Art Magic

In Chaldea, as in other Asiatic and Eastern nations, the connection between religious rites and the art of magic was inseparable. The highest class of the Priesthood - those set apart for Temple service - were "Star Gazers" or Astrologers, healers of the sick, by magnetism (i.e.,), the laying on of hands - and even the High Priest himself - the functionary who virtually ruled the land through his influence over the reigning monarch - delivered oracles, and often practiced the highest form of magical rites. So great was the skill of the Chaldean Magi in Astrology, that it has become proverbial in all ages to attribute the invention of this art to the Chaldeans, and in some lands the term Astrologer and Chaldean were held to be synonymous.

The Babylonish Priests were reputed to be thoroughly well acquainted with the occult virtue of stones, plants, herbs, vapors and narcotics. They claimed to be able to cast spells on whole armies, arresting their progress, or paralyzing their power of action. They could even cause the downfall of nations, though it is obvious they had no such power in the preservation of their own once splendid dynasty. Their achievements during the flush of their splendor and magnificence, caused their vast claims for magical knowledge to be feared and quoted through all contemporaneous nationalities.

Their methods of interpreting dreams and visions, of prophesying or soothsaying, and resisting the action of fire, are significantly alluded to in the book of Daniel, wherein it clearly appears that the natural endowments, or in modern phraseology, the normal mediumship of the young Hebrew Captives, were found superior in truthful results to the arts of the instructed Magians, and it is quite probable that if many of the stupendous claims set up for the magical practices of antiquity could be brought to a similar test, they would be found inferior to the true prophetic gifts which spring from natural endowments. It is well to notice, however, that Danies and his companions practiced that strict regimen and remarkable abstinence which has been so universally found efficacious in promoting spiritual afflatus. Let not those who rely solely on their mediumship without culture, mistake this important suggestion.

In Chaldea as amongst all other ancient nations, the most honored class of the Priests were true prophets, persons naturally endowed, but these fortunate individuals, like the Hebrews, often arose outside the priestly ranks, and even when within them, seldom accepted office, preferring - as those gifted by the power of the spirit invariably do - to act independently of priestly organizations. Amongst the priests there were three distinct classes. The first were the Singers, Musicians, or Exorcists, who were commonly employed in exorcising demons and ministering to the sick. These by their admirable performances on instruments or in solemn chants stimulated the minds of worshipers to devotion, enchanted the listeners, even serpent becoming obedient, and ferocious beasts yielding themselves up to the spell of their delicious melodies. The second class were the magicians or wonder-workers, through whom all manner of soothsaying was effected, also ordeals by fire were shown, elements stilled, or storms raised; spells and enchantment procured, and divination or auguries from entrails, burnt offerings, flights of birds or other natural object obtained. The third and highest class were the "Star Gazers," for whom were erected those gigantic temples of which the famous tower of Babel or Belus forms an example. The exterior and apex of these wonderful monuments were used for astronomical observations, the interior for those mysterious rites through which Initiates were taught, and Priestly Hierophants received their education. As these famous mysteries were subsequently inaugurated in Persia under the name of Mithraic rites, we learn from them that the Chaldean originals were simply designed to teach the fundamental principles of Sabaeism, or the most ancient astronomical religion.

Cicero, in his treatises on Soothsaying and Divination, attributes paramount excellence to the Chaldeans, intimating in fact that to these most ancient priests the origin of Astrological Science and Magical art is due. Their modes of initiation and study were very severe. Lives of purity and asceticism were demanded, but though they were required to abstain from wine and the flesh of animals, they never practiced the rigid discipline enforced upon the Hindoo Fakeers, on the contrary, they maintained that emaciated bodies and enfeebled frames were more subject to the attacks of evils spirits, and less capable of resisting them, then healthy, pure, and well-balanced organisms.

ALthough a vast number of the engraved tablets found amongst the ruins of ancient Chaldea, exhibit zodiacs and astronomical signs in abundance, there is no authentic record of the exact system of calculation upon which these great Adepts based their methods of Astrology. The Persians, Chinese and Mediaeval Professors of the art, claim to be in possession of correct Chaldean schemes, but whether this be true or false, the scientific astrologer is aware that the system of calculation by which successful results are to be obtained, is as exact and unvarying a science as astronomy, and does not change with country or clime. Those who can obtain successful results then, even in the nineteenth century, may assure themselves they are in possession of the same rules by which the Chaldean Adepts achieved their vast renown. As the methods of Astrology are very elaborate, and require much more space than we could assign them in this volume, we refer those who may be disposed to study this curious science, to the many treatises on the subject that are now extant. Those who desire to acquaint themselves with the most approved rules of the art, should study Lilly's Astrology, published in 1647. Students well versed in this branch of occultism, claim the work in question to be the most reliable and authentic now in print.

It would be useless to pursue our investigation into ancient Asiatic or African researches farther.

The spiritism of the Jews, Medes, Persians, Gnostics, Neo-Platonists and early Christians, with the modifications which we so often insist on, as the result of growth through different epochs of time, and changes induced by varied climes and scenes - all proclaim the steady and unbroken succession of ideas springing up from one original source, namely, an observance and worship of the powers of nature. Now, as heretofore, we claim that nothing is lost in history or in nature.

However limited the intercourse between ancient nationalities might have been, their frequent irruptions into each other's territories, the transmission of opinions through mutual captivities, through commerce, oral tradition and the contagion of thought, render it certain, that the utter obliteration of ideas from any one land by the destruction of their scriptures, or the loss of a key to their hieroglyphical inscriptions is simply impossible. It is the favorite opinion of modern students, especially those of a romantic and naturally mystical turn of mind, that Egypt and Chaldea, the two most antique nations of civilization, Hindostan excepted, conceal beneath their cuniform characters, profuse hieroglyphics and singular tablets, profound revelations in occultism that are forever lost to mankind, unless, indeed, some spiritual "Edipus" of these ruined lands, should disclose their mysteries through the entranced lips of a modern Somnambule.

With these attempts to repair the breaches in that tremendous veil of mystery which once shrouded the sacerdotal power of Babylon the great, hushed the voice of musical Memnon, and put the finger of eternal silence on the stony lips of the Sphinx, we have no sympathy, nor do we offer any plea for belief in such directions.

We claim now, as heretofore, that we have more of the real spirit of antiquity in our midst, than the race in this utilitarian and materialistic age understands; besides, the same imperishable sources of knowledge from which the ancients derived their opinions and framed their system of Theosophy, are open to the students of the nineteenth century in all their fullness. The starry Scriptures of the skies still unfold their pages of light for the perusal of the patient Astrologer. The plants dispense their fragrance, the herbs their virtues, the gums and spices stimulate the senses with aromatic odor now, as in olden times. The wonderful loadstone and the subtle amber have yielded up mysteries to the researchers of modern Science, of which the ancients scarcely dreamed. What oracular responses could now be given by the telegraph, which would put the magic of Dodona to shame! What miracles of necromancy are daily effected by the magic of the photographer, by aid of the Egyptian's Sun God! The five hundred thousand men that were required to drag stones over a made road, and then upheave them by clumsy levers to build the pyramid of Cheops, might now stand by with their hands in their pockets, watching labor-saving machinery, propelled by that mightiest of all magicians, the noble steam engine, doing the work a thousand times quicker, and a thousand times better, than even the poor bruised hands of unwilling captives could have done! It is not in executive power in any single direction that the ages of antiquity can successfully compete with the scientific triumphs of the nineteenth century, when man's knowledge of how to control the elements, and his perfect comprehension of imponderable forces as applied to mechanical uses, produce results in physical science, which would make all the Magicians of the East, and all the wonder-workers of antiquity, give up the ghost in envy and amazement. But it is not in materialistic acquirements or physical science, that the ancients transcended us or even begin to equal the magical marvels, which the building and furnishing of one single modern mansion displays. It is in the realm of metaphysical speculation and the utilization of Soul powers, that the ancients were our masters, and that the moderns are willfully blind, and contemptuously determine to remain so --nay more: when the mere suggestion is thrown out that spiritual science may correlate those of physics, the scoff, sneer and jeer of Scientists, and the anathema maranatha of Priests, effectually stifles all attempts at research save on the part of those who are bold enough to face the rack and thumb and screw of moral martyrdom. Take, for instance, the correlation of astronomy and astrology. Whilst astronomy declares the mathematics and geometry of the sidereal heavens, astrology defines the executive forces which suns, planets and systems mutually exercise upon each other, and the influence which each atom of matter exercises upon every other atom. Physicists allow that light and heat are the two great motor powers of form and being; yet, whilst admitting that man is the creature of physical organization, that his character and physique are determined by the place where he is born, the ante-natal influences which create his special tendencies, he shoots out the lip of scorn when Astrology claims that the configuration of the heavenly bodies, the original sources of light, heat, and therefore of all subordinate effects, have aught to do with shaping man's destiny, or determining the career he has to run. Nothing is so thankless and unprofitable as the attempt to pit spiritual phenomena against physical formulae, or argue inductively against bigotry and materialism; but we venture to assert, that if one score of thoroughly well-instructed astrologists who are both astronomers and mathematicians, shall undertake to set up the figure of one life submitted to their methods for analysis, the results in each instance shall be precisely the same, and every leading feature of the physical form, mental tendency and leading events of the human pilgrimage, shall closely correspond, every one of the twenty with the other.

If such a possibility as the above does not indicate the elements of "exact science," we are at a loss to know the application of the words. Meantime, the modern spirit medium of Europe and America, has within the last quarter of a century exhibited natural gifts and spontaneous powers, which put the acquired arts of ancient Magians into the shade. Why they are not as great as the mediums of India, Arabia, and Asia Minor, is, because the Western medium depends entirely on the spirits to do the work for him, and offers no prepared conditions, either physically, mentally, or in circumstantial surrounding, to aid the spirits, whilst the Asiatic and African medium fasts, prays, thinks, dresses, washes, and practices the spiritualistic conditions necessary for the highest gifts, through years of discipline. Spiritual bigotry, scientific prejudice and popular indifference on religious subjects, are the underlying causes which have cast their blight on Spiritism and Magic in the nineteenth century, and cause these wonderful elements of knowledge to loom up from the antique ages, in proportions as stupendous and overwhelming as the Pyramid of Cheops compared to a modern church, or the cave Temples of Elephanta and Ellora, gauged by the proportions of a London museum or a Parisian gallery of art.

The absence of magical art is not the lack of magical knowledge. The spirit world will not confer its prizes upon dunces and idlers. The natural world is the open page, the heaven, earth, and all that in them is, are the letters of the magical alphabet, and until man learns these, and enters upon the spelling-book of magnetism, and the grammar of psychology, this pen of ours may point the way, but every pilgrim foot must tread the path for himself. Thus, and thus only, may we rival the ancient man in the goal of magical achievements to which he ascended.

We shall conclude this section by a few quotations, the first of which we take from Ennemoser's History of Magic, in which he gives an appropriate sketch of the characteristics of the Lapps and Finlanders, whose spiritism strongly illustrates our opinion, that climate, soil, scenery and surroundings, exert remarkable effect in modifying natural spiritualistic endowments, also that these are communicated by the contagion of thought in communities already predisposed to such affections.

"The present nations of Asia, among whom ecstatic states and visions are to be met with, are worthy of mention. Among them are the Siberian Schamans, the Arabian Dervishes, and the Samozedes and Lapps. Among all these nations a species of somnambulism is common, into which they fall, either by means of natural susceptibility, or by peculiar movements and exercises of the body, and rarely by the use of narcotic substances. Among the northern nations, the phenomenon of second-sight is said to be frequent.

