This third part of the present book* is added to answer the numerous correspondents who, for many years past, have pressed me for something on the points involved in the book proper; and to give, in a concise and condensed form, information which it would be wholly impossible to write out for even a small part of the number who ask for it. I first quote the subjoined article:
"The far east must ever lead the world in the practice
of necromancy. All the skill and mechanical ingenuity of the most
expert prestidigitateurs of Europe or America cannot produce a
single exhibition which will compare with the feats of the commonest
Indian juggler. The Japanese have taught us the greater part of
the slight-of-hand illusion which is now paraded before staring
audiences in this country and in Europe; but the necromancy of
Japan is a boys' play compared with the mysterious jugglery of
the nether and farther Indies, and especially of Siam. In the
latter country there is a royal troupe of jugglers, who perform
only at the funerals and coronations of the kings, and then only
in the presence of the nobles of Siam, or those initiated into
the mysteries of the religion of the country. These necromancers
do not perform for money, are of noble blood, and it is seldom
that a European sees even their faces. Last year, however, an
English surgeon, who was in the country, performed a somewhat
remarkable cure upon a princess, who had been treated in vain
by all the physicians of the country. Great was the gratitude
of the Siamese court at the doctor's performance; and, as a reward
commensurate with his great service, he was permitted to witness
the performance of Tepada's royal troupe of jugglers. This exhibition
was given in the sacred temple of Juthia, on the 16th of November,
the occasion being the coronation of the young king. The surgeon's
narrative, stripped of a large amount of description, and materially
condensed, is given below.
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* This chapter originally appeared in the several editions of
Eulis
but we deem it of greater importance as part of Seership, to which
it properly belongs. -The Editor.
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"Woun-Tajac called me very early, and he and his father's cousin, a jolly, fat old gentleman, called Soondatch-Tam-Bondar, set to work to prepare me for witnessing the performances in the great pagoda. A white turban was wound around my head; my skin was stained the color of new bronze; my mustache ruthlessly trimmed down, blacked, and waxed till it had the proper Malayan dejected droop and tenuity; my eyebrows blacked; and native garments furnished me, over which I wore the long white robes which, I was told, were peculiar to the ‘initiated.' The pagoda of Juthia is more celebrated for its sacredness than its size, or the splendor of its architecture. It is, nevertheless, a building of some very striking features. It is situated without the city, upon a broad and commanding terrace, elevated considerably above the level of the river-plains. It is approached from the city by a long, brick-paved avenue, wide, straight and imposing.
"Soondatch and Woun-Tajac, each holding me by an arm, now directed me toward one of the doorways of the temple. It was guarded by two men, with drawn swords, and very fierce aspect, who stood in front of a heavy drapery of red cloth that concealed the interior of the temple from outside eyes. At a triple password these men admitted my companions, but crossed their swords before my breast. Soondatch whispered in the ear of the elder of the two; he started, gazed at me intently, but did not withdraw his barrier. Woun showed him a signet. He took it, and reverently placed it upon his forehead; yet still he refused to admit me. There was a controversy between the doorkeeper and my companions; and, at last, the elder guardian whistled shrilly upon a bone-pipe tied about his neck with a strand of silk. A tall man suddenly appeared, I could not see from whence. He was middle-aged, athletic, and had a most peculiar, cunning, self-possessed look of person and intelligence.
exclaimed both of my companions at once; but the man, who was naked, except for a breech-clout, took no notice of them. He put his hand heavily, but not unkindly, upon my breast, gave me a piercing, long look, and said in excellent French, ‘Are you a brave man?' - ‘Try me!' I said. Instantly, without another word, he bandaged my eyes with a part of the long white robe I wore; he snapped his fingers suddenly, whispering in my ears, ‘Not a word, for your life!' and the next moment I found myself seized in the hands of several strong men, and borne some distance along a devious way, ascending and descending several times. At last I was put down; the bandage was quietly removed; and I found myself squatted on a stone-floor, between Soondatch and Woun-Tajac, who, with bowed heads, and faces partly shrouded in their white robes, squatted like statues of Buddha, their knees and shins close to the ground, their haunches resting upon their heels, their hands spread palms downward upon their knees, their eyes deflected, and a look of devout reverence and abstracted meditation in their countenances. The light was dim to my unaccustomed eyes, but all around, as far as I could see, were white-robed worshippers crouched in the same attitude of silent reverence.
