Art Magic

It is enough to affirm that the vestiges of humanity in every country and age, bear testimony to man's belief in the ministry and interposition in human affairs of orders or beings both superior and inferior to mortals, operating for good and evil, but always through methods beyond the power of mortal achievement, appealing to the senses through modes of action not possible to man without their aid, and after a fashion which proves them to be limited by none of the known laws of nature.

From the days when the most ancient Sanscrit writings laid down modes of invoking spirits, described their qualities and influences, and prescribed the conditions under which mortals should hold communion with them, up to the nineteenth century, when the "spiritualists who permeate every land of civilization, point their little tracts descriptive of the best means of forming 'circles' for the purpose of evoking spirit presence and communion, there never was an age or time when man in some form or other did not believe in Spiritual existences subordinate to the Deity; in the means of communing with them, and in their influence on human action for good or evil."

From the collected opinions of the Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Jews, Hebrew and Oriental Cabbalists, Talmudists, Greeks and Romans, as well as from the author's own personal experience with spirits of different orders and grades, we present the following special summary of ideas concerning the various degrees of Spiritual existences in the Universe.

Whilst nearly every nation of antiquity deemed of God as the Demiurgus; neither male nor female, yet both; as of a Central Source of life, light, heat and creative energy, one alone, yet incomprehensible, uncreated and indestructible, all taught of subordinate procedures from Him. The first of these was a Divine Being corresponding to the Bramah of the Hindoo Trinity, the Osiris of Egypt, the Ormuzd of Persia, the Logos of Philo, the Adam Kadman of the Cabbalists.

The idea embodied in this Eheogony was that in the Deity resided the masculine principle of Power, and the feminine of Wisdom, called by the Cabbalists En Soph and Sophia. From the incomprehensible union of these two proceeded a third, the Logos, or Word, through which the will of God became manifest in expression -that is, in the evolution of forms - worlds, suns, systems, reproductive germs, and realms of progressive being. In this stupendous system, the superior emanations were Gods, directing the birth, formation and destinies of worlds; then came Archangels, charged with missions of Almighty power and wisdom. To them succeeded legions of Angels, some entrusted with the direction of Planets, Earths, Nations, Cities and Societies, hence called "Tutelary Angels," and worshiped as Gods. Others, exercising rule in specific groups, and classified by Hebrew Cabbalists as "Thrones, Dominions, Powers."

The division of Angels and Spirits into grand Hierarchies, Legions, and specific offices of divine ministration, would occupy a volume, and give a vast and exalted perception of the antique view of Spiritual existence. Descending from the grander scale of angelic ministration recited above, we notice that the Sages and Seers of antiquity identified certain spirits as the inspiring agencies of art, science, different branches of industry, and all the occupations of social, artistic, and even commercial life. The Hebrew Scriptures continually declare that God put it into the heart of such and such individuals to work in brass or wood, fine linen, or rich coloring. In the direct and intuitional communion with Spiritual existences enjoyed by the Hebrews, it was assumed that all good or exceptionally great powers resulted from inspiration, and, as explained in the New Testament, those were called Gods, to whom the word of God came; so when the terms God, or Lord, were made use of to signify the source of the idea, Spiritual influence was the kernel implied in the expression.

Below all the inspiring agencies for good were assumed to exist legions of evil spirits, almost as numerous, and scarcely less powerful to tempt and destroy, than good Angels were to bless.

Between these two realms of opposing powers were ranged human Souls, not only in their incarnate forms of mortal being, but also as disembodied spirits, vast realms of spiritual existence being assigned to them, interpenetrating and surrounding the earth, through which, in successive stages of growth and progress, the pilgrim Soul was permitted to win its way back to the celestial state from which it had fallen by mortal birth.

Every human Soul was supposed to attract to itself from the moment of birth two Spirits, the one powerful to influence for good, the other for evil. These Spirits were called by the ancients good and evil Genii; and the natural proclivities to vice or virtue in the individual to whom they ministered were supposed to be stimulated or exalted, according as the Soul gave head to the inspiration of the tempter, or the counsellor.