"Among the many Mongolian tribes, and also the Lapps, particularly excitable and susceptible persons are chosen as ghost-seers and sorcerers; in India as Jongleurs, in Siberia as Schamans. With much natural disposition, strengthened by practice and mode of life, the majority require nothing more than to shout violently, to storm, to dance and to drum, to turn round in a circle to induce insensibility and convulsive rigidity. Among the Siberian Schamans, as we learn from Georgi, narcotic substances are used, such as a decoction of fungus or other exciting vegetable substances to produce visions, in which they see and communicate with spirits, learning from them future and distant events. They also see distant countries and the souls of the dead, to whom they ascend from the body through the air to the seats of the gods, which Hoegstrom especially relates of the Lapps, among whom, such a high degree of susceptibility exists, that the most remarkable phenomena are witnessed. If any one opens his mouth or closes it, or points to anything with his fingers, or dances, or makes other gesticulations, there are many who will imitate all this, and when they have done so, inquire whether they have done anything improper, as they knew nothing of what they did. These Lapps are excitable to such a degree, that they are thrown into insensibility and convulsions, by the most trifling and unexpected occurrence, such as a sound, or a spark of fire. In the church they often fall into insensibility when the preacher speaks too loud or gesticulates too much; while others, on the contrary, jump up as if mad, rush out of the church, knock down all who oppose them, and even strike their friends and neighbors."

"Pallas relates that the Schamans, the Samozedes, the Katschinzes and other north Asiatic nations, are so extremely excitable, that it is only requisite to touch them unexpectedly to disturb their whole organization, to excite their imagination and make them lose all self command. Each one infects the person next to him sympathetically, so that in this manner, whole neighborhoods fall into fear, uneasiness and confusion. Pallas relates of some girls among the Katschinzes, that they fell simultaneous suffering as soon as one of their number becomes ill. 'For the last few years,' says he, 'a species of insanity has made its appearance among the young girls of the Katschinzes as if by infection. When they have these fits, they run out of the village, scream, and behave with the greatest wildness, tear their hair, and endeavor to hang and drown themselves. These attacks last usually some hours, and occur when their sympathy has been excited by the sight of other girls in similar condition, without any certain order - sometimes weekly, at other times not appearing for months.' All these and similar phenomena are related by Georgi of the Mongol and Tartar races, who all have the same common origin."

Our next quotation will be from a series of autobiographical sketches, entitled "Ghost Land," written by the author of this work, published by Emma Hardinge Britten in her admirable American periodical, "The Western Star."

"In Lapland, Finland, and the northeastern part of Russia, our new acquaintances had beheld so many evidences of inborn occult powers amongst the natives, that they had come to a conclusion which the well informed Spiritualist of modern times will no doubt be ready to endorse, that is, that certain individuals of the race are so peculiarly endowed, that they live, as it were, on the borders of the invisible world, and from time to time see, hear, act, and think under the influence, as naturally as other individuals do who are only capable of sensing material and external things.

"Moreover, our friends had arrived at the opinion that certain localities and climactric influences were favorable or otherwise to the development of these innate occult endowments.

"Experience had shown them that mountainous regions, or highly rarefied atmospheres, constituted the best physical conditions for the evolvement of magical powers, and they therefore argued that the great prevalence of supermundane beliefs and legendary lore in those latitudes arises from the fact, that intercourse with the interior realms of being are the universal experience of the people, not that they are more ignorant or superstitious than other races. Lord D----- had brought to England with him a 'Schaman,' or priest, of a certain district in Russia, where he had given extraordinary evidence of his powers. This man's custom was to array himself in a robe of state, trimmed with the finest furs and loaded with precious stones, amongst which clear crystals were the most esteemed.

"In this costume, with head, arms, and feet bare, the Schaman would proceed to beat a magical drum, made after a peculiar fashion, and adorned with a variety of symbolical and fantastic paintings.

"Commencing his exercises by simply standing within a circle traced on the ground, and beating his drum in low, rhythmical cadence to his muttered chantings, the Schaman would gradually rise to a condition of uncontrollable frenzy; his hands would acquire a muscular power and rapidity which caused the drum to resound with the wildest clamor, and strokes which defied the power of man to count.