"By degrees, as my eyes grew used to the dim gloom, I began to look about me. The place was a square vault, so lofty that I could not see the ceiling, and I should say not less than a hundred paces long and wide. All around the sides rose gigantic columns, carved into images of Buddha always, yet with a thousand variations from the central plan, a thousand freaks of fancy, a thousand grotesqueries, through which shone, the more effectively for the departures, the eternal calm, the stagnant, unperturbed ecstasy of apathy of Buddha's remarkable face, with the great pendant ears, and the eyes looking out beyond you into the supreme wistlessness of Nioban - a face that once seen can never be forgotten. By degrees I came to see the plan of this evidently subterranean vault, and to look with wonder upon the simple grandeur of its massive architecture, which was severely plain, except so far as the carving of the great columns, was a raised dais or platform, covered with red cloth. This stage was raised between three and four feet above the floor of the vault, and was about thirty-five or forty feet deep and one hundred and fifty broad. Behind it a curtain of red cloth hung down from the capitals of the towering columns. In front of the stage, just about the spot where the pulpit of the orchestra in a Greek theatre would be, was a tripod-shaped altar, with a broad censer upon it, in which was burning a scented oil, mixed with gums and aromatic woods, that diffused through the whole vault a pungent, sacramental odor.
"Suddenly there was a wild and startling crash of barbaric music from under the stage - gongs, drums, cymbals, and horns - and with wonderful alertness, and a really indescribable effect, a band of naked men came out from behind the curtains, bearing each a scented torch in his hand, climbed the columns with the agility of monkeys, and lighted each a hundred lamps, strung from the base almost of the columns sheer up to the apex of the vault, which, I could now see, rose in a lofty dome, that doubtless pierced far up into the interior of the pagoda proper. The illumination from these multitudinous lamps was very brilliant; too soft to be dazzling or overpowering, yet so penetrating and pervasive that one missed nothing of the perfect light of the day. The din of the horrible orchestra increased, and a band of old women came out from under the stage singing, or rather shrieking out, the most diabolical chant that I ever heard, The red curtain fluttered a little, there was a dull thud, and there, right before us, alongside the censer, stood a very old man, but wrinkled, with long hair and beard, white as cotton fleece. His finger-nails were several inches long, and his sunken jaws were horribly diversified with two long teeth, yellow and ogreish. He was naked, except for a breech-cloth, and his shrunken muscles shone with oil. He took the censer in his hands, and blew his breath into it until the flame rose twenty feet high, red and furious; then, with a sudden, jerking motion, he tossed the burning oil toward the crowd of squatting spectators. It shot toward them a broad sheet of terrible flame; it descended upon them a shower of roses and japonicas, more than could have been gathered in a cart. Turning the censer bottom upward, he spun it for a minute upon the point of his long thumb-nail, then flung it disdainfully away toward the audience. It struck the pavement with a metallic clang, bounced, and rose with sudden expanse of wings.
frightened horribly, and seeking flight towards the summit of the dome. The old man gazed a moment upward; then, seeing the tripod upon which the censer had stood, he sent its legs apart, with a nervous hand, straightened them against his knee, and hurled them, dartlike, toward the eagle. They glanced upward with a gilded flash, and instantly the eagle came fluttering down to the pavement in our midst, dead, and three horrible cobras coiled about him, and lifting their hooded heads defiantly, and flashing anger out of their glittering eyes. The music shrieked still wilder, the snakes coiled and plaited themselves together in a rhythmic dance, lifting the dead eagle upon their heads, and, presto! Tight in our midst there stood the tripod again, with its flickering flame, and its incense-savored breath. A more perfect illusion never was seen.
