books of the wisdom-religion, and not be contradicted
by every other of his class.
Meanwhile, unmindful of any alleged authorities, let us try to sift
for ourselves a few of these myths of old. We will search for an
explanation within the popular interpretation, and feel our way
with the help of the magic lamp of Trismegistus--the mysterious
number _seven_. There must have been some reason why this figure was
universally accepted as a mystic calculation. With every ancient
people, the Creator, or Demiurge, was placed over the seventh heaven.
“And were I to touch upon the initiation into our sacred Mysteries,”
says Emperor Julian, the kabalist, “which the Chaldean bacchised
respecting the _seven-rayed God, lifting up the souls through Him_, I
should say things unknown, and _very unknown to the rabble_, but well
known to the _blessed Theurgists_.”[824] In _Lydus_ it is said that
“The Chaldeans call the God IAO, and SABAOTH he is often called, _as
He_ who is over the seven orbits (heavens, or spheres), that is the
Demiurge.”[825]
One must consult the Pythagoreans and Kabalists to learn the
potentiality of this number. Exoterically the seven rays of the solar
spectrum are represented concretely in the seven-rayed god Heptaktis.
These seven rays epitomized into THREE primary rays, namely, the red,
blue, and yellow, form the solar trinity, and typify respectively
spirit-matter and spirit-essence. Science has also reduced of
late the seven rays to three primary ones, thus corroborating the
scientific conception of the ancients of at least one of the visible
manifestations of the invisible deity, and the seven divided into a
quaternary and a trinity.
The Pythagoreans called the number seven the vehicle of life, as it
contained body and soul. They explained it by saying, that the human
body consisted of four principal elements, and that the soul is
triple, comprising reason, passion, and desire. The ineffable WORD
was considered the _Seventh_ and highest of all, for there are six
minor substitutes, each belonging to a degree of initiation. The Jews
borrowed their Sabbath from the ancients, who called it _Saturn’s_
day and deemed it unlucky, and not the latter from the Israelites
when Christianized. The people of India, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt
observed weeks of seven days; and the Romans learned the hebdomadal
method from these foreign countries when they became subject to the
Empire. Still it was not until the fourth century that the Roman
kalends, nones, and ides were abandoned, and weeks substituted in
their place; and the astronomical names of the days, such as _dies
Solis_ (day of the Sun), _dies Lunæ_ (day of the Moon), _dies Martis_
(day of Mars); _dies Mercurii_ (day of Mercury), _dies Jovis_ (day of
Jupiter), _dies Veneris_ (day of Venus), and _dies Saturni_ (day of
Saturn), prove that it was not from the Jews that the week of seven
days was adopted. Before we examine this number kabalistically, we
propose to analyse it from the standpoint of the Judaico-Christian
Sabbath.
When Moses instituted the _yom shaba_, or _Shebang_ (Shabbath), the
allegory of the Lord God resting from his work of creation on the
seventh day was but a _cloak_, or, as the _Sohar_ expresses it, a
screen, to hide the true meaning.
The Jews reckoned then, as they do now, their days by number, as, day
the _first_; day the second; and so on; _yom ahad_; _yom sheni_; _yom
shelisho_; _yom rebis_; _yom shamishi_; _yom shishehi_; yom SHABA.
“The Hebrew _seven_ שבע, consisting of three letters, S. B. O., has
more than one meaning. First of all, it means _age_ or cycle,
Shab-ang; Sabbath שבע can be translated _old age_, as well as _rest_,
and in the old Coptic, _Sabe_ means _wisdom_, learning. Modern
archæologists have found that as in Hebrew _Sab_ שב also means
_gray-headed_, and that therefore the _Saba_-day was the day on which
the “gray-headed men, or ‘aged fathers’ of a tribe, were in the habit
of assembling for councils or sacrifices.”[826]
“Thus, the week of six days and the seventh, the _Saba_ or
_Sapta_-day period, is of the highest antiquity. The observance of
the lunar festivals in India, shows that that nation held hebdomadal
meetings as well. With every new quarter the moon brings changes in
the atmosphere, hence certain changes are also produced throughout
the whole of our universe, of which the meteorological ones are the
most insignificant. On this day of the _seventh_ and most powerful
of the prismatic days, the adepts of the “Secret Science” meet as
they met thousands of years ago, to become the agents of the occult
powers of nature (emanations of the working God), and commune with
the invisible worlds. It is in this observance of the seventh day
by the old sages--not as the resting day of the Deity, but because
they had penetrated into its occult power, that lies the profound
veneration of all the heathen philosophers for the number _seven_
which they term the “venerable,” the sacred number. The Pythagorean
_Tetraktis_, revered by the Platonists, was the _square_ placed below
the _triangle_; the latter, or the Trinity embodying the invisible
_Monad_--the unity, and deemed too sacred to be pronounced except
within the walls of a Sanctuary.
The ascetic observance of the Christian Sabbath by Protestants is
pure religious tyranny, and does more harm, we fear, than good. It
really dates only from the enactment (in 1678) of the 29th of Charles
II., which prohibited any “tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer,
or other person,” to “do or exercise any worldly labor, etc., etc.,
upon the Lord’s day.” The Puritans carried this thing to extremes,
apparently to mark their hatred of Catholicism, both Roman and
Episcopal. That it was no part of the plan of Jesus that such a day
should be set apart, is evident not only from his words but acts. It
was not observed by the early Christians.
When Trypho, _the Jew_, reproached the Christians _for not having a
Sabbath_, what does the martyr answer him? “The new law will have
you keep a perpetual Sabbath. You, when _you have passed a day in
idleness, think you are religious_. The Lord is not pleased with
such things as these. If any be guilty of _perjury or fraud_, let
him reform; _if he be an adulterer_, let him repent; and _he will
then have kept the kind of Sabbath truly pleasing to God_.... The
elements are never idle, and keep no Sabbath. There was no need of
the observance of Sabbaths before Moses, neither now is there any
need of them after Jesus Christ.”
The _Heptaktis_ is not the Supreme Cause, but simply an emanation
from _Him_--the first visible manifestation of the Unrevealed Power.
“His Divine _Breath_, which, violently breaking forth, condensed
itself, shining with radiance until it evolved into Light, and so
became cognizant to external sense,” says John Reuchlin.[827] This
is the emanation of the Highest, the Demiurge, a multiplicity in a
_unity_, the _Elohim_, whom we see _creating_ our world, or rather
fashioning it, in six days, and resting on the _seventh_. And who are
these _Elohim_ but the euhemerized powers of nature, the faithful
manifested servants, the laws of Him who is immutable law and harmony
Himself?
They remain over the seventh heaven (or spiritual world), for it
is they who, according to the kabalists, formed in succession the
six material worlds, or rather, attempts at worlds, that preceded
our own, which, they say, is the _seventh_. If, in laying aside the
metaphysico-spiritual conception, we give our attention but to the
religio-scientific problem of creation in “six days,” over which
our best biblical scholars have vainly pondered so long, we might,
perchance, be on the way to the true idea underlying the allegory.
The ancients were philosophers, consistent in all things. Hence,
they taught that each of these departed worlds, having performed its
physical evolution, and reached--through birth, growth, maturity, old
age, and death--the end of its cycle, had returned to its primitive
subjective form of a _spiritual_ earth. Thereafter it had to serve
through all eternity as the dwelling of those who had lived on it
as men, and even animals, but were now spirits. This idea, were it
even as incapable of exact demonstration as that of our theologians
relating to Paradise, is, at least, a trifle more philosophical.
As well as man, and every other living thing upon it, our planet has
had its spiritual and physical evolution. From an impalpable ideal
_thought_ under the creative Will of Him of whom we know nothing,
and but dimly conceive in imagination, this globe became fluidic and
_semi_-spiritual, then condensed itself more and more, until its
physical development--matter, the tempting demon--compelled it to try
its own creative faculty. _Matter_ defied SPIRIT, and the earth, too,
had its “Fall.” The allegorical curse under which it labors, is that
it only _procreates_, it does not _create_. Our physical planet is
but the handmaiden, or rather the maid-of-all-work, of the spirit,
its master. “Cursed be the ground ... thorns and thistles shall it
bring,” the Elohim are made to say. “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children.” The Elohim say this both to the ground and the woman. And
this curse will last until the minutest particle of matter on earth
shall have outlived its days, until every grain of dust has, by
gradual transformation through evolution, become a constituent part
of a “living soul,” and, until the latter shall reascend the cyclic
arc, and finally stand--its own _Metatron_, or Redeeming Spirit--at
the foot of the upper step of the spiritual worlds, as at the first
hour of its emanation. Beyond that lies the great “Deep”--A MYSTERY!
It must be remembered that every cosmogony has a _trinity_ of workers
at its head--Father, spirit; Mother, nature, or matter; and the
manifested universe, the Son or result of the two. The universe,
also, as well as each planet which it comprehends, passes through
_four_ ages, like man himself. All have their infancy, youth,
maturity, and old age, and these four added to the other three make
the sacred seven again.
The introductory chapters of _Genesis_ were never meant to present
even a remote allegory of the creation of _our_ earth. They embrace
(chapter i.) a metaphysical conception of some indefinite period in
the eternity, when successive attempts were being made by the law of
evolution at the formation of universes. This idea is plainly stated
in the _Sohar_: “There were old worlds, which perished as soon as
they came into existence, were formless, and were called _sparks_.
Thus, the smith, when hammering the iron, lets the sparks fly in all
directions. The sparks are the primordial worlds which could not
continue, because the _Sacred Aged_ (Sephira) had not as yet assumed
its form (of androgyne or opposite sexes) of king and queen (Sephira
and Kadmon) and the Master was not yet at his work.”[828]
The six periods or “days” of _Genesis_ refer to the same metaphysical
belief. Five such ineffectual attempts were made by the _Elohim_, but
the sixth resulted in worlds like our own (_i.e._, all the planets
and most of the stars are worlds, and inhabited, though not like our
earth). Having formed this world at last in the sixth period, the
Elohim rested in the _seventh_. Thus the “Holy One,” when he created
the present world, said: “This pleases me; the previous ones did not
please me.”[829] And the Elohim “saw everything that he had made, and
behold _it was_ very good. And the evening and the morning were the
sixth _day_.”--_Genesis_ i.
The reader will remember that in Chapter IV. an explanation was
given of the “day” and “night” of Brahma. The former represents a
certain period of cosmical activity, the latter an equal one of
cosmical repose. In the one, worlds are being evolved, and passing
through their allotted four ages of existence; in the latter the
“inbreathing” of Brahma reverses the tendency of the natural forces;
everything visible becomes gradually dispersed; chaos comes; and
a long night of repose reinvigorates the cosmos for its next term
of evolution. In the morning of one of these “days” the formative
processes are gradually reaching their climax of activity; in the
evening imperceptibly diminishing the same until the _pralaya_
arrives, and with it “_night_.” One such morning and evening do, in
fact, constitute a cosmic day; and it was a “day of Brahma” that the
kabalistic author of _Genesis_ had in mind each time when he said:
“And the evening and the morning were the first (or fifth or sixth,
or any other) _day_.” Six days of gradual evolution, one of repose,
and then--evening! Since the first appearance of man on _our_ earth
there has been an eternal Sabbath or rest for the Demiurge.
The cosmogonical speculations of the first six chapters of _Genesis_
are shown in the races of “sons of God,” “giants,” etc., of chapter
vi. Properly speaking, the story of the formation of our earth, or
“creation,” as it is very improperly called, begins with the rescue
of Noah from the deluge. The Chaldeo-Babylonian tablets recently
translated by George Smith leave no doubt of that in the minds of
those who read the inscriptions esoterically. Ishtar, the great
goddess, speaks in column iii. of the destruction of the _sixth_
world and the appearance of the seventh, thus:
“SIX _days_ and _nights_ the wind, deluge, and storm overwhelmed.
“On the _seventh_ day, in its course was calmed the storm, and all
the deluge,
“which had destroyed like an earthquake,[830]
“quieted. The sea he caused to dry, and the wind and deluge ended....
“I perceived the shore at the boundary of the sea....
“to the country of Nizir went the ship (argha, or the moon).
“the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship....
“the _first_ day, and the _second_ day, the mountain of Nizir the
same.
“the _fifth_ and the _sixth_, the mountain of Nizir the same.
“on the _seventh_ day, in the course of it
“I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went and turned, and ...
the raven went ... and did not return.
“I built an altar on the peak of the mountain.
“by _seven_ herbs I cut, at the bottom of them I placed reeds, pines,
and simgar....
“the gods like flies over the sacrifice gathered.
“from of old _also the great God_ in his course.
“the great brightness (the sun) of Anu had created.[831] When the
glory of those gods the charm round my neck would not repel,” etc.
All this has a purely astronomical, magical, and esoteric relation.
One who reads these tablets will recognize at a glance the biblical
account; and judge, at the same time, how disfigured is the great
Babylonian poem by euhemeric personages--degraded from their exalted
positions of gods into simple patriarchs. Space prevents our entering
fully into this biblical travesty of the Chaldean allegories. We
shall therefore but remind the reader that by the confession of the
most unwilling witnesses--such as Lenormant, first the inventor and
then champion of the Akkadians--the Chaldeo-Babylonian triad placed
under Ilon, the _unrevealed_ deity, is composed of Anu, Nuah, and
Bel. Anu is the primordial chaos, the god time and world at once,
χρόνος and κόσμος, the uncreated matter issued from the one and
fundamental principle of all things. As to _Nuah_, he is, according to
the same Orientalist:
“... the intelligence, we will willingly say the _verbum_, which
animates and fecundates matter, which penetrates the universe,
directs and makes it live; and at the same time Nuah is the king of
the _humid principle; the Spirit moving on the waters_.”
Is not this evident? Nuah is Noah, _floating on the waters_, in his
ark; the latter being the emblem of the argha, or moon, the feminine
principle; Noah is the “spirit” falling into matter. We find him as
soon as he descends upon the earth, planting a vineyard, drinking of
the wine, and getting drunk on it; _i.e._, the pure spirit becoming
intoxicated as soon as it is finally imprisoned in matter. The
seventh chapter of _Genesis_ is but another version of the first.
Thus, while the latter reads: “... and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the spirit (of God) moved upon the face of the waters,”
in chapter seventh, it is said: “... and the waters prevailed ... and
the ark went (with Noah--the spirit) upon the face of the waters.”
Thus Noah, if the Chaldean Nuah, is the spirit vivifying _matter_,
chaos represented by the deep or waters of the flood. In the
Babylonian legend it is Istar (Astoreth, the moon) which is shut up
in the ark, and sends out a dove (emblem of Venus and other lunar
goddesses) in search of dry land. And whereas in the Semitic tablets
it is Xisuthrus or Hasisadra who is “translated to the company of the
gods for his piety,” in the _Bible_ it is Enoch who walks with, and
being taken up by God, “was no more.”
The successive existence of an incalculable number of worlds before
the subsequent evolution of our own, was believed and taught by all
the ancient peoples. The punishment of the Christians for despoiling
the Jews of their records and refusing the true key to them began
from the earliest centuries. And thus is it that we find the holy
Fathers of the Church laboring through an impossible chronology and
the absurdities of literal interpretation, while the learned rabbis
were perfectly aware of the real significance of their allegories.
So not only in the _Sohar_, but also in other kabalistic works
accepted by Talmudists, such as _Midrash Berasheth_, or the universal
_Genesis_, which, with the _Merkaba_ (the chariot of Ezekiel),
composes the _Kabala_, may be found the doctrine of a whole series of
worlds evolving out of the chaos, and being destroyed in succession.
The Hindu doctrines teach of two _Pralayas_ or dissolutions; one
universal, the Maha-Pralaya, the other partial, or the minor Pralaya.
This does not relate to the universal dissolution which occurs at the
end of every “Day of Brahma,” but to the geological cataclysms at the
end of every minor cycle of our globe. This historical and purely
local deluge of Central Asia, the traditions of which can be traced
in every country, and which, according to Bunsen, happened about the
year 10,000 B.C., had naught to do with the mythical Noah, or Nuah.
A partial cataclysm occurs at the close of every “age” of the world,
they say, which does not destroy the latter, but only changes its
general appearance. New races of men and animals and a new flora
evolve from the dissolution of the precedent ones.
The allegories of the “fall of man” and the “deluge,” are the two
most important features of the _Pentateuch_. They are, so to say,
the Alpha and Omega, the highest and the lowest keys of the scale
of harmony on which resounds the majestic hymns of the creation
of mankind; for they discover to him who questions the _Zura_
(figurative _Gemantria_), the process of man’s evolution from the
highest spiritual entity unto the lowest physical--the post-diluvian
man, as in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, every sign of the picture
writing which cannot be made to fit within a certain circumscribed
geometrical figure may be rejected as only intended by the sacred
hierogrammatist for a premeditated blind--so many of the details in
the _Bible_ must be treated on the same principle, that portion only
being accepted which answers to the numerical methods taught in the
_Kabala_.
The deluge appears in the Hindu books only as a tradition. It claims
no sacred character, and we find it but in the _Mahâbhârata_, the
_Puranas_, and still earlier in the _Satapatha_, one of the latest
_Brahmanas_. It is more than probable that Moses, or whoever wrote
for him, used these accounts as the basis of his own purposely
disfigured allegory, adding to it moreover the Chaldean Berosian
narrative. In _Mahâbhârata_, we recognize Nimrod under the name of
_King Daytha_. The origin of the Grecian fable of the Titans scaling
Olympus, and the other of the builders of the Tower of Babel who
seek to reach heaven, is shown in the impious _Daytha_, who sends
imprecations against heaven’s thunder, and threatens to conquer
heaven itself with his mighty warriors, thereby bringing upon
humanity the wrath of Brahma. “The Lord then resolved,” says the
text, “to chastise his creatures with a terrible punishment which
should serve as a warning to survivors, and to their descendants.”
_Vaivasvata_ (who in the _Bible_ becomes Noah) saves a little fish,
which turns out to be an _avatar_ of Vishnu. The fish warns that just
man that the globe is about to be submerged, that all that inhabit it
must perish, and orders him to construct a vessel in which he shall
embark, with all his family. When the ship is ready, and _Vaivasvata_
has shut up in it with his family _the seeds of plants and pairs of
all animals_, and the rain begins to fall, a gigantic fish, armed
with a horn, places itself at the head of the ark. The holy man,
following its orders, attaches a cable to this horn, and the fish
guides the ship safely through the raging elements. In the Hindu
tradition the number of days during which the deluge lasted _agrees
exactly with that of the Mosaic account_. When the elements were
calmed, the fish landed the ark on the summit of the Himalayas.
This fable is considered by many orthodox commentators to have been
borrowed from the Mosaic _Scriptures_.[832] But surely if such a
_universal_ cataclysm had ever taken place within man’s memory,
some of the monuments of the Egyptians, of which many are of such a
tremendous antiquity, would have recorded that occurrence, coupled
with that of the disgrace of Ham, Canaan, and Mizraim, their
alleged ancestors. But, till now, there has not been found the
remotest allusion to such a calamity, although Mizraim certainly
belongs to the first generation after the deluge, if not actually
an antediluvian himself. On the other hand the Chaldeans preserved
the tradition, as we find Berosus testifying to it, and the ancient
Hindus possess the legend as given above. Now, there is but one
explanation of the extraordinary fact that of two contemporary
and civilized nations like Egypt and Chaldea, one has preserved
no tradition of it whatever, although it was the most directly
interested in the occurrence--if we credit the _Bible_--and the other
has. The deluge noticed in the _Bible_, in one of the _Brahmanas_,
and in the Berosus _Fragment_, relates to the partial flood which,
about 10,000 years B.C., according to Bunsen, and according to the
Brahmanical computations of the Zodiac also changed the whole face
of Central Asia.[833] Thus the Babylonians and the Chaldeans might
have learned of it from their mysterious guests, christened by some
Assyriologists Akkadians, or what is still more probable they,
themselves, perhaps, were the descendants of those who had dwelt
in the submerged localities. The Jews had the tale from the latter
as they had everything else; the Brahmans may have recorded the
traditions of the lands which they first invaded, and had perhaps
inhabited before they possessed themselves of the Punjâb. But the
Egyptians, whose first settlers had evidently come from Southern
India, had less reason to record the cataclysm, since it had perhaps
never affected them except indirectly, as the flood was limited to
Central Asia.
Burnouf, noticing the fact that the story of the deluge is found only
in one of the most modern _Brahmanas_, also thinks that it might
have been borrowed by the Hindus from the Semitic nations. Against
such an assumption are ranged all the traditions and customs of the
Hindus. The Aryans, and especially the Brahmans, never borrowed
anything at all from the Semitists, and here we are corroborated by
one of those “unwilling witnesses,” as Higgins calls the partisans of
Jehovah and _Bible_. “I have never seen anything in the history of
the Egyptians and Jews,” writes Abbé Dubois, forty years a resident
of India, “that would induce me to believe that either of these
nations, or any other on the face of the earth, have been established
earlier than the Hindus, and particularly the Brahmans; so I cannot
be induced to believe that the latter have drawn their rites from
foreign nations. On the contrary, I infer that they have drawn them
from an original source of their own. Whoever knows anything of the
spirit and character of the Brahmans, their stateliness, their pride,
and extreme vanity, their distance, and sovereign contempt for
everything that is foreign, and of which they cannot boast to have
been the inventors, will agree with me that such a people cannot have
consented to draw their customs and rules of conduct from an alien
country.”[834]
This fable which mentions the earliest avatar--the Matsya--relates
to another yuga than our own, that of the first appearance of animal
life; perchance, who knows, to the Devonian age of our geologists? It
certainly answers better to the latter than the year 2348 B.C.! Apart
from this, the very absence of all mention of the deluge from the
oldest books of the Hindus suggests a powerful argument when we are
left utterly to inferences as in this case. “The _Vedas_ and _Manu_,”
says Jacolliot, “those monuments of the old Asiatic thought, existed
far earlier than the diluvian period; _this is an incontrovertible
fact, having all the value of an historical truth_, for, besides the
tradition which shows Vishnu himself as saving the _Vedas_ from the
deluge--a tradition which, notwithstanding its legendary form, must
certainly rest upon a real fact--it has been remarked that neither
of these sacred books mention the cataclysm, while the _Pûranas_
and the _Mahâbhârata_, and a great number of other more recent
works, describe it with the minutest detail, _which is a proof of
the priority of the former_. The _Vedas_ certainly would never have
failed to contain a few hymns on the terrible disaster which, of all
other natural manifestations, must have struck the imagination of the
people who witnessed it.”
“Neither would Manu, who gives us a complete narrative of the
creation, with a chronology from the divine and heroical ages, down
to the appearance of man on earth--have passed in silence an event
of such importance.” _Manu_ (book i., sloka 35), gives the names
of ten eminent saints whom he calls pradjâpatis (more correctly
_pragâpatis_), in whom the Brahman theologians see prophets,
ancestors of the human race, and the Pundits simply consider as ten
powerful kings who lived in the Krita-yug, or the age of good (the
golden age of the Greeks).
The last of these pragâpatis is Brighou.
“Enumerating the succession of these eminent beings who, according to
Manu, have governed the world, the old Brahmanical legislator names
as descending from Brighou: Swârotchica, Ottami, Tamasa, Raivata, the
glorious Tchâkchoucha, and the son of Vivasvat, every one of the six
having made himself worthy of the title of Manu (divine legislator),
a title which had equally belonged to the Pradjâpatis, and every
great personage of primitive India. The genealogy stops at this name.
“Now, according to the _Pûranas_ and the _Mahâbhârata_ it was under a
descendant of this son of Vivaswata, named Vaivaswata that occurred
the great cataclysm, the remembrance of which, as will be seen, has
passed into a tradition, and been carried by emigration into all
the countries of the East and West which India has colonized since
then....
“The genealogy given by Manu stopping, as we have seen, at Vivaswata,
it follows that this work (of Manu) knew nothing either of Vivaswata
or the deluge.”[835]
The argument is unanswerable; and we commend it to those official
scientists, who, to please the clergy, dispute every fact proving the
tremendous antiquity of the _Vedas_ and _Manu_. Colonel Vans Kennedy
has long since declared that Babylonia was, from her origin, the seat
of _Sanscrit_ literature and Brahman learning. And how or why should
the Brahmans have penetrated there, unless it was as the result of
intestine wars and emigration from India? The fullest account of the
deluge is found in the _Mahâbhârata_ of Vedavyasa, a poem in honor
of the astrological allegories on the wars between the Solar and the
Lunar races. One of the versions states that Vivaswata became the
father of all the nations of the earth through his own progeny, and
this is the form adopted for the Noachian story; the other states
that--like Deukalion and Pyrrha--he had but to throw pebbles into the
ilus left by the retiring waves of the flood, to produce men at will.
These two versions--one Hebrew, the other Greek--allow us no choice.
We must either believe that the Hindus borrowed from pagan Greeks as
well as from monotheistic Jews, or--what is far more probable--that
the versions of both of these nations are derived from the Vedic
literature through the Babylonians.
History tells us of the stream of immigration across the Indus, and
later of its overflowing the Occident; and of populations of Hindu
origin passing from Asia Minor to colonize Greece. But history says
not a single word of the “chosen people,” or of Greek colonies having
penetrated India earlier than the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., when
we first find vague traditions that make some of the problematical
_lost_ tribes of Israel, take from Babylon the route to India. But
even were the story of the ten tribes to find credence, and the
tribes themselves be proved to have existed in profane as well as in
sacred history, this does not help the solution at all. Colebrooke,
Wilson, and other eminent Indianists show the _Mahâbhârata_, if not
the _Satapatha_-brâhmana, in which the story is also given, as by
far antedating the age of Cyrus, hence, the possible time of the
appearance of any of the tribes of Israel in India.[836]
Orientalists accord the _Mahâbhârata_ an antiquity of between twelve
and fifteen hundred years B.C.; as to the Greek version it bears as
little evidence as the other, and the attempts of the Hellenists in
this direction have as signally failed. The story of the conquering
army of Alexander penetrating into Northern India, itself becomes
more doubted every day. No Hindu national record, not the slightest
historical memento, throughout the length and breadth of India offers
the slightest trace of such an invasion.
If even such _historical facts_ are now found to have been all the
while fictions, what are we to think of narratives which bear on
their very face the stamp of invention? We cannot help sympathizing
at heart with Professor Müller when he remarks that it seems
“blasphemy to consider these fables of the heathen world as corrupted
and misinterpreted fragments of _divine_ Revelation once granted to
the whole race of mankind.” Only, can this scholar be held perfectly
impartial and fair to both parties, unless he includes in the number
of these fables those of the _Bible_? And is the language of the _Old
Testament_ more _pure_ or _moral_ than the books of the Brahmans? Or
any fables of the _heathen_ world more blasphemous and ridiculous
than Jehovah’s interview with Moses (_Exodus_ xxxiii. 23)? Are any of
the Pagan gods made to appear more fiendish than the same Jehovah in
a score of passages? If the feelings of a pious Christian are shocked
at the absurdities of Father Kronos eating his children and maiming
Uranos; or of Jupiter throwing Vulcan down from heaven and breaking
his leg; on the other hand he cannot feel hurt if a _non_-Christian
laughs at the idea of Jacob boxing with the Creator, who “when he saw
that _he prevailed not_ against him,” dislocated Jacob’s thigh, the
patriarch still holding fast to God and not allowing Him to go His
way, notwithstanding His pleading.
Why should the story of Deukalion and Pyrrha, throwing stones behind
them, and thus creating the human race, be deemed more ridiculous
than that of Lot’s wife being changed into a pillar of salt, or of
the Almighty creating men _of clay_ and then breathing the breath of
life into them? The choice between the latter mode of creation and
that of the Egyptian ram-horned god fabricating man on a potter’s
wheel is hardly perceptible. The story of Minerva, goddess of wisdom,
ushered into existence after a certain period of gestation in her
father’s brain, is at least suggestive and poetical, as an allegory.
No ancient Greek was ever burned for not accepting it literally; and,
at all events, “heathen” fables in general are far less preposterous
and blasphemous than those imposed upon Christians, ever since the
Church accepted the _Old Testament_, and the Roman Catholic Church
opened its register of thaumaturgical saints.
“Many of the natives of India,” continues Professor Müller, “confess
that their feelings revolt against the impurities attributed to
the gods by what they call their sacred writings; yet there are
honest Brahmans who will maintain that _these stories have a deeper
meaning_; that immorality being incompatible with a divine being,
_a mystery_ must be supposed to be concealed in these time-hallowed
fables, a mystery which an inquiring and reverent mind may hope to
fathom.”
This is precisely what the Christian clergy maintain in attempting
to explain the indecencies and incongruities of the _Old Testament_.
Only, instead of allowing the interpretation to those who have the
key to these seeming incongruities, they have assumed to themselves
the office and right, by _divine_ proxy, to interpret these in their
own way. They have not only done that but have gradually deprived the
Hebrew clergy of the means to interpret their Scriptures as their
fathers did; so that to find among the Rabbis in the present century
a well-versed kabalist, is quite rare. The Jews have themselves
forgotten the key! How could they help it? Where are the original
manuscripts? The oldest Hebrew manuscript in existence is said to be
the _Bodleian Codex_, which is not older than between eight and nine
hundred years.[837] The break between Ezra and this _Codex_ is thus
fifteen centuries. In 1490 the Inquisition _caused all the Hebrew
Bibles to be burned_; and Torquemada alone destroyed 6,000 volumes
at Salamanca. Except a few manuscripts of the _Tora Ketubim_ and
_Nebiim_, used in the synagogues, and which are of quite a recent
date, we do not think there is one old manuscript in existence which
is not punctuated, hence--completely misinterpreted and altered by
the Masorets. Were it not for this timely invention of the _Masorah_,
no copy of the _Old Testament_ could possibly be tolerated in our
century. It is well known that the Masorets while transcribing the
oldest manuscripts put themselves to task to take out, except in a
few places which they have probably overlooked, all the _immodest_
words and put in places sentences of their own, often changing
completely the sense of the verse. “It is clear,” says Donaldson,
“that the Masoretic school at Tiberias were engaged in settling
or unsettling the Hebrew text until the final publication of the
_Masorah_ itself.” Therefore, had we but the original texts--judging
by the present copies of the _Bible_ in our possession--it would
be really edifying to compare the _Old Testament_ with the _Vedas_
and even with the Brahmanical books. We verily believe that no
faith, however blind, could stand before such an avalanche of crude
impurities and fables. If the latter are not only accepted but
enforced upon millions of civilized persons who find it respectable
and edifying to believe in them as _divine revelation_, why should we
wonder that Brahmans believe their books to be equally a _Sruti_, a
revelation?
Let us thank the Masorets by all means, but let us study at the same
time both sides of the medal.
Legends, myths, allegories, symbols, if they but belong to the Hindu,
Chaldean, or Egyptian tradition, are thrown into the same heap of
fiction. Hardly are they honored with a superficial search into
their possible relations to astronomy or sexual emblems. The same
myths--when and because mutilated--are accepted as Sacred Scriptures,
more--the Word of God! Is this impartial history? Is this justice to
either the past, the present, or the future? “Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon,” said the Reformer, nineteen centuries ago. “Ye cannot serve
truth and public prejudice,” would be more applicable to our own age.
Yet our authorities pretend they serve the former.
There are few myths in any religious system but have an historical
as well as a scientific foundation. Myths, as Pococke ably
expresses it, “are now proved to be fables, just in proportion as
we _misunderstand_ them; truths, in proportion as they were once
_understood_. Our ignorance it is which has made a myth of history;
and our ignorance is an Hellenic inheritance, much of it the result
of Hellenic vanity.”[838]
Bunsen and Champollion have already shown that the Egyptian sacred
books are by far older than the oldest parts of the _Book of
Genesis_. And now a more careful research seems to warrant the
suspicion--which with us amounts to a certainty, that the laws
of Moses are copies from the code of the Brahmanic _Manu_. Thus,
according to every probability, Egypt owes her civilization, her
civil institutions, and her arts, to India. But against the latter
assumption we have a whole army of “authorities” arrayed, and what
matters if the latter do deny the fact at present? Sooner or later
they will have to accept it, whether they belong to the German or
French school. Among, but not of those who so readily compromise
between interest and conscience, there are some fearless scholars,
who may bring out to light incontrovertible facts. Some twenty
years since, Max Müller, in a letter to the Editor of the London
_Times_, April, 1857, maintained most vehemently that Nirvana meant
_annihilation_, in the fullest sense of the word. (See _Chips_,
etc., vol. i., p. 287, on the meaning of Nirvana.) But in 1869, in
a lecture before the general meeting of the Association of German
Philologists at Kiel, “he distinctly declares his belief that the
nihilism attributed to Buddha’s teaching forms no part of his
doctrine, and that it is wholly wrong to suppose that Nirvana means
annihilation.” (Trübner’s _American and Oriental Literary Record_,
Oct. 16, 1869; also Inman’s _Ancient Faiths and Modern_, p. 128.) Yet
if we mistake not, Professor Müller was as much of an authority in
1857 as in 1869.
“It will be difficult to settle,” says (now) this great scholar,
“whether the _Vedas_ is the oldest of books, and whether some of the
portions of the _Old Testament_ may not be traced back to the same
or even an earlier date than the oldest hymns of the _Veda_.”[839]
But his retraction about the Nirvana allows us a hope that he may yet
change his opinion on the question of _Genesis_ likewise, so that the
public may have simultaneously the benefit of truth, and the sanction
of one of Europe’s greatest authorities.
It is well known how little the Orientalists have come to anything
like an agreement about the age of Zoroaster, and until this question
is settled, it would be safer perhaps to trust implicitly in the
Brahmanical calculations by the Zodiac, than to the opinions of
scientists. Leaving the profane horde of unrecognized scholars, those
we mean who yet wait their turn to be chosen for public worship
as idols symbolical of scientific leadership, where can we find,
among the sanctioned authorities of the day, two that agree as to
this age? There’s Bunsen, who places Zoroaster at Baktra, and the
emigration of Baktrians to the Indus at 3784 B.C.,[840] and the
birth of Moses at 1392.[841] Now it is rather difficult to place
Zoroaster anterior to the _Vedas_, considering that the whole of
his doctrine is that of the earlier _Vedas_. True, he remained in
Afghanistan for a period more or less problematical before crossing
into the Punjâb; but the _Vedas_ were begun in the latter country.
They indicate the progress of the Hindus, as the _Avesta_ that
of the Iranians. And there is Haug who assigns to the _Aitareya
Brahmanam_--a Brahmanical speculation and commentary upon the
_Rig-Veda_ of a far later date than the _Veda_ itself--between 1400
and 1200 B.C., while the _Vedas_ are placed by him between 2,000 and
2,400 years B.C. Max Müller cautiously suggests certain difficulties
in this chronological computation, but still does not altogether
deny it.[842] Let it, however, be as it may, and supposing that the
_Pentateuch_ was written by Moses himself--notwithstanding that he
would thereby be made to twice record his own death--still, if Moses
was born, as Bunsen finds, in 1392 B.C., the _Pentateuch_ could not
have been written, _before the Vedas_. Especially if Zoroaster was
born 3784 B.C. If, as Dr. Haug[843] tells us, some of the hymns of
the _Rig-Veda_ were written before Zoroaster accomplished his schism,
something like thirty-seven centuries B.C., and Max Müller says
himself that “the Zoroastrians and their ancestors started from India
during the Vaidic period,” how can some of the portions of the _Old
Testament_ be traced back to the same or even “an earlier date than
the oldest hymns of the _Veda_?”
It has generally been agreed among Orientalists that the Aryans,
3,000 years B.C., were still in the steppes east of the Caspian,
and united. Rawlinson _conjectures_ that they “flowed east” from
Armenia as a common centre; while two kindred streams began to flow,
one northward over the Caucasus, and the other westward over Asia
Minor and Europe. He finds the Aryans, at a period anterior to the
fifteenth century before our era, “settled in the territory watered
by the Upper Indus.” Thence Vedic Aryans migrated to the Punjâb, and
Zendic Aryans westward, establishing the historical countries. But
this, like the rest, is a hypothesis, and only given as such.
Again, Rawlinson, evidently following Max Müller, says: “The early
history of the Aryans is for many ages an absolute blank.” But many
learned Brahmans, however, have declared that they found trace of
the existence of the _Vedas_ as early as 2100 B.C.; and Sir William
Jones, taking for his guide the astronomical data, places the
_Yagur-Veda_ 1580 B.C. This would be still “before Moses.”
It is upon the supposition that the Aryans did not leave Afghanistan
for the Punjâb prior to 1500 B.C. that Max Müller and other Oxford
savants have supposed that portions of the _Old Testament_ may be
traced back to the same or even an earlier date than the oldest
hymns of the _Veda_. Therefore, until the Orientalists can show us
the correct date at which Zoroaster flourished, no authority can be
regarded as better for the ages of the _Vedas_ than the Brahmans
themselves.
As it is a recognized fact that the Jews borrowed most of their laws
from the Egyptians, let us examine who were the Egyptians. In our
opinion--which is but a poor authority, of course--they were the
ancient Indians, and in our first volume we have quoted passages from
the historian Collouca-Batta that support such a theory. What we mean
by ancient India is the following:
No region on the map--except it be the ancient Scythia--is more
uncertainly defined than that which bore the designation of India.
Æthiopia is perhaps the only parallel. It was the home of the Cushite
or Hamitic races, and lay to the east of Babylonia. It was once the
name of Hindustan, when the dark races, worshippers of Bala-Mahadeva
and Bhavani-Mahidevi, were supreme in that country. The India of
the early sages appears to have been the region at the sources of
the Oxus and Jaxartes. Apollonius of Tyana crossed the Caucasus, or
Hindu Kush, where he met with a king who directed him to the abode of
the sages--perhaps the descendants of those whom Ammianus terms the
“Brahmans of Upper India,” and whom Hystaspes, the father of Darius
(or more probably Darius Hystaspes himself) visited; and, having
been instructed by them, infused their rites and ideas into the
Magian observances. This narrative about Apollonius seems to indicate
Kashmere as the country which he visited, and the _Nagas_--after
their conversion to Buddhism--as his teachers. At this time Aryan
India did not extend beyond the Punjâb.
To our notion, the most baffling impediment in the way of
ethnological progress has always been the triple progeny of Noah.
In the attempt to reconcile postdiluvian races with a genealogical
descent from Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the Christianesque Orientalists
have set themselves a task impossible of accomplishment. The biblical
Noachian ark has been a Procrustean bed to which they had to make
everything fit. Attention has therefore been diverted from veritable
sources of information as to the origin of man, and a purely local
allegory mistaken for a historical record emanating from an inspired
source. Strange and unfortunate choice! Out of all the sacred
writings of all the branch nations, sprung from the primitive stock
of mankind, Christianity must choose for its guidance the national
records and scriptures of a people perhaps the least spiritual of
the human family--the Semitic. A branch that has never been able to
develop out of its numerous tongues a language capable of embodying
ideas of a moral and intellectual world; whose form of expression
and drift of thought could never soar higher than the purely sensual
and terrestrial figures of speech; whose literature has left nothing
original, nothing that was not borrowed from the Aryan thought; and
whose science and philosophy are utterly wanting in those noble
features which characterize the highly spiritual and metaphysical
systems of the Indo-European (Japetic) races.
Bunsen shows Khamism (the language of Egypt) as a very ancient
deposit from Western Asia, containing _the germs_ of the Semitic, and
thus bearing “witness to the primitive cognate unity of the Semitic
and Aryan races.” We must remember, in this connection, that the
peoples of Southwestern and Western Asia, including the Medes, were
all Aryans. It is yet far from being proved who were the original and
primitive masters of India. That this period is now beyond the reach
of documentary history, does not preclude the probability of our
theory that it was the mighty race of builders, whether we call them
Eastern Æthiopians, or dark-skinned Aryans (the word meaning simply
“noble warrior,” a “brave”). They ruled supreme at one time over the
whole of ancient India, enumerated later by Manu as the possession of
those whom our scientists term the Sanscrit-speaking people.
These Hindus are _supposed_ to have entered the country from the
northwest; they are _conjectured_ by some to have brought with them
the Brahmanical religion, and the language of the conquerors was
_probably_ the Sanscrit. On these three meagre data our philologists
have worked ever since the Hindustani and its immense Sanscrit
literature was forcibly brought into notice by Sir William Jones--all
the time with the three sons of Noah clinging around their necks.
This is _exact_ science, free from religious prejudices! Verily,
ethnology would have been the gainer if this Noachian trio had been
washed overboard and drowned before the ark reached land!
The Æthiopians are generally classed in the Semitic group; but we
have to see how far they have a claim to such a classification.
We will also consider how much they might have had to do with the
Egyptian civilization, which, as a writer expresses it, seems
referable in the same perfection to the earliest dates, and not to
have had a rise and progress, as was the case with that of other
peoples. For reasons that we will now adduce, we are prepared
to maintain that Egypt owes her civilization, commonwealth and
arts--especially the art of building, to pre-Vedic India, and that
it was a colony of the dark-skinned Aryans, or those whom Homer and
Herodotus term the eastern Æthiopians, _i.e._, the inhabitants of
Southern India, who brought to it their ready-made civilization in
the ante-chronological ages, of what Bunsen calls the pre-Menite, but
nevertheless epochal history.
In Pococke’s _India in Greece_, we find the following suggestive
paragraph: “The plain account of the wars carried on between
the solar chiefs, Oosras (Osiris) the prince of the Guelas, and
‘TU-PHOO’ is the simple historical fact of the wars of the Apians,
or Sun-tribes of Oude, with the people of ‘TU-PHOO’ or THIBET, who
were, in fact, the lunar race, mostly Buddhists[844] and opposed
by Rama and the ‘AITYO-PIAS’ or people of Oude, subsequently the
AITH-IO-PIANS of Africa.”[845]
We would remind the reader in this connection, that Ravan, the
giant, who, in the _Ramayana_, wages such a war with Rama Chandra,
is shown as King of Lanka, which was the ancient name for Ceylon;
and that Ceylon, in those days, perhaps formed part of the main-land
of Southern India, and was peopled by the “Eastern Æthiopians.”
Conquered by Rama, the son of Dasarata, the Solar King of ancient
Oude, a colony of these emigrated to Northern Africa. If, as many
suspect, Homer’s _Iliad_ and much of his account of the Trojan war
is plagiarized from the _Ramayana_, then the traditions which served
as a basis for the latter must date from a tremendous antiquity.
Ample margin is thus left in pre-chronological history for a period,
during which the “Eastern Æthiopians” might have established the
hypothetical Mizraic colony, with their high Indian civilization and
arts.
Science is still in the dark about cuneiform inscriptions. Until
these are completely deciphered, especially those cut in rocks found
in such abundance within the boundaries of the old Iran, who can tell
the secrets they may yet reveal? There are no Sanscrit monumental
inscriptions older than Chandragupta (315 B.C.), and the Persepolitan
inscriptions are found 220 years older. There are even now some
manuscripts in characters utterly unknown to philologists and
palæographists, and one of them is, or was, some time since in the
library of Cambridge, England. Linguistic writers class the Semitic
with the Indo-European language, generally including the Æthiopian
and the ancient Egyptian in the classification. But if some of the
dialects of the modern Northern Africa, and even the modern Gheez or
Æthiopian, are now so degenerated and corrupted as to admit of false
conclusions as to the genetical relationship between them and the
other Semitic tongues, we are not at all sure that the latter have
any claim to such a classification, except in the case of the old
Coptic and the ancient Gheez.
That there is more consanguinity between the Æthiopians and the
Aryan, dark-skinned races, and between the latter and the Egyptians,
is something which yet may be proved. It has been lately found that
the ancient Egyptians were of the Caucasian type of mankind, and
the shape of their skulls is purely Asiatic.[846] If they were less
copper-colored than the Æthiopians of our modern day, the Æthiopians
themselves might have had a lighter complexion in days of old. The
fact that, with the Æthiopian kings, the order of succession gave the
crown to the nephew of the king, the _son of his sister_, and not
to his own son, is extremely suggestive. It is an old custom which
prevails until now in Southern India. The Rajah is not succeeded by
his own sons, but by _his sister’s sons_.[847]
Of all the dialects and tongues alleged to be Semitic, the Æthiopian
alone is written from left to right like the Sanscrit and the
Indo-Aryan people.[848]
Thus, against the origin of the Egyptians being attributed to an
ancient Indian colony, there is no graver impediment than Noah’s
disrespectful son--Ham--himself a myth. But the earliest form of
Egyptian religious worship and government, theocratic and sacerdotal,
and her habits and customs all bespeak an Indian origin.
The earliest legends of the history of India mention two dynasties
now lost in the night of time; the first was the dynasty of kings,
of “the race of the sun,” who reigned in Ayodhia (now Oude); the
second that of the “race of the moon,” who reigned in Pruyag
(Allahabad). Let him who desires information on the religious
worship of these early kings read the _Book of the Dead_, of the
Egyptians, and all the peculiarities attending this sun-worship and
the sun-gods. Neither Osiris nor Horus are ever mentioned without
being connected with the sun. They are the “Sons of the _Sun_;” “the
Lord and Adorer of the Sun” is his name. “The sun is the creator of
the body, the engenderer of the gods who are _the successors of the
Son_.” Pococke, in his most ingenious work, strongly advocates the
same idea, and endeavors to establish still more firmly the identity
of the Egyptian, Greek, and Indian mythology. He shows the head
of the Rajpoot Solar race--in fact the great Cuclo-pos (Cyclop or
builder)--called “The great sun,” in the earliest Hindu tradition.
This Gok-la Prince, the patriarch of the vast bands of Inachienses,
he says, “this _Great Sun_ was deified at his death, and according
to the Indian doctrine of the metempsychosis, his Soul was supposed
to have transmigrated into the bull ‘Apis,’ the Sera-pis of the
Greeks, and the SOORA-PAS, or ‘Sun-Chief’ of the Egyptians....
_Osiris_, properly Oosras, signifies both a ‘a bull,’ and ‘a ray of
light.’ _Soora-pas_ (Serapis) the sun chief,” for the Sun in Sanscrit
is Sûrya. Champollion’s _Manifestation to the Light_, reminds in
every chapter of the two Dynasties of the Kings of the Sun and the
Moon. Later, these kings became all deified and transformed after
death into solar and lunar deities. Their worship was the earliest
corruption of the great primitive faith which justly considered the
sun and its fiery life-giving rays as the most appropriate symbol to
remind us of the universal invisible presence of Him who is master of
Life and Death. And now it can be traced all around the globe. It was
the religion of the earliest Vedic Brahmans, who call, in the oldest
hymns of the _Rig-Veda_, Sûrya (the sun) and Agni (fire) “the ruler
of the universe,” “the lord of men,” and the “wise king.” It was the
worship of the Magians, the Zoroastrians, the Egyptians and Greeks,
whether they called him Mithra, or Ahura-Mazda, or Osiris, or Zeus,
keeping in honor of his next of kin, Vesta, the pure celestial fire.
And this religion is found again in the Peruvian solar-worship; in
the Sabianism and heliolatry of the Chaldees, in the Mosaic “burning
bush,” the hanging of the heads or chiefs of the people toward the
Lord, the “Sun,” and even in the Abrahamic building of fire-altars
and the sacrifices of the monotheistic Jews, to Astarté the Queen of
Heaven.
To the present moment, with all the controversies and researches,
History and Science remain as much as ever in the dark as to the
origin of the Jews. They may as well be the exiled Tchandalas, or
Pariahs, of old India, the “bricklayers” mentioned by Vina-Svati,
Veda-Vyasa and Manu, as the Phœnicians of Herodotus, or the Hyk-sos
of Josephus, or descendants of Pali shepherds, or a mixture of all
these. The _Bible_ names the Tyrians as a kindred people, and claims
dominion over them.[849]
There is more than one important character in the _Bible_, whose
biography proves him a mythical hero. Samuel is indicated as the
personage of the Hebrew Commonwealth. He is the _doppel_ of Samson,
of the _Book of Judges_, as will be seen--being the son of Anna and
EL-KAINA, as Samson was of Manua or Manoah. Both were fictitious
characters, as now represented in the revealed book; one was the
Hebrew Hercules, and the other Ganesa. Samuel is credited with
establishing the republic, as putting down the Canaanite worship
of Baal and Astarté, or Adonis and Venus, and setting up that of
Jehovah. Then the people demanded a king, and he anointed Saul, and
after him David of Bethlehem.
David is the Israelitish King Arthur. He did great achievements
and established a government in all Syria and Idumea. His dominion
extended from Armenia and Assyria on the north and northeast, the
Syrian Desert and Persian Gulf on the East, Arabia on the south, and
Egypt and the Levant on the west. Only Phœnicia was excepted.
His friendship with Hiram seems to indicate that he made his first
expedition from that country into Judea; and his long residence at
Hebron, the city of the Kabeiri (_Arba_ or four), would seem likewise
to imply that he established a new religion in the country.
After David came Solomon, powerful and luxurious, who sought to
consolidate the dominion which David had won. As David was a
Jehovah-worshipper, a temple of Jehovah (Tukt Suleima) was built in
Jerusalem, while shrines of Moloch-Hercules, Khemosh, and Astarté
were erected on Mount Olivet. These shrines remained till Josiah.
There were conspiracies formed. Revolts took place in Idumea and
Damascus; and Ahijah the prophet led the popular movement which
resulted in deposing the house of David and making Jeroboam king.
Ever after the prophets dominated in Israel, where the calf-worship
prevailed; the priests ruled over the weak dynasty of David, and the
lascivious local worship existed over the whole country. After the
destruction of the house of Ahab, and the failure of Jehu and his
descendants to unite the country under one head, the endeavor was
made in Judah. Isaiah had terminated the direct line in the person
of Ahaz (_Isaiah_ vii. 9), and placed on the throne a prince from
Bethlehem (_Micah_ v. 2, 5). This was Hezekiah. On ascending the
throne, he invited the chiefs of Israel to unite in alliance with him
against Assyria (_2 Chronicles_, xxx. 1, 21; xxxi. 1, 5; _2 Kings_,
xviii. 7). He seems to have established a sacred college (_Proverbs_
xxv. 1), and to have utterly changed the worship. Aye, even unto
breaking into pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.
This makes the story of Samuel and David and Solomon mythical. Most
of the prophets who were literate seem to have begun about this time
to write.
The country was finally overthrown by the Assyrians, who found the
same people and institutions as in the Phœnician and other countries.
Hezekiah was not the lineal, but the titular son of Ahaz. Isaiah, the
prophet, belonged to the royal family, and Hezekiah was reputed his
son-in-law. Ahaz refused to ally himself with the prophet and his
party, saying: “I will not _tempt_ (depend on) the Lord” (_Isaiah_
vii. 12). The prophet had declared: “If you will not believe, surely
you shall not be established”--foreshadowing the deposition of
his direct language. “Ye weary my God,” replied the prophet, and
predicted the birth of a child by an _alma_, or temple-woman, and
that before it should attain full age (_Hebrews_ v. 14; _Isaiah_ vii.
16; viii. 4), the king of Assyria should overcome Syria and Israel.
This is the prophecy which Irenæus took such pains to connect with
Mary and Jesus, and made the reason why the mother of the Nazarene
prophet is represented as belonging to the temple, and consecrated to
God from her infancy.
In a second song, Isaiah celebrated the new chief, to sit on the
throne of David (ix. 6, 7; xi. 1), who should restore to their homes
the Jews whom the confederacy had led captive (_Isaiah_ viii. 2-12;
_Joel_ iii. 1-7; _Obadiah_ 7, 11, 14). Micah--his contemporary--also
announced the same event (iv. 7-13; v. 1-7). The Redeemer was to come
out of Bethlehem; in other words, was of the house of David; and
was to resist Assyria to whom Ahaz had sworn allegiance, and also
to reform religion (_2 Kings_, xviii. 4-8). This Hezekiah did. He
was grandson of Zechariah the seer (_2 Chronicles_, xxix. 1; xxvi.
5), the counsellor of Uzziah; and as soon as he ascended the throne
he restored the religion of David, and destroyed the last vestiges
of that of Moses, _i.e._, the _esoteric_ doctrine, declaring “our
fathers have trespassed” (_2 Chron._, xxix. 6-9). He next attempted
a reunion with the northern monarchy, there being an interregnum in
Israel (_2 Chron._, xxx. 1, 2, 6; xxxi. 1, 6, 7). It was successful,
but resulted in an invasion by the king of Assyria. But it was a new
_régime_; and all this shows the course of two parallel streams in
the religious worship of the Israelites; one belonging to the state
religion and adopted to fit political exigencies; the other pure
idolatry, resulting from ignorance of the true esoteric doctrine
preached by Moses. For the first time since Solomon built them “the
high places were taken away.”
It was Hezekiah who was the expected Messiah of the exoteric
state-religion. He was the scion from the stem of Jesse, who should
recall the Jews from a deplorable captivity, about which the Hebrew
historians seem to be very silent, carefully avoiding all mention of
this particular fact, but which the irascible prophets imprudently
disclose. If Hezekiah crushed the exoteric Baal-worship, he also
tore violently away the people of Israel from the religion of their
fathers, and the secret rites instituted by Moses.
It was Darius Hystaspes who was the first to establish a Persian
colony in Judea, Zoro-Babel was perhaps the leader. “The name
_Zoro-babel_ means ‘the seed or son of Babylon’--as Zoro-aster צרו־אשתר
is the seed, son, or prince of Ishtar.”[850] The new colonists were
doubtless _Judæi_. This is a designation from the East. Even Siam is
called Judia, and there was an Ayodia in India. The temples of _Solom_
or Peace were numerous. Throughout Persia and Afghanistan the names of
Saul and David are very common. The “Law” is ascribed in turn to
Hezekiah, Ezra, Simon the Just, and the Asmonean period. Nothing
definite; everywhere contradictions. When the Asmonean period began,
the chief supporters of the Law were called Asideans or Khasdim
(Chaldeans), and afterward Pharisees or Pharsi (Parsis). This
indicates that Persian colonies were established in Judea and ruled
the country; while all the people that are mentioned in the books of
_Genesis_ and _Joshua_ lived there as a commonalty (see _Ezra_ ix. 1).
There is no real history in the _Old Testament_, and the little
historical information one can glean is only found in the indiscreet
revelations of the prophets. The book, as a whole, must have been
written at various times, or rather invented as an authorization
of some subsequent worship, the origin of which may be very easily
traced partially to the Orphic Mysteries, and partially to the
ancient Egyptian rites in familiarity with which Moses was brought up
from his infancy.
Since the last century the Church has been gradually forced into
concessions of usurped biblical territory to those to whom it of
right belonged. Inch by inch has been yielded, and one personage
after another been proved mythical and Pagan. But now, after the
recent discovery of George Smith, the much-regretted Assyriologist,
one of the securest props of the _Bible_ has been pulled down. Sargon
and his tablets are about demonstrated to be older than Moses. Like
the account of _Exodus_, the birth and story of the lawgiver seem to
have been “borrowed” from the Assyrians, as the “jewels of gold and
jewels of silver” were said to be from the Egyptians.
On page 224 of _Assyrian Discoveries_, Mr. George Smith says: “In
the palace of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, I found another fragment of
the curious history of Sargon, a translation of which I published in
the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. i.,
part i., page 46. This text relates that Sargon, an early Babylonian
monarch, was born of royal parents, but concealed by his mother, who
placed him on the Euphrates in an ark of rushes, coated with bitumen,
like that in which the mother of Moses hid her child (see _Exodus_
ii.). Sargon was discovered by a man named Akki, a water-carrier, who
adopted him as his son; and he afterward became King of Babylonia.
The capital of Sargon was the great city of Agadi--called by the
Semites Akkad--mentioned in _Genesis_ as a capital of Nimrod
(_Genesis_ x. 10), and here he reigned _for forty five years_.[851]
Akkad lay near the city of _Sippara_,[852] on the Euphrates and north
of Babylon. “The date of Sargon, who may be termed the Babylonian
Moses, was in the sixteenth century and perhaps earlier.”
G. Smith adds in his _Chaldean Account_ that Sargon I. was a
Babylonian monarch who reigned in the city of Akkad about 1600 B.C.
The name of Sargon signifies the right, true, or legitimate king.
This curious story is found on fragments of tablets from Kouyunjik,
and reads as follows:
1. Sargona, the powerful king, the king of Akkad am I.
2. My mother was a princess, my father I did not know, a brother of
my father ruled over the country.
3. In the city of Azupirana, which is by the side of the river
Euphrates,
4. My mother, the princess, conceived me; in difficulty she brought
me forth.
5. She placed me in an ark of rushes, with bitumen my exit she sealed
up.
6. She launched me in the river which did not drown me.
7. The river carried me to Akki, the water-carrier it brought me.
8. Akki, the water-carrier, in tenderness of bowels, lifted me, etc.,
etc.
And now _Exodus_ (ii.): “And when she (Moses’ mother) could not
longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it
with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it
in the flags by the river’s brink.”
The story, says Mr. G. Smith, “is supposed to have happened about
1600 B.C., rather earlier than the supposed age of Moses[853] as we
know that the fame of Sargon reached Egypt, it is quite likely that
this account had a connection with the event related in _Exodus_ ii.,
for every action, when once performed, has a tendency to be repeated.”
The “ages” of the Hindus differ but little from those of the Greeks,
Romans, and even the Jews. We include the Mosaic computation
advisedly, and with intent to prove our position. The chronology
which separates Moses from the creation of the world by _only four
generations_ seems ridiculous, merely because the Christian clergy
would enforce it upon the world literally.[854] The kabalists know
that these generations stand for ages of the world. The allegories
which, in the Hindu calculations, embrace the whole stupendous sweep
of the four ages, are cunningly made in the Mosaic books, through the
obliging help of the _Masorah_, to cram into the small period of two
millenniums and a half (2513)!
The exoteric plan of the _Bible_ was made to answer also to four
ages. Thus, they reckon the Golden Age from Adam to Abraham; the
silver, from Abraham to David; copper, from David to the Captivity;
thenceforward, the iron. But the secret computation is quite
different, and does not vary at all from the zodiacal calculations of
the Brahmans. We are in the Iron Age, or Kali-Yug, but it began with
Noah, the mythical ancestor of our race.
Noah, or Nuah, like all the euhemerized manifestations of the
Unrevealed One--Swayambhuva (or Swayambhu), was androgyne. Thus,
in some instances, he belonged to the purely feminine triad of the
Chaldeans, known as “Nuah, the universal Mother.” We have shown, in
another chapter, that every male triad had its feminine counterpart,
one in three, like the former. It was the passive complement of the
active principle, its _reflection_. In India, the male trimurty is
reproduced in the Sakti-trimurti, the feminine; and in Chaldea, Ana,
Belita and Davkina answered to Anu, Bel, Nuah. The former three
resumed in one--Belita, were called:
“Sovereign goddess, lady of the nether abyss, mother of gods, queen
of the earth, queen of fecundity.”
As the primordial humidity, whence proceeded _all_, Belita is
Tamti, or the sea, the mother of _the city of Erech_ (the great
Chaldean necropolis), therefore, an infernal goddess. In the world
of stars and planets she is known as Istar or Astoreth. Hence, she
is identical with Venus, and every other queen of heaven, to whom
cakes and buns were offered in sacrifice,[855] and, as all the
archæologists know, with _Eve_, the mother of all that live, and with
Mary.
The Ark, in which are preserved the germs of all living things
necessary to repeople the earth, represents the survival of life,
and the supremacy of spirit over matter, through the conflict of
the opposing powers of nature. In the Astro-Theosophic chart of the
Western Rite, the Ark corresponds with the navel, and is placed at
the sinister side, the side of the woman (the moon), one of whose
symbols is the left pillar of Solomon’s temple--Boaz. The umbilicus
is connected with the receptacle in which are fructified the germs of
the race.[856] The Ark is the sacred _Argha_ of the Hindus, and thus,
the relation in which it stands to Noah’s ark may be easily inferred,
when we learn that the Argha was an oblong vessel, used by the high
priests as a sacrificial chalice in the worship of Isis, Astartè, and
Venus-Aphroditè, all of whom were goddesses of the generative powers
of nature, or of matter--hence, representing symbolically the Ark
containing the germs of all living things.
We admit that Pagans had and now have--as in India--strange symbols,
which, to the eyes of the hypocrite and Puritan, seem scandalously
immoral. But did not the ancient Jews copy most of these symbols? We
have described elsewhere the identity of the lingham with Jacob’s
pillar, and we could give a number of instances from the present
Christian rites, bearing the same origin, did but space permit, and
were not all these noticed fully by Inman and others (See Inman’s
_Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names_).
Describing the worship of the Egyptians, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child
says: “This reverence for the production of life, introduced into
the worship of Osiris, the sexual emblems so common in Hindustan.
A colossal image of this kind was presented to his temple in
Alexandria, by King Ptolemy Philadelphus.... Reverence for the
mystery of organized life led to the recognition of a masculine
and feminine principle in all things, spiritual or material....
The sexual emblems, everywhere conspicuous in the sculptures of
their temples, would seem impure in description, but _no clean and
thoughtful mind_ could so regard them while witnessing the obvious
simplicity and solemnity with which the subject is treated.”[857]
Thus speaks this respected lady and admirable writer, and no truly
pure man or woman would ever think of blaming her for it. But such a
perversion of the ancient thought is but natural in an age of cant
and prudery like our own.
The water of the flood when standing in the allegory for the symbolic
“sea,” Tamti, typifies the turbulent chaos, or matter, called “the
great dragon.” According to the Gnostic and Rosicrucian mediæval
doctrine, the creation of woman was not originally intended. She
is the offspring of man’s own impure fancy, and, as the Hermetists
say, “an obtrusion.” Created by an unclean thought she sprang into
existence at the _evil_ “seventh hour,” when the “supernatural” real
worlds had passed away and the “natural” or _delusive_ worlds began
evolving along the “descending Microcosmos,” or the arc of the great
cycle, in plainer phraseology. First “Virgo,” the Celestial Virgin of
the Zodiac, she became “Virgo-Scorpio.” But in evolving his second
companion, man had unwittingly endowed her with his own share of
Spirituality; and the new being whom his “imagination” had called
into life became his “Saviour” from the snares of Eve-Lilith, the
first Eve, who had a greater share of matter in her composition than
the primitive “spiritual” man.[858]
Thus woman stands in the cosmogony in relation to “matter” or the
_great deep_, as the “Virgin of the Sea,” who crushes the “Dragon”
under her foot. The “Flood” is also very often shown, in symbolical
phraseology, as the “great Dragon.” For one acquainted with these
tenets it becomes more than suggestive to learn that with the
Catholics the Virgin Mary is not only the accepted patroness of
Christian sailors, but also the “Virgin of the Sea.” So was Dido the
patroness of the Phœnician mariners;[859] and together with Venus
and other lunar goddesses--the moon having such a strong influence
over the tides--was the “Virgin of the Sea.” _Mar_, the Sea, is the
root of the name Mary. The blue color, which was with the ancients
symbolical of the “Great Deep” or the material world, hence--of evil,
is made sacred to our “Blessed Lady.” It is the color of “Notre Dame
de Paris.” On account of its relation to the symbolical serpent this
color is held in the deepest aversion by the ex-Nazarenes, disciples
of John the Baptist, now the Mendæans of Basra.
Among the beautiful plates of Maurice, there is one representing
Christna crushing the head of the Serpent. A three-peaked mitre is
on his head (typifying the trinity), and the body and tail of the
conquered serpent encircles the figure of the Hindu god. This plate
shows whence proceeded the inspiration for the “make up” of a later
story extracted from an alleged prophecy. “I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his _heel_.”
The Egyptian Orante is also shown with his arms extended as on a
crucifix, and treading upon the “Serpent;” and Horus (the Logos) is
represented piercing the head of the dragon, Typhon or Aphophis. All
this gives us a clew to the biblical allegory of Cain and Abel. Cain
was held as the ancestor of the Hivites, the Serpents, and the twins
of Adam are an evident copy from the fable of Osiris and Typhon.
Apart from the external form of the allegory, however, it embodied
the philosophical conception of the eternal struggle of good and evil.
But how strangely elastic, how adaptable to any and every thing this
mystical philosophy proved after the Christian era! When were ever
facts, irrefutable, irrefragable, and beyond denial, less potential
for the reëstablishment of truth than in our century of casuistry
and Christian cunning? Is Christna proved to have been known as the
“Good Shepherd” ages before the year A.D. 1, to have crushed the
Serpent Kalinaga, and to have been crucified--all this was but a
prophetic foreshadowing of the future! Are the Scandinavian Thor, who
bruised the head of the Serpent with his cruciform mace, and Apollo,
who killed Python, likewise shown to present the most striking
similarities with the heroes of the Christian fables; they become
but original conceptions of “heathen” minds, “working upon the old
Patriarchal prophecies respecting the Christ, as they were contained
in the one universal and primeval Revelation!”[860]
The flood, then, is the “Old Serpent” or the great deep of matter,
Isaiah’s “dragon in the sea” (xxvii. 1), over which the ark safely
crosses on its way to the mount of Salvation. But, if we have heard
of the ark and Noah, and the _Bible_ at all, it is because the
mythology of the Egyptians was ready at hand for Moses (if Moses ever
wrote any of the _Bible_), and that he was acquainted with the story
of Horus, standing on his boat of a serpentine form, and killing the
Serpent with his spear; and with the hidden meaning of these fables,
and their real origin. This is also why we find in _Leviticus_, and
other parts of his books, whole pages of laws identical with those of
_Manu_.
The animals shut up in the ark are the human passions. They typify
certain ordeals of initiation, and the mysteries which were
instituted among many nations in commemoration of this allegory.
Noah’s ark rested on the seventeenth of the _seventh_ month. Here we
have again the number; as also in the “clean beasts” that he took by
_sevens_ into the ark. Speaking of the water-mysteries of Byblos,
Lucian says: “On the top of one of the two pillars which Bacchus set
up, a man remains _seven_ days.”[861] He supposes this was done to
honor Deukalion. Elijah, when praying on the top of Mount Carmel,
sends his servant to look for a cloud toward the sea, and repeats,
“go again _seven_ times. And it came to pass at the _seventh_ time,
behold there arose a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s
hand.”[862]
“_Noah_ is a _revolutio_ of Adam, as Moses is a revolutio of Abel
and Seth,” says the _Kabala_; that is to say, a repetition or
another version of the same story. The greatest proof of it is
the distribution of the characters in the _Bible_. For instance,
beginning with Cain, the first murderer, every _fifth_ man in his
line of descent is a murderer. Thus there come Enoch, Irad, Mehujael,
Methuselah, and the _fifth_ is _Lamech_, the second murderer, and he
is Noah’s father. By drawing the five-pointed star of Lucifer (which
has its crown-point downward) and writing the name of Cain beneath
the lowest point, and those of his descendants successively at each
of the other points, it will be found that each fifth name--which
would be written beneath that of Cain--is that of a murderer. In the
_Talmud_ this genealogy is given complete, and thirteen murderers
range themselves in line below the name of Cain. This is _no_
coincidence. Siva is the Destroyer, but he is also the _Regenerator_.
Cain is a murderer, but he is also the creator of nations, and an
inventor. This star of Lucifer is the same one that John sees falling
down to earth in his _Apocalypse_.
In Thebes, or Theba, which means ark--TH-ABA being synonymous with
Kartha or Tyre, Astu or Athens and Urbs or Rome, and meaning also
the city--are found the same foliations as described on the pillars
of the temple of Solomon. The bi-colored leaf of the olive, the
three-lobed fig-leaf, and the lanceolate-shaped laurel-leaf, had all
esoteric as well as popular or vulgar meanings with the ancients.
The researches of Egyptologists present another corroboration of the
identity of the _Bible_-allegories with those of the lands of the
Pharaohs and Chaldeans. The dynastic chronology of the Egyptians,
recorded by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, Diodorus Siculus, and
accepted by our antiquarians, divided the period of Egyptian history
under four general heads: the dominion of gods, demi-gods, heroes,
and mortal men. By combining the demi-gods and heroes into one class,
Bunsen reduces the periods to three: the ruling gods, the demi-gods
or heroes--sons of gods, but born of mortal mothers--and the Manes,
who were the ancestors of individual tribes. These subdivisions, as
any one may perceive, correspond perfectly with the biblical Elohim,
sons of God, giants, and mortal Noachian men.
Diodorus of Sicily and Berosus give us the names of the twelve great
gods who presided over the twelve months of the year and the twelve
signs of the zodiac. These names, which include Nuah,[863] are too
well known to require repetition. The double-faced Janus was also
at the head of twelve gods, and in his representations of him he is
made to hold the keys to the celestial domains. All these having
served as models for the biblical patriarchs, have done still further
service--especially Janus--by furnishing copy to St. Peter and his
twelve apostles, the former also double-faced in his denial, and
also represented as holding the keys of Paradise.
This statement that the story of Noah is but another version in its
hidden meaning of the story of Adam and his three sons, gathers
proof on every page of the book of _Genesis_. Adam is the prototype
of Noah. Adam _falls_ because he eats of the forbidden fruit of
_celestial_ knowledge; Noah, because he tastes of the _terrestrial_
fruit: the juice of the grape representing the abuse of knowledge in
an unbalanced mind. Adam gets stripped of his spiritual envelope;
Noah of his terrestrial clothing; and the _nakedness_ of both makes
them feel ashamed. The wickedness of Cain is repeated in Ham. But the
descendants of both are shown as the wisest of races on earth; and
they are called on this account “snakes,” and the “sons of snakes,”
meaning the _sons of wisdom_, and not of Satan, as some divines
would be pleased to have the world understand the term. Enmity has
been placed between the “snake” and the “woman” only in this mortal
phenomenal “world of man” as “born of woman.” Before the carnal fall,
the “snake” was _Ophis_, the divine wisdom, which needed no matter
to procreate men, humanity being utterly spiritual. Hence the war
between the snake and the woman, or between spirit and matter. If,
in its material aspect, the “old serpent” is matter, and represents
Ophiomorphos, in its spiritual meaning it becomes Ophis-Christos. In
the magic of the old Syro-Chaldeans both are conjoint in the zodiacal
sign of the androgyne of Virgo-Scorpio, and may be _divided_ or
separated whenever needed. Thus as the origin of “good and evil,” the
meaning of the S.S. and Z.Z. has always been interchangeable; and if
upon some occasions the S.S. on sigils and talismans are suggestive
of serpentine evil influence and denote a design of _black_ magic
upon others, the double S.S. are found on the sacramental cups of the
Church and mean the presence of the Holy Ghost, or pure wisdom.
The Midianites were known as the _wise_ men, or sons of snakes,
as well as Canaanites and Hamites; and such was the renown of the
Midianites, that we find Moses, _the prophet, led on, and inspired
by “the Lord,”_ humbling himself before Hobab, the son of Raguel,
the _Midianite_, and beseeching him to remain with the people of
Israel: “Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch _as thou knowest how
we are to encamp_ IN THE WILDERNESS, _thou mayest be to us instead
of eyes_.”[864] Further, when Moses sends spies to search out the
land of Canaan, they bring as a proof of the wisdom (kabalistically
speaking) and goodness of the land, a branch with _one_ cluster of
_grapes_, which they are compelled to bear between two men on a
staff. Moreover, they add: “we saw the children of ANAK there.”
They are the _giants_, the sons of Anak, “_which come of the
giants_,”[865] and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so
we were in their sight.”[866]
Anak is Enoch, the patriarch, who _dies not_, and who is the first
possessor of the “mirific name,” according to the _Kabala_, and the
ritual of Freemasonry.
Comparing the biblical patriarchs with the descendants of
Vaiswasvata, the Hindu Noah, and the old Sanscrit traditions about
the deluge in the Brahmanical _Mahâbhârata_, we find them mirrored in
the Vaidic patriarchs who are the primitive types upon which all the
others were modelled. But before comparison is possible, the Hindu
myths must be comprehended in their true significance. Each of these
mythical personages bears, besides an astronomical significance, a
spiritual or moral, and an anthropological or physical meaning. The
patriarchs are not only euhemerized gods--the prediluvian answering
to the _twelve_ great gods of Berosus, and to the _ten_ Pradjâpati,
and the postdiluvian to the seven gods of the famous tablet in the
Ninivian Library, but they stand also as the symbols of the Greek
Æons, the kabalistic Sephiroth, and the zodiacal signs, as types of
a series of human races.[867] This variation from _ten_ to _twelve_
will be accounted for presently, and proved on the very authority
of the _Bible_. Only, they are not the first gods described by
Cicero,[868] which belong to a hierarchy of higher powers, the
Elohim--but appertain rather to the second class of the “twelve
gods,” the _Dii minores_, and who are the terrestrial reflections
of the first, among whom Herodotus places Hercules.[869] Alone,
out of the group of twelve, Noah, by reason of his position at the
transitional point, belongs to the highest Babylonian triad, Noah,
the spirit of the waters. The rest are identical with the inferior
gods of Assyria and Babylonia, who represented the lower order of
emanations, introduced around Bel, the Demiurge, and help him in his
work, as the patriarchs are shown to assist Jehovah--the “Lord God.”
Besides these, many of which were _local_ gods, the protecting
deities of rivers and cities, there were the four classes of genius,
we see Ezekiel making them support the throne of Jehovah in his
vision. A fact which, if it identifies the Jewish “Lord God” with one
of the Babylonian trinity, connects, at the same time, the present
Christian God with the same triad, inasmuch as it is these four
cherubs, if the reader will remember, on which Irenæus makes Jesus
ride, and which are shown as the companions of the evangelists.
The Hindu kabalistic derivation of the books of _Ezekiel_ and
_Revelation_ are shown in nothing more plainly than in this
description of the four beasts, which typify the four elementary
kingdoms--earth, air, fire, and water. As is well known, they are the
Assyrian sphinxes, but these figures are also carved on the walls of
nearly every Hindu pagoda.
The author of the _Revelation_ copies faithfully in his text (see
chap. iv., verse 17) the Pythagorean pentacle, of which Levi’s
admirable sketch is reproduced on page 452.
The Hindu goddess Adanari (or as it might be more properly written,
Adonari, since the second a is pronounced almost like the English o)
is represented as surrounded by the same figures. It fits exactly
Ezekiel’s “wheel of the Adonai,” known as “the Cherub of Jeheskiel,”
and indicates, beyond question, the source from which the Hebrew seer
drew his allegories. For convenience of comparison we have placed the
figure in the pentacle. (See page 453.)
Above these beasts were the angels or spirits, divided in two groups:
the Igili, or celestial beings, and the Am-anaki, or terrestrial
spirits, the giants, children of Anak, of whom the spies complained
to Moses.
[Illustration: ADONAI]
The _Kabbala Denudata_ gives to the kabalists a very clear, to the
profane a very muddled account of permutations or substitutions
of one person for another. So, for instance, it says, that “the
scintilla” (spiritual spark or soul) of Abraham was taken from
Michael, the chief of the Æons, and highest emanation of the Deity;
so high indeed that in the eyes of the Gnostics, Michael was
identical with Christ. And yet Michael and Enoch are one and the same
person. Both occupy the junction-point of the cross of the Zodiac
as “man.” The scintilla of Isaac was that of Gabriel, the chief of
the angelic host, and the scintilla of Jacob was taken from Uriel,
named “the fire of God;” the sharpest sighted spirit in all Heaven.
Adam is not the Kadmon but Adam _Primus_, the _Microprosopus_. In one
of his aspects the latter is Enoch, the terrestrial patriarch and
father of Methuselah. He that “walked with God” and “did not die” is
the spiritual Enoch, who typified humanity, eternal in spirit and as
eternal in flesh, though the latter does _die_. Death is but a new
birth, and spirit is immortal; thus humanity can never die, for the
_Destroyer_ has become the _Creator_, Enoch is the type of the dual
man, spiritual and terrestrial. Hence his place in the centre of the
astronomical cross.
[Illustration: ADANARI]
But was this idea original with the Hebrews? We think not. Every
nation which had an astronomical system, and especially India, held
the cross in the highest reverence, for it was the geometrical basis
of the religious symbolism of their _avatars_; the manifestation of
the Deity, or of the Creator in his creature MAN; of God in humanity
and humanity in God, as spirits. The oldest monuments of Chaldea,
Persia, and India disclose the double or eight-pointed cross. This
symbol, which very naturally is found, like every other geometrical
figure in nature, in plants as well as in the snowflakes, has led
Dr. Lundy, in his super-Christian mysticism, to name such cruciform
flowers as form an eight-pointed star by the junction of the two
crosses--“the _Prophetic Star of the Incarnation_, which joined
heaven and earth, God and man together.”[870] The latter sentence
is perfectly expressed; only, the old kabalist axiom, “as above, so
below,” answers still better, as it discloses to us the same God for
all humanity, not alone for the handful of Christians. It is the
_Mundane_ cross of Heaven repeated on earth by plants and dual man:
the physical man superseding the “spiritual,” at the junction-point
of which stands the mythical Libra-Hermes-Enoch. The gesture of one
hand pointing to Heaven, is balanced by the other pointing down to
the earth; boundless generations below, boundless regenerations
above; the visible but the manifestation of the invisible; the man of
dust abandoned to dust, the man of spirit reborn in spirit; thus it
is finite humanity which is the Son of the Infinite God. Abba--the
Father; Amona--the Mother; the Son, the Universe. This primitive
triad is repeated in all the theogonies. Adam Kadmon, Hermes, Enoch,
Osiris, Christna, Ormazd, or Christos are all one. They stand as
_Metatrons_ between body and soul--eternal spirits which redeem flesh
by the regeneration of flesh _below_, and soul by the regeneration
_above_, where humanity walks once more with God.
We have shown elsewhere that the symbol of the cross or Egyptian
_Tau_, =T=, was by many ages earlier than the period assigned to
Abraham, the alleged forefather of the Israelites, for otherwise
Moses could not have learned it of the priests. And that the Tau was
held as sacred by the Jews as by other “Pagan” nations is proved
by a fact admitted now by Christian divines as well as by infidel
archæologists. Moses, in _Exodus_ xii. 22, orders his people to
mark their _door-posts and lintels_ with blood, lest the “Lord God”
should make a mistake and smite some of his chosen people, instead
of the doomed Egyptians.[871] And this mark is a tau! The identical
Egyptian handled _cross_, with the half of which talisman Horus
raised the dead, as is shown on a sculptured ruin at Philœ.[872] How
gratuitous is the idea that all such crosses and symbols were so many
unconscious prophecies of Christ, is fully exemplified in the case of
the Jews upon whose accusation Jesus was put to death. For instance,
the same learned author remarks in _Monumental Christianity_ that
“the Jews themselves acknowledged this sign of salvation until they
rejected Christ;” and in another place he asserts that the rod of
Moses, used in his miracles before Pharaoh, “was, no doubt, this
_crux ansata_, or something like it, _also used by the Egyptian
priests_.”[873] Thus the logical inference would be, that 1, if the
Jews worshipped the same symbols as the Pagans, then they were no
better than they; and 2, if, being so well versed as they were in the
hidden symbolism of the cross, in the face of their having waited
for centuries for the Messiah, they yet rejected both the Christian
Messiah and Christian Cross, then there must have been something
wrong about both.
Those who “rejected” Jesus as the “Son of God,” were neither the
people ignorant of religious symbols, nor the handful of atheistical
Sadducees who put him to death; but the very men who were instructed
in the secret wisdom, who knew the origin as well as the meaning of
the cruciform symbol, and who put aside both the Christian emblem and
the Saviour suspended from it, because they could not be parties to
such a blasphemous imposition upon the common people.
Nearly all the prophecies about Christ are credited to the patriarchs
and prophets. If a few of the latter may have existed as real
personages, every one of the former is a myth. We will endeavor
to prove it by the hidden interpretation of the Zodiac, and the
relations of its signs to these antediluvian men.
If the reader will keep in mind the Hindu ideas of cosmogony,
as given in chapter vi., he will better understand the relation
between the biblical antediluvian patriarchs, and that puzzle of
commentators--“Ezekiel’s wheel.” Thus, be it remembered 1, that
the universe is not a spontaneous creation, but an evolution from
pre-existent matter; 2, that it is only one of an endless series of
universes; 3, that eternity is pointed off into grand cycles, in
each of which twelve transformations of our world occur, following
its partial destruction by fire and water, alternately. So that
when a new minor period sets in, the earth is so changed, even
geologically, as to be practically a new world; 4, that of these
twelve transformations, the earth after each of the first six is
grosser, and everything on it--man included--more material, than
after the preceding one: while after each of the remaining six the
contrary is true, both earth and man growing more and more refined
and spiritual with each terrestrial change; 5, that when the apex
of the cycle is reached, a gradual dissolution takes place, and
every living and objective form is destroyed. But when that point is
reached, humanity has become fitted to live subjectively as well as
objectively. And not humanity alone, but also animals, plants, and
every atom. After a time of rest, say the Buddhists, when a new world
becomes self-formed, the astral souls of animals and of all beings,
except such as have reached the highest Nirvana, will return on earth
again to end their cycles of transformations, and become men in their
turn.
This stupendous conception, the ancients synthesized for the
instruction of the common people, into a single pictorial design--the
Zodiac, or celestial belt. Instead of the twelve signs now used,
there were originally but ten known to the general public, viz.:
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo-Scorpio, Sagittarius,
Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces.[874] These were exoteric. But
in addition there were two mystical signs inserted, which none but
initiates comprehended, viz.: at the middle or junction-point where
now stands _Libra_, and at the sign now called Scorpio, which follows
Virgo. When it was found necessary to make them exoteric, these two
secret signs were added under their present appellations as blinds
to conceal the true names which gave the key to the whole secret of
creation, and divulged the origin of “good and evil.”
The true Sabean astrological doctrine secretly taught that within
this double sign was hidden the explanation of the gradual
transformation of the world, from its spiritual and subjective, into
the “two-sexed” sublunary state. The twelve signs were therefore
divided into two groups. The first six were called the ascending,
or the line of Macrocosm (the great spiritual world); the last
six, the descending line, or the Microcosm (the little secondary
world)--the mere reflection of the former, so to say. This division
was called Ezekiel’s wheel, and was completed in the following way:
First came the ascending five signs (euphemerized into patriarchs),
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and the group concluded with
Virgo-Scorpio. Then came the turning-point, _Libra_. After which, the
first half of the sign Virgo-Scorpio, was duplicated and transferred
to lead the lower, or descending group of Microcosm which ran
down to _Pisces_, or Noah (deluge). To make it clearer, the sign
Virgo-Scorpio, which appeared originally thus ♍︎, became simply
_Virgo_, and the duplication, ♏︎, or Scorpio, was placed between
Libra, the _seventh_ sign (which is Enoch, or the angel Metatron,
or _Mediator_ between spirit and matter, or God and man). It now
became Scorpio (or Cain), which sign or patriarch led _mankind to
destruction_, according to exoteric theology; but, according to the
true doctrine of the wisdom-religion, it indicated _the degradation
of the whole universe in its course of evolution downward from the
subjective to the objective_.
The sign of _Libra_ is credited as a later invention by the Greeks,
but it is not generally stated that those among them who were
initiated had only made a change of names conveying the same idea as
the secret name to those “who knew,” leaving the masses as unwise
as ever. Yet it was a beautiful idea of theirs, this Libra, or
the balance, expressing as much as could possibly be done without
unveiling the whole and ultimate truth. They intended it to imply
that when the course of evolution had taken the worlds to the
lowest point of grossness, where the earths and their products were
coarsest, and their inhabitants most brutish, the turning-point had
been reached--the forces were at an even balance. At the lowest
point, the still lingering divine spark of spirit within began
to convey the upward impulse. The scales typified that eternal
equilibrium which is the necessity of a universe of harmony, of
exact justice, of the balance of centripetal and centrifugal forces,
darkness and light, spirit and matter.
_These additional signs of the Zodiac warrant us in saying that the
Book of Genesis as we now find it, must be of later date than the
invention of Libra by the Greeks_; for we find the chapters of the
genealogies remodelled to fit the new Zodiac, instead of the latter
being made to correspond with the list of patriarchs. And it is this
addition and the necessity of concealing the true key, that led the
Rabbinical compilers to repeat the names of Enoch and Lamech twice,
as we see them now in the Kenite table. Alone, among all the books of
the _Bible_, _Genesis_ belongs to an immense antiquity. The others
are all later additions, the earliest of which appeared with Hilkiah,
who evidently concocted it with the help of Huldah, the prophetess.
As there is more than one meaning attached to the stories of the
creation and deluge, we say, therefore, that the biblical account
cannot be comprehended apart from the Babylonian story of the same;
while neither will be thoroughly clear without the Brahmanical
esoteric interpretation of the deluge, as found in the _Mahâbhârata_
and the _Satapatha-Brahmâna_. It is the Babylonians who were taught
the “mysteries,” the sacerdotal language, and their religion by
the problematical Akkadians who--according to Rawlinson came from
Armenia--not the former who emigrated to India. Here the evidence
becomes clear. The Babylonian Xisuthrus is shown by Movers to have
represented the “sun” in the Zodiac, in the sign of Aquarius, and
_Oannes_, the man-fish, the semi-demon, is Vishnu in his first
avatar; thus giving the key to the double source of the biblical
revelation.
Oannes is the emblem of priestly, esoteric wisdom; he comes out from
the sea, because the “great deep,” the water, typifies, as we have
shown, the secret doctrine. For this same reason Egyptians deified
the Nile, apart from its being regarded, in consequence of its
periodical overflows, as the “Saviour” of the country. They even held
the crocodiles as sacred, from having their abode in the “deep.” The
“Hamites,” so called, have always preferred to settle near rivers and
oceans. Water was the first-created element, according to some old
cosmogonies. This name of Oannes is held in the greatest reverence,
in the Chaldean records. The Chaldean priests wore a head-gear like
a fish’s head, and a shadbelly coat, representing the body of a
fish.[875]
“Thales,” says Cicero, “assures that _water_ is the principle of all
things; and that God is that Mind which shaped and created all things
from water.”[876]
“In the Beginning, SPIRIT within strengthens Heaven and Earth,
The watery fields, and the lucid globe of Luna, and then--
Titan stars; and mind infused through the limbs
Agitates the whole mass, and mixes itself with GREAT MATTER.”[877]
Thus water represents the duality of both the Macrocosmos and the
Microcosmos, in conjunction with the vivifying SPIRIT, and the
evolution of the little world from the universal cosmos. The deluge
then, in this sense, points to that final struggle between the
conflicting elements, which brought the first great cycle of our
planet to a close. These periods gradually merged into each other,
order being brought out of chaos, or disorder, and the successive
types of organism being evolved only as the physical conditions of
nature were prepared for their appearance; for our present race could
not have breathed on earth, during that intermediate period, not
having as yet the allegorical coats of skin.[878]
In chapters iv. and v. of _Genesis_, we find the so-called
generations of Cain and Seth. Let us glance at them in the order in
which they stand:
LINES OF GENERATIONS.
_Sethite._ _Kenite._
1. Adam. ⎫ ⎧ 1. Adam.
2. Seth. ⎪ ⎪ 2. Cain.
3. Enos. ⎪ ⎪ 3. Enoch.
4. Cainan. ⎪ ⎪ 4. Irad.
5. Mahalaleel. ⎬ Good Principle. Evil Principle. ⎨ 5. Mehujael.
6. Jared. ⎪ ⎪ 6. Methusael.
7. Enoch. ⎪ ⎪ 7. Lamech.
8. Methuselah. ⎪ ⎪ 8. Jubal. ⎫
9. Lamech. ⎪ ⎪ 9. Jabal. ⎬
10. Noah. ⎭ ⎩ 10. Tubal Cain. ⎭
The above are the ten biblical patriarchs, identical with Hindu
Pragâpatis (Pradjâpatis), and the Sephiroth of the _Kabala_. We say
_ten_ patriarchs, not _twenty_, for the Kenite line was devised
for no other purpose than, 1, to carry out the idea of dualism,
on which is founded the philosophy of every religion; for these
two genealogical tables represent simply the opposing powers or
principles of good and evil; and 2, as a blind for the uninitiated
masses. Suppose we restore them to their primitive form, by erasing
these premeditated blinds. These are so transparent as to require but
a small amount of perspicacity to select, even though one should use
only his unaided judgment, and were not, as we are, enabled to apply
the test of the secret doctrine.
By ridding ourselves, therefore, of the Kenite names that are mere
duplications of the Sethite, or of each other, we get rid of Adam;
of Enoch--who, in one genealogy, is shown the father of Irad, and in
the other, the son of Jared; of Lamech, son of Methusael, whereas
he, Lamech, is son of Methuselah in the Sethite line; of Irad
(Jared),[879] Jubal and Jabal, who, with Tubal-Cain, form a trinity
in one, and that one the double of Cain; of Mehujael (who is but
Mahalaleel differently spelled), and Methusael (Methuselah). This
leaves us in the Kenite genealogy of chapter iv., one only, Cain,
who--the first murderer and fratricide--is made to stand in his
line as father of Enoch, the most virtuous of men, who does not die,
but is translated alive. Turn we now to the Sethite table, and we
find that Enos, or Enoch, comes _second_ from Adam, and is father to
Cain (an). This is no accident. There was an evident reason for this
inversion of paternity; a palpable design--that of creating confusion
and baffling inquiry.
We say, then, that the patriarchs are simply the signs of the Zodiac,
emblems, in their manifold aspects, of the spiritual and physical
evolution of human races, of ages, and of divisions of time. In
astrology, the first four of the “Houses,” in the diagrams of the
“Twelve Houses of Heaven”--namely, the first, tenth, seventh, and
fourth, or the second inner square placed with its angles upward and
downward, are termed _angles_, as being of the greatest strength
and power. They answer to Adam, Noah, Cain-an, and Enoch, Alpha,
Omega, evil and good, leading the whole. Furthermore, when divided
(including the two secret names) into four _trigons_ or triads, viz.:
fiery, airy, earthy, and watery, we find the latter corresponding to
Noah.
Enoch and Lamech were doubled in the table of Cain, to fill out the
required number ten in both “generations” in the _Bible_, instead of
employing the “Secret Name;” and, in order that the patriarchs should
correspond with the ten kabalistic Sephiroth, and fit at the same
time the ten, and, subsequently, _twelve_ signs of the Zodiac, in a
manner comprehensible only to the kabalists.
And now, Abel having disappeared out of that line of descent, he
is replaced by Seth, who was clearly an afterthought suggested by
the necessity of not having the human race descend entirely from a
murderer. This dilemma being apparently first noticed when the Kenite
table had been completed, Adam is made (after all the generations
had appeared) to beget this son, Seth. It is a suggestive fact that,
whereas the double-sexed Adam of chapter v. is made in the likeness
of the Elohim (see _Genesis_ chapter i. 27 and v. 1 of the same),
Seth (v. 3) is begotten in Adam’s “own likeness,” thus signifying
that there were men of different races. Also, it is most noticeable
that neither the age nor a single other particular respecting the
patriarchs in the Kenite table is given, whereas the reverse is the
case with those in the Sethite line.
Most assuredly, no one could expect to find, in a work open to the
public, the final mysteries of that which was preserved for countless
ages as the grandest secret of the sanctuary. But, without divulging
the key to the profane, or being taxed with undue indiscretion,
we may be allowed to lift a corner of the veil which shrouds the
majestic doctrines of old. Let us then write down the patriarchs as
they ought to stand in their relation to the Zodiac, and see how they
correspond with the signs.
The following diagram represents Ezekiel’s Wheel, as given in many
works, among others, in Hargrave Jenning’s _Rosicrucians_:
[Illustration: EZEKIEL’S WHEEL (exoteric).
MACROCOSMOS
(ascending).
MICROCOSMOS
(descending).]
These signs are (follow numbers):
1, Aries; 2, Taurus; 3, Gemini; 4, Cancer; 5, Leo; 6,
Virgo, or the _ascending_ line of the grand cycle of
creation. After this comes 7, _Libra_--“man,” which, though
it is found right in the middle, or the intersection point,
leads down the numbers:
8, Scorpio; 9, Sagittarius; 10, Capricornus; 11, Aquarius;
and 12, Pisces.
While discussing the double sign of Virgo-Scorpio and Libra, Hargrave
Jennings observes (p. 65):
“All this is incomprehensible, except in the strange mysticism of
the Gnostics and the kabalists; and the whole theory requires a
key of explanation to render it intelligible; which key is only
darkly referred to as possible, but refused absolutely, by these
extraordinary men, as not permissible to be disclosed.”
The said key must be turned _seven_ times before the whole system
is divulged. We will give it but _one_ turn, and thereby allow the
profane one glimpse into the mystery. Happy he, who understands the
whole!
[Illustration: EZEKIEL’S WHEEL (esoteric).]
To explain the presence of Jodheva (or Yodheva), or what is generally
termed the tetragram יהוה, and of Adam and Eve, it will suffice to
remind the reader of the following verses in _Genesis_, with their
right meaning inserted in brackets.
1. “And God [Elohim] created man in his [their] own image
... male and female created he them [him]”--(ch. i. 27).
2. “Male and female created he them [him] ... and called
_their_ [his] name ADAM”--(v. 2).
When the ternary is taken in the beginning of the tetragram, it
expresses the divine creation _spiritually_, _i.e._, without any
carnal sin: taken at its opposite end it expresses the latter; it
is feminine. The name of Eve is composed of three letters, that of
the primitive or heavenly Adam, is written with one letter, Jod or
Yodh; therefore it must not be read Jehova but _Ieva_, or Eve. The
Adam of the first chapter is the spiritual, therefore pure androgyne,
Adam Kadmon. When woman issues from the left rib of the second
Adam (of dust), the pure _Virgo_ is separated, and falling “into
generation,” or the downward cycle, becomes _Scorpio_,[880] emblem
of sin and matter. While the ascending cycle points at the purely
spiritual races, or the ten prediluvian patriarchs (the Pradjâpatis,
and Sephiroth)[881] are led on by the creative Deity itself, who is
Adam Kadmon or Yodcheva, the lower one is that of the terrestrial
races, led on by Enoch or _Libra_, the _seventh_; who, because he
is half-divine, half-terrestrial, is said to have been taken by
God alive. Enoch, or Hermes, or Libra are one. All are the scales
of universal harmony; justice and equilibrium are placed at the
central point of the Zodiac. The grand circle of the heavens, so well
discoursed upon by Plato, in his _Timæus_, symbolizes the unknown
as a unity; and the smaller circles which form the cross, by their
division on the plane of the Zodiacal ring--typify, at the point of
their intersection, life. The centripetal and centrifugal forces,
as symbols of Good and Evil, Spirit and Matter, Life and Death, are
also those of the Creator and the Destroyer,--Adam and Eve, or God
and the Devil, as they say in common parlance. In the subjective,
as well as in the objective worlds, they are the two powers, which
through their eternal conflict keep the universe of spirit and
matter in harmony. They force the planets to pursue their paths, and
keep them in their elliptical orbits, thus tracing the astronomical
cross in their revolution through the Zodiac. In their conflict the
centripetal force, were it to prevail, would drive the planets and
living souls into the sun, type of the invisible Spiritual Sun, the
Paraâtma or great universal Soul, their parent; while the centrifugal
force would chase both planets and _souls_ into the dreary space, far
from the luminary of the objective universe, away from the spiritual
realm of salvation and eternal life, and into the chaos of final
cosmic destruction, and individual annihilation. But the _balance_
is there, ever sensitive at the intersection point. It regulates
the action of the two combatants, and the combined effort of both,
causes planets and “living souls” to pursue a double diagonal line
in their revolution through Zodiac and Life; and thus preserving
strict harmony, in visible and invisible heaven and earth, the forced
unity of the two reconciles spirit and matter, and Enoch is said to
stand a “Metatron” before God. Reckoning from him down to Noah and
his three sons, each of these represent a new “world,” _i.e._, our
earth, which is the seventh[882] after every period of geological
transformation, gives birth to another and distinct race of men and
beings.
Cain leads the ascending line, or Macrocosm, for he is the Son of the
“Lord,” not of Adam (_Genesis_ iv. 1). The “Lord” is Adam Kadmon,
Cain, the Son of sinful thought, not the progeny of flesh and blood,
Seth on the other hand is the leader of the races of earth, for he is
the Son of Adam, and begotten “in his own likeness, after his image”
(_Genesis_ v. 3). Cain is _Kenu_, Assyrian, and means eldest, while
the Hebrew word קין means a smith, an artificer.
Our science shows that the globe has passed through five distinct
geological phases, each characterized by a different stratum,
and these are in reverse order, beginning with the last: 1. The
Quaternary period, in which man appears as a certainty; 2. The
Tertiary period, in which he _may have_ appeared; 3. Secondary
period, that of gigantic saurians, the megalosaurus, icthyosaurus,
and plesiosaurus--_no vestige of man_; 4. The Palæozoic period, that
of gigantic crustacea; 5 (or first). The Azoic period, during which
science asserts organic life had not yet appeared.
And is there no possibility that there was a period, and
several periods, when man _existed_, and yet was not an organic
being--therefore could not have left any vestige of himself for exact
science? _Spirit_ leaves no skeletons or fossils behind, and yet few
are the men on earth who doubt that man can live both objectively
and subjectively. At all events, the theology of the Brahmans, hoary
with antiquity, and which divides the formative periods of the earth
into four ages, and places between each of these a lapse of 1,728,000
years, far more agrees with official science and modern discovery
than the absurd chronological notions promulgated by the Councils of
Nice and Trent.
The names of the patriarchs were not Hebrew, though they may have
been Hebraized later; they are evidently of Assyrian or Aryan origin.
Thus _Adam_, for instance, stands in the explained _Kabala_ as a
convertible term, and applies nearly to every other patriarch, as
every Sephiroth to each Sephira, and _vice versa_. Adam, Cain,
and Abel form the first _triad_ of the twelve. They correspond in
the Sephiral tree to the Crown, Wisdom, and Intelligence; and in
astrology to the three trigons--the fiery, the earthy, and the airy;
which fact, were we allowed to devote more space than we have to
its elucidation, would perhaps show that astrology deserves the
name of science as well as any other. Adam (Kadmon) or Aries (ram)
is identical with the Egyptian ram-headed god Amun, fabricating
man on the potter’s wheel. His duplication, therefore--or the Adam
of dust--is also Aries, Amon, when standing at the head of his
generations, for he fabricates mortals also in “his own likeness.”
In astrology the planet Jupiter is connected with the “first house”
(Aries). The color of Jupiter, as seen in the “stages of the seven
spheres,” on the tower of Borsippa, or Birs Nimrud, was _red_;[883]
and in Hebrew Adam means אדם “red” as well as “man.” The Hindu god
Agni, who presides at the sign of Pisces, next to that of Aries in
their relation to the twelve months (February and March),[884] is
painted of a deep red color, with _two_ faces (male and female),
_three_ legs, and _seven_ arms; the whole forming the number twelve.
So, also, Noah (Pisces), who appears in the generations as the twelfth
patriarch, counting Cain and Abel, is Adam again under another name,
for he is the forefather of a new race of mankind; and with his “three
sons,” one bad, one good, and one partaking of both qualities, is the
terrestrial reflection of the super-terrestrial Adam and his three
sons. Agni is represented mounted on a ram, with a tiara surmounted by
a cross.[885]
Kain, presiding over the Taurus (Bull) of the Zodiac, is also very
suggestive. Taurus belongs to the earthy trigon, and in connection
with this sign it will not be amiss to remind the student of an
allegory from the Persian _Avesta_. The story goes that Ormazd
produced a being--source and type of all the universal beings--called
LIFE, or Bull in the _Zend_. Ahriman (Cain) kills this being (Abel),
from the seed of which (Seth) new beings are produced. Abel, in
Assyrian, means _son_, but in Hebrew הבל it means something ephemeral,
not long-lived, _valueless_, and also a “Pagan idol,”[886] as Kain
means a _Hermaic statue_ (a pillar, the symbol of generation).
Likewise, Abel is the female counterpart of Cain (male), for they are
twins and probably androgynous; the latter answering to Wisdom, the
former to Intelligence.
So with all other patriarchs. Enos, אנוש, is _Homo_ again--a
man, or the same Adam, and Enoch in the bargain; and קיון _Kain-an_
is identical with Cain. Seth, שת, is Teth, or Thoth, or Hermes; and
this is the reason, no doubt, why Josephus, in his first book (ch. 3)
shows Seth so proficient in astrology, geometry, and other occult
sciences. Foreseeing the flood, he says, he engraved the fundamental
principles of his art on two pillars of brick and stone, the latter of
which “he saw himself [Josephus] _to remain in Syria in his own
time_.” Thus is it that Seth is identified also with Enoch, to whom
kabalists and Masons attribute the same feat; and, at the same time,
with Hermes, or Kadmus again, for Enoch is identical with the
former; הנוך, He-NOCH means a teacher, an initiator, or an initiate;
in Grecian mythology, Inachus. We have seen the part he is made to
play in the Zodiac.
Mahalaleel, if we divide the word and write מהלה, _m_a-_h_a-_l_a,
means tender, merciful; and therefore is he made to correspond with
the fourth Sephira, _Love_ or _Mercy_, emanated from the first
triad.[887] _Ir_a_d_, ירד, or _I_a_r_e_d_, is (minus the
vowels) precisely the same. If from the verb ירד, it means
_descent;_ if from ארד, _ar_a_d_, it means offspring, and
thus corresponds perfectly with the kabalistic emanations.
_L_a_m_e_ch_, למך, is not Hebrew, but Greek. Lam-ach means
Lam--the father, and Ou-Lom-Ach is the father of the age; or the
father of him (Noah) who inaugurates a new era or period of creation
after the _pralaya_ of the deluge; Noah being the symbol of a new
world, the Kingdom (Malchuth) of the Sephiroth; hence his father,
corresponding to the ninth Sephiroth, is the Foundation.[888]
Furthermore, both father and son answer to Aquarius and Pisces in the
Zodiac; and thus the former belonging to the airy and the latter to
the _watery_ trigons, they close the list of the biblical myths.
But if, as we see, every patriarch represents, in one sense, like
each of the Pradjâpatis, a new race of antediluvian human beings;
and if, as it may as easily be proved, they are the copies of the
Babylonian _Saros_, or ages, the latter themselves copies of the
Hindu ten dynasties of the “Lords of beings,”[889] yet, however we
may regard them, they are among the profoundest allegories ever
conceived by philosophical minds.
In the _Nuctemeron_,[890] the evolution of the universe and
its successive periods of formation, together with the gradual
development of the human races, are illustrated as fully as possible
in the twelve “hours” into which the allegory is divided. Each “hour”
typifies the evolution of a new man, and in its turn is divided
into four quarters or ages. This work shows how thoroughly was the
ancient philosophy imbued with the doctrines of the early Aryans,
who were the first to divide the life on our planet into four ages.
If one would trace this doctrine from its source in the night of
the traditional period down to the Seer of Patmos, he need not go
astray among the religious systems of all nations. The Babylonians he
would find teaching that in four different periods four Oannes (or
suns) appeared; the Hindus asserting their four Yuga; the Greeks,
Romans, and others firmly believing in the golden, silver, brazen,
and iron ages, each of the epochs being heralded by the appearance of
a saviour. The four Buddhas of the Hindus and the three prophets of
the Zoroastrians--Oshedar-Cami, Oshedar-mah, and Sosiosh--preceded by
Zarotushtra, are the types of these ages.
In the _Bible_, the very opening tells us that _before the sons of God
saw the daughters of men_, the latter lived from 365 to 969 years.
But when the “Lord God” saw the iniquities of mankind, He concluded
to allow them at most 120 years of life (_Genesis_ vi. 3). To
account for such a violent oscillation in the human mortality-table
is only possible by tracing this decision of the “Lord God” to its
origin. Such incongruities as we meet at every step in the _Bible_
can be only attributed to the facts that the book of _Genesis_ and
the other books of _Moses_ were tampered with and remodelled by
more than one author; and, that in their original state they were,
with the exception of the external form of the allegories, faithful
copies from the Hindu sacred books. In _Manu_, book i., we find the
following:
“In the first age, neither sickness nor suffering were known. Men
lived four centuries.”
This was in the Krita or Satya yug.
“The Krita-yug is the type of justice. The _bull_ which stands firm
on its four legs is its image; man adheres to truth, and evil does
not as yet direct his actions.”[891] But in each of the following
ages primitive human life loses one-fourth of its duration, that
is to say, in Treta-yug man lives 300, in Dwapara-yug 200, and in
Kali-yug, or our own age, but 100 years generally, at the most. Noah,
son of Lamech--Oulom-_Ach_, or father of the age--is the distorted
copy of Manu, son of Swayambhu, and the six Manus or Rishis issued
from the Hindu “first man” are the originals of Terah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, the Hebrew sages, who beginning
with Terah were all alleged to have been astrologers, alchemists,
inspired prophets, and soothsayers; or in a more profane but plainer
language--magicians.
If we consult the Talmudistic _Mishna_ we find therein the first
emanated divine couple, the androgyne Demiurge Chochmah (or Hachma
Achamoth) and Binah building themselves a house with _seven_ pillars.
They are the architects of God--Wisdom and Intelligence--and His
“compass and square.” The seven columns are the future _seven_
worlds, or the typical _seven_ primordial “days” of creation.
“Chochmah immolates her victims.” These victims are the numberless
forces of nature which must “die” (expend themselves) _in order that
they should live_; when one force dies out, it is but to give birth
to another force, its progeny. It dies but lives in its children, and
resuscitates at every _seventh_ generation. The servants of Chochmah,
or wisdom, are the souls of H-Adam, for in him are all the souls of
Israel.
There are _twelve_ hours in the day, says the _Mishna_, and it is
during these hours that is accomplished the creation of man. Would
this be comprehensible, unless we had Manu to teach us that this
“day” embraces the four ages of the world and has a duration of
_twelve_ thousand divine years of the Devas?
“The Creators (Elohim) outline in the second” hour “the shape of a
more corporeal form of man. They separate it into two and prepare the
sexes to become distinct from each other. Such is the way the Elohim
proceeded in reference to every created thing.”[892] “Every fish,
fowl, plant, beast and man was androgyne at the first hour.”
Says the commentator, the great Rabbi Simeon:
“O, companions, companions, man as emanation was both man and woman;
as well on the side of the FATHER as on the side of the MOTHER. And
this is the sense of the words, and Elohim spoke, Let there be Light
and it was Light!... And this is the ‘two-fold man!’”[893]
A spiritual woman was necessary as a contrast for the spiritual
man. Harmony is the universal law. In Taylor’s translation, Plato’s
discourse upon creation is rendered so as to make him say of this
universe that “He caused it to move with circular motion.... When,
therefore, that God who is a perpetually reasoning Divinity,
cogitated about that God (man) _who was destined to subsist at some
certain period of time_, He produced his body smooth and even, and
every way even and whole from the centre, and made it perfect. This
perfect circle of the created God, _He decussated in the form of the
letter_ X.”
The italics of both these sentences from _Timæus_ belong to Dr.
Lundy, the author of that remarkable work mentioned once before,
_Monumental Christianity_; and attention is drawn to the words of
the Greek philosopher, with the evident purpose of giving them the
prophetic character which Justin Martyr applied to the same, when
accusing Plato of having borrowed his “physiological discussion
in the _Timæus_ ... concerning the Son of God placed crosswise in
the universe,” from Moses and his serpent of brass. The learned
author seems to fully accord an unpremeditated prophecy to these
words; although he does not tell us whether he believes that like
Plato’s created god, Jesus was originally a sphere “smooth and
even, and every way even and whole from the centre.” Even if Justin
Martyr were excusable for his perversion of Plato, Dr. Lundy ought
to know that the day for that sort of casuistry is long gone by.
What the philosopher meant was _man_, who before being encased in
matter had no use for limbs, but was a pure spiritual entity. Hence
if the Deity, and his universe, and the stellar bodies are to be
conceived as spheroidal, this shape would be archetypal man’s. As
his enveloping shell grew heavier, there came the necessity for
limbs, and the limbs sprouted. If we fancy a man with arms and legs
naturally extended at the same angle, by backing him against the
circle that symbolizes his prior shape as a spirit, we would have the
very figure described by Plato--the X cross within the circle.
All the legends of the creation, the fall of man, and the resultant
deluge, belong to universal history, and are no more the property
of the Israelites than that of any other nation. What specially
belongs to them (kabalists excepted) are the disfigured details
of every tradition. The _Genesis_ of Enoch is by far anterior to
the books of Moses,[894] and Guillaume Postel has presented it to
the world, explaining the allegories as far as he dared; but the
ground-work is still unexposed. For the Jews, the _Book of Enoch_
is as canonical as the Mosaic books; and if the Christians accepted
the latter as an authority, we do not see why they should reject the
former as an apocrypha. No more can the age of one than that of the
other be determined with anything like certainty. At the time of
the separation, the Samaritans recognized only the books of Moses
and that of Joshua, says Dr. Jost.[895] In 168 B.C., Jerusalem had
its temple plundered, and all the sacred books were destroyed;[896]
therefore, the few MSS. that remained were to be found only among the
“teachers of tradition.” The kabalistic Tanaïm, and their initiates
and prophets had always practised its teachings in common with
the Canaanites, the Hamites, Midianites, Chaldeans, and all other
nations. The story of Daniel is a proof of it.
There was a sort of Brotherhood, or Freemasonry among the kabalists
scattered all over the world, since the memory of man; and, like some
societies of the mediæval Masonry of Europe, they called themselves
_Companions_[897] and _Innocents_.[898] It is a belief (founded on
knowledge) among the kabalists, that no more than the Hermetic rolls
are the genuine sacred books of the seventy-two elders--books which
contained the “_Ancient Word_”--lost, but that they have all been
preserved from the remotest times among secret communities. Emanuel
Swedenborg says as much, and his words are based, he says, on the
information he had from certain _spirits_, who assured him that “they
performed their worship according to this Ancient Word.” “Seek for
it in China,” adds the great seer, “peradventure you may find it in
Great Tartary!” Other students of occult sciences have had more than
the word of “certain spirits” to rely upon in this special case--they
have seen the books.
We must choose therefore perforce between two methods--either to
accept the _Bible_ exoterically or esoterically. Against the former
we have the following facts: That, after the first copy of the _Book
of God_ has been edited and launched on the world by Hilkiah, this
copy disappears, and Ezra has to make a _new Bible_, which Judas
Maccabeus finishes; that when it was copied from the horned letters
into square letters, it was corrupted beyond recognition; that the
_Masorah_ completed the work of destruction; that, finally, we have a
text, not 900 years old, abounding with omissions, interpolations,
and premeditated perversions; and that, consequently, as this
Masoretic Hebrew text has fossilized its mistakes, and the key
to the “Word of God” is lost, no one has a right to enforce upon
so-called “Christians” the divagations of a series of hallucinated
and, perhaps, spurious prophets, under the unwarranted and untenable
assumption that the author of it was the “Holy Ghost” in _propria
personæ_.
Hence, we reject this pretended monotheistic Scripture, made up
just when the priests of Jerusalem found their political profit in
violently breaking off all connection with the Gentiles. It is at
this moment only that we find them persecuting kabalists, and banning
the “old wisdom” of both Pagans and Jews. _The real Hebrew Bible
was a secret volume, unknown to the masses_, and even the Samaritan
_Pentateuch_ is far more ancient than the _Septuagint_. As for the
former, the Fathers of the Church never even heard of it. We prefer
decidedly to take the word of Swedenborg that the “Ancient Word”
is _somewhere in China or the Great Tartary_. The more so, as the
Swedish seer is declared, at least by one clergymen, namely, the
Reverend Dr. R. L. Tafel, of London, to have been in a state of
“inspiration from God,” while writing his theological works. He is
given even the superiority over the penmen of the _Bible_, for, while
the latter had the words spoken to them in their ears, Swedenborg was
made to understand them rationally and was, therefore, _internally_
and not externally illuminated. “When,” says the reverend author, “a
conscientious member of the New Church hears any charges made against
the divinity and the infallibility of either the soul or the body of
the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, he must at once place himself on
the unequivocal declaration made in those doctrines, that the Lord
has effected His second coming in and by means of those writings
which were published by Emanuel Swedenborg, as His servant, and that,
therefore, those charges are not and cannot be true.” And if it is
“the Lord” that spoke through Swedenborg, then there is a hope for
us that at least one divine will corroborate our assertions, that
the ancient “word of God” is nowhere but in the heathen countries,
especially _Buddhistic Tartary, Thibet, and China_!
“The primitive history of Greece is the primitive history of India,”
exclaims Pococke in his _India in Greece_. In view of subsequent
fruits of critical research, we may paraphrase the sentence and say:
“The primitive history of Judea is a distortion of Indian fable
engrafted on that of Egypt. Many scientists, encountering stubborn
facts, and being reluctant to contrast the narratives of the “divine”
revelation with those of the Brahmanical books, merely present them
to the reading public. Meanwhile they limit their conclusions to
criticisms and contradictions of each other. So Max Müller opposes
the theories of Spiegel, and some one else; and Professor Whitney
those of the Oxford Orientalist; and Dr. Haug made onslaughts on
Spiegel, while Dr. Spiegel chose some other victim; and now even the
time-honored Akkadians and Turanians have had their day of glory.
The _Proto-Kasdeans_, _Kasdeo-Scyths_, _Sumirians_, and what not,
have to make room for some other fictions. Alas! for the Akkads,
Halevy, the Assyriologist attacks the Akkado-Sumirian language of old
Babylon, and Chabas, the Egyptologist, not content with dethroning
the Turanian speech, which has rendered such eminent services to
Orientalists when perplexed, calls the venerable parent of the
Akkadians--François Lenormant--himself, a charlatan. Profiting by the
learned turmoil, the Christian clergy take heart for their fantastic
theology on the ground that when the jury disagree there is a gain
of time at least for the indicted party. And thus is overlooked
the vital question whether Christendom would not be the better for
adopting Christism in place of Christianity, with its _Bible_, its
vicarious atonement and its Devil. But to so important a personage as
the latter, we could not do less than devote a special chapter.
CHAPTER X.
“Get thee behind me, SATAN” (Jesus to Peter).--_Matt._ xvi. 23.
“Such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what--
He held me, last night, at least nine hours
In reckoning up the several devils’ names.”--
_King Henry IV._, Part i., Act iii.
“La force terrible et juste qui tue eternellement les
avortons a été nommée par les Égyptiens Typhon, par les
Hébreux Samaël; par les orientaux Satan; et par les Latins
Lucifer. Le Lucifer de la Cabale n’est pas un ange maudit
et foudroyé; c’est l’ange qui éclaire et qui _régénère_ en
tombant.”--ELIPHAS LEVI: _Dogme et Rituel_.
“Bad as he is, the Devil may be abus’d,
Be falsely charg’d, and causelessly accus’d,
When Men, unwilling to be blam’d alone,
Shift off those Crimes on Him which are their Own.”--_Defoe_, 1726.
Several years ago, a distinguished writer and persecuted kabalist
suggested a creed for the Protestant and Roman Catholic bodies, which
may be thus formulated:
_Protevangelium._
“I believe in the Devil, the Father Almighty of Evil, the Destroyer
of all things, Perturbator of Heaven and Earth;
And in Anti-Christ, his only Son, our Persecutor,
Who was conceived of the Evil Spirit;
Born of a sacrilegious, foolish Virgin;
Was glorified by mankind, reigned over them,
And ascended to the throne of Almighty God,
From which he crowds Him aside, and from which he insults the
living and the dead;
I believe in the Spirit of Evil;
The Synagogue of Satan;
The coalition of the wicked;
The perdition of the body;
And the Death and Hell everlasting. _Amen._”
Does this offend? Does it seem extravagant, cruel, blasphemous?
Listen. In the city of New York, on the ninth day of April,
1877--that is to say, in the last quarter of what is proudly styled
the century of discovery and the age of illumination--the following
scandalous ideas were broached. We quote from the report in the _Sun_
of the following morning:
“The Baptist preachers met yesterday in the Mariners’ Chapel, in
Oliver Street. Several foreign missionaries were present. The Rev.
John W. Sarles, of Brooklyn, read an essay, in which he maintained
the proposition _that all adult heathen, dying without the knowledge
of the Gospel, are damned eternally_. Otherwise, the reverend
essayist argued, the Gospel is a curse instead of a blessing, the men
who crucified Christ served him right, and the whole structure of
revealed religion tumbles to the ground.
“Brother Stoddard, a missionary from India, indorsed the views of the
Brooklyn pastor. The Hindus were great sinners. One day, after he had
preached in the market place, a Brahman got up and said: ‘We Hindus
beat the world in lying, but this man beats us. How can he say that
God loves us? Look at the poisonous serpents, tigers, lions, and all
kinds of dangerous animals around us. If God loves us, why doesn’t He
take them away?’
“The Rev. Mr. Pixley, of Hamilton, N. Y., heartily subscribed to the
doctrine of Brother Sarles’s essay, and asked for $5,000 to fit out
young men for the ministry.”
And these men--we will not say teach the doctrine of Jesus, for that
would be to insult his memory, but--are _paid_ to teach his doctrine!
Can we wonder that intelligent persons prefer annihilation to a
faith encumbered by such a monstrous doctrine? We doubt whether any
respectable Brahman would have confessed to the vice of lying--an
art cultivated only in those portions of British India where the
most Christians are found[899] But we challenge any honest man in
the wide world to say whether he thinks the Brahman was far from the
truth in saying of the missionary Stoddard, “this man beats us all”
in lying. What else would he say, if the latter preached to them the
doctrine of _eternal damnation_, because, indeed, they had passed
their lives without reading a Jewish book of which they never heard,
or asked salvation of a Christ whose existence they never suspected!
But Baptist clergymen who need a few thousand dollars must devise
terrifying sensations to fire the congregational heart.
We abstain, as a rule, from giving our own experience when we can
call acceptable witnesses, and so, upon reading missionary Stoddard’s
outrageous remarks, we requested our acquaintance, Mr. William L.
D. O’Grady,[901] to give a fair opinion upon the missionaries. This
gentleman’s father and grandfather were British army officers, and
he himself was born in India, and enjoyed life-long opportunities
to learn what the general opinion among the English is of these
religious propagandists. Following is his communication in reply to
our letter:
“You ask me for my opinion of the Christian missionaries
in India. In all the years I spent there, I never spoke to
a single missionary. They were not in society, and, from
what I heard of their proceedings and could see for myself,
I don’t wonder at it. _Their influence on the natives is
bad._ Their converts are worthless, and, as a rule, of
the lowest class; _nor do they improve by conversion_. No
respectable family will employ Christian servants. They
lie, they steal, they are unclean--and dirt is certainly
not a Hindu vice; they drink--and no decent native of any
other belief ever touches intoxicating liquor; they are
outcasts from their own people and utterly despicable.
Their new teachers set them a poor example of consistency.
While holding forth to the Pariah that God makes no
distinction of persons, they boast intolerably over the
stray Brahmans, who, very much “off color,” occasionally,
at long intervals, fall into the clutches of these
hypocrites.
“The missionaries get very small salaries, as publicly
stated in the proceedings of the societies that employ
them, but, in some unaccountable way, manage to live as
well as officials with ten times their income. When they
come home to recover their health, shattered, as they say,
by their arduous labors--which they seem to be able to
afford to do quite frequently, when supposed richer people
cannot--they tell childish stories on platforms, exhibit
idols as procured with infinite difficulty, which is quite
absurd, and give an account of their imaginary hardships
which is perfectly harrowing but untrue from beginning
to end. I lived some years in India myself, and nearly
all my blood-relations have passed or will pass the best
years of their lives there. I know hundreds of British
officials, and I never heard from one of them a single word
in favor of the missionaries. Natives of any position look
on them with the supremest contempt, although suffering
chronic exasperation from their arrogant aggressiveness;
and the British Government, which continues endowments to
Pagodas, granted by the East India Company, and which
supports unsectarian education, gives them no countenance
whatever. Protected from personal violence, they yelp and
bark at natives and Europeans alike, after the fashion of
ill-conditioned curs. Often recruited from the poorest
specimens of theological fanaticism, they are regarded on
all sides as mischievous. Their rabid, reckless, vulgar,
and offensive propagandism caused the great Mutiny of 1857.
They are noisome humbugs.
“WM. L. D. O’GRADY.
“NEW YORK, June 12, 1877.”
The new creed therefore, with which we opened this chapter, coarse as
it may sound, embodies the very essence of the belief of the Church
as inculcated by her missionaries. It is regarded as less impious,
less infidel, to doubt the personal existence of the Holy Ghost, or
the equal Godhead of Jesus, than to question the personality of the
Devil. But a summary of Koheleth is well-nigh forgotten.[902] Who
ever quotes the golden words of the prophet Micah,[903] or seems to
care for the exposition of the Law, as given by Jesus himself?[904]
The “bull’s eye” in the target of Modern Christianity is in the
simple phrase to “fear the Devil.”
The Catholic clergy and some of the lay champions of the Roman Church
fight still more for the existence of Satan and his imps. If Des
Mousseaux maintains the objective reality of spiritual phenomena with
such an unrelenting ardor, it is because, in his opinion, the latter
are the most direct evidence of the Devil at work. The Chevalier
is more Catholic than the Pope; and his logic and deductions from
never-to-be and non-established premises are unique, and prove once
more that the creed offered by us is the one which expresses the
Catholic belief most eloquently.
“If magic and spiritualism,” he says, “were both but chimeras,
we would have to bid an eternal farewell to all the rebellious
angels, now troubling the world; for thus, we would have _no more
demons down here_.... And _if we lost our demons, we would_ LOSE
OUR SAVIOUR likewise. For, from whom did that Saviour come to save
us? And then, there would be no more Redeemer; for from whom or
what could that Redeemer redeem us? Hence, _there would be no more
Christianity_!!”[905]
Oh, Holy Father of Evil; Sainted Satan! We pray thee do not abandon
such pious Christians as the Chevalier des Mousseaux and some Baptist
clergymen!!
For our part, we would rather remember the wise words of J. C.
Colquhoun,[906] who says that “those persons who, in modern times,
adopt the doctrine of the Devil in its strictly literal and personal
application, do not appear to be aware that they are in reality
polytheists, heathens, idolaters.”
Seeking supremacy in everything over the ancient creeds, the
Christians claim the discovery of the Devil officially recognized
by the Church. Jesus was the first to use the word “legion” when
speaking of them; and it is on this ground that M. des Mousseaux thus
defends his position in one of his demonological works. “Later,”
he says, “when the synagogue _expired_, depositing its inheritance
in the hands of Christ, were born into the world and _shone_, the
Fathers of the Church, who have been accused by certain persons of a
rare and precious ignorance, of having borrowed their ideas as to the
spirits of darkness from the theurgists.”
Three deliberate, palpable, and easily-refuted errors--not to use
a harsher word--occur in these few lines. In the first place, the
synagogue, far from having _expired_, is flourishing at the present
day in nearly every town of Europe, America, and Asia; and of all
churches in Christian cities, it is the most firmly established,
as well as the best behaved. Further--while no one will deny that
many Christian Fathers were born into the world (always, of course,
excepting the twelve fictitious Bishops of Rome, who were never
born at all), every person who will take the trouble to read the
works of the Platonists of the old Academy, who were theurgists
before Iamblichus, will recognize therein the origin of Christian
Demonology as well as the Angelology, the allegorical meaning
of which was completely distorted by the Fathers. Then it could
hardly be admitted that the said Fathers ever _shone_, except,
perhaps, in the refulgence of their extreme ignorance. The Reverend
Dr. Shuckford, who passed the better part of his life trying to
reconcile their contradictions and absurdities, was finally driven to
abandon the whole thing in despair. The ignorance of the champions
of Plato must indeed appear rare and precious by comparison with
the fathomless profundity of Augustine, “the giant of learning and
erudition,” who scouted the sphericity of the earth, for, if true,
it would prevent the antipodes from seeing the Lord Christ when he
descended from heaven at the second advent; or, of Lactantius, who
rejects with pious horror Pliny’s identical theory, on the remarkable
ground that it would make the trees at the other side of the earth
grow and the men walk with their heads downward; or, again, of
Cosmas-Indicopleustes, whose orthodox system of geography is embalmed
in his “Christian topography;” or, finally, of Bede, who assured
the world that the heaven “is tempered with glacial waters, lest it
should be set on fire”[907]--a benign dispensation of Providence,
most likely to prevent the radiance of their learning from setting
the sky ablaze!
Be this as it may, these resplendent Fathers certainly did borrow
their notions of the “spirits of darkness” from the Jewish kabalists
and Pagan theurgists, with the difference, however, that they
disfigured and outdid in absurdity all that the wildest fancy of the
Hindu, Greek, and Roman rabble had ever created. There is not a dev
in the Persian Pandaimonion half so preposterous, as a conception, as
des Mousseaux’s _Incubus_ revamped from Augustine. Typhon, symbolized
as an _ass_, appears a philosopher in comparison with the devil
caught by the Normandy peasant in a key-hole; and it is certainly not
Ahriman or the Hindu Vritra who would run away in rage and dismay,
when addressed as _St. Satan_, by a native Luther.
The Devil is the patron genius of theological Christianity. So “holy
and reverend is his name” in modern conception, that it may not,
except occasionally from the pulpit, be uttered in ears polite. In
like manner, anciently, it was not lawful to speak the sacred names
or repeat the jargon of the Mysteries, except in the sacred cloister.
We hardly know the names of the Samothracian gods, but cannot tell
precisely the number of the Kabeiri. The Egyptians considered it
blasphemous to utter the title of the gods of their secret rites.
Even now, the Brahman only pronounces the syllable _Om_ in silent
thought, and the Rabbi, the Ineffable Name, יהוה. Hence, we who
exercise no such veneration, have been led into the blunders of
miscalling the names of HISIRIS and YAVA by the mispronunciations,
Osiris and Jehovah. A similar glamour bids fair, it will be perceived,
to gather round the designation of the dark personage of whom we are
treating; and in the familiar handling, we shall be very likely to
shock the peculiar sensibilities of many who will consider a free
mentioning of the Devil’s names as blasphemy--the sin of sins, that
“hath never forgiveness.”[908]
Several years ago an acquaintance of the author wrote a newspaper
article to demonstrate that the _diabolos_ or Satan of the _New
Testament_ denoted the personification of an abstract idea, and not
a personal being. He was answered by a clergyman, who concluded the
reply with the deprecatory expression, “I fear that he has denied
his Saviour.” In his rejoinder he pleaded, “Oh, no! we only denied
the Devil.” But the clergyman failed to perceive the difference. In
his conception of the matter, the denying of the personal objective
existence of the Devil was itself “the sin against the Holy Ghost.”
This necessary Evil, dignified by the epithet of “Father of Lies,”
was, according to the clergy, the founder of all the world-religions
of ancient time, and of the heresies, or rather heterodoxies,
of later periods, as well as the _Deus ex Machina_ of modern
Spiritualism. In the exceptions which we take to this notion, we
protest that we do not attack true religion or sincere piety. We
are only carrying on a controversy with human dogmas. Perhaps in
doing this we resemble Don Quixote, because these things are only
windmills. Nevertheless, let it be remembered that they have been
the occasion and pretext for the slaughtering of more than fifty
millions of human beings since the words were proclaimed: “LOVE YOUR
ENEMIES.”[909]
It is a late day for us to expect the Christian clergy to undo and
amend their work. They have too much at stake. If the Christian
Church should abandon or even modify the dogma of an anthropomorphic
devil, it would be like pulling the bottom card from under a castle
of cards. The structure would fall. The clergymen to whom we have
alluded perceived that upon the relinquishing of Satan as a personal
devil, the dogma of Jesus Christ as the second deity in their trinity
must go over in the same catastrophe. Incredible, or even horrifying,
as it may seem, the Roman Church bases its doctrine of the godhood of
Christ entirely upon the satanism of the fallen archangel. We have
the testimony of Father Ventura, who proclaims the vital importance
of this dogma to the Catholics.
The Reverend Father Ventura, the illustrious ex-general of the
Theatins, certifies that the Chevalier des Mousseaux, by his
treatise, _Mœurs et Pratiques des Démons_, has deserved well of
mankind, and still more of the most Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church. With this voucher, the noble Chevalier, it will be perceived,
“speaks as one having authority.” He asserts explicitly, that _to the
Devil and his angels we are absolutely indebted for our Saviour_; and
that but for them _we would have no Redeemer, no Christianity_.
Many zealous and earnest souls have revolted at the monstrous dogma
of John Calvin, the popekin of Geneva, that _sin is the necessary
cause of the greatest good_. It was bolstered up, nevertheless,
by logic like that of des Mousseaux, and illustrated by the same
dogmas. The execution of Jesus, the god-man, on the cross, was the
most prodigious crime in the universe, yet it was necessary that
mankind--those predestinated to everlasting life--might be saved.
D’Aubigné cites the quotation by Martin Luther from the canon, and
makes him exclaim, in ecstatic rapture: “_O beata culpa, qui talem
meruisti redemptorem_!” O blessed sin, which didst merit such a
Redeemer. We now perceive that the dogma which had appeared so
monstrous is, after all, the doctrine of Pope, Calvin, and Luther
alike--that the three are one.
Mahomet and his disciples, who held Jesus in great respect as a
prophet, remarks Eliphas Levi, used to utter, when speaking of
Christians, the following remarkable words: “Jesus of Nazareth was
verily a true prophet of Allah and a grand man; but lo! his disciples
all went insane one day, and made a god of him.”
Max Müller kindly adds: “It was a mistake of the early Fathers to
treat the heathen gods as demons or evil spirits, and we must take
care not to commit the same error with regard to the Hindu gods.”[910]
But we have Satan presented to us as the prop and mainstay of
sacerdotism--an Atlas, holding the Christian heaven and cosmos upon
his shoulders. If he falls, then, in their conception, all is lost,
and chaos must come again.
This dogma of the Devil and redemption seems to be based upon two
passages in the _New Testament_: “For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil.”[911]
“And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against
the Dragon; and the Dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed
not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great
Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world.” Let us, then, explore the ancient
Theogonies, in order to ascertain what was meant by these remarkable
expressions.
The first inquiry is whether the term _Devil_, as here used, actually
represents the malignant Deity of the Christians, or an antagonistic,
blind force--the dark side of nature. By the latter we are not to
understand the manifestation of any evil principle that is _malum
in se_, but only the shadow of the Light, so to say. The theories
of the kabalists treat of it as a force which is antagonistic, but
at the same time essential to the vitality, evolving, and vigor of
the good principle. Plants would perish in their first stage of
existence, if they were kept exposed to a constant sunlight; the
night alternating with the day is essential to their healthy growth
and development. Goodness, likewise, would speedily cease to be such,
were it not alternated by its opposite. In human nature, evil denotes
the antagonism of matter to the spiritual, and each is accordingly
purified thereby. In the cosmos, the equilibrium must be preserved;
the operation of the two contraries produce harmony, like the
centripetal and centrifugal forces, and are necessary to each other.
If one is arrested, the action of the other will immediately become
destructive.
This personification, denominated _Satan_, is to be contemplated
from three different planes: the _Old Testament_, the Christian
Fathers, and the ancient Gentile altitude. He is supposed to have
been represented by the Serpent in the Garden of Eden; nevertheless,
the epithet of Satan is nowhere in the Hebrew sacred writings applied
to that or any other variety of ophidian. The Brazen Serpent of
Moses was worshipped by the Israelites as a god;[912] being the
symbol of Esmun-Asklepius the Phœnician Iao. Indeed, the character
of Satan himself is introduced in the 1st book of _Chronicles_ in
the act of instigating King David to number the Israelitish people,
an act elsewhere declared specifically to have been moved by Jehovah
himself.[913] The inference is unavoidable that the two, Satan and
Jehovah, were regarded as identical.