Besides the realms of being above enumerated, it was claimed that other orders existed, neither wholly good or purely evil; neither entirely spiritual, nor actually material in their natures; creatures of the elements, corresponding in their state, power and function, to the different elements in the universe, and filling up all the realms of space with uncounted legions of embryonic and rudimental forms.

These being were, by reason of their semi-spiritual nature, invisible to man, and, because of the gross tincture of matter in their composition, unable to discern any orders of being but themselves, except through rare and exceptional rifts in their atmospheric surroundings. They corresponded to the ether, air, atmosphere, water, earth, minerals, plants and different elements of which the earth and the universe generally is composed. Some of these beings were malicious and antagonistic to man, and others harmless and good. All exerted power, especially in the direction of the element to which they corresponded; they were said to be endowed with graduated degrees of intelligence, and to have bodies subject to the laws of birth, growth, change and death.

From being invisible to man, except through rare or prepared conditions, they were termed spirits; from being embryonic, rudimentary and attached only to certain fragments of the universe, they were termed Elementaries. Every plant and every world, every dew-drop and every sun, sustained swarms of this parasitical life, so that there was not an atom of matter but what was redolent of it. Had the ancients been acquainted with the powers of the microscope, they would doubtless have classed the infusoria and animalculae revealed by this wondrous instrument with the realms of elementary spirits. Be this as it may, it was assumed that, as their existence was only rudimentary, and the evidences of that divine trinity which in man constitutes an immortal being, namely, matter, force and spirit, was lacking, so they had no soul and were not immortal. It was also taught of the Elementaries, that though they propagated their species, were animated by will and some share of intelligence, lived their term of life, and died, still they possessed no concrete, self-conscious principle of being sufficiently developed to enable the spiritual essence that escaped at death to become individualized, and retain a recollection of its past, or a personal consciousness of its own identity. Thence it was taught that the spiritual essence of the disintegrated organism was gathered up in death and passed into some more advanced form of being; that each successive birth purified its nature and enlarged its capacity; in fact, that it was life, instinct, and matter, in progressive stages of existence, and that this progress continued until the most rudimental sparks of spiritual being expanded into fully developed spiritual blossoms, attained to the glory and dignity of self-conscious spiritual entities, gravitated to spiritual spheres, and from thence became attracted to earth, entered into the Soul principle of man, and thus united him in essence with all the lower forms of being, and themselves commenced a self-conscious and immortal stage of fresh ascending pilgrimages.

"The spheres of elementary existence," says a famous Oriental Cabbalist, "are as numerous and their orders as rife with variety and function as are the earth's planets, suns, systems, and realms of ether."

There cannot be a grain of matter but has its corresponding spiritual counterpart. Ranging from the infinitely large to the infinitely little, from a world to a monad, all things in the universe of matter are supplemented by an universe of spirit, and it is as unreasonable to suppose that mighty suns and resplendent planets should be destitute of Providential law, order, guidance and maintenance, through deific tutelary Angels, as that a sand-grain or a dew-drop should be left to the direction of its own unaided and non-intelligent movements. All, all, are but external expressions of the immortal soul, which in fragments and atoms suited to the thing it vitalizes, animates, permeates and sustains all being, even as the Soul of man vitalizes his material structure."

We have given this teaching as a compendium of antique and chiefly Oriental thought; but we now preface all farther attempts at elucidating the subject matter of this work, by claiming every iota of this philosophy to be the truth, as it appears to the mind of the author.

From long years of communion with spirits of every grade, high and low, perfected and rudimental; from the privilege of wandering in their spheres in the clairvoyant condition, from visits made spiritually to the realms of elementary being where the poor, imperfect dwellers beheld in the astral body of their visitant an imaginary God, from dreams, trances, visions, open and oral communication with angelic beings and ministering spirits, and author insists that the doctrines herein enunciated are transcripts of the order of the Universe, as clearly laid down as the half-prophetic, half-bedimmed vision of humanity can apprehend it, and that, whether accepted or rejected, it contains holy truths, which belong to the best interests of humanity to comprehend; revealments which our fathers understood, and we have lost sight of, from our undue devotion to material interests, and our blind fanaticism in ignoring all spiritual research save such as comes through an effete and materialistic ecclesiasticism.