"‘That is Norodom,' whispered Woun-Tajac in my ear. Another actor now came upon the scene, whom I recognized to be the tall athletic, Tepada. Behind him came a smaller man, whose name, Woun-Tajac informed me, was Minhman, and a boy, probably twelve years old, called Tsin-ki. These four began some of the most wonderful athletic exhibitions that can be conceived. It is
unless you saw it, what work these men put human muscles to. I am not going to provoke the incredulity of your readers by attempting to describe the majority of them, In one feat Tepada seized Norodom by his long white beard, held him off at arm's length, and spun round with him until the old man's legs were horizontal to the athlete's shoulders. Then, while they still spon with the fury of dervishes, Minhman sprang up, seized upon Norodom's feet, and spun out a horizontal continuation of the ancient; and when Minhman was firmly established, the boy Tsin-ki caught to his feet in lie manner, and the tall athlete, every muscle in him straining, continued to whirl the human jointless lever around. At last, slowing slightly, Tepada drew in his arms till the old man's white beard touched his body; there was a sudden strain, and the arms of the men from being horizontal become perpendicular, Norodom's head resting atop of Tepada's, Minhman's head upon Norodom's feet, and Tsin-ki's head on Minhman's feet. A pause for breath, then the column of men was propelled into the air, and, presto! Tepada's head was on the ground. Norodom's feet to his, Minhman's feet upon Norodom's head, Tsin-ki's feet on Minhman's head. Each had turned a somersault, and the column was unbroken!
"One trick which Minhman performed was a very superior version of the mango-tree feat of the Indian jugglers. He took an orange, cut it open, and produced a serpent. This he took down into the audience, and, borrowing a robe from one, cut the snake's head off and covered it with the robe. When the robe was lifted again, a fox was in the place of the snake. The fox's head was cut off, two robes borrowed, and when they were raised there was a wolf, which was killed with a sword. Three robes, and a leper appeared; it was slain with a javelin. Four robes covered a most savage-looking buffalo, that was killed with an axe. Five robes covered in part, but not altogether, a lordly elephant, who, when the sword was pointed against him, seized Minhman by the neck and tossed him violently up. He mounted feet foremost, and finally clung by his toes to the capital of one of the columns. Tepada now leaped from the stage and alighted upon the elephant's shoulders. With a short sword he goaded the beast on the head until, shrieking, the unwieldy animal reared upon its hind feet, twined its trunk about one of the great columns, and seemed trying to lift itself from the ground and wrap its body around the great pillar. The music clashed out barbarously, Norodom flashed forth a dazzling firework of some sort, and the elephant had disappeared, and Tepada lay upon the stage writhing in the fold of a great boa-constrictor and holding up Minhman upon his feet.
"During three hours the exhibition continued, feats of the sort I have described, each more wonderful than the one that preceded it, following one another in rapid succession. I shall content myself with describing the last and culminating wonder of the startling entertainment.