Another mention of Satan is found in the _prophecies of Zechariah_.
This book was written at a period subsequent to the Jewish
colonization of Palestine, and hence, the Asideans may fairly be
supposed to have brought the personification thither from the East.
It is well known that this body of sectaries were deeply imbued with
the Mazdean notions; and that they represented Ahriman or Anra-manyas
by the god-names of Syria. Set or Sat-an, the god of the Hittites and
Hyk-sos, and Beel-Zebub the oracle-god, afterward the Grecian Apollo.
The prophet began his labors in Judea in the second year of Darius
Hystaspes, the restorer of the Mazdean worship. He thus describes the
encounter with Satan: “He showed me Joshua the high-priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand
to be his adversary. And the Lord said unto Satan: ‘The Lord rebuke
thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee:
is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’”[914]
We apprehend that this passage which we have quoted is symbolical.
There are two allusions in the _New Testament_ that indicate that it
was so regarded. The _Catholic Epistle of Jude_ refers to it in this
peculiar language: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with
the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, did not venture to
utter to him a reviling judgment κρῑσιν ἐπενεγκεῖν βλασφημίας, but
said, ‘The Lord rebuke thee.’”[915] The archangel Michael is thus
mentioned as identical with the יהוה Lord, or angel of the Lord, of
the preceding quotation, and thus is shown that the Hebrew Jehovah had
a twofold character, the secret and that manifested as the angel of
the Lord, or Michael the archangel. A comparison between these two
passages renders it plain that “the body of Moses” over which they
contended was Palestine, which as “the land of the Hittites”[916] was
the peculiar domain of Seth, their tutelar god.[917] Michael, as the
champion of the Jehovah-worship, contended with the Devil or
Adversary, but left judgment to his superior.
Belial is not entitled to the distinction of either god or devil.
The term בליעל, BELIAL, is defined in the Hebrew lexicons to mean
a destroying, waste, uselessness; or the phrase איש־בליעל AIS-BELIAL
or Belial-man signifies a wasteful, useless man. If Belial must be
personified to please our religious friends, we would be obliged to
make him perfectly distinct from Satan, and to consider him as a sort
of spiritual “Diakka.” The demonographers, however, who enumerate nine
distinct orders of _daimonia_, make him chief of the third class--a
set of hobgoblins, mischievous and good-for-nothing.
Asmodeus is no Jewish spirit at all, his origin being purely Persian.
Bréal, the author of _Hercule et Cacus_, shows that he is the Parsi
Eshem-Dev, or Aéshma-dev, the evil spirit of concupiscence, whom Max
Müller tells us “is mentioned several times in the _Avesta_ as one of
the Devs,[918] originally gods, who became evil spirits.”
Samael is Satan; but Bryan and a good many other authorities show it
to be the name of the “Simoun”--the wind of the desert,[919] and the
Simoun is called Atabul-os or Diabolos.
Plutarch remarks that by Typhon was understood anything violent,
unruly, and disorderly. The overflowing of the Nile was called by
the Egyptians Typhon. Lower Egypt is very flat, and any mounds built
along the river to prevent the frequent inundations, were called
Typhonian or _Taphos_; hence, the origin of Typhon. Plutarch, who
was a rigid, orthodox Greek, and never known to much compliment the
Egyptians, testifies in his _Isis and Osiris_, to the fact that,
far from worshipping the Devil (of which Christians accused them),
they despised more than they dreaded Typhon. In his symbol of the
opposing, obstinate power of nature, they believed him to be a poor,
struggling, half-dead divinity. Thus, even at that remote age, we
see the ancients already _too enlightened to believe in a personal
devil_. As Typhon was represented in one of his symbols under the
figure of an ass at the festival of the sun’s sacrifices, the
Egyptian priests exhorted the faithful worshippers not to carry gold
ornaments upon their bodies for fear of giving food to the _ass_![920]
Three and a half centuries before Christ, Plato expressed his opinion
of evil by saying that “there is in matter a blind, refractory force,
which resists the will of the Great Artificer.” This blind force,
under Christian influx, was made to see and become responsible; it
was transformed into Satan!
His identity with Typhon can scarcely be doubted upon reading the
account in _Job_ of his appearance with the sons of God, before the
Lord. He accuses Job of a readiness to curse the Lord to his face
upon sufficient provocation. So Typhon, in the Egyptian _Book of
the Dead_, figures as the accuser. The resemblance extends even to
the names, for one of Typhon’s appellations was _Seth_, or _Seph_;
as Sâtân, in Hebrew, means an adversary. In Arabic the word is
_Shâtana_--to be adverse, to persecute, and Manetho says he had
treacherously murdered Osiris and allied himself with the Shemites
(the Israelites). This may possibly have originated the fable told
by Plutarch, that, from the fight between Horus and Typhon, Typhon,
overcome with fright at the mischief he had caused, “fled seven days
on an ass, and escaping, begat the boys Ierosolumos and Ioudaios
(Jerusalem and Judea).”
Referring to an invocation of Typhon-Seth, Professor Reuvens says
that the Egyptians worshipped Typhon under the form of an ass; and
according to him Seth “appears gradually among the Semites as the
background of their religious consciousness.”[921] The name of
the ass in Coptic, AO, is a phonetic of IAO, and hence the animal
became a pun-symbol. Thus Satan is a later creation, sprung from
the overheated fancy of the Fathers of the Church. By some reverse
of fortune, to which the gods are subjected in common with mortals,
Typhon-Seth tumbled down from the eminence of the deified son of
Adam Kadmon, to the degrading position of a subaltern spirit, a
mythical demon--ass. Religious schisms are as little free from the
frail pettiness and spiteful feelings of humanity as the partisan
quarrels of laymen. We find a strong instance of the above in the
case of the Zoroastrian reform, when Magianism separated from the
old faith of the Brahmans. The bright Devas of the _Veda_ became,
under the religious reform of Zoroaster, daêvas, or evil spirits,
of the _Avesta_. Even Indra, the luminous god, was thrust far back
into the dark shadow[922] in order to show off, in a brighter light,
Ahura-mazda, the Wise and Supreme Deity.
The strange veneration in which the Ophites held the serpent which
represented Christos may become less perplexing if the students would
but remember that at all ages the serpent was the symbol of divine
wisdom, which kills in order to resurrect, destroys but to rebuild
the better. Moses is made a descendant of Levi, a serpent-tribe.
Gautama-Buddha is of a serpent-lineage, through the Naga (serpent)
race of kings who reigned in Magadha. Hermes, or the god Taaut
(Thoth), in his snake-symbol is Têt; and, according to the Ophite
legends, Jesus or Christos is born from a snake (divine wisdom, or
Holy Ghost), _i.e._, he became a Son of God through his initiation
into the “Serpent Science.” Vishnu, identical with the Egyptian
Kneph, rests on the heavenly _seven_-headed serpent.
The red or fiery dragon of the ancient time was the military ensign
of the Assyrians. Cyrus adopted it from them when Persia became
dominant. The Romans and Byzantines next assumed it; and so the
“great red dragon,” from being the symbol of Babylon and Nineveh,
became that of Rome.[923]
The temptation, or probation,[924] of Jesus is, however, the most
dramatic occasion in which Satan appears. As if to prove the
designation of Apollo, Æsculapius, and Bacchus, _Diobolos_, or son
of Zeus, he is also styled _Diabolos_, or accuser. The scene of the
probation was the wilderness. In the desert about the Jordan and
Dead Sea were the abodes of the “sons of the prophets,” and the
Essenes.[925] These ascetics used to subject their neophytes to
probations, analogous to the _tortures_ of the Mithraic rites; and
the temptation of Jesus was evidently a scene of this character.
Hence, in the _Gospel according to Luke_, it is stated that “the
Diabolos, having completed the probation, left him for a specific
time, αχρι καιροῦ; and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee.” But the διαβολος, or Devil, in this instance is evidently no
malignant principle, but one exercising discipline. In this sense the
terms Devil and Satan are repeatedly employed.[926] Thus, when Paul
was liable to undue elation by reason of the abundance of revelations
or epoptic disclosures, there was given him “a thorn in the flesh, an
angel of Satanas,” to check him.[927]
The story of Satan in the _Book of Job_ is of a similar character. He
is introduced among the “Sons of God,” presenting themselves before
the Lord, as in a Mystic initiation. Micaiah the prophet describes a
similar scene, where he “saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all
the host of Heaven standing by Him,” with whom He took counsel, which
resulted in putting “a lying spirit into the mouth of the prophets
of Ahab.”[928] The Lord counsels with Satan, and gives him _carte
blanche_ to test the fidelity of Job. He is stripped of his wealth
and family, and smitten with a loathsome disease. In his extremity,
his wife doubts his integrity, and exhorts him to worship God, as
he is about to die. His friends all beset him with accusations, and
finally the Lord, the chief hierophant Himself, taxes him with the
uttering of words in which there is no wisdom, and with contending
with the Almighty. To this rebuke Job yielded, making this appeal:
“I will demand of thee, and thou shalt declare unto me: wherefore
do I abhor myself and mourn in dust and ashes?” Immediately he was
vindicated. “The Lord said unto Eliphaz ... ye have not spoken of
me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” His integrity
had been asserted, and his prediction verified: “I know that my
Champion liveth, and that he will stand up for me at a later time on
the earth; and though after my skin my body itself be corroded away,
yet even then without my flesh shall I see God.” The prediction was
accomplished: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye seeth thee.... And the Lord turned the captivity of Job.”
In all these scenes there is manifested no such malignant diabolism
as is supposed to characterize “the adversary of souls.”
It is an opinion of certain writers of merit and learning, that
the Satan of the book of _Job_ is a Jewish myth, containing the
Mazdean doctrine of the Evil Principle. Dr. Haug remarks that “the
Zoroastrian religion exhibits a close affinity, or rather identity
with the Mosaic religion and Christianity, such as the personality
and attributes of the Devil, and the resurrection of the dead.”[929]
The war of the _Apocalypse_ between Michael and the Dragon, can be
traced with equal facility to one of the oldest myths of the Aryans.
In the _Avesta_ we read of war between Thrætaona and Azhi-Dahaka, the
destroying serpent. Burnouf has endeavored to show that the Vedic
myth of Ahi, or the serpent, fighting against the gods, has been
gradually euhemerized into “the battle of a pious man against the
power of evil,” in the Mazdean religion. By these interpretations
Satan would be made identical with Zohak or Azhi-Dahaka, who is a
three-headed serpent, with one of the heads a human one.[930]
Beel-Zebub is generally distinguished from Satan. He seems, in the
_Apocryphal New Testament_, to be regarded as the potentate of the
underworld. The name is usually rendered “Baal of the Flies,” which
may be a designation of the Scarabæi or sacred beetles.[931] More
correctly it shall be read, as it is always given in the Greek text
of the _Gospels_, Beelzebul, or lord of the household, as is indeed
intimated in _Matthew_ x. 25: “If they have called the master of
the house Beelzebul, how much more shall they call them of his
household.” He was also styled the prince or archon of dæmons.
Typhon figures in the _Book of the Dead_, as the Accuser of souls
when they appear for judgment, as Satan stood up to accuse Joshua,
the high-priest, before the angel, and as the Devil came to Jesus to
tempt or test him during his great fast in the wilderness. He was
also the deity denominated Baal-Tsephon, or god of the crypt, in the
book of _Exodus_, and _Seth_, or the pillar. During this period, the
ancient or archaic worship was more or less under the ban of the
government; in figurative language, Osiris had been treacherously
slain and cut in fourteen (twice _seven_) pieces, and coffined by his
brother Typhon, and Isis had gone to Byblos in quest of his body.
We must not forget in this relation that Saba or Sabazios, of Phrygia
and Greece, was torn by the Titans into _seven_ pieces, and that he
was, like Heptaktis of the Chaldeans, the _seven_-rayed god. Siva,
the Hindu, is represented crowned with seven serpents, and he is the
god of war and destruction. The Hebrew Jehovah the Sabaoth is also
called the Lord of hosts, Seba or Saba, Bacchus or Dionysus Sabazios;
so that all these may easily be proved identical.
Finally the princes of the older _régime_, the gods who had, on the
assault of the giants, taken the forms of animals and hidden in
Æthiopia, returned and expelled the shepherds.
According to Josephus, the Hyk-sos were the ancestors of the
Israelites.[932] This is doubtless substantially true. The Hebrew
_Scriptures_, which tell a somewhat different story, were written
at a later period, and underwent several revisions, before they
were promulgated with any degree of publicity. Typhon became odious
in Egypt, and shepherds “an abomination.” “In the course of the
twentieth dynasty he was suddenly treated as an evil demon, insomuch
that his effigies and name are obliterated on all the monuments and
inscriptions that could be reached.”[933]
In all ages the gods have been liable to be euhemerized into men.
There are tombs of Zeus, Apollo, Hercules, and Bacchus, which are
often mentioned to show that originally they were only mortals. Shem,
Ham, and Japhet, are traced in the divinities Shamas of Assyria,
Kham of Egypt, and Iapetos the Titan. Seth was god of the Hyk-sos,
Enoch, or Inachus, of the Argives; and Abraham, Isaac, and Judah have
been compared with Brahma, Ikshwaka, and Yadu of the Hindu pantheon.
Typhon tumbled down from godhead to devilship, both in his own
character as brother of Osiris, and as the Seth, or Satan of Asia.
Apollo, the god of day, became, in his older Phœnician garb, no more
Baal Zebul, the Oracle-god, but prince of demons, and finally the
lord of the underworld. The separation of Mazdeanism from Vedism,
transformed the _devas_ or gods into evil potencies. Indra, also, in
the _Vendidad_ is set forth as the subaltern of Ahriman,[934] created
by him out of the materials of darkness,[935] together with Siva
(Surya) and the two Aswins. Even Jahi is the demon of Lust--probably
identical with Indra.
The several tribes and nations had their tutelar gods, and vilified
those of inimical peoples. The transformation of Typhon, Satan and
Beelzebub are of this character. Indeed, Tertullian speaks of Mithra,
the god of the Mysteries, as a devil.
In the twelfth chapter of the _Apocalypse_, Michael and his angels
overcame the Dragon and his angels: “and the Great Dragon was cast
out, that Archaic Ophis, called Diabolos and Satan, that deceiveth
the whole world.” It is added: “They overcame him by the blood of the
Lamb.” The Lamb, or Christ, had to descend himself to hell, the world
of the dead, and remain there three days before he subjugated the
enemy, according to the myth.
Michael was denominated by the kabalists and the Gnostics, “the
Saviour,” the angel of the Sun, and angel of Light. (מיכאל, probably,
from יכח to manifest and אל God.) He was the first of the Æons, and
was well-known to antiquarians as the “unknown angel” represented on
the Gnostic amulets.
The writer of the _Apocalypse_, if not a kabalist, must have been
a Gnostic. Michael was not a personage originally exhibited to
him in his vision (epopteia) but the Saviour and Dragon-slayer.
Archæological explorations have indicated him as identical with
Anubis, whose effigy was lately discovered upon an Egyptian monument,
with a cuirass and holding a spear, like St. Michael and St. George.
He is also represented as slaying a Dragon, that has the head and
tail of a serpent.[936]
The student of Lepsius, Champollion, and other Egyptologists will
quickly recognize Isis as the “woman with child,” “clothed with the
Sun and with the Moon under her feet,” whom the “great fiery Dragon”
persecuted, and to whom “were given two wings of the Great Eagle that
she might fly into the wilderness.” Typhon was red-skinned.[937]
The Two Brothers, the Good and Evil Principles, appear in the Myths
of the _Bible_ as well as those of the Gentiles, and Cain and Abel,
Typhon and Osiris, Esau and Jacob, Apollo and Python, etc., Esau
or Osu, is represented, when born, as “red all over like as hairy
garment.” He is the Typhon or Satan, opposing his brother.
From the remotest antiquity the serpent was held by every people
in the greatest veneration, as the embodiment of Divine wisdom and
the symbol of spirit, and we know from Sanchoniathon that it was
Hermes or Thoth who was the first to regard the serpent as “the
most spirit-like of all the reptiles;” and the Gnostic serpent
with the seven vowels over the head is but the copy of Ananta, the
seven-headed serpent on which rests the god Vishnu.
We have experienced no little surprise to find upon reading the
latest European treatises upon serpent-worship, that the writers
confess that the public is “still almost in the dark as to the origin
of the superstition in question.” Mr. C. Staniland Wake, M.A.I., from
whom we now quote, says: “The student of mythology knows that certain
ideas were associated by the peoples of antiquity with the serpent,
and that it was the favorite symbol of particular deities; but why
that animal rather than any other was chosen for the purpose is yet
uncertain.”[938]
Mr. James Fergusson, F.R.S., who has gathered together such an
abundance of material upon this ancient cult, seems to have no more
suspicion of the truth than the rest.[939]
Our explanation of the myth may be of little value to students
of symbology, and yet we believe that the interpretation of the
primitive serpent-worship as given by the initiates is the correct
one. In Vol. i., p. 10, we quote from the serpent Mantra, in the
_Aytareya-Brahmana_, a passage which speaks of the earth as the
_Sarpa Râjni_, the Queen of the Serpents, and “the mother of all
that moves.” These expressions refer to the fact that before our
globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail of cosmic
dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the
explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its
breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular
shape of a serpent with its tail in its mouth--emblem of eternity
in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense. According
to the notions of the oldest philosophers, as we have shown in the
preceding chapter, the earth, serpent-like, casts off its skin and
appears after every minor pralaya in a rejuvenated state, and after
the great pralaya resurrects or evolves again from its subjective
into objective existence. Like the serpent, it not only “puts off its
old age,” says Sanchoniathon, “but increases in size and strength.”
This is why not only Serapis, and later, Jesus, were represented by a
great serpent, but even why, in our own century, big snakes are kept
with sacred care in Moslem mosques; for instance, in that of Cairo.
In Upper Egypt a famous saint is said to appear under the form of
a large serpent; and in India in some children’s cradles a pair of
serpents, male and female, are reared with the infant, and snakes
are often kept in houses, as they are thought to bring (a magnetic
aura of) wisdom, health, and good luck. They are the progeny of Sarpa
Râjni, the earth, and endowed with all her virtues.
In the Hindu mythology Vasaki, the Great Dragon, pours forth upon
Durga, from his mouth, a poisonous fluid which overspreads the
ground, but her consort Siva caused the earth to open her mouth and
swallow it.
Thus the mystic drama of the celestial virgin pursued by the
dragon seeking to devour her child, was not only depicted in the
constellations of heaven, as has been mentioned, but was represented
in the secret worship of the temples. It was the mystery of the
god Sol, and inscribed on a black image of Isis.[940] The Divine
Boy was chased by the cruel Typhon.[941] In an Egyptian legend the
Dragon is said to pursue Thuesis (Isis) while she is endeavoring
to protect her son.[942] Ovid describes Dioné (the consort of the
original Pelasgian Zeus, and mother of Venus) as flying from Typhon
to the Euphrates,[943] thus identifying the myth as belonging to all
the countries where the Mysteries were celebrated. Virgil sings the
victory:
“Hail, dear child of gods, great son of Jove!
Receive the honors great; the time is at hand;
The Serpent will die!”[944]
Albertus Magnus, himself an alchemist and student of occult science,
as well as a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, in his enthusiasm
for astrology, declared that the zodiacal sign of the celestial
virgin rises above the horizon on the twenty-fifth of December, at
the moment assigned by the Church for the birth of the Saviour.[945]
The sign and myth of the mother and child were known thousands of
years before the Christian era. The drama of the Mysteries of Demeter
represents Persephoneia, her daughter, as carried away by Pluto
or Hades into the world of the dead; and when the mother finally
discovers her there, she has been installed as queen of the realm of
Darkness. This myth was transcribed by the Church into the legend
of St. Anna[946] going in quest of her daughter Mary, who has been
conveyed by Joseph into Egypt. Persephoné is depicted with two
ears of wheat in her hand; so is Mary in the old pictures; so was
the Celestial Virgin of the constellation. Albumazar the Arabian
indicates the identity of the several myths as follows:
“In the first decan of the Virgin rises a maid, called in Arabic
Aderenosa [Adha-nari?], that is, pure immaculate virgin,[947]
graceful in person, charming in countenance, modest in habit, with
loosened hair, holding in her hands two ears of wheat, sitting upon
an embroidered throne, nursing a boy, and rightly feeding him in the
place called Hebræa; a boy, I say, named Iessus by certain nations,
which signifies Issa, whom they also call Christ in Greek.”[948]
At this time Grecian, Asiatic, and Egyptian ideas had undergone a
remarkable transformation. The Mysteries of Dionysus-Sabazius had
been replaced by the rites of Mithras, whose “caves” superseded
the crypts of the former god, from Babylon to Britain. Serapis, or
Sri-Apa, from Pontus, had usurped the place of Osiris. The king of
Eastern Hindustan, Asoka, had embraced the religion of Siddhârtha,
and sent missionaries clear to Greece, Asia, Syria, and Egypt,
to promulgate the evangel of wisdom. The Essenes of Judea and
Arabia, the Therapeutists[949] of Egypt, and the Pythagorists[950]
of Greece and Magna Græcia, were evidently religionists of the
new faith. The legends of Gautama superseded the myths of Horus,
Anubis, Adonis, Atys, and Bacchus. These were wrought anew into the
Mysteries and Gospels, and to them we owe the literature known as
the _Evangelists_ and the _Apocryphal New Testament_. They were kept
by the Ebionites, Nazarenes, and other sects as sacred books, which
they might “show only to the wise;” and were so preserved till the
overshadowing influence of the Roman ecclesiastical polity was able
to wrest them from those who kept them.
At the time that the high-priest Hilkiah is said to have found the
_Book of the Law_, the Hindu _Puranas_ (Scriptures) were known to
the Assyrians. These last had for many centuries held dominion from
the Hellespont to the Indus, and probably crowded the Aryans out of
Bactriana into the Punjâb. The _Book of the Law_ seems to have been
a _purana_. “The learned Brahmans,” says Sir William Jones, “pretend
that five conditions are requisite to constitute a real _purana_:
“1. To treat of the creation of matter in general.
“2. To treat of _the creation or production of secondary material and
spiritual beings_.
“3. To give a chronological abridgment of the great periods of time.
“4. To give a genealogical abridgment of the principal families that
reigned over the country.
“5. Lastly, to give the history of some great man in particular.”
It is pretty certain that whoever wrote the _Pentateuch_ had this
plan before him, as well as those who wrote the _New Testament_
had become thoroughly well acquainted with Buddhistic ritualistic
worship, legends and doctrines, through the Buddhist missionaries who
were many in those days in Palestine and Greece.
But “no Devil, no Christ.” This is the basic dogma of the Church. We
must hunt the two together. There is a mysterious connection between
the two, more close than perhaps is suspected, amounting to identity.
If we collect together the mythical sons of God, all of whom were
regarded as “first-begotten,” they will be found dovetailing together
and blending in this dual character. Adam Kadmon bifurcates from the
spiritual conceptive wisdom into the creative one, which evolves
_matter_. The Adam made from dust is both son of God and Satan; and
the latter is also a son of God,[951] according to Job.
Hercules was likewise “the First-Begotten.” He is also Bel, Baal,
and Bal, and therefore Siva, the Destroyer. Bacchus was styled by
Euripides, “Bacchus, the Son of God.” As a child, Bacchus, like
the Jesus of the _Apocryphal Gospels_, was greatly dreaded. He is
described as benevolent to mankind; nevertheless he was merciless
in punishing whomever failed of respect to his worship. Pentheus,
the son of Cadmus and Hermioné, was, like the son of Rabbi Hannon,
destroyed for his want of piety.
The allegory of Job, which has been already cited, if correctly
understood, will give the key to this whole matter of the Devil, his
nature and office; and will substantiate our declarations. Let no
pious individual take exception to this designation of allegory. Myth
was the favorite and universal method of teaching in archaic times.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, declared that the entire story of
Moses and the Israelites was typical;[952] and in his _Epistle to the
Galatians_, asserted that the whole story of Abraham, his two wives,
and their sons was an allegory.[953] Indeed, it is a theory amounting
to certitude, that the historical books of the _Old Testament_ were
of the same character. We take no extraordinary liberty with the
_Book of Job_ when we give it the same designation which Paul gave
the stories of Abraham and Moses.
But we ought, perhaps, to explain the ancient use of allegory and
symbology. The truth in the former was left to be deduced; the symbol
expressed some abstract quality of the Deity, which the laity could
easily apprehend. Its higher sense terminated there; and it was
employed by the multitude thenceforth as an image to be employed
in idolatrous rites. But the allegory was reserved for the inner
sanctuary, when only the elect were admitted. Hence the rejoinder of
Jesus when his disciples interrogated him because he spoke to the
multitude in parables. “To you,” said he, “it is given to know the
mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath.” In the minor Mysteries a sow was washed to typify the
purification of the neophyte; as her return to the mire indicated the
superficial nature of the work that had been accomplished.
“The Mythus is the undisclosed thought of the soul. The characteristic
trait of the myth is to convert reflection into history (a historical
form). As in the epos, so in the myth, the historical element
predominates. Facts (external events) often constitute the basis of
the myth, and with these, religious ideas are interwoven.”
The whole allegory of Job is an open book to him who understands
the picture-language of Egypt as it is recorded in _the Book of the
Dead_. In the Scene of Judgment, Osiris is represented sitting on
his throne, holding in one hand the symbol of life, “the hook of
attraction,” and in the other the mystic Bacchic fan. Before him
are the sons of God, the forty-two assessors of the dead. An altar
is immediately before the throne, covered with gifts and surmounted
with the sacred lotus-flower, upon which stand four spirits. By the
entrance stands the soul about to be judged, whom Thmei, the genius
of Truth, is welcoming to this conclusion of the probation. Thoth
holding a reed, makes a record of the proceedings in the Book of
Life. Horus and Anubis, standing by the scales, inspect the weight
which determines whether the heart of the deceased balances the
symbol of truth, or the latter preponderates. On a pedestal sits a
bitch--the symbol of the Accuser.
Initiation into the Mysteries, as every intelligent person knows, was
a dramatic representation of scenes in the underworld. Such was the
allegory of Job.
Several critics have attributed the authorship of this book to Moses.
But it is older than the _Pentateuch_. Jehovah is not mentioned in
the poem itself; and if the name occurs in the prologue, the fact
must be attributed to either an error of the translators, or the
premeditation exacted by the later necessity to transform polytheism
into a monotheistic religion. The plan adopted was the very simple
one of attributing the many names of the Elohim (gods) to a single
god. So in one of the oldest Hebrew texts of Job (in chapter xii.
9) there stands the name of Jehovah, whereas all other manuscripts
have “Adonai.” But in the original poem Jehovah is absent. In place
of this name we find _Al_, _Aleim_, _Ale_, _Shaddai_, _Adonai_, etc.
Therefore, we must conclude that either the prologue and epilogue
were added at a later period, which is inadmissible for many reasons,
or that it has been tampered with like the rest of the manuscripts.
Then, we find in this archaic poem no mention whatever of the
Sabbatical Institution; but a great many references to the sacred
number seven, of which we will speak further, and a direct discussion
upon Sabeanism, the worship of the heavenly bodies prevailing in
those days in Arabia. Satan is called in it a “Son of God,” one of
the council which presents itself before God, and he leads him into
tempting Job’s fidelity. In this poem, clearer and plainer than
anywhere else, do we find the meaning of the appellation, Satan. It
is a term for the office or character of _public accuser_. Satan is
the Typhon of the Egyptians, barking his accusations in Amenthi; an
office quite as respectable as that of the public prosecutor, in our
own age; and if, through the ignorance of the first Christians, he
became later identical with the Devil, it is through no connivance of
his own.
The _Book of Job_ is a complete representation of ancient initiation,
and the trials which generally precede this grandest of all
ceremonies. The neophyte perceives himself deprived of everything
he valued, and afflicted with foul disease. His wife appeals to
him to adore God and die; there was no more hope for him. Three
friends appear on the scene by mutual appointment: Eliphaz, the
learned Temanite, full of the knowledge “which wise men have told
from their fathers--to whom alone the earth was given;” Bildad, the
conservative, taking matters as they come, and judging Job to have
done wickedly, because he was afflicted; and Zophar, intelligent
and skilful with “generalities” but not interiorly wise. Job boldly
responds: “If I have erred, it is a matter with myself. You magnify
yourselves and plead against me in my reproach; but it is God who has
overthrown me. Why do you persecute me and are not satisfied with
my flesh thus wasted away? But I know that my Champion lives, and
that at a coming day he will stand for me in the earth; and though,
together with my skin, all this beneath it shall be destroyed, yet
without my flesh I shall see God.... Ye shall say: ‘Why do we molest
him?’ for the root of the matter is found in me!”
This passage, like all others in which the faintest allusions
could be found to a “Champion,” “Deliverer,” or “Vindicator,” was
interpreted into a direct reference to the Messiah; but apart from
the fact that in the Septuagint this verse is translated:
“For I know that He is eternal
Who is about to deliver me on earth,
To restore this skin of mine which endures these things,” etc.
In King James’s version, as it stands translated, it has no
resemblance whatever to the original.[954] The crafty translators
have rendered it, “I know that _my Redeemer liveth_,” etc. And
yet _Septuagint_, _Vulgate_, and Hebrew original, have all to
be considered as an inspired Word of God. Job refers to his own
_immortal_ spirit which is eternal, and which, when death comes,
will deliver him from his putrid earthly body and clothe him with
a new spiritual envelope. In the _Mysteries of Eleusinia_, in
the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_, and all other works treating on
matters of initiation, this “eternal being” has a name. With the
Neo-platonists it was the _Nous_, the _Augoeides_; with the Buddhists
it is _Aggra_; and with the Persians, _Ferwer_. All of these are
called the “Deliverers,” the “Champions,” the “Metatrons,” etc. In
the Mithraic sculptures of Persia, the _ferwer_ is represented by a
winged figure hovering in the air above its “object” or body.[955] It
is the luminous Self--the Âtman of the Hindus, our immortal spirit,
who alone can redeem our soul; and will, if we follow him instead of
being dragged down by our body. Therefore, in the Chaldean texts,
the above reads, “My _deliverer_, my _restorer_,” _i.e._, the Spirit
who will restore the decayed body of man, and transform it into a
clothing of ether. And it is this _Nous_, _Augoeides_, _Ferwer_,
_Aggra_, Spirit of himself, that the triumphant Job shall see without
his flesh--_i.e._, when he has escaped from his bodily prison, and
that the translators call “God.”
Not only is there not the slightest allusion in the poem of Job
to Christ, but it is now well proved that all those versions by
different translators, which agree with that of king James, were
written on the authority of Jerome, who has taken strange liberties
in his _Vulgate_. He was the first to cram into the text this verse
of his own fabrication:
“_I know that my Redeemer lives_,
And at the last day _I shall arise from the earth_,
And again shall be surrounded with my skin,
And in my flesh I shall see my God.”
All of which might have been a good reason for himself to believe
in it since _he knew it_, but for others who did _not_, and who
moreover found in the text a quite different idea, it only proves
that Jerome had decided, by one more interpolation, to enforce the
dogma of a resurrection “at the last day,” and in the identical skin
and bones which we had used on earth. This is an agreeable prospect
of “restoration” indeed. Why not the linen also, in which the body
happens to die?
And how could the author of the _Book of Job_ know anything of the
_New Testament_, when evidently he was utterly ignorant even of
the _Old_ one? There is a total absence of allusion to any of the
patriarchs; and so evidently is it the work of an _Initiate_, that
one of the three daughters of Job is even called by a decidedly
“Pagan” mythological name. The name of _Kerenhappuch_ is rendered
in various ways by the many translators. The _Vulgate_ has “horn
of antimony;” and the LXX has the “horn of Amalthea,” the nurse
of Jupiter, and one of the constellations, emblem of the “horn of
plenty.” The presence in the _Septuagint_ of this heroine of Pagan
fable, shows the ignorance of the transcribers of its meaning as well
as the esoteric origin of the _Book of Job_.
Instead of offering consolations, the three friends of the suffering
Job seek to make him believe that his misfortune must have come
in punishment of some extraordinary transgressions on his part.
Hurling back upon them all their imputations, Job swears that while
his breath is in him he will maintain his cause. He takes in view
the period of his prosperity “when the secret of God was upon his
tabernacles,” and he was a judge “who sat chief, and dwelt as a king
in the army, or one that comforteth the mourners,” and compares with
it the present time--when vagrant Bedouins held him in derision,
men “viler than the earth,” when he was prostrated by misfortune
and foul disease. Then he asserts his sympathy for the unfortunate,
his chastity, his integrity, his probity, his strict justice,
his charities, his moderation, his freedom from the prevalent
sun-worship, his tenderness to enemies, his hospitality to strangers,
his openness of heart, his boldness for the right, though he
encountered the multitude and the contempt of families; and invokes
the Almighty to answer him, and his adversary to write down of what
he had been guilty.
To this there was not, and could not be, any answer. The three had
sought to crush Job by pleadings and general arguments, and he had
demanded consideration for his specific acts. Then appeared the
fourth; Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of
Ram.[956]
Elihu is the hierophant; he begins with a rebuke, and the sophisms
of Job’s false friends are swept away like the loose sand before the
west wind.
“And Elihu, the son of Barachel, spoke and said: ‘Great men are
not always wise ... there _is_ a spirit in man; the _spirit within
me_ constraineth me.... God speaketh once, yea twice, _yet man_
perceiveth it not. In a dream; in a vision of the night, when deep
sleep falleth upon man, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth
the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction. O Job, hearken unto
me; hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee WISDOM.’”
And Job, who to the dogmatic fallacies of his three friends in the
bitterness of his heart had exclaimed: “No doubt but ye are _the_
people, and wisdom shall die with you.... Miserable comforters are ye
all.... Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason
with God. But _ye_ are forgers of lies, _ye_ are physicians of no
value!” The sore-eaten, visited Job, who in the face of the official
clergy--offering for all hope the necessarianism of damnation, had
in his despair nearly wavered in his patient faith, answered: “What
_ye_ know, _the same_ do I know also; I am not inferior unto you....
Man cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a
shadow, _and continueth not_.... Man dieth, and wasteth away, yea,
man giveth up the ghost, and _where is he?_... If a man die shall
he _live_ again?... When a few years are come then I shall go the
way _whence_ I shall not return.... O that one might plead for a man
with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” Job finds one who
answers to his cry of agony. He listens to the wisdom of Elihu, the
hierophant, the perfected teacher, the inspired philosopher. From his
stern lips comes the just rebuke for his impiety in charging upon the
SUPREME Being the evils of humanity. “God,” says Elihu, “is excellent
in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice; HE _will not
afflict_.”
So long as the neophyte was satisfied with his own worldly wisdom and
irreverent estimate of the Deity and His purposes; so long as he gave
ear to the pernicious sophistries of his advisers, the hierophant
kept silent. But, when this anxious mind was ready for counsel and
instruction, his voice is heard, and he speaks with the authority of
the Spirit of God that “constraineth” him: “Surely God will not hear
_vanity_, neither will the Almighty regard it.... He respecteth not
any that are wise at heart.”
What better commentary than this upon the fashionable preacher, who
“_multiplieth_ words without knowledge!” This magnificent _prophetic_
satire might have been written to prefigure the spirit that prevails
in all the denominations of Christians.
Job hearkens to the words of wisdom, and then the “Lord” answers Job
“out of the whirlwind” of nature, God’s first visible manifestation:
“Stand still, O Job, stand still! and consider the wondrous works of
God; for _by them alone_ thou canst know God. ‘Behold, God is great,
and _we know him not_,’ Him who ‘maketh small the drops of water;
_but they_ pour down rain _according to the vapor thereof_;’”[957]
not according to the divine whim, but to the once established and
immutable laws. Which law “removeth the mountains and they know not;
which shaketh the earth; which commandeth the sun, and _it riseth
not_; and sealeth up the stars; ... which doeth great things _past
finding out_; yea, and _wonders without number_.... Lo, _He goeth by
me_, and I see _him not_; he passeth on also, but _I perceive him
not_!”[958]
Then, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without
knowledge?”[959] speaks the voice of God through His mouthpiece--
nature. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures
thereof, _if thou knowest_? When the morning stars sang together, and
all the sons of God shouted for joy?... Wast thou present when I said
to the seas, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall
thy proud waves be stayed?’... Knowest thou who hath caused it to rain
on the earth, _where no man is_; on the wilderness, wherein _there is
no man_.... Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose
the bands of Orion?... Canst thou _send lightnings_, that they may go,
and say unto thee, ‘Here we are?’”[960]
“Then Job answered the Lord.” He understood His ways, and his eyes
were opened for the first time. The Supreme Wisdom descended upon
him; and if the reader remain puzzled before this final PETROMA of
initiation, at least Job, or the man “afflicted” in his blindness,
then realized the impossibility of catching “Leviathan by putting a
hook into his nose.” The Leviathan is OCCULT SCIENCE, on which one
can lay his hand, but “_do no more_,”[961] whose power and “comely
proportion” God wishes not to conceal.
“Who can discover the face of his garment, or who can come to him
with his _double bridle_? Who can open the doors of his face, ‘of
him whose _scales_ are his pride, shut up together as _with a closed
seal_?’ Through whose ‘neesings a light doth shine,’ and whose eyes
are like the lids of the morning.” Who “maketh a light to _shine_
after him,” for those who have the fearlessness to approach him. And
then they, like him, will behold “all _high_ things, for he is king
only over all the children of pride.”[962]
Job, now in modest confidence, responded:
“I know that thou canst do everything,
And that no thought of thine can be resisted.
Who is he that maketh a show of arcane wisdom,
Of which he knoweth nothing?
Thus have I uttered what I did not comprehend--
Things far above me, which I did not know.
Hear! I beseech thee, and I will speak;
I will demand of thee, and do thou answer me:
I have heard thee with my ears,
And now I see thee with my eyes,
Wherefore am I loathsome,
And mourn in dust and ashes?”
He recognized his “champion,” and was assured that the time for his
vindication had come. Immediately the Lord (“the priests and the
judges,” _Deuteronomy_ xix. 17) saith to his friends: “My wrath is
kindled against thee and against thy two friends; for ye have not
spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” So
“the Lord turned the captivity of Job,” and “blessed the latter end
of Job more than his beginning.”
Then in the judgment the deceased invokes four spirits who preside
over the Lake of Fire, and is purified by them. He then is conducted
to his celestial house, and is received by Athar and Isis, and
stands before _Atum_,[963] the essential God. He is now _Turu_, the
essential man, a pure spirit, and henceforth On-ati, the eye of fire,
and an associate of the gods.
This grandiose poem of Job was well understood by the kabalists.
While many of the mediæval Hermetists were profoundly religious
men, they were, in their innermost hearts--like kabalists of every
age--the deadliest enemies of the clergy. How true the words
of Paracelsus when worried by fierce persecution and slander,
misunderstood by friends and foes, abused by clergy and laity, he
exclaimed:
“O ye of Paris, Padua, Montpellier, Salerno, Vienna, and Leipzig!
Ye are not teachers of the truth, but confessors of lies. Your
philosophy is a lie. Would you know _what_ MAGIC _really is_, then
seek it in St. John’s _Revelation_.... As you cannot yourselves prove
your teachings from the _Bible_ and the _Revelation_, then let your
farces have an end. The _Bible is the true key and interpreter_.
John, not less than Moses, Elias, Enoch, David, Solomon, Daniel,
Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets, was a _magician_, kabalist,
and diviner. If now, all, or even any of those I have named, were yet
living, I do not doubt that you would make an example of them in your
miserable slaughter-house, and would annihilate them there on the
spot, and _if_ it were possible, the Creator of all things too!”
That Paracelsus had learned some mysterious and useful things out of
_Revelation_ and other _Bible_ books, as well as from the _Kabala_,
was proved by him practically; so much so, that he is called by
many the “father of magic and founder of the occult physics of the
_Kabala_ and magnetism.”[964]
So firm was the popular belief in the supernatural powers of
Paracelsus, that to this day the tradition survives among the
simple-minded Alsatians that he is not dead, but “sleepeth in his
grave” at Strasburg.[965] And they often whisper among themselves
that the green sod heaves with every respiration of that weary
breast, and that deep groans are heard as the great fire-philosopher
awakes to the remembrance of the cruel wrongs he suffered at the
hands of his cruel slanderers for the sake of the great truth!
It will be perceived from these extended illustrations that the Satan
of the _Old Testament_, the Diabolos or Devil of the _Gospels_ and
_Apostolic Epistles_, were but the antagonistic principle in matter,
necessarily incident to it, and not wicked in the moral sense of the
term. The Jews, coming from the Persian country, brought with them
the doctrine of _two principles_. They could not bring the _Avesta_,
for it was not written. But they--we mean the _Astdians_ and
_Pharsi_--invested Ormazd with the secret name of יהוה, and
Ahriman with the name of the gods of the land, Satan of the Hittites,
and _Diabolos_, or rather Diobolos, of the Greeks. The early Church,
at least the Pauline part of it, the Gnostics and their successors,
further refined upon their ideas; and the Catholic Church adopted and
adapted them, meanwhile putting their promulgators to the sword.
The Protestant is a reaction from the Roman Catholic Church. It is
necessarily not coherent in its parts, but a prodigious host of
fragments beating their way round a common centre, attracting and
repelling each other. Parts are centripetally impelled towards old
Rome, or the system which enabled old Rome to exist; part still
recoil under the centrifugal impulse, and seek to rush into the broad
ethereal region beyond Roman, or even Christian influence.
The modern Devil is their principal heritage from the Roman Cybelè,
“Babylon, the Great Mother of the idolatrous and abominable religions
of the earth.”
But it may be argued, perhaps, that Hindu theology, both Brahmanical
and Buddhistic, is as strongly impregnated with belief in objective
devils as Christianity itself. There is a slight difference. This
very _subtlety_ of the Hindu mind is a sufficient warrant that the
well-educated people, the learned portion, at least, of the Brahman
and Buddhist divines, consider the Devil in another light. With them
the Devil is a metaphysical abstraction, an allegory of necessary
_evil_; while _with Christians the myth has become a historical
entity, the fundamental stone on which Christianity, with its dogma
of redemption, is built_. He is as necessary--as Des Mousseaux has
shown--to the Church as the beast of the seventeenth chapter of the
_Apocalypse_ was to his rider. The English-speaking Protestants, not
finding the _Bible_ explicit enough, have adopted the _Diabology_ of
Milton’s celebrated poem, _Paradise Lost_, embellishing it somewhat
from Goethe’s celebrated drama of _Faust_. John Milton, first a
Puritan and finally a Quietist and Unitarian, never put forth his
great production except as a work of fiction, but it thoroughly
dovetailed together the different parts of Scripture. The Ilda-Baoth
of the Ophites was transformed into an angel of light, and the
morning star, and made the Devil in the first act of the _Diabolic
Drama_. Then the twelfth chapter of the _Apocalypse_ was brought in
for the second act. The great red Dragon was adopted as the same
illustrious personage as _Lucifer_, and the last scene is his fall,
like that of Vulcan-Hephaistos, from Heaven into the island of
Lemnos; the fugitive hosts and their leader “coming to hard bottom”
in Pandemonium. The third act is the Garden of Eden. Satan holds a
council in a hall erected by him for his new empire, and determines
to go forth on an exploring expedition in quest of the new world. The
next acts relate to the fall of man, his career on earth, the advent
of the Logos, or Son of God, and his redemption of mankind, or the
elect portion of them, as the case may be.
This drama of _Paradise Lost_ comprises the unformulated belief of
English-speaking “evangelical Protestant Christians.” Disbelief of
its main features is equivalent, in their view, to “denying Christ”
and “blaspheming against the Holy Ghost.” If John Milton had supposed
that his poem, instead of being regarded as a companion of Dante’s
_Divine Comedy_, would have been considered as another _Apocalypse_
to supplement the _Bible_, and complete its demonology, it is more
than probable that he would have borne his poverty more resolutely,
and withheld it from the press. A later poet, Robert Pollok, taking
his cue from this work, wrote another, _The Course of Time_, which
bade fair for a season to take the rank of a later _Scripture_;
but the nineteenth century has fortunately received a different
inspiration, and the Scotch poet is falling into oblivion.
We ought, perhaps, to make a brief notice of the European Devil. He
is the genius who deals in sorcery, witchcraft, and other mischief.
The Fathers taking the idea from the Jewish Pharisees, made devils of
the Pagan gods, Mithras, Serapis, and the others. The Roman Catholic
Church followed by denouncing the former worship as commerce with
the powers of darkness. The _malefecii_ and witches of the middle
ages were thus but the votaries of the proscribed worship. Magic in
all ancient times had been considered as divine science, wisdom, and
the knowledge of God. The healing art in the temples of Æsculapius,
and at the shrines of Egypt and the East, had always been magical.
Even Darius Hystaspes, who had exterminated the Median Magi, and
even driven out the Chaldean theurgists from Babylon into Asia
Minor, had also been instructed by the Brahmans of Upper Asia, and,
finally, while establishing the worship of Ormazd, was also himself
denominated the instituter of magism. All was now changed. Ignorance
was enthroned as the mother of devotion. Learning was denounced, and
savants prosecuted the sciences in peril of their lives. They were
compelled to employ a jargon to conceal their ideas from all but
their own adepts, and to accept opprobrium, calumny, and poverty.
The votaries of the ancient worship were persecuted and put to
death on charges of witchcraft. The Albigenses, descendants of the
Gnostics, and the Waldenses, precursors of the Protestants, were
hunted and massacred under like accusations. Martin Luther himself
was accused of companionship with Satan in proper person. The whole
Protestant world still lies under the same imputation. There is no
distinction in the judgments of the Church between dissent, heresy,
and witchcraft. And except where civil authority protects, they are
alike capital offences. Religious liberty the Church regards as
intolerance.
But the reformers were nursed with the milk of their mother. Luther
was as bloodthirsty as the Pope; Calvin more intolerant than Leo or
Urban. Thirty years of war depopulated whole districts of Germany,
Protestants and Catholics cruel alike. The new faith too opened its
batteries against witchcraft. The statute books became crimsoned
with bloody legislation in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Great
Britain, and the North American Commonwealth. Whosoever was more
liberal, more intelligent, more free-speaking than his fellows was
liable to arrest and death. The fires that were extinguished at
Smithfield were kindled anew for magicians; it was safer to rebel
against a throne than to pursue abstruse knowledge outside the
orthodox dead-line.
In the seventeenth century Satan made a sortie in New England, New
Jersey, New York, and several of the Southern colonies of North
America, and Cotton Mather gives us the principal chronicles of
his manifestation. A few years later he visited the Parsonage of
Mora, in Sweden, and _Life in Dalecarlia_ was diversified with the
burning alive of young children, and the whipping of others at
the church-doors on Sabbath-days. The skepticism of modern times
has, however, pretty much driven the belief in witchcraft into
Coventry; and the Devil in personal anthropomorphic form, with his
Bacchus-foot, and his Pan-like goat’s horns, holds place only in
the _Encyclical Letters_, and other effusions of the Roman Catholic
Church. Protestant respectability does not allow him to be named at
all except with bated breath in a pulpit-enclosure.
Having now set forth the biography of the Devil from his first advent
in India and Persia, his progress through Jewish, and both early
and later Christian _Theo_logy down to the latest phases of his
manifestation, we now turn back to review certain of the opinions
extant in the earlier Christian centuries.
Avatars or incarnations were common to the old religions. India had
them reduced to a system. The Persians expected Sosiosh, and the
Jewish writers looked for a deliverer. Tacitus and Suetonius relate
that the East was full of expectation of the Great Personage about
the time of Octavius. “Thus doctrines obvious to Christians were the
highest arcana of Paganism.”[966] The Maneros of Plutarch was a child
of Palestine,[967] his mediator Mithras, the Saviour Osiris is the
Messiah. In our present “_Canonical Scriptures_” are to be traced the
vestigia of the ancient worships; and in the rites and ceremonies
of the Roman Catholic Church we find the forms of the Buddhistical
worship, its ceremonies and hierarchy. The first _Gospels_, once as
canonical as any of the present four, contain pages taken almost
entire from Buddhistical narratives, as we are prepared to show.
After the evidence furnished by Burnouf, Asoma, Korosi, Beal, Hardy,
Schmidt, and translations from the _Tripitaka_, it is impossible to
doubt that the whole Christian scheme emanated from the other. The
“Miraculous Conception” miracles and other incidents are found in
full in Hardy’s _Manual of Buddhism_. We can readily realize why the
Roman Catholic Church is anxious to keep the common people in utter
ignorance of the Hebrew _Bible_ and the Greek literature. Philology
and comparative Theology are her deadliest enemies. The deliberate
falsifications of Irenæus, Epiphanius, Eusebius and Tertullian had
become a necessity.
The _Sibylline Books_ at that period seem to have been regarded with
extraordinary favor. One can easily perceive that they were inspired
from the same source as those of the Gentile nations.
Here is a leaf from Gallæus:
“New Light has arisen:
Coming from Heaven, it assumed a mortal form....
----Virgin, receive God in thy pure bosom--
And the Word flew into her womb:
Becoming incarnate in Time, and animated by her body,
It was found in a mortal image, and a Boy was created
By a Virgin.... The new God-sent Star was adored by the Magi,
The infant swathed was shown in a manger....
And Bethlehem was called “God-called country of the Word.”[968]
This looks at first-sight like a prophecy of Jesus. But could it
not mean as well some other creative God? We have like utterances
concerning Bacchus and Mithras.
“I, son of Deus, am come to the land of the Thebans--Bacchus, whom
formerly Semelé (the virgin), the daughter of Kadmus (the man from
the East) brings forth--being delivered by the lightning-bearing
flame; and having taken a mortal form instead of God’s, I have
arrived.”[969]
The _Dionysiacs_, written in the fifth century, serve to render this
matter very clear, and even to show its close connection with the
Christian legend of the birth of Jesus:
“Korè-Persephoneia[970] ... you were wived as the Dragon’s spouse,
When Zeus, very coiled, his form and countenance changed,
A Dragon-Bridegroom, coiled in love-inspiring fold....
Glided to dark Korè’s maiden couch....
Thus, by the alliance with the Dragon of Æther,
The womb of Persephonè became alive with fruit,
Bearing Zagreus,[971] the Horned Child.”[972]
Here we have the secret of the Ophite worship, and the origin of
the Christian later-_revised_ fable of the immaculate conception.
The Gnostics were the earliest Christians with anything like a
regular theological system, and it is only too evident that it was
Jesus who was made to fit their theology as Christos, and not their
theology that was developed out of his sayings and doings. Their
ancestors had maintained, before the Christian era, that the Great
Serpent--Jupiter, the Dragon of Life, the Father and “Good Divinity,”
had glided into the couch of Semelé, and now, the post-Christian
Gnostics, with a very trifling change, applied the same fable to
the man Jesus, and asserted that the same “Good Divinity,” Saturn
(Ilda-Baoth), had, in the shape of the Dragon of Life, glided over
the cradle of the infant Mary.[973] In their eyes the Serpent was the
Logos--Christos, the incarnation of Divine Wisdom, through his Father
Ennoïa and Mother Sophia.
“Now my mother, the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) took me,” Jesus is made
to say in the _Gospel of the Hebrews_,[974] thus entering upon his
part of Christos--the Son of Sophia, the Holy Spirit.[975]
“The _Holy Ghost shall come upon thee_, and the POWER of the Highest
shall overshadow thee; therefore, that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called Son of God,” says the angel (_Luke_ i. 35).
“God ... hath at the last of these days spoken to us by a Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the Æons”
(Paul: _Heb._ i.).[976]
All such expressions are so many Christian quotations from the
_Nonnus_ verse “... through the Ætherial Draconteum,” for Ether
is the Holy Ghost or third person of the Trinity--the Hawk-headed
Serpent, the Egyptian Kneph, emblem of the Divine Mind,[977] and
Plato’s universal soul.
“I, Wisdom, came out of the mouth of the Most High, and _covered the
earth as a cloud_.”[978]
Pimander, the Logos, issues from the Infinite Darkness, and covers
the earth with clouds which, serpentine-like, spread all over the
earth (See Champollion’s _Egypte_). The Logos is the _oldest_ image
of God, and he is the _active_ Logos, says Philo.[979] The Father is
the _Latent Thought_.
This idea being universal, we find an identical phraseology
to express it, among Pagans, Jews, and early Christians. The
Chaldeo-Persian _Logos_ is the Only-Begotten of the Father in the
Babylonian cosmogony of Eudemus. “Hymn now, ELI, child of Deus,”
begins a Homeric hymn to the sun.[980] Sol-Mithra is an “image of the
Father,” as the kabalistic Seir-Anpin.
That of all the various nations of antiquity, there never was one
which believed in a personal devil more than liberal Christians in
the nineteenth century, seems hardly credible, and yet such is the
sorrowful fact. Neither the Egyptians, whom Porphyry terms “the
most learned nation of the world,”[981] nor Greece, its faithful
copyist, were ever guilty of such a crowning absurdity. We may add
at once that none of them, not even the ancient Jews, believed in
hell or an eternal damnation any more than in the Devil, although our
Christian churches are so liberal in dealing it out to the heathen.
Wherever the word “hell” occurs in the translations of the Hebrew
sacred texts, it is unfortunate. The Hebrews were ignorant of such
an idea; but yet the gospels contain frequent examples of the same
misunderstanding. So, when Jesus is made to say (_Matthew_ xvi. 18)
“... and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” in the
original text it stands “the gates of _death_.” Never is the word
“hell”--as applied to the state of _damnation_, either temporary or
eternal--used in any passage of the _Old Testament_, all hellists to
the contrary, notwithstanding. “Tophet,” or “the Valley of Hinnom”
(_Isaiah_ lxvi. 24) bears no such interpretation. The Greek term
“Gehenna” has also quite a different meaning, as it has been proved
conclusively by more than one competent writer, that “Gehenna” is
identical with the Homeric Tartarus.
In fact, we have Peter himself as authority for it. In his second
_Epistle_ (ii. 2) the Apostle, in the original text, is made to say
of the sinning angels that God “cast them down into _Tartarus_.” This
expression too inconveniently recalling the war of Jupiter and the
Titans, was altered, and now it reads, in King James’s version: “cast
them down to _hell_.”
In the _Old Testament_ the expressions “gates of death,” and the
“chambers of death,” simply allude to the “gates of the grave,” which
are specifically mentioned in the _Psalms_ and _Proverbs_. Hell and
its sovereign are both inventions of Christianity, coëval with its
accession to power and resort to tyranny. They were hallucinations
born of the nightmares of the SS. Anthonys in the desert. Before our
era the ancient sages knew the “Father of Evil,” and treated him no
better than an ass, the chosen symbol of Typhon, “the Devil.”[982]
Sad degeneration of human brains!
As Typhon was the dark shadow of his brother Osiris, so Python is
the evil side of Apollo, the bright god of visions, the seer and
the soothsayer. He is killed by Python, but kills him in his turn,
thus redeeming humanity from sin. It was in memory of this deed
that the priestesses of the sun-god enveloped themselves in the
snake-skin, typical of the fabulous monster. Under its exhilarating
influence--the serpent’s skin being considered magnetic--the
priestesses fell into magnetic trances, and “receiving their voice
from Apollo,” they became prophetic and delivered oracles.
Again Apollo and Python are one and morally androgynous. The sun-god
ideas are all dual, without exception. The beneficent warmth of the
sun calls the germ into existence, but excessive heat kills the
plant. While playing on his seven-stringed planetary lyre, Apollo
produces harmony; but, as well as other sun-gods, under his dark
aspect he becomes the destroyer, Python.
St. John is known to have travelled in Asia, a country governed by
Magi and imbued with Zoroastrian ideas, and in those days full of
Buddhist missionaries. Had he never visited those places and come
in contact with Buddhists, it is doubtful whether the _Revelation_
would have been written. Besides his ideas of the dragon, he gives
prophetic narratives entirely unknown to the other apostles, and
which, relating to the second advent, make of Christ a faithful copy
of Vishnu.
Thus Ophios and Ophiomorphos, Apollo and Python, Osiris and Typhon,
Christos and the Serpent, are all convertible terms. They are all
Logoi, and one is unintelligible without the other, as day could not
be known had we no night. All are regenerators and saviours, one in
a spiritual, the other in a physical sense. One insures immortality
for the Divine Spirit; the other gives it through regeneration of
the seed. The Saviour of mankind has to die, because he unveils
to humanity the great secret of the immortal ego; the serpent of
_Genesis_ is cursed because he said to _matter_, “Ye shall not die.”
In the world of Paganism the counterpart of the “serpent” is the
second Hermes, the reïncarnation of Hermes Trismegistus.
Hermes is the constant companion and instructor of Osiris and Isis.
He is the personified wisdom; so is Cain, the son of the “Lord.” Both
build cities, civilize and instruct mankind in the arts.
It has been repeatedly stated by the Christian missionaries in
Ceylon and India that the people are steeped in demonolatry; that
they are devil-worshippers, in the full sense of the word. Without
any exaggeration we say that they are no more so than the masses of
uneducated Christians. But even were they worshippers of (which is
more than believers in) the Devil, yet there is a great difference
between the teachings of their clergy on the subject of a personal
devil and the dogmas of Catholic preachers and many Protestant
ministers also. The Christian priests are bound to teach and impress
upon the minds of their flock the existence of the Devil, and the
opening pages of the present chapter show the reason why. But not
only will the Cingalese Oepasampala, who belong to the highest
priesthood, not confess to belief in a personal demon but even the
Samenaira, the candidates and novices, would laugh at the idea.
Everything in the external worship of the Buddhists is allegorical
and is never otherwise accepted or taught by the educated _pungis_
(pundits). The accusation that they allow, and tacitly agree to leave
the poor people steeped in the most degrading superstitions, is not
without foundation; but that they enforce such superstitions, we
most vehemently deny. And in this they appear to advantage beside
our Christian clergy, who (at least those who have not allowed their
fanaticism to interfere with their brains), without believing a word
of it, yet preach the existence of the Devil, as the personal enemy
of a personal God, and the evil genius of mankind.
St. George’s Dragon, which figures so promiscuously in the grandest
cathedrals of the Christians, is not a whit handsomer than the King
of Snakes, the Buddhist Nammadānam-nāraya, the great Dragon. If the
planetary Demon Rawho, is believed, in the popular superstition of
the Cingalese, to endeavor to destroy the moon by swallowing it; and
if in China and Tartary the rabble is allowed, without rebuke, to
beat gongs and make fearful noises to drive the monster away from its
prey during the eclipses, why should the Catholic clergy find fault,
or call this superstition? Do not the country clergy in Southern
France do the same, occasionally, at the appearance of comets,
eclipses, and other celestial phenomena? In 1456, when Halley’s comet
made its appearance, “so tremendous was its apparition,” writes
Draper, “that it was necessary for the Pope himself to interfere.
He exorcised and expelled it from the skies. It slunk away into the
abysses of space, terror-stricken by the maledictions of Calixtus
III., and did not venture back for seventy-five years!”[983]
We never heard of any Christian clergyman or Pope trying to disabuse
ignorant minds of the belief that the Devil had anything to do with
eclipses and comets; but we do find a Buddhist chief priest saying to
an official who twitted him with this superstition: “Our Cingalese
religious books teach that the eclipses of the sun and moon denote an
attack of Rahu[984] (one of the nine planets) _not by a devil_.”[985]
The origin of the “Dragon” myth so prominent in the _Apocalypse_ and
_Golden Legend_, and of the fable about Simeon Stylites converting
the Dragon, is undeniably Buddhistic and even pre-Buddhistic. It was
Gautama’s pure doctrines which reclaimed to Buddhism the Cashmerians
whose primitive worship was the Ophite or Serpent worship.
Frankincense and flowers replaced the human sacrifices and belief
in personal demons. It became the turn of Christianity to inherit
the degrading superstition about devils invested with pestilential
and murderous powers. The _Mahâvansa_, oldest of the Ceylonese
books, relates the story of King Covercapal (cobra-de-capello), the
snake-god, who was converted to Buddhism by a holy Rahat;[986] and
it is earlier, by all odds, than the _Golden Legend_ which tells the
same of Simeon the Stylite and his Dragon.
The Logos triumphs once more over the great Dragon; Michael, the
luminous archangel, chief of the Æons, conquers Satan.[987]
It is a fact worthy of remark, that so long as the initiate kept
silent “on what he knew,” he was perfectly safe. So was it in days
of old, and so it is now. As soon as the Christian God, emanating
forth from _Silence_, manifested himself as the _Word_ or Logos, the
latter became the cause of his death. The serpent is the symbol of
wisdom and eloquence, but it is likewise the symbol of destruction.
“To dare, to know, to will, _and be silent_,” are the cardinal axioms
of the kabalist. Like Apollo and other gods, Jesus is killed by his
_Logos_;[988] he rises again, kills him in his turn, and becomes
his master. Can it be that this old symbol has, like the rest of
ancient philosophical conceptions, more than one allegorical and
never-suspected meaning? The coincidences are too strange to be
results of mere chance.
And now that we have shown this identity between Michael and Satan,
and the Saviours and Dragons of other people, what can be more
clear than that all these philosophical fables originated in India,
that universal hot-bed of metaphysical mysticism? “The world,” says
Ramatsariar, in his comments upon the _Vedas_, “commenced with a
contest between the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil, and so
must end. After the destruction of matter evil can no longer exist,
it must return to naught.”[989]
In the _Apologia_, Tertullian falsifies most palpably every doctrine
and belief of the Pagans as to the oracles and gods. He calls them,
indifferently, demons and devils, accusing the latter of taking
possession of even the birds of the air! What Christian would now
dare doubt such an authority? Did not the Psalmist exclaim: “All
the gods of the nations are _idols_;” and the Angel of the School,
Thomas Aquinas, explains, on his own _kabalistic_ authority, the
word _idols_ by _devils_? “They come to men,” he says, “and offer
themselves to their adoration by operating certain things which seem
miraculous.”[990]
The Fathers were prudent as they were wise in their inventions. To
be impartial, after having created a Devil, they set to creating
apocryphal saints. We have named several in preceding chapters;
but we must not forget Baronius, who having read in a work of
Chrysostom about the holy _Xenoris_, the word meaning a _pair_, a
couple, mistook it for the name of a saint, and proceeded forthwith
to create of it a _martyr_ of Antioch, and went on to give a most
detailed and authentic biography of the “blessed martyr.” Other
theologians made of Apollyon--or rather _Apolouôn_--the anti-Christ.
Apolouôn is Plato’s “washer,” the god _who purifies_, who washes off,
and _releases_ us from sin, but he was thus transformed into him
“whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue
hath his name Apollyon”--Devil!
Max Müller says that the serpent in Paradise is a conception which
might have sprung up among the Jews, and “seems hardly to invite
comparison with the much grander conceptions of the terrible power of
Vritra and Ahriman in the _Veda_ and _Avesta_.” With the kabalists
the Devil was always a myth--God or good reversed. That modern Magus,
Eliphas Levi, calls the Devil _l’ivresse astrale_. It is a blind
force like electricity, he says; and, speaking allegorically, as he
always did, Jesus remarked that he “beheld Satan like lightning fall
from Heaven.”
The clergy insist that God has sent the Devil to tempt mankind;
which would be rather a singular way of showing his boundless love
to humanity! If the Supreme One is really guilty of such unfatherly
treachery, he is worthy, certainly, of the adoration only of a Church
capable of singing the _Te Deum_ over a massacre of St. Bartholomew,
and of blessing Mussulman swords drawn to slaughter Greek Christians!
This is at once sound logic and good sound law, for is it not a maxim
of jurisprudence: “_Qui facit per alium, facit per se?_”
The great dissimilarity which exists between the various conceptions
of the Devil is really often ludicrous. While bigots will invariably
endow him with horns, tail, and every conceivable repulsive feature,
even including an offensive _human_ smell,[991] Milton, Byron,
Goethe, Lermontoff,[992] and a host of French novelists have sung
his praise in flowing verse and thrilling prose. Milton’s Satan,
and even Goethe’s Mephistopheles, are certainly far more commanding
figures than some of the angels, as represented in the prose of
ecstatic bigots. We have but to compare two descriptions. Let us
first award the floor to the incomparably sensational des Mousseaux.
He gives us a thrilling account of an incubus, in the words of the
penitent herself: “Once,” she tells us, “during the space of a
whole half-hour, she saw _distinctly_ near her an individual with a
black, dreadful, horrid body, and whose hands, of an enormous size,
exhibited _clawed_ fingers strangely hooked. The senses of sight,
feeling, and _smell_ were confirmed by that of hearing!!”[993]
And yet, for the space of several years, the damsel suffered herself
to be led astray by such a hero! How far above this odoriferous
gallant is the majestic figure of the Miltonic Satan!
Let the reader then fancy, if he can, this superb chimera, this ideal
of the rebellious angel become incarnate Pride, crawling into the
skin of the most disgusting of all animals! Notwithstanding that
the Christian catechism teaches us that Satan in _propria persona_
tempted our first mother, Eve, in a real paradise, and that in the
shape of a serpent, which of all animals was the most insinuating
and fascinating! God orders him, as a punishment, to crawl eternally
on his belly, and bite the dust. “A sentence,” remarks Levi, “which
resembles in nothing the traditional flames of hell.” The more so,
that the real zoölogical serpent, which was created before Adam and
Eve, crawled on his belly, and bit the dust likewise, before there
was any original sin.
Apart from this, was not Ophion the Daimon, or Devil, like God
called _Dominus_?[994] The word _God_ (deity) is derived from the
Sanscrit word _Deva_, and Devil from the Persian _daëva_, which words
are substantially alike. Hercules, son of Jove and Alcmena, one of
the highest sun-gods and also Logos manifested, is nevertheless
represented under a double nature, as all others.[995]
The Agathodæmon, the beneficent dæmon,[996] the same which we find
later among the Ophites under the appellation of the Logos, or divine
wisdom, was represented by a serpent standing erect on a _pole_, in
the Bacchanalian Mysteries. The hawk-headed serpent is among the
oldest of the Egyptian emblems, and represents the divine mind, says
Deane.[997]
Azazel is Moloch and Samael, says Movers,[998] and we find Aaron,
the brother of the great law-giver Moses, making equal sacrifices to
Jehovah and Azazel.
“And Aaron shall cast lots _upon the two goats_; one lot for the Lord
(_Ihoh_ in the original) and one lot for the scape-goat” (_Azazel_).
In the _Old Testament_ Jehovah exhibits all the attributes of old
Saturn,[999] notwithstanding his metamorphoses from Adoni into Eloi,
and God of Gods, Lord of Lords.[1000]
Jesus is tempted on the mountain by the Devil, who promises to
him kingdoms and glory if he will only fall down and worship him
(_Matthew_ iv. 8, 9). Buddha is tempted by the Demon Wasawarthi Mara,
who says to him as he is leaving his father’s palace: “Be entreated
to stay that you may possess the honors that are within your
reach; go not, go not!” And upon the refusal of Gautama to accept
his offers, gnashes his teeth with rage, and threatens him with
vengeance. Like Christ, Buddha triumphs over the Devil.[1001]
In the Bacchic Mysteries a _consecrated cup_ was handed around after
supper, called the cup of the Agathodæmon.[1002] The Ophite rite of
the same description is evidently borrowed from these Mysteries. The
communion consisting of bread and wine was used in the worship of
nearly every important deity.[1003]
In connection with the semi-Mithraic sacrament adopted by the
Marcosians, another Gnostic sect, utterly kabalistic and _theurgic_,
there is a strange story given by Epiphanius as an illustration of
the cleverness of the Devil. In the celebration of their Eucharist,
three large vases of the finest and clearest crystal were brought
among the congregation and filled with white wine. While the
ceremony was going on, in full view of everybody, this wine was
instantaneously changed into a blood-red, a purple, and then into an
azure-blue color. “Then the magus,” says Epiphanius, “hands one of
these vases to a woman in the congregation, and asks her to bless
it. When it is done, the magus pours out of it into another vase
of much greater capacity with the prayer: “May the grace of God,
which is above all, inconceivable, inexplicable, fill thy inner
man, and augment the knowledge of Him within thee, sowing the grain
of mustard-seed in good ground.[1004] Whereupon the liquor in the
larger vase swells and swells until it runs over the brim.”[1005]
In connection with several of the Pagan deities which are made after
death, and before their resurrection to descend into Hell, it will
be found useful to compare the pre-Christian with the post-Christian
narratives. Orpheus made the journey,[1006] and Christ was the last
of these subterranean travellers. In the _Credo_ of the Apostles,
which is divided in twelve sentences or _articles_, each particular
article having been inserted by each particular apostle, according
to St. Austin[1007] the sentence “He descended into hell, the third
day he rose again from the dead,” is assigned to Thomas; perhaps,
as an atonement for his unbelief. Be it as it may, the sentence is
declared a forgery, and there is no evidence “that this creed was
either framed by the apostles, or indeed, that it existed as a creed
in their time.”[1008]
It is the most important addition in the Apostle’s Creed, and dates
since the year of Christ 600.[1009] It was not known in the days of
Eusebius. Bishop Parsons says that it was not in the ancient creeds
or rules of faith.[1010] Irenæus, Origen, and Tertullian exhibit
no knowledge of this sentence.[1011] It is not mentioned in any of
the Councils before the seventh century. Theodoret, Epiphanius, and
Socrates are silent about it. It differs from the _creed_ in St.
Augustine.[1012] Ruffinus affirms that in his time it was neither in
the Roman nor in the Oriental creeds (_Exposit. in Symbol. Apost._
§ 10). But the problem is solved when we learn that ages ago Hermes
spoke thus to Prometheus, chained on the arid rocks of the Caucasian
mount:
“To such labors look thou for no termination, UNTIL SOME GOD SHALL
APPEAR AS A SUBSTITUTE IN THY PANGS, AND SHALL BE WILLING TO GO BOTH
TO GLOOMY HADES AND TO THE MURKY DEPTHS AROUND TARTARUS!” (ÆSCHYLUS:
_Prometheus_, 1027, ff.).
This god was Herakles, the “Only-Begotten One,” and the Saviour.
And it is he who was chosen as a model by the ingenious Fathers.
Hercules--called Alexicacos--for he brought round the wicked and
converted them to virtue; _Soter_, or Saviour, also called Neulos
Eumelos--the _Good Shepherd_; Astrochiton, the star-clothed, and
the Lord of Fire. “He sought not to subject nations by force but
by _divine wisdom_ and persuasion,” says Lucian. “Herakles spread
cultivation and a mild religion, and destroyed the _doctrine of
eternal punishment_ by dragging Kerberus (the Pagan Devil) from the
nether world.” And, as we see, it was Herakles again who liberated
Prometheus (the Adam of the pagans), by putting an end to the
torture inflicted on him for his transgressions, by descending to
the Hades, and going round the Tartarus. Like Christ he appeared
as a _substitute for the pangs of humanity_, by offering himself
in a self-sacrifice on a funereal-burning pile. “His voluntary
immolation,” says Bart, “betokened the ethereal new birth of men....
Through the release of Prometheus, and the erection of altars,
we behold in him the mediator between the old and new faiths....
He abolished human sacrifice wherever he found it practiced. He
descended into the sombre realm of Pluto, as a shade ... he _ascended
as a spirit to his father Zeus in Olympus_.”
So much was antiquity impressed by the Heraklean legend, that even
the _monotheistic_ (?) Jews of those days, not to be outdone by their
contemporaries, put him to use in their manufacture of original
fables. Herakles is accused in his mythobiography of an attempted
theft of the Delphian oracle. In _Sepher Toldos Jeschu_, the Rabbins
accuse Jesus of stealing from their Sanctuary the Incommunicable Name!
Therefore it is but natural to find his numerous adventures, worldly
and religious, mirrored so faithfully in the _Descent into Hell_. For
extraordinary daring of mendacity, and unblushing plagiarism, the
_Gospel of Nicodemus_, only _now_ proclaimed apocryphal, surpasses
anything we have read. Let the reader judge.
At the beginning of chapter xvi., Satan and the “Prince of Hell” are
described as peacefully conversing together. All of a sudden, both
are startled by “a voice as of thunder” and the rushing of winds,
which bids them to lift up their gates for “_the King of Glory_
shall come in.” Whereupon the Prince of Hell hearing this “begins
quarrelling with Satan for minding his duty so poorly, as not to have
taken the necessary precautions against such a visit.” The quarrel
ends with the prince casting Satan “forth from his hell,” ordering,
at the same time, his impious officers “to shut the brass gates of
cruelty, make them fast with iron bars, and fight courageously lest
we be taken captives.”
But “when all the company of the saints ... (in Hell?) heard this,
they spoke with a loud voice of anger to the Prince of Darkness,
‘Open thy gates, that the King of Glory may come in,’” thereby
proving that the prince needed spokesmen.
“And the _divine_ (?) prophet David cried out, saying: ‘Did not I,
when on earth, truly prophesy?’” After this, another prophet, namely
holy Isaiah spake in like manner, “Did not I rightly prophesy?” etc.
Then the company of the saints and prophets, after boasting for
the length of a chapter, and comparing notes of their prophecies,
begin a riot, which makes the Prince of Hell remark that, “the dead
never durst before behave themselves so insolently towards us” (the
devils, xviii. 6); feigning the while to be ignorant _who_ it was
claiming admission. He then innocently asks again: “But who is the
King of Glory?” Then David tells him that he knows the voice well,
and understands its words, “because,” he adds, “I spake them by his
Spirit.” Perceiving finally that the Prince of Hell would not open
the “brass doors of iniquity,” notwithstanding the king-psalmist’s
voucher for the visitor, he, David, concludes to treat the enemy
“as a Philistine, and begins shouting: ‘And now, thou _filthy_ and
_stinking_ prince of hell, open thy gates.... I tell thee that the
King of Glory comes ... let him enter in.’”
While he was yet quarrelling the “mighty Lord appeared in the form of
a _man_” (?) upon which “impious _Death_ and her cruel officers are
seized with fear.” Then they tremblingly begin to address Christ with
various flatteries and compliments in the shape of questions, each of
which _is an article of creed_. For instance: “And who art thou, so
powerful and so great who dost release the captives that were _held
in chains by original sin_?” asks one devil. “Perhaps, thou art that
Jesus,” submissively says another, “of whom Satan just now spoke,
that by the _death of the Cross thou wert about to receive the power
over death_?” etc. Instead of answering, the King of Glory “tramples
upon Death, seizes the Prince of Hell, and deprives him of his power.”
Then begins a turmoil in Hell which has been graphically described
by Homer, Hesiod, and their interpreter Preller, in his account of
the Astronomical Hercules _Invictus_, and his festivals at Tyre,
Tarsus, and Sardis. Having been initiated in the Attic Eleusinia, the
Pagan god descends into Hades and “when he entered the nether world
he spread such terror among the dead that all of them fled!”[1013]
The same words are repeated in _Nicodemus_. Follows a scene of
confusion, horror, and lamenting. Perceiving that the battle is lost,
the Prince of Hell turns tail and prudently chooses to side with
the strongest. He against whom, according to Jude and Peter, even
the Archangel Michael “durst not bring a railing accusation before
the Lord,” is now shamefully treated by his ex-ally and friend,
the “Prince of Hell.” Poor Satan is abused and reviled for all his
crimes both by devils and saints; while the _Prince_ is openly
rewarded for his treachery. Addressing him, the King of Glory says
thus: “Beelzebub, the Prince of Hell, Satan the Prince shall now
be subject to thy dominion _forever, in the room of Adam_ and his
righteous sons, who are mine ... Come to me, all ye my saints, who
were _created in my image_, who _were condemned by the tree of the
forbidden fruit_, and _by the Devil and death_. Live now _by the wood
of my cross_; the Devil, the prince of this world is overcome (?) and
_Death is conquered_.” Then the Lord takes hold of Adam by his right
hand, of David by the left, and “_ascends_ from Hell, followed by all
the saints,” Enoch and Elias, and by the “_holy_ thief.”[1014]
The pious author, perhaps through an oversight, omits to complete the
cavalcade, by bringing up the rear with the penitent dragon of Simon
Stylites and the converted wolf of St. Francis, wagging their tails
and shedding tears of joy!
In the _Codex_ of the Nazarenes it is _Tobo_ who is “the _liberator
of the soul of Adam_,” to bear it from Orcus (Hades) to the place of
LIFE. Tobo is Tob-Adonijah, one of the twelve disciples (Levites)
sent by Jehosaphat to preach to the cities of Judah the _Book of the
Law_ (_2 Chron._ xvii.). In the kabalistic books these were “wise
men,” Magi. They drew down the rays of the sun to enlighten the
sheol (Hades) Orcus, and thus show the way out of the _Tenebræ_,
the darkness of ignorance, to the soul of Adam, which represents
collectively all the “souls of mankind.” Adam (Athamas) is Tamuz
or Adonis, and Adonis is the sun Helios. In the _Book of the Dead_
(vi. 231) Osiris is made to say: “I shine like the sun in the
star-house at the feast of the sun.” Christ is called the “Sun of
Righteousness,” “Helios of Justice” (Euseb.: _Demons. Ev._, v. 29),
simply a revamping of the old heathen allegories; nevertheless, to
have made it serve for such a use is no less blasphemous on the
part of men who pretended to be describing a true episode of the
earth-pilgrimage of their God!
“Herakles, who _has gone out from the chambers of earth_,
Leaving the nether house of Plouton!”[1015]
“At THEE the Stygian lakes trembled; Thee the janitor of Orcus
Feared.... Thee not even Typhon frightened....
Hail _true_ SON _of_ JOVE, GLORY added to the gods!”[1016]
More than four centuries before the birth of Jesus, Aristophanes
had written his immortal parody on the _Descent into Hell_, by
Herakles.[1017] The chorus of the “blessed ones,” the initiated, the
Elysian Fields, the arrival of Bacchus (who is Iacchos--Iaho--and
_Sabaoth_) with Herakles, their reception with lighted torches,
emblems of _new life_ and RESURRECTION from darkness, death unto
light, eternal LIFE; nothing that is found in the _Gospel of
Nicodemus_ is wanting in this poem:[1018]
“Wake, burning torches ... for thou comest
Shaking them in thy hand, Iacche,
Phosphoric star of the nightly rite!”[1019]
But the Christians accept these _post-mortem_ adventures of their
god, concocted from those of his Pagan predecessors, and derided
by Aristophanes four centuries before our era, _literally_! The
absurdities of _Nicodemus_ were read in the churches, as well as
those of the _Shepherd of Hermas_. Irenæus quotes the latter under
the name of _Scripture_, a divinely-inspired “revelation;” Jerome and
Eusebius both insist upon its being publicly read in the churches;
and Athanasius observes that the Fathers “appointed it to be read
in _confirmation of faith and piety_.” But then comes the reverse
of this bright medal, to show once more how stable and trustworthy
were the opinions of the strongest pillars of an _infallible_ Church.
Jerome, who applauds the book in his catalogue of ecclesiastical
writers, in his later comments terms it “apocryphal and foolish!”
Tertullian, who could not find praise enough for the _Shepherd of
Hermas_ when a Catholic, “began abusing it when a Montanist.”[1020]
Chapter xiii. begins with the narrative given by the two resuscitated
ghosts of Charinus and Lenthius, the sons of that Simeon who,
in the _Gospel according to Luke_ (ii. 25-32), takes the infant
Jesus in his arms and blesses God, saying: “Lord, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace ... for mine eyes have seen thy
salvation.”[1021] These two ghosts have arisen from their cold
tombs on purpose to declare “the mysteries” which they saw after
death in hell. They are enabled to do so only at the importunate
prayer of Annas and Caïaphas, Nicodemus (the author), Joseph (of
Arimathæa), and Gamaliel, who beseech them to reveal to them the
great secrets. Annas and Caïaphas, however, who bring the _ghosts_
to the synagogue at Jerusalem, take the precaution to make the two
resuscitated men, who had been dead and buried for years, to swear
on the _Book of the Law_ “by God Adonai, and the God of Israel,” to
tell them only the truth. Therefore, after making the _sign of the
cross_ on their tongues,[1022] they ask for some paper to write their
confessions (xii. 21-25). They state how, when “in the depth of hell,
in the blackness of darkness,” they suddenly saw “a substantial,
purple-colored light illuminating the place.” Adam, with the
patriarchs and prophets, began thereupon to rejoice, and Isaiah also
immediately boasted that he had _predicted all that_. While this was
going on, Simeon, their father, arrived, declaring that “the infant
he took in his arms in the temple was now coming to liberate them.”
After Simeon had delivered his message to the distinguished company
in hell, “there came forth one like a little hermit (?), who proved
to be John the Baptist.” The idea is suggestive and shows that even
the “Precursor” and “the Prophet of the Most High,” had not been
exempted from drying up in hell to the most diminutive proportions,
and that to the extent of affecting his brains and memory. Forgetting
that (_Matthew_ xi.) he had manifested the most evident doubts as to
the Messiahship of Jesus, the Baptist also claims his right to be
recognized as a prophet. “And I, John,” he says, “when I saw Jesus
coming to me, being moved by the Holy Ghost, I said: ‘Behold the Lamb
of God, who takes away the sins of the world’ ... And I baptized him
... and I saw the Holy Ghost descending upon him, and saying, ‘This
is my Beloved Son,’ etc.” And to think, that his descendants and
followers, like the Mandeans of Basra, utterly reject these words!
Then Adam, who acts as though his own veracity might be questioned
in this “impious company,” calls his son Seth, and desires him to
declare to his sons, the patriarchs and prophets, what the Archangel
Michael had told him at the gate of Paradise, when he, Adam, sent
Seth “to entreat God that he would anoint” his head when Adam was
sick (xiv. 2). And Seth tells them that when he was praying at the
gates of Paradise, Michael advised him not to entreat God for “the
oil of the tree of mercy wherewith to anoint father Adam for his
_headache_; because thou canst not by any means obtain it till the
LAST DAY and times, namely _till 5,500 years be past_.”
This little bit of private gossip between Michael and Seth was
evidently introduced in the interests of Patristic Chronology; and
for the purpose of connecting Messiahship still closer with Jesus,
on the authority of a recognized and divinely-inspired Gospel. The
Fathers of the early centuries committed an inextricable mistake in
destroying fragile images and mortal Pagans, in preference to the
monuments of Egyptian antiquity. These have become the more precious
to archæology and modern science since it is found they prove that
King Menes and his architects flourished between four and five
thousand years before “Father Adam” and the universe, according to
the biblical chronology, were created “out of nothing.”[1023]
“While all the saints were rejoicing, behold Satan, the prince and
captain of death,” says to the Prince of Hell: “Prepare to receive
Jesus of Nazareth himself, who boasted that he was the Son of God,
and yet was a man afraid of death, and said: ‘My soul is sorrowful
even to death’” (xv. 1, 2).
There is a tradition among the Greek ecclesiastical writers that the
“Hæretics” (perhaps Celsus) had sorely twitted the Christians on this
delicate point. They held that if Jesus were not a simple mortal,
who was often forsaken by the Spirit of Christos, he could not have
complained in such expressions as are attributed to him; neither
would he have cried out with a loud voice: “My _god_, My _god_! why
hast thou forsaken me?” This objection is very cleverly answered in
the _Gospel of Nicodemus_, and it is the “Prince of Hell” who settles
the difficulty.
He begins by arguing with Satan like a true metaphysician. “Who is
that so powerful prince,” he sneeringly inquires, “who is he so
powerful, and yet a man who is afraid of death?... I affirm to thee
that when, therefore, he said he was afraid of death, _he designed to
ensnare thee_, and unhappy it will be to thee for everlasting ages!”
It is quite refreshing to see how closely the author of this _Gospel_
sticks to his _New Testament_ text, and especially to the fourth
evangelist. How cleverly he prepares the way for seemingly “innocent”
questions and answers, corroborating the most dubious passages of
the four gospels, passages more questioned and cross-examined in
those days of subtile sophistry of the learned Gnostics than they
are now; a weighty reason why the Fathers should have been even more
anxious to burn the documents of their antagonists than to destroy
their heresy. The following is a good instance. The dialogue is still
proceeding between Satan and the metaphysical _half-converted_ Prince
of the under world.
“Who, then, is that Jesus of Nazareth,” naïvely inquires the prince,
“that by his word hath taken away the dead from me, without prayers
to God?” (xv. 16).
“Perhaps,” replies Satan, with the innocence of a Jesuit, “_it is the
same who took away from me_ LAZARUS, _after he had been four days
dead_, and did both stink and was rotten?... It is the very same
person, Jesus of Nazareth.... I adjure thee, by the powers which
belong to thee and me, that thou bring him not to me!” exclaims the
prince. “For when I heard of the power of his word, I trembled for
fear, and all my _impious_ company were disturbed. And we were not
able to detain Lazarus, but he gave himself _a shake_, and _with all
the signs of malice_, he immediately went away from us; and the very
earth, in which the dead body of Lazarus was lodged, presently turned
him alive.” “Yes,” thoughtfully adds the Prince of Hell, “I know
now _that he is Almighty God_, who is mighty in his dominion, and
mighty _in his human nature_, who is the Saviour of mankind. Bring
not therefore this person hither, for he will set at liberty all
those I held in prison under unbelief, and ... _will conduct them to
everlasting life_” (xv. 20).
Here ends the _post-mortem_ evidence of the two ghosts. Charinus
(ghost No. 1) gives what he wrote to Annas, Caïaphas, and Gamaliel,
and Lenthius (ghost No. 2) his to Joseph and Nicodemus, having done
which, both change into “exceedingly white forms and were seen no
more.”
To show furthermore that the “ghosts” had been all the time under
the strictest “test conditions,” as the modern spiritualists would
express it, the author of the _Gospel_ adds: “But what they had wrote
was _found perfectly to agree_, the one not containing one letter
more or less than the other.”
This news spread in all the synagogues, the Gospel goes on to state,
that Pilate went to the temple as advised by Nicodemus, and assembled
the Jews together. At this historical interview, Caïaphas and Annas
are made to declare that their Scriptures testify “_that He (Jesus)
is the Son of God and the Lord and King of Israel_” (!) and close the
confession with the following memorable words:
“And so it appears _that Jesus, whom we crucified, is Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, and true and Almighty God_. Amen.” (!)
Notwithstanding such a crushing confession for themselves, and the
recognition of Jesus as the Almighty God himself, the “Lord God of
Israel,” neither the high priest, nor his father-in-law, nor any of
the elders, nor Pilate, who wrote those accounts, nor any of the Jews
of Jerusalem, who were at all prominent, became Christians.
Comments are unnecessary. This _Gospel_ closes with the words:
“In the name of _the Holy Trinity_ [of which Nicodemus could know
nothing yet] _thus ends the Acts of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which
the emperor Theodosius the Great found at Jerusalem, in the hall of
Pontius Pilate among the public records_;” and which history purports
to have been written in Hebrew by Nicodemus, “_the things being acted
in the nineteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, emperor of the Romans, and
in the seventeenth year of the government of Herod, the son of Herod,
king of Galilee, on the eighth before the calends of April_, etc.,
etc.” It is the most barefaced imposture that was perpetrated after
the era of pious forgeries opened with the first bishop of Rome,
whoever he may have been. The clumsy forger seems to have neither
known nor heard that the dogma of the Trinity was not propounded
until 325 years later than this pretended date. Neither the _Old_
nor the _New Testament_ contains the word Trinity, nor anything that
affords the slightest pretext for this doctrine (see page 177 of this
volume, “Christ’s descent into Hell”). No explanation can palliate
the putting forth of this spurious gospel as a divine revelation,
for it was known from the first as a premeditated imposture. If the
gospel itself has been declared apocryphal, nevertheless every one
of the dogmas contained in it was and is still enforced upon the
Christian world. And even the fact that itself is now repudiated, is
no merit, _for the Church was shamed and forced into it_.
And so we are perfectly warranted in repeating the amended _Credo_ of
Robert Taylor, which is substantially that of the Christians.
I believe in Zeus, the Father Almighty,
And in his son, Iasios Christ our Lord,
Who was conceived of the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Elektra,
Smitten with a thunderbolt,
Dead and buried,
He descended into Hell,
Rose again and ascended up on high,
And will return to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Nous,
In the Holy circle of Great Gods,
In the Community of Divinities,
In the expiation of sins,
The immortality of the Soul
And the Life Everlasting.
The Israelites have been proved to have worshipped Baal, the Syrian
Bacchus, offered incense to the Sabazian or Æsculapian serpent, and
performed the Dionysian Mysteries. And how could it be otherwise
if Typhon was called Typhon Set,[1024] and Seth, the son of Adam,
is identical with Satan or Sat-an; and Seth was worshipped by the
Hittites? Less than two centuries B.C., we find the Jews either
reverencing or simply worshipping the “golden head of an ass” in
their temple; according to Apion, Antiochus Epiphanes carried it off
with him. And Zacharias is struck dumb by the apparition of the deity
under the shape of an ass in the temple![1025]
El, the Sun-God of the Syrians, the Egyptians, and the Semites, is
declared by Pleytè to be no other than Set or Seth, and El is the
primeval Saturn--Israel.[1026] Siva is an Æthiopian God, the same
as the Chaldean Baal--Bel; thus he is also Saturn. Saturn, El, Seth
and Kiyun, or the biblical Chiun of Amos, are all one and the same
deity, and may be all regarded in their worst aspect as Typhon the
Destroyer. When the religious Pantheon assumed a more definite
expression, Typhon was separated from his androgyne--the _good_
deity, and fell into degradation as a brutal _unintellectual_ power.
Such reactions in the religious feelings of a nation were not
unfrequent. The Jews had worshipped Baal or Moloch, the Sun-God
Hercules,[1027] in their early days--if they had any days at all
earlier than the Persians or Maccabees--and then made their prophets
denounce them. On the other hand, the characteristics of the Mosaic
Jehovah exhibit more of the moral disposition of Siva than of a
benevolent, “long-suffering” God. Besides, to be identified with Siva
is no small compliment, for the latter is God of wisdom. Wilkinson
depicts him as the most intellectual of the Hindu gods. He is
_three-eyed_, and, like Jehovah, terrible in his resistless revenge
and wrath. And, although the Destroyer, “yet he is the re-creator
of all things in perfect wisdom.”[1028] He is the type of St.
Augustine’s God who “prepares _hell_ for pryers into his mysteries,”
and insists on trying human reason as well as common sense by forcing
mankind to view with equal reverence his good and evil acts.
Notwithstanding the numerous proofs that the Israelites worshipped
a variety of gods, and even offered human sacrifices until a far
later period than their Pagan neighbors, they have contrived to blind
posterity in regard to truth. They sacrificed human life as late as
169 B.C.,[1029] and the _Bible_ contains a number of such records. At
a time when the Pagans had long abandoned the abominable practice,
and had replaced the sacrificial man by the animal,[1030] Jephthah
is represented sacrificing his own daughter to the “Lord” for a
burnt-offering.
The denunciations of their own prophets are the best proofs against
them. Their worship in high places is the same as that of the
“idolaters.” Their prophetesses are counterparts of the Pythiæ and
Bacchantes. Pausanias speaks of women-colleges which superintend the
worship of Bacchus, and of the sixteen matrons of Elis.[1031] The
_Bible_ says that “Deborah, a prophetess ... judged Israel at that
time;”[1032] and speaks of Huldah, another prophetess, who “dwelt
in Jerusalem, _in the college_;”[1033] and _2 Samuel_ mentions
“_wise_ women” several times,[1034] notwithstanding the injunction
of Moses not to use either divination or augury. As to the final and
conclusive identification of the “Lord God” of Israel with Moloch,
we find a very suspicious evidence of the case in the last chapter
of _Leviticus_, concerning _things devoted not to be redeemed_....
A man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, _both of man_
and beast.... None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be
redeemed, _but shall surely be put to death_ ... for it is _most holy
unto the Lord_.”[1035]
The duality, if not the plurality of the gods of Israel may be
inferred from the very fact of such bitter denunciations. Their
prophets _never approved of sacrificial worship_. Samuel denied
that the Lord had any delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices (_1
Samuel_, xv. 22). Jeremiah asserted, unequivocally, that the Lord,
Yava Sabaoth Elohe Israel, never commanded anything of the sort, but
contrariwise (vii. 21-24).
But these prophets who opposed themselves to human sacrifices were
all _nazars_ and _initiates_. These prophets led a party in the
nation against the priests, as later the Gnostics contended against
the Christian Fathers. Hence, when the monarchy was divided, we
find the priests at Jerusalem and the prophets in the country of
Israel. Even Ahab and his sons, who introduced the Tyrian worship
of Baal-Hercules and the Syrian goddess into Israel, were aided and
encouraged by Elijah and Elisha. Few prophets appeared in Judea till
Isaiah, after the northern monarchy had been overthrown. Elisha
anointed Jehu on purpose that he should destroy the royal families of
both countries, and so unite the people into one civil polity. For
the Temple of Solomon, desecrated by the priests, no Hebrew prophet
or initiate cared a straw. Elijah never went to it, nor Elisha,
Jonah, Nahum, Amos, or any other Israelite. While the initiates were
holding to the “secret doctrine” of Moses, the people, led by their
priests, were steeped in idolatry exactly the same as that of the
Pagans. It is the popular views and interpretations of Jehovah that
the Christians have adopted.
The question is likely to be asked: “In the view of so much evidence
to show that Christian theology is only a _pot-pourri_ of Pagan
mythologies, how can it be connected with the religion of Moses?”
The early Christians, Paul and his disciples, the Gnostics and
their successors generally, regarded Christianity and Judaism as
essentially distinct. The latter, in their view, was an antagonistic
system, and from a lower origin. “Ye received the law,” said Stephen,
“from the ministration of angels,” or æons, and not from the Most
High Himself. The Gnostics, as we have seen, taught that Jehovah, the
Deity of the Jews, was Ilda-Baoth, the son of the ancient _Bohu_, or
Chaos, the adversary of Divine Wisdom.
The question may be more than easily answered. The _law of Moses,
and the so-called monotheism of the Jews, can hardly be said to have
been more than two or three centuries older than Christianity_. The
_Pentateuch_ itself, we are able to show, was written and revised
upon this “new departure,” at a period subsequent to the colonization
of Judea under the authority of the kings of Persia. The Christian
Fathers, in their eagerness to make their new system dovetail with
Judaism, and so avoid Paganism, unconsciously shunned Scylla only
to be caught in the whirlpool of Charybdis. Under the monotheistic
stucco of Judaism was unearthed the same familiar mythology of
Paganism. But we should not regard the Israelites with less favor for
having had a Moloch and being like the natives. Nor should we compel
the Jews to do penance for their fathers. They had their prophets and
their law, and were satisfied with them. How faithfully and nobly
they have stood by their ancestral faith under the most diabolical
persecutions, the present remains of a once-glorious people bear
witness. The Christian world has been in a state of convulsion from
the first to the present century; it has been cleft into thousands
of sects; but the Jews remain substantially united. Even their
differences of opinion do not destroy their unity.
The Christian virtues inculcated by Jesus in the sermon on the mount
are nowhere exemplified in the Christian world. The Buddhist ascetics
and Indian fakirs seem almost the only ones that inculcate and
practice them. Meanwhile the vices which coarse-mouthed slanderers
have attributed to Paganism, are current everywhere among Christian
Fathers and Christian Churches.
The boasted wide gap between Christianity and Judaism, that is
claimed on the authority of Paul, exists but in the imagination
of the pious. We are nought but the inheritors of the intolerant
Israelites of ancient days; not the Hebrews of the time of Herod
and the Roman dominion, who, with all their faults, kept strictly
orthodox and monotheistic, but the Jews who, under the name of
Jehovah-Nissi, worshipped Bacchus-Osiris, Dio-Nysos, the multiform
Jove of Nyssa, the Sinai of Moses. The kabalistic demons--allegories
of the profoundest meaning--were adopted as objective entities, and a
Satanic hierarchy carefully drawn by the orthodox demonologists.
The Rosicrucian motto, “_Igne natura renovatur integra_,” which
the alchemists interpret as nature renovated by fire, or matter by
spirit, is made to be accepted to this day as _Iesus Nazarenus rex
Iudæorum_. The mocking satire of Pilate is accepted literally, and
the Jews made to unwittingly confess thereby the royalty of Christ;
whereas, if the inscription is not a forgery of the Constantinian
period, it yet is the action of Pilate, against which the Jews were
first to violently protest. I. H. S. is interpreted _Iesus Hominum
Salvator_, and _In hoc signo_, whereas ΙΗΣ is one of the most ancient
names of Bacchus. And more than ever do we begin to find out, by the
bright light of comparative theology, that the great object of Jesus,
the initiate of the inner sanctuary, was to open the eyes of the
fanatical multitude to the difference between the highest
Divinity--the mysterious and never-mentioned ΙΑΟ of the ancient
Chaldean and later Neo-platonic initiates--and the Hebrew Yahuh, or
Yaho (Jehovah). The modern Rosicrucians, so violently denounced by the
Catholics, now find brought against them, as the most important
charge, the fact that they accuse Christ of having destroyed the
worship of Jehovah. Would to Heaven he could have been allowed the
time to do so, for the world would not have found itself still
bewildered, after nineteen centuries of mutual massacres, among 300
quarrelling sects, and with a personal Devil reigning over a
terrorized Christendom!
True to the exclamation of David, paraphrased in _King James’
Version_ as “all the gods of the nations are idols,” _i.e._, devils,
Bacchus or the “first-born” or the Orphic theogony, the Monogenes, or
“only-begotten” of Father Zeus and Koré, was transformed, with the
rest of the ancient myths, into a devil. By such a degradation, the
Fathers, whose pious zeal could only be surpassed by their ignorance,
have unwittingly furnished evidence against themselves. They have,
with their own hands, paved the way for many a future solution, and
greatly helped modern students of the science of religions.
It was in the Bacchus-myth that lay concealed for long and dreary
centuries both the future vindication of the reviled “gods of the
nations,” and the last clew to the enigma of Jehovah. The strange
duality of Divine and mortal characteristics, so conspicuous in the
Sinaitic Deity, begins to yield its mystery before the untiring
inquiry of the age. One of the latest contributions we find in a
short but highly-important paper in the _Evolution_, a periodical of
New York, the closing paragraph of which throws a flood of light on
Bacchus, the Jove of Nysa, who was worshipped by the Israelites as
Jehovah of Sinai.
“Such was the Jove of Nysa to his worshippers,” concludes the author.
“He represented to them alike the world of nature and the world
of thought. He was the ‘Sun of righteousness, with healing on his
wings,’ and he not only brought joy to mortals, but opened to them
hope beyond mortality of immortal life. Born of a human mother,
he raised her from the world of death to the supernal air, to be
revered and worshipped. At once lord of all worlds, he was in them
all alike the Saviour.
“Such was Bacchus, the prophet-god. A change of cultus, decreed by
the Murderer-Imperial, the Emperor Theodosius, at the instance of
Ghostly-Father Ambrosius, of Milan, has changed his title to Father
of Lies. His worship, before universal, was denominated Pagan or
_local_, and his rites stigmatized as witchcraft. His orgies received
the name of _Witches’ Sabbath_, and his favorite symbolical form
with the bovine foot became the modern representative of the Devil
with the cloven hoof. The master of the house having been called
Beelzebub, they of his household were alike denounced as having
commerce with the powers of darkness. Crusades were undertaken; whole
peoples massacred. Knowledge and the higher learning were denounced
as magic and sorcery. Ignorance became the mother of devotion--such
as was then cherished. Galileo languished long years in prison for
teaching that the sun was in the centre of the solar universe.
Bruno was burned alive at Rome in 1600 for reviving the ancient
philosophy; yet, queerly enough, the Liberalia have become a festival
of the Church,[1036] Bacchus is a saint in the calendar four times
repeated, and at many a shrine he may be seen reposing in the arms
of his deified mother. The names are changed; the ideas remain as
before.”[1037]
And now that we have shown that we must indeed “bid an eternal
farewell to all the rebellious angels,” we naturally pass to an
examination of the God Jesus, who was manufactured out of the man
Jesus to redeem us from these very mythical devils, as Father
Ventura shows us. This labor will of course necessitate once more a
comparative inquiry into the history of Gautama-Buddha, his doctrines
and his “miracles,” and those of Jesus and the predecessor of
both--Christna.
CHAPTER XI.
“Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one’s
mind, that is the teaching of the Awakened....
“Better than Sovereignty over the earth, better than going
to heaven, better than lordship over all the worlds is
the reward of the first step in holiness.”--_Dhammapada_,
verses 178-183.
Creator, where are these tribunals, where do these courts
proceed, where do these courts assemble, where do the
tribunals meet to which the man of the embodied world gives
an account for his soul?--_Persian Vendidad_, xix. 89.
Hail to thee O Man, who art come from the transitory place
to the imperishable!--_Vendidad_, farg. vii., 136.
To the true believer, truth, wherever it appears, is
welcome, nor will any doctrine seem the less true or the
less precious, because it was seen not only by Moses or
Christ, but likewise by Buddha or Lao-tse.--MAX MÜLLER.
Unluckily for those who would have been glad to render justice to
the ancient and modern religious philosophies of the Orient, a fair
opportunity has hardly ever been given to them. Of late there has
been a touching accord between philologists holding high official
positions, and missionaries from heathen lands. Prudence before
truth when the latter endangers our sinecures! Besides, how easy to
compromise with conscience. A State religion is a prop of government;
all State religions are “exploded humbugs”; therefore, since one is
as good, or rather as bad, as another, _the_ State religion may as
well be supported. Such is the diplomacy of official science.
Grote in his _History of Greece_, assimilates the Pythagoreans to
the Jesuits, and sees in their Brotherhood but an ably-disguised
object to acquire political ascendancy. On the loose testimony of
Herakleitus and some other writers, who accused Pythagoras of craft,
and described him as a man “of extensive research... but artful
for mischief and destitute of sound judgment,” some historical
biographers hastened to present him to posterity in such a character.
How then if they must accept the Pythagoras painted by the satirical
Timon: “a juggler of solemn speech engaged in fishing for men,” can
they avoid judging of Jesus from the sketch that Celsus has embalmed
in his satire? Historical impartiality has nought to do with creeds
and personal beliefs, and exacts as much of posterity for one as
for the other. The life and doings of Jesus are far less attested
than those of Pythagoras, if, indeed, we can say that they are
attested at all by any _historical_ proof. For assuredly no one
will gainsay that as a real personage Celsus has the advantage as
regards the credibility of his testimony over Matthew, or Mark, or
Luke, or John, who never wrote a line of the _Gospels_ attributed to
them respectively. Withal Celsus is at least as good a witness as
Herakleitus. He was known as a scholar and a Neo-platonist to some
of the Fathers; whereas the very existence of the four Apostles must
be taken on blind faith. If Timon regarded the sublime Samian as “a
juggler,” so did Celsus hold Jesus, or rather those who made all the
pretenses for him. In his famous work, addressing the Nazarene, he
says: “Let us grant that the wonders were performed by you ... but
are they not common with those who have been taught by the Egyptians
to perform in the middle of the forum for a few oboli.” And we know,
on the authority of the _Gospel according to Matthew_, that the
Galilean prophet was also a man of solemn speech, and that he called
himself and offered to make his disciples “fishers of men.”
Let it not be imagined that we bring this reproach to any who revere
Jesus as God. Whatever the faith, if the worshipper be but sincere,
it should be respected in his presence. If we do not accept Jesus as
God, we revere _him as a man_. Such a feeling honors him more than
if we were to attribute to him the powers and personality of the
Supreme, and credit him at the same time with having played a useless
comedy with mankind, as, after all, his mission proves scarcely less
than a complete failure; 2,000 years have passed, and Christians do
not reckon one-fifth part of the population of the globe, nor is
Christianity likely to progress any better in the future. No, we aim
but at strict justice, leaving all personality aside. We question
those who, adoring neither Jesus, Pythagoras, nor Apollonius, yet
recite the idle gossip of their contemporaries; those who in their
books either maintain a prudent silence, or speak of “our Saviour”
and “our Lord,” as though they believed any more in the made-up
theological Christ, than in the fabulous Fo of China.
_There were no Atheists in those days of old; no disbelievers or
materialists, in the modern sense of the word, as there were no
bigoted detractors._ He who judges the ancient philosophies by their
external phraseology, and quotes from ancient writings sentences
_seemingly_ atheistical, is unfit to be trusted as a critic, for he
is unable to penetrate into the inner sense of their metaphysics.
The views of Pyrrho, whose rationalism has become proverbial, can be
interpreted only by the light of the oldest Hindu philosophy. From
Manu down to the latest Swâbhâvika, its leading metaphysical feature
ever was to proclaim the reality and supremacy of spirit, with a
vehemence proportionate to the denial of the objective existence of
our material world--passing phantom of temporary forms and beings.
The numerous schools begotten by Kapila, reflect his philosophy no
clearer than the doctrines left as a legacy to thinkers by Timon,
Pyrrho’s “Prophet,” as Sextus Empiricus calls him. His views on the
divine repose of the soul, his proud indifference to the opinion
of his fellow men, his contempt for sophistry, reflect in an equal
degree stray beams of the self-contemplation of the Gymnosophists
and of the Buddhist _Vaibhâshika_. Notwithstanding that he and
his followers are termed, from their state of constant suspense,
“skeptics,” “doubters,” inquirers, and ephectics, only because they
postponed their final judgment on dilemmas, with which our modern
philosophers prefer dealing, Alexander-like, by cutting the Gordian
knot, and then declaring the dilemma a superstition, such men as
Pyrrho cannot be pronounced atheists. No more can Kapila, or Giordano
Bruno, or again Spinoza, who were also treated as atheists; nor yet,
the great Hindu poet, philosopher, and dialectician, Veda-Vyasa,
whose principle that all is illusion--save the Great Unknown and His
direct essence--Pyrrho has adopted in full.
These philosophical beliefs extended like a net-work over the
whole pre-Christian world; and, surviving persecution and
misrepresentations, form the corner-stone of every now existing
religion outside Christianity.
Comparative theology is a two-edged weapon, and has so proved itself.
But the Christian advocates, unabashed by evidence, force comparison
in the serenest way; Christian legends and dogmas, they say, do
somewhat resemble the heathen, it is true; but see, while the one
teaches us the existence, powers, and attributes of an all-wise,
all-good Father-God, Brahmanism gives us a multitude of minor gods,
and Buddhism none whatever; one is fetishism and polytheism, the
other bald atheism. Jehovah is the one true God, and the Pope and
Martin Luther are His prophets! This is one edge of the sword, and
this the other: Despite missions, despite armies, despite enforced
commercial intercourse, the “heathen” find nothing in the teachings
of Jesus--sublime though some are--that Christna and Gautama had not
taught them before. And so, to gain over any new converts, and keep
the few already won by centuries of cunning, the Christians give
the “heathen” dogmas more absurd than their own, and cheat them by
adopting the habit of their native priests, and practicing the very
“idolatry and fetishism” which they so disparage in the “heathens.”
Comparative theology works both ways.
In Siam and Burmah, Catholic missionaries have become perfect
Talapoins to all external appearance, _i.e._, minus their virtues;
and throughout India, especially in the south, they were denounced
by their own colleague, the Abbé Dubois.[1038] This was afterward
vehemently denied. But now we have living witnesses to the
correctness of the charge. Among others, Captain O’Grady, already
quoted, a native of Madras, writes the following on this systematic
method of deception:[1039] “The hypocritical beggars profess
total abstinence and horror of flesh to conciliate converts from
Hinduism.... I got one father, or rather, he got himself gloriously
drunk in my house, time and again, and the way he pitched into
roast beef was a caution.” Further, the author has pretty stories
to tell of “black-faced Christs,” “Virgins on wheels,” and of
Catholic processions in general. We have seen such solemn ceremonies
accompanied by the most infernal cacophony of a Cingalese orchestra,
tam-tam and gongs included, followed by a like Brahmanic procession,
which, for its picturesque coloring and _mise en scène_, looked far
more solemn and imposing than the Christian saturnalias. Speaking
of one of these, the same author remarks: “It was more devilish
than religious.... The bishops walked off Romeward,[1040] with a
mighty pile of Peter’s pence gathered in the minutest sums, with
gold ornaments, nose-rings, anklets, elbow bangles, etc., etc., in
profusion, recklessly thrown in heaps at the feet of the grotesque
copper-colored image of the Saviour, with its Dutch metal halo and
gaudily-striped cummerbund and--shade of Raphael!--blue turban.”[1041]
As every one can see, such voluntary contributions make it quite
profitable to mimic the native Brahmans and bonzes. Between the
worshippers of Christna and Christ, or Avany and the Virgin Mary,
there is less substantial difference, in fact, than between the two
native sects, the Vishnavites and the Sivites. For the _converted_
Hindus, Christ is a slightly modified Christna, that is all.
Missionaries carry away rich donations and Rome is satisfied. Then
comes a year of famine; but the nose-rings and gold elbow-bangles are
gone and people starve by thousands. What matters it? They die in
Christ, and Rome scatters her blessings over their corpses, of which
thousands float yearly down the sacred rivers to the ocean.[1042] So
servile are the Catholics in their imitation, and so careful not to
give offense to their parishioners, that if they happen to have a few
higher caste converts in a Church, no pariah nor any man of the lower
castes, however good a Christian he may be, can be admitted into the
same Church with them. And yet they dare call themselves the servants
of Him who sought in preference the society of the publicans and
sinners; and whose appeal--“Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest” has opened to him the hearts of millions of
the suffering and the oppressed!
Few writers are as bold and outspoken as the late lamented Dr. Thomas
Inman, of Liverpool, England. But however small their number, these
men all agree unanimously, that the philosophy of both Buddhism
and Brahmanism must rank higher than Christian theology, and teach
neither atheism or fetishism. “To my own mind,” says Inman, “the
assertion that Sakya did not believe in God is wholly unsupported.
Nay, his whole scheme is built upon the belief that there are powers
above which are capable of punishing mankind for their sins. It is
true that these gods were not called Elohim, nor Jah, nor Jehovah,
nor Jahveh, nor Adonai, nor Ehieh, nor Baalim, nor Ashtoreth--yet,
for the son of Suddhadana, there was a Supreme Being.”[1043]
There are four schools of Buddhist theology, in Ceylon, Thibet, and
India. One is rather pantheistical than atheistical, but the other
three are purely _theistical_.
On the first the speculations of our philologists are based. As to
the second, third, and the fourth, their teachings vary but in the
external mode of expression. We have fully explained the spirit of it
elsewhere.
As to practical, not theoretical views on the Nirvana, this is what
a rationalist and a skeptic says: “I have questioned at the very
doors of their temples several hundreds of Buddhists, and have not
found one but strove, fasted, and gave himself up to every kind of
austerity, to perfect himself and acquire immortality; not to attain
final annihilation.
“There are over 300,000,000 of Buddhists who fast, pray, and toil....
Why make of these 300,000,000 of men idiots and fools, macerating
their bodies and imposing upon themselves most fearful privations
of every nature, in order to reach a fatal annihilation which must
overtake them anyhow?”[1044]
As well as this author we have questioned Buddhists and Brahmanists
and studied their philosophy. _Apavarg_ has wholly a different
meaning from annihilation. It is but to become more and more
like Him, of whom he is one of the refulgent sparks, that is the
aspiration of every Hindu philosopher and the hope of the most
ignorant is _never to yield up his distinct individuality_. “Else,”
as once remarked an esteemed correspondent of the author, “mundane
and separate existence would look like God’s comedy and our tragedy;
sport to Him that we work and suffer, death to us to suffer it.”
The same with the doctrine of metempsychosis, so distorted by
European scholars. But as the work of translation and analysis
progresses, fresh religious beauties will be discovered in the old
faiths.
Professor Whitney has in his translation of the _Vedas_ passages in
which he says, the assumed importance of the body to its old tenant
is brought out in the strongest light. These are portions of hymns
read at the funeral services, over the body of the departed one. We
quote them from Mr. Whitney’s scholarly work:
“Start onward! bring together all thy members;
let not thy limbs be left, nor yet thy body;
Thy spirit gone before, now follow after;
Wherever it delights thee, go thou thither.”
* * * * *
Collect thy body; with its every member;
thy limbs with help of rites I fashion for thee.
* * * * *
If some one limb was left behind by Agni,
When to thy Fathers’ world he hence conveyed you,
That very one I now again supply you;
rejoice in heaven with all your limbs, ye Fathers![1045]
The “body” here referred to is not the physical, but the _astral_
one--a very great distinction, as may be seen.
Again, belief in the individual existence of the immortal spirit
of man is shown in the following verses of the Hindu ceremonial of
incremation and burial.
“They who within the sphere of earth are stationed,
or who are settled now in realms of pleasure,
The Fathers who have the earth--the atmosphere--the heaven for
their seat,
The “fore-heaven” the third heaven is styled,
and where the Fathers have their seat.”--(_Rig-Veda_, x.)
With such majestic views as these people held of God and the
immortality of man’s spirit, it is not surprising that a comparison
between the Vedic hymns and the narrow, unspiritual Mosaic books
should result to the advantage of the former in the mind of every
unprejudiced scholar. Even the ethical code of _Manu_ is incomparably
higher than that of the _Pentateuch_ of Moses, in the literal meaning
of which all the uninitiated scholars of two worlds cannot find a
single proof that the ancient Jews believed either in a future life
or an immortal spirit in man, or that Moses himself ever taught it.
Yet, we have eminent Orientalists who begin to suspect that the “dead
letter” conceals something not apparent at first sight. So Professor
Whitney tells us that “as we look yet further into the forms of
the modern Hindu ceremonial we discover not a little of the same
discordance between creed and observance; the one is not explained by
the other,” says this great American scholar. He adds: “We are forced
to the conclusion either that India derived its system of rites from
some foreign source, and practiced them blindly, careless of their
true import, or _else that those rites are the production of another
doctrine of older date_, and have maintained themselves in popular
usage after the decay of the creed of which they were the original
expression.”[1046]
This creed has not decayed, and its hidden philosophy, as understood
now by the initiated Hindus, is just as it was 10,000 years ago. But
can our scholars seriously hope to have it delivered unto them upon
their first demand? Or do they still expect to fathom the mysteries
of the World-Religion in its popular exoteric rites?
No orthodox Brahmans and Buddhists would deny the Christian
incarnation; only, they understand it in their own philosophical
way, and how could they deny it? The very corner-stone of their
religious system is periodical incarnations of the Deity. Whenever
humanity is about merging into materialism and moral degradation, a
Supreme Spirit incarnates himself in his creature selected for the
purpose. The “Messenger of the Highest” links itself with the duality
of matter and soul, and the triad being thus completed by the union
of its Crown, a saviour is born, who helps restore humanity to the
path of truth and virtue. The early Christian Church, all imbued
with Asiatic philosophy, evidently shared the same belief--otherwise
_it would have neither erected into an article of faith the second
advent, nor cunningly invented the fable of Anti-Christ as a
precaution against possible future incarnations_. Neither could they
have imagined that Melchisedek was an avatar of Christ. They had only
to turn to the _Bagavedgitta_ to find Christna or Bhagaved saying to
Arjuna: “He who follows me is saved by wisdom and even by works....
_As often as virtue declines in the world, I make myself manifest to
save it._”
Indeed, it is more than difficult to avoid sharing this doctrine
of periodical incarnations. Has not the world witnessed, at rare
intervals, the advent of such grand characters as Christna,
Sakya-muni, and Jesus? Like the two latter personages, Christna
seems to have been a real being, deified by his school at some
time in the twilight of history, and made to fit into the frame of
the time-honored religious programme. Compare the two Redeemers,
the Hindu and the Christian, the one preceding the other by some
thousands of years; place between them Siddhârtha Buddha, reflecting
Christna and projecting into the night of the future his own luminous
shadow, out of whose collected rays were shaped the outlines of the
mythical Jesus, and from whose teachings were drawn those of the
historical Christos; and we find that under one identical garment
of poetical legend lived and breathed three real human figures. The
individual merit of each of them is rather brought out in stronger
relief than otherwise by this same mythical coloring; for no unworthy
character could have been selected for deification by the popular
instinct, so unerring and just when left untrammeled. _Vox populi,
vox Dei_ was once true, however erroneous when applied to the present
priest-ridden mob.
Kapila, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Basilides, Marcian, Ammonius
and Plotinus, founded schools and sowed the germs of many a noble
thought, and disappearing left behind them the refulgence of
demi-gods. But the three personalities of Christna, Gautama, and
Jesus appeared like true gods, each in his epoch, and bequeathed to
humanity three religions built on the imperishable rock of ages.
That all three, especially the Christian faith, have in time become
adulterated, and the latter almost unrecognizable, is no fault
of either of the noble Reformers. It is the priestly self-styled
husbandmen of the “vine of the Lord” who must be held to account by
future generations. Purify the three systems of the dross of human
dogmas, the pure essence remaining will be found identical. Even
Paul, the great, the honest apostle, in the glow of his enthusiasm
either unwittingly perverted the doctrines of Jesus, or else his
writings are disfigured beyond recognition. The _Talmud_, the record
of a people who, notwithstanding his apostasy from Judaism, yet
feel compelled to acknowledge Paul’s greatness as a philosopher and
religionist, says of Aher (Paul),[1047] in the _Yerushalmi_, that
“he corrupted the work of that man”--meaning Jesus.[1048]
Meanwhile, before this smelting is completed by honest science and
future generations, let us glance at the present aspect of the
legendary three religions.
THE LEGENDS OF THREE SAVIOURS.
CHRISTNA.
_Epoch_: Uncertain. European science fears to commit itself.
But the Brahmanical calculations fix it at about 6,877
years ago.
Christna descends of a royal family, but is brought up by
shepherds; is called the _Shepherd God_. His birth and
divine descent are kept secret from Kansa.
An incarnation of Vishnu, the second person of the Trimurti
(Trinity), Christna was worshipped at Mathura, on the
river Jumna (See _Strabo_ and _Arrian_ and _Bampton
Lectures_, pp. 98-100.
Christna is persecuted by Kansa, Tyrant of Madura, but
miraculously escapes. In the hope of destroying the child,
the king has thousands of male innocents slaughtered.
Christna’s mother was Devaki, or Devanagui, an immaculate
virgin (but had given birth to eight sons before Christna).
Christna is endowed with beauty, omniscience, and
omnipotence from birth. Produces miracles, cures the lame
and blind, and casts out demons. Washes the feet of the
Brahmans, and descending to the lowest regions (hell),
liberates the dead, and returns to _Vaicontha_--the
paradise of Vishnu. Christna was the God Vishnu himself in
human form.
Christna creates boys out of calves, and _vice versa_
(Maurice’s _Indian Antiquities_, vol. ii., p. 332). He
crushes the Serpent’s head. (Ibid.)
Christna is Unitarian. He persecutes the clergy, charges
them with ambition and hypocrisy to their faces, divulges
the great secrets of the Sanctuary--the Unity of God and
immortality of our spirit. Tradition says he fell a victim
to their vengeance. His favorite disciple, Arjuna, never
deserts him to the last. There are credible traditions
that he died on the cross (a tree), nailed to it by an
arrow. The best scholars agree that the Irish Cross at
Tuam, erected long before the Christian era, is Asiatic.
(See _Round Towers_, p. 296, _et seq._, by O’Brien; also
_Religions de l’Antiquité_; Creuzer’s _Symbolik_, vol. i.,
p. 208; and engraving in Dr. Lundy’s _Monumental
Christianity_, p. 160.
Christna ascends to Swarga and becomes Nirguna.
GAUTAMA-BUDDHA.
_Epoch_: According to European science and the Ceylonese
calculations, 2,540 years ago.
Gautama is the son of a king. His first disciples are
shepherds and mendicants.
According to some, an incarnation of Vishnu; according to
others, an incarnation of one of the Buddhas, and even of
Ad’Buddha, the Highest Wisdom.
Buddhist legends are free from this plagiarism, but the
Catholic legend that makes of him St. Josaphat, shows his
father, king of Kapilavastu, slaying innocent young
_Christians (!!)_. (See _Golden Legend_.)
Buddha’s mother was Maya, or Mayadeva; married to her
husband (yet an immaculate virgin).
Buddha is endowed with the same powers and qualities, and
performs similar wonders. Passes his life with mendicants.
It is claimed for Gautama that he was distinct from all
other Avatars, having the entire spirit of Buddha in him,
while all others had but a part (ansa) of the divinity in
them.
Gautama crushes the Serpent’s head, _i.e._, abolishes the
Naga worship as fetishism; but, like Jesus, makes the
Serpent the emblem of divine wisdom.
Buddha abolishes idolatry; divulges the Mysteries of the
Unity of God and the Nirvana, the true meaning of which
was previously known only to the priests. Persecuted and
driven out of the country, he escapes death by gathering
about him some hundreds of thousands of believers in his
Buddhaship. Finally, dies, surrounded by a host of
disciples, with Ananda, his beloved disciple and cousin,
chief among them all. O’Brien believes that the Irish
Cross at Tuam is meant for Buddha’s, but Gautama was never
crucified. He is represented in many temples, as sitting
under a cruciform tree, which is the “Tree of Life.” In
another image he is sitting on Naga the Raja of Serpents
with a cross on his breast.[1049]
Buddha ascends to Nirvana.
JESUS OF NAZARETH.
_Epoch_: Supposed to be 1877 years ago. His birth and royal
descent are concealed from Herod the tyrant.
Descends of the Royal family of David. Is worshipped by
shepherds at his birth, and is called the “Good Shepherd”.
(See _Gospel according to John_).
An incarnation of the Holy Ghost, then the second person of
the Trinity, now the third. But the Trinity was not invented
until 325 years after his birth. Went to Mathura or Matarea,
Egypt, and produced his first miracles there. (See _Gospel
of Infancy_).
Jesus is persecuted by Herod, King of Judæa, but escapes
into Egypt under conduct of an angel. To assure his
slaughter, Herod orders a massacre of innocents, and 40,000
were slain.
Jesus’ mother was Mariam, or Miriam; married to her husband,
yet an immaculate virgin, but had several children besides
Jesus. (See _Matthew_ xiii. 55, 56.)
Jesus is similarly endowed. (See _Gospels and the Apocryphal
Testament_.) Passes his life with sinners and publicans.
Casts out demons likewise. The only notable difference
between the three is that Jesus is charged with casting out
devils by the power of Beelzebub, which the others were not.
Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, dies, descends to
hell, and ascends to heaven, after liberating the dead.
Jesus is said to have crushed the Serpent’s head, agreeably
to original revelation in _Genesis_. He also transforms boys
into kids, and kids into boys. (_Gospel of Infancy_.)
Jesus rebels against the old Jewish law; denounces the
Scribes, and Pharisees, and the synagogue for hypocrisy and
dogmatic intolerance. Breaks the Sabbath, and defies the
Law. Is accused by the Jews of divulging the secrets of the
Sanctuary. Is put to death on a cross (a tree). Of the
little handful of disciples whom he had converted, one
betrays him, one denies him, and the others desert him at
the last, except John--the disciple _he loved_. Jesus,
Christna, and Buddha, all three Saviours, die either on or
under _trees_, and are connected with crosses which are
symbolical of the three-fold powers of creation.
Jesus ascends to Paradise.
RESULT.
About the middle of the present century, the followers of these three
religions were reckoned as follows:[1050]
OF CHRISTNA.
Brahmans, 60,000,000.
OF BUDDHA.
Buddhists, 450,000,000.
OF JESUS.
Christians, 260,000,000.
Such is the present aspect of these three great religions, of which
each is in turn reflected in its successor. Had the Christian
dogmatizers stopped there, the results would not have been so
disastrous, for it would be hard, indeed, to make a bad creed out of
the lofty teachings of Gautama, or Christna, as _Bhagaved_. But they
went farther, and added to pure primitive Christianity the fables of
Hercules, Orpheus, and Bacchus. As Mussulmans will not admit that
their _Koran_ is built on the substratum of the Jewish _Bible_, so
the Christians will not confess that they owe next to everything
to the Hindu religions. But the Hindus have chronology to prove it
to them. We see the best and most learned of our writers uselessly
striving to show that the extraordinary similarities--amounting
to identity--between Christna and Christ are due to the spurious
_Gospels of the Infancy_ and of _St. Thomas_ having “probably
circulated on the coast of Malabar, and giving color to the story
of Christna.”[1051] Why not accept truth in all sincerity, and
reversing matters, admit that St. Thomas, faithful to that policy of
proselytism which marked the earliest Christians, when he found in
Malabar the original of the mythical Christ in Christna, tried to
blend the two; and, adopting in his gospel (from which all others
were copied) the most important details of the story of the Hindu
Avatar, engrafted the Christian heresy on the primitive religion of
Christna. For any one acquainted with the spirit of Brahmanism, the
idea of Brahmans accepting anything from a stranger, especially from
a foreigner, is simply ridiculous. That they, the most fanatic people
in religious matters, who, during centuries, cannot be compelled to
adopt the most simple of European usages, should be suspected of
having introduced into their sacred books unverified legends about
a foreign God, is something so preposterously illogical, that it is
really waste of time to contradict the idea!
We will not stop to examine the too well-known resemblances between
the external form of Buddhistic worship--especially Lamaism--and
Roman Catholicism, for noticing which poor Huc paid dear--but proceed
to compare the most vital points. Of all the original manuscripts
that have been translated from the various languages in which
Buddhism is expounded, the most extraordinary and interesting are
_Buddha’s Dhammapada_, or _Path of Virtue_, translated from the Pâli
by Colonel Rogers,[1052] and the _Wheel of the Law_, containing the
views of a Siamese Minister of State on his own and other religions,
and translated by Henry Alabaster.[1053] The reading of these two
books, and the discovery in them of similarities of thought and
doctrine often amounting to identity, prompted Dr. Inman to write
the many profoundly true passages embodied in one of his last works,
_Ancient Faith and Modern_.[1054] “I speak with sober earnestness,”
writes this kind-hearted, sincere scholar, “when I say that after
forty years’ experience among those who profess Christianity, and
those who proclaim ... more or less quietly their disagreement with
it, I have noticed more sterling virtue and morality amongst the
last than the first.... I know personally many pious, good Christian
people, whom I honor, admire, and, perhaps, would be glad to emulate
or to equal; but they deserve the eulogy thus passed on them, in
consequence of their good sense, having ignored the doctrine of
faith to a great degree, and having cultivated the practice of good
works.... In my judgment the most praiseworthy Christians whom I know
are _modified Buddhists_, though probably, not one of them ever heard
of Siddârtha.”[1055]
Between the Lamaico-Buddhistic and Roman Catholic articles of faith
and ceremonies, there are fifty-one points presenting a perfect and
striking similarity; and four diametrically antagonistic.
As it would be useless to enumerate the “similarities,” for the
reader may find them carefully noted in Inman’s work on _Ancient
Faith and Modern_, pp. 237-240, we will quote but the four
dissimilarities, and leave every one to draw his own deductions
therefrom:
1. “The Buddhists hold that 1. “The Christians will
nothing which is contradicted accept any nonsense, if
by sound reason can be a promulgated by the Church as
true doctrine of Buddha.” a matter of faith.”[1056]
2. “The Buddhists do not 2. “The Romanists adore the
adore the mother of Sakya,” mother of Jesus, and prayer
though they honor her as a is made to her for aid and
holy and saint-like woman, intercession.” The worship
chosen to be his mother of the Virgin has weakened
through her great virtue. that of Christ and thrown
entirely into the shadow
that of the Almighty.
3. “The Buddhists have no 3. “The papal followers have
sacraments.” seven.”
4. The Buddhists do not 4. The Christians are
believe in any pardon for promised that if they only
their sins, except after an believe in the “precious
adequate punishment for each blood of Christ,” this blood
evil deed, and a offered by Him for the
proportionate compensation expiation of the sins of the
to the parties injured. whole of mankind (read
Christians) will atone for
every mortal sin.
Which of these theologies most commends itself to the sincere
inquirer, is a question that may safely be left to the sound judgment
of the reader. One offers light, the other darkness.
The _Wheel of the Law_ has the following:
“Buddhists believe that every act, word, or thought has its
consequence, which will appear sooner or later in the present or in
the future state. Evil acts will produce evil consequences,[1057]
good acts will produce good consequences: prosperity in this world,
or birth in heaven ... in some future state.”[1058]
This is strict and impartial justice. This is the idea of a Supreme
Power which cannot fail, and therefore, can have neither wrath nor
mercy, but leaves every cause, great or small, to work out its
inevitable effects. “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured
to you again”[1059] neither by expression nor implication points to
any hope of future mercy or salvation by proxy. Cruelty and mercy
are finite feelings. The Supreme Deity is infinite, hence it can
only be JUST, and Justice must be blind. The ancient Pagans held on
this question far more philosophical views than modern Christians,
for they represented their Themis blindfold. And the Siamese author
of the work under notice, has again a more reverent conception of
the Deity than the Christians have, when he thus gives vent to his
thought: “A Buddhist might believe in the existence of a God, sublime
above all human qualities and attributes--a perfect God, above
love, and hatred, and jealousy, calmly resting in a quiet happiness
that nothing could disturb; and of such a God he would speak no
disparagement, not from a desire to please Him, or fear to offend
Him, but from natural veneration. But he cannot understand a God with
the attributes and qualities of men, a God who loves and hates, and
shows anger; a Deity, who, whether described to him by Christian
missionaries, or by Mahometans, or Brahmans, or Jews, falls below his
standard of even an ordinary good man.”[1060]
We have often wondered at the extraordinary ideas of God and His
justice that seem to be honestly held by those Christians who blindly
rely upon the clergy for their religion, and never upon their own
reason. How strangely illogical is this doctrine of the Atonement.
We propose to discuss it with the Christians from the Buddhistic
stand-point, and show at once by what a series of sophistries,
directed toward the one object of tightening the ecclesiastical yoke
upon the popular neck, its acceptance as a divine command has been
finally effected; also, that it has proved one of the most pernicious
and demoralizing of doctrines.
The clergy say: no matter how enormous our crimes against the laws
of God and of man, we have but to believe in the self-sacrifice of
Jesus for the salvation of mankind, and His blood will wash out every
stain. God’s mercy is boundless and unfathomable. It is impossible
to conceive of a human sin so damnable that the price paid in
advance for the redemption of the sinner would not wipe it out if a
thousandfold worse. And, furthermore, it is never too late to repent.
Though the offender wait until the last minute of the last hour of
the last day of his mortal life, before his blanched lips utter the
confession of faith, he may go to Paradise; the dying thief did it,
and so may all others as vile. These are the assumptions of the
Church.
But if we step outside the little circle of creed and consider
the universe as a whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment of
parts, how all sound logic, how the faintest glimmering sense of
Justice revolts against this Vicarious Atonement! If the criminal
sinned only against himself, and wronged no one but himself; if by
sincere repentance he could cause the obliteration of past events,
not only from the memory of man, but also from that imperishable
record, which no deity--not even the Supremest of the Supreme--can
cause to disappear, then this dogma might not be incomprehensible.
But to maintain that one may wrong his fellow-man, kill, disturb
the equilibrium of society, and the natural order of things, and
then--through cowardice, hope, or compulsion, matters not--be
forgiven by believing that the spilling of one blood washes out the
other blood spilt--this is preposterous! Can the _results_ of a crime
be obliterated even though the crime itself should be pardoned?
The effects of a cause are never limited to the boundaries of the
cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the offender
and his victim. Every good as well as evil action has its effects,
as palpably as the stone flung into a calm water. The simile is
trite, but it is the best ever conceived, so let us use it. The
eddying circles are greater and swifter, as the disturbing object
is greater or smaller, but the smallest pebble, nay, the tiniest
speck, makes its ripples. And this disturbance is not alone visible
and on the surface. Below, unseen, in every direction--outward and
downward--drop pushes drop until the sides and bottom are touched
by the force. More, the air above the water is agitated, and this
disturbance passes, as the physicists tell us, from stratum to
stratum out into space forever and ever; an impulse has been given to
matter, and that is never lost, can never be recalled!...
So with crime, and so with its opposite. The action may be
instantaneous, the effects are eternal. When, after the stone is once
flung into the pond, we can recall it to the hand, roll back the
ripples, obliterate the force expended, restore the etheric waves to
their previous state of non-being, and wipe out every trace of the
act of throwing the missile, so that Time’s record shall not show
that it ever happened, then, _then_ we may patiently hear Christians
argue for the efficacy of this Atonement.
The Chicago _Times_ recently printed the hangman’s record of the
first half of the present year (1877)--a long and ghastly record of
murders and hangings. Nearly every one of these murderers received
religious consolation, and many announced that they had received
God’s forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, and were going that
day to Heaven! _Their conversion was effected in prison._ See how
this ledger-balance of Christian Justice (!) stands: These red-handed
murderers, urged on by the demons of lust, revenge, cupidity,
fanaticism, or mere brutal thirst for blood, slew their victims, in
most cases, without giving them time to repent, or call on Jesus to
wash them clean with his blood. They, perhaps, died sinful, and, of
course,--consistently with theological logic--met the reward of their
greater or lesser offenses. But the murderer, overtaken by human
justice, is imprisoned, wept over by sentimentalists, prayed with
and at, pronounces the charmed words of conversion, and goes to the
scaffold a redeemed child of Jesus! Except for the murder, he would
not have been prayed with, redeemed, pardoned. Clearly this man did
well to murder, for thus he gained eternal happiness? And how about
the victim, and his or her family, relatives, dependants, social
relations--has Justice no recompense for them? Must they suffer in
this world and the next, while he who wronged them sits beside the
“holy thief” of Calvary and is forever blessed? On this question the
clergy keep a prudent silence.
Steve Anderson was one of these American criminals--convicted of
double murder, arson, and robbery. Before the hour of his death
he was “converted,” but, the record tells us that “_his clerical
attendants objected to his reprieve, on the ground that they felt
sure of his salvation should he die then, but could not answer for
it if his execution was postponed_.” We address these ministers,
and ask them to tell us on what grounds they felt sure of such a
monstrous thing. How they could feel _sure_, with the dark future
before them, and the endless results of this double murder, arson,
and robbery? They could be sure of nothing, but that their abominable
doctrine is the cause of three-fourths of the crimes of so-called
Christians; that these terrific causes must produce like monstrous
effects, which in their turn will beget other results, and so roll on
throughout eternity to an accomplishment that no man can calculate.
Or take another crime, one of the most selfish, cruel, and heartless,
and yet the most frequent, the seduction of a young girl. Society, by
an instinct of self-preservation, pitilessly judges the victim, and
ostracizes her. She may be driven to infanticide, or self-murder, or
if too averse to die, live to plunge into a career of vice and crime.
She may become the mother of criminals, who, as in the now celebrated
Jukes, of whose appalling details Mr. Dugdale has published the
particulars, breed other generations of felons to the number of
hundreds, in fifty or sixty years. All this social disaster came
through one man’s selfish passion; shall he be forgiven by Divine
Justice until his offense is expiated, and punishment fall only upon
the wretched human scorpions begotten of his lust?
An outcry has just been made in England over the discovery that
Anglican priests are largely introducing auricular confession and
granting absolution after enforcing penances. Inquiry shows the
same thing prevailing more or less in the United States. Put to the
ordeal of cross-examination, the clergy quote triumphantly from the
English _Book of Common Prayer_ the rubrics which clearly give them
the absolving authority, through the power of “God, the Holy Ghost,”
committed unto them by the bishop by imposition of hands at their
ordination. The bishop, questioned, points to _Matthew_ xvi., 19, for
the source of his authority to bind and loose on earth those who are
to be blessed or damned in heaven; and to the apostolic succession
for proof of its transmission from Simon Barjona to himself. The
present volumes have been written to small purpose if they have
not shown, 1, that Jesus, the Christ-God, is a myth concocted two
centuries after the real Hebrew Jesus died; 2, that, therefore, he
never had any authority to give Peter, or any one else, plenary
power; 3, that even if he had given such authority, the word Petra
(rock) referred to the revealed truths of the Petroma, not to him who
thrice denied him; and that besides, the apostolic succession is a
gross and palpable fraud; 4, that the _Gospel according to Matthew_
is a fabrication based upon a wholly different manuscript. The whole
thing, therefore, is an imposition alike upon priest and penitent.
But putting all these points aside for the moment, it suffices to ask
these pretended agents of the three gods of the Trinity, how they
reconcile it with the most rudimental notions of equity, that if the
power to pardon sinners for sinning has been given them, _they did
not also receive the ability by miracle to obliterate the wrongs done
against person or property_. Let them restore life to the murdered;
honor to the dishonored; property to those who have been wronged,
and force the scales of human and divine justice to recover their
equilibrium. Then we may talk of their divine commission to bind and
loose. Let them say, if they can do this. Hitherto the world has
received nothing but sophistry--believed on _blind_ faith; we ask
palpable, tangible evidence of their God’s justice and mercy. But all
are silent; no answer, no reply, and still the inexorable unerring
Law of Compensation proceeds on its unswerving path. If we but
watch its progress, we will find that it ignores all creeds, shows
no preferences, but its sunlight and its thunderbolts fall alike
on heathen and Christian. No absolution can shield the latter when
guilty, no anathema hurt the former when innocent.
Away from us such an insulting conception of divine justice as
that preached by priests on their own authority. It is fit only
for cowards and criminals! If they are backed by a whole array of
Fathers and Churchmen, we are supported by the greatest of all
authorities, an instinctive and reverential sense of the everlasting
and everpresent law of harmony and justice.
But, besides that of reason, we have other evidence to show that such
a construction is wholly unwarranted. The _Gospels_ being “Divine
revelation,” doubtless Christians will regard their testimony as
conclusive. Do they affirm that Jesus gave himself as a voluntary
sacrifice? On the contrary, there is not a word to sustain the idea.
They make it clear that he would rather have lived to continue
what he considered his mission, and that _he died because he could
not help it, and only when betrayed_. Before, when threatened with
violence, _he had made himself invisible_ by employing the mesmeric
power over the bystanders, claimed by every Eastern adept, and
escaped. When, finally, he saw that his time had come, he succumbed
to the inevitable. But see him in the garden, on the Mount of Olives,
writhing in agony until “his sweat was, as it were, great drops
of blood,” praying with fervid supplication that the cup might be
removed from him; exhausted by his struggle to such a degree that
an angel from heaven had to come and strengthen him; and say if the
picture is that of a self-immolating hostage and martyr. To crown
all, and leave no lingering doubt in our minds, we have his own
despairing words, “NOT MY WILL, _but thine_, be done!” (_Luke_ xxii.
42, 43.)
Again, in the _Puranas_ it may be found that Christna was nailed
to a tree by the arrow of a hunter, who, begging the dying god to
forgive him, receives the following answer: “Go, hunter, through
my favor, to Heaven, the abode of the gods.... Then the illustrious
Christna, having united himself with his own pure, spiritual,
inexhaustible, inconceivable, unborn, undecaying, imperishable, and
universal Spirit, which is one with Vasudeva, abandoned his mortal
body, and ... he became Nirguna” (Wilson’s _Vishnu Purana_, p. 612).
Is not this the original of the story of Christ forgiving the thief
on the cross, and promising him a place in Heaven? Such examples
“challenge inquiry as to their origin and meaning _so long anterior
to Christianity_,” says Dr. Lundy in _Monumental Christianity_, and
yet to all this he adds: “The idea of Krishna as a shepherd, I take
to be older than either (the _Gospel of Infancy_ and that of _St.
John_), _and prophetic of Christ_” (p. 156).
Facts like these, perchance, furnished later a plausible pretext
for declaring apocryphal all such works as the _Homilies_, which
proved but too clearly the utter want of any early authority for
the doctrine of atonement. The _Homilies_ clash but little with the
_Gospels_; they disagree entirely with the dogmas of the Church.
Peter knew nothing of the atonement; and his reverence for the
mythical father Adam would never have allowed him to admit that this
patriarch had sinned and was accursed. Neither do the Alexandrian
theological schools appear to have been cognizant of this doctrine,
nor Tertullian; nor was it discussed by any of the earlier Fathers.
Philo represents the story of the _Fall_ as symbolical, and Origen
regarded it the same way as Paul, as an allegory.[1061]
Whether they will or not, the Christians have to credit the foolish
story of Eve’s temptation by a serpent. Besides, Augustine has
formally pronounced upon the subject. “God, by His arbitrary will,”
he says, “has selected beforehand certain persons, _without regard
to foreseen faith or good actions, and has irretrievably ordained
to bestow upon them eternal happiness; while He has condemned
others in the same way to eternal reprobation_!!” (_De dono
perseverantiæ_).[1062]
Calvin promulgated views of Divine partiality and bloodthirstiness
equally abhorrent. “The human race, corrupted radically in the fall
with Adam, has upon it the guilt and impotence of original sin;
its redemption can be achieved only through an incarnation and a
propitiation; of this redemption only electing grace can make the
soul a participant, and such grace, once given, is never lost; _this
election can come only from God, and it includes only a part of the
race, the rest being left to perdition_; election and perdition (the
_horribile decretum_) are both predestinated in the Divine plan; that
plan is a decree, and this decree is eternal and unchangeable ...
justification is by _faith alone_, and _faith is the gift of God_.”
O Divine Justice, how blasphemed has been thy name! Unfortunately for
all such speculations, belief in the propitiatory efficacy of blood
can be traced to the oldest rites. Hardly a nation remained ignorant
of it. Every people offered animal and even human sacrifices to the
gods, in the hope of averting thereby public calamity, by pacifying
the wrath of some avenging deity. There are instances of Greek and
Roman generals offering their lives simply for the success of their
army. Cæsar complains of it, and calls it a superstition of the
Gauls. “They devote themselves to death ... believing that unless
life is rendered for life the immortal gods cannot be appeased,”
he writes. “If any evil is about to befall either those who now
sacrifice, or Egypt, may it be averted on this head,” was pronounced
by the Egyptian priests when sacrificing one of their sacred animals.
And imprecations were uttered over the head of the expiatory victim,
around whose horns a piece of byblus was rolled.[1064] The animal
was generally led to some barren region, sacred to Typhon, in those
primitive ages when this fatal deity was yet held in a certain
consideration by the Egyptians. It is in this custom that lies the
origin of the “scape-goat” of the Jews, who, when the rufous ass-god
was rejected by the Egyptians, began sacrificing to another deity the
“red heifer.”
“Let all sins that have been committed in this world fall on me that
the world may be delivered,” exclaimed Gautama, the Hindu Saviour,
centuries before our era.
No one will pretend to assert in our own age that it was the
Egyptians who borrowed anything from the Israelites, as they now
accuse the Hindus of doing. Bunsen, Lepsius, Champollion, have long
since established the precedence of Egypt over the Israelites in age
as well as in all the religious rites that we now recognize among the
“chosen people.” Even the _New Testament_ teems with quotations and
repetitions from the _Book of the Dead_, and Jesus, if everything
attributed to him by his four biographers is true--must have been
acquainted with the Egyptian Funereal Hymns.[1065] In the Gospel
according to _Matthew_ we find whole sentences from the ancient and
sacred _Ritual_ which preceded our era by more than 4,000 years. We
will again compare.[1066]
The “soul” under trial is brought before Osiris, the “Lord of Truth,”
who sits decorated with the Egyptian cross, emblem of eternal life,
and holding in his right hand the _Vannus_ or the flagellum of
justice.[1067] The spirit begins, in the “Hall of the Two Truths,”
an earnest appeal, and enumerates its good deeds, supported by the
responses of the forty-two assessors--_its incarnated deeds and
accusers_. If justified, it is addressed as Osiris, thus assuming the
appellation of the Deity whence its divine essence proceeded, and the
following words, full of majesty and justice, are pronounced! “Let
the _Osiris_ go; ye see he is without fault.... He lived on truth, he
has fed on truth.... _The god has welcomed him_ as he desired. _He
has given food to my hungry, drink to my thirsty ones, clothes to my
naked_.... He has made the sacred food of the gods the meat of the
spirits.”
In the parable of _the Kingdom of Heaven_ (_Matthew_ xxv.), the _Son
of Man_ (Osiris is also called the Son) sits upon the throne of his
glory, judging the nations, and says to the justified, “Come ye
blessed of my Father (_the_ God) inherit the kingdom.... For _I was
an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink_
... _naked and ye clothed me_.”[1068] To complete the resemblance
(_Matthew_ iii. 12): John is made to describe Christ as Osiris,
“whose _fan_ (winnow or _vannus_) is in his hand, and who will “purge
his floor and gather his wheat into the garner.”
The same in relation to Buddhist legends. In _Matthew_ iv. 19, Jesus
is made to say: “Follow me and I will make you _fishers_ of men,”
the whole adapted to a conversation between him and Simon Peter and
Andrew his brother.
In Schmidt’s “_Der Weise und der Thor_,[1069] a work full of
anecdotes about Buddha and his disciples, the whole from original
texts, it is said of a new convert to the faith, that “he had been
caught by the hook of the doctrine, just as a fish, who has caught
at the bait and line is securely pulled out.” In the temples of Siam
the image of the expected Buddha, the Messiah Maitree, is represented
with a fisherman’s net in the hand, while in Thibet he holds a kind
of a trap. The explanation of it reads as follows: “He (Buddha)
disseminates upon the Ocean of birth and decay the Lotus-flower of
the excellent law as _a bait_; with the loop of devotion, never
cast out in vain, he brings living beings up like fishes, and
carries them to the other side of the river, where there is true
understanding.”[1070]
Had the erudite Archbishop Cave, Grabe, and Dr. Parker, who so
zealously contended in their time for the admission of the _Epistles
of Jesus Christ and Abgarus, King of Edessa_, into the Canon of
the _Scripture_, lived in our days of Max Müller and Sanscrit
scholarship, we doubt whether they would have acted as they did.
The first mention of these Epistles ever made, was by the famous
Eusebius. This pious bishop seems to have been self-appointed to
furnish Christianity with the most unexpected proofs to corroborate
its wildest fancies. Whether among the many accomplishments of the
Bishop of Cæsarea, we must include a knowledge of the Cingalese,
Pehlevi, Thibetan, and other languages, we know not; but he surely
transcribed the letters of Jesus and Abgarus, and the story of the
miraculous portrait of Christ taken on a piece of cloth, by the
simple wiping of his face, from the Buddhistical Canon. To be sure,
the bishop declared that he found the letter himself written in
Syriac, preserved among the registers and records of the city of
Edessa, where Abgarus reigned.[1071] We recall the words of Babrias:
“Myth, O son of King Alexander, is an ancient human invention of
Syrians, who lived in old time under Ninus and Belus.” Edessa was
one of the ancient “holy cities.” The Arabs venerate it to this day;
and the purest Arabic is there spoken. They call it still by its
ancient name Orfa, once the city _Arpha-Kasda_ (Arphaxad) the seat of
a College of Chaldeans and Magi; whose missionary, called Orpheus,
brought thence the Bacchic Mysteries to Thrace. Very naturally,
Eusebius found there the tales which he wrought over into the story
of Abgarus, and the sacred picture taken on a cloth; as that of
Bhagavat, or the blessed Tathagâta (Buddha)[1072] was obtained by
King Binsbisara.[1073] The King having brought it, Bhagavat projected
his shadow on it.[1074] This bit of “miraculous stuff,” with its
shadow, is still preserved, say the Buddhists; “only the shadow
itself is rarely seen.”
In like manner, the Gnostic author of _the Gospel according to
John_, copied and metamorphosed the legend of Ananda who asked drink
of a Matangha woman--the antitype of the woman met by Jesus at the
well,[1075] and was reminded by her that she belongs to a low
caste, and may have nothing to do with a holy monk. “I do not ask
thee, my sister,” answers Ananda to the woman, “either thy caste or
thy family, I only ask thee for water, if thou canst give me some.”
This Matangha woman, charmed and moved to tears, repents, joins the
monastic Order of Gautama, and becomes a saint, rescued from a life
of unchastity by Sakya-muni. Many of her subsequent actions were used
by Christian forgers, to endow Mary Magdalen and other female saints
and martyrs.
“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a
cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto
you, he shall in no wise lose his reward,” says the Gospel (_Matthew_
x. 42). “Whosoever, with a purely believing heart, offers nothing but
a handful of water, or presents so much to the spiritual assembly,
or gives drink therewith to the poor and needy, or to a beast of
the field; this meritorious action will not be exhausted in many
ages,”[1076] says the Buddhist _Canon_.
At the hour of Gautama-Buddha’s birth there were 32,000 wonders
performed. The clouds stopped immovable in the sky, the waters of
the rivers ceased to flow; the flowers ceased unbudding; the birds
remained silent and full of wonder; all nature remained suspended in
her course, and was full of expectation. “There was a preternatural
light spread all over the world; animals suspended their eating; the
blind saw; and the lame and dumb were cured,” etc.[1077]
We now quote from the _Protevangelion_:
“At the hour of the Nativity, as Joseph looked up into the air, ‘I
saw,’ he says, ‘_the clouds astonished_, and the fowls of the air
stopping in the midst of their flight.... And I beheld the sheep
dispersed ... and _yet the sheep stood still_; and I looked into a
river, and saw the kids _with their mouths close to the water, and
touching it, but they did not drink_.
“_Then a bright cloud overshadowed the cave._ But on a sudden
the cloud became _a great light_ in the cave, so that their eyes
could not bear it.... The hand of Salomé, which was withered,
was straightway cured.... The blind saw; the lame and dumb were
cured.”[1078]
When sent to school, the young Gautama, without having ever studied,
completely worsted all his competitors; not only in writing, but in
arithmetic, mathematics, metaphysics, wrestling, archery, astronomy,
geometry, and finally vanquishes his own professors by giving the
definition of sixty-four kinds of writings, which were unknown to the
masters themselves.[1079]
And this is what is said again in the _Gospel of the Infancy_: “And
when he (Jesus) was twelve years old ... a certain principal Rabbi
asked him, ‘Hast thou read books?’ and a certain astronomer asked
the Lord Jesus whether he had studied astronomy. And Lord Jesus
explained to him ... about the spheres ... about the physics and
metaphysics. Also things that reason of man had never discovered....
The constitutions of the body, how the soul operated upon the body,
... etc. And at this the master was so surprised that he said: “I
believe this boy was born before Noah ... he is more learned than any
master.’”[1080]
The precepts of Hillel, who died forty years B.C., appear rather as
quotations than original expressions in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus taught the world nothing that had not been taught as earnestly
before by other masters. He begins his sermon with certain purely
Buddhistic precepts that had found acceptance among the Essenes, and
were generally practiced by the _Orphikoi_, and the Neo-platonists.
There were the Philhellenes, who, like Apollonius, had devoted their
lives to moral and physical purity, and who practiced asceticism. He
tries to imbue the hearts of his audience with a scorn for worldly
wealth; a fakir-like unconcern for the morrow; love for humanity,
poverty, and chastity. He blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, the
hungering and the thirsting after righteousness, the merciful and
the peace-makers, and, Buddha-like, leaves but a poor chance for
the proud castes to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Every word
of his sermon is an echo of the essential principles of monastic
Buddhism. The ten commandments of Buddha, as found in an appendix to
the _Prâtimoksha Sûtra_ (Pali-Burman text), are elaborated to their
full extent in _Matthew_. If we desire to acquaint ourselves with the
historical Jesus we have to set the mythical Christ entirely aside,
and learn all we can of the man in the first Gospel. His doctrines,
religious views, and grandest aspirations will be found concentrated
in his sermon.
This is the principal cause of the failure of missionaries to convert
Brahmanists and Buddhists. These see that the little of really good
that is offered in the new religion is paraded only in theory,
while their own faith demands that those identical rules shall be
applied in practice. Notwithstanding the impossibility for Christian
missionaries to understand clearly the spirit of a religion wholly
based on that doctrine of emanation which is so inimical to their
own theology, the reasoning powers of some simple Buddhistical
preachers are so high, that we see a scholar like Gutzlaff,[1081]
utterly silenced and put to great straits by Buddhists. Judson, the
famous Baptist missionary in Burmah, confesses, in his _Journal_,
the difficulties to which he was often driven by them. Speaking of
a certain Ooyan, he remarks that his strong mind was capable of
grasping the most difficult subjects. “His words,” he remarks, “are
as smooth as oil, as sweet as honey, and as sharp as razors; his mode
of reasoning is soft, insinuating, and acute; and so adroitly does
he act his part, that _I with the strength of truth_, was scarcely
able to keep him down.” It appears though, that at a later period
of his mission, Mr. Judson found that he had utterly mistaken the
doctrine. “I begin to find,” he says, “that the semi-atheism, which
I had sometimes mentioned, is nothing but a refined Buddhism, having
its foundation in the Buddhistic Scriptures.” Thus he discovered
at last that while there is in Buddhism “a generic term of most
exalted perfection actually applied to numerous individuals, a Buddha
superior to the whole host of subordinate deities,” there are also
lurking in the system “the glimmerings of an _anima mundi_ anterior
to, and even superior to, Buddha.”[1082]
This is a happy discovery, indeed!
Even the so-slandered Chinese believe in _One_, Highest God. “The
Supreme Ruler of Heavens.” Yuh-Hwang-Shang-ti, has his name inscribed
only on the golden tablet before the altar of heaven at the great
temple at Pekin, T’Iantan. “This worship,” says Colonel Yule, “is
mentioned by the Mahometan narrator of Shah Rukh’s embassy (A.D.
1421): ‘Every year there are some days on which the emperor eats no
animal food.... He spends his time in an apartment which contains _no
idol_, and says that _he is worshipping the God of Heaven_.”[1083]
Speaking of Shahrastani, the great Arabian scholar, Chwolsohn says
that for him Sabaeism was not astrolatry, as many are inclined to
think. He thought “that God is too sublime and too great to occupy
Himself with the immediate management of this world; that He has,
therefore, transferred the government thereof to the gods, and
retained only the most important affairs for Himself; that further,
man is too weak to be able to apply immediately to the Highest;
that he must, therefore, address his prayers and sacrifices to the
intermediate divinities, to whom the management of the world has
been entrusted by the Highest.” Chwolsohn argues that this idea is
as old as the world, and that “in the heathen world this view was
universally shared by the cultivated.”[1084]
Father Boori, a Portuguese missionary, who was sent to convert the
“poor heathen” of Cochin-China, as early as the sixteenth century,
“protests in despair, in his narrative, that there is not a dress,
office, or ceremony in the Church of Rome, to which the Devil has
not here provided some counterpart. Even when the Father began
inveighing against the idols, he was answered that these were the
images of departed great men, whom they worshipped exactly on the
same principle, and in the same manner, as the Catholics did the
images of the apostles and martyrs.”[1085] Moreover, these idols
have importance but in the eyes of the ignorant multitudes. The
_philosophy_ of Buddhism ignores images and fetishes. Its strongest
vitality lies in its psychological conceptions of man’s _inner_
self. The road to the supreme state of felicity, called the Ford
of Nirvana, winds its invisible paths through the spiritual,
not physical life of a person while on this earth. The sacred
Buddhistical literature points the way by stimulating man to follow
_practically_ the example of Gautama. Therefore, the Buddhistical
writings lay a particular stress on the spiritual privileges of man,
advising him to cultivate his powers for the production of _Meipo_
(phenomena) during life, and for the attainment of Nirvana in the
hereafter.
But turning again from the historical to the mythical narratives,
invented alike about Christna, Buddha, and Christ, we find the
following:
Setting a model for the Christian avatar and the archangel Gabriel
to follow, the luminous San-tusita (Bodhisat) appeared to Maha-maya
‘like a cloud in the moonlight, coming from the north, and in his
hand holding a white lotus.’ He announced to her the birth of her
son, and circumambulating the queen’s couch thrice ... passed away
from the dewa-loka and was conceived _in the world of men_.[1086]
The resemblance will be found still more perfect upon examining the
illustrations in mediæval psalters,[1087] and the panel-paintings
of the sixteenth century (in the Church of Jouy, for instance, in
which the Virgin is represented kneeling, with her hands uplifted
toward the Holy Ghost, and the unborn child is miraculously seen
through her body), and then finding the same subject treated in
the identical way in the sculptures in certain convents in Thibet.
In the Pali-Buddhistic annals, and other religious records, it
is stated that Maha-devi and all her attendants were constantly
gratified with the sight of the infant Bodhisatva quietly developing
within his mother’s bosom, and beaming already, from his place of
gestation, upon humanity “the resplendent moonshine of his future
benevolence.”[1088]
Ananda, the cousin and future disciple of Sakya-muni, is represented
as having been born at the same time. He appears to have been the
original for the old legends about John the Baptist. For example, the
Pali narrative relates that Maha-maya, while pregnant with the sage,
paid a visit to his mother, as Mary did to the mother of the Baptist.
Immediately, as she entered the apartment, the unborn Ananda greeted
the unborn Buddha-Siddhârtha, who also returned the salutation; and
in like manner the babe, afterward John the Baptist, leaped in the
womb of Elizabeth when Mary came in.[1089] More even than that; for
Didron describes a scene of salutation, painted on shutters at Lyons,
between Elizabeth and Mary, in which the two unborn infants, both
pictured as outside their mothers, are also saluting each other.[1090]
If we turn now to Christna and attentively compare the prophecies
respecting him, as collected in the Ramatsariarian traditions of the
_Atharva_, the _Vedangas_, and the Vedantas,[1091] with passages in
the _Bible_ and apocryphal Gospels, of which it is pretended that
some presage the coming of Christ, we shall find very curious facts.
Following are examples:
FROM THE HINDU BOOKS. FROM THE CHRISTIAN BOOKS.
1st. “He (the Redeemer) 1st. “The people of Galilee
shall come, _crowned with of the Gentiles which sat in
lights_, the pure fluid darkness saw great light”
issuing from the great soul (_Matthew_ iv. from _Isaiah_
... dispersing darkness” ix. 1, 2).
(_Atharva_).
2d. “In the _early part_ of 2d. “Behold, a virgin shall
the Kali-Yuga shall be born conceive and bear a son”
the son of the Virgin” (_Isaiah_ vii. quoted in
(_Vedanta_). _Matthew_ i. 23).
3d. “The Redeemer shall 3d. “Behold, now, Jesus of
come, and the accursed Nazareth, with the
_Rakhasas_ shall fly for brightness of his glorious
refuge to the deepest hell” divinity, put to flight all
(_Atharva_). the horrid powers of
darkness” (_Nicodemus_).
4th. “He shall come, and 4th. “And I give unto them
life will defy death ... and eternal life, and they shall
he shall revivify the blood never perish” (_John_ x. 28).
of all beings, shall
regenerate all bodies, and
purify all souls.”
5th. “He shall come, and all 5th. “Rejoice greatly, O
animated beings, all the daughter of Zion! shout, O
flowers, plants, men, women, daughter of Jerusalem!
the infants, the slaves ... behold, thy King cometh unto
shall together intone the thee ... he is just ... for
chant of joy, for he is the how great is his goodness,
Lord of all creatures ... he and how great is his beauty!
is infinite, for he is Corn shall make the young
power, for he is wisdom, for men cheerful, and new wine
he is beauty, for he is all the maids” (_Zechariah_ ix.).
and in all.”
6th. “He shall come, more 6th. “Behold the lamb of
sweet than honey and God” (_John_ i. 36). “He was
ambrosia, more pure than brought as a lamb to the
_the lamb_ without spot” slaughter” (_Isaiah_ 53).
(Ibid.).
7th. “Happy the blest womb 7th. “Blessed art thou among
that shall bear him” women, and blessed is the
(Ibid.). fruit of thy womb” (_Luke_
i.); “Blessed is the womb
that bare thee” (xi. 27).
8th. “And God shall manifest 8th. “God manifested forth
His glory, and make His His glory” (_John_, 1st Ep.).
power resound, and shall
reconcile Himself with His “God was in Christ,
creatures” (Ibid.). reconciling the world unto
himself” (_2 Corinth._ v.).
9th. “It is in the bosom of 9th. “Being an unparalleled
a woman that the ray of the instance, without any
Divine splendor will receive pollution or defilement, and
human form, and she shall a virgin shall bring forth a
bring forth, being a virgin, son, and a maid shall bring
for no impure contact shall forth the Lord” (_Gospel of
have defiled her” Mary_, iii.).
(_Vedangas_).
Let there be exaggeration or not in attributing to the _Atharva-Veda_
and the other books such a great antiquity, the fact remains that
_these prophecies and their realization preceded Christianity_, and
Christna preceded Christ. That is all we need care to inquire.
One is completely overwhelmed with astonishment upon reading Dr.
Lundy’s _Monumental Christianity_. It would be difficult to say
whether an admiration for the author’s erudition, or amazement at
his serene and unparalleled sophistry is stronger. He has gathered
a world of facts which prove that the religions, far more ancient
than Christianity, of Christna, Buddha, and Osiris had anticipated
even its minutest symbols. His materials come from no forged
papyri, no interpolated Gospels, but from sculptures on the walls
of ancient temples, from monuments, inscriptions, and other archaic
relics, only mutilated by the hammers of iconoclasts, the cannon
of fanatics, and the effects of time. He shows us Christna and
Apollo as good shepherds; Christna holding the cruciform _chank_
and the _chakra_, and Christna “crucified in space,” as he calls it
(_Monumental Christianity_, fig. 72). Of this figure--borrowed by Dr.
Lundy from Moor’s _Hindu Pantheon_--it may be truly said that it is
calculated to petrify a Christian with astonishment, for it is the
crucified Christ of Romish art to the last degree of resemblance.
Not a feature is lacking; and, the author says of it himself: “This
representation I believe to be anterior to Christianity.... It looks
like a Christian crucifix in many respects.... The drawing, the
attitude, the nail-marks in hands and feet, indicate a Christian
origin, while the Parthian coronet of seven points, the absence of
the wood, and of the usual inscription, and the rays of glory above,
would seem to point to some other than a Christian origin. Can it be
the victim-man, or the priest and victim both in one, of the Hindu
Mythology, who offered himself a sacrifice before the worlds were?
Can it be Plato’s Second God who impressed himself on the universe in
the form of the cross? Or is it his divine man who would be scourged,
tormented, fettered; have his eyes burnt out; and lastly ... _would
be crucified_?” (_Republic_, c. ii., p. 52, _Spens. Trans._). It is
all that and much more; _Archaic Religious Philosophy_ was universal.
As it is, Dr. Lundy contradicts Moor, and maintains that this figure
is that of _Wittoba_, one of the avatars of Vishnu, hence Christna,
and _anterior to Christianity_, which is a fact not very easily to be
put down. And yet although he finds it prophetic of Christianity, he
thinks it has no relation whatever to Christ! His only reason is that
“in a Christian crucifix the glory always comes from the sacred head;
here it is from above and beyond.... The Pundit’s Wittoba then, given
to Moor, would seem to be the crucified _Krishna_, the shepherd-god
of Mathura ... a _Saviour--the Lord of the Covenant, as well as Lord
of Heaven and earth--pure and impure, light and dark, good and bad,
peaceful and war like, amiable and wrathful, mild and turbulent,
forgiving and vindictive, God and a strange mixture of man_, but not
the Christ of the Gospels.”
Now all these qualities must pertain to Jesus as well as to Christna.
The very fact that Jesus was a man upon the mother’s side--even
though he were a _God_, implies as much. His behavior toward the
fig-tree, and his self-contradictions, in _Matthew_, where at one
time he promises peace on earth, and at another the sword, etc., are
proofs in this direction. Undoubtedly this cut was never intended to
represent Jesus of Nazareth. It was Wittoba, as Moor was told, and as
moreover the Hindu _Sacred Scriptures_ state, Brahma, the sacrificer
who is “at once both sacrificer and victim;” it is “Brahma, victim
in His Son Christna, who came to die on earth for our salvation, who
Himself accomplishes the solemn sacrifice (of the Sarvameda).” And
yet, it is the man Jesus as well as the man Christna, for both were
united to their _Chrestos_.
Thus we have either to admit periodical “incarnations,” or let
Christianity go as the greatest imposture and plagiarism of the ages!
As to the Jewish _Scriptures_, only such men as the Jesuit de
Carrière, a convenient representative of the majority of the Catholic
clergy, can still command their followers to accept only the
chronology established by the Holy Ghost. It is on the authority of
the latter that we learn that Jacob went, with a family of seventy
persons, all told, to settle in Egypt in A.M. 2298, and that in
A.M. 2513--just 215 years afterward--these seventy persons had so
increased that they left Egypt 600,000 fighting men strong, “without
counting women and children,” which, according to the science of
statistics, should represent a total population of between two
and three millions!! Natural history affords no parallel to such
fecundity, except in red herrings. After this let the Christian
missionaries laugh, if they can, at Hindu chronology and computations.
“Happy are those persons, but not to be envied,” exclaims Bunsen,
“who have no misgivings about making Moses march out with more than
two millions of people at the end of a popular conspiracy and rising,
in the sunny days of the eighteenth dynasty; who make the Israelites
conquer Kanaan under Joshua, during and previous to the most
formidable campaigns of conquering Pharaohs in that same country. The
Egyptian and Assyrian annals, combined with the historical criticism
of the _Bible_, prove that the exodus could only have taken place
under Menephthah, so that Joshua could not have crossed the Jordan
before Easter 1280, the last campaign of Ramses III. in Palestine
being in 1281.”[1092]
But we must resume the thread of our narrative with Buddha.
Neither he nor Jesus ever wrote one word of their doctrines. We
have to take the teachings of the masters on the testimony of the
disciples, and therefore it is but fair that we should be allowed
to judge both doctrines on their intrinsic value. Where the logical
preponderance lies, may be seen in the results of frequent encounters
between Christian missionaries and Buddhist theologians (_pungui_).
The latter usually, if not invariably, have the better of their
opponents. On the other hand, the “Lama of Jehovah” rarely fails
to lose his temper, to the great delight of the Lama of Buddha,
and practically demonstrates his religion of patience, mercy, and
charity, by abusing his disputant in the most uncanonical language.
This we have witnessed repeatedly.
Despite the notable similarity of the direct teachings of Gautama
and Jesus, we yet find their respective followers starting from
two diametrically opposite points. The Buddhist divine, following
literally the ethical doctrine of his master, remains thus true to
the legacy of Gautama; while the Christian minister, distorting
the precepts recorded by the four _Gospels_ beyond recognition,
teaches, not that which Jesus taught, but the absurd, too often
pernicious, interpretations of fallible men--Popes, Luthers, and
Calvins included. The following are two instances selected from
both religions, and brought into contrast. Let the reader judge for
himself:
“Do not believe in anything because it is rumored and spoken of by
many,” says Buddha; “do not think that is a proof of its truth.
“Do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage
is produced; do not be sure that the writing has ever been revised by
the said sage, or can be relied on. Do not believe in what you have
fancied, thinking that, _because an idea is extraordinary, it must
have been implanted by a Deva, or some wonderful being_.
“Do not believe in guesses, that is, assuming something at hap-hazard
as a starting-point, and then drawing conclusions from it--reckoning
your two and your three and your four _before you have fixed your
number one_.
“_Do not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and
masters_, or believe and practice merely _because they believe and
practice_.
“I [Buddha] tell you all, you must of yourselves know that this is
evil, this is punishable, this is censured by wise men; belief in
this will bring no advantage to any one, but will cause sorrow; and
when you know this, then eschew it.”[1093]
It is impossible to avoid contrasting with these benevolent and
human sentiments, the fulminations of the Œcumenical Council and the
Pope, against the employment of reason, and the pursuit of science
when it clashes with revelation. The atrocious Papal benediction
of Moslem arms and cursing of the Russian and Bulgarian Christians
have roused the indignation of some of the most devoted Catholic
communities. The Catholic Czechs of Prague on the day of the recent
semi-centennial jubilee of Pius IX., and again on the 6th of July,
the day sacred to the memory of John Huss, the burned martyr, to mark
their horror of the Ultramontane policy in this respect, gathered by
thousands upon the neighboring Mount Zhishko, and with great ceremony
and denunciations, burned the Pope’s portrait, his Syllabus, and
last allocution against the Russian Czar, saying that they were good
Catholics, but better Slavs. Evidently, the memory of John Huss is
more sacred to them than the Vatican Popes.
“The worship of words is more pernicious than the worship of images,”
remarks Robert Dale Owen. “Grammatolatry is the worst species of
idolatry. We have arrived at an era in which literalism is destroying
faith.... The letter killeth.”[1094]
There is not a dogma in the Church to which these words can be better
applied than to the doctrine of _transubstantiation_.[1095] “Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life,” Christ
is made to say. “This is a hard saying,” repeated his dismayed
listeners. The answer _was that of an initiate_. “Doth this offend
you? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.
The words (_remata_, or arcane utterances) that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are Life.”
During the Mysteries wine represented Bacchus, and bread
Ceres.[1096] The hierophant-initiator presented symbolically before
the final _revelation_ wine and bread to the candidate who had to eat
and drink of both in token that the spirit was to quicken matter,
_i.e._, the divine wisdom was to enter into his body through what was
to be revealed to him. Jesus, in his Oriental phraseology, constantly
assimilated himself to the true vine (_John_ xv. 1). Furthermore,
the hierophant, the discloser of the Petroma, was called “Father.”
When Jesus says, “Drink ... this is my blood,” what else was meant,
it was simply a metaphorical assimilation of himself to the vine,
which bears the grape, whose juice is its blood--wine. It was a hint
that as he had himself been initiated by the “Father,” so he desired
to initiate others. His “Father” was the husbandman, himself the
vine, his disciples the branches. His followers being ignorant of
the terminology of the Mysteries, wondered; they even took it as an
offense, which is not surprising, considering the Mosaic injunction
against blood.
There is quite enough in the four gospels to show what was the
secret and most fervent hope of Jesus; the hope in which he began to
teach, and in which he died. In his immense and unselfish love for
humanity, he considers it unjust to deprive the many of the results
of the knowledge acquired by the few. This result he accordingly
preaches--the unity of a spiritual God, whose temple is within
each of us, and in whom we live as He lives in us--in spirit. This
knowledge was in the hands of the Jewish adepts of the school of
Hillel and the kabalists. But the “scribes,” or lawyers, having
gradually merged into the dogmatism of the dead letter, had long
since separated themselves from the Tanaïm, the true spiritual
teachers; and the practical kabalists were more or less persecuted
by the Synagogue. Hence, we find Jesus exclaiming: “Woe unto you
lawyers! _For ye have taken away the key of knowledge_ [the Gnosis]:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering ye
prevented” (_Luke_ xi. 52). The meaning here is clear. They did take
the key away, and could not even profit by it themselves, for the
_Masorah_ (tradition) had become a closed book to themselves as well
as to others.
Neither Renan nor Strauss, nor the more modern Viscount Amberley
seem to have had the remotest suspicion of the real meaning of many
of the parables of Jesus, or even of the character of the great
Galilean philosopher. Renan, as we have seen, presented him to us
as a Gallicized Rabbi, “_le plus charmant de tous_,” still but a
Rabbi; and one, moreover, who does not even come out of the school
of Hillel, or any school either, albeit he terms him repeatedly
“the charming doctor.”[1097] He shows him as a sentimental young
enthusiast, sprung out of the plebeian classes of Galilee, who
imagines the ideal kings of his parables the empurpled and jewelled
beings of whom one reads in nursery tales.[1098]
Lord Amberley’s Jesus, on the other hand, is an “iconoclastic
idealist,” far inferior in subtilty and logic to his critics. Renan
looks over at Jesus with the one-sidedness of a Semitomaniac;
Viscount Amberley looks down upon him from the social plane of an
English lord. _Apropos_ of this marriage-feast parable, which he
considers as embodying “a curious theory of social intercourse,”
the Viscount says: “Nobody can object to charitable individuals
asking poor people or invalids _without rank_ at their houses....
But we cannot admit that this kind action ought to be rendered
obligatory ... it is eminently desirable that we should do exactly
what Christ would forbid us doing--namely, invite our neighbors
and be invited by them as circumstances may require. The fear that
we may receive a recompense for the dinner-parties we may give, is
surely chimerical.... Jesus, in fact, overlooks entirely the more
intellectual side of society.”[1099] All of which unquestionably
shows that the “Son of God” was no master of social etiquette, nor
fit for “society;” but it is also a fair example of the prevalent
misconception of even his most suggestive parables.
The theory of Anquetil du Perron that the _Bagaved-gita_ is an
independent work, as it is absent from several manuscripts of the
_Mahâ-Bhârata_, may be as much a plea for a still greater antiquity
as the reverse. The work is purely metaphysical and ethical, and in
a certain sense it is _anti-Vedic_; so far, at least, that it is in
opposition with many of the later Brahmanical interpretations of the
_Vedas_. How comes it, then, that instead of destroying the work,
or, at least, of sentencing it as uncanonical--an expedient to which
the Christian Church would never have failed to resort--the Brahmans
show it the greatest reverence? Perfectly _unitarian_ in its aim, it
clashes with the popular idol-worship. Still, the only precaution
taken by the Brahmans to keep its tenets from becoming too well
known, is to preserve it more secretly than any other religious book
from every caste except the sacerdotal; and, to impose upon that
even, in many cases, certain restrictions. The grandest mysteries of
the Brahmanical religion are embraced within this magnificent poem;
and even the Buddhists recognize it, explaining certain dogmatic
difficulties in their own way. “Be unselfish, subdue your senses and
passions, which obscure reason and lead to deceit,” says Christna to
his disciple Arjuna, thus enunciating a purely Buddhistic principle.
“Low men follow examples, great men give them.... The soul ought to
free itself from the bonds of action, and act absolutely according to
its divine origin. _There is but one God_, and all other devotas are
inferior, and mere forms (powers) of Brahma or of myself. _Worship by
deeds predominates over that of contemplation._”[1100]
This doctrine coincides perfectly with that of Jesus himself.[1101]
Faith alone, unaccompanied by “works,” is reduced to naught in the
_Bagaved-gita_. As to the _Atharva-Veda_, it was and is preserved in
such secrecy by the Brahmans, that it is a matter of doubt whether
the Orientalists have a _complete_ copy of it. One who has read what
Abbé Dubois says may well doubt the fact. “Of the last species--the
Atharva--there are very few,” he says, writing of the _Vedas_, “and
many people suppose they no longer exist. But the truth is, they do
exist, though they conceal themselves with more caution than the
others, from the fear of being suspected to be initiated in the magic
mysteries and other dreaded mysteries which the work is believed to
teach.”[1102]
There were even those among the highest _epoptæ_ of the greater
_Mysteries_ who knew nothing of their last and dreaded rite--the
voluntary transfer of life from hierophant to candidate. In
_Ghost-Land_[1103] this mystical operation of the adept’s transfer
of his spiritual entity, after the death of his body, into the
youth he loves with all the ardent love of a spiritual parent, is
superbly described. As in the case of the reïncarnation of the lamas
of Thibet, an adept of the highest order may live indefinitely. His
mortal casket wears out notwithstanding certain alchemical secrets
for prolonging the youthful vigor far beyond the usual limits, yet
the body can rarely be kept alive beyond ten or twelve score of
years. The old garment is then worn out, and the spiritual Ego forced
to leave it, selects for its habitation a new body, fresh and full of
healthy vital principle. In case the reader should feel inclined to
ridicule this assertion of the possible prolongation of human life,
we may as well refer him to the statistics of several countries. The
author of an able article in the _Westminster Review_, for October,
1850, is responsible for the statement that in England, they have
the authentic instances of one Thomas Jenkins dying at the age of
169, and “Old Parr” at 152; and that in Russia some of the peasants
are “known to have reached 242 years.”[1104] There are also cases
of centenarianism reported among the Peruvian Indians. We are aware
that many able writers have recently discredited these claims to an
extreme longevity, but we nevertheless affirm our belief in their
truth.
True or false there are “superstitions” among the Eastern people such
as have never been dreamed even by an Edgar Poe or a Hoffmann. And
these beliefs run in the very blood of the nations with which they
originated. Carefully stripped of exaggeration they will be found
to embody an universal belief in those restless, wandering, astral
souls, which are called ghouls and vampires. An Armenian Bishop of
the fifth century, named Yeznik, gives a number of such narratives in
a manuscript work (Book i., §§ 20, 30), preserved some thirty years
ago in the library of the Monastery of Etchmeadzine.[1105] Among
others, there is a tradition dating from the days of heathendom,
that whenever a hero whose life is needed yet on earth falls on
the battle-field, the Aralez, the popular gods of ancient Armenia,
empowered to bring back to life those slaughtered in battle, lick
the bleeding wounds of the victim, and breathe on them until they
have imparted a new and vigorous life. After that the warrior rises,
washes off all traces of his wounds, and resumes his place in the
fray. But his immortal spirit has fled; and for the remainder of his
days he lives--a deserted temple.
Once that an adept was initiated into the last and most solemn
mystery of the life-transfer, the awful _seventh_ rite of the great
sacerdotal operation, which is the highest theurgy, he belonged no
more to this world. His soul was free thereafter, and the _seven_
mortal sins lying in wait to devour his heart, as the soul, liberated
by death, would be crossing the _seven_ halls and _seven_ staircases,
could hurt him no more alive or dead; he has passed the “twice seven
trials,” the _twelve_ labors of the final hour.[1106]
The High Hierophant alone knew how to perform this solemn operation
by infusing his own vital life and astral soul into the adept, chosen
by him for his successor, who thus became endowed with a double
life.[1107]
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man _be born again_,
he cannot see the kingdom of God” (_John_ iii. 3). Jesus tells
Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the spirit is spirit.”
This allusion, so unintelligible in itself, is explained in the
_Satapa-Brâhmana_. It teaches that a man striving after spiritual
perfection must have _three_ births: 1st. Physical from his mortal
parents; 2d. _Spiritual_, through religious sacrifice (initiation);
3d. His final birth into the world of spirit--at death. Though
it may seem strange that we should have to go to the old land of
the Punjâb and the banks of the sacred Ganges, for an interpreter
of words spoken in Jerusalem and expounded on the banks of the
Jordan, the fact is evident. This second birth, or regeneration
of spirit, after the natural birth of that which is born of the
flesh, might have astonished a Jewish ruler. Nevertheless, it had
been taught 3,000 years before the appearance of the great Galilean
prophet, not only in old India but to all the _epoptæ_ of the Pagan
initiation, who were instructed in the great mysteries of LIFE and
DEATH. This secret of secrets, that _soul_ is not knit to flesh,
was practically demonstrated in the instance of the Yogis, the
followers of Kapila. Having emancipated their souls from the fetters
of _Prakriti_, or _Mahat_ (the physical perception of the senses and
mind--in one sense, creation), they so developed their soul-power
and _will-force_, as to have actually enabled themselves, while on
earth, to communicate with the supernal worlds, and perform what is
bunglingly termed “miracles.”[1108] Men whose astral spirits have
attained on earth the _nehreyasa_, or the _mukti_, are half-gods;
disembodied spirits, they reach Moksha or _Nirvana_, and this is
their _second_ spiritual birth.
Buddha teaches the doctrine of a new birth as plainly as Jesus
does. Desiring to break with the ancient Mysteries, to which it was
impossible to admit the ignorant masses, the Hindu reformer, though
generally silent upon more than one secret dogma, clearly states his
thought in several passages. Thus, he says: “_Some people are born
again_; evil-doers go to Hell; righteous people go to Heaven; those
who are free from all worldly desires enter Nirvana” (_Precepts of
the Dhammapada_, v., 126). Elsewhere Buddha states that “it is better
to believe in a future life, in which happiness or misery can be
felt; for if the heart believes therein, it will abandon sin and act
virtuously; and even if there is no resurrection, such a life will
bring a good name and the regard of men. _But those who believe in
extinction at death will not fail to commit any sin_ that they may
choose, because of their disbelief in a future.”[1109]
The _Epistle to the Hebrews_ treats of the sacrifice of blood. “Where
a testament is,” says the writer, “there must be of necessity _the
death_ of the testator.... Without the shedding _of blood_ is no
remission.” Then again: “Christ glorified not himself to _be made
High Priest_; but He that said unto him: Thou art my son; TO-DAY HAVE
I BEGOTTEN THEE” (_Heb._ v. 5). This is a very clear inference, that,
1, Jesus was considered only in the light of a high priest, like
Melchisedek--another _avatar_, or incarnation of Christ, according to
the Fathers; and, 2, that the writer thought that Jesus had become a
“Son of God” only at the moment of his initiation by water; hence,
that he was not born a god, neither was he begotten physically by
Him. Every initiate of the “last hour” became, by the very fact of
his initiation, a son of God. When Maxime, the Ephesian, initiated
the Emperor Julian into the Mithraïc Mysteries, he pronounced as the
usual formula of the rite, the following: “By this blood, I wash thee
from thy sins. The Word of the Highest has entered unto thee, and His
Spirit henceforth will rest upon the NEWLY-BORN, _the now_-begotten
of the Highest God.... Thou art the son of Mithra.” “Thou art the
‘_Son of God_,’” repeated the disciples after Christ’s baptism.
When Paul shook off the viper into the fire without further injury
to himself, the people of Melita said “that he was _a god_” (_Acts_
xxviii.). “He is the son of God, the Beautiful!” was the term used by
the disciples of Simon Magus, for they thought they recognized the
“great power of God” in him.
A man can have no god that is not bounded by his own human
conceptions. The wider the sweep of his spiritual vision, the
mightier will be his deity. But where can we find a better
demonstration of Him than in man himself; in the spiritual and divine
powers lying dormant in every human being? “The very capacity to
imagine the possibility of thaumaturgical powers, is itself evidence
that they exist,” says the author of _Prophecy_. “The critic, as well
as the skeptic, is generally inferior to the person or subject that
he is reviewing, and, therefore, is hardly a competent witness. _If
there are counterfeits, somewhere there must have been a genuine_
original.”[1110]
Blood begets phantoms, and its emanations furnish certain spirits
with the materials required to fashion their temporary appearances.
“Blood,” says Levi, “is the first incarnation of the universal
fluid; it is the materialized _vital light_. Its birth is the most
marvellous of all nature’s marvels; it lives only by perpetually
transforming itself, for it is the universal Proteus. The blood
issues from principles where there was none of it before, and it
becomes flesh, bones, hair, nails ... tears, and perspiration. It
can be allied neither to corruption nor death; when life is gone, it
begins decomposing; if you know how to reänimate it, to infuse into
it life by a new magnetization of its globules, life will return to
it again. The universal substance, with its double motion, is the
great arcanum of being; blood is the great arcanum of life.”
“Blood,” says the Hindu Ramatsariar, “contains all the mysterious
secrets of existence, no living being can exist without. It is
profaning the great work of the Creator to eat blood.”
In his turn Moses, following the universal and traditional law,
forbids eating blood.
Paracelsus writes that with the fumes of blood one is enabled to call
forth any spirit we desire to see; for with its emanations it will
build itself an appearance, a _visible_ body--only this is sorcery.
The hierophants of Baal made deep incisions all over their bodies and
produced apparitions, objective and tangible, with their own blood.
The followers of a certain sect in Persia, many of whom may be found
around the Russian settlements in Temerchan-Shoura, and Derbent,
have their religious mysteries in which they form a large ring, and
whirl round in a frantic dance. Their temples are ruined, and they
worship in large temporary buildings, securely enclosed, and with
the earthen floor deeply strewn with sand. They are all dressed in
long white robes, and their heads are bare and closely shaved. Armed
with knives, they soon reach a point of furious exaltation, and wound
themselves and others until their garments and the sand on the floor
are soaked with blood. Before the end of the “Mystery” _every man
has a companion_, who whirls round with him. Sometimes the spectral
dancers have _hair on their heads_, which makes them quite distinct
from their unconscious creators. As we have solemnly promised never
to divulge the principal details of this terrible ceremony (which we
were allowed to witness but once), we must leave the subject.[1111]
In the days of antiquity the sorceresses of Thessaly added sometimes
to the blood of a black lamb that of an infant, and by this means
evoked the shadows. The priests were taught the art of calling up the
spirits of the dead, as well as those of the elements, but their mode
was certainly not that of Thessalian sorceresses.
Among the Yakuts of Siberia there is a tribe dwelling on the very
confines of the Transbaïkal regions near the river Vitema (eastern
Siberia) which practices sorcery as known in the days of the
Thessalian witches. Their religious beliefs are curious as a mixture
of philosophy and superstition. They have a chief or supreme god
Aij-Taïon, who did not create, they say, but only _presides_ over
the creation of all the worlds. He lives on the _ninth_ heaven,
and it is but from the _seventh_ that the other minor gods--his
servants--can manifest themselves to their creatures. This ninth
heaven, according to the revelation of the minor deities (spirits,
we suppose), has three suns and three moons, and the ground of this
abode is formed of four lakes (the four cardinal points) of “soft
air” (ether), instead of water. While they offer no sacrifices to
the Supreme Deity, for he needs none, they do try to propitiate both
the good and bad deities, which they respectively term the “white”
and the “black” gods. They do it, because neither of the two classes
are good or bad through personal merit or demerit. As they are all
subject to the Supreme Aij-Taïon, and each has to carry on the duty
assigned to him from eternity, they are not responsible for either
the good or evil they produce in this world. The reason given by the
Yakuts for such sacrifices is very curious. Sacrifices, they say,
help each class of gods to perform their mission the better, and so
please the Supreme; and every mortal that helps either of them in
performing his duty must, therefore, please the Supreme as well,
for he will have helped justice to take place. As the “black” gods
are appointed to bring diseases, evils, and all kinds of calamities
to mankind, each of which is a punishment for some transgression,
the Yakuts offer to them “bloody” sacrifices of animals; while to
the “white” they make pure offerings, consisting generally of an
animal consecrated to some special god and taken care of with great
ceremony, as having become sacred. According to their ideas the souls
of the dead become “shadows,” and are doomed to wander on earth, till
a certain change takes place either for the better or worse, which
the Yakuts do not pretend to explain. The _light_ shadows, _i.e._,
those of good people, become the guardians and protectors of those
they loved on earth; the “dark” shadows (the wicked) always seek, on
the contrary, to hurt those they knew, by inciting them to crimes,
wicked acts, and otherwise injuring mortals. Besides these, like the
ancient Chaldees, they reckon seven divine _Sheitans_ (dæmons) or
minor gods. It is during the sacrifices of blood, which take place
at night, that the Yakuts call forth the wicked or _dark_ shadows,
to inquire of them what they can do to arrest their mischief; hence,
_blood is necessary_, for without its fumes the ghosts could not make
themselves clearly visible, and would become, according to their
ideas, but the more dangerous, for they would suck it from living
persons by their perspiration.[1112] As to the good, _light_ shadows,
they need not be called out; besides that, such an act disturbs
them; they can make their presence felt, when needed, without any
preparation and ceremonies.
The blood-evocation is also practiced, although with a different
purpose, in several parts of Bulgaria and Moldavia, especially in
districts in the vicinity of Mussulmans. The fearful oppressions and
slavery to which these unfortunate Christians have been subjected
for centuries has rendered them a thousand-fold more impressible,
and at the same time more superstitious, than those who live in
civilized countries. On every seventh of May the inhabitants of every
Moldavo-Valachian and Bulgarian city or village, have what they term
the “feast of the dead.” After sunset, immense crowds of women and
men, each with a lighted wax taper in hand, resort to the burial
places, and pray on the tombs of their departed friends. This ancient
and solemn ceremony, called _Trizna_, is everywhere a reminiscence
of primitive Christian rites, but far more solemn yet, while in
Mussulman slavery. Every tomb is furnished with a kind of cupboard,
about half a yard high, built of four stones, and with hinged
double-doors. These closets contain what is termed the household
of the defunct: namely, a few wax tapers, some oil and an earthen
lamp, which is lighted on that day, and burns for twenty-four hours.
Wealthy people have silver lamps richly chiselled, and bejewelled
images, which are secure from thieves, for in the burial ground the
closets are even left open. Such is the dread of the population
(Mussulman and Christian) of the revenge of the dead that a thief
bold enough to commit any murder, would never dare touch the property
of a dead person. The Bulgarians have a belief that every Saturday,
and especially the eve of Easter Sunday, and until Trinity day
(about seven weeks) the souls of the dead descend on earth, some to
beg forgiveness from those living whom they had wronged; others to
protect and commune with their loved ones. Faithfully following the
traditional rites of their forefathers, the natives on each Saturday
of these seven weeks keep either lamps or tapers lighted. In addition
to that, on the _seventh_ of May they drench the tombs with grape
wine, and burn incense around them from sunset to sunrise. With
the inhabitants of towns, the ceremony is limited to these simple
observances. With some of the rustics though, the rite assumes the
proportions of a theurgic evocation. On the eve of Ascension Day,
Bulgarian women light a quantity of tapers and lamps; the pots are
placed upon tripods, and incense perfumes the atmosphere for miles
around; while thick white clouds of smoke envelope each tomb, as
though a veil had separated it from the others. During the evening,
and until a little before midnight, in memory of the deceased,
acquaintances and a certain number of mendicants are fed and treated
with wine and _raki_ (grape-whiskey), and money is distributed among
the poor according to the means of the surviving relatives. When the
feast is ended, the guests approaching the tomb and addressing the
defunct by name, thank him or her for the bounties received. When all
but the nearest relatives are gone, a woman, usually the most aged,
remains alone with the dead, and--some say--resorts to the ceremony
of invocation.
After fervent prayers, repeated face downward on the grave-mound,
more or less drops of blood are drawn from near the left bosom,
and allowed to trickle upon the tomb. This gives strength to the
invisible spirit which hovers around, to assume for a few instants
a visible form, and whisper his instructions to the Christian
theurgist--if he has any to offer, or simply to “bless the mourner”
and then disappear again till the following year. So firmly rooted
is this belief that we have heard, in a case of family difficulty, a
Moldavian woman appeal to her sister to put off every decision till
Ascension-night, when their dead father _would be able to tell them
of his will and pleasure in person_; to which the sister consented as
simply as though their parent were in the next room.
That there are fearful secrets in nature may well be believed
when, as we have seen in the case of the Russian _Znachar_, the
sorcerer _cannot_ die until he has passed the word to another, and
the hierophants of White Magic rarely do. It seems as if the dread
power of the “Word” could only be entrusted to one man of a certain
district or body of people at a time. When the Brahmâtma was about
to lay aside the burden of physical existence, he imparted his
secret to his successor, either orally, or by a writing placed in a
securely-fastened casket which went into the latter’s hands alone.
Moses “lays his hands” upon his neophyte, Joshua, in the solitudes of
Nebo and passes away forever. Aaron initiates Eleazar on Mount Hor,
and dies. Siddhârtha-Buddha promises his mendicants before his death
to live in him who shall deserve it, embraces his favorite disciple,
whispers in his ear, and dies; and as John’s head lies upon the bosom
of Jesus, he is told that he shall “tarry” until he shall come. Like
signal-fires of the olden times, which, lighted and extinguished by
turns upon one hill-top after another, conveyed intelligence along
a whole stretch of country, so we see a long line of “wise” men
from the beginning of history down to our own times communicating
the word of wisdom to their direct successors. Passing from seer
to seer, the “Word” flashes out like lightning, and while carrying
off the initiator from human sight forever, brings the new initiate
into view. Meanwhile, whole nations murder each other in the name of
another “Word,” an empty substitute accepted literally by each, and
misinterpreted by all!
We have met few sects which truly practice sorcery. One such is
the Yezidis, considered by some a branch of the Koords, though we
believe erroneously. These inhabit chiefly the mountainous and
desolate regions of Asiatic Turkey, about Mosul, Armenia, and are
found even in Syria,[1113] and Mesopotamia. They are called and known
everywhere as devil-worshippers; and most certainly it is not either
through ignorance or mental obscuration that they have set up the
worship and a regular intercommunication with the lowest and the
most malicious of both elementals and elementaries. They recognize
the present wickedness of the chief of the “black powers;” but at
the same time they dread his power, and so try to conciliate to
themselves his favors. He is in an open quarrel with Allah, they
say, but a reconciliation can take place between the two at any day;
and those who have shown marks of their disrespect to the “black
one” now, may suffer for it at some future time, and thus have both
God and Devil against them. This is simply a cunning policy that
seeks to propitiate his Satanic majesty, who is no other than the
great _Tcherno-bog_ (the black god) of the Variagi-Russ, the ancient
idolatrous Russians before the days of Vladimir.
Like Wierus, the famous demonographer of the sixteenth century (who
in his _Pseudomonarchia Dæmonum_ describes and enumerates a regular
infernal court, which has its dignitaries, princes, dukes, nobles,
and officers), the Yezidis have a whole pantheon of devils, and use
the Jakshas, aërial spirits, to convey their prayers and respects
to Satan their master, and the Afrites of the Desert. During their
prayer-meetings, they join hands, and form immense rings, with
their Sheik, or an officiating priest in the middle who claps his
hands, and intones every verse in honor of Sheitan (Satan). Then
they whirl and leap in the air. When the frenzy is at its climax,
they often wound and cut themselves with their daggers, occasionally
rendering the same service to their next neighbors. But their wounds
do not heal and cicatrize as easily as in the case of lamas and holy
men; for but too often they fall victims to these self-inflicted
wounds. While dancing and flourishing high their daggers without
unclasping hands--for this would be considered a sacrilege, and the
spell instantly broken, they coax and praise Sheitan, and entreat
him to manifest himself in his works by “miracles.” As their rites
are chiefly accomplished during night, they do not fail to obtain
manifestations of various character, the least of which are enormous
globes of fire which take the shapes of the most uncouth animals.
Lady Hester Stanhope, whose name was for many years a power among
the masonic fraternities of the East, is said to have witnessed,
personally, several of these Yezidean ceremonies. We were told by
an _Ockhal_, of the sect of Druses, that after having been present
at one of the Yezidis’ “Devil’s masses,” as they are called, this
extraordinary lady, so noted for personal courage and daring
bravery, fainted, and notwithstanding her usual Emir’s male attire,
was recalled to life and health with the greatest difficulty.
Personally, we regret to say, all our efforts to witness one of these
performances failed.
A recent article in a Catholic journal on Nagualism and Voodooism
charges Hayti with being the centre of secret societies, with
terrible forms of initiation and bloody rites, where _human infants
are sacrificed and devoured by the adepts_(!!) Piron, a French
traveller, is quoted at length, describing a most fearful scene
witnessed by him in Cuba, in the house of a lady whom he never
would have suspected of any connection with so monstrous a sect. “A
naked white girl acted as a voodoo priestess, wrought up to frenzy
by dances and incantations that followed the sacrifice of a white
and a black hen. A serpent, trained to its part, and acted on by the
music, coiled round the limbs of the girl, its motions studied by the
votaries dancing around or standing to watch its contortions. The
spectator fled at last in horror when the poor girl fell writhing in
an epileptic fit.”
While deploring such a state of things in Christian countries, the
Catholic article in question explains this tenacity for ancestral
religious rites as evidence of the _natural depravity of the human
heart_, and makes a loud call for greater zeal on the part of
Catholics. Besides repeating the absurd fiction about devouring
children, the writer seems wholly insensible to the fact that a
devotion to one’s faith that centuries of the most cruel and bloody
persecution cannot quench, makes heroes and martyrs of a people,
whereas their conversion to any other faith would turn them simply
into renegades. A compulsory religion can never breed anything but
deceit. The answer received by the missionary Margil from some
Indians supports the above truism. The question being: “How is it
that you are so heathenish after having been Christians so long?”
The answer was: “What would you do, father, if enemies of your
faith entered your land? Would you not take all your books and
vestments and signs of religion and retire to the most secret caves
and mountains? This is just what our priests, and prophets, and
soothsayers, and nagualists have done to this time and are still
doing.”
Such an answer from a Roman Catholic, questioned by a missionary of
either Greek or Protestant Church, would earn for him the crown of a
saint in the Popish martyrology. Better a “heathen” religion that can
extort from a Francis Xavier such a tribute as he pays the Japanese,
in saying that “in virtue and probity they surpassed all the nations
he had ever seen;” than a Christianity whose advance over the face
of the earth sweeps aboriginal nations out of existence as with a
hurricane of fire.[1114] Disease, drunkenness, and demoralization are
the immediate results of apostasy from the faith of their fathers,
and conversion into a religion of mere forms.
What Christianity is doing for British India, we need go to
no inimical sources to inquire. Captain O’Grady, the British
ex-official, says: “The British government is doing a shameful
thing in turning the natives of India from a sober race to a nation
of drunkards. And for pure _greed_. Drinking is forbidden by the
religion alike of Hindus and Mussulmans. But ... drinking is daily
becoming more and more prevalent.... What the accursed opium traffic,
forced on China by British greed, has been to that unhappy country,
the government sale of liquor is likely to become to India. For it is
a government monopoly, based on almost precisely the same model as
the government monopoly of tobacco in Spain.... The outside domestics
in European families usually get to be terrible drunkards.... The
indoor servants usually detest drinking, and are a good deal more
respectable in this particular than their masters and mistresses
... everybody drinks ... bishops, chaplains, freshly-imported
boarding-school girls, and all.”
Yes, these are the “blessings” that the modern Christian religion
brings with its _Bibles_ and _Catechisms_ to the “poor heathen.” Rum
and bastardy to Hindustan; opium to China; rum and foul disorders
to Tahiti; and, worst of all, the example of hypocrisy in religion,
and a practical skepticism and atheism, which, since it seems to
be good enough for _civilized_ people, may well in time be thought
good enough for those whom theology has too often been holding
under a very heavy yoke. On the other hand, everything that is
noble, spiritual, elevating, in the old religion is denied, and even
deliberately falsified.
Take Paul, read the little of original that is left of him in the
writings attributed to this brave, honest, sincere man, and see
whether any one can find a word therein to show that Paul meant by
the word Christ anything more than the abstract ideal of the personal
divinity indwelling in man. For Paul, Christ is not a person, but an
embodied idea. “If any man is in Christ he is a new creation,” _he
is reborn_, as after initiation, for the Lord is spirit--the spirit
of man. Paul was the only one of the apostles who had understood
the secret ideas underlying the teachings of Jesus, although he had
never met him. But Paul had been initiated himself; and, bent upon
inaugurating a new and broad reform, one embracing the whole of
humanity, he sincerely set his own doctrines far above the wisdom
of the ages, above the ancient Mysteries and final revelation to
the epoptæ. As Professor A. Wilder well proves in a series of able
articles, it _was not Jesus, but Paul who was the real founder
of Christianity_. “The disciples were called Christians first in
Antioch,” say the _Acts of the Apostles_. “Such men as Irenæus,
Epiphanius, and Eusebius have transmitted to posterity a reputation
for untruth and dishonest practices; and the heart sickens at the
story of the crimes of that period,” writes this author, in a recent
article.[1115] “It will be remembered,” he adds, “that when the
Moslems overran Syria and Asia Minor for the first time, they were
welcomed by the Christians of those regions as deliverers from the
intolerable oppression of the ruling authorities of the Church.”
Mahomet never was, neither is he now, considered a god; yet under the
stimulus of his name millions of Moslems have served their God with
an ardor that can never be paralleled by Christian sectarianism. That
they have sadly degenerated since the days of their prophet, does
not alter the case in hand, but only proves the more the prevalence
of matter over spirit all over the world. Besides, they have never
degenerated more from primitive faith than Christians themselves.
Why, then, should not Jesus of Nazareth, a thousandfold higher,
nobler, and morally grander than Mahomet, be as well revered by
Christians and followed in practice, instead of being blindly adored
in fruitless faith as a god, and at the same time worshipped much
after the fashion of certain Buddhists, who turn their wheel of
prayers. That this faith has become sterile, and is no more worthy
the name of Christianity than the fetishism of Calmucks that of the
philosophy preached by Buddha, is doubted by none. “We would not be
supposed to entertain the opinion,” says Dr. Wilder, “that modern
Christianity is in any degree identical with the religion preached
by Paul. It lacks his breadth of view, his earnestness, his keen
spiritual perception. Bearing the impress of the nations by which it
is professed, it exhibits as many forms as there are races. It is
one thing in Italy and Spain, but widely differs in France, Germany,
Holland, Sweden, Great Britain, Russia, Armenia, Kurdistan, and
Abyssinia. As compared with the preceding worships, the change seems
to be more in name than in genius. Men had gone to bed Pagans and
awoke Christians. As for the _Sermon on the Mount_, its conspicuous
doctrines are more or less repudiated by every Christian community
of any considerable dimensions. Barbarism, oppression, cruel
punishments, are as common now as in the days of Paganism.
“The Christianity of Peter exists no more; that of Paul supplanted
it, and was in its turn amalgamated with the other world religions.
When mankind are enlightened, or the barbarous races and families
are supplanted by those of nobler nature and instincts, the ideal
excellencies may become realities.
“The ‘Christ of Paul’ has constituted an enigma which evoked the most
strenuous endeavor to solve. He was something else than the Jesus of
the _Gospels_. Paul disregarded utterly their ‘endless genealogies.’
The author of the fourth _Gospel_, himself an Alexandrian Gnostic,
describes Jesus as what would now be termed a ‘materialized’ divine
spirit. He was the Logos, or First Emanation--the Metathron....
The ‘mother of Jesus,’ like the Princess Maya, Danaé, or perhaps
Periktioné, had given birth, not to a love-child, but to a divine
offspring. No Jew of whatever sect, no apostle, no early believer,
ever promulgated such an idea. Paul treats of Christ as a personage
rather than as a person. The sacred lessons of the secret assemblies
often personified the divine good and the divine truth in a human
form, assailed by the passions and appetites of mankind, but superior
to them; and this doctrine, emerging from the crypt, was apprehended
by churchlings and gross-minded men as that of immaculate conception
and divine incarnation.”
In the old book, published in 1693 and written by the Sieur de la
Loubère, French Ambassador to the King of Siam, are related many
interesting facts of the Siamese religion. The remarks of the
satirical Frenchman are so pointed that we will quote his words about
the Siamese Saviour--Sommona-Cadom.
“How marvellous soever they pretend the birth of their Saviour has
been, they cease not to give _him a father and a mother_.[1116] His
mother, whose name is found in some of their _Balie_ (Pali?) books,
was called, as they say, _Maha_ MARIA, which seems to signify the
great Mary, for Maha signifies great. However it be, this ceases not
to give attention to the missionaries, and has perhaps given occasion
to the Siamese to believe that Jesus being the son of _Mary_, was
brother to Sommona-Cadom, and that, having been crucified, he was
that _wicked_ brother whom they give to Sommona-Cadom, under the
name of Thevetat, and whom they report to be punished in Hell, with
a punishment which participates something of a cross.... The Siamese
expect another Sommona-Cadom, I mean, another miraculous man like
him, whom they already named _Pronarote_, and whom they say was
foretold by Sommona. He made all sorts of miracles.... He had two
disciples, both standing on each hand of his idol; one on the right
hand, and the other on the left ... the first is named Pra-Magla,
and the second _Pra Scaribout_.... The father of Sommona-Cadom was,
according to this same _Balie_ Book, a King of Teve Lanca, that is
to say, a King of Ceylon. But _the Balie Books being without date
and without the author’s name, have no more authority than all the
traditions, whose origin is unknown_.”[1117]
This last argument is as ill-considered as it is naïvely expressed.
We do not know of any book in the whole world less authenticated as
to date, authors’ names, or tradition, than our Christian _Bible_.
Under these circumstances the Siamese have as much reason to believe
in their miraculous Sommona-Cadom as the Christians in their
miraculously-born Saviour. Moreover, they have no better right to
force their religion upon the Siamese, or any other people, against
their will, and in their own country, where they go unasked, than the
so-called heathen “to compel France or England to accept Buddhism at
the point of the sword.” A Buddhist missionary, even in free-thinking
America, would daily risk being mobbed, but this does not at all
prevent missionaries from abusing the religion of the Brahmans,
Lamas, and Bonzes, publicly to their teeth; and the latter are not
always at liberty to answer them. This is termed diffusing the
beneficent light of Christianity and civilization upon the darkness
of heathenism!
And yet we find that these pretensions--which might appear ludicrous
were they not so fatal to millions of our fellow-men, who only ask to
be left alone--were fully appreciated as early as in the seventeenth
century. We find the same witty Monsieur de la Loubère, under a
pretext of pious sympathy, giving some truly curious instructions to
the ecclesiastical authorities at home,[1118] which embody the very
soul of Jesuitism.
“From what I have said concerning the opinions of the Orientals,” he
remarks, “it is easy to comprehend how difficult an enterprise it is
to bring them over to the Christian religion; and of what consequence
it is that the missionaries, which preach the Gospel in the East,
do perfectly understand the manners and belief of these people.
For as the apostles and first Christians, when God supported their
preaching by so many wonders, did not on a sudden discover to the
heathens all the mysteries which we adore, but a long time concealed
from them, and the Catechumens themselves, the knowledge of those
which might scandalize them; it seems very rational to me that the
missionaries, who have not the gift of miracles, ought not presently
to discover to the Orientals all the mysteries nor all the practices
of Christianity.
“’Twould be convenient, for example, if I am not mistaken, not
to preach unto them, _without great caution_, the worshipping of
saints; and as to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, I think it would
be necessary to manage it with them, if I may so say, and _not
to speak to them of the mystery of the Incarnation_, till after
having convinced them of the existence of a God Creator. For what
probability is there, to begin with, of persuading the Siamese to
remove Sommona-Cadom, Pra Mogla, and Pra Scaribout from the altars,
to set up Jesus Christ, St. Peter, and St. Paul, in their stead?
’Twould, perhaps, be more proper not to preach unto them Jesus
Christ crucified, till they have first comprehended that one may be
_unfortunate_ and _innocent_; and that by the rule received, even
amongst them, which is, that the innocent might load himself with
the crimes of the guilty, it was necessary _that a god should become
man_, to the end that this man-God should, by a laborious life, and
a shameful but voluntary death, satisfy for all the sins of men; but
before all things it would be necessary to give them the true idea of
a God Creator, and justly provoked against men. The Eucharist, after
this, will not scandalize the Siamese, as it formerly scandalized
the Pagans of Europe; forasmuch as the Siamese do not believe
Sommona-Cadom could give his wife and children to the Talapoins to
eat.
“On the contrary, as the Chinese are respectful toward their parents
even to a scruple, I doubt not that if the Gospel should be presently
put into their hands, they would be scandalized at that place, where,
when some told Jesus Christ that his mother and his brethren asked
after him, he answered in such a manner, that he seems so little to
regard them, that he affected not to know them. They would _not be
less offended_ at those other mysterious words, which our divine
Saviour spoke to the young man, who desired time to go and bury his
parents: “Let the dead,” said he, “bury the dead.” Every one knows
the trouble which the Japanese expressed to St. Francis Xavier _upon
the eternity of damnation_, not being able to believe that their
dead parents should fall into so horrible a misfortune for _want of
having embraced Christianity, which they had never heard of_.... It
seems necessary, therefore, to prevent and mollify this thought,
by the means which that great apostle of the Indies used, in first
establishing the idea of an omnipotent, all-wise, and most just God,
the author of all good, to whom only everything is due, and by whose
will we owe unto kings, bishops, magistrates and to our parents the
respects which we owe them.
“These examples are sufficient to show with what precautions it is
necessary to prepare the minds of the Orientals to think like us,
and _not to be offended with most_ of the articles of the Christian
faith.”[1119]
And what, we ask, is left to preach? With no Saviour, no atonement,
no crucifixion for human sin, no Gospel, no eternal damnation to tell
them of, and no miracles to display, what remained for the Jesuits to
spread among the Siamese but the dust of the Pagan sanctuaries with
which to blind their eyes? The sarcasm is biting indeed. The morality
to which these poor heathen are made to adhere by their ancestral
faith is so pure, that Christianity has to be stripped of every
distinguishing mark before its priests can venture to offer it for
their examination. A religion that cannot be trusted to the scrutiny
of an unsophisticated people who are patterns of filial piety, of
honest dealing, of deep reverence for God and an instinctive horror
of profaning His majesty, must indeed be founded upon error. That it
is so, our century is discovering little by little.
In the general spoliation of Buddhism to make up the new Christian
religion, it was not to be expected that so peerless a character as
Gautama-Buddha would be left unappropriated. It was but natural that
after taking his legendary history to fill out the blanks left in the
fictitious story of Jesus, after using what they could of Christna’s,
they should take the man Sakya-muni and put him in their calendar
under an _alias_. This they actually did, and the Hindu Saviour in
due time appeared on the list of saints as Josaphat, to keep company
with those martyrs of religion, SS. Aura and Placida, Longinus and
Amphibolus.
In Palermo there is even a church dedicated to _Divo Josaphat_. Among
the vain attempts of subsequent ecclesiastical writers to fix the
genealogy of this mysterious saint, the most original was the making
him Joshua, the son of Nun. But these trifling difficulties being
at last surmounted, we find the history of Gautama copied _word for
word_ from Buddhist sacred books, into the _Golden Legend_. Names of
individuals are changed, the place of action, India, remains the
same--in the Christian as in the Buddhist Legends. It can be also
found in the _Speculum Historiale_ of Vincent of Beauvais, which was
written in the thirteenth century. The first discovery is due to
the historian de Couto, although Professor Müller credits the first
recognition of the identity of the two stories to M. Laboulaye, in
1859. Colonel Yule tells us that[1120] these stories of Barlaam and
Josaphat, are recognized by Baronius, and are to be found at p. 348,
of _The Roman Martyrology_, set forth by command of Pope Gregory
XIII., and revised by the authority of Pope Urban VIII., translated
out of Latin into English by G. K. of the Society of Jesus.[1121]
To repeat even a small portion of this ecclesiastical nonsense would
be tedious and useless. Let him who doubts and who would learn the
story read it as given by Colonel Yule. Some[1122] of the Christian
and ecclesiastical speculations seem to have embarrassed even Dominie
Valentyn. “There be some, who hold this Budhum for a fugitive Syrian
Jew,” he writes; “others who hold him for a disciple of the Apostle
Thomas; but how in that case he could have been born 622 years before
Christ I leave them to explain. Diego de Couto stands by the belief
that he was certainly _Joshua_, which is still more absurd!”
“The religious romance called _The History of Barlaam and Josaphat_
was, for several centuries, one of the most popular works in
Christendom,” says Col. Yule. “It was translated into all the chief
European languages, including Scandinavian and Sclavonic tongues....
This story first appears among the works of St. John of Damascus,
a theologian of the early part of the eighth century.”[1123] Here
then lies the secret of its origin, for this St. John, before he
became a divine, held a high office at the court of the Khalif Abu
Jáfar Almansur, where he probably learned the story, and afterwards
adapted it to the new orthodox necessities of the Buddha turned into
a Christian saint.
Having repeated the plagiarized story, Diego de Couto, who seems to
yield up with reluctance his curious notion that Gautama was Joshua,
says: “To this name (Budâo) the Gentiles throughout all India have
dedicated great and superb pagodas. With reference to this story,
we have been diligent in inquiring if the ancient Gentiles of those
parts had in their writings any knowledge of St. Josaphat who was
converted by Balaam, and who in his legend is represented as the son
of a great king of India, and who had just the same up-bringing, with
all the same particulars that we have recounted of the life of the
Budâo. And as I was travelling in the Isle of Salsette, and went to
see that rare and admirable pagoda, which we call the Canará Pagoda
(Kànhari Caves) made in a mountain, with many halls cut out of one
solid rock, and inquiring of an old man about the work, what he
thought as to who had made it, he told us that without doubt the work
was made by order of the father of St. Josaphat to bring him up in
seclusion, as the story tells. And as it informs us that he was the
son of a great king in India, it may well be, as we have just said,
that _he_ was the Budâo, of whom they relate such marvels.”[1124]
The Christian legend is taken, moreover, in most of its details,
from the Ceylonese tradition. It is on this island that originated
the story of young Gautama rejecting his father’s throne, and the
king’s erecting a superb palace for him, in which he kept him half
prisoner, surrounded by all the temptations of life and wealth. Marco
Polo told it as he had it from the Ceylonese, and his version is now
found to be a faithful repetition of what is given in the various
Buddhist books. As Marco naïvely expresses it, Buddha led a life of
such hardship and sanctity, and kept such great abstinence, “_just as
if he had been a Christian_. Indeed,” he adds, “had he but been so,
he would have been a great saint of our Lord Jesus Christ, so good
and pure was the life he led.” To which pious apothegm his editor
very pertinently remarks that “Marco is not the only eminent person
who has expressed this view of Sakya-muni’s life in such words.” And
in his turn Prof. Max Müller says: “And whatever we may think of
the sanctity of saints, let those who doubt the right of Buddha to
a place among them, read the story of his life as it is told in the
Buddhistical canon. If he lived the life which is there described,
few saints have a better claim to the title than Buddha; and no one
either in the Greek or the Roman Church need be ashamed of having
paid to his memory the honor that was intended for St. Josaphat, the
prince, the hermit, and the saint.”
The Roman Catholic Church has never had so good a chance to
Christianize all China, Thibet, and Tartary, as in the thirteenth
century, during the reign of Kublai-Khan. It seems strange that they
did not embrace the opportunity when Kublai was hesitating at one
time between the four religions of the world, and, perhaps through
the eloquence of Marco Polo, favored Christianity more than either
Mahometanism, Judaism, or Buddhism. Marco Polo and Ramusio, one of
his interpreters, tell us why. It seems that, unfortunately for Rome,
the embassy of Marco’s father and uncle failed, because Clement IV.
happened to die just at that very time. There was no Pope for several
months to receive the friendly overtures of Kublai-Khan; and thus
the one hundred Christian missionaries invited by him could not be
sent to Thibet and Tartary. To those who believe that there is an
intelligent Deity above who takes a certain concern in the welfare of
our miserable little world, this _contretemps_ must in itself seem a
pretty good proof that Buddhism should have the best of Christianity.
Perhaps--who knows--Pope Clement fell sick so as to save the
Buddhists from sinking into the idolatry of Roman Catholicism?
From pure Buddhism, the religion of these districts has degenerated
into lamaism; but the latter, with all its blemishes--purely
formalistic and impairing but little the doctrine itself--is yet
far above Catholicism. The poor Abbé Huc very soon found it out
for himself. As he moved on with his caravan, he writes--“every
one repeated to us that, as we advanced toward the west, we should
find the doctrines growing more luminous and sublime. Lha-Ssa was
the great focus of light, the rays from which became weakened as
they were diffused.” One day he gave to a Thibetan lama “a brief
summary of Christian doctrine, which appeared by no means unfamiliar
to him [we do not wonder at that], and he even maintained that it
[Catholicism] did not differ much from the faith of the grand lamas
of Thibet.... These words of the Thibetan lama astonished us not a
little,” writes the missionary; “the unity of God, the mystery of the
Incarnation, the dogma of the real presence, appeared to us in his
belief.... The new light thrown on the religion of Buddha induced us
really to believe that we should find among the lamas of Thibet a
more purified system.”[1125] It is these words of praise to lamaism,
with which Huc’s book abounds, that caused his work to be placed on
the Index at Rome, and himself to be unfrocked.
When questioned why, since he held the Christian faith to be the best
of the religions protected by him, he did not attach himself to it,
the answer given by Kublai-Khan is as suggestive as it is curious:
“How would you have me to become a Christian? There are four prophets
worshipped and revered by all the world. The Christians say their
God is Jesus Christ; the Saracens, Mahomet; the Jews, Moses; the
idolaters, Sogomon Borkan (Sakva-muni Burkham, or Buddha), who was
the first god among the idols; and I worship and pay respect to all
four, and pray that he among them who is greatest in heaven in very
truth may aid me.”
We may ridicule the Khan’s prudence; we cannot blame him for
trustingly leaving the decision of the puzzling dilemma to
Providence itself. One of his most unsurmountable objections to
embrace Christianity he thus specifies to Marco: “You see that the
Christians of these parts are so ignorant that they achieve nothing
and can achieve nothing, whilst you see the idolaters can do anything
they please, insomuch that when I sit at table, the cups from the
middle of the hall come to me full of wine or other liquor, without
being touched by anybody, and I drink from them. They control storms,
causing them to pass in whatever direction they please, and do many
other marvels; whilst, as you know, their idols speak, and give them
predictions on whatever subjects they choose. But if I were to turn
to the faith of Christ and become a Christian, then my barons and
others who are not converted, would say: ‘What has moved you to be
baptized?... What powers or miracles have you witnessed on the part
of Christ? You know the idolaters here say that their wonders are
performed by the sanctity and power of their idols.’ Well, I should
not know what answer to make, so they would only be confirmed in
their errors, and the idolaters, who are adepts in such surprising
arts, would easily compass my death. But now you shall go to your
Pope, and pray him on my part to send hither an hundred men skilled
in your law; and if they are capable of rebuking the practices of
idolaters to their faces, and of proving to them _that they too know
how to do such things, but will not_, because they are done by the
help of the Devil and other evil spirits; and if they so control the
idolaters that these shall have no power to perform such things in
their presence, _and when we shall witness this_, we will denounce
the idolaters and their religion, and then I will receive baptism,
and then all my barons and chiefs shall be baptized also, and thus,
in the end, there will be more Christians here than exist in your
part of the world.”[1126]
The proposition was fair. Why did not the Christians avail themselves
of it? Moses is said to have faced such an ordeal before Pharaoh, and
come off triumphant.
To our mind, the logic of this uneducated Mongol was unanswerable,
his intuition faultless. He saw good results in all religions, and
felt that, whether a man be Buddhist, Christian, Mahometan, or Jew,
his spiritual powers might equally be developed, his faith equally
lead him to the highest truth. All he asked before making choice of a
creed for his people, was the evidence upon which to base faith.
To judge alone by its jugglers, India must certainly be better
acquainted with alchemy, chemistry, and physics than any European
academy. The psychological wonders produced by some fakirs of
Southern Hindustan, and by the shaberons and hobilhans of Thibet and
Mongolia, alike prove our case. The science of psychology has there
reached an acme of perfection never attained elsewhere in the annals
of the marvellous. That such powers are not alone due to study, but
are natural to every human being, is now proved in Europe and America
by the phenomena of mesmerism and what is termed “spiritualism.” If
the majority of foreign travellers, and residents in British India,
are disposed to regard the whole as clever jugglery, not so with a
few Europeans who have had the rare luck to be admitted _behind the
veil_ in the pagodas. Surely these will not deride the rites, nor
undervalue the phenomena produced in the secret lodges of India. The
_mahadthêvassthanam_ of the pagodas (usually termed _goparam_, from
the sacred pyramidal gateway by which the buildings are entered) has
been known to Europeans before now, though to a mere handful in all.
We do not know whether the prolific Jacolliot[1127] was ever admitted
into one of these lodges. It is extremely doubtful, we should say,
if we may judge from his many fantastic tales of the immoralities of
the mystical rites among the Brahmans, the fakirs of the pagodas,
and even the Buddhists (!!) at all of which he makes himself figure
as a Joseph. Anyhow, it is evident that the Brahmans taught him no
secrets, for speaking of the fakirs and their wonders, he remarks,
“under the direction of initiated Brahmans they practice in the
seclusion of the pagodas, the _occult sciences_.... And let no one
be surprised at this word, which seems to open the door of the
supernatural; while there are in the sciences which the Brahmans call
occult, phenomena so extraordinary as to baffle all investigation,
there is not one which cannot be explained, and which is not subject
to natural law.”
Unquestionably, any initiated Brahman could, if he would, explain
every phenomenon. But _he will not_. Meanwhile, we have yet to see an
explanation by the best of our physicists of even the most trivial
occult phenomenon produced by a fakir-pupil of a pagoda.
Jacolliot says that it will be quite impracticable to give an account
of the marvellous facts witnessed by himself. But adds, with entire
truthfulness, “let it suffice to say, that in regard to magnetism
and spiritism, Europe has yet to stammer over the first letters
of the alphabet, and that the Brahmans have reached, in these two
departments of learning, results in the way of phenomena that are
truly stupefying. When one sees these strange manifestations, whose
power one cannot deny, without grasping the laws that the Brahmans
_keep so carefully concealed_, the mind is overwhelmed with wonder,
and one feels that he must run away and break the charm that holds
him.”
“The only explanation that we have been able to obtain on the subject
from a learned Brahman, with whom we were on terms of the closest
intimacy, was this: ‘You have studied physical nature, and you have
obtained, through the laws of nature, marvellous results--steam,
electricity, etc.; _for twenty thousand years or more, we have
studied_ the _intellectual_ forces, we have discovered their laws,
and _we obtain, by making them act alone or in concert with matter,
phenomena still more astonishing than your own_.’”
Jacolliot must indeed have been stupefied by wonders, for he says:
“We have seen things such as one does not describe for fear of making
his readers doubt his intelligence ... but still we have seen them.
And truly one comprehends how, in presence of such facts, the ancient
world believed ... in possessions of the Devil and in exorcism.”[1128]
But yet this uncompromising enemy of priestcraft, monastic orders,
and the clergy of every religion and every land--including
Brahmans, lamas, and fakirs--is so struck with the contrast between
the fact-supported cults of India, and the empty pretences of
Catholicism, that after describing the terrible self-tortures of the
fakirs, in a burst of honest indignation, he thus gives vent to his
feelings: “Nevertheless, these fakirs, these mendicant Brahmans, have
still something grand about them: when they flagellate themselves,
when during the self-inflicted martyrdom the flesh is torn out by
bits, the blood pours upon the ground. But you (Catholic mendicants),
what do you do to-day? You, Gray Friars, Capuchins, Franciscans,
who play at fakirs, with your knotted cords, your flints, your hair
shirts, and your rose-water flagellations, your bare feet and your
comical mortifications--fanatics without faith, martyrs without
tortures? Has not one the right to ask you, if it is to obey the
law of God that you shut yourselves in behind thick walls, and thus
escape the law of labor which weighs so heavily upon all other
men?... Away, you are only beggars!”
Let them pass on--we have devoted too much space to them and their
conglomerate theology, already. We have weighed both in the balance
of history, of logic, of truth, and found them wanting. Their
system breeds atheism, nihilism, despair, and crime; its priests and
preachers are unable to prove by works their reception of divine
power. If both Church and priest could but pass out of the sight of
the world as easily as their names do now from the eye of our reader,
it would be a happy day for humanity. New York and London might then
soon become as moral as a heathen city unoccupied by Christians;
Paris be cleaner than the ancient Sodom. When Catholic and Protestant
would be as fully satisfied as a Buddhist or Brahman that their every
crime would be punished, and every good deed rewarded, they might
spend upon their own _heathen_ what now goes to give missionaries
long picnics, and to make the name of Christian hated and despised by
every nation outside the boundaries of Christendom.
* * * * *
As occasion required, we have reinforced our argument with
descriptions of a few of the innumerable phenomena witnessed by us
in different parts of the world. The remaining space at our disposal
will be devoted to like subjects. Having laid a foundation by
elucidating the philosophy of occult phenomena, it seems opportune
to illustrate the theme with facts that have occurred under our own
eye, and that may be verified by any traveller. Primitive peoples
have disappeared, but primitive wisdom survives, and is attainable by
those who “will,” “dare,” and can “keep silent.”
CHAPTER XII.
“My vast and noble capital, my Daïtu, my splendidly-adorned;
And thou, my cool and delicious summer-seat, my Shangtu-Keibung.
* * * * *
Alas, for my illustrious name as the Sovereign of the World!
Alas, for my Daïtu, seat of sanctity, glorious work of the
immortal Kublaī!
All, all is rent from me!”--COL. YULE, in _Marco Polo_.
“As for what thou hearest others say, who persuade the many
that the soul, when once freed from the body, neither
suffers ... evil nor is conscious, I know that thou art
better grounded in the doctrines received by us from our
ancestors, and in the sacred orgies of Dionysus, than to
believe them; _for the mystic symbols are well known to us
who belong to the ‘Brotherhood.’_”--PLUTARCH.
“The problem of life is _man_. MAGIC, or rather Wisdom, is
the evolved knowledge of the potencies of man’s interior
being; which forces are Divine emanations, as intuition is
the perception of their origin, and initiation our induction
into that knowledge.... We begin with instinct; the end is
OMNISCIENCE.”--A. WILDER.
“Power belongs to him WHO KNOWS.”--_Brahmanical Book of
Evocation._
It would argue small discernment on our part were we to suppose
that we had been followed thus far through this work by any but
meta-physicians, or mystics of some sort. Were it otherwise, we
should certainly advise such to spare themselves the trouble of
reading this chapter; for, although nothing is said that is not
strictly true, they would not fail to regard the least wonderful of
the narratives as absolutely false, however substantiated.
To comprehend the principles of natural law involved in the several
phenomena hereinafter described, the reader must keep in mind the
fundamental propositions of the Oriental philosophy which we have
successively elucidated. Let us recapitulate very briefly:
1st. There is no miracle. Everything that happens is the result
of law--eternal, immutable, ever active. Apparent miracle is but
the operation of forces antagonistic to what Dr. W. B. Carpenter,
F.R.S.--a man of great learning but little knowledge--calls “the
well-ascertained laws of nature.” Like many of his class, Dr.
Carpenter ignores the fact that there may be laws once “known,” now
unknown to science.
2d. Nature is triune: there is a visible, objective nature; an
invisible, indwelling, energizing nature, the exact model of the
other, and its vital principle; and, above these two, _spirit_,
source of all forces, alone eternal, and indestructible. The lower
two constantly change; the higher third does not.
3d. Man is also triune: he has his objective, physical body; his
vitalizing astral body (or soul), the real man; and these two are
brooded over and illuminated by the third--the sovereign, the
immortal spirit. When the real man succeeds in merging himself with
the latter, he becomes an immortal entity.
4th. Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of these principles, and
of the way by which the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and
its control over nature’s forces may be acquired by the individual
while still in the body. Magic, as an art, is the application of this
knowledge in practice.
5th. Arcane knowledge misapplied, is sorcery; beneficently used, true
magic or wisdom.
6th. Mediumship is the opposite of adeptship; the medium is the
passive instrument of foreign influences, the adept actively controls
himself and all inferior potencies.
7th. All things that ever were, that are, or that will be, having
their record upon the astral light, or tablet of the unseen universe,
the initiated adept, by using the vision of his own spirit, can know
all that has been known or can be known.
8th. Races of men differ in spiritual gifts as in color, stature, or
any other external quality; among some peoples seership naturally
prevails, among others mediumship. Some are addicted to sorcery, and
transmit its secret rules of practice from generation to generation,
with a range of psychical phenomena, more or less wide, as the result.
9th. One phase of magical skill is the voluntary and conscious
withdrawal of the inner man (astral form) from the outer man
(physical body). In the cases of some mediums withdrawal occurs, but
it is unconscious and involuntary. With the latter the body is more
or less cataleptic at such times; but with the adept the absence
of the astral form would not be noticed, for the physical senses
are alert, and the individual appears only as though in a fit of
abstraction--“a brown study,” as some call it.
To the movements of the wandering astral form neither time nor space
offer obstacles. The thaumaturgist, thoroughly skilled in occult
science, can cause himself (that is, his physical body) to _seem_ to
disappear, or to apparently take on any shape that he may choose.
He may make his astral form visible, or he may give it protean
appearances. In both cases these results will be achieved by a
mesmeric hallucination of the senses of all witnesses, simultaneously
brought on. This hallucination is so perfect that the subject of it
would stake his life that he saw a reality, when it is but a picture
in his own mind, impressed upon his consciousness by the irresistible
will of the mesmerizer.
But, while the astral form can go anywhere, penetrate any obstacle,
and be seen at any distance from the physical body, the latter
is dependent upon ordinary methods of transportation. It may be
levitated under prescribed magnetic conditions, but not pass from one
locality to another except in the usual way. Hence we discredit all
stories of the aërial flight of mediums in body, for such would be
miracle, and miracle we repudiate. Inert matter may be, in certain
cases and under certain conditions, disintegrated, passed through
walls, and recombined, but living animal organisms cannot.
Swedenborgians believe and arcane science teaches that the
abandonment of the living body by the soul frequently occurs, and
that we encounter every day, in every condition of life, such living
corpses. Various causes, among them overpowering fright, grief,
despair, a violent attack of sickness, or excessive sensuality may
bring this about. The vacant carcass may be entered and inhabited
by the astral form of an adept sorcerer, or an elementary (an
earth-bound disembodied human soul), or, very rarely, an elemental.
Of course, an adept of white magic has the same power, but unless
some very exceptional and great object is to be accomplished, he
will never consent to pollute himself by occupying the body of an
impure person. In insanity, the patient’s astral being is either
semi-paralyzed, bewildered, and subject to the influence of every
passing spirit of any sort, or it has departed forever, and the
body is taken possession of by some vampirish entity near its own
disintegration, and clinging desperately to earth, whose sensual
pleasures it may enjoy for a brief season longer by this expedient.
10th. The corner-stone of MAGIC is an intimate practical knowledge
of magnetism and electricity, their qualities, correlations, and
potencies. Especially necessary is a familiarity with their effects
in and upon the animal kingdom and man. There are occult properties
in many other minerals, equally strange with that in the lodestone,
which all practitioners of magic _must_ know, and of which so-called
exact science is wholly ignorant. Plants also have like mystical
properties in a most wonderful degree, and the secrets of the herbs
of dreams and enchantments are only lost to European science, and
useless to say, too, are unknown to it, except in a few marked
instances, such as opium and hashish. Yet, the psychical effects of
even these few upon the human system are regarded as evidences of
a temporary mental disorder. The women of Thessaly and Epirus, the
female hierophants of the rites of Sabazius, did not carry their
secrets away with the downfall of their sanctuaries. They are still
preserved, and those who are aware of the nature of Soma, know the
properties of other plants as well.
To sum up all in a few words, MAGIC is spiritual WISDOM; nature,
the material ally, pupil and servant of the magician. One common
vital principle pervades all things, and this is controllable by the
perfected human will. The adept can stimulate the movements of the
natural forces in plants and animals in a preternatural degree. Such
experiments are not obstructions of nature, but quickenings; the
conditions of intenser vital action are given.
The adept can control the sensations and alter the conditions of
the physical and astral bodies of other persons not adepts; he can
also govern and employ, as he chooses, the spirits of the elements.
He cannot control the immortal spirit of any human being, living or
dead, for all such spirits are alike sparks of the Divine Essence,
and not subject to any foreign domination.
There are two kinds of seership--that of the soul and that of the
spirit. The seership of the ancient Pythoness, or of the modern
mesmerized subject, vary but in the artificial modes adopted to
induce the state of clairvoyance. But, as the visions of both depend
upon the greater or less acuteness of the senses of the astral body,
they differ very widely from the perfect, omniscient spiritual state;
for, at best, the subject can get but glimpses of truth, through
the veil which physical nature interposes. The astral principle, or
mind, called by the Hindu Yogin _fav-atma_, is the sentient soul,
inseparable from our physical brain, which it holds in subjection,
and is in its turn equally trammelled by it. This is the _ego_, the
intellectual life-principle of man, his conscious entity. While it
is yet _within_ the material body, the clearness and correctness of
its spiritual visions depend on its more or less intimate relation
with its higher Principle. When this relation is such as to allow the
most ethereal portions of the soul-essence to act independently of
its grosser particles and of the brain, it can unerringly comprehend
what it sees; then only is it the pure, rational, _super_sentient
soul. That state is known in India as the _Samâddi_; it is the
highest condition of spirituality possible to man on earth. Fakirs
try to obtain such a condition by holding their breath for hours
together during their religious exercises, and call this practice
_dam-sādhna_. The Hindu terms _Pranayama_, _Pratyahara_, and
_Dharana_, all relate to different psychological states, and show
how much more the Sanscrit, and even the modern Hindu language
are adapted to the clear elucidation of the phenomena that are
encountered by those who study this branch of psychological science,
than the tongues of modern peoples, whose experiences have not yet
necessitated the invention of such descriptive terms.
When the body is in the state of _dharana_--a total catalepsy of the
physical frame--the soul of the clairvoyant may liberate itself, and
perceive things subjectively. And yet, as the sentient principle of
the brain is alive and active, these pictures of the past, present,
and future will be tinctured with the terrestrial perceptions of the
objective world; the physical _memory_ and _fancy_ will be in the
way of clear vision. But the seer-adept knows how to suspend the
mechanical action of the brain. His visions will be as clear as truth
itself, uncolored and undistorted, whereas, the clairvoyant, unable
to control the vibrations of the astral waves, will perceive but more
or less broken images through the medium of the brain. The seer can
never take flickering shadows for realities, for his memory being as
completely subjected to his will as the rest of the body, he receives
impressions directly from his spirit. Between his subjective and
objective selves there are no obstructive mediums. This is the real
spiritual seership, in which, according to an expression of Plato,
soul is raised above all inferior good. When we reach “that which
is supreme, which is _simple, pure, and unchangeable, without form,
color, or human qualities_: the God--_our Nous_.”
This is the state which such seers as Plotinus and Apollonius
termed the “Union to the Deity;” which the ancient Yogins called
_Isvara_,[1129] and the modern call “Samâddi;” but this state is
as far above modern clairvoyance as the stars above glow-worms.
Plotinus, as is well known, was a clairvoyant-seer during his whole
and daily life; and yet, _he had been united to his God_ but six
times during the sixty-six years of his existence, as he himself
confessed to Porphyry.
Ammonius Sakkas, the “God-taught,” asserts that the only power
which is directly opposed to soothsaying and looking into
futurity is _memory_; and Olympiodorus calls it _phantasy_. “The
phantasy,” he says (in _Platonis Phæd._), is an impediment to our
intellectual conceptions; and hence, when we are agitated by the
inspiring influence of the Divinity, if the phantasy intervenes,
the enthusiastic energy ceases; for enthusiasm and the ecstasy are
contrary to each other. Should it be asked whether the soul is able
to energize without the phantasy, we reply, that its perception of
universals proves that it is able. It has perceptions, therefore,
independent of the phantasy; at the same time, however, the phantasy
attends it in its energies, just as a storm pursues him who sails on
the sea.”
A medium, moreover, needs either a foreign intelligence--whether it
be spirit or living mesmerizer--to overpower his physical and mental
parts, or some factitious means to induce trance. An adept, and even
a simple fakir requires but a few minutes of “self-contemplation.”
The brazen columns of Solomon’s temple; the golden bells and
pomegranates of Aaron; the Jupiter Capitolinus of Augustus, hung
around with harmonious bells;[1130] and the brazen bowls of the
Mysteries when the Kora was called,[1131] were all intended for such
artificial helps.[1132] So were the brazen bowls of Solomon hung
round with a double row of 200 pomegranates, which served as clappers
within the hollow columns. The priestesses of Northern Germany, under
the guidance of hierophants, could never prophesy but amidst the
roar of the tumultuous waters. Regarding fixedly the eddies formed
on the rapid course of the river they _hypnotized_ themselves. So
we read of Joseph, Jacob’s son, who sought for divine inspiration
with his silver divining-cup, which must have had a very bright
bottom to it. The priestesses of Dodona placed themselves under
the ancient oak of Zeus (the Pelasgian, not the Olympian god), and
listened intently to the rustling of the sacred leaves, while others
concentrated their attention on the soft murmur of the cold spring
gushing from underneath its roots.[1133] But the adept has no need of
any such extraneous aids--the simple exertion of his _will_-power is
all-sufficient.
The _Atharva-Veda_ teaches that the exercise of such will-power is
the highest form of prayer and its instantaneous response. To desire
is to realize in proportion to the intensity of the aspiration; and
that, in its turn, is measured by inward purity.
Some of these nobler Vedantic precepts on the soul and man’s mystic
powers, have recently been contributed to an English periodical
by a Hindu scholar. “The _Sankhya_,” he writes, “inculcates that
the soul (_i.e._, astral body) has the following powers: shrinking
into a minute bulk to which everything is pervious; enlarging to a
gigantic body; assuming levity (rising along a sunbeam to the solar
orb); possessing an unlimited reach of organs, as touching the moon
with the tip of a finger; irresistible will (for instance, sinking
into the earth as easily as in water); dominion over all things,
animate or inanimate; faculty of changing the course of nature;
ability to accomplish every desire.” Further, he gives their various
appellations:
“The powers are called: 1, _Anima_; 2, _Mahima_; 3, _Laghima_; 4,
_Garima_; 5, _Prapti_; 6, _Prakamya_; 7, _Vasitwa_; 8, _Isitwa_, or
divine power. The fifth, predicting future events, understanding
unknown languages, curing diseases, divining unexpressed thoughts,
understanding the language of the heart. The sixth is the power
of converting old age into youth. The seventh is the power of
mesmerizing human beings and beasts, and making them obedient; it is
the power of restraining passions and emotions. The eighth power is
the spiritual state, and presupposes the absence of the above seven
powers, as in this state the Yogi is full of God.”
“No writings,” he adds, “revealed or sacred, were allowed to be so
authoritative and final _as the teaching of the soul_. Some of the
Rishis appear to have laid the greatest stress on this supersensuous
source of knowledge.”[1134]
From the remotest antiquity _mankind_ as a whole _have always been
convinced of the existence of a personal spiritual entity within the
personal physical man_. This inner entity was more or less divine,
according to its proximity to the _crown_--Chrestos. The closer the
union the more serene man’s destiny, the less dangerous the external
conditions. This belief is neither bigotry nor superstition, only
an ever-present, instinctive feeling of the proximity of another
spiritual and invisible world, which, though it be subjective to the
senses of the outward man, is perfectly objective to the inner ego.
Furthermore, they believed that _there are external and internal
conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our
actions_. They rejected fatalism, for fatalism implies a blind course
of some still blinder power. But they believed in _destiny_, which
from birth to death every man is weaving thread by thread around
himself, as a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided
either by that presence termed by some the guardian angel, or our
more intimate astral inner man, who is but too often the evil genius
of the man of flesh. Both these lead on the outward man, but one
of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible
affray the stern and implacable _law of compensation_ steps in and
takes its course, following faithfully the fluctuations. When the
last strand is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the net-work
of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the empire
of this _self-made_ destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert
shell against the immovable rock, or like a feather carries him away
in a whirlwind raised by his own actions.
The greatest philosophers of antiquity found it neither unreasonable
nor strange that “souls should come to souls, and impart to them
conceptions of future things, occasionally by letters, or by a mere
touch, or by a glance reveal to them past events or announce future
ones,” as Ammonius tells us. Moreover, Lamprias and others held
that if the _unembodied_ spirits or souls could descend on earth
and become guardians of mortal men, “we should not seek to deprive
_those souls which are still in the body_ of that power by which
the former know future events and are able to announce them. It is
not probable,” adds Lamprias, “that the soul gains a new power of
prophecy after separation from the body, and which before it did not
possess. We may rather conclude _that it possessed all these powers
during its union with the body, although in a lesser perfection_....
For as the sun does not shine only when it passes from among the
clouds, but has always been radiant and has only appeared dim and
obscured by vapors, the soul does not only receive the power of
looking into futurity when it passes from the body as from a cloud,
but _has possessed it always_, though dimmed by connection with the
earthly.”
A familiar example of one phase of the power of the soul or astral
body to manifest itself, is the phenomenon of the so-called
spirit-hand. In the presence of certain mediums these seemingly
detached members will gradually develop from a luminous nebula, pick
up a pencil, write messages, and then dissolve before the eyes of the
witnesses. Many such cases are recorded by perfectly competent and
trustworthy persons. These phenomena are real, and require serious
consideration. But false “phantom-hands” have sometimes been taken
for the genuine. At Dresden we once saw a hand and arm, made for the
purpose of deception, with an ingenious arrangement of springs that
would cause the machine to imitate to perfection the movements of the
natural member; while exteriorly it would require close inspection to
detect its artificial character. In using this, the dishonest medium
slips his natural arm out of his sleeve, and replaces it with the
mechanical substitute; both hands may then be made to seem resting
upon the table, while in fact one is touching the sitters, showing
itself, knocking the furniture, and making other phenomena.
The mediums for real manifestations are least able, as a rule,
to comprehend or explain them. Among those who have written most
intelligently upon the subject of these luminous hands, may be
reckoned Dr. Francis Gerry Fairfield, author of _Ten Years among
the Mediums_, an article from whose pen appears in the _Library
Table_ for July 19, 1877. A medium himself, he is yet a strong
opponent of the spiritualistic theory. Discussing the subject of the
“phantom-hand,” he testifies that “this the writer has personally
witnessed, under conditions of test provided by himself, in his own
room, in full daylight, with the medium seated upon a sofa from six
to eight feet from the table hovering upon which the apparition (the
hand) appeared. The application of the poles of a horse-shoe magnet
to the hand caused it to waver perceptibly, and threw the medium
into violent convulsions--pretty positive evidence that _the force
concerned in the phenomenon was generated in his own nervous system_.”
Dr. Fairfield’s deduction that the fluttering phantom-hand is an
emanation from the medium is logical, and it is correct. The test
of the horse-shoe magnet proves in a scientific way what every
kabalist would affirm upon the authority of experience, no less than
philosophy. The “force concerned in the phenomenon” is the will of
the medium, exercised unconsciously to the outer man, which for the
time is semi-paralyzed and cataleptic; the phantom-hand an extrusion
of the man’s inner or astral member. This is that real self whose
limbs the surgeon cannot amputate, but remain behind after the outer
casing is cut off, and (all theories of exposed or compressed nerve
termini to the contrary, notwithstanding) have all the sensations the
physical parts formerly experienced. This is that spiritual (astral)
body which “is raised in incorruption.” It is useless to argue that
these are _spirit_-hands; for, admitting even that at every seance
human spirits of many kinds are attracted to the medium, and that
they do guide and produce some manifestations, yet to make hands or
faces objective they are compelled to use either the astral limbs of
the medium, or the materials furnished them by the elementals, or yet
the combined aural emanations of all persons present. _Pure_ spirits
will not and _cannot_ show themselves objectively; those that do are
not pure spirits, but elementary and impure. Woe to the medium who
falls a prey to such!
The same principle involved in the unconscious extrusion of a
phantom limb by the cataleptic medium, applies to the projection
of his entire “double” or astral body. This may be withdrawn by
the will of the medium’s own inner self, without his retaining in
his physical brain any recollection of such an intent--that is one
phase of man’s dual capacity. It may also be effected by elementary
and elemental spirits, to whom he may stand in the relation of
mesmeric subject. Dr. Fairfield is right in one position taken in
his book, viz.: mediums are usually diseased, and in many if not
most cases the children or near connections of mediums. But he
is wholly wrong in attributing all psychical phenomena to morbid
physiological conditions. The adepts of Eastern magic are uniformly
in perfect mental and bodily health, and in fact the voluntary and
independent production of phenomena is impossible to any others. We
have known many, and never a sick man among them. The adept retains
perfect consciousness; shows no change of bodily temperature, or
other sign of morbidity; requires no “conditions,” but will do his
feats anywhere and everywhere; and instead of being passive and in
subjection to a foreign influence, rules the forces with iron will.
But we have elsewhere shown that the medium and the adept are as
opposed as the poles. We will only add here that the body, soul, and
spirit of the adept are all conscious and working in harmony, and the
body of the medium is an inert clod, and even his soul may be away in
a dream while its habitation is occupied by another.
An adept can not only project and make visible a hand, a foot, or
any other portion of his body, but the whole of it. We have seen one
do this, in full day, while his hands and feet were being held by a
skeptical friend whom he wished to surprise.[1135] Little by little
the whole astral body oozed out like a vapory cloud, until before us
stood two forms, of which the second was an exact duplicate of the
first, only slightly more shadowy.
The medium need not exercise any _will-power_. It suffices that
she or he shall know what is expected by the investigators. The
medium’s “spiritual” entity, when not obsessed by other spirits,
will act outside the will or consciousness of the physical being, as
surely as it acts when within the body during a fit of somnambulism.
Its perceptions, external and internal, will be acuter and far
more developed, precisely as they are in the sleep-walker. And
this is why “the materialized form sometimes knows more than the
medium,”[1136] for the intellectual perception of the astral entity
is proportionately as much higher than the corporeal intelligence
of the medium in its normal state, as the spirit entity is finer
than itself. Generally the medium will be found cold, the pulse will
have visibly changed, and a state of nervous prostration succeeds
the phenomena, bunglingly and without discrimination attributed to
disembodied spirits; whereas, but one-third of them may be produced
by the latter, another third by elementals, and the rest by the
astral double of the medium himself.
But, while it is our firm belief that most of the physical
manifestations, _i.e._, those which neither need nor show
intelligence nor great discrimination, are produced mechanically
by the _scin-lecca_ (double) of the medium, as a person in sound
sleep will when apparently awake do things of which he will retain
no remembrance. The purely subjective phenomena are but in a very
small proportion of cases due to the action of the personal astral
body. They are mostly, and according to the moral, intellectual, and
physical purity of the medium, the work of either the elementary, or
sometimes very pure human spirits. Elementals have naught to do with
subjective manifestations. In rare cases it is the _divine_ spirit of
the medium himself that guides and produces them.
As Baboo Peary Chand Mittra says, in a letter[1137] to the President
of the National Association of Spiritualists, Mr. Alexander
Calder,[1138] “a spirit is an essence or power, and has no form....
The very idea of form implies ‘materialism.’ The spirits [astral
souls, we should say] ... can assume forms for a time, but form is
not their permanent state. The more material is our soul, the more
material is our conception of spirits.”
Epimenides, the Orphikos, was renowned for his “sacred and marvellous
nature,” and for the faculty his soul possessed of quitting its body
“_as long and as often as it pleased_.” The ancient philosophers who
have testified to this ability may be reckoned by dozens. Apollonius
left his body at a moment’s notice, but it must be remembered
Apollonius was an adept--a “magician.” Had he been simply a medium,
he could not have performed such feats _at will_. Empedocles of
Agrigentum, the Pythagorean thaumaturgist, required no _conditions_
to arrest a waterspout which had broken over the city. Neither did
he need any to recall a woman to life, as he did. Apollonius used no
_darkened_ room in which to perform his æthrobatic feats. Vanishing
suddenly in the air before the eyes of Domitian and a whole crowd of
witnesses (many thousands), he appeared an hour after in the grotto
of Puteoli. But investigation would have shown that his physical
body having become invisible by the concentration of akâsa about
it, he could walk off unperceived to some secure retreat in the
neighborhood, and an hour after his astral form appear at Puteoli to
his friends, and seem to be the man himself.
No more did Simon Magus wait to be entranced to fly off in the
air before the apostles and crowds of witnesses. “It requires no
conjuration and ceremonies; circle-making and incensing are mere
nonsense and juggling,” says Paracelsus. The human spirit “is so
great a thing that no man can express it; as God Himself is eternal
and unchangeable, so also is the mind of man. If we rightly
understood its powers, nothing would be impossible to us on earth.
The imagination is strengthened and developed through _faith in our
will_. Faith must confirm the imagination, for faith establishes the
will.”
A singular account of the personal interview of an English ambassador
in 1783, with a reïncarnated Buddha--barely mentioned in volume
i.--an infant of eighteen months old at that time, is given in the
_Asiatic Journal_ from the narrative of an eye-witness himself,
Mr. Turner, the author of _The Embassy to Thibet_. The cautious
phraseology of a skeptic dreading public ridicule ill conceals
the amazement of the witness, who, at the same time, desires to
give facts as truthfully as possible. The infant lama received the
ambassador and his suite with a dignity and decorum so natural
and unconstrained that they remained in a perfect maze of wonder.
The behavior of this infant, says the author, was that of an old
philosopher, grave and sedate and exceedingly courteous. He contrived
to make the young pontiff understand the inconsolable grief into
which the Governor-General of Galagata (Calcutta) the City of Palaces
and the people of India were plunged when he died, and the general
rapture when they found that he had resurrected in a young and fresh
body again; at which compliment the young lama regarded him and his
suite with looks of singular complacency, and courteously treated
them to confectionery from a golden cup. “The ambassador continued to
express the Governor-General’s hope that the lama might long continue
to illumine the world with his presence, and that the friendship
which had heretofore subsisted between them might be yet more
strongly cemented, for the benefit and advantage of the intelligent
votaries of the lama ... all which made the little creature look
steadfastly at the speaker, and graciously bow and nod--and bow
and nod--as _if he_ understood and approved of every word that was
uttered.”[1139]
As _if_ he understood! _If_ the infant behaved in the most natural
and dignified way during the reception, and “when their cups were
empty of tea became uneasy and throwing back his head and contracting
the skin of his brow, continued making a noise till they were filled
again,” why could he not understand as well what was said to him?
Years ago, a small party of travellers were painfully journeying
from Kashmir to Leh, a city of Ladâhk (Central Thibet). Among
our guides we had a Tartar Shaman, a very mysterious personage,
who spoke Russian a little and English not at all, and yet who
managed, nevertheless, to converse with us, and proved of great
service. Having learned that some of our party were Russians, he had
imagined that our protection was all-powerful, and might enable
him to safely find his way back to his Siberian home, from which,
for reasons unknown, some twenty years before, he had fled, as he
told us, via Kiachta and the great Gobi Desert, to the land of the
Tcha-gars.[1140] With such an interested object in view, we believed
ourselves safe under his guard. To explain the situation briefly:
Our companions had formed the unwise plan of penetrating into Thibet
under various disguises, none of them speaking the language, although
one, a Mr. K----, had picked up some Kasan Tartar, and thought he
did. As we mention this only incidentally, we may as well say at once
that two of them, the brothers N----, were very politely brought back
to the frontier before they had walked sixteen miles into the weird
land of Eastern Bod; and Mr. K----, an ex-Lutheran minister, could
not even attempt to leave his miserable village near Leh, as from
the first days he found himself prostrated with fever, and had to
return to Lahore via Kashmere. But one sight seen by him was as good
as if he had witnessed the reïncarnation of Buddha itself. Having
heard of this “miracle” from some old Russian missionary in whom
he thought he could have more faith than in Abbé Huc, it had been
for years his desire to expose the “great heathen” jugglery, as he
expressed it. K---- was a positivist, and rather prided himself on
this anti-philosophical neologism. But his positivism was doomed to
receive a death-blow.
About four days journey from Islamabad, at an insignificant mud
village, whose only redeeming feature was its magnificent lake,
we stopped for a few days’ rest. Our companions had temporarily
separated from us, and the village was to be our place of meeting.
It was there that we were apprised by our Shaman that a large party
of Lamaïc “Saints,” on pilgrimage to various shrines, had taken up
their abode in an old cave-temple and established a temporary Vihara
therein. He added that, as the “Three Honorable Ones”[1141] were said
to travel along with them, the holy Bikshu (monks) were capable of
producing the greatest miracles. Mr. K----, fired with the prospect
of exposing this humbug of the ages, proceeded at once to pay them
a visit, and from that moment the most friendly relations were
established between the two camps.
The Vihar was in a secluded and most romantic spot secured against
all intrusion. Despite the effusive attentions, presents, and
protestations of Mr. K----, the Chief, who was Pase-Budhu (an ascetic
of great sanctity), declined to exhibit the phenomenon of the
“incarnation” until a certain talisman in possession of the writer
was exhibited.[1142] Upon seeing this, however, preparations were at
once made, and an infant of three or four months was procured from
its mother, a poor woman of the neighborhood. An oath was first of
all exacted of Mr. K----, that he would not divulge what he might
see or hear, for the space of seven years. The talisman is a simple
agate or carnelian known among the Thibetans and others as _A-yu_,
and naturally possessed, or had been endowed with very mysterious
properties. It has a triangle engraved upon it, within which are
contained a few mystical words.[1143]
Several days passed before everything was ready; nothing of a
mysterious character occurring, meanwhile, except that, at the
bidding of a Bikshu, ghastly faces were made to peep at us out of
the glassy bosom of the lake, as we sat at the door of the Vihar,
upon its bank. One of these was the countenance of Mr. K----’s
sister, whom he had left well and happy at home, but who, as we
subsequently learned, had died some time before he had set out on
the present journey. The sight affected him at first, but he called
his skepticism to his aid, and quieted himself with theories of
cloud-shadows, reflections of tree-branches, etc., such as people of
his kind fall back upon.
On the appointed afternoon, the baby being brought to the Vihara,
was left in the vestibule or reception-room, as K---- could go no
further into the temporary sanctuary. The child was then placed on a
bit of carpet in the middle of the floor, and every one not belonging
to the party being sent away, two “mendicants” were placed at the
entrance to keep out intruders. Then all the lamas seated themselves
on the floor, with their backs against the granite walls, so that
each was separated from the child by a space, at least, of ten feet.
The chief, having had a square piece of leather spread for him by
the _desservant_, seated himself at the farthest corner. Alone, Mr.
K---- placed himself close by the infant, and watched every movement
with intense interest. The only condition exacted of us was that
we should preserve a strict silence, and patiently await further
developments. A bright sunlight streamed through the open door.
Gradually the “Superior” fell into what seemed a state of profound
meditation, while the others, after a _sotto voce_ short invocation,
became suddenly silent, and looked as if they had been completely
petrified. It was oppressively still, and the crowing of the child
was the only sound to be heard. After we had sat there a few moments,
the movements of the infant’s limbs suddenly ceased, and his body
appeared to become rigid. K---- watched intently every motion, and
both of us, by a rapid glance, became satisfied that all present
were sitting motionless. The superior, with his gaze fixed upon the
ground, did not even look at the infant; but, pale and motionless, he
seemed rather like a bronze statue of a Talapoin in meditation than a
living being. Suddenly, to our great consternation, we saw the child,
not raise itself, but, as it were, violently jerked into a sitting
posture! A few more jerks, and then, like an automaton set in motion
by concealed wires, the four months’ baby stood upon his feet! Fancy
our consternation, and, in Mr. K----’s case, horror. Not a hand had
been outstretched, not a motion made, nor a word spoken; and yet,
here was a baby-in-arms standing erect and firm as a man!
The rest of the story we will quote from a copy of notes written on
this subject by Mr. K----, the same evening, and given to us, in case
it should not reach its place of destination, or the writer fail to
see anything more.
“After a minute or two of hesitation,” writes K----, “the baby turned
his head and looked at me with an expression of intelligence that
was simply awful! It sent a chill through me. I pinched my hands
and bit my lips till the blood almost came, to make sure that I did
not dream. But this was only the beginning. The miraculous creature,
making, _as I fancied_, two steps toward me, resumed his sitting
posture, and, without removing his eyes from mine, repeated, sentence
by sentence, in what I supposed to be Thibetan language, the very
words, which I had been told in advance, are commonly spoken at the
incarnations of Buddha, beginning with ‘I am Buddha; I am the old
Lama; I am his spirit in a new body,’ etc. I felt a real terror; my
hair rose upon my head, and my blood ran cold. For my life I could
not have spoken a word. There was no trickery here, no ventriloquism.
The infant lips moved, and the eyes seemed to search my very soul
with an expression that _made me think it was the face of the
Superior himself_, his eyes, his very look that I was gazing upon. It
was _as if his spirit had entered the little body, and was looking at
me through the transparent mask of the baby’s face_. I felt my brain
growing dizzy. The infant reached toward me, and laid his little hand
upon mine. I started as if I had been touched by a hot coal; and,
unable to bear the scene any longer, covered my face with my hands.
It was but for an instant; but when I removed them, the little actor
had become a crowing baby again, and a moment after, lying upon his
back, set up a fretful cry. The superior had resumed his normal
condition, and conversation ensued.
“It was only after a series of similar experiments, extending over
ten days, that I realized the fact that I had seen the incredible,
astounding phenomenon described by certain travellers, but always
by me denounced as an imposture. Among a multitude of questions
unanswered, despite my cross-examination, the Superior let drop one
piece of information, which must be regarded as highly significant.
‘What would have happened,’ I inquired, through the shaman, ‘if,
while the infant was speaking, in a moment of insane fright, at the
thought of its being the “Devil,” I had killed it?’ He replied that,
if the blow had not been instantly fatal, the child _alone_ would
have been killed.’ ‘But,’ I continued, ‘suppose that it had been as
swift as a lightning-flash?’ ‘In such case,’ was the answer, ‘_you
would have killed me also_.’”
In Japan and Siam there are two orders of priests, of which
one are public, and deal with the people, the other strictly
private. The latter are never seen; their existence is known but
to very few natives, never to foreigners. Their powers are never
displayed in public, nor ever at all except on rare occasions of
the utmost importance, at which times the ceremonies are performed
in subterranean or otherwise inaccessible temples, and in the
presence of a chosen few whose heads answer for their secrecy. Among
such occasions are deaths in the Royal family, or those of high
dignitaries affiliated with the Order. One of the most weird and
impressive exhibitions of the power of these magicians is that of
the withdrawal of the astral soul from the cremated remains of human
beings, a ceremony practiced likewise in some of the most important
lamaseries of Thibet and Mongolia.
In Siam, Japan, and Great Tartary, it is the custom to make
medallions, statuettes, and idols out of the ashes of cremated
persons;[1144] they are mixed with water into a paste, and after
being moulded into the desired shape, are baked and then gilded. The
Lamasery of Ou-Tay, in the province of Chan-Si, Mongolia, is the
most famous for that work, and rich persons send the bones of their
defunct relatives to be ground and fashioned there. When the adept
in magic proposes to facilitate the withdrawal of the astral soul
of the deceased, which otherwise they think might remain stupefied
for an indefinite period _within_ the ashes, the following process
is resorted to: The sacred dust is placed in a heap upon a metallic
plate, strongly magnetized, of the size of a man’s body. The adept
then slowly and gently fans it with the _Talapat Nang_,[1145] a fan
of a peculiar shape and inscribed with certain signs, muttering,
at the same time, a form of invocation. The ashes soon become, as
it were, imbued with life, and gently spread themselves out into a
thin layer which assumes the outline of the body before cremation.
Then there gradually arises a sort of whitish vapor which after a
time forms into an erect column, and compacting itself, is finally
transformed into the “double,” or ethereal, astral counterpart of the
dead, which in its turn dissolves away into thin air, and disappears
from mortal sight.[1146]
The “Magicians” of Kashmir, Thibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary are
too well known to need comments. If _jugglers_ they be, we invite the
most expert jugglers of Europe and America to match them if they can.
If our scientists are unable to imitate the mummy-embalming of the
Egyptians, how much greater would be their surprise to see, as we
have, dead bodies preserved by alchemical art, so that after the
lapse of centuries, they seem as though the individuals were but
sleeping. The complexions were as fresh, the skin as elastic, the
eyes as natural and sparkling as though they were in the full flush
of health, and the wheels of life had been stopped but the instant
before. The bodies of certain very eminent personages are laid upon
catafalques, in rich mausoleums, sometimes overlaid with gilding or
even with plates of real gold; their favorite arms, trinkets, and
articles of daily use gathered about them, and a suite of attendants,
blooming young boys and girls, but still corpses, preserved like
their masters, stand as if ready to serve when called. In the convent
of Great Kouren, and in one situated upon the Holy Mountain (Bohté
Oula) there are said to be several such sepulchres, which have been
respected by all the conquering hordes that have swept through those
countries. Abbé Huc heard that such exist, but did not see one,
strangers of all kinds being excluded, and missionaries and European
travellers not furnished with the requisite protection, being the
last of all persons who would be permitted to approach the sacred
places. Huc’s statement that the tombs of Tartar sovereigns are
surrounded with children “who were compelled to swallow mercury until
they were suffocated,” by which means “the color and freshness of the
victims is preserved so well that they appear alive,” is one of these
idle missionary fables which impose only upon the most ignorant who
accept on hearsay. Buddhists have never immolated victims, whether
human or animal. It is utterly against the principles of their
religion, and no Lamaist was ever accused of it. When a rich man
desired to be interred in _company_, messengers were sent throughout
the country with the Lama-embalmers, and children just dead in the
natural way were selected for the purpose. Poor parents were but too
glad to preserve their departed children in this poetic way, instead
of abandoning them to decay and wild beasts.
At the time when Abbé Huc was living in Paris, after his return
from Thibet, he related, among other unpublished wonders, to a Mr.
Arsenieff, a Russian gentleman, the following curious fact that he
had witnessed during his long sojourn at the lamasery of Kounboum.
One day while conversing with one of the lamas, the latter suddenly
stopped speaking, and assumed the attentive attitude of one who is
listening to a message being delivered to him, although he (Huc)
heard never a word. “Then, I must go;” suddenly broke forth the lama,
as if in response to the message.
“Go where?” inquired the astonished “lama of Jehovah” (Huc). “And
with whom are you talking?”
“To the lamasery of * * *,” was the quiet answer. “The Shaberon wants
me; it was he who summoned me.”
Now this lamasery was many days’ journey from that of Kounboum, in
which the conversation was taking place. But what seemed to astonish
Huc the most was, that, instead of setting off on his journey, the
lama simply walked to a sort of cupola-room on the roof of the house
in which they lived, and another lama, after exchanging a few words,
followed them to the terrace by means of the ladder, and passing
between them, locked and barred his companion in. Then turning to Huc
after a few seconds of meditation, he smiled and informed the guest
that “he had gone.”
“But how could he? Why you have locked him in, and the room has no
issue?” insisted the missionary.
“And what good would a door be to him?” answered the custodian. “_It
is he himself who went away; his body is not needed, and so he left
it in my charge._”
Notwithstanding the wonders which Huc had witnessed during his
perilous journey, his opinion was that both of the lamas had
mystified him. But three days later, not having seen his habitual
friend and entertainer, he inquired after him, and was informed that
he would be back in the evening. At sunset, and just as the “other
lamas” were preparing to retire, Huc heard his absent friend’s voice
calling as if from the clouds, to his companion to open the door
for him. Looking upward, he perceived the “traveller’s” outline
behind the lattice of the room where he had been locked in. When
he descended he went straight to the Grand Lama of Kounboum, and
delivered to him certain messages and “orders,” from the place which
he “pretended” he had just left. Huc could get no more information
from him as to his _aërial_ voyage. But he always thought, he
said, that this “farce” had something to do with the immediate and
extraordinary preparations for the polite expulsion of both the
missionaries, himself and Father Gabet, to Chogor-tan, a place
belonging to the Kounboum. The suspicion of the daring missionary
may have been correct, in view of his impudent inquisitiveness and
indiscretion.
If the Abbé had been versed in Eastern philosophy, he would have
found no great difficulty in comprehending both the flight of the
lama’s astral body to the distant lamasery while his physical frame
remained behind, or the carrying on of a conversation with the
Shaberon that was inaudible to himself. The recent experiments with
the telephone in America, to which allusion was made in Chapter V.
of our first volume, but which have been greatly perfected since
those pages went to press, prove that the human voice and the
sounds of instrumental music may be conveyed along a telegraphic
wire to a great distance. The Hermetic philosophers taught, as we
have seen, that the disappearance from sight of a flame does not
imply its actual extinction. It has only passed from the visible
to the invisible world, and may be perceived by the inner sense
of vision, which is adapted to the things of that other and more
real universe. The same rule applies to sound. As the physical ear
discerns the vibrations of the atmosphere up to a certain point,
not yet definitely fixed, but varying with the individual, so the
adept whose interior hearing has been developed, can take the sound
at this vanishing-point, and hear its vibrations in the astral light
indefinitely. He needs no wires, helices, or sounding-boards; his
will-power is all-sufficient. Hearing with the spirit, time and
distance offer no impediments, and so he may converse with another
adept at the antipodes with as great ease as though they were in the
same room.
Fortunately, we can produce numerous witnesses to corroborate our
statement, who, without being adepts at all, have, nevertheless,
heard the sound of aërial music and of the human voice, when neither
instrument nor speaker were within thousands of miles of the place
where we sat. In their case they actually heard interiorly, though
they supposed their physical organs of hearing alone were employed.
The adept had, by a simple effort of will-power, given them for the
brief moment the same perception of the spirit of sound as he himself
constantly enjoys.
If our men of science could only be induced to test instead of
deriding the ancient philosophy of the trinity of all the natural
forces, they would go by leaps toward the dazzling truth, instead
of creeping, snail-like, as at present. Prof. Tyndall’s experiments
off the South Foreland, at Dover, in 1875, fairly upset all previous
theories of the transmission of sound, and those he has made with
sensitive flames[1147] bring him to the very threshold of arcane
science. One step further, and he would comprehend how adepts can
converse at great distances. But that step will _not_ be taken. Of
his sensitive--in truth, magical--flame, he says: “The slightest tap
on a distant anvil causes it to fall to seven inches. When a bunch
of keys is shaken, the flame is violently agitated, and emits a loud
roar. The dropping of a sixpence into a hand already containing coin,
knocks the flame down. The creaking of boots sets it in violent
commotion. The crumpling or tearing of a bit of paper, or the rustle
of a silk dress does the same. Responsive to every tick of a watch
held near it, it falls and explodes. The winding up of a watch
produces tumult. From a distance of thirty yards we may chirrup to
this flame, and cause it to fall and roar. Repeating a passage from
the _Faërie Queene_, the flame sifts and selects the manifold sounds
of my voice, noticing some by a slight nod, others by a deeper bow,
while to others it responds by violent agitation.”
Such are the wonders of modern physical science; but at what cost of
apparatus, and carbonic acid and coal gas; of American and Canadian
whistles, trumpets, gongs, and bells! The poor heathen have none such
_impedimenta_, but--will European science believe it--nevertheless,
produce the very same phenomena. Upon one occasion, when, in a case
of exceptional importance, an “oracle” was required, we saw the
possibility of what we had previously vehemently denied--namely, a
simple mendicant cause a sensitive flame to give responsive flashes
without a particle of apparatus. A fire was kindled of branches of
the _Beal_-tree, and some sacrificial herbs were sprinkled upon it.
The mendicant sat near by, motionless, absorbed in contemplation.
During the intervals between the questions the fire burned low and
seemed ready to go out, but when the interrogatories were propounded,
the flames leaped, roaring, skyward, flickered, bowed, and sent fiery
tongues flaring toward the east, west, north, or south; each motion
having its distinct meaning in a code of signals well understood.
Between whiles it would sink to the ground, and the tongues of flame
would lick the sod in every direction, and suddenly disappear,
leaving only a bed of glowing embers. When the interview with the
flame-spirits was at an end, the Bikshu (mendicant) turned toward the
jungle where he abode, keeping up a wailing, monotonous chant, to the
rhythm of which the sensitive flame kept time, not merely like Prof.
Tyndall’s, when he read the _Faërie Queene_, by simple motions, but
by a marvellous modulation of hissing and roaring until he was out of
sight. Then, as if its very life were extinguished, it vanished, and
left a bed of ashes before the astonished spectators.
Both in Western and Eastern Thibet, as in every other place where
Buddhism predominates, there are two distinct religions, the same
as it is in Brahmanism--the secret philosophy and the popular
religion. The former is that of the followers of the doctrine of the
sect of the Sutrântika.[1148] They closely adhere to the spirit of
Buddha’s original teachings which show the necessity of _intuitional_
perception, and all deductions therefrom. These do not proclaim their
views, nor allow them to be made public.
“All _compounds_ are perishable,” were the last words uttered by the
lips of the dying Gautama, when preparing under the Sâl-tree to enter
into Nirvana. “Spirit is the sole, elementary, and primordial unity,
and each of its rays is immortal, infinite, and indestructible.
Beware of the illusions of matter.” Buddhism was spread far and wide
over Asia, and even farther, by Dharm-Asôka. He was the grandson of
the miracle-worker Chandragupta, the illustrious king who rescued the
Punjâb from the Macedonians--if they ever were at Punjâb at all--and
received Megasthenes at his court in Pataliputra. Dharm-Asôka was
the greatest King of the Maûrya dynasty. From a reckless profligate
and atheist, he had become Pryâdasi, the “beloved of the gods,” and
never was the purity of his philanthropic views surpassed by any
earthly ruler. His memory has lived for ages in the hearts of the
Buddhists, and has been perpetuated in the humane edicts engraved
in several popular dialects on the columns and rocks of Allahabad,
Delhi, Guzerat, Peshawur, Orissa, and other places.[1149] His famous
grandfather had united all India under his powerful sceptre. When
the Nâgas, or serpent-worshippers of Kashmere had been converted
through the efforts of the apostles sent out by the Sthaviras of
the third councils, the religion of Gautama spread like wild-fire.
Gândhara, Cabul, and even many of the Satrapies of Alexander the
Great, accepted the new philosophy. The Buddhism of Nepâl being the
one which may be said to have diverged less than any other from the
primeval ancient faith, the Lamaism of Tartary, Mongolia, and Thibet,
which is a direct offshoot of this country, may be thus shown to be
the purest Buddhism; for we say it again, Lamaism properly is but an
external form of rites.
The Upâsakas and Upâsakis, or male and female semi-monastics and
semi-laymen, have equally with the lama-monks themselves, to strictly
abstain from violating any of Buddha’s rules, and must study _Meipo_
and every psychological phenomenon as much. Those who become guilty
of any of the “five sins” lose all right to congregate with the pious
community. The most important of these is _not to curse upon any
consideration, for the curse returns upon the one that utters it, and
often upon his innocent relatives who breathe the same atmosphere
with him_. To love each other, and even our bitterest enemies; to
offer our lives even for animals, to the extent of abstaining from
defensive arms; to gain the greatest of victories by conquering
one’s self; to avoid all vices; to practice all virtues, especially
humility and mildness; to be obedient to superiors, to cherish and
respect parents, old age, learning, virtuous and holy men; to provide
food, shelter, and comfort for men and animals; to plant trees on
the roads and dig wells for the comfort of travellers; such are the
moral duties of Buddhists. Every Ani or Bikshuni (nun) is subjected
to these laws.
Numerous are the Buddhist and Lamaic saints who have been renowned
for the unsurpassed sanctity of their lives and their “miracles.” So
Tissu, the Emperor’s spiritual teacher, who consecrated Kublaï-Khan,
the Nadir Shah, was known far and wide as much for the extreme
holiness of his life as for the many wonders he wrought. But he
did not stop at fruitless miracles, but did better than that. Tissu
purified completely his religion; and from one single province
of Southern Mongolia is said to have forced Kublai to expel from
convents 500,000 monkish impostors, who made a pretext of their
profession, to live in vice and idleness. Then the Lamaists had
their great reformer, the Shaberon Son-Ka-po, who is claimed to
have been immaculately conceived by his mother, a virgin from
Koko-nor (fourteenth century), who is another wonder-worker. The
sacred tree of Kounboum, the tree of the 10,000 images, which, in
consequence of the degeneration of the true faith had ceased budding
for several centuries, now shot forth new sprouts and bloomed more
vigorously than ever from the hair of this avatar of Buddha, says the
legend. The same tradition makes him (Son-Ka-po) ascend to heaven
in 1419. Contrary to the prevailing idea, few of these saints are
_Khubilhans_, or Shaberons--reïncarnations.
Many of the lamaseries contain schools of magic, but the most
celebrated is the collegiate monastery of the Shu-tukt, where there
are over 30,000 monks attached to it, the lamasery forming quite a
little city. Some of the female nuns possess marvellous psychological
powers. We have met some of these women on their way from Lha-Ssa
to Candi, the Rome of Buddhism, with its miraculous shrines and
Gautama’s relics. To avoid encounters with Mussulmans and other sects
they travel by night alone, unarmed, and without the least fear of
wild animals, _for these will not touch them_. At the first glimpses
of dawn, they take refuge in caves and viharas prepared for them by
their co-religionists at calculated distances; for notwithstanding
the fact that Buddhism has taken refuge in Ceylon, and nominally
there are but few of the denomination in British India, yet the
secret Byauds (Brotherhoods) and Buddhist viharas are numerous, and
every Jain feels himself obliged to help, indiscriminately, Buddhist
or Lamaist.
Ever on the lookout for occult phenomena, hungering after sights,
one of the most interesting that we have seen was produced by one of
these poor travelling Bikshu. It was years ago, and at a time when
all such manifestations were new to the writer. We were taken to
visit the pilgrims by a Buddhist friend, a mystical gentleman born at
Kashmir, of Katchi parents, but a Buddha-Lamaist by conversion, and
who generally resides at Lha-Ssa.
“Why carry about this bunch of dead plants?” inquired one of the
Bikshuni, an emaciated, tall and elderly woman, pointing to a large
nosegay of beautiful, fresh, and fragrant flowers in the writer’s
hands.
“Dead?” we asked, inquiringly. “Why they just have been gathered in
the garden?”
“And yet, they are dead,” she gravely answered. “To be born in this
world, is this not death? See, how these herbs look when alive in the
world of eternal light, in the gardens of our blessed Foh?”
Without moving from the place where she was sitting on the ground,
the Ani took a flower from the bunch, laid it in her lap, and began
to draw together, by large handfuls as it were, invisible material
from the surrounding atmosphere. Presently a very, very faint nodule
of vapor was seen, and this slowly took shape and color, until,
poised in mid-air, appeared a copy of the bloom we had given her.
Faithful to the last tint and the last petal it was, and lying on its
side like the original, but a thousand-fold more gorgeous in hue and
exquisite in beauty, as the glorified human spirit is more beauteous
than its physical capsule. Flower after flower to the minutest herb
was thus reproduced and made to vanish, reappearing at our desire,
nay, at our simple thought. Having selected a full-blown rose we
held it at arm’s length, and in a few minutes our arm, hand, and the
flower, perfect in every detail, appeared reflected in the vacant
space, about two yards from where we sat. But while the flower seemed
immeasurably beautified and as ethereal as the other spirit flowers,
the arm and hand appeared like a mere reflection in a looking-glass,
even to a large spot on the fore arm, left on it by a piece of damp
earth which had stuck to one of the roots. Later we learned the
reason why.
A great truth was uttered some fifty years ago by Dr. Francis Victor
Broussais, when he said: “If magnetism were true, medicine would be
an absurdity.” Magnetism _is_ true, and so we shall not contradict
the learned Frenchman as to the rest. Magnetism, as we have shown,
is the alphabet of magic. It is idle for any one to attempt to
understand either the theory or the practice of the latter until
the fundamental principle of magnetic attractions and repulsions
throughout nature is recognized.
Many so-called popular superstitions are but evidences of an
instinctive perception of this law. An untutored people are taught
by the experience of many generations that certain phenomena occur
under fixed conditions; they give these conditions and obtain the
expected results. Ignorant of the laws, they explain the fact by
supernaturalism, for experience has been their sole teacher.
In India, as well as in Russia and some other countries, there is an
instinctive repugnance to stepping across a man’s shadow, especially
if he have red hair; and in the former country, natives are extremely
reluctant to shake hands with persons of another race. These are
not idle fancies. Every person emits a magnetic exhalation or aura,
and a man may be in perfect physical health, but at the same time
his exhalation may have a morbific character for others, sensitive
to such subtile influences. Dr. Esdaile and other mesmerists long
since taught us that Oriental people, especially Hindus, are more
susceptible than the white-skinned races. Baron Reichenbach’s
experiments--and, in fact, the world’s entire experience--prove that
these magnetic exhalations are most intense from the extremities.
Therapeutic manipulations show this; hand-shaking is, therefore, most
calculated to communicate antipathetic magnetic conditions, and the
Hindus do wisely in keeping their ancient “superstition”--derived
from Manu--constantly in mind.
The magnetism of a red-haired man, we have found, in almost every
nation, is instinctively dreaded. We might quote proverbs from the
Russian, Persian, Georgian, Hindustani, French, Turkish, and even
German, to show that treachery and other vices are popularly supposed
to accompany the rufous complexion. When a man stands exposed to
the sun, the magnetism of that luminary causes his emanations to
be projected toward the shadow, and the increased molecular action
develops more electricity. Hence, an individual to whom he is
antipathetic--though neither might be sensible of the fact--would
act prudently in not passing through the shadow. Careful physicians
wash their hands upon leaving each patient; why, then, should they
not be charged with superstition, as well as the Hindus? The sporules
of disease are invisible, but no less real, as European experience
demonstrates. Well, _Oriental experience for a hundred centuries has
shown that the germs of moral contagion linger about localities, and
impure magnetism can be communicated by the touch_.
Another prevalent belief in some parts of Russia, particularly
Georgia (Caucasus), and in India, is that in case the body of a
drowned person cannot be otherwise found, if a garment of his be
thrown into the water it will float until directly over the spot, and
then sink. We have even seen the experiment successfully tried with
the sacred cord of a Brahman. It floated hither and thither, circling
about as though in search of something, until suddenly darting in a
straight line for about fifty yards, it sank, and at that exact spot
the divers brought up the body. We find this “superstition” even
in America. A Pittsburg paper, of very recent date, describes the
finding of the body of a young boy, named Reed, in the Monongahela,
by a like method. All other means having failed, it says, “a curious
superstition was employed. One of the boy’s shirts was thrown into
the river where he had gone down, and, it is said, floated on the
surface for a time, and finally settled to the bottom at a certain
place, which proved to be the resting-place of the body, and which
was then drawn out. The belief that the shirt of a drowned person
when thrown into the water will follow the body is well-spread,
absurd as it appears.”
This phenomenon is explained by the law of the powerful attraction
existing between the human body and objects that have been long worn
upon it. The oldest garment is most effective for the experiment; a
new one is useless.
From time immemorial, in Russia, in the month of May, on Trinity
Day, maidens from city and village have been in the habit of casting
upon the river wreaths of green leaves--which each girl has to form
for herself--and consulting their oracles. If the wreath sinks, it
is a sign that the girl will die unmarried within a short time; if
it floats, she will be married, the time depending upon the number
of verses she can repeat during the experiment. We positively affirm
that we have personal knowledge of several cases, two of them our
intimate friends, where the augury of death proved true, and the
girls _died_ within twelve months. Tried on any other day than
Trinity, the result would doubtless be the same. The sinking of the
wreath is attributable to its being impregnated with the unhealthy
magnetism of a system which contains the germs of early death; such
magnetisms having an attraction for the earth at the bottom of the
stream. As for the rest, we are willing to abandon it to the friends
of coincidence.
The same general remark as to superstition having a scientific basis
applies to the phenomena produced by fakirs and jugglers, which
skeptics heap into the common category of trickery. And yet, to a
close observer, even to the uninitiated, an enormous difference is
presented between the _kîmiya_ (phenomenon) of a fakir, and the
_batte-bâzi_ (jugglery) of a trickster, and the necromancy of a
_jâdûgar_, or _sâhir_, so dreaded and despised by the natives. This
difference, imperceptible--nay incomprehensible--to the skeptical
European, is instinctively appreciated by every Hindu, whether of
high or low caste, educated or ignorant. The _kangâlin_, or witch,
who uses her terrible _abhi-châr_ (mesmeric powers) with intent to
injure, may expect death at any moment, for every Hindu finds it
lawful to kill her; a _bukka-baz_, or juggler, serves to amuse. A
serpent-charmer, with his _bâ-îni_ full of venomous snakes, is less
dreaded, for his powers of fascination extend but to animals and
reptiles; he is unable to charm human beings, to perform that which
is called by the natives _mantar phûnknâ_, to throw spells on men
by magic. But with the yogi, the sannyâsi, the holy men who acquire
enormous psychological powers by mental and physical training, the
question is totally different. Some of these men are regarded by the
Hindus as demi-gods. Europeans cannot judge of these powers but in
rare and exceptional cases.
The British resident who has encountered in the _maidans_ and public
places what he regards as frightful and loathsome human beings,
sitting motionless in the self-inflicted torture of the _ûrddwa
bahu_, with arms raised above the head for months, and even years,
need not suppose they are the wonder-working fakirs. The phenomenon
of the latter are visible only through the friendly protection of
a Brahman, or under peculiarly fortuitous circumstances. Such men
are as little accessible as the real Nautch girls, of whom every
traveller talks, but very few have actually seen, since they belong
exclusively to the pagodas.
It is surpassingly strange, that with the thousands of travellers
and the millions of European residents who have been in India, and
have traversed it in every direction, so little is yet known of that
country and the lands which surround it. It may be that some readers
will feel inclined not merely to doubt the correctness but even
openly contradict our statement? Doubtless, we will be answered that
all that it is desirable to know about India is already known? In
fact this very reply was once made to us personally. That resident
Anglo-Indians should not busy themselves with inquiries is not
strange; for, as a British officer remarked to us upon one occasion,
“society does not consider it well-bred to care about Hindus or
their affairs, or even show astonishment or desire information upon
anything they may see extraordinary in that country.” But it really
surprises us that at least travellers should not have explored
more than they have this interesting realm. Hardly fifty years
ago, in penetrating the jungles of the Blue or Neilgherry Hills in
Southern Hindustan, a strange race, perfectly distinct in appearance
and language from any other Hindu people, was discovered by two
courageous British officers who were tiger-hunting. Many surmises,
more or less absurd, were set on foot, and the missionaries, always
on the watch to connect every mortal thing with the _Bible_, even
went so far as to suggest that this people was one of the lost
tribes of Israel, supporting their ridiculous hypothesis upon their
very fair complexions and “strongly-marked Jewish features.” The
latter is perfectly erroneous, the Todas, as they are called, not
bearing the remotest likeness to the Jewish type; either in feature,
form, action, or language. They closely resemble each other, and,
as a friend of ours expresses himself, the handsomest of the Todas
resemble the statue of the Grecian Zeus in majesty and beauty of form
more than anything he had yet seen among men.
Fifty years have passed since the discovery; but though since that
time towns have been built on these hills and the country has been
invaded by Europeans, no more has been learned of the Todas than
at the first. Among the foolish rumors current about this people,
the most erroneous are those in relation to their numbers and to
their practicing polyandry. The general opinion about them is that
on account of the latter custom their number has dwindled to a
few hundred families, and the race is fast dying out. We had the
best means of learning much about them, and therefore state most
positively that the Todas neither practice polyandry nor are they
as few in number as supposed. We are ready to show that no one
has ever seen children belonging to them. Those that may have been
seen in their company have belonged to the Badagas, a Hindu tribe
totally distinct from the Todas, in race, color, and language, and
which includes the most direct “worshippers” of this extraordinary
people. We say _worshippers_, for the Badagas clothe, feed, serve,
and positively look upon every Toda as a divinity. They are giants
in stature, white as Europeans, with tremendously long and generally
brown, wavy hair and beard, which no razor ever touched from birth.
Handsome as a statue of Pheidias or Praxiteles, the Toda sits the
whole day inactive, as some travellers who have had a glance at them
affirm. From the many conflicting opinions and statements we have
heard from the very residents of Ootakamund and other little new
places of civilization scattered about the Neilgherry Hills, we cull
the following:
“They never use water; they are wonderfully handsome and noble
looking, but extremely unclean; unlike all other natives they despise
jewelry, and never wear anything but a large black drapery or blanket
of some woollen stuff, with a colored stripe at the bottom; they
never drink anything but pure milk; they have herds of cattle but
neither eat their flesh, nor do they make their beasts of labor
plough or work; they neither sell nor buy; the Badagas feed and
clothe them; they never use nor carry weapons, not even a simple
stick; the Todas can’t read and won’t learn. They are the despair of
the missionaries and apparently have no sort of religion, beyond the
worship of themselves as the Lords of Creation.”[1150]
We will try to correct a few of these opinions, as far as we have
learned from a very holy personage, a Brahmanam-guru, who has our
great respect.
Nobody has ever seen more than five or six of them at one time; they
will not talk with foreigners, nor was any traveller ever inside
their peculiar long and flat huts, which apparently are without
either windows or chimney and have but one door; nobody ever saw
the funeral of a Toda, nor very old men among them; nor are they
taken sick with cholera, while thousands die around them during such
periodical epidemics; finally, though the country all around swarms
with tigers and other wild beasts, neither tiger, serpent, nor any
other animal so ferocious in those parts, was ever known to touch
either a Toda or one of their cattle, though, as said above, they
never use even a stick.
Furthermore the Todas do not marry at all. They seem few in number,
for no one has or ever will have a chance of numbering them; as soon
as their solitude was profaned by the avalanche of civilization--which
was, perchance, due to their own carelessness--the Todas began moving
away to other parts as unknown and more inaccessible than the
Neilgherry hills had formerly been; they are not born of Toda mothers,
nor of Toda parentage; they are the children of a certain very select
sect, and are set apart from their infancy for special religious
purposes. Recognized by a peculiarity of complexion, and certain other
signs, such a child is known as what is vulgarly termed a Toda, from
birth. Every third year, each of them must repair to a certain place
for a certain period of time, where each of them must meet; their
“dirt” is but a mask, such as a sannyâsi puts on in public in
obedience to his vow; their cattle are, for the most part, devoted to
sacred uses; and, though their places of worship have never been
trodden by a profane foot, they nevertheless exist, and perhaps rival
the most splendid pagodas--_goparams_--known to Europeans. The Badagas
are their special vassals, and--as has been truly remarked--worship
them as half-deities; for their birth and mysterious powers entitle
them to such a distinction.
The reader may rest assured that any statements concerning them, that
clash with the little that is above given, are false. No missionary
will ever catch one with his bait, nor any Badaga betray them, though
he were cut to pieces. They are a people who fulfill a certain high
purpose, and whose secrets are inviolable.
Furthermore, the Todas are not the only such mysterious tribe in
India. We have named several in a preceding chapter, but how many are
there besides these, that will remain unnamed, unrecognized, and yet
ever present!
What is now generally known of Shamanism is very little; and that has
been perverted, like the rest of the non-Christian religions. It is
called the “heathenism” of Mongolia, and wholly without reason, for
it is one of the oldest religions of India. It is spirit-worship, or
belief in the immortality of the souls, and that the latter are still
the same men they were on earth, though their bodies have lost their
objective form, and man has exchanged his physical for a spiritual
nature. In its present shape, it is an offshoot of primitive theurgy,
and a practical blending of the visible with the invisible world.
Whenever a denizen of earth desires to enter into communication with
his invisible brethren, he has to assimilate himself to their nature,
_i.e._, he meets these beings half-way, and, furnished by them with a
supply of spiritual essence, endows them, in his turn, with a portion
of his physical nature, thus enabling them sometimes to appear in a
semi-objective form. It is a temporary exchange of natures, called
theurgy. Shamans are called sorcerers, because they are said to
evoke the “spirits” of the dead for purposes of necromancy. The
true Shamanism--striking features of which prevailed in India in
the days of Megasthenes (300 B.C.)--can no more be judged by its
degenerated scions among the Shamans of Siberia, than the religion
of Gautama-Buddha can be interpreted by the fetishism of some of
his followers in Siam and Burmah. It is in the chief lamaseries of
Mongolia and Thibet that it has taken refuge; and there Shamanism, if
so we must call it, is practiced to the utmost limits of intercourse
allowed between man and “spirit.” The religion of the lamas has
faithfully preserved the primitive science of _magic_, and produces
as great feats now as it did in the days of Kublaï-Khan and his
barons. The ancient mystic formula of the King Srong-ch-Tsans-Gampo,
the “Aum mani padmé houm,”[1151] effects its wonders now as well
as in the seventh century. Avalokitesvara, highest of the three
Boddhisattvas, and patron saint of Thibet, projects his shadow, full
in the view of the faithful, at the lamasery of Dga-G’Dan, founded
by him; and the luminous form of Son-Ka-pa, under the shape of a
fiery cloudlet, that separates itself from the dancing beams of
the sunlight, holds converse with a great congregation of lamas,
numbering thousands; the voice descending from above, like the
whisper of the breeze through foliage. Anon, say the Thibetans, the
beautiful appearance vanishes in the shadows of the sacred trees in
the park of the lamasery.
At Garma-Khian (the mother-cloister) it is rumored that bad and
unprogressed spirits are made to appear on certain days, and _forced_
to give an account of their evil deeds; they are compelled by the
lamaic adepts to redress the wrongs done by them to mortals. This
is what Huc naïvely terms “personating evil spirits,” _i.e._,
devils. Were the skeptics of various European countries permitted to
consult the accounts printed daily[1152] at Moru, and in the “City
of Spirits,” of the business-like intercourse which takes place
between the lamas and the invisible world, they would certainly feel
more interest in the phenomena described so triumphantly in the
spiritualistic journals. At Buddha-lla, or rather Foht-lla (Buddha’s
Mount), in the most important of the many thousand lamaseries of that
country, the sceptre of the Boddhisgat is seen floating, unsupported,
in the air, and its motions regulate the actions of the community.
Whenever a lama is called to account in the presence of the Superior
of the monastery, he knows beforehand it is useless for him to
tell an untruth; the “regulator of justice” (the sceptre) is there,
and its waving motion, either approbatory or otherwise, decides
instantaneously and unerringly the question of his guilt. We do not
pretend to have witnessed all this personally--we wish to make no
pretensions of any kind. Suffice it, with respect to any of these
phenomena, that what we have not seen with our own eyes has been so
substantiated to us that we indorse its genuineness.
A number of lamas in Sikkin produce _meipo_--“miracle”--by magical
powers. The late Patriarch of Mongolia, Gegen Chutuktu, who resided
at Urga, a veritable paradise, was the sixteenth incarnation
of Gautama, therefore a Boddhisattva. He had the reputation of
possessing powers that were phenomenal, even among the thaumaturgists
of the land of miracles _par excellence_. Let no one suppose that
these powers are developed without cost. The lives of most of these
holy men, miscalled idle vagrants, cheating beggars, who are supposed
to pass their existence in preying upon the easy credulity of their
victims, are miracles in themselves. Miracles, because they show what
a determined will and perfect purity of life and purpose are able to
accomplish, and to what degree of preternatural ascetism a human body
can be subjected and yet live and reach a ripe old age. No Christian
hermit has ever dreamed of such refinement of monastic discipline;
and the aërial habitation of a Simon Stylite would appear child’s
play before the fakir’s and the Buddhist’s inventions of will-tests.
But the theoretical study of magic is one thing; the possibility
of practicing it quite another. At _Brâs-ss-Pungs_, the Mongolian
college where over three hundred magicians (_sorciers_, as the
French missionaries call them) teach about twice as many pupils from
twelve to twenty, the latter have many years to wait for their final
initiation. Not one in a hundred reaches the highest goal; and out of
the many thousand lamas occupying nearly an entire city of detached
buildings clustering around it, not more than two per cent. become
wonder-workers. One may learn by heart every line of the 108 volumes
of _Kadjur_,[1153] and still make but a poor practical magician.
There is but one thing which leads surely to it, and this particular
study is hinted at by more than one Hermetic writer. One, the Arabian
alchemist Abipili, speaks thus: “I admonish thee, whosoever thou art
that desirest to dive into the inmost parts of nature; if that thou
seekest thou findest not _within thee_, thou wilt _never find it
without thee_. If thou knowest not the excellency of thine own house,
why dost thou seek after the excellency of other things?... O MAN,
KNOW THYSELF! IN THEE IS HID THE TREASURE OF TREASURERS.”
In another alchemic tract, _De manna Benedicto_, the author expresses
his ideas of the philosopher’s stone, in the following terms: “My
intent is for certain reasons not to prate too much of the matter,
which yet is but one only thing, already too plainly described; for
it shows and sets down such magical and natural uses of it [the
stone] as many that have had it never knew nor heard of; and such as,
when I beheld them, _made my knees to tremble and my heart to shake,
and I to stand amazed at the sight of them_!”
Every neophyte has experienced more or less such a feeling; but once
that it is overcome, the man is an ADEPT.
Within the cloisters of Dshashi-Lumbo and Si-Dzang, these powers,
inherent in every man, called out by so few, are cultivated to their
utmost perfection. Who, in India, has not heard of the Banda-Chan
Ramboutchi, the _Houtouktou_ of the capital of Higher Thibet? His
brotherhood of Khe-lan was famous throughout the land; and one of
the most famous “brothers” was a _Peh-ling_ (an Englishman) who had
arrived one day during the early part of this century, from the West,
a thorough Buddhist, and after a month’s preparation was admitted
among the Khe-lans. He spoke every language, including the Thibetan,
and knew every art and science, says the tradition. His sanctity and
the phenomena produced by him caused him to be proclaimed a shaberon
after a residence of but a few years. His memory lives to the present
day among the Thibetans, but his real name is a secret with the
shaberons alone.
The greatest of the _meipo_--said to be the object of the ambition of
every Buddhist devotee--was, and yet is, the faculty of walking in
the air. The famous King of Siam, Pia Metak, the Chinese, was noted
for his devotion and learning. But he attained this “supernatural
gift” only after having placed himself under the direct tuition of
a priest of Gautama-Buddha. Crawfurd and Finlayson, during their
residence at Siam, followed with great interest the endeavors of some
Siamese nobles to acquire this faculty.[1154]
Numerous and varied are the sects in China, Siam, Tartary,
Thibet, Kashmir, and British India, which devote their lives to
the cultivation of “supernatural powers,” so called. Discussing
one of such sects, the _Taossé_, Semedo says: “They pretend that
by means of certain exercises and meditations one shall regain
his youth, and others will attain to be _Shien-sien_, _i.e._,
‘Terrestrial Beati,’ in whose state every desire is gratified,
whilst they have the power to transport themselves from one place
to another, _however distant_, with speed and facility.”[1155] This
faculty relates but to the _projection_ of the _astral entity_,
in a more or less corporealized form, and certainly not to bodily
transportation. This phenomenon is no more a miracle than one’s
reflection in a looking-glass. No one can detect in such an image a
particle of matter, and still there stands our double, faithfully
representing, even to each single hair on our heads. If, by this
simple law of reflection, our double can be seen in a mirror, how
much more striking a proof of its existence is afforded in the
art of photography! _It is no reason, because our physicists have
not yet found the means of taking photographs, except at a short
distance, that the acquirement should be impossible to those who
have found these means in the power of the human will itself,
freed from terrestrial concern._[1156] Our thoughts are _matter_,
says science; every energy produces more or less of a disturbance
in the atmospheric waves. Therefore, as every man--in common with
every other living, and even inert object--has an _aura_ of his own
emanations surrounding him; and, moreover, is enabled, by a trifling
effort, to transport himself in _imagination_ wherever he likes,
why is it scientifically impossible that his thought, regulated,
intensified, and guided by that powerful magician, the educated will,
may become corporealized for the time being, and appear to whom it
likes, a faithful double of the original? Is the proposition, in the
present state of science, any more unthinkable than the photograph or
telegraph were less than forty years ago, or the telephone less than
fourteen months ago?
If the sensitized plate can so accurately seize upon the _shadow_ of
our faces, then this shadow or reflection, although we are unable to
perceive it, must be something substantial. And, if we can, with the
help of optical instruments, project our _semblances_ upon a white
wall, at several hundred feet distance, sometimes, then there is no
reason why the adepts, the alchemists, the savants of the secret art,
should not have already found out that which scientists deny to-day,
but may discover true to-morrow, _i.e._, how to project electrically
their astral bodies, in an instant, through thousands of miles of
space, leaving their material shells with a certain amount of animal
vital principle to keep the physical life going, and acting within
their spiritual, ethereal bodies as safely and intelligently as
when clothed with the covering of flesh? There is a higher form of
electricity than the physical one known to experimenters; a thousand
correlations of the latter are as yet veiled to the eye of the modern
physicist, and none can tell where end its possibilities.
Schott explains that by _Sian_ or _Shin-Sian_ are understood in the
old Chinese conception, and particularly in that of the Tao-Kiao
(Taossé) sect, “persons who withdraw to the hills to lead the life
of anchorites, and who have attained, either through their ascetic
observances or by the power of charms and elixirs, to the possession
of miraculous gifts and of terrestrial _immortality_”[1157](?) This
is exaggerated if not altogether erroneous. What they claim, is
merely their ability to prolong human life; and they can do so, if
we have to believe human testimony. What Marco Polo testifies to in
the thirteenth century is corroborated in our own days. “There are
another class of people called _Chughi_” (Yogi), he says, “who are
indeed properly called _Abraiamans_ (Brahmans?) who are extremely
long-lived, every man of them living to 150 or 200 years. They eat
very little, rice and milk chiefly. And these people make use of a
very strange beverage, a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixed
together, and this they drink twice every month.... This, they say,
gives them long life; and it is a potion they are used to take from
their childhood.”[1158] Burnier shows, says Colonel Yule, the Yogis
very skilful in preparing mercury “so admirably that one or two
grains taken every morning restored the body to perfect health;”
and adds that the _mercurius vitæ_ of Paracelsus was a compound in
which entered antimony and quicksilver.[1159] This is a very careless
statement, to say the least, and we will explain what we know of it.
The longevity of some lamas and Talapoins is proverbial; and it is
generally known that they use some compound which “renews the old
blood,” as they call it. And it was equally a recognized fact with
alchemists that a judicious administration, “of _aura of silver_ does
restore health and prolongs life itself to a wonderful extent.” But
we are fully prepared to oppose the statements of both Bernier and
Col. Yule who quotes him, that it is _mercury_ or quicksilver which
the Yogis and the alchemists used. The Yogis, in the days of Marco
Polo, as well as in our modern times, _do use that which may appear
to be quicksilver, but is not_. Paracelsus, the alchemists, and other
mystics, meant by _mercurius vitæ_, the living spirit of silver, the
_aura_ of silver, not the _argent vive_; and this _aura_ is certainly
not the mercury known to our physicians and druggists. There can be
no doubt that the imputation that Paracelsus introduced mercury into
medical practice is utterly incorrect. No mercury, whether prepared
by a mediæval fire-philosopher or a modern self-styled physician, can
or ever did restore the body to perfect health. Only an unmitigated
charlatan ever will use such a drug. And it is the opinion of many
that it is just with the wicked intention of presenting Paracelsus in
the eyes of posterity as a _quack_, that his enemies have invented
such a preposterous lie.
The Yogis of the olden times, as well as modern lamas and Talapoins,
use a certain ingredient with a minimum of sulphur, and a milky juice
which they extract from a medicinal plant. They must certainly be
possessed of some wonderful secrets, as we have seen them healing the
most rebellious wounds in a few days; restoring broken bones to good
use in as many hours as it would take days to do by means of common
surgery. A fearful fever contracted by the writer near Rangoon, after
a flood of the Irrawaddy River, was cured in a few hours by the juice
of a plant called, if we mistake not, Kukushan, though there may be
thousands of natives ignorant of its virtues who are left to die of
fever. This was in return for a trifling kindness we had done to
a _simple mendicant_; a service which can interest the reader but
little.
We have heard of a certain water, also, called _âb-i-hayât_, which
the popular superstition thinks hidden from every mortal eye, except
that of the holy sannyâsi; the fountain itself being known as the
âb-i-haiwân-î. It is more than probable though, that the Talapoins
will decline to deliver up their secrets, even to academicians and
missionaries; as these remedies must be used for the benefit of
humanity, never for money.[1160]
At the great festivals of Hindu pagodas, at the marriage feasts
of rich high-castes, everywhere where large crowds are gathered,
Europeans find gunî--or serpent-charmers, fakirs-mesmerizers,
thaum-working sannyâsi, and so-called “jugglers.” To deride is
easy--to explain, rather more troublesome--to science impossible.
The British residents of India and the travellers prefer the first
expedient. But let any one ask one of these Thomases how the
following results--which they cannot and do not deny--are produced?
When crowds of gunî and fakirs appear with their bodies encircled
with cobras-de-capello, their arms ornamented with bracelets of
_corallilos_--diminutive snakes inflicting certain death in a few
seconds--and their shoulders with necklaces of trigonocephali, the
most terrible enemy of naked Hindu feet, whose bite kills like a
flash of lightning, the sceptic witness smiles and gravely proceeds
to explain how these reptiles, having been thrown in cataleptic
torpor, were all deprived by the gunî of their fangs. “They are
harmless and it is ridiculous to fear them.” “Will the Saëb caress
one of my nâg?” asked once a gunî approaching our interlocutor,
who had been thus humbling his listeners with his herpetological
achievements for a full half hour. Rapidly jumping back--the brave
warrior’s feet proving no less nimble than his tongue--Captain
B----’s angry answer could hardly be immortalized by us in print.
Only the gunî’s terrible body-guard saved him from an unceremonious
thrashing. Besides, say a word, and for a half-roupee any
professional serpent-charmer will begin creeping about and summon
around in a few moments numbers of untamed serpents of the most
poisonous species, and will handle them and encircle his body with
them. On two occasions in the neighborhood of Trinkemal a serpent was
ready to strike at the writer, who had once nearly sat on its tail,
but both times, at a rapid whistle of the gunî whom we had hired to
accompany us, it stopped--hardly a few inches from our body, as if
arrested by lightning and slowly sinking its menacing head to the
ground, remained stiff and motionless as a dead branch, under the
charm of the _kīlnā_.[1161]
Will any European juggler, tamer, or even mesmerizer, risk repeating
just once an experiment that may be daily witnessed in India, if
you know where to go to see it? There is nothing in the world more
ferocious than a royal Bengal tiger. Once the whole population of
a small village, not far from Dakka, situated on the confines of a
jungle, was thrown into a panic at the appearance of an enormous
tigress, at the dawn of the day. These wild beasts never leave their
dens but at night, when they go searching for prey and for water.
But this unusual circumstance was due to the fact that the beast was
a mother, and she had been deprived of her two cubs, which had been
carried away by a daring hunter, and she was in search of them. Two
men and a child had already become her victims, when an aged fakir,
bent on his daily round, emerging from the gate of the pagoda, saw
the situation and understood it at a glance. Chanting a mantrâm he
went straight to the beast, which with flaming eye and foaming mouth
crouched near a tree ready for a new victim. When at about ten feet
from the tigress, without interrupting his modulated prayer, the
words of which no layman comprehends, he began a regular process of
mesmerization, as we understood it; he made _passes_. A terrific
howl which struck a chill into the heart of every human being in the
place, was then heard. This long, ferocious, drawling howl gradually
subsided into a series of plaintive broken sobs, as if the bereaved
mother was uttering her complaints, and then, to the terror of the
crowd which had taken refuge on trees and in the houses, the beast
made a tremendous leap--on the holy man as they thought. They were
mistaken, she was at his feet, rolling in the dust, and writhing. A
few moments more and she remained motionless, with her enormous head
laid on her fore-paws, and her bloodshot but now mild eye riveted on
the face of the fakir. Then the holy man of prayers sat beside the
tigress and tenderly smoothed her striped skin, and patted her back,
until her groans became fainter and fainter, and half an hour later
all the village was standing around this group; the fakir’s head
lying on the tigress’s back as on a pillow, his right hand on her
head, and his left thrown on the sod under the terrible mouth, from
which the long red protruding tongue was gently licking it.
This is the way the fakirs tame the wildest beasts in India. Can
European tamers, with their white-hot iron rods, do as much? Of
course every fakir is not endowed with such a power; comparatively
very few are. And yet the actual number is large. How they are
_trained_ to these requirements in the pagodas will remain an
eternal secret, to all except the Brahmans and the adepts in occult
mysteries. The stories, hitherto considered fables, of Christna and
Orpheus charming the wild beasts, thus receives its corroboration
in our day. There is one fact which remains undeniable. _There is
not a single European_ in India who could have, or has ever boasted
of having, penetrated into the enclosed sanctuary _within_ the
pagodas. Neither authority nor money has ever induced a Brahman to
allow an uninitiated foreigner to pass the threshold of the reserved
precinct. To use authority in such a case would be equivalent to
throwing a lighted taper into a powder magazine. The Hindus, mild,
patient, long-suffering, whose very apathy saved the British from
being driven out of the country in 1857, would raise their hundred
millions of devotees as one man, at such a profanation; regardless
of sects or castes, they would exterminate every Christian. The
East India Company knew this well and built her stronghold on the
friendship of the Brahmans, and by paying subsidy to the pagodas;
and the British Government is as prudent as its predecessor. It is
the castes, and non-interference with the prevailing religions, that
secure its comparative authority in India. But we must once more
recur to Shamanism, that strange and most despised of all surviving
religions--“Spirit-worship.”
Its followers have neither altars nor idols, and it is upon the
authority of a Shaman priest that we state that their true rites,
which they are bound to perform only once a year, on the shortest
day of winter, cannot take place before any stranger to their faith.
Therefore, we are confident that all descriptions hitherto given in
the _Asiatic Journal_ and other European works, are but guess-work.
The Russians, who, from constant intercourse with the Shamans in
Siberia and Tartary, would be the most competent of all persons
to judge of their religion, have learned nothing except of the
personal proficiency of these men in what they are half inclined to
believe clever jugglery. Many Russian residents, though, in Siberia,
are firmly convinced of the “supernatural” powers of the Shamans.
Whenever they assemble to worship, it is always in an open space, or
a high hill, or in the hidden depths of a forest--in this reminding
us of the old Druidical rites. Their ceremonies upon the occasions
of births, deaths, and marriages are but trifling parts of their
worship. They comprise offerings, the sprinkling of the fire with
spirits and milk, and weird hymns, or rather, magical incantations,
intoned by the officiating Shaman, and concluding with a chorus of
the persons present.
The numerous small bells of brass and iron worn by them on the
priestly robe of deerskin,[1162] or the pelt of some other animal
reputed magnetic, are used to drive away the malevolent spirits
of the air, a _superstition_ shared by all the nations of old,
including Romans, and even the Jews, whose golden bells tell the
story. They have iron staves also covered with bells, for the same
reason. When, after certain ceremonies, the desired crisis is
reached, and “the spirit has spoken,” and the priest (who may be
either male or female) feels its overpowering influence, the hand of
the Shaman is drawn by some occult power toward the top of the staff,
which is commonly covered with hieroglyphics. With his palm pressing
upon it, he is then raised to a considerable height in the air, where
he remains for some time. Sometimes he leaps to an extraordinary
height, and, according to the control--for he is often but an
irresponsible medium--pours out prophecies and describes future
events. Thus, it was that, in 1847, a Shaman in a distant part of
Siberia prophesied and accurately detailed the issue of the Crimean
war. The particulars of the prognostication being carefully noted by
those present at the time, were all verified six years after this
occurrence. Although usually ignorant of even the name of astronomy,
let alone having studied this science, they often prophesy eclipses
and other astronomical phenomena. When consulted about thefts and
murders, they invariably point out the guilty parties.
The Shamans of Siberia are all ignorant and illiterate. Those of
Tartary and Thibet--few in number--are mostly learned men in their
own way, and will not allow themselves to fall under the control of
spirits of any kind. The former are _mediums_ in the full sense of
the word; the latter, “magicians.” It is not surprising that pious
and superstitious persons, after seeing one of such crises, should
declare the Shaman to be under demoniacal possession. As in the
instances of Corybantic and Bacchantic fury among the ancient Greeks,
the “spiritual” crisis of the Shaman exhibits itself in violent
dancing and wild gestures. Little by little the lookers-on feel the
spirit of imitation aroused in them; seized with an irresistible
impulse, they dance, and become, in their turn, ecstatics; and he who
begins by joining the chorus, gradually and unconsciously takes part
in the gesticulations, until he sinks to the ground exhausted, and
often dying.
“O, young girl, a god possesses thee! it is either Pan, or Hekaté, or
the venerable Corybantes, or Cybelé that agitates thee!” the chorus
says, addressing Phœdra, in Euripides. This form of psychological
epidemic has been too well known from the time of the middle ages
to cite instances from it. The _Chorœa sancti Viti_ is an historical
fact, and spread throughout Germany. Paracelsus cured quite a number
of persons possessed of such a spirit of imitation. But he was a
kabalist, and therefore accused, by his enemies, of having cast out
the devils by the power of a stronger demon, which he was believed to
carry about with him in the hilt of his sword. The Christian judges
of those days of horror found a better and a surer remedy. Voltaire
states that, in the district of Jura, between 1598 and 1600, over 600
lycanthropes were put to death by a pious judge.
But, while the illiterate Shaman is a victim, and during his crisis
sometimes sees the persons present, under the shape of various
animals, and often makes them share his hallucination, his brother
Shaman, learned in the mysteries of the priestly colleges of Thibet,
_expels_ the elementary creature, which can produce the hallucination
as well as a living mesmerizer, not through the help of a stronger
demon, but simply through his knowledge of the nature of the
invisible enemy. Where academicians have failed, as in the cases of
the Cevennois, a Shaman or a lama would have soon put an end to the
epidemic.
We have mentioned a kind of carnelian stone in our possession,
which had such an unexpected and favorable effect upon the Shaman’s
decision. Every Shaman has such a talisman, which he wears attached
to a string, and carries under his left arm.
“Of what use is it to you, and what are its virtues?” was the
question we often offered to our guide. To this he never answered
directly, but evaded all explanation, promising that as soon as an
opportunity was offered, and we were alone, he would ask the stone
_to answer for himself_. With this very indefinite hope, we were left
to the resources of our own imagination.
But the day on which the stone “spoke” came very soon. It was during
the most critical hours of our life; at a time when the vagabond
nature of a traveller had carried the writer to far-off lands, where
neither civilization is known, nor security can be guaranteed for one
hour. One afternoon, as every man and woman had left the _yourta_
(Tartar tent), that had been our home for over two months, to witness
the ceremony of the Lamaïc exorcism of a Tshoutgour,[1163] accused
of breaking and spiriting away every bit of the poor furniture and
earthenware of a family living about two miles distant, the Shaman,
who had become our only protector in those dreary deserts, was
reminded of his promise. He sighed and hesitated; but, after a short
silence, left his place on the sheepskin, and, going outside, placed
a dried-up goat’s head with its prominent horns over a wooden peg,
and then dropping down the felt curtain of the tent, remarked that
now no living person would venture in, for the goat’s head was a sign
that he was “at work.”
After that, placing his hand in his bosom, he drew out the little
stone, about the size of a walnut, and, carefully unwrapping it,
proceeded, as it appeared, to swallow it. In a few moments his limbs
stiffened, his body became rigid, and he fell, cold and motionless as
a corpse. But for a slight twitching of his lips at every question
asked, the scene would have been embarrassing, nay--dreadful. The
sun was setting, and were it not that dying embers flickered at the
centre of the tent, complete darkness would have been added to the
oppressive silence which reigned. We have lived in the prairies
of the West, and in the boundless steppes of Southern Russia; but
nothing can be compared with the silence at sunset on the sandy
deserts of Mongolia; not even the barren solitudes of the deserts of
Africa, though the former are partially inhabited, and the latter
utterly void of life. Yet, there was the writer alone with what
looked no better than a corpse lying on the ground. Fortunately, this
state did not last long.
“Mahandū!” uttered a voice, which seemed to come from the bowels of
the earth, on which the Shaman was prostrated. “Peace be with you ...
what would you have me do for you?”
Startling as the fact seemed, we were quite prepared for it, for we
had seen other Shamans pass through similar performances. “Whoever
you are,” we pronounced mentally, “go to K----, and try to bring that
person’s _thought_ here. See what that other party does, and tell * *
* what we are doing and how situated.”
“I am there;” answered the same voice. “The old lady (kokona)[1164]
is sitting in the garden ... she is putting on her spectacles and
reading a letter.”
“The contents of it, and hasten,” was the hurried order while
preparing note-book and pencil. The contents were given slowly, as
if, while dictating, the invisible presence desired to afford us time
to put down the words phonetically, for we recognized the Valachian
language of which we know nothing beyond the ability to recognize it.
In such a way a whole page was filled.
“Look west ... toward the third pole of the yourta,” pronounced the
Tartar in his natural voice, though it sounded hollow, and as if
coming from afar. “Her _thought_ is here.”
Then with a convulsive jerk, the upper portion of the Shaman’s body
seemed raised, and his head fell heavily on the writer’s feet, which
he clutched with both his hands. The position was becoming less and
less attractive, but curiosity proved a good ally to courage. In
the west corner was standing, life-like but flickering, unsteady
and mist-like, the form of a dear old friend, a Roumanian lady of
Valachia, a mystic by disposition, but a thorough disbeliever in this
kind of occult phenomena.
“Her thought is here, but her body is lying unconscious. We could not
bring her here otherwise,” said the voice.
We addressed and supplicated the apparition to answer, but all in
vain. The features moved, and the form gesticulated as if in fear
and agony, but no sound broke forth from the shadowy lips; only
we imagined--perchance it was a fancy--hearing as if from a long
distance the Roumanian words, “_Non se póte_” (it cannot be done).
For over two hours, the most substantial, unequivocal proofs that the
Shaman’s astral soul was travelling at the bidding of our unspoken
wish, were given us. Ten months later, we received a letter from our
Valachian friend in response to ours, in which we had enclosed the
page from the note-book, inquiring of her what she had been doing
on that day, and describing the scene in full. She was sitting--she
wrote--in the garden on that morning[1165] prosaically occupied in
boiling some conserves; the letter sent to her was word for word the
copy of the one received by her from her brother; all at once--in
consequence of the heat, she thought--she fainted, and remembered
distinctly _dreaming_ she saw the writer in a desert place which she
accurately described, and sitting under a “gypsy’s tent,” as she
expressed it. “Henceforth,” she added, “I can doubt no longer!”
But our experiment was proved still better. We had directed the
Shaman’s inner _ego_ to the same friend heretofore mentioned in this
chapter, the Kutchi of Lha-Ssa, who travels constantly to British
India and back. _We know_ that he was apprised of our critical
situation in the desert; for a few hours later came help, and we were
rescued by a party of twenty-five horsemen who had been directed by
their chief to find us at the place where we were, which no living
man endowed with common powers could have known. The chief of this
escort was a Shaberon, an “adept” whom we had never seen before, nor
did we after that, for he never left his _soumay_ (lamasery), and
we could have no access to it. But _he was a personal friend of the
Kutchi_.
The above will of course provoke naught but incredulity in the
general reader. But we write for those who will believe; who,
like the writer, understand and know the illimitable powers and
possibilities of the human astral soul. In this case we willingly
believe, nay, we know, that the “spiritual double” of the Shaman did
not act alone, for he was no adept, but simply a medium. According to
a favorite expression of his, as soon as he placed the stone in his
mouth, his “father appeared, dragged him out of his skin, and took
him wherever he wanted,” and at his bidding.
One who has only witnessed the chemical, optical, mechanical, and
sleight-of-hand performances of European prestidigitateurs, is
not prepared to see, without amazement, the open-air and off-hand
exhibitions of Hindu jugglers, to say nothing of fakirs. Of the
mere displays of deceptive dexterity we make no account, for Houdin
and others far excel them in that respect; nor do we dwell upon
feats that permit of confederacy, whether resorted to or not. It is
unquestionably true that non-expert travellers, especially if of an
imaginative turn of mind, exaggerate inordinately. But our remark is
based upon a class of phenomena not to be accounted for upon any of
the familiar hypotheses. “I have seen,” says a gentleman who resided
in India, “a man throw up into the air a number of balls numbered
in succession from one upwards. As each went up--and there was no
deception about their going up--the ball was seen clearly in the
air, getting smaller and smaller, till it disappeared altogether out
of sight. When they were all up, twenty or more, the operator would
politely ask which ball you wanted to see, and then would shout out,
‘No. 1,’ ‘No. 15,’ and so on, as instructed by the spectators, when
the ball demanded would bound to his feet violently from some remote
distance.... These fellows have very scanty clothing, and apparently
no apparatus whatever. Then, I have seen them swallow three different
colored powders, and then, throwing back the head, wash them down
with water, drunk, in the native fashion, in a continuous stream from
a _lotah_, or brass-pot, held at arm’s length from the lips, and keep
on drinking till the swollen body could not hold another drop, and
water overflowed from the lips. Then, these fellows, after squirting
out the water in their mouths, have spat out the three powders on a
clean piece of paper, dry and unmixed.”[1166]
In the eastern portion of Turkey and Persia, have dwelt, from time
immemorial, the warlike tribes of the Koordistan. This people
of purely Indo-European origin, and without a drop of Semitic
blood in them (though some ethnologists seem to think otherwise),
notwithstanding their brigand-like disposition, unite in themselves
the mysticism of the Hindu and the practices of the Assyrio-Chaldean
magians, vast portions of whose territory they have helped themselves
to, and will not give up, to please either Turkey or even all
Europe.[1167] Nominally, Mahometans of the sect of Omar, their
rites and doctrines are purely magical and magian. Even those who
are Christian Nestorians, are Christians but in name. The Kaldany,
numbering nearly 100,000 men, and with their two Patriarchs, are
undeniably rather Manicheans than Nestorians. Many of them are Yezids.
One of these tribes is noted for its fire-worshipping predilections.
At sunrise and sunset, the horsemen alight and, turning towards the
sun, mutter a prayer; while at every new moon they perform mysterious
rites throughout the whole night. They have a tent set apart for
the purpose, and its thick, black, woolen fabric is decorated with
weird signs, worked in bright red and yellow. In the centre is
placed a kind of altar, encircled by three brass bands, to which
are suspended numerous rings by ropes of camel’s hair, which every
worshipper holds with his right hand during the ceremony. On the
altar burns a curious, old-fashioned silver lamp, a relic found
possibly among the ruins of Persepolis.[1168] This lamp, with three
wicks, is an oblong cup with a handle to it, and is evidently of the
class of Egyptian sepulchral lamps, once found in such profusion in
the subterranean caves of Memphis, if we may believe Kircher.[1169]
It widened from its end toward the middle, and its upper part was of
the shape of a heart; the apertures for the wicks forming a triangle,
and its centre being covered by an inverted heliotrope attached to a
gracefully-curved stalk proceeding from the handle of the lamp. This
ornament clearly bespoke its origin. It was one of the sacred vessels
used in sun-worship. The Greeks gave the _heliotrope_ its name from
its strange propensity to ever incline towards the sun. The ancient
Magi used it in their worship; and who knows but Darius had performed
the mysterious rites with its triple light illuminating the face of
the king-hierophant!
If we mention the lamp at all, it is because there happened to be a
strange story in connection with it. What the Koords do, during their
nocturnal rites of lunar-worship, we know but from hearsay; for they
conceal it carefully, and no stranger could be admitted to witness
the ceremony. But every tribe has one old man, sometimes several,
regarded as “holy beings,” who know the past, and can divulge the
secrets of the future. These are greatly honored, and generally
resorted to for information in cases of theft, murders, or danger.
Travelling from one tribe to the other, we passed some time in
company with these Koords. As our object is not autobiographical,
we omit all details that have no immediate bearing upon some occult
fact, and even of these, have room but for a few. We will then simply
state that a very expensive saddle, a carpet, and two Circassian
daggers, richly mounted and chiselled in gold, had been stolen from
the tent, and that the Koords, with the chief of the tribe at the
head, had come, taking Allah for their witness that the culprit could
not belong to their tribe. We believed it, for it would have been
unprecedented among these nomadic tribes of Asia, as famed for the
sacredness in which they hold their guests, as for the ease with
which they plunder and occasionally murder them, when once they have
passed the boundaries of their _aoûl_.
A suggestion was then made by a Georgian belonging to our caravan to
have resort to the light of the _koodian_ (sorcerer) of their tribe.
This was arranged in great secrecy and solemnity, and the interview
appointed to take place at midnight, when the moon would be at its
full. At the stated hour we were conducted to the above-described
tent.
A large hole, or square aperture, was managed in the arched roof of
the tent, and through it poured in vertically the radiant moonbeams,
mingling with the vacillating triple flame of the little lamp.
After several minutes of incantations, addressed, as it seemed to
us, to the moon, the conjurer, an old man of tremendous stature,
whose pyramidal turban touched the top of the tent, produced a
round looking-glass, of the kind known as “Persian mirrors.” Having
unscrewed its cover, he then proceeded to breathe on it, for over ten
minutes, and wipe off the moisture from the surface with a package
of herbs, muttering incantations the while _sotto voce_. After every
wiping the glass became more and more brilliant, till its crystal
seemed to radiate refulgent phosphoric rays in every direction. At
last the operation was ended; the old man, with the mirror in his
hand, remained as motionless as if he had been a statue. “Look,
Hanoum ... look steadily,” he whispered, hardly moving his lips.
Shadows and dark spots began gathering, where one moment before
nothing was reflected but the radiant face of the full moon. A few
more seconds, and there appeared the well-known saddle, carpet, and
daggers, which seemed to be rising as from a deep, clear water, and
becoming with every instant more definitely outlined. Then a still
darker shadow appeared hovering over these objects, which gradually
condensed itself, and then came out, as visibly as at the small end
of a telescope, the full figure of a man crouching over them.
“I know him!” exclaimed the writer. “It is the Tartar who came to us
last night, offering to sell his mule!”
The image disappeared, as if by enchantment. The old man nodded
assent, but remained motionless. Then he muttered again some
strange words, and suddenly began a song. The tune was slow and
monotonous, but after he had sung a few stanzas in the same unknown
tongue, without changing either rhythm or tune, he pronounced,
_recitative_-like, the following words, in his broken Russian:
“Now, Hanoum, look well, whether we will catch him--the fate of the
robber--we will learn this night,” etc.
The same shadows began gathering, and then, almost without
transition, we saw the man lying on his back, in a pool of blood,
across the saddle, and two other men galloping off at a distance.
Horror-stricken, and sick at the sight of this picture, we desired to
see no more. The old man, leaving the tent, called some of the Koords
standing outside, and seemed to give them instructions. Two minutes
later, a dozen of horsemen were galloping off at full speed down the
side of the mountain on which we were encamped.
Early in the morning they returned with the lost objects. The saddle
was all covered with coagulated blood, and of course abandoned to
them. The story they told was, that upon coming in sight of the
fugitive, they saw disappearing over the crest of a distant hill two
horsemen, and upon riding up, the Tartar thief was found dead upon
the stolen property, exactly as we had seen him in the magical glass.
He had been murdered by the two banditti, whose evident design to rob
him was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the party sent by the
old Koodian.
The most remarkable results are produced by the Eastern “wise men,”
by the simple act of breathing upon a person, whether with good or
evil intent. This is pure mesmerism; and among the Persian dervishes
who practice it the animal magnetism is often reinforced by that of
the elements. If a person happens to stand facing a certain wind,
there is always danger, they think; and many of the “learned ones”
in occult matters can never be prevailed upon to go at sunset in
a certain direction from whence blows the wind. We have known an
old Persian from Baku,[1170] on the Caspian Sea, who had the most
unenviable reputation for _throwing spells_ through the timely help
of this wind, which blows but too often at that town, as its Persian
name itself shows.[1171] If a victim, against whom the wrath of the
old fiend was kindled, happened to be facing this wind, he would
appear, as if by enchantment, cross the road rapidly, and breathe in
his face. From that moment, the latter would find himself afflicted
with every evil--he was under the spell of the “evil eye.”
The employment of the human breath by the sorcerer as an adjunct
for the accomplishment of his nefarious purpose, is strikingly
illustrated in several terrible cases recorded in the French
annals--notably those of several Catholic priests. In fact, this
species of sorcery was known from the oldest times. The Emperor
Constantine (in Statute iv., _Code de Malef._, etc.) prescribed
the severest penalties against such as should employ sorcery to do
violence to chastity and excite unlawful passion. Augustine (_Cité
de Dieu_) warns against it; Jerome, Gregory, Nazianzen and many
other ecclesiastical authorities, lend their denunciation of a crime
not uncommon among the clergy. Baffet (book v., tit. 19, chap. 6)
relates the case of the curé of Peifane, who accomplished the ruin of
a highly-respected and virtuous lady parishioner, the Dame du Lieu,
by resort to sorcery, and was burned alive for it by the Parliament
of Grenoble. In 1611, a priest named Gaufridy was burned by the
Parliament of Provence for seducing a penitent at the confessional,
named Magdelaine de la Palud, _by breathing upon her_, and thus
throwing her into a delirium of sinful love for him.
The above cases are cited in the official report of the famous case
of Father Girard, a Jesuit priest of very great influence, who,
in 1731, was tried before the Parliament of Aix, France, for the
seduction of his parishioner, Mlle. Catherine Cadière, of Toulon,
and certain revolting crimes in connection with the same. The
indictment charged that the offence was brought about by resort
to sorcery. Mlle. Cadière was a young lady noted for her beauty,
piety, and exemplary virtues. Her attention to her religious
duties was exceptionally rigorous, and that was the cause of her
perdition. Father Girard’s eye fell upon her, and he began to
manœuvre for her ruin. Gaining the confidence of the girl and her
family by his apparent great sanctity, he one day made a pretext
to blow his breath upon her. The girl became instantly affected
with a violent passion for him. She also had ecstatic visions of a
religious character, stigmata, or blood-marks of the “Passion,” and
hysterical convulsions. The long-sought opportunity of seclusion
with his penitent finally offering, the Jesuit breathed upon her
again, and before the poor girl recovered her senses, his object had
been accomplished. By sophistry and the excitation of her religious
fervor, he kept up this illicit relation for months, without her
suspecting that she had done anything wrong. Finally, however, her
eyes were opened, her parents informed, and the priest was arraigned.
Judgment was rendered October 12th, 1731. Of twenty-five judges,
twelve voted to send him to the stake. The criminal priest was
defended by all the power of the Society of Jesus, and it is said
that a million francs were spent in trying to suppress the evidence
produced at the trial. The facts, however, were printed in a work
(in 5 vols., 16mo), now rare, entitled _Recueil Général des Pièces
contenues au Procez du Père Jean-Baptiste Girard, Jesuite_, etc.,
etc.[1172]
We have noted the circumstance that, while under the sorcerous
influence of Father Girard, and in illicit relations with him, Mlle.
Cadière’s body was marked with the _stigmata_ of the _Passion_,
viz.: the bleeding wounds of thorns on her brow, of nails in her
hands and feet, and of a lance-cut in her side. It should be added
that the same marks were seen upon the bodies of six other penitents
of this priest, viz.: Mesdames Guyol, Laugier, Grodier, Allemande,
Batarelle, and Reboul. In fact, it became commonly remarked that
Father Girard’s handsome parishioners were strangely given to
ecstasies and _stigmata_! Add this to the fact that, in the case
of Father Gaufridy, above noted, the same thing was proved, upon
surgical testimony, to have happened to Mlle. de Palud, and we have
something worth the attention of all (especially spiritualists) who
imagine these _stigmata_ are produced by pure spirits. Barring the
agency of the Devil, whom we have quietly put to rest in another
chapter, Catholics would be puzzled, we fancy, despite all their
infallibility, to distinguish between the stigmata of the sorcerers
and those produced through the intervention of the Holy Ghost or the
angels. The Church records abound in instances of alleged diabolical
imitations of these signs of saintship, but, as we have remarked, the
Devil is out of court.
By those who have followed us thus far, it will naturally be asked,
to what practical issue this book tends; much has been said about
magic and its potentiality, much of the immense antiquity of its
practice. Do we wish to affirm that the occult sciences ought to be
studied and practiced throughout the world? Would we replace modern
spiritualism with the ancient magic? Neither; the substitution could
not be made, nor the study universally prosecuted, without incurring
the risk of enormous public dangers. At this moment, a well-known
spiritualist and lecturer on mesmerism is imprisoned on the charge
of raping a subject whom he had hypnotized. A sorcerer is a public
enemy, and mesmerism may most readily be turned into the worst of
sorceries.
We would have neither scientists, theologians, nor spiritualists turn
practical magicians, but all to realize that there was true science,
profound religion, and genuine phenomena before this modern era. We
would that all who have a voice in the education of the masses should
first know and then _teach_ that the safest guides to human happiness
and enlightenment are those writings which have descended to us from
the remotest antiquity; and that nobler spiritual aspirations and a
higher average morality prevail in the countries where the people
take their precepts as the rule of their lives. We would have all to
realize that magical, _i.e._, spiritual powers exist in every man,
and those few to practice them who feel called to teach, and are
ready to pay the price of discipline and self-conquest which their
development exacts.
Many men have arisen who had glimpses of the truth, and fancied
they had it all. Such have failed to achieve the good they might
have done and sought to do, because vanity has made them thrust
their personality into such undue prominence as to interpose it
between their believers and the _whole_ truth that lay behind. The
world needs no sectarian church, whether of Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet,
Swedenborg, Calvin, or any other. There being but ONE Truth, man
requires but one church--the Temple of God within us, walled in by
matter but penetrable by any one who can find the way; _the pure in
heart see God_.
_The trinity of nature is the lock of magic, the trinity of man the
key that fits it._ Within the solemn precincts of the sanctuary the
SUPREME had and has no name. It is unthinkable and unpronounceable;
and yet every man finds in himself his god. “Who art thou, O fair
being?” inquires the disembodied soul, in the _Khordah-Avesta_, at
the gates of Paradise. “I am, O Soul, _thy good and pure thoughts_,
thy works and thy _good law_ ... thy angel ... and thy god.” Then
man, or the soul, is reunited with ITSELF, for this “Son of God” is
one with him; it is his own mediator, the _god_ of his human soul and
his “Justifier.” “_God not revealing himself immediately to man, the
spirit is his interpreter_,” says Plato in the _Banquet_.
Besides, there are many good reasons why the study of magic, except
in its broad philosophy, is nearly impracticable in Europe and
America. Magic being what it is, the most difficult of all sciences
to learn experimentally--its acquisition is practically beyond the
reach of the majority of white-skinned people; and that, whether
their effort is made at home or in the East. Probably not more than
one man in a million of European blood is fitted--either physically,
morally, or psychologically--to become a practical magician, and
not one in ten millions would be found endowed with all these three
qualifications as required for the work. Civilized nations lack
the phenomenal powers of endurance, both mental and physical, of
the Easterns; the favoring temperamental idiosyncrasies of the
Orientals are utterly wanting in them. In the Hindu, the Arabian,
the Thibetan, an intuitive perception of the possibilities of occult
natural forces in subjection to human will, comes by inheritance;
and in them, the physical senses as well as the spiritual are far
more finely developed than in the Western races. Notwithstanding the
notable difference of thickness between the skulls of a European and
a Southern Hindu, this difference, being a purely climatic result,
due to the intensity of the sun’s rays, involves no psychological
principles. Furthermore, there would be tremendous difficulties in
the way of _training_, if we can so express it. Contaminated by
centuries of dogmatic superstition, by an ineradicable--though quite
unwarranted--sense of superiority over those whom the English term
so contemptuously “niggers,” the white European would hardly submit
himself to the practical tuition of either Kopt, Brahman, or Lama.
To become a neophyte, one must be ready to devote himself heart and
soul to the study of mystic sciences. Magic--most imperative of
mistresses--brooks no rival. Unlike other sciences, a theoretical
knowledge of formulæ without mental capacities or soul powers, is
utterly useless in magic. The spirit must hold in complete subjection
the combativeness of what is loosely termed educated reason, until
facts have vanquished cold human sophistry.
Those best prepared to appreciate occultism are the spiritualists,
although, through prejudice, until now they have been the bitterest
opponents to its introduction to public notice. Despite all foolish
negations and denunciations, their phenomena are real. Despite, also,
their own assertions they are wholly misunderstood by themselves. The
totally insufficient theory of the constant agency of disembodied
human spirits in their production has been the bane of the _Cause_.
A thousand mortifying rebuffs have failed to open their reason
or intuition to the truth. Ignoring the teachings of the past,
they have discovered no substitute. We offer them philosophical
deduction instead of unverifiable hypothesis, scientific analysis and
demonstration instead of undiscriminating faith. Occult philosophy
gives them the means of meeting the reasonable requirements of
science, and frees them from the humiliating necessity to accept the
oracular teachings of “intelligences,” which as a rule have less
intelligence than a child at school. So based and so strengthened,
modern phenomena would be in a position to command the attention
and enforce the respect of those who carry with them public
opinion. Without invoking such help, spiritualism must continue to
vegetate, equally repulsed--not without cause--both by scientists
and theologians. In its modern aspect, it is neither a science, a
religion, nor a philosophy.
Are we unjust; does any intelligent spiritualist complain that we
have misstated the case? To what can he point us but to a confusion
of theories, a tangle of hypotheses mutually contradictory? Can he
affirm that spiritualism, even with its thirty years of phenomena,
has any defensible philosophy; nay, that there is anything like an
established method that is generally accepted and followed by its
recognized representatives?
And yet, there are many thoughtful, scholarly, earnest writers among
the spiritualists, scattered the world over. There are men who, in
addition to a scientific mental training and a reasoned faith in
the phenomena _per se_, possess all the requisites of leaders of
the movement. How is it then, that, except throwing off an isolated
volume or so, or occasional contributions to journalism, they all
refrain from taking any active part in the formation of a system of
philosophy? This is from no lack of moral courage, as their writings
well show. Nor because of indifference, for enthusiasm abounds,
and they are sure of their facts. Nor is it from lack of capacity,
because many are men of mark, the peers of our best minds. It is
simply for the reason that, almost without exception, they are
bewildered by the contradictions they encounter, and wait for their
tentative hypotheses to be verified by further experience. Doubtless
this is the part of wisdom. It is that adopted by Newton, who, with
the heroism of an honest, unselfish heart, withheld for seventeen
years the promulgation of his theory of gravitation, only because he
had not verified it to his own satisfaction.
Spiritualism, whose aspect is rather that of aggression than of
defense, has tended toward iconoclasm, and so far has done well.
But, in pulling down, it does not rebuild. Every really substantial
truth it erects is soon buried under an avalanche of chimeras, until
all are in one confused ruin. At every step of advance, at the
acquisition of every new vantage-ground of FACT, some cataclysm,
either in the shape of fraud and exposure, or of premeditated
treachery, occurs, and throws the spiritualists back powerless
because they _cannot_ and their invisible friends _will_ not (or
perchance can, less than themselves) make good their claims.
Their fatal weakness is that they have but _one_ theory to offer
in explanation of their challenged facts--the agency of _human
disembodied spirits_, and the medium’s complete subjection to them.
They will attack those who differ in views with them with a vehemence
only warranted by a better cause; they will regard every argument
contradicting their theory as an imputation upon their common sense
and powers of observation; and they will positively refuse even to
argue the question.
How, then, can spiritualism be ever elevated to the distinction of a
science? This, as Professor Tyndall shows, includes three absolutely
necessary elements: observation of facts; induction of laws from
these facts; and verification of those laws by constant practical
experience. What experienced observer will maintain that spiritualism
presents either one of these three elements? The medium is not
uniformly surrounded by such test conditions that we may be sure of
the facts; the inductions from the supposed facts are unwarranted
in the absence of such verification; and, as a corollary, there has
been no sufficient verification of those hypotheses by experience. In
short, the prime element of accuracy has, as a rule, been lacking.
That we may not be charged with desire to misrepresent the position
of spiritualism, at the date of this present writing, or accused
of withholding credit for advances actually made, we will cite a
few passages from the London _Spiritualist_ of March 2, 1877. At
the fortnightly meeting, held February 19, a debate occurred upon
the subject of “Ancient Thought and Modern Spiritualism.” Some of
the most intelligent Spiritualists of England participated. Among
these was Mr. W. Stainton Moses, M.A., who has recently given some
attention to the relation between ancient and modern phenomena. He
said: “Popular spiritualism is not scientific; it does very little in
the way of scientific verification. Moreover, exoteric spiritualism
is, to a large extent, devoted to presumed communion with personal
friends, or to the gratification of curiosity, or the mere evolution
of marvels.... The truly esoteric science of spiritualism is very
rare, and not more rare than valuable. To it we must look to the
origination of knowledge which may be developed exoterically....
We proceed too much on the lines of the physicists; our tests are
crude, and often illusory; we know too little of the Protean power
of spirit. Here the ancients were far ahead of us, and can teach us
much. We have not introduced any certainty into the conditions--a
necessary prerequisite for true scientific experiment. This is
largely owing to the fact that our circles are constructed on no
principle.... We have not even mastered the elementary truths which
the ancients knew and acted on, _e.g._, the isolation of mediums.
We have been so occupied with wonder-hunting that we have hardly
tabulated the phenomena, or propounded one theory to account for
the production of the simplest of them.... We have never faced the
question: What is the intelligence? This is the great blot, the most
frequent source of error, and here we might learn with advantage
from the ancients. There is the strongest disinclination among
spiritualists to admit the possibility of the truth of occultism.
In this respect they are as hard to convince as is the outer world
of spiritualism. Spiritualists start with a fallacy, viz.: that all
phenomena are caused by the action of departed human spirits; _they
have not looked into the powers of the human spirit_; they do not
know the extent to which spirit acts, how far it reaches, what it
underlies.”
Our position could not be better defined. If Spiritualism has a
future; it is in the keeping of such men as Mr. Stainton Moses.
Our work is done--would that it were better done! But, despite our
inexperience in the art of book-making, and the serious difficulty of
writing in a foreign tongue, we hope we have succeeded in saying some
things that will remain in the minds of the thoughtful. The enemies
of truth have been all counted, and all passed in review. Modern
science, powerless to satisfy the aspirations of the race, makes the
future a void, and bereaves man of hope. In one sense, it is like the
Baital Pachisi, the Hindu vampire of popular fancy, which lives in
dead bodies, and feeds but on the rottenness of matter. The theology
of Christendom has been rubbed threadbare by the most serious minds
of the day. It is found to be, on the whole, subversive, rather than
promotive of spirituality and good morals. Instead of expounding the
rules of divine law and justice, it teaches but _itself_. In place
of an ever-living Deity, it preaches the Evil One, and makes him
indistinguishable from God Himself! “Lead us not into temptation”
is the aspiration of Christians. Who, then, is the tempter? Satan?
No; the prayer is not addressed to him. It is that tutelar genius
who hardened the heart of Pharaoh, put an evil spirit into Saul,
sent lying messengers to the prophets, and tempted David to sin; it
is--the _Bible_-God of Israel!
Our examination of the multitudinous religious faiths that mankind,
early and late, have professed, most assuredly indicates that they
have all been derived from one primitive source. It would seem as
if they were all but different modes of expressing the yearning of
the imprisoned human soul for intercourse with supernal spheres. As
the white ray of light is decomposed by the prism into the various
colors of the solar spectrum, so the beam of divine truth, in passing
through the _three-sided_ prism of man’s nature, has been broken
up into vari-colored fragments called RELIGIONS. And, as the rays
of the spectrum, by imperceptible shadings, merge into each other,
so the great theologies that have appeared at different degrees of
divergence from the original source, have been connected by minor
schisms, schools, and off-shoots from the one side or the other.
Combined, their aggregate represents one eternal truth; separate,
they are but shades of human error and the signs of imperfection. The
worship of the Vedic _pitris_ is fast becoming the worship of the
spiritual portion of mankind. It but needs the right perception of
things objective to finally discover that the only world of reality
is the subjective.
What has been contemptuously termed Paganism, was ancient wisdom
replete with Deity; and Judaism and its offspring, Christianity and
Islamism, derived whatever of inspiration they contained from this
ethnic parent. Pre-Vedic Brahmanism and Buddhism are the double
source from which all religions sprung; Nirvana is the ocean to which
all tend. For the purposes of a philosophical analysis, we need not
take account of the enormities which have blackened the record of
many of the world’s religions. True faith is the embodiment of divine
charity; those who minister at its altars, are but human. As we turn
the bloodstained pages of ecclesiastical history, we find that,
whoever may have been the hero, and whatever costumes the actors may
have worn, the plot of the tragedy has ever been the same. But the
Eternal Night was in and behind all, and we pass from what we see to
that which is invisible to the eye of sense. Our fervent wish has
been to show true souls how they may lift aside the curtain, and, in
the brightness of that Night made Day, look with undazzled gaze upon
the UNVEILED TRUTH.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These figures are copied from the “Religious Statistics
of the United States for the year 1871.”
[2] These are: The _Baptists_, _Congregationalists_,
_Episcopalians_, Northern _Methodists_, Southern
_Methodists_, Methodists _various_, Northern
_Presbyterians_, Southern _Presbyterians_, _United
Presbyterians_, _United Brethren_, _Brethren in
Christ_, _Reformed Dutch_, _Reformed German_, _Reformed
Presbyterians_, _Cumberland Presbyterians_.
[3] H. Maudsley: “Body and Mind.”
[4] “Boston Sunday Herald,” November 5, 1876.
[5] See the self-glorification of the present Pope in the
work entitled, “Speeches of Pope Pius IX.” by Don
Pascale de Franciscis; and the famous pamphlet of that
name by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. The latter quotes
from the work named the following sentence pronounced
by the Pope: “My wish is that all governments should
know that I am speaking in this strain.... And I have
_the right_ to speak, _even more than Nathan the
prophet_ to David the king, _and a great deal more than
St. Ambrose had to Theodosius_!!”
[6] See King’s “Gnostics,” and other works.
[7] Des Mousseaux: “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,” chap. i.
[8] Hargrave Jennings: “The Rosicrucians,” pp. 228-241.
[9] Des Mousseaux: “Hauts Phénomenes de la Magie.”
[10] Don Pasquale di Franciscis: “Discorsi del Sommo
Pontefice Pio IX.,” Part i., p. 340.
[11] “Speeches of Pius IX.,” p. 14. Am. Edition.
[12] Vide “Speeches of Pope Pius IX.,” by Don Pasq. di
Franciscis; Gladstone’s pamphlet on this book; Draper’s
“Conflict between Religion and Science,” and others.
[13] The fact is given to us by an eye-witness who has visited
the church several times; a Roman Catholic, who felt
perfectly _horrified_, as he expressed it.
[14] Referring to the seed planted by Jesus and his Apostles.
[15] “Chips,” vol. i., p. 26, Preface.
[16] Mallet: “Northern Antiquities.”
[17] Ether is both _pure_ and _impure_ fire. The composition
of the latter comprises all its visible forms, such as
the “correlation of forces”--heat, flame, electricity,
etc. The former is the _Spirit_ of Fire. The difference
is purely alchemical.
[18] See “Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell,” by
Rev. T. Surnden.
[19] Revelation xvi. 8-9.
[20] Aristotle mentions Pythagoreans who placed the sphere of
fire in the sun, and named it _Jupiter’s Prison_. See
“De Cœlo,” lib. ii.
[21] “De Civit. Dei,” 1, xxi., c. 17.
[22] “Demonologia and Hell,” p. 289.
[23] “Les Hauts Phénomènes de la Magie,” p. v., Preface.
[24] Dr. Stanley: “Lectures on the Eastern Church,” p. 407.
[25] In the government of Tambov, a gentleman, a rich landed
proprietor, had a curious case happen in his family
during the Hungarian campaign of 1848. His only and
much-beloved nephew, whom, having no children, he had
adopted as a son, was in the Russian army. The elderly
couple had a portrait of his--a water-color painting--
constantly, during the meals, placed on the table in
front of the young man’s usual seat. One evening as the
family, with some friends, were at their early tea, the
glass over the portrait, without any one touching it,
was shattered to atoms with a loud explosion. As the
aunt of the young soldier caught the picture in her hand
she saw the forehead and head besmeared with blood. The
guests, in order to quiet her, attributed the blood to
her having cut her fingers with the broken glass. But,
examine as they would, they could not find the vestige
of a cut on her fingers, and no one had touched the
picture but herself. Alarmed at her state of excitement
the husband, pretending to examine the portrait more
closely, cut his finger on purpose, and then tried to
assure her that it was his blood and that, in the first
excitement, he had touched the frame without any one
remarking it. All was in vain, the old lady felt sure
that Dimitry was killed. She began to have masses said
for him daily at the village church, and arrayed the
whole household in deep mourning. Several weeks later,
an official communication was received from the colonel
of the regiment, stating that their nephew was killed by
a fragment of a shell which had carried off the upper
part of his head.
[26] Executions for witchcraft took place, not much later than
a century ago, in other of the American provinces.
Notoriously there were negroes executed in New Jersey by
burning at the stake--the penalty denounced in several
States. Even in South Carolina, in 1865, when the State
government was “reconstructed,” after the civil war, the
statutes inflicting death for witchcraft were found to
be still unrepealed. It is not a hundred years since
they have been enforced to the murderous letter of their
text.
[27] _Vide_ the title-page on the English translation of
Mayerhoff’s “Reuchlin und Seine Zeit,” Berlin, 1830.
“The Life and Times of John Reuchlin, or Capnion, the
Father of the German Reformation,” by F. Barham, London,
1843.
[28] Lord Coke: 3 “Institutes,” fol. 44.
[29] _Vide_ “The Life of St. Gregory of Tours.”
[30] Translated from the original document in the Archives of
Orleans, France; also see “Sortes and Sortilegium;”
“Life of Peter de Blois.”
[31] “Miracles and Modern Spiritualism.”
[32] There were two chairs of the titular apostle at Rome. The
clergy, frightened at the uninterrupted evidence
furnished by scientific research, at last decided to
confront the enemy, and we find the “Chronique des Arts”
giving the cleverest, and at the same time most
_Jesuitical_, explanation of the fact. According to
their story, “The _increase_ in the number of the
faithful decided Peter upon making Rome henceforth the
centre of his action. The cemetery of Ostrianum was too
distant and would _not suffice for the reünions of the
Christians_. The motive which had induced the Apostle to
confer on _Linus and Cletus_ successively the episcopal
character, in order to render them capable of sharing
the solicitudes of a church whose extent was to be
without limits, led naturally to a multiplication of the
places of meeting. The particular residence of Peter was
therefore fixed at Viminal; and there was established
that mysterious Chair, the symbol of power and truth.
The august seat which was venerated at the Ostrian
Catacombs was not, however, removed. Peter still visited
this cradle of the Roman Church, and often, without
doubt, exercised his holy functions there. A _second_
Chair, expressing the same mystery as the first, was set
up at Cornelia, and it is this which has come down to us
through the ages.”
Now, so far from it being possible that there ever were
two genuine chairs of this kind, the majority of critics
show that Peter never was at Rome at all; the reasons
are many and unanswerable. Perhaps we had best begin by
pointing to the works of Justin Martyr. This great
champion of Christianity, writing in the early part of
the second century _in Rome_, where he fixed his abode,
eager to get hold of the least proof in favor of the
truth for which he suffered, seems _perfectly unconscious
of St. Peter’s existence_!!
Neither does any other writer of any consequence mention
him in connection with the Church of Rome, earlier than
the days of Irenæus, when the latter set himself to
invent a new religion, drawn from the depths of his
imagination. We refer the reader anxious to learn more
to the able work of Mr. George Reber, entitled “The
Christ of Paul.” The arguments of this author are
conclusive. The above article in the “Chronique des
Arts,” speaks of the _increase_ of the faithful to such
an extent that Ostrianum could not contain the number of
Christians. Now, if Peter was at Rome at all--runs Mr.
Reber’s argument--it must have been between the years A.
D. 64 and 69; for at 64 he was at Babylon, from whence
he wrote epistles and letters to Rome, and at some time
between 64 and 68 (the reign of Nero) he either died a
martyr or in his bed, for Irenæus makes him deliver the
Church of Rome, together with Paul (!?) (whom he
persecuted and quarrelled with all his life), into the
hands of _Linus_, who became bishop in 69 (see Reber’s
“Christ of Paul,” p. 122). We will treat of it more
fully in chapter iii.
Now, we ask, in the name of common sense, how could the
_faithful_ of Peter’s Church _increase_ at such a rate,
when Nero trapped and killed them like so many mice
during his reign? History shows the few Christians
fleeing from Rome, wherever they could, to avoid the
persecution of the emperor, and the “Chronique des Arts”
makes them increase and multiply! “Christ,” the article
goes on to say, “willed that this visible sign of the
doctrinal authority of his vicar should also have its
portion of immortality; one can follow it from age to
age in the documents of the Roman Church.” Tertullian
formally attests its existence in his book “De
Præscriptionibus.” Eager to learn everything concerning
so interesting a subject, we would like to be shown when
did _Christ_ WILL anything of the kind? However:
“Ornaments of ivory have been fitted to the front and
back of the chair, but only on those parts repaired with
acacia-wood. Those which cover the panel in front are
divided into three superimposed rows, each containing
six plaques of ivory, on which are engraved various
subjects, among others the ‘Labors of Hercules.’ Several
of the plaques were wrongly placed, and seemed to have
been affixed to the chair at a time when the remains of
antiquity were employed as ornaments, without much
regard to fitness.” This is the point. The article was
written simply as a clever answer to several facts
published during the present century. Bower, in his
“History of the Popes” (vol. ii., p. 7), narrates that
in the year 1662, while cleaning one of the chairs, “the
‘Twelve Labors of Hercules’ unluckily appeared engraved
upon it,” after which the chair was removed and another
substituted. But in 1795, when Bonaparte’s troops
occupied Rome, the chair was again examined. This time
there was found the Mahometan confession of faith, in
Arabic letters: “There is no Deity but Allah, and
Mahomet is his Apostle.” (See appendix to “Ancient
Symbol-Worship,” by H. M. Westropp and C. Staniland
Wake.) In the appendix Prof. Alexander Wilder very
justly remarks as follows: “We presume that the Apostle
of the Circumcision, as Paul, his great rival, styles
him, was never at the Imperial City, nor had a successor
there, not even in the ghetto. The ‘Chair of Peter,’
therefore, is _sacred_ rather than apostolical. Its
sanctity proceeded, however, from the esoteric religion
of the former times of Rome. The hierophant of the
Mysteries probably occupied it on the day of initiations,
when exhibiting to the candidates the _Petroma_ (stone
tablet containing the last revelation made by the
hierophant to the neophyte for initiation).”
[33] Joshua xxiv. 15.
[34] One of the most surprising facts that have come under our
observation, is that students of profound research
should not couple the frequent recurrence of these
“unexpected and almost miraculous” discoveries of
important documents, at the most opportune moments, with
a premeditated design. Is it so strange that the
custodians of “Pagan” lore, seeing that the proper
moment had arrived, should cause the needed document,
book, or relic to fall as if by accident in the right
man’s way? Geological surveyors and explorers even as
competent as Humboldt and Tschuddi, have not discovered
the hidden mines from which the Peruvian Incas dug their
treasure, although the latter confesses that the present
degenerate Indians have the secret. In 1839, Perring,
the archæologist, proposed to the sheik of an Arab
village two purses of gold, if he helped him to discover
the entrance to the hidden passage leading to the
sepulchral chambers in the North Pyramid of Doshoor. But
though his men were out of employment and half-starved,
the sheik proudly refused to “sell the secret of the
dead,” promising to show it _gratis_, when _the time
would come for it_. Is it, then, impossible that in some
other regions of the earth are guarded the remains of
that glorious literature of the past, which was the
fruit of its majestic civilization? What is there so
surprising in the idea? Who knows but that as the
Christian Church has unconsciously begotten free thought
by reaction against her own cruelty, rapacity, and
dogmatism, the public mind may be glad to follow the
lead of the Orientalists, away from Jerusalem and
towards Ellora; and that then much more will be
discovered that is now hidden?
[35] “Chips from a German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 373; Semitic
Monotheism.
[36] An after-thought has made us fancy that we can understand
what is meant by the following sentences of _Moses of
Chorenè_: “The ancient Asiatics,” says he, “five
centuries before our era--and especially the Hindus, the
Persians, and the Chaldeans, had in their possession a
quantity of historical and scientific books. These works
were partially borrowed, partially translated in the
Greek language, mostly since the Ptolemies had established
the Alexandrian library and encouraged the writers by
their liberalities, so that the Greek language became
the deposit of all the sciences” (“History of Armenia”).
Therefore, the greater part of the literature included
in the 700,000 volumes of the Alexandrian Library was
due to India, and her next neighbors.
[37] Bonamy says in “Le Bibliotheque d’Alexandrie,” quoting,
we suppose, the Presbyter Orosius, who was an
eye-witness, “_thirty_ years later.”
[38] Since the above was written, the spirit here described
has been beautifully exemplified at Barcelona, Spain,
where the Bishop Fray Joachim invited the local
spiritualists to witness a formal burning of spiritual
books. We find the account in a paper called “The
Revelation,” published at Alicante, which sensibly adds
that the performance was “a caricature of the memorable
epoch of the Inquisition.”
[39] E. Pococke gives the variations of the name Buddha as:
Bud’ha, Buddha, Booddha, Butta, Pout, Pote, Pto, Pte,
Phte, Phtha, Phut, etc., etc. See “India in Greece,”
Note, Appendix, 397.
[40] The tiara of the Pope is also a perfect copy of that of
the Dalaï-Lama of Thibet.
[41] It is the traditional policy of the College of Cardinals
to elect, whenever practicable, the new Pope among the
oldest valetudinarians. The hierophant of the Eleusinia
was likewise always an old man, and unmarried.
[42] This is not correct.
[43] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 28.
[44] Translated by Prof. Draper for “Conflict between Religion
and Science;” book xii.
[45] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
[46] “Sohar Comment.,” Gen. xl. 10; “Kabbal. Denud.,” i., 528.
[47] “The beings which the philosophers of other peoples
distinguish by the name ‘Dæmons,’ Moses names ‘Angels,’”
says Philo Judæus.--“De Gigant,” i. 253.
[48] Deuteronomy xxxiii. 2., אשדת is translated “fiery
law” in the English Bible.
[49] See Rees’s “Encyclopædia,” art. Kabala.
[50] “Histor. Manich.,” Liv. vi., ch. i., p. 291.
[51] “The altogether mystical coloring of Christianity
harmonized with the Essene rules of life and opinions,
and it is not improbable that Jesus and John the Baptist
were initiated into the Essene Mysteries, to which
Christianity may be indebted for many a form of
expression; as indeed the community of Therapeutæ, an
offspring of the Essene order, soon belonged wholly to
Christianity” (“Yost,” i., 411--quoted by the author of
“Sod, the Son of the Man”).
[52] A. Franck: “Die Kabbala.”
[53] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde.”
[54] “Asiàt. Trans.,” i., p. 579.
[55] Louis Jacolliot: “The Initiates of the Ancient Temples.”
[56] Franck: “Die Kabbala.”
[57] See “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 224.
[58] See “Sohar;” “Kab. Den.;” “The Book of Mystery,” the
oldest book of the kabalists; and Milman: “History of
Christianity,” pp. 212, 213-215.
[59] Milman: “History of Christianity,” p. 280. The _Kurios_
and _Kora_ are mentioned repeatedly in “Justin Martyr.”
See p. 97.
[60] See Olshausen: “Biblischer Commentar über sammtliche
Schriften des Neuen Testaments,” ii.
[61] There is a wide-spread _superstition_ (?), especially
among the Slavonians and Russians, that the _magician_
or wizard cannot die before he has passed the “word” to
a successor. So deeply is it rooted among the popular
beliefs, that we do not imagine there is a person in
Russia who has not heard of it. It is but too easy to
trace the origin of this superstition to the old
Mysteries which had been for ages spread all over the
globe. The ancient _Variago-Rouss_ had his Mysteries in
the North as well as in the South of Russia; and there
are many relics of the by-gone faith scattered in the
lands watered by the sacred Dnieper, the baptismal
Jordan of all Russia. No _Znâchar_ (the knowing one) or
_Koldoun_ (sorcerer), male or female, can die in fact
before he has passed the mysterious word to some one.
The popular belief is that unless he does that he will
linger and suffer for weeks and months, and were he even
finally to get liberated, it would be only to wander on
earth, unable to quit its region unless he finds a
successor even after death. How far the belief may be
verified by others, we do not know, but we have seen a
case which, for its tragical and mysterious _dénoument_,
deserves to be given here as an illustration of the
subject in hand. An old man, of over one hundred years
of age, a peasant-serf in the government of S----,
having a wide reputation as a sorcerer and healer, was
said to be dying for several days, and still unable to
die. The report spread like lightning, and the poor old
fellow was shunned by even the members of his own
family, as the latter were afraid of receiving the
unwelcome inheritance. At last the public rumor in the
village was that he had sent a message to a colleague
less versed than himself in the art, and who, although
he lived in a distant district, was nevertheless coming
at the call, and would be on hand early on the following
morning. There was at that time on a visit to the
proprietor of the village a young physician who,
belonging to the famous school of _Nihilism_ of that
day, laughed outrageously at the idea. The master of the
house, being a very pious man, and but half inclined to
make so cheap of the “superstition,” smiled--as the
saying goes--but with one corner of his mouth. Meanwhile
the young skeptic, to gratify his curiosity, had made a
visit to the dying man, had found that he could not live
twenty-four hours longer, and, determined to prove the
absurdity of the “superstition,” had taken means to
detain the coming “successor” at a neighboring village.
Early in the morning a company of four persons,
comprising the physician, the master of the place, his
daughter, and the writer of the present lines, went to
the hut in which was to be achieved the triumph of
skepticism. The dying man was expecting his liberator
every moment, and his agony at the delay became extreme.
We tried to persuade the physician to humor the patient,
were it for humanity’s sake. He only laughed. Getting
hold with one hand of the old wizard’s pulse, he took
out his watch with the other, and remarking in French
that all would be over in a few moments, remained
absorbed in his professional experiment. The scene was
solemn and appalling. Suddenly the door opened, and a
young boy entered with the intelligence, addressed to
the doctor, that the _koum_ was lying dead drunk at a
neighboring village, and, according to _his orders_,
could not be with “grandfather” till the next day. The
young doctor felt confused, and was just going to
address the old man, when, as quick as lightning, the
Znâchar snatched his hand from his grasp and raised
himself in bed. His deep-sunken eyes flashed; his
yellow-white beard and hair streaming round his livid
face made him a dreadful sight. One instant more, and
his long, sinewy arms were clasped round the physician’s
neck, as with a supernatural force he drew the doctor’s
head closer and closer to his own face, where he held
him as in a vise, while _whispering_ words inaudible to
us in his ear. The skeptic struggled to free himself,
but before he had time to make one effective motion the
work had evidently been done; the hands relaxed their
grasp, and the old sorcerer fell on his back--a corpse!
A strange and ghostly smile had settled on the stony
lips--a smile of fiendish triumph and satisfied revenge;
but the doctor looked paler and more ghastly than the
dead man himself. He stared round with an expression of
terror difficult to describe, and without answering our
inquiries rushed out wildly from the hut, in the
direction of the woods. Messengers were sent after him,
but he was nowhere to be found. About sunset a report
was heard in the forest. An hour later his body was
brought home, with a bullet through his head, for the
skeptic had blown out his brains!
What made him commit suicide? What magic spell of
sorcery had the “word” of the dying wizard left on his
mind? Who can tell?
[62] “Anacalypsis;” also Tertullian.
[63] “Anthon,” art. Eleusinia.
[64] Dunlap: “Musah, His Mysteries,” p. 71.
[65] 1 Kings, viii. 2.
[66] Let us remember in this connection that Col. Van Kennedy
has long ago declared his opinion that Babylonia was
once the seat of the Sanscrit language and of
Brahmanical influence.
[67] “‘The Agrouchada-Parikshai,’ which discloses, to a certain
extent, the order of initiation, does not give the
formula of evocation,” says Jacolliot, and he adds that,
according to some Brahmans, “these formula were never
written, they were and still are imparted in a whisper
in the ear of the adepts” (“_mouth to ear, and the word
at low breath_,” say the Masons).--“Le Spiritisme dans
le Monde,” p. 108.
[68] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 108.
[69] W. D. Whitney: “Oriental and Linguistic Studies, The
Veda, etc.”
[70] Jacolliot seems to have very logically demonstrated the
absurd contradictions of some philologists, anthropologists,
and Orientalists, in regard to their _Akkado and Semito_
mania. “There is not, perhaps, much of good faith in
their negations,” he writes. “The scientists who invent
Turanian peoples know very well that in _Manu_ alone,
there is more of veritable science and philosophy than
in all that this pretended Semitism has hitherto
furnished us with; but they are the slaves of a path
which some of them are following the last fifteen,
twenty, or even thirty years.... We expect, therefore,
nothing of the present. India will owe its
reconstitution to the scientists of the next generation”
(“Le Genèse de l’Humanité,” pp. 60-61).
[71] Cory: “Anc. Frag.”
[72] Movers: “Phoinizer,” 263.
[73] Dunlap: “Sp. Hist. of Man,” p. 281.
[74] Siva is not a god of the _Vedas_, strictly speaking. When
the _Vedas_ were written, he held the rank of Maha-Deva
or Bel among the gods of aboriginal India.
[75] “De Antro Nympharum.”
[76] “Navarette,” book ii., c. x.
[77] “On the Origin of Heathen Idolatry.”
[78] Isis and Osiris are said, in the Egyptian sacred books,
to have appeared (_i.e._, been worshipped), on earth,
later than Thot, the _first_ Hermes, called Trismegistus,
who wrote all their sacred books according to the
command of God or by “divine revelation.” The companion
and instructor of Isis and Osiris was Thot, or Hermes
II., who was an incarnation of the celestial Hermes.
[79] Lord Kingsborough: “Ant. Mex.,” p. 165.
[80] “Ap. Malal.,” lib. i., cap. iv.
[81] Payne Knight: “Phallic Worship.”
[82] The Celsus above mentioned, who lived between the second
and third centuries, is not Celsus the Epicurean. The
latter wrote several works against Magic, and lived
earlier, during the reign of Hadrian.
[83] We have the facts from a trustworthy witness, having no
interest to invent such a story. Having injured his leg
in a fall from the steamer into the boat in which he was
to land at the Mount, he was taken care of by these
monks, and during his convalescence, through gifts of
money and presents, became their greatest friend, and
finally won their entire confidence. Having asked for
the loan of some books, he was taken by the Superior to
a large cellar in which they keep their sacred vessels
and other property. Opening a great trunk, full of old
musty manuscripts and rolls, he was invited by the
Superior to “_amuse_ himself.” The gentleman was a
scholar, and well versed in Greek and Latin text. “I was
amazed,” he says, in a private letter, “and had my
breath taken away, on finding among these old parchments,
so unceremoniously treated, some of the most valuable
relics of the first centuries, hitherto believed to have
been lost.” Among others he found a half-destroyed
manuscript, which he is perfectly sure must be a copy of
the “True Doctrine,” the Λόγος ἀληθής of Celsus, out of
which Origen quoted whole pages. The traveller took as
many notes as he could on that day, but when he came to
offer to the Superior to purchase some of these writings
he found, to his great surprise, that no amount of money
would tempt the monks. They did not know what the
manuscripts contained, nor “did they care,” they said.
But the “heap of writing,” they added, was transmitted
to them from one generation to another, and there was a
tradition among them that these papers would one day
become the means of crushing the “Great Beast of the
Apocalypse,” their hereditary enemy, the Church of Rome.
They were constantly quarrelling and fighting with the
Catholic monks, and among the whole “heap” they _knew_
that there was a “holy” relic which protected them. They
did not know _which_, and so in their doubt abstained.
It appears that the Superior, a shrewd Greek, understood
his _bevue_ and repented of his kindness, for first of
all he made the traveller give him his most sacred word
of honor, strengthened by an oath he made him take on
the image of the Holy Patroness of the Island, never to
betray their secret, and never mention, at least, the
name of their convent. And finally, when the anxious
student who had passed a fortnight in reading all sorts
of antiquated trash before he happened to stumble over
some precious manuscript, expressed the desire to have
the key, to “amuse himself” with the writings once more,
he was very _naïvely_ informed that the “key had been
lost,” and that they did not know where to look for it.
And thus he was left to the few notes he had taken.
[84] See the historical romance of Canon Kingsley, “Hypatia,”
for a highly picturesque account of the tragical fate of
this young martyr.
[85] We beg the reader to bear in mind that it is the same
Cyril who was accused and proved guilty of having sold
the gold and silver ornaments of his church, and spent
the money. He pleaded guilty, but tried to excuse
himself on the ground that he had used the money for the
poor, but could not give evidence of it. His duplicity
with Arius and his party is well known. Thus one of the
first Christian saints, and the founder of the Trinity,
appears on the pages of history as a murderer and a
thief!
[86] “La Démonomanie, ou traité des Sorciers.” Paris, 1587.
[87] Dr. W. G. Soldan: “Geschichte der Hexen processe, aus den
Quellen dargestellt.” Stuttgart, 1843.
[88] Frederick Forner, Suffragan of Bamberg, author of a
treatise against heretics and sorcerers, under the title
of “Panoplia Armaturæ Dei.”
[89] “Sorcery and Magic,” by T. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., etc.,
Corresponding Member of the National Institute of
France, vol. ii., p. 185.
[90] Besides these burnings in Germany, which amount to many
thousands, we find some very interesting statements in
Prof. Draper’s “Conflict between Religion and Science.”
On page 146, he says: “The families of the convicted
were plunged into irretrievable ruin. Llorente, the
historian of the Inquisition, computes that Torquemada
and his collaborators, in the course of eighteen years,
burned at the stake 10,220 persons, 6,860 in effigy, and
otherwise punished 97,321!... With unutterable disgust
and indignation, we learn that the papal government
realized much money by selling to the rich, dispensations
to secure them from the Inquisition.”
[91] “Sorcery and Magic;” “The Burnings at Würtzburg,” p. 186.
[92] And retinted in the blood of the millions murdered in his
name--in the no less innocent blood than his own, of the
little child-_witches_!
[93] St. Augustine: “City of God,” I, xxi., ch. vi.; des
Mousseaux: “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons.”
[94] A correspondent of the London “Times” describes the
Catalonian exorcist in the following lines:
“About the 14th of October it was privately announced
that a young woman of seventeen or eighteen years of
age, of the lower class, having long been afflicted with
‘a hatred of holy things,’ the senior priest of the
Church of the Holy Spirit would cure her of her disease.
The exhibition was to be held in a church frequented by
the best part of the community. The church was dark, but
a sickly light was shed by wax lights on the sable forms
of some eighty or a hundred persons who clustered round
the _presbyterio_, or sanctuary, in front of the altar.
Within the little enclosure or sanctuary, separated from
the crowd by a light railing, lay, on a common bench,
with a little pillow for her head to recline upon, a
poorly-clad girl, probably of the peasant or artisan
class; her brother or husband stood at her feet to
restrain her (at times) frantic kicking by holding her
legs. The door of the vestry opened; the exhibitor--I
mean the priest--came in. The poor girl, not without
just reason, ‘had an aversion to holy things,’ or, at
least, the 400 devils within her distorted body had such
an aversion, and in the confusion of the moment,
thinking that the father was ‘a holy thing,’ she doubled
up her legs, screamed out with twitching mouth, her
whole body writhing, and threw herself nearly off the
bench. The male attendant seized her legs, the women
supported her head and swept out her dishevelled hair.
The priest advanced and, mingling familiarly with the
shuddering and horror-struck crowd, said, pointing at
the suffering child, now sobbing and twitching on the
bench, ‘Promise me, my children, that you will be
prudent (_prudentes_), and of a truth, sons and
daughters mine, you shall see marvels.’ The promise was
given. The exhibitor went to procure stole and short
surplice (_estola y roquete_), and returned in a moment,
taking his stand at the side of the ‘possessed with the
devils,’ with his face toward the group of students. The
order of the day’s proceedings was a lecture to the
bystanders, and the operation of exorcising the devils.
‘You know,’ said the priest, ‘that so great is this
girl’s aversion to holy things, myself included, that
she goes into convulsions, kicks, screams, and distorts
her body the moment she arrives at the corner of this
street, and her convulsive struggles reach their climax
when she enters the sacred house of the Most High.’
Turning to the prostrate, shuddering, most unhappy
object of his attack, the priest commenced: ‘In the name
of God, of the saints, of the blessed Host, of every
holy sacrament of our Church, I adjure thee, Rusbel,
come out of her.’ (N. B. ‘Rusbel’ is the name of a
devil, the devil having 257 names in Catalonia.) Thus
adjured, the girl threw herself--in an agony of
convulsion, till her distorted face, foam-bespattered
lips and writhing limbs grew well-nigh stiff--at full
length upon the floor, and, in language semi-obscene,
semi-violent, screamed out, ‘I don’t choose to come out,
you thieves, scamps, robbers.’ At last, from the
quivering lips of the girl, came the words, ‘I will;’
but the devil added, with traditional perversity, ‘I
will cast the 100 out, but by the mouth of the girl.’
The priest objected. The exit, he said, of 100 devils
out of the small Spanish mouth of the woman would ‘leave
her suffocated.’ Then the maddened girl said she must
undress herself for the devils to escape. This petition
the holy father refused. ‘Then I will come out through
the right foot, but first’--the girl had on a hempen
sandal, she was obviously of the poorest class--‘you
must take off her sandal.’ The sandal was untied; the
foot gave a convulsive plunge; the devil and his
myrmidons (so the _cura_ said, looking round triumphantly)
had gone to their own place. And, assured of this, the
wretched dupe of a girl lay quite still. The bishop was
not cognizant of this freak of the clergy, and the
moment it came to the ears of the civil authorities, the
sharpest means were taken to prevent a repetition of the
scandal.”
[95] Louis Jacolliot: “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 162.
[96] St. Augustine: “City of God.”
[97] “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons,” p. ii.
[98] Des Mousseaux: “Table des Matières.”
[99] “Demonologia;” London, 1827, J. Bumpus, 23 Skinner Street.
[100] “Traité Preparatif à l’Apologie pour Herodote,” c. 39.
[101] De Missa Privatâ et Unctione Sacerdotum.
[102] See the “Life of St. Dominick” and the story about
the miraculous Rosary; also the “Golden Legend.”
[103] James de Varasse, known by the Latin name of James
de Veragine, was Vicar General of the Dominicans and
Bishop of Genoa in 1290.
[104] Thirteenth century.
[105] “Rituale Romanum,” pp. 475-478. Parisiis, 1852.
[106] “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons,” p. 177.
[107] See the narrative selected from the “Golden Legend,”
by Alban Butler.
[108] See the “Golden Legend;” “Life of St. Francis;”
“Demonologia.”
[109] “The Mythology of the Hindus,” by Charles Coleman.
Japan.
[110] “Supernatural Religion.”
[111] Neither do we, if by _true religion_ the world shall
at last understand the adoration of one Supreme,
Invisible, and Unknown Deity, by works and acts, not by
the profession of vain human dogmas. But our intention
is to go farther. We desire to demonstrate that if we
exclude ceremonial and fetish worship from being
regarded as essential parts of religion, then the true
Christ-like principles have been exemplified, and true
Christianity practiced since the days of the apostles,
exclusively among Buddhists and “heathen.”
[112] “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. xvi.
[113] “Discourses of Miracles wrought in the Roman Catholic
Church; or a full Refutation of Dr. Stillingfleet’s
unjust Exceptions against Miracles.” Octavo, 1676, p. 64.
[114] After this, why should the Roman Catholics object to
the claims of the Spiritualists? If, without proof, they
believe in the “materialization” of Mary and John, for
Ignatius, how can they logically deny the
materialization of Katie and John (King), when it is
attested by the careful experiments of Mr. Crookes, the
English chemist, and the cumulative testimony of a large
number of witnesses?
[115] The “Mother of God” takes precedence therefore of God?
[116] See the “New Era” for July, 1875. N. Y.
[117] “Paul and Plato.”
[118] See “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,” p. 168.
[119] “Rom. Rit.,” edit. of 1851, pp. 291-296, etc., etc.
[120] _Creature_ of salt, air, water, or of any object to
be _enchanted_ or _blessed_, is a technical word in
magic, adopted by the Christian clergy.
[121] “Rom. Rit.,” pp. 421-435.
[122] See “Art-Magic,” art. Peter d’Abano.
[123] “Ritual,” pp. 429-433; see “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,”
pp. 171, 172.
[124] “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,” vol. ii., p. 88.
[125] “Conferences,” by Le Père Ventura, vol. ii., part i.,
p. lvi., Preface.
[126] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 62.
[127] “De Baptismo Contra Donatistas,” lib. vi., ch. xliv.
[128] “Conflict, etc.,” p. 37.
[129] Ibid.
[130] “Paul and Plato,” by A. Wilder, editor of “The
Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,” of Thomas Taylor.
[131] “Paul and Plato.”
[132] See Taylor’s “Eleus. and Bacchic Myst.”
[133] 1 Corin., iii. 10.
[134] In its most extensive meaning, the Sanscrit word has
the same literal sense as the Greek term; both imply
“revelation,” by no human agent, but through the
“receiving of the sacred drink.” In India the initiated
received the “Soma,” sacred drink, which helped to
liberate his soul from the body; and in the Eleusinian
Mysteries it was the sacred drink offered at the
Epopteia. The Grecian Mysteries are wholly derived from
the Brahmanical Vedic rites, and the latter from the
ante-vedic religious Mysteries--primitive Buddhist
philosophy.
[135] It is needless to state that _the Gospel according to
John_ was not written by John but by a Platonist or a
Gnostic belonging to the Neo-platonic school.
[136] The fact that Peter persecuted the “Apostle to the
Gentiles,” under that name, does not necessarily imply
that there was no Simon Magus individually distinct from
Paul. It may have become a generic name of abuse.
Theodoret and Chrysostom, the earliest and most prolific
commentators on the Gnosticism of those days, seem
actually to make of Simon a rival of Paul, and to state
that between them passed frequent messages. The former,
as a diligent propagandist of what Paul terms the
“antitheses of the Gnosis” (1st Epistle to Timothy),
must have been a sore thorn in the side of the apostle.
There are sufficient proofs of the actual existence of
Simon Magus.
[137] “Introd. to Eleus. and Bacchic Mysteries,” p. x. Had
we not trustworthy kabalistic tradition to rely upon, we
might be, perhaps, forced to question whether the
authorship of the Revelation is to be ascribed to the
apostle of that name. He seems to be termed John the
Theologist.
[138] Bunsen: “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v.,
p. 90.
[139] See de Rougé: “Stele,” p. 44; PTAR (videus) is interpreted
on it “to appear,” with a sign of interrogation after
it--the usual mark of scientific perplexity. In Bunsen’s
fifth volume of “Egypte,” the interpretation following
is “Illuminator,” which is more correct.
[140] Bunsen’s “Egypt,” vol. v., p. 90.
[141] It is the property of a mystic whom we met in Syria.
[142] The Priests of Isis were tonsured.
[143] See “Ancient Faiths,” vol. ii., pp. 915-918.
[144] “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 71.
[145] See illustration in Inman’s “Ancient Pagan and Modern
Christian Symbolism,” p. 27.
[146] Ibid., p. 76.
[147] Initiates and seers.
[148] The augur’s, and now bishop’s, pastoral crook.
[149] “The Heathen Religion.”
[150] “Pères du Desert d’Orient,” vol. ii., p. 283.
[151] Justin Martyr: “Quæst.,” xxiv.
[152] See Taylor’s “Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries;”
Porphyry and others.
[153] Franck: “Die Kabbala.”
[154] “Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians.”
[155] “Divine Legation of Moses;” The “Eleusinian Mysteries”
as quoted by Thos. Taylor.
[156] This expression must not be understood literally;
for as in the initiation of certain Brotherhoods it has
a secret meaning, hinted at by Pythagoras, when he
describes his feelings after the initiation and tells
that he was crowned by the gods in whose presence he had
drunk “the waters of life”--in Hindu, _â-bi-hayât_,
fount of life.
[157] This original and very long sermon was preached in a
church at Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 15th day of April,
1877. On the following morning, the reverend orator was
called in the “Sun” a gibbering charlatan; but this
deserved epithet will not prevent other reverend
buffoons doing the same and even worse. And this is the
religion of Christ! Far better disbelieve in him
altogether than caricature one’s God in such a manner.
We heartily applaud the “Sun” for the following views:
“And then when Talmage makes Christ say to Martha in the
tantrums: ‘Don’t worry, but sit down on this ottoman,’
he adds the climax to a scene that the inspired writers
had nothing to say about. Talmage’s buffoonery is going
too far. If he were the worst heretic in the land,
instead of being straight in his orthodoxy, he would not
do so much evil to religion as he does by his familiar
blasphemies.”
[158] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 68.
[159] Ibid., pp. 78, 79.
[160] Louis Jacolliot: “Phénomenes et Manifestations.”
[161] Pisatshas, dæmons of the race of the gnomes, the
giants and the vampires.
[162] Gandarbas, good dæmons, celestial seraphs, singers.
[163] Asuras and Nagas are the Titanic spirits and the
dragon or serpent-headed spirits.
[164] See Arnolius: “Op. Cit.,” pp. 249, 250.
[165] See Inman’s “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism.”
[166] Introduction to Taylor’s “Eleusinian and Bacchic
Mysteries,” published by J. W. Bouton.
[167] Illustrated figures “from an ancient Rosary of the
blessed Virgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a
license from the Inquisition.” In the illustrations
given by Dr. Inman the Virgin is represented in an
Assyrian “grove,” the _abomination in the eyes of the
Lord_, according to the Bible prophets. “The book in
question,” says the author, “contains numerous figures,
all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of
_Ishtar_. The presence of the woman _therein_ identifies
the two as symbolic of Isis, or _la nature_; and a man
bowing down in adoration thereof shows the same idea as
is depicted in Assyrian sculptures, where males offer to
the goddess _symbols_ of _themselves_” (See “Ancient
Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. 91. Second
edition. J. W. Bouton, publisher, New York).
[168] See King’s “Gnostics,” pp. 91, 92; “The Genealogy of
the Blessed Virgin Mary,” by Faustus, Bishop of Riez.
[169] Prinseps quotes Dubois, “Edinburgh Review,” April, 1851,
p. 411.
[170] “Manu,” book I., sloka 32: Sir W. Jones, translating
from the Northern “Manu,” renders this _sloka_ as
follows: “Having divided his own substance, the mighty
Power became half male, half female, or _nature active
and passive_; and from that female he produced VIRAJ.”
[171] “Enead,” i., book viii.
[172] “Commentary upon the Republic of Plato,” p. 380.
[173] Verses 33-41.
[174] “Phædrus,” p. 64.
[175] The Supreme Buddha is invoked with two of his
acolytes of the theistic triad, Dharma and Sanga. This
triad is addressed in Sanscrit in the following terms:
_Namo Buddhâya,
Namo Dharmâya,
Namo Sangâya,
Aum!_
while the Thibetan Buddhists pronounce their invocations
as follows:
_Nan-won Fo-tho-ye,
Nan-won Tha-ma-ye,
Nan-won Seng-kia-ye,
Aan!_
See also “Journal Asiatique,” tome vii., p. 286.
[176] The body of man--his coat of skin--is an inert mass of
matter, _per se_; it is but the _sentient_ living body
within the man that is considered as the man’s body
proper, and it is that which, together with the fontal
soul or purely astral body, directly connected with the
immortal spirit, constitutes the trinity of man.
[177] We really think that the word “witchcraft” ought, once
for all, to be understood in the sense which properly
belongs to it. Witchcraft may be either conscious or
unconscious. Certain wicked and dangerous results may be
obtained through the mesmeric powers of a so-called
sorcerer, who misuses his potential fluid; or again they
may be achieved through an easy access of malicious
tricky “spirits” (so much the worse if human) to the
atmosphere surrounding a medium. How many thousands of
such irresponsible innocent victims have met infamous
deaths through the tricks of those Elementaries!
[178] “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” preface,
p. 34.
[179] “The Christ of Paul,” p. 123.
[180] Gospel according to Mark, viii. 33.
[181] “Supernatural Religion,” vol. ii., p. 489.
[182] “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. 28.
[183] See Eusebius, “Ex. H.,” bk. iv., ch. v.; “Sulpicius
Severus,” vol. ii., p. 31.
[184] It appears that the Jews attribute a very high antiquity
to “Sepher Toldos Jeshu.” It was mentioned for the first
time by Martin, about the beginning of the thirteenth
century, for the Talmudists took great care to conceal
it from the Christians. Levi says that Porchetus
Salvaticus published some portions of it, which were
used by Luther (see vol. viii., Jena Ed.). The Hebrew
text, which was missing, was at last found by Münster
and Buxtorf, and published in 1681, by Christopher
Wagenseilius, in Nuremberg, and in Frankfort, in a
collection entitled “Tela Ignea Satanæ,” or The Burning
Darts of Satan (“See Levi’s Science des Esprits”).
[185] Theodoret: “Hæretic. Fab.,” lib. ii., 11.
[186] Jervis W. Jervis: “Genesis,” p. 324.
[187] “Lightfoot,” 501.
[188] Dunlap: “Sod, the Son of the Man,” p. x.
[189] Jeremiah vii. 29: “Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem,
and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high
places.”
[190] Genesis xlix. 26.
[191] Nazareth?
[192] Otfried Müller: “Historical Greek Literature,” pp.
230-240.
[193] See “Movers,” p. 683.
[194] “Codex Nazaræus,” ii., 305.
[195] See Lucian: “De Syria Dea.”
[196] See Psalm lxxxix. 18.
[197] “Codex Nazaræus,” i. 47.
[198] Ibid.; Norberg: “Onomasticon,” 74.
[199] Alph. de Spire: “Fortalicium Fidei,” ii., 2.
[200] Hosea ix. 10.
[201] “The Essenes considered oil as a defilement,” says
Josephus: “Wars,” ii., p. 7.
[202] Luke xiii. 32.
[203] Matthew ii. We must bear in mind that the Gospel
according to Matthew in the New Testament is not the
original Gospel of the apostle of that name. The
authentic Evangel was for centuries in the possession of
the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, as we show further on
the admission of St. Jerome himself, who confesses that
he had to _ask permission_ of the Nazarenes to translate
it.
[204] Dunlap: “Sod, the Son of the Man.”
[205] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., p. 233.
[206] Preller: vol. i., p. 415.
[207] Ibid., vol. i., p. 490.
[208] The word Apocrypha was very erroneously adopted as
doubtful and spurious. The word means _hidden_ and
_secret_; but that which is secret may be often more
true than that which is revealed.
[209] The statement, if reliable, would show that Jesus was
between fifty and sixty years old when baptized; for the
Gospels make him but a few months younger than John. The
kabalists say that Jesus was over forty years old when
first appearing at the gates of Jerusalem. The present
copy of the “Codex Nazaræus” is dated in the year 1042,
but Dunlap finds in Irenæus (2d century) quotations from
and ample references to this book. “The basis of the
material common to Irenæus and the “Codex Nazaræus” must
be at least as early as the first century,” says the
author in his preface to “Sod, the Son of the Man,” p. i.
[210] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. i., p. 109; Dunlap: Ibid., xxiv.
[211] Acts xxiv. 5.
[212] Ibid., 14.
[213] “Herodotus,” ii., p. 170.
[214] The Hindu High Pontiff--the Chief of the Namburis, who
lives in the Cochin Land, is generally present during
these festivals of “Holy Water” immersions. He travels
sometimes to very great distances to preside over the
ceremony.
[215] “Ant. Jud.,” xiii., p. 9; xv., p. 10.
[216] King thinks it a great exaggeration and is inclined to
believe that these Essenes, who were most undoubtedly
Buddhist monks, were “merely a continuation of the
associations known as Sons of the Prophets.” “The
Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 22.
[217] St. Jerome: “Epistles,” p. 49 (ad. Poulmam); see
Dunlap’s “Spirit-History,” p. 218.
[218] “Munk,” p. 169.
[219] Bacchus and Ceres--or the mystical _Wine_ and _Bread_,
used during the Mysteries, become, in the “Adonia,”
Adonis and Venus. Movers shows that “_Iao_ is Bacchus,”
p. 550; and his authority is _Lydus de Mens_ (38-74);
“Spir. Hist.,” p. 195. _Iao_ is a Sun-god and the Jewish
Jehovah; the intellectual or Central Sun of the
kabalists. See _Julian_ in _Proclus_. But this “Iao” is
not the Mystery-god.
[220] Josephus: “Ant. Jud.,” iv., p. 4.
[221] Ibid., ix.; 2 Kings, i. 8.
[222] In relation to the well-known fact of Jesus wearing his
hair long, and being always so represented, it becomes
quite startling to find how little the unknown Editor of
the “Acts” knew about the Apostle Paul, since he makes
him say in 1 Corinthians xi. 14, “Doth not Nature itself
teach you, that if a _man have long hair, it is a shame
unto him_?” Certainly Paul could never have said such a
thing! Therefore, if the passage is genuine, Paul knew
nothing of the prophet whose doctrines he had embraced
and for which he died; and if false--how much more
reliable is what remains?
[223] Max Müller has sufficiently proved the case in his
lecture on the “Zend-Avesta.” He calls Gushtasp “the
mythical pupil of Zoroaster.” Mythical, perhaps, only
because the period in which he lived and learned with
Zoroaster is too remote to allow our modern science to
speculate upon it with any certainty.
[224] Max Müller: “Zend Avesta,” 83.
[225] Philo: “De Vita. Contemp.”
[226] The real meaning of the division into _ages_ is esoteric
and Buddhistic. So little did the uninitiated Christians
understand it that they accepted the words of Jesus
_literally_ and firmly believed that he meant the end of
the world. There had been many prophecies about the
forthcoming age. Virgil, in the fourth Eclogue, mentions
the Metatron--a new offspring, with whom the _iron age_
shall end and a _golden one_ arise.
[227] “Palestine,” p. 525, et seq.
[228] “Sod,” vol. ii., Preface, p. xi.
[229] “Vit. Pythag.” Munk derives the name of the _Iessæns_
or Essenes from the Syriac _Asaya_--the healers, or
physicians, thus showing their identity with the
Egyptian Therapeutæ. “Palestine,” p. 515.
[230] Matthew xiii. 10.
[231] “Eleusinian Mysteries,” p. 15.
[232] This descent to Hades signified the inevitable fate of
each soul to be united for a time with a terrestrial
body. This union, or dark prospect for the soul to find
itself imprisoned within the dark tenement of a body,
was considered by all the ancient philosophers and is
even by the modern Buddhists, as a punishment.
[233] “Eleusinian Mysteries,” p. 49, foot-note.
[234] “The profound or esoteric doctrines of the ancients were
denominated _wisdom_, and afterward _philosophy_, and
also the _gnosis_, or knowledge. They related to the
human soul, its divine parentage, its supposed
degradation from its high estate by becoming connected
with “generation” or the physical world, its onward
progress and restoration to God by regenerations or ...
transmigrations.” Ibid, p. 2, foot-note.
[235] Cyril of Jerusalem asserts it. See vi. 10.
[236] “Phædrus,” 64.
[237] “The Golden Ass,” xi.
[238] “Apocalypse,” xix. 12.
[239] See Suet. in “Vita. Eutrop.,” 7. It is neither cruelty,
nor an insane indulgence in it, which shows this emperor
in history as passing his time in catching flies and
transpiercing them with a golden bodkin, but religious
superstition. The Jewish astrologers had predicted to
him that he had provoked the wrath of Beelzebub, the
“Lord of the flies,” and would perish miserably through
the revenge of the dark god of Ekron, and die like King
Ahaziah, because he persecuted the Jews.
[240] We believe that it was the Sadducees and not the Pharisees
who crucified Jesus. They were Zadokites--partisans of
the house of Zadok, or the sacerdotal family. In the
“Acts” the apostles were said to be persecuted by the
Sadducees, but never by the Pharisees. In fact, the
latter never persecuted any one. They had the scribes,
rabbis, and learned men in their numbers, and were not,
like the Sadducees, jealous of their order.
[241] “Dial.,” p. 69.
[242] Fabricius: “Cod. Apoc., N. T.,” i., 243; Tischendorf:
“Evang. Ap.,” p. 214.
[243] Origen: “Cont. Cels.,” 11.
[244] Rabbi Iochan: “Mag.,” 51.
[245] “Origen,” 11.
[246] Cf. “August de Consans. Evang.,” i., 9; Fabric.: “Cod.
Ap. N. T.,” i., p. 305, ff.
[247] “Recog.,” i. 58; cf., p. 40.
[248] King’s “Gnostics,” p. 145; the author places this
sarcophagus among the earliest productions of that art
which inundated later the world with mosaics and
engravings, representing the events and personages of
the “New Testament.”
[249] “De Pudicitia.” See “The Gnostics and their Remains,”
p. 144.
[250] Ibid., plate i., p. 200.
[251] This gem is in the collection of the author of “The
Gnostics and their Remains.” See p. 201.
[252] “Hæresies,” xxvii.
[253] 1 Cor. xi. 14.
[254] See the “Israelite Indeed,” vol. ii., p. 238; “Treatise
Nazir.”
[255] “Epiph. ed. Petar,” vol. i., p 117.
[256] “Kabbala Denudata,” ii., 155; “Vallis Regia,” Paris
edition.
[257] Psalms viii.
[258] This contradiction, which is attributed to Paul in
Hebrews, by making him say of Jesus in chapter i., 4:
“Being made _so much better_ than the angels,” and then
immediately stating in chapter ii. 9, “But we see Jesus,
who was made _a little lower_ than the angels,” shows
how unscrupulously the writings of the apostles, if they
ever wrote any, were tampered with.
[259]“Codex Nazaræus,” i. 23.
[260] Ibid., preface, p. v., translated from Norberg.
[261] “According to the Nazarenes and Gnostics, the Demiurg,
the creator of the material world, is not the highest
God.” (See Dunlap: “Sod, the Son of the Man.”)
[262] Clemens: “Al. Strom.” vii., 7, § 106.
[263] H. E., iv. 7.
[264] The gospels interpreted by Basilides were not our
present gospels, which, as it is proved by the greatest
authorities, were not in his days in existence. See
“Supernatural Religion,” vol. ii., chap. Basilides.
[265] The five make mystically ten. They are androgynes.
“Having divided his body in two parts, the Supreme
Wisdom became male and female” (“Manu,” book i., sloka
32). There are many early Buddhistic ideas to be found
in Brahmanism.
The prevalent idea that the last of the Buddhas, Gautama,
is the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, or the _ninth_
Avatar, is disclaimed partially by the Brahmans, and
wholly rejected by the learned Buddhist theologians. The
latter insist that the worship of Buddha possesses a far
higher claim to antiquity than any of the Brahmanical
deities of the _Vedas_, which they call secular
literature. The Brahmans, they show, came from other
countries, and established their heresy on the already
accepted popular _deities_. They conquered the land by
the sword, and succeeded in burying truth, by building a
theology of their own on the ruins of the more ancient
one of Buddha, which had prevailed for ages. They admit
the divinity and spiritual existence of some of the
Vedantic gods; but as in the case of the Christian
angel-hierarchy they believe that all these deities are
greatly subordinate, even to the incarnated Buddhas.
They do not even acknowledge the creation of the
physical universe. Spiritually and _invisibly_ it has
existed from all eternity, and thus it was made merely
visible to the human senses. When it first appeared it
was called forth from the realm of the invisible into
the visible by the impulse of A’di Buddha--the “Essence.”
They reckon twenty-two such visible appearances of the
universe governed by Buddhas, and as many destructions
of it, by fire and water in regular successions. After
the last destruction by the flood, at the end of the
precedent cycle--(the exact calculation, embracing
several millions of years, is a secret cycle) the world,
during the present age of the Kali Yug--Maha Bhadda
Calpa--has been ruled successively by four Buddhas, the
last of whom was Gautama, the “Holy One.” The fifth,
Maitree-Buddha, is yet to come. This latter is the
expected kabalistic King Messiah, the Messenger of
Light, and Sosiosh, the Persian Saviour, who will come
on a _white_ horse. It is also the Christian Second
Advent. See “Apocalypse” of St. John.
[266] “Irenæus,” i. 23.
[267] Tertullian reversed the table himself by rejecting,
later in life, the doctrines for which he fought with
such an acerbity and by becoming a Montanist.
[268] In his debate with Jacolliot upon the right spelling
of the Hindu Christna, Mr. Textor de Ravisi, an
ultramontane Catholic, tries to prove that the name of
Christna ought to be written Krishna, for, as the latter
means black, and the statues of this deity are generally
black, the word is derived from the color. We refer the
reader to Jacolliot’s answer in his recent work,
“Christna et le Christ,” for the conclusive evidence
that the name is not derived from the color.
[269] There is no equivalent for the word “miracle,” in the
Christian sense, among the Brahmans or Buddhists. The
only correct translation would be _meipo_, a wonder,
something remarkable; but not a violation of natural
law. The “saints” only produce _meipo_.
[270] “Beiträge,” vol. i., p. 40; Schleiermacher: “Sämmtl.
Werke,” viii.; “Einl., N. T.,” p. 64.
[271] “Epiph. Hæra.,” xlii., p. 1.
[272] Tertullian: “Adv. Marc.,” ii. 5; cf. 9.
[273] Ibid., ii. 5.
[274] vol. ii., p. 105.
[275] Ibid., vol. ii., p. 100.
[276] “Adv. Marc.,” iv., 9, 36.
[277] “Supernatural Religion,” p. 101; Matthew v. 17.
[278] This author, vol. ii., p. 103, remarks with great
justice of the “Heresiarch” Marcion, “whose high
personal character exerted so powerful an influence upon
his own time,” that “it was the misfortune of Marcion to
live in an age when Christianity had passed out of the
pure morality of its infancy; when, untroubled by
complicated questions of dogma, simple faith and pious
enthusiasm had been the one great bond of Christian
brotherhood, into a phase of ecclesiastical development
in which religion was fast degenerating into theology,
and complicated doctrines were rapidly assuming the
rampant attitude which led to so much bitterness,
persecution, and schism. In later times Marcion might
have been honored as a reformer, in his own he was
denounced as a heretic. Austere and ascetic in his
opinions, he aimed at superhuman purity, and, although
his clerical adversaries might scoff at his impracticable
doctrines regarding marriage and the subjugation of the
flesh, they have had their parallels amongst those whom
the Church has since most delighted to honor, and, at
least, the whole tendency of his system was markedly
towards the side of virtue.” These statements are based
upon Credner’s “Beiträge,” i., p. 40; cf. Neander:
“Allg. K. G.,” ii., p. 792, f.; Schleiermacher, Milman,
etc., etc.
[279] Justin’s “Die Evv.,” p. 446, sup. B.
[280] But, on the other hand, this antagonism is very _strongly_
marked in the “Clementine Homilies,” in which Peter
unequivocally denies that Paul, whom he calls Simon the
Magician, has ever had a _vision_ of Christ, and calls
him “an enemy.” Canon Westcott says: “There can be no
doubt that St. Paul is referred to as ‘the enemy’” (“On
the Canon,” p. 252, note 2; “Supernatural Religion,”
vol. ii., p 35). But this antagonism, which rages unto
the present day, we find even in St. Paul’s “Epistles.”
What can be more energetic than such like sentences:
“Such are _false_ apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ....
I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest
apostle” (2 Corinthians, xi.). “Paul, an apostle _not of
men_, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ _and_ God the
Father, who raised him from the dead ... but there be
some that trouble you, and _would pervert_ the Gospel of
Christ ... _false brethren_.... When Peter came to
Antioch I withstood him to his face, because he was to
be blamed. For before that certain came from James, _he
did eat_ with the Gentiles, but when they were come he
withdrew, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled ... insomuch that Barnabas
also was carried away with their _dissimulation_,” etc.,
etc. (Galat. i. and ii.). On the other hand, we find
Peter in the “Homilies,” indulging in various complaints
which, although alleged to be addressed to Simon Magus,
are evidently all direct answers to the above-quoted
sentences from the Pauline Epistles, and _cannot_ have
anything to do with Simon. So, for instance, Peter said:
“For some among the Gentiles have rejected my lawful
preaching, and accepted certain _lawless_ and _foolish_
teaching of the hostile men (enemy)”--Epist. of Peter to
James, § 2. He says further: “Simon (Paul) ... who came
before me to the Gentiles ... and I have followed him as
light upon darkness, as knowledge upon ignorance, as
health upon disease” (“Homil.,” ii. 17). Still further,
he calls him _Death_ and a _deceiver_ (Ibid., ii. 18).