We are quite aware that if this volume should fall into the hands of one-idead, self-styled scientists, the avowal of faith just recorded will amply justify such readers in committing the work to the flames as the ravings of a lunatic. Should it be read by any of those presumptuous and narrow-minded Spiritualists who assume that there is no other realm of spiritual being than that occupied by their own particular familiars, we anticipate the wail of denunciation they will raise, insisting that no theory can be true, or worth studying, that has not been spelled out by their rapping spirits, declared in doggrel rhymes through their semi-tranced media, or lisped out in comical broken English, by the spirits of "little Indian maids," or "big braves," once renowned for eloquence and wisdom, but transformed through mediumistic witchery, into imbeciles and buffoons. Should it be read by the too devoted followers of the soul-illuminated Seer of Sweden, who cannot admit of any truth which the mind of Swedenborg failed to grasp, they will say, these writings are dictated by lying spirits, and that, because he, the conservator and revelator of all truth to the minds of the bigoted, affirmed, that all angels, even the highest that moved around the throne of God, "had once been men."

Should these pages fall into the hands of the intelligent modern Spiritualist whose incessant watch-word is "light, more light!" his comment will be, "this may be true or false, but because I don't know it to-day, I will endeavor to prove it to-morrow, and accept or reject it, only as I can prove it."

Should the work fall into the hands of a learned "Pagan," well-read "Heathen," or instructed Orientalist, he will say, "Surely this writer has heard the voices of the Oracles; beheld the glories of the mysteries; and sat at the feet of the Sages, who quaffed from the eternal fountain of revelation!

"He is an initiate - a Hierophant - a Brother who speaks the word of truth known only to the few; the Master's Word is whispered in these pages, thrilling through the bones to the very marrow of humanity."

According to some, but not by any means the most intelligent or best educated of the American Spiritualists, there is no God at all, only a "principle," and nothing higher in the scale of being than the spirits of their deceased friends and kindred; but these materialistic philosophers form but a small part of that intelligent nation of thinkers, and their teachings have but little weight beyond a few score of poor people, who gather together, and in grandiloquent phraseology congratulate each other on being the great I Ams of the Universe.

The majority of persons convinced by wonderful signs and tokens in America, that the souls of men live and communicate to their friends on earth, have seemed to the author to be waiting for some philosophy or revelation that should carry them beyond this one isolated fact, and reduce spiritual existence and human life to correspondential and appreciable doctrines of science.

Would that these humble writings might aid to practicalize their noble aspirations!

The sacred books of Hermes, once supposed to have been the most ancient writings in the world, but now more generally deemed to have been copies of the Hindoo Vedas, transplanted from India into Egypt, give most elaborate accounts of the different orders of angelic beings in the Universe, and render descriptions of the spiritual counterparts of every plant, mineral, raindrop or speck of dust in the earth and its atmosphere.

Eusebius, the Christian Bishop of Caesarea, who wrote in the fourth century of the Christian era, claimed to have been familiar with these famous Hermetic writings. He says they often repeat the question: "Have you not been told that all spirits are sparks from the Divine Soul of the Universe; Gods, Demons, Souls, yet in their variousness all emanations from Him?"

Jamblichus, quoting from the same source, writes: "From this one came all Gods that be; all souls, all spirits, good and bad, and many that be neither very wicked nor yet good.

"There be many kinds of spiritual essences besides soul, as spirits of the earth, the sea, running waters, and even some that do inhabit the holes of reptiles that live on the banks of rivers, or the depth of mines......Their abiding places cannot so much as be named, without enumerating all the secret corners of the earth......That these spirits are often under the dominion of man, is as true as that they may be transformed by the arch enemy of mankind into instruments of ill, to work the deeds of darkness, in which he delights."

Lao-Kiun, a contemporary of the great Chinese Sage Confucius, founded a school, which, for the spirituality of its doctrines, far transcended the teachings of Confuscius. His text of religious faith was: "Tao (meaning God) produced one; one produced two, two produced three, and three produced all things."

During the lifetime of this philosopher, a book containing the names and offices of innumerable companies of spirits was found, as it was asserted, suspended on the royal gate of Pekin, placed there by no mortal hand and supposed to be full of direct revelations from heaven.

This miraculous volume is said to have contained magical formulae for the evocation and control of spirits; directions how to cast out devils and heal diseases; also the profoundest secrets of alchemy, namely the composition of the philosopher's stone and the elixir vitae.

To satisfy the bigotry and superstitious fears of succeeding generations, this book, together with all other magical writings, was destroyed. Still, it was asserted that private copies had been made and circulated of its contents. From a curious and very ancient roll of MSS, in the royal library of Pekin, the author has had the privilege of copying a fine astrological chart, and a magical evocation of elementary spirits, assumed to have been first written in the aforesaid book.

In Chaldea, the only great nation of antiquity in which Phallic and Yonic emblems are not found, proving by the universal prevalence of pure astronomical symbols, the extreme antiquity of the worship there practiced, a belief in various ascending and descending grades of spirits and angels, everywhere speaks out from the mighty and stupendous ruins. The same belief, only on a much more elaborate scale, was cherished amongst the Medes and Persians, and taught in all its minutiae by Zoroaster.

The universal prevalence of image worship throughout the East is due to the idea that the spirits of Stars, Planets, Angels, Seraphs, Chrubs and Elementary Spirits could be attracted to their images, when consecrated under magical formulae, and not only fix the worshipers' minds upon the spirits represented in the images, but actually draw them into these material receptacles. The strange and grotesque forms of consecrated images may thus be accounted for.

The winged Bull of Nineveh was the personification of the Cherubim. The winged Serpent represented the Seraphim.

The immense number of insects, birds and animals esteemed as sacred, and rendered homage to in animal images, were all supposed to be attended by spiritual essences, whose power resided in the particular shape of the creatures venerated.

The Persian Theogony not only includes all the ideas we have dwelt upon in other systems, but is divided by Zoroaster into interminable chains of Spiritual existences, two of whom, one good and another evil, is assigned as an Attendant "Ferver," to every living creature. Besides these, are hosts of Elementary Spirits, assumed to exert a beneficent or malignant influence upon every particle of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Zoroaster's system, like that of the ancient Hindoos and Egyptians, was full of high moral teachings, and, save for the cruelty and reckless waste of life manifested in its system of sacrificial rites, forms a code of ethics not inferior to the sweetness and beauty of the teachings ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth. here as in Cabalism, Spirit is assumed to be a primal essence, containing the archetypes of all ideas. God is the one central source of light. Ormuzd the first Divine emanation, the King of Light. Mithra and Arimanes, the next procedures, are representatives of the resplendent God of Light, heat and goodness, and the terrific prince of cold, darkness and evil. All created forms are patterned after the archetypal ideas existing in the Divine Mind, and endless chains of good and evil Spirits, Angels, Genii and Elementaries, fill up all spaces in the invisible realms in which matter floats.

As in Chaldea, the most renowned methods of interpreting the will of God were by soothsaying and divination, so in Persia the favorite resort was to Astrology. The Persians claimed that the Stars were divine Scriptures, in which the order of visible nature was plainly mapped out; that the numerous changes and configurations of the heavenly bodies produced relative changes in the simplicity of the scheme indicated on the path of the Zodiac. That each star had its special influence upon the plant or living creature which was born during its ascendency.

Minerals, earths, waters and places, were directly governed by planetary influence. The mind was governed by the phases of the moon. All colored objects or glittering stones by the sun or one of the six planets; in fact, the rise and fall of nations and the destinies of individuals were spelled out by Persian Astrologers on the starry heavens, and he would have been considered an ignoramus or audacious skeptic, worthy of death, who should presume to dispute the prophetic dictum of any well-versed Persian Astrologer.