"A perfectly formed and most lovely nautch girl sprang out upon the stage and was hailed with universal exclamations of delight, everybody calling out her name, Luan Prabana, as if it were a word of good omen. Her only dress was a short petticoat of variegated feather-work. A wreath of rosebuds crowned her soft, short, black hair, and she wore a pearl necklace, as well as broad gold armlets and anklets. With a brilliant smile she danced exquisitely for some minutes to the accompaniment of a single pipe, then she knelt and laid her head on old Norodom's knee. The boy fanned her with a fan made of sweet-fern leaves, Minhman fetched a lotus-shaped golden goblet, and Tepada poured into it from a quaint-looking flask a fluid of greenish hue. The old yogi-like Norodom took the goblet and blew his breath upon the contents till they broke into a pale blue flame. This Tepada extinguished with his breath, when Norodom held the goblet to Luan Prabana's lips, and she drained the contents with a sigh. As if transfigured she suddenly sprang to her feet, her face strangely radiant, and began to spin giddily around in one spot. First the boy, then Minhman, then Tepada tried to arrest her, but they no sooner touched her than that thrilled them as if she had imparted an electric spark to them. Spinning constantly, with a bewildering rapid motion, the girl now sprang off the stage and down the hall, along by the foot of the columns, Tsin-ki, Minhman, and Tepada in active pursuit. In and out among the crowd they spun, the three chasing. Tepada seized hold of the chaplet that crowned her; it broke, and as she was whirled along, a spray of rosebuds was scattered from her brow in every direction. Anything more graceful never was seen. And now a greater wonder. At the extremity of the hall the three surrounded and would have seized her, when, still revolving, she rose slowly into the air and floated gently over our heads towards the stage, scattering roses as she went. At the brink of the stage she paused in mid-air then with a slight, wing-like motion of her arms, mounted up, up toward the loftiest arch of the vault overhead. Suddenly old Norodom seized bow and arrow and shot toward her. There was a wild shriek, a rushing sound, and the dancer fell with a crash to the flags of the floor, and laid there an apparent bloody mass. The music burst forth into a wild wail, and the chorus of old hags came tumultuously forth and bore her off in their arms.
"Now, from behind the red curtains cam a dozen strong men, bearing on their shoulders a great leaden box, which they laid upon the front part of the stage. As they retired the old women came out bringing a low couch, decorated with flowers and gold-embroidered drapery, upon which lay Luan Prabana, decked forth in bridal garments, and sweetly sleeping. The couch with its sleeper was put quietly down upon the front of the stage, and left there, while Norodom and Temada went to the leaden box, and with hot irons attempted to unseal it. ‘That is Stung-Tieng's coffin,' whispered Woun to me; ‘the old saint has been dead more than half a millennium.'
"Quickly, eagerly it seemed to me, the two men broke open the fastenings of the coffin, until the side next the audience falling out at last, a teak-box was discovered. This was pried open with a small crowbar, and what seemed a great bundle of nankeen taken out. Tepada and Norodom commenced to unwind this wrapping, which was very tight. Yard after yard was unwound and folded away by Minhman, and at last, after at least one hundred yards of wrapping had been taken off, the dry, shrivelled mummy of a small, old man was visible, eyes closed, flesh dry and hard - dead and dry as a smoked herring. Norodom tapped the corpse with the crowbar, and it gave a dull, wooden sound. Tepada tossed it up and caught it - it was still as a log. Then he placed the mummy upon Norodom's knees, and fetched a flask of oil, a flask of wine, and a censer burning with some pungent incense. Norodom took from his hair a little box of unguent, and, prying open the mouth of the mummy with a cold-chisel, showed that the dry tongue could rattle like a chip against the dry fauces. He filled the mouth with unguent and closed it, and anointed the eyelids, nostrils, and ears. Then he and Tepada mixed the wine and oil, and carefully rubbed every part of the body with it. Then, laying it down in a reclining position, they put the burning censer upon the chest and withdrew a space, while the drums and gongs and cymbals clashed and clattered, and the shrill, crackling treble of the chorus of old women rose hideously.
"A breathless pause ensued - one, two, three minutes - and the mummy sneezed, sneezed thrice, so violently as to extinguish the flame of the censer. A moment later the thing sat up, and stared, blinking and vacant, out around the vault - an old wrinkled man, with mumbling chops, a shrivelled breast and belly, and little tufts of white hair upon his chin and forehead. Tepada approached him reverently, upon his knees, bringing a salver, with wine and a wafer-cake. The old man did not notice him, but ate, drank, and tottered to his feet, the feeblest decrepit old dotard that ever walked. In another moment he saw the nautch girl slumbering upon her couch; he scuffled feebly to her, and, mumbling, stooped as if to help his dim eyes to see her better. With a glad cry the maiden waked, clasped him in her arms and to her breast, and kissed him. Incomprehensible magic! He was no longer a nonagenarian dotard, but a full-veined, fiery youth, who gave her kiss for kiss. How the transformation was wrought I have no idea, but there it was before our eyes. The music grew soft and passionate, the chorus of the old women came out, and with strange Phallic songs and dances bore the two away - a bridal pair. I never expect again to behold a sight so wonderful as that whole transformation, which, I may mention, my learned Jesuit friend, to whom I described it, regards as a piece of pure symbolism. His explanation is too long and too learned to quote, but he connects the ceremony with the world-old myth of Venus and Adonis, and claims that it is all a form of sun-worship.
