Art Magic

General Summary of the Condition and Processes of Magical Practices - The Line Between Ancient Theosophy and Occultism - Application of Theories

We adopt the caption of "Art Magic" for this section, because we desire to draw the line between that vast amount of speculative philosophy, which is inextricably mixed up with ancient Theosophy, and the occult practices which constitute much of that Theosophy in application.

Hitherto we have written chiefly of the theories by which the ancients explained the order of being, and the elements of life power and motion, by which being itself becomes operative. Until the principles thus laid down are thoroughly well digested, our attempts to show their application to the practices of magic will fail.

With the most sincere desire to explain the modes by which artificial means can be induced to evoke the occult powers in nature, or in other words, to practice the art of magic, our efforts will be in vain, if the reader fails to apprehend what nature is; to comprehend the structure of man in his threefold character as a material, magical, and divine being; to follow us in our definitions of the Astral fluid which vitalizes all things in nature, and the Astral spirit, which constitutes the spiritual body of man; of the connecting links between Men, Angels, Spirits, and Deity, and the difference between Prophets and Magicians - the adept who commands spirits, and the medium who is commanded by them.

Without these preparatory steps for acquiring occult knowledge, magic will remain magic in its lowest and most obscure sense, and Magic it will be to the end of the chapter. Magnetism and Psychology are the two pillars that support the Temple of Spiritism.

They are the Herculean columns through which the understanding leads the soul into supernal realms of power; the "Jachim and Boaz" by which the over-arching vault of the heavens is upheld, which canopies the Grand Lodge of Spiritual Masonry.

By magnetism the imponderable, all-pervading life element termed Astral fluid is communicated from one body to another. By psychology the power of one mind subjugates and controls that of another, and it is in these two spheres of operation that all the marvels of magic transpire. The difficulties which oppose the scholar's mastery of this art, as practiced by the ancient and mediaeval philosophers, arise from a concatenation of causes, all combining to darken knowledge rather than to promote it, and tending to obscure whatever light could be thrown upon the subject.

In the first place the Priests of antiquity, who were the chief repositories of occult science, maintained their authority over the populace by reserving its understanding exclusively to their own order. It was not alone that they deemed such knowledge too high for vulgar minds, they felt that their own exclusive possession of its secrets was essential to the continuance of their authority, hence it would have been suicidal to entrust the multitude with that reserved force by virtue of which they held their office.

It has often been alleged by modern writers that the ancient mysteries were the conservatories of all occult science, and that those alone who became Heirophants therein, could arrive at a true understanding of Art Magic. It has lately become a received opinion, too, that a study of the ancient Caballah of the Hebrews and Orientals would supply this much desired information, and initiate any patient student of their pages into the arcanum of magic. Neither of these positions is correct. The mysteries indoctrinated their initiates into those theorems of speculative philosophy of which our former sections have given brief summaries.

The Caballah have been perused and studied with the most unwearied care by many a learned scholar, who at the last has utterly failed to enact one single rite of magic successfully.

Let the facts be plainly stated. In all the writings of true and highly endowed Mystics, whether ancient or modern, it is distinctly stated in the language of Cornelius Agrippa, that "a magician must be born so from his mother's womb," and that unless he is so gifted by nature, the processes by which real physiological changes are to be wrought in his system are slow, painful, and difficult of performance.

We have written to little purpose if we have failed to impress upon our readers that the source of all spiritual powers and functions resides in that mysterious combination of imponderable elements which we have termed the Astral spirit or spiritual body of man; that it is to the original and constitutional structure of that Astral spirit, that prophetic or mediumistic endowments are due, and that when these exist inherently in the organism, man is a prophet, a medium, and can readily exalt his powers into those of a magician. The reader may inquire wherein consists the difference between a medium and a magician? We answer, chiefly in degree. The medium is one through whose Astral spirit, other spirits can manifest, making their presence known by various kinds of phenomena. Whatever these consist in, the medium is only a passive agent in their hands. He can neither command their presence, nor will their absence - can never compel the performance of any special act, nor direct its nature. The magician on the contrary, can summon and dismiss spirits at will; can perform many feats of occult power through his own spirit; can compel the presence and assistance of spirits of lower grades of being than himself, and effect transformations in the realm of nature upon animate and inanimate bodies. He can control his fellow-men physically and mentally by will, irrespective of distance, and even cause changes in the destinies of individuals and societies. These powers seem in rehearsal fabulous, nevertheless they have been achieved, and we know that they are still attainable to man. The first great prerequisite, however, is as above stated, a prophetic or naturally mediumistic organization, and where this exists, culture will do the rest; where it is not bestowed by nature, the next step is to change the physique, and so modify its inherent tendencies, as to afford prepared conditions for the exercise of magical powers, and it is the recital of these conditions that will engage our attention during this and the following few sections.

In the first place let us disabuse the minds of those who have been informed that magical knowledge was to be procured only through initiation into the ancient mysteries, or certain modern branches of those orders that may still be found banded together in the Orient. This is emphatically a mistake, if not a willful perversion of the truth, on the part of those who may be still interested in throwing the halo of mystery around their cherished pursuits. There is absolutely nothing in the initiatory rites of any ancient order which can promote magical powers or spiritual afflatus. It is in the discipline enjoined upon initiates, and the effects of real physiological changes thus wrought in their systems, that the entire virtue of the initiation consists; furthermore, if such neophytes as entered upon the preparatory degrees of their initiation, did not manifest the well-known signs of innate magical power, or if after due preparation, they did not give evidence of the possession of magnetic or mediumistic faculties, they were never permitted to take rank as Hierophants, never elevated to that last degree which constituted them adepts.

To be an "Adept," was to be able to practice magic, and to do this was either to be a natural prophet, cultured to the strength of a magician, or an individual who had acquired this prophetic power and magical strength through discipline. The author has passed many years in India, Arabia, China and other Eastern lands, and has frequently practiced, as well as witnessed the rites of initiation in different societies, formed for the study of Magic.

From these, and opportunities suggested by the history of more remote times, we may confidently allege, that unless in the persons of naturally endowed mediums, or those whose organizations have been changed by long and persistent methods of discipline, magical rites have never successfully been enacted, neither have magical results been obtained by virtue of cabalistic words, fumigations, incantations, or other ceremonies alone. There are those now living, whose opinions are entitled to respect, who take other ground than this, and allege that the mere pronunciation of certain words, superstitiously termed "cabalistic," is sufficient to summon spirits of an inferior order to the speaker's presence, and that the possession of talismans and amulets will effect the same results. The author believes he shall be able to sustain his own fixed opinion to the contrary of these beliefs, by citing the teachings of the most authoritative Mystics of ancient and modern times.

For the present we shall argue from the standpoint assumed above, only adding that from early boyhood, the author has himself been both subject and operator in magical practices, and though often associated with noble minds fully skilled in the speculative philosophy of spiritual subjects, he has failed to find any operators in occult lore who depended upon knowledge alone, or who had not qualified themselves by preparatory discipline, or been prepared by inherent endowments, for the remarkable achievements which constitute the Magician.

Anticipating more detailed illustrations of the subject by a few general definitions, we proceed to say, that the first preparatory step for the elimination of magical power is abstinence. Abstinence not alone in food, but from the indulgence of all animal appetites. If, for instance, the student proposes to essay the performance of magical rites at any given period, he should set apart certain days during several months for total abstinence, and during a set period of probation observe the strictest laws of temperance and chastity. The Priests of antiquity were often married men, but, as we have before stated, they were not always prophetic men - on the other hand, the Prophets were almost invariably ascetics, and that of the strictest order - never indulging in the use of wine, seldom of meat, the society of the female sex, or the enjoyment of social and conjugal relations.

The more utterly ascetic they were, the more exalted became their spiritual powers, but without a certain amount of fasting and asceticism, let none expect to succeed in magical practices, for the physiological effects which fasting and asceticism produce, are unalterably essential alike to the male or female sex, in the development of the power under consideration.

The North American Indians, no less than the Charibs and South American tribes of poor, uneducated aborigines, compel their young men to undergo probationary fasts for a period of some eight or nine days, wandering meanwhile through the forests, and carefully avoiding contact with any of their fellow-men. These ascetic practices antedate their assumption of the duties of manhood, or the positions of power and trust, to which the red men deem their sons may become eligible, and it is claimed that this discipline is necessary to enkindle the noblest fires of manhood, quicken their powers of perception, accustom them to endurance, and above all, stimulate the latent spirituality of their Souls to perceive and commune with invisible Guardian Spirits. During these probationary states it is claimed that their Spirit Guides appear to them, reveal their destiny, instruct them in their choice of a mission, and establish a rapport between the spirit and mortal, which is continued through life.

Thus do these children of nature, these poor savages, as the proud Civilian contemptuously denominates them, instinctively perform those initiatory rites which it was the boast of the highest philosophy of antiquity to have instituted.

Every nation of antiquity practiced this species of discipline, previous to entering on a career of spiritual prowess.

The Sybils of Greece and Rome, the Hebrew prophets, the Indian Ecstatics and Egyptian mystics; the Chaldean soothsayers and Roman augurs, the Medes, Persians, Chinese and Japanese, all taught these necessary modes of preparation for prophetic offices.

All the mystics of the MIddle Ages exalt the practices of abstinence, and insist upon its necessity. Of all classes of religious thinkers, the Christians should be the most faithful in the observance of this rite, since it was charged upon them both by the example and precept of their founder, and prescribed as an essential of spiritual discipline, both in the Old and New Testament, and yet the Roman Catholics alone, of all the sects of Christianity, observe abstinence as a part of their religious duty; and perhaps it is to this cause that we may attribute the greater prevalence of spiritual manifestations amongst them, than with any other religious thinkers of Christendom. Another mode of preparatory exercise for spiritual exaltation is prayer. Prayer, not in the mere routine form of verbal solicitation, but sincere aspiration of soul towards the great Source of all life, light and inspiration. And prayer must be supplemented by solitary communion with the inner consciousness, long periods of seclusion from the external world, and a complete abstraction of the senses from all outward observances; soul musings on the great I Am, and that deep absorption of the reflective powers upon the spirit within which constitutes the triumph of the Soul over matter and its belongings. Ablution, too, is another method of preparing the physique for the flow of the Astral fluid. By frequent ablutions the skin - the organ of the dual functions of evaporation and absorption - is prepared for a free transmission and reception of that Astral fluid which constitutes the magical element. During the intervals of fasting, the food should be very light, consisting chiefly of vegetables and fruits, whilst all stimulants or salacious substances calculated to excite the senses or pamper the appetites, should be carefully avoided. Tea and coffee have not only been deemed admissible, but taken in moderate quantities are recommended by some modern mystics, although the stricter order repudiate their use. It is quite evident that the ancients understood the uses of animal magnetism. The temples of the east are covered with representations of this practice in the treatment of the sick, and the constant allusion to it in ancient and classical writings leaves no doubt but that it was the universal method of therapeutic practice.

Animal magnetism was also the method by which the highest rites of initiation into the sacred mysteries were completed. Using this term in its modern sense, we find it was the special virtue by which both in ancient and modern mysticism the potential powers of the magical element in man is awakened.

The chief value of the initiatory rites of all secret societies, lies in the psychological effect they exert on the senses by the fumigations of incense, the presentation of scenic illusions, the performance of delightful music, no less than the effect which the rehearsal of high thoughts and sublime ideas must produce on the already over-wrought mind. When to all this is added the magnetic effect imparted by the presence and manipulations of powerful adepts, whose Astral fluid, charged with magical strength, is infused into the system of the Neophyte, it can hardly be wondered at that the final rites of initiation in such societies as are banded together for the purpose of discovering and practicing the highest and most occult laws of Nature, cannot fail to send forth Hierophants who feel as did Pythagoras when issuing from the crowning rites of Egyptian mysticism, "that he had been in the presence of the Gods, and drank the waters of life anew from divine chalices."