The Priests of this nation were called Magi, and it seems probable that this term, signifying Wise men, was used for the first time in this connection. Besides the Art of Astrology and Soothsaying, in which the Persian Magi were instructed as part of their education, they practiced in later days enchantment and divination, and as these arts began to be used popularly in other nations, and were often combined with Sorcery, Necromancy and phases of Magic of the most questionable character, the term Magician was at length applied to those who abused the power of Magic, exercised it for unholy purposes, or by aid of evil spirits. It was in this sense that the writers of the Pentateuch designated those Priests of Egypt who contend with Moses. They called them Magicians, whilst Moses in their phraseology was the Servant of God. They (the Magicians) acted under the influence of "Demons," Moses under that of the Hebrews' Tutelary "Deity." It is thus that we learn how the title of Magician - originally synonymous with superior wisdom and divine knowledge - may be used as a term of reproach by rival practitioners.

To the egotistical translators of the Septuagint, the performances of Moses with frogs, serpents, lice and other abominations were the work of "God," acting through his chosen servant; that of the Egyptian Priests, "Magic," a word as abominable in Jewish lips as it was honorable amongst Egyptians or Persians.

There is a Sanscrit word signifying worship, which somewhat resembles Magus, or Enchanter, a term synonymous in Chaldaic, with the Persian Magian. The translators of the Septuagint allege that the Babylonian High Priest was called Rab Mog, or Mag; hence it seems that Magic, Magian, Magician, and all their derivatives were, in the first instance, significant of deep religious meaning; but subsequently become corrupted into base and injurious terms, by the misuse that was made of the power they referred to.

In a curious old treatise, by Godwyn, on the manners, times and theological worship of the ancient Romans, published in 1622, there are the following items of information concerning the subdivisions of their Gods and Spirits, etc.:

"Though Satan had much blinded the hearts of men in old times, yet was not the darkness so great, but that they did easily perceive that there was some governor, some first mover, as Aristotle saith; some first originall of all goodnesse, as Plato teacheth; so that if any made this question whether there was a God or no, they were urged to confess the truth that there was a God; yet were they very blind in discerning the true God, and hence hath been invented such a tedious catalogue of Gods, that, as Varro averreth, their number hath exceeded thirty thousand. ......The second kind of Gods were called Semides id est demi-Gods; also, Indigites id est Gods adopted or canonized, or, men deified. For, as the select Gods had possession of heaven by their own right, so these Gods canonized had it no other way than by right of donation, being, therefore, translated into heaven, because they lived as Gods upon earth." ......Then follows a description of the rights of canonization, unnecessary to quote. The author goes on to say: "But that we may understand what is meant by these Semones (Gods of the third order), we must remember that by them are signified - not the Gods that appertain to us - but the necessaries of man's life, as his victuals, clothing and the like - to the which well-being of man were Gods of good and evil fortune, inclining to give or withhold.

"We read, likewise, of divers names given to many Gods who did severally afford help unto many, so that they were called tutelares, such as had undertaken the protection of any City or Towne, and thence are named for the City or Towne, as St. George, of England; St. Denis, of France; St. Patrick, of Ireland, etc., and the Romans, being fully persuaded of this kind of guard, held by tutelares, when they went about to besiege a Towne by certain enchantments or spells, they would first call out the Tutelar God, because they deemed it impossible to captivate the City as long as these Gods were within, and least others might use the same means in besieging Rome, therefore, as divers authors have thought, the true name of the Roman City was never known, least thereby the name of their Tutelar God might be descryed......And as they supposed some Tutelar spirit to have the charge of whole countries, so did they believe that others had the charge of particular men, and that so soon as any man was born, two spirits did presently accompany him invisibly, the one termed the good Angell, or bonus Genius, persuading him to that which is goo; the other called the Malus Genius, or evil Angell, tempting to that which should be hurtful, insomuch that they thought all the actions of men were guided by these Genii, so that if any misfortune befell a man they would say, 'We have grieved our Genius,' or 'Our Genius being displeased with us, or opposed to us.'"......"These Genii were thought to be a middle essence between Gods and men."......"They appear in divers forms, but oftener as a fierce tragical man, as did the evil Genius who warned Brutus of his fate, or a decrepit old man, or a sad one, or in many such forms of anger or woe as mankind doth assume."