"The show went on for some time longer with many curious feats. At the end of an hour the Phallic procession returned, but this time the Bayadere led it, a strange triumph in her eyes, while the youth lay upon the couch sleeping. The Phallic chorus sank into a dirge, the youth faded visibly; he was again the shrivelled dotard; he sighed, then breathed no more. Luan Prabana retired sorrowfully; Norodom and Tepada wrapped the corpse again in its interminable shrouds, restored it to the coffin, and it was borne away again. The attendants climbed up to and extinguished the lights. I was blindfolded and borne away again. I found myself once more at the doorway of the temple in the broad sunshine with my friends - as the mystic ceremonies of the great temple of Juthia were over, it may be for many years."
"With strange Phallic songs and dances bore the two away - a bridal pair." "Venus and Adonis - a form of sun-worship." "The Phallic chorus sunk into a dirge." Can anything be plainer or more direct in confirmatory proof of what I had written in this book than this excerpt from a newspaper, dated April 11, 1974, months after this book was completed - but the appearance of which necessitated a brief additional page or two? There is not need to go to far-off Siam to witness such marvels, or to learn their strange principia, for I have not only witnessed displays of High Magic in this country, quite as marvellous, but different from the above, but have myself performed the feat of Fire-drawing, and come very near destroying the life of a woman who assisted at the rite, and but for the quick, brave, self-sacrificing action of Dr. Charles Main, of Boston, that woman would have been slain by fire drawn down from the aereal spaces by principles known to me. For fifteen years I sought a female of the right organization - an European or American Luan Prabana [the Fair and Virgin invocatress] - and not till March, 1874, did I find her, but her Self-will, and brother-in-law's [he was a Pupil] lack of decision determined me to seek elsewhere for the true material - which, it is needles to say, I have found again in my own personal circle. The Mysteries are all wrought through the Phallic, Discal, Yoni Principles, in unsullied purity, and the highest, noblest worship known to man. The great trouble with all whom I have partly taught in this land is that they - not one of them - saw anything nobler that the brilliant chance of sure gain, or opportunities to gratify Passion. Wherefore, of course, I dropped them all. The phenomenal magic recounted in the extract given above, together with the equally starling things of Egypt, Negro-land, Japan, China, Tartary, and India - only distantly approached by the Fire-tests, materialization and the like, as seen in the case of Hume, the Baltimore negro and others, together with the air-floating of various persons, myself included - are, so far as real use is concerned, but secondly trifles compared to that loftier system of the far Orient, whereby persons are enabled to glimpse behind the scenes of life, and note what transpires on the further side. To the special consideration of that transcendent phase of high magic, I shall devote this concluding chapter of my book, observing, ere I do so, that I hope these things now written will neither be scattered to the winds, or seized on in the interests of either dollars of lust; for I cannot help utterly despising the worshippers of either Mammon or Priapus. One thing, however, is absolutely certain, and this it is: No one can succeed in either branch of high magic whose spur and motive is such as I deprecate above; but success is sure to eventually crown the efforts of the persevering student, whose aims are goodness and the acquisition of power for noble ends.