As a special illustration of our subject, we commend the following item of philosophy, extracted from "Ghost Land," to the reader's attention. It refers to the experiences of the most powerful order of magicians now in existence:

"They acknowledged that the realm of spiritual being was ordinarily invisible to the material, and only known through its effects, being the active and controlling principle of matter; but they had discovered, by repeated experiments, that spiritual forms could become visible to the material under certain conditions, the most favorable of which was somnambulism procured through the magnetic sleep. This state, they found, could be induced sometimes by drugs, vapors and aromal essences; sometimes by spells, or through music, intently staring into crystals, the eyes of snakes, running water, or other glittering substances; occasionally by intoxication caused by dancing, spinning around, or distracting clamors; but the best and most efficacious method of exalting the spirit into the superior world, and putting the body to sleep was, as they had proved, through animal magnetism."

After an experience of more than forty years subsequent to the period when the author learned the truth of the above quoted fragments of philosophy, he lives to confirm them in every iota, and especially the last sentence quoted, which, to his apprehension, contains the true gist of all magical experiences.

No methods ever have been found so potent for kindling up the most exalted fires of the soul, or transmuting its latent powers into active operation, as "the laying on of hands," or the magnetic manifestations of powerful, well-intentioned magnetizers, in a word, the infusion of the vital forces of a mighty and highly charged Adept into the organism of a susceptible and receptive subject.

All other modes are merely preparatory, but they can never equal the effect of that last, best magical charge, which can be wrought only by the infusion of the Astral fluid of one organism into another.

This is the last act of initiation in the highest temple rites of old. This is the potent spell by which Hindoo Fakeers obtain from their master minds the seal upon their magical studies. The Patriarchal act of blessing, the initiatory rites of the Jewish Priesthood, the Apostolic law of communicating virtue, was all wrought by "the laying on of hands."

The Pentecostal gatherings of the early Christians were simply means of magnetizing each other by accordance of a common will, and the focalization of ideas to a common subject.

Paracelsus, Van Helmont and most of the middle age mystics, well understood the virtue of magnetic relations, whether between animate or inanimate existences. In the citations we shall have occasion to make concerning their magical formulae and opinions, it will be seen that they recognized "magnetism and psychology as the two grand supports of the Temple of Spiritism."

Assuming that the Neophyte, who desires to exercise magical powers, has faithfully prepared himself by the methods prescribed above, that he has subjected his frame to fastings, ablutions and strict abstinence; observed periods of seclusion, and disciplined his spirit by silent communings with Deity, the spirit of nature, and his own inner consciousness, all that remains for him to do is to seek out a few harmoniously-disposed persons, who, with pure aims and high aspirations, shall join with him in the search for light and knowledge. Let these unite themselves into a select society, and, after the same order of preparation enjoined above, proceed to magnetize each other, selecting for the work the most powerful and well-composed of their number - in fact, the one who most nearly conforms to the Pythagorean type described in the last section as "No. 2." Should there be no chance to form such an association as is above suggested, let the Neophyte seek until he finds a magnetizer who corresponds as nearly as may be to the noble type of manhood required. Let such a one lay his hands, illuminated with the pure, invisible essence of Soul fire, on the Neophyte's head. let manipulations of magnetic power, accompanied by the infusion of strong, aspirational will, be practiced at given periods of time; let these exercises be conducted uninterruptedly, steadily, firmly and with high and noble intentions, and they cannot fail to perform the last best work of converting the Neophyte into the Adept, the passive subject into the active operator.

In the final formulae of evocation, the mind must be concentrated fully on the purpose and presence most desired. Thus, if the object be to summon the attendance of beloved spirit, friends, the ordinary methods of waiting, either alone or in a small harmonious gathering, now so popularly practiced amongst modern Spiritists in Europe and America, may be sufficient to ensure the desired results.

The performance of very good and spiritually inspired music should always precede, or rather form the invocatory process in such circles, the effect of good music producing as great a difference in the atmosphere as on the feelings and sensations of the listeners.

The light on such occasions should always be subdued, as light is motion in the atmosphere, and tends to promote an energy of action which is unfavorable to the influence of the Astral light, in which the spirits live and move and have their being.

Material light and Astral light are as antagonistic to each other as the north poles of separate magnets. They mutually repel each other; hence, avoid as much as possible the action of material light. For obvious reasons the custom of sitting in total darkness should be held equally objectionable, except under stringent test conditions, and where remarkable evidence of physical power is demanded.

The fumigations of aromatic and fragrant essences contribute greatly to promote the conditions under which Elementary Spirits can manifest, but retard the approach of human spirit visitants. "The introduction of streams of ozone into the apartment will be found a highly favorable condition to promote the communion between spirits and mortals and their friends in the form. Besides this, the action of a gentle current of electricity, evolved from an electro-magnetic battery, should be infused into the systems of the investigators, as it not only increases the strength and quantity of the Astral fluid present in each organism, but benefits the health, and prevents the depletion of vital force. The ethereal character of ozone, and the force of electro-magnetism, are also strongly in harmony with the Astral fluid which forms the bodies of spiritual beings, hence their use at spirit circles will be found effective and beneficial.

As the Spiritists of this age have enjoyed an extended experience in the constant intercourse, presence, and counsel of their "household Lares," it is needless for us to offer farther suggestions on this branch of our subject at present, save to add that the methods of intercourse with all spiritual existences will be found reduced to general principles in this volume, and may, therefore, be applied universally to all forms of communion between the invisible and visible worlds.

The means of awakening latent spiritual forces, or the processes of invoking and procuring the presence of spirits, may be conducted through any of the avenues to the material senses. For example: the magnetic sleep on the one hand, and the "mantic frenzy" on the other, may both be produced by appeals to the sense of hearing. The one is induced by soft and delightful strains of music, the other by noise and distracting clamor. Civilized nations are naturally most satisfactorily affected by the former mode; barbarous or semi-civilized peoples by the latter. Dull, monotonous, rhythmical intonations act an intermediate part between these two extremes, and are particularly favorable to the commencement of all magical ceremonials.

Appeals to the spirit can also be successfully made through the eye. The sight of frightful objects causes a revulsion in the entire circulatory system, lowers its tone, and may even suspend its functions to the point of swooning. The reverse of this action is produced by pleasing objects, beautiful colors, charming scenes or persons, all of which sights stimulate and quicken the circulation, tending to diffuse a soothing and healthful glow throughout the whole system.

Another very effective mode of acting upon the sense of vision results from gazing intently on mirrors, crystals, precious stones, shining bodies, or pure fluids. The magnetic rays which are reflected back into the eye from these objects pierce the brain, and charge it with Astral light, whilst the fixidity of the action induces that self-magnetization which is the first step in somnambulism, trance and ecstasy. Still another mode is in the inhalation of stimulating narcotics or aromatic vapors. As before remarked, these processes are essential to the control of Elementary Spirits, and produce no inconsiderable effect upon the senses of the magician.

Nitrous-oxide gas, either and other stimulating and anaesthetic vapors are powerful means of inducing either the trance state or "manic frenzy." For the evolution of the latter condition no method had proved so effective as violent gesticulations, dancing, jumping leaping, spinning around in circles, in a word, emulating the actions of the Oriental Ecstatics, in whom the "mantic frenzy" and the exhibition of the most astounding preternatural powers seem always to require these preparatory processes. And here we must strictly impress on the reader's mind the fact, that in describing these abnormal proceedings, we do not present them as examples for imitation, or commend them, as even possible for the execution of "well-to-do" ladies and gentlemen, moving in the first circles of London, Paris or America. We are simply answering the oft-repeated questions raised by the admires of Art Magic, "What can we do to perfect ourselves in its practice?"

We may have conclusions to draw ere we close this volume, which will induce the aspirants for magical powers to regard with more interest and reverence the pearls of spiritual beauty they are constantly treading under foot, whilst their eager gaze is directed longingly on some glittering bauble far away up the mountain heights, whose rugged paths their daintily slippered feet would essay in vain to climb; but these conclusions can only be understandingly arrived at when our work is done; to the act of present duty, therefore, we must now return.

The use of Hasheesh, Napellus, Opium, the Juice of the Indian Soma, or Egyptian Lotus plant, besides many other narcotics of special virtues, constitute a large portion of the preparatory exercises, by which Oriental Ecstatics produce their abnormal conditions; but when we name the last essential for the due performance of magical rites, we may confidently assure our readers we include all lesser means, and are about to disclose the true secret of the Philosopher's Stone, and the mystic Elixir Vitae, nay, we speak of an element more potent than either, for we point to the source and end of all Deific, no less than human capacity, the all-omnipotent and resistless power of will.

When the great Essenian Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, assured his Disciples if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, they could move mountains, and cast them into the sea, he uttered no myth, spoke in no parable, but enunciated a truth which the Adept of every country, and every age, will fully confirm.

The power of faith is the power of will, the essence of Soul, and Soul's action in producing forms and emulating the creative functions of the Divine Will.

Will is the purpose of the Eternal One, outwrought in existence and its operation in the outgrowth of more fully perfected ind ages, will elevate mankind to the functions of Deity by its triumphs.

Every Mystic, Sage, Magician and Psychologist, every student, ancient or modern, ranges the power of the human will in the category of all supreme intelligence, and attributes to its exercise the highest achievement of the true magician. Still it must be borne in mind that our present system of abject subservience to the opinions of our fellowmen, and our slavish dependence on popularity and custom, utterly neutralizes this all triumphant and magical power of will.

In our present condition of modern civilization the complete expansion of will power is simply impossible. We require several generations of culture, and patient experience ere it can attain to its true proportions, and become the executive power it ought to be in human life.

There are some abnormal existences that can subsist without food, and others in whom the processes of education are superseded by direct spirit teaching, so there are a few highly endowed minds who attain to their majority at birth, and who, like Jesus of Nazareth, Plato, or Pythagoras, live in the realm of spirit, from their first entrance upon the sphere of immortality, hence they can exercise spiritual functions with the same ease that others use the external senses; but these rarely-endowed minds form the exception, not the rule of human life.

We must not trust to the possibilities of miraculous changes in our own natures, but work for them, and industriously, scientifically and patiently pave the way for their achievement. The culture of the Will for the execution of abnormal acts of power is to be conducted by a regular series of mental processes, all tending to the subjugation of the senses and the exaltation of the spirit. Some of these have already been explained in this section, others will be elaborated as we proceed. The generalities of the process involve physiological and psychological changes, the methods of which have been briefly glanced at.

For the processes by which divination can be evolved, we refer the reader to future sections. All shall be told; but, for the present, we conclude with a tribute to the power of the human Will.

It is the Alpha and Omega of this mortal life, as the Divine Will is the Alpha and Omega of Being. It is the royal power by which matter bends before Spirit, as the leaf bends and sways in the rushing storm.

If the result seems to the student who has advanced thus far worth the cost, let him proceed. If his heart begins to fail him upon these, the first steps of the mystic threshold, how can he hope to succeed in ultimates which cost the sages of antiquity years of study, and half a life-time of faithful self-abnegation to achieve?

The discouragement which arrest the first steps in the path of discovery, are but the first trials of that stupendous will power, upon the full exercise of which the magician's triumphs depend.