"His body, meantime, would sway to and fro, spin round, and finally be elevated and even suspended several feet in the air, by a power wholly unknown to the witnesses. His cries and gesticulations were frightful, and the whole scene of 'manticism' would end by the performer's sinking on the earth in a rigid cataleptic state, during which he spoke oracular sentences, or gave answers to questions with a voice which seemed to proceed from the air some feet above his prostrate form. During my stay in England I was present at several experimental performances with this Schaman, and thought he could unquestionably predict the future and describe correctly distant places and persons, Professor M--- and myself were both disappointed in the results which we expected to proceed from his very elaborate modes of inducing the 'mantic' frenzy. Lord D--- accounted for the inferiority of his protege's powers by stating that the atmosphere was prejudicial to his peculiar temperament, and though he had striven to surround him with favorable conditions, it was obvious he needed the specialties of his native soil and climate for the complete evolvement of the phenomena he had been accustomed to exhibit.....

We found another class, who seemed to have no extraordinary endowments of a spiritual nature, yet in whom the most wonderful powers of inner light, curative virtue, and prophetic vision could be awakened through artificial means, the most potent of which were the inhalation of mephitic vapors, pungent essences, or narcotics; the action of clamorous noise, or soothing music; the process of looking into glittering stones and crystals; excessive and violent action, especially in a circular direction, and lastly, through the exhalations proceeding from the warm blood of animated beings. All these influences, together with an array of forms, rites and ceremonials which involve mental action, and captivate the senses, I now affirm to constitute the art of ancient magic, and I moreover believe that wherever these processes are systematically resorted to, they will, in more or less force, according to the susceptibility of the subject, evoke all these occult powers known as ecstasy, somnambulism, clairvoyance, the gifts of prophecy, healing, etc.

"We derived another item of philosophy from our researches, which was, that under the influence of magical processes, the human organism can not only be rendered insensible to pain, but that wounds, bruises, and even mutilation can be inflicted upon it, without permanent injury; also, that it can be rendered positive to the law of gravitation, and ascend into the air with perfect ease.

"Also, the body can be so saturated with magnetism, or charged with spiritual essence, that fire cannot burn it; in a word, when the body becomes enveloped in the indestructible essence of spirit, or the soul element, it can be made wholly positive to all material laws, transcending them in a way astonishing and inexplicable to uninterested beholders. Of this class of phenomena, let me refer to the 'Convulsionaires of St. Medard'; the history of the 'French Prophets of Avignon'; the still more recent accounts of the frightful mental epidemic which prevailed in the district of Morzine in 1864; the now well attested facts of supermundane power enacted by the Fakeers, Brahmins, and ecstatics of the East, and many of the inexplicable physical and mental phenomena attributed to monastic ecstatics.

"Amongst the 'Convulsionaires of st. Medard' and the possessed peasants of Morzine, one of the most familiar demonstrations of an extra-mundane condition was the delight and apparent relief which the sufferers represented themselves as experiences, when blows violent enough, as would seem, to have crushed them bone by bone were administered to them. At the tomb of the Abbie Paris, and amongst the frenzied patients of Morzine, the most pathetic appeals would be made that powerful men would pound their bodies with huge mallets, and the cries of 'Heavier yet, good brother! heavier yet, for the love of Heaven!' were amongst the words most constantly uttered ......

"During the fearful struggle maintained by the brave and devoted prophets of the Cevennes against their oppressors, every history, whether favorable or antagonistic, makes mention of the exhibitions by which Cavillac and others of 'the inspired,' proved their ability, under the afflatus of ecstasy, to resist the action of fire."

The ancient Chaldeans acquired this art not by any magical process, but by the knowledge of such chemicals as asbestos, and other substances which would render the body fire-proof. The French Prophets, and many spirit mediums of the nineteenth century, have proved their power to resist the action of fire under spiritual afflatus. Another example, if more were wanting, of the superiority of natural spiritualistic endowments, over the most occult methods of magical art.