For many ages people have sought to penetrate through, or lift the veil which hangs between the world we inhabit and that vast realm where causes reside and principles exist. To that end, recourse has been had to drugs, such as opium, cannabin, and camphora; to mesmerism, "psychology," disks, magnets and fasting; and in later times to circles and various so-called marvellous methods; all of which, in the end, have proved unsatisfactory, and the student and searcher has been, by them left worse off than before. Not all persons can reach the interior sight by such methods, because all are not possessed of the essential organic attributes, or constitutional bias and tendency. To all such there is a surer, better, safer and grander road, and that is self-development, by means entirely within the reach of every one, and which are within their will and control. These require but the elements of Time, Patience, Assiduity, Persistence, and periodical effort to ensure, if not complete success in Soul-sight, then in those other qualities, powers, and attributes essential to perfect human character.
That agency, I hold, is some form of the spirit-glass or lens - not the "Urim and Thummim," or metallic breast-plates used for purposes of divination, and worn by the priesthood, as recounted in the Bible; nor the stones and crystals of later days; but the perfected spirit-seeing or magic-glass, formed of materials prepared in the Orient, and fitted for use in Paris, France.
These are of two generic kinds, and also of diverse grades, sizes, sensitiveness, focal power, and magnetic planes - because those made for and adapted to, one line of use, are not so well suited to different lines.
First: The common kind averages about eight inches by seven, and is a true AEthic mirror adapted to ordinary ends, such as invoking the dead; and the other purposes for which they have for ages been used. The difference between the spirit-seeing mirrors, such as already described, and the methods and materials of their construction set forth, and those hereinafter described, is the difference between a first-class gold repeater, and a common cylinder-escapement watch. Both are time-keepers, but one is vastly superior to the other. The materials of the two classes of mirrors are quite dissimilar; and the labor expended on those hereinafter described, is simply enormous, for after they come into the hands of us of America, they cost an immensity of toil, in cleaning, polishing, heating, bathing, and magnetic manipulation, and this it is that renders them valuable, and adapted to the uses for which from hoary antiquity they were intended. I have seen a very small crystalline mirror, weighing less than a pound, for which the owner demanded $4,000 in gold coin, and was not at all anxious to part with it even at that price.
Second: The larger and finer ones of the same sort, but which of course are far better, stronger, more perfectly magnetic, and have a great deal wider range. Formerly there were five sizes of this class; but it was found that but two could be depended on; as the rest were extremely liable to fracture by reason of the great climate ranges of temperature in Western Europe and North America. This class were also found better suited to beginners than to proficient seers; especially those who not content with the limited ranges of the ordinary ones, were anxious for a perfected instrument of greater sensitiveness, magnetic calibre, focal range, AEthic basin, or magnet reservoir, and of a capacity equal to the solution of almost any subject capable of demonstration by such means; wherefore that form was superseded, in 1874, by the ne plus ultra of all such things in that line: fine oval magnetic polar ones, with deeper, broader, larger basins, or magnetic reservoirs, presenting a deep-sea surface, nearly absolutely perfect, and leaving almost nothing to wish for in any respect; a beautiful, clear ovoid, and of size, focal length and calibre seldom equalled and never surpassed. They go in grades, sizes, ranges, and cost according to their illuminant power.
In January, 1874, I received a few of these from Paris,
and hung them on my chamber-wall to charge and fit them for their
owner - a lady - and there they remained till the morning of February
8, when they became suddenly illuminant, and no grander sight
ever was beheld by human eyes that was presented on that memorable
morning; for the whole starry galaxies, rolling world-systems
of nebulae, vast congeries of stellar constellations, cities afar
off on the earth, and scenes never before beheld by eyes of this
world, were displayed to such a grand, sublime, and amazing extent
that the Soul panted with the weight of the transcendent Phantorama.*
Such mirrors as these - would they were mine! - if kept free from
promiscuous handling, treated judiciously, and rightly used, are
capable of more psychic marvels than all the mesmerists on the
globe! Very few of any grade are imported, save when expressly
ordered; the risk of breakage in crossing the seas and by inland
carriage being to great to admit of larger consignments, even
were it possible to have such, which it is not.
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* They are, every one of them, from the plain surface mirror,
to the magnificent, golden-edged, Beauties, or the enormous 40-inch
ones, fit for a Lodge! - worth a king's ransom, capable of mirroring
correctly - and before hand too! the Markets of the world. Here
is a strange test, whose truth I solemnly avouch: A pregnant lady
- and such are ever the most favored in all lines of celestial
magic - on the morning alluded to above - February 8, 1874 - gazed
into one of the mirrors, and demanded to know the sex of her unborn
child. The reply came instantly: "A boy! And a great one!
A vast Soul! The king-seer of Five Thousand years!" The result,
so far as sex was concerned, was absolutely true; and there is
but little doubt that the rest will prove equally so. This same
lady was the only true mystic of her sex I ever saw in America.
She was the best mirror-manipulator on the earth, and owned -
still owns - all the genuine ones on the continent. Through her
I have obtained specimens of such rare value, that to part therewith
was like the loss of the right eye.
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Full directions for their general use and care are given in the forepart of this book. But those of the superior grades require supplementary advertisements concerning their treatment.
They should - when not in use - be kept either with face to the wall in a dark place, or be covered with a board or plate (usually furnished with them) so as to exclude every ray of light. About once a month they should be exposed to the full blaze of the sun for at least an hour; while a similar exposure, but of longer duration, to moon or starlight, invariably increases their powers and quite often adds new ones. The larger ones may be used by a room full of persons at the same time, being fixed immovably, and the people arranging themselves so that each can see the broad white-black river flowing continually across the surface. No one, save the owner, should either touch, or sit, or stand closer than from four to seven feet or more, and when the seance begins, no word should be spoken, no movement made; and it ought to open with a prayer to the Most High, while special invocations, for any given purpose or purposes, may be made to lesser potential intelligences. Those which are now in this country are of an extraordinary character and degree of power; their illuminant surface has never been equalled; while their true cuspic-ovoid, depth and breadth, is most admirable - appreciable by those favored ones who are true seers and born mystics, as being immeasurably superior to anything of the kind seen since the days of the magi on the plains of Chaldea! For great pains have been taken with the glasses, which act as protecting-shields to the material beneath, on which material, the mode of its preparation, seasoning, application, and magnetic manipulation, and not upon the glass itself, their beauty and excellence wholly depend; albeit the highest art is brought to bear in the making and shaping of the crystal-shield, and in the construction of the frames in which they are mounted. The GLYPHÆ-BHATTAH, or Mirror surface itself, is the true, and well-factured bhatt from India, whence alone it can be procured even by the Mystic Brotherhood of Paris, France, where the mounting is done.
Due care is essential that they, like a child, be kept clean; to which end fine soap and warm soft water, applied with silk or soft flannel, is the first step; followed by a similar bath, whereof cologne, or liquor spurted from the mouth, are the ingredients: the second for the sake, 1st, of the spirit; 2nd, of the individual magnetism; and 3rd, symbolism embodied in the ritual - so palpably as not to need further explanation.
"But why are these black-white, cuspic ovoids magnetic or magical in any degree? Or, if they are, why may not we of Western Europe or America fabricate the same?" To which the reply is: You cannot! Because you know not how to mingle the materials - even if you knew them, which you do not - that enter as elements into the mysteriously sensitive substance wherewith the shields are covered, and which alone constitutes the magnetic or magic film, of which and to which the lavaglass and frame are merely protective covers.
People of the West (Europe-America) are not subject to the
same extremes of passion (sexive) as are Orientals, and hence
know not either its awful intensity, or its terrible penalties,
because they dwell far more in the Brain than in the gender, wherefore
they have less verve'elan, and passional power than their brown
brethren and sisters of the far-off eastern lands. As a general
rule, with occasional exception, they are unable to reach the
magnificent goals of Soul-vision and magic power easily attainable
by the sallow devotees of Sachthas and Saiva, and therefore cannot
real intense passional furore, essential both to the successful
invocation of correspondent Ærial Potentialