Art Magic

It is in this order that mediaeval Theosophists ranged the sweetest and most popular of all the Elementaries, those of whom so many poets have sung, and traditions celebrated - the Elves or Fairies - those moonlight loving Sprites whose tiny feet leave their imprint on the green sward in magic rings - those impersonated blossoms of the earth and air, on whose fantastic and half mythical existence so many thousands of epics have been founded, so many charming legends written. For ages these fascinating spirits have served as the inspiration of the musician's sweetest strains, the sculptor's fairest ideals, and the painter's chef-d'oeuvres. Even the royal mind of Shakespeare stooped to revel amidst the flowers and bloom, the merry Puck-like tricks and pretty vagaries of these moonlight haunting phantoms, and the world of poetry and imaginative literature will miss a rare streak of sunshine from the dreary paths of dry matter-of-fact narrative, when plain common sense shall begin to realize the duty of extinguishing "the idle superstition" of Fairy love.

Besides these charming "little people," whole nations of half-aerial, half-earthly beings, of a kindred character, have been ranked in the third class of Elementaries, especially by the Scots, North Britons and Scandinavians. Such are the Trolls, Nixies and Brownies, to say nothing of the Pigmies, who inhabit the lowest parts of the earth; also the Gnomes and Kobolds, a good-natured but very low type of being who are said to dwell in mines, caverns, crypts where hidden treasures abound, and places where metals are hid. These dwarfish being were always represented as kindly-disposed toward humanity, and especially prompt to aid miners and other treasure-seekers in discovering the object of their search. Sometimes they were malign, and strove to hinder rather than assist humanity, guarding their earthy treasures with jealous care, and using mysterious arts to baffle the seekers for buried wealth; but, as a general rule, all miners who were not too strong-minded to reject the idea of such spirits, unite in declaring that these sub-mundane dwarfs actually exist; that the workmen often encounter them, and that many of them have been guided by their friendly lights, or directed by the sounds of their invisible hammers to the best mineral "leads." The author is in possession of a vast mass of testimony on this subject, some collected from experiences in Hungarian, Bohemian and Cornish mines, in which he has himself partaken; others gathered from reliable sources, containing narratives of the many kind acts of warning against danger, and guidance for good, miners have received from these subterranean Elementaries.

There are several still lower classes of impish beings, who correspond to various species of animals and reptiles, and these, though possessing hardly any traits of intelligence - except such as are peculiar to the creatures of whom they are the spiritual types - for the most part delight in mischief, and are ready when summoned to aid human beings, as low in the scale as themselves, in working ill to others.

In the ghastly records of mediaeval witchcraft, this class of Elementaries were known as Vampires, Incubi and Succubi.

They were supposed to parasite on the bodies of the Witches whom they served, acting as their "Imps or Familiars," in return for the nourishment afforded them, and the caresses they received. There can be no doubt that the most absurd and wild exaggerations have arisen, concerning the supposed communion between Demons, and poor, degraded mortals, whose ignorance, helplessness and perhaps the involuntary exercise of these occult powers, which often manifest themselves in low types of humanity,l have rendered them obnoxious to the charge of witchcraft.

To accept the literal truth, of all the revolting tales of such demonic intercourse, would be a libel upon human nature, but to deny that strong and irresistible sympathies exist between the visible and invisible realms, united alike the spirits of the lower as well as the higher orders of being with man, would be to accept the truth so flattering to pious egotism, of angelic ministry, and blind our eyes to that unpleasing correlative, which binds up man with the lower grades of being, and thus combines the whole scale in one interblended chain of harmonic dependency.

As it is above, so it is below - on earth as in the skies. The Universe is an endless chain of worlds in which spiritual spheres above, and semi-spiritual spheres below, stretch away from the lowest tones of being to the highest, in which embryonic life is swarming upwards to manhood, as man himself aspires to spiritual existence beyond. In this wonderful Oratorio of Creation, every keynote struck by man finds an echo in the cavernous depths below, and awakens vibratory harmonies in the corridors of heaven above.

Spirits and angels are attracted to the necessities of humanity; elementaries reach up to sustain themselves by man's superior endowments. If on the other hand he descends by the indulgence of animal passions, or sensual tendencies, to the lower realms of being, can it be questioned that the creatures who derive influence and influx from man, should be ready to respond to him in those particular directions, to which their own instincts and impulses point? The only questions that can legitimately arise in this connection are these: Do such beings as Elementaries exist at all? and can they communicate and hold intercourse with man? If the reiterated assertions of Sages, Seers, Prophets, and Philosophers, in the antique and Middle ages, be worth acceptance as testimony - if the experience of modern Mystics and Seers, whose prejudices do not interfere to prevent their reception of any form of truth, deserve credit, then do these Elementaries exist - swarm through all departments of nature, manifest their presence, and become the willing subjects of human beings when the conditions for intercourse are open to them. The gradations of elementary existence extend, as we have before intimated, down to the very lowest depths. There are beings whose rude embryonic life corresponds to the lowest species of plants, earth, stones, metals and minerals.

There are also two classes of watery spirits, namely; those who inhabit marshy lands, stagnant pools, ditches, and still water; and another of a higher type who govern rivers, fountains, seas, ocean depths, and all kinds of running waters. These were anciently called "tritons, Mermaids, Mermen, and Undines." The Earthly and Watery Elementaries were assumed by the Cabala to be governed by a powerful Chief termed Asmodi. They were taught of in all lands and in all times and though different nations assign to them varieties of names, and functions as numerous as the varieties of matter, there is in all the legendary accounts rendered of them, a generic similitude, which leaves no doubt that one basic idea prevails through all.

As the Author emphatically renders in his testimony of belief to the existence of an intermediary class of beings, termed with great propriety Elementaries, we shall drop the tone of traditionary description, and enter upon that more suited to convey an idea of actual realities.

The Elementaries are neither wholly spiritual, nor entirely material in substance. The corporeity of their bodies is too dense to inhabit the spirit spheres, or consort with purely spiritual existences, yet not sufficiently palpable to become visible to material eyes, or the external senses of man. They inhabit strata of atmospheres infinitely more sublimated than gases, yet far less refined than pure Astral light. They correspond in the infinitude of their states and functions to every particle of matter that exists, from the most solid crystal to the most rarefied gas. We claim in short, that for every material body, animate or inanimate, organized or inorganic, there is a correspondential realm of spiritual existence 0 a counterpart in every stage of being. The disembodied Souls of men are the counterparts to man himself - the Elementaries to the world of matter, including the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. The two highest classes of these beings, possess a fine ethereal sensitive spirit, yet not one whose organization is sufficiently perfected to become self-conscious, after the span of their earthly lives terminates, hence they are not, strictly speaking, immortal. The same remarks apply in a measure to the two lower classes, although their vital or animating principle is inferior to the "Sylphs and Salamanders"; in fact, they are little more than animal, vegetable and mineral existences, with strong and powerful instincts in the special realms of nature to which they belong, but incapable of reason, reflection or self-knowledge. From the highest to the lowest these beings are aware of the existence of man; they honor and even reverence him as a God, and are drawn by a mysterious instinct to desire contact and association with him. The highest orders understand the nature of continued existence, passionately long for it, intuitively hope for it in some distant realms of being, and closely connect the idea of immortality with man, hence their yearning for intercourse with him, and their general desire to serve and oblige him. There seems to be a descending scale of moral as well as mental and physical inferiority amongst these intermediary existences, for the finer purer and more kindly traits of character diminish, and at last utterly merge into ferocity, mischief and soulless animation, as we descend through the various grades of Elementary life.

These beings are all embryotic and rudimentary, but whilst the highest grades obviously prophesy of man - modeling after him, though lacking his completeness, and always deficient in some part, organ, or function - the lower we descend the more rudimental becomes each type. It would be difficult to convey an idea of the localities occupied by this wonderful realm of existence, to those Scientists who are accustomed to divide the world of matter into solids, fluids, gases, ether, and perhaps the still finer element so vaguely termed "Electricity"; but supposing we were to add to these subdivisions one hundred, then one thousand more, and then multiply that number by the largest sum in mathematics, we might conclude by affirming, that Science had still failed to find the two extremes of solidity and rarefaction any more than the largest telescope and the most powerful microscope now in existence, have traced the finalities of this infinitely large, and the infinitely little, or the gold-beater with all the tenuity of his finest work has arrived at the last point of divisibility in the atom.

