Art Magic

Cicero describes several modes of divining by birds, in which the color, the number in a flock, their direction, and divers other minutiae were accepted as auguries for good or evil.

Sacrificial rites were in all ancient countries deemed infallible means of Soothsaying. The motions of the victim, his struggles or submission, the condition of the intestines, the direction of the smoke, and other items too numerous and too petty to be dwelt on, were all deemed indications of the deepest moment, and on them, often depended the fate of nations, and the destiny of kings. There were several modes of divination by water, by the swinging of rings, or other light objects suspended from sacred books, which were deemed infallible as portents. To this species of chance divination belongs that method so elaborately described by Cornelius Agrippa, but invented ages before his time, called "Geomancy," that is, divination by points or dots set down at random. This mode was supposed to be practiced by the Persian Magi, who made clefts in the ground, and then, from the numbers of marks found, they composed a magical figure, which they interpreted into an oracle. From the use of the ground as the tablet of inscription, comes the term "Geomancy."

Endless are the practices by which the ancients sought to obtain that divine direction which they prized, far above all earthly counsel or human judgment. They cultivated the art of crystal seeing, gazing into mirrors and still water to obtain visions. They attached especial importance to dreams, and often accepted as oracular the voices of passers by, and the sentences they uttered, as they sat waiting by the wayside, or at the gates of their Temples "for a sign." This method amongst the Jews was termed Bath-Kol, or the Daughter of a voice, and was used by them when the mysterious tones of the spirit who was wont to speak from between the Cherubim and Seraphim became hushed forever.

Chiromancy, or the art of divining by the lines of the hand, still maintains its hold upon the faith of a goodly number of modern votaries. Amongst the Sybilline people skillful to a proverb in this art, are the Gipsies of England, the Zingari of Spain, and the Bohemians of Paris. The success of these vagrant wanderers in reading the character, and not unfrequently the destiny of those whose hands they examine, has often been attributed to clairvoyance, a gift peculiar to most nomadic tribes, especially to the Arabians and Gipsies, still there are not wanting men of mark and learning who claim as much for Palmistry or Chiromancy as for Physiognomy or even Phrenology.

In this art, as in Geomancy, astrological science is called into play, as it is claimed the hand is the chart of the whole body, and as this is under astral and solar control, so the peculiar shape of the hand and the lines on its inner surface indicate planetary configurations, which bear an immediate relation to destiny, and the influence of the stars.

Pythagoras attached the utmost importance to the given name of individuals, and the number of letters it contained, and this belief prevailed so generally amongst many of the Grecian philosophers, that it became reduced to a sort of science, and obtained the title of Onomancy.

In Wm. Howitt's delightful sketches of Rural Life in Germany, and Ennemoser's History of Magic, are whole chapters concerning the popular superstitions of the middle, aye, and later ages, too, in which almost every motion, and every object, becomes interpreted into an omen.

Doubtless it is from the alternations of fear and hope, between which man is forever oscillating, as he pursues his toilsome pilgrimage through life's rough and rugged paths, that he so continually ransacks nature to her inmost depths, to discover signs of warning or encouragement to guide him. And are these signs so entirely unreliable? Is this research so utterly fruitless? Is not man the creature of Nature as much as of God? Built up of her whole three lower kingdoms, drinking from her rivers and fountains, inhaling her breathing winds, constantly shedding impalpable emanations to feed her vegetable kingdom, and as constantly receiving in exchange the aromal essences of all that earth contains; how deep, how intimate must be the sympathy between this microcosmic man and all things else in being! Whatever this planet may be interiorly, all its separate parts must be organs of "one stupendous whole." The men of the wilds of Africa can not be dissevered from the influences which convulse their western brothers. The air, the tides, the secret crypts of earth traversed by magnetic currents and electric fires, are links which bind the inhabitants of every land in one unbroken chain of harmony. Does the brow ache without the hand becoming heavy? Does fever scorch the veins without exhibiting its lurid light in the glittering eye? Can we injure one single fibre without a sympathetic thrill quivering through the entire system? Then why sneer at the idea that the separate parts of nature - all organs, and essential ones, too, in her sublime structure - should so sympathetically act and react with each other, that those who can read one part may comprehend the whole, or those who feel the pang that rends her heart, will be sure her sacred frame will shudder, even to the farthest extremities of being! As man is the crowning apex of all created forms, as in him are centered all powers, forces, and elements that compose the natural body of the planet, is it not reasonable to suppose that all the lesser parts are in subjection to him, and in sympathetic rapport with his destiny? We may mistake the indications of these deep sympathies, and, in our egotism imagine they cluster too thickly around our own individual pathway. Still they exist, and only need a scientific, instead of an imaginative understanding of their profound utterances, to show us that all nature is a grand volume, in which the hieroglyphics of universal being are inscribed in characters of immutable fate; in sand-grains and mountains, in daisies and forest trees, in ocean billows and murmuring brooklets, in chirping insects and the peals of heaven's artillery, in fluttering wings of birds and hovering angels.