Fail now, and you fail forever. Cherish but one spark of hope to light your way through the labyrinthine paths we are destined to trend together, and every mind of ordinary intelligence and indomitable purpose, may by the perusal of these pages become an Adept in Art Magic.

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Spiritual Gifts - Woman as Priestess and Sybil - Classification of Spiritually Endowed Persons - Magnetizers, Mediums, Their Specialties - Power of the Human Spirit.

The chief duties of the ancient Priesthood were first, to find out the points of contact or unity between man and higher existences than himself; next, to discover the laws of man's being, and teach him to adjust his actions to the will of those higher existences; and finally, to invoke or solicit their aid for man in the performance of his earthly mission. These were the duties of the ancient Priest, and should be no less obligatory upon officials of the same order to-day, but whilst we see some attempt in the external rites of ecclesiasticism to perform the third part of these priestly offices, we look in vain to discover any religious body which faithfully emulates the ancient Priest in the performance of the two first named duties.

It is enough for the historian to record that it has been done, and show that it was upon the performance of the solemn offices of spiritual ministry, that the structure of ancient Priesthood was upreared.

Amongst the Hindoos, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians and Hebrews, frequent mention is made of the Prophets, as a class distinct from the Priesthood, although at times associated with it. When the Prophets did take part in the temple services, they were esteemed the most honored of the Priestly order, and their dictum was received with unquestioning reverence as the voice of Deity.

Some authoritative writers intimate that it was upon the foundation of true prophetic gifts, that the Priesthood was instituted, and when it was found that Spiritual gifts belonged to special individuals - not to an office or caste - artificial means were resorted to, to supply the deficiency of natural endowments. Nature has studied to find out occult means of including vision, trance, seership and prophecy. The Priests were carefully instructed in astrology, theurgic rites, and the occult virtues of drugs, minerals, plants, words and ceremonial observances, and hence arose the art of magic, an art practiced simply as a substitute for spiritual gifts.

Amongst the Hebrews, the Prophets, as a class, acted independently of the Priesthood. They were often persons outside of the consecrated tribe of Levites, to whom the Priestly office was limited, when they were not only excluded by their birth from temple service, but they frequently acted in opposition to the Priesthood, and included them in their bold and unsparing denunciations against the corruptions of the time. Nothing can be more aggressive than the diatribes of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, against the abominations sanctioned by a corrupt and idolatrous Priesthood. Isaiah particularizes even the ceremonials of the Jewish faith, such as the observance of new moons, Sabbaths, fasts, feasts, times and seasons, as "abominations before the Lord," when they were practiced for impure of unholy purposes.

The contrast between the bigotry and conservatism of the Jewish Priesthood, and the bold, high-toned morality of the Hebrew Prophets, is one of the most remarkable specialties of the books of the Old Testament, and speaks in most significant language of the universal faith in good works inculcated by true Spiritism, and the dependence upon magical rites of mere ceremonial religions.

It will be observed that whilst several of the most renowned of the Greek Philosophers, such as Orpheus, Thales, Solon, Pythagoras, Appolonius, and others, studied in Egypt, or claimed to have obtained their occult knowledge in that land, their biographies prove, that they were naturally endowed with the true prophetic afflatus before they graduated in Egyptian Magic, and this is a comment upon the difference between natural and acquired gifts, which we desire our readers to bear in mind.

The Greeks must have fully recognized the superiority of natural over acquired gifts of the spirit, when they were so constant in selecting women to serve as the oracles between Gods and men. Women made famous the oracles of the Pythian Apollo, and the responses of Dodona. Women's special gifts, of inspiration, have transmitted the fame of the Sybils to all ages, and made their name synonymous with spiritual gifts. Even amongst the conservative Jews, whose contempt of women is one of the chief blots on their national credit, women were perforce admitted to certain prophetic offices in the temple, and several ladies of rank amongst the Romans and Egyptians, including the daughter of the famous Egyptian Monarch, Sesostris, were renowned for their prophetic endowments.

The elevation of woman to conditions of perfect equality with man, is now acknowledged to be the highest evidence of a true and rational civilization, but whether we are treating of ancient or modern conservatism, God in nature has proved through the unbroken lines of history, that spiritual gifts are innate, intuitional, and feminine in quality, and belong to those more rare and precious attributes of being, which particularly distinguish the female sex. If Soul essence is unique, and matter is shaped and determined chiefly by the energy and quantity of the Astral Spirit, it is to that realm of being that we must look, in order to analyze the specialty that constitutes natural prophetic endowments, or spiritual gifts, whether in the male or female sex.

At the very outset of our inquiry, we find two specialties of organism which more commonly belong to the male than the female, the study of which is important to a clear understanding of our subject. The first of these representative physiques, discloses an individual with a compact self-centered, well-knit frame, inclining to the nutritive in temperament, and the adipose in tissue. In manner these individuals are generally straightforward, somewhat authoritative, occasionally egotistic, and fond of display; kind-hearted, benevolent, and especially attracted to sick persons.

They generally have a clear eye, direct glance, and sometimes a piercing expression withal. With such peculiarities of temperament, the Astral fluid exists in excess, endowing the individual with good health, a vigorous frame, a moderately active mind, and a general tendency towards social life and material enjoyment.

These persons are almost always what is popularly termed "good magnetizers," and the excess of Astral fluid which develops itself in the above described idiosyncrasies, ordinarily induces the wish to use their gift, and impels them to magnetize sick people. It was from this class that the ancients selected their Therapeutic healers and the Priests who were employed in the magnetic healing rites of Temple service. The eye as the window of the Soul, and the hand as the prime conductor of the Astral fluid, are always well developed in these natural mesmerizers.

Where the first is full, clear, and luminous, and the second soft and warm, the astral fluid is invariably of a healthful and unifying character.

Where the eye is piercing, brilliant, or distinguished by the long Oriental shape of the almond, and the hand is damp and moist, or hard and dry, look to find a stronger mental than physical impression produced, but in all varieties of this type of man, the person may be esteemed as a good mesmerizer, and the more expansive the frontal region of the brain, the better will be the effects, and the more healthful the power produced.

As the magnet or loadstone only yields up the potency to the direction of skill, so these magnetic structures require the action of well-informed mind, and concentrated will, to render them serviceable; with these mental attributes to guide their powers and direct the projection of the Astral fluid, they may become admirable healers of the sick, or skillful "biologists" over sensitive subjects.

The second individuality to which we would introduce our reader, is a more concentrated and energetic type of the first, and one in whom the intellectual temperament prevails over the nutritive or social.

In the type of man now under consideration, a vast amount of the Astral fluid circulates, but it clusters chiefly about the crowning portions of the cerebrum, elevating the cranial apex in a remarkable degree. The cerebrum and nervous system absorb the surplus of the Astral fluid, rather than the fibrous and muscular tissues. Such persons exhibit many varieties of form and feature; but their specialty is a large and finely developed head. Persons of this type become fine psychologists, or in ancient phraseology, such are "Adepts, Master Spirits, or Priestly Hierophants." In both types described above, it is the abundance of the Astral spirit, infused by inheritance and planetary and solar influence during embryonic life, and at the period of birth, which determines their characteristics; and it is the distribution of this Astral fluid, in that one, throughout the whole system, and in the other, in certain regions of the brain, which constitutes the difference between the mere magnetic healer and the psychologists. Neither of these individuals may technically recognize the peculiarities with which they are endowed, but the one will always bring a powerful and soothing influence to the sick, and the other prove a controlling and masterful mind in whatever spheres of life he may be placed. If these persons understand their soul's capacities, they will know that, by mustering the excess of Astral fluid, permeating their systems, to the dominion of the will, they can induce a self-magnetized condition, in which the body sleeps, and the soul goes forth and traverses space, as in the phenomenon of somnambulism, natural clairvoyance, or in the exit of the spirit from the body when it is seen and termed the "Double," or "Wraith." They can induce these powers in others by magnetic and psychologic contact, and it only needs self-knowledge and the exertion of strong and concentrated will to call them into exercise.

There are no phenomena produced by disembodied spirits, which may not be affected by the still embodied human spirit, provided a correct knowledge of these powers is directed by a strong and powerful will. The conditions will be described in our sections on Art Magic, but the potency of the will can never be too strongly insisted upon in all Spiritualistic operations. In the physique above described as No. 1, the excess of the Astral fluid generally clusters around the epigastric and cardiac regions, rendering the person thus endowed highly powerful in physical magnetization and healing operations, but, as before hinted, the cerebral development is rarely proportionably marked, and the best of physical magnetizers are not the giants of intellect and psychological control.

The reverse of this position obtains in the organisms classed as No. 2. In them, the Astral fluid inheres more closely to the soul than the body; exalts the top of the cranium rather than the front; compels a predominance of the organs of command and ideality; projects its sphere of indomitable influence on all around, and unfolds the intellectual faculties into singular prominence, in whatever direction they exist, rendering the individual remarkable as a Statesman, General, Author, Priest, Physician, or, if devoted to the study, irresistible as an "Adept," Magician and controller of mundane and sub-mundane spirits. Such individuals are generally as eager as they are capable of penetrating into nature's profoundest depths.

We might rank the amiable and highly gifted Anton Mesmer as a type of the organism No. 1, and the noble sages of Greece, Apollonius and Pythagoras, as shining illustrations of the type described as No. 2.

Prophets, or Mediums, are persons in whom, from inherited causes, and Astral influences prevailing at birth, an immense amount of the Astral fluid exists, but who, by the peculiar conformation of the tissues which make up their physical structures, are too ready to part with their super abundant life principle. In powerful psychologists, the Astral fluid is concentrated, the tissues of the body firm and compact, and the efflux of magnetic power is due only to its superabundance. The medium with the same excess of magnetic force is totally lacking in the concentration and solidarity which distinguishes the other class. The one in physique as in character is wholly positive; the other purely negative. The one the operator, the other the subject. The physical structure of the two may present little or no external signs of difference to those who do not study physiological types, rather than surface varieties, but the arrangement of the molecules in the two organisms, are structurally dissimilar, and this dissimilarity exhibits itself thus:

The magnetizer imparts strength from the abundance of his strength. The medium exhales the life principle to depletion, and, in the loss sustained, insensibly draws upon the forces of others. The medium is emphatically a "Sensitive." Every nerve is laid bare, every pore is a conductor of the too rapidly ebbing life fluid. When the brain is small, and the generating power of this life fluid is weak (the brain being its source), the intellectual faculties are limited and dull; the mind, incapable of drawing from the brain, becomes inactive, and the nature is stolid and unimpassioned. it is from such types as these that the superficial remark has arisen, that media should be, or always are, "very passive," unintellectual persons. There, however, are only one type of the class. A great many person, highly charged with the Astral fluid, and losing it in such rapid streams as to constitute them good mediums, are in consequence exceedingly sensitive, restlessly nervous, and susceptible to every influence they come in contact with. The life principle flows off all too rapidly through their tissues, leaving them irritable, weak and despoiled.

As nature abhors a vacuum, these organisms necessarily attract the Astral spirits of all things and persons around them, hence others in their presence often experience a sensible diminution of strength, whilst the media themselves are frequently affected painfully or pleasurably by the mere approach of certain individuals, realizing also the special influences which attach to scenes, places, houses and garments, which would produce no effect upon less susceptible persons. It is this extreme susceptibility and the negative condition produced by the loss of Astral fluid, which renders such persons fine instruments for the control of spirits.

These beings, clothed with the same Astral element which forms the spiritual body of mortals, readily effect a rapport with the class of organisms we have described. This rapport, however, most generally transpires between the spirits who are in the nearest proximity to earth.