Permeating all space, interpenetrating even man's dense world of solids, fluids, and gases, is a realm whose ethereal sublimations, the explorations of science have never yet mastered. Vitalizing this material world of ours as the Soul animates the body, this substantial yet invisible spiritual kingdom sustains all the countless generations of human souls, that have been liberated by death from the encasements of mortal structure. Between this realm of pure Astral light, with all its fright of living spirits, clothed in bodies of the same imperishable element, is a still denser realm, neither as gross as the earth's atmosphere, nor as sublimated as the spirit land, and yet it partakes of the quality and essence of both, for between the rarefactions of the one, and the density of the other, float those strata of element which form the world of the embryotic beings of whom we have been writing.

Away up beyond the sunny paths cleft by the wing of the soaring eagle; deep down amidst the cities of perl and kingdoms of coral that pave the ocean floor; burrowing in the unexploded depths of the cavernous rocks where mile upon mile of mountain limestone and crystalline granite combine to form the overarching roof of the fire king's castle; in all, through all, everywhere, in every unit of space, there roll the waves, and float the winds of the country inhabited by the Elementaries, so that could the eyes of mortality be opened as were those of the Jewish boy of old, in response to the prayer of Elisha, they would gaze upon oceans and seas of living creatures, finer than the Infusoria, larger than the fabled giants - each in his place, in his town, city, nation, divided off into his peculiar realm, inhabiting each his special portion of the kingdom to which he belongs, the whole constituting the realm of the Elementaries.

These creatures cannot ordinarily see mortals, any more than they can in turn be seen. Some amongst them, endowed with finer instincts than others, can peer into the rifts and rents of matter, and looking through, behold the God-like world of humanity, just as prophetic clear-eyed men can - at special moments of lucidity - gaze upon spirit land. Also they can be invoked, much after the fashion that mortals employ in summoning human spirits. Magicians - especially those who have prepared themselves for the control of spirits - can summon the Elementaries and cause them to appear as readily as human spirits. The powers of the Elementaries are limited to the peculiar departments of nature to which they belong. The beings who inhabit woods, forests, and rural scenes, attach themselves to huntsmen, charcoal burners, and others similarly employed.

Miners, fishermen, sailors, florists, metallurgists, all individuals who find their spheres of labor, in special departments of nature, are surrounded by Elementary Spirits of a correspondential character. Persons of peculiar temperament too, attract different grades of Elementaries, and thus, some are specially attractive to spirits of the fire, others to the aerial, earthly, or watery spirits, just as the idiosyncrasies of their organisms dispose them. It may be asked, how these beings are attracted to mortals, if there is no sensuous perception between the two worlds. Again we are at a loss to find analogies by which to explain to an age, totally insensible to metaphysical laws, the intense and irresistable sympathies which bind up the different objects in nature, prevailing between man and all lower as well as higher existences, diffusing a kind of blind consciousness even through the lowest classes of inorganic matter. How tenderly does the blossom turn to the light. How will the atoms of matter seek their chemical affinities, exhibiting even their preferences, dropping one class of metal, and rushing to another as soon as their favorite approaches!

Who instructs the sea-gull of the impending storm? Who apprizes the terrified animals and fluttering birds, that an earthquake is at hand, and what kind hand closes up the cups of the flowers when the last sunbeam has disappeared, or warns them to open their shining petals to its return? Consider above all, the nameless and indescribable realm of antipathies and attractions, between which our whole system of society and companionship oscillates, and then we may begin to comprehend how the half spiritual, half corporeal creatures of the elements apprehend the presence of man; are drawn to the kindred natures, or repelled from antagonistic ones; revel in the atmosphere of special temperaments, and are driven off from others, as men shrink from contact with uncongenial companions. in the higher teachings of wise spirits, we learn that these Elementaries are born, and die, marry, propagate their species and rear their young, even as mortals do. As they die out of earth they are born into some other spheres, alternating between spirit spheres and earths, until they arrive at that state of perfect self-consciousness which antedates their birth into those fully completed organisms capable of maintaining an immortal existence. Many of the higher orders of Elementaries attracted in the first instance by sympathy, have become the tutelary spirits of certain distinguished families, and continue their protective care for succeeding generations. This is the origin of what has so generally been deemed an idle superstition - like the "Banshee" of Ireland, the vision of an armed knight, a weeping woman, a white spectre, the unlooked for appearance of white pigeons, lambs, or other unaccountable apparitions, preceding death, sickness, or calamity, the traditions of which have been handed down through all time, although it has become the fashion to sneer the actualities out of orthodox acceptance.

The Red Indians of North America are especially distinguished for guardianship of this character.

Before entering upon the duties of leadership to their tribes, their young men retire into the wilderness to fast and pray. For the space of nine days the bravest and best of these wild races have been accustomed thus to await in solemn preparation, the visits of their tutelary spirits, and the direction of their future path in life. The author has conversed with many of the ancient men of these Indian tribes, and they have invariably confirmed the report which all tradition alleges namely; that the spirits who appear to the young men during, or after the probationary days of their long fast, are seldom human, but though they communicate after the fashion of human speech, or else infuse thoughts into the mind by the process of inspiration, their forms are generally those of birds, beast, or some member of the lower kingdoms. During several of their ceremonial rites at which the author has been present, their "Jokassids" or Prophets have succeeded in summoning around them powerful spirits who could play instruments, shake their lodges, beat drums, and create the wildest clamor of unearthly voices; and in all such scenes the spiritual performers were scarcely ever seen by clairvoyants, or known by mediums, to wear a human form. They were often wise in counsel, always prophetic, and very mighty - good to their prophets, subtle in knowledge of healing, and always faithful to those whom they chose to protect, but still these children of the forest see them, hear their voices, and hold inspirational communion with them, not as with spirits of their friends and kindred, whom they also profess to see and converse with, but as tutelary spirits --"spirits of nature"--or as we prefer to call them, Elementaries.

Another marked and distinctive sphere in which these Elementaries have played their part, has been in the scenes of mingled ignorance, superstition and spiritual afflatus, termed "Obsession."

During some of those periods of moral and mental epidemic in which vast waves of Astral fluid swept over certain districts, kindling up into abnormal prominence the latent powers of mediumistic persons, and by sympathetic contagion communicating their influence to whole communities, the Elementaries, like the spirits of Earth, have found themselves brought into direct and open rapport with human beings.

Conditions already prepared broke down the barriers between the three worlds.

The Elementaries, Mortals, and Spirits, steeped in cyclones of Astral light, blowing over the Earth just as storms, tempests, and contagious airs traverse its surface, have become at times so curiously interblended, that they could neither one nor the other resist the attractions that involved them. These were the periods marked as the eras of witchcraft, ecstasy, great religious revivals, or moral revolutions. As the aim of the Elementaries is ever to tend upwards towards man, so that of man gravitates to the spirit world, and aspires to the companionship of Gods and Angels.

In these great seasons of mental unfoldment and spiritual trial, kindred natures attract each other, and dissimilar ones are violently repelled; yet out of the frenzy of these stupendous mental epidemics the races emerge, disciplined, and informed of many of the most occult mysteries of being that would otherwise remain profound secrets, and utterly unknown.

In the early periods of the celebrated New England Witchcraft, the afflicted children first attacked, manifested the most marked tendency to imitate the actions of animals, crawling around the walls and cornices of houses, climbing like squirrels up high trees, barking, crying and mimicking the voices of animals, with a fidelity as shocking as it was unaccountable.

Similar tendencies to imitate animals and mimic their actions have marked many other great popular outbreaks of spiritual contagion. In Mora, Sweden, and Scotland, during the seventeenth century; at Morzine, during the nineteenth, these same perplexing features occurred in the tremendous fever of obsession that spread over whole districts, causing many of the unhappy victims to conduct themselves more like animals than human beings, during their paroxysms. Many of the features of Fetichism and Vaudooism, partake of these dark characteristics, and though the author is of opinion - founded upon deep study of the facts - that the majority of the demonstrations produced in Europe and America during the great dispensation termed "Modern Spiritualism," are produced by human spirits, though the maximum of all testimony inclines to prove that the spirits of humanity are the nearest to mortals, the most ready to serve and influence, and the most efficient to control, in fact that, wherever intelligence is rendered, it is strictly human, and implies human spiritual agency, still there are some features of mediumship, especially amongst those persons known as physical force mediums, which long since should have awakened the attention of philosophical Spiritualists to the fact, that there were influences kindred only with animal natures at work somewhere, and unless the agency of certain classes of Elementary spirits was admitted into the category of occasional control, humanity has at times assumed darker shades than we should be willing to assign to it. Unfortunately in discussing these subjects, there are many barriers to the attainment of truth on this subject. Courtesy and compassion alike protest against pointing to illustrations in our own time, whilst prejudice and ignorance intervene to stifle enquiry respecting phenomena which a long lapse of time, has left us free to investigate.

The Judges whose ignorance and superstition disgraced the Witchcraft trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, found a solvent for all occult or even suspicious circumstances, in the control of "Satan and his Imps." The modern Spirtualists with few exceptions, are equally stubborn in attributing everything that transpires in Spiritualistic circles, even to the willful and cunningly contrived preparations for deception on the part of pretended Media, to the influence of disembodied human spirits, good, bad, or indifferent; but the author's own experience, confirmed by the assurances of wise-teaching spirits, impels him to assert that the tendencies to exhibit animal proclivities, whether mental, passional, or phenomenal, are most generally produced by Elementaries.

The rapport with this realm of being is generally due to certain proclivities in the individual, or when whole communities are affected, the cause proceeds from revolutionary movements, in the realms of Astral fluid; these contingently affect the Elementaries, who in combination with low developed spirits of humanity, avail themselves of magnetic epidemics to obsess susceptible individuals, and sympathetically affect communities.

From afflictions of this character, the only successful method of exorcism is through the magnetic passes of strong, healthful, and well-disposed magnetizers.

Although as we have before stated, the means of summoning Elementaries are similar to those employed in the evocation of spirits, the aims for which their services are solicited entirely determine the class of respondents. Whether the spirits invoked become visible or not, the presence is surely there. The call is always heard and obeyed. Man rules potentially over all lower existences than himself; but woe to him, who by seeking aid, counsel or assistance from lower grades of being, binds himself to them; henceforth he may rest assured they will become his parasites and associates, and as their instincts - like those of the animal kingdom - are strong in the particular direction of their nature, they are powerful to disturb, annoy, prompt to evil, and avail themselves of the contact induced by man's invitation to drag him down to their own level.

The legendary idea of evil compact between man and the "Adversary," is not wholly mythical. Every wrongdoer signs that compact with spirits who have sympathy with his evil actions.

Many and many a hapless soul which has "shuffled off the mortal coil," finds to his cost that his evil deeds on earth have been performed in obedience to evil promptings, and that when he deemed he was procuring gratification to himself alone by the indulgence of his passions, he was actually doing the bidding of Elementaries, and undeveloped human Souls, who by virtue of his subjection to their will, or by reasons of obligations conferred upon him, now become his rulers, and enact in reality the fabled myth of Satanic compacts and Satanic possessions.

Except for the purpose of scientific investigation, or with a view of strengthening ourselves against the silent and mysterious promptings to evil that beset us on every side, we warn mere curiosity seekers, or persons ambitions to attach the legions of an unknown world to their service, against any attempts to seek communion with Elementary spirits, or beings of any grade lower than man.

Bring below mortality can grant nothing that mortality ought to ask. They can only serve man in some embryonic department of nature, and man must stoop to their state before they can thus reach him.

The author has in vision, and guided by spirit friends and radiant Planetary Angels, visited many spheres of these Elementary races. He has seen them in every stage of degradation and progression, some almost ready to burst the chrysolitic shell of their caterpillar condition, and emerge into the spiritual realm, from which they would be attracted back to matter, and be born as men. Others, scarcely conscious of any higher existence than their own, rudimentary beings who would have to undergo ages of progressive transition ere they could attain the coveted boon of immortality.

In some of these embryonic spheres, the dwellers, conscious of their superior existence and potential influence of man, and informed by their quick intuitions of the approach of spiritual visitants, made great preparations for their reception, and offered oblations and homage to them, after the fashion of deific worship. It will be asked why we allude to experiences so recondite ad from which we would warn others back, as we would guard them from the unrest which attends too wide a perception of the mysteries of nature. We answer, knowledge is only good for us when we can apply it judiciously. Those who investigate for the sake of science, or with a view of enlarging the narrow boundaries of man's egotistical opinions, may venture much farther into the realms of the unknown, than mere curiosity seekers, or persons who desire to apply the secrets of being to selfish purposes. It may be as well also for many to remember that he had his planet are not the all of being, and that besides the revelations included in the stupendous outpouring called "Modern Spiritualism," there are many problems yet to be solved in human life and planetary existence, which "Spiritualism" does not cover, nor ignorance and prejudice dream of.

Besides these considerations, we would warn man of the many subtle though invisible enemies which surround him, and rather by the instinct of their embryotic natures, than through malice prepense, seek to lay siege to the garrison of the human heart. We would advise him, moreover that into that sacred entrenchment, no power can enter, save by invitation of the Soul itself. Angels may solicit, or demons may tempt, but none can compel the spirit within to action, unless it first surrenders the will to the investing power.

After the weird clairvoyant pilgrimages into the secret crypts or aerial kingdoms of the Elementaries alluded to above, the author has speculated curiously upon the unborn triumphs which Science will yet achieve, when her indomitable researches shall have advanced from the realms of invisible gases, into those of the countless strata, which make up the imponderable element of FORCE, the lowest of which is the realm of the Elementaries, the highest, that of Astral Light or Spirit Land. If the telescope can gauge the infinite realms of space, and bring to the Astronomer's view whole hemispheres of blazing suns, where the naked eye could discern only darkness impenetrable; if the microscope can reveal a kingdom of animalculae, where the unassisted vision beholds only a drop of water, why may we not hope that the realms of the imponderable will yet be gauged by scientific instruments, and the blank and non-intelligent element of Force, yield up to view a Soul Universe, consisting of Kingdoms and Empires, before whose magnitude, power and beauty, the worlds of matter will shrink into atomic littleness! When Science stands still or goes back, we shall see the gates of future possibilities shut against her; until then, the conquest of two new worlds await her discovery, those inhabited by the enfranchised souls of men and the Elementaries.

Of the radiant and exalted realms of being termed Planetary Spirits, who with the countless orders of Angels and Archangels come under the category of Super-mundane Spiritism, it seems impossible to convey any adequate conception, save to those who have enjoyed the glorious privilege of communion with them.

All nations of antiquity believed in and taught of them, yet even as "tutelary spirits," they rarely communicate openly with earth, and except to such Mystics as have by years of preparation fitted themselves for such high communion, their natures and functions are but little known.

Still we feel impelled to speak of their existence not alone for the truth's sake, but also because we would enlarge that narrow and limited view of God's universe, which in so many minds can never expand beyond the idea of a mortal pilgrimage and immortal existence for the inhabitants of this visible earth only. Every planet, sun, and system, is teeming with life, and life both material and spiritual appropriate to each particular orb in space. The higher minds of every spirit sphere, interchange communion with others in the same system of the Universe as their own. Clairvoyants, Seers, and instructed Magicians, can, if they will, invoke planetary spirits, in preference to those of their own natures; but here as throughout this volume, we affirm that the most direct, normal, and harmonious spheres of communion, are those which connect man and the spirits of ancestors, those whose impelling motives in each case are love, kindness, desire for spiritual light and progress on the one side, and the undying affection which survives the shock of death, and urges kind spirit friends to minister tenderly to those they have left behind, on the other.

The ties which unite in bonds of natural affinity the inhabitants of earth and their spirit friends and kindred, are those of root and branch, parents and offspring, and can never be broken, or superseded in the scale of natural harmony.

For the names and offices of the Planetary Spirits who are chiefly instrumental in communicating with mortals, as well as the method of invoking them, we refer the reader to the Magical Elements of Peter D'Abano, to be found in a future section, and for a concluding notice concerning Elementary Spirits, we point to the following excerpts, taken from the Author's Autobiography, entitled "Ghost Land."

"They (the Brotherhood) alleged that every fragment of matter in the universe represented a corresponding atom of Spiritual existence, hence they claimed there were earthly spirits; spirits of the flood, the fire, the air; spirits of various animals; spirits of plant life, in all its varieties; spirits of the atmosphere; and planetary spirits, without limit or number. The spirits of the planets, and higher worlds than earth, take rank far above any of those that dwelt upon, or in its interior. These spirits are far more powerful, wise, and far-seeing than the earth spirit. They assumed that as man's soul was composed of all the elements which were represented in his body, so his spirit was, as a whole, far superior to the spirits of earth, water, plants, minerals, etc. To hold communion with them, however, was deemed by the Brotherhood legitimate and necessary to those who would obtain a full understanding of the special departments of Nature in which these embryotic existences were to be found. Thus they invoked their presence by magical rites, and sought to obtain control over them, for the purpose of wresting from them the complete understanding of, and power over the secrets of Nature. They believed that the soul's essence became progressed by entering into organic forms, and ultimately formed portions of that exalted race of beings, who ruled the fate of nations, and from time to time communicated with the soul of man as planetary spirits. They taught that the elementary spirits were dissipated into space by the action of death, but were taken up in higher organisms, and ultimately entered into the composition of human spirits....Professor M. was exceedingly generous and distributed his abundant means with an unstinted hand. One day, discoursing with me on the subject of his lavish expenditure, he remarked carelessly:

"'There is that mineral quality in my organism, Louis, which attracts to me, and easily subjects to my control, the elementary spirits who rule in the mineral kingdoms. Have I not informed you how invariably I can tell the quality of mines, however distant? how often I have stumbled, as if by accident, upon buried treasures? and how constantly my investments and speculations have resulted in financial successes? Louis, I attract money, because I attract mineral elements, and the spirits who rule in that realm of Nature.

"'I neither seek for, nor covet wealth. I love precious stones for their beauty and magnetic virtues, but money, as a mere possession, I despise. Were I as mercenary in my disposition, as I am powerful in the means of gaining wealth, I could be richer than Croesus, and command a longer purse than Fortunatus. Nevertheless the magnetic attractions which draw unto me the metallic treasures of the earth, fail to find any response in the attractions of my spirit; whereas, were I so constituted as to lack the force which attracts the service of the spirits of the metals, my whole soul would feel and yearn for a supply to the deficiency, in constant aspiration for money and treasure.'

"And that is why Professor M. was rich, but did not care for, or value his wealth, whilst so many millions, who do not possess in their organisms that peculiar mineral quality, which, as the Brotherhood taught, was necessary to attract wealth, pine for its possession, yet spend their lives vainly in its pursuit.

"Thus it is, that moral, mental, and physical equilibrium is sustained throughout the grand machinery of the universe."

....."I must close this chapter by pointing out to the reader how naturally a careful analysis of the human spirit throws light upon all the psychological problems that have confused the race, and perplexed the philosopher. One individual becomes rich without effort, inherits wealth, finds wealth, acquires it in a thousand ways, and that without needing or laboring for it. Another spends his life in toiling to acquire it, and yet can never succeed. No one leaves him an inheritance, he never purchases the successful number in a lottery, never succeeds in financial speculation.

"May there not be truth in the theory of the Brotherhood, to wit, that beings potent in the realms of mineral treasure, are magnetically attracted to such organisms, as assimilate with their own?

"I have known one of the Brothers, who passed through nine battles unharmed, whilst more than fifty of his acquaintances, who had just entered the field of carnage, fell at the first or second shot.

"Our philosophers alleged, that spirits of the fiery elements could avert swift blows (especially such as struck fire) from those who had a preponderance of a similar element in them, whilst others, deficient in that quality of being, attracted all such blows as produced fire. They carried this theory forward into the tendency to be drowned, or to avoid the action of the watery element - to become subject to a certain class of accidents, to be in danger from cattle, serpents, falling bodies, and indeed to all the events of life, asserting that as spirits pervaded every atom of space, and man's being was made up of all the elements, so when certain elements prevailed, corresponding spiritual influences were attracted and became favorable to him; whereas the reverse of this position obtained, in organisms deficient in special elementary forces. It was to this cause that they attributed the good and bad luck of different individuals, and special successes and failures in all. I was introduced by one of the Brotherhood, to two young girls, one of whom was passionately fond of flowers, and the other of birds. In the clairvoyant condition, I was subsequently shown by our ruling spirit, 'the crowned angel,' and the attendant spirits who were attracted to these young creature; and I now affirm, that all the fairy tales and legends of Supernaturalism, which have been written on the subject of Sylphs, Undines, etc., pale and grow cold before the divine beauty, exquisite purity, and aspirational grace, which shines out through the fleeting fragrance of those spirits that correspond to flowers and birds."

"In a conversation with a beautiful Mystic, one of the author's earliest friends and associates in the realms of spiritual research, now herself a glorified angel, the following items of philosophy were suggested:

"'Constance," I asked, 'is it given you to know what new form you will inhabit? Surely, one so good and beautiful can become nothing less than a radiant planetary spirit?'

"'I shall be the same Constance I ever was,' she replied. 'I am an immortal spirit now, although bound in material chains within this frail body.'

"'Constance, you dream. Death is the end of individuality. Your spirit may be, must be, taken up by the bright realms of starry being, but never as the Constance you are now.'

"'Forever and forever, Louis, I shall be ever the same! I have seen worlds of being, these Magians do not dream of. Worlds of bright resurrected human souls upon whom death has had no power, save to dissolve the earthly chains that held them in tenements of clay. I have seen the soul world; I have seen that it is imperishable.

"'Louis, there are in these grasses beneath our feet spiritual essences that never die. In my moments of happiest lucidity, my soul winged through space and pierced into a brighter interior than they ever realized - aye, even into the real soul of the universe, not the mere magnetic envelope which binds spirit and body together. Louis, in the first or inner recesses or nature is the realm of force - comprising light, heat, magnetism, life, nerve-aura, essence and all the imponderables that make up motion, for motion is force, composed of many subdivisible parts. Here inhere those worlds of half-formed embryotic existences with which our teachers hold intercourse. They are the spiritual parts of matter, and supply to matter the qualities of force; but they are all embryotic, transitory, and only partially intelligent existences. Nothing which is imperfect is permanent, hence these elementary spirits have no real or permanent existence, they are fragments of being; organs, but not organisms, hence they perish - die, that we may gather up their progressed atoms, and incarnate their separate organs into the perfected man.'

"'And man himself, Constance?'

"'Man as a perfected organism cannot die, Louis. the mould in which he is formed must perish, in order that the soul may go free. The envelope, or magnetic body that binds body and soul together, is formed of Force and Elementary Spirit; hence this stays for a time with the soul after death, and enables it to return to, or linger around the earth for providential purposes, until it has become purified from sin; but even this at length drops off, and then the soul lives as pure spirit, in spirit realms, gloriously bright, radiantly happy, strong, powerful, eternal, infinite. That is heaven; that is to dwell with God; such souls are His angels.

"'The hand is not the body; the eye is not the head; neither are the thin, vapory essences that constitute the separate organs, of which the world of force is composed, the soul. Mark me, Louis! Priests dream of the existence of soul worlds; the Brotherhood of the beings in the world of force. The priests call the Elementary spirits of the mid-region mere creations of human fancy and superstition. The Brothers charge the same hallucination upon the priests. Both are partly right and partly wrong, for the actual experiences of the soul will prove, that beings exist of both natures, and that both realms are verities; only the Elementary spirits in the realms of force are like the earth, perishable and transitory, and the perfected spirits in the realm of soul are immortal and never die.'"