The great and wise Swedenborg often mistook the art of correspondences, but never the truth of the science itself.

The Magians of old, better instructed in teh occult powers of nature than we, who have strayed so far from her revealments in the paths of artifice, comprehended the laws of sympathy existing between all orders of being and man; hence their correct interpretations of signs, tokens, omens and monitions. They understood that all nature rendered homage to man, and that a quiver shook her mighty frame in response to every chord struck on the harp of life by man's master hand. We have no such knowledge now, and so little interior light to guide us that the signs fail, the tokens are misunderstood, and the attempts we make to force them into meaning, betray us into error and convert the child-like faiths of antiquity, into vain superstition.

OF STONES, GEMS AND COLORS.

The splendid array of experiments by which Baron Von Reichenbach has, within the last half century and under the most stringent test conditions, proved that magnetic emanations streamed from shells, stones, and crystals, displaying different degrees of force and different shades of color, form and radiance, supplement the opinions of the most authoritative writers of different ages on the same subject.

That all metals and crystalline bodies give off magnetic force, is now proved beyond question; that they are capable of producing somnambulic or ecstatic effects in different degrees, Von Reichenbach's experiments, with over a hundred and fifty sensitives, have abundantly demonstrated; hence we may be justified in regarding with some interest, the classification of the different qualities of minerals and precious stones, put forth by Rabbi Bennoni, learned writer of the fourteenth century, said to be one of the most profound Alchemists of his time, who alleges that "the loadstone, sapphire and diamond are all capable of producing Somnambulism, and when combined into a talisman, attract such powerful Planetary Spirits, as render the bearer almost invisible." All precious stones when cut with smooth surfaces and intently gazed upon, are capable of producing somnambulism in the same degree as the crystal, also of inducing visions.

Their varieties of color prove that they absorb different degrees of light, and they are said to impart unequal degrees of heat. The Buddhists esteemed the sapphire above all gems, claiming that it produces tranquility of mind, and when worn by one wholly pure and devoted to God, ensures protection against disease, danger, and venomous reptiles.

Orpheus exalts the virtues of the loadstone almost as highly as did Paracelsus that of the Magnet. The former says: "With this stone you can hear the voices of the Gods, and learn heavenly things."

"It will confer strength, banish disease, and when worn constantly about the person, ward off epidemics and plagues. Sitting down before it and fixing your gaze earnestly upon it, you have but to ask of the Gods for light on any subject, and the answer will come breathed out through the stone. Your soul will hear it and your senses will discover it clearly." Orpheus says of stones in general: "The earth produces every good and evil to man, but she also provides a remedy for every ill. These are to be found chiefly in stones. Every virtue lays hidden within them."

Benoni affirms that the diamond will deprive the loadstone of its virtue, and is the most powerful of all stones to promote spiritual ecstasy. Amongst a great variety of similar aphorisms he says:

"The agate quenches thirst if held in the mouth, and soothes fever.

"The amethyst banishes the desire for drink, and promotes chastity.

"The garnet preserves health and joy.

"The sapphire impels to all good things like the diamond.

"The red coral is a cure for indigestion, when worn constantly about the person.

"Amber is a cure for sore throat and glandular swellings.

"The crystal promotes sweet sleep and good dreams.

"The emerald promotes friendship and constancy of mind.