It must be remembered that the atmosphere is as full of spiritual life, as the water is of animalculae. The Astral fluid - the element in which spirits live, and of which their external bodies are composed, permeates this atmosphere, like oceans of light, hence spiritual life is to this planet, what the Soul is to the body, only that the strata of spiritual life nearest the earth are graduated from the spirits of those who are most in rapport with earth, to elementary beings, who in reality constitute no inconsiderable portion of the earth itself, hence it is, that mediumistic persons - susceptible to the influences of varied life that swarms around them - are often moved by nameless and incomprehensible monitions of danger, the presence of evil, or the tendency to actions from which their own better natures and judgment would revolt.

The chief points of difference between the ancient Prophet, the Mediaeval Witch, and the modern Medium, consist in the aims and influences which severally actuated them, and inspired the spirits that surrounded them. The prophetic men and women of old were intensely religious persons. They lived in devotional ages, too, when their exceptional gifts marked them out for a species of reverence which almost amounted to worship. Separated from their fellow men by the peculiar sanctity attached to the prophetic character, their religious aspirations, and the asceticism of their lives, attracted to them beings of a far higher order than those whom we now invoke in the communion with family spirits and kindred ties.

Most of the ancient Prophets, Seers, and Sybils, prepared for the communion with higher intelligences than earth, by methods to be hereafter described, hence their powers were more concentrated, and phenomenally greater than those of the work-a-day trading media of the present time.

As to the Spiritism of the mediaeval ages, unless it existed in the persons of learned mystics, who cultured it after the ancient fashion, or it fell as a mantle of inspiration on poets, painters, musicians, inventors, religious reformers, etc., it degenerated into ugly and often injurious obsession, by ignorant spirits, attracted to media of a character kindred with themselves. Thus the study of different phases of spiritual influx proves how much its representation is determined by the age, spirit of the time, and character of the communicating intelligence.

Europe and America are at present in the heyday flush of materialistic civilization.

Utilitarianism is the genius of the nineteenth century. If religion could be put to some practical use, or reduced to a scientific analysis, it would be as much the fashion now as it was five thousand years ago; but whatever comes in the shape of religious belief, even scientific discoveries concerning the occult side of nature, must conform to the materialistic and utilitarian spirit of the age, or the age will none of it. Such is the crucible of human opinion through which the Spiritism of this century has to pass, and hence mediumship is a trade, an amusement, or a curiosity; Spiritism, a marketable commodity, or a fashionable mode of beguiling an idle hour. As inspiration invariably descends from the same plane to which aspiration ascends, spirit answers spirit from correspondential realms of thought and intelligence.

As it is below, so it is above; in the skies as on the earth.

Having briefly depicted the general characteristics of those through whom spirits communicate, we shall proceed to classify the groups into which prophetic or mediumistic gifts resolve themselves.

Premising that each mediumistic person is so by inheritance, or the awakening of latent but still functional powers, and that we are not now treating of that magic which compensates by art for the lack of natural endowments, we shall render such definitions of our subject, as practical experience suggests.

The Trance state ranges from that of Ecstasy, in which visions of the highest and most transcendental nature are revealed, through all the various stages of Somnambulism, to that semi-conscious sleep-waking condition, in which the ego is not lost, but wherein the origin of the thought, whether from the subject's own mind, or the impression of another's is not clearly discerned.

Inspiration is the addition of higher mentality to that of the subject's own individuality. It does not necessitate any abnegation of self-consciousness; it only stimulates that consciousness to extraordinary exaltation.

In all these states the influence of spirits is more than likely to be the superinducing cause. That influence is exerted in precisely the same fashion as the simply human processes of electro-biology, and by operators, who have either practiced this method of control on earth or been endowed with the power by nature to do so. The spirit projects his Astral spirit in the fashion of the earthly magnetizer upon his mediumistic subject; by this fluid the system becomes charged and the magnetic sleep, semi-conscious trance, or the exaltation of inspiration is induced.

These graduated conditions represent the amount of passivity or mental activity of the subject - total unconsciousness usually falling upon a very receptive and passive mind, and inspiration stimulating rather than subduing the powers of an already highly unfolded intellect. When the system is sufficiently saturated with the spiritual magnetizer's Astral fluid, as to be subject to control, the operator, by strong will, infuses high thought into the subject's mind; but whatever the specialty of thought may be, it becomes shaped, tinctured and not unfrequently marred to a greater or less degree by the idiosyncrasies of the medium's habits of speech and methods of expression. There must always be an adaptation between the subject on earth and the operator of the spheres. A spirit of a totally foreign and unsympathetic nature to the medium could not obtain control, except in the case of obsession, and that transpires through the brutal and resistless power of a gross, strong, earth-bound spirit, acting upon a generally frail, susceptible and most probably sickly organism.

In the ordinary exercise of spirit control, the spirit acting as a good magnetizer, chooses a well-adapted subject, whose mind and physique are calculated to assimilate with his own, and thus presents his ideas through the aid of a borrowed vehicle of thought. This mode of influence corresponds in many respects to the vaticinations of the Sybils and Prophetesses of old, only that the utterance of the Spirits termed Gods, or Demons, commonly took place in bodies which had previously been prepared by fastings, ablutions and sometimes by the inhalations of vapors, which subdued the senses, stimulated them to "mantic frenzy," or prepared the system for the infusion of a superior consciousness to their own.

These modes of control by spirits, speaking through the lips of entranced or inspired media, are not limited in their effects to the exhibition of merely curious mental transformations. In ancient, as in modern times, these oracular utterances have been productive of a far wider range of good and revolutionary thought than is dreamed of by those who listen, go hence, and deem they have simply been interested for the moment, and will certainly forget the ideas they have heard.

The Soul never forgets. The over-laden brain of humanity retains the impression of every image presented to it. As each fresh succession of images photographs itself on the mind's tablets, the last seem to crowd out and efface the impress of the earlier ones. They vanish from sight truly, but they are still there, and there they remain forever. Unconsciously to their possessors, they enter into every phase of character. They linger like a subtle perfume in the sphere of unconscious cerebration, pervade the sentiments, enter into the mental structure, shape the motives, externalize themselves in words which linger in others' ears, in deeds which affect others' destinies, and silently interweave themselves into invisible but indestructible images, reflected upon the Astral light of the Universe. Could this most subtle, but most potential realm of being be thoroughly explored, all the thoughts, words, and deeds, that have ever moved the race would be found in ineffaceable pictures engraved upon the billows of Astral light that heave and swell through the oceans of infinity. Nothing is lost in nature, nothing blotted out in eternity, and future generations, living, moving and breathing in the Astral realms of life imprinted with the Soul images of vanished ages, inhale them, grow in them, re-combine them into the elements of their own characters, and thus live over again, in ever rolling, but ever ascending cycles of time, every sand-grain of ideality that has ever been launched into space. hence, too, the universality of ideas; the spontaneous affection of two kindred minds unknown to each other, and removed apart by long intervals of distance, and yet how often are such at the same moment of time inspired by the same thought, moved to execute the same work, and even construct the same, yet apparently original, piece of mechanism; write the same stanzas of poetry, or arrange the same strains of melody into duplicate forms! This is the source of thought epidemics, mental contagions and infectious opinions.

The gross atmosphere of earth traversed by the seas of Astral light cannot but become charged with the images they bear, and whenever two waves of this Astral fluid unite to form an idea, some receptive mind seizes upon it. The wave flows on, the idea strikes another, and yet another mind, until the force of one leading thought sweeps on its grand career of influence, from pole to poke, and traverses the mental girth of an age, although, perchance, none but the constructive genius of a few can assimilate and utilize it. Trance mediums of the New Dispensation - Prophets of the old! Nothing is lost in Nature. Fear not for the results of they labors! Whatever is false or worthless will fade and perish - the beautiful and true never die!

The next class of media who represent the power of spirits to communicate with earth, are those impressed with artistic and intellectual ideas. They are moved to draw strange patterns, groups of flowers, portraits of deceased persons, symbolical or emblematical pictures, to write messages, words of love, poems, often containing tokens of memory which identify the controlling power with some individual who once inhabited a mortal body. Music totally foreign to the medium's mind or capacity has been thus given; foreign languages spoken and written by those unacquainted with them; pantomimic representations have been made, depicting the peculiarities of some deceased friend; and thus every sense is used, and every faculty brought into play, to prove the presence and influence of a world of being rising up like immortal blossoms from the ashes of the vanished dead.

Spirits making use of the Astral light which permeates all space, sometimes impress upon it visionary pictures of future events; sometimes shadowy representations of their own forms, and always in such shape as will identify them with those who have been deemed dead, and laid away in the quiet grave.

Spirits are full of ingenious resource, highly constructive and far more widely informed upon the arcanum of nature than mortals, hence can produce a greater variety of effects, and in much shorter period of time than we can conceive of, hence their methods of representation strike us as abnormal and magical. They are simply due to magnetization of the medium's spirits by the invisible operator, and psychological impressions produced through will upon the medium's spiritual consciousness.

The third order of media who specially distinguish themselves in the modern spiritual movement are those through, whom strong, powerful, earthbound spirits can act upon material bodies, and cause them to become telegraphic signs of their presence.

The persons through whom these theurgic signals are made, for the most part absorb the Astral fluid which is their life, through the cerebellum, the epigastric nerves, and the great solar plexus. Though not necessarily deficient in cerebral development, they are rarely distinguished in this region, and, in some instances, the preponderance of nervous force in the ganglionic or sympathetic system is greatly in excess of the cerebro-spinal, thus stimulating the instinctive appetites, especially those which correspond to animal tendencies.

This is not invariably the case, but it has and does characterize much mediumship of this order. It is also a significant fact, and one which should commend itself in the attention alike of the physiologist and psychologist, that persons afflicted with scrofula and glandular enlargements, often seem to supply the pabulum which enables spirits to produce ponderous manifestations of physical power.

Frail, delicate women - person, too, whose natures are refined, innocent and pure, but whose glandular system has been attacked by the demon of Scrofula, have frequently been found susceptible of becoming the most remarkable instruments for physical demonstrations by spirits. In some instances mediums for this class of phenomena are persons in the enjoyment of rude health and vigorous constitutions. The author has witnessed manifestations of the most astounding character eliminated through the mediumship of rugged country girls and stout men, especially the natives of Ireland and Northern Germany; but a close and careful scrutiny of those remarkably endowed media, will often reveal a tendency to epilepsy, chorea and functional derangements of the pelvic apparatus, which proves that the cerebellum and the ganglionic system of nerves are unduly charged, and that the magnetism of spirits of a similar temperament to their own may exaggerate these constitutional tendencies into excess and disease. It is a fact, which we may try to mask, or the acknowledgment of which we may indignantly protest against, yet it is a fact nonetheless, that the existence of remarkable medium powers, argues a want of balance in the system; and whilst the theory of too rapid ebb of the life forces and their excess, and unequal distribution, renders physical and scientific causes for this structural inharmony, it also proves what is the character of the pabulum which spirits use to produce the magnetic, psychologic and physical effects which are rendered through these unevenly balanced organisms.