He warns the Gentiles that “our Lord and _Prophet_ (_?_)
(_Jesus_) announced that he would send from among his
followers, apostles to _deceive_. “Therefore, above
all, remember to avoid every apostle, or teacher, or
prophet, who first does not accurately compare his
teaching with that of James, called the brother of our
Lord” (see the difference between Paul and James on
_faith_, Epist. to Hebrews, xi., xii., and Epist. of
James, ii.). “Lest the Evil One should send a false
preacher ... as he has sent to us Simon (?) preaching a
counterfeit of truth in the name of our Lord, and
disseminating error” (“Hom.” xi., 35; see above
quotation from Gal. 1, 5). He then denies Paul’s
assertion, in the following words: “If, therefore, our
Jesus indeed appeared in a vision to you, it was only as
an irritated adversary.... But how can any one through
visions become wise in teaching? And if you say, ‘it is
possible,’ then I ask, wherefore did the Teacher remain
for a whole year and discourse to those who were
attentive? And how can _we believe your story that he
appeared to you_? And in what manner did he appear to
you, when you hold opinions contrary to his teaching?...
For you now set yourself up against me, who am a _firm
rock, the foundation of the Church_. If you were not an
opponent, you would not calumniate me, you would not
revile my teaching ... (circumcision?) in order that, in
declaring what I have myself heard from the Lord, I may
not be believed, as though _I were condemned_.... But if
you say that I am condemned, you blame God who revealed
Christ to me.” “This last phrase,” observes the author
of “Supernatural Religion,” “‘if you say that I am
condemned,’ is an evident allusion to Galat. ii, 11, ‘I
withstood him to the face, because he was condemned’”
(“Supernatural Religion,” p. 37). “There cannot be a
doubt,” adds the just-quoted author, “that the Apostle
Paul is attacked in this religious romance as the great
enemy of the true faith, under the hated name of Simon
the Magician, whom Peter follows everywhere for the
purpose of unmasking and confuting him” (p. 34). And if
so, then we must believe that it was St. Paul who broke
both his legs in Rome when flying in the air.
[281] “Prâtimoksha Sûtra,” Pali Burmese copy; see also “Lotus
de la Bonne Loi,” translated by Burnouf, p. 444.
[282] Matthew xix. 16-18.
[283] “Pittakatayan,” book iii., Pali Version.
[284] See Judges xiii. 18, “And the angel of the Lord said
unto him: Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is
SECRET?”
[285] Vol. ii., p. 106.
[286] Emmanuel was doubtless the son of the prophet himself, as
described in the sixth chapter; what was predicted, can
only be interpreted on that hypothesis. The prophet had
also announced to Ahaz the extinction of his line. “If
ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”
Next comes the prediction of the placing of a new prince
on the throne--Hezekiah of Bethlehem, said to have been
Isaiah’s son-in-law, under whom the captives should
return from the uttermost parts of the earth. Assyria
should be humbled, and peace overspread the Israelitish
country, compare Isaiah vii. 14-16; viii. 3, 4; ix. 6,
7; x. 12, 20, 21; xi.; Micah v., 2-7. The popular party,
the party of the prophets, always opposed to the
Zadokite priesthood, had resolved to set aside Ahaz and
his time-serving policy, which had let in Assyria upon
Palestine, and to set up Hezekiah, a man of their own,
who should rebel against Assyria and overthrow the
Assur-worship and Baalim (2 Kings xv. 11). Though only
the prophets hint this, it being cut out from the
historical books, it is noticeable that Ahaz offered his
own child to Moloch, also that he died at the age of
thirty-six, and Hezekiah took the throne at twenty-five,
in full adult age.
[287] Tertullian: “Adv. Marci,” iii. 8 ff.
[288] “Sup. Rel.,” vol. ii., p. 107; “Adv. Marci,” iii. 2, § 2;
cf. iii. 12, § 12.
[289] “Sup. Relig.,” vol. ii., p. 126.
[290] We give the systems according to an old diagram
preserved among some Kopts and the Druses of Mount
Lebanon. Irenæus had perhaps some good reasons to
disfigure their doctrines.
[291] Sophia is the highest prototype of woman--the first
_spiritual_ Eve. In the Bible the system is reversed and
the intervening emanation being omitted, Eve is degraded
to simple humanity.
[292] See “Irenæus,” book i., chap. 31-33.
[293] In King’s “Gnostics,” we find the system a little
incorrect. The author tells us that he followed
Bellermann’s “Drei Programmen über die Abraxas gemmen.”
[294] See “Idra Magna.”
[295] “Codex Nazaræns,” part i., p. 9.
[296] See “Codex Nazaræns,” i., 181. Fetahil, sent to frame
the world, finds himself immersed in the abyss of mud,
and soliloquizes in dismay until the _Spiritus_
(Sophia-Achamoth) unites herself completely with matter,
and so creates the material world.
[297] “Irenæus,” 37, and Theodoret, quoted in the same page.
[298] Ibid., i. xxv.
[299] See preface to the “Apocryphal New Testament,” London,
printed for W. Hone, Ludgate Hill, 1820.
[300] “It is first cited by Virgilius Tapsensis, a Latin
writer of no credit, in the latter end of the fifth
century, and by him it is suspected to have been
forged.”
[301] “Elements of Theology,” vol. ii., p. 90, note.
[302] Parson’s “Letters to Travis,” 8vo., p. 402.
[303] The term “Paganism” is properly used by many modern
writers with hesitation. Professor Alexander Wilder, in
his edition of Payne Knight’s “Symbolical Language of
Ancient Art and Mythology,” says: “It (‘Paganism’) has
degenerated into slang, and is generally employed with
more or less of an opprobrious meaning. The correcter
expression would have been ‘the ancient ethnical
worships,’ but it would be hardly understood in its true
sense, and we accordingly have adopted the term in
popular use, but not disrespectfully. A religion which
can develop a Plato, an Epictetus, and an Anaxagoras, is
not gross, superficial, or totally unworthy of candid
attention. Besides, many of the rites and doctrines
included in the Christian as well as in the Jewish
Institute, appeared first in the other systems.
Zoroastrianism anticipated far more than has been
imagined. The cross, the priestly robes and symbols, the
sacraments, the Sabbath, the festivals and anniversaries,
are all anterior to the Christian era by thousands of
years. The ancient worship, after it had been excluded
from its former shrines, and from the metropolitan
towns, was maintained for a long time by the inhabitants
of humble localities. To this fact it owes its later
designation. From being kept up in the _Pagi_, or rural
districts, its votaries were denominated _Pagans_, or
provincials.”
[304] “Super. Relig.,” vol. ii., p. 5.
[305] Norberg: Preface to “Cod. Naz.,” p. v.
[306] Epiph.: “Contra Ebionitas.”
[307] See preface, from page 1 to 34.
[308] Ibid., p. 7, preface.
[309] Hieronymus: “De Virus.,” illust., cap. 3. “It is
remarkable that, while all church fathers say that
Matthew wrote in _Hebrew_, the whole of them use the
Greek text as the genuine apostolic writing, without
mentioning what relation the _Hebrew_ Matthew has to our
Greek one! It had many _peculiar additions_ which are
wanting in our evangel.” (Olshausen: “Nachweis der
Echtheit der sämmtlichen Schriften des Neuen Test.,” p.
32; Dunlap: “Sod, the Son of the Man,” p. 44.)
[310] Hieronymus: “Commen. to Matthew,” book ii., ch. xii.,
13. Jerome adds that it was written in the Chaldaic
language, but with Hebrew letters.
[311] “St. Jerome,” v., 445; “Sod, the Son of the Man,” p. 46.
[312] This accounts also for the rejection of the works of
Justin Martyr, who used only this “Gospel according to
the Hebrews,” as also did most probably Titian, his
disciple. At what late period was fully established the
_divinity_ of Christ we can judge by the mere fact that
even in the fourth century Eusebius did not denounce
this book as spurious, but only classed it with such as
the Apocalypse of John; and Credner (“Zur Gesch. Des
Kan.,” p. 120) shows Nicephorus inserting it, together
with the Revelation, in his “Stichometry,” among the
Antilegomena. The Ebionites, the _genuine_ primitive
Christians, rejecting the rest of the apostolic
writings, made use only of this Gospel (“Adv. Hær.” i.,
26), and the Ebionites, as Epiphanius declares, firmly
believed, with the Nazarenes, that Jesus was but a man
“of the seed of a man.”
[313] See King’s “Gnostics,” p. 31.
[314] This Iove, Iao, or Jehovah is quite distinct from the
God of the Mysteries, IAO, held sacred by all the
nations of antiquity. We will show the difference
presently.
[315] King’s “Gnostics.”
[316] Iurbo and Adunai, according to the Ophites, are names
of Iao-Jehovah, one of the emanations of Ilda-Baoth.
“Iurbo is called by the Abortions (the Jews) Adunai”
(“Codex Nazaræus,” vol. iii., p. 73).
[317] King: “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 31.
[318] In the “Gospel of Nicodemus,” Ilda-Baoth is called
_Satan_ by the pious and anonymous author;--evidently,
one of the final flings at the half-crushed enemy. “As
for me,” says Satan, excusing himself to the prince of
hell, “I tempted him (Jesus), and stirred up my old
people, the Jews, against him” (chap. xv. 9). Of all
examples of Christian ingratitude this seems almost the
most conspicuous. The poor Jews are first robbed of
their sacred books, and then, in a spurious “Gospel,”
are insulted by the representation of Satan claiming
them as his “old people.” If they were his people, and
at the same time are “God’s chosen people,” then the
name of this God must be written Satan and not Jehovah.
This is logic, but we doubt if it can be regarded as
complimentary to the “Lord God of Israel.”
[319] This is the Nazarene system; the Spiritus, after uniting
herself with Karabtanos (_matter_, turbulent and
senseless), brings forth _seven badly-disposed stellars_,
in the Orcus; “Seven Figures,” which she bore “witless”
(“Codex Nazaræus,” i., p. 118). Justin Martyr evidently
adopts this idea, for he tells us of “the sacred
prophets, who say that one and the same _spirit_ is
divided into _seven_ spirits (pneumata). “Justin ad
Græcos;” “Sod,” vol. ii., p. 52. In the Apocalypse the
Holy Spirit is subdivided into “_seven_ spirits before
the throne,” from the Persian Mithraic mode of
classifying.
[320] This certainly looks like the “_jealous_ God” of the
Jews.
[321] It is the _Elohim_ (plural) who create Adam, and do not
wish man to become “as one of US.”
[322] Theodoret: “Hæret.;” King’s “Gnostics.”
[323] “Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 78.
[324] Some persons hold that he was Bishop of Rome; others,
of Carthage.
[325] His polemical work addressed against the so-called
orthodox Church--the Catholic--notwithstanding its
bitterness and usual style of vituperation, is far more
fair, considering that the “great African” is said to
have been expelled from the Church of Rome. If we
believe St. Jerome, it is but the envy and the unmerited
calumnies of the early Roman clergy against Tertullian
which forced him to renounce the Catholic Church and
become a Montanist. However, were the unlimited
admiration of St. Cyprian, who terms Tertullian “The
Master,” and his estimate of him merited, we would see
less error and paganism in the Church of Rome. The
expression of Vincent of Lerius, “that every word of
Tertullian was a sentence, and every sentence a triumph
_over error_,” does not seem very happy when we think of
the respect paid to Tertullian by the Church of Rome,
notwithstanding his partial apostasy and the _errors_ in
which the latter still abides and has even enforced upon
the world as _infallible_ dogmas.
[326] Were not the views of the Phrygian Bishop Montanus, also
deemed a HERESY by the Church of Rome? It is quite
extraordinary to see how easily the Vatican encourages
the abuse of one _heretic_ Tertullian, against another
_heretic_ Basilides, when the abuse happens to further
her own object.
[327] Does not Paul himself speak of “_Principalities_ and
_Powers_ in heavenly places” (Ephesians iii. 10; i. 21),
and confess that there be _gods_ many and _Lords_ many
(Kurioi)? And angels, powers (Dunameis), and
_Principalities_? (See 1 Corinthians, viii. 5; and
Epistle to Romans, viii. 38.)
[328] Tertullian: “Præscript.”
[329] Baur; Credner; Hilgenfeld; Kirchhofer; Lechler; Nicolas;
Ritschl; Schwegler; Westcott, and Zeller; see
“Supernatural Religion,” vol. ii., p. 2.
[330] See Epiphanius: “Contra Ebionitas.”
[331] The Ophites, for instance, made of Adonai the third son
of Ilda-Baoth, a malignant genius, and, like his other
five brothers, a constant enemy and adversary of man,
whose divine and immortal spirit gave man the means of
becoming the rival of these genii.
[332] The Bishop of Salamis died A.D. 403.
[333] “Epiphanius,” i., 122, 123.
[334] The “Clementines” are composed of three parts--to wit:
the Homilies, the Recognitions, and an Epitome.
[335] “Supernatural Religion,” vol. ii., p. 2.
[336] “Homilies,” xviii., 1-15.
[337] “Clementine Homilies;” “Supernatural Religion,” vol. ii.
[338] “Supernatural Religion,” p. 11.
[339] Hieron.: “Opp.,” vii., p. 270, ff.; “Supernatural
Religion,” p. 11.
[340] Ibid.
[341] Theodoret: “Hæret. Fab.,” ii., vii.
[342] See “Irenæus,” I., xii., p. 86.
[343] “Auszüge aus dem Sohar,” p. 12.
[344] “Cod. Naz.,” vol. ii., p. 149.
[345] Theodoret: “Hæret. Fab.,” ii., vii.
[346] “Homilies,” xvi., 15 ff.; ii., 12; iii., 57-59; x., 19.
Schliemann: “Die Clementinem,” p. 134 ff., “Supernatural
Religion,” vol. ii., p. 349.
[347] “Homilies,” iii., 20 f; ii., 16-18, etc.
[348] Ibid., iii., 20 ff.
[349] Schliemann: “Die Clementinem,” pp. 130-176; quoted also
in “Supernatural Religion,” p. 342.
[350] We will speak of this doctrine further on.
[351] “Kabbala Denudata,” vol. ii., p. 155; “Vallis Regia.”
[352] “Hermes,” X., iv., 21-23.
[353] Idra Magna: “Kabbala Denudata.”
[354] Justin Martyr: “Apol.,” vol. ii., p. 74.
[355] Josephus: “Wars,” II., chap. 8. sec. 7.
[356] See Josephus; Philo; Munk (35). Eusebius mentions their
semneion, where they perform the mysteries of a retired
life (“Ecclesiastic History,” lib. ii., ch. 17).
[357] “Epiphanius,” ed. Petau, i., p. 117.
[358] Cerinthus is the same Gnostic--a contemporary of John
the Evangelist--of whom Irenæus invented the following
anecdote: “There are those who heard him (Polycarp) say
that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at
Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed forth
from the bath-house ... crying out, ‘Let us fly, lest
the bath-house fall down, Cerinthus, the enemy of the
truth, being within it’” (Irenæus: “Adv. Hær.,” iii., 3,
§ 4).
[359] Munk: “Palestine,” p. 525; “Sod, the Son of the Man.”
[360] “Haxthausen,” p. 229.
[361] “Shahrastâni;” Dr. D. Chwolsohn: “Die Ssabier und der
Ssabismus,” ii., p. 625.
[362] Maimonides, quoted in Dr. D. Chwolsohn: “Die Ssabier
und der Ssabismus,” ii., p. 458.
[363] “Ye have condemned and killed the just,” says James
in his epistle to the twelve tribes.
[364] Porphyry makes a distinction between what he calls
“the _Antique_ or _Oriental philosophy_,” and the
properly Grecian system, that of the Neo-platonists.
King says that all these religions and systems are
branches of one antique and common religion, the Asiatic
or Buddhistic (“Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 1).
[365] “Sod, the Son of the Man.”
[366] “Hermes Trismegistus,” pp. 86, 87, 90.
[367] It is the correct interpretation of the Bible allegories
that makes the Catholic clergy so wrathful with the
Protestants who freely scrutinize the Bible. How bitter
this feeling has become, we can judge by the following
words of the Reverend Father Parker of Hyde Park, New
York, who, lecturing in St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, on
the 10th of December, 1876, said: “To whom does the
Protestant Church owe its possession of the Bible,
_which they wish to place in the hands of every ignorant
person and child_? To monkish hands, that laboriously
transcribed it before the age of printing. Protestantism
has produced dissension in Church, rebellions and
outbreaks in State, unsoundness in social life, and will
never be satisfied short of the downfall of the Bible!
Protestants must admit that the Roman Church has done
more to scatter Christianity and extirpate idolatry than
all their sects. From one pulpit it is said that there
is no hell, and from another that there is immediate and
unmitigated damnation. One says that Jesus Christ was
only a man; another that you must be plunged bodily into
water to be baptized, and refuses the rites to infants.
Most of them have no prescribed form of worship, no
sacred vestments, and their doctrines are as undefined
as their service is informal. The founder of Protestantism,
Martin Luther, was the worst man in Europe. The advent
of the Reformation was the signal for civil war, and
from that time to this the world has been in a restless
state, uneasy in regard to Governments, and every day
becoming more skeptical. The ultimate tendency of
Protestantism is clearly nothing less than the
destruction of all respect for the Bible, and the
disruption of government and society.” Very plain talk
this. The Protestants might easily return the
compliment.
[368] Eliphas Levi ascribes this narrative to the Talmudist
authors of “Sota” and “Sanhedrin,” p. 19, book of
“Jechiel.”
[369] This fragment is translated from the original Hebrew
by Eliphas Levi in his “La Science des Esprits.”
[370] Those who know anything of the rites of the Hebrews
must recognize in these lions the gigantic figures of
the Cherubim, whose symbolical monstrosity was well
calculated to frighten and put to flight the profane.
[371] Arnobius tells the same story of Jesus, and narrates
how he was accused of having robbed the sanctuary of the
secret names of the Holy One, by means of which
knowledge he performed all the miracles.
[372] This is a translation of Eliphas Levi.
[373] “La Science des Esprits,” p. 37.
[374] “Israelite Indeed,” vol. iii., p. 61.
[375] “Origen,” vol. ii., p. 150.
[376] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. i., p. 23.
[377] “In the way these call heresy I worship” (Acts xxiv. 14).
[378] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., p. 109.
[379] “Milman,” p. 200.
[380] Dunlap says in “Sod, the Son of the Man:” “Mr. Hall, of
India, informs us that he has seen Sanscrit philosophical
treatises in which the _Logos_ continually occur,”
p. 39, foot-note.
[381] See John i.
[382] Origen: “Philosophumena,” xxiv.
[383] Kleuker: “Natur und Ursprung der Emanationslehre bei
den Kabbalisten,” pp. 10, 11; see “Libri Mysterii.”
[384] “These as natural _brute beasts_.” “The dog has turned
to its own vomit again; and _the sow_ that was washed to
her wallowing in the mire” (22).
[385] The types of the creation, or the attributes of the
Supreme Being, are through the emanations of Adam
Kadmon; these are: “The _Crown_, _Wisdom_, _Prudence_,
_Magnificence_, _Severity_, _Beauty_, _Victory_,
_Glory_, _Foundation_, _Empire_. Wisdom is called _Jeh_;
Prudence, _Jehovah_; Severity, _Elohim_; Magnificence,
_El_; Victory and Glory, SABAOTH; Empire or Dominion,
ADONAI.” Thus when the Nazarenes and other Gnostics of
the more Platonic tendency twitted the Jews as
“abortions who worship their god Iurbo, _Adunai_,” we
need not wonder at the wrath of those who had accepted
the old Mosaic system, but at that of Peter and Jude who
claim to be followers of Jesus and dissent from the
views of him who was also a Nazarene.
[386] According to the “Kabala,” _Empire_ or _Dominion_ is
“the consuming fire, and his wife is the Temple or
the Church.”
[387] Colossians ii. 18.
[388] It is more likely that both abused Paul, who preached
against this belief; and that the Gnostics were only
a pretext. (See Peter’s second Epistle.)
[389] The true name of Manes--who was a Persian by birth--was
_Cubricus_. (See Epiph. “Life of Manes,” Hæret. lxv.) He
was flayed alive at the instance of the Magi, by the
Persian King Varanes I. Plutarch says that Manes or
Manis means Masses or ANOINTED. The vessel, or vase of
election, is, therefore, the vessel full of that light
of God, which he pours on one he has selected for his
interpreter.
[390] See King’s “Gnostics,” p. 38.
[391] Franck: “Die Kabbala,” p. 126.
[392] Philo: “Quæst. et Solut.”
[393] See Franck: “Die Kabbala,” p. 153 ff.
[394] “Kabbala Denudata;” preface to the “Sohar,” ii., p. 242.
[395] See Champollion’s “Egypte.”
[396] “Idra Rabba,” vi., p. 58.
[397] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” ii.
[398] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” iii., p. 288 a.
[399] _Ego sum qui sum_ (see “Bible”).
[400] See “Institutes of Manu,” translated by Sir William
Jones.
[401] Champollion.
[402] We are fully aware that some Christian kabalists term
En-Soph the “Crown,” identify him with Sephira; call
En-Soph “an emanation from God,” and make the ten
Sephiroth comprise “En-Soph” as a unity. They also very
erroneously reverse the first two emanations of
Sephira--Chochma and Binah. The greatest kabalists have
always held Chochma (Wisdom) as a male and active
intelligence, Jah יה, and placed it under the No. 2 on
the right side of the triangle, whose apex is the crown,
while Binah (Intelligence) or בינה, is under No. 3 on
the left hand. But the latter, being represented by its
divine name as Jehovah יהוה, very naturally showed
the God of Israel as only a third emanation, as well as
a feminine, passive principle. Hence when the time came
for the Talmudists to transform their multifarious
deities into one living God, they resorted to their
Masoretic points and combined to transform Jehovah into
Adonai, “the Lord.” This, under the persecution of the
Mediæval kabalists by the Church, also forced some of
the former to change their female Sephiroth into male,
and _vice versa_, so as to avoid being accused of
disrespect and blasphemy to Jehovah; whose name,
moreover, by mutual and secret agreement they accepted
as a _substitute_ for Jah, or the mystery name IAO.
Alone the _initiated_ knew of it, but later it gave rise
to a great confusion among the _uninitiated_. It would
be worth while--were it not for lack of space--to quote
a few of the many passages in the oldest Jewish
authorities, such as Rabbi Akiba, and the “Sohar,” which
corroborate our assertion. Chochma-Wisdom is a male
principle everywhere, and Binah-Jehovah, a female
potency. The writings of Irenæus, Theodoret, and
Epiphanius, teeming with accusations against the
Gnostics and “Hæresies,” repeatedly show Simon Magus and
Cerenthus making of Binah the feminine divine Spirit
which inspired Simon. Binah is Sophia, and the Sophia of
the Gnostics is surely not a male potency, but simply
the feminine Wisdom, or Intelligence. (See any ancient
“Arbor Kabbalistica,” or Tree of the Sephiroth.) Eliphas
Levi, in the “Rituel de la Haute Magie,” vol. i., pp.
223 and 231, places Chochma as No. 2 and as a male
Sephiroth on the right hand of the Tree. In the “Kabala”
the three male Sephiroth--Chochma, Chesed, Netsah--are
known as the Pillar of Mercy; and the three feminine on
the left, namely, Binah, Geburah, Hod, are named the
Pillar of Judgment; while the four Sephiroth of the
centre--Kether, Tiphereth, Jesod, and Malchuth--are
called the Middle Pillar. And, as Mackenzie, in the
“Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” shows, “there is an analogy
in these three pillars to the three Pillars of Wisdom,
Strength, and Beauty in a Craft Lodge of Masonry, while
the En-Soph forms the mysterious blazing star, or mystic
light of the East.” (p. 407).
[403] Justin: “Cum. Trypho,” p. 284.
[404] A division indicative of time.
[405] Sanchoniathon calls time the oldest Æon, _Protogonos_,
the “_first-born_.”
[406] Philo Judæus: “Cain and his Birth,” p. xvii.
[407] Azrael, angel of death, is also Israel. _Ab-ram_ means
father of elevation, high placed father, for Saturn is
the highest or outmost planet.
[408] See Genesis xiii. 2.
[409] Saturn is generally represented as a very old man, with
a sickle in his hand.
[410] Bunsen: “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v.,
p. 85.
[411] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” iii., p. 292 b.
[412] Bereshith Rabba: “Parsha,” ix.
[413] “Sohar,” i., p. 20 a.
[414] “The Sanscrit _s_,” says Max Müller, “is represented by
the _z_ and _h_. Thus the geographical name ‘hapta
hendu,’ which occurs in the ‘Avesta,’ becomes
intelligible, if we retranslate the _z_ and _h_ into the
Sanscrit _s_. For ‘Sapta Sindhu,’ or the seven rivers,
is the old Vaidic name for India itself” (“Chips,” vol.
i., p. 81). The “Avesta” is the spirit of the
“Vedas”--the esoteric meaning made partially known.
[415] What is generally understood in the “Avesta” system as a
_thousand_ years, means, in the esoteric doctrine, a
cycle of a duration known but to the initiates and which
has an allegorical sense.
[416] Matter: “Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme,” pl. x.
[417] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” iii., p. 288.
[418] Ibid., sect. ii.
[419] Ibid., vii.
[420] Jam vero quoniam hoc in loco recondita est illa plane
non utuntur, et tantum de parte lucis ejus particepant
quæ demittitur et ingreditur intra filum Ain Soph
protensum e Persona אל (_Al_-God) deorsum: intratque et
perrumpit et transit per Adam primum occultum usque in statum
dispositionis transitque per eum a capite usque ad pedes
ejus: _et in eo est figura hominis_ (“Kabbala Denudata,”
ii., p. 246).
[421] “Sohar,” i., p. 51 a.
[422] Book iii., p. 290.
[423] “Idra Rabba,” §§ 541, 542.
[424] Ibid., iii., p. 36.
[425] Ibid., p. 171.
[426] “Nat. und Urspr. d. Emanationslehre b. d. Kabbalisten,”
p. ii.
[427] “Irenæus,” p. 637.
[428] “Idra Suta,” ix.; “Kabbala Denudata;” see Pythagoras:
“Monad.”
[429] “Codex Nazaræus,” i., p. 145.
[430] “Idra Rabba,” viii., pp. 107-109.
[431] “Auszüge aus dem Sohar,” p. 11.
[432] He is the universal and spiritual _germ_ of all things.
[433] “Ad. Kabb. Chr.,” p. 6.
[434] “Sohar,” p. 93.
[435] “Movers,” p. 265.
[436] “Kabbala Denudata,” vol. ii., p. 236.
[437] Champollion, Junior: “Lettres.”
[438] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., pp. 47-57.
[439] Ibid., vol. i., p. 145.
[440] Ibid., vol. ii., p. 211.
[441] Ibid., vol. i., p. 308.
[442] Sophia-Achamoth also begets her son Ilda-Baoth, the
_Demiurge_, by looking into chaos or matter, and by
coming in contact with it.
[443] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., p. 109. See “Sod, the Son
of the Man,” for translation.
[444] Revelation iv. 5.
[445] Ezekiel.
[446] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., p. 127.
[447] The first androgyne duad being considered a _unit_ in
all the secret computations, is, therefore, the Holy
Ghost.
[448] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. iii., p. 59.
[449] Ibid., vol. i., p. 285.
[450] Ibid., vol. i., p. 309.
[451] Ibid., vol. i., p. 287. See “Sod, the Son of the Man,”
p. 101.
[452] John iv. 9.
[453] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. ii., p. 123.
[454] “Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and
seventy of the elders of Israel. _And they saw the God
of Israel_,” Exodus xxiv. 9, 10.
[455] Irenæus: “Clementine Homilies,” I., xxii., p. 118.
[456] “Adv. Hæs.,” III., ii., 18.
[457] See King’s “Gnostics.”
[458] Ezekiel i.-ii.
[459] “Gnostics and their Remains.”
[460] “Although this science is commonly supposed to be
peculiar to the Jewish Talmudists, there is no doubt
that they borrowed the idea from a foreign source, and
that from the Chaldeans, the _founders of magic art_,”
says King, in the “Gnostics.” The titles _Iao_ and
_Abraxas_, etc., instead of being recent Gnostic
figments, were indeed holy names, borrowed from the most
ancient formulæ of the East. Pliny must allude to them
when he mentions the virtues ascribed by the Magi to
amethysts engraved with the names of the sun and moon,
names not expressed in either the Greek or Latin
tongues. In the “_Eternal Sun_,” the “_Abraxas_,” the
“_Adonai_,” of these gems, we recognize the very amulets
ridiculed by the philosophic Pliny (“Gnostics,” pp. 79,
80); _Virtutes_ (miracles) as employed by Irenæus.
[461] So called to distinguish the short-face, who _is
exterior_, “from the venerable sacred ancient” (the
“Idra Rabba,” iii., 36; v. 54). Seir-Anpin is the “image
of the Father.” “He that hath seen me hath seen my
Father” (John xiv. 9).
[462] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. iii., p. 57.
[463] Ibid., vol. iii., p. 61.
[464] This stone, of a sponge-like surface, is found in
Narmada and seldom to be seen in other places.
[465] John has an eagle near him; Luke, a bull; Mark, a lion;
and Matthew, an angel--the kabalistic quaternary of the
Egyptian Tarot.
[466] See Matter, upon the subject.
[467] Consult Book of Daniel, iv., v.
[468] Ahriman, the production of Zoroaster, is so called in
hatred of the Arias or Aryas, the Brahmans against whose
dominion the Zoroastrians had revolted. Although an Arya
(a noble, a sage) himself, Zoroaster, as in the case of
the Devas whom he disgraced from gods to the position of
_devils_, hesitated not to designate this type of the
spirit of evil under the name of his enemies, the
Brahman-Aryas. The whole struggle of Ahura-mazd and
Ahriman is but the allegory of the great religious and
political war between Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism.
[469] “Nork,” ii., 146.
[470] Rev. Mr. Maurice takes it also to mean the cycles.
[471] “Duncker,” ii., 363; Spiegel’s “Avesta,” i., 32, 34.
[472] See the “Book of Dehesh,” 47.
[473] See King’s translation of the “Zend Avesta,” in his
“Gnostics,” p. 9.
[474] The dævas or devils of the Iranians contrast with the
devas or deities of India.
[475] “Nork,” ii., 146.
[476] The Bishop of Ephesus, 218 A.D.; Eusebius: “H. E.” iii.,
31. Origen stoutly maintained the doctrine of eternal
punishment to be erroneous. He held that at the second
advent of Christ even the devils among the damned would
be forgiven. The eternal damnation is a later
_Christian_ thought.
[477] Luke xii. 10.
[478] “Hermes Trismegistus,” vi. 55.
[479] Plato Protogoras; “Cory,” p. 274.
[480] Panthier: “La Chine,” ii., 375; “Sod, the Son of the Man,”
p. 97.
[481] Acts ii. 22.
[482] John i. 6.
[483] Ibid., 30.
[484] John viii. 40.
[485] Ibid., ix. 11.
[486] Priestley: “History of Early Christianity,” p. 2,
sect. 2.
[487] Mahomet was born in 571 A.D.
[488] J. M. Peebles: “Jesus--Man, Myth, or God?”
[489] Translated from the “Hari-Purana,” by Jacolliot:
“Christna, et le Christ.”
[490] Clement: “Al. Strom.,” v. 14, § 110; translation
given in “Supernatural Religion,” vol. i, p. 77.
[491] This work, “The Pastor of Hermas,” is no longer extant,
but appears only in the “Stichometry” of Nicephorus; it
is now considered an apocrypha. But, in the days of
Irenæus, it was quoted as Holy Scripture (see “Sup.
Religion,” vol. i., p. 257) by the Fathers, held to be
divinely inspired, and publicly read in the churches
(Irenæus: “Adv. Hær.,” iv., 20). When Tertullian became
a Montanist he rejected it, after having _asserted_ its
divinity (Tertullian: “De Orat.,” p. 12).
[492] “Sohar,” xl., p. 10.
[493] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. iii., pp. 60, 61.
[494] Ibid., vol. ii., p. 281; vol. iii., p. 59.
[495] We must remind the reader, in this connection, that
Joshua and Jesus are one and the same name. In the
Slavonian Bibles Joshua reads--_Iessus_ (or Jesus),
_Navin_.
[496] “Idra Rabba,” vol. iii., § 41; the “Sohar.”
[497] “Kabbala Denudata,” vol. ii., p. 230; the “Book of the
Babylonian Companions,” p. 35.
[498] “Sohar Ex.,” p. 11.
[499] “Midrash Hashirim;” “Rabbi Akaba;” “Midrash Koheleth,”
vol. ii., p. 45.
[500] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. iii., p. 60.
[501] “On the Canon,” p. 178 ff.
[502] Vol. ii., p. 57; Norberg’s “Onomasticon;” “Sod, the
Son of the Man,” p. 103.
[503] “Preller,” vol. i., p. 484; K. O. Muller: “History of
Greek Literature,” p. 238; “Movers,” p. 553.
[504] “Sohar,” vol. i., fol. 25.
[505] “Simil.,” vol. ix., p. 12; “Supernatural Religion,”
vol. i., p. 257.
[506] Mark xiii. 32.
[507] “Apolog.,” vol. i., p. 63.
[508] “Idra Rabba,” x., p. 177.
[509] “Codex Nazaræus,” vol. i., p. 23.
[510] Philo says that the _Logos_ is the _interpreter_ of the
highest God, and argues, “that he must be the God of us
imperfect beings” (“Leg. Alleg.,” iii., § 73). According
to his opinion man was not made in the likeness of the
_most High_ God, the Father of all, but in that of the
_second_ God who is his word--Logos” (Philo: “Fragments,”
1; ex. Euseb. “Præpar. Evang.,” vii., 13).
[511] “Codex Nazaræus,” p. 57; “Sod, the Son of the Man,” p. 59.
[512] “Hundert und ein Frage,” p. xvii.; Dunlap: “Sod, the
Son of the Man,” p. 87; the author, who quotes Nork,
says that parts of the “Midrashim” and the “Targum” of
Onkelos, antedate the “New Testament.”
[513] Writing upon Ptolemæus and Heracleon, the author of
“Supernatural Religion” (vol. ii., p. 217) says that
“the inaccuracy of the Fathers keeps pace with their
want of critical judgment,” and then proceeds to
illustrate this particularly ridiculous blunder
committed by Epiphanius, in common with Hippolytus,
Tertullian, and Philostrius. “Mistaking a passage of
Irenæus, ‘Adv. Hær.,’ i., p. 14, regarding the Sacred
Tetrad (Kol-Arbas), Hippolytus supposes Irenæus to refer
to another heretic leader.” He at once treats the Tetrad
as such a leader named “Colarbasus,” and after dealing
(vi., 4) with the doctrines of Secundus, and Ptolemæus,
and Heracleon, he proposes, § 5, to show, “what are the
opinions held by Marcus and _Colarbasus_,” these two
being, according to him, the successors of the school of
Valentinus (cf. Bunsen: “Hippolytus, U. S. Zeit.,” p. 54
f.; “Ref. Omn. Hær.,” iv., § 13).
[514] See Godf. Higgins: “Anacalypsis.”
[515] Inman: “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,”
p. 84.
[516] Meaning--holding up of _different views_.
[517] “This absurd mistake,” remarks the author of “Supernatural
Religion,” vol. ii., p. 218, “shows how little these
writers knew of the Gnostics of whom they wrote, and how
the one ignorantly follows the other.”
[518] “Ref. Omn. Hær.,” iv., § 13.
[519] Epiph.: “Hær.,” xxxvi., § 1, p. 262 (quoted in “Supernatural
Religion”). See Volkmar’s “Die Colorabasus-gnosis” in
Niedner’s “Zeitschr. Hist. Theol.”
[520] “Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 182 f., note 3.
[521] Mosheim.
[522] Tertullian: “Despectæ,” ch. xxx.
[523] Mosheim: “Eccles. Hist.,” c. v., § 5.
[524] Socrates: “Scol. Eccl. Hist.,” b. I., c. ix.
[525] “Proverbs,” chap. xvi., p. 33. In ancient Egypt and
Greece, and among Israelites, small sticks and balls
called the “sacred divining lots” were used for this
kind of oracle in the temples. According to the figures
which were formed by the accidental juxtaposition of the
latter, the priest interpreted the will of the gods.
[526] Another untrustworthy, untruthful, and ignorant writer,
and ecclesiastical historian of the fifth century. His
alleged history of the strife between the Pagans,
Neo-platonics, and the Christians of Alexandria and
Constantinople, which extends from the year 324 to 439,
dedicated by him to Theodosius, the younger, is full of
deliberate falsifications. Edition of “Reading,” Cantab,
1720, fol. Translated. Plon frères, Paris.
[527] “Gems of the Orthodox Christians,” vol. i., p. 135.
[528] Revelation xiv. 1.
[529] Daghôba is a small temple of globular form, in which
are preserved the relics of Gautama.
[530] Prachidas are buildings of all sizes and forms, like
our mausoleums, and are sacred to votive offerings to
the dead.
[531] The Talmudistic records claim that, after having been
hung, he was lapidated and buried under the water at the
junction of two streams. “Mishna Sanhedrin,” vol. vi.,
p. 4; “Talmud,” of Babylon, same article, 43 a, 67 a.
[532] “Coptic Legends of the Crucifixion,” MSS. xi.
[533] The engraving represents the talisman as of twice the
natural size. We are at a loss to understand why King,
in his “Gnostic Gems,” represents Solomon’s seal as a
five-pointed star, whereas it is six-pointed, and is the
signet of Vishnu, in India.
[534] King (“Gnostics”) gives the figure of a Christian
symbol, very common during the middle ages, of three
fishes interlaced into a triangle, and having the FIVE
letters (a most sacred Pythagorean number) Ι. Χ. ΘΥΣ
engraved on it. The number five relates to the same
kabalistic computation.
[535] “La Genèse de l’Humanité,” p. 9.
[536] The kabalistic Sephiroth are also ten in number, or
five pairs.
[537] An avatar is a descent from on high upon earth of the
Deity in some manifest shape.
[538] “Bhagavatta.”
[539] “Manu,” books i. and xii.
[540] See Cory’s “Ancient Fragments.”
[541] “Origin of Species,” first edition, p. 484.
[542] Ibid., p. 484.
[543] Ibid., pp. 488, 489.
[544] “La Genèse de l’Humanité,” p. 339.
[545] “Traditions Indo-Européennes et Africaines,” p. 291.
[546] “Traditions Indo-Européennes et Africaines,” pp. 294,
295.
[547] “Les Fils de Dieu,” p. 32.
[548] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 78 and others.
[549] “Les Fils de Dieu,” p. 272. While not at all astonished
that Brahmans should have refused to satisfy M.
Jacolliot’s curiosity, we must add that the meaning of
this sign is known to the superiors of every Buddhist
lamasery, not alone to the Brahmans.
[550] “La Genèse de l’Humanité,” p. 339.
[551] See “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,” vol. xiii.,
p. 79.
[552] _Lahgash_ is nearly identical in meaning with _Vâch_,
the hidden power of the Mantras.
[553] In “Rig-Veda Sanhita” the meaning is given by Max
Müller as the Absolute, “for it is derived from
‘_diti_,’ bond, and the negative particle _A_.”
[554] “Hymns to the Maruts” I., 89, 10.
[555] Ibid., I., 24, 1.
[556] Ibid., X., 63, 2.
[557] George Smith gives the first verses of the Akkadian
_Genesis_ as found in the Cuneiform Texts on the
“Lateres Coctiles.” There, also, we find _Anu_, the
passive deity or En-Soph, _Bel_, the Creator, the Spirit
of God (Sephira) moving on the face of the waters, hence
water itself, and _Hea_ the Universal Soul or wisdom of
the three combined.
The first eight verses read thus:
1. When above, were not raised the heavens;
2. and below on the earth a plant had not grown up.
3. The abyss had not broken its boundaries.
4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the
producing mother of the whole of them. (This is the
Cosmical Aditi and Sephira.)
5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained but
6. a tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded.
7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them;
8. a plant had not grown, and order did not exist.
This was the chaotic or ante-genesis period.
[558] Thus is it that we find in all the philosophical
theogonies, the Holy Ghost female. The numerous sects of
the Gnostics had Sophia; the Jewish kabalists and
Talmudists, Shekinah (the garment of the Highest), which
descended between the two cherubim upon the Mercy Seat;
and we find even Jesus made to say, in an old text, “My
_Mother_, the Holy Ghost, took me.”
“The waters are called _nara_, because they were the
production of Nara, the Spirit of God” (“Institutes
of Manu.” i. 10).
[559] Narayana, or that which moves on the waters.
[560] “Manu,” sloka 12.
[561] When a female power, she is Sephira; when male, he is
Adam Kadmon, for, as the former contains in herself the
other nine Sephiroth, so, in their totality, the latter,
including Sephira, is embodied in the Archetypal Kadmon,
the πρωτογονος.
[562] See Haug’s “Aytareya Brahmanam,” of the Rig-Veda.
[563] The same transformations are found in the cosmogony of
every important nation. Thus, we see in the Egyptian
mythology, Isis and Osiris, sister and brother, man and
wife; and Horus, the Son of both, becoming the husband
of his mother, Isis, and producing a son, _Malouli_.
[564] Mandala I., Sûkta 166, Max Müller.
[565] “Asiatic Researches,” vol. viii., pp. 402, 403;
Colebrooke’s translation.
[566] As in the Pythagorean numerical system every number on
earth, or the world of the effects, corresponds to its
invisible prototype in the world of causes.
[567] See initial chap., vol. i., word Yajna.
[568] Eve is the trinity of nature, and Adam the unity of
spirit; the former the created material principle, the
latter the ideal organ of the creative principle, or, in
other words, this androgyne is both the principle and
the Logos, for א is the male, and ב the female; and, as
Levi expresses it, this first letter of the holy
language, Aleph, represents a man pointing with one hand
toward the sky, and with the other toward the ground. It
is the macrocosm and the microcosm at the same time, and
explains the double triangle of the Masons and the
five-pointed star. While the male is active the female
principle is passive, for it is SPIRIT and MATTER, the
latter word meaning _mother_ in nearly every language.
The columns of Solomon’s temple, Jachin and Boaz, are
the emblems of the androgyne; they are also respectively
male and female, white and black, square and round; the
male a unity, the female a binary. In the later
kabalistic treatises, the active principle is pictured
by the sword זכר, the passive by the sheath נקבה. See
“Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,” vol. i.
[569] The vertical line being the male principle, and the
horizontal the female, out of the union of the two at
the intersection point is formed the CROSS; the oldest
symbol in the Egyptian history of gods. It is the key of
Heaven in the rosy fingers of Neith, the celestial
virgin, who opens the gate at dawn for the exit of her
first-begotten, the radiant sun. It is the Stauros of
the Gnostics, and the philosophical cross of the
high-grade Masons. We find this symbol ornamenting the
_tee_ of the umbrella-shaped oldest pagodas in Thibet,
China, and India, as we find it in the hand of Isis, in
the shape of the “handled cross.” In one of the Chaitya
caves, at Ajunta, it surmounts the three umbrellas in
stone, and forms the centre of the vault.
[570] “When this world had emerged from obscurity, the subtile
elementary principles produced the vegetable germ which
at first animated the plants; from the plants, life
passed through the fantastic organisms which were born
in the ilus (_boue_) of the waters; then through a
series of forms and different animals, it at length
reached man” (“Manu,” book i.; and “Bhagavatta”).
Manu is a convertible type, which can by no means be
explained as a personage. Manu means sometimes humanity,
sometimes man. The Manu who emanated from the uncreated
Swayambhuva is, without doubt, the type of Adam Kadmon.
The Manu who is progenitor of the other six Manus is
evidently identical with the Rishis, or seven primeval
sages who are the forefathers of the post-diluvian
races. He is--as we shall show in Chapter VIII.--Noah,
and his six sons, or subsequent generations are the
originals of the post-diluvian and mythical patriarchs
of the Bible.
[571] Cory’s “Ancient Fragments.”
[572] See Vol. I., chap. i., pp. 33, 34, of this work.
[573] “Sepher Jezireh,” chap. i., Mishna ixth.
[574] Ibid.
[575] “Sohar,” i., 2 a.
[576] “Sepher Jezireh,” Mishna ix., 10.
[577] It is interesting to recall Hebrews i. 7, in connection
with this passage. “Who maketh his angels (messengers)
spirits, and his ministers (servants, those who
minister) a flame of fire.” The resemblance is too
striking for us to avoid the conclusion that the author
of “Hebrews” was as familiar with the “Kabala” as adepts
usually are.
[578] “The Sons of God;” “The India of the Brahmans,” p. 230.
[579] May it not be that Hanoumā is the representative of that
link of beings half-man, half-monkeys, which, according
to the theories of Messrs. Hovelacque and Schleicher,
were arrested in their development, and fell, so to say,
into a retrogressive evolution?
[580] The Primal or Ultimate Essence has _no name_ in India. It
is indicated sometimes as “That” and “This.” “This
(universe) was not originally anything. There was
neither heaven, nor earth, nor atmosphere. That being
non-existent resolved ‘Let me be.’” (Original Sanscrit
Text.) Dr. Muir, vol. v., p. 366.
[581] Coleman’s “Hindu Mythology.”
[582] The siege and subsequent surrender of Lanca (Isle of
Ceylon) to Rama is placed by the Hindu chronology--based
upon the Zodiac--at 7,500 to 8,000 years B.C., and the
following or eighth incarnation of Vishnu at 4,800 B.C.
(from the book of the Historical Zodiacs of the
Brahmans).
[583] A Hanoverian scientist has recently published a work
entitled _Ueber die Auflösung der Arten dinck Natürliche
Jucht Wahl_, in which he shows, with great ingenuity,
that Darwin was wholly mistaken in tracing man back to
the ape. On the contrary, he maintains that it is the
ape which has evolved from man. That, in the beginning,
mankind were, morally and physically, the types and
prototypes of our present race and of human dignity, by
their beauty of form, regularity of feature, cranial
development, nobility of sentiments, heroic impulses,
and grandeur of ideal conceptions. This is a purely
Brahmanic, Buddhistic, and kabalistic philosophy. His
book is copiously illustrated with diagrams, tables,
etc. He says that the gradual debasement and degradation
of man, morally and physically, can be readily traced
throughout the ethnological transformations down to our
times. And, as one portion has already degenerated into
apes, so the civilized man of the present day will at
last, under the action of the inevitable law of
necessity, be also succeeded by like descendants. If we
may judge of the future by the actual present, it
certainly does seem possible that so unspiritual and
materialistic a body as our physical scientists should
end as _simia_ rather than as seraphs.
[584] “De Bel. Jud.,” vol. ii., p. 12.
[585] “De Somniio,” p. 455 d.
[586] “Sohar,” vol. ii., p. 96.
[587] “Mishna;” “Aboth,” vol. iv., p. 29; Mackenzie’s “Royal
Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 413.
[588] “Sohar,” vol. iii, p. 61 b.
[589] Ibid., vol. i., p. 65 b.
[590] Hermetic work.
[591] “Dhamma-pada,” slokas 276 et seq.
[592] Neander: “History of the Church,” vol. i., p. 817.
[593] It is from the highest _Zion_ that Maitree-Buddha, the
Saviour to come, will descend on earth; and it is also
from Zion that comes the Christian Deliverer (see Romans
xi. 26).
[594] 1 Corinth. ii. 6, 7, 8.
[595] “Lotus de la Bonne Loi,” p. 806.
[596] “Du Bouddhisme,” 95.
[597] Philippians iii. 11-14.
[598] “The Mahâvansa,” vol. i., Introduction.
[599] The Five Articles of Faith.
[600] Not only did the Buddhist missionaries make their way
to the Mesopotamian Valley, but they even went so far
west as Ireland. The Rev. Dr. Lundy, in his work on
“Monumental Christianity,” referring to an Irish Round
Tower, observes: “Henry O’Brien explains this Round
Tower Crucifixion as that of Buddha; the animals as the
elephant and the bull, sacred to Buddha, and into which
his soul entered after death; the two figures standing
beside the cross as Buddha’s virgin mother, and Kama his
favorite disciple. The whole picture bears a close
likeness to the Crucifixion, in the cemetery of Pope
Julius, except the animals, which are conclusive proof
that it cannot be Christian. It came ultimately from the
far East to Ireland, with the Phœnician colonists, who
erected the Round Towers as symbols of the life-giving
and preserving power of man and nature, and how that
universal life is produced through suffering and death.”
When a Protestant clergyman is thus forced to confess
the pre-Christian existence of the crucifix in Ireland,
its Buddhistic character, and the penetration of the
missionaries of that faith even to that then remote
portion of the earth, we need not wonder that in the
minds of the Nazarean contemporaries of Jesus and their
descendants, he should not have been associated with
that universally known emblem in the character of a
Redeemer.
In noticing this admission of Dr. Lundy, Mr. Charles
Sotheran remarked, in a lecture before the American
Philological Society, that both legends and
archæological remains unite in proving beyond question
“that Ireland, like every other nation, once listened to
the propagandists of Siddhârtha-Buddha.”
[601] “The religion of multiplied baptisms, the scion of the
still existent sect named the ‘Christians of St. John,’
or Mendæans, whom the Arabs call _el-Mogtasila_ and
Baptists. The Aramean verb _seba_, origin of the name
_Sabian_, is a synonym of βαπτιζω” (Renan: “Vie de
Jesus”).
[602] Foh-Tchou, literally, in Chinese, meaning Buddha’s lord,
or the teacher of the doctrines of Buddha--Foh.
[603] This mountain is situated southwest of China, almost
between China and Thibet.
[604] SOL, being situated, on the diagram, exactly in the
centre of the solar system (of which the Ophites appear
to have been cognizant)--hence, under the direct
vertical ray of the Higher Spiritual Sun--showers his
brightness on all other planets.
[605] Speaking of Venus, Placidus, the astrologer, always
maintained that “her bluish lustre denotes heat.” As to
Mercury, it was a strange fancy of the Ophites to
represent him as a spirit of water, when astrologically
considered he is as “a cold, dry, earthy, and melancholy
star.”
[606] The name which Norberg translates, in his Onomasticon
to the “Codex Nazaræus,” as Ferho, stands, in the
original, _Parcha Rabba_. In the “Life of Manes,” given
by Epiphanius, in his “Hær.,” lxvi., is mentioned a
certain priest of Mithras, a friend of the great
Hæresiarch Manes, named Parchus.
[607] Its description is found in one of the magic books of
the Egyptian King Nechepsos, and its use prescribed on
green jasper stones, as a potent amulet. Galen mentions
it in his work, “De Simp. Med.,” c. ix.
[608] Consider those two diametrically-opposed doctrines--the
Catholic and the Protestant; the one preached by Paul,
the semi-Platonist, and the other by James, the orthodox
Talmudist.
[609] The material, bad side of Sophia-Achamoth, who emanates
from herself Ilda-Baoth and his six sons.
[610] See Norberg’s translation of “Codex Nazaræus,” Preface.
This proves once more the identification of Jesus with
Gautama-Buddha, in the minds of the Nazarene Gnostics,
as _Nebu_ or Mercury is the planet sacred to the
Buddhas.
[611] Nous, the designation given by Anaxagoras to the
Supreme Deity, was taken from Egypt, where he was
styled NOUT.
[612] By very few though, for the creators of the material
universe were always considered as subordinate
deities to the Most High God.
[613] Lydus, 1. c., Ledrenus, 1. c.
[614] “Erân das Land zwischen dem Indus und Tigris.”
[615] _Asi_ means, moreover, “Thou art,” in Sanscrit, and
also “sword,” “_Asi_,” without the accent on the
first vowel.
[616] Professor A. Wilder.
[617] These sacred anagrams were called “Zeruph.”
[618] “Book of Numbers, or Book of the Keys.”
[619] The “Jezira,” or book of the creation, was written by
Rabbi Akiba, who was the teacher and instructor of
Simeon Ben Iochai, who was called the prince of the
kabalists, and wrote the “Sohar.” Franck asserts that
“Jezira” was written one century B.C. (“Die Kabbala,”
65), but other and as competent judges make it far
older. At all events, it is now proved that Simeon Ben
Iochai lived _before_ the second destruction of the
temple.
[620] “Jezira,” p. 8.
[621] Ibid. See the constancy with which Ezekiel sticks in
his vision to the “_wheels_” of the “living creatures”
(ch. 1., passim).
[622] He was an Alexandrian Neo-platonic under the first of
the Ptolemies.
[623] “Chips,” vol. i.
[624] See Max Müller’s “Our Figures.”
[625] Ibid.
[626] See King’s “Gnostics and their Remains,” plate xiii.
[627] “Vita Pythagor.”
[628] 608 B.C.
[629] This city was built 332 B.C.
[630] “Metaph.,” vii. F.
[631] See drawings from the Temple of Rama, Coleman’s “Mythology
of the Hindus.” New York: J. W. Bouton, Publisher.
[632] See Hargrave Jennings: “Rosicrucians,” p. 252.
[633] K. O. Müller: “History of Greek Literature,” p. 283;
“Movers,” pp. 547-553; Dunlap: “Sod, the Mysteries of
Adoni,” p. 21.
[634] See “Universal History,” vol. v., p. 301.
[635] “Spirit. Hist.,” pp. 64, 67, 78.
[636] “Sod, the Mysteries of Adoni,” p. 21.
[637] See Leviticus xvi. 8, 10, and other verses relating to
the biblical goat in the original texts.
[638] “Sagra Scrittura,” and “Paralipomeni.”
[639] Article “Goat,” p. 257.
[640] “Types of Mankind,” p. 600; “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia.”
[641] “Ecclesiastical History,” vol. i., pp. 381, 382. Read
the whole quotations to appreciate the doctrine in full.
[642] “Anacalypsis.”
[643] Quoted in the “Seers of the Ages,” by J. M. Peebles.
[644] We hold to the idea--which becomes self-evident when the
Zoroastrian imbroglio is considered--that there were,
even in the days of Darius, two distinct sacerdotal
castes of Magi: the initiated and those who were allowed
to officiate in the popular rites only. We see the same
in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Belonging to every temple
there were attached the “hierophants” of the _inner_
sanctuary, and the secular clergy who were not even
instructed in the Mysteries. It is against the
absurdities and superstitions of the latter that Darius
revolted, and “crushed them,” for the inscription of his
tomb shows that he was a “hierophant” and a Magian
himself. It is also but the exoteric rites of this class
of Magi which descended to posterity, for the great
secresy in which were preserved the “Mysteries” of the
true Chaldean Magi was never violated, however much
guess-work may have been expended on them.
[645] xxiii., 6.
[646] “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 185.
[647] These are truths which cannot fail to impress themselves
upon the minds of earnest thinkers. While the Ebionites,
Nazarites, Hemerobaptists, Lampseans, Sabians, and the
many other earliest sects which wavered later between
the varying dogmatisms suggested to them by the
_esoteric_ and misunderstood parables of the Nazarene
teacher, whom they justly regarded as a prophet, there
were men, for whose names we would vainly search
history, who preserved the secret doctrines of Jesus as
pure and unadulterated as they had been received. And
still, even all these above-mentioned and conflicting
sects were far more orthodox in their Christianity, or
rather Christism, than the Churches of Constantine and
Rome. “It was a strange fate that befell these
unfortunate people” (the Ebionites), says Lord Amberley,
“when, overwhelmed by the flood of heathenism that had
swept into the Church, they were condemned as heretics.
Yet, there is no evidence that they had ever swerved
from the doctrines of Jesus, or of the disciples who
knew him in his lifetime.... Jesus himself was
circumcised ... reverenced the temple at Jerusalem as ‘a
house of prayer for all nations.’... But the torrent of
progress swept past the Ebionites, and left them
stranded on the shore” (“An Analysis of Religious
Beliefs,” by Viscount Amberley, vol. i., p. 446).
[648] What will, perhaps, still more astonish American readers,
is the fact that, in the United States, a mystical
fraternity now exists, which claims an intimate
relationship with one of the oldest and most powerful of
Eastern Brotherhoods. It is known as the Brotherhood of
Luxor, and its faithful members have the custody of very
important secrets of science. Its ramifications extend
widely throughout the great Republic of the West. Though
this brotherhood has been long and hard at work, the
secret of its existence has been jealously guarded.
Mackenzie describes it as having “a Rosicrucian basis,
and numbering many members” (“Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,”
p. 461). But, in this, the author is mistaken; it has no
Rosicrucian basis. The name Luxor is primarily derived
from the ancient Beloochistan city of Looksur, which
lies between Bela and Kedgee, and also gave its name to
the Egyptian city.
[649] These people do not accept the name of Druzes, but
regard the appellation as an insult. They call themselves
the “disciples of Hamsa,” their Messiah, who came to
them, in the tenth century, from the “Land of the Word
of God,” and, together with his disciple, Mochtana
Boha-eddin, committed this _Word_ to writing, and
entrusted it to the care of a few initiates, with the
injunction of the greatest secresy. They are usually
called Unitarians.
[650] The Okhal (from the Arabic _akl_--intelligence or wisdom)
are the initiated, or wise men of this sect. They hold,
in their mysteries, the same position as the hierophant
of old, in the Eleusinian and others.
[651] This is the doctrine of the Gnostics who held Christos
to be the personal immortal Spirit of man.
[652] The ten Messiahs or avatars remind again of the five
Buddhistic and ten Brahmanical avatars of Buddha and
Christna.
[653] See, farther on, a letter from an “Initiate.”
[654] In this column the first numbers are those given in the
article on the _Druzes_ in the “New American Cyclopædia”
(Appleton’s), vol. vi., p. 631. The numbers in
parentheses show the sequence in which the commandments
would stand were they given correctly.
[655] This pernicious doctrine belongs to the old policy of
the Catholic Church, but is certainly false as regards
the Druzes. They maintain that it is right and lawful to
_withhold the truth_ about their own tenets, no one
outside their own sect having a right to pry into their
religion. The _okhals_ never countenance deliberate
falsehood in any form, although the laymen have many a
time got rid of the spies sent by the Christians to
discover their secrets, by deceiving them with sham
initiations. (See the letter of Prof. Rawson to the
author, p. 313.)
[656] This commandment does not exist in the Lebanon teaching.
[657] There is no such commandment, but the practice thereof
exists by mutual agreement, as in the days of the
Gnostic persecution.
[658] “Mount Lebanon,” vol. 3. London, 1853.
[659] Every temple in India is surrounded by such belts of
sacred trees. And like the Koum-boum of Kansu (Mongolia)
no one but an initiate has a right to approach them.
[660] John Yarker, Jr.: “Notes on the Scientific and
Religious Mysteries of Antiquity,” etc.
[661] This “Self,” which the Greek philosophers called
_Augœides_, the “Shining One,” is impressively and
beautifully described in Max Müller’s “Veda.” Showing
the “Veda” to be the first book of the Aryan nations,
the professor adds that “we have in it a period of the
intellectual life of man to which there is no parallel
in any other part of the world. In the hymns of the
“Veda” we see man left to himself to solve the riddle of
this world.... He invokes the gods around him, he
praises, he worships them. But still with all these gods
... beneath him, and above him, the early poet seems ill
at rest within himself. There, too, in his own breast,
he has discovered a power that is never mute when he
prays, never absent when he fears and trembles. It seems
to inspire his prayers, and yet to listen to them; it
seems to live in him, and yet to support him and all
around him. The only name he can find for this
mysterious power is ‘Brahman;’ for _brahman_ meant
originally force, will, wish, and the propulsive power
of creation. But this impersonal brahman, too, as soon
as it is named, grows into something strange and divine.
It ends by being one of many gods, one of the great
triad, worshipped to the present day. And still the
thought within him has no real name; that power which is
nothing but itself, which supports the gods, the
heavens, and every living being, floats before his mind,
conceived but not expressed. At last he calls it
‘Âtman,’ for Âtman, originally breath or spirit, comes
to mean Self, and Self alone; _Self_, whether Divine or
human; Self, whether creating or suffering; Self,
whether one or all; but always Self, independent and
free. ‘Who has seen the first-born,’ says the poet, when
he who had no bones (_i.e._, form) bore him that had
bones? Where was the life, the blood, the Self of the
world? Who went to ask this from any one who knew it?”
(“Rig-Veda,” i., 164, 4). This idea of a divine Self,
once expressed, everything else must acknowledge its
supremacy; “_Self_ is the Lord of all things, Self is
the King of all things. As all the spokes of a wheel are
contained in the nave and the circumference, all things
are contained in this Self; all Selves are contained in
this Self. Brahman itself is but Self” (Ibid., p. 478;
“Khândogya-upanishad,” viii., 3, 3, 4); “Chips from a
German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 69.
[662] John x. 34, 35.
[663] 2 Corinthians, vi. 16.
[664] Jacolliot: “Voyage au Pays des Éléphants.”
[665] Buddhist chief priests at Ceylon.
[666] Samenaïra is one who studies to obtain the high office
of a _Oepasampala_. He is a disciple and is looked upon
as a son by the chief priest. We suspect that the
Catholic seminarist must look to the Buddhists for the
parentage of his title.
[667] Jacolliot declares, in his “Fils de Dieu,” that he
copied these dates from the “Book of the Historical
Zodiacs,” preserved in the pagoda of Vilenur.
[668] We were told that there were nearly 20,000 of such books.
[669] Lepsius: “Königsbuch,” b. ii, _tal. i. dyn._ 5, h. p.
In 1 Peter ii. 3, Jesus is called “the Lord Crestos.”
[670] Mackenzie: “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 207.
[671] “Adv. Hær.,” iii., 2, § 2.
[672] Sprengel: “Histoire de la Médecine.”
[673] “Christ of Paul,” p. 188.
[674] “Adv. Hær.,” v. 33, § 4.
[675] Eusebius: “Hist. Eccles.,” iii., p. 39.
[676] Bunsen: “Egypt,” vol. i, p. 200.
[677] “Internal Development of Europe,” p. 147.
[678] “Antiquities,” lib. xviii., cap. 3.
[679] Wise man always meant with the ancients a kabalist. It
means astrologer and magician. “Israelite Indeed,”
vol. iii., p. 206. Hakim is a physician.
[680] Dr. Lardner rejects it as spurious, and gives _nine_
reasons for rejecting it.
[681] Revelation i. and ii.
[682] Philip, the first martyr, was one of the seven, and
he was stoned about the year A.D. 34.
[683] 1 Corinthians, vii. 34.
[684] Revelation xiv. 3, 4.
[685] Philopatris, in Taylor’s “Diegesis,” p. 376.
[686] King’s “Gnostics and their Remains.”
[687] “Aug. Serm.,” clii. See Payne Knight’s “Mystic Theology
of the Ancients,” p. 107.
[688] Baronius: “Annales Ecclesiastici,” t. xxi., p. 89.
[689] “Chron. de Lanercost,” ed. Stevenson, p. 109.
[690] Dulaure: “Histoire Abregée des Différens Cultes,”
vol. ii., p. 285; Martezzi “Pagani é Christiani,” p. 78.
[691] Basilides is termed by Tertullian a Platonist.
[692] C. W. King: “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 197,
foot-note 1.
[693] Plutarch: “Roman Questions,” p. 44.
[694] Linus, Anacletus, and Clement.
[695] “Life of Claudius,” sect. 25.
[696] “Vita Saturnini Vopiscus.”
[697] “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 68.
[698] In Payne Knight’s “Ancient Art and Mythology,” Serapis
is represented as wearing his hair long, “formally
turned back and disposed in ringlets falling down upon
his breast and shoulders like that of women. His whole
person, too, is always enveloped in drapery reaching to
his feet.” (§ cxlv.). This is the conventional picture
of Christ.
[699] “Vie de Jesus,” p. 405.
[700] See “Pirke Aboth;” a Collection of Proverbs and
Sentences of the old Jewish Teachers, in which many
New Testament sayings are found.
[701] “Buddhism,” p. 217.
[702] Max Müller: “Christ and other Masters;” “Chips,” vol. i.
[703] The “Life of Jesus” by Strauss, which Renan calls “_un
livre, commode, exact, spirituel et consciencieux_” (a
handy, exact, witty, and conscientious book), rude and
iconoclastic as it is, is nevertheless in many ways
preferable to the “Vie de Jesus,” of the French author.
Laying aside the intrinsic and historical value of the
two works--with which we have nothing to do, we now
simply point to Renan’s distorted outline-sketch of
Jesus. We cannot think what led Renan into such an
erroneous delineation of character. Few of those who,
while rejecting the divinity of the Nazarene prophet,
still believe that he is no myth, can read the work
without experiencing an uneasy, and even angry feeling
at such a psychological mutilation. He makes of Jesus a
sort of sentimental ninny, a theatrical simpleton,
enamored of his own poetical divagations and speeches,
wanting every one to adore him, and finally caught in
the snares of his enemies. Such was not Jesus, the
Jewish philanthropist, the adept and mystic of a school
now forgotten by the Christians and the Church--if it
ever was known to her; the hero, who preferred even to
risk death, rather than withhold some truths which he
believed would benefit humanity. We prefer Strauss who
openly names him an impostor and a pretender,
occasionally calling in doubt his very existence; but
who at least spares him that ridiculous color of
sentimentalism in which Renan paints him.
[704] See Chap. iii., p. 97.
[705] In a recent work, called the “World’s Sixteen Crucified
Saviors” (by Mr. Kersey Graves) which attracted our
notice by its title, we were indeed startled as we were
forewarned on the title-page we should be by _historical_
evidences to be found neither in history nor tradition.
Apollonius, who is represented in it as one of these
sixteen “saviours,” is shown by the author as finally
“_crucified_ ... having risen from the dead ...
appearing to his disciples after his resurrection,
and”--like Christ again--“convincing a _Tommy_(?)
Didymus” by getting him to feel the print of the nails
on his hands and feet (see note, p. 268). To begin with,
neither Philostratus, the biographer of Apollonius, nor
history says any such thing. Though the precise time of
his death is unknown, no disciple of Apollonius ever
said that he was either crucified, or appeared to them.
So much for one “Saviour.” After that we are told that
Gautama-Buddha, whose life and death have been so
minutely described by several authorities, Barthelemy
St. Hilaire included--was also “_crucified_ by his
enemies near the foot of the Nepäl mountains” (see p.
107); while the Buddhist books, history, and scientific
research tell us, through the lips of Max Müller and a
host of Orientalists, that “Gautama-Buddha (Sâkya-muni)
died near the Ganges.... He had nearly reached the city
of Kusinâgara, when his vital strength began to fail. He
halted in a forest, and while sitting under a sâl tree
he gave up the ghost” (Max Müller: “Chips from a German
Workshop,” vol. i., p. 213). The references of Mr.
Graves to Higgins and Sir W. Jones, in some of his
hazardous speculations, prove nothing. Max Müller shows
some antiquated authorities writing elaborate books “...
in order to prove that Buddha had been in reality the
Thoth of the Egyptians; that he was Mercury, or Wodan,
or Zoroaster, or Pythagoras.... Even Sir W. Jones ...
identified Buddha first with Odin and afterwards with
Shishak.” We are in the nineteenth century, not in the
eighteenth; and though to write books on the authority
of the earliest Orientalists may in one sense be viewed
as a mark of respect for old age, it is not always safe
to try the experiment in our times. Hence this highly
instructive volume lacks one important feature which
would have made it still more interesting. The author
should have added after Prometheus the “Roman,” and
Alcides the _Egyptian god_ (p. 266) a seventeenth
“crucified Saviour” to the list, “Venus, god of the
war,” introduced to an admiring world by Mr. Artemus
Ward the “showman!”
[706] “Khandogya-upanishad,” viii., 3, 4; Max Müller: “Veda.”
[707] “Idra Rabba,” x., 117.
[708] Introd. in “Sohar,” pp. 305-312.
[709] John xiv.
[710] “Les Hauts Phénomènes de la Magie,” p. 74.
[711] Barthelemy St. Hilaire: “Le Buddha et sa Religion,”
Paris, 1860.
[712] “Journal des Débats,” Avril, 1853.
[713] “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.”
[714] “Timæus;” “Polit.,” 269, E.
[715] “Timæus,” 29; “Phædrus,” 182, 247; “Repub.,” ii., 379, B.
[716] “Laws,” iv., 715, E.; x., 901, C.
[717] “Repub.,” ii., 381; “Thæt.,” 176, A.
[718] “Laws,” x., 901, D.
[719] “Laws,” iv., 716, A.; “Repub.,” x., 613, A.
[720] “Phædrus,” 246, C.
[721] E. Zeller: “Plato and the Old Academy.”
[722] “Laws,” x., 905, D.
[723] Max Müller: “Buddhism,” April, 1862.
[724] Of the Abbé Huc, Max Müller thus wrote in his “Chips
from a German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 187: “The late Abbé
Huc pointed out the similarities between the Buddhist
and Roman Catholic ceremonials with such a _naïveté_,
that, to his surprise, he found his delightful ‘Travels
in Thibet’ placed on the ‘Index.’ ‘One cannot fail being
struck,’ he writes, ‘with their great resemblance with
the Catholicism. The bishop’s crosier, the mitre, the
dalmatic, the round hat that the great lamas wear in
travel ... the mass, the double choir, the psalmody, the
exorcisms, the censer with five chains to it, opening
and shutting at will, the blessings of the lamas, who
extend their right hands over the head of the faithful
ones, the rosary, the celibacy of the clergy, the
penances and retreats, the cultus of the Saints, the
fasting, the processions, the litanies, the holy water;
such are the similarities of the Buddhists with
ourselves. He might have added tonsure, relics, and the
confessional.”
[725] “Crawford’s Mission to Siam,” p. 182.
[726] Many are the marvels recorded as having taken place at
his death, or we should rather say his translation; for
he did not die as others do, but having suddenly
disappeared, while a dazzling light filled the cavern
with glory, his body was again seen upon its subsidence.
When this heavenly light gave place to the habitual
semi-darkness of the gloomy cave--then only, says
Ginsburg, “the disciples of Israel perceived that the
lamp of Israel was extinguished.” His biographers tell
us that there were voices heard from Heaven during the
preparation for his funeral and at his interment. When
the coffin was lowered down into the deep cave excavated
for it, a flame broke out from it, and a voice mighty
and majestic pronounced these words in the air: “This is
he who caused the earth to quake, and the kingdoms to
shake!”
[727] Plot: “Natural History of Staffordshire.” Published in 1666.
[728] “Die Kabbala,” 75; “Sod,” vol. ii.
[729] “Die Kabbala,” 47.
[730] He relates how Rabbi Eleazar, in the presence of Vespasian
and his officers, expelled demons from several men by
merely applying to the nose of the demoniac one of the
number of roots recommended by King Solomon! The
distinguished historian assures us that the Rabbi drew
out the devils through the nostrils of the patients in
the name of Solomon and by the power of the incantations
composed by the king-kabalist. Josephus: “Antiquities,”
VIII., ii., 5.
[731] There are _unconscious_ miracles produced sometimes,
which, like the phenomena now called “Spiritual,” are
caused through natural cosmic powers, mesmerism,
electricity, and the invisible beings who are always at
work around us, whether they be human or elementary
spirits.
[732] It dates from 1540; and in 1555 a general outcry was
raised against them in some parts of Portugal, Spain,
and other countries.
[733] Extracts from this “Arrêt” were compiled into a work in
4 vols., 12mo., which appeared at Paris, in 1762, and
was known as “Extraits des Assertions, etc.” In a work
entitled “Réponse aux Assertions,” an attempt was made
by the Jesuits to throw discredit upon the facts
collected by the Commissioners of the French Parliament
in 1762, as for the most part malicious fabrications.
“To ascertain the validity of this impeachment,” says
the author of “The Principles of the Jesuits,” “the
libraries of the two universities of the British Museum
and of Sion College have been searched for the authors
cited; and in every instance where the volume was found,
the correctness of the citation established.”
[734] “Theologiæ Moralis,” Tomus iv., Lugduni, 1663.
[735] Tom. iv., lib. xxviii., sect. 1, de Præcept I., c. 20,
n. 184.
[736] Ibid., sect. 2, de Præcept I., Probl. 113, n. 586.
[737] Richard Arsdekin, “Theologia Tripartita,” Coloniæ,
1744, Tom. ii., Pars. ii., Tr. 5, c. 1, § 2, n. 4.
[738] “Theologia Moralis nunc pluribus partibus aucta, à R.
P. Claudio Lacroix, Societatis Jesu.” Coloniæ, 1757
(Ed. Mus. Brit.).
[739] Tom. ii., lib. iii., Pars. 1, Fr. 1, c. 1, dub. 2,
resol. viii. What a pity that the counsel for the
defense had not bethought them to cite this orthodox
legalization of “cheating by palmistry or otherwise,” at
the recent religio-scientific prosecution of the medium
Slade, in London.
[740] Niccolini: “History of the Jesuits.”
[741] “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 369.
[742] Imago: “Primi Sæculi Societatis Jesu,” lib. 1., c. 3.,
p. 64.
[743] Anthony Escobar: “Universæ Theologiæ Moralis receptiore,
absque lite sententiæ,” etc., Tomus i., Lugduni, 1652
(Ed. Bibl. Acad. Cant.). “Idem sentio, e breve illud
tempus ad unius horæ spatium traho. Religiosus itaque
habitum demittens assignato hoc temporis interstitio,
non incurrit excommunicationem, _etiamsi dimittat non
solùm ex causâ, turpi, scilicet fornicandi, aut clàm
aliquid abripiendi, set etiam ut incognitus ineat
lupanar_.” Probl. 44, n. 213.
[744] Pars. 11, Tra. 2, c. 31.
[745] See “The Principles of the Jesuits, Developed in a
Collection of Extracts from their own Authors.” London,
1839.
[746] From the Pastoral of the Archbishop of Cambrai.
[747] See “Jerusalem Talmud, Synhedrin,” c. 7, etc.
[748] “Franck,” pp. 55, 56.
[749] Charles Antony Casnedi: “Crisis Theologica,”
Ulyssipone, 1711. Tome i., Disp. 6, Sect. 2, § 1, n. 59.
[750] Ibid.
[751] Ibid., § 2, n. 78.
[752] Ibid., Sect. 5, § 1, n. 165.
[753] “Thesis propugnata in regio Soc. Jes. Collegio
celeberrimæ Academiæ Cadomensis, die Veneris, 30 Jan.,
1693.” Cadomi, 1693.
[754] Michelet and Quinet of the College of France: “The
Jesuits.”
[755] Champollion: “Hermes Trismegistus,” xxvii.
[756] “De Cultu Adorationis Libri Tres.,” Lib. iii., Disp. i.,
c. 2.
[757] Ibid.
[758] “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v., p. 94.
[759] Ibid., vol. v., p. 129.
[760] “And God created ... every _nephesh_ (life) that
moveth” (Gen. i. 21), meaning animals; and (Genesis ii.
7) it is said: “And man became a _nephesh_” (living
soul); which shows that the word _nephesh_ was
indifferently applied to _immortal_ man and to _mortal_
beast. “And surely your blood of your _nepheshim_
(lives) will I require; at the hand of every beast will
I require it, and at the hand of man” (Gen. ix. 5).
“Escape for _nepheshe_” (escape for thy _life_ is
translated) (Gen. xix. 17). “Let us not kill him,” reads
the English version (Gen. xxxvii. 21). “Let us not kill
his _nephesh_,” is the Hebrew text. “_Nephesh_ for
_nephesh_,” says Leviticus (xvii. 8). “He that killeth
any man shall surely be put to death.” “He that smiteth
the _nephesh_ of a man” (Levit. xxiv. 17); and from
verse 18 and following it reads: “And he that killeth a
beast (nephesh) shall make it good.... Beast for beast,”
whereas the original text has it “nephesh for nephesh.”
1 Kings i. 12; ii. 23; iii. 11; xix. 2, 3, all have
_nephesh_ for life and soul. “Then shall thy _nepheshah_
for (his) _nepheshu_,” explains the prophet in 1 Kings
xx. 39.
Truly, unless we read the “Old Testament” kabalistically
and comprehend the hidden meaning thereof, it is very
little we can learn from it as regards the soul’s
immortality. The common people among Hebrews had not the
slighest idea of soul and spirit, and made no difference
between _life_, _blood_, and _soul_, calling the latter
the “breath of life.” And King James’s translators have
made such a jumble of it that _no one but a kabalist can
restore the Bible to its original form_.
[761] In “Præcepta Decaloga” (Edit. of Sion Library), Tom. i.,
lib. iv., c. 2, n. 7, 8.
[762] Opinion of John de Dicastille, Sect. xv., “De Justitia
et Jure,” etc., cens. pp. 319, 320.
[763] “Cursûs Theologici,” Tomus v., Duaci, 1642, Disp. 36,
Sect. 5, n. 118.
[764] Name of the highest Egyptian hierophants.
[765] “Crata Nepoa, or the Mysteries of the Ancient Egyptian
Priests.”
[766] See Matthew xvi. 18, where it is mistranslated “the
gates of Hell.”
[767] Humberto Malhandrini: “Ritual of Initiations,” p. 105.
Venice, 1657.
[768] Pages 43, 44, note f. Niccolini of Rome, author of
“The History of the Pontificate of Pius IX.;” “The Life
of Father Gavazzi,” etc.
[769] And begged in the name of _Him_ who had nowhere to lay
his head!
[770] In “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” Bunsen
gives the cycle of 21,000 years, which he adopts to
facilitate the chronological calculations for the
reconstruction of the universal history of mankind. He
shows that this cycle “for the nutation of the
ecliptic,” arrived at its apex in the year 1240 of our
era. He says:
“The cycle divides itself into two halves of 10,500 (or
twice 5,250) years each.
“The beginning of the first half:
The highest point will be 19,760 B.C.
The lowest 9,260
Consequently the middle of the descending
line (beginning of second quarter) will
be 14,510
The middle of the ascending line
(beginning of fourth quarter) 4,010
“The new cycle, which began in 1240 of our era, will come
to the end of its first quarter in 4010 A.D.”
The Baron explains that “in round numbers, the most
favorable epochs for our hemisphere since the great
catastrophe in Middle Asia (Deluge 10,000 years B.C.)
are: the 4,000 years before, and the 4,000 years after
Christ; and the beginning of the first epoch, _of which
alone we can judge_, as it alone is complete before us,
coincides exactly with the beginnings of national
history, or (what is identical) with the beginning of
_our consciousness_ of continuous existence” (“Egypt’s
Place in Universal History,” Key, p. 102).
“Our consciousness” must mean, we suppose, the
consciousness _of scientists_, who accept nothing _on
faith_, but much on unverified hypotheses. We do not say
this with reference to the above-quoted author, earnest
scholar and noble champion that he is, of freedom in the
Christian Church, but generally. Baron Bunsen has well
found for himself that a man cannot remain an honest
scientist and please the clerical party. Even the little
concessions he made in favor of the antiquity of
mankind, brought on him, in 1859, the most insolent
denunciations, such as “We lose all faith in the
author’s judgment ... he has yet to learn the very first
principles of historical criticisms ... extravagant and
_unscientific_ exaggeration,” and so on--the pious
vituperator closing his learned denunciations by
assuring the public that Baron Bunsen “_cannot even
construct a Greek sentence_” (“Quarterly Review,” 1859;
see also “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” chap. on
Egyptological Works and English Reviews). But we do
regret that Baron Bunsen had no better opportunity to
examine the “Kabala” and the Brahmanical books of the
Zodiacs.
[771] “The Funeral Ritual of the Deeds of Horus.”
[772] Bunsen: “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v.,
p. 133.
[773] Lepsius: “Abth.,” iii.; Bl., 276; Bunsen, 134.
[774] In the eighty-first chapter of the “Ritual” the soul is
called _the germ of lights_ and in the seventy-ninth the
Demiurgos, or one of the creators.
[775] “Ritual,” vi., 44; Champollion: “Manifestations to the
Light;” Lepsius: “Book of the Dead;” Bunsen: “Egypt’s
Place in Universal History.”
[776] We cannot help quoting a remark by Baron Bunsen in
relation to the “Word” being identical with the
“Ineffable Name” of the Masons and the kabalists. While
explaining the “Ritual,” some of the details of which
“resemble rather the _enchantments of a magician than
solemn rites_, although a hidden and mystical meaning
must have been attached to them” (the honest admission
of this much, at least, is worth something), the author
observes: “The mystery of names, the knowledge of which
was a sovereign virtue, and which, at a later period,
degenerated into the _rank heresy_ (?) of the Gnostics
and the magic of enchanters, appears to have _existed
not only in Egypt but elsewhere_. Traces of it are found
in the ‘Cabala’ ... it prevailed in the Greek and
Asiatic mythology” (“Egypt’s Place, etc.,” p. 147).
We then see the representatives of Science agreeing upon
this one point, at least. The initiates of all countries
had the same “mystery name.” And now it remains with the
scholars to prove that every adept, hierophant,
magician, or enchanter (Moses and Aaron included) as
well as every kabalist, from the institution of the
Mysteries down to the present age, has been either a
knave or a fool, for believing in the efficacy of this
name.
[777] See Chap. I., pp. 42, 43, note, of this volume.
[778] See “The Principles of the Jesuits, Developed in a
Collection of Extracts from their own Authors,” London:
J. G. and F. Rivington, St. Paul’s Churchyard, and
Waterloo Place, Pall Mall; H. Wix, 41 New Bridge Street,
Blackfriars; J. Leslie, Queen Street, etc., 1839.
Section xvii., “High Treason and Regicide,” containing
thirty-four extracts from the same number of authorities
(of the Society of Jesus) upon the question, among
others the opinion thereof of the famous _Robert
Bellarmine_. So Emmanuel Sa says: “The rebellion of an
ecclesiastic against a king, _is not a crime of high
treason, because he is not subject to the king_”
(“Confessarium Aphorismi Verbo Clericus,” Ed. Coloniæ,
1615, Ed. Coll. Sion). “_The people_,” says John
Bridgewater, “_are not only permitted, but they are
required and their duty demands_, that at the mandate of
the Vicar of Christ, _who is the sovereign pastor over
all nations of the earth_, the faith which they had
previously made with such princes should not be kept”
(“Concertatio Ecclesiæ Catholicæ in Angliâ adversus
Calvino Papistas,” Resp. fol. 348).
In “De Rege et Regis Institutione, Libri Tres,” 1640
(Edit. Mus. Brit.), John Mariana goes even farther: “If
the circumstances will permit,” he says, “it will be
lawful to destroy with the sword the prince who is
declared a public enemy.... _I shall never consider that
man to have done wrong, who, favouring the public
wishes, should attempt to kill him_,” and “_to put them
to death is not only lawful, but a laudble and glorious
action_.” Est tamen salutaris cogitatio, ut sit
principibus persuasum si rempublicam oppresserint, si
vitiis et fæditate intolerandi erunt, _eâ conditione
vivere, ut non jure tantum, sed cum laude et gloriâ
perimi possint_” (Lib. i., c. 6, p. 61).
But the most delicate piece of Christian teaching is
found in the precept of this Jesuit when he argues upon
the best and surest way of killing kings and statesmen.
“In my own opinion,” he says, “deleterious drugs should
not be given to an enemy, neither should a deadly poison
be mixed with his food or in his cup.... Yet _it will
indeed be lawful to use this method_ in the case in
question (that _he who should kill the tyrant would be
highly esteemed, both in favor and in praise_,” for “_it
is a glorious thing to exterminate this pestilent and
mischievous race from the community of men_), not to
constrain the person who is to be killed to take of
himself the poison which, inwardly received, would
deprive him of life, _but to cause it to be outwardly
applied by another_ without his intervention; as, when
there is so much strength in the poison, that if spread
upon a seat or on the clothes it would be sufficiently
powerful to cause death” (Ibid., lib. i., c. f., p. 67).
“It was thus that Squire attempted the life of Queen
Elizabeth, at the instigation of the Jesuit Walpole.”--
Pasquier: “Catéchisme des Jésuites” (1677, p. 350,
etc.), and “Rapin” (fol., Lond., 1733, vol. ii., book
xvii., p. 148).
[779] Puffendorf: “Droit de la Nat.,” book iv., ch. 1.
[780] “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of
old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself.... But I say
unto you, swear not at all,” etc. “But let your
communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is
more than these cometh of evil” (Matthew v. 33, 34,
37).
[781] Barbeyrac, in his notes on Puffendorf, shows that the
Peruvians used no oath, but a simple averment before
the Inca, and were never found perjuring themselves.
[782] We beg the reader to remember that we do not mean by
Christianity the _teachings of Christ_, but those of
his alleged servants--the clergy.
[783] Dr. Anderson’s “Defence,” quoted by John Yarker in his
“Notes on the Scientific and Religious Mysteries of
Antiquity.”
[784] Epiphanius included, we must think, after that, in
violation of his oath, he had sent over seventy persons
into exile, who belonged to the secret society he
betrayed.
[785] United States Anti-Masonic Convention: “Obligation of
Masonic Oaths,” speech delivered by Mr. Hopkins, of
New York.
[786] John Yarker, Junr.: “Notes on the Scientific and Religious
Mysteries of Antiquity; the Gnosis and Secret Schools of
the Middle Ages; Modern Rosicrucianism; and the various
Rites and Degrees of Free and Accepted Masonry.” London,
1872.
[787] Ibid., p. 151.
[788] John Yarker: “Notes, etc.,” p. 150.
[789] “Proceedings of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand
Inspectors-General of the Thirty-third and Last Degree,
etc., etc. Held at the city of New York, August 15,
1876,” pp. 54, 55.
[790] “Histoire des sectes religieuses,” vol. ii., pp. 392-428.
[791] “Notitia codicis græci evangelium Johannis variatum
continentis,” Havaniæ, 1828.
[792] This is the reason why unto this day the fanatical and
kabalistic members of the Nazarenes of Basra (Persia),
have a tradition of the glory, wealth, and power of
their “Brothers,” agents, or _messengers_ as they term
them in Malta and Europe. There are some few remaining
yet, they say, who will sooner or later restore the
doctrine of their Prophet Iohanan (St. John), the son of
Lord Jordan, and eliminate from the hearts of humanity
every other false teaching.
[793] The two great pagodas of Madura and Benares, are built
in the form of a cross, each wing being equal in extent
(See Mauri: “Indian Antiquities,” vol. iii., pp.
360-376).
[794] Findel: “History of Freemasonry,” Appendix.
[795] “A Sketch of the Knight Templars and the Knights of
St. John of Jerusalem,” by Richard Woof, F.S.A.,
Commander of the Order of Masonic Knight Templars.
[796] Findel: “History of Freemasonry,” Appendix.
[797] “General History of Freemasonry,” p. 218.
[798] See Gaffarel’s version; Eliphas Levi’s “La Science des
Esprits;” Mackenzie’s “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia;”
“Sepher Toldos Jeshu;” and other kabalistical and
Rabbinical works. The story given is this. A virgin
named Mariam, betrothed to a young man of the name of
Iohanan, was outraged by another man named Ben Panther
or Joseph Panther, says “Sepher Toldos Jeshu.” “Her
betrothed, learning of her misfortune, left her, at the
same time forgiving her. The child born was Jesus, named
Joshua. Adopted by his uncle Rabbi Jehosuah, he was
initiated into the secret doctrine by Rabbi Elhanan, a
kabalist, and then by the Egyptian priests, who
consecrated him High Pontiff of the Universal Secret
Doctrine, on account of his great mystic qualities. Upon
his return into Judea his learning and powers excited
the jealousy of the Rabbis, and they publicly reproached
him with his origin and insulted his mother. Hence the
words attributed to Jesus at Cana: ‘Woman, what have I
to do with thee?’ (See John ii. 4.) His disciples having
rebuked him with his unkindness to his mother, Jesus
repented, and having learned from them the particulars
of the sad story, he declared that “My mother has not
sinned, she has not lost her innocence; she is immaculate
and yet she is a mother.... As for myself I have no
father, in this world, I am the Son of God and of
humanity!” Sublime words of confidence and trust in the
unseen Power, but how fatal to the millions upon
millions of men murdered because of these very words
being so thoroughly misunderstood!
[799] We speak of the American Chapter of Rose Croix.
[800] Pythagoras.
[801] The first _Grand Chapter_ was instituted at Philadelphia,
in 1797.
[802] See Yarker’s “Notes on the Mysteries of Antiquity,”
p. 153
[803] See 2 Kings, xxiii. 7, Hebrew text, and English, the
former especially. In the degree of Kadosh, a lecture is
given upon the descent of Masonry through Moses,
Solomon, the Essenes, and the Templars. Christian K.
K.’s may get some light as to the kind of “Temple” their
ancestors would, in such a genealogical descent, have
been attached to, by consulting verse 13 of the same
chapter as above quoted.
[804] See Eliphas Levi’s “Dogme et Rituel,” vol. i.
[805] Yeva is _Heva_, the feminine counterpart of Jehovah-Binah.
[806] We find a very suggestive point in connection with
this appellation of Jehovah, “Son of ancient Kings,” in
the Jaïna sect of Hindustan, known as the Sauryas. They
admit that Brahma is a Devatâ, but deny his creative
power, and call him the “Son of a King.” See “Asiatic
Researches,” vol. ix., p. 279.
[807] As, for instance, Shaddai, Elohim, Sabaoth, etc.
[808] Cahen’s “Hebrew Bible,” iii., p. 117.
[809] The Greek monks have this “miracle” performed for the
“faithful” every year on Easter night. Thousands of
pilgrims are there waiting with their tapers to light
them at this sacred fire, which at the precise hour and
when needed, descends from the chapel-vault and hovers
about the sepulchre in tongues of fire until every one
of the thousand pilgrims has lighted his wax taper at
it.
[810] The _Rishi_ are identical with _Manu_. The ten Pragâpati,
sons of Viradj, called Maritchi, Atri, Angira, Pôlastya,
Poulaha, Kratu, Pratcheta, Vasishta, Brighu, and Narada,
are euhemerized _Powers_, the Hindu Sephiroth. These
emanate the seven Rishi, or Manus, the chief of whom
issued himself from the “uncreated.” He is the Adam of
earth, and signifies man. His “sons,” the following six
Manus, represent each a new race of men, and in the
total they are _humanity_ passing gradually through the
primitive seven stages of evolution.
[811] In days of old, when the Brahmans studied more than they
do now the hidden sense of their philosophy, they
explained that each of these six distinct races which
preceded ours had disappeared. But now they pretend that
a specimen was preserved which was not destroyed with
the rest, but reached the present _seventh_ stage. Thus
they, the Brahmans are the specimens of the heavenly
Manu, and issued from the mouth of Brahma; while the
Sudra was created from his foot.
[812] To avoid discussion we adopt the palæographical conclusions
arrived at by Martin Haug and some other cautious
scholars. Personally we credit the statements of the
Brahmans and those of Halhed, the translator of the
“Sastras.”
[813] The god Heptaktis.
[814] The sanctuary of the initiation.
[815] “Comparative Mythology.”
[816] While having no intention to enter at present upon a
discussion as to the nomadic races of the “Rhematic
period,” we reserve the right to question the full
propriety of terming that portion of the primitive
people from whose traditions the “Vedas” sprang into
existence, Aryans. Some scientists find the existence of
these Aryans not only unproved by science, but the
traditions of Hindustan protesting against such an
assumption.
[817] Without the esoteric explanation, the “Old Testament”
becomes an absurd jumble of meaningless tales--nay,
worse than that, it must rank high with _immoral_ books.
It is curious that Professor Max Müller, such a profound
scholar in Comparative Mythology, should be found saying
of the pragâpatis and Hindu gods that they are masks
_without actors_; and of Abraham and other mythical
patriarchs that they were real living men; of Abraham
especially, we are told (see “Semitic Monotheism”) that
he “stands before us as a figure second only to one in
the whole history of the world.”
[818] The italics are our own. “The Vedas,” lecture by Max
Müller, p. 75.
[819] “Chips,” vol. i., p. 8.
[820] We believe that we have elsewhere given the contrary
opinion, on the subject of “Atharva-Veda,” of Prof.
Whitney, of Yale College.
[821] See Baron Bunsen’s “Egypt,” vol. v.
[822] “Chips,” vol. i.; “The Vedas.”
[823] Max Müller: Lecture on “The Vedas.”
[824] Julian: “In Matrem,” p. 173; Julian: “Oratio,” v., 172.
[825] Lyd.: “De Mensibus,” iv., 38-74; “Movers,” p. 550;
Dunlap: “Saba,” p. 3.
[826] “Westminster Review:” Septenary Institutions; “Stone
Him to Death.”
[827] “Di Verbo Mirifico.”
[828] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” book iii., p. 292 b. The Supreme
consulting with the Architect of the world--his
Logos--about creation.
[829] Idra Suta: “Sohar,” iii., 135 b. If the chapters of
Genesis and the other Mosaic books, as well as the
subjects, are muddled up, the fault is the compiler’s--
not that of oral tradition. Hilkiah and Josiah had to
commune with Huldah, the prophetess, hence resort to
_magic_ to understand the word of the “Lord God of
Israel,” most conveniently found by Hilkiah (2 Kings,
xxiii.); and that it has passed still later through more
than one revision and remodelling is but too well proved
by its frequent incongruities, repetitions, and
contradictions.
[830] This assimilation of the deluge to an earthquake on the
Assyrian tablets would go to prove that the antediluvian
nations were well acquainted with other geological
cataclysms besides the deluge, which is represented in
the Bible as the _first_ calamity which befel humanity,
and a punishment.
[831] George Smith notes in the tablets, first the creation
of the moon, and then of the sun: “Its beauty and
perfection are extolled, and the regularity of its
orbit, which led to its being considered the type of a
judge and the regulator of the world.” Did this story of
the deluge relate simply to a cosmogonical
cataclysm--even were it universal--why should the
goddess Ishtara or Astoreth (the moon) speak of the
_creation of the sun_ after the deluge? The waters might
have reached as high as the mountain of _Nizir_
(Chaldean version), or Jebel-Djudi (the deluge-mountains
of the Arabian legends), or yet Ararat (of the biblical
narrative), and even Himalaya of the Hindu tradition,
and yet not reach the sun--even the Bible itself stopped
short of such a miracle. It is evident that the deluge
of the people who first recorded it had another meaning,
less problematical and far more philosophical than that
of a _universal_ deluge, of which there are no
geological traces whatever.
[832] The “dead letter that killeth,” is magnificently
illustrated in the case of the Jesuit de Carrière,
quoted in the “Bible dans l’Inde.” The following
dissertation represents the spirit of the whole Catholic
world: “So that the creation of the world,” writes this
faithful son of Loyola, explaining the biblical
chronology of Moses, “and all that is recorded in
Genesis, might have become known to Moses through
_recitals personally made to him by his fathers_.
Perhaps, even, the memories yet existed among the
Israelites, and from those recollections he may have
recorded the dates of births and deaths of the
patriarchs, the numbering of their children, and the
names of the different countries in which each became
established under the guidance _of the holy spirit,
which we must always regard as the chief author of the
sacred books_”!!!
[833] See chapter xv. and last of Part I.
[834] “Description, etc., of the People of India,” by the
Abbé J. A. Dubois, missionary in Mysore, vol. i., p. 186.
[835] “Fétichisme, Polythéisme, Monothéisme,” pp. 170, 171.
[836] Against the latter assumption derived solely from the
accounts of the Bible we have every historical fact.
1st. There are no proofs of these twelve tribes having
ever existed; that of Levi was a priestly caste and all
the others imaginary. 2d. Herodotus, the most accurate
of historians, who was in Assyria when Ezra flourished,
never mentions the Israelites at all? Herodotus was born
in 484 B.C.
[837] Dr. Kennicot himself, and Bruns, under his direction,
about 1780, collated 692 manuscripts of the Hebrew
“Bible.” Of all these, only _two_ were credited to the
tenth century, and three to a period as early as the
eleventh and twelfth. The others ranged between the
thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In his “Introduzione alla Sacra Scrittura,” pp. 34-47,
De Rossi, of Parma, mentions 1,418 MSS. collated, and
374 editions. The oldest manuscript “Codex,” he
asserts--that of Vienna--dates A.D. 1019; the next,
Reuchlin’s, of Carlsruhe, 1038. “There is,” he declares,
“nothing in the manuscripts of the Hebrew ‘Old
Testament’ extant of an earlier date than the eleventh
century after Christ.”
[838] “India in Greece,” Preface, ix.
[839] “Chips,” vol. i.
[840] “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v., p. 77.
[841] Ibid., p. 78.
[842] “Chips;” “Aitareya Brahmanam.”
[843] Dr. M. Haug, Superintendent of the Sanscrit studies in
the Poona College, Bombay.
[844] Pococke belongs to that class of Orientalists who
believe that Buddhism preceded Brahmanism, and was the
religion of the earliest Vedas, Gautama having been but
the restorer of it in its purest form, which after him
degenerated again into dogmatism.
[845] “India in Greece,” p. 200.
[846] The Asiatic origin of the first dwellers in the Nilotic
Valley is clearly demonstrated by concurrent and
independent testimony. Cuvier and Blumenbach affirm that
all the skulls of mummies which they had the opportunity
of examining, presented the Caucasian type. A recent
American physiologist (Dr. Morton) has also argued for
the same conclusion (“Crania Ægyptiaca.” Philadelphia,
1844).
[847] The late Rajah of Travancore was succeeded by the elder
son of his sister now reigning, the Maharajah _Rama
Vurmah_. The next heirs are the sons of his deceased
sister. In case the female line is interrupted by death,
the royal family is obliged to adopt the daughter of
some other Rajah, and unless daughters are born to this
Rana another girl is adopted, and so on.
[848] There are some Orientalists who believe that this
custom was introduced only after the early Christian
settlements in Æthiopia; but as under the Romans the
population of this country was nearly all changed, the
element becoming wholly Arabic, we may, without doubting
the statement, believe that it was the predominating
Arab influence which had altered the earliest mode of
writing. Their present method is even more analogous to
the Devanāgarï, and other more ancient Indian Alphabets,
which read from left to right; and their letters show no
resemblance to the Phœnician characters. Moreover, all
the ancient authorities corroborate our assertion still
more. Philostratus makes the Brahmin Iarchus say (V. A.,
iii., 6) that the Æthiopians were originally _an Indian
race_, compelled to emigrate from the mother-land for
sacrilege and regicide (see Pococke’s “India,” etc.,
ii., p. 206). An Egyptian is made to remark, that he had
heard from his father, that the Indians were the wisest
of men, and that the Æthiopians, a colony of the
Indians, preserved the wisdom and usages of their
fathers, and acknowledged their ancient origin. Julius
Africanus (in Eusebius and Syncellus), makes the same
statement. And Eusebius writes: “The Æthiopians,
emigrating from the river Indus, settled in the vicinity
of Egypt” (Lemp., Barker’s edition, “Meroë”).
[849] They might have been also, as Pococke thinks, simply the
tribes of the “Oxus,” a name derived from the “Ookshas,”
those people whose wealth lay in the “Ox,” for he shows
_Ookshan_ to be a crude form of _Ooksha_, an ox (in
Sanscrit _ox_ is as in English). He believes that it was
they, “the lords of the Oxus,” who gave their name to
the sea around which they ruled in many a country, the
_Euxine_ or Ooksh-ine. _Pali_ means a shepherd, and
_s’than_ is a land. “The warlike tribes of the Oxus
penetrated into Egypt, then swept onward to Palestine
(PALI-STAN), the land of the Palis or shepherds, and
there effected more permanent settlements” (“India in
Greece”). Yet, if even so, it would only the more
confirm our opinion that the Jews are a hybrid race, for
the “Bible” shows them freely intermarrying, not alone
with the Canaanites, but with every other nation or race
they come in contact with.
[850] Prof. A. Wilder: “Notes.”
[851] Moses reigned over the people of Israel in the
wilderness for over _forty_ years.
[852] The name of the wife of Moses was Zipporah (Exodus ii.).
[853] About 1040, the Jewish doctors removed their schools
from Babylonia to Spain, and of the four great rabbis
that flourished during the next four centuries, their
works all show different readings, and abound with
mistakes in the manuscripts. The “Masorah” made things
still worse. Many things that then existed in the
manuscripts are there no longer, and their works teem
with interpolations as well as with _lacunæ_. The oldest
Hebrew manuscript belongs to this period. Such is the
divine revelation we are to credit.
[854] No chronology was accepted by the rabbis as authoritative
till the twelfth century. The 40 and 1,000 are not exact
numbers, but have been crammed in to answer monotheism
and the exigencies of a religion calculated to appear
different from that of the Pagans. (“Chron. Orth.,” p.
238). One finds in the “Pentateuch” only events
occurring about two years before the fabled “Exodus” and
the last year. The rest of the chronology is nowhere,
and can be followed only through kabalistic
computations, with a key to them in the hand.
[855] The Gnostics, called Collyridians, had transferred
from Astoreth their worship to Mary, also Queen of
Heaven. They were persecuted and put to death by the
orthodox Christians as heretics. But if these Gnostics
had established her worship by offering her sacrifices
of cakes, cracknels, or fine wafers, it was because they
imagined her to have been born of an immaculate virgin,
as Christ is alleged to have been born of his mother.
And now, the Pope’s _infallibility_ having been
recognized and accepted, its first practical
manifestation is the revival of the Collyridian belief
as an article of faith (See “Apocryphal New Testament;”
Hone: “The Gospel of Mary attributed to Matthew”).
[856] Hargrave Jennings: “Rosicrucians.”
[857] “Progress of Religious Ideas.”
[858] Lilith was Adam’s _first_ wife “before he _married_
Eve,” of whom “he begat nothing but devils;” which
strikes us as a very novel, if pious, way of explaining
a very philosophical allegory: Burton’s “Anatomy of
Melancholy.”
[859] It is in commemoration of the Ark of the Deluge that
the Phœnicians, those bold explorers of the “deep,”
carried, fixed on the prow of their ships, the image of
the goddess Astartè, who is Elissa, Venus Erycina of
Sicily, and Dido, whose name is the feminine of David.
[860] Dr. Lundy: “Monumental Christianity.”
[861] Lucian, iv. 276.
[862] 1 Kings xviii. All this is allegorical, and, what is
more, purely magical. For Elijah is bent upon an
incantation.
[863] The Talmud books say that Noah was himself the _dove_
(spirit), thus identifying him still more with the
Chaldean Nouah. Baal is represented with the wings of a
dove, and the Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim the
image of a dove. “Talmud, Tract. Chalin.,” fol. 6, col. 1.
[864] Numbers x. 29, 31.
[865] The Bible contradicts itself as well as the Chaldean
account, for in chapter vii. of Genesis it shows
“every one of them” perishing in the deluge.
[866] Numbers xiii.
[867] We do not see why the clergy--especially the Catholic--
should object to our statement that the patriarchs are
all signs of the zodiac, and the old gods of the
“heathen” as well. There was a time, and that less than
two centuries ago, when they themselves exhibited the
most fervent desire to relapse into sun and star
worship. This pious and curious attempt was denounced
but a few months since by Camille Flammarion, the French
astronomer. He shows two Augsburgian Jesuits, Schiller
and Bayer, who felt quite anxious to change the names of
the whole Sabean host of the starry heaven, and worship
them again under Christian names! Having anathematized
the idolatrous sun-worshippers for over fifteen
centuries, the Church now seriously proposed to continue
heliolatry--_to the letter_ this time--as their idea was
to substitute for Pagan myths biblical and (in their
ideas) real personages. They would have called the sun,
Christ; the moon, Virgin Mary; Saturn, Adam; Jupiter,
Moses (!); Mars, Joshua; Venus, John the Baptist; and
Mercury, Elias. And very proper substitutes too, showing
the great familiarity of the Catholic Church with
ancient Pagan and kabalistic learning, and its
readiness, perhaps, to at last confess the source whence
came their own myths. For is not king Messiah the sun,
the Demiurge of the heliolaters, under various names? Is
he not the Egyptian Osiris and the Grecian Apollo? And
what more appropriate name than Virgin Mary for the
Pagan Diana-Astarté, “the Queen of Heaven,” against
which Jeremiah exhausted a whole vocabulary of
imprecations? Such an adoption would have been
historically as well as religiously correct. Two large
plates were prepared, says Flammarion, in a recent
number of “La Nature,” and represented the heavens with
Christian constellations instead of Pagan. Apostles,
popes, saints, martyrs, and personages of the Old and
New Testament completed this Christian Sabeanism. “The
disciples of Loyola used every exertion to make this
plan succeed.” It is curious to find in India among the
Mussulmans the name of Terah, Abraham’s father, Azar or
Azarh, and Azur, which also means fire, and is, at the
same time, the name of the Hindu third solar month (from
June to July), during which the sun is in _Gemini_, and
the full moon near _Sagittarius_.
[868] Cicero: “De Nat. Deo.,” i., 13.
[869] “Herodotus,” ii., 145.
[870] “Monumental Christianity,” p. 3.
[871] Who but the authors of the “Pentateuch” could have invented
a Supreme God or his angel so thoroughly human as to
require a smear of blood upon the door-post to prevent
his killing one person for another! For gross
materialism this exceeds any theistical conception that
we have noticed in Pagan literature.
[872] Denon: “Egypt,” ii., pl. 40, No. 8, p. 54.
[873] Pages 13 and 402.
[874] In Volney’s “Ruins of Empires” p. 360, it is remarked
that as _Aries_ was in its fifteenth degree 1447 B.C.,
it follows that the first degree of “Libra” could not
have coincided with the Vernal equinox more lately than
15,194 years B.C., to which, if you add 1790 years since
Christ, it appears that 16,984 years have elapsed since
the origin of the _Zodiac_.
[875] See cuts in Inman’s “Ancient Faiths.”
[876] Cicero: “De Nat. Deorum,” i., 10.
[877] Virgil: “Æneid,” vi., 724 ff.
[878] The term “coats of skin,” is the more suggestive when
we learn that the Hebrew word “skin” used in the
original text, means _human_ skin. The text says: “And
_Java Aleim_ made for Adam and his wife כתנות עור CHITONUT
OUR. The first Hebrew word is the same as the Greek
χιτων--chiton--coat. Parkhurst defines it as _the skin
of men_ or animals ער עור and ערה, OUR, OR, or ORA.
The same word is used at Exodus xxxiv. 30, 35, when the
_skin_ of Moses “shone” (A. Wilder).
[879] Here, again, the “Masorah,” by converting one name
into another, has helped to falsify the little that was
left original in the primitive Scriptures.
De Rossi, of Parma, says of the Massoretes, in his
“Compendis,” vol. iv., p. 7: “It is known with what
carefulness Esdras, the most excellent critic they have
had, had _reformed_ [the text] and _corrected_ it, and
restored it to its primary splendor. Of the many
revisions undertaken after him, none are more celebrated
than that of the Massoretes, who came after the sixth
century ... and all the most zealous adorers and
defenders of the “Masorah,” Christians and Jews ...
ingenuously accord and confess that it, such as it
exists, is _deficient_, _imperfect_, _interpolated_,
_full of errors_, and _a most unsafe guide_.” The square
letter was not invented till after the third century.
[880] Scorpio is the astrological sign of the organs of
reproduction.
[881] The patriarchs are all convertible in their numbers as
well as interchangeable. According to what they relate,
they become ten, five, seven, twelve, and even fourteen.
The whole system is so complicated that it is an utter
impossibility in a work like this to do more than hint
at certain matters.
[882] See vol. I. of the present work, p. 32. Alone, the Hindu
calculation by the Zodiac, can give a key to the Hebrew
chronologies and the ages of the patriarchs. If we bear
in mind that, according to the former astronomical and
chronological calculations, out of the fourteen
manwantara (or divine ages), each of which composed of
_twelve_ thousand years of the devas, multiplied by
seventy-one, forms _one period_ of creation--not quite
_seven_ are yet passed, the Hebrew calculation will
become more clear. To help, as much as possible, those
who will be sure to get a good deal bewildered in this
calculation, we will remind the reader that the Zodiac
is divided into 360 degrees, and every sign into thirty
degrees; that in the Samaritan _Bible the age of Enoch
is fixed at 360 years_; that in “Manu,” the divisions of
time are given thus: “The day and the night are composed
of thirty _Mouhourta_. A mouhourta contains thirty
_kalâs_. A month of the mortals is of thirty days, but
it is but _one_ day of the pitris.... A year of the
mortals is one day of the Devas.”
[883] See Rawlinson’s “Diagrams.”
[884] In the Brahmanical Zodiac the signs are all presided
over by and dedicated to one of the twelve great gods.
So, 1. Mecha (Aries) is dedicated to Varuna; 2. Vricha
(Taurus), to Yama; 3. Mithuna (Gemini), to Pavana; 4.
Karcataca (Cancer), to Sûrya; 5. Sinha (Leo), to Soma;
6. Kanya (Virgo), to Kartikeia; 7. Toulha (Libra), to
Kouvera; 8. Vristchica (Scorpio), to Kama; 9. Dhanous
(Sagittarius), to Ganesa; 10. Makara (Capricornus), to
Poulhar; 11. Kumbha (Aquarius), to Indra; and, 12, Minas
(Pisces), to Agni.
[885] Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon,” pp. 295-302.
[886] Apollo was also _Abelius_, or Bel.
[887] Halal is a name of Apollo. The name of Ma_halal_-Eliel
would then be the autumnal sun, of July, and this
patriarch presides over _Leo_ (July) the zodiacal sign.
[888] See description of the Sephiroth, in chapter iv.
[889] How servile was this Chaldean _copy_ may be seen in
comparing the Hindu chronology with that of the
Babylonians. According to Manu, the antediluvian
dynasties of the Pradjâpatis reigned 4,320,000 human
years, a whole divine age of the devas in short, or that
length of time which invariably occurs between life on
earth and the dissolution of that life, or pralaya. The
Chaldeans, in their turn, give precisely the same
figures, minus _one_ cipher, to wit: they make their 120
saros yield a total of 432,000 years.
[890] Eliphas Levi gives it both in the Greek and Hebrew
versions, but so condensed and arbitrarily that it is
impossible for one who knows less than himself to
understand him.
[891] See Rabbi Simeon’s dissertation on the primitive Man-Bull
and the horns, “Sohar.”
[892] “The Nuctameron of the Hebrews;” see Eliphas Levi,
vol. i.
[893] “Anszuge aus dem Sohar,” p. 13, 15.
[894] Such is the opinion of the erudite Dr. Jost and
Donaldson. “The Old Testament Books, as we now find
them, seem to have been concluded about 150 years
B.C.... The Jews now sought the other books, which had
been dispersed during the wars, and brought them into
one collection” (Ghillany: “Menschenopfer der Hebraër,”
p. 1). “Sod, the Son of the Man.” Appendix.
[895] “Jost,” vol. i., p. 51.
[896] Burder’s “Josephus,” vol. ii., pp. 331-335.
[897] “Die Kabbala,” p. 95.
[898] Gaffarel: Introduction to “Book of Enoch.”
[899] So firmly established seems to have been the reputation
of the Brahmans and Buddhists for the highest morality,
and that since time immemorial, that we find Colonel
Henry Yule, in his admirable edition of “Marco Polo,”
giving the following testimony: “The high virtues
ascribed to the Brahman and Indian merchants were,
perhaps, in part, matter of tradition ... but the eulogy
is so constant among mediæval travellers _that it must
have had a solid foundation_. In fact, it would not be
difficult to trace a chain of similar testimony from
ancient times down to our own. Arrian says no Indian was
ever accused of falsehood. Hwen T’sang ascribes to the
people of India eminent uprightness, honesty, and
disinterestedness. Friar Jordanus (_circa_ 1330) says
the people of Lesser India (Sindh and Western India)
were true in speech and eminent in justice; and we may
also refer to the high character given to the Hindus by
Abul Fazl. But _after 150 years of European trade,
indeed, we find a sad deterioration_.... Yet Pallas, in
the last century, noticing the Bamyan colony at
Astrakhan, says its members were notable for an upright
dealing that made them greatly preferable to Armenians.
And that wise and admirable public servant, the late Sir
William Sleeman, in our own time, has said that he knew
no class of men in the world more strictly honorable
than the mercantile classes of India.”[900]
The sad examples of the rapid demoralization of _savage_
American Indians, as soon as they are made to live in a
close proximity with _Christian_ officials and
missionaries, are familiar in our modern days.
[900] The “Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian,” translated
by Colonel Henry Yule, vol. ii., p. 354.
[901] At the present moment Mr. O’Grady is Editor of the
“American Builder,” of New York, and is well known for
his interesting letters, “Indian Sketches--Life in the
East,” which he contributed under the pseudonym of
_Hadji Nicka Bauker Khan_, to the Boston “Commercial
Bulletin.”
[902] Ecclesiastes xii. 13; see Tayler Lewis’s “Metrical
Translation.”
“The great conclusion here;
Fear God and His commandments keep, for this is all of man.”
[903] See Micah vi., 6-8, “Noyes’s Translation.”
[904] Matthew xvii., 37-40.
[905] “Les Hauts Phénomenes de la Magie,” p. 12, preface.
[906] “History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism.”
[907] See Draper’s “Conflict between Religion and Science.”
[908] Gospel according to Mark, iii. 29: “He that shall
blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never
forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation”
(αμαρτηματος, error).
[909] Gospel according to Matthew, v. 44.
[910] “Comparative Mythology,” April, 1856.
[911] 1st Epistle of John, iii. 8.
[912] 2 Kings, xviii. 4. It is probable that the fiery serpents
or _Seraphim_ mentioned in the twenty-first chapter of
the book of Numbers were the same as the Levites, or
Ophite tribe. Compare Exodus xxxii. 26-29 with Numbers
xxi. 5-9. The names Heva, חוה, _Hivi_ or Hivite, הוי, and
Levi לוי, all signify a serpent; and it is a curious fact
that the Hivites, or serpent-tribe of Palestine, like
the Levites or Ophites of Israel, were ministers to the
temples. The Gibeonites, whom Joshua assigned to the
service of the sanctuary, were Hivites.
[913] 1 Chronicles, xxi. 1: “And Satan stood up against Israel
and moved David to number Israel.” 2d Samuel, xxiv. 1:
“And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Israel, and he moved David against them to say: ‘Go,
number Israel and Judah.’”
[914] Zechariah iii. 1, 2. A pun or play on words is noticeable;
“adversary” is associated with “Satan,” as if from שטן, to
oppose.
[915] Jude 9.
[916] In the “Assyrian Tablets,” Palestine is called “the land
of the Hittites;” and the Egyptian Papyri, declaring the
same thing, also make Seth, the “pillar-god,” their
tutelar deity.
[917] _Seth_, _Suteh_, or Sat-an, was the god of the aboriginal
nations of Syria. Plutarch makes him the same as Typhon.
Hence he was god of Goshen and Palestine, the countries
occupied by the Israelites.
[918] “Vendidad,” fargard x., 23: “I combat the dæva Æshma, the
very evil.” “The Yaçnas,” x. 18, speaks likewise of
Æshma-Dæva, or Khasm: “All other sciences depend upon
Æshma, the cunning.” “Serv.,” lvi. 12: “To smite the
wicked Auramanyas (Ahriman, the evil power), to smite
Æshma with the terrible weapon, to smite the Mazanian
dævas, to smite all devas.”
In the same fargard of the “Vendidad” the Brahman
divinities are involved in the same denunciation with
Æshma-dæva: “I combat India, I combat Sauru, I combat
the Dæva Naonhaiti.” The annotator explains them to be
the Vedic gods, Indus, Gaurea, or Siva, and the two
Aswins. There must be some mistake, however, for Siva,
at the time the “Vedas” were completed, was an
aboriginal or Æthiopian God, the Bala or Bel of Western
Asia. He was not an Aryan or Vedic deity. Perhaps Sûrya
was the divinity intended.
[919] Jacob Bryant: “Analysis of Ancient Mythology.”
[920] Plutarch: “de Iside,” xxx., xxxi.
[921] Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” p. 434.
[922] See “Vendidad,” fargand x.
[923] Salverte: “Des Sciences Occultes,” appendix, note A.
[924] The term πειρασμος signifies a trial, or probation.
[925] 2 Samuel, ii. 5, 15; vi. 1-4. Pliny.
[926] See 1 Corinthians, v. 5; 2 Corinthians, xi. 14;
1 Timothy, i. 20.
[927] 2d Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, xii. In
Numbers xxii. 22 the angel of the Lord is described
as acting the part of a Satan to Balaam.
[928] 1 Kings, xxii. 19-23.
[929] Haug: “Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and
Religion of the Parsees.”
[930] The “Avesta” describes the serpent Dahaka, as of the
region of Bauri or Babylonia. In the Median history are
two kings of the name Deiokes or Dahaka, and Astyages or
Az-dahaka. There were children of Zohak seated on
various Eastern thrones, after Feridun. It is apparent,
therefore, that by Zohak is meant the Assyrian dynasty,
whose symbol was the _purpureum signum draconis_--the
purple sign of the Dragon. From a very remote antiquity
(Genesis xiv.) this dynasty ruled Asia, Armenia, Syria,
Arabia, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Bactria, and
Afghanistan. It was finally overthrown by Cyrus and
Darius Hystaspes, after “1,000 years’” rule. Yima and
Thrætaona, or Jemshid and Feridun, are doubtless
personifications. Zohak probably imposed the Assyrian or
Magian worship of fire upon the Persians. Darius was the
vicegerent of Ahura-Mazda.
[931] The name in the Gospels is βεελζεβουλ, or Baal of the
Dwelling. It is pretty certain that Apollo, the Delphian
God, was not Hellenian originally, but Phœnician. He was
the Paian or physician, as well as the god of oracles.
It is no great stretch of imagination to identify him
with Baal-_Zebul_, the god of Ekron, or Acheron,
doubtless changed to _Zebub_, or flies, by the Jews in
derision.
[932] “Against Apion,” i. 25. “The Egyptians took many
occasions to hate and envy us: in the first place
because our ancestors (the Hyk-sos, or shepherds) had
had the dominion over their country, and when they were
delivered from them and gone to their own country, they
lived there in prosperity.”
[933] Bunsen. The name _Seth_ with the syllable _an_ from the
Chaldean _ana_ or Heaven, makes the term _Satan_. The
punners seem now to have pounced upon it, as was their
wont, and so made it _Satan_ from the verb שטן _Sitan_,
to oppose.
[934] “Vendidad,” fargard x. The name _Vendidad_ is a
contraction of _Vidæva-data_, ordinances against the
Dævas.
[935] _Bundahest_, “Ahriman created out of the materials of
darkness Akuman and Ander, then Sauru and Nakit.”
[936] See Lenoir’s “Du Dragon de Metz,” in “Mémoires de
l’Académie Celtique,” i., 11, 12.
[937] Plutarch: “Isis and Osiris.”
[938] “The Origin of Serpent Worship,” by C. Staniland Wake,
M.A.I. New York: J. W. Bouton, 1877.
[939] “Tree and Serpent Worship,” etc.
[940] Godfrey Higgins: “Anacalypsis;” Dupuis: “Origines des
Cultes,” iii., 51.
[941] Martianus Capella: “Hymn to the Sun,” i., ii.; Movers:
“Phiniza,” 266.
[942] Plutarch: “Isis and Osiris.”
[943] Virgil: “Eclogues,” iv.
[944] Ovid: “Fasti,” ii., 451.
[945] Knorring: “Terra et Cœlum,” 53.
[946] Anna is an Oriental designation from the Chaldean _ana_,
or heaven, whence Anaïtis and Anaïtres. Durga, the
consort of Siva, is also named Anna purna, and was
doubtless the original St. Anna. The mother of the
prophet Samuel was named Anna; the father of his
counterpart, Samson, was _Manu_.
[947] The virgins of ancient time, as will be seen, were not
maids, but simply almas, or nubile women.
[948] Kircher: “Œdipus Ægypticus,” iii., 5.
[949] From θεραπευω, to serve, to worship, to heal.
[950] E. Pococke derives the name _Pythagoras_ from _Buddha_,
and _guru_, a spiritual teacher. Higgins makes it
Celtic, and says that it means an observer of the stars.
See “Celtic Druids.” If, however, we derive the word
_Pytho_ from פתה, _petah_, the name would signify an
expounder of oracles, and Buddha guru a teacher of the
doctrines of Buddha.
[951] In the Secret Museum of Naples, there is a marble
bas-relief representing the _Fall of Man_, in which _God
the Father plays the part of the Beguiling Serpent_.
[952] First Epistle to the Corinthians, x. 11.: “All these
things happened unto them for _types_.”
[953] Epistle to the Galatians, iv. 24: “It is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other
by a freewoman ... which things are an allegory.”
[954] See “Job,” by various translators, and compare the
different texts.
[955] See Kerr Porter’s “Persia,” vol. i., plates 17, 41.
[956] The expression “of the kindred of Ram” denotes that he
was an Aramæan or Syrian from Mesopotamia. Buz was a son
of Nahor. “Elihu son of Barachel” is susceptible of two
translations. Eli-Hu--God is, or Hoa is God; and
Barach-Al--the worshipper of God, or Bar-Rachel, the son
of Rachel, or son of the ewe.
[957] xxxvi. 24-27.
[958] ix. 5-11.
[959] xxxviii. 1, _et passim_.
[960] Job xxxviii. 35.
[961] Ibid., xli. 8.
[962] Ibid., xli. 34.
[963] _Atum_, or At-ma, is the Concealed God, at once Phtha
and Amon, Father and Son, Creator and thing created,
Thought and Appearance, Father and Mother.
[964] Molitor, Ennemoser, Henman, Pfaff, etc.
[965] Schopheim: “Traditions,” p. 32.
[966] W. Williams: “Primitive History;” Dunlap: “Spirit
History of Man.”
[967] Plutarch: “Isis and Osiris,” p. 17.
[968] “Sibylline Oracles,” 760-788.
[969] Euripides: “Bacchæ.”
[970] We doubt the propriety of rendering κορη, virgin.
Demeter and Persephoneia were substantially the same
divinity, as were Apollo and Esculapius. The scene of
this adventure is laid in _Krete_ or _Koureteia_, where
Zeus was chief god. It was, doubtless, _Keres_ or
Demeter that is intended. She was also named κουρα,
which is the same as κωρη. As she was the goddess of the
Mysteries, she was fittest for the place as consort of
the Serpent-God and mother of Zagreus.
[971] Pococke considers Zeus a grand lama, or chief Jaina,
and Kore-Persephone, or Kuru-Parasu-pani. Zagreus, is
_Chakras_, the wheel, or circle, the earth, the ruler of
the world. He was killed by the Titans, or Teith-ans
(Daityas). The Horns or crescent was a badge of Lamaic
sovereignty.
[972] Nonnus: “Dionysiacs.”
[973] See Deane’s “Serpent Worship,” pp. 89, 90.
[974] Creuzer: “Symbol.,” vol. i., p. 341.
[975] The Dragon is the _sun_, the generative principle--
Jupiter-Zeus; and Jupiter is called the “Holy Spirit” by
the Egyptians, says Plutarch, “De Iside,” xxxvi.
[976] In the original it stands _Æons_ (emanations). In the
translation it stands _worlds_. It was not to be
expected that, after anathematizing the doctrine of
emanations, the Church would refrain from erasing the
original word, which clashed diametrically with her
newly-enforced dogma of the Trinity.
[977] See Dean’s “Serpent Worship,” p. 145.
[978] Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 3.
[979] See Dunlap’s “Spirit History of Man,” the chapter on
“the Logos, the Only Begotten and the King.”
[980] Translated by Buckley.
[981] “Select Works on Sacrifice.”
[982] Typhon is called by Plutarch and Sanchoniathon,
“Tuphon, the _red_-skinned.” Plutarch: “Isis and
Osiris,” xxi.-xxvi.
[983] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 269.
[984] Rahu and Kehetty are the two fixed stars which form
the head and tail of the constellation of the Dragon.
[985] E. Upham: “The Mahâvansi, etc.,” p. 54, for the
answer given by the chief-priest of Mulgirs Galle
Vihari, named Sue Bandare Metankere Samanere
Samayahanse, to a Dutch Governor in 1766.
[986] We leave it to the learned archæologists and philologists
to decide how the _Naga_ or Serpent worship could travel
from Kashmir to Mexico and become the Nargâl worship,
which is also a Serpent worship, and a doctrine of
lycanthropy.
[987] Michael, the chief of the Æons, is also “Gabriel, the
messenger of Life,” of the Nazarenes, and the Hindu
Indra, the chief of the good Spirits, who vanquished
Vasouki, the Demon who rebelled against Brahma.
[988] See the Gnostic amulet called the “Chnuphis-Serpent,”
in the act of raising its head crowned with the _seven
vowels_, which is the kabalistic symbol for signifying
the “gift of speech to man,” or _Logos_.
[989] “Tamas, the Vedas.”
[990] Thomas Aquinas: “Somma,” ii., 94 Art. 4.
[991] See des Mousseaux; see various other Demonographers;
the different “Trials of Witches,” the depositions of
the latter exacted by torture, etc. In our humble
opinion, the Devil must have contracted this
disagreeable smell and his habits of uncleanliness in
company with mediæval monks. Many of these saints
boasted of having never washed themselves! “To strip
one’s self for the sake of _vain_ cleanliness, is to sin
in the eyes of God,” says Sprenger, in the “Witches’
Hammer.” Hermits and monks “dreaded all cleansing as so
much defilement. There was no bathing for a thousand
years!” exclaims Michelet in his “Sorcière.” Why such an
outcry against Hindu fakirs in such a case? These, if
they keep dirty, besmear themselves only after washing,
for their religion commands them to wash every morning,
and sometimes several times a day.
[992] Lermontoff, the great Russian poet, author of the “Demon.”
[993] “Les Hauts Phénomenes de la Magie,” p. 379.
[994] “Movers,” p. 109.
[995] Hercules is of Hindu origin.
[996] The same as the Egyptian _Kneph_, and the Gnostic Ophis.
[997] “Serpent Worship,” p. 145.
[998] “Movers,” p. 397. Azazel and Samael are identical.
[999] Saturn is Bel-Moloch and even Hercules and Siva. Both
of the latter are _Harakala_, or gods of the war, of the
battle, or the “Lords of Hosts.” Jehovah is called “a
man of war” in Exodus xv. 3. “The Lord of Hosts is his
name” (Isaiah li. 15), and David blesses him for
teaching his “hands to war and his fingers to fight”
(Psalms cxliv. 1). Saturn is also the Sun, and Movers
says that “Kronos Saturn was called by the Phœnicians
_Israel_ (130). Philo says the same (in Euseb., p. 44).
[1000] “Blessed be Iahoh, Alahim, Alahi, _Israel_” (Psalm
lxxii.).
[1001] Hardy’s “Manual of Buddhism,” p. 60.
[1002] Cousin: “Lect. on Mod. Phil.,” vol. i., p. 404.
[1003] Movers, Duncker, Higgins, and others.
[1004] “Hæres,” xxxiv; “Gnostics,” p. 53.
[1005] Wine was first made _sacred_ in the mysteries of Bacchus.
Payne Knight believes--erroneously we think--that wine
was taken with the view to produce a false ecstasy
through intoxication. It was held _sacred_, however, and
the Christian Eucharist is certainly an imitation of the
Pagan rite. Whether Mr. Knight was right or wrong, we
regret to say that a Protestant clergyman, the Rev.
Joseph Blanchard, of New York, was found drunk in one of
the public squares on the night of Sunday, August 5,
1877, and lodged in prison. The published report says:
“The prisoner said that he had been to church and taken
a little too much of the communion wine!”
[1006] The initiatory rite typified a descent into the underworld.
Bacchus, Herakles, Orpheus, and Asklepius all descended
into hell and ascended thence the third day.
[1007] King’s “Hist. Apost. Creed,” 8vo, p. 26.
[1008] Justice Bailey’s “Common Prayer,” 1813, p. 9.
[1009] “Apostle’s Creed;” “Apocryphal New Testament.”
[1010] “On the Creed,” fol. 1676, p. 225.
[1011] Lib. 1, c. 2; “Lib. de Princ.,” in “Proœm. Advers.
Praxeam,” c. ii.
[1012] “De Fide et Symbol.”
[1013] “Preller:” ii., p. 154.
[1014] Nicodemus: “Apocryphal Gospel,” translated from the
Gospel published by Grynæus, “Orthodoxographa,” vol. i.,
tom. ii., p. 643.
[1015] Euripides: “Herakles,” 807.
[1016] “Æneid,” viii., 274, ff.
[1017] “Frogs;” see fragments given in “Sod, the Mystery of
Adonis.”
[1018] See pages 180-187, 327.
[1019] Aristophanes: “Frogs.”
[1020] See Preface to “Hermas” in the Apocryphal New Testament.
[1021] In the “Life of Buddha,” of Bkah Hgyur (Thibetan text),
we find the original of the episode given in the Gospel
according to Luke. An old and holy ascetic, Rishi Asita,
comes from afar to see the infant Buddha, instructed as
he is of his birth and mission by supernatural visions.
Having worshipped the little Gautama, the old saint
bursts into tears, and upon being questioned upon the
cause of his grief, answers: “After becoming Buddha, he
will help hundreds of thousands of millions of creatures
to pass to the other shore of the ocean of life, and
will lead them on forever to immortality. And I--I shall
not behold this pearl of Buddhas! Cured of my illness, I
shall not be freed by him from human passion! Great
King! I am too old--that is why I weep, and why, in my
sadness, I heave long sighs!”
It does not prevent the holy man, however, from
delivering prophecies about the young Buddha, which,
with a very slight difference, are of the same substance
as those of Simeon about Jesus. While the latter calls
the young Jesus “a light for the revelation of the
Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel,” the
Buddhist prophet promises that the young prince will
find himself clothed with the perfect and complete
_enlightenment_ or “light” of Buddha, and will turn the
wheel _of law_ as no one _ever did before him_. “Rgya
Tcher Rol Pa;” translated from the Thibetan text and
revised on the original Sanscrit, _Lalitavistara_, by P.
E. Foncaux. 1847. Vol. ii., pp. 106, 107.
[1022] The sign of the cross--only a few days after the
resurrection, and before the cross was ever thought
of as a symbol!
[1023] Payne Knight shows that “from the time of the first
King Menes, under whom all the country below Lake Mœris
was a bog (Herod., ii., 4), to that of the Persian
invasion, when it was the garden of the world”--between
11,000 and 12,000 years must have elapsed. (See “Ancient
Art and Mythology;” cli., R. Payne Knight, p. 108. Edit.
by A. Wilder.)
[1024] Seth or Sutech, “Rawlinson’s History of Herodotus,”
book ii., appendix viii., 23.
[1025] The fact is vouchsafed for by Epiphanius. See Hone:
“Apocryphal New Testament;” “The Gospel of the Birth of
Mary.”
In his able article “Bacchus, the Prophet-God,”
Professor A. Wilder remarks that “Tacitus was misled
into thinking that the Jews worshipped an ass, the
symbol of Typhon or Seth, the Hyk-sos God. The Egyptian
name of the ass was _eo_, the phonetic of Iao;” and
hence, probably, he adds, “a symbol from that mere
circumstance.” We can hardly agree with this learned
archæologist, for the idea that the Jews reverenced, for
some mysterious reason, Typhon under his symbolical
representation rests on more proof than one. And for one
we find a passage in the “Gospel of Mary,” is cited from
Epiphanius, which corroborates the fact. It relates to
the death of “Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist,
murdered by Herod,” says the Protevangelion. Epiphanius
writes that the cause of the death of Zacharias was that
upon seeing a vision in the temple he, through surprise,
was willing to disclose it, but his mouth was stopped.
That which he saw was at the time of his offering
incense, and it was a man STANDING IN THE FORM OF AN
ASS. When he was gone out, and had a mind to speak thus
to the people, _Woe unto you, whom do ye worship?_ he
who had appeared unto him in the temple took away the
use of his speech. Afterward when he recovered it, and
was able to speak, he declared this to the Jews, and
they slew him. They (the Gnostics) add in this book,
that on this very account the high priest was commanded
by the law-giver (Moses) to carry little bells, that
whensoever he went into the temple to sacrifice, he
_whom they worshipped_, hearing the noise of the bells,
might have time enough to hide himself, and not be
caught in that ugly shape and figure” (Epiph.).
[1026] “Phallism in Ancient Religions,” by Staniland Wake and
Westropp, p. 74.
[1027] Hercules is also a god-fighter as well as Jacob-Israel.
[1028] “Phallism in Ancient Religions,” p. 75.
[1029] Antiochus Epiphanius found in 169 B.C. in the Jewish
temple, a man kept there to be sacrificed. Apion:
“Joseph, contra Apion,” ii., 8.
[1030] The ox of Dionysus was sacrificed at the Bacchic Mysteries.
See “Anthon,” p. 365.
[1031] “Paus.,” 5, 16.
[1032] Judges iv. 4.
[1033] 2 Kings, xxii. 14.
[1034] xiv. 2; xx. 16, 17.
[1035] xxvii. 28, 29.
[1036] The festival denominated Liberalia occurred on the
seventeenth of March, now St. Patrick’s Day. Thus
Bacchus was also the patron saint of the Irish.
[1037] Prof. A. Wilder: “Bacchus, the Prophet-God,” in the June
number (1877) of the “Evolution, a Review of Polities,
Religion, Science, Literature, and Art.”
[1038] “Edinburgh Review,” April, 1851, p. 411.
[1039] “Indian Sketches; or Life in the East,” written for the
“Commercial Bulletin,” of Boston.
[1040] See chapter ii. of this vol., p. 110.
[1041] It would be worth the trouble of an artist, while
travelling around the world, to make a collection of the
multitudinous varieties of Madonnas, Christs, saints,
and martyrs as they appear in various costumes in
different countries. They would furnish models for
masquerade balls in aid of church charities!
[1042] Even as we write, there comes from Earl Salisbury,
Secretary of State for India, a report that the Madras
famine is to be followed by one probably still more
severe in Southern India, the very district where the
heaviest tribute has been exacted by the Catholic
missionaries for the expenses of the Church of Rome. The
latter, unable to retaliate otherwise, despoils British
subjects, and when famine comes as a consequence, makes
the heretical British Government pay for it.
[1043] “Ancient Faiths and Modern,” p. 24.
[1044] “Fétichisme, Polythéisme, Monothéisme.”
[1045] “Oriental and Linguistic Studies,” “Vedic Doctrine of a
Future Life,” by W. Dwight Whitney, Prof. of Sanscrit
and Comparative Philology at Yale College.
[1046] “Oriental and Linguistic Studies,” p. 48.
[1047] In his article on “Paul, the Founder of Christianity,”
Professor A. Wilder, whose intuitions of truth are
always clear, says: “In the person of _Aher_ we
recognize the Apostle Paul. He appears to have been
known by a variety of appellations. He was named _Saul_,
evidently because of his vision of Paradise--Saul or
_Sheol_ being the Hebrew name of the other world.
_Paul_, which only means ‘the little man,’ was a species
of nickname. _Aher_, or _other_, was an epithet in the
Bible for persons outside of the Jewish polity, and was
applied to him for having extended his ministry to the
Gentiles. His real name was Elisha ben Abuiah.”
[1048] “In the ‘Talmud’ Jesus is called AUTU H-AIS, אותו האיש,
_that man_.”--A. Wilder.
[1049] See Moor’s plates, 75, No. 3.
[1050] Max Müller’s estimate.
[1051] Dr. Lundy: “Monumental Christianity,” p. 153.
[1052] Buddhaghosa’s “Parables,” translated from the
Burmese, by Col. H. T. Rogers, R. E.; with an
introduction by M. Müller, containing “Dhammapada,”
1870.
[1053] Interpreter of the Consulate-General in Siam.
[1054] “Ancient Faith and Modern,” p. 162.
[1055] Ibid.
[1056] The words contained within quotation marks are Inman’s.
[1057] See vol. i. of this work, p. 319.
[1058] p. 57.
[1059] Matthew vii. 2.
[1060] P. 25.
[1061] See Draper’s “Conflict between Religion and Science,”
p. 224.
[1062] This is the doctrine of the Supralapsarians, who
asserted that “He [God] _predestinated the fall of
Adam_, with all its pernicious consequences, from all
eternity, and that our first parents had no liberty from
the beginning.”
It is also to this highly-moral doctrine that the
Catholic world became indebted, in the eleventh century,
for the institution of the Order known as the Carthusian
monks. Bruno, its founder, was driven to the foundation
of this monstrous Order by a circumstance well worthy of
being recorded here, as it graphically illustrates this
_divine_ predestination. A friend of Bruno, a French
physician, famed far and wide for his extraordinary
_piety_, _purity of morals_, and _charity_, died, and
his body was watched by Bruno himself. Three days after
his death, and as he was going to be buried, the pious
physician suddenly sat up in his coffin and declared, in
a loud and solemn voice, “that by the just judgment of
God he was eternally damned.” After which consoling
message from beyond the “dark river,” he fell back and
relapsed into death.
In their turn, the Parsi theologians speak thus: “If any
of you commit sin under the belief that he shall be
saved by _somebody_, both the deceiver as well as the
deceived shall be damned to the day of Rasta Khéz....
There is no Saviour. In the other world you shall
receive the return according to your actions.... _Your
Saviour is your deeds_ and God Himself.[1063]
[1063] “The Modern Parsis,” lecture by Max Müller, 1862.
[1064] “De Isid. et Osir.,” p. 380.
[1065] Every tradition shows that Jesus was educated in Egypt
and passed his infancy and youth with the Brotherhoods
of the Essenes and other mystic communities.
[1066] Bunsen found some records which show the language and
religious worship of the Egyptians, for instance, not
only existing at the opening of the old Empire, “but
already so fully established and fixed as to receive
_but a very slight development_ in the course of the
old, middle, and modern Empires,” and while this opening
of the old Empire is placed by him beyond the Menes
period, at least 4,000 years B.C., the origin of the
ancient Hermetic prayers and hymns of the “Book of the
Dead,” is assigned by Bunsen to the pre-Menite dynasty
of Abydos (between 4,000 and 4,500 B.C.), thus showing
that “the system of Osirian worship and mythology was
already formed 3,000 years before the days of Moses.”
[1067] It was also called the “hook of attraction.” Virgil
terms it “Mystica vannus Iacchi,” “Georgics,” i., 166.
[1068] In an Address to the Delegates of the Evangelical
Alliance, New York, 1874, Mr. Peter Cooper, a Unitarian,
and one of the noblest _practical_ Christians of the
age, closes it with the following memorable language:
“In that _last and final account_ it will be happy for
us if we shall then find that our influence through life
has tended to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and
soothe the sorrows of those who were sick and in
prison.” Such words from a man who has given two million
dollars in charity; educated four thousand young girls
in useful arts, by which they gain a comfortable
support; maintained a free public library, museum, and
reading-room; classes for working people; public
lectures by eminent scientists, open to all; and been
foremost in all good works, throughout a long and
blameless life, come with the noble force that marks the
utterances of all benefactors of their kind. The deeds
of Peter Cooper will cause posterity to treasure his
golden sayings in its heart.
[1069] “_Aus dem Tibetischen übersetzt und mit dem Originaltexte
herausgegeben_,” von S. J. Schmidt.
[1070] “Buddhism in Tibet,” by Emil Schlagintweit, 1863, p. 213.
[1071] “Ecclesiastical History,” l. i., c. 13.
[1072] Tathagâta is Buddha, “he who walks in the footsteps of
his predecessors;” as _Bhagavat_--he is the _Lord_.
[1073] We have the same legend about St. Veronica--as a pendant.
[1074] “Introduction à l’Histoire du Buddhisme Indien,” E.
Burnouf, p. 341.
[1075] Moses was a most notable practitioner of Hermetic
Science. Bearing in mind that Moses (Asarsiph) is made
to run away to the Land of Midian, and that he “sat down
by a well” (Exod. ii.), we find the following:
The “Well” played a prominent part in the Mysteries of
the Bacchic festivals. In the sacerdotal language of
every country, it had the same significance. A well is
“the fountain of salvation” mentioned in _Isaiah_ (xii.
3). The water is the _male principle_ in its spiritual
sense. In its physical relation in the allegory of
creation, the water is chaos, and chaos is the female
principle vivified by the Spirit of God--the male
principle. In the “Kabala,” _Zachar_ means “male;” and
the Jordan was called Zachar (“Universal History,” vol.
ii., p. 429). It is curious that the Father of St. John
the Baptist, the Prophet of _Jordan_--Zacchar--should be
called _Zachar-ias_. One of the names of Bacchus is
_Zagreus_. The ceremony of pouring water on the shrine
was sacred in the Osirian rites as well as in the Mosaic
institutions. In the _Mishna_ it is said, “Thou shalt
dwell in Succa and _pour out water_ seven, and the pipes
six days” (“Mishna Succah,” p. 1). “Take _virgin earth_
... and work up the _dust_ with _living_ WATER,”
prescribes the _Sohar_ (Introduction to “Sohar;”
“Kabbala Denudata,” ii., pp. 220, 221). Only “earth and
water, according to Moses, can bring forth a _living
soul_,” quotes Cornelius Agrippa. The water of Bacchus
was considered to impart the Holy _Pneuma_ to the
initiate; and it washes off all sin by baptism through
the Holy _Ghost_, with the Christians. The “well” in the
kabalistic sense, is the mysterious emblem of the
_Secret Doctrine_. “If any man thirst, let him come
_unto me and drink_,” says Jesus (John vii.).
Therefore, Moses the adept, is naturally enough
represented sitting by a well. He is approached by the
_seven_ daughters of the Kenite Priest of Midian coming
to fill the troughs, _to water their father’s flock_.
Here we have seven again--the mystic number. In the
present biblical allegory the daughters represent the
_seven occult powers_. “The shepherds came and drove
them (the seven daughters) away, but Moses stood up, and
helped them, and watered their flock.” The shepherds are
shown, by some kabalistic interpreters, to represent the
seven “badly-disposed Stellars” of the Nazarenes; for in
the old Samaritan text the number of these Shepherds is
also said to be seven (see kabalistic books).
Then Moses, who had conquered the seven _evil_ Powers,
and won the friendship of the seven _occult_ and
beneficent ones, is represented as living with the Reuel
Priest of Midian, who invites “the Egyptian” to eat
bread, _i.e._, to partake of his wisdom. In the Bible
the elders of Midian are known as great soothsayers and
diviners. Finally, Reuel or Jethro, the initiator and
instructor of Moses, gives him in marriage his daughter.
This daughter is Zipporah, _i.e._, the esoteric Wisdom,
the shining light of knowledge, for Siprah means the
“shining” or “resplendent,” from the word “Sapar” to
shine. Sippara, in Chaldea, was the city of the “Sun.”
Thus Moses was initiated by the Midianite, or rather the
Kenite, and thence the biblical allegory.
[1076] Schmidt: “Der Weise und der Thor,” p. 37.
[1077] “Rgya Tcher Rol. Pa.,” “History of Buddha Sakya-muni”
(Sanscrit), “Lalitavistara,” vol. ii., pp. 90, 91.
[1078] “Protevangelion” (ascribed to James), ch. xiii. and xiv.
[1079] “Pali Buddhistical Annals,” iii., p. 28; “Manual of
Buddhism,” 142. Hardy.
[1080] “Gospel of the Infancy,” chap. xx., xxi.; accepted by
Eusebius, Athanasius, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Jerome,
and others. The same story, with the Hindu earmarks
rubbed off to avoid detection, is found at Luke ii.,
46, 47.
[1081] Alabaster: “Wheel of the Law,” pp. 29, 34, 35, and 38.
[1082] E. Upham: “The History and Doctrines of Buddhism,”
p. 135. Dr. Judson fell into this prodigious error by
reason of his fanaticism. In his zeal to “save souls,”
he refused to peruse the Burmese classics, lest his
attention should be diverted thereby.
[1083] “Indian Antiquary,” vol. ii., p. 81; “Book of Ser Marco
Polo,” vol. i., p. 441.
[1084] “Ssabismus,” vol. i., p. 725.
[1085] Murray’s “History of Discoveries in Asia.”
[1086] “Manual of Buddhism,” p. 142.
[1087] See Inman’s “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism,” p. 92.
[1088] “Rgya. Tcher. Rol. Pa.,” Bkah Hgyour (Thibetan version).
[1089] Gospel according to Luke, i. 39-45.
[1090] Didron: “Iconograph. Chrétienne Histoire de Dieu.”
[1091] There are numerous works deduced immediately from the
“Vedas,” called the “Upa-Ved.” Four works are included
under this denomination, namely, the “Ayus,”
“Gandharva,” “Dhanus,” and “Sthāpatya.” The third
“Upaveda” was composed by Viswamitra for the use of the
Kshatriyas, the warrior caste.
[1092] Bunsen’s “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v.,
p. 93.
[1093] Alabaster; “Wheel of the Law,” pp. 43-47.
[1094] “The Debatable Land,” p. 145.
[1095] “We divide our zeal,” says Dr. Henry More, “against so
many things that we fancy Popish, that we scarce reserve
_a just share of detestation_ against what is truly so.
Such are that gross, rank, and scandalous impossibility
_of transubstantiation_, the various modes of fulsome
idolatry and lying impostures, the uncertainty of their
loyalty to their lawful sovereigns by their
superstitious adhesion to the spiritual tyranny of the
Pope, and that _barbarous and ferine cruelty against
those_ that are not either such fools as to be persuaded
to believe such things as they would obtrude upon men,
or, are not so false to God and their own consciences,
as, knowing better, yet to profess them” (Postscript to
“Glanvill”).
[1096] Payne Knight believes that Ceres was not a personification
of the brute matter which composed the earth, but of the
female _productive principle_ supposed to pervade it,
which, joined to the active, was held to be the cause of
the organization and animation of its substance.... She
is mentioned as the wife of the Omnipotent Father,
Æther, or Jupiter (“The Symbolical Language of Ancient
Art and Mythology,” xxxvi.). Hence the words of Christ,
“it is the Spirit that quickeneth, _flesh profiteth
nothing_,” applied in their dual meaning to both
spiritual and terrestrial things, to spirit and matter.
Bacchus, as Dionysus, is of Indian origin. Cicero
mentions him as a son of Thyoné and Nisus. Διόνυσος
means the god Dis from Mount Nys in India. Bacchus,
crowned with ivy, or _kissos_, is Christna, one of whose
names was _Kissen_. Dionysus is preëminently the deity
on whom were centred all the hopes for future life; in
short, he was the god who was expected to _liberate the
souls of men_ from their prisons of flesh. Orpheus, the
poet-Argonaut, is also said to have come on earth to
purify the religion of its gross, and terrestrial
anthropomorphism, he abolished human sacrifice and
instituted a mystic theology based on pure spirituality.
Cicero calls Orpheus a son of Bacchus. It is strange
that both seem to have originally come from India. At
least, as Dionysus Zagreus, Bacchus is of undoubted
Hindu origin. Some writers deriving a curious analogy
between the name of Orpheus and an old Greek term,
ὀρφος, _dark or tawny-colored_, make him Hindu by
connecting the term with his dusky Hindu complexion. See
Voss, Heyne and Schneider on the Argonautis.
[1097] “Vie de Jesus,” p. 219.
[1098] Ibid., p. 221.
[1099] “Analysis of Religious Belief,” vol. i., p. 467.
[1100] See the “Gita,” translated by Charles Wilkins, in 1785;
and the “Bhagavad-Purana,” containing the history of
Christna, translated into French by Eugène Burnouf.
1840.
[1101] Matthew vii. 21.
[1102] “Of the People of India,” vol. i., p. 84.
[1103] Or “Researches into the Mysteries of Occultism;” Boston,
1877, Edited by Mrs. E. Hardinge Britten.
[1104] See “Stone Him to Death;” “Septenary Institutions.”
Capt. James Riley, in his “Narrative” of his enslavement
in Africa, relates like instances of great longevity on
the Sahara Desert.
[1105] Russian Armenia; one of the most ancient Christian
convents.
[1106] “Egyptian Book of the Dead.” The Hindus have seven
upper and seven lower heavens. The seven mortal sins of
the Christians have been borrowed from the Egyptian
Books of Hermes with which Clement of Alexandria was so
familiar.
[1107] The atrocious custom subsequently introduced among the
people, of sacrificing human victims, is a perverted
copy of the Theurgic Mystery. The Pagan priests, who did
not belong to the class of the hierophants, carried on
for awhile this hideous rite, and it served to screen
the genuine purpose. But the Grecian Herakles is
represented as the adversary of human sacrifices and as
slaying the men and monsters who offered them. Bunsen
shows, by the very absence of any representation of
human sacrifice on the oldest monuments, that this
custom had been abolished in the old Empire, at the
close of the seventh century after Menes; therefore,
3,000 years B.C., Iphiscrates had stopped the human
sacrifices entirely among the Carthaginians. Diphilus
ordered bulls to be substituted for human victims.
Amosis forced the priests to replace the latter by
figures of wax. On the other hand, for every stranger
offered on the shrine of Diana by the inhabitants of the
Tauric Chersonesus, the Inquisition and the Christian
clergy can boast of a dozen of heretics offered on the
altar of the “mother of God,” and her “Son.” And when
did the Christians ever think of substituting either
animals or wax-figures for living heretics, Jews, and
witches? They burned these in effigy only when, through
providential interference, the doomed victims had
escaped their clutches.
[1108] This is why Jesus recommends prayer in the solitude of
one’s closet. This secret prayer is but the _paravidya_
of the Vedantic philosopher: “He who knows his soul
(inner self) daily retires to the region of _Swarga_
(the heavenly realm) in his own heart,” says the
_Brihad-Aranyaka_. The Vedantic philosopher recognizes
the Âtman, the spiritual _self_, as the sole and Supreme
God.
[1109] “Wheel of the Law,” p. 54.
[1110] A. Wilder: “Ancient and Modern Prophecy.”
[1111] While at _Petrovsk_ (Dhagestan, region of the Caucasus)
we had the opportunity of witnessing another such
_mystery_. It was owing to the kindness of Prince
Melikoff, the governor-general of Dhagestan, living at
Temerchan-Shoura, and especially of Prince Shamsoudine,
the ex-reigning Shamchal of Tarchoff, a native Tartar,
that during the summer of 1865 we assisted at this
ceremonial from the safe distance of a sort of private
box, constructed under the ceiling of the temporary
building.
[1112] Does not this afford us a point of comparison with the
so-called “materializing mediums?”
[1113] The Yezidis must number over 200,000 men altogether.
The tribes which inhabit the Pashalik of Bagdad, and are
scattered over the Sindjar mountains are the most
dangerous, as well as the most hated for their evil
practices. Their chief Sheik lives constantly near the
tomb of their prophet and reformer Adi, but every tribe
chooses its own sheik among the most learned in the
“black art.” This Adi or Ad is a mythic ancestor of
theirs, and simply is, Adi--the God of wisdom or the
Parsi Ab-ad the first ancestor of the human race, or
again Adh-Buddha of the Hindus, anthropomorphized and
degenerated.
[1114] Within less than four months we have collected from the
daily papers forty-seven cases of crime, ranging from
drunkenness up to murder, committed by ecclesiastics in
the United States only. By the end of the year our
correspondents in the East will have valuable facts to
offset missionary denunciations of “heathen”
misdemeanors.
[1115] “Evolution,” art. Paul, the Founder of Christianity.
[1116] We find in Galatians iv. 4, the following: “But when the
fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
_made of a woman, made under the law_.”
[1117] The date has been fully established for these Pali Books
in our own century; sufficiently so, at least, to show
that they existed in Ceylon, 316 B.C., when Mahinda, the
son of Asoka, was there (See Max Müller, “Chips, etc.,”
vol. i., on Buddhism).
[1118] “A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam,” by
M. de la Loubère, Envoy to Siam from France, 1687-8,
chap. xxv., London; “Diverse Observations to be Made in
Preaching the Gospel to the Orientals.”
The Sieur de la Loubère’s report to the king was made,
as we see, in 1687-8. How thoroughly his proposition to
the Jesuits, to suppress and dissemble in preaching
Christianity to the Siamese, met their approval, is
shown in the passage elsewhere quoted from the Thesis
propounded by the Jesuits of Caen (“Thesis propugnata in
regio Soc. Jes. Collegio, celeberrimæ Academiæ
Cadoniensis, die Veneris, 30 Jan., 1693), to the
following effect: “... neither do the Fathers of the
Society of Jesus dissemble _when they adopt the
institute and the habit_ of the Talapoins of Siam.” In
five years the Ambassador’s little lump of leaven had
leavened the whole.
[1119] In a discourse of Hermes with Thoth, the former says:
“It is impossible for thought to rightly conceive of
God.... One cannot describe, through material organs,
that which is immaterial and eternal.... One is a
perception of the spirit, the other a reality. That
which can be perceived by our senses can be described in
words; but that which is incorporeal, invisible,
immaterial, and without form cannot be realized through
our ordinary senses. I understand thus, O Thoth, I
understand that God is ineffable.”
In the _Catechism of the Parsis_, as translated by M.
Dadabhai Naoroji, we read the following:
“Q. What is the form of our God?”
“A. Our God has neither face nor form, color nor shape,
nor fixed place. There is no other like Him. He is
Himself, singly such a glory that we cannot praise or
describe Him; nor our mind comprehend Him.”
[1120] “Contemporary Review,” p. 588, July, 1870.
[1121] “Book of Ser Marco Polo,” vol. ii., pp. 304, 306.
[1122] Ibid.
[1123] Ibid.
[1124] “Dec.,” v., lib. vi., cap. 2.
[1125] “Travels in Tartary,” etc., pp. 121, 122.
[1126] “Book of Ser Marco Polo,” vol. ii., p. 340.
[1127] His twenty or more volumes on Oriental subjects are
indeed a curious conglomerate of truth and fiction. They
contain a vast deal of fact about Indian traditions,
philosophy and chronology, with most just views
courageously expressed. But it seems as if the
philosopher were constantly being overlaid by the
romancist. It is as though two men were united in their
authorship--one careful, serious, erudite, scholarly,
the other a sensational and sensual French romancer, who
judges of facts not as they are but as _he_ imagines
them. His translations from _Manu_ are admirable; his
controversial ability marked; his views of priestly
morals unfair, and in the case of the Buddhists,
positively slanderous. But in all the series of volumes
there is not a line of dull reading; he has the eye of
the artist, the pen of the poet of nature.
[1128] Les Fils de Dieu. “L’Inde Brahmanique,” p. 296.
[1129] In its general sense, _Isvara_ means “Lord;” but the
Isvara of the mystic philosophers of India was
understood precisely as the union and communion of men
with the Deity of the Greek mystics. _Isvara-Parasada_
means, literally, in Sanscrit, _grace_. Both of the
“Mimansas,” treating of the most abstruse questions,
explain _Karma_ as merit, or the _efficacy of works_;
Isvara-Parasada, as grace; and _Sradha_, as faith. The
“Mimansas” are the work of the two most celebrated
theologians of India. The “Pourva-Mimansa” was written
by the philosopher Djeminy, and the “Outtara-Mimansa”
(or Vedanta), by Richna Dvipayaa Vyasa, who collected
the four “Vedas” together. (See Sir William Jones,
Colebrooke, and others.)
[1130] Suetonius: “August.”
[1131] Plutarch.
[1132] “Pliny,” xxx., pp. 2, 14.
[1133] “Servius ad. Æon,” p. 71.
[1134] Peary Chand Mittra: “The Psychology of the Aryas;”
“Human Nature,” for March, 1877.
[1135] The Boulogne (France) correspondent of an English
journal says that he knows of a gentleman who has had an
arm amputated at the shoulder, “who is certain that he
has a spiritual arm, which he sees and actually feels
with his other hand. He can touch anything, and even
pull up things with the spiritual or phantom arm and
hand.” The party knows nothing of spiritualism. We give
this as we get it, without verification, but it merely
corroborates what we have seen in the case of an Eastern
adept. This eminent scholar and practical kabalist can
at will project his astral arm, and with the hand take
up, move, and carry objects, even at a considerable
distance from where he may be sitting or standing. We
have often seen him thus minister to the wants of a
favorite elephant.
[1136] Answer to a question at “The National Association of
Spiritualists,” May 14th, 1877.
[1137] “A Buddhist’s Opinions of the Spiritual States.”
[1138] See the “London Spiritualist,” May 25, 1877, p. 246.
[1139] See Coleman’s “Hindu Mythology.”
[1140] Russian subjects are not allowed to cross the Tartar
territory, neither the subjects of the Emperor of
China to go to the Russian factories.
[1141] These are the representatives of the Buddhist Trinity,
Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, or Fo, Fa, and Sengh, as
they are called in Thibet.
[1142] A Bikshu is not allowed to accept anything directly even
from laymen of his own people, least of all from a
foreigner. The slightest contact with the body and even
dress of a person not belonging to their special
community is carefully avoided. Thus even the offerings
brought by us and which comprised pieces of red and
yellow _pou-lou_, a sort of woollen fabric the lamas
generally wear, had to pass through strange ceremonies.
They are forbidden, 1, to ask or beg for anything--even
were they starving--having to wait until it is
voluntarily offered; 2, to touch either gold or silver
with their hands; 3, to eat a morsel of food, even when
presented, unless the donor distinctly says to the
disciple, “This is for your master to _eat_.” Thereupon,
the disciple turning to the _pazen_ has to offer the
food in his turn, and when he has said, “Master, this is
allowed; take and eat,” then only can the lama take it
with the right hand, and partake of it. All our
offerings had to pass through such purifications. When
the silver pieces, and a few handfuls of annas (a coin
equal to four cents) were at different occasions offered
to the community, a disciple first wrapped his hand in a
yellow handkerchief, and receiving it on his palm,
conveyed the sum immediately into the _Badir_, called
elsewhere _Sabaït_, a sacred basin, generally wooden,
kept for offerings.
[1143] These stones are highly venerated among Lamaists and
Buddhists; the throne and sceptre of Buddha are
ornamented with them, and the Taley Lama wears one on
the fourth finger of the right hand. They are found in
the Altai Mountains, and near the river Yarkuh. Our
talisman was a gift from the venerable high-priest, a
_Heiloung_, of a Kalmuck tribe. Though treated as
apostates from their primitive Lamaism, these nomads
maintain friendly intercourse with their brother
Kalmucks, the Chokhots of Eastern Thibet and Kokonor,
but even with the Lamaists of Lha-Ssa. The
ecclesiastical authorities however, will have no
relations with them. We have had abundant opportunities
to become acquainted with this interesting people of the
Astrakhan Steppes, having lived in their _Kibitkas_ in
our early years, and partaken of the lavish hospitality
of the Prince Tumene, their late chief, and his
Princess. In their religious ceremonies, the Kalmucks
employ trumpets made from the thigh and arm bones of
deceased rulers and high priests.
[1144] The Buddhist Kalmucks of the Astrakhan steppes are
accustomed to make their idols out of the cremated ashes
of their princes and priests. A relative of the author
has in her collection several small pyramids composed of
the ashes of eminent Kalmucks and presented to her by
the Prince Tumene himself in 1836.
[1145] The sacred fan used by the chief priests instead of an
umbrella.
[1146] See vol. i., p. 476.
[1147] See his “Lectures on Sound.”
[1148] From the compound word sûtra, maxim or precept, and
antika, close or near.
[1149] It sounds like injustice to Asôka to compare him with
Constantine, as is done by several Orientalists. If, in
the religious and political sense, Asôka did for India
what Constantine is alleged to have achieved for the
Western World, all similarity stops there.
[1150] See “Indian Sketches;” Appleton’s “New Cyclopedia,” etc.
[1151] _Aum_ (mystic Sanscrit term of the Trinity), _mani_
(holy jewel), _padmé_ (_in_ the lotus, padma being the
name for lotus), _houm_ (be it so). The six syllables in
the sentence correspond to the six chief powers of
nature emanating from Buddha (the abstract deity, not
Gautama), who is the _seventh_, and the Alpha and Omega
of being.
[1152] Moru (the pure) is one of the most famous lamaseries of
Lha-Ssa, directly in the centre of the city. There the
Shaberon, the Taley Lama, resides the greater portion of
the winter months; during two or three months of the
warm season his abode is at Foht-lla. At Moru is the
largest typographical establishment of the country.
[1153] The Buddhist great canon, containing 1,083 works in
several hundred volumes, many of which treat of magic.
[1154] “Crawfurd’s Mission to Siam,” p. 182.
[1155] “Semedo,” vol. iii., p. 114.
[1156] There was an anecdote current among Daguerre’s friends
between 1838 and 1840. At an evening party, Madame
Daguerre, some two months previous to the introduction
of the celebrated Daguerrean process to the _Académie
des Sciences_, by Arago (January, 1839), had an earnest
consultation with one of the medical celebrities of the
day about her husband’s mental condition. After
explaining to the physician the numerous symptoms of
what she believed to be her husband’s mental aberration,
she added, with tears in her eyes, that the greatest
proof to her of Daguerre’s insanity was his firm
conviction that he would succeed in nailing his own
shadow to the wall, or fixing it on _magical_ metallic
plates. The physician listened to the intelligence very
attentively, and answered that he had himself observed
in Daguerre lately the strongest symptoms of what, to
his mind, was an undeniable proof of madness. He closed
the conversation by firmly advising her to send her
husband quietly and without delay to Bicétre, the
well-known lunatic asylum. Two months later a profound
interest was created in the world of art and science by
the exhibition of a number of pictures taken by the new
process. The _shadows_ were fixed, after all, upon
metallic plates, and the “lunatic” proclaimed the father
of photography.
[1157] Schott: “Über den Buddhismus,” p. 71.
[1158] “The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” vol. ii., p. 352.
[1159] Ibid., vol. ii., p. 130, quoted by Col. Yule in vol. ii.,
p. 353.
[1160] No country in the world can boast of more medicinal
plants than Southern India, Cochin, Burmah, Siam, and
Ceylon. European physicians--according to time-honored
practice--settle the case of professional rivalship, by
treating the native doctors as quacks and empirics; but
this does not prevent the latter from being often
successful in cases in which eminent graduates of
British and French schools of Medicine have signally
failed. Native works on Materia Medica do not certainly
contain the secret remedies known, and successfully
applied by the native doctors (the Atibbā), from time
immemorial; and yet the best febrifuges have been
learned by British physicians from the Hindus, and where
patients, deafened and swollen by abuse of quinine, were
slowly dying of fever under the treatment of enlightened
physicians, the bark of the Margosa, and the Chiretta
herb have cured them completely, and these now occupy an
honorable place among European drugs.
[1161] The Hindu appellation for the peculiar mantrâm or charm
which prevents the serpent from biting.
[1162] Between the bells of the “heathen” worshippers, and the
bells and pomegranates of the Jewish worship, the
difference is this: the former, besides purifying the
soul of man with their harmonious tones, kept _evil_
demons at a distance, “for the sound of pure bronze
breaks the enchantment,” says Tibullius (i., 8-22), and
the latter explained it by saying that the sound of the
bells “should be heard [by the Lord] when he [the
priest] goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord,
and when he goeth out, _that he die not_” (Exodus
xxviii. 33; Eccles. xiv. 9). Thus, one sound served to
keep away _evil_ spirits, and the other, the Spirit of
Jehovah. The Scandinavian traditions affirm that the
Trolls were always driven from their abodes by the bells
of the churches. A similar tradition is in existence in
relation to the fairies of Great Britain.
[1163] An elemental dæmon, in which every native of Asia believes.
[1164] Lady, or Madam, in Moldavian.
[1165] The hour in Bucharest corresponded perfectly with that
of the country in which the scene had taken place.
[1166] Capt. W. L. D. O’Grady: “Life in India.”
[1167] Neither Russia nor England succeeded in 1849 in forcing
them to recognize and respect the Turkish from the
Persian territory.
[1168] Persepolis is the Persian Istakhâar, northeast of
Shiraz; it stood on a plain now called Merdusht. At the
confluence of the ancient Medus and the Araxes, now
Pulwân and Bend-emir.
[1169] “Ægyptiaci Theatrum Hierogliphicum,” p. 544.
[1170] We have twice assisted at the strange rites of the
remnants of that sect of fire-worshippers known as the
Guebres, who assemble from time to time at Baku, on the
“field of fire.” This ancient and mysterious town is
situated near the Caspian Sea. It belongs to Russian
Georgia. About twelve miles northeast from Baku stands
the remnant of an ancient Guebre temple, consisting of
four columns, from whose empty orifices issue constantly
jets of flame, which gives it, therefore, the name of
Temple of the Perpetual Fire. The whole region is
covered with lakes and springs of naphtha. Pilgrims
assemble there from distant parts of Asia, and a
priesthood, worshipping the divine principle of fire, is
kept by some tribes, scattered hither and thither about
the country.
[1171] Baadéy-ku-Ba--literally “a gathering of winds.”
[1172] See also “Magic and Mesmerism,” a novel reprinted by the
Harpers, thirty years ago.
INDEX.
INDEX.
Abarbanel, his explanation of the sign of the coming of the Messiah,
ii. 256
Abracadabra, diabolical, evoked anew, ii. 4
Abraham, his history, ii. 217;
belongs to the universal mythology, ii. 216;
_Zeruan_, _ib._;
Isaac, and Judah, from Brahma, Ikshwaka and Yada, ii. 488;
and his sons, the story an allegory, ii. 493
Abraiaman, or charmers of fishes and wild beasts in Ceylon, i. 606
Absolution and penance authorized in the Church of England, ii. 544
Absorbed, a state of intimate union, ii. 117
Abuses of magic denounced by the ancients, ii. 97, 99
Abydos, a pre-Menite dynasty, ii. 361
Academicians, French, i. 60;
reject theurgical magic, i. 281
Academy, French, indignant at the charge of Satanism, i. 101;
rejected mesmerism, i. 165, 171;
Committee of 1784, i. 171;
Committee of 1826, i. 173
Acari, produced by chemical experiments, i. 465
Accuser of Souls at the judgment, ii. 487
Acher (Paul) in the garden of delights, ii. 119;
“made depredations,” _ib._
Actions guided by spiritual beings, i. 366
Ad, its meaning, i. 579
Adah, her sons from the Euxine to Kashmere, i. 579
Ad-Am, only-begotten, i. 579
Adam (ανθροπως), Divine essence emanating from,
i. 1;
the primitive man, i. 2;
the second, i. 297;
the same as the “gods,” or Elohim, i. 299;
of dust, i. 302;
Kadmon, androgynous, i. 297;
the first man evolved, _ib._;
same as the Logos, Prometheus, Pimander, Hermes, and Herakles, i.
298;
of Eden, eat without initiation of the Tree of Knowledge or secret
doctrine, i. 575;
invested with the _chitun_, or coat of skin, _ib._;
the fall, not personal transgression, but a law of dual evolution,
ii. 277;
conducted from Hell, ii. 517;
same as Tamuz, Adonis, and Helios, _ib._;
sends Seth on an errand to paradise, ii. 520;
Kadmon, ii. 36;
Kadmon, i. 93;
Kadmon, the first race of men his emanations, ii. 276;
Primus, the Microprosopus, ii. 452
Adamic Earth, i. 51
Adamite, the third race, produced by two races, i. 305
Adanari, the Hindu goddess, ii. 451, 453
Adar-gat, Aster’t, etc., the _Magna Mater_, i. 579
Adept, the first self-made, ii. 317;
of the highest order, may live indefinitely, ii. 563;
of the seventh rite, ii. 564
Adepts few, i. 17;
in Paris and elsewhere ii. 403;
“travellers,” _ib._
Adhima and Heva, created by Siva, and ancestors of the present race,
i. 590
A’di Buddha, the Unknown, ii. 156;
the father of the Yezidis, ii. 571
Adima and Heva, in the prophecies of Ramatsariar, i. 579
Adonai or Adamites, i. 303
Adonim, i. 301
Adonis, his rites celebrated in the grotto at Bethlehem, ii. 139
Adonis-worship, at the Jordan, ii. 181
Adrian supposed the Christians to worship Serapis, ii. 336
Æbel-Zivo, the Metatron, or Anointed spirit, ii. 154; ii. 236, 247;
the same as the Angel Gabriel, ii. 247
Æneas drives away ghosts with his sword, i. 362, 363
Æons, or genii, i. 300
Aërolites, used in the Mysteries, i. 282;
in the tower of Belos, ii. 331;
used to develop prophetic power, _ib._
Æther, i. 56;
in that form the Deity pervading all, i. 129;
the primordial chaos, i. 134;
the spirit of cosmic matter, i. 156;
deified, i. 158;
source whence all things come and whither they will return, i. 189;
the fifth element, i. 342;
a medium between this world and the other, _ib._;
the Breath of the Father, the Holy Ghost, ii. 50
Æthiopia, east of Babylonia, ii. 434
Æthiopians from the Indus, who settled near Egypt, probably Jews, i.
567;
originally an Indian race, ii. 437;
law of inheritance by the mother, _ib._
Affinity of soul for body, i. 344;
acknowledged between the _Syllabus_ and the _Koran_, ii. 82
Afrasiah, the King of Assyria, i. 575
Africa, phantoms appearing in the desert, i. 604
Afrits, i. 141;
nature-spirits, Shedim, demons, i. 313;
studying antediluvian literature, ii. 29
Agassiz, Prof. L., unfairness of, i. 63;
his argument in favor of the immortality of all orders of living
beings, i. 420
Agathodaimon and Kakothodaimon, i. 133
Agathadæmon, the serpent on a pole, ii. 512
Age of paper, i. 535
Aged of the aged, ii. 244
Ages, golden, silver, copper and iron, no fiction, i. 34;
or Aions, ii. 144
Agni, the sun-god and fire-god, i. 270
Agrippa, Cornelius, i. 167, 200;
his remarks on the marvellous power of the human soul, i. 280
Ahab and his sons encouraged by the prophets, ii. 525
Ahaz, his family deposed, ii. 440
Ahijah the prophet instigates Jeroboam to revolt against Solomon, ii.
439
Ahriman, his contest with Ormazd, ii. 237;
to be purified in the fiery lake, ii. 238
Aij-Taïon, the Supreme God of the Yakuts of Siberia, ii. 568
Ain-Soph, ii. 210
Ajunta, Buddhistic caverns of, i. 349
Akâsa, or life-principle, i. 113;
known to Hindu magicians, _ib._;
same as Archæus, i. 125;
a designation of astral and celestial lights combined, forming
the _anima mundi_, and constituting the soul and spirit of man,
i. 139;
the will, i. 144
Ak-Ad or Akkad, meaning suggested, i. 579
Akkadians, introduced the worship of Bel or Baal, i. 263;
progenitors and Aryan instructors of the Chaldeans, i. 576;
never a Turanian tribe, _ib._;
a tribe of Hindus, _ib._;
from Armenia, perhaps from Ceylon, i. 578;
invented by Lenormant, ii. 423
Akiba in the garden of delights, ii. 119
Aksakof, i. 41, 46; protests against the decision of Prof.
Mendeleyeff and commission adverse to mediumism, i. 118
Alba petra, or white stone of initiation, ii. 351
Alberico and not Amerigo, the name of Vespucius or Vespuzio, i. 591
Albertus Magnus, ii. 20
Albigenses, descendants of the Gnostics, ii. 502
Albumazar on the identity of the myths, ii. 489
Alchemical principles, i. 191
Alchemists, i. 66, 205
Alchemy, universally studied, i. 502;
old as tradition, i. 503;
books destroyed by Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, _ib._
Alchemy and magic prevalent among the clergy, ii. 57
Aleim or Eloim, gods or powers, also priests, i. 575
Alexander of Macedonia, his expedition into India doubtful, ii. 429
Alexandrian library, the most precious rolls preserved, ii. 27;
learned Copts do not believe it destroyed, ii. 28;
obtained from the Asiatics, _ib._;
school, derived the soul from the ether or world-soul, i. 316.
Algebra, i. 536
Alkahest, i. 50;
the universal solvent clear water, i. 133;
overlooked by the French Academy, i. 165;
explained by Van Helmont and Paracelsus, i. 191
Allegory, becomes sacred history, ii. 406;
reserved for the inner sanctuary, ii. 493
Alligators do not disturb fakirs, i. 383
Allopathists in medicine enemies to psychology, i. 88;
oppose everything till stamped as regular, _ib._;
oppose discoveries, _ib._
All things formed after the model, i. 302
“Almighty, the Nebulous,” i. 129
Al-om-jah, an Egyptian hierophant, ii. 364
Alsatians believe Paracelsus to be only sleeping in his grave, ii. 500
Amasis, King of Egypt, sends a linen garment to Lindus, i. 536
Amazons, their circle-dance in Palestine, ii. 45
Amberley, Viscount, regards Jesus as an iconoclastic idealist, ii.
562;
looks down upon the social plane indicated by the great Sopher,
_ib._
Amenthes, or Amenti, has no blazing hell, ii. 11
Americ, or great mountain, the name of a range in Central America
visited by Columbus, i. 592
America, Central, lost cities, i. 239;
not named from Vespucius, i. 591;
name found in Nicaragua, i. 592;
first applied to the continent in 1522, _ib._;
Markland, _ib._;
note of A. Wilder, _ib._;
the conservatory of spiritual sensitives, ii. 19
American lodges know nothing of esoteric Masonry, ii. 376;
templarism, its three degrees, ii. 383
Americans to join the Catholic Church, ii. 379
Amita or Buddha, his realm, i. 601
Ammonius Sakkas, i. 443;
dated his philosophy from Hermes, ii. 342
Amrita, the supreme soul, i. 265
Amulet, a soldier made proof by one against bullets, i. 378
Amulets and relics, spells and phylacteries, ii. 352
Amun, i. 262
An, spirits of, ii. 387
Anæsthesia, its discovery by Wells, i. 539;
the improvements by Morton, Simpson, and Colton, i. 540;
understood by the Egyptians and Brahmans, _ib._
Anahit, the earth, i. 11
Anathems, a custom original with Christians, ii. 334
Anaxagoras, belief concerning spiritual prototypes, i. 158
Anaximenes held the doctrine of evolution or development, i. 238
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite a Jesuitical product, ii. 390
Ancient Philosophies, based on the doctrine of God the universal mind
diffused throughout nature, i. 289;
books written symbolically, i. 19;
of the ancient, i. 302;
Code of Manu, not in our possession, i. 585, 586;
landmarks of Masonry departed from, ii. 380;
mysteries hidden only from the profane, ii. 121;
religions, the wisdom or doctrine, their basis, ii. 99;
identical as to their secret meaning, ii. 410;
derived from one primitive worship, ii. 412;
word, note of Emanuel Swedenborg, ii. 470;
in Buddhistic Tartary, ii. 471
Ancients, monotheistical before Moses, i. 23;
knew certain sciences better than modern savants, i. 25;
regarded the physical sun as only an emblem, i. 270;
practiced psychometry, i. 331;
their religion that of the future, i. 613
Anderson, author of the Constitutions of 1723 and 1738, a Masonic
impostor, ii. 389;
Steve, his spiritual advisers anxious for his speedy execution lest
he should fall from grace, ii. 543
Angelo, Michel, his remarkable gem, i. 240
Angkor, figures purely archaic, i. 567
Anglican Church adopting again the Roman usages, ii. 544
Anima, i. 37
Anima Mundi, or world-soul, i. 56, 258;
same as Nirvana, i. 291;
feminine with the Gnostics and Nazarenes, i. 300;
bi-sexual, i. 301;
same as the astral light, _ib._;
an igneous, ethereal nature, i. 316, 317;
the human soul born upon leaving, i. 345
Animals, perhaps immortal, argument of Agassiz, i. 420, 427;
argument from natural instinct, i. 426, 427;
shut up in the ark, ii. 447
Animation, suspended, i. 483;
voluntarily, _ib._;
in cataleptic clairvoyance, i. 489
Anna, St., going in quest of her daughter Mary, ii. 491;
the origin of the name, _ib._
Annas and Caiaphas confess Jesus to be the Son of God, ii. 522
Annihilation, the meaning of the Buddhist doctrine, i. 290;
of the soul, i. 319
Annoia, ii. 282, 286
Anthesteria, the baptism and passage through the gate, ii. 245, 246
Anthropomorphic devil the bottom card, ii. 479
Anti-Christ, a fable invented as a precaution, ii. 535
Antichristianism, seeking to overthrow Christianity by science, i. 337
Anti-Masonic Convention denying the validity of an oath, ii. 373-375
Antipathy, its beginning, i. 309
Antitypes of men to be born, i. 310
Antiquity of human race, over 250,000 years, i. 3;
of necromancy and spiritualism, remote, i. 205;
lost natural philosophy, i. 235;
of optical instruments, gunpowder, the steam-engine, astronomical
science, i. 240, 241;
of the flood, i. 241;
opinion of Aristotle, i. 428
Ape, astral body, i. 327;
a degenerated man, ii. 278
Apis, the bull, secret book concerning his age, i. 406
Apocryphal Gospels first received and then discarded, ii. 518
Apollo made the prince of demons and lord of the under-world, ii. 488
Apollonius of Tyana, his journey an allegory, i. 19;
regard for stones, i. 265;
cast out devils, i. 356;
his power to witness the present and the future, i. 486;
beheld an empusa or ghûl, i. 604;
testimony of Justin Martyr respecting his powers, ii. 97;
not a “spirit-medium,” ii. 118;
his mistake, ii. 341;
his conjurations when wrapped in a woolen mantle, ii. 344;
visited Kashmere, ii. 434;
the faculty of his soul to quit the body, ii. 597;
vanished from sight and renewal elsewhere, _ib._
Apollyon, his various characters, ii. 511
Apophis, or Apap, the dragon, infests the soul, ii. 368
Apostles, Acts of, rejected, ii. 182;
Creed a forgery, ii. 514
Apostles of Buddhism, ii. 608
Apparitions of spirits of animals, i. 326
Appleton’s New American Cyclopædia misstates the date of the laws of
Manu, i. 587
Apuleius’ doctrine concerning birth and death of the soul, ii. 345;
on the beatific vision, ii. 145;
accused of black magic, ii. 149
Aquinas, Thomas, destroys the brazen oracular head of Albertus
Magnus, ii. 56
Arabic manuscripts, 80,000 burned at Granada, i. 511
Aralez, Armenian gods who revivify men, ii. 564
Arcane powers in Man, ii. 112;
knowledge and sorcery, ii. 583
Archæus, i. 14;
same as Chaos, fire, sidereal or astral light, psychic or ektenic
force, Akasa, etc., i. 125;
the principle of life, i. 400
Archæologists, their attacks on each other, ii. 471, 472
Archetypal man a spheroid, ii. 469
Architecture of the Egyptian temples, i. 517
Architectural remains in different countries, their remarkable
identity of parts, i. 572
Archons of this world, ii. 89, 90
Archytas, instructor of Plato, constructed a wooden dove, i. 543;
invented the screw and crane, _ib._
Arctic regions visited by the Phœnicians, i. 545
Argha, or ark, ii. 444
Arhat, i. 291;
reaches Nirvana while on earth, ii. 320
Arhats, free from evil desire, i. 346
Aristotle on the human soul and the world-soul, i. 251;
three natural principles, i. 310;
on gas from the earth, i. 200;
on form, i. 312;
on the _nous_ and _psuche_, i. 316;
on the filth element, i. 317;
believed in the nous and psuche, the reasoning and the animal soul,
i. 317;
borrowed doctrines from Pythagoras, i. 319, 320;
believed in a past eternity of human existence, i. 428;
doctrine of two-fold soul, i. 429;
taught the Buddhistic doctrine, i. 430;
believed light to be itself an energy, i. 510;
contradicted by the Neo-Platonists, i. 430;
taught that the earth was the centre of the universe, i. 408;
obnoxious to Christian theology, ii. 34;
upon Jon or יהוה, ii. 302
Ark, what it represents, ii. 444
Armenian tradition of giving life to a slain warrior, ii. 564
Armor, Prof., theory of malformations, i. 392
Arnobius, believed the soul corporeal, i. 317
Artesian well, used in China, i. 517
Articles of faith of the ancient wisdom-religions, ii. 116
Artificial lakes in ancient temples in Egypt, Asia, and America, i.
572
Artificially fecundated woman, i. 77, 81
Arts in the archaic ages, i. 405, 406
Artufas, the temples of nagualism, i. 557
Aryan, Median, Persian, and Hindu, also the Gothic and Slavic
peoples, i. 576;
nations, had no devil, ii. 10;
carried bronze manufacture into Europe, i. 539;
united, 3,000 B.C., ii. 433;
in the valley of the upper Indus, _ib._;
did not borrow from the Semites, ii. 426
Asbestos, i. 229;
thread and oil made from it, i. 504
Asclepiadotus, reproduces chemically the exhalations of the sacred
oracle-grotto, i. 531
Asdt, אשדת (_Deut._ xxxiii. 2), signifies emanations, but
mistranslated, ii. 34
Asgârtha, temple in India, ii. 31
Ash-trees, third race of men created from, i. 558
Ashmole, Elias, the Rosicrucian, the first operative Mason of note,
ii. 349
Asia, middle belt, perhaps once a sea-bed, i. 590, 592
Asideans, or Khasdims, the same as Pharsi or Pharisees, ii. 441
Asmodeus, or Æshma-deva, ii. 482
Asmonean priest-kings promulgated the _Old Testament_ in opposition
to the Apocrypha, ii. 135;
first Pharisees, and then Sadducees, _ib._
Asoka and Augustine, ii. 32;
his missionaries, ii. 42;
the Buddhist, sent missionaries to other countries, ii. 491
Ass, the form of Typhon, ii. 484;
its Coptic name, AO, a phonetic of Iao, _ib._;
head found in the temple, ii. 523
Assyria, the land of Nimrod, or Bacchus, i. 568
Assyrians basso-relievos at Nagkon-Wat, i. 566;
sphinxes, ii. 451;
tablets, the flood, ii. 422
Assyrians, their archaic empire, ii. 486
Astral atmosphere, i. 314;
body or doppelganger, i. 360;
of the ape, i. 327;
fire, represented by the serpent, i. 137;
fluid can be compressed about the body, to protect it from
violence, i. 378, 380;
a bolt of it can be directed with fatal force, i. 380;
form oozing out of the body, i. 179;
bound to the corpse and infesting the living, i. 432;
light, i. 56, 156, 247;
the Ob or Python, i. 158;
currents, i. 247;
same as the anima mundi, i. 301;
dual and bi-sexual, _ib._;
Soul or Spirit, i. 12;
divided by H. More into the aërial and ætherial vehicles, i. 206;
said to linger about the body 3,000 years, i. 226;
doctrine of Epicurus, i. 250;
the perisprit, composed of matter, i. 289;
not immortal, i. 432;
virgin, i. 126
Astrograph, i. 385
Astrologers, Chaldean, i. 205
Astrology, i. 259
Astronomus, the title of the highest initiate, ii. 365
Astronomical calculations of Chaldeans and Egyptians, i. 21;
of Chaldeans and Aztecs, i. 11, 241;
of Chinese, i. 241
Aswatha, the Hindu tree of life, i. 152, 153
Athanor, the, the Archimedean lever, i. 506
Atheism, not a Buddhistical doctrine, i. 292
Atharva-Veda, great value, ii. 414, 415
Athbach, ii. 299
Atheists, none among heathen populations, ii. 240;
none in days of old, ii. 530
Athos, Mount, story of the manuscripts, ii. 52
Athothi, king of Egypt, writes a book on anatomy, i. 406
Athtor, or Mother Night, i. 91
Atlantis, the legend believed, i. 557
Atlantic ocean, once intersected by islands and a continent, i. 557,
558;
mentioned in the _Secret Book_, i. 590;
perhaps the actual name of the great Southern continent in the
Indian Ocean, i. 591;
name not Greek, _ib._;
probable etymology of the name, _ib._;
two orders of inhabitants, i. 592, 593;
their fall, and the submersion of the island, i. 593
Atma, i. 346
Atman, the spiritual self, recognized as God, ii. 566
Atmospheric electricity embodied in demi-gods, i. 261
Atoms, doctrine taught by Demokritus, i. 249
Atonement, origin of the doctrine, ii. 41;
error of Prof. Draper, _ib._;
mysteries of initiation, ii. 42
Attraction, the great mystery, i. 338
Audhumla, the cow or female principle, i. 147
Augoeides, or part of the divine spirit, i. 12, 306, 315;
cannot be communed with by a hierophant with a touch of mortal
passion, i. 358;
self-shining vision of the future self, ii. 115;
the âtman or self, ii. 317
Augsburgian Jesuits desirous to change the Sabean emblems, ii. 450
Augustine, his accession to Christianity placed theology and science
at everlasting enmity, ii. 88;
his directions about the ladies’ toilet, ii. 331;
scouted the sphericity of the earth, ii. 477;
affirmed a predestinated state of happiness and predetermined
reprobation, ii. 546
A U M, meaning of the sacred letters, ii. 31;
the holy primitive syllable, ii. 39;
and Tum, ii. 387
Aur, i. 158
Aura Placida, deified into two martyrs, ii. 248
Aureole, from Babylonia, ii. 95
Auricular confession in the Anglican church, ii. 544
Aurora borealis, conjectures concerning it of scientists, i. 417
Aurumgahad, i. 349;
Buddhistic mementos, i. 349
Austin Friars, or Augustinians, outdone in magic by the Jesuits, i.
445
Avany, the Virgin, by whom the first Buddha was incarnated, ii. 322
Avatar, i. 291;
the earliest, ii. 427
Avatars and emanations, ii. 155, 156;
of Vishnu, ii. 274;
they symbolize evolution of races, ii. 275
Avicenna, on chickens with hawks’ heads, i. 385
Azaz-El, or Siva, ii. 302, 303
Azoth, or creative principle, symbol, i. 462;
blunder of de Mirville, _ib._
Aztecs, of Mexico, their calendar, i. 11;
resembled the ancient Egyptians, i. 560
Baal, prophets danced the circle-dance of the Amazons, ii. 45;
Tsephon, god of the crypt, ii. 487;
how his hierophants procured apparitions, ii. 567
Babies speaking good French, i. 371
Babinet on table-turning, i. 60, 101, 104;
declares levitation impossible and is refuted, i. 105;
his story of a fire-globe resembling a cat, i. 107
Babylon, built by those who escaped the deluge, i. 31;
after three conquerors, i. 534;
the great mother, or Magna Mater, ii. 501
Babylonia, the seat of Sanscrit literature, ii. 428
Babylonian priests, asserted their observations to have extended back
470,000 years, i. 533;
system defined, ii. 170
Bacchic fan, held by Osiris, ii. 494
Bacchus, a saint of the Roman calendar, i. 160;
worship among the Jews, ii. 128;
“the son of God,” ii. 492;
myth, contains the history of the gods, ii. 527;
the Prophet-God, ii. 527, 528;
a saint in the calendar, ii. 528;
or Dionysus, his Indian origin, ii. 560
Bacon, Roger, miracles, i. 69;
predicted the use of steam and other modern inventions, i. 413
Badagas, a people of Hindustan who revere and maintain the Todas, ii.
613-615
Bad demons, i. 343
Bael-tur, sacred to Siva, i. 469
Baggage from the Pagan mysteries, ii. 334
Bahak-Zivo, i. 298;
ordered to create, i. 299;
the creator, ii. 134
Bahira, the Nestorian monk, ii. 54
Balahala, the fifth degree, ii. 365
Balam Acan, a Toltecan king, i. 553
Ban, on spiritualistic writings, ii. 8
Banyan, the tree of knowledge and life, ii. 293
Baphomet, the alleged god of the Templars, ii. 302
Baptism of blood, the slaughter of a hierophant or an animal, ii. 42;
a general practice, ii. 134
Baptismal font in Egyptian pyramids, i. 519
Baptist preachers’ meeting in New York, ii. 473, 474;
a warm doctrine, _ib._
Baptista Porta, i. 66
Baptists, ii. 291
Bardesanian system, ii. 224
Barjota, Curé de, his magical powers, ii. 60;
saves the Pope’s life, _ib._
Barlaam and Josaphat, a ridiculous romance, ii. 580
Barrachias-Hassan-Oglu, i. 43
Barri (Italy), a statue of the Madonna with crinoline, ii. 9
Bart, his testimony in regard to Herakles, ii. 515
Basic matter of gold, i. 50
Basileus, the archon taking charge of the Eleusinians, ii. 90
Basilidean system, the exposition of Irenæus, ii. 157
Basilides, description of Clement, ii. 123;
derived his doctrines from the Gospel according to Matthew, ii. 155;
his doctrines set forth by Tertullian, ii. 189
Bastian, Dr., his conception of the temple of Angkor or Nagkon-Wat,
i. 567, 568
Batria, the wife of Pharaoh, teacher of Moses, i. 25
Battle of life, ii. 112
Baubo, in the Mysteries, what she directed, ii. 112
Bayle, his testimony on spurious relics, ii. 72
Beads and rosaries, of Buddhistic origin, ii. 95.
Beatific vision or epopteia, testimony of Paul and Apuleius, ii. 146
Beaujeu, Count, his Masonic imposture, ii. 381
Beaumont, Elie de, on terrestrial circulation, i. 503
Beausobre, on the Rasit or Principle, ii. 36
Beel-Zebub (more properly Beel-Zebul, the Baal of the Temple) the
same as Apollo, the Oracle-God, ii. 481;
nicknamed Beel-Zebub, a god of flies, ii. 486
Beer made in ancient Egypt, i. 543
Bel, a personification of the Hindu Siva, i. 263;
and the dragon, i. 550;
Baal, the Devil, i. 552
Belial, a Diakka, ii. 482
Believers in magic, mesmerism and spiritualism, 800,000,000, i. 512
Bellarmin, Cardinal, his vision about the bottomless pit, ii. 8
Bells before the shrine of Jupiter-Ammon, ii. 95;
in Jewish and Buddhistic rites, _ib._
Belus, the first Assyrian king, deified, i. 552
Ben Asai, in the garden of delights, ii. 119;
Zoma, in the garden of delights, ii. 119
Benedict, St., and his black raven, ii. 78
Bengal, magical seance, i. 467
Bengalese conjurers and jugglers, i. 457;
planting trees, etc., which grew at once, _ib._
Bethlehem, grotto of, temple of Adonis, ii. 139
Beverages to produce visions, ii. 117
Bhagaved-gita, opinion of du Perron, ii. 562;
reverenced by the Brahmans, _ib._;
contains the greatest mysteries of the Brahmanic religion, ii. 563;
reverenced alike by Brahmanists and Buddhists, _ib._
Bhagavant, the same as Parabrahma, i. 91;
endued Brahma with creative power, i. 90;
not a creator, i. 347;
enters the world-egg, _ib._
Bhagaved, i. 148
Bhangulpore, Round Tower, ii. 5
Bhutavan, the Spirit of Evil, created to destroy the incarnation of
the sin of Brahma, i. 265
Bible, antedated by Vedas, i. 91;
its allegories repeated in Talapoin and Ceylonese traditions and
manuscripts, i. 577;
used as a weapon against the people who furnished it, ii. 96;
an allegorical screen of the Kabala, ii. 210;
the great light of modern Masonry, ii. 389;
four or five times written over, ii. 470;
when made up, ii. 471;
a secret volume, _ib._;
Patriarchs only zodiacal signs, ii. 459
Bilocation, i. 361
Binlang-stone, ii. 234
Biographers of the Devil, ii. 15
Birds, sung a mass for St. Francis, ii. 77
Birs-Nimrud, the temple of seven stages, i. 261
Birth of the human soul, i. 345
Birth-marks, i. 384
Bisexual, the first man, i. 559
Bishops of the fourth century illiterate, ii. 251
Black-faced Christ in India, ii. 532
Black gods worshipped by the Yakuts, ii. 568, 569
Blackguardism of Father Weninger, ii. 379
Black magic practised at the Vatican, ii. 6;
sorcery and witchcraft, an abuse, ii. 118;
mirror, i. 596;
reveals to the Inca queen her husband’s death, _ib._;
virgins in French cathedrals, figures of Isis, ii. 95
“Bleeding Head” of a murdered child employed as an oracle, ii. 56;
image, ii. 17
Blessed Virgin gives a demoniac a sound thrashing, ii. 76
Blind Force plus intelligence, i. 199;
psychic force, _ib._
Blood, the baptism, ii. 42;
of Jesus Christ, a phial of it presented to Henry III. of England,
ii. 71;
eagerness of spirits for it, i. 344;
its circulation understood by the Egyptians, i. 544;
liquefied at Naples and Nargercoil, in India, i. 613;
its emanations serve spirits with material for their apparitions,
ii. 567;
the universal Proteus and arcanum of life, _ib._;
-demons, i. 353;
-evocation by the Yakuts, Bulgarians and Moldavians, ii. 569, 570
Bloody legislation of Protestant countries against witchcraft, ii.
503;
rites in Hayti, ii. 572
Blue, held in aversion as the symbol of evil, ii. 446;
ray, i. 137, 264;
-violet, the seventh ray, most responsive of all, i. 514
Body, the sepulchre of the soul, ii. 112;
how long it may be kept alive, ii. 563;
of Moses, a symbol for Palestine, ii. 482;
may be obsessed by spirits during the temporary absence of the
soul, ii. 589
Boismont, de, Brierre, on hallucinations, i. 144
Boodhasp, the founder of Sabism or baptism, ii. 290, 291
Book of the Dead, Egyptian, i. 517, 518;
quoted in the Gospel according to Matthew, ii. 548;
older than Menes, ii. 361;
of Jasher, i. 549;
of Jasher, the _Old Testament_ condensed, ii. 399;
of Numbers, Chaldean, i. 32
Books lost and destroyed, i. 24;
of Hermes, i. 33;
of Hermes, attested by the Champollions, i. 625
Births, feast of, supposed to be Bacchic, ii. 44, 45
Bosheth, Israelites consecrated, ii. 130
Both-al, Batylos, and Beth-el, i. 550
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, publishes _Popol Vuh_, i. 2
Boussingault on table-turning, i. 60
Bozrah, the convent there the place where the seed of Islam was sown,
ii. 54
Brachmans in Greece, ii. 321
Brahm, i. 291
Brahma, a secondary deity, like Jehovah, the demiurgos, i. 91;
evolved himself, and then brought nature from himself, i. 93;
creates Lomus, i. 133;
produces spiritual beings, then daints or giants, and, finally, the
castes of men, i. 148;
the name of the universal germ, ii. 261;
night of, ii. 272, 273, 421;
manifested as twelve attributes or gods, i. 348;
day and night, ii. 421
Brahma-Prajapati committed the first sin, i. 265;
his repentance and the hottest tear, _ib._
Brahm-âtma, or chief of the initiates, had the two crossed keys, ii.
31
Brahman, his astounding declaration to Jacolliot, ii. 585
Brahmanas, ii. 409, 410;
the key to the Rig-Veda, ii. 415
Brahmanical religion, stated in the doctrine of God as the Universal
mind diffused through all things, i. 289
Brahmanism, pre-Vedic, identical with Buddhism, ii. 142;
Buddhism its primitive source, ii. 169
Brahman gods, Siva, Surya, and the Aswins denounced in the _Avesta_,
ii. 482, 483
Brahman-Yoggins, i. 307;
story of descent from giants, i. 122;
theories of the sun and moon, i. 264;
their powers of prediction and clairvoyance, i. 446;
possess secrets of anæsthesia, i. 540;
widows burned without hurting them, _ib._;
know that the rite of widow-burning was never prescribed, i. 541;
their religion exclusive, and not to be disseminated, i. 581;
dispossessed the Jaina natives of India, ii. 323;
in Babylonia, ii. 428;
and Buddhists, their extraordinary probity, ii. 474;
how it has deteriorated by Christian association, _ib._
Brain, substance changed by thought and sensation, i. 249, 250;
silvery spark in, i. 329
Brazen serpent, the caduceus of Mercury or Asklepios, i. 556;
symbol of Esculapius or Iao, ii. 481;
worshipped by the Israelites, _ib._;
broken by Hezekiah, ii. 440
Bread-and-mutton protoplasms, i. 421
Bread and wine, a sacrifice of great antiquity, ii. 43, 44, 513
Breath, immortal, infusing life, i. 302
Brighou, the pragâpati and his patriarchal descendants, ii. 427
Bronze age, i. 534
Bronze introduced into Europe 6,000 years ago by Aryan immigrants, i.
539
Brothers of the Shadow, i. 319
Broussard on magnetism and medicine, ii. 610
Bruno, why slaughtered, i. 93;
Prof. Draper misrepresents him, i. 94;
held Jesus to be a magician, _ib._;
accusation against him, i. 95;
his reply, i. 96;
declared this world a star, _ib._;
acknowledged an universal Providence, _ib._;
doubted the Trinity, i. 97;
a Pythagorean, i. 98
Brutal force adored by Christendom, ii. 334
Buchanan, Prof. J. R., criticises Agassiz, i. 63;
his bridge from physical impression to consciousness, i. 87;
theory of psychometry, i. 182;
on tendency of gestures to follow the phrenological organs, i. 500
Buddha, the formless Brahm, i. 291;
the monad, _ib._, 550;
incarnation, _ib._;
his lama representative, i. 437, 438;
appearing of his shadow to Hiouen-Thsang, i. 600;
never deified by his followers, ii. 240;
a social rather than a religious reformer, ii. 339;
tempted and victorious, ii. 513;
never wrote, ii. 559;
his lessons to his disciples, _ib._;
taught the new birth, ii. 566;
breaks with the old mysteries, _ib._;
or Sommona-Cadom, the Siamese Saviour, ii. 576;
changed by the Vatican into St. Josaphat, ii. 579;
“just as if he had been a Christian,” ii. 581
Buddha-Siddârtha, i. 34;
-Gautama, i. 92;
lived 2,540 years ago, ii. 537;
teaches how to escape reincarnation, i. 346
Buddhism based on the doctrine of God, the universal Mind diffused
through all things, i. 289;
prehistoric, the once universal religion, ii. 123;
preached by Jesus, ii. 123;
its ethics, ii. 124;
identical with pre-Vedic Brahmanism, ii. 142;
the primitive source of Brahmanism, ii. 169;
its groundwork the kabalistic doctrine, i. 271;
its doctrine based on works, ii. 288;
esoteric doctrines, ii. 319;
the religion of the earlier Vedas, ii. 436;
degenerated into Lamaism, ii. 582
Buddhist patriarch of Nangasaki, ii. 79;
system, how mastered, i. 289;
monks in Syria and Babylon, ii. 290;
went so far as Ireland, _ib._;
theories of sun and moon, i. 264;
respect for the sapphire-stone, _ib._
Buddhistic element in Gnosticism and missionaries in Greece, ii. 321;
theology, four schools, ii. 533
Bull the emblem of life everywhere, ii. 235, 236;
against the comet, ii. 509;
and syllabus burned by the Bohemians, ii. 560
Bull’s eye in the target of Christianity, ii. 476
Bullets successfully resisted by talismans, i. 378
Bulwer-Lytton, his description of the _vril_, or primal force, i. 64,
125;
elementary beings, i. 285, 289;
the Vril-ya, or coming race, i. 296
Bunsen, testimony concerning the Origines of Egypt, i. 529;
description of the Pyramid of Cheops, i. 518;
account of the Egyptian skill in quarrying, _ib._;
on the word PTR, ii. 93;
his opinion respecting Zoroaster and the Baktrian emigration, ii.
432;
his opinion of Khamism, ii. 435;
on the exodus of the Israelites, ii. 558
Bur, the offspring of Audhumla, i. 147
Burning men to avoid shedding their blood, i. 64;
scientists about as ready as clergy, i. 85
Buried cities in Hindustan, i. 350
Butlerof, Prof. A., on the facts of spiritualism, ii. 3
Cabeirians, i. 23
Cable-tow, the Brahmanical cord, ii. 393
Cadière, Mlle., her seduction by a Jesuit priest, ii. 633, 634
Cagliostro, an Hermetic philosopher, persecuted by the Church of
Rome, i. 200;
said to have made gold and diamonds, i. 509
Cain, ancestor of the Hivites, or Serpents, ii. 446;
and Siva, ii. 448;
or Kenu, the eldest, ii. 464
Calmeil imputes theomania of the Calvinists to hysteria and epilepsy,
i. 371;
his explanation of their extraordinary power of resistance to
blows, i. 375
Calmet, Dom, on vampires, i. 452
Calvin affirmed election, original sin, and reprobation, ii. 547
Carnac, the serpent’s mount, i. 554
Campanile Column, of St. Mark’s, in Venice, its original, ii. 5
Canals of Egypt, i. 516, 517
Canonical books, enforced eliminations, ii. 143;
selected by sortilege, ii. 251
Capuchins, their Christmas observances, ii. 365
Carpenter, W. B., lecture on Egypt, i. 440
Carthage more civilized than Rome, i. 520;
built long before the taking of Troy, _ib._;
not built by Dido, _ib._
Cataclysms, periodical, i. 31
Catalepsy and vampirism, i. 449, 450
Catherine of Medicis employed a sorcerer, ii. 55;
her resort to the charm of “the bleeding head,” ii. 56
Catholic ritual of pagan origin, ii. 85;
miracle in Poland means revolution, ii. 17;
must be Ultramontane and Jesuit, ii. 356;
missionaries becoming Talapoins, ii. 531
Catholicism more fetish-worshipping than Hinduism, ii. 80
Catholics persecute other Christians, ii. 81
Causes, Platonic division, i. 393
Cave-men of Les Eyzies, i. 295
Cave-temples of Ajunta, Buddhistic, i. 349;
of India, claimed by the Jainas, ii. 323
Caves of Mithras, ii. 491
Celestial Virgin pursued by the Dragon, a mystery and representation
in the constellations, ii. 490
Celsus, his accusations of the Christians, ii. 51;
not being refuted, his books burned, ii. 51, 52;
a copy probably existing at a monastery on Mount Athos, ii. 52;
his opinion of Jesus, ii. 530
Celebrated vase of the Genoa Cathedral, its material not known, i.
537, 538
Celt, probably a hybrid of the Aryan and Iberians of Europe, i. 576
Cement, ancient, i. 239
Cenchrea, Paul shorn and Lucius initiated there, ii. 90
Centenarians, Parr, Jenkins, and others, ii. 564
Central America, her peoples to be traced to the Phœnicians and
Mosaic Israelites, i. 555;
Asia, the face of the country changed, ii. 426;
Invisible, i. 302
Cerebral electricity, its dependence upon the statical, i. 322
Ceremony of withdrawing the soul, ii. 603
Ceres or Demeter, the female or passive productive principle, ii. 560
Cerinthus, his doctrines described by Irenæus, ii. 176
Cevennes, prophets of, i. 221;
the Convulsionaires, miraculous occurrences, i. 370;
statement by Figuier, i. 370, 371
Chair of St. Fiacre and its prolificating virtue, ii. 332
Chaldean Arba and Christian Four, ii. 171;
oracles, i. 535;
denounce augury, _ib._
Chaldeans, their correct astronomical calculations, i. 11;
their magic, i. 66;
their theory of magic, i. 459;
their origin, ii. 46;
Hebrew Sanscrit, _ib._
Champollion declares the Egyptians monotheists, i. 24;
his description of Karnak, i. 523;
synopsis of his discoveries, i. 530
Chandragupta, his exploits, ii. 607, 608
Chaos, the Female Principle, i. 61;
Archæus, Akasa, i. 125;
the Soul of the World, i. 129;
and ether, the first two, i. 341
Charlatan only will ever use mercury as a medicine, ii. 621
Charms, the Dharani, their extraordinary powers, i. 471
Charmed life, i. 379
Charmers, their power over beasts and reptiles, i. 381
Charybdis, the maëlstrom, i. 545
Chemi, or Chem, the ancient name of Egypt, i. 541
Chemical vapors taking forms, i. 127
Chemicals keep away disagreeable physical phenomena, i. 356, 357
Chemist and magician compared, i. 464
Chemistry, ancient proficiency, i. 50;
revolution, i. 163;
Egypt its cradle, i. 541;
called alchemy, i. 542
Cheops, his engraved ring, i. 240;
pyramid of, its measure and weight, i. 518;
Prof. Smyth’s descriptions, i. 520
Cherub, one of his nails preserved as a relic, ii. 71;
of Jeheskiel, ii. 451
Cherubs, the vehans of deity, ii. 231
Chess played in Egypt and India 5,000 years ago, i. 544
Chevalier Ramsay, the Jesuit inventor of the Scottish Rite, ii. 390
Chicago murderers converted in prison, ii. 543
Child, Mrs. Lydia M., remarks on Hindu emblems, i. 583; ii. 445
Child-burning by the Jesuits, ii. 65
Child-medium, Sanscrit written in her presence, i. 368;
Kate Fox’s son, i. 439
Children, born malformed, wounded, and parts cut away, i. 386;
may kill their parents, ii. 363;
sacrificed to Moloch-Hercules, at Tophet, in the valley of Hinnom,
ii. 11
China, the glass, i. 537;
metal work, i. 538
Chinese believe in the art of overcoming mortality, i. 214;
ancient emperor puts two astronomers to death, i. 241
_Chitonuth our_, chitons or coats of skin, a priestly garb, i. 575;
Adam and his wife invested by יהוה אלהים, Java Aleim, _ib._
Chrestians before Christians, ii. 323
Chrestos, worshipped many centuries before Christ, ii. 324;
Christians and Jews alike united, ii. 558
Christ a reïncarnationist, ii. 145;
destroyed Jehovah-worship, ii. 527;
a modified Christna, ii. 532;
a personage rather than a person, ii. 576
Christian spiritualists, i. 54;
denominations, peculiarity of their deity, ii. 2, 354, 485, 581;
spent on their buildings, ii. 2;
the spiritualists in them, ii. 2;
hatred of spiritualism, ii. 4;
symbols, presence of phallism, ii. 5;
Church, with the rites and priestly robes of heathenism, ii. 96;
doctrines classified, ii. 145;
doctrines, their origin in Middle Asia, ii. 338;
Gnostics, ii. 324;
appeared just as the Essenes disappeared, _ib._;
Sabbath, its date, ii. 419;
theology, its origin, ii. 525
Christianity, early, based on the doctrine of God, the universal mind
diffused through all things, i. 285;
description of Max Müller, ii. 10;
pure heathenism, ii. 80;
primitive, had secret pass-words and rites, ii. 204;
doctrines taken from Brahmanism and Buddhism, the ceremonials and
pageantry from Lamaism, ii. 211;
its true spirit found only in Buddhism, ii. 240;
made little change from Roman paganism, ii. 334;
its doctrines plagiarized, ii. 346;
and a personal God repudiated by Freemasons at Lausanne, ii. 377;
bull’s eye in its target, ii. 476;
theological, the Devil its patron genius, ii. 478;
its symbols anticipated by the older religions, ii. 557;
Paul the real founder, ii. 574;
stripped of every feature to make it acceptable to the Siamese, ii.
579
Christians, few understand Jewish theology, i. 17;
divided into three unequal parties, ii. 3;
why they quarrelled with the Pagans, ii. 51;
accepted the worship of the God of the gardens, _ib._;
Old, called Nazarenes, ii. 151;
only seven to twelve in each church, ii. 175;
Pauline and Petrine controversy, _ib._;
of St. John, or Mendæans, ii. 289, 290;
do not believe in Christ, ii. 290;
accused of child-murder at their “perfect passover,” ii. 333;
originally composed of secret societies, ii. 335;
anciently kept no Sabbaths, ii. 419;
claim the discovery of the Devil, ii. 477;
praiseworthy, modified Buddhists, ii. 540;
Russian and Bulgarian, cursed by the Pope, ii. 560
Christism, before Christ, ii. 32
Christmas festivals of Capuchins, ii. 365
Christna, orthography of the name, i. 586;
crushing the head of the serpent, ii. 446;
and his mother with the aureole, ii. 95;
raises the daughter of Angashuna to life, ii. 241;
the good shepherd, crushes the serpent Kalinaga, is crucified, ii.
447;
Sakya-muni, and Jesus, three men exalted to deity, ii. 536;
lived 6,877 years ago (1877), ii. 537;
his dying words to the hunter, ii. 545, 546;
his eulogy of works rather than contemplations, ii. 563
Christos or Crestos, ii. 142;
his entering into the man Jesus at the Jordan, ii. 186;
the Angel Gabriel, ii. 193;
from the Sanskrit kris or sacred, ii. 158;
an aggregation of the emanations, etc., ii. 159
Christs of the pre-Christian ages, ii. 43
Church and priest, benefits if they were to pass away, ii. 586
Church of Rome in 1876, excommunicating and cursing, ii. 6;
her powerless fury against the Bulgarians and Servians, ii. 7;
pre-eminent in murderous propensity, i. 27;
has mightier enemies than “heretics” and “infidels,” ii. 30;
believes in magic, ii. 76;
its maxim to deceive and lie to promote its ends, ii. 303
Churches, their phallic symbols, ii. 5;
ancient, only seven to twelve in each, ii. 175.
Cicero, on divine exhalations from the earth, i. 200;
concerning the gods, i. 280
Cipher of the S. P. R. C., the Knight Rosy Cross of Heredom, and of
the Knights Kadosh, ii. 395;
Royal Arch, ii. 396
Circle, perfect, decussated, ii. 469;
of necessity, i. 296;
of necessity, when completed, i. 346;
of necessity, the sacred mysteries at Thebes, i. 553;
of stones, i. 572
Circle-dance or chorus of the Amazons, performed by King David and
others, ii. 45;
of the Amazons around a priapic image, a common usage and
sanctioned by a Catholic priest, ii. 331, 332;
taught to initiates in the sixth degree, ii. 365
Circulation, terrestrial, i. 503;
of the blood, understood by the Egyptians, i. 544
City, the mysterious, story of, i. 547
Civilization, ancient, i. 239;
of the east preceded that of the west, i. 539
Clairvoyance, cataleptic, the subject practically dead, i. 484
Clearchus gives five cases of larvæ or vampires, i. 364;
story of the boy whose soul was led away from the body and returned
again, i. 365, 366
Clear vision obstructed by physical memory, ii. 591
Clemens Alexandrinus, believed in metempsychosis, i. 12;
denounces the Mysteries, ii. 100
Cleonymus returned after dying, i. 364
Cleopatra sent news by a wire, i. 127
Clergy, Greek, Roman and Protestant, discountenance spiritual
phenomena, i. 26;
Roman and Protestant burned and hanged mediums, _ib._;
Protestant, their hatred of spiritualism, ii. 4;
their cast-off garb worn by men of science, ii. 8;
attired in the cast-off garb of the heathen priesthood, _ib._
Clerkship of the Templars, ii. 385
Clermont system, the Scottish Rite, ii. 381
Clinton, De Witt, Grand Master of the first Grand Encampment General,
ii. 383
Clocks and dials in ancient periods, i. 536
Coats of skin, i. 2, 149;
explained, i. 293;
worn by the priests of Hercules, i. 575;
Adam and his wife so invested, _ib._;
_Chitonuth our_, ii. 458
Code of Justinian copied from Manu, i. 586
_Codex Nazaræus_ prohibits the worship of Adonai the Sun-god, ii. 131;
denounces Jesus, ii. 132
Coffin, from Egypt, dated by astronomical delineations, i. 520, 521
Colenso, Bishop, exiled the _Old Testament_, ii. 4
Colleges for teaching prophecy and occult sciences, i. 482
Collouca-Batta, account of the migrations of Manu-Vina from India to
Egypt, i. 627
Collyridians asserted Mary to be virgin-born, ii. 110;
transferred their worship from Astoreth to Mary, ii. 444
Colob, a planet on which the Mormon chief god lives, ii. 2
Colored masonry not acknowledged, ii. 391
Colquhoun, J. C., on the doctrine of a personal devil, ii. 477
Commission, Russian, to investigate spiritual phenomena, i. 117
Communication, subjective, with spirits, ii. 115
Communication, supposed, with the dead, with angels, devils, and
gods, i. 323
Communion with God, a pagan sentiment, ii. 470
Companions, or Kabalists, ii. 470
Compensation, the law never swerves, ii. 545
Comte, Auguste, i. 76;
catechism of religion of positivism, i. 78;
his feminine mystery, i. 81;
his doctrines repudiated by Huxley, i. 82;
his philosophy belonging to David Hume, _ib._;
the ventriloquist, on spiritual phenomena, i. 101
Comtists, or positivists, despised and hated, ii. 3
Conflict between the world-religions, i. 307
Conical monuments imputed to Hermes Trismegistus, i. 551
Conjurers, i. 73
Consciousness a quality of the soul, i. 199
Constitutions, secret, of the Jesuits, ii. 354
Continent, Atlantian, i. 591;
Lemuria, i. 592;
Great Equinoctial, i. 594;
in the Pacific, i. 594;
inhabited by the Rutas, _ib._
“Control,” i. 360
Convulsionaries cured by marriage, i. 375
Convulsionary, extraordinary resistance to external injury, i. 373
Corcoran, Catherine, malformed child, i. 392
Cordanus, power of leaving his body to go on errands, i. 477
Corinthian bride, resuscitated by Apollonius of Tyana, i. 481
Correspondences, Swedenborg’s doctrine that of Pythagoras and
Kabalists, i. 306
Corson, Prof., on science and its contests with religion, i. 403
Cory, exceptions to his view of Plato and Pythagoras, i. 288
Cosmo, St., traffic by the Italian clergy in his phallic _ex-votos_,
ii. 5
Cosmogonical doctrines based on one formula, i. 341
Counterfeit relics palmed off on Prince Radzivil, ii. 72;
they work miracles, _ib._
Counterfeits in thaumaturgy are proofs of an original, ii. 567
Covercapal, the serpent-god, converted, ii. 509
Cox, Sergeant, proposition concerning the physical phenomena of
spiritualism, i. 195;
his denial, i. 201
Creation, doctrine of Hermetists and Rosicrucians, i. 258;
cycle of, ii. 272, 273;
Plato’s discourse, ii. 469;
of mankind, Hindu legend, i. 148;
Norse legend, i. 146, 151;
of men from the tree _tzite_ and women from the reed _sibac_, i.
558
Creative Principle, proclaimed at Lausanne by the supreme councils of
Freemasonry, ii. 377;
denounced by Gen. Pike, _ib._
Creator, not the Highest God, i. 309;
the father of matter and the bad, _ib._
Credo, as amended by Robert Taylor, ii. 522
Creed, suggested for Protestant and Catholic bodies, ii. 473
Crime of every kind sanctioned by Jesuit doctrine, ii. 353;
by ecclesiastics in the United States, ii. 573
Crimean war, i. 260
Crook, Episcopal, adopted from the Etrurian augurs, ii. 94
Crookes, Prof., begins to investigate spiritual phenomena, i. 44;
on psychic force, i. 45;
theories, i. 47;
remarks on Prof. Thury, i. 112;
his experiment with the planchette, i. 199;
acknowledges the evidence of spiritual phenomena overwhelming, i.
202;
weighing light, i. 281
Cross, philosophical, i. 508;
or Tau, an ancient symbol, ii. 393;
Egyptian, found at Palenque, i. 572;
a sign of recognition, long before the Christian era, ii. 87;
found on the walls of the Serapeum, ii. 253, 254;
used in the Mysteries, _ib._;
of the Zodiac, ii. 452;
revered by every nation, ii. 453;
the geometrical basis of religious symbolism, _ib._;
acknowledged by the Jews, ii. 454
Crosse, Andrew, producing living insects by chemical action, i. 465
Crowe, Catherine, on stigmata or birth marks, i. 396
Crusade of des Mousseaux and de Mirville against the arch-enemy, ii.
15
Cryptographs of the Sovereign Princes Rose Croix, ii. 394
Crypts of Thebes and Memphis, i. 553;
mysteries of the circle of necessity, _ib._
Cults derived from one primitive religion, ii. 412
Cup, consecrated in the Bacchic mysteries, ii. 513
Cures effected at the Egyptian temples, i. 531, 532
Curse inheres in matter, i. 433;
allegorical, of the earth, ii. 420
Cursing, a Christian, and not a pagan practice, ii. 334;
prohibited because it will return, ii. 608
Cusco, its temples and hieroglyphics, i. 597;
tunnel to Lima and Bolivia, _ib._
Cycle, at the bottom, i. 247;
doctrine demonstrated, i. 348;
the Unavoidable, the Mysteries, i. 553
Cycles of human existence, i. 5, 6, 247, 293;
of the universe, ii. 420
Cyclopeans were Phœnicians, i. 567;
were shepherds in Libya, miners and builders, and forged bolts for
Zeus, _ib._;
same as Anakim, _ib._
Cyclopes, or Cuclo-pos, the Rajpoot race, ii. 438
Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, anthropomorphized Isis as Mary, ii. 41;
his murder of Hypatia, ii. 53;
the assassin of Hypatia sold church vessels, etc., ii. 253
Czechs of Bohemia burn the Bull and Syllabus, ii. 560
Dactyls, Phrygian, i. 23
Daguerre declared by a physician to be insane because he declared his
discovery, ii. 619
Daimonion of Socrates the cause of his death, ii. 117
Daimonia, i. 276
Daityas, i. 313
Damiano, St., traffic in Isernia, in his limbs and _ex-voto_, ii. 5
Dam-Sâdhna, a practice of fakirs like the rabbinic method of
“entering paradise,” ii. 590
Danger, the greatest to be feared, ii. 122
Daniel a Babylonian Rabbi, astrologer, and magus, ii. 236
Dardanus received the Kabeiri gods as a dowry, i. 570;
carried their worship to Samothrace and Troy, _ib._
Darius Hystaspes, teacher of the Mazdean religion, ii. 140;
put down the magian rites, ii. 142;
restored the worship of Ormazd, ii. 220;
added the Brahman to the Magian doctrine, ii. 306;
the institutor of magism, ii. 502;
established a Persian colony in Judea, ii. 441
Dark races of Hindustan worshipped Bala-Mahadeva, ii. 434
Darkness and the bad, how produced, i. 302
Darwin, his theory, i. 14
Darwinian line of descent, i. 154;
theory, in book of Genesis, i. 303
Daughters of Shiloh, their dance, ii. 45
David, King, exorcised the evil spirit of God, i. 215;
how he reinforced his failing vigor, i. 217;
danced the circle-dance of the Amazons, ii. 45;
knew nothing of Moses, _ib._;
performing a phallic dance before the ark, ii. 79;
brought the name Jehovah to Palestine, ii. 297;
established the Sadducean priesthood, _ib._;
ascends out of hell, ii. 517;
the Israelitish King Arthur, ii. 439;
establishes a new religion in Palestine, _ib._
Davis, A. J., on Diakka, i. 218
Day and night of Brahma, ii. 421
Daytha, the Hindu Nimrod, ii. 425
Dead, their ashes assuming their likeness, ii. 663
Death, when it actually occurs, i. 482;
when resuscitation is possible, i. 485;
planetary, i. 254;
no certain signs, i. 479;
exposition, i. 480;
language of Pimander, i. 624, 625;
the penalty for divulging secrets of initiation, ii. 99;
the Gates, ii. 364;
the second, ii. 368
Death-symbol at the orgies, ii. 138
Decameron, Boccaccio’s, prudery beside the _Golden Legend_, ii. 79
Decimal notation unknown to Pythagoras, ii. 300;
known to the Pythagoreans, _ib._
Degeneracy of Christians, ii. 575
Degrees, the three, ii. 364
Deicide, never charged on the Jews by Jesus, ii. 193
Deity, from deva, and devil from daeva, the same etymology, ii. 512;
represented by three circles in one, ii. 212
Delegatus, ii. 154
Deluge, i. 30;
Hindu story, ii. 425
Demeter, the Kabeirian, her picture represented with the electrified
head, i. 234;
or Ceres, the intellectual soul, ii. 112
Demigod philosophers, ii. 536
Demigods and atmospheric electricity, i. 261
Demiurgic Mind, i. 55
Demiurgos, or architect of the world, Brahma, i. 191;
Jehovah, _ib._
Democritus, i. 61;
on death, i. 365;
on the soul, i. 401;
a student of the Magi, i. 512;
his belief concerning magic, _ib._
Demon and Martin Luther, ii. 73;
of Socrates, ii. 283, 284;
same as the _nous_, _ib._
Demons, the doctrine of Buddha, i. 448;
in the Western Sahara, fascinate travellers, i. 604;
sometimes speak the truth, ii. 71;
opinion of Proclus, i. 312
Demoniac, sulphurous flames, ii. 75;
one receives a sound thrashing from the Blessed Virgin, ii. 76
Demonologia, i. 89
Demon-worship and saint-worship substantially the same, ii. 29
Dendera, the temple, the female figures, i. 524
De Negre, Grand Hierophant of the Rite of Memphis, ii. 380
Denon, his description of the ruins of Karnak, i. 524
Dentists in ancient Egypt, i. 545
Denton, Prof., examples of psychometrical power, i. 183;
illustrates archæology by psychometry, i. 295
Dervish, their initiation, ii. 317
Desatir, or book of Shet, on light, ii. 113
Descartes believed in occult medicine, i. 71;
his system of physics, i. 206
Descendants, resemblance to ancestors, i. 385
Descent into hell, ii. 177;
to subdue the rebellious archangel, i. 299;
how explained by Kabalists, _ib._;
of spirit to matter, i. 285
Designations of the virgin-mothers, Hindu, Egyptian, and Catholic,
ii. 209
Des Mousseaux, his reply to Calmeil and Figuier in regard to
Convulsionaries, i. 375, 376;
on miracles, magic, etc., i. 614, 615;
Chevalier, his crusade against the devil, ii. 15;
proves magic and spiritualism to be twin-sciences, _ib._
Despres made the diamond, i. 509
Destiny, an influence that each man weaves round himself, ii. 593;
how guided, _ib._
Devas and Asuras, their battles, i. 12
Devs, i. 141;
nature-spirits, called also shedim, demons, and afrites, i. 313
Devil, memoir of, i. 102;
the chief pillar of faith, i. 103;
not an entity, but an errant force, i. 138;
and deity, words of the same etymology, ii. 512;
the Shadow of God, i. 560;
the anthropomorphic, a creation of man, i. 561;
Aryan nations had none, ii. 10;
called by des Mousseaux the Serpent of _Genesis_, ii. 15;
a whole community possessed, ii. 16;
pesters St. Dominic as a flea and as a monkey, ii. 78;
Christians claim the discovery, ii. 477;
the patron genius of theological Christianity, ii. 477;
to deny him equivalent to denying the Saviour, ii. 478;
what he is, ii. 480;
an essential antagonistic force, _ib._;
the key found in the book of Job, ii. 493;
the fundamental stone of Christianity, ii. 501;
origin of the English notions, _ib._;
the European, ii. 502;
with horns and hoof, only known in Popish Encyclicals, ii. 503;
his various delineations by authors, ii. 511
Devils, 15,000 in a man, ii. 75;
the Fathers made them from the pagan gods, ii. 502
Devil-worshippers of Travancore, i. 135;
falsely-termed, their practice, i. 446, 447
Dew from heaven, i. 307
Dewel, a demon of Ceylon, i. 448
Dharana, or catalepsy, ii. 590, 591
Dharm-Asoka, the great propagandist of Buddhism, ii. 607
Dhyâna or perfection, ii. 287
Diabolical manifestations, frowned at by the Roman Church, ii. 4
Diagram of the Nazarenes, ii. 295
Diakka, discovered by A. J. Davis, i. 218;
what Porphyry said, i. 219
Dialogue of David and the devils, ii. 75
Diamond, made by Desprez, i. 509
Dido, Elissa, or Astarte, the virgin of the sea, ii. 446
Dirghatamas’ hymns, ii. 411
Di Franciscis, Don Pasquale, “professor of flunkeyism in things
spiritual,” ii. 7;
pious collection of papal fishwoman’s talk, _ib._
Dii minores, or twelve gods, ii. 451
Diktamnos, i. 264
Diobolos (son of Zeus) changed to Diabolos, an accuser, ii. 485
Dionysus, his worship superseded by the rites of Mithras, ii. 491;
or Bacchus, his Hindu origin, ii. 560
Diploteratology or production of monsters, i. 390
Disbelievers in magic cannot share the faith of the church, ii. 71
Diocletian burned libraries of books upon the secret arts, i. 405
Dionysius Areopagita and the Kabala, i. 26
Dionè pursued by Typhon to the Euphrates, ii. 490
Disciples of John, ii. 289, 290;
do not believe in Christ, ii. 290
Dissimilarities between Buddhism and Christianity, ii. 540, 541
“Distractions” of adversaries of spiritualism, i. 116
Divination by the lot, ii. 20, 21;
prohibited by the Council of Varres, i. 21;
devoid of sin, ii. 353
Divine book, i. 406;
magic, i. 26
Djin reading magic rolls, ii. 29
Docetæ or illusionists, believed in the Maya, ii. 157
Documents sure to reappear, ii. 26
Dodechædron, the geometrical figure of the universe, i. 342
Domes, the reproductions of the lithos, ii. 5
Dominic and the devils, ii. 73, 75;
receives a rosary from the Virgin Mary, ii. 74;
most hated by devils, ii. 75;
and the devil flea and monkey, ii. 78
Dominicans, none in hell, ii. 75
Dodona, priestesses, prophesied by means of the oak, ii. 592
Doppelganger, or astral body, i. 360
Double cross of Chaldea, ii. 453;
existence, i. 179, 180;
life of the adept, ii. 564;
perverted into the offering of human sacrifices, ii. 565
Double-sexed creators, i. 156
Dove, represented Noah, worshipped, ii. 448
Dowager mother alone the mediatrix, ii. 9;
owes the present Pope for the finest gem in her coronet, _ib._
Dracontia, or temples to the dragon, i. 554
Dragon and the sun, the basis of heliolatrous religion, i. 550;
sons of, the hierophants, i. 553;
cured of a sore eye by Simeon Stylites, and adored God, ii. 77;
Apophis, his influence on the soul, ii. 368;
Horus piercing his head, ii. 446;
pursues Thuesis and her son, ii. 490;
glided over the cradle of Mary, ii. 505;
of Ceylon, Rawho, ii. 509
Dragons, oriental in character, i. 448
Drama of Job explained, ii. 494, 495
Draper, Prof., on pagan belief concerning the human spirit, i. 429;
asserts that Aristotle taught the Buddhistic doctrine, i. 430;
probably meant to misrepresent the Neo-platonic philosophers, i.
431;
defines the “age of faith” and “age of decrepitude,” i. 582;
on Olympus restored by Constantine, ii. 49;
on the conflict instituted by Augustine between religion and
science, ii. 88
Dream produced by the inner ego of a Shaman at the author’s request,
ii. 628
Dress of the Christian clergy like that of ancient pagans, ii. 94
Druidical structures like other ancient works, i. 572
Druids denominated themselves snakes, i. 554
Drummer of Tedworth, i. 363
Druzes of Mount Lebanon, ii. 306;
their 80,000 warriors, ii. 308;
never became Christians, ii. 309;
their doctrines, ii. 309, 310;
believe in “two souls,” ii. 315;
their tricks with strangers, _ib._;
correct and garbled versions of their commandments, ii. 311
Duad or second, i. 212;
ether and chaos the first, i. 343
Dual evolution represented in Adam, ii. 277;
taught by Plato and others, ii. 279
Dudim, or mandragora, i. 465
Dunbar, George, endeavor to derive the Sanscrit from the Greek
language, i. 443
Duomo of Milan, its original, ii. 5
Du Potet, Baron, Grand Master of Mesmerism, i. 166;
views of sorcery, epidemics, antipathies, magic, i. 279, 333
Dupuis mistook ancient symbolism, i. 24
Durga, the active virtue, or Shekinah, ii. 276
Dust of the earth to become the constituent of living soul, ii. 420
Dynasties, two in India, ii. 437
Dwellers of the threshold, i. 285
Early Christian Church invented the doctrine of Second Advent to shut
off periodical incarnations, ii. 535;
Christianity itself a heresy, ii. 123;
its history imparted to the first Knight Templars, ii. 382
Earth, queen of the Serpents, i. 10;
the goddess Anahit or Venus, i. 11;
magical exhalations, i. 199, 200;
a magnet, i. 282
Earths germinate, i. 389
East, the land of knowledge, i. 89;
its civilization preceded that of the West, i. 539
Eastern Æthiopians an Aryan stock, ii. 435;
magic, its adepts uniformly in good health, ii. 595;
requires no “conditions” like mediums, _ib._
Ebers Papyrus in the Astor library, i. 3;
quoted, i. 23;
its curious contents, i. 529
Ebionites, ii. 127;
the first Christians, ii. 180;
the relatives of Jesus, ii. 181;
used only the Gospel according to Matthew, ii. 182;
the Nazarenes their instructors, ii. 190;
condemned as heretics, ii. 307
Ecbatana, her seven walls and other wonders, i. 534
Echo in the desert of Gobi, i. 606
Ecclesia non novit sanguinem, ii. 58
Eclectic Platonists adopt the inductive method, ii. 34;
school, its dispersion desired by Christians, ii. 52;
its groundwork, ii. 342, 343
Ecstasy, power of conversing with Deity, i. 121;
doctrine of Paracelsus and Van Helmont, i. 170;
defined by Plotinus, i. 486
Ectenic force, i. 55;
same as psychic force, i. 113;
same as the Akasa, _ib._
Eden, the allegory of the Book of Genesis, i. 575
Edison, of Newark, N. J., supposed discovery of a new force, i. 126
Egg, spiritual or mundane, i. 56;
evolved by Emepht, the supreme, i. 146;
Isle of Chemmis produced from it, i. 147;
Bhagavant enters and emerges as Brahma, i. 346;
and bird, which appeared first?, i. 426, 428
_Egkosmioi_, i. 312
Ego, the sentient soul, inseparable from the brain, ii. 590
Egypt, resort of philosophers, i. 25;
priests could communicate from temple to temple, i. 127;
doctrine of evolution taught, i. 154;
the perpetual lamp discovered there, i. 226;
taught the secret to Moses, i. 228;
Pythagoras twenty-two years in the temple, i. 284;
Hermetic brothers, ii. 307;
secret biography of its gods, i. 406;
books before Menes, _ib._;
did not learn her wisdom from her Semitic neighbors, i. 515;
akin with India, _ib._;
probably colonized by the Eastern Ethiopians, _ib._;
20,000 years’ antiquity, i. 519;
the birthplace of chemistry, i. 541;
dentists and oculists, i. 545;
no doctor allowed to practice more than one specialty, _ib._;
trial by jury, _ib._;
received her laws from pre-Vedic India, i. 589;
colonized from India in the dynasty of Soma-Vanga, i. 627
Egyptian temples, architecture of, i. 517;
monuments defeat the efforts of the fathers, ii. 520;
saints reappearing as a serpent, ii. 490
Egyptians, civilized before the first dynasties, i. 6;
astronomical calculations, i. 21;
were monotheists, i. 23;
knowledge of engineering, i. 516;
changed the course of the Nile, _ib._;
their astronomical erudition, i. 520;
their high civilization disputed, i. 521;
arts of war, i. 531;
gods in the Grecian pantheon, i. 543;
made beer, manufactured glass and imitated gems, i. _ib._;
the best music-teachers, i. 544;
understood the circulation of the blood, _ib._;
their sacred books older than the Genesis, ii. 431;
ancient Indians, ii. 434;
the Caucasian race, ii. 436
Eight powers of the soul, ii. 593
Eight hundred million believers in magic, mesmerism, and
spiritualism, i. 512
Eight-pointed star or double cross, ii. 453
El, i. 13;
the sun-god, same as Seth, Saturn, Seth, Siva, ii. 524
Elcazar, Rabbi, expelled demons, ii. 350
Electric waves, i. 278
Electrical photography, i. 395
Electricity, personated by Thor in Norse legends, i. 160, 161;
two kinds, i. 188, 322;
occult properties anciently understood, i. 234;
represented at Samothrace by the Kabeirian Demeter, _ib._;
denoted by the Dioskuri, i. 235;
the fire on the altar, i. 283;
blind and intelligent, i. 322;
cerebral, _ib._;
developed from magnetic currents, i. 395;
used anciently to supply fire to the altars, i. 526
Electro-magnetism, i. 103;
employed by Paracelsus, i. 164
Elion, or Elon, the highest god, i. 554
Eliphas Levi, on resuscitation of the dead, i. 485
Elixir of life regarded as absurd, i. 501;
possible, i. 502;
curious accounts, i. 503
Elizabeth, Queen, Jesuitic attempt to murder her, ii. 373
Elemental demon driven away with a sword, i. 364;
spirits, i. 67, 311;
inhabit the universal ether, i. 284;
psychic embryos, i. 311;
live in the ether, _ib._;
power to assume tangible bodies, _ib._
Elementary spirits, i. 67;
three classes, i. 310;
called demons by Proclus, i. 312;
terrestrial spirits, i. 319;
four classes, _ib._;
peril of evoking them, i. 342;
afraid of sharp weapons, i. 362
Elephanta, the Mahody, ii. 5
Eleusinian Mysteries, ii. 44
Elihu, the hierophant of Job, ii. 497
Elisha anointed Jehu that he might unite the Israelites, ii. 525
Ellenborough, Lady, her talisman, ii. 255, 256
Elohim inhabiting an island in the ancient inland sea of Middle Asia,
i. 589, 590, 599
Eloim, gods or powers, priests; also Aleim, i. 575
Emanation of souls from divinity, doctrine of, i. 13
Emanations, doctrine of, ii. 34
Embalming in Thibet, ii. 603
Emanuel, not Christ, but the son of Isaiah, ii. 166;
the son of the Alma, in whose days Syria and Israel were overcome,
ii. 440
Embryo, stamped with a resemblance by the imagination of the mother,
i. 385;
its nucleus, i. 389
Emepht, the supreme, first principle, i. 146;
emanation from him of the creative God, ii. 41
Emigration from India to the West, ii. 428
Eminent men called gods, i. 24, 280
Emmerich, Catherine, the Tyrolese ecstatic, i. 398
Empedocles believed in two souls, i. 317;
restored a woman to life, i. 480;
arrested a water-spout, ii. 597
Empusa or ghûl, beheld by Apollonius of Tyana, i. 604
Enmity, everlasting, between theology and science, ii. 88
Ennemoser on seership, etc., in India, i. 460
Enoch, sacred delta of, i. 20;
Masonic legend, i. 571;
builds a subterranean structure with nine chambers, _ib._;
communicates secrets to Methuselah, _ib._;
the type of the dual man, spiritual and terrestrial, ii. 453;
and Elias ascending from hell, ii. 517
Enoch-Verihe, i. 560
En-Soph, i. 16, 67, 270, 272;
means No-Thing, _quo ad non_, the same as nirvana, i. 292;
the first principle, i. 347;
within its first emanation, ii. 37
Enthusiastic energy, ii. 591
Ephesus a focus of the universal secret doctrines, ii. 155
Epicurus disbelieved in God, i. 317;
believed the soul constituted of the roundest, finest atoms, _ib._;
testimony concerning the gods, i. 436
Epidemic in moral and physical affairs, i. 274, 276, 277;
of assassination, i. 277;
of possession in Germany, i. 374
Epimenides, i. 364;
power to make his soul leave his body and return, ii. 597
Epiphanius, a Gnostic renegade, who betrayed his associates as
state’s evidence, ii. 249;
belied the Gnostics, ii. 330
Episcopalian crook adopted from the augurs of Etruria, ii. 94
Epopt, master-builder, adept, ii. 91
Epoptæ, knew nothing of the last and dreaded rite, ii. 563
Epopteia, revelation and clairvoyance, the last stage in initiation,
ii. 90
Erring spirits, their re-incarnation, i. 357
Eslinger, Elizabeth, the apparition, i. 68
Esoteric catechism, i. 19;
doctrines never committed to writing, i. 271;
Masonry not known in American lodges, ii. 376
Essaoua or sorcerers, i. 488
Essenes, hermetic fraternities, i. 16;
had greater and minor mysteries, ii. 42;
had the same customs as the Apostles, ii. 196;
believed in pre-existence, ii. 280;
declared by Eusebius to have been the first Christians, ii. 323;
older than the Christians, _ib._;
never employed oaths, ii. 373;
probably Buddhists, ii. 491
Eternal torments of hell, why pagans are condemned to them, ii. 8;
letter of Virgin Mary on the subject, _ib._;
damnation, the only doctrine invented originally by Christians, ii.
334;
meaning of the word, ii. 12
Eternity, the duad or second, i. 212;
no Hebrew word to express the idea, ii. 12
Ether, the universal, i. 128, 156, 284;
properties, i. 181;
directed by an intelligence, i. 199;
disturbed by planetary aspects, i. 275;
influenced by Divine thought, i. 310;
the universal world-soul, i. 316, 341;
universal, the womb of the universe, i. 389;
universal, the repository of the spiritual images of all forms and
thoughts, i. 395;
the Orphean doctrine denounced by the early Christians, ii. 35
Ethereal body, i. 281
Ethiopians, eastern, the builders, colonists of Egypt, i. 515
Etruscans understood electricity and employed it in worship, i. 527;
invented lightning-rods, _ib._
Eucharist, common to many ancient nations, ii. 43
Eurinus returned after dying, i. 365
European science, without the knowledge of the secrets of herbs of
dreams, ii. 589
Europeans cannot see certain colors, i. 211
Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, perverted chronology, i. 288;
convicted of mendacity, ii. 327
Evapto, or initiation, same as epopteia, ii. 90, 91
Eve, the name and its affinity with the Tetragrammaton, ii. 299;
her story told kabalistically, ii. 223-225
Every nation has believed in a God, ii. 121
Evil possessed space as the intelligences retired, i. 342;
essential to the evolving of the good, ii. 480;
eye, i. 380;
Pope Pio Nono said to have the gift, _ib._;
magic, i. 26
Evocation, of souls, objected to, i. 321;
of the dead, i. 492;
the “souls of the blessed” do not come, i. 493;
blood used for the purpose, _ib._
Evocations, magical, pronounced in a particular dialect, ii. 46;
a formula, _ib._
Evolution, taught by science, the secret doctrine and the Bible, i.
152;
theory found in India and Assyria, i. 154;
held by Anaximenes and accepted by the Chaldeans, i. 238;
taught by Hermes, i. 257;
doctrine of Robert Fludd, i. 258;
ancient belief, i. 285, 295;
doctrine of A. R. Wallace, i. 294;
operation defined, i. 329, 330;
spiritual and physical, i. 352;
theory does not solve the ultimate mystery, i. 419;
of man out of primordial spirit-matter, i. 429;
Darwin begins his theory at the wrong end, _ib._;
as taught by the Bhagavat and Manu, ii. 260;
by Sanchoniathon and Darwin, ii. 261;
of our own planet, ii. 420;
for six days, and one of repose, ii. 422;
of the universe, ii. 467;
of man from the highest to lowest, ii. 424
Exorcising a girl in Catalonia, ii. 68
Exorcism, ii. 66;
new ritual, ii. 69
Exorcist-priest, ii. 66
Exoteric religion, its God an idol or fiction, i. 307
Exposures, pretended, of impostors, i. 75
Extinction at death, those who believe it will commit, in
consequence, any sin they choose, ii. 566
_Ex votos_, Phallic, traffic by the Roman clergy, ii. 5
Ezekiel’s wheel, a wheel of the Adonai, ii. 451;
explained, ii. 455;
exoteric, ii. 461;
esoteric, ii. 462
Ezra compiled the _Pentateuch_, i. 578
Fables, allegorical science and anthropology, i. 122;
allegorized the gods and natural phenomena, i. 261
Fairfield, Francis Gerry, his testimony in regard to the
phantom-hand, ii. 594, 595
Faith, the Devil the chief pillar, i. 103;
its power to heal disease, i. 216;
phenomena of, i. 323;
its great power, ii. 597;
of the Church, disbelievers in magic cannot share, ii. 76;
omni-perceptive, inside of human credulity, ii. 120
Faithful daughters of the church, ii. 54
Fakir buried six weeks and resuscitated, i. 477;
and his guru, ii. 105
Fakirs not harmed by alligators, i. 383;
use the force known as Akasa, i. 113;
raised from the ground, i. 115, 224
Fall of Adam, not a personal transgression, but an evolution, ii. 277
Fallen angels, hurled by Siva into Onderah, ii. 11
Familiar spirit, those having one, refused initiation, ii. 118
Famines follow missionaries, ii. 531
Faraday, i. 11;
his medium-catcher, i. 63
Fascination, i. 380, 381;
at a precipice, i. 501
Fatalism rejected by ancients, ii. 593
Fate, defined by Henry More, i. 206
“Father” of Jesus, the hierophant of the mysteries, ii. 561
Fathers, selected narratives for their saints, from the poets and
pagan legends, ii. 78
Fauste asserts that the evangeliums or gospels were not written by
Jesus or the apostles, but by unknown persons, ii. 38
Fav-Atma, or sentient soul, ii. 590
Favre, Jules, counsel for Madam Roger, i. 166
Feast of the dead in Moldavia and Bulgaria, ii. 569, 570
Felix, preacher of Notre Dame, on mystery and science, i. 337
Felt, George H., i. 22
Female trinity, ii. 444
Ferho, the greatest, i. 300;
first cause, i. 301;
believed in by Jesus and John, ii. 290
Fessler’s rite, a Jesuitical production, ii. 390
Fetahil, i. 298;
called to aid in creation, i. 299;
the newest man and creator, i. 300;
the “newest man,” ii. 175
Fiery serpents (_Numbers_, xxi.), a name given to the Levites, i. 555;
or seraphs, the Levites, or serpent-tribe, ii. 481;
the allegory explained, ii. 129
Fifteen thousand devils in a man, ii. 75
Fifth degree, ii. 365;
element, i. 317;
stage of initiation the most awful and sublime, ii. 101
Fifty millions slaughtered by Christians since Jesus said, “Love your
enemies,” ii. 479
Fifty-five thousand Protestant clergymen in the United States, ii. 1
Final absorption, i. 12
Finger of the Holy Ghost preserved as a relic, ii. 71
Fiords of Norway described in the Odyssey, i. 549
Fire, living, i. 129;
on the altar, electric, i. 283;
its triple potency, i. 423;
from heaven, always employed by the ancients in the temples, i. 526;
preserved by the magi, i. 528;
and brimstone, the lake, ii. 12
Fire-proof mediums, i. 445, 446
Fūkara-Yogis, ii. 164
First Air, or anima mundi, ii. 227;
adept, ii. 317;
begotten, constructed the world, i. 342;
cause, denied by Vyasa and Kapila, ii. 261;
Christians, the Elianites, ii. 180;
the disciples of Paul, ii. 178;
cycle, i. 301;
gods, a hierarchy of higher powers, ii. 451;
light, i. 302;
man created bi-sexual, i. 559;
races of men spiritual, ii. 276;
direct emanations of the Tikkun or Adam Kadmon, _ib._;
sin, committed by Brahma-Pragâpati and his daughter Ushas, i. 265;
the spirit of evil created to destroy its incarnation, _ib._;
trinity, i. 341.
Fish displaying magnetic affinity, i. 210
Fish-charming in Ceylon, i. 606
Fisher (Dr. G.) on deploteratology, i. 390
Fishwife, talk of papal discourses, ii. 7
Fiske, Prof. J., i. 42;
disputes the doctrine of cycles and the high civilization of the
Egyptians, i. 521;
declares the theories of profound science in ancient Egypt and the
East utterly destroyed, i. 525
Five thousand Roman Catholic clergy in the United States, ii. 1
Flammarion the astronomer, his avowal, i. 195;
Camille, his curious revelation, ii. 450
Flight of the alone to the Alone, ii. 413
Flood, 10,000 years B.C., i. 241;
as described in the Assyrian tablets, ii. 422;
Hindu legend, ii. 428;
the old serpent, ii. 447
Florentine scientist witnessing a re-incarnation of a Dalai-Lama, i.
437
“Flowers of Speech,” Mr. Gladstone’s catalogue, ii. 7
Fludd, Robert (_de Fluctibus_), on magnetism, i. 71;
on minerals as rudimentary of plants, etc., i. 258;
chief of the “philosophers by fire,” i. 309;
on the essence of gold, i. 511
Flute-player of Vaucanson, i. 543
Fœtal life, little known about it, i. 386
Fœtus, its sensitive surface like a collodionized plate, i. 385;
its signature, _ib._;
extinguished, i. 402
Foraisse, M., his story respecting Masonry, ii. 381
Forbidden ground, i. 418
Force, magnetic, body nourished by, i. 169;
produced by will, i. 285;
the supreme artist and providence, ii. 40
Force-correlation, i. 235;
taught in prehistoric time, i. 241, 242;
the A B C of Occultism, i. 243
Fore-heaven, ii. 534
Fall of man an allegory, and so regarded, ii. 541
Forever, meaning of the word, ii. 12
Forgery the basis of the Church, ii. 329
Former life, i. 347
Forms, images impressed on the ether, i. 395
Formula of an evocation, ii. 46
Formulas, secret, i. 66;
for inextinguishable fire, i. 229
Four ages or yugs, ii. 275;
ages of the Bible like those of the nations, ii. 443;
gospels, their doctrines found elsewhere, ii. 337;
kingdoms in nature, i. 329;
men not begotten by the gods, nor born of women, i. 558;
the gods afraid of them, and give them wives, i. 558;
races of men, i. 559;
Tanaïm, etc., entered the garden, ii. 119;
“Truths,” i. 290, 291
Fournié, Dr., declares that no physiology of the nervous system
exists, i. 407;
remarkable declaration concerning the human ovule, i. 397
Fourth degree, ii. 365;
race, parents of men “whose daughters were fair,” i. 559
Fourfold emanations, ii. 272
Francis, St., preached to the birds, ii. 77;
preached to a wolf till he repented, _ib._
Francke, A., remarks on the transmutations of Christianity, ii. 38;
the Sephiroth and Providence, ii. 40
Free and Accepted Masons, and the Masonic impostor, Anderson, ii. 389
Free-Masonry, its origin in London, ii. 349;
proclaims a creative principle as Great Architect, ii. 377
French Revolution, what it achieved for freedom, ii. 22
Fretheim, Abbé, his faculty of conversing by power of will, i. 476
Friar Pietro presents a demon to Dr. Torralva, ii. 60
Fundamental doctrine identical in all the ancient religions, ii. 99
Funeral ritual of the Egyptians, ii. 367
Future life, better to believe in it, ii. 566;
self, beheld at the moment of initiation, ii. 115;
man, primitive shape, i. 388, 389;
religion of, i. 76;
woman of, artificially fecundated, i. 77;
also offered to the incubi, i. 78
Gabriel, the same as Christos, ii. 193
Gaffarillus, on the form of a burned plant remaining in the ashes, i.
475, 476
Galileo, i. 35;
anticipated, i. 159, 238
Gallæus, quotation from, ii. 504
Gan-Duniyas, an Assyrian name of Babylonia, i. 575
Gan-Eden, or garden of Eden, also Ganduniyas, a name of Babylonia, i.
575
Ganesor, the elephant-headed god found in Central America, i. 572, 573
Ganges, the paradisiacal river, ii. 30
Gap between Christianity and Judaism, ii. 526
Garden of delight (Eden), the mysterious science, ii. 119;
of Eden, allegory, i. 575;
name of Babylonia, _ib._;
explanation as a sacerdotal college, _ib._
Garibaldi, his testimony concerning priests, ii. 347;
a Mason, ii. 391
Garlic, story by Hippocrates, i. 20
Gasparin, Count Agenor de, i. 99;
makes no differences between magnetic phenomena and will-force, i.
109;
his labors, ii. 15
Gate of the House of Life, and of Dionysus, ii. 245, 246
Gates of Death, in the hall of initiation, ii. 364
Gautama-Buddha, his birth announced to Maya his mother by a vision,
i. 92;
called an atheist, i. 307;
his answer to King Prasenagit on miracles, i. 599, 600;
a disciple of a Jaina guru, ii. 322;
his legends wrought into the evangelists, ii. 491, 492;
his history copied into _The Golden Legend_, ii. 579;
his esoteric doctrines, ii. 319;
first opened the sanctuary to the pariah, _ib._
Gayatri, its metre, ii. 410
Gegen Chutuktu, late patriarch of Mongolia, an incarnation of Buddha,
ii. 617
Gehenna, a valley near Jerusalem, where the Israelites immolated
their children, ii. 11;
of the universe, or eighth sphere or planet, i. 328;
repentance possible, i. 352
Gemantria, ii. 298
Gemma, Cornelius, account of a child born wounded, i. 386
Genealogy of the gods, astronomical, i. 267
Generations, fall into, i. 315
Genesis, Book of, a reminiscence of the Babylonish captivity, i. 576;
first three chapters transcribed from other cosmogonies, the fourth
and fifth from the secret _Book of Numbers_, the _Kabala_, i.
579;
the introductory chapters do not treat of creation, ii. 421;
the book later than the invention of the sign Libra, ii. 457
Genghis Khan, his tomb and promised reappearance, i. 598
Genii, or Æons, lord of, i. 300
Genius, the divine spirit, i. 277
Genoa cathedral, the celebrated vase, i. 537, 538
Geographers in pre-Mosaic days, i. 406
Geometers of the Alexandrian Museum, i. 7
Germany depopulated by the thirty years’ war, ii. 503;
priestesses, how they hypnotized themselves, ii. 592
Ghosts, unlike materialized spirits, i. 69; i. 345
Ghouls, i. 319;
or ghûls, in the deserts, i. 604;
and vampires, ii. 564
Giants, i. 31;
progenitors of Brahmans, i. 122;
remains of a prehistorical race, i. 303, 304
Gibbon, his praise of the Gnostics, ii. 249
Gilbert on magnetism, i. 497
Giles, Rev. Chauncey, on spiritual death, i. 317
Ginnungagap, the cup of illusion, i. 147;
the boundless abyss of the mundane pit, i. 160
Girard, Father, his employment of sorcery and revolting crimes, ii.
633
Gladstone, Hon. W. E., “Speeches of Pius IX.,” ii. 4;
catalogue of “flowers of speech” in papal discourses, ii. 7
Glass that would not break, i. 50;
malleable, i. 239;
in Pompeii, China, and Genoa, i. 537
Glass-blowing in Egypt, i. 543
Gliddon, George R., description of the moving of an obelisk, i. 519;
eloquent testimony to Egyptian civilization, i. 521, 522
Glycerine, a compound of three hydroxyl groups, i. 505, 506
Gnosis, the Kabala, or secret knowledge, still existing, ii. 38
Gnostic, wrote _Gospel according to John_, i. 2;
serpent with the seven vowels, ii. 489
Gnosticism, oriental, i. 271;
Buddhistic elements, ii. 321
Gnostics, ii. 41;
believed in metempsychosis, i. 12;
early Christians and followers of the Essenes, i. 26;
originated many Christian doctrines, ii. 41, 42;
their greatest heresies, ii. 155, 156;
praised by Gibbon, ii. 259;
their doctrines falsified by the Christian Fathers, ii. 326;
their view of the Jewish God, ii. 526
Gobi desert, the seat of empire, i. 598;
jealousy of foreign intrusion, i. 599;
testimony of Marco Polo, _ib._;
believed to be inhabited by malignant beings, i. 603
Goblins, elementary, i. 68
God, personal, denied by modern scientists, i. 16;
an intelligent, omnipotent, individual will, i. 58;
his existence denied by Comte and the Positivists, i. 76;
to be sought in nature, and not outside, i. 93;
belief of Henry More, the English Platonist, i. 205, 206;
Kircher’s doctrine of the one magnet, i. 208;
the monad, i. 212;
doctrines of Voltaire and Volney, i. 268;
the central sun, i. 270;
the universal mind, the original doctrine, i. 289;
is no-thing, not a concrete or visible being like objects, i. 292;
belief of the Stoics, i. 317;
of the several Christian denominations, ii. 2;
the Father, ii. 50;
of the gardens, his rites adopted by the Fathers, ii. 51;
each immortal spirit, ii. 153;
“manifest in the flesh,” a forged text, ii. 178;
his actions subject to necessity, ii. 251;
Masonic testimony, ii. 377;
the Father, the beguiling serpent, ii. 492;
prepares hell for priers into his mysteries, ii. 524;
every man’s, bounded by his own conceptions, ii. 567
God-man, the first man, i. 297
God’s comedy and our tragedy, ii. 534
Godfrey Higgins in error about Roman Catholic esoterism, ii. 121
Gods, eminent men so called, i. 24, 280;
inferior to deities, i. 287;
supercelestial and intercosmic, i. 312;
pagan, Christian archangels, i. 316;
kind and beneficent demons, i. 332;
their names kept secret, i. 581;
not incarnations of the Supreme Being, ii. 153
Gogard, the Hellenic tree of life, i. 297
Gold, basic matter of, i. 50;
its manufacture asserted, i. 503;
testimony of Francesco Picos, i. 504;
assertion of Dr. Peisse, i. 508, 509;
made by Theodore Tiffereau, i. 509;
the deposit of light, i. 511
_Golden Legend_, a conservatory of pious lies, ii. 74;
choice excerpts, ii. 76-79;
beats the _Decameron_, ii. 79;
a parodized or plagiarized history of Buddha, ii. 579
Good demons appear, i. 333;
spirits hardly ever appear, i. 344;
enough Morgan, ii. 372;
Shepherd, a Gnostic symbol, ii. 149
Goodale, Miss Annie, death, i. 479
Goodness must be alternated by its opposite, ii. 480
Gorillas mentioned by Hanno, i. 412
Gospel according to Peter, ii. 181;
fourth, full of Gnostic expressions, ii. 205;
fourth, blends Christianity with the Gnosis and Kabala, ii. 211
Gospels, their authors and compilers not known, ii. 37, 38
Gossein, fakir, contest with a sorcerer, i. 368
Græco-Russian church never under the Roman Catholics, i. 27
Grand council of the emperors, a Jesuitical production, ii. 390;
secours, i. 374;
cycle, Orpheus, i. 294;
its character, i. 296;
cycle completed, i. 303
Grandville, Dr., on mummy-bandaging, i. 539
Gravitation, none in the Newtonian sense, i. 271
Gray brain-matter the god, i. 36
Great Dragon, crushed under the foot of the Virgin of the Sea, ii.
446;
Vasaki, casting out a flood of poison which the earth swallows, ii.
490;
equinoctial continent, i. 594;
Masonic revolution of 1717, ii. 389;
secret of evocation, ii. 114;
snake, worshipped by the pueblo-chiefs of Mexico, i. 557;
spirit of the Indian, the manifested Brahma, i. 560;
synagogue revised the Pentateuch, i. 578;
universal soul, absorption into it does not involve loss of
individuality, ii. 116;
year, i. 30
Greatest scientists inanimate corpses, i. 318
Greece derived its art from Egypt, i. 521
Gregory VII., pope, a magician, ii. 56, 57;
of Tours, exposition of sortilege, ii. 20
Gross, T., denounces those opposed to investigation, ii. 96
Grote assimilates the Pythagoreans to the Jesuits, ii. 529
Gunpowder, anciently used by the Chinese, i. 241
Guru-astara, a spiritual teacher, ii. 141
Gymnosophists of India, i. 90;
knew the Akâsa, i. 113
Half-death, i. 452
Half-gods, i. 323;
or mukti, men regenerate on earth, ii. 566
Hierophant, transfer of his life to a candidate, ii. 563
Hakem, the wise one of the Druzes, ii. 310
Haideck, Countess, a Mason, ii. 391
Hall of spirits, ii. 365
Hamites preferred to settle near rivers and oceans, ii. 458
Hamsa, the Messiah of the Druzes, ii. 308;
the precursor, ii. 310
Hanno, mention of gorillas, i. 412
Hanuma, or Hanuman the sacred monkey, the progenitor of the
Europeans, i. 563;
resembles the Egyptian cynocephalus, i. 564;
endowed with speech, ii. 274
Hare, Prof., i. 38;
views of Comte’s positive philosophy, i. 79;
mistreated by Harvard professors, i. 176, 177;
declared _non compos mentis_, i. 233;
bullied by Prof. Henry, i. 245
Harmony and justice analagous, i. 330
Hasty burial deprecated, i. 453
Haug, Dr., asserts the affinity of the Zoroastrian, Jewish, and
Christian religions, ii. 486
Haunted house, i. 69
Hayes, Moses Michael, introduced Royal Arch Masonry into this
country, ii. 393
Hayti, a centre of secret societies, where infants are immolated, ii.
572
Healing art in the temples always magical, ii. 502
Heathen processions and priapic emblems at Easter in France, ii. 332;
priesthood, their cast-off garb worn by Christian clergy, ii. 8
Heavenly Man, Tikkun, Protogonos, ii. 276
Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible the oldest, ii. 430;
burned by the Inquisition, _ib._
Hebron, or Kirjath-Arba, city of the four Kabeiri, ii. 171;
Smaragdine tablet of Hermes found, i. 507
Heliocentric system known by Hindus 2,000 B.C., i. 9;
denied alike by scholars and the clergy, i. 84;
known by the priests of Egypt, i. 532
Hel, or Hela, neither a state nor place of punishment, ii. 11;
cold and cheerless, _ib._
Hell, a German goddess, ii. 11;
not a place of punishment in Scandinavian mythology, _ib._;
nowhere so set forth in Egyptian or Hindu mythology, nor in the
Jewish Scriptures, _ib._;
the Archimedean lever of Christian theology, _ib._;
said to be located in the sun, ii. 12;
denied by Origen, ii. 13;
hypothesis of Mr. Swinden, _ib._;
Augustine’s theory of miracles, _ib._;
eternal torments of, all pagans condemned to, ii. 8;
Virgin Mary testifying to it with her own signature, _ib._;
the damned, ii. 25;
priests there, but no monks, _ib._;
no Dominicans, _ib._;
a hallucination, ii. 507;
never means eternal torment, ii. 507;
the translation in the Bible a forgery, ii. 506;
its prince quarrelling with Satan, ii. 515
Hellenic figures at Nagkon-Wat, i. 568
Hell-torments, their perpetuity denied by Origen, ii. 13
Helps, artificial, to clairvoyance, ii. 592
Heptaktis, the seven-rayed god, ii. 417
Herakleitus on fighting with anger, i. 248;
the Ephesian, his philosophical doctrine of fire and flux, i. 422;
the spirit of fire, i. 423
Herakles, the Grecian Hercules, the Logos, i. 298;
disseminated a mild religion, ii. 515;
the only-begotten, ii. 515;
the saviour, _ib._;
ascending from the nether house of Pluto, ii. 517;
slew the sacrificers of men, ii. 565
Herbs of dreams and enchantments, ii. 589
Her-cules, the Sanscrit form of Mel-Kartha, i. 567
Hercules, the magnet named from him, i. 130;
not the same as the Grecian Herakles, _ib._;
creator and father, i. 131;
killed by the devil, i. 132;
and Thor, i. 261;
the first-begotten, Bel, Baal, and Siva, ii. 492;
the Titan, restores Jupiter or Zeus to his throne, i. 299;
descends to Hades, _ib._;
Invictus, his initiation into the Eleusynia and descent into hell,
ii. 516
Herder places the cradle of mankind in India, ii. 30
Heredom Rosy Cross, ii. 394
Heresies, early Christianity among them, ii. 123;
secret sects of the Christians, ii. 289;
one still in existence, ii. 290
Hermas, the pastor of, a book quoting from the _Sohar_, ii. 243, 244
Hermes, the counterpart of the serpent, ii. 508;
his prediction to Prometheus, ii. 514, 515;
Trismegistus, 20,000 books written before Menes, i. 406;
his _Smaragdine Tablet_ or manual of alchemy, i. 507;
reputed author of serpent-worship and heliolatry, i. 551;
an evocation of angels and demons to preside at Mysteries, i. 613;
and Hostanes believed in one God, ii. 88
Hermetic books on medicine, i. 3;
their antiquity, i. 37;
Brothers of Egypt, ii. 307;
doctrine accounts most reasonably for the formation of the world,
i. 341;
fraternities, i. 16;
gold, i. 511;
philosophers, i. 1
Hermetists’ doctrine of creation, i. 258;
why they wrote incomprehensibly, i. 627
Hermodorus or Hermotimus, i. 364, 476
Hero invented a steam-engine, i. 241
Herodotus mentioned a night of six months, i. 412;
testimony concerning the pyramids, i. 518, 519;
description of the labyrinth, i. 522
Hezekiah, the Redeemer and Messiah, ii. 440, 441;
the rod or scion from the stem of Jesse, ii. 441;
a prince from Bethlehem establishes a sacred college and a new
religion, terminating Baal and serpent-worship, ii. 440;
succeeded on the extinction of the family of Ahaz, ii. 166
Hiarchus and Hiram, i. 19
Hieroglyph of Knights Kadosh, ii. 391
Hieroglyphics on the stones of the Temple of Dendera, i. 524
Hierophant offered his own life, ii. 42;
did not allow candidates to see or hear him personally, ii. 93
Hierophants, Egyptian, i. 90
Higgins, Godfrey, i. 33;
rebuke of skeptics who accept the Bible stories, i. 284;
had not the key to the esoteric doctrine, i. 347;
on the Rasit, ii. 35
High Hierophant transferring his life, ii. 564
Highest pyrotechny, i. 306
Hildebrand, the seventh Pope Gregory, a magician, ii. 557
Hindu demigods, ii. 103;
wonderful appearance seen by Jacolliot, _ib._;
gods, masks without actors, ii. 261, 262;
populations in Greece, ii. 428;
rites belong to a religion older than the present one, ii. 535
Hindus, more susceptible to magnetism, ii. 610;
and Iranians, battles, i. 12;
ancient, their philosophy and science, i. 618-620;
their great probity, ii. 474;
corrupted by European associations, _ib._
Hindustan, once called Æthiopia, ii. 434;
dark races worshipped Maha Deva, _ib._
Hiouen-Thsang, his description of the magicians of Peshawer, i. 599;
his vision of the shade of Buddha, i. 600
Hippocrates, his views like of Herakleitos, i. 423;
identical with those of the Rosicrucians, _ib._;
his doctrine of man’s inner sense, i. 425;
praise of instinct, i. 434
Hiram, i. 19
Hiram Abiff, i. 29
Hitchcock, E. A., exposition of alchemy, i. 308;
Prof., on psychometric photography, i. 184
Hivim, or Hivites, descendants of the Serpent, i. 554;
Ophites, or serpent-tribe, Cain their ancestor, ii. 446;
of Palestine a serpent-tribe, ii. 481
Hobbs, Abigail, confederated with the devil, i. 361
Holy Ghost, the Æther, the breath of God, ii. 50;
a bit of his finger kept as a relic, ii. 71.
Holy kiss, and toilet directions of Augustine, ii. 331;
limbs of Sts. Cosmo and Damiano, phallic symbols, ii. 5;
syllable, supreme mystery, ii. 114;
thief ascends out of hell, ii. 517
Homer, the Iliad probably plagiarized, ii. 436
Homunculi of Paracelsus, i. 465
Hononer, the Persian Logos, or living manifested word, i. 560
Horse with fingers, i. 411, 412
Horse-shoe magnet applied to the phantom-hand, ii. 594
Horus piercing the head of the serpent, ii. 446
Hospitals anciently established near temples, ii. 98
Houdin Robert, i. 73, 100;
testimony in regard to table-rapping and levitation, i. 358, 359;
suspected of magic, i. 379
House of David deposed by the Israelites, ii. 439
Howitt William, explanation of exorcism, ii. 66
Huc, Abbé, his testimony concerning the infant Dalai-Lama, i. 438;
his book placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_, _ib._;
his account of the marvellous tree, i. 440;
the picture of the moon, i. 441;
punishment for his candor, ii. 345, 346;
his testimony of the Lamaic doctrines, ii. 582;
his story of the children compelled to swallow mercury, ii. 604.
Hufeland, Dr., theory of magnetic sympathy, i. 207
Human body once half ethereal, i. 1;
made as a prison of earlier races, i. 2;
credulity contains inside of it an omni-perceptive faith, ii. 120;
embryo, evolved, i. 302, 303;
fœtus, transient forms like those of fœtal animals, i. 388;
process of development, i. 389;
race, many before Adam, i. 2;
imprisoned in bodies, i. 2;
antiquity more than 250,000 years, i. 3;
authorities differ in regard to original barbarism, i. 4;
sacrifices, an ancient practice, ii. 547;
abolished in Egypt, Africa, and Greece, ii. 568;
offered to the Virgin Mary as heretics, _ib._;
soul an immortal god, i. 345;
is born and dies like man, _ib._;
spirit, sees all things as in the present, i. 185
Humanity, happy day for it, ii. 586.
Humboldt, Alexander von, suspected intercourse between Mexicans and
Hindus, i. 548
Humboldt, Alexander, on presumptuous skepticism, i. 223
Hume, David, exalted by Prof. Huxley, i. 421;
the real founder of the positive philosophy, i. 82;
testimony in the miracles at the tomb of Abbé Paris, i. 373
Hunt, Prof. Sterry, on solutions, i. 192
Huss, John, his memory sacred in Bohemia, ii. 560
Huxley, physical basis of life, i. 15;
classes spiritualism outside of philosophical inquiry, i. 15;
repudiates positive philosophy as Catholicism minus Christianity,
i. 82;
defines what constitutes proof, i. 121;
confesses ignorance of matter, i. 408;
his theory formulated, i. 419
Hyk-sos, or shepherds of Egypt, the ancestors of the earlier
Israelites, ii. 487
Hymns by Dirghatamas, ii. 411
Hyneman, Leopold, testimony on Masonry becoming sectarian, ii. 380
Hypatia, her atrocious murder by order of St. Cyril, ii. 53;
letter of Synesius, _ib._;
why Cyril caused her to be murdered, ii. 253
Hystaspes, Gushtasp, Vistaspa, ii. 141;
visited Kashmere, ii. 434
Hysteria imputed to the prophets of the Cevennes, i. 371
I was, but am no more, ii. 393
I. H. S., in hoc signum, ii. 527
Iachus, an Egyptian physician, i. 406
Iaho, variety of etymologies, ii. 301;
statement of Aristotle, ii. 302
Iamblichus, i. 33;
raised ten cubits from the ground, i. 115;
forbids endeavors to procure phenomena, i. 219;
explanation of Pythagoras, i. 248, 284;
on manifestations of demons, etc., i. 333;
the founder of theurgy, his practice, i. 489;
his explanation of the objects of the Mysteries, ii. 101
Iao, the male essence of the Phœnicians, i. 61
Yava, יהוה, the secret name of the mystery-god, ii. 165
Idæic finger, i. 23
Identity of all ancient religions and secret fraternities between the
ancient faiths, ii. 100
Idiots, reborn, i. 351
Iessaens, ii. 190
Ievo, not the same as Iao, ii. 296
Iezedians, came from Basrah, ii. 197
Ignition of stars, i. 254
Ilda-Baoth, the son of Chaos, ii. 183;
his sons, _ib._;
creates man, ii. 184;
punishes him for transgression, ii. 185;
his abode in the planet Saturn, ii. 236;
transformed into the Devil, ii. 501
Illuminati and their purposes, ii. 391
Illusion (_Maya_), the veil of the arcana, i. 271
Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin, an element of old phallic
religion, ii. 5;
why promulgated, ii. 110
Imagination, the plastic power of the soul, i. 396;
not identical with fancy, _ib._;
a memory of preceding states, _ib._;
its power upon physical condition, i. 385;
its influence on fœtal life doubted by Magendie, i. 390
Immodesty of the _Vedas_ exceeded by that of the Bible, ii. 88
Immoral principles of the Jesuits, ii. 355
Immorality, sexual, said to be produced by religious instinct, i. 83
Ilus or Hyle, the slime or earth-matter, i. 146
Immortal, Chinese, Siamese, etc., believe some know the art of
becoming, i. 214;
theory of Maxwell, i. 216;
breath, i. 302;
portion of immortal matter, ii. 262
Immortality of the soul, the doctrine as old as the twelfth Egyptian
dynasty, ii. 361;
of the spirit, Moksha and Nirvana, ii. 116;
of all, a false idea, i. 316;
to be won, _ib._
Imparting the secret to the successor, ii. 671
Impostor-demons, seven, ii. 234
Incarnation explained, ii. 152, 153;
prophetic star, ii. 454;
exhibited before the author, ii. 599-602
Incarnations, the five of the Buddhists, ii. 275;
known in all the old world-religions, ii. 503;
of the deity, periodical, ii. 535
Incas, the lost treasures, i. 596;
the story of the last queen, _ib._;
their tomb, i. 597;
the tunnel, i. 598
Incendiarism, epidemic, i. 276
India, magic in, i. 89;
gymnosophists, i. 80;
of the archaic period, i. 589;
included Persia, Thibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary, _ib._;
the alma mater of the world-religions, ii. 30;
said to be the cradle of the human race, _ib._;
derived her rites from some foreign source, ii. 535;
Southern, the law of inheritance, ii. 437
Indian dynasties, solar and lunar, ii. 437, 438
Indicator, Prof. Faraday, i. 63
Individual life in the future to be won, i. 316;
existence, how sustained, i. 318, 319;
existence of the spirit a Hindu doctrine, ii. 534
Individualization depends on the spirit, i. 315
Indranee and her son painted with the aureole, ii. 95
Induction, not the usual mode of great discoveries, i. 513
Ineffable name employed by Jesus, ii. 387
Infant, temporarily animated by the spirit of a lama, ii. 601, 602
Infant-girl burned as a witch, ii. 65
Infant-prophet in France, i. 438
Infants, dying, prematurely born a second time, i. 351;
unborn, how influenced, i. 395;
eaten at the sacrifices in Hayti, ii. 572
Initiation, the practice in every ancient religion, ii. 99;
represented the experience of the soul after death, ii. 494;
of a Druze, ii. 313
Injunction of secresy, ii. 40
Inman, Dr. Thos., defines greatest curse of a nation, ii. 121, 122;
on Christian heathenism, ii. 80, 81;
declares the Atheism imputed to Buddha Sakya not supported, ii. 533;
comparison of Christians and Buddhists, ii. 540
Inner Man, can withdraw from the body, ii. 588
Inner Sense, doctrine of Hippocrates, i. 424, 425;
of Iamblichus, i. 435
Innocent III., bull against magic, ii. 69
Innocents of Bethlehem, their massacre, a myth copied from India, ii.
199
Inquisition, the slaughter-house of the church, destroyed by Napoleon
I., ii. 22;
its atrocious cruelty, ii. 55;
its bloodshed and human sacrifices unparalleled in paganism, ii. 5,
6;
why invented, ii. 58;
its origin in Paradise, ii. 59;
burned Hebrew Bibles, ii. 430
Inquisitors of our days, the scientists, i. 99
Insanity from spiritualism in the United States, ii. 7;
the obsession by spirits, ii. 589
Inscription on the coffin of Queen Mentuhept, i. 92
Instinct, i. 425;
its miracles, i. 433
Integral whole, ii. 116
Intelligence of the electric bolt, i. 188;
ether directed, i. 199
Intelligent electricity, i. 322
Intercosmic gods, i. 312
Interior Man, doctrine of Socrates and Plato, ii. 283
Interview with a young lama re-incarnated Buddha, ii. 598
Intuition the guide of the seer, i. 433;
a rudiment in every one, i. 434;
doctrine of Iamblichus, i. 435
Investigation denounced as a criminal labor, ii. 96
Invisible Sun, i. 302
Invocation of ancestors by Moldavian Christians, ii. 570
Invulnerability, can be imparted, i. 379
Iran and Turan, their wars conflicts between Persians and Assyrians
or Aturians, i. 576
Irenæus, makes Christ fifty years old, ii. 305;
on the trine in man, ii. 285;
and the Gnostics, their contests, ii. 51;
believed the soul corporeal, i. 317;
attempted to establish a new doctrine on the basis of Plato, i. 289;
found guilty of falsehood, ii. 327
Irenæus Philaletha, explanation of the peculiar style of Hermetic
writers, i. 628
Ireland visited by Buddhist missionaries, ii. 290, 291
Iron in the sun, i. 513;
found in the Pyramid of Cheops, i. 542.
Isaiah the prophet, his vision of seraphs, i. 358;
terminated the direct line of David, ii. 440;
celebrates the new chief, Hezekiah, _ib._
Isarim or Essenean initiates, ii. 42;
found the Smaragdine Tablet at Hebron, i. 507
Isernia, worship of the _limbs_ of Saints Cosmo and Damiano, and
traffic in phallic _ex-votos_, ii. 5
Ishmonia, the petrified city, traditions of books and magic
literature, ii. 29
Isis, the name of a medicine, i. 532;
the Virgin Mother of Egypt, ii. 10;
queen of Heaven, ii. 50;
immaculate, her titles applied to the Virgin Mary, ii. 95;
anthropomorphised into Mary, ii. 41;
the “woman clothed with the sun,” ii. 489
Isitwa, the divine power, ii. 593
Islam, the minarets, ii. 5
Islamism, the outgrowth of the Nestorian controversy, ii. 54
Island of Middle Asia, inhabited by Elohim, i. 589;
empire of the Pacific Ocean, i. 592
Israel, what the name means, ii. 401;
the enumeration of 12 tribes supposed to be purely mythical, i. 568
Israelites, intermarried perpetually with the other nations of
Palestine, i. 568;
why their language was Semitic, _ib._;
their symbols relate to sun-worship, ii. 401;
the plebeian were Canaanites and Phœnicians, ii. 134;
worshipped Baal or Bacchus and the Serpent, ii. 523;
their prophets disapproved of sacrificial worship, ii. 525;
offered human sacrifices, ii. 524;
their prophetesses, _ib._
Israelitish Tabernacle, elegant workmanship, i. 536
Istar, Astoreth, the same as Venus, Queen of Heaven, ii. 444
Isvara, a psychological condition, ii. 591
“Itself” met by the disembodied soul at the gates of Paradise, ii. 635
Iurbo Adonai, ii. 185, 189
Ixtlilxochitl, author of the Popul-Vuh, i. 548
Jacob, extraordinary fecundity of his family, ii. 558;
the Zouave, i. 165, 217, 218
Jacob’s pillar a lingham, ii. 445
Jacolliot, Louis, i. 139;
criticises orientalists, i. 583;
testimony in regard to theopœia, i. 616, 617;
branded as a humbug, ii. 47;
denounces the theory of Turanians and Semitism, ii. 48;
on vulgar magic in India, ii. 70;
description of Brahmanic initiations, ii. 103;
sees a living spectre, ii. 104, 105;
on Hindu metaphysics, ii. 262;
disbelieves in the chastity of Buddhistic monks, ii. 321;
knew no secrets, ii. 584
Jadūgar or sorcerers in India, ii. 69
Jaga-nath, ii. 297
Jah-Buh-Sun, ii. 348
Jaina sect claims Buddhism, ii. 321;
owners of the cave-temples, ii. 323
Jains, taught the existence of two ethereal bodies, i. 429
Jairus, resuscitation of his daughter by Jesus, i. 481
James the Just, never called Jesus the Son of God, ii. 202
Japanese, their probity, ii. 573
Jasher, Book of, ii. 399
Java Aleim, יהוה אלהים (Lord-God), head of the priest-caste of
Eden or Babylonia, i. 575;
invests man with the coat of skin, _ib._;
of the Sacerdotal College, ii. 293
Javanese, island empire, i. 592
Jehovah, his castle of fire, i. 270;
a cruel anthropomorphic deity, i. 307;
not the sacred name at all, ii. 398;
only a Masoretic invention, _ib._;
feminine, ii. 399;
resembled Siva, ii. 524
Jehovah-Nissi or Iao-Nisi, the same as Osiris or Bacchus the
Dio-Nysos or Jove of Nysa, ii. 165, 526
Jehovah-worship and Christianity abandoned by Freemasons at Lausanne,
ii. 377
Jeroboam made the lawful king of the Israelites, ii. 439
Jerome, St., mentions Jews of Lydda and Tiberias as mystic teachers,
i. 26;
procured the Gospel of Matthew from the Nazarenes, ii. 181;
his perverted text of Job, ii. 496
Jerusalem, the temple not so ancient as pretended, ii. 389
Jesuit cryptography, ii. 397
Jesuits, a secret society, now control the Roman Church, ii. 352;
their magic, ii. 353;
their secret constitution, ii. 354;
Mackenzie’s description, ii. 355;
their profession of faith, ii. 358;
their expulsion from Venice, _ib._;
declare Christianity not evidently true, ii. 358, 359;
sanction the murder of parents, ii. 363;
disguised as Talapoins, i. 371;
contest of magic with the Augustinians, i. 445;
two, desiring to change Sabean for Christian names, ii. 450;
adopt the institute and habit of Siamese Talapoins, ii. 577;
set aside Christian doctrines, ii. 578
Jesus, of Renan, Strauss and Viscount Amberley, ii. 562;
Talmudic story, ii. 201;
discovered and revealed the occult theology, ii. 202;
or Nebo, inspired by Mercury, ii. 132;
and Christna, united to their Chrestos, ii. 558;
his life a copy of Christna, his character of Buddha, ii. 339;
preached Buddhism, ii. 123;
believed in Ferho or Fo, ii. 290;
did not give any name to the Father, _ib._;
his true history imparted to the Templars, ii. 382;
regarded as a brother, _ib._;
an avatar like Melchizedek, becomes a son of God by baptism, ii.
566;
son of Panther, a high pontiff of the universal secret doctrines,
ii. 386;
proclaims himself the Son of God and humanity, _ib._;
represented by a great serpent, ii. 490;
an Essene and Nazarene, ii. 131;
used oil and drank wine, _ib._;
of the church, the ideal of Irenæus, ii. 33;
classified his teachings, ii. 145, 147;
said to have been a Pharisee, ii. 148;
said to have been a magician, _ib._;
the materialized divine spirit, ii. 576;
deified because of his dramatic death, ii. 339;
why he died, ii. 545;
always called a _man_, ii. 239;
forgave his enemies, ii. 8;
the heirs of Peter curse theirs, ii. 9;
cast out devils by purifying the atmosphere, i. 356;
taught the _Logia_, or secret doctrines, ii. 191;
transmitted magnetic or theurgical powers, i. 130;
healed by word of command, i. 217;
his followers innovators, ii. 132;
endeavored to give the arcane truth to the many, ii. 561;
made little impression upon his own century, ii. 335;
familiar with the Koinoboi, ii. 336;
who rejected him as the Son of God, ii. 455;
said to have been hanged and stoned, ii. 255;
never pronounced the name of Jehovah, ii. 163;
his doctrines like those of Manu, ii. 164;
and Buddha never wrote, ii. 559;
unwilling to die, hence, no self-sacrificing Savior, ii. 545
Jewish colonists of Palestine imbued with Magdean notions, ii. 481;
people regard the Mosaic books as an allegory, i. 554, 555;
theology not understood by Christians, i. 17
Jews excluded from Masonic lodges, ii. 390;
their doubtful origin, ii. 438;
worshipped Baal or Hercules, ii. 524;
brought the Persian dualism to Palestine, ii. 500, 501;
named Ormazd and Ahriman, Satan, ii. 501;
an Indian sect, the Kaloni, i. 567;
probably came from Afghanistan or India, _ib._;
similar or identical with the Phœnicians, i. 566
Job, book of, Satan or Typhon appears, ii. 483;
the allegory explained in the Book of the Dead, ii. 493;
a representation of initiation, ii. 494;
will give the key to the whole matter of the Devil, ii. 493;
his trials and vindication, ii. 485;
seeing God, ii. 485, 486;
the neophyte, hears God in the whirlwind, ii. 498;
vindicated by his Redeemer or champion, ii. 499, 500
Jobard, on two kinds of electricity, i. 188
John, Gospel written by a Gnostic, i. 2;
travelled in Asia Minor and learned of the Mithraic rites, ii. 507;
the Baptist, his disciples Essenean dissenters, ii. 130;
disciples of, same as Nazareans or Mendæans, do not believe in
Christ, ii. 290
Jonah, the prophet, the allegory explained, ii. 258
Jones, Sir William, on the laws of Manu, i. 585;
rules for constructing a purana, ii. 492
Josaphat, St., a transmogrified Buddha, ii. 579
Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity, and Masonry erected on the same
cosmical myths, i. 405
Joseph, studied in Egypt, i. 25;
became an Egyptian, i. 566
Josephus, interpolated, ii. 196;
his passage concerning Jesus, ii. 328
Joshua, fugitives, i. 545
Jowett, translator of Plato, exceptions to his criticism, i. 288
Judæans, whether they were ever in Palestine before Cyrus, a problem,
i. 568
Judæi, the designation of the Jews, an Indian term, ii. 441
Judea, its primitive history a distortion of Indian fable, ii. 471
Judgment of the Dead, ii. 364
Juggernaut, his procession imitated by missionaries in Ceylon, ii. 113
Jugglers of India and Egypt, i. 73;
walking from tree-top to tree-top, i. 495
Julian, the emperor, a son of God or Mithra by initiation, ii. 566
Juno, her temple covered with pointed blades of swords, i. 527;
her abandoning of Veii for Rome, i. 614
Jupiter and four moons discovered in Assyria, i. 261;
his mythological adventures, astronomical phenomena, i. 267, 268;
or Zeus originally the cosmic force, i. 262;
also the demiurg, _ib._;
the chief deity of the Orphic hymn, i. 263
Jury-trial, introduced by the Egyptians, i. 545
Justice and harmony analogous, i. 330
Justin Martyr, criticised for his heretical opinion about Socrates,
ii. 8;
his testimony concerning the talismans of Apollonius of Tyana, ii.
97;
on the non-observance of the Sabbath by Christians, ii. 419
Justinian, code of, copied from the code of Manu, i. 586
K----, a positivist and skeptic, his experiences in Thibet, ii.
599-602
Kabala, its fundamental geometrical figure the key to the problem, i.
14;
Chaldean, not known, i. 17;
included in the Arcane doctrines, i. 205;
same as the laws of Manu, i. 271;
solves esoteric doctrines of every religion, i. 271;
never written, _ib._;
concerning _Shedim_, i. 313;
its system of Sephiroth and emanations, ii. 213;
repeated in Talapoin manuscripts, i. 577;
Oriental, or secret Book of Numbers, i. 579
Kabalists, Chaldean, claim science above 70,000 years old, i. 1;
explanation of the allegory of descent into hell, i. 299
Kabeiri, Assyrian divinities, i. 569;
differently named and numbered in different places, _ib._;
reproduced in their Samothracian postures on the walls of
Nagkon-Wat, _ib._;
had similar names east as west, _ib._;
worshipped at Hebron, the city of Beni-Anak or _anakim_, _ib._;
number hardly known, ii. 478;
their names, ii. 170
Kabeirian gods represented at Nagkon-Wat, i. 565, 566
Kadeshim, or Galli, in the Hebrew sanctuaries, ii. 45
Kadeshuth, or Nautch-girls in India, ii. 45
Kadosh degree invented at Lyons, ii. 384
Kalani, an Indian sect, progenitors of the Jews, i. 567
Kalavatti, raised from the dead by Christna, ii. 241
Kalmucks, described earlier human races than the present, i. 2
Kalpas, i. 31
Kali, the “fall of man,” ii. 275
Kali-Yug, the designation of the present third yug or age of mankind,
i. 587;
began 4,500 years ago, _ib._
Kaliadovki, or Christian mysteries, ii. 119
Kangalins, or witches in India, ii. 69
Kanhari caves at Salsette, the abode of St. Josaphat, ii. 580, 581
Kanni, or bad virgins, ii. 447
Kansa of Madura, commands the murder of Christna and the massacre of
the infants, ii. 199
Kapila, a skeptic, i. 121; i. 307;
denied a First Cause, ii. 261
Karabtanos, i. 300
Karnak, the representative of Thebes, its archeological remains, i.
523;
lakes and mountains in its sanctuary, i. 524
Kasbeck, the mountain where Prometheus was punished, i. 298
Katie King, i. 48, 54;
soulless, i. 67
Kavindisami the fakir, causes a seed to grow miraculously, i. 139
Kebar-Zivo, i. 300
Kepler believed the stars to be intelligences, i. 207, 208, 253
Kerrenhappuch, a mystic name, ii. 496
Kerner, Dr., witnessing case of Elizabeth Eslinger, i. 68;
account of the encounter of the Cossack and Frenchman, i. 398
Keto or Cetus, the same as Dagon or Poseidon, ii. 258
Key to the Buddhist system, i. 289;
to the mysteries lost by the Roman Catholic Church, ii. 121;
G. Higgins mistaken, _ib._
Keys of St. Peter, where they originated, ii. 31;
cross and fishes, eastern symbols, ii. 255;
to Masonic ciphers, ii. 394
Keystone, absent at Nagkon-Wat, Santa Cruz del Quichè, Ocosingo, and
the Cyclopean structures of Greece and Italy, i. 571;
has an esoteric meaning, _ib._
Khaldi, worshippers of the moon-god, ii. 48
Khamism, an ancient deposit from Western Asia, ii. 435
Khansa, remarkable juggling trick, i. 473
Kidder, Bishop, remarkable testimony concerning the religion a wise
man would choose, ii. 240
King, John, i. 75
Kings and statesmen, Jesuit method for assassinating, ii. 373
Kircher, Father, taught universal magnetism, i. 208
Kiyun or Kivan, the same as Siva, i. 570
Klikoucha, i. 28
Klippoth, i. 141
Kneph, his snake-emblem, i. 133;
producing the mundane egg, ii. 226
Knights Kadosch, cipher, ii. 395;
hieroglyph, ii. 396;
Rose Croix, cipher, ii. 395;
Templars, i. 30;
Templars, the modern, have no secrets dangerous to the Church, ii.
381;
Templars, French Order, ii. 384, 385;
the assassination of a Prince, ii. 385
Knowledge, tree of, the pippala, ii. 412;
arcane, when sorcery and when wisdom, ii. 58
Koheleth, the summary, ii. 476
Koinobi or communists of Egypt, ii. 305
Kol-Arbas, the Tetrad or group of four mistaken for a Gnostic leader,
ii. 248
Korè-Persephonè, Zeus the Dragon, and their son, ii. 505
Kosmos, regarded as God or comprehending God, i. 154
Kounboum, mystery of, i. 289;
the Sacred Tree of Thibet, i. 302;
the wonderful Tree of Thibet with letters and symbols on its
leaves, i. 440;
Sanscrit characters on the leaves and bark, ii. 46
Kristophores, or the fourth degree, ii. 365
Kronos, i. 132
Krupte (crypt) the abode of a _teleiotes_, ii. 93
Kublai-Khan, ii. 608;
why he failed to adopt Christianity, ii. 581, 582;
reverences Christ, Mahomet, Moses, and Buddha all together, ii. 582;
his testimony concerning Christians, ii. 583
Kuklopes or Cyclopeans, shepherds, miners, builders, metal-workers,
and Anakim, i. 567
Kuklos Anangkes, or Circle of Necessity, i. 553
Kukushan, a medicinal plant of extraordinary virtue, ii. 608
Kumil-Mâdan, the undine, an elemental spirit, i. 496
Kurds, affirmed to be Indo-European, ii. 629;
are Mahometans, magicians, Yezids, and fire-worshippers, ii. 630;
scene with a sorcerer, ii. 631
Kutchi of Lha-Ssa, magically apprised by a Shaman of the author’s
helpless condition in the desert, ii. 628
Kutti-Satan, a Tamil spirit, i. 567
Labyrinth, the great, description by Herodotus, i. 522
Lactantius on calling up souls, i. 167;
declared the heliocentric system a heretical doctrine, i. 526;
rejected the doctrine of the antipodes, ii. 477
Læstrygonians of the _Odyssey_ cannibal races of Norway, i. 549
Laghana-Sastra, a secret sect in India, ii. 315;
their sacred groves, ii. 316
Lake, mysteries of, ii. 138;
of fire and brimstone, ii. 12;
the devil cast in it, with the beast and false prophet, _ib._;
place of purification of the wicked, ii. 238
Lakes and mountains in the Sanctuary of Karnak, i. 524
Lakshmi or Lakmi, the Damatri Venus or Great Mother, ii. 259, 598
Lama infant, or reincarnated Buddha, interview with him, ii. 598
Lamaic saints at a cave-temple, ii. 599;
exorcism, ii. 626
Lamaism, the purest Buddhism, ii. 608
Lamas, Thibetan, use the force known as Akâsa, i. 113
Lamps, ever-burning, one in the tomb of Cicero’s daughter, i. 224,
228;
in crypts of India, Thibet, and Japan, i. 225;
in Travancore, _ib._;
in Egypt, i. 226;
at Athens, Carthage, Edessa, Antioch, i. 227;
in the Appian Way and the Mosaic Tabernacle, i. 128;
mode of preparing, i. 229
Lamp-wicks of stone, i. 231;
of asbestos, i. 231
Land-measuring, known by the Egyptians, i. 531
Lao-tsi, or Laotsen, his figure produced by magic, i. 600
Lares, i. 345
Larmenius, charter forged, ii. 385
Larva, the soul, i. 344, 345
Larvæ, shadows of men that have once lived, i. 310;
their reincarnation, i. 357
Last rite, not known by the highest epoptæ, ii. 563
Latin Church, nearly upset by modern research, ii. 6;
despoiled the kabalists and theurgists, ii. 85;
preserves the old pagan worship, even to the dress of the clergy,
ii. 92
Lausanne, declaration of the Supreme Masonic Councils, ii. 377;
denounced by Gen. Pike, _ib._
Leaping of the prophets of Baal, ii. 45
Leaves, impressions made on, i. 368, 369
Le Comte, Prof., comparison of living and dead organism, i. 466;
on vital force, i. 313
Lempriere accuses Pythagoras and Porphyry, i. 431
Lemure, i. 345
Lemuria, the last continent of the Indian Ocean, perhaps the same as
Atlantis, i. 591, 592;
the Indian legend, i. 594
Lens found at Nineveh, i. 239
Lentulus, his forged letter, ii. 151
Leopard-skin, a sacred appendage of the mysteries, i. 568;
found sculptured in basso-relievo in Central America, i. 569;
employed by the Brahmans, _ib._
Lesser mysteries, their meaning and object, ii. 111
Lesser and greater mysteries, accused of indecency, ii. 100
Letter of Father Raulica on magic, ii. 70;
of Mary Virgin to the Bishop and Church of Messina, ii. 83;
from a Druze brother to the author, ii. 313
Letters, ii. 83;
invented in Egypt, i. 532
Levi, a caste rather than a tribe, i. 568
Levi, Eliphas, exposition of the means to acquire magical power, i.
137;
his remark on the ancient Christian malignity, ii. 250
Leviathan, the occult science, ii. 499
Law of compensation never swerves, ii. 545
Levitation discussed, i. 491, 492, 494-498;
under magnetic conditions practicable, ii. 589
Levitations, i. 100, 225;
declared impossible, i. 105;
of Iamblichus, i. 115;
occasioned by the attraction of the _perisprit_ or astral soul, i.
197;
disapproved by Iamblichus, i. 219
Levites, or serpent-tribe, the seraphs or fiery serpents, ii. 481
Lewis, Sir G. C., opinion adverse to the culture of the ancients, i.
525
Liberalia, or St. Patrick’s day, a festival of the Church, ii. 528
Libyan shepherds, Cyclopeans, i. 567
Lichen, produced, i. 302
Life, a phenomenon of matter, i. 115
Life-principle, speculations, i. 466
Life-transfer, ii. 564
Light, chemical relations, i. 136;
undulatory theory much doubted, i. 137;
mystical, the Divine Intelligence, i. 258;
same as electricity, _ib._;
both matter and a force, i. 281;
sympathy its offspring, i. 309;
an energy, not an emanation, the view of Aristotle, i. 510;
sublimated gold, i. 511
Lightning, conjured down by Prometheus, i. 526;
fate of Tullius, i. 527
Lightning-photographs, i. 394, 395
Lightning-rods on ancient temples, i. 527, 528;
used in India, i. 528
Lilith, Adam’s “first wife,” ii. 445
Linen of ancient Egypt, i. 536;
fire-proof, i. 230
Linga, same as the pillars of the patriarchs, ii. 235
Lingham, or emblem of Maha Deva, ii. 5;
and Yoni in churches, ii. 5
Lithos or phallus, reproduced in steeples, turrets, and domes, ii. 5
Littré on positive philosophy, i. 78
Living acari by chemical experiments, i. 465;
fire, i. 301
Local gods, ii. 451
Lodestone, its power to affect a whole audience, i. 265
Logia, or secret doctrines taught by Jesus, ii. 191
Logoi, all fail and are punished, i. 298
Logos, i. 131;
in every mythos, i. 162
Λόγος Αληθής, _True Doctrine_ of Celsus, story of the
book at a convent, ii. 52
Long-face, the Supreme God, ii. 247
Long hair, worn by John the Baptist and Jesus, and denounced by
Paul, ii. 140
Lord of the Genii, i. 300
Losing one’s soul possible, i. 317
Lost word, where to be sought, i. 580;
and its substitute, Mac Benac, ii. 349
Lotus, the sacred flower of Egyptians and Hindus, i. 91;
superseded by the lilies, i. 92
Loubère, M. de la, on Buddha and the Buddhists, ii. 576-579
Lourdes, shrine of, materializations of Virgin Mary, i. 119;
the madonna, her miracles, i. 614, ii. 6;
the moving of the statue, i. 618
Love, its magnetism the originator of created things, i. 210
Lucifer, i. 299
Luke, the evangelist, reputed an Essene, ii. 144
Lunar dynasties in India, the Chandra Vensa, ii. 438
Lundy, Rev. Dr., what he has proved, ii. 557
Luther and the demon, ii. 73;
the worst man in Europe, ii. 200;
his denunciation of the Catholics, ii. 208;
intolerant, and Calvin bloodthirsty, ii. 503
Lycanthropes, over 600 put to death in the Jura by sentence of a
judge, ii. 626
Lutherans burned as sorcerers, ii. 61
Luxor, unfading colors, i. 239;
brotherhood of, ii. 308
Macaulay, his criticism of scientists and philosophers, i. 424
Mac Benac, ii. 349
Machagistia, the magic taught in Persia and Babylonia, i. 251;
the testimony of Plato, ii. 306
Mackenzie, his description of the Jesuits, ii. 355
Macrocosm, i. 62
Macroprosopos or macrocosm, i. 580
Madonna of Barri, with crinoline, ii. 9;
of Rio de Janeiro, _décolletée_, with blonde hair and chignon, ii.
10
Madras famine made worse by Catholic taxation, ii. 532
Maëlstrom, the Charybdis of the Odyssey, i. 545.
Magendie, remedy for consumption, i. 89;
absents himself from experiments instituted by the French Academy
in 1826, i. 175, 176;
acknowledges that little is known of fœtal life, i. 386;
opinion of malformation, i. 388, 390;
asserts influence of imagination on the fœtus, i. 394
Magi established magic, i. 25;
taught the birth and decadence of worlds, i. 255;
Pythagoras, their associate, i. 284;
objected to the evocation of souls, i. 321;
three schools, ii. 361;
Chaldean, the masters of the Jews, _ib._;
two schools, ii. 128, 306
Magic, based on natural science, i. 17;
once universally taught, i. 18, 247;
a divine science, i. 25;
originally established by Magi, and not by priests, _ib._;
very ancient, _ib._;
Moses and Joseph proficients, _ib._;
two kinds, divine and evil, i. 26;
neglected by Masons, i. 30;
spiritualism, its modern form, i. 42;
profound knowledge of simples and minerals, i. 66;
likely to be rediscovered by scientists, i. 67;
esoteric in India, i. 90;
practised by Gymnosophists, i. 90;
the _divina sapientia_, i. 94;
Salverte’s Philosophy of Magic, i. 115;
mesmerism an important branch, i. 129;
theory of Eliphas Levi, i. 137;
modern forms, i. 138;
doctrine of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Philalethes, i. 167;
included in the arcane doctrine of Wisdom, i. 205;
the power never possessed by those addicted to vicious indulgences,
i. 218;
its basis, the occult or spiritual principle, i. 244;
testimony of Du Potet, i. 279;
theurgical, i. 281;
a sacerdotal science, i. 262;
exemplified in eastern countries of Asia, i. 320;
adepts understand the akasa or astral fluid, i. 378;
synonymous with religion and science, i. 459;
belief of Demokritus; 800,000,000 believers in, i. 512;
Votan of Ancient America, i. 545;
cultivated by Aztecs and ancient Egyptians, i. 560;
studied by the people of Pashai or Peshawer, i. 599;
seance described by Hon. J. L. O’Sullivan, i. 608-611;
the church believes in it, ii. 76;
used to select the canonical books of Holy Scripture, ii. 251;
denounced, ii. 502;
the science of man and nature, and its applications in practice,
ii. 583;
its principles, ii. 587-590;
its cornerstone, ii. 589;
black, practised at the Vatican, ii. 6;
taught in the lamaseries, ii. 609;
magnetism its alphabet, ii. 610
Magic arcanum, i. 506;
crystal, i. 467;
lamp of Hermes, ii. 417
Magical anæsthetics of the Brahmans, used in the burning of widows,
i. 540;
exhibitions of Tartary and Thibet, testimony of Col. Yule, i. 600;
moon of Thibet, i. 441;
evocation a part of the sacerdotal office, ii. 118;
evocations must be pronounced in a particular dialect, ii. 46
Magician, how different from a witch, i. 366;
difference from a medium, i. 367;
can summon and dismiss spirits at will, _ib._
Magism flourished at the Ur of the Kasdeans, i. 549
Magnale magnum, i. 170, 213
Magus, Magh, Mahaji, i. 129
Magnes, i. 64;
rediscovered by Mesmer, i. 71;
the living fire or spirit of light, i. 129
Magret, rediscovered by Paracelsus, i. 71;
the stone, i. 129;
its concealed power, i. 168;
Kircher’s doctrine of one magnet in the universe, i. 208;
the same as the spiritual Sun, or God, i. 209;
the poles signified in the Mysteries by the Dioskuri, i. 235;
the sun, i. 271
Magnetic currents develop into electricity, i. 395
Magnetization, two kinds, i. 178;
of minerals by animal magnetism, i. 209;
of a table or person, i. 322
Magnetism, i. 129;
animal, denied by modern science and then accepted, i. 130;
the magic power of man, i. 170;
taught by Des Cartes, i. 206;
by Naudé, Hufeland, Wirdig, and Kepler, i. 207;
and by Porta and Father Kircher, i. 209;
of love, the originator of every created thing, i. 210;
taught in the Mysteries, i. 234;
poles represented by the Dioskuri, i. 235;
the universal law, i. 244;
the alphabet of magic, ii. 610;
being true, medicine absurd, _ib._
Mahâbhârata, antedated the age of Cyrus the great, ii. 428
Maha Deva or Siva, his lingham or emblem in pagodas, ii. 5;
worshipped by the dark races of Hindustan, ii. 434
Mahady of Elephanta, ii. 5
Mahat, or Prakriti, the external sense-life, ii. 565
Mahomet, his testimony concerning Jews, ii. 480
Mahometan, confession of Faith on the Chair of Peter, ii. 25
Mahometanism, the outgrowth of Christian cruelty, ii. 53, 54;
making more proselytes than Christians, ii. 239
Maimonides, i. 17
Malagrida, burned for sorcery in 1761, ii. 58
Malays, their island empire, i. 592
Males suckling their young, i. 412
Malformations, opinion of Magendie, i. 388;
theory of Prof. Armor, i. 392
_Malum in se_, no such principle, ii. 480
Man, once communed with unseen universes, i. 2;
belief of the Kalmucks, _ib._;
“as immortal as God,” i. 13;
how influenced, i. 39;
composed of like elements as the stars, i. 168;
magnetism his magic power, i. 170;
different electric condition of persons and sexes, i. 171;
possessed of three spirits, i. 212;
a little world inside the great, _ib._;
Van Helmont’s theory, i. 213;
Plato’s theory, i. 276, 297;
androgynous, i. 497;
created in the sixth millenium, i. 342;
possesses arcane powers, ii. 113;
how he should do, ii. 122;
the fall an evolution, ii. 277;
his spirit, if not his soul, preëxistent, ii. 280;
the object of the alchemic, Hermetic, and mystic explorations, i.
308;
the philosopher’s stone and trinity in unity, i. 309;
a microcosm, i. 323;
never steps outside of universal life, ii. 343;
the six principles, ii. 367;
first appears as a stone, i. 389;
has power to shape matter, i. 394, 395;
ante-natal maternal impressions of this character, i. 395;
seven days on the pillar, ii. 447;
the story of the fall regarded as an allegory, ii. 546;
has a natural, a spiritual, and final birth, ii. 565;
triune, body, soul, and immortal spirit, ii. 588;
how he becomes an immortal entity, _ib._
Man-tree, i. 297
Mandrakes or Mandragora, a magical plant, i. 465
Manes, i. 37, 345;
his fate, ii. 208
Manifestations, subjective and objective, i. 68;
mediumistic, in Asia, i. 320
Mano, ii. 228, 229, 300
Mantheon, a title of Zoroaster, ii. 409
Mantic frenzy produced by exhalations from the earth, i. 531
Manu, laws the same as the doctrines of the sages and Kabala, i. 271;
doctrine of the universe, _ib._;
laws of, opinion of Sir William Jones, i. 585;
the basis of the code of Justinian, i. 581;
their age, i. 586-588;
widow-burning not mentioned in them, i. 588;
on life, evolution, and transformations, i. 620, 621;
predicts the advent of the Divine One, ii. 50;
knew nothing of deluge, ii. 427, 428
Manus, six, progenitors of six races of men, i. 590
Manu-Vina or Menes, colonizes Egypt from India, i. 627
Manwantara, i. 32
Marathos or Martu, ancient city and name of Phœnicia, means _The
West_, i. 579
Marathon, neighing of horses and shouts of men heard 400 years after
the battle, i. 70
Marcion distinguished between Judaism and Christianity, ii. 162;
his doctrines, ii. 103;
accepted Paul and denied the other apostles, ii. 168;
the great hæresiarch, his influence, ii. 159, 160;
brutally assailed by Tertullian and Epiphanius, _ib._
Marco Polo, on veins of salamander or asbestos, i. 504;
asserts that in Kashmere images are made to speak, i. 505;
brought movable types and blocks for printing, from China, i. 513;
describes Buddha as living like a Christian, ii. 581;
on the nature-spirits of the deserts, i. 603;
would not retract his “falsehoods,” _ib._;
declaration in regard to hearing spirits talk in the desert, i. 604
Marcosians, their sacrament, ii. 513
Marechale d’Ancre, her trial for sorcery, ii. 60
Mariana, Jesuit, explains the best way to kill a king, ii. 372, 373
Markland, a possible root of name America, i. 592
Marriage cured the convulsionaries, i. 375
Marrying the father’s wife, ii. 240
Marses in Italy, power over serpents, i. 381
Martu or Marathos, the west, i. 579
Mary, virgin, materializing at Lourdes, i. 119;
writes a letter from heaven declaring the pagans condemned to
eternal torments, ii. 8;
the anthropomorphized Isis, ii. 41;
writes letters, ii. 82, 83;
text of one, ii. 87;
without her consent, no redemption, ii. 172, 173;
overshadowed by Ilda-Baoth and not by Æbel Zivo or Gabriel, ii. 247;
like Dido, the Virgin of the Sea, ii. 446;
is visited by the Agathodaimon serpent, ii. 505
Mason, Osgood, on deity and nature, i. 426
Masonic ciphers, the keys, ii. 394;
fraternity, its unworthy members, ii. 376;
honors offered by M. de Nègre, a grand hierophant, refused, ii. 380;
institute, brought into disrepute by the Jesuits, ii. 385;
pagan in origin, _ib._;
Templars, a creation of the Jesuits, ii. 381
Masonry, neglect of magic and spiritualism, i. 30;
once a true secret organization, ii. 349;
who should be excluded, ii. 376;
esoteric, not known in American lodges, _ib._;
the time to remodel it has come, ii. 377;
no secrets left unpublished, _ib._;
whether Christian or pagan, _ib._;
departing from its original aims, ii. 380;
European and American, the Bible its great light, ii. 389
Masons, accusations against them half guess-work, ii. 372;
reject a personal God, ii. 375;
and the impostor Anderson, ii. 389
Masorets changed the immodest words in the Bible, ii. 430
Master-builder, epopt, adept, the Apostle Paul, ii. 91
Master’s word, communicated only at low breath, ii. 99
Mas’udi, on the ghûls in the desert, i. 604
Materialization, what spirits practice it, i. 319;
personal, i. 321
Materializations recorded in the Bible, i. 493
“Materialized spirits,” i. 67;
witnessed by the author, i. 69;
Virgin Mary to be expected at the Vatican, ii. 82;
often comes and lights a taper at Arras, _ib._
Mathematical error held by the Gnostics, ii. 194
Mathematicians, ancient, went to Egypt to be instructed, i. 531
Mathematics, Pythagorean and Platonic, i. 106
Matsya, the earliest avatar, ii. 427
Matter, how produced, i. 140;
proclaimed by modern physicists sole and autocratic sovereign of
the universe, i. 235;
its indestructibility, i. 243;
origin, i. 258;
the serpent that tempted man, i. 297;
not created by Divine thought, i. 310;
indestructible and eternal, i. 328;
fructified by the Divine idea or imagination, i. 396;
the remote effect of emanative energy, ii. 35
Matthew, gospel of, a secret book written in Hebrew, ii. 181, 182;
quotes the Egyptian Book of the Dead, ii. 548
Matwanlin, on voices in the deserts, i. 604
Maudsley, Prof., repudiates Comte, ii. 3;
rejects the positive philosophy, i. 82
Mauritania Tingitana, its columns, i. 545
Mauritius, his nauscopite, i. 240
Max Müller, scouts the idea of original human brutality, i. 4;
on the meaning of Veda, i. 354;
on Sanscrit literature, i. 442;
on the four ancestors, i. 559;
on Brahmanical literature, i. 580;
on the mutations of Christianity, ii. 10;
on the science of religion, ii. 26;
his retort upon Prof. Whitney, ii. 47;
assertion on the Hindu gods, ii. 413;
on the _Vedas_, ii. 414;
his understanding of Nirvana, ii. 432
Maxwell, his offer to cure diseases abandoned as incurable, i. 215;
his theory of the world-soul or life-spirit, i. 215, 216
Maya, or illusion, i. 289
Mayas of Yucatan, their mysterious city, i. 547
Mecassipa, an enchanter, i. 355
Medallions from the ashes of the dead, ii. 603
Mediatorship, how exercised, i. 487, 488
Medici family patrons of the black art, ii. 55
Medicine, classed by Bacon as a conjectural science, i. 405;
modern, what it has gained and lost, i. 20;
occult, suggested by Descartes, i. 214
Medium, a conductor, i. 201;
difference from a magician, i. 367;
a passive, the adept an active instrument, ii. 588;
needs a foreign intelligence, ii. 592
Medium-catcher of Prof. Faraday, i. 63
Medium-healers, charged with vampirism, i. 490, 491
Mediums, their visions more trustworthy than those of Catholic
priests, ii. 73;
burned, hanged, and otherwise murdered, i. 26, 353;
in Russia, i. 27;
generally utter commonplace ideas, i. 221;
their astral limbs, ii. 595;
are usually diseased, _ib._;
the Mosaic law contemplated killing them, i. 356;
passive, i. 488;
unregulated ones persecuted, i. 489;
how cured, i. 490;
generally disordered while the ancient thaumaturgists were not,
_ib._
Mediumistic diathesis, i. 117;
phenomena in Asia, i. 320
Mediumship, physical and spiritual, i. 367;
its phases seldom altered, _ib._;
depends upon a peculiar organization, i. 367;
psychographic, i. 368;
its conditions and circumstances, i. 487;
in holy men, mediatorship, _ib._;
in these days an undesirable gift, i. 488;
natural, ii. 118;
the opposite of adeptship, ii. 588
Megasthenes traces the Jews to the Kalani of India, i. 567
Melampus, his magical cures, i. 531
Melanephoris, the third degree, ii. 364
Mementos of a long bygone civilization, i. 349
Memory, views of Ammonius Sakkas, ii. 591;
of God, i. 178
Men produced by the giant Ymir, and also by the cow Audhumla, i.
148;
denoted by the tree of life, Yggdrasill, Zampun, Aswatha, i. 151-4;
existed at a period extremely remote, i. 155;
of the Stone Age described by Mrs. Denton, i. 295;
revivified without souls, ii. 564;
races differ in their spiritual gifts, ii. 588;
soulless, ii. 369;
of science wear the cast-off garb of priests dyed to escape
detection, ii. 8
Mendeleyeff, Prof., declares spiritualism a mixture of superstition,
delusion, and fraud, i. 117;
protest by Butleroff, Aksakoff, and others, i. 118
Menes, turned the course of the Nile, i. 516
Menon, the inventor of letters, i. 532
Mensabulism, i. 322
Mental photography, i. 322
Mentuhept, Queen, inscription on her monument, ii. 92
Mercaba, ii. 348;
must be first known, ii. 349;
a hidden doctrine, _ib._
Mercurius vitæ of Paracelsus, ii. 620
Mercury, water of, symbol of the soul, i. 309;
or quicksilver, never used by Yogi or alchemist, only by
charlatans, and not by Paracelsus, ii. 620, 621;
never restored a man to health, _ib._
Meridian, known when the first pyramid was built, i. 536
Meru or Meruah, sound, etc., i. 592;
and its gods, ii. 233, 234
Mesmer, rediscovered animal magnetism, i. 165;
his 27 propositions, i. 172;
condemned by the French Committee of 1784
Mesmerism, i. 23;
a rediscovery of what Paracelsus taught, i. 72;
repudiated by positivists, i. 82;
used successfully by physicians, _ib._;
an important branch of magic, i. 129, 131;
condemned in France in 1784, i. 171;
prize offered for thesis by the Prussian Government, i. 173;
taught by Descartes, i. 206
Message delivered at Kounboum, ii. 604
Messages, writing by spirits, i. 367
Messiah, comes in the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, in the sign
Pisces, ii. 256;
the fifth emanation, ii. 259
Metallic springs found in ancient war-chariots, i. 530
Metalline, a compound overcoming friction, i. 502
Metallurgy among the Egyptians and Semitic races, i. 538
Metals not simple bodies, i. 509
Metatron, or angel of the Lord, transformed into Jesus the son of
Mary, ii. 33;
seventy names, ii. 245
Metempsychosis, i. 8;
believed by all philosophers, early fathers and Gnostics, i. 12;
doctrine of Plato, i. 276, 277;
an allegory, not to be literally understood, and relating to
experiences of the soul, i. 289, 550;
of Buddha, i. 291;
dreaded by Hindus, i. 348;
the separation of the _thumos_ and ridding the _nous_ of the
_phren_, ii. 286
Methuselah helps Enoch construct nine chambers underground in the
land of Canaan, i. 571;
receives from him certain secret learning, _ib._
Metis, the same as Sophia of the Gnostics, and Sephira, ii. 163
Mexican serpent-gods, i. 572
Mexicans, ancient, i. 313;
their theory of lunar eclipses similar to the Hindu, i. 548
Mexico, serpent-worship, i. 46, 551-558
Michael, the unknown angel, ii. 488;
a phial of his sweat preserved as a relic, ii. 71;
the archangel, the same as Ophiomorphos, ii. 206;
and the Devil, their dispute, ii. 482;
the Dragon-slayer, ii. 488
Michelet, testimony in regard to the Jesuits, ii. 358, 359
Microcosm, i. 212
Microcosmos, i. 28
Microprosopos (little face), the microcosm, i. 580;
the Adam primos, ii. 452
Microscope, its brothers in the Books of Moses, i. 240
Middle Asia, botany and mineralogy, i. 89;
ever-burning lamps, i. 227
Midgard snake, i. 151
Midianites regarded as wise men, ii. 449
Milk of the Celestial Virgin, i. 64
Milton, John, regarded _Paradise Lost_ as a book of fiction, ii. 501
Mimer, the deep well of wisdom, i. 151
Minarets of Islam, ii. 5
Minerals, magnetized by man, i. 209;
the basis of evolution of vegetable organisms, _ib._;
their occult properties, ii. 589
Miracles, those of the Bible surpassed by those of the Vedas, i. 90;
so-called, genuine, from Moses to Cagliostro, i. 128;
none in nature, ii. 587;
at the tomb of Abbé Paris, i. 372;
among the Convulsionaires, _ib._;
none in Protestant countries, ii. 17;
in spite of the Church, ii. 22, 23
Miraculous Conception, a legend of Buddhism, ii. 504;
fire at the Holy Sepulchre, ii. 404
Mirville, De, i. 99;
refutes Babinet’s denial of levitation, i. 105;
the nebulous Almighty, i. 129
Mithra, a triple god, ii. 41
Mithraic Mysteries, ii. 351;
initiation of Julian the Emperor, ii. 566
Mixture to out-stench devils, ii. 67
Mnizurin, i. 321
Mochtana or Mokomna, the Druze apostle, ii. 308
Morals, the Buddhistic code, ii. 608
Model of the Universe, i. 302
Modern philosophers, see only the physical form of Isis, i. 16;
devil, a heritage from Cybelè, ii. 501;
Savants know less than ancients, i. 15;
science denies a Supreme Being or Personal God, i. 16;
teaches the power of human thought to affect the matter of another
universe, i. 310;
scientists hate new truths, i. 409;
spiritualism, i. 40;
the modern form of magic, i. 42
Mœris, the artificial lake constructed in Egypt, i. 516
Moisasure, the Hindu Lucifer, i. 299
Moksha and the Nirvana, ii. 116;
the second spiritual birth, ii. 566
Moldenwaher, his documents concerning the prosecution of the
Knights-Templar, bought up by Free-masons, ii. 383
Moloch-Hercules, children immolated to him in the valley of the
Gehenna, ii. 11
Moloch-God of the inquisition, ii. 65
Moloch-like divinity of Roman church, i. 27
Monad, i. 212;
Buddha, i. 291
Monas, ii. 347
Mongolians, ought to have been called Scyths, i. 576
Monkey of God, now exorcised with holy water, ii. 96
Monkeys exhibiting human intellect, i. 326;
fabled to be progenitors of western people, i. 563;
in Egyptian temples, i. 564;
in all Buddhistic temples, _ib._
Monkish impostors expelled from convents in Southern Mongolia, ii. 609
Monks, their fury for exorcising and roasting the convulsionaires of
the Cevennes, i. 370, 372;
none in hell, ii. 75
Monoliths, for Egyptian monuments, i. 518;
how transported, _ib._
Monogenes, or only-begotten, a name of Proserpina, ii. 284
Montesquieu, on two witnesses, i. 87
Montezuma, his effigy worshipped in Mexico, i. 557
Montgeron, writes a book on Jansenist miracles, i. 373
Monuments, religious, the expression of the same thoughts, i. 561;
planned and built under supervision of priests, _ib._;
alike in Asia and America, _ib._
Moody, the revivalist, would see his son’s eyes dug out, ii. 250;
and Sankey, confounded by a Roman bishop with spiritualists, ii. 7
Moon, the same as Diana, Diktynna, Artemis, Juno, etc., i. 267;
her worship in Crete, _ib._;
influence on women, _ib._;
legends of her phases, i. 265, 266;
influence on tides, persons, and vegetation, i. 273;
in middle nature, and green the middle color, i. 514
Moon-god, Deus Lunus, worshipped by the Khaldi, ii. 48
Moon-kings, or lunar dynasty, reigned at Pruyag and Allahabad, ii. 48
Moor, his explanation of the Wittoba, ii. 557, 558
Moore, Rev. Dunlop, assertion of the age of the institutes of Manu,
i. 585
Moors, bearded, figures at the great temple of Angkor, or Nagkon-Wat,
i. 565, 567
Mora in Sweden, young children burned alive as witches, ii. 503
More, Henry, i. 54, 74;
his belief in Pythagorean doctrines, i. 204, 205;
adversary of Eugenius Philalethes, i. 308;
demonstration of witchcraft, i. 353;
theory of birth-marks, i. 384, 385
Morgan, “good enough till after the election,” ii. 372
Moigno, Abbé, his wretched success in writing down Huxley, Tyndall,
and Raymond, i. 336
Mormons, polytheists, ii. 2
Mortal soul, i. 276, 326
Mosaic books, regarded by well-educated Jews allegory, i. 554, 555;
religion a sun-and-serpent worship, ii. 129
Moses, the pupil of the mother of Pharaoh’s daughter, i. 25;
communicated secrets to the seventy elders, i. 26;
his code required two witnesses, i. 87;
placed a perpetual lamp in the tabernacle, i. 228;
described Jehovah the anthropomorphic deity as being the highest
God, i. 307;
could not obtain his other name, i. 309;
philosophized or spoke in allegory, i. 436;
said to have had knowledge of electricity, i. 528;
chief of the Sodales or priest-colleges, i. 555;
a hierophant of Heliopolis and priest of Osiris, _ib._;
initiated, _ib._;
became an Egyptian and a priest, i. 556;
denounced the spirit of Ob, not Od, i. 594;
disputes over his body, its allegorical interpretation, ii. 482;
an initiate, ii. 129;
and the Israelites, their story typical, ii. 493;
versed in occult sciences, ii. 59;
the law not more than two or three centuries older than
Christianity, ii. 526
Moslem arms blessed by the Pope, ii. 560
Mother and child, a very ancient sign and myth, ii. 491;
-trunk, the universal religion, ii. 123;
of God the most ancient, ii. 49, 50;
the Heaven itself, ii. 50;
lodge, the great, ii. 315
Mountain of light, its appearance to Hiouen-Thsang, i. 600
Mouse-mark, produced by alarm, i. 391
Mousseaux, Des, i. 99;
declares the devil the chief pillar of faith, i. 103
Movable printing types, in China before our Era, i. 513;
used in the earliest periods of lamaism in Thibet, _ib._
Moyst natures or elementary spirits, i. 342, 343
Mukti, or half-gods, ii. 566
Müller, Albrecht, testimony in regard to ancient skill, i. 539
Mummy, bandaging, i. 20;
a symbol, i. 297;
a finger-ring at the London Exhibition of 1851, i. 531
Mummy-bandaging, i. 539;
1000 yards long _ib._
Mundane tree, i. 297
Mundane cross of heaven, ii. 454;
egg or universal womb, ii. 214;
snake creeps out of the primordial _ilus_, i. 298
Muratori, his felt cuirasse, copied from the ancients, i. 530
Murder, an obstacle to ancient, but not to Jesuit initiation, ii. 363
Murderous language of Jerome and Tertullian, ii. 250
Music, power over diseases, i. 215;
effect on persons, i. 275;
its influence on reptiles, i. 382;
employed in Egyptian temples for healing of nervous disorders, i.
544
Musical instruments in Egypt, i. 544;
sand, i. 605;
tones influence vegetation, i. 514
Mutton-protoplasm, i. 251
Mysteries, i. 15;
little known, i. 24;
of the Israelites, i. 26;
theurgic, i. 130;
Samothracian, i. 132;
occult properties of magnetism and electricity taught, i. 234;
representation of Demeter with the electrified head, _ib._;
the Dioskuri, i. 234-243;
Pythagoras initiated, i. 284;
their gradation, ii. 101;
ennobling in their character, _ib._;
of the ancients identical with the Hindu and Buddhist initiations,
ii. 113, 114;
divine visions beheld in them, ii. 118;
of the Christians, ii. 119;
Jesuit, not revealed to all priests, ii. 350;
Mithraïc, twelve tortures, ii. 351;
taught to the Babylonians, ii. 457
Mysterious city of the Mayas of Yucatan, i. 547;
science existed apart from “mediumship,” ii. 118
Mystery of the celestial Virgin pursued by the Dragon, ii. 490;
and science, Mr. Felix’s book, i. 337
Mystery-God of the Ineffable Name, ii. 289
Mystic doctrines not properly understood, i. 429;
legends of the Middle Ages, ii. 38
Mystical words of power in old religions, ii. 99;
properties in plants, ii. 589
Myths, fables, when misunderstood, and truths as once understood, ii.
431
Nabatheans in Lebanon, ii. 197
Nagal, the chief sorcerer of the Mexicans, i. 556
Nagas, or kingly snakes, i. 448;
or serpent-tribes of Kashmere, teachers of Apollonius, ii. 434;
or serpent-worshippers of Kashmere converted to the Buddhistic
faith, ii. 608
Nagkon-Wat, i. 239;
description of Frank Vincent, i. 561-563;
pictures represent scenes from the _Ramayava_, i. 573;
100,000 separate figures, _ib._;
ascribed to the lost tribes of Israel, i. 565;
suggested to have been built for Buddhaghosa, _ib._;
contains representations of Oannes or Dagon, the Kabeiri, the
monkey or Vulcan, Egyptian and Assyrian figures, _ib._
Nagualism and voodoo-worship, i. 556, 557;
secret worships, i. 557; ii. 572;
perpetuated by Catholic persecution, ii. 573
Nails of a cherub preserved as relics, ii. 71
Name, Ineffable, not possessed by Masons, ii. 387
Nandi, the Vehan of Siva, ii. 235
Nara, the mundane egg or universal womb, ii. 214
Narayana, mover of the waters, Brahma, i. 91
Nation, its greatest curse, ii. 121
_National Quarterly_, on modern scientists, i. 240, 249
Natural magic, no relation to sleight of hand, i. 128;
“mediumship,” ii. 118
Nature, four kingdoms, i. 329;
a materialization of spirit, i. 428;
triune, the visible or objective, the vital or subjective principle
and the eternal spirit, ii. 587;
the servant of the magician, ii. 590;
reveals all arts, i. 424, 425
Nature-spirits or shedim, i. 313;
or elementary, i. 349
Naudé, a defender of occult magnetism and theosophy, i. 207
Naus-copite, an optical instrument, i. 240
Navel and less comely parts of Jesus for relics, ii. 71;
symbolized by the ark, ii. 444
Nazarene system explained, ii. 227-229;
diagram, ii. 295
Nazarenes, had a gospel inscribed to Peter, ii. 127;
an anti-Bacchus caste, ii. 129;
existed before Christ, ii. 139, 181;
some as Galileans, ii. 139;
their belief of a divine overshadowing, ii. 154
Nazaret or Zoroaster, ii. 140
Nazars, Joseph, Samuel, Samson, Zoroaster, and Zorobabel, ii. 128;
wore their hair long, but cut it off at initiation, ii. 90;
Jesus belonged to them, _ib._
Nazireates, inimical to the Israelites, ii. 131
Nebelheim, the matrix of the earth, i. 147
Nebular theory, the ancient docrine, i. 238
Necessity, circle of, i. 226, 296;
men its toy, i. 276;
circle of, when completed, i. 346
Necho, King of Egypt, wrote on astronomy, i. 406;
canal of, i. 517;
II., sent a fleet to circumnavigate Africa, i. 542
Necklace, imprinted by lightning on two ladies, i. 398
Necromancy, a science of remote antiquity, i. 205
ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ _nekrokedeia_, i. 228
Neoconis, the second degree, ii. 364
Neo-Platonic Eclectic School, ii. 32
Neo-Platonists, i. 262;
their time of greatest glory, ii. 41;
their doctrines and practices copied, ii. 84;
not “spirit mediums,” ii. 118;
when they were doomed, ii. 252
Nero, his ring, i. 240;
dared not seek initiation, ii. 363
Neros I., i. 31;
the Great, i. 33
Nervous disorders, i. 117;
disorders a specialty in ancient Egypt, i. 529;
disorders treated with music in Egyptian temples, i. 544;
exhaustion at spiritual circles, i. 343
Neurological telegraphy proposed, i. 324
Never-embodied men, i. 301
Neville, Francis, twice resuscitated, i. 479
New birth and accompanying slaughter, ii. 42;
taught by Buddha and Jesus, ii. 566
New Jersey, negroes burned at the stake for witchcraft, ii. 18
New Testament, passages compared with sentences from the
philosophers, ii. 338
Newton Bishop, on the transformation of paganism into popery, ii. 29;
Dr. the American healer, i. 165, 217, 218;
Isaac, believer in magnetism, i. 177
Niccolini, his exposure of the profligacy of monks, ii. 365, 366
Nicodemus, Gospel taken from the pagan authors, ii. 518
Nicolaitans adhered to marriage, ii. 329
Nicolas, a man of honest report, ii. 333
Night of Brahma, ii. 272, 273
Nimbus and Tonsure solar emblems, ii. 94
Nimrod, or spotted, a name of Bacchus, the wearer of the spotted
skin, i. 568
Nimroud, convex lens found, i. 240
Nin or Imus of the Tzendales the same as Ninus, i. 551;
received homage in the form of a serpent, i. 522
Nineveh, 47 miles in circumference, i. 241
Nirvana, i. 241, 290;
the world of cause, i. 346;
not nihilism nor extinction, i. 430;
complete purification from matter, ii. 117;
subjective but not objective existence, ii. 286;
a personal immortality in spirit, but not in soul, ii. 320;
or Moksha, the second spiritual birth, ii. 566;
the ocean to which all religions tend, ii. 639
Nirvritti or rest, i. 243
No devil, no Christ, ii. 492
Noah, or Nuah, same as Swayambhuva, ii. 448;
the universal mother, ii. 444
Nonnus, his legend of Korè and her son, ii. 504
Norns, or Parcæ, watering the roots of the tree Yggdrasill, i. 151
Norse kingdom of the dead, ii. 11;
contained no blazing hell, _ib._
NOUS, i. 55, 131;
consecrated to Mary, Isis, and Nari, ii. 210;
or rational soul, everyman endowed, ii. 279;
the spirit or reasoning soul, doctrine of Aristotle, i. 317;
the first-born, or Christ, ii. 157
No-Zeruan, the ancient of days, ii. 142
Nout, the Egyptian name of the Divine Spirit, ii. 282;
same as Nous, _ib._
Nuah (Hea) king of the humid principle, ii. 429
Nubia, its rock-temples, i. 542
Nucleus of the embryo, i. 389
Numa, King of Rome, Books of, i. 527;
understood electricity, _ib._;
opposed the use of images in worship, _ib._
Numbers, Hermetic Book, on cosmic changes, i. 254;
book of secret, the great Kabala, i. 579
Numerals of Pythagoras, hieroglyphical symbols, i. 35;
the basis of all systems of mysticism, ii. 407
Nun, an Egyptian designation, ii. 95
Nysa, Nyssa, always found where Bacchus was worshipped, ii. 165;
same as Sinai, _ib._
Oak, sacred, i. 297, 298
Oannes, i. 133;
the man fish, i. 349;
the same as Vishnu, ii. 257;
name signifies a spirit, _ib._
Oath taken by initiates, i. 409
Ob, the astral light, i. 158
Obeah women in Guiana charm snakes, i. 383
Obelisks of Egypt, i. 518;
mode of transporting them, i. 519;
imputed to Hermes Trismegistus, i. 551
Object of this book, ii. 98, 99
Obscene relics at Embrum, ii. 332
Obscene bas-reliefs on the doors of St. Peter’s Cathedral, _ib._
Obscene statue of Christ and its miracles, _ib._
Obscenity of heathen rites, ii. 76
Obsession and possession, i. 487, 488; ii. 16;
all confined to Roman Catholic countries, ii. 17
Obsessions, irresistible, i. 276
Occult properties in minerals, ii. 589;
powers by inheritance, ii. 635, 636
Occultism, physical, i. 19
Oculists in ancient Egypt, i. 545
Od, an agent described by Baron Reichenbach, i. 146;
astral currents vivified, i. 158;
emanations identical with flames from magnets, etc., i. 169
Odic Force, i. 67
Odin, i. 19;
breathing in man and woman, the ash and the alder, the breath
of life, i. 151;
Alfadir, _ib._
Oersted, on laws of nature, i. 506, 507
Oetinger, experiment on ashes of plants, i. 476
O’Grady, Wm. L. D., his letter denouncing the influence of
missionaries in India, ii. 475;
on Hindu demoralization under British rule, ii. 574;
his account of a Christian saturnalia in India, ii. 532
Okhal or hierophant of the Druzes, ii. 309
Okhals or spiritualists of Syria, ii. 292
Old book, one original copy only in existence, i. 1;
gods of the heathen, the same as the ancient patriarchs, ii. 450;
man and his son, remarkable resuscitation, i. 484;
Testament, exiled by Colenso and recalled, ii. 4;
Testament, no real history in it, ii. 441;
universes evolved before the present, ii. 421
Olympic gods, their biographies relate to physics and chemistry, i.
261;
women climbing perpendicular walls, i. 374
Onderah, the Hindu abyss of darkness, only an intermediate state, ii.
11
One only good, ii. 238;
in three, i. 258
Only-begotten sons, ii. 191
Operative masons, ii. 392
Ophiomorphos and Ophis Christos, ii. 449
Ophion called also Dominus, ii. 512
Ophiozenes in Cyprus, power over venomous reptiles, i. 381
Ophis, the same as Chnuphis or Kneph, ii. 187;
or the agathodaimon, ii. 293, 295
Ophism and heliolatry imputed to Hermes, i. 55i
Ophite Gnostics rejected the _Old Testament_, ii. 147;
Theogony correctly given, ii. 187;
worship transmuted into Christian symbolism, ii. 505;
or serpent-worshipping Christians, their scheme, ii. 292;
seven planetary genii, ii. 296;
rejected the Mosaic writings, ii. 168;
taught the doctrine of emanations, ii. 169;
and Nazarenes compared, ii. 174;
denounced by Peter and Jude, ii. 205;
accused of licentiousness, ii. 325
Optical instruments of ancient times, i. 240
Oracle of the bleeding head consulted by Queen Catherine of Medicis,
ii. 56
Oracles obtained during the sacred sleep, i. 357
Oracular head, made by Pope Sylvester II., ii. 56;
by Albertus Magnus destroyed by Thomas Aquinas, _ib._
Orcus, i. 298, 299
Oriental philosophy, fundamental propositions, ii. 587
Orientals, their senses more acute, i. 211;
ascribe a human figure to the soul, i. 214;
believe certain persons have made gold and lived for ages, _ib._
Orientalists have shown similarities between religions, ii. 49
Origen, believed in metempsychosis, i. 12;
an Alexandrian Platonist, i. 25;
secret doctrines of Moses, i. 26;
believed the spirit preëxistent from eternity, i. 316;
deemed the soul corporeal, i. 317;
denied the perpetuity of hell-torments, ii. 13;
taught that devils would be pardoned, _ib._;
believed that the damned would receive pardon and bliss, ii. 238;
on the threefold partition of man, ii. 285
Ormazd, his worship restored, ii. 220;
his creations, ii. 221
Orobio exposes the inquisition, ii. 59
Orohippus, i. 411
Orpheus, alleged to be a disciple of Moses, i. 532;
on the virtues of the lodestone, i. 265
Orphic Mysteries not the popular Bacchic rites, ii. 129
Osiris, i. 93, 202;
brought up at Nysa and called Dionnysos, ii. 165;
his slaying denoted the period when his worship was under the ban
of the Hyk-sos government, ii. 487;
and Typhon, E. Pococke’s theory, ii. 435, 436
O’Sullivan, Hon. John L., description of a semi-magical seance, i. 608
Oulam does not mean infinite duration, ii. 12
Ovule ceases to be an integral part of the body of the mother, i. 401
Ovum, impregnated, its evolutionary history, i. 389
Oxus-tribes or bull-worshippers dominate Western Asia, ii. 439
Owen, Robert D., on worship of words, ii. 560
Pagan idols, their destruction commanded by the Roman emperor, ii. 40;
worship, the Latin church preserves its symbols, rites,
architecture and clerical dress, ii. 92
Paganism, true meaning of the word, ii. 179;
ancient wisdom replete with deity, ii. 639;
converted and applied to popery, ii. 29
Pagans condemned to the eternal torments of hell, ii. 8;
Virgin Mary writing this to a saint, _ib._
Palenque, keystone not found, i. 571;
the Tau and astronomical cross, i. 572
Pali, their manuscripts translated, i. 578;
have similar traditions as the Babylonians, _ib._;
shepherds, who emigrated west, _ib._
Pallium, or stole, a feminine sign, ii. 94;
that of Augustine bedecked with Buddhistic crosses, ii. 94
Panther, Grecian, contained Egyptian gods, i. 543;
panther, the sinful father of Jesus, ii. 386
Papacy, scientific, danger of, i. 403;
“and civil power,” Mr. Thompson’s book denounced, ii. 378
Papal tiara, the coiffure of the Assyrian gods, ii. 94;
discourses, catalogue of foul epithets on those who oppose the
pope, ii. 7
Paper, time-proof, i. 529
Papyrus, as old as Menes and the first dynasty, i. 530;
art of its preparation, _ib._
Parables or double-meanings in the discourses of Jesus, ii. 145
Parabrahma the Eternal, Bhaghavant, i. 91
Paracelsus, i. 20, 50;
his learning, i. 52;
discovered hydrogen, i. 52, 169;
his doctrine of faith and will, i. 57, 170;
rediscovery of the magnet, i. 71, 164, 167;
persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, i. 100;
his homunculi, i. 133, 465;
teacher of animal-magnetism and electro-magnetism, i. 164;
theory of a concealed power of the magnet, i. 168;
sidereal force, _ib._;
theory of dreams, i. 170;
on the alkahest, i. 191;
method of transposing letters in his terms, _ib._;
taught that three spirits actuate man, i. 212;
removed disease by contact of healthy persons, i. 217;
his preparation of mercury, ii. 620;
and chorœa, and was persecuted for it as a magician, ii. 565;
received the true initiation, ii. 349;
his assertion that magic was taught in the Bible, ii. 500;
Alsatians believe him not dead, _ib._
Paradigm of the universe, i. 212
Paradise Lost, the drama of Milton, ii. 501, 502;
the unformulated belief of the English, _ib._
Paradoxes, five, of adversaries of Spiritualism, i. 116
Paralysis of the soul during life, ii. 368
Parerga, i. 59
Pariahs, or Tchandales, the parents of the Jews, ii. 438
Paris carrying off Helen, and Ravana carrying off Sita, i. 566;
Abbé, the Jansenist, miracles at his tomb for 20 years, i. 372
Parker, Father, accuses the Protestants of the purpose to destroy the
Bible, ii. 200
Parodi, Maria Teresa, case of malformed child, i. 392
Parrot-headed squabs, i. 395, 396
Parsis deny any vicarious sacrifice, ii. 547
Pashai (Peshawer) or Udayna, classic land of sorcery, i. 599;
testimony of Hiouen-Thsang, _ib._
Pastaphoris, the first degree, ii. 364
Patriarchs, great gods, and pradjapatis represented signs of the
Zodiac, ii. 450
Paul, supposed to have been personified and assailed by Peter under
the name of Simon Magus, ii. 89;
and Plato, quoted, ii. 89, 90;
the real founder of Christianity, ii. 574;
a wise master-builder, or adept, ii. 90, 91;
why persecuted by Peter, James, and John, ii. 91;
supposed to be polluted by the Gnosis, _ib._;
the apostle, used language pertaining to initiations, ii. 90;
was initiated, _ib._;
confessed himself a Nazarene, ii. 137;
on the beatific vision, ii. 146;
his epistles alone acknowledged by Marcion, ii. 162;
differs from Peter, ii. 180;
is adopted by the Reformers, _ib._;
his reference to occult powers, ii. 206;
only worthy apostle of Jesus, ii. 241;
taught that man was a trine, ii. 281;
regarded Christianity and Judaism as entirely distinct, ii. 525;
the apostle, his descendants said to possess the power of braving
serpents, i. 381;
asserted the story of Moses and Abraham to be allegories, ii. 493
Pausanias on shadowy soldiers at Marathon, i. 70;
warned not to unveil the holy rites, i. 130
Perry Chand Mittra, his views on psychology of the Aryas, ii. 593
Pedactyl equus, i. 411
Peisse, Dr., on alchemy and making gold, i. 508, 509
Penalties of mutilation, ii. 99, 100
Pencil writing answers to questions, in Tartary, i. 600
Pentacle, Pythagorean, ii. 451, 452
Pentagram, can determine the countenance of unborn infants, i. 395
Pentateuch, constituted after the model of a purana, ii. 492;
not written by Moses, ii. 167;
compiled by Ezra and revised, i. 578;
revised by the Jews, ii. 526
Pepper, Prof., his apparatus to produce spiritual appearances, i. 359
Perfect circle decussated by the letter X, ii. 469
Perfect Passover of orthodox Christians, ii. 333
Periktione, mother of Plato, her miraculous conception, ii. 325
Perispirit, i. 197;
the astral soul, i. 289
Permutation, doctrine of, ii. 152
Perpetual motion, denied by science, i. 501;
illustrated by the universe and the atomic theory, i. 502;
proved by the telescope and microscope, _ib._
Persiphone or Proserpina, the same as Ceres or Demeter, ii. 505
Persepolis, wonders, i. 534;
the inscriptions older than any in Sanscrit, ii. 436
Persia, her wonders, i. 534
Persian Mirror, a robber detected by its use and punished, ii. 631
Persian colonists dominated in Judea, the Canaanites being the
proletaries, ii. 441
Personal devil not believed in by the ancients, ii. 483
Personality not to be applied to spiritual essence, i. 315
Persons cut to pieces and put again together good as new, i. 473, 474
Peru, net-work of subterranean passages, i. 595, 598;
treasures of the Incas, i. 596
Peruvians, still preserve their ancient traditions and sacerdotal
caste, i. 546;
magical ceremonies, _ib._
Peter, פתר, name taken from the Mysteries, ii. 29
PTR, its symbol an opened eye, ii. 92, 93;
the interpreter, ii. 392;
had nothing to do with the foundation of the Latin Church, ii. 91;
his name Petra or Kiffa, _ib._;
the whole story of his apostleship at Rome a play on the name
denoting the Hierophant or interpreter of the mysteries, ii.
91, 92;
the pulpit of, declared to be the teachings of the spirit of God,
ii. 8;
had two chairs, ii. 23, 25;
was never at Rome, ii. 24;
his life at Babylon, ii. 127;
was a Nazarene, _ib._;
denounced Paul without naming him, ii. 179
Peter-ref-su, a mystery-word on a coffin, ii. 92;
Bunsen’s comments, ii. 92, 93
Peter the Great, stopped spurious miracles, ii. 17
Petra, the rock-temple of the Church, ii. 30
Petra, or rock, the logos, ii. 246
Petroma, the two tablets of stone, ii. 91
_Phœdrus_, i. 2
Phallic symbols in churches, ii. 5;
stone, batylos, or lingham, denounced by des Mousseaux, _ib._
Phallism, heathen, in Christian symbols, ii. 5;
in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and the fetish-worship
of Isernia, _ib._
Phanes, the revealed god, i. 146
Phantasmal duplicate, i. 360
Phantasy, ii. 591
Phantom-hand, false as well as true, ii. 594;
statement of Dr. Fairfield, ii. 595;
what it really is, _ib._
Phantoms, the manifestations of bad demons, i. 333
Phases of modern Christianity, ii. 575
Pharisees, believed in transmigration of souls, i. 347
Phenomena, spiritual, discountenanced by the clergy, i. 26;
divine visions of Pius, IX., i. 27;
the Klikouchy and the Yourodevoy, i. 28;
absurd position assumed by scientists, i. 40;
Aksakof, i. 41;
Fisk, Crookes, and Wallace, i. 42;
the Dialectical Society, i. 44;
theories of Prof. Crookes, i. 47;
existed long before spiritualism, i. 53;
Prof. Faraday’s tests, i. 63;
materialization, i. 67;
a haunted house, i. 69;
physical displays seldom caused by disembodied spirits, i. 73;
opposition of the positivists, i. 75;
hostility of allopathists, i. 88;
laid at the door of Satan, i. 99;
testimony of de Gasparin, i. 101;
hostility of medical writers, i. 102;
Mr. Weekman the first investigator in America, i. 106;
reality acknowledged by Prof. Thury, i. 110;
his theory, i. 113;
E. Salverte, i. 115;
De Mirville’s five distractions or paradoxes, i. 116;
condemned by Commission of the Imperial University of St
Petersburgh, i. 117;
how produced, i. 199;
evidence adduced by Prof. Crookes overwhelming, i. 202;
given by an exterior intelligence, i. 203;
deceptions, i. 217-222;
Iamblichus forbids endeavors to procure them, i. 219
Pherecydes, taught that æther was heaven, i. 157
Philalethes, Eugenius (Thomas Vaughan), i. 51, 167;
not an adept, i. 306;
model of Swedenborg, _ib._;
anticipated modern doctrine of the earth’s beginning, i. 255
Phillips, Wendell, i. 211, 240
Philo Judæus, on spirits in the air, i. 2;
praise of magic, i. 25;
contradicted himself on purpose, ii. 39;
was the father of new platonism, ii. 144
Philonæa, visited her lover after death, i. 365
Philosophers, believed in metempsychosis, also that men have two
souls, i. 12;
their consignment to hell desired, ii. 250
Philosopher’s stone, sought by a king of Siam, i. 571
Philosophy, Oriental, its fundamental propositions, ii. 587
Phœnicians, circumnavigated the globe, i. 239;
the earliest navigators, i. 545;
their achievements, _ib._;
an Ethiopian race, i. 566, 567;
traced by Herodotus to the Persian Gulf, i. 567;
Phoinikes, or Ph’anakes, i. 569;
the same as the Hyk-sos or shepherds of Egypt, _ib._;
more or less identified with the Israelites, _ib._
Photographing in colors by will-power, i. 463
Photography, electrical, i. 395
Phtha, the active or male creative principle, i. 186
Physical body may be levitated, ii. 589
Physically spiritualized, the coming human race to be, i. 296
Physician declares Daguerre to be insane, ii. 619
Physicians wash their hands on leaving a patient, ii. 611;
problems, i. 277
Physicists divinify matter and overlook life, i. 235
Pia Metak, king of Siam, becomes able to walk in the air, ii. 618
Picture of a slain soldier, extraordinary phenomena, ii. 17
Pictures hidden from view, Prof. Draper’s description, i. 186
Picus, Francisco, testimony in regard to transmutation, i. 504
Pierart, explanation of catalepsy and vampirism, i. 449
Pigmies in Africa, i. 412
Pike, Gen. Albert, declaration against the creative principle
proclaimed at Lausanne, ii. 377
Pilate convokes an assembly of Jews, ii. 522
Pillars set up by the patriarchs, identical with the lingam of Siva,
ii. 235
Pimander, i. 93;
the same as the Logos Prometheus, etc., i. 298;
the nous, word, or Divine Light, ii. 50
Pippala, the sacred tree of knowledge, ii. 412
Pitar, its form seen at the moment of initiation, ii. 114
Pitris, the lunar ancestors of men, ii. 106, 117;
their worship fast becoming the worship of the spiritual portion of
mankind, ii. 639;
the doctrine of their existence revealed to initiates, ii. 114;
a sect in India, ii. 308
Pious assassins of the early church, ii. 304
Pius IX, excommunicates Czar Nicholas as a schismatic i. 27;
has divine visions, or rather epileptic fits, _ib._;
evil eye, i. 381;
pretends to be superior to St. Ambrose and the prophet Nathan, ii.
14;
is the faithful echo of the Jesuits, ii. 359
Planchette, writing by, i. 199
Planet, i. 301
Plants are magnets, i. 281, 282
Plant-growing trick, i. 139, 141, 142
Plants, attracted by the sun, i. 209;
sympathies and antipathies, _ib._;
sympathy with human beings, i. 246;
possess mystical properties, ii. 589
Plato, not often read understandingly, i. 8;
echoed the teachings of Pythagoras, i. 9;
doctrine of the soul, will, or _nous_, i. 14, 55;
his symbology misunderstood, i. 37;
suggestion for physical improvement of the human race, i. 77;
doctrine of wisdom, i. 131;
on trance prophets, i. 201;
asserted to be ignorant of anatomy, i. 236;
his method, i. 237;
Prof. Jewett’s acknowledgment, _ib._;
on origin of the sun, i. 258;
taught correlation of forces, i. 261;
his doctrines the same as those of Manu, i. 271;
declares man the toy of necessity, i. 276;
doctrine of genius, i. 277;
theory of metempsychosis, i. 277;
attraction, i. 281;
his speculations on creation and cosmogony, to be taken
allegorically, i. 287;
veneration for the mysteries, _ib._;
would not admit poets into his commonwealth, i. 288;
dismisses Homer for his apparent antagonism to monotheism, _ib._;
accused of absurdities, etc., i. 307;
derived the soul from the world-soul, i. 316;
shows the deity geometrizing, i. 318;
on the future of the dead, i. 328;
learned secret science in Egypt, i. 406;
versed in the knowledge of the heliocentric system, i. 408, 409;
his “noble lie” concerning Atlantis, i. 413;
on human races, i. 428;
his esoteric doctrines the same as the Buddhistic, i. 430;
on prayer, i. 434;
on God geometrizing, i. 506;
on spiritual numerals, i. 514;
the Atlantis a possible cover of a story made arcane at initiation,
i. 591;
copies Djeminy and Vyasa, i. 621;
complains of unbelief, ii. 16;
his faculty of production, _ib._;
confessed that he derived his teachings from ancient and sacred
doctrines, ii. 39;
on divine mysteries, ii. 113;
not a “spirit-medium,” ii. 118;
and other philosophers taught dual evolution, ii. 279;
on the trine of man, ii. 282;
definition of the soul, ii. 285;
his testimony concerning the Machagistia, ii. 306;
discourse concerning the creation, ii. 469;
taught that there was in matter a blind force, ii. 483;
on exaltation of the soul above sense, ii. 591
Platonic philosophy adopted into the church, ii. 33
Platonism introduced into Christianity, ii. 325
Platonists, their books burned, i. 405
Pleroma, three degrees, i. 302
Pleasanton on the Blue Ray, i. 137, 264;
denies gravitation, and the existence of centripetal and
centrifugal forces, i. 271;
his theory of light, i. 272
Pliny mentions phantoms on the deserts of Africa, i. 604
Plotinus, on the descent of the soul into generated existence, ii.
112;
six times united to his god, ii. 115; i. 292;
on human knowledge, i. 434;
on prayer, _ib._;
on ecstasy, i. 486;
impulse in the soul to return to its centre, _ib._;
on public worship of the gods, i. 489;
a clairvoyant, seer, and more, ii. 591
Plutarch on the oracular vapors, i. 200;
on the nature of men, ii. 283;
on the dæmon of Socrates, ii. 284
Pococke, E., his theory of Osiris and Typhon, ii. 435, 436
Poland, what a Catholic miracle in that country means, ii. 18
Polykritus returned after dying, i. 364
Polygamy openly preached by certain Positivists, i. 78
Pompei, the room full of glass, i. 537
Pope seized the scepter of the Pagan pontiff, ii. 30;
now sympathising with the Turks against Christians, ii. 81;
Calvin and Luther, their doctrine one, ii. 479, 480;
his fulminations against science, ii. 559, 560;
Calixtus III. issues a bull against Halley’s Comet, ii. 509
Popes known as magicians, ii. 56
Popol-Vuh, a manuscript of Quiché, i. 2;
leaves the antiquarian in the dark, i. 548
Porphyry, upon Diakka, bad demons of sorcery, i. 219;
twice united with God, i. 292;
upon the passion of spirits for putrid substances and fresh blood,
i. 344;
on freshly-spilt blood in evocation, i. 493
Porta, Baptista, theory of magic, world-soul, astral light, i. 208
Poruthû-Madân, the wrestling demon, aiding in levitation, taming
animals, etc., i. 496
Positivism of Littré found in Vyasa, 10,400 B.C., i. 621
Positivists, i. 73;
their religion without a God, i. 76;
design to uproot Spiritualism, _ib._;
preach Polygamy, i. 78;
the climax of their system, i. 80;
neglect no means to overthrow Spiritualism, i. 83;
despised and hated, ii. 3
Possession, epidemic in Germany, i. 375
Poudot, the shoemaker, his house beset by an elemental demon, i. 364
Power of leaving the body temporarily, i. 476, 477;
power to disappear, and to be seen in other forms, ii. 583
Powers in nature, as recognized by exact science, and by kabalists,
i. 466
Pradjapatis, the ancestors of mankind, ten in number, ii. 427
Prakamya, the power to change old age to youth, ii. 583
Pralayas or dissolutions, two, ii. 424
Prakriti, or Mahat, the external life, ii. 565
Pranayama, ii. 590
Prapti, the faculty of divination, healing and predicting, ii. 593
Pratyahara, ii. 590
Pravritti or active existence, i. 243
Prayer and its sequences, i. 434
Prayers, kept secret from strangers, i. 581
Pre-Adamite, man described, i. 295;
earth, i. 505
Prediction of the Russo-Turkish war, i. 260
Preëminence of woman, ii. 299
Preëxistence, apparent, i. 179
Preëxistent, the spirit of man, i. 316, 317; ii. 280;
law of form, i. 420
Pregnant woman, highly impressible and receptive, i. 394;
odic emanation and its influence on fœtus, i. 395;
under the influence of the ether or astral light, _ib._;
might influence the features of children by pentagram, _ib._
Prehistoric races, i. 545
Premature burial, i. 456
Presbytere de Cideville, phenomenon of thunder and images of
fantastic animals as predicted by a sorcerer, i. 106
Preston, Rev. Dr., his doctrine of a Mother in the plan of
redemption, ii. 172
Preterhuman beings, their alliance indicated in every ancient
religion, ii. 299
Pre-Vedic religion of India, ii. 39
Priest, Assyrian, always bore the name of his god, i. 554
Priest-ridden nations always fall, ii. 121, 122
Priestesses of Germany, how they prophesied, ii. 592
Priestley, Dr. Joseph, discovered oxygen, i. 250;
anticipated the present-day philosophers, _ib._;
on the godhood of Jesus, ii. 239
Priests, their cast-off garb worn by men of science, ii. 8
Priest-sorcerers, ii. 57
Primal element obtained, i. 51;
like clear water, _ib._
Primitive Christianity, with grip, pass-words and degrees of
initiation, ii. 204;
Christians, a community of secret societies, ii. 335;
triads, ii. 454
Primordial substance, i. 133
Prince of Hohenlohe a medium, i. 28;
of Hell sides with the strongest, and treats Satan very badly, ii.
517
_Principe Createur_ identical with the _Principe Generateur_ and not
Christian, ii. 377
Principes, i. 300
Probation of Jesus, ii. 484, 485;
the Devil or Diabolos no malignant principle, ii. 485
Proclus, on magic and emanation, i. 243;
theory of the gods or planetary spirits, i. 311, 312;
his remarkable statements of marvels acted by dead persons, i. 364;
on second dying and the luminous form, i. 432;
his idea of divine power, i. 489;
the mystic pass-word, _ib._;
his explanation of the gradation of the Mysteries, ii. 101;
upon apparitions beheld in the Mysteries, ii. 113
Proctor, R. A., i. 245;
accuses the ancients of ignorance, i. 253
Profanation to eat blood, ii. 567
Projecting of the astral or spiritual body, ii. 619, 620
Prometheus, the Logos or Adam Kadmon, i. 298;
revealed the art of bringing down lightning, i. 526;
prediction of Hermes, ii. 514, 515
Prophecies from Hindu books, ii. 556;
antedate Christianity, ii. 557
Prophecy determined in two ways, i. 200;
gift imparted by infection, i. 217;
a power possessed by the soul both in and apart from the body,
ii. 594
Prophetic star of the incarnation, ii. 454
Prophets of Baal danced the circle-dance of the Amazons, ii. 45;
dominated in Israel, and priests in Judah, ii. 439;
of Israel never approved of sacrificial worship, ii. 525;
led a party against the priests, _ib._
Protection from vampires, etc., i. 460
Protest against ethnological distinction from the progeny of Noah,
ii. 434
Protestant world still under the imputation of magical commerce with
Satan, ii. 503
Protestantism has no rights, i. 27
Protestants in the United States, ii. 1;
their bloody statutes against witchcraft, ii. 503
Protevangelium, a parody of the Nicene creed, ii. 473
Protogonos, i. 341
Proto-hippus, i. 411
Protoplasm, i. 223;
taught by Seneca, etc., i. 249;
doctrine of the Swâbhâvikas, or Hindu pantheists, i. 250
Prunnikos, mother of Ilda-Baoth, the God of the Jews, ii. 187
Psyche, the animal soul, i. 317
Psychic embryos, i. 311;
force, i. 45-67;
same as ectenic force, i. 113;
same as the Akasa, _ib._;
known to the ancient philosophers, i. 131;
propositions of Sergeant Cox, i. 195;
a blind force, i. 199
Psychode force, i. 55, 113
Psychography, or writing of messages by spirits, i. 367
Psychological epidemics, ii. 625;
powers of certain nuns in Thibet, ii. 609
Psychology, heretofore almost unknown, i. 407;
the basis of physiology anciently, but now based by scholars upon
physiology, i. 424
Psychomatics of occultism, i. 344
Psychometry, i. 182;
Prof. Denton and wife, i. 183; i. 330;
practised by the ancients, i. 331
Psychophobia, i. 46
Psylli in Africa, serpent-charmers, i. 381
Pueblos of Mexico still worship the sun, moon, stars, and fire, i. 557
Pulpit of Peter the teaching of the Spirit of God, ii. 8
Punch-and-Judy boxes or Christian mysteries, ii. 119
Punjaub, population hybridized with Asiatic Æthiopians, i. 567
Purana, rules for writing one, ii. 492;
the model of the Pentateuch, _ib._
Purple, Tyrian, i. 239
Pûttâm, or imps, i. 447
Pyramids, their architecture and symbolism, i. 236;
of Egypt, i. 518;
their purpose, i. 519;
the baptismal font, _ib._;
the supposed manufacture of the material, _ib._;
built on the former sea-shore, i. 520
Pyrrho, how to be interpreted, ii. 530
Pythagoras, his philosophy derived from the Brahmans, i. 9;
taught the heliocentric system, i. 35, 532;
believed in an infinity of worlds, i. 96;
Bruno his disciple, i. 96, 98;
taught God as the Universal Mind, i. 131;
his esoteric system included in the arcane doctrines of wisdom, i.
205;
Galileo a student, i. 238;
his maxim widely scattered, “Do not stir the fire with a sword,” i.
247;
dual signification of his precepts, i. 248;
his trinity, i. 262;
regard for precious stones and their mystical virtues, i. 265;
his doctrine the same as the laws of Manu, i. 271;
alleged influence on birds and animals, i. 283;
testimony of Thomas Taylor, i. 284;
initiated in the Mysteries of Byblos, Tyre, Syria, Egypt and
Babylon, _ib._;
did not teach literal transmigration of the soul, i. 289;
taught the Buddhistic doctrines, i. 289-291;
held for a clever impostor, i. 307;
derived the soul from the world-soul, i. 316;
mathematical doctrine of the universe, i. 318;
taught the same as Buddha, i. 347;
explains imagination as memory, i. 396;
copied by Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy, i. 512;
learned music in Egypt and taught it in Italy, i. 544;
placed the sphere of purification in the sun, ii. 12;
subdued wild animals, ii. 77;
persuaded a bull not to eat beans, ii. 78;
was not a “spirit-medium,” ii. 118;
his system of numerals, ii. 300;
probably did not understand decimal notation, _ib._
Pythagorean pentacle, ii. 451, 452
Pythagorists were probably Buddhists, ii. 491
Pytho, or Ob, i. 355
Pythoness, her powers of seership, ii. 590
Quack, a false name imposed on Paracelsus, ii. 621
Queen of Heaven indebted to Pius IX., ii. 9;
the Virgin Mary, Isis, Ishtar, Astarté, Queen Dido, Anna, Anaitis,
etc., ii. 96, 446-450
Quetzo-Cohuatl, the serpent-god of Mexican legends, i. 546;
wonders wrought by him, ii. 558;
his wand, _ib._
Quiché cosmogony, i. 549
Quicksilver and sulphur, a magical preparation to give long life, ii.
620
Quotation from _Psalms_ credited by Matthew to Isaiah, ii. 172
Rabbinical chronology, none before the twelfth century, ii. 443
Races, human, many died out before Adam, i. 2;
pre-Adamite, i. 305;
of men differ in gifts, ii. 588
Radzivil, Prince, detects the impostures of monks, ii. 72
Rahat, or perfect man, ii. 287, 288
Railroads in Upper Egypt, i. 528
Ram, or Aries, the symbol of creative power, i. 262
Ramayana the source and origin of Homer’s inspiration, ii. 278
Ramsay, Count, his story of the Templars, ii. 384
Raspberry-mark produced by longing, i. 391
Rasit, its meaning suppressed, ii. 34;
wisdom, ii. 35
Rational soul, every man endowed, ii. 279
Raulica, Father Ventura de, letter on magic, ii. 70
Ravan and Rama, ii. 436
Raven and St. Benedict, ii. 78
Rawho, the demon of Ceylon, ii. 509
Rawlinson, Sir H. C., brings home an engraved stone, i. 240;
declares that the Akkadians came from Armenia, i. 263;
conjectures respecting the Aryans, ii. 433
Rawson, Prof. A. L., a member of the Druze Brotherhood of Lebanon,
ii. 312;
account of his initiation, ii. 313
Rays of the Star of Bethlehem preserved as a relic, ii. 71
Razors, superior article in Africa, i. 538
Realm of Amita, legend of, i. 601
Reason, what it is, i. 425;
developed at the expense of instinct, i. 433;
and instinct, their source, i. 432
Reber, G., shows that there was no apostolic church at Rome, ii. 124
Rebold, Dr., statement concerning the ancient colleges of Egypt, i.
520
Reciprocal influences, i. 314
Red dragon, the Assyrian military symbol, borrowed by Persia,
Byzantium, and Rome, ii. 484
Redeemer not promised in the book of Genesis, but by Manu, ii. 50
Red-haired man, repugnance to stepping over his shadow, ii. 610;
the magnetism dreaded, ii. 611
Reformation had Paul for leader, ii. 180
Reformers as bloodthirsty as Catholics, ii. 503
Regazzoni, remarkable experiments, i. 142;
the mesmerist, feats, i. 283
Regenerated heathendom in the Christian ranks, ii. 80
Regeneration or spiritual birth taught in India, ii. 565
Regulation wardrobe of the Madonna, ii. 9
Reichenbach, described the Od force, i. 146;
prepared the way to understand Paracelsus, i. 167;
on odic force of pregnant women, i. 394
Reincarnation, its cause, i. 346;
its possibility, and impossibility, i. 351
Religion without a God, i. 76;
of the future, _ib._;
of the ancients the religion of the future, i. 613;
private or national property, not to be shared with foreigners, i.
581;
taught in the oldest Mysteries, i. 567;
which dreads the light must be false, ii. 121;
of Gautama, propagandism, ii. 608
Religions, ancient, based on indestructibility of matter and force,
i. 243;
anciently sabaistic, i. 261;
derived from one source and tend to one end, ii. 639;
Papacy and scientific, i. 403
Religious customs of the Mexicans and Peruvians like those of the
Phœnicians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, i. 551;
instinct productive of immorality, i. 83;
liberty considered as intolerance, ii. 503;
reform pure at the beginning, ii. 333;
myths have an historical foundation, ii. 431;
teachers, ii. 1
Renan, E., described Jesus as a Gallicized rabbi, ii. 562
Repentance possible even in Hades or Gehenna, i. 352
Repercussion, i. 360
Rephaim, i. 133
Resistance, extraordinary, to blows, sharp instruments, etc., i. 375,
376
Resuscitated Buddha, a babe speaking with man’s voice, i. 437
Resuscitations, i. 478, 479, 480;
after actual death, impossible, i. 481
Report of French Parliament upon the Jesuits, ii. 353
Resplendent one, ii. 113;
the Augoeides, or self-shining vision, ii. 115
Retribution on the Roman Catholic Church, ii. 121
Reuchlin, John, a Kabalist, ii. 20
Revelation, or Apocalypse, its author a Kabalist, ii. 91;
his hatred of the Mysteries made him the enemy of Paul, _ib._
Revenge of Ilda-Baoth for the transgression of his command, ii. 185
Rib of the Word made flesh preserved as a relic, ii. 71
Rig-Veda, hymns written before Zoroaster, ii. 433
Rio Janeiro, her Madonna with bare limbs, blond hair and chignon,
ii. 9;
her Christ in dandy evening dress, ii. 10
Rishi Kutsa, i. 11
Rishis, or sages, i. 90
Rite of Swedenborg, a Jesuitical production, ii. 390
Rites and ceremonial dress of Christian clergy like that of
Babylonians, etc., ii. 94
Ritual of exorcism, ii. 69;
funeral, of the Egyptians, ii. 367
Rituals, Kabalistic and Catholic compared, ii. 85, 86
Rochester Cathedral, its originals, ii. 5;
rappings, i. 36
Rock-temples of Ipsambul, i. 542;
works of Phœnician cities, i. 570;
similar in Egypt and America, i. 571
Rod of Moses, the _crux ansata_, ii. 455
Roger Bacon, i. 64
Roma, Cambodian traditions, i. 566
Roman Catholic Clergy murdered mediums, i. 26;
Church burned sorcerers that were not priests, ii. 58;
Church has deprived herself of the key to her own religious
mysteries, ii. 121;
Church regards dissent, heresy, and witchcraft identical, ii. 503;
considers religious liberty as intolerance, _ib._
Roman Catholics in the United States, ii. 1;
frown at the spiritual phenomena as diabolical, ii. 4;
pontiffs arrogate dominion over Greek and Protestant Christians, i.
27
Rome, Church of, put Bruno to death for his doctrines, i. 93;
regards the spiritual phenomena as genuine, i. 100;
Church of, cursing spiritualists, ii. 6;
excommunicating the Bulgarians, Servians, Russians, and Italian
liberals, ii. 7
Rosaries of Buddhistic origin, ii. 95
Roscoe, Professor, on iron in the sun, i. 513
Rose, impression of one on Mme. von N., i. 398
Rosicrucians, persecuted and burned, i. 64;
their doctrine of creation, i. 258;
still a mystery, ii. 380;
unknown to its cruelest enemy, the Church, _ib._;
the aim to support Catholicism, ii. 394;
their doctrine of fire, i. 423
Rosie Cross, brothers live only in name, i. 29;
mysterious body, i. 64;
burned without mercy by the Church, _ib._
Round Tower of Bhangulpore, ii. 5
Rousseau, the savant, encounter with a toad, i. 399
Royal Arch word, ii. 293;
cipher, ii. 396
Ruc, from New Zealand, i. 603
Rufus of Thessalonica returned to life after dying, i. 365
Rules imposed upon neophytes, ii. 365
Russia, no church-miracles, ii. 17
Russian conquest of Turkey predicted, i. 260
S. P. R. C., the cipher, ii. 395
Sabazian worship Sabbatic, ii. 45
Sabbath, adopted by the Jews from other peoples, ii. 417;
Christian, its origin, ii. 419
Sabbatical institution not mentioned in Job, ii. 494
Sabeanism, treated of in Job, ii. 494
Sacerdotal caste in every ancient religion, ii. 99;
office, magical evocation, ii. 118
Sacred sleep, i. 357;
produced by draughts of soma-juice, _ib._;
lake, ii. 364;
writings of India have a deeper meaning, ii. 430;
books of the Jews destroyed, 158 B.C., ii. 470;
tree of Kounboum renews its budding in the time of Son-Ka-po, ii.
609
Sacrifice of the hierophant or victim, ii. 42;
of blood, ii. 566
Sacrificial worship never approved by the Israelitish prophets, ii.
525
Sacrilege to seek to understand a mystery, ii. 249
Sahara, perhaps once a sea-bed, i. 592
St. Paul’s Cathedral, its double lithoi, ii. 5;
Medard, the fanatics, i. 375;
John, Knights of, not Masons, ii. 383;
persecuted by the Inquisition, _ib._
Saints rescued from hell, ii. 517;
Buddhistic and Lamaistic, their great sanctity, ii. 608;
never washing themselves, ii. 511
Sakti, the active energy of the gods, ii. 276;
employed as a vehan, _ib._
Sakti-trimurti, or female trinity, ii. 444
Salamander or asbestos, i. 504
Salem, Mass., obsessions occurring there, i. 71;
witchcraft, the obeah woman, i. 361;
witchcraft, ii. 18
Salsette, the Kanhari caves, the abode of St. Josaphat, ii. 580, 581
Salt regarded as the universal menstruum and one of the chief
formative principles, i. 147
Salverte, his philosophy of magic, i. 115;
imputes deception to Iamblichus and others, _ib._;
his account of a soldier protected by an amulet, i. 378;
on mechanics and invention in ancient times, i. 516;
on the use of electricity, etc., by Numa and Tullus, kings of
Rome, i. 527
Samâddi, an exalted spiritual condition, ii. 590
Samael or Satan, the simoon or wind of the desert, ii. 483
Samaritans recognized only the books of Moses and Joshua, ii. 470
Samothrace, a mystery enacted there once every seven years, i. 302;
worship of the Kabeiri brought thither by Dardanus, i. 570
Samothracian Mysteries and new life, i. 132;
magnetism and electricity, i. 234
Samson, the Hebrew Herakles, a mythical character, ii. 439;
represented by the Somona of Ceylon, i. 577
Samuel the prophet, a mythical hero, the doppel of Samson, ii. 439;
the Hebrew Ganesa, _ib._;
his school, i. 26
San Marco at Venice, the original of the Campanila column, ii. 5
Sanchoniathon, on chaos and creation, i. 342
Sanctity of the chair of Peter, its source, ii. 25
Sankhya, the eight faculties of the soul, ii. 592, 593
Sanctuary of the pagodas never entered by a European [except Mr.
Ellis--see Higgins’s _Apocalypsis_--very doubtful], ii. 623
Sannyâsi, a saint of the second degree, ii. 98
Sanscrit, endeavor to show its derivation from the Greek, i. 443;
inscriptions, none older than Chandragupta, ii. 436;
the vernacular of the Akkadians, ii. 46;
appears on the leaves of the magical Koumboum, _ib._;
books written in presence of a child-medium, i. 368;
impressions by a fakir or juggler on leaves, i. 368, 369;
manuscripts translated into every Asiatic language, i. 578;
language derived from the Rutas, i. 594
Sapphire, sacred to the moon, i. 264;
possesses a magical power and produces somnambulic phenomena, _ib._;
Hindu legend of its first production, i. 265
Sar or Saros, i. 30
Sara-isvati, wife of Brahma, goddess of sacred knowledge, ii. 409
Sarcophagus, porphyry, in the pyramids, i. 519
Sargent, Epes, on spiritual deceptions, i. 220;
his arraignment of Tyndall for coquetting with different beliefs,
i. 419
Sargon, the original of the story of Moses, ii. 442
Sarpa Rajni, the queen of the serpents, ii. 489
Sarles, Rev. John W., advocates the damnation of adult heathen, ii.
474
Satan, his existence first made a dogma by Christians, ii. 13;
declared fundamental, ii. 14;
Ilda-Baoth, so called, ii. 186;
identical with Jehovah, ii. 451;
the mainstay of sacerdotism, ii. 480;
to be contemplated from their planes, ii. 481;
personified as a devil by the Asideans, ii. 481;
same as Ahriman or Anramanyas, _ib._;
the name applied to a serpent in the Hebrew Scriptures, ii. 481;
the same as Seth, god of the Hittites, _ib._;
of the book of Job, ii. 483;
counsels with the Lord, ii. 485;
a son of God, ii. 492;
makes a sortie into New England and other colonies, ii. 503;
the Biblical term for public accuser, ii. 494;
the same as Typhon, _ib._;
cast forth by the prince of hell, ii. 515, 516;
is made subject to Beelzebub, prince of hell, ii. 517;
and Beelzebub hold a conversation about Jesus, ii. 520, 521
Satanism defined by Father Ventura de Raulica, ii. 14
Sati, a burned widow, i. 541
Sattras, imitations of the course of the sun, i. 11
Saturation of the medium, i. 499, 500
Saturn, Chaldean discovery of his rings, i. 260, 263;
the father of Zeus, i. 263;
the same as Bel, Baal, and Siva, _ib._;
his image, ii. 235;
or Kronos, offers his only-begotten son to Ouranos and circumcises
himself and family, i. 578;
the myth original in the _Maha-Bharata_, _ib._
Saturnalia of monks at Christmas, ii. 366
Saul, evil spirit exorcised, i. 215
Saviour, would be lost if we lose our demons, ii. 476
Scandinavian tradition of trolls, ii. 624
Scepter of the Boddhisgat seen floating in the air, ii. 610
Scheme of the Ophites, ii. 292
Schlieman, the Hellenist, finds evidence of cycles of development, i.
6;
at Mycenæ, i. 598
Schmidt, I. J., statement in regard to the steppes of Turan and
desert of Gobi, i. 603
Scholars, ancient, believed in arcane doctrines, i. 205
Scholastic science knows neither beginning nor end, i. 336
Schools of magic in the Lamaseries, ii. 609
Schopenhauer, i. 55, 59;
on nature as illusion, ii. 158
Science, formerly arcane and taught in the sanctuary, i. 7;
its progress, i. 40;
spiritualism, i. 83;
“has no belief,” i. 278;
knows no beginning or end, i. 336;
called anti-christianism, i. 337;
mystery fatal to it, i. 338;
its parent source, the unknown, i. 339;
its dilemma, i. 340;
will never distinguish the difference between human and animal
ovules, i. 397;
invading the domain of religion, i. 403;
surrounded by a large hypothetical domain, i. 404;
her domain within the limit of the changes of matter, i. 421;
gross conception of fire, i. 423;
its dogmas concerning perpetual motion, elixir of life,
transmutation of metals and universal solvent, i. 501;
stages of its growth, i. 533;
its three necessary elements, ii. 637;
spiritism does not prevent them, _ib._;
modern, fails to satisfy the aspirations of the race; makes the
future a void and bereaves man of life, ii. 639
Scientific knowledge confined to the temples, i. 25;
Association, or American Association for the Advancement of
Science, on spiritualism and roosters crowing in the night, i.
245, 246;
attainments of ancient Hindu savants, i. 618, 620
Scientists bound in duty to investigate, i. 5;
afraid of spiritual phenomena, i. 41;
treatment of Prof. Crookes, i. 44;
likely to rediscover magic, i. 67;
not to be credited for the increase of knowledge, i. 84;
denied Buffon, Franklin, the steam-engine, railroad, etc., i. 85;
surpassed the clergy in hostility to discovery, _ib._;
as much given to persecution, _ib._;
know little certain, i. 224;
entrapping of Slade the medium, _ib._;
put forth no new doctrines, i. 248, 249;
anticipated by Liebig and Priestly, i. 250;
many of them inanimate corpses, i. 317;
their _ultima thule_, i. 340;
curious conjectures concerning the aurora, i. 417;
their incapacity to understand the spiritual side, i. 418
Scin-lecca, or double, ii. 104;
makes the principal manifestations, ii. 517
Scintilla, the Divine, produces a monad, i. 302;
of Abraham taken from Michael, ii. 452;
Isaac from Gabriel, and Jacob from Uriel, ii. 452
Scottish rite, its headquarters at a Jesuit college, ii. 381
Screw, invented by Archytas, the instructor of Plato, i. 543
Scyths, probably the same as Mongolians, i. 576
Sea, ancient inland sea north of the Himalayas, i. 589
Seal, Solomon’s of Hindu origin, i. 135
Seance in Bengal, i. 467
Second Emanation condenses matter and diffuses life, i. 302;
Adam created unisexual, i. 559;
spiritual birth, ii. 566;
advent, a fable invented for a precaution, ii. 535;
death, ii. 368;
sight, i. 211
Secret formulæ, i. 66;
sacerdotal castes in every ancient religion, ii. 99;
doctrine, its martyrs, i. 574;
of Moses, ii. 525;
volume, the real Hebrew Bible, ii. 471;
sects of the Christians, ii. 289;
are still in existence, ii. 290;
God of the Kabala, ii. 230;
of secrets, ii. 568
Secrets for prolonging life, ii. 563
Sectarian beliefs to disappear, i. 613
Sects existing before Christ, ii. 144
Sedecla, the Obeah woman of En-Dor, i. 494
Seer, receives impressions directly from his spirit, ii. 591
Seers or epoptæ, not spirit-mediums, ii. 118
Seer-adept, knows how to suspend the action of the brain, ii. 591
Seership natural with some people, ii. 588;
two kinds, of the soul and the spirit, ii. 590;
an elevation of the soul, ii. 591
Self of man, inner triune, ii. 114;
the future, ii. 115
Self-consciousness, attained on earth, i. 368
Self-printed records on the sacred tree, i. 302
Seir-Anpin, the Christos, ii. 230;
the third god, ii. 247
Semitic, the least spiritual branch of the human family, ii. 434;
its germs found in Khamism, ii. 435
Semi-monastics, ii. 608
Sensitive flame obeying a man’s order, ii. 607
Separation, temporary, of the spirit from the body, ii. 588
Sephira, i. 160;
the Divine Intelligence and mother of the Sephiroth, i. 258;
the same as Metis and Sophia, i. 263;
the first emanation, i. 270;
or Sacred Aged (Maha Lakshmi), ii. 421
Sephiroth, i. 258;
concealed wisdom, their father, _ib._;
or emanations, ii. 36;
ten, three classes in one unit, ii. 40;
the same as the ten Pradjapatis, ii. 215;
same as the ten patriarchs, _ib._
Sepulchres in Thibet, extraordinary arrangement of bodies and
decorations, ii. 604
Seraph, his snout preserved as a relic, ii. 71
Serapis, a name of Surya, ii. 438;
an accepted type of Christ, ii. 336;
his picture adopted by the Christians, _ib._;
represented by a serpent, ii. 490;
usurped the worship of Osiris, ii. 491;
the seven vowels chanted as a hymn in his honor, i. 514
Serpent of Genesis, des Mousseaux’s name for the devil, i. 15;
matter, i. 297;
dwelling in the branches of the tree of life, i. 298;
symbol of wisdom and immortality, i. 553;
of the book of _Genesis_, Ash-mogh or Asmodeus, ii. 188;
persuades man to eat of the tree of knowledge, ii. 185;
Christna crushing his head, ii. 446;
the divine symbol east and west, ii. 484;
most spirit-like of all reptiles, and hence a favorite symbol, ii.
489;
how it became the emblem of eternity and of the world, ii. 489;
universally venerated, ii. 489;
a symbol of Serapis and Jesus, ii. 490;
and Eve, ii. 512
Serpent-charmers, cannot fascinate human beings, ii. 612;
their powers, ii. 628
Serpent-charming, i. 381, 382, 470
Serpent-monsters, i. 393
Serpent-god, sons of, the hierophants, i. 553
Serpent-gods, Mexican, 13 in number, i. 572
Serpent-trail round the unformed earth, ii. 489
Serpent-worship, its origin not known, ii. 489
Serpent-worshippers of Kashmere become Buddhists, ii. 608
Serpent’s catacombs in Egypt, i. 553;
mysteries of the unavoidable cycle or centre of necessity, _ib._
Serpents, the earth their queen, i. 10;
Kneph, Agathodaimon, Kakodaimon, i. 133, 157;
Eliphas Levi’s, symbol of astral fire, i. 137;
queen of, ii. 489;
used as plaything at Hindu festivals, ii. 622
Servius, on the ancient practice of employing celestial fire at the
altars, i. 526
Sesostris, instructed by the oracle in the Trinity, ii. 51
Seth, the reputed son of Adam, the same as Hermes, Thoth, and Sat-an,
i. 554;
the same as Typhon, ii. 482
Seth, his interview with Michael at the gate of Paradise, ii. 520;
worshipped by the Hittites, ii. 523;
same as El, ii. 524
Sethicnites, disbelieved that Jesus was God, ii. 176
Seven, a sacred Hindu number, ii. 407;
among the Chaldeans, ii. 408;
potentiality of the number, ii. 417;
steps, the descent, i. 353;
degrees, old English Templar Rite, ii. 377;
vowels chanted as a hymn, i. 514;
caverns, i. 552;
spirits, i. 300, 301;
spirits of the Apocalypse, i. 461;
impostor demons, ii. 296;
Æons, _ib._;
rishis, _ib._
Seven-headed, serpent, ii. 489
Seventh degree, ii. 365;
ray and seven vowel, i. 514;
rite, the life transfer, ii. 564
Severus, Alexander, pillaged Egyptian temples for books, i. 406
Sexual element in Christianity, ii. 80;
emblems and worship, ii. 445
Shaberon, summoning a lama by spirit-message, ii. 604;
his wonderful summons to rescue the author from peril in Mongolia,
ii. 628
Shaberons, or Khubilhans, reincarnations of Buddha, ii. 609
Shad-belly coat first worn by Babylonian priests, ii. 458
Shadow, repugnance to stepping across it, ii. 610;
magnetic exhalation, ii. 611
Shakers, spiritual phenomena, ii. 18
Shaman, prophesying, ii. 624, 625;
prediction of the Crimean war, ii. 625;
extraordinary scene with the talismanic stone, ii. 626, 628;
“dragged out of his skin,” ii. 628;
priests bound to perform their “true rites” but once a year, at the
solstice, ii. 624
Shamanism or spirit-worship, the oldest religion of Mongolia, an
offshoot of primitive theurgy, ii. 615
Shamans occasionally enjoy divine powers, i. 3, 211;
of Siberia, degenerate scions of ancient Shamanism, ii. 616;
sometimes only mediums, sometimes magicians, ii. 625;
power over psychical epidemics, ii. 626;
each one has a talisman, _ib._
Shampooing or tschamping, a magical manipulation, i. 445
Shark-charmers or Kadal-katti, i. 606;
paid by the British government, i. 607
Shebang, the Sabbath, ii., 418
Shedim, nature-spirits, or Afrites, i. 313
Shekinah, the veil of the most ancient, ii. 223
Shem, Ham and Japhet, the old gods Samas, Kham and Iapetos, ii. 487
Shemites, Assyrians, i. 576;
probably a hybrid of Hamite and Aryan, _ib._
Shien-Sien, a blissful state, power of those obtaining it to
transport themselves everywhere, ii. 618, 620
Shiloh, daughters, their dance, ii. 45
Shimeon and Patar, ii. 93
Shoëpffer, Prof., teaches that the earth does not revolve, i. 621
Shoel ob, or consulter with familiar spirits, i. 355
Shudâla-Mâdan, the ghoul or graveyard fiend, i. 495
Shu-King, i. 11
Shûla-Mâdan, the furnace-demon, i. 496;
helps the juggler with raising trees, _ib._
Shu-tukt, a collegiate monastery, having in it over 30,000 monks, ii.
609
Siam, a king in 1670 who sought for the philosopher’s stone, i. 571
Siamese, the power of monks, i. 213, 214;
study of the philosopher’s stone, i. 214;
believe that some know how to render themselves immortal, _ib._
Sidereal force taught by Paracelsus, i. 168
Signature of the fœtus, i. 385
Silver, its aura, the quicksilver of the yogis or alchemists, ii.
620, 621
Silver and green associated in hermetic symbolism, i. 513
Silvery spark in the brain, i. 329
Simeon, the existence of such a tribe denied, i. 368;
ben Iochai, compiler of the _Zohar_, ii. 548;
rabbi, author of the _Zohar_, i. 301, 302;
his sons arise and relate what they saw in hell, ii. 519;
his prototype in India, _ib._
Simon ben Iochai, i. 263;
Stylites, lived 36 years atop of a pillar, ii. 77;
cured a dragon of a sore eye, _ib._
Simon Magus, a personification of the apostle Paul, ii. 89;
powers attributed to him, i. 471;
his journey through the air, ii. 357;
and Peter, ii. 190, 191
Simoun, or the wind of the desert, called Diabolos, ii. 483
Simulacrum of a Roumanian lady conducted by a Shaman to the tent of
the author, ii. 627, 628
Sin the necessary cause of the greatest good, ii. 479
Sinai, Mount, metals smelted there, i. 542;
story of Moses and the brass seraph, _ib._
Singing sands, i. 605
Sins, the five which divide the offender from his associates, ii. 608
Siphra Dzeniouta, i. 1
Sister’s son inheriting a crown, ii. 437
Sistra at the Israelitish festival, ii. 45
Siva, the fire-god, same as Bel and Saturn or Kronos, i. 263;
vigil-night, i. 446;
represented as sacrificing a rhinoceros instead of his son, i. 577,
578;
identical with Baal, Moloch, Saturn and Abraham, i. 578;
created Adhima and Heva, ancestors of the present race of mankind,
i. 590;
hurls fallen angels into Onderah, ii. 11;
his paradise, ii. 234;
hurls the devils into the bottomless pit, ii. 238;
Sabazios and Sabaoth the same divinity, ii. 487;
the same as the western chief gods, ii. 524;
most intellectual of the gods, _ib._
Six principles of man, ii. 367;
days of evolution and one of repose, ii. 422;
sacred syllables, “aum mani padma houm,” ii. 606;
races of men mentioned in laws of Manu, i. 590;
thousand years the term of creation, i. 342;
thousand infant skulls found in a fish-pond by a convent in Rome,
ii. 58
Sixteenth incarnation of Buddha at Urga, ii. 617
Sixth degree, ii. 365
Sixty thousand (60,428) paid religious teachers in the United States,
ii. 1
Skepticism a malady, i. 115
Skill displayed in embalming in Thibet, ii. 603, 604
Skulls of infants found at nunneries, ii. 58, 210
Slade, the medium, pretended exposure by Prof. Lankester, i. 118, 224
Slavonian Christians now assailed by the Catholics, ii. 81
Slavonians, the mystic word, ii. 42
Smaragdine, tablet of Hermes, found at Hebron, i. 507
Smith, George, his reading of the Assyrian tablets, ii. 422;
his reading of the story of Sargon, ii. 442
Snake-symbol of Phanes, the mundane serpent and mundane year, i. 146,
151, 157
Smyth, Prof. Piazzi, on the corn-bin, i. 519;
mathematical description of the great pyramid, i. 520
Snake-skin considered magnetic, ii. 507
Snake’s Hole, the subterranean passage terminating at the root of the
heavens, i. 553
Snakes kept in Moslem mosques, ii. 490;
reared with children in India, _ib._
Snout of a seraph preserved as a relic, ii. 71
Society not certain but that all ends in annihilation, ii. 3
“Society,” British, in India, its supercilious contempt for the
Hindus and marvels in Hindustan, ii. 613
Socrates, his demoniac or divine faculty and its service, i. 131;
his demon, ii. 283;
same as the _nous_ or spirit, ii. 284;
opinion of Justin Martyr about his future fate criticised, ii. 8;
a medium, and therefore not initiated, ii. 117;
why put to death as an atheist, ii. 118
Sod, an arcanum of Mystery, i. 301, 555;
the Mysteries of Baal, Adonis and Bacchus, _ib._;
the _secret_ of Simeon and Levi, _ib._;
great, of the Kadeshim, ii. 131
Sodales, or priest-colleges, Moses their chief, i. 555
Sodalian oath, i. 409
Sodom and Gomorrah, suffering eternal fire, ii. 12
Sohar, its compilation, ii. 348;
its theories like the Hindu, ii. 276
Solar trinity, red, blue and yellow, ii. 417;
dynasty in India, the Surga Vansa, ii. 437
Solemn ceremony of the Druzes, ii. 312
Solidarities of Greece and Rome, ii. 389
Solitary Copts, students of ancient lore, ii. 306
Solomon, or Sol-Om-On, ii. 389; i. 19;
obtained secret learning, i. 135;
seal of Hindu origin, _ib._;
ships to Ophir or India, i. 136;
his seven abominations, ii. 67;
learned from Votan the particulars of the products of the occident,
i. 546;
the builder of temples, ii. 439;
revolts against him, _ib._;
his temple never visited by the prophets, ii. 525;
and his temple only allegorical, ii. 391;
temple, the brazen columns and bowls to aid in entheastic power,
ii. 542
Soma, juice of, produces trance, i. 357
Somona, the Singalese Samson, i. 577
“Son of Man,” ii. 232
Son of God at one with man, ii. 635
Sons of the Serpent-God, i. 553
Son-Ka-po, the Shaberon, or avatar and great reformer, immaculately
conceived, and translated without dying into heaven, ii. 609
Sophia or wisdom, ii. 41;
the Holy Ghost as a female principle, i. 130;
the Gnostic principle of wisdom, the same as Sephira and Metis, i.
263
Sorcerer in Africa, impervious to bullets, i. 379
Sorcerers, burned when not priests, ii. 58
Sorcery, i. 279;
misapplied arcane knowledge, ii. 581;
few facts better established, i. 366;
with blood, ii. 567, 568;
practised at the Vatican, ii. 620;
approved by Augustine, ii. 20;
employed for crime, ii. 633
Sortes Sanctorum, ii. 20, 21
Sortie of Satan into New England, ii. 503
Sortilegium or sorcery, practised by clergy and monks, ii. 6;
Gregory of Tours, ii. 20
Sosigenes, reformed the calendar for Cæsar, i. 11
Sosiosh, the tenth avatar and fifth Buddha, ii. 236;
a permutation of Vishnu, ii. 237
Sotheran, Charles, letter on Freemasonry, ii. 388
Soul, displays power when the body is asleep, i. 199;
the two named by Plato, i. 276;
marvellous power, i. 280;
passage through the seven planetary chambers, i. 297;
spirit wholly distinct, i. 315;
dissolves into ether, _ib._;
possible loss of its distinct being, i. 316, 317;
the garment of the spirit, i. 309;
exists as preexisting matter, i. 317;
doctrine of the Greek and Roman philosophers, i. 429;
of Aristotle, Homer, the Jains and Brahmans, _ib._;
the camera in which facts are fixed, i. 486;
escaping temporarily from the body, ii. 105;
may dwell in paradise while the body lives in this world, i. 602;
punished by union with the body, ii. 112;
the Vedic doctrine, ii. 263;
universal, when it sleeps, ii. 274;
its transmigration does not relate to man’s condition after death,
ii. 280;
its feminine, ii. 281;
a part of it mortal, ii. 283;
the doctrine of Pythagoras, ii. 283;
Plato’s definition, ii. 285, 286;
its paralysis during life, ii. 368;
not knit to flesh, ii. 565;
sentient, the Ego, inseparable from the brain, ii. 590;
raised above inferior good, ii. 591;
power to liberate itself and behold things subjectively, ii. 591;
its eight faculties, ii. 592;
its teachings authoritative, ii. 593;
possesses a power of prescience even when in the body, ii. 594;
disembodied, meets itself at the gate of Paradise, ii. 635;
of the world the archeal universal, “mind,” Sophia the Holy Ghost
as a female principle, i. 130;
doctrine of Baptista Porta, i. 208;
external, i. 276;
higher mortal, _ib._;
the great universal, union with it does not involve loss of
individuality, ii. 116
Soul-blind like color-blind, i. 387
Soul-electricity, i. 322
Soul-deaths, ii. 369
Soulless men yet living, ii. 369
Souls, or immortal gods emanate from the triad, i. 348;
come to souls and impart to them information, ii. 594
Source of the religious faiths of mankind, ii. 639;
double, of every religion, _ib._
South Carolina, statutes in force in 1865, imposing the death-penalty
for witchcraft, ii. 18
Sparks or old worlds that perished, ii. 421
Speaking images, i. 505
Specialties in medical practice in Egypt, i. 545
Speculative Masons, ii. 392
Spectre of a herdsman in Bavaria, i. 451
Spectroscope, confirmed doctrines of Paracelsus, i. 168, 169
Spell of the evil eye, ii. 633
Spheres, music of, i. 275
Spinoza, his philosophy, i. 93;
furnishes a key to the unwritten secret, i. 308
Spirit, its origin, i. 258;
not existing, but immortal, i. 291;
or spiritus, the soul or _anima mundi_, the mother, i. 299, 300;
progeny of, i. 301;
human, an emanation of the eternal spirit, i. 305;
never entered wholly into the body, i. 306;
is masculine, ii. 281;
of man preëxistent, ii. 280;
distinct from soul, i. 315;
individualization depends upon it, _ib._;
becomes an angel, i. 316;
its preëxistence believed, _ib._;
alone immortal, ii. 362;
leaving an old for a young body, ii. 563;
by its vision all things can be known, ii. 588;
may abandon the body for specific periods, ii. 589;
the sole original unity, ii. 607;
the interpreter of God to man, ii. 635;
its Protean powers little known by spiritualists, ii. 638
Spirit-ancestor, a serpent, 45, 46
Spirit-form, i. 197
Spirit-voices not articulate, i. 68;
audible, i. 220
Spirit-intercourse, 446,000,000 believers, i. 117
Spirit-flowers produced by a Bikshuni, ii. 609
Spiritists of France attacked by the Roman church, ii. 6
Spirits that control mediums, generally human, i. 67;
cannot “materialize,” _ib._;
not attracted by every body alike, i. 69;
produce few of the “physical phenomena,” i. 73;
the seven, i. 300, 301;
not possessed of the same attractions, i. 344;
or ghosts, hurt by weapons, i. 363;
heard talking in the desert of Lop, and elsewhere, i. 604;
three categories of communication, ii. 115;
may take possession of bodies in the absence of the soul, ii. 589;
bad, compelled Garma-Khian to appear and render an account, ii. 616;
city of, _ib._
Spiritual phenomena among the Shakers, ii. 18;
discountenanced by the clergy, i. 26;
chase the scientists, i. 41;
Iamblichus forbids the endeavor to procure them, i. 219;
sun, i. 29, 32;
the magnet of Kircher, i. 208, 209;
Gama, Ormazd, the soul of things, God, i. 270;
invisible and in the centre of space, i. 302;
the supreme deity, ii. 13;
death, its cause, i. 318;
eyes, i. 145;
sight, scientists without it, i. 318;
photography, i. 486
Spiritual entity, in man, an ancient doctrine, ii. 593;
transferred, ii. 563;
limbs, can be made visible, ii. 596;
world in proximity to us, ii. 593;
state, as unfolded in the Sankhya, a philosophy, ii. 593;
numerals, i. 514;
crisis of the Shaman, ii. 625;
or magical powers exist in every man, ii. 635;
circles are constructed on no principle, ii. 638;
Self the sole and Supreme God, ii. 566
Spiritualism, drifting, i. 53;
efforts of Positivists to uproot, i. 76, 83;
pretends only to be a science, i. 83;
pronounced a delusion in Russia, i. 118;
universally diffused from remote antiquity, i. 205;
why it must continue to vegetate, ii. 636;
is iconoclastic, not constructed, ii. 637;
not scientific, ii. 637, 638;
exoteric, too much directed to personal matters, _ib._;
esoteric, very rare, _ib._
Spiritualists, the majority remain in the religious denominations,
ii. 2;
take no active part in the formation of a system of philosophy, ii.
637;
start with a fallacy, ii. 638
Splendor, mighty Lord of, i. 301
Spurious passage in the First Epistle of John, ii. 177
Square hat of the Hierophant, ii. 392
Squirrel materialized, i. 329
Sri-Iantara, or Solomon’s seal, ii. 265
Stainton, Moses, his criticisms of popular spiritualism, ii. 638
Stan-gyour, a work on magic, i. 580
Stanhope, Lady Esther, faints at a Yezidi orgy, ii. 572
Star of Bethlehem, rays carried home by a monk as relics, ii. 71
Starry heaven, worship proposed under Christian names, ii. 450
Stars, ignition, i. 254;
influence on fates of men, i. 259;
and man have direct affinity, i. 168, 169
Statues, restorative of health, i. 283;
possible to animate them, i. 485;
endowed with reason, i. 613
Steam-engine, invented by Hero of Alexandria, i. 241
Stedingers, accused and exterminated, ii. 331
Steel, rusts in India and Egypt, i. 211;
superior article in India, i. 538;
in Egypt, _ib._
Steeples, turrets, and domes, phallic symbols, ii. 5
Stephens, believes the key to American hieroglyphs will yet be
obtained, i. 546;
story of the unknown city of the Mayas, i. 547
Stewart, Prof. Balfour, his tribute to Herakleitus, i. 422;
warning to scientists, i. 424;
denies perpetual light, i. 510
Stigmata, or birth-marks, i. 384;
produced by sorcery of a Jesuit priest, ii. 633
Stone of Memphis, its potency to prevent pain, i. 540;
two tables, masculine and feminine, ii. 5;
a Shaman’s talisman, “spoke” saving the author’s life, ii. 626
Stonehenge, its gods recognized as the divinities of Delphos and
Babylon, i. 550;
remarkable statement of Dr. Stukely, i. 572;
Hamitic in plan, _ib._
Stoics, belief concerning God, i. 317
Stones, their secret virtues, i. 265
Strangers, never admitted into a caste, nor to religion, i. 581
Stukely, Dr., remarks concerning Stonehenge, i. 572
Subjective mediums, i. 311;
communication with human god-like spirits, ii. 115
Subsidy paid by the East India Company to maintain worship at the
pagodas, ii. 624
Subterranean passages in Peru, i. 595, 597
Subtile influence emanated from every man’s body, ii. 610
Suetonius knew nothing of Christians, ii. 535, 536
Suez Canal, i. 516, 517;
that of Necho, i. 517
Sufis, their idea of one universal creed, ii. 306
Suicide and insanity caused by Elementaries, ii. 7
Suicides and murderers, i. 344
Sulanuth, i. 325
Sulphur, the secret fire or spirit of the alchemists, i. 309;
and quicksilver, a preparation to promote longevity, ii. 620, 621
Summary of Koheleth, ii. 476
Sun, an emblem of the sun-god, i. 270;
only a magnet or reflector, i. 271;
has no more heat in it than the moon, _ib._;
represented under the image of a dragon, i. 552;
made the location of hell, ii. 12;
view of Pythagoras, _ib._;
increases the magnetic exhalations, ii. 611;
and serpent-worship, the religion of the Phœnicians and Mosaic
Israelites, i. 555
Sun-worship once contemplated by Catholics, ii. 450
Sun-worshippers always regarded the sun as an emblem of the spiritual
sun, i. 270
Sunrise and sunset as taught by the Shastras, i. 10
Supersentient soul, ii. 590
“Superstitions” in regard to drowned persons, ii. 611
Supreme Being denied by modern science, i. 16;
by the positivists, i. 71;
never rejected by Buddhistical philosophy, i. 292;
Essence, ii. 213, 214;
the Swayambhuva and En-Soph, ii. 218;
mystery of the holy syllable, ii. 114
Surgery of Yogis and Talapoins, ii. 621
Surnden, Rev. T., on locality of hell, ii. 12
Sutrantika, the sect having secret Buddhistic religion, ii. 607
Suttee, or burning of widows, not practised when the Code of Manu was
compiled, i. 588
Swâbhâvikas, Hindu pantheists, the teachers of protoplasm, i. 250;
their views of Essence, ii. 262
Swayambhuva, the unrevealed Deity, ii. 39;
the unity of three trinities, making with himself two prajapatis,
ii. 39, 40;
the Supreme Essence the same as En-Soph, ii. 214
Swearing forbidden by Jesus, ii. 273
Sweat of St. Michael, a phial of it preserved, ii. 71
Swedenborg personated by a Diakka, i. 219;
on speech of spirits, i. 220;
_Heavenly Arcana_, i. 306;
a natural-born magician, but not an adept, _ib._;
made Thomas Vaughan his model, _ib._;
doctrine of correspondences, or hermetic symbolism, _ib._;
believed in possibility of losing individual existence, i. 317;
miraculous cures by his father, i. 464;
indicates _the lost word_, i. 580;
rite of, a Jesuitical product, ii. 390
Swedenborgians believe in possible obliteration of the human
personality, i. 317;
believe that the soul may abandon the body for specific periods,
ii. 319
Swedish system of Freemasonry, ii. 381
Syllabus and Koran, a great affinity acknowledged, ii. 82
Sylvester II., Pope, a sorcerer, ii. 56;
his “oracular head,” ii. 56
Symbol, its use, ii. 93
Symbols, i. 21;
Christian, and phallism, ii. 5
Sympathy, mysterious, between plants and human beings, i. 246;
the offspring of light, i. 309
Synagogue, “deposited its inheritance in the hands of Christ,” ii.