"The onyx is a demon imprisoned in stone, who wakes only of a night, causing terror and disturbance to sleepers who wear it.

"The opal is fatal to love and sows discord between the giver and receiver.

"The topaz is favorable for all haemorrhages, and imparts strength and good digestion."

We give these quant aphorisms not as guides or scientific indications, but to show the ideas which the latent powers of magnetic bodies suggested to observers of natural forces. As to the effect of colors on the mind, whatever physical influence they may be supposed to produce, it would be in vain to deny their peculiar efficacy in psychological effects. In Emma Hardinge's noble work, "The History of Modern American Spiritualism," a chapter is devoted to the recital of that lady's interview with a singular individual residing in St. Louis, Missouri, and professing to make cures by detecting the peculiar colors which belonged to certain organisms, the plus or minus of which - according to his theory - was the cause of all disease. This chapter, like every other line in this exhaustive treatise, is a mine of psychologic wealth.

The "Color Doctor," as he was termed, being a veritable ecstatic, would, on the first entrance of his visitors, go through many of he extraordinary motions, gyrations and contortions peculiar to the Hindoo Fakeers. Having induced in himself and his visitors the necessary condition of rapport, scenes amounting to mantic frenzy would ensue, during which he is reported to have effected the most wonderful and unaccountable cures. His particular theory of color influence was demonstrated on the occasion of Emma Hardinge's visit, in the following manner: Placing the lady and several witnesses in one apartment, he, with an equal number of persons, remained in another, where no possible chance could have permitted the one party to observe the actions of the other, though all could hear and communicate together.

The Operator then touched a piece of cloth of a certain color, upon which the lady in the next apartment became impelled to represent in pantomimic action some scene signifying deep mental emotion, for example: When the Doctor held a piece of yellow cloth in his hand, the subject immediately prostrated herself in the attitude of adoration, and uttered fervent prayers to the Deity. On assuming the color of scarlet, the subject became violently enraged and threatened war and destruction to all around her. A certain shade of grey caused the representation of a rattlesnake, and the signification of treachery; pink occasioned great joy and gladness; violet evidently deepened the spiritual afflatus, and wrapped the subject in heavenly contemplation; green excited her aversion; and blue restored her to perfect peace and equanimity, seeming, in fact, to represent her own nature. Many rapid changes were effected in the assumption of these and other colors; but always with the same effect, and unvarying fidelity of representation. The lady concludes a long and most wonderful narrative, witnessed as the scene was too, by several scientific and distinguished residents of St. Louis, by the following pertinent remarks:

"When after two hours captivity to this fearful spell, I was at length released, and permitted to reflect upon the singular part I had been compelled to play, the idea forced itself upon my mind, that in this exhibition , was a complete arcanum of occult discovery. A clue was at once afforded me, to the strong predilections which I had always cherished for certain colors and my dislike to others. I remembered the same things of almost every one I knew, and felt certain that as colors corresponded to the passions of the human soul, so the predominance of special tendencies of mind might be supposed to indicate a corresponding preponderance in the physical system, of special rays of color."

Whether this theory be founded in truth or error, the fact remains that the weird Color Doctor of St. Louis, effected many marvelous cures by imparting psychologically as he assumed, the particular rays of color in which some of his patients were deficient, or reducing those which prevailed to such an excess in others as to create inflammation and disease.

In the experiment above related, he assured his visitors he used no psychological art whatever. He believed that special colors prevailed in special organisms, and that the plus or minus of the shade natural to them, caused disease, but until the chance experiment which occurred through a chance visit of Mrs. Hardinge and her friends, he had no idea of the intimate relation of colors to the mental emotions, and the scene so briefly described above was as much a revelation to him as to the witnesses.

In carefully conducted Seances for spiritual manifestations, the Author and his mediumistic friends have frequently remarked the different shades of light which emanated from different individuals and sometimes attended the demonstrations of certain spirits, - also it has been noticed that spirits attached great importance to colors, and taught that in the spheres, where all things assume moral correspondences to physical objects, spirits were compelled to display their moral qualities and states of progression by the color of their garments, or the nature of the flowers, ornaments, or animal representations, with which they were surrounded.

The reader may be assured there is a magical arcanum in color, the study of which would tend to promote much more harmonious arrangements in dress, furniture, and physical surroundings, than mankind enjoys.

OF MUCIC - NOISE - WORDS AND TONES.

To avoid inflicting on our readers the recitation of mathematical principles in defining the difference between noise and music, and yet to account for their effects on the human system, we lay down a brief summary of axiomatic ideas in the following propositions. Sound is an impulse communicated from one body to another and transmitted to the ear through waves or vibrations in the air, caused by the original impulse. Many definitions have been rendered to show the difference produced upon the ear by noise and music, but we may say in brief that, when the waves of air set in motion by an original impulse are unequal in length, one wave being short and angular, another long and scarcely curved, and the whole mass of vibratory element is moved in unequal undulations, the result to the ear is noise.

When the impulse given communicates to the air is a perfectly regular series of undulations, each wave assuming the same curve and length, the result on the ear is music. The effect of these different motions on the mind, need not be discussed here. To all civilized nations, and, with a few rare exceptions to every individual, the difference in effect is analogous to pain and pleasure; for, although there are some few individuals who do not know noise from music, as a general rule the appreciation of the difference between these two varieties of sound, and their effects upon the taste of communities, form a good gauge of national civilization.

The lower a people may be sunk in the scale of barbarism, the greater is their predilection for noise and general insensibility to music; whilst the higher the status of civilization ranges, the greater is the perfection to which the cultivation of music attains.

It has been shown in the magical history of nations, that sounds are amongst the most potential means of exciting the ecstatic afflatus. The effects of sound are both physical and mental.

It is of course generally understood that concussions violent enough to create loud sounds - such as thunder, explosions, the firing of artillery, heavy blows, etc., etc. - will not only cause powerful vibrations in all surrounding objects, but frequently break, displace, or even totally destroy them. Witness the effect on houses shattered by explosions transpiring at considerable distances, windows broken, and furniture thrown down by the firing of artillery, or other concussive disturbances of the atmosphere. Similar vibrations may be felt, though in a far less degree, by the sound of a powerful organ, or a mass of wind instruments.

If such effects can operate on the comparatively unyielding tissues of inanimate substances, may we not reasonably expect that analogous motions must be transpiring within our own highly strung and vibratory organisms? It is not certain in fact, that the elastic fibres of the human system - especially the delicate medullary tissues of the nerves - must quiver and respond to every tone that vibrates through the air, whether it be soft or loud, musical or simply noisy? The correspondential effects on the mind cannot be questioned, and it is doubtless from the combination of mental and physical influences that we see how distracting clamors, especially if long continued, will induce catalepsy, convulsion, spasm, or even frenzy.

The effects of music, on the contrary, are delightful and exalting. To susceptible and highly cultivated natures, music is capable of awakening every emotion of the human soul, from the most rapt devotion to the wildest exhilaration from the most passionate grief to the excess of mirthfulness. Music pieces, penetrates, thrills, never shocks. It plays along the fibres of the nerves, quickens the pulse, stimulates the circulation, exalts the mind, alters even the molecular arrangements of the physical atoms, and partly by the harmonious order into which it resoles the layers of the atmosphere, partly by its entrancing effects upon the soul, it fills the listener with a divine magnetism, and, for the time being, translates him into a superior condition.

The Rosicrucians' theory of music is that -

"The whole world is a musical instrument, a chromatic sensible instrument: life a chromatic and diatonic scale of musical tones. The axis or pole of the celestial world is intersected by the spiritual sun, or centre of sentient being, and from thence stream forth rays of light, which, divided, form color, which, by motion, gives off tones of music, filling the universe with celestial sound. Every man has a spark or microcosmic sun in his own being, and thus microcosmically diffuses rays of light, and tones, broken by the incoherencies of matter 'tis true, but still in essence, musical tones. Earthly music is the faintest tradition of the angelic state. It remains in the mind of man as the dream of a lost paradise.

"Music is yet master of man's emotions, and therefore of man. Heavenly music is produced from impact upon the paths of planets, which stand as chords or strings to the rays of the sun, hence light and heat, traveling between solar centres and circumferences, waken tones, notes, chords, the sum of which is ethereal music." ......

"Thus is earthly music a relic, a dream, a memory of heaven, an efflux from the motion of planetary bodies, a celestial speech, whose dim echoes are heard and imitated on earth, and thus are light and tone, colors and music, inextricably combined by one producing cause." ......

If the eyes of mortals could be opened to behold the conditions of the atmosphere during the yells, shrieks and cries of a party of howling dervishes, the beating of "tom-toms" (drums), or crashing cymbals in the mantic rites of a party of Siberian Schamans, Lapps, or Thibetian Lamas, they would see the air tossed and torn into angular curves, jagged prominences, literally driven about into crooked turns and sharp corners. This is no exaggeration, no mere flight of a mystic's fancy. If we cannot see it, the science of acoustics assures us it must be so, and this accounts for the wild and mantic character of barbaric spiritism, induced, as it often is, by noise. On the other hand, the same clairvoyant vision would behold the atmosphere vibrating to fine music, full of regular undulating lines, every curve, swell and depression equal throughout the whole length of the waves, and though the lines might vary, each would bear such harmonious and graceful relations to the other, that the whole atmosphere would appear as an exquisite landscape; blended lights and shadows wonderfully graduated into an ocean of billowy air, where not a single wave presented an angular, inharmonious, or irregular curve. And these delightfully organized strata of atmospheres impinge upon the physical forms of the listeners, penetrate the very marrow in the bone, and re-arrange the very structure of every fibre in the system. Can the reader now understand the mysteries of snake-charming by the sweet and monotonous effect of certain musical instruments? Why, moreover, nearly every beast and bird partakes of the spell which music imparts?

We could fill a volume with narratives of the potent effects of music upon the animal kingdom, and the variety of those effects upon different creatures, under the influence of different tones. The reader, too, may understand why the distracting clamors of the battle-field, the bombardment of a city, the dances and whoops of the red Indians, the shouts and howls of the Dervishes, and other ecstatics of low grades, summon from the crypts of the earth embryonic Elementaries, and fire the brains of listening mortals with madness or ecstasy. The spell of enchantment, fascinations, delight, health, and harmony, that sweet music produces, no language can describe; but our readers need question no more its uses in sacred services, solemn invocations, spirit circles, or any scenes where it is desirable to life a mortal up to heaven, and draw an angel down.

OF STONES, HERBS, FLOWERS, FUMIGATIONS, CRYSTALS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND TALISMANS.

Stones of every kind emit those magnetic rays, which measurably serve to entrance those who gaze steadily upon their polished surfaces, but plants are all aromal, and give off either in perfume, or essence, the finest particles of their life at every instant that they subsist. When pressed, or crushed, this aroma is more readily liberated, and when the juice of the plant is extracted and rank, its quality enters with still more potency into the system.

Some of the virtues of drugs and minerals are to be found in the vegetable kingdom, but the possibility of extracting from both departments of nature narcotics and stimulants, and the universal use to which they have been applied in the practice of ancient magic, has already been fully shown. It is also well known that the Asiatics and Orientals of the present day, together with a larger number of Europeans than is generally supposed, resort to the use of hasheesh, opium, soma drink, and other pernicious narcotics, as temporary stimulants or to induce ecstasy and the trance condition. The mediaeval mystics, and even the poor ignorant beings accused of witchcraft, resorted still more frequently to unguents and fumigations. The latter were invariably used in all magical rites, they being deemed efficacious in gratifying the spirits summoned, also in preparing the atmosphere for their demonstrations no less than in exerting an influence upon the invocants, by stupefying or stimulating the senses.

In the Magical elements of Peter d'Abano, the proper fumigations for different days and seasons are fully set forth; but, as a general rule, magical rites are best promoted by the burning of fragrant herbs, aromatic spices, ambergris, frankincense, fine incense, etc., etc.

To those who are curious to know the composition of the famous "Witch Salve," or unguent, with which it was supposed - in the middle ages - those who designed to attend the "Witches' Sabbaths," must anoint their bodies in order to facilitate their transport through the air on "broomstick" steeds, "seive" chariots, or more properly speaking, on the wings of imagination distorted by the use of powerful narcotics, we may give on the authority of Grimm, Horst, Van Helmont, and others, the following list of medicaments:

The deadly nightshade, the napellas, fox glove, betony root, sweet fern, ground ivy, origanum, toad stool and fungi of various kinds pounded up; mandrake, gall apple, savin, vervain, sorrel and fennel seeds. These and other herbs of a narcotic or deadly character, were bruised and pressed into unguents, or distilled into drinks with all manner of formidable rites, spells and incantations.

Sticks and staffs were to be made fro the hazel tree, and fern seed was always carried around the person. A favorite nostrum of the witches by way of food, was boiled chestnuts and sorrel; also, they used ointments made from the oil of hemlock, aconite, henbane, and four other herbs selected from the above choice repertoire.

As to the spells, charms and talismans most popular in the process of Witchcraft, our pen would fail even to catalogue their number, much less to attempt a description of their absurd and meaningless character.

We may mention on e custom very generally adopted and supposed to be peculiarly effective in working harm to distant persons. This was done by constructing an image, as nearly resembling the person of the victim as possible. it was assumed that, as this image was slowly roasted before a fire, or pierced with pins, knives or other sharp instruments, corresponding pains and sicknesses would be induced in the subject of the fiendish rites, and even death could be thus procured.

To injure the fields, crops or cattle of an enemy, dust grains or sharp instruments were cast into the air, accompanied by muttered curses and incantations. Sometimes these foul performers buried insects, toads, fruit or other objects for the purposes of evil enchantment; but in whatever rites they were employed, they never failed to recite spells or mutter curses, the variety of which would fill a library, but their potency as methods of projecting their psychological intention on the victims may be easily understood.

At this point our readers will exclaim, "Do you, then, attribute potency to the will of a poor old half-crazed being who mutters spells over a cauldron of stewed toads, or fricasied lizards? Can the will of such living mummies hurt cattle, blight cornfields, or sap the life juices of good and true men removed from these scenes of diablerie by great distances?"

To this we answer assuredly in the affirmative. It matters not whether the potency proceed from male or female, old or young, rich or poor.

The bad alone will attempt such wickedness, but the true potency is will, and should we deny the possibilities of its exercise simply to gratify the prejudices of those who have made no study of psychological powers, we should falsify a vast mass of historical testimony, the authoritative experience and opinion of all ages, and the life-long personal testimony of the Author's own senses, which have borne witness to thousands of instances wherein the will operated upon individuals removed by long distances from the source of the influence.

Save and except the physical and direct effects produced upon the system by unguents, drugs, herbs, sounds, and vapors, all the force of Witchcraft lay in the will, which by mere superstitious faith in the idle rites performed, became projected with irresistible power upon the victim against whom it was directed.

We have already intimated that mischievous Elementaries who have not yet risen into the spheres of good, are ever ready to respond to the summons of natures similar to their own, yet higher in the scale of creation than themselves. We repeat that these beings are potent in the particular realm to which they belong, and can help wicked mortals in wicked purposes. Remember, too, the universal laws of sympathy that bind up all nature, animate and inanimate, into one vast chain of interdependencies, and then cease to wonder why the lower creatures can receive ban or blessing from their sovereign ruler, man. We have already dwelt at great length on the connection between the planetary system and man. The profoundest depths of occult philosophy derive their basis from this correspondence. The Ancient Mysteries, the Ancient and Modern Free Masons, the best philosophers of Greece and Germany, the Cabalists, and in a word, the Metaphysicians of all ages, teach that man is the Microcosm of being, as God, Angels, and the upper world, form the Macrocosm.

The poorest of all literature, the penny almanack, celebrates this wonderful correspondence in its zodiacal signs marked in their several relations to the human body. As an illustration of this idea, take the following few lines of Rosicrucian doctrine explanatory of the sketch given on the preceding page.

"The Rosicrucian Cabala teaches that the three great worlds above, namely - the Empyraeum, Etheraeum and Elementary regions have their copies in the three points of the body of man; that his head answers to the first, his breast or heart to the second, and his ventral regions to the third. In the head rests the intellect or the magnetism of the assenting judgment; in his heart is the conscience or emotional faculty, in the umbilical regions reside the animal and sensuous faculties." .... "Thus man bears in his body the picture of the Triune. Reason is the head, feeling the breast, and the mechanical means of reason and feeling is the epigastric centre." .... "The invisible magnetic geometrical latitudes of three vital points, forms the triune microcosm which is a copy of the macrocosm or Supreme Archetype of the Heavens."

We only recall in these passages the comprehensive idea of an universal sympathy in nature which compels the re-echo of heavenly sounds throughout the spaces of earth; - which connects the scenes, events, and destinies played out upon the stage of earth, with the grander dramas of eternity performed by blazing suns, and flashing comets - which places everything in this world in sympathetic subjection to man, every human being in sympathetic relations one to the other, and all to God and Angels.

In the use of spells, charms, amulets, consecrated names and words, can we assign virtue to such objects? No more than did Cornelius Agrippa in the many passages of protest he wrote against this idea, one of which we have quoted. Some magnetic virtues, some narcotic essences, and some sublunary as well as Astral influences, inhere in every plant that grows, on every stone beneath our feet; yet we tread on Cabalistic stones, pluck Cabalistic plants, aye, and make use of Cabalistic words every day, and - nothing comes of it!

Our poor little tortured school children painfully spell out the awful name of Jehovah, and many other unpronouncable and "incommunicable name," day by day, and yet the earth quakes not - rocks do not rend apart, or demons seize upon and strangle out of life the unconscious little magicians, after the fashion in which Cornelius Agrippa's rash student was said to have perished. Solimon's Seal and the Crux Ansata face us in masonic signs, patentees' trade-marks, and the humblest domestic implements every hour, and yet no white-robed "splendors" from the Empyrean heights of their dwelling places, flash before our audacious eyes in majestic rebuke of our impiety. It is in the manner of using the fiery soul spirit put into the witches' broth, the thrice distilled dew of hatred with which the puppets are lubricated, the strong passion of supplication addressed to the spirits of evil, that evil is wrought upon enemies.

That planets and planetary spirits rule over hours, days, months and years, that the scheme of life works beneath their influence, and shapes our destiny according to fixed laws, is just as certain as that the bloom of the flowers is transmitted from soil and seed by the chemistry of the sunbeam, while the same great alchemists converts the slime of the stagnant pond into the supreme purity and fragrance of the lily. But all things in heaven, and all things above the grade of man, work together for good, and even when sorrow and misfortune befall us, good will come of it, if we place ourselves in harmony with heaven by good in our own lives and purposes.

Ban, cursing, evil wishes, evil deeds, are in direct antagonism to God and heaven, angels, and all that is above us. By their revulsive action we precipitate ourselves out of the sphere of good, turn our backs on heaven, throw off the protection of angels, and hurl ourselves down into the abysses of rudimental being, into the hands of evil, cruel, remorseless existences who are all the stronger because they are of the earth sphere earthly, nearer to man in his evil and wickedness than he is to any beings above him, and prompt to perform any mischief that is within the limits of their narrow yet powerful domain of being. Yet it will be urged, "all women called witches were not evil in design, yet, like Jane Brooks, they may be powerful as unconscious magnetizers; neither is all magic black magic, or evil in intent, and injurious in effect." That is true, but as the strength of will tends downward, its potency is increased by the communion of low, undeveloped human spirits, and the aid of Elementaries.

Bright planetary spirits, and good, wise angel friends, always counsel submission to the will of God, and recommend the achievement of spiritual power and spiritual knowledge, principally as a means of elevating the soul, giving it new powers for good, and new attributes of blessing. In communion with these bright beings, it will ever be found that their power and their will is not only potent for good, but more potent than that of man's. Human will then can only be exercised in the choice of the soul between lower and higher existences, on the forces of nature, relations with our fellow man, and over beings lower than earth.

When we operate with these lower existences, we should endeavor to rule them for good. When with nature, to wrest her secrets from her, only to use again for good, and with our fellowmen for the same aim. Then will God and angels, heaven and all the heavenly host be with us, and magic in that spirit becomes man's triumph over matter, and the exaltation of his soul to the spirit of Godhead.