It has frequently been asked whether there is any philosophy to explain these aberrations of nature, to which we reply, assuredly there is. The Astral fluid becomes characterized by every material atom through which it passes. It is at once the cause and effect of all varieties in nature. Its abundance, and the energy of its action, is determined by the quantity and quality of the atoms through which it flows; but once incorporated in organic bodies as their attribute, its own quality becomes materially affected by the quality of the particles it vitalizes; and here it is proper to recur to the opinion of many illuminated Seers, namely that there are several layers, or strata, of these Astral currents, forming as a totality one spiritual body. Those nearest the Soul are the finest in quality and represent the spheres related to the Solar and Astral systems. Those layers on the outer surface of the spiritual body, most nearly inhering to the material atoms, form the life spheres, permeate the body, partake of its quality, deteriorate or improve with it, are gross, coarse or dense, as the body's habits or mind's tendencies characterize it; in a word, it is this portion of the Astral spirit, which streams forth from the medium in a flood of emanation, and hence becomes the exact gauge of the medium's physical and mental state. It is particles of this latter description which form the life principle of plants and minerals.

It is these fiery elements of universal life force, which are struck out in radiant sparks from the hard flinty rock, or crystalline iron. Violent action will drive forth the lambent flames of life from every solid body, and cause them to quiver between the strokes of every concussion. They stream forth in odic lights from shells, crystals, magnets, and all magnetic bodies. They reach out their fingers of latent fiery force, to gather up kindred particles around the loadstone. They stream up in pencilled rays of many colored glory, painting over the northern skies with gorgeous illuminations in the wonderful Aurora Borealis. They form the electric paths in which rolling worlds, suns and systems are held in innumerable lines of force. They flash in the wild fires of contending cloud armies. They discharge solemn peals of heavenly artillery in the roar of the battling tempest.

They shout their anthems of power in the heaving billows, and sob away the last echos of sound in the murmur of the half slumbering waves. These invisible, latent, all-pervading flames of life, these direct emanations from the Central Sun of all being, connect suns and planets, earths and satellites by the stupendous chains of force, and fill all space with oceans of invisible, but ever living fires. They fill all creation with life, but take on the protean forms of every atom through which their living currents are forever ebbing and flowing.

Then need we not marvel that the Astral fluid which flows through the refined particles of a pure and healthful human organism, might afford intellectual spirits an opportunity of impressing the brain with high inspirational ideas, yet fail to give off that superabundance of quantity or denseness of quality, which is requisite to produce manifestations of a ponderable character - on the other hand, remembering the almost infinite varieties of exhibition which the Astral fluid assumes in accordance with the variousness of the particles through which it flows, we need not feel surprised that a human body abundantly endowed with this same life fluid, so constituted as to eliminate it through every pore, but giving off a quality which is especially redolent of influences generated in the vital and nutritive system of nerves, should furnish that pabulum which enables spirits to construct forms, and produce manifestations of a purely physical character.

In this scheme of natural order, disease must impress itself upon every imponderable particle of the Astral sphere, and since the body laboring under disease is really being disintegrated, and parts too rapidly and freely with its life principle, so do sick persons give off in the most abundance, and of the most dense quality, the element which spirits can use for the production of strong physical manifestations.

The same philosophy with certain modifications, applies to the mediumship of little children.

Endowed with a superabundance of that vital force which is necessary for the purposes of growth, young children disprove of this excess in general by violent exercise, exercise which would exhaust more mature bodies, but which nature impresses them to undertake as a safety-valve, for the escape of the vital currents, with which their young fresh frames are charged to repletion. Unscrupulous spirits who perceive the powerful aromal essences which flow forth so freely from the young, take advantage of its existence, to produce manifestations of their presence, and thus, it so often happens, that children, like sick persons, become potent media for spirits. It should be added that the practice of permitting children thus to be exercised as mediums, should only be indulged in to a very limited extent, the excessive draught procured from their tender and susceptible frames, rendering them liable to lose health, strength, and perhaps life itself, under its action.

We do not now enlarge upon the good or evil results of this kind of rapport between spirits and mortals, we simply write of its modes, and the means of ready access which spirits find for its performance.

The physical force medium is often endowed with a great variety of gifts, because the Astral fluid, charging the whole body to excess, and flowering through every pore with a profuse expenditure of the life principle, constitutes all the organs mediums. The skin is charged, rendering it liable to be impressed with fleshy letters. The eye becomes a ready conductor to the spiritual eye beneath, imparting the faculty of clairvoyance. The entire of the spiritual senses find ready expression through a physique which is all mediumistic, and a complete battery for the action of controlling spirits. Let it be remembered that in all magnetic operations every particle of the life fluid represents the whole; thus a sensitive by coming in contact with a lock of hair, a handkerchief, or the smallest piece of fabric touched by another, can psychometrically discover the entire of that other's nature. This alone would prove (were there other facts wanting), that one particle of the subtle fluid of life represents the whole, and this can only be accounted for by acknowledging the truth of a curious hypothesis, presented to the world by a celebrated physiologist, who says:

"Through the perspiratory ducts, and all the other methods by which nature supplies to the organism an apparatus for the dual functions of absorption and evaporation, the human body exhales the imponderable portions of blood, bone, nervous and muscular tissue, even the effete exhalations of hair and nails which go to make up the totality of the structure.

"All those vaporized elements are in the atmosphere, carried by the gasses, exhaled from the lungs, and swept off from the photosphere of the human body, into the atmosphere that surrounds it. If we could arrive at any method of separating the organic from the inorganic particles that fill the air, and charge the atmosphere with living emanations, where human life abounds, we might crystallize them back again into human bodies, and hence the claim of the Spiritualists to have found in spiritual magnetism that crystallizing element by which they can re-clothe the spirit with a material body, gathered up from the atmosphere which surrounds a circle of investigators, is neither so wild or improbable after all."

It would be a fact in spiritual phenomena, even if it were "wild and improbable" in hypothesis; but to those who are acquainted with the nature of the Astral fluid - its identity with the universal element we call force - its existence in man as a spiritual body, in the spirit's organism as an external body, and in the atmosphere as force per se; it only needs an appreciation of the physiological idea above suggested, as to the character of our emanations, to understand why spirits, having at command a dense and powerful stream of the Astral fluid exhaled from peculiar organisms, can easily use that as a force for crystallizing the imponderable elements, which abound in the atmosphere, into a temporary physical covering for themselves.

The medium's very flesh, and all the fluids and solids of his physique, are given off by exhalations, and remain in the atmosphere. These exhalations from the physical medium are abundant in quantity, powerful and magnetic in quality, and so long as they can be extracted by the magnetism of attendant spirits, and sustained by the combined magnetisms of other human beings, their crystallization by the aid of spiritual chemistry, can be readily effected, and spirits can thus temporarily re-clothe themselves in atoms of actual flesh and blood. They pass sparks of electricity through these imponderable exhalations, just as chemists can crystallize gases into fluids, and fluids into solids, by the same process. By aid of strong will, and having all the elements held in solution in the atmosphere, spirits can even communicate objective solidity to the images in their minds, and thus present again the ponderable semblances of ornaments, clothes, and other physical fabrics; nay more, by imparting to these temporarily formed substances a sufficient amount of the Astral fluid to produce cohesion, they can be kept in being for a considerable time after the first formative process has been effected.

There is no witchcraft or sorcery in these transformations, although they may with propriety take rank as spiritual magic; the Spirit is the Man, the Soul the designer; the Astral body the force, the mover, the motion, the executant.

The material body is only a vehicle, enabling the Soul through the Astral body or spirit to come into contact with matter. In the above necessarily brief description of spiritual phenomena, we only touch on the results of communion effected between spirits and mortals, where the former find conditions spontaneously prepared by nature for their use. We shall conclude this section by reviewing the possibilities which exist in every human being for producing extra-mundane effects through the application of natural laws to spiritual forces.

The gifts of the spirit are spiritual sight - hearing, taste, smell and touch, wholly independent of the material avenues of sense. The power of projecting the Astral fluid from one individual to another, through magnetic manipulations, contact or will, and the power of impressing the will of one individual by the superior force of another. The soul also possesses the power of so concentrating its own astral spirit, as to temporarily subjugate the other senses, steep them in forgetfulness, and then withdraw from the body, wander forth at will, preserve the body from death by leaving a sufficient portion of the Astral fluid to maintain its integrity, and subsequently return to and resume its occupancy of the body. There are still other powers of the embodied human Soul of which we shall yet speak more in detail, suffice it for the present to sum up by saying the Soul cannot only perform all the phenomena now executed by the aid of disembodied spirits, but it can command the assistance of inferior grades to man, and compel their aid in subjugating the forces of matter.

Man can read the hidden things of another's mind, and even temporarily obsess it, and by aid of inferior spirits, psychologize many persons at once, compelling them to see, hear, taste or feel the subjective images of his creation.

He can envelope some objects in the Astral fluid, rendering them invisible to the material eye; create disturbances in the atmosphere, or calm them by the same means; promote rapid and spontaneous growth in the vegetable world; wound the body and heal it in the same minute of time; render himself insensible to pain, fire, and the effects of gravitation, and so float in mid-air; cause himself to be buried alive during entrancement, and resume the functions of life when disinterred.

All these things we positively affirm men can do, through the operation of his own will, and the aid of powerful spirits, and all those things the author positively affirms he has witnessed, and proposes in the forthcoming sections to give the philosophy of, as gathered from personal experience, and the descriptions of Fakeers, Yogees, Dervishes, Bramins, and the adepts of Oriental systems of magic.

Whether our readers will observe the conditions necessary for the performance of these extra-mundane acts of spiritual power, is a question which we do not propose to decide upon; but we commend our closing remarks to special consideration.

The Soul is an emanation from Deity; therefore Deific in power and attributes. The Astral spirit which clothes the Soul and vitalizes the body, is a part of all the great motor power of the Universe, the source and cause of all motion.

The two combined, though temporarily shrouded in matter, and limited by the encasements of a material body, still form a Deific, and therefore all-powerful existence, which only requires the light of spiritual science to render its functions as Deific as its source. Something of this is shown, then the soul is emancipated from the body and returns to earth manifesting its astonishing and extended powers through what is called "spiritual phenomena."

Other glimpses of these powers shine forth, through the lives of ecstatics, seers, and magians; but what illimitable possibilities yet remain unfathomed and unheard of?

Who can say where the terminal line is drawn between God and His creatures, or why man should not manifest as a microcosm, all the creative attributes which belong to the Divine Author, the Macrocosm?

The superiority of ancient over modern Theosophy, does not arise from any retrogression in man or his planet. It is no arrest or backward step in the march of intellect; but it results from the profound devotion with which the ancient man regarded spiritual things, and the cold materialism of the present day; from the unceasing aspiration of our forefathers towards spiritual light and knowledge, and the universal contempt or indifference with which such subjects are regarded now.

The people of antiquity generally, and the priesthood in particular studied into the laws of spiritual forces, and spent generation after generation in analyzing their principles, and the relations they bear to visible nature.

Those thinkers of the nineteenth century, who strive to master the occult in nature at all, aim at doing so, by seeking for the spiritual through the laws of the material and expect to push their way upward, from the known, to the unknown, from matter to spirit.

Let those who would emulate the Divine plan, and work from the center to the circumference, from Deity to His creatures, and from Soul essence to created forms, despise not the results of human experience, and the strivings of the human mind for light and knowledge in any age, ancient or modern. Regarding the past as a stepping-stone to the present, and the lower chambers and galleries of the great Temple of humanity as the foundations upon which the integrity of the superstructure depends, let us with humble and reverent spirits avail ourselves of the successes and failures of our ancestors, as the warnings and encouragements by which our own steps may be safely guided, and boldly push on in those transcendent paths of research, in which Angels are our guides, ministering spirits our strength, the elevation and culture of the Divine Spirit within us our goal, and God the Spirit, the quenchless beacon-light by which our faltering footsteps will be ever illuminated, until we find our rest at last in Him.

Posted by mikki at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The way that man becomes aware of influences outside his physical world depend on two things - one internal to the person, and one external.

Man is too stupid to be able to figure things out if the operating principles were too terribly alien to what he is used to. However, there are definitely some things that are still too deep for mere mortals to figure out. Luckily, some spirits have been able to overcome Man's ignorance, and show up anyway.
We're going to ignore the petty wars between factions of spiritists and examine how people communicate with spirits.

Spirits travel by means not applicable to humans. Anyone who disagrees with the book, or who merely professes opinions, rather than the facts you'll find in this book, is wasting your time. Because of the huge numbers of people in the late 1800s, professing to see, speak to, hear, etc. with regard to ghosts or spirits, it wasn't as scary then as it was before. People used to think of these appearances as miracles, but we're far more scientific now, and understand things a lot better.

We know these things happen because they happen so often. Even though some people have been frauds in this arena, and have likely made a mint off of spiritism, there's still something to be learned here. So we will present information without attribution to higher philosophers, and let the work stand for itself.

Man is a microcosm of the universe as a whole. He is made up of body, spirit and soul. The soul is the center of his being, which corresponds to the element of Fire, which comes directly from Deity. There are many layers to this soul, called Astral Spirit, which is often misidentified as electricity, magnetism, etc.

[I have deliberately left out the attempted use of physics to bolster the author's ideas, given the author's previous confusion...]

Ancient man, and the Rosicrucians, as well as others, have been fascinated by fire, and have often likened it to God. And the element of Fire permeates the universe, and as such should be known as Celestial Fire. The combination of Celestial Fire and Astral Light makes up the soul of the universe, and as such the soul of man. The Rosicrucians were really cool and people shouldn't listen to the really awful things that were said about them. So there.

Anyway, the body is a conglomeration of bits of atoms that is powered by the Astral Spirit. Inside this Astral Spirit is the essence of whatever it is that allows a spirit to be seen by humans. It goes off with the soul at death, and the combination of the two form the spirit. The not so great layers stay on the outside and make up the manifestation or ghost that we can see.

This Astral Spirit also exists in rocks, plants, minerals, gasses, etc., as well as in space.

We get our Astral Spirit chiefly from the sun and other planets. It also comes from all organic and inorganic life. All of this combines to make the Astral Spirit of a single man. This is why astrology is so important. The sun and planetary essence that creates your Astral Spirit at birth will have great influence on your life. And because all of these entities are moving around, as they change, they continue to have influence.

This is why so many people over time have devoted themselves to study of nature for occult influences. The best people for generations dedicated themselves to studying nature. However, during the author's time, people became priests but didn't dedicate themselves properly to their priestly office. If they can't answer questions about the mysteries, they don't deserve to be priests. They are self indulgent, selfish people who look down their noses at those who actually dedicated themselves properly like ancient priests did. People who study nature solely through science will miss the big picture. Priests who gain their priesthood through "book learning" aren't real priests. You can't gain the knowledge without doing the work it takes to learn it. That includes the spiritual side as well as the book side. And while we're searching we should certainly not forget or ignore the work of the ancients.

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Man the Trinity of Elements; Soul, Spirit, Matter - Rosicrucianism - The Astral Spirit, Astral Light - The Ancient and Modern Priest.

The modus operandi by which the worlds invisible to the outer senses of man can become so manifest as to convince him of their existence, must depend first on some element resident in the human organism, and next upon correspondential means operating upon man, from the invisible realms of being.

Were there not such operations mutually subsisting between the worlds of spirit and matter, all man's imaginings however sublime, all his intuitive faculties, however penetrating, and even the witness of his own interior nature, would never be susceptible of demonstrating God in the light of reason, never bring him face to face with Spirit as the absolute esse of being, never enable him to construct such a religious belief as the Father could communicate to the child, or the Priest impart to the People. There can be no doubt that the Soul's deepest and most intuitive perceptions of truth, are its own most acceptable witnesses, still these are incommunicable, and the spirit's witness of itself, its Deity, and its faith in immortality, can never ben fully translated into human speech. Happily, however, for those blunted natures which are not developed up to the transcendent heights of spiritual truth, the realms of invisible being approximate to earth, have found means to establish processes of communion which place their existence, varies offices of ministry, even their very natures beyond all shadow of doubt or denial to those who care to consult the occult, as well as the material side of human history.

Setting the question of evidence aside, however, or leaving it only as a subject of warfare between contentious factions of materialists and creedists, our part is to examine into the methods by which the communion between man and the invisible worlds of being transpire.

Mere opinions concerning the facts of the phenomena, furnish no clue to their means of occurrence.

Spirits come and go, apparently by no law analogous to those which govern human action.

Beings of an order wholly different in their essential nature, and similar only in form and intelligence to man, interpenetrate his atmosphere like the magical appearance of the lightning's flash, and disappear in the same inexplicable mystery.

Sounds, sight, movements, impressions, sometimes appealing to man with the subtle semblance of a vision, sometimes compelling him by a force he cannot resist, all captivate his senses, sway his soul, and fill him with awe and wonder.

The commonplace and secularizing modes of spiritual intercourse that have prevailed throughout the second half of our present century, have doubtless tended to strip the world of supernaturalism of its terrors, as well as much of its exaltation and spiritual beauty, still it has effected a wonderful revolution in man's intellectual appreciation of spiritual existence, confirming him in knowledge upon subjects that were before divided between myth and superstitious credulity, and bringing under the dominion of reason and judgement problems that were deemed heretofore insoluble upon any other ground than the assumption of miracle.

In treating of nature as of the visible and sensuous universe, and super-nature as of the invisible and spiritual, we are no longer driven to the necessity of premising our philosophy with an if, and such events really transpired, or leaning upon the authority of some great Sage or world-renowned Pundit, before we can demand acceptance for our facts.

However commonplace or even puerile many of the phases of modern Spiritual communion may be, however foolishly that communion may have been abused, by making it the shibboleth for the introduction of all sorts of subversive ideas into social, religious, and even political life, the immense flood of light it has diffused upon the great problems of life, death, immortality and the nature of the human spirit, rank it as one of the most revolutionary and powerful revelations that have been vouchsafed to man since the closing up of the Oriental and Mythological Dynasties.

It is as much by the positive, sensuous demonstrations afforded to us in this great modern Spiritual outpouring, as through a study of ancient or mediaeval records, that we are enabled to present the composite but absolute philosophy of Spiritism recited in this Section; but here let us premise, that we do not propose to pause in our definitions to say - this is Artephius, and that is Plato; thus argued the Fire Philosophers of the middle ages, and thus mused the Cabbalists of antiquity. Now as heretofore, our reference to authority must be sought for in the context of the work, rather than in the list of names cited.

Man is a Microcosm or Universe in little - as such, he is the conservator of all forces, the image of all objective forms, the embodiment of all subjective ideas, and the connecting link between all existences, higher and lower than himself.

In himself, taken to pieces by chemistry and analyzed by the display of his powers and relations to the invisible world, he is a trinity of elements, namely: Body, spirit and soul. His body is a conservator of all the powers and functions of matter; his spirit, the animating principle, is made up of all the forces we vaguely call life; his soul is the pure Deific, and immortal essence whose attribute is Will or Intelligence. It is the attempt to analyze these three elements, which has formed a groundwork of philosophy, and a theme of learned speculation, for thousands of years.

Judging from effects rather than assumed causes, may we not believe with the "Fire Philosophers" of the middle ages, that the soul is like its source - the Central Sun of being - in its nature and essence pure, unalloyed, Spiritual Light?

That it is the invisible and infinitely sublimated Spirit of Fire - not the gross visible element that can be seen, felt, and apprehended by the senses - but that wonderful innermost light, which, whilst it reveals and proves all things in its own manifestation, is itself invisible, unknown, and uncomprehended?

It is this essential, innermost and divine principle of soul which survives all change, which is neither subject to decay nor disintegration; which is the spark derived from Deity - the Alpha and Omega of being - and the link which unites the Creature to the Creator.

Encompassing this divine essence of soul, and clothing it as a spiritual body, is the subtle and refined element which, in its effects, is force; in its action, through organic bodies, is life; and in its all-pervading influence throughout the realms of space, is vaguely termed magnetism and electricity.

It is the second of that grand trinity of principles, whose union constitutes man a living being.

It is this element which we described in our first section, as recognized throughout the Universe, by the apparent duality of its modes, called attraction and repulsion, or centrifugal and centripetal force. As it is in the realm of this all-pervading life principle that we find our sole explanation of the various magical operations of a spirit power, we must dwell somewhat at length upon a description of its character and functions.

It has often been stated by Seers and illuminated "Sensitives," that there were many layers or strata of this spiritual body, of more of less attenuation, in proportion to their distance from the soul, or nearness to the physical body. These rings, or spheres, are called, collectively, the Astral Spirit, from the fact that the element itself is derived, like the pure essence of the soul, from the great Spiritual Sun of the Universe, from whom emanate, and to whom return all rays of light, heat, force, motion, power and being that fill the Universe of forms. This Astral Spirit is often mis-called in modern phraseology, the "magnetic body," the "nerve aura," "magnetism," "electricity," etc. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who writes equally in the spirit of ancient Cabbalism, and still later Gnosticism, terms this element in man, "The Spiritual body," a phase which corresponds well to the still more correct expression of "The Astral Spirit." In organic bodies we shall continue thus to term it; in the realms of space it is more proper to speak of it as the "Astral light." It is to the Universe of inorganic forms, what the Soul is to the body, its spirit - life or animating principle.

The Rosicrucians - a sect who obtained much notoriety about the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but of whose actual origin, tenets and very existence, no reliable information has ever been generally circulated - maintained that the last analysis of the Supreme Being would fail to discover any other existence than that of a Central Spiritual Sun - an Infinite, Eternal, uncreated and incomprehensible One alone, whose attributes were light and heat, whose manifestation was the Universe, revealed by light, energized into forms, suns, systems, worlds, men and things, by that spiritual heat whose last gross external exhibition is fire.

In this sense, the term repulsion, which has been treated as an attribute of matter, is accounted for by the energy with which heat burns, consumes, disintegrates, and drives off one particle from another; whilst attraction, also supposed to be an attribute of matter, is but the natural cohesion of particles, upon which the restless energy of heat either does not act, or becomes modified by the solidarity of the masses acted upon. Thus then, repulsion is the one universal law of motion, which itself is produced by heat; and attraction is only the absence of heat, not a true force.

Inertia is the only property of matter in this category - heat or repulsion its counteracting force attraction, the exhibition of the vis inertia of atoms.

We do not care to dismiss these propositions without a farther elaboration of their basic idea, and for this purpose we propose to offer a few excerpts from one of those writers who has assumed the office of describing the principles of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. As far as the opinions of this remarkable association can be defined in language, the quotations selected will give a fair idea of their views on the subject under discussion:

"If the above abstractions are caught by the thinker, it will appear no wonder that the ancient people considered that they saw God, that is, with all their innermost possibility of thought - in Fire - which Fire is not our vulgar, gross Fire, neither is it even the purest material or electric fire, which has still something of the base, bright light of the world about it; but it is an occult, mysterious, supernatural Fire - not magnetic - and yet a real, sensible mind. It is the inner Light, the God, containing all things, the soul of all things, into whose inexpressibly intense, all-consuming, all-creating, divine, though fiery essence, and all the worlds in succession will fall back into whose arms of Immortal Light on the other side, as again receiving them, the worlds driven off into space and being heretofore, by the Divine energy will again rush back to him." ......

"The hollow world, in which that essence of things called Fire, plays, in its escape in violent agitation - to us combustion - is deep down within us, deep sunken inside of the time stages of which we are, in the flesh, rings of being, subsidence of spirit."

......"Narrowly considered, it will be found that all religions transcend up in to this spiritual Fire-floor, on which, so to speak, the phases of time were laid. Material Fire, which is brightness, as the matter upon which it preys is darkness - is the shadow of the true Spirit Light, which invests itself in fire as a mask, in which alone it can act possibly on matter. Thus material light being the opposite rather than the expression of God, the Egyptians - who were undoubtedly acquainted with the Fire revelation - could not represent God as light - material light. They therefore expressed their idea of Deity by darkness. Their adoration was paid to darkness, for in this they bodied forth the image of the Eternal." ......"Though fire is an element in which everything inheres, and of which it is the life, still it is itself an element existing in a second non-terrestrial, non-physical, ethereal fire, in which the first, or terrestrial coarse fire, flickers, waves, brandishes, consumes, destroys. The first is natural, material, gross; but this familiar element, seen and known in the natural world as fire, is contained in a celestial unparticled, infinitely extended medium - which celestial fire is its matrix, and of which, in this human body, we know nothing."

We here interrupt these excerpts - rendered chiefly as fragmentary representations of Rosicrucian ideas on the Deity - to interpret the obscure language of the writer, and state that the celestial fire referred to in the above passage, is the all-pervading element we have described, which, in its action through space, is termed the Astral Light, and in its investiture of the soul as a spiritual body, is termed the Astral Spirit. The innermost of the Rosicrucian Celestial Fire, like that of the human spirit, is the incomprehensible essence of light, not its substance, Soul. Robert Fludd, a Rosicrucian mystic of the middle ages, teaches that the Macrocosmos, or great Universe of intelligible and intelligent forms, is divided into three principal regions, which are denominated the Empyreum, the Aethereum, and the Elementary region. Each are filled with Celestial Fire, and traversed by innumerable oceans of Astral Light, but the quantity and quality of these divine elements diminishes as these subdivisions of space recede farther from the Central Source of all.

It is the union of the Celestial Fire and astral Light which constitutes the Soul of the Universe.

The Rosicrucian biographer proceeds to say:

"There are three ascending Hierarchies of beneficent Angels whose nature is of the purer portion of the Celestial Fire, and these are divided into nine orders. - These threefold Angelic Hierarchies are: The Teraphim, the Cherubim, and Seraphim; also, there is a correspondential realm of darkness, divided into nine spheres- the residuum of being, peopled with mighty but adverse Angels, who boast still, of the relics of their lost or eclipsed condition, once all light and heavenly glory." ......"The Elementary region includes the earth, man, and his belongings, also the lower creatures. This sphere is the flu, subsidence, ashes of the ethereal fire, and man himself is the microcosm or indescribably small copy of the macrocosm, or the great world. This earth having been produced by the contention of light and darkness, has denseness in its innumerable heavy concomitants, which contain less and less of the original divine light and heat, and thicken and solidify, until it is rent apart, torn, disintegrated and distributed into forms, by the still prevalent action of the Divine element of invisible fire.

"The inner jewel of light is never absent, even from the grossest atom, and though it may take ages to evolve, still will this divine light, ever tending to purify, refine, and elevate, alchemically convert base things into fine, gross matter into ethereal, and the earth itself into a radiant and gloriously spiritualized planet. Unseen and unsuspected, there is a divine ethereal spirit, an eager fire, confined as in prison, struggling through all solid objects, which are imbued with more or less of this sensitive life, as they are more or less refined, through the changing purgations of fire. Thus all minerals in this spark of light have the rudimentary possibility of plants, and growing organisms; plants have rudimentary sensibilities, which might in distant ages transmute them into locomotive creatures, and all vegetation might pass off, into new and independent highways of being, as their original spark of life-light, thrills, expands, and urges nature forward with more informed force, and directed by the unseen Angelic Ministers of the Great Original Architect."......"it is with terrestrial fire that the Alchemist breaks asunder the atomic thickness of visible nature, which, yielding up its secret destiny, of unlimited progress, sinks into the fiery furnace, in its basest proportions, to arise thrice purified, and forced upwards on the pathway of a higher round of the ladder.

"It is with the celestial fire that the Rosicrucian bursts asunder the bonds of error and darkness that hold the soul in a material prison-house. He becomes the Pontifex (bridge maker), which conducts the Soul across the dark waters of ignorance from the realms of the known to the unknown, from the gates of matter to the bright roads of Spirit; from earthly blackness to celestial light, from the visible fires of purgation to the invisible soul light of eternity."

Our readers may pardon us for interblending so many fragments of Rosicrucian musings with the practicalities which we profess to aim at, but to the genuine student of the occult sciences, it may not be uninteresting to learn something of the real opinions of a sect to whom so much that is false and mythical has been attributed. As God is the solvent for all the problems of pious ignorance, so electricity plays the same part in the realm of unexplained phenomena. The name of the Rosicrucians seems to have been borrowed in the same sense, and applied by superstitious and utterly misinformed babblers to cover up all the occult mysteries which science could not explain, and bigotry feared to tamper with.

It is something to know ourselves - not less to be truly known by others.

We do not press these fragments of Rosicrucianism on the reader's attention for the mere purpose of citing abstract opinions with which we have especial sympathy, but we feel that, to the interior sense of the profound thinker, they have a deeper significance than any other theories that have yet been advanced concerning the wonderful phenomena of Deity, life and being. Allowing for the varied modes of expression which prevail in different countries, and at various epochs of time, these opinions present a very fair, though necessarily condensed abstract, of the philosophies of the Cabbalists, Gnostics, Pythagoreans, Platonists, and many of the most enlightened of the Greeks, Romans and early Christians.

In giving a brief and practical summary of these theories, we find that, whilst the soul or innermost of the man is a Divine emanation from Deity, the body or outermost is an aggregation of material atoms, vitalized by the Astral Spirit, which serves as the life principle to the body, the ethereal body of the soul, and forms the connecting link between the soul and the body. This Astral Spirit accompanies the soul at Death, when the union of the two forms the spirit. The more sublimated portions of this Astral body adhere to the soul, and grosser and coarser layers form the outer covering or body of the spirit.

It is in this luminous Astral Spirit, this concentration of all force, life, heat, motion and imponderable essence, this invisible, "supernatural fire," as the ancient Theosophists termed it, that the power resides to make spirits visible to mortal eyes, to exhale force, so that they can lift bodies, make sounds, and produce all the manifestations by which spirits and mortals commune with each other. The heat generated in this Astral Spirit gives life and motion to the body; the light, which is its substance, colors the various tissues and fluids, and causes them to reflect the grosser rays of light in the atmosphere, so that they can become visible.

Once more we will suggest, that the Astral Spirit in the human structure is analogous, though differing in degrees of attenuation and force, to the Astral light in the realms of space. It is the spiritual principle of the earth, galvanism, magnetism, motion throughout its rocks, plants, minerals, waters, and gases.

It is the restless, ethereal fire that forces asunder the most mobile particles of fluid, and disperses them into gases; it separates the still finer particles of gases, and distributes matter into ether. it is not, as some have asserted, ether per se, but it is the principle of motion which rolls oceans of ether into undulatory waves, and causes it to become the carrier of light and heat. When its swift winged rays encounter opposite currents, when moving with inconceivable energy through one body it meets with its counterpart in opposing motion, the fierce concussion results in combustion; this mighty shock eliminates flame or lightning, and in the all-devouring action of the material fire, the surrounding particles are consumed. Destruction by fire, or what is called electricity then, is the material exhibition of two contending bodies, moving in opposite directions under the energetic action of the spiritual fire. In its primal condition, the Astral light of the Universe is like that of the Spiritual body in man, invisible, latent, inscrutable, unknown, except by its effects in life, warmth, and motion. In its external and last analysis, it is the consuming fire, and its action is to reduce all things back again into their own invisible essence; thus it is the Alpha and Omega of being, the first and the last; Deity.

The Astral Spirit in man is not a single original element, like the Soul, it is a combination of all the imponderables of the Universe. its first derivation or original essence is from the Sun and planetary system. Ether, air, atmosphere, earth, with all its freight of organic and inorganic life, combine to send off emanations which make up the sum of the wonderful structure called the Astral Spirit in man. It is a true cosmos of the Universe, and upon its exterior form is engraved all the sand grains of character, motives, powers, functions, vices, virtues, hopes, and memories, which the Soul has gathered up in its process of growth through the material body; hence it is as much a perfect microcosm of the individual's mind within, as of the visible and invisible Universe without. Not a deed, word, or thought which has helped to make up the sum of a human life, but what is photographed upon the spiritual body of the man, with as much fidelity as the mind of the Creator is written, in starry hieroglyphics upon the glittering skies. it keeps as faithful a record, as true a doomsday book, and pronounces as sure a judgment upon human life and conduct as ever the Egyptian Osiris could have done, in his sternest moods of God-like justice.

In many layers of graduated ethereal essence are felt by Sensitives as rings, or spheres. Those nearest the body are perceived as life spheres, and these change with the body's changes, and in its decay and death, recede, and become the outermost of the new born Soul's envelope. Those most interior to the body, and nearest the Soul, are the Sun spheres, and connect the Soul with the Solar and Astral influences, under which the individual was launched into being.

These interior spheres, too, change in response to Solar and planetary changes, and thence they affect the mind, influence the character, and constitute the links of connection by which the stars act upon the individual's destiny. As man's Astral Spirit is aggregated from so many forces in the Universe, so it is subject to the influence of changes occurring in every department of Nature.

The state of the earth, atmosphere, and aromal emanations given off in different seasons of the year - all these, with their changing influences, contribute to form the essence of the embryonic being ere it sees the light. The inherited tendencies of mind, body and spirit imposed by parental law, impart to the life germs their own peculiar idiosyncrasies. The physical sustenance, mental temperament, the very employments and thoughts of every mother, combine, also, to impress, with fateful images, their unborn offspring; but above all, the order of the planetary scheme, and the conjunction with every star sustains, first to the Sun, next to the earth, and finally to each other at the moment of mortal birth, must determine the nature of every spirit, and shape the springs upon which hinge the framework of human character.

Admitting then, the Soul's origin in Deity, and the Astral spirit's origin in the solar system, how vastly momentous upon the newly-born being's character and organization must be the solar and planetary influences which prevail in the hour of the germ's inception, through every stage of embryonic life, and at the very moment when, drawn by solar and planetary influence from the darkness of its embryonic prison, it is launched in space as a living creature!

Ages ago, the ancient astronomer discovered that all the vast crystal vault of the skies, the illimitable fields of space dotted over with millions of fiery blossoms, seemingly so fixed, so calm, so immobile in their solemn silence and mysterious beauty, were all moving! Moving on in constant but still ever-changing orbits. The certainty of these stupendous changes was absolutely determined by the discovery of that remarkable motion called "the precession of the equinoxes," a motion which, in a given period of time, varying between two and three thousand years, swept the blazing sun of the solar system, with all its planetary hosts, from one sign of the Zodiac to another. Later on - in fact, up to our own time - astronomical observations have determined that all the stars of the sidereal heavens, gorgeous field of space, filled with the march of suns and systems, speed on with a momentum so tremendous, that the mind of man shrinks back, awestruck, at the attempt to trace, those footprints of fire through spaces, wherein millions of miles are measured by hours and minutes. Whilst the external aspect of these spangled heavens changes but little to the eye of the observer during many centuries of time, the real permanence of the scheme is only apparent. "Only constant in eternal unrest," might be traced in every glittering point of the sideral heavens. Ever the same in the fixidity of matchless order, ever changing in the spiral circles of ascending progress. If this be so, as Science proves it is, how inevitably must the endless changes of the Macrocosm affect the nature of the Microcosm, and man, the world in little, partake of the infinite variousness which discourses so eloquently through the epic of the starry skies!

There cannot be two planetary conjunctions in the field of space which, in all respects, exactly duplicate each other; and this is the reason why those creatures, launched every second into human life, under the influence of ever-varying astral changes, must differ so widely from each other in all the essentials of physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual states. As the planets seem to return to stated points, and re-enact their mystic conjunctions in the shining pathway of the Zodiac, so there seem to be recurrences of certain types of character, and duplicates of certain facial lineaments.

Viewing the valley of the then from the mountain heights of the now, we are fain to give up this stereotyped opinion, and own that history only repeats itself in generalities, not in particulars, and that there is not a wave which beats on the shores of earth that ever returns with just the same force as those that have gone before - no never! And all this change in the planetary order is effected by the unceasing energy of the life that is throbbing, and burning, and blazing on in its mad career of eternal unrest, in the midst of every starry road, and thrilling down and pulsating through the very central heart of every starry world; and all this ceaseless movement, heard in the echoing feet of the tramping ages, is due to that same life spirit, burning up, shriveling into ashes, and scattering into dust the forms of the past, in order that their liberated spirits may become incarnate in all the fresher, fairer forms of the ages that are to be!

The consideration of these diffusive generalities are not irrelevant to our subject; on the contrary, they need to be thought out and appreciated ere the unaccustomed thinker can apprehend why the motions of a single point of fire, gleaming through the immensity of space, can affect the character and destiny of an individual removed from its orbit by incalculable sums of distance; why all nature, animate and inanimate, moves, acts and speaks with an universal chord of sympathy connecting the whole' why flights of birds, wheeling high in air, the motions of a dancing butterfly, a quivering sunbeam, a crawling worm, humming insect, or even the falling of a leaf, or the murmur of a wave, may discourse deep meanings in the ear of a true student of nature, and utter portents of immutable fate to illuminated scholars who have learned to interpret all the undertones of creations, and spell out its hieroglyphical inscriptions.

When we hear how Chaldean Soothsayers perceived the destines of nations, in the smoking ashes of the burnt offering; how Roman Augurs interpreted the issues of life and death from the flight of birds; how Persian Magi read the words of fate inscribed on the starry pages of the skies; or Hebrew priests discovered mystic meanings in the glittering luster of Urim and Thummim; we know that these men were simply natural philosophers, and had studied the occult side of nature with as much understanding, and perhaps more devotion, than the nineteenth century Scientists accord to the mastery of the known and the visible.

For thousands, perhaps for tens of thousands of years, it was the office of the best and wisest men of every succeeding generation, to devote a lifetime to the study of nature, and that in her profoundest depths, and through all the mazes and windings of her supernatural relations with the visible and invisible spheres of being around her. Ever let it be remembered, too, that the ancient philosopher brought to this sublime study a body as thoroughly prepared as a mind; a physique fitted by temperances, chastity and purity to allow full sway to the mind which inhabited it, and is so often cramped by inharmonious physical states.

When we come to lay down the conditions under which alone magical rites can become effective, and describe the life-long discipline which the powerful magian must pursue, in order to become one, we shall put to shame the self-indulgent, intemperate, and too often dissolute habits of the present age - habits which not even the sacred assumption of Priestly office seems always to impose restraint upon. And yet this same self-indulgent and luxuriant age, looks back with contempt on the asceticism of the ancient Priest, whilst those who profess to believe in all the miraculous records of Jewish history, treat those of every other nation of antiquity with scornful denial. As to Magic, why as something which can be taught, "it may be true," and perhaps even become a fashionable amusement, provided always that book-learning, and a superficial digest of the opinions of others, can point out the royal road to power, and convert tinsel drawing-rooms into the halls of Walhalla, wine and cigars into the Alembic of Alfarabi, gilded mirrors into the divining crystal of Dee, and extrait de bouquet into the elixir vitae of St. Germain. A few pages of Cornelius Agrippa, which no modern "Exquisite" would take the trouble to translate himself, ought, in modern estimation, to be quite sufficient to make a magician, and teach fine ladies to summon Slyphs and Undines for the amusement of an idle hour, just as a few pigments of Latin, an essay done into bad Greek, and worse Hebrew, by a professional college drudge, for the benefit of his rich paying patron, is sufficient passport to those holy orders of our modern priesthood in which God, Angels, Spirits, the immortal soul's origin, destiny, and powers, together with all the glories, marvels and mysteries of the boundless and eternal Universe, are the themes which demand interpretation.

The most supervidial retrospect of the lives, education and preparatory methods of discipline enforced upon the ancient priesthood, invest that body with the true dignity of men in "holy order;" but how do these compare with the careless, laxy system of mere book-learning, which in our own time is deemed all-sufficient to grind out a priest, the man who, of all others, should be bound by his sacred office to interpret the mysteries of being, nay, who should be deemed unworthy of that office, so long as mysteries remain unsolved.

Nature has not secrets from her true votaries. She sternly veils spiritual entities from the rude gaze of materialism, and refuses to render up any knowledge beyond the plane from which the inquiry originates. The Chemist, Geologist, Astronomer, and other disciples of the natural sciences, coldly set to work to examine Nature through her known formulae of physical laws; aught that transcends these they will none of, hence the occult side of Nature is an unexplored realm to them, and yet they are prompt enough to acknowledge that that occult side exists, through their sneer is loud and long against those who claim to have mastered its mysteries.

It is because the experience of past ages, conducted through thousands of years of study, by aid of carefully prepared conditions, has been devoted to the occult in Nature, that the ancients transcend the moderns in this respect, as much as modern science, in the direction of utilitarianism, transcends the colossal but cumbrous grandeur of antique civilization. There lives not now upon the face of the earth, one human being, save perchance, a solitary adept of the old order, or a very pure and highly endowed spirit medium, who, in respect to the understanding of true Theosophy, Theurgy, and every department of spiritual science, is fit to hold the office of Priest to the people, or instruct humanity in those grand truths which lie beyond the ken of physical science. It is to show the results of opinions which arise from countless ages of research into occult truths, that this section has been written. It is to present to the candid and bold thinker, the fruits of that knowledge which was gathered in through the discipline of asceticism, fasting, and prayer, and the study of the whole Universe, not less in the realm of soul and spirit, than in body and function, that we now write. Despite these treasures of mind, garnered up through thousands of years, if ye will, but it is thus alone that the Universe has ever yielded an answer to the soul's urgent questioning; thus alone can man ever solve the mystery of his being, and that of his planet.

To point the way, we have written; to show the kernel of the mighty fruit of the tree of occult knowledge, will these pages be devoted. But he who would eat of that fruit understandingly, must first plant the tree with his own hands, tend and culture it with a philosopher's patience, and then, and then alone, will it yield to his taste the true knowledge of good and evil, then only will he eat for himself, and not through the senses of another.

We shall conclude this section by another brief excerpt from the pages of the author whose definitions of Rosicrucianism we have given above:

"It is reasonable to conclude, at a period when knowledge was at the highest, and when human powers were, in comparison with ours at the present time, prodigious, that all these indomitable physical efforts - such gigantic achievements as those of the Egyptians, were devoted to a mistake? That the myriads of the Nile were fools, laboring in the dark, and that all the magic of their great men was forgery? or that we, in despising that which we call their superstitious and wasted power, are alone the wise? Not so. There is much more in these old religions than in the audacity of modern denial, in the confidence of these superficial science times and in the derision of these days without faith, we can in the least degree suppose.

"We do not understand; then why should we venture to deride these ancient times?"

Posted by mikki at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Spiritism and Magic - Mundane, Sub-Mundane and Super-Mundane Spiritism - The Mystic Ladder - An Interminable Chain of Love and Harmony

Man's earliest religious history is also the history of Spiritism, or his communion with the realms of Spiritual existence.

To effect this communion, the human organism must be adapted to the perception of Spiritual entities, or else means must be found to promote this adaption.

We have mis-spent our time in sketching out the ancient forms of religious belief, if we have failed to show that men once communed with their Tutelary Gods and ministering spirits intuitively, inspirationally, and even directly, but that in process of time, either by reason of changes in man's receptivity, or from the altered conditions which civilization imposes, that communion became interrupted, then more and more difficult; in some periods it ceased altogether, and finally became limited to a few exceptionally endowed individuals, in which category (with occasional irruptions of a more diffusive character) it has continued down to the present day.

The spontaneous and natural communion with spiritual beings, whether it be exercised by communities or individuals, we may term Spiritism. The arts by which this communion is procured through prepared conditions, should with equal propriety be designated Magic, and whether these arts be practiced for good or evil purposes, their methods must involve a knowledge of the occult forces existing in nature, and the means of calling them forth and utilizing them. If the understanding and application of Nature's laws in any one department of being is a science, then must all knowledge and all arts, which are but the application of knowledge, be included in the term science, hence magic, however ominous its name may sound in superstitious ears, and however much it may have been perverted to purposes of evil, is still a branch of science, and as such, should be studied and legitimately used.

Magic may be termed the science of Spiritism, and whilst it would be as idle to tender it to the acceptance of those whose natural endowments supply them with the art it professes to teach, as to paint the cheek of the rose, or blanch the lily white, its careful study may furnish us with a clue to the better use and guidance of natural gifts, and where there are lacking, instruct us in the methods of supplying the deficiency. In order to point out the spheres of power in which magic operates, it is necessary to define the order of communion which nature permits, through the exceptional endowments of her highly gifted children, the world's Seers, Prophets, Sybils, and Mediums.

The first gift included in the discernment of Spiritual beings is that of vision, or the faculty of seeing Spirits, recognizing their signs in aerial pictures, their writings when inscribed in spiritual substances, also of perceiving the spirits of fellow-men, reading the thoughts and characteristics masked to the mortal eye, and taking cognizance generally of the spiritual part of things in the Universe.

The second gift of the prophetic order is, the faculty of hearing sounds, whether in the form of spirit voices, music, or other vibrations made on the ethereal medium in which spirits live, rather than on the atmosphere which mortals breathe and dwell in.

The power of seeing and hearing spirits, opens up two of the principal avenues of intelligence to our Souls, and in like manner, the spiritual senses of smell, taste, and touch can be operated upon.

Through one or other of these gates to the inner consciousness, all spiritualistic phenomena must act, but the phenomena themselves are very various.

Something the Soul of man itself, looks forth through its material encasements, acting from within, and sees, hears, tastes, smells, and touches spiritual entities.

Sometimes ministering spirits produce effects acting from without upon the inner senses of man. Both methods are common, both belong to the one gifted individual.

Sometimes the influx of spiritual ideas is so silent, natural, and unmarked by physical disturbances, that their subject knows not that an Angel speaks, or that the soul has transcended the laws of sensuous perception, and derived ideas unconsciously from its near proximity to the realms of spiritual entities.

To account for the operation of the powers describe above, it is necessary to revert to the last section of the First Part, and bear in mind, that the realms of spiritual being are very near, in fact, all around and about us; that, though spirits of every grade and class swarm through the universe, ranged in their different spheres and orders, yet that the "spirit world," or the spheres through which the souls of men are making pilgrimage upwards and onwards to heaven are approximate to this earth, even as the soul of man is related to his body; that these spheres interpenetrate every atom of matter on this globe with a spiritual element, and again, as the d