477;
has not expired, _ib._
Synesius, belief in metempsychosis, i. 12;
his quotation from the book of stone at Memphis, i. 257;
believed the spirit preëxisted from eternity as a distinct being,
i. 316;
bishop of Cyrene, his letter to Hypatia, ii. 53;
adhered to the Platonic doctrines, ii. 198
Systems, Indian, Chaldean and Ophite compared, ii. 170
Tabernacles or ingatherings, feast of, ii. 44;
regarded as Bacchic rites, _ib._
Table, no demons enclosed, i. 322
Table-turning, i. 99, 105
Tainting of Souls, i. 321
Talapoins, of Siam, power over wild beasts, i. 213;
have incombustible cloth, i. 231;
have the _Kabala_, _Bible_, and other allegories in their
manuscripts, i. 577;
Jesuits disguised as, ii. 371;
their secrets of medicine, ii. 621
Tale of the Two Brothers of Central America, i. 550
Talisman, i. 462; ii. 636
Talismans of Apollonius, testimony of Justin Martyr, ii. 97
Talmage, Rev. Dr., description of Martha, ii. 102
Talmud, i. 17
Tamil-Hindus worship Kutti-Satan, perhaps Seth or Satan, i. 567
Tamti, the same as Belita, ii. 444;
the sea, ii. 445
Tanaim, the four who entered the garden, ii. 119;
the Kabalistic, ii. 470
Tarchon, an Etruscan priest and his bryony-hedge, i. 527
Tartar robber detected by a Koordian sorcerer, ii. 631
Tartary, magic, i. 599;
spiritualism, i. 600;
planchette-writing, _ib._;
happy and heathen, ii. 240
Tau and astronomical cross of Egypt found at the palace of
Palenque, i. 572;
the handled cross, a symbol of Eternal life, ii. 254;
the signet or name of God, _ib._;
the hierophantic investiture, ii. 365
Taylor, Thomas, his testimony concerning Pythagoras, i. 284;
is unceremonious with the Mosaic God, i. 288
Taylor, Robert, his amended Credo, ii. 522
Tcharaka, a Hindu physician of 5,000 years ago, i. 560
Tcherno-Bog, or Bogy, the ancient deity of the Russians, ii. 572
Teaching of the soul, the highest method of knowledge, ii. 595
Tear of Brahma, the hottest, becoming a sapphire, i. 265
Telegraphy, neurological, i. 324
Telephone, i. 126;
some such mode of communication possessed by the Egyptian priests,
i. 127
Telescope in the light-house of Alexandria, i. 528
Templar rite, old English, of seven degrees, ii. 377
Templarism is Jesuitism, ii. 390
Templars, the founding of the ancient order, ii. 381, 382;
did not believe in Christ, ii. 382;
succeeded by the Jesuits, ii. 383;
the pseudo-order invented to obviate the imputation of Jesuitism,
ii. 384
Temple of the Holy Molecule, i. 413;
had possession of Eastern mysteries, ii. 380;
of the perpetual fire, ii. 632;
at Jerusalem, not so ancient as was pretended, ii. 389;
of Solomon, not esteemed by any Hebrew prophet, ii. 525
Temples, anciently the repositories of science, i. 25
Ten, the Pythagorean, ii. 171;
virtues of initiation, ii. 98
Teraphim, Kabeiri-gods, i. 570;
identical with Seraphim, _ib._;
serpent-images, _ib._;
received by Dardanus as a dowry and carried to Samothrace and Troy,
_ib._
Teratology, named by Geoffroi St. Hilaire, i. 390
Terrestrial elementary spirits, i. 319;
circulation, i. 503;
immortality, ii. 620
Tertullian, i. 46;
on devils, i. 159;
believed the soul corporeal, i. 317;
desires to see all philosophers in the Gehenna-fire, ii. 250;
his intolerance, ii. 329
Tetractys, i. 9;
the One, the Chaos, wisdom and reason, ii. 36; i. 507
Tetragram, i. 506, 507
Thales, believed water the primordial substance, i. 134, 189;
said to have discovered the electric properties of amber, i. 234;
his belief concerning water and the Divine Mind, ii. 458
Thaumaturgist, his power of becoming invisible, or appearing in two
or more forms, ii. 588
Thaumaturgists, use the force known as Akasa, i. 113;
declared by Salverte to be knaves, i. 115
Thebes, or Th-aba, ii. 448;
ancient, i. 523;
its prodigious ruins, i. 523, 524;
the Twelve Tortures, ii. 364
Themura, ii. 298
Theocletus, Grand Pontiff of the Order of the Temple, initiated the
original Knight Templars, ii. 382
Theology, comparative, and two-edged weapon, ii. 531;
Christian, subversive rather than promotive of spirituality and
good morals, ii. 634
Theologies, ancient, all agree, ii. 39
Theon of Smyrna, his explanation of the five grades in the Mysteries,
ii. 101
Theomania of the Cevennois imputed to hysteria and epilepsy, i. 371
Theophrastus, legatee of Aristotle, i. 320
Theopœa, the art of endowing figures with life, i. 615, 616;
testimony of Jacolliot, i. 616, 617
Theosophists, their confederations in Germany, ii. 20
Theosophy, disfigured by theology, i. 13
Therapeutæ, a branch of the Essenes, ii. 144
Therapeutists probably Buddhists, ii. 491
Thermuthis, the name of Pharaoh’s daughter and of the sacred asp, i.
556
Thespesius, apparently dead for three days, i. 484
Thessalian sorceresses evoked shadows with blood, ii. 568
Theurgic Mystery, ii. 563-575
Theurgists, i. 205-219;
knew occult properties of magnetism and electricity, i. 234;
not “spirit-mediums,” ii. 118;
persecuted by the Christians, ii. 34
Theurgy, its phenomena produced by magnetic powers, i. 23;
the devil at its head, i. 161
Thevetat, the “Dragon” of the Atlantis, i. 593;
his seduction of the people, _ib._
Thing, the one, of the Smaragdine Tablet, i. 507, 508;
named by Hermetic philosophy, i. 508
Third emanation produces the universe of physical matter, and,
finally, “Darkness and the Bad,” i. 302;
race of men in Hesiod, i. 558;
in Popul-Vuh, _ib._;
race of men, the Nephilim, i. 559
Thirteen Mexican Serpent-Gods, i. 572
This book, its object, ii. 98, 99
Thomas, St., in Malabar, ii. 534;
Aquinas, ii. 20;
Taylor, an expositor of Plato’s meaning, ii. 108, 109
Thomson, Sir William, declares science bound to face every problem,
i. 223
Thompson, Hon. R. W., denounced by a Catholic priest, ii. 378
Thor, his electric hammer, i. 160
Thought affects the matter of another universe, i. 310
Thought-communication effected by a Shaman with his stone, ii. 627
Thoughts guided by spiritual being, i. 366;
human, projected upon the universal ether, i. 395; ii. 636
Thrætaona, the Persian Michael, contending with Zohak, ii. 486
Three degrees of the pleroma, i. 302;
tricks exhibited, i. 73;
degrees of communication with spirits, ii. 115;
emanations, i. 302;
kabalistic forces, _ib._;
Gods, or archial principles, First Cause, Logos, and World-soul,
ii. 33;
Saviours, ii. 536;
legends concerning them, ii. 537-539;
enumeration of their followers, ii. 539;
births of man, ii. 568;
three hundred million Buddhists seeking Nirvana, ii. 533;
mothers, i. 257
Three-sided prism of man’s nature, ii. 634
Throwing spells by aid of the wind, ii. 632
Thrum-stone, i. 231
Thummim, i. 536, 537
Θυμος, _thumos_, the astral soul, i. 429
Thury, Prof., on levitation, cited by de Gasparin, i. 99, 109;
his theory of spiritual phenomena, i. 110;
imputes them to the action of wills not human, i. 112;
psychode and ectenic force, i. 113
Tiara, papal, the coiffure of the Assyrian gods, ii. 94
Tickets to Heaven, ii. 243
Tiffereau, Theodore, assertion that he had made gold, i. 509
Tiger mesmerized, i. 467
Tigress, bereft of her cubs, mesmerized by a fakir, ii. 623
Tikkun, the first born, the Heavenly Man, ii. 276
Tillemont, declares all illustrious pagans condemned to the eternal
torments of hell, ii. 8
_Timæus_, cannot be understood except by an initiate, ii. 39
Time and space no obstacles to the inner man, ii. 588
Tir-thankara, the preceptor of Gautama, ii. 322
Tissu, the spiritual teacher of Kublai-Khan, his great holiness, ii.
608;
reforms religion, ii. 609
To Ον, of Plato, ii. 38
Tobo, liberator of the soul of Adam, ii. 517
Todas, a strange people discovered in Southern Hindustan fifty years
ago, ii. 613;
revered and maintained by the Badagas, ii. 614;
an order and not a race, _ib._
Tolticas, said to be descended from the house of Israel, i. 552
Tooth, Navel and less comely relics of Jesus, ii. 71
Tophet, a place in the valley of Gehenna, where a fire was kept and
children immolated, ii. 11;
not a place of endless woe, ii. 502
Torquemeda, Tomas de, his prodigious cruelty, ii. 59;
burned Hebrew Bibles, ii. 430
Torralva and his demon Zequiel, ii. 60
Torturing people by means of Simulacra, ii. 55
Toulouse, the Bishop of, his falsehoods about Protestants and
Spiritualists of America, ii. 7
Townshend, Colonel, remarkable power of suspending animation, i. 483
Traditions, ancient, belong to India, ii. 259
Tragedy of Human Life, its plot ever the same, ii. 640
Trance-life, i. 181
Transformation of the ancient ideas, ii. 491
Transmigration, dreaded by the Hindu, i. 346;
of the soul, does not relate to man’s condition after death, ii.
280
Transmural Vision, i. 145
Transmutation of metal, the actual fact asserted, i. 503, 504;
Dr. Wilder’s opinion, i. 505;
salt, sulpher, and mercury thrice combined in azoth, _ib._
Transubstantiation, an arcane utterance perverted, ii. 560
Travancore, perpetual lamp, i. 225
Tree, Yggdrasill, i. 133, 151;
Zampun, i. 152;
Aswatha, _ib._;
symbol of universal life, _ib._;
the pyramid, i. 154;
Gogard, i. 297;
serpent dwells in its branches, i. 298;
the microcosmic and macrocosmic, i. 297;
tziti, the third race of men, i. 558;
of knowledge, ii. 184;
or pippala, ii. 412
Triad, the Intelligible, i. 212;
from the duad, i. 348
Triads, or trinities, Babylonian, Phœnician and Hindu, ii. 48;
Persian and Egyptian, ii. 49
Tribes of Israel, what evidence before Ezra, i. 508;
no tribe of Simeon, _ib._
Trigonocephali, their bite kills like a flash of lighting, ii. 622
Trimurti, i. 92;
their habitation, ii. 234
Trinities, three, in one unity, making ten Sephiroth or Prajâpatis,
ii. 39, 40;
Hindu, Egyptian and Christian, ii. 227
Trinity, the first, i. 341;
of Egyptians, i. 160;
three Sephiroth or emanations, ii. 36;
the doctrine revealed to Sesostris, ii. 51;
the word first found in the Gospel of Nicodemus, ii. 522;
listening for the answer of Mary, ii. 173;
kabalistic, ii. 222;
of workers in the cosmogony, ii. 420;
of nature the lock of magic, ii. 635
Triple Trimurti, ii. 39
Trithemius, ii. 20
Trizna or feast of the dead in Moldavia, ii. 569, 570
Trojan war a counterpart of that of the _Ramâyana_, i. 566
Troy, worship of the Kabeiri brought by Dardanus, i. 570
True Adamic Earth, i. 51;
doctrine Λόγος Αληθής of Celsus, a copy still in
existence, ii. 52;
faith the embodiment of divine charity, ii. 640
Truth, religions but vari-colored fragments of its beam, ii. 639
Tschuddi, Dr., his story of the train of llama, and treasure, i. 546
Tullia, daughter of Cicero, lamp found burning in her tomb, i. 224
Tullus Hostilius, King of Rome, struck by lightning, i. 527
Tum, devotees of, ii. 387
Tunnel from Cusco to Lima and Bolivia, i. 597;
entrance, _ib._;
dangers of its exploration, i. 598
Turkey, wars with Russia and final conquest, i. 261
Turanian, should have been applied to the Assyrians, i. 576;
evidently applied to the nomadic Caucasian, progenitor of the
Hamite or Æthiopian, _ib._
Turner, his account of an interview with a young lama or reincarnated
Buddha, ii. 598
Turrets, the reproduction of the lithos, ii. 5
Tutelar genius who hardened the heart of Pharaoh, etc., ii. 639
Twelve houses, the fable, i. 267;
tables, a compilation, i. 588;
labors of Hercules depicted on the chair of Peter, ii. 25;
disciples sent by Jehosaphat to preach, ii. 517;
great gods, ii. 448;
minor gods, Dii minores, ii. 451;
tortures, ii. 351;
of Theban initiation, ii. 364;
thousand years employed in creation, i. 342
Twenty-nine witch-burnings, ii. 62
Two souls taught by the philosophers, i. 12, 317;
idols of monotheistic Christianity, ii. 9;
primeval principles, i. 341;
principles, the Jews brought the doctrine from Persia, ii. 500, 501;
diagrams explained, ii. 266, 271;
“old ones,” ii. 350;
brothers of the Bible, the good and evil principles, ii. 489;
religions in each old faith, ii. 607
Two-headed serpents, i. 393
Tycho-Brahe, vision of the star, i. 441, 442
Tyndall confesses science powerless, i. 14;
views of consciousness, i. 86;
displays forms as of living plants and animals in an experimental
tube, i. 127;
his avoidance to investigate spiritual phenomena, i. 176;
his Belfast Address, i. 314;
his judgment of cowards, i. 418;
declares spiritualism a degrading belief, _ib._;
confesses that the evolution hypothesis does not solve the last
mystery, i. 419;
his experiments on sound, ii. 606;
his definition of science, ii. 637
Typhon once worshipped in Egypt, and then changed to an evil demon,
ii. 487;
Plutarch’s explanation, ii. 483;
father of Ierosolumos and Ioudaios, ii. 484;
separated from his androgyne, ii. 524
Tyrian worship introduced into Israel by Ahab, ii. 525
Tyrrhenian cosmogony, i. 342
Udayna or Pashai (Peshawer) the classic land of sorcery, i. 599;
statement of Hiouen-Thsang, _ib._
Ultramontanes accused in France of siding with the Mahometans, ii. 82
Ulysses frightens phantoms with his sword, i. 362
Umbilical cord ruptured and healed, i. 386
Umbilicus, represented by the ark, ii. 444
Umbra, or shade, i. 37
Unavoidable cycle, Mysteries, i. 553
Unconscious cerebration, i. 55, 232;
ventriloquism, i. 101
Urdar, the fountain of life, i. 151, 162
Underworld, i. 37
Undines, i. 67
Union to the Deity, ii. 591
Unity of three trinities, ii. 39;
the Sephiroth or prajapatis, _ib._
Universal soul, or mind, i. 56;
the doctrine underlying all philosophies, Buddhism, Brahmanism, and
Christianity, i. 289;
relation to the reasoning and the animal soul, i. 316;
solvent, i. 50, 137, 189
Universals to particulars, i. 288
Universe, or Kosmos, the body of the invisible sun, i. 302;
doubt, i. 324;
how came it, i. 341;
the concrete image of the ideal abstraction, i. 342;
existed from eternity, _ib._;
passes through four ages, ii. 421;
a musical instrument, i. 514
Unknown presence, when witnessed, ii. 164;
the future self of man, ii. 165
Unregulated mediums punished, i. 489
Unrevealed God, i. 160
Unseen Universe, or all things there recorded, ii. 588;
spiritual universe, its existence demonstrated, ii. 15
Untrained mediumship illustrated by Socrates and his daimonion, ii.
117
Untenable dogmas of science, i. 501
Upasakes and Upasakis, Buddhistic semi-monastics, ii. 608
Uper-Ouranoi, i. 312
Vach, or sacred speech, ii. 409
Vaivaswata, the Hindu Noah, ii. 425
Valachian lady, her simulacrum brought to the author in her tent in
Mongolia, ii. 627, 628
Vampirism, a terrible case in Russia, i. 454
Vampire-governor, and his widow, i. 454, 455
Vampires, i. 319;
shedim, etc., i. 449;
magnetic, i. 462;
ghouls and, wandering about, ii. 564
Van Helmont, i. 50, 57;
on magnetism and will, i. 170;
on transmutation of earth into water, i. 190;
testimony of Deleuze, i. 194;
a Pythagorean, i. 205;
theory of man, i. 213;
remarkable account of a child born headless immediately after an
execution, i. 386;
on the power of woman’s imagination, i. 399;
testimony of Dr. Fournier, i. 400;
ridiculed for his directions for production of animals, i. 414
Vari-colored fragments of the beam of Divine Truth, ii. 639
Vasitva, power of mesmerizing, also of restraining the passions, i.
393
Vasaki, the great dragon, ii. 490
Vast inland sea of middle Asia, and its island, i. 589
Vatican, black magic practised there, ii. 6;
secret libraries, ii. 16, 19;
clergy, how an access, ii. 18
Vatou, or candidate, for initiation, ii. 98;
sensitive to spiritual influences, ii. 118
Vaughan, Thomas, anecdote of his attempted sale of gold, i. 504
Vedas, antedate the Bible, i. 91;
contain no such immodesty as the Bible, ii. 80;
older than the flood, ii. 427
Vedic words, the controversies of Sanscrit scholars, ii. 47;
peoples not all Aryans, ii. 413
Vedic Pitris, their worship fast becoming the worship of the
spiritual portion of mankind, ii. 639
Vegetation, influence of the moon, i. 273;
influenced by musical tones, i. 514
Vehicle of life, ii. 418
Venerable “Mah,” ii. 388
Ventriloquists or pythiæ, i. 355
Ventura de Raulica, his letter asserting the existence of Satan as a
fundamental dogma of the Church, ii. 14
Vesica Piscis, a Zodiacal sign, ii. 255
Vicarious atonement, a ridiculous idea, i. 316
Vicarious atonement, ii. 542;
obliterates no wrong, ii. 545;
not known by Peter, ii. 546
Vigil-night of Siva, i. 446
Vincent, Frank, his description of the ruins of Nagkon-Wat, i. 562,
565
Vine, the symbol of blood and life, ii. 244;
Jesus, ii. 561;
his “Father” not God, but the hierophant, _ib._
Viracocha, the Peruvian deity, ii. 259
Viradji, the Son of God, his origin, ii. 111
Virgin, celestial, milk of, i. 64;
of the sea, crushes the dragon under her feet, ii. 446;
of the Zodiac, rises above the horizon, Dec. 25th, ii. 490;
Blessed, thrashing a demoniac, ii. 76;
Mary, declaring all pagans condemned to eternal torments, over her
own signature, ii. 8;
succeeded to the titles, symbols and rites of Isis, ii. 95;
on the crescent moon, like pagan goddesses, ii. 96;
queen of heaven, ii. _ib._;
mother without a husband, positivist, i. 81;
of the Avatar, Son-Ka-po, ii. 589
Virgin-mothers, Hindu, Egyptian, and Catholic, their epithets, ii. 209
Vishnu, takes the form of a fish, ii. 257;
same as Oannes, _ib._;
the Adam Kadmon of the kabalists, ii. 259;
his ten avatars, ii. 274;
symbolize evolution, ii. 275;
the expression of the whole universe, ii. 277
Vishnu-flower, ii. 467
Visible universe from Brahma-Prajapati, i. 348
Visions witnessed by initiates, ii. 113;
produced by sorcery, ii. 633
Visit to the Ladakh in Thibet, ii. 598
Visiting and leaving the body at home, ii. 604, 605
Vistaspa, a king of Bactriana, ii. 141
Visvamitra, his escape in the ark, ii. 257;
Egypt colonized in his reign, i. 627
Vital force, speculations of men of science, i. 466
Viti, Sancti, Chorœa, or St. Vitus’ Dance, ii. 625
Voices of spirits and goblins heard in the desert, i. 604
Volatile salts obnoxious to devils, i. 356
Volney, mistook ancient worship, i. 24;
his doctrine of God, i. 268
Voltaire, on the being of God, i. 268
Voluntary withdrawal of the spirit from the body, ii. 588
Votan, his admission to the snake’s hole as a son of the snakes, i.
553;
supposed by de Bourbourg to be descended from Ham and Canaan, i.
554;
the hero of the Mexicans, i. 545;
probably identical with Quetzel-coatl, _ib._;
intercourse with King Solomon, _ib._;
the navigating serpent, _ib._
Voodo orgy in Cuba, ii. 573
Vourdalak or vampires of Servia, i. 451, ii. 368
Vowels, the seven, chanted as a hymn to Serapis, i. 514
Vridda Manava, or laws of Manu, i. 585
Vril, Bulwer-Lytton’s designation of the one primal force, i. 64, 125
Vril-ya, the coming race, i. 296
Vulcan, Phta, or Hephaistos, represented at Nakyon-Wat, i. 565, 566
Vulgar magic in India, ii. 20
Vyasa, a positivist, i. 621;
denied a First Cause, ii. 261
Vyse, Col., found a piece of iron in the pyramid of Cheops, i. 542
Wagner, Prof. Nicholas, on heat and psychical force, i. 497;
on mediumistic phenomena, i. 499
Walking above the ground, i. 472;
the faculty sought by devotees, and attained by a King of Siam, ii.
618
Wallace, A. R., on cycles, i. 155;
belief in spiritualism and mesmerism, i. 177;
theory of human development, i. 294
War of Michael and the dragon, an old myth, ii. 486
Warrior, slain and resuscitated, but without a soul, ii. 564
War-chariots, ancient, lighter than modern artillery-wagons, i. 530;
had metallic springs, _ib._
Water, of Phtha, i. 64;
the first principle of things, i. 133;
an universal solvent, i. 133, 189;
of mercury, the soul or psychical substance, i. 309;
the first-created element, ii. 458
Waters turned to blood, i. 413, 415
Washing of images, ii. 138
Wave-theory of light not accepted by Prof. Cooke, i. 137
Weapons, dæmons afraid of, i. 362
Weekman, reputed the first investigator of spirit-phenomena in
America, i. 105
Weeks of seven days used in the East, ii. 418
Weird cries of the Gobi, i. 604
Weninger, Father F. X., a Jesuit priest, his denunciation of
Secretary Thompson, ii. 378, 379
Wesermann, power to influence the dreams of others, and to appear
double, i. 477
White-skinned people not often able to acquire magical powers, ii. 635
White stone of initiation, ii. 351
Whitney, Prof. W. D., his criticism of Max Müller, ii. 47;
denunciation of Jacolliot, _ib._;
his translation of a Vedic hymn, ii. 534
Widow-burning, or _suttee_, practised 2,500 years, but not when the
Code of Manu was compiled, i. 588;
sustained by the Brahmans from a forged verse of the _Rig-Veda_, i.
589
Widows burned without pain by the Brahmans, i. 540
Wild beasts will not attack Buddhistic nuns, ii. 609
Wilder, A., on possibility of transmutation, i. 505;
suggestion of another classification of the Assyrians and Mongols,
i. 575;
notes in regard to America, the Atlantic continent, Lemuria, and
the deserts of Africa and Asia, i. 592;
on skeptics, and respect for earnest convictions, i. 437;
on Paul and Plato, ii. 90;
on the designation Peter and the pretension of the Pope to be his
successor, ii. 92;
opinion of Zeruana, Turan, and Zohak, ii. 142;
description of Paul, ii. 574-6
Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, his testimony in regard to ancient Egyptian
civilization, i. 526;
J. J. G., declares truth temperamental, i. 234
Will, i. 56-61;
its potency in a state of ecstasy, i. 170;
produces force, i. 285;
an emanation of deity, _ib._;
power of, ii. 21;
enables one to wound or injure another, i. 360, 361;
generates force, and force generates matter, ii. 320
Will-force of the Yogis, ii. 565
Will-power, killing birds by it, i. 380;
photographing by, i. 463;
the most powerful of magnets, i. 472;
its exercise the highest form of prayer, ii. 592
Wine first sacred in the Bacchic Mysteries, ii. 514
Winged men of the _Phædrus_, i. 2
Wirdig taught that nature is ensouled, i. 207
Wisdom, the arcane doctrine of the ancients, i. 205, 436;
or the principle, ii. 35;
the chief, ii. 36;
first emanation of the En-Soph, ii. 37;
origin, ii. 218;
the ethnic parent of every religion, ii. 639, 640
Wisdom-doctrine underlay every ancient religion, ii. 99
Wisdom-religion, to be found in the pre-Vedic religion of India, ii.
39;
its articles of faith, ii. 116;
explained in Code of Manu, _ib._;
the parent cult, ii. 216
Wise women, ii. 525
Witch, a knowing woman, i. 354;
or kangalin, lawful for a Hindu to kill her, ii. 612
Witch-burnings in Germany, ii. 61;
twenty-nine, ii. 62, 63
Witchcraft, execution in Salem, and other American provinces, ii. 18;
laws in force in South Carolina in 1865, _ib._;
an offence among the ancients, ii. 98;
those guilty of it not initiates, ii. 117, 118
Witches, pretended, dozens of thousands burned, i. 353;
of the middle ages, the votaries of the former religion, ii. 502
Witches’ Sabbath, the orgies of Bacchus, ii. 528
Withdrawal of the inner from the outer man, ii. 583
Withdrawing of the inner from the outer, i. 476
Wittoba, the crucified image of Christna anterior to Christianity,
ii. 557
Wizard, a wise man, i. 354
Wolf, converted by St. Francis, ii. 77
Wolsey, Cardinal, accused of sorcery, ii. 57
Woman, of the future, i. 77;
fecundated artificially, i. 77, 81;
must cease to be the female of the men, i. 78;
ridding her of every maternal function, _ib._;
applying a latent force, _ib._;
offered to the encubi, _ib._;
impossible, i. 81;
evolved out of men, i. 297;
highly impressible when pregnant, i. 394;
exudes akasa as an odic emanation, i. 395;
how this is projected into the astral light or ether, and
repercussing, impresses itself upon the fœtus, _ib._;
evolved out of the lusts of matter, i. 433;
clothed with the sun, the goddess Isis, ii. 489
Women, magnetically influenced by the moon, i. 264
Women-colleges, to superintend worship, ii. 524, 525
Wong-Ching-Fu, his explanation of Nepang or Nirvana, ii. 319, 320
Wonder-working fakirs seldom to be seen, ii. 612, 613
Word, magical, i. 445;
ineffable, and performance of miracles, ii. 370;
lost by the Christians, _ib._;
where to be sought, ii. 371, ii. 418;
“long lost but now found,” ii. 393
World, how called into existence, i. 341;
how all will go well with it, ii. 122;
soul of, i. 129, 208, 215, 342;
religions, startled by utterances of scientists, i. 248, 249
World-religions, conflict between, i. 307;
identical at their starting-point, ii. 215;
the devil their founder, ii. 479
World-mountains, allegorical expressions of cosmogony, i. 157
World-soul, the source of all souls, and ether, i. 316
World-tree of knowledge, i. 574
Worlds, an incalculable number before the present one, ii. 424
Worship of the sun and serpent by Phœnicians and Mosaic Israelites,
i. 555;
of words, denounced, ii. 560;
of the spiritual portion of mankind, ii. 639
Wounds, mortal, self-inflicted and healed, i. 224
Wreaths of green leaves for oracles, ii. 612
Wren, Sir Christopher, simply the Master of the London operative
masons, ii. 390
Wright, Thomas, on sorcery and magic, i. 356
Writings under the ban, ii. 8
X, decussation of the perfect circle, ii. 469
X., Dr. extraordinary scenes at a seance, i. 608-611
Xenophanes, his satire on the representations of God, ii. 242
Ximenes, cardinal, burned 80,000 Arabic manuscripts, i. 511
Xisuthrus or Hasisadra, sailed with the ark to Armenia, ii. 217;
translated to the gods, ii. 424;
Oannes and Vishnu in the first avatar, ii. 457
Yaho, an old Shemitic mystic name of the Supreme Being, ii. 297
Yadus migrating from India to Egypt, i. 444
Yang-kie and Mahu, dwellers in both worlds, i. 601, 602
Yakuts and their worship, ii. 568
Yarker, John jr., account of the dervishes, ii. 316;
his testimony in regard to Free-masonry, ii. 376
Year of blood, 1876, i. 439
Yezidis, or devil-worshippers genuine sorcerers, ii. 571;
their worship, ii. 572
Yggdrasill, i. 133;
universe springing up beneath its branches, i. 151
Ymir, the Norse giant, i. 147;
generates a race of depraved men, i. 148;
is slain by the sons of Bur, i. 150
Yogas or cycles, i. 293
Yogis of India, ii. 346;
their extraordinary powers, ii. 565;
regarded as demi-gods, ii. 612;
a peculiar medicine used by them composed of sulphur and juice of
a plant, ii. 621;
their longevity, ii. 620;
their medicinal preparation of sulphur and quicksilver, ii. 620
Yörmungand, the midgard or earth-serpent, i. 151
Yourodevoy, i. 28
Youth, the means of regaining, ii. 618
Yowahous, ii. 313
Yugas, i. 31
Yule, Colonel, on movable type, i. 515;
on spiritualism in Tartary, i. 600;
testimony in regard to spiritual flowers drawn by a medium in Bond
street, London, i. 601
Zacharias, saw an apparition in the temple, ass-formed, ii. 523
Zadokites, or Sadducees, made a priest-caste by David, ii. 297
Zampun, the Thibetan tree of life, i. 152
Zamzummim, the Cyclopeans, i. 567
Zarathustra-Spitoma, his untold antiquity, i. 12
Zarevna Militrissa and the serpent, i. 550
Zeller, criticism of the Fathers in regard to Plato, i. 288
Zequiel, a demon presented to Torralva, ii. 60
Zeno taught two eternal qualities in nature, i. 12
Zeru-Ishtar, a Chaldean or Magian high-priest, ii. 129
Zeruan, Saturn or Abraham, the legend of the Titans, ii. 217
Zeus, the æther, i. 187, 188
Zeus-Dionysus, i. 262
Zmeij Gorenetch, the dragon, i. 550
Znachar, the Russian sorcerer, ii. 571
Zodiac, its symbolism, ii. 456;
its origin, 16,984 years ago, _ib._
Zohak and Gemshid, their struggle that of the Persians and Assyrians,
i. 576;
and Feridun, the legend explained, ii. 486;
or Azhi-Dahaka, the serpent of the Avesta, ii. 486;
a personification of Assyria, _ib._
Zonarus traces knowledge from Chaldea to Egypt, thence to the Greeks,
i. 543
Zoömagnetism, or animal magnetism, i. 206;
can magnetize minerals, _ib._
Zoroaster, Zarathustra, Zuruastara, Zuryaster, a spiritual teacher,
ii. 141;
a reformer of Chaldean Magic, i. 191;
when he lived, ii. 141;
Baron Bunsen’s opinion, ii. 432
Zoroastrian religion, its affinity with Judaism and Christianity, ii.
486
Zoroastrianism, no schism, ii. 142
Zoroastrians, migrated from India, ii. 143
Zoro-Babel or prince of Babylon, ii. 441
Zuinglius, the first reformer, his cosmopolitan doctrine of the Holy
Ghost, i. 132
706 BROADWAY,
_New York, March, 1878_.
J. W. Bouton’s Catalogue
OF
NEW AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS,
_Importations and Remainders_,
COMPRISING IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE WORKS IN THE
FOLLOWING DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE:
_Art, Contemporary and Ancient_,
_Art Periodicals_,
_Antiquities_,
_Archæology_,
_Ancient Religions and Worships_,
_Biography_,
_Caxton and Early Printing_,
_Costume_,
_Cruikshankiana_,
_Ceramic Art_,
_Dictionaries, Glossaries, Language, etc._
_Dramatists, Old_,
_Etchings, Modern_,
_Free Masonry_,
_Genealogy_,
_Illustrated Works_,
_Musical Instruments_,
_Mythology_,
_Ornament, Architectural, Textile, etc._,
_Ornithology_,
_Old Poetry_,
_Phallic and Symbol Worship_,
_Shakspeariana, Etc., Etc._
INDEX.
PAGE
Æsop’s Fables, illustrated, 19
Amberley, Religious Beliefs, 6
Anacalypsis, Higgins, 3
Antiquities of Long Island, 15
Archæology, Westropp’s Hand-Book, 25
Archie Armstrong’s Jests, 29
Avesta, Bleeck, 25
Behn’s Dram. Works, 15
Bible of Humanity, 3
Blake, Swinburne’s Essay, 23
Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 21
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 3
Boccaccio, Decameron, illustrated, 19
Brome’s Dram. Works, 15
Burns’ Complete Works, 6
Catalogue, Wilson Colln. of Paintings, 19
Caxton’s Dictes and Sayinges, 5
Statutes of Henry VIII., 30
Centlivre’s Dram. Works, 15
Champney, Quiet Corner of England, 25
Chapman’s Dram. Works, 15
Chinese Classics, 23
Cokain’s Dram. Works, 18
Costume, Lacroix, XVIII. Siècle, 17
Planché, 8
Historique, Racinet, 11
Crowne’s Dram. Works, 18
Cruikshank, Illustrations of Time, 24
Phrenological Illus., 24
Davenant’s Dram. Works, 18
Dekker’s Dram. Works, 15
Diary of Am. Revolution, 24
Dibdin’s Bibliomania, 29
Douglas’ Poetical Works, 29
Dramatic Works of Tourneur, 6
Dramatists, Early English, 15
of the Restoration, 18
Duyckinck’s Cyclopædia of Am. Literature, 27
Edwards’ Founders of Brit. Museum, 23
Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, 14
English Rogue, 22
Engravings, Willshire’s Guide, 31
Erasmus’ Apophthegms, 5
Etchings, Chapters on Painting, 12
Contemporary Art, 4
Examples of Modern, 11, 12
after Frans Hals, 32
“L’Art”, 33
from National Gallery, 12
The Portfolio, 34
Unger’s Works, 32
Wilson Catalogue, 19
Examples of Contemporary Art, 4
Fine Arts, Æsop’s Fables, illus., 19
Bible Plates, 5
Bell’s Anatomy of Expression, 20
Blake, Etchings, 4
Blake, Heaven and Hell, 21
Chapters on Painting, 12
Contemporary Art, 4
Costume, Racinet, 11
Cruikshank’s “Time”, 24
“Phrenological Illus., 24
Dürer’s Little Passion, 19
Etchings from National Gallery, 12
French Artists, &c., 12
Works of Hals, 32
Holbein, 23
Jeanne d’Arc, 17
Jésus-Christ, 17
Jones’ Alhambra, 30
Jones’ Gram. of Ornmt., 28
Keramic Art, Japan, 7
Lacroix, 4
Lacroix, XVIII. Siècle, vol. 1, 17
“L’Art.”, 33
Lundy, 9
Mod. Etchings, 11, 12
Planché, Costume, 8
Polychromatic Ornament, 7
The Portfolio, 34
Quiet Corner of Eng., 25
Textile Fabrics, 31
Turner Gallery, 10
Wright’s Womankind, 26
Wilson’s Catalogue, 19
Willshire on Prints, 31
Works of Wm. Unger, 32
Freemasonry, Hyneman’s Register, 27
Mackenzie, Cyclo., 7
Paton, Symbols, 25
French Artists of Present Day, 12
Furman’s Long Island, 15
Gesta Romanorum, 28
Glapthorne’s Dram. Works, 15
Grammar of Ornament, Jones, 28
Racinet, 7
Greville Memoirs, 29
Halliwell’s Hist. of Stratford on Avon, 24
Hamerton’s Examples of Mod. Etchings, 12
Heywood’s Dram. Works, 15
Higgins’ Anacalypsis, 3
Holbein, by Woltman, 23
Inman’s Ancient Faith embodied in Ancient
Names, 2 v., 14
Ancient Faiths & Modern, 13
Anc. Pagan Symbolism, 16
Ireland, Shak. Forgeries, 26
Isis Unveiled, 3
Jeanne d’Arc, Wallon, 17
Keramic Art of Japan, Fr., 7
King’s Gnostics, 25
Knight’s Ancient Art and Mythology, 13
Worship of Priapus, 28
Lacroix, XVIII. Siècle, Costume, &c., 17
XVIII. Siècle., vol. 2. Sciences, 4
Lacy’s Dram. Works, 18
L’Art. Art Magazine, 33
Lee’s Life, &c., of De Foe, 26
Legge’s Chinese Classics, 23
Leland, Fu Sang, 16
Littré Dictionnaire de la Langue Française, 24
Lundy’s Monumental Christianity, 9
Mackay’s Lost Beauties of the English Language, 16
Markland’s Lady de Osorio, 23
Marmion’s Dram. Works, 18
Masonic Register, Hyneman’s, 27
Memoirs of Sanson Family, 25
Mexico, Geiger, 22
Michelet, Bible of Humanity, 3
Moore’s Epicurean, 9
Musical Instruments, &c., 5
Nares’ Glossary Early Eng., 29
Original Lists of Emigrants, &c., 21
Ornamental Textile Fabrics, 31
Owen Jones, Alhambra, 30
“Passio Christi.” See Dürer, 19
Paton’s Symbolism of Masonry, 25
Phallic Worship, Anacalypsis, 3
Isis Unveiled, 3
Knight, 28
Inman, 14, 16
Westropp and Wake, 14
“Portfolio,” an Artistic Periodical, 34
Prostitution. Dufour, Hist., 31
Rambosson, Harmonies du Son, 5
Religions. Amberley, 6
Avesta, 25
Ancient Art & Mythology, 13
Ancient Faiths & Modern, 14
Ancient Pagan Symbols, 16
Ancient Symbol Worship, 14
Chinese Classics, 23
Gnostics, etc., 25
Higgins, Anacalypsis, 3
Isis Unveiled, 3
Inman, Ancient Faiths, 13
Knight’s Priapus, 28
Lundy, Monum. Christ’y, 9
Michelet’s Bible of Humanity, 3
Rosicrucians, 27
Serpent and Siva Worship, 3
Taylor, Eleusinian Mysteries, 14
Wheeler’s India, 13
Yarker’s Mysteries, 27
Rump Songs, &c., 22
Serpent and Siva Worship, 3
Shakespeare, Facsimile of 1st fol., 18
Forgeries, Ireland, 26
School of, 4
Songs, &c. Museum Deliciarum, 20
Ballads, D’Urfey’s Pills, 20
and Ballads, The Rump, 22
Westminster Drolleries, 22
Story of the Stick, 21
Symbolism. Anacalypsis, 3
of Freemasonry, 25
Gnostics, &c., 25
Inman, 16
Inman’s Anc. Faiths, &c., 14
Knight’s Priapus, 28
Lundy, 9
Rosicrucians, 27
Serpent Worship, 3
Westropp, &c., 14
Yarker, 27
Turner Gallery, 10
Tourneur’s Plays 6
Unger, Frans Hals, 32
Works, 32
Veuillot. Jésus-Christ, 17
Violin and its Makers, Hart, 18
Walford’s County Families, 30
Westminster Drolleries, 22
Westropp, Handbook of Archæology, 25
Wheeler’s History of India, 13
Willshire on Prints, 31
Wilson’s Dram. Works, 18
Ornithology, 8
Wright’s Womankind, 26
Yarker, Scientific and Religious Mysteries, 27
Isis Unveiled;
A MASTER KEY TO THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE
AND THEOLOGY. BY H. P. BLAVATSKY, Corresponding Secretary of
the Theosophical Society. _2 vols. Royal 8vo, about 1,500
pages, cloth, $7.50._
The recent revival of interest in Philology and Archæology, resulting
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and others, has created a great demand for works upon Eastern topics.
To the scholar and the specialist, to the philologist and the
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Mme. BLAVATSKY possesses the happy gift of versatility in an eminent
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Bible of Humanity;
By JULES MICHELET, author of “The History of France,”
“Priests, Women, and Families,” “L’Amour,” etc. Translated
from the French by V. CALFA. _1 vol. 8vo, cloth, $3.00._
“His _Bible of Humanity_ is a large epic in prose. The artist-historian,
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NEW EDITION OF HIGGINS’ GREAT WORK.
The Anacalypsis;
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or, an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and
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Serpent and Siva Worship
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Les Harmonies du Son et les Instruments de Musique, par I.
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The Apophthegms of Erasmus.
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paper manufactured expressly for the work, and having all the
peculiarities of the original. 1 vol., small folio. $10.00.
The printing of this unique work has been executed by a photographic
process which reproduces infallibly all the characteristics of the
original work, and the binding is a careful reproduction of that of
Caxton’s day.
This memorial volume is rendered still more interesting, and to the
connoisseur more valuable, by an Introduction by William Blades,
Esq., author of the Life and Typography of William Caxton, giving a
short, historical account of the book, the circumstances that led to
its publication, and its position among the works printed by Caxton.
It is believed that the publication of this work will, apart from
its value to collectors, be generally acceptable as representing the
first work issued from the press in England, and as illustrating the
state of the art of printing in its infancy.
_To form Six Volumes, demy 8vo_
(Vols. I.-III. Poetry; IV.-VI. Prose Works)._
Complete Works of Robert Burns.
Edited by W. SCOTT DOUGLAS, with Explanatory Notes, Various
Readings and Glossary. _Containing 327 Poems and Songs,
arranged chronologically, 15 of which have not hitherto
appeared in a complete form; Nasmyth’s Two Portraits of Burns,
newly engraved on steel; The Birthplace of Burns and Tam o’
Shanter, after Sam Bough, by W. Forrest; and the Scottish
Muse, by Clark Stanton; Four Facsimiles of Original MSS.; a
Colored Map, Wood Engravings, Music, &c._
∵ Now Ready, Volumes I., II., and III., 8vo, cloth, price
$5.00 each. Also on Large Paper, _India Proof Plates_, royal
8vo, cloth, $10.00 per volume.
THE THIRD VOLUME contains hitherto unpublished Poems,
drawings of Ellisland and Lincluden by SAM BOUGH, engraved on
steel by Forrest, facsimiles, &c.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“We heartily congratulate the admirers of Burns, and of poetry, in
the prospect of having in their hands ... such a labor of love and of
knowledge.”--_W. M. Rossetti in The Academy._
“Promises to outshine all former editions in completeness, accuracy,
and interest.”--_Aberdeen Journal._
“The edition will be unquestionably the best which has yet
appeared.”--_Birmingham Gazette._
“Will doubtless supersede all others as library edition of
Burns.”--_Daily Review._
“Really an ‘exhaustive effort’ to collect the whole of the
poems.”--_Edinburgh Courant._
“May challenge comparison with any previous product of the Scottish
press.”--_Inverness Courier._
“A gratifying addition to general literature. Is of the highest order
of merit.”--_London Scottish Journal._
“A fine library edition of Scotland’s greatest poet.”--_Pall Mall
Gazette._
The Plays and Poems of Cyril Tourneur.
_Edited, with Critical Introduction and Notes, by_ JOHN
CHURTON COLLINS. 2 vols. 8vo, cloth. $6.00. _Large paper_
(only 50 printed). $12.00.
“So much of the dramatic fire and vigor which form the special
characteristics of the Elizabethan dramatists is discernable in Cyril
Tourneur, that it is satisfactory to see his works collected....
If on the one hand he may claim to have enriched the drama with
characters that may compare with the best in Chapman or Marston,
he has also in realism gone beyond Webster.... Mr. Collins has
discharged completely his editorial duties, and his notes display a
considerable amount of reading.”--ATHENÆUM.
_OFFERED AT A GREAT REDUCTION IN PRICE._
An Analysis of Religious Belief.
By VISCOUNT AMBERLEY. “Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.” 2 large, handsomely printed vols.
demy 8vo, new cloth, uncut. $8.00 (_usual price $15.00_).
“Let them (the readers) remember that while he assails much which
they reckon unassailable, he does so in what to him is the cause
of goodness, nobleness, love, truth, and of the mental progress of
mankind.”--_Extract front Lady Russell’s Preface._
“He has bequeathed to the world a collection of interesting facts
for others to make use of. It is a museum of antiquities, relics,
and curiosities. All of the religions of the world are here jostling
one another in picturesque confusion, like the figures in a
masquerade.”--_Times._
“This work has more than one claim on the reader’s attention. Its
intrinsic interest is considerable.”--_Spectator._
“No one will fail during its perusal to be deeply interested, and, what
is more, powerfully stimulated to independent thought.”--_Examiner._
Polychromatic Ornament.
100 PLATES IN GOLD, SILVER, AND COLORS, _comprising upwards
of 2,000 specimens of the styles of Ancient, Oriental, and
Mediæval Art_, and including the Renaissance, and XVIIth and
XVIIIth centuries, selected and arranged for practical use by
A. Racinet, with Explanatory Text, and a general introduction.
Folio, cloth, gilt edges. $40.00.
Monsieur Racinet is well known, both in France and in this country,
as the author of the principal designs in those magnificent works,
“Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance” and “Les Arts Somptuaires.” He is
therefore peculiarly well fitted to grapple with the difficulties of
so intricate a subject, and it will be found that he has discharged
his task in a manner to deserve general approval and admiration.
His happy choice of subjects, all of them taken from _originals_,
his ingenious grouping of them in harmonious forms, his wonderful
accuracy in drawing, and his perfect fidelity of color are only
equalled by the profound knowledge which has enabled him to combine
so vast a collection in historical order, and yet in a classical form.
Keramic Art of Japan.
LA CÉRAMIQUE JAPONAISE. FRENCH EDITION, traduit par M.
P. Louiby. _Containing Sixty-three Plates_ (_Thirty-five of
which are in Gold and Colors_), and nearly 200 pages of Text,
with numerous Wood Engravings printed in Colors; the whole
being produced from original Japanese works of the greatest
beauty, and representing the entire range of Japanese Keramic
Art, Ancient and Modern. By G. A. AUDSLEY and J. L. BOWES,
of Liverpool. Containing a Comprehensive Introductory Essay
upon Japanese Art in all its various branches, illustrated
by thirteen Photo-Lithographic and Autotype Plates, and
numerous Wood Engraving, printed in colors. Also, a concise
Dissertation on Keramic Productions of Japan, from the
earliest records up to the present day; with sectional
articles on the Pottery and Porcelain of the various provinces
of the Empire in which manufactories exist, fully illustrated
by thirty-five plates, superbly printed in full colors and
gold, and fifteen plates in autotype. To be supplied in seven
parts, folio, at $10.00 each. Parts I. and II. now ready.
N. B.--_Parts not sold separately._
No one who has examined the Art productions of Japan can have
failed to observe the great beauty of the Keramic Wares of the
country, and the refined and educated feeling everywhere displayed
in their decoration. Their general artistic excellence, and the
skilful rendering of natural objects they usually present, have long
commended them to the attention of the artists of Europe--long,
indeed, before they were sought after by collectors; and it is not
too much to say that many of our well-known artists have shown by
their works their appreciation of Japanese drawing and coloring.
The Royal Masonic Cyclopædia
Of History, Rites, Symbolism, and Biography. By KENNETH R.
H. MACKENZIE. 1 vol. demy 8vo, cloth (pp. 768), $7.00.
The most complete and valuable work of reference that has ever been
presented to the Craft.
“The task of the Editor has been admirably performed, and there can
be no question the work will be a valuable addition to every Masonic
library.”--_Freemason’s Chronicle._
“The Editor has lavished much reading and labor on his subject.”--
_Sunday Times._
“A deeply-learned work for the benefit of Freemasons.”--_Publishers’
Circular._
“Your new work is excellent.”--Bro. W. R. WOODMAN, M.D., G.S.B.
“Evidences a considerable amount of hard work, alike in research and
study, ... and we can honestly and sincerely say we wish fraternally
all success to the Royal Masonic Cyclopædia.”--_Freemason._
Wilson’s American Ornithology:
Or, Natural History of the Birds of the United States; with
the Continuation by PRINCE CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE. NEW AND
ENLARGED EDITION, =_completed by the insertion of above One
Hundred Birds omitted in the original work_=, and illustrated
by valuable Notes and a life of the Author by Sir WILLIAM
JARDINE. Three Vols., 8vo, with a Portrait of WILSON, and
103 Plates, exhibiting nearly Four Hundred figures of Birds,
accurately engraved and beautifully colored, cloth extra,
gilt top, $18.00. Half smooth morocco, gilt top, $20.00. Half
morocco extra, gilt top, $25.00. Full tree calf extra, gilt or
marbled edges, $30.00.
_A few copies have been printed on_ LARGE PAPER. Imperial
8vo size, 3 vols., half morocco, gilt top, $40.00.
One of the cheapest books ever offered to the American public. The
old edition, not nearly so complete as the present, has always
readily brought from $50.00 to $60.00 per copy.
“The History of American Birds, by Alexander Wilson, is equal in
elegance to the most distinguished of our own splendid works on
Ornithology.”--CUVIER.
“With an enthusiasm never excelled, this extraordinary man penetrated
through the vast territories of the United States, undeterred by
forests or swamps, for the sole purpose of describing the native
birds.”--LORD BROUGHAM.
“By the mere force of native genius, and of delight in nature, he
became, without knowing it a good, a great writer.”--_Blackwood’s
Magazine._
“All his pencil or pen has touched is established incontestably; by
the plate, description, and history he has always determined his bird
so obviously as to defy criticism, and prevent future mistake.... We
may add, without hesitation, that such a work as he has published is
still a desideratum in Europe.”--CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE.
COMPLETION OF PLANCHÉ’S GREAT WORK.
Cyclopædia of Costume;
Or, A Dictionary of Dress--Regal, Ecclesiastical, Civil,
and Military--from the Earliest Period in England to the reign
of George the Third, including Notices of Contemporaneous
Fashions on the Continent. By J. R. PLANCHÉ, Somerset Herald.
Profusely illustrated by fourteen full-page colored plates,
some heightened with gold, and many hundred others throughout
the text. 1 vol. 4to, white vellum cloth, blue edges, unique
style, $20.00. Green vellum cloth, gilt top, $20.00. Half
morocco, extra, gilt top, $25.00. Full morocco, extra, very
elegant, $37.50.
“There is no subject connected with dress with which ‘Somerset
Herald’ is not as familiar as ordinary men are with the ordinary
themes of everyday life. The gathered knowledge of many years is
placed before the world in this his latest work, and there will
exist no other work on the subject half so valuable. The numerous
illustrations are all effective--for their accuracy the author is
responsible: they are well drawn and well engraved, and, while
indispensable to a proper comprehension of the text, are satisfactory
as works of art.”--_Art Journal._
“These numbers of a Cyclopædia of Ancient and Modern Costume give
promise that the work will be one of the most perfect works ever
published upon the subject. The illustrations are numerous and
excellent, and would, even without the letter-press, render the work
an invaluable book of reference for information as to costumes for
fancy balls and character quadrilles.... Beautifully printed and
superbly illustrated.”--_Standard._
“Those who know how useful is Fairholt’s brief and necessarily
imperfect glossary will be able to appreciate the much greater
advantages promised by Mr. Planché’s book.”--_Athenæum._
UNIFORM IN STYLE WITH LÜBKE’S AND MRS. JAMESON’S ART WORKS.
Monumental Christianity;
Or, the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church, as
Witnesses and Teachers of the one Catholic Faith and Practice.
By JOHN P. LUNDY, Presbyter. 1 vol. demy 4to. Beautifully
printed on superior paper, with over 200 illustrations
throughout the text, and numerous large folding plates. Cloth,
gilt top, $7.50. Half morocco, extra, gilt top, $10.00. Full
morocco, extra, or tree calf, $15.00.
This is a presentation of the facts and verities of Christianity from
the earliest monuments and contemporary literature. These include
the paintings, sculptures, sarcophagi, glasses, lamps, seal-rings,
and inscriptions of the Christian Catacombs and elsewhere, as well
as the mosaics of the earliest Christian churches. Many of these
monuments are evidently of Pagan origin, as are also the symbols; and
the author has drawn largely from the ancient religions of India,
Chaldea, Persia, Egypt, Etruria, Greece, and Rome, believing that
they all contained germs of religious truths which it is the province
of Christianity to preserve, develop, and embody in a purer system.
The Apostles’ Creed is exhibited, with its parallel or counterpart,
article by article, in the different systems thus brought under
review.
The book is profusely illustrated, and many of the monuments
presented in facsimile were studied on the spot by the author, and
several are specimens obtained in foreign travel. This is one of
the most valuable contributions to ecclesiastical and archæological
literature. The revival of Oriental learning, both in Europe and
America, has created a demand for such publications, but no one has
occupied the field which Dr. Lundy has chosen. The Expositions which
he has made of the symbols and mysteries are thorough without being
exhaustive; and he has carefully excluded a world of collateral
matter, that the attention might not be diverted from the main object
of the work. Those who may not altogether adopt his conclusions will
nevertheless find the information which he has imparted most valuable
and interesting.
“As a contribution to Church and general history, the exhaustive and
learned work of Dr. Lundy will be welcome to students and will take a
high place.”--_Church Journal._
“When, indeed, we say that from beginning to end this book will
certainly be found to possess a powerful interest to the careful
student, and that its influence for good cannot fail to be
considerable, we in nowise exaggerate its intrinsic merits. It is one
of the most valuable additions to our literature which the season has
produced.”--_New York Times._
The Epicurean;
A Tale, and ALCIPHRON; a Poem. By THOMAS MOORE. With
vignette illustrations on steel, by J. M. W. TURNER, R.A. 1
vol. 12mo. Handsomely printed on toned paper. Cloth, extra,
gilt top, $2.00. Tree calf extra, gilt edges, $4.50.
“Our sense of the beauties of this tale may be appreciated by the
acknowledgment that for insight into human nature, for poetical
thought, for grace, refinement, intellect, pathos, and sublimity,
we prize the Epicurean even above any other of the author’s works.
Indeed, although written in prose, this is a masterly poem, and will
forever rank as one of the most exquisite productions in English
literature.”--_Literary Gazette._
The Turner Gallery,
A SERIES OF SIXTY ENGRAVINGS, from the Works of J. M. W.
TURNER, R.A. With Biographical Sketch and Descriptive Text by
RALPH N. WORNUM, Keeper and Secretary of the National Gallery,
London. One volume, folio, INDIA PROOFS. Elegantly bound in
half Levant morocco, extra, gilt edges, $50.00. Full Levant
morocco, extra, very elegant, $75.00.
---- The same. Atlas folio. LARGE PAPER. _Artists’ Proofs._
Half morocco, extra, $110.00. Full Levant morocco, extra,
$165.00
THE TURNER GALLERY is already so well known to lovers of
art and to students of Turner, that, in announcing a reissue
of a limited number of copies of this important National
Work, little need be said by way of comment or introduction.
The Original Engravings have, for the first time, been
employed, instead of the electrotype plates hitherto used,
thus _securing impressions of more genuineness and brilliancy
than have yet been offered to the public_. Of the high-class
character of the Engravings themselves, and of the skill and
excellence with which they are executed, such well-known names
as JEENS, ARMYTAGE, WILLMORE, E. GOODALL, BRANDARD, WALLIS,
COUSENS, and MILLER, will be a sufficient guarantee.
_From the London Art Journal._
“A series of engravings from Turner’s finest pictures, and of a size
and equality commensurate with their importance, has not till now
been offered to the public.
“In selecting the subjects, the publisher has chosen judiciously.
Many of his grandest productions are in this series of Engravings,
and the ablest landscape engravers of the day have been employed
on the plates, among which are some that, we feel assured, Turner
himself would have been delighted to see. These _proof impressions_
constitute a volume of exceeding beauty, which deserves to find a
place in the library of every man of taste. The number of copies
printed is too limited for a wide circulation, but, on that account,
the rarity of the publication makes it the more valuable.
“It is not too much to affirm, that a more beautiful and worthy
tribute to the genius of the great painter does not exist, and is
not likely to exist at any future time.”
The attention of Collectors and Connoisseurs is particularly invited
to the above exceedingly choice volume; they should speedily avail
themselves of the opportunity of securing a copy at the low price at
which it is now offered.
_AN ENTIRELY NEW WORK ON COSTUME BY M. RACINET,
AUTHOR OF “POLYCHROMATIC ORNAMENT,” ETC._
Le Costume Historique.
_Illustrated with 500 Plates_, 300 of which are in Colors,
Gold and Silver, and 200 in Tinted Lithography (Camaïeu).
Executed in the finest style of the art, by Messrs. DIDOT &
CO., of Paris. Representing Authentic Examples of the Costumes
and Ornaments of all Times, among all Nations. With numerous
choice specimens of Furniture, Ornamental Metal Work, Glass,
Tiles, Textile Fabrics, Arms and Armor, Useful Domestic
Articles, Modes of Transport, etc. With explanatory Notices
and Historical Dissertations (in French). By M. A. RACINET,
author of “Polychromatic Ornament.” To be issued in 20 parts.
Small 4to (7½ × 8½ inches), $4.50 each. Folio, large paper
(11½ × 16 inches), in cloth portfolio, $9.00 each.
_NO ORDERS RECEIVED EXCEPT FOR THE COMPLETE WORK._
Each part will contain 25 plates, 15 in colors and 10 in tinted
Lithography. Parts 1, 2, and 3 are now ready for delivery. Upon
completion of the work, the price will be raised 25 per cent.
“The Messrs. Firmin Didot & Co., of Paris, a firm that disputes
with the house of Hachette & Co. the honor of supplying France
and the world with the most beautiful books at the cheapest rates
compatible with the greatest excellence in editing and ‘making,’
have recently published the beginning of a work which, by making
its appeal chiefly to the eye, is sure of a welcome in this
picture-loving age of ours. This is the HISTORY OF COSTUME, by A.
Racinet, well-known already to that portion of our public which is
interested in the decorative art by his illustrated work on ornament.
_L’Ornement Polychrome._--Racinet gives the word ‘costume’ almost
as wide a sweep of meaning as Viollet-le-Duc gives to furniture
in his now famous _Dictionnaire du Mobilier_. * * * * The field
surveyed consists not only of costumes proper, but of arms, armor,
drinking vessels, objects used in the service of the church, modes
of transport, harness, head-gear and modes of dressing the hair,
domestic interiors, and furniture in the ordinary acceptation of
the term. Each plate is to be accompanied with an explanatory text,
and there will be added an historical study, so that little will
be wanting to make this one of the completest encyclopædias of the
sort that has ever appeared. * * * * A charming taste has presided
over the selection of the subject, and the abundant learning that
has been brought to bear in the collection of illustrations, from so
wide a field of human action, is made to seem like play, so lightly
is it handled. * * * * No scientific arrangement is observed in the
order in which the subjects are presented. We have ancient Egypt,
Assyria, Rome, Greece, India, Europe in the middle ages, and from
the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Japan, Turkey, Syria,
Russia, and Poland, mixed up for the present, as if the work were
an illustrated report of a fancy ball; and, to most of us, the gay
parade as it rolls along is none the less pleasant for this want of
order.”--_Scribner’s Monthly._
“The name of Firmin Didot & Co., of Paris, is such a guarantee of
mechanical execution in a book, that it is sufficient to state
that _Le Costume Historique_ is fully on a par with any of the
former publications of this distinguished house. In addition to
its other features, this work has numerous illustrations, giving
restorations of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian interiors. In fact the
work is conceived on a large plan, and will be found most useful to
the artist. With such a book as a reference, some of the glaring
inconsistencies we still see from time to time on the stage,
where periods as to costume, some hundreds of years apart, are
terribly mixed up, might be prevented, and the unities saved. The
publishers have had the excellent idea of reducing the size of the
illustrations, so as to bring the price of this picture-cyclopædia
of the costume of the world within the means of the most prudent
book-buyer.”--_N. Y. Daily Times._
“A new work on costume, most expensive to the publishers and cheap to
the subscribers. Parts I., II., and III., with twenty-five pictures
in each, are ready. We have minutely examined them, and find them
worthy of great praise, both for general excellences of execution
and for the recondite and curious sources drawn upon--the latter
characteristic making the collector master of a great many pictorial
facts and illustrations whose original sources are hard even to see
and impossible to become possessed of.”--_Nation._
“This work is unquestionably the best work on its subject ever
offered to the public, and it will engage very general attention. In
shapeliness and convenience, too, it leaves nothing to be desired,
which cannot be said often of cyclopædias of costume. One can enjoy
the colors and contents of these ‘parts’ while lounging in a veranda
or rocking in a boudoir. It is not necessary to adjourn to a public
library and to an immovable chair.”--_Evening Post._
_NEW SERIES._
Examples of Modern Etching.
A series of 20 _Choice Etchings_ by QUEROY,
BRUNET-DEBAINES, HAMERTON, GEORGE, BURTON, WISE, LEGROS, LE
RAT, SEYMOUR-HADEN, etc., etc., with descriptive text by P. G.
HAMERTON, folio, cloth gilt, $12.00.
Edited, with notes, by PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON, Editor
of the “_Portfolio_.” Twenty Plates, by Balfourier, Bodmer,
Bracquemond, Chattock, Flameng, Feyen-Perrin, Seymour Haden,
Hamerton, Hesseltine, Laguillermie, Lalanne, Legros, Lucas,
Palmer, Rajon, Veyrassat, etc. The text beautifully printed
on heavy paper. Folio, tastefully bound in cloth, full gilt,
$10.00.
Among the contents of this choice volume, may be mentioned “_The
Laughing Portrait of Rembrandt_,” by Flameng; _Twickenham Church_,
by Seymour Haden; _Aged Spaniard_, by Legros; _The Hare--A Misty
Morning_, by Bracquemond; _The Thames at Richmond_, by Lalanne; _The
Ferryboat_, by Veyrassat, etc.
∵ A set of proofs of the plates in the above volume alone are worth
in the London market £10 10s. 0d., or seventy dollars currency.
Etchings from the National Gallery.
A series of eighteen choice plates by Flameng, Le Rat,
Rajon, Wise, Waltner, Brunet-Debaines, Gaucherel, Richeton,
etc., after the paintings by Masaccio, Bellini, Giorgione,
Moroni, Mantegna, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Cuyp, Maes, Hobbema,
Reynolds, Gainsborough, Turner, and Landseer, with Notes by
RALPH N. WORNUM (Keeper of the National Gallery). The text
handsomely printed on heavy paper. Folio, tastefully bound in
cloth, full gilt, $10.00.
To admirers of Etchings, the present volume offers several of the
most notable of recently executed plates, among others the _Portrait
of Rembrandt_, by Waltner; _The Parish Clerk_, after Gainsborough,
by the same etcher; _The Burial of Wilkie_, after Turner, by
Brunet-Debaines; _Portrait of a Youth_, after Masaccio, by Léopold
Flameng, etc.
French Artists of the Present Day.
A series of twelve fac-simile engravings, after pictures
by Gérome, Rosa Bonheur, Corot, Pierre Billet, Legros,
Ch. Jacque, Veyrassat, Hébert, Jules Breton, etc., with
Biographical Notices by René Ménard. Folio, tastefully bound
in cloth, gilt, $10.00.
Chapters on Painting.
By RENÉ MÉNARD (Editor of “Gazette des Beaux-Arts”).
Translated under the superintendence of Philip Gilbert
Hamerton. Illustrated with a series of forty superb etchings,
by Flameng, Coutry, Masson, Le Rat, Jacquemart, Chauvel, etc.,
the text beautifully printed by Claye, of Paris. Royal 4to,
paper, uncut, $25.00. Half polished levant mor., gilt top,
$30.00.
Ancient Art and Mythology.
The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.
An Inquiry. By RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT, author of “Worship of
Priapus.” A new edition, with Introduction, Notes translated
into English, and a new and complete Index. By ALEXANDER
WILDER, M.D. 1 vol. 8vo, cloth, handsomely printed, $3.00.
“Not only do these explanations afford a key to the religion and
mythology of the ancients, but they also enable a more thorough
understanding of the canons and principles of art. It is well
known that the latter was closely allied to the other; so that the
symbolism of which the religious emblems and furniture consisted
likewise constituted the essentials of architectural style and
decoration, textile embellishments, as well as the arts of sculpture,
painting, and engraving. Mr. Knight has treated the subject with
rare erudition and ingenuity, and with such success that the labor
of those who come after him rather add to the results of his
investigations than replace them in important particulars. The labors
of Champollion, Bunsen, Layard, Bonomi, the Rawlinsons, and others,
comprise his deductions so remarkably as to dissipate whatever of his
assertions that appeared fanciful. Not only are the writings of Greek
and Roman authors now more easy to comprehend, but additional light
has been afforded to a correct understanding of the canon of the Holy
Scripture.”--_Extract from Editor’s Preface._
A SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME TO “ANCIENT FAITHS.”
Ancient Faiths and Modern.
A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends, and Divinities in
Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, before the
Christian Era. Showing their Relations to Religious Customs
as they now exist. By THOMAS INMAN, M.D., author of “Ancient
Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names,” etc., etc. 1 vol. 8vo,
cloth, $5.00.
This work is most aptly expressed by the title, and the author, who
is one of our most learned and accomplished modern writers, has
done ample justice to his subject. He pries boldly into Bluebeard’s
closet, little recking whether he shall find a ghost, skeleton, or
a living being; and he tells us very bluntly and explicitly what
he has witnessed. Several years since he gave to the learned world
his treatise on _Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names_, in
which were disclosed the ideas underlying the old-world religions,
and the nature of hieroglyphical symbols employed in the East. The
present volume complements that work, elaborates more perfectly the
ideas there set forth, and traces their relations to the faiths,
worship, and religious dogmas of modern time. We are astonished to
find resemblances where it would be supposed that none would exist,
betraying either a similar origin or analogous modes of thinking and
reasoning among nations and peoples widely apart in race, country,
and period of history. The author is bold and often strong in his
expressions, from the intensity of his convictions, but this serves
to deepen the interest in his subject. Those who have read his former
works with advantage will greet this volume with a cordial welcome;
and all who desire to understand the original religions of mankind,
the ideas which lie back of the revelations of Holy Scripture, and
particularly, those who are not easily shocked when they come in
contact with sentiments with which they have not been familiar, will
find this book full of entertainment as well as of instruction. Dr.
Inman is working up a new mine of thought, and the lover of knowledge
will give his labor a welcome which few of our modern authors receive.
Wheeler’s India.
History of India. By J. TALBOYS WHEELER, Assistant
Secretary to the Government of India, in the Foreign
Department, Secretary of the Record Commission, Author of the
“Geography of Herodotus.”
The Ramayana and the Brahmanic Period. 8vo, cloth, pp.
lxxxviii. and 680, with two maps. $6.00.
Hindu, Buddhist, Brahmanical Revival. 8vo, cloth, pp. 484,
with two maps, cloth. $5.00.
Under Mussulman Rule. (Vol. IV.), 8vo, $4.50.
Dr. Inman’s Ancient Faiths.
Embodied in Ancient Names; or, an Attempt to trace the
Religious Belief, Sacred Rites, and Holy Emblems of certain
Nations, by an Interpretation of the Names given to Children
by Priestly Authority, or assumed by Prophets, Kings, and
Hierarchs. By THOMAS INMAN, M.D. Profusely illustrated with
Engravings on Wood. 2 vols., 8vo, cloth, $20.00.
“Dr. Inman’s present attempt to trace the religious belief, sacred
rites, and holy emblems of certain nations, has opened up to him
many hitherto unexplored fields of research, or, at least, fields
that have not been over-cultivated, and the result is a most curious
and miscellaneous harvest of facts. The ideas on priapism developed
in a former volume receive further extension in this. Dr. Inman, as
will be seen, does not fear to touch subjects usually considered
sacred in an independent manner, and some of the results at which he
has arrived are such as will undoubtedly startle, if not shock, the
orthodox. But this is what the author expects, and for this he has
thoroughly prepared himself. In illustration of his peculiar views
he has ransacked a vast variety of historical storehouses, and with
great trouble and at a considerable cost, he places the conclusions
at which he has arrived before the world. With the arguments
employed, the majority of readers will, we expect, disagree; even
when the facts adduced will remain undisputed, their application is
frequently inconsequent. In showing the absurdity of a narrative or
an event in which he disbelieves, the Doctor is powerful. No expense
has been spared on the work, which is well and fully illustrated, and
contains a good index.”--_Bookseller._
NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION.
Ancient Symbol Worship.
Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of
Antiquity. By HODDER M. WESTROPP and C. STANILAND WAKE. With
an Introduction, additional Notes, and Appendix, by ALEXANDER
WILDER, M.D. New Edition, with eleven full-page Illustrations.
1 vol. 8vo, cloth, $3.00.
The favor with which this treatise has been received has induced the
publisher to bring out a new edition. It makes a valuable addition
to our knowledge, enabling us to acquire a more accurate perception
of the ancient-world religions. We may now understand Phallism, not
as a subject of ribaldry and leering pruriency, but as a matter of
veneration and respect. The Biblical student, desirous to understand
the nature and character of the idolatry of the Israelites during the
Commonwealth and Monarchy, the missionary to heathen lands fitting
for his work, and the classic scholar endeavoring to comprehend
the ideas and principles which underlie Mythology, will find their
curiosity gratified; and they will be enabled at the same time to
perceive how not only many of our modern systems of religion, but our
arts and architecture, are to be traced to the same archaic source.
The books examined and quoted by the authors constitute a library
by themselves, and their writers are among the ripest scholars of
their time. Science is rending asunder the veil that conceals the
adytum of every temple, and revealing to men the sanctities revered
so confidingly during the world’s childhood. With these disclosures,
there may be somewhat of the awe removed with which we have regarded
the symbols, mysteries, and usages of that period; but the true mind
will not be vulgarized by the spectacle.
The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries.
A Dissertation, by THOMAS TAYLOR, Translator of “Plato,”
“Plotinus,” “Porphyry,” “Iamblichus,” “Proclus,” “Aristotle,”
etc., etc. Third edition. Edited, with Introduction, Notes,
Emendations, and Glossary, by ALEXANDER WILDER, M.D. 1 vol.
8vo, cloth, $3.00.
In the Mysteries, the dramas acted at Eleusis and other sacred
places, were embodied the deeper thoughts and religious sentiment
of the archaic world. The men and women initiated into them were
believed to be thenceforth under special care of God, for this life
and the future. So holy and interior were the doctrines considered
which had been learned in the Sanctuary from the two tablets of
stone, that it was not lawful to utter them to another. What was
seen and learned elsewhere might be admirable; but the exercises of
Eleusis and Olympia had in them the something divine, and those who
observed them were “the children of God,” and imaging Him in wisdom,
intuitive discernment, and love.
The reader desirous of getting the kernel of the doctrines of Plato,
Orpheus, Eumolpas, and their fellow-laborers, as well as of the
Alexandrian Eclectics, will obtain invaluable aid from this treatise.
_NOW OFFERED AT GREATLY REDUCED PRICES._
Pearson’s Reprints of the Old Dramatists.
Being fac-simile reprints of the entire text of each
author, without note or comment, with Life and Memoir.
Handsomely printed on ribbed paper, made expressly for the
purpose, and bound in antique boards, uncut edges, in exact
imitation of the rare originals.
Comprising the following:
MRS. BEHN’S PLAYS, HISTORIES AND NOVELS. 6 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ “ 6 vols. 8vo,
Large Paper.
MRS. CENTLIVRE’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 3 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
RICHARD BROME’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 3 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
GEORGE CHAPMAN’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 3 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
THOMAS DEKKER’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 4 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
THOMAS HEYWOOD’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 6 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
HENRY GLAPTHORNE’S PLAYS AND POEMS. 2 vols. 12mo,
“ “ “ “ “ 8vo,
Large Paper.
Together, 27 vols. 12mo, $54.00, or on large and thick
paper, 27 vols. 8vo, $108.00.
The balance of the edition of these reprints having been recently
“sold off” in London, I am now enabled to offer them at the above
greatly reduced prices, for a brief period only. Several of the
authors being already out of print, the time is not far distant when
it will be impossible to procure complete sets, and collectors will
do well to secure them while they have the opportunity.
Antiquities of Long Island.
By GABRIEL FURMAN. With a Bibliography by Henry Onderdonk,
Jr. To which is added Notes, Geographical and Historical,
relating to the town of Brooklyn, in Kings County, on Long
Island. 1 vol. large 12mo, cloth, $3.00.
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism.
By THOMAS INMAN, M.D., author of “Ancient Faiths Embodied
in Ancient Names,” etc. Second edition, revised and enlarged,
with an Essay on Baal Worship, on “the Assyrian Sacred Grove,”
and other allied symbols. By JOHN NEWTON, M.R.C.S.E., etc.
Profusely illustrated. 1 vol. cloth, $3.00.
This book contains in a nutshell the essence of Dr. Inman’s other
publications, and for the reader of limited means is just what he
requires. The subject of symbolism is as deep as human thought and
as broad in its scope as humanity itself. The erudite thinker finds
it not only worthy of his best energies, but capable of taxing them
to the utmost. Many pens have been employed upon it, and it has
never grown old. Dr. Inman’s views are somewhat peculiar; he has
concentrated his attention to the ideas which he believes to underlie
the symbolism of the most ancient periods, and can be traced through
the autonomy of the Christian Church. He finds the relation which
exists, and the antiquarian likewise, between Asshur and Jehovah, the
Baal of Syria and the God whom Christians worship; and the mysteries
of the Sacred Grove, of which the Old Testament says so much, are
unfolded and made sensible to the common intellect. Scholars will
welcome this volume, and the religious reader will peruse its pages
with the profoundest interest. The symbols which characterize worship
constitute a study which will never lose its interest, so long as
learning and art have admirers.
The Lost Beauties of the English Language.
An Appeal to Authors, Poets, Clergymen, and Public
Speakers. By CHAS. MACKAY, LL.D. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth extra,
$1.75.
Words change as well as men, sometimes from no longer meeting the new
wants of the people, but oftener from the attraction of novelty which
impels everybody to change. A dictionary of obsolete words, and terms
becoming obsolete, is a valuable reminder of the treasures which we
are parting with; not always wisely, for in them are comprised a
wealth of expression, idiom, and even history, which the new words
cannot acquire. Dr. Mackay has placed a host of such on record,
with quotations to illustrate how they were read by the classical
writers of the English language, not many centuries ago, and enables
us to read those authors more understandingly. If he could induce
us to recall some of them back to life, it would be a great boon to
literature; but hard as it might have been for Cæsar to add a new
word to his native Latin language, it would have been infinitely more
difficult to resuscitate an obsolete one, however more expressive
and desirable. Many of the terms embalmed in this treatise are not
dead as yet: and others of them belong to that prolific department of
our spoken language that does not get into dictionaries. But we all
need to know them; and they really are more homogeneous to our people
than their successors, the stilted foreign-born and alien English,
that “the Best” is laboring to naturalize into our language. The old
words, like old shoes and well-worn apparel, sit most comfortably.
Fu-Sang;
Or, the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests
in the Fifth Century. Containing a Translation of Professor
Carl Neumann’s work on the subject, made under supervision of
the Author; a letter by Colonel Barclay Kennon, late of the
U. S. North Coast Pacific Survey, on the Possibility of an
Easy Passage from China to California; and a Résumé of the
Arguments of De Guigues, Klaproth, Gustave D’Eichthal, and
Dr. Bretschneider on the Narrative of Hoei-Shin, with other
Contributions and Comments, by CHARLES G. LELAND, 1 vol. 12mo,
cloth, $1.75.
FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Lacroix.
(BIBLIOPHILE JACOB) XVIIIᵐᵉ SIÈCLE, INSTITUTIONS, USAGES,
ET COSTUMES, France, 1700-1789. Illustrated with twenty-one
large and beautifully executed chromo-lithographs, and upwards
of three hundred and fifty engravings on wood after Watteau,
Vanloo, Boucher, Lancret, Chardin, Bouchardin, Saint-Aubin,
Eisen, Moreau, etc. 1 vol. thick Imperial 8vo, half red
morocco, extra gilt leaves, $13.50.
----The same, full crimson Levant super-extra, $22.50.
The title of this new work, by the indefatigable Paul Lacroix,
conveys but an indifferent idea of its contents. It is admirably
gotten up, and is illustrated in a most profuse manner, equalling,
if not excelling, the former works of the same author, giving us a
living picture of the 18th century--the king, nobility, bourgeoisie,
people, parliaments, clergy, army and navy, commerce, education,
police, etc., Paris, its pleasures, promenades, fêtes, salons,
cuisine, theatres, costumes, etc., etc.
A NEW WORK ON CHRISTIAN ART.
Jésus-Christ.
Attendu, vivant, continué, dans le monde, par LOUIS
VEUILLOT, avec une étude sur l’Art Chrétien par E. CARTIER.
16 large and beautifully executed chromo-lithographs, and 200
engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, from the most celebrated
monuments, from the period of the Catacombs to the present
day. Thick Imp. 8vo, new half morocco extra, gilt leaves,
$13.50.
----The same, printed on large Holland paper. Imp. 8vo,
half polished Levant morocco, gilt top, $22.50.
This elegant work is uniform in style and illustration with the
works of Paul Lacroix, by the same house. The illustrations (which
were prepared under the direction of M. Dumoulin), are of the most
attractive character, and present a chronological view of Christian
art. The exquisite series of chromos are from pictures by Giotto,
Ghirlandajo, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Fra Bartolommeo-Angelico,
Sacchi di Pavia, Flandrin, and a head of Christ from the Catacombs,
Fac-similes, by Armand, Durand, from rare etchings by Marc Antonio,
Dürer, etc., also a reduction from Prevost, plate of the wedding at
Cana, after Paul Veronese, and nearly 200 charming engravings on wood.
UNIFORM WITH THE WORKS OF PAUL LACROIX.
Jeanne D’Arc.
Par H. WALLON (Secrétaire de l’Académie des Inscriptions et
Belles-Lettres). Beautifully printed on heavy vellum paper,
and illustrated with 14 CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, and one
hundred and fifty fine engravings on wood after monuments of
art, fac-similes, etc., etc. 1 large volume, thick royal 8vo,
half red morocco, full gilt, gilt edges, $13.50. Full polished
morocco extra, $22.50.
Contents: An account of the arms and military dresses of the period,
accompanied by descriptive figures taken from the seals of the
Archives; a map of feudal France, by M. Aug. Longnon, a new work
of the highest importance to the history of the 15th century; a
study of the worship shown to Joan of Arc in the French and Foreign
literatures (it is known that during the lifetime of Joan, her
wonderful mission was represented on the stage); fac-similes of
letters of Joan, etc., etc.
Dramatists of the Restoration.
Beautifully printed on superior paper, to range with
Pickering’s edition of Webster, Peele, Marlowe, etc. As the
text of most of these authors has, in later editions, been
either imperfectly or corruptly dealt with, the several Plays
have been presented in an unmutilated form, and carefully
collated with the earliest and best editions.
Biographical Notices and brief Notes accompany the works of each
author. The series has been entrusted to the joint editorial care of
JAMES MAIDMENT and W. H. LOGAN. It comprises the following authors:
SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 5 vols.
JOHN CROWNE’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 4 vols.
SIR ASTON COKAIN’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 1 vol.
JOHN WILSON’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 1 vol.
JOHN LACY’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 1 vol.
SHAKERLEY MARMION’S DRAMATIC WORKS. 1 vol.
Together, 13 vols. post 8vo, white vellum cloth, $50.00.
Large paper, 13 vols. 8vo, $75.00. Whatman’s drawing paper
(only thirty copies printed), $110.00.
The First Edition of Shakespeare.
Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies. Published according to the True Original Copies.
London. Printed by ISAAC IAGGARD and ED. BLOUNT. 1623. An
exact reproduction of the extremely rare original, in reduced
fac-simile by a photographic process, ensuring the strictest
accuracy in every detail. Post 8vo, half mor., gilt top, $3.00.
“A complete fac-simile of the celebrated First Folio edition of 1623
for half-a-guinea is at once a miracle of cheapness and enterprise.
Being in a reduced form, the type is necessarily rather diminutive,
but it is as distinct as in a genuine copy of the original,
and will be found to be as useful, and far more handy to the
student.”--_Athenæum._
The Violin.
Its famous makers and their imitators. By GEORGE HART. In
the above-mentioned work the author treats of the Origin,
History, Development of this, the greatest of musical
instruments, and gives interesting details concerning those
ingenious makers who brought it to its present state of
perfection.
It is illustrated by upwards of forty first-class Wood
Engravings from Photographs, which represent the exact
Outlines and Proportions of the masterpieces of ANTONIUS
STRADIUARIUS, AMATI, BERGONZI, and others, including the
celebrated violin by JOSEPH GUARNERIUS, on which PAGANINI
achieved his marvellous success. 1 vol. post 8vo, cloth, $4.00.
The same. Large Paper. Demy 4to, cloth, $8.00.
A SUPERB SERIES OF ETCHINGS.
The Wilson Collection.
Collection de M. John W. Wilson. Exposée dans la Galerie du
Cercle Artistique et Littéraire de Bruxelles, au profit des
pauvres de cette Ville. Troisième édition. Handsomely printed
on heavy paper, and illustrated with a series of 68 large and
most exquisitely executed etchings, from the most remarkable
pictures in this celebrated collection. FINE IMPRESSIONS.
Thick royal 4to, paper, uncut, $25.00; or in half morocco,
gilt tops, uncut, $30.00.
∵ Already out of print and scarce.
This charming catalogue was gotten up at the expense of the generous
owner of the collection, and the money received from its sale donated
to the fund for the relief of the poor of the city. The edition
consisted of 1,000 copies. It was immediately exhausted.
The Catalogue is a model of its kind. The notices are in most
instances accompanied with a fac-simile of the artist’s signature
to the picture; a biographical sketch of the artist; notices of the
engraved examples, if any; and critical notes on each picture.
The graphic department is, however, the great feature of this
Catalogue, embracing, as it does, upwards of sixty examples of the
best etchers of the present day, including Greux, Chauvel, Martial,
Rajon, Gaucherel, Jacquemart, Hédouin, Lemaire, Duclos, Masson,
Flameng, Lalanne, Gilbert, etc., etc.
Dürer’s “Little Passion.”
Passio Christi. A complete set of the Thirty-seven
Woodcuts, by Albert Dürer. Reproduced in fac-simile. Edited by
W. C. Prime. One volume, Royal 4to (13 × 10½ inches). Printed
on heavy glazed paper, half vellum, $10.00. Morocco antique,
$15.00.
The Little Passion of Albert Dürer, consisting of thirty-seven
woodcuts, has long been regarded as one of the most remarkable
collections of illustrations known to the world. Complete sets of
the entire series are excessively rare. The editions which have been
published in modern times in Europe are defective, lacking more or
less of the Plates, and are of an inferior and unsatisfactory class
of workmanship.
Æsop’s Fables.
With 56 illustrations, from designs by Henry L. Stephens.
Royal 4to, cloth extra, gilt leaves, $10.00.
Mr. Stephens has no superior in the peculiar style of illustration
which is most effective in bringing out the spirit of Æsop’s Fables,
and in this volume he has given us fifty-six full page cartoons,
brimming with droll humor, reciting the Fables over again, and
enforcing their morals just as effectively as was done by the words
of Æsop himself. The illustrations are among the finest specimens of
art ever produced in this country, and the volume as a whole is most
creditable to American artistic skill.
Boccaccio’s Decameron;
Or, Ten Days’ Entertainment. Now fully translated into
English, with Introduction by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A.,
F.S.A. Illustrated by STOTHARD’S Engravings on Steel, and the
12 unique plates from the rare Milan Edition. One volume,
thick 12mo, cloth extra, $3.50, or handsomely bound in half
polished Levant morocco, gilt top, $5.50.
The most complete translation, containing many passages not hitherto
translated into English.
Bell’s Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression,
As connected with the Fine Arts. Profusely illustrated
Royal 8vo, cloth, uncut, $4.50.
Tom D’Urfey’s “Pills to Purge Melancholy.”
Being a collection of Merry Ballads and Songs, old and new,
fitted to all humors, having each its proper tune for voice
and instrument. An exact and beautiful reprint of this very
scarce work. Small paper, 6 vols., crown 8vo, bds., uncut,
$15.00. Large paper, 6 vols. crown 4to. Only a few printed.
Bds., uncut, $24.00.
“But what obtained Mr. D’Urfey his greatest reputation was a
peculiarly happy knack he possessed in the writing of satires and
irregular odes. Many of these were upon temporary occasions, and were
of no little service to the party in whose cause he wrote; which,
together with his natural vivacity and good humor, obtained him
the favor of great numbers, of all ranks and conditions, monarchs
themselves not excluded. He was strongly attached to the Tory
interest, and in the latter part of Queen Anne’s reign had frequently
the honor of diverting that princess with witty catches and songs
of humor suited to the spirit of the times, written by himself, and
which he sang in a lively and entertaining manner. And the author of
the Guardian, who, in No. 67. has given a very humorous account of
Mr. D’Urfey, with a view to recommend him to the public notice for a
benefit play, tells us that he remembered King Charles II. leaning on
Tom D’Urfey’s shoulder more than once, and humming over a song with
him.
“He appears to have been a diverting companion, and a cheerful,
honest, good-natured man; so that he was the delight of the most
polite companies in conversations, from the beginning of Charles
II.’s to the latter part of King George I.’s reign; and many an
honest gentleman got a reputation in his country by pretending to
have been in company with Tom D’Urfey.”--_Chalmers._
UNIFORM WITH “TOM D’URFEY’S PILLS.”
Musarum Deliciæ;
Or, The Muses’ Recreation, 1656; Wit Restor’d, 1658; and
Wit’s Recreation, 1640. The whole compared with the originals;
with all the Wood Engravings, Plates, Memoirs, and Notes. A
new edition, in 2 volumes, post 8vo, beautifully printed on
antique laid paper, and bound in antique boards, $4.00.
A FEW LARGE PAPER COPIES have been prepared. 2 vols. 4to,
$7.50.
∵ Of the Poets of the Restoration, there are none whose works are
more rare than those of Sir John Mennis and Dr. James Smith. The
small volume entitled “Musarum Deliciæ; or, The Muses’ Recreation,”
which contains the production of these two friends, was not
accessible to Mr. Freeman when he compiled his “Kentish Poets,” and
has since become so rare that it is only found in the cabinets of the
curious. A reprint of the “Musarum Deliciæ,” together with several
other kindred pieces of the period, appeared in 1817, forming two
volumes of Facetiæ, edited by Mr. E. Dubois, author of “The Wreath,”
etc. These volumes having in turn become exceedingly scarce, the
Publishers venture to put forth the present new edition, in which,
while nothing has been omitted, no pains have been spared to render
it more complete and elegant than any that has yet appeared. The
type, plates, and woodcuts of the originals have been accurately
followed; the Notes of the editor of 1817 are considerably augmented,
and indexes have been added, together with a portrait of Sir John
Mennis, from a painting by Vandyke in Lord Clarendon’s Collection.
The Story of the Stick
In all Ages and all Lands. A Philosophical History and
Lively Chronicle of the Stick as the Friend and Foe of Man.
Its Uses and Abuses. As Sceptre and as Crook. As the Warrior’s
Weapon, and the Wizard’s Wand. As Stay, as Stimulus, and as
Scourge. Translated and adapted from the French of ANTONY RÉAL
(Fernand Michel). 1 vol., 12mo, extra cloth, red edges, $1.50.
“Wrought for a Staff, wrought for a Rod.”
SWINBURNE.--_Atalanta in Calydon._
The above work condenses in a lively narrative form a most
astonishing mass of curious and recondite information in regard to
the subject of which it treats. From the bludgeon of Cain to the
truncheon of the Marshals of France, from the budding rod of Aaron
to the blazing cane of M. de Balzac, the stick, in all its relations
with man since first he meddled with the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil, is shown here to have played a far greater part in history
than is commonly imagined. It has been the instrument of justice,
it has been the tool also of luxury. It has ministered to man, its
maker, pleasure as well as pain, and has served for his support as
well as for his subjugation. The mysteries in which it has figured
are some of them revealed and others of them hinted in these most
entertaining and instructive pages, for between the days of the
society of Assassins in the East and those of the society of the
Aphrodites in the West, the Stick has been made the pivot of many
secret associations, all of them interesting to the student of human
morals, but not all of them wisely to be treated of before the
general public. The late Mr. Buckle especially collected on this
subject some most astounding particulars of social history, which
he did not live to handle in his own inimitable way, but of which
an adequate inkling is here afforded to the serious and intelligent
reader.
OUR EMIGRANT ANCESTORS.
Original Lists of Persons of Quality.
Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving-men
Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen;
Maidens Pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to
the American Plantations, 1600-1700. With their Ages, the
Localities where they formerly Lived in the Mother Country,
Names of the Ships in which they embarked, and other
interesting particulars. From MSS. preserved in the State
Paper Department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office,
England. Edited by JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN. A very handsome volume,
crown 4to, 700 pages, elegantly bound in half Roxburghe
morocco, gilt top, $10.00.
A few Large Paper copies have been printed, small folio,
$17.50.
Blake’s (Wm.) Marriage of Heaven and Hell:
A reproduction and facsimile of this marvelous work,
printed in colors, on paper made expressly for the work. 4to,
hf. Roxburghe morocco, uncut, $10.00. 1790 (1868).
∵ _A very few copies remaining._
“The most curious and significant, while it is certainly the most
daring in conception and gorgeous in illustration of all Blake’s
works.”--_Gilchrist’s Life of Blake._
A NEW AND ATTRACTIVE BOOK ON MEXICO
A Peep at Mexico:
Narrative of a Journey Across the Republic, from the
Pacific to the Gulf, in December, 1873, and January, 1874. By
J. L. GEIGER, F.R.G.S. Demy 8vo, pp. 368, with 4 Maps and 45
original Photographs. Cloth, $8.50.
The English Rogue.
Described in the Life of MERITON LATROON, and other
Extravagants, comprehending the most Eminent Cheats of both
Sexes. By RICHARD HEAD and FRANCIS KIRKMAN. A fac-simile
reprint of the rare Original Edition (1665-1672), with
Frontispiece, Fac-similes of the 12 copper-plates, and
Portraits of the authors. In Four Volumes, post 8vo,
beautifully printed on antique laid paper, made expressly, and
bound in antique boards, $6.00, or LARGE PAPER COPIES, 4 vols.
8vo, $10.00.
∵ This singularly entertaining work may be described as the first
English novel, properly so-called. The same air of reality pervades
it as that which gives such a charm to stories written by DeFoe half
a century later. The interest never flags for a moment, from the
first chapter to the last.
As a picture of the manners of the period, two hundred years ago,
in England, among the various grades of society through which the
hero passes in the course of his extraordinary adventures, and among
gypsies, beggars, thieves, etc., the book is invaluable to students.
The Rump;
Or, An Exact Collection of the choicest POEMS and SONGS
relating to the late Times, and continued by the most eminent
Wits; from Anno 1639 to 1661. A Fac-simile Reprint of the
rare Original edition (London, 1662), with Frontispiece and
Engraved Title-page. In 2 vols. post 8vo, printed on antique
laid paper, and bound in antique boards, $4.00; or Large Paper
Copies, $6.00.
∵ A very rare and extraordinary collection of some two hundred
Popular Ballads and Cavalier Songs, on all the principal incidents
of the great Civil War, the Trial of Strafford, the Martyrdom of
King Charles, the Commonwealth, Cromwell, Pym, the Roundheads, etc.
It was from such materials that Lord Macaulay was enabled to produce
his vivid pictures of England in the sixteenth century. To historical
students and antiquaries, and to the general reader, these volumes
will be found full of interest.
Westminster Drolleries.
Ebsworth’s (J. Woodfall) Westminster Drolleries, with an
introduction on the Literature of the Drolleries, and Copious
Notes, Illustrations, and Emendations of Text. 2 vols. 12mo,
cloth, uncut, $8.00. Boston (Eng.), 1875.
∵ _Only a small_ Edition; privately printed.
Swinburne’s William Blake;
A Critical Essay. With Illustrations from Blake’s Designs
in Fac-simile, some colored. 8vo, cloth, $3.00.
A valuable contribution to our knowledge of a most remarkable man,
whose originality and genius are now beginning to be generally
recognized.
Holbein and His Times.
By DR. ALFRED WOLTMANN, translated by F. A. BUNNETT. With
portraits and nearly 60 fine engravings from the works of this
wonderful artist. Royal 8vo, cloth extra, _gilt leaves_, $5.00.
Memoir of the Lady Ana De Osorio,
Countess of Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, A.D. 1629-39.
With a Plea for the Correct Spelling of the Chinchona Genus.
By CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C.B., Member of the Imperial Academy
Naturæ Curiosorum, with the Cognomen of CHINCHON. Small 4to,
with Illustrations, $7.50.
FOUNDERS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
Lives of the Founders, Augmenters, and other Benefactors of the British
Museum.
1570 to 1870. Based on new researches at the Rolls House;
in the Department of MSS. of the British Museum; in the Privy
Council Office, and in other Collections, Public and Private.
By EDWARD EDWARDS. 1 vol. 8vo, large and beautiful type,
cloth, $4.00. LARGE PAPER, ROYAL 8vo (only 60 copies printed),
cloth, $10.00.
∵ _By a special arrangement with the English publishers, Messrs.
Trübner & Co., the above is offered at the greatly reduced price
mentioned._
Legge’s Chinese Classics.
Translated into English, with Preliminary Essays and
Explanatory Notes. Vol. I., THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF
CONFUCIUS. Vol. II., THE LIFE AND WORKS OF MENCIUS. Vol. III.,
THE SHE KING; OR, THE BOOK OF POETRY. Together 3 vols. 8vo,
cloth, $10.00.
Diary of the American Revolution.
By FRANK MOORE, from Newspapers and Original Documents.
Handsomely printed on heavy laid paper, and Illustrated with
a fine series of steel-plate portraits, INDIA PROOFS. 2 vols.
impl. 8vo, paper uncut, $8.00. New York, printed privately,
1865.
∴ Large Paper. Only a Limited Impression. Published at $20.00 per copy.
Littré’s French Dictionary.
Dictionnaire de la Langue Française. Par E. LITTRÉ, de
l’Institut (Académie Française et Académie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres). Four large vols. royal quarto, new half
morocco, $40.00.
“No language that we have ever studied, or attempted to study,
possesses a Dictionary so rich in the history of words as this
great work which M. Littré has fortunately lived long enough to
complete.”--_Saturday Review._
UNIFORM WITH THE LARGE FOLIO SHAKSPEARE EDITED BY
THE SAME AUTHOR.
Halliwell’s New Place.
An Historical Account of the New Place,
Stratford-upon-Avon, the last residence of Shakspeare. Folio,
cloth (uniform in size with the edition of Shakspeare’s Works
edited by the Author), elegantly printed on super-fine paper,
and illustrated by upwards of sixty woodcuts, comprising
views, antiquities, fac-similes of deeds, etc. By JAMES O.
HALLIWELL, F.R.S. $10.00.
This is a most important work for the Shakspearian student. The
great researches of the author have enabled him to bring to light
many facts hitherto unknown in reference to the “great bard.” All
the documents possessing any real claim to importance are inserted
at full length, and many of them are now printed for the first time.
With respect to the illustrations, which have been executed by J. T.
Blight, Esq., F. W. Fairholt, Esq., E. W. Ashbee, Esq., and J. H.
Rimbault, Esq., no endeavors have been spared to attain the strictest
accuracy.
_REISSUE OF CRUIKSHANK’S ETCHINGS._
Cruikshank’s Illustrations of Time.
A series of 35 Etchings. By GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. Oblong
quarto, paper, carefully printed from the original plates.
$2.00. 1874
----The Same. COLORED. $3.00. 1874
Cruikshank’s Phrenological Illustrations;
or, An Artist’s View of the Craniological System of
Doctors Gall and Spurzheim. By GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. A series
of _33 Etchings, illustrative of the various Organs of the
Brain_. Oblong quarto, paper, $2.00.
----The Same. COLORED. $3.00.
∵ This reissue, of which only a limited impression has been made, is
printed from the original coppers.
“Have we not before us, at this very moment, a print--one of the
admirable ‘_Illustrations of Phrenology_’--which entire work was
purchased by a joint-stock company of boys--each drawing lots
afterwards for the separate prints, and taking his choice in
rotation? The writer of this, too, had the honor of drawing the first
lot, and seized immediately upon ‘Philoprogenitiveness’--a marvellous
print, indeed--full of ingenuity and fine, jovial humor.”--WM. M.
THACKERAY.
SEVEN GENERATIONS OF EXECUTIONERS.
Memoirs of the Sanson Family.
Compiled from Private Documents in the possession of the
Family (1688 to 1847), by HENRI SANSON. Translated from the
French, with an Introduction by CAMILLE BARRÈRE. Two vols.
post 8vo, cloth, $5.50; or half calf, extra, $7.50.
“A faithful translation of this curious work, which will certainly
repay perusal, not on the ground of its being full of horrors--for
the original author seems to be rather ashamed of the technical
aspect of his profession, and is commendably reticent as to its
details--but because it contains a lucid account of the most notable
_causes célèbres_ from the time of Louis XIV. to a period within the
memory of persons still living.... The memoirs, if not particularly
instructive, can scarcely fail to be extremely entertaining.”--_Daily
Telegraph._
“A book of great though somewhat ghastly interest.... Something much
above a mere chapter of horrors.”--_Graphic._
Avesta.
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF THE PARSEES. From Professor
SPIEGEL’S German Translation of the Original Manuscripts, by
A. H. BLEECK. 3 vols. in 1, 8vo, cloth, $7.50.
English scholars who wish to become acquainted with the “Bible of the
Parsees,” now for the first time published in English, should secure
this copy. To thinkers the “Avesta” will be a most valuable work;
they will now have an opportunity to compare its TRUTHS with those of
the BIBLE, the KORAN, and the VEDAS.
Freemasonry.
PATON’S (CHARLES I.) FREEMASONRY, ITS SYMBOLISM, RELIGIOUS
NATURE, AND LAW OF PERFECTION. Thick 8vo, new cloth, uncut,
$3.50.
Hand-Book of Archæology.
Egyptian--Greek--Etruscan--Roman. By H. M. WESTROPP.
Profusely Illustrated with Engravings on Wood. 8vo, new cloth,
uncut, $3.00.
The Gnostics
AND THEIR REMAINS, ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. By C. W. KING.
Profusely Illustrated. 8vo, new cloth, gilt, $7.50.
∴ The only English work on the subject. _Out of print and scarce._
Champneys’ Quiet Corner of England.
Studies of Landscape and Architecture in Winchelsea, Rye,
and Romney Marsh. With thirty-one Illustrations by ALFRED
DAWSON. Imperial 8vo, cloth, gilt, gilt leaves, $5.00.
“Mr. Champneys is an architect who takes the liberty to think for
himself--a man of much original genius and sincere culture, young,
and with an enthusiastic contempt for conventionality, which I
hope he may never outgrow.”--_New York Tribune, Letter from London
Correspondent._
Ireland’s Shakspeare Forgeries.
The Confessions of William Henry Ireland, containing the
Particulars of his Fabrication of the Shakspeare Manuscripts;
together with Anecdotes and Opinions of many distinguished
Persons in the Literary, Political, and Theatrical World. A
new edition, with additional Fac-similes, and an Introduction
by RICHARD GRANT WHITE. 1 volume, 12mo, vellum cloth, uncut
edges, $2.00; or, on Large and Thick paper, 8vo, $3.50.
Edition limited to 300 copies.
Enthusiasts are easily duped, and of all enthusiasts, excepting
the religious, those who give themselves up to the worship of some
great poet or artist are the easiest prey of the impostor. To them,
a book, a letter, the least scrap or relic which is connected
directly, or it would seem indirectly, with their idol, is an
inestimable treasure, and they are uneasy until it is in their
possession, or removed hopelessly beyond their reach. Of all these
enthusiasts the “Shakspearians” are, and for a hundred years have
been, at once the most numerous, and the most easily, because the
most willingly, deceived. To their craving and their greed we owe
the “Ireland Forgeries,” which were merely an impudent attempt to
supply a demand--an attempt made by a clever, ignorant young scamp,
who succeeded in deluding the whole body of them in England two
generations ago. His “Confessions” are the simply told story of this
stupendous imposture: and the book--long out of print and scarce--is
one the most _naïf_ and amusing of its kind in the whole history of
literature. His exhibition of the “gulls,” whom he made his victims,
is equally delightful and instructive; and chiefly so, because
of his simplicity and frankness. He conceals nothing, palliates
nothing; tells the whole story of his ridiculous iniquity, and
leaves a lasting lesson to the whole tribe of credulous collectors,
Shakspearian and others.
“It has frequently afforded me a matter of astonishment to think
how this literary fraud could have so long duped the world, and
involved in its deceptious vortex such personages as Parr, Wharton,
and Sheridan, not omitting Jemmy Boswell, of Johnsonian renown; nor
can I ever refrain from smiling whensoever the volumes of Malone and
Chalmers, together with the pamphlets of Boaden, Waldron, Wyatt,
and Philalethes, otherwise, ---- Webb, Esq., chance to fall in my
way.”--W. H. IRELAND’S “_Chalcographimania_.”
Womankind in Western Europe,
From the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century.
_Illuminated Title_, 10 CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, and
_numerous Woodcuts_. Small 4to, cloth, extra gilt,
$4.50. 1869.
This work is something more than a drawing-room ornament. It is an
elaborate and careful summary of all that one of our most learned
antiquaries, after years of pleasant labor on a very pleasant
subject, has been able to learn as to the condition of women from the
earliest times.
DeFoe’s Life and Works,
Life and Newly-Discovered Writings of Daniel DeFoe.
Comprising Several Hundred Important Essays, Pamphlets, and
other Writings, now first brought to light, after many years’
diligent search. By WILLIAM LEE, Esq. With Facsimiles and
Illustrations. 3 vols. 8vo, cloth, $6.00. Or in tree calf,
extra, $15.00.
Vol. I.--A NEW MEMOIR OF DEFOE. Vols. II. and
III.--HITHERTO UNKNOWN WRITINGS.
A most valuable contribution to English history and English
literature.
For many years it has been well known in literary circles that the
gentleman to whom the public is indebted for this valuable addition
to the knowledge of DeFoe’s Life and Works has been an indefatigable
collector of everything relating to the subject, and that such
collection had reference to a more full and correct Memoir than had
yet been given to the world.
World’s Masonic Register:
Containing Name, Number, Location, and Time of Meeting of
every Masonic Lodge in the World, etc., also every Chapter,
Council, and Commandery in the United States and Canada,
Date of Organization, etc., and Statistics of each Masonic
Jurisdiction, etc. By Leon Hyneman. _Portrait_, thick 8vo, pp.
566, cloth, $2.00.
The Rosicrucians;
Their Rites and Mysteries. With chapters on the Ancient
Fire and Serpent-Worshippers, and Explanations of the Mystic
Symbols represented in the Monuments and Talismans of the
primeval Philosophers. By HARGRAVE JENNINGS. Crown 8vo, 316
wood engravings, $3.
∴ A volume of startling facts and opinions upon this very mysterious
subject.
Scientific and Religious Mysteries of Antiquity:
The Gnosis and Secret Schools of the Middle Ages, Modern
Rosicrucianism, and Free and Accepted Masonry. By John Yarker.
12mo, new cloth, $2.00.
∴ “The sublime depths of the mysteries of antiquity have been sounded
but by few minds in the lapse of ages, and those who have leisure to
follow upon their tracks will meet with an ample reward.”
ONLY ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED.
Duyckinck’s Cyclopædia of American Literature.
Printed by Alvord, on a hand-press, and on tinted paper of
extra weight and finish, prepared expressly for the work. For
the convenience of persons desirous of illustrating the work,
for which purpose it is admirably adapted, it has been issued
in five parts, with separate rubricated titles, each of the
two original volumes being divided into two parts, of about
three hundred and fifty pages each, and the new Supplement
forming the fifth. A finely engraved portrait printed on India
paper is given with each part. The subjects of these portraits
are Benjamin Franklin, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington
Irving, William Hickling Prescott, and, with the Supplement,
a portrait of the late George L. Duyckinck, newly engraved in
line, by Burt, after an original painting by Duggan. 5 vols.
4to, uncut, $25.00. Half morocco, gilt top, $50.00.
Only thirteen sets of this edition now remain.
Payne Knight’s Worship of Priapus.
A discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its connection
with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients. By RICHARD PAYNE
KNIGHT, Esq. A new edition. To which is added an essay on the
worship of the generative powers during the middle ages of
Western Europe. Illustrated with 138 engravings (many of which
are full-page), from Ancient Gems, Coins, Medals, Bronzes,
Sculpture, Egyptian Figures, Ornaments, Monuments, etc.
Printed on heavy toned paper, at the Chiswick Press, 1 vol.
4to, half Roxburghe morocco, gilt top, $35.00.
“R. P. Knight, the writer of the first ‘Essay,’ was a Fellow of the
Royal Society, a member of the British Parliament, and one of the
most learned antiquaries of his time. His museum of Phallic objects
is now most carefully preserved in the London British Museum. The
second ‘Essay,’ bringing our knowledge of the worship of Priapus down
to the present time, so as to include the more recent discoveries
throwing any light upon the matter, is said to be by one of the most
distinguished English antiquaries--the author of numerous works which
are held in high esteem. He was assisted it is understood, by two
prominent Fellows of the Royal Society, one of whom has recently
presented a wonderful collection of Phallic objects to the British
Museum authorities.”
Gesta Romanorum.
Or, Entertaining Moral Stories. Invented by the Monks as a
fireside recreation; and commonly applied to their Discourses
from the Pulpit, whence the most celebrated of our Poets and
others, from the earliest times, have extracted their Plots.
Translated from the Latin, with Preliminary Observations and
Copious Notes, by the Rev. CHARLES SWAN. New edition, with an
Introduction by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. 2 vols. 8vo,
vellum cloth, uncut, printed on large and heavy paper, $10.00.
Full calf, extra, $17.50.
A limited edition only was printed, of which now only 14
copies remain.
“They” (the Monks) “might be disposed occasionally to recreate
their minds with subjects of a light and amusing nature; and what
could be more innocent or delightful than the stories of the GESTA
ROMANORUM!”--_Douce’s Illustrations to Shakespeare._
Jones’ (Owen) Grammar of Ornament.
A Series of 112 exquisitely colored Plates, executed in
Chromolithography, comprising 3000 examples of the Decoration
of all Ages and Nations, with Descriptive Letterpress,
illustrated with Woodcuts. Folio, cloth, extra, gilt edges.
$30.00.
This new edition is a reproduction of the larger work on a smaller
scale; a few of the plates which could not be reduced have been
printed on a larger scale, and the same artistic matter has been
extended from 100 to 112 plates.
Dibdin’s Bibliomania;
Or, Book-Madness: A Bibliographical Romance. With
numerous Illustrations. A new Edition, with a Supplement,
including a Key to the Assumed Characters in the Drama. 8vo,
half-Roxburghe, $6.00; a few Large Paper copies, Imp. 8vo,
half-Roxburghe, the edges altogether uncut, $12.00.
“I have not yet recovered from the delightful delirium into which
your ‘Bibliomania’ has completely thrown me. Your book, to my taste,
is one of the most extraordinary gratifications I have enjoyed for
many years.”--ISAAC DISRAELI.
Greville’s Memoirs.
Journal of the Reign of King George IV. and King William
IV. By the late Charles C. F. Greville, Esq. Edited by Henry
Reeve. 3 vols. 8vo, cloth, $7.50.
No equally important contribution to the political history of the
last generation has been made by any previous writer. As a man of
rank and fashion, Mr. Greville associated, on terms of equality, with
all the statesmen of his time, and his long tenure of a permanent
office immediately outside of the circle of politics compelled him to
observe a neutrality which was probably congenial to his character
and inclination.--_Saturday Review._
Archie Armstrong’s Banquet of Jests.
Reprinted from the original edition, together with ARCHIE’S
DREAM (1641), handsomely printed in antique style, with red
line borders. Square 12mo, new vellum cloth, uncut, $6.50.
The same, printed on Whatman’s paper (limited to 25
copies). Square 12mo, new cloth, $9.00.
∴ The edition (of all kinds) was limited to 252 copies. It is
completely exhausted, and copies are now difficult to obtain.
“A more amusing budget of odd stories, clever witticisms, and
laughter-moving tales, is not to be found in Jester’s Library.”
Nares’ Glossary.
Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to
Customs, Proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require
Illustration in the Works of English Authors, particularly
Shakespeare and his contemporaries. NEW EDITION, with
additions, etc., by J. O. Halliwell and Thomas Wright. 2 vols.
8vo, new cloth, $6.50.
Gavin Douglas’ Poetical Works.
With Memoir, Notes and Glossary, by J. Small, M.A.,
F.S.A. Illustrated by specimens of the Manuscripts, and the
title-pages and woodcuts of the early editions in facsimile.
Handsomely printed in 4 vols. post 8vo, cloth. $18.00. 1874.
----The same, LARGE PAPER. _Fifty copies only printed._ 4
handsome demy 8vo vols. cloth, $25.00. (Published @ £6.6.0.)
The distinguished poets, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, Bishop of
Dunkeld, and Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, form a trio of whom
Scotland has every reason to be proud; but, as the Works of the
second of these have not hitherto been collected, an Edition of them
has long been a _desideratum_ in Scottish Literature.
Walford’s County Families.
The County Families of the United Kingdom; or, Manual of
the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and
Ireland. Containing a Brief Notice of the Descent, Birth,
Marriage, Education, and Appointments of each person; his
Heir Apparent or Presumptive; as also a Record of the Offices
which he has hitherto held, with his Town Address and Country
Residence. By EDWARD WALFORD, M.A. 1 vol. thick imperial
octavo. Cloth, gilt edges. 1,200 pages, $8.00.
Caxton’s Statutes of Henry VII., 1489.
Edited, with Notes and Introduction, by JOHN RAE, Esq.,
Fellow of the Royal Institution. The earliest known volume
of Printed Statutes, and remarkable as being in English. It
contains some very curious and primitive Legislation on Trade
and Domestic Matters. In remarkable fac-simile, from the rare
original. Small folio, half morocco, uncut, $7.50.
Owen Jones’ Alhambra.
Plans, Elevations, and Sections of the Alhambra, with
the elaborate details of this beautiful specimen of Moorish
Architecture, minutely displayed in 100 beautifully engraved
plates, 67 of which are highly finished in gold and colors,
from Drawings taken on the spot by JULES GOURY and OWEN JONES,
with a complete translation of the Arabic Inscriptions, and
an Historical Notice of the Kings of Granada, by PASCUAL DE
GAYANGOS. 2 vols. imperial folio (pub. at £24), elegantly half
bound morocco, gilt edges, full gilt backs. $100.
The same work on Large Paper, 2 vols. atlas folio, 100
plates, 67 of them in gold and colors, the engraved plates on
India paper (pub. at £36), half bound morocco, gilt edges.
$125.
For practical purposes, to architects the small paper copies will
suffice; but gentlemen desirous of adding a noble book in its finest
appearance to their library, must have a Large Paper copy.
“In spite of earthquakes, mines and counter-mines--spite of Spanish
convicts, French soldiers, Spanish bigotry, and Flemish barbarism
of thieves and gipsys, contrabandists and brigands, paupers,
charcoal-burners and snow-gatherers, the Alhambra still exists--one
of the most recent of European ruins. It is the most perfect in
repair and the richest in design; it has suffered less from man,
or the elements, and has fallen more gently into decay. It was not
molten like Nineveh in an hour, or buried in a day like Pompeii; it
was not smitten down at a blow like Corinth, or sapped for centuries
like Athens. Though it has been alternately a barrack, a prison, a
tea garden, and an almshouse--though its harem has been a hen-house,
its prisons pens for sheep; the Alhambra is still one of the most
wonderful productions of Eastern splendor, lingering in Europe long
after the Moslem waves have rolled back into Asia, like a golden cup
dropped on the sand, or like the last tent of some dead Arab, still
standing, when the rest of his tribe have long since taken up their
spears, untethered their camels, and sought their new homes in the
far desert.”
Prostitution.
DUFOUR (PIERRE). Histoire de la Prostitution chez tous
les peuples du Monde, depuis l’antiquité la plus reculée
jusqu’à nos jours. _Illustrated with numerous fine engravings
on steel._ 6 vols. in 3, 8vo, hf. cf. gilt tops. _Scarce._
$18.00. 6 vols. 8vo, cloth, $13.50.
ORIGINAL and ONLY GENUINE EDITION.
In this learned work--the best that we have on the subject--many
of the chapters are devoted to dissertations on matters of general
interest to students of literature. We instance Chap. XXIV.,
containing a treatise on the Obscenity of the French language, the
Jargon of Argot, its Origin, etc.; also in Chap. XXXII., a highly
interesting bibliographical account of the Aretin plates by Marc
Antonio, etc., etc.
The author was threatened with criminal prosecution, and pledged
himself never to reproduce the work; it has now become scarce.
_NEW AND MAGNIFICENT WORK ON TEXTILE FABRICS._
Ornamental Textile Fabrics
Of all Ages and Nations. A practical Collection of
Specimens. Illustrated with Fifty Plates in Gold, Silver, and
Colors, Comprising upwards of 1,000 various styles of Ancient,
Mediæval and Modern Ornamental Designs of Textile Fabrics,
with Explanatory Description and a General Introduction. By M.
DUMONT-AUBERVILLE. 1 vol. folio, cloth, gilt, extra. $25.00.
The Editor of this work, M. Dupont-Auberville, is known as one of the
most distinguished archæologists of modern France, and Textile Art is
the department of archæology to which he has devoted the best years
of his life. His collection of specimens of textile fabrics embraces
models taken from all ages and from all countries, and is admitted by
all artists to be unique in every respect.
The works of ancient textile art, both in the East and the West, are
done full justice to, but at the same time the framer of “Ornamental
Textile Fabrics” has drawn more amply from the extensive stock of
models belonging to more recent periods. From his immense collection
of specimens taken from the Renaissance and the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, he has selected those subjects which are most
worthy of the attention both of the amateur and the manufacturer.
In this manner the work now submitted to the public is not a mere
ornamental one, but at the same time it possesses a practical
usefulness which must cause it to be valued by all who make a study
of taste in manufacturing industry in general, and the art of weaving
in particular.
_AN ENTIRELY NEW AND REVISED EDITION._
Old Print Collectors’ Guide:
An Introduction to the Study and Collection of Ancient
Prints. Frontispiece, plates of monograms, and illustrations.
By WM. H. WILLSHIRE. Handsomely printed. _2 large vols. demy_
8vo, half morocco, gilt top, $11.00.
∴ This new edition entirely supersedes the previous one, having, in
addition to much new matter, full lists of Monograms and marks of
celebrated collectors and amateurs. A work indispensable to the Print
Collector, being a concentration in one volume of all the varied
information relative to the History of Engraving and of Ancient
Prints.
CONTENTS.--I. Engraving in Ancient Times. II. Engraving in General,
from the beginning of the 13th to the 15th Century. III. On the
Various Processes or kinds of Engraving. IV. Advice on the Study
and Collection of Prints. V. The Various Schools of Engraving. VI.
The Northern Schools to the time of Dürer. VII. Northern Schools
from Dürer to the 17th Century. VIII. The Southern Schools of Wood
Engraving. IX. The Masters of “Chiaro oscuro.” X. Metal Engraving.
Masters of 1446, etc. XI. Dutch and Flemish Schools. XII. French
and English Schools. XIII. Chief Etchers of the Northern Schools.
XIV. On Engraving in the “Dotted Manner.” XV. The Southern Schools
of Engraving on Metal. Nielli. XVI. Italian Schools. XVII. School
of Marc Antonio. XVIII. Chief Etchers of the Italian Schools. XIX.
Mezzotinto Engravings and Engravers. XX. On the Examination and
Purchase of Ancient Prints. XXI. On the Conservation and Arrangement
of Prints. Appendix.--British Museum Collection, Douce Collection,
Oxford, Polytypage, Cliché, Mezzotinto Engraving, High-priced Books,
Varia Bibliography, Monograms, indexes, etc., etc.
The Works of William Unger.
=_A Series of Seventy-two Etchings after the Old Masters._=
With Critical and Descriptive Notes by C. VOSMAER. Comprising
the most celebrated paintings of the following artists:
TINTORETTO, RUYSDAEL, REMBRANDT, GUIDO, POUSSIN, RUBENS,
OSTADE, JAN STEEN, VAN DYCK, WOUVERMANS, PAUL POTTER, FRANS
HALS, VERONESE, JORDAENS, VAN DER VELDE, BROUWER, etc., etc.
Ten parts folio, 16 × 22 inches, printed on heavy Dutch
paper, $60.00. Or half morocco, extra gilt top, elegant and
substantial, $80.00.
“No engraver who ever lived has so completely identified himself with
painters he had to interpret as Professor Unger in the seventy-two
plates which compose his ‘Works.’ He can adopt at will the most
opposite styles, and work on each with ease, a fluency such as
other men can only attain in one manner--their own--and after half
a lifetime. Indeed, one would not be going far wrong to describe
Professor Unger as an art critic of very uncommon insight, who
explains the sentiment and execution of great painters with an
etching needle instead of a pen.
“It has been said of engraving that it is an unintellectual
occupation, because it is simply copyism; but such engraving as this
is not unintellectual, for it proves a delicacy and keenness of
understanding which are both rare among artists and critics. Unger
has not the narrowness of the ordinary artist, for he can enter into
the most opposite styles; nor has he the technical ignorance of the
ordinary critic, for he can draw--I will not say like a great master,
but like twenty different great masters.
“Mr. Vosmaer, the now well-known Dutch critic, who writes in English
and French as well as in his own language, has much increased
the interest in Unger’s etchings by accompanying them with a
valuable biographic essay of his own, much superior to the ordinary
‘letter-press,’ which publishers in general appear to consider as a
necessary companion to engraving.
“The seventy-two etchings before us are, on the whole, the most
remarkable set of studies from old masters which has been issued by
the enterprise of our modern publishers, and they can hardly fail to
make fine work better appreciated both by artists and amateurs.
“A few words of praise are due to the spirited publisher, Mr.
Sijthoff, of Leyden, for the manner in which these etchings of
Unger have been published. They are printed on fine Dutch paper,
and mounted (pasted by the upper edge only) on sufficiently good
boards in such a manner as to enter into the most carefully arranged
collections without further change. They are accompanied by a text
printed with the greatest taste, on very fine Dutch paper. This
series is printed in one class of proof only, and issued at a price
that is most reasonable, and Mr. Sijthoff deserves our thanks for
placing works of real art, thoroughly well got up, within the reach
of cultivated people who have limited incomes.
“We recommend them strongly to all artists and lovers of art
as a valuable means of art education and a source of enduring
pleasure.”--HAMERTON in the _International Review_ for Jan., 1876.
Etchings after Frans Hals.
A Series of 20 beautifully executed Etchings. By WILLIAM
UNGER. With an Essay on the Life and Works of the artist, by
C. Vosmaer. Two parts, complete, royal folio. Impressions
on India paper, $25.00. Selected proofs, before letters, on
India paper, $40.00. Artist proofs on India paper, $60.00.
Or elegantly bound in half Levant morocco, extra, gilt top,
$15.00 additional to the above prices. Uniform with Unger’s
works.
“They who know the Dutch painter Hals only through the few portraits
by him which have reached this country have but a slight comparative
acquaintance with his works. ‘A stranger to all academical lore, to
all literary co-operation,’ writes Mr. Vosmaer, ‘Frans Hals appeared
merely as a portrait-painter, like most of the modern artists of
his youth ... true to life, but also excelling by naturalness and
masterly handling. Subsequently he portrayed the joyous popular life
of the streets and the tavern; at last those phases of national
social life, which have at once their image and memorial in the
pictures of the arquebusiers and the civic governors.’”--_London Art
Journal_, Aug. 1873.
_THE NEW FRENCH ART JOURNAL._
L’Art.
Revue Hebdomadaire Illustrée. (M. Eugène Véron et Chas.
Tardieu, rédacteurs.) Handsomely printed on heavy toned paper,
and illustrated with several hundred engravings on wood from
drawings and pictures by celebrated cotemporary artists,
examples of antique and modern sculpture, objects of Art
Industry in all branches, and a series of superbly executed
etchings by the best living etchers, executed expressly for
this work; being principally from the more noticeable pictures
exhibited in the Salons of Europe, carefully printed on
Holland paper. Forming four volumes a year. Royal folio (17½
× 12 in.) of about 500 pp. each, with nearly 200 woodcuts,
facsimiles, etc., and upwards of twenty etchings in each
volume. 4 vols., folio. Stitched, paper covers, uncut, $36.00.
In cloth, gilt top, uncut edges, $45.00. Handsomely bound
in half red morocco (Jansen style), gilt tops, uncut edges,
$65.00.
ANOTHER EDITION, printed throughout on heavy _Holland
paper_, in the most careful manner. The etchings in two
states, _Artist proof_ on _Japan paper_, and ordinary print on
Holland paper. The edition is _strictly limited to one hundred
copies, numbered_. Forming 4 thick volumes, folio. Price,
$125.00.
∵ N. B.--Payments to be made on delivery of each quarterly
volume.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“Nowhere but in Paris could such a Review be produced every week
as _L’Art_, so magnificent in every respect, paper, typography,
illustrations, and above all, so many sided in its view of art, and
so abundant and interesting in its information. It has now been
brought to the fourth year of its life, with every sign of assured
and increasing vigor, and we are glad to learn, from the report
of the editor to the subscribers, that something more substantial
than the _succès d’estime_ has rewarded the experiment of such a
costly venture.... It is simply the cheapest and the best thing of
its kind. M. Véron seems, at any rate, to have solved the problem
of combining excellence with cheapness. We find, besides numerous
little facsimiles of sketches, and autograph letters of eminent
artists, musicians, and dramatists, no less than seventy fine
etchings by such men as Flameng, Courtry, Desbrosses, Lançon, etc.,
and woodcuts of Claude’s and Turner’s pictures, with a series of
very remarkable copies of the famous tapestries at Madrid, from the
designs of Albrecht Dürer and Van Eyck, by Edmond Yon, Perrichon, and
C. Maurand, as well as singularly fine examples of wood engraving.
Supposing the reading matter of the Review were as ephemeral and
trivial in its purpose as the cheapest of the cheap instead of being,
as it is, rich and racy, with the native style of all French pens,
thoughtful and often profoundly suggestive, and generally complete,
in reference to detail, the two etchings by Flameng, from pictures by
Frans Hals and Nicholas Maas, alone would be really most valuable and
acceptable to the print-collector.... While _L’Art_ is conducted in
this style the editor may feel quite secure that France will not lose
that artistic supremacy she has long held.”--_London Times._
“It would be easy and pleasant to go on discoursing about the
pictures in _L’Art_, a paper which is so full of good, sober,
and just criticisms, trustworthy news about art, and designs not
otherwise to be obtained by most people.”--_Saturday Review._
“The new volume of _L’Art_ sufficiently manifests the success of
a very valuable and interesting publication.... There is no other
journal in existence which so happily and skilfully combines the
labors of artists and authors which does not subordinate art to
letters, or letters to art, but permits them to go ‘hand in hand,
not one before another.’... In brief, this grand folio volume of
_L’Art_ abounds in matters of interest to all readers and students of
æsthetic and cultivated taste.”--_The World_ (London).
“There is some monotony in praising each successive portion of a
periodical as it appears with an absolutely equal cordiality; but the
evenness of merit in _L’Art_ makes this uniformity of commendation a
duty.”--_The Nation._
“America is so destitute of illustrated works which can at all
compare with _L’Art_ that she cannot do better than study and enjoy
this French publication. Certainly there is no other means by which
so many valuable pictures can be obtained at so small a price.”--_The
Christian Union._
“Sumptuous in paper and type, lavish in illustrations, and with
critical and explanatory text of singular merit; the most famous of
modern art journals.”--_N. Y. Times._
The Portfolio:
An Artistic Periodical, edited by PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON.
Illustrated with Etchings, Autotypes, Woodcuts, Facsimiles,
Engravings, Heliogravures, etc. _Published monthly._
Subscription reduced to TEN DOLLARS per annum.
∴ _Sent, Postage free, to any part of the United States, on
receipt of the Subscription price._
“The chief intention of ‘The Portfolio’ is to supply to its
subscribers, at a lower cost than would be possible without the
certain sale of a regular periodical circulation, Works of Art
of various kinds, but always such as are likely to interest a
cultivated public; and to accompany them with literature by writers
of proved ability, superior to mere letter-press, and more readable
than pure criticism or cataloguing.” Among the artists who have
furnished original etchings are Bracquemond, Lalanne, Rajon, Legros,
and Leopold Flameng, who has given some noble specimens of his
skill, especially in the reproduction of “The Laughing Portrait of
Rembrandt,” in his particular province as a reviver of the works of
that artist. The subjects in all cases are chosen for their worth
and rarity, and in these respects the “Portfolio” fairly rivals its
great contemporary, one of the noblest fine-art periodicals ever
issued, the Parisian “Gazette des Beaux-Arts.” It has the same finish
in execution in the minutest details of paper and print, and is in
every way a _thoroughly artistic production_, far ahead in this way
of anything of the class heretofore issued in England.
There are numerous single illustrations in the “Portfolio,” worth the
price of the volume, suitable for framing.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“Of the PORTFOLIO altogether it is to be said, that not only is it
_the first periodical in the English language devoted to fine-art,
but that it leads all others by a very great distance_, whatever the
second and third of such publications may be taken to be.
“We warmly commend it to the notice of all who would cultivate in
themselves and their families an appreciation of the beautiful in
nature and art. The illustrations are largely of sylvan scenery,
and etchings from the finest paintings are given, with letter-press
descriptions, and the best articles from the highest authorities, so
that the monthly paper itself, an illustration of what is taught,
becomes a complete magazine of the science of art. _We would regard
the introduction of such a journal into the family as a good
educator, while it will prove a source of exquisite pleasure to those
who have already a taste for the beautiful._”--_N. Y. Observer._
“We look for the PORTFOLIO as for the only serial published, in
which works of art of a certain kind and of peculiar merit are to
be found. Etching is not as popular, perhaps, as it should be, but
if anything is likely to bring its merits before the public, it is
such examples as are to be had here. Their effect is striking, and in
execution they are little short of perfect; at any rate they exhibit
this kind of work in the highest degree of perfection to which it has
attained.”--_N. Y. Daily Times._
“Mr. Hamerton’s PORTFOLIO is easily chief among English art
periodicals, and has the advantage of being written by men who
are not only familiar with the literature of art and the works of
artists, but are artists by profession, and so know the feelings,
aims, and technicalities of artists. The editor is probably better
acquainted with continental artists and their work than most of
the insular fellows, and his art theories and criticisms are
proportionately more catholic and valuable. The PORTFOLIO, instead
of being a magazine of current gossip about artists and their
doings, is a work of permanent value, apart from its excellent
illustrations, as a collection of able essays, critical, historical,
technical, and personal, very free from narrowness and professional
or national prejudice. It is the glory of the Portfolio that it
is in a way cosmopolitan, free from the prejudices of nations and
schools.”--_Atlantic Monthly._
“The Portfolio is very charming. An Art periodical far superior to
anything which has hitherto appeared.”--_Guardian._
“From the first it has stood nearly alone as really ‘an artistic
periodical.’ An hour spent over the Portfolio is one of refreshment,
encouragement, and unalloyed delight.”--_Spectator._
“Of the Etchings the merits are unquestionable: indeed, the work
is enriched with some of the finest examples. The literary part
is generally worthy of praise for being scholarly, graceful, and
interesting.”--_Athenæum._
“Dealing with artistic subjects generally, and always in a spirit of
intelligence and refinement.”--_Graphic._
“To the portfolio is unanimously accorded the first place as an
artistic periodical.”--_Cambridge Chronicle._
Back volumes for 1870, ’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76,
and ’77 may still be had on application. Any volume sold
separately. Price, in _blue cloth_, _gilt leaves_, $14.00 each.
Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Those in bold are surrounded by equal signs, =like this=.
Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to precede the
index. Printing errors, such reversed order, or partially printed
letters, diacriticals, and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops
missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.
Except as noted below for Greek and Hebrew, misspelled words and
irregular use of quotation marks were not changed. Footnote 608 has
two anchors.
Τhree-column texts in the original were reformatted as blockquotes
to improve display in handheld devices. The “pigpen” cipher is
illustrated on lines 17308 through 17340.
In the index, punctuation was standardized and a few page number
references were adjusted to match book pages. Some entries are not
in alphabetical order; these were left as printed. Term indexed as
“spirit-ancestor” does not appear in either Volume 1 or Volume 2.
Corrections to Greek:
TEXT:
line 4162, from Επὶ ὸπτομαι to Επι οπτομαι
line 9998, from καθολὶκὰ πνεὺματα to καθολικὰ πνεύματα
line 12258, from παλινθρομοῡσι to παλινδρομοῦσι
line 13192, from Ιαο to Ιαω
line 14205, from Υαχινθε to Υακινθε
line 15053, from αχοιμητω σροφαλιγγι to ακοιμητω στροφαλιγγι
FOOTNOTES:
FN [561] from γρωτογονος to πρωτογονος
INDEX:
line 33587, from ανθροπος to ανθροπως
line 37599, from Λογος Αληθης to Λόγος Αληθής
line 41224, from Λογος Αληθης to Λόγος Αληθής
Corrections to Hebrew:
TEXT:
line 7560, from חכטות to חכמות
line 8031, from בויצ to בויץ
line 9250, from בתר to כתר
line 9269, from תפא־ת to תפארת
line 9277, from שבינה to שכינה
line 9387, from שמ to שם
line 9433, from עולמ to עולם
line 9552, from חכמות־נסתדה to חכמות־נסתרה
line 11531, from אין to עין
line 11595, from עצחיומ to עצחיום
line 11652, from אפּוַימ to אפּוַים
line 13015, from וה to יה
line 13227, from יח to יה
line 20155, from קיך to קין
line 20218, from תבל to הבל
line 20226, from קיון to קינן
line 20245, from אוד to ארד
line 20248, from לםך to למך
line 21151, from יבת to יכח
FOOTNOTES:
[878] from כחכות עור to כתנות עור
[912] from הוי to חוי
INDEX:
line 34848, from יהוה אלהימ to יהוה אלהיםProject Gutenberg
Isis unveiled, Volume 2 (of 2), Theology : $b A master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Chimera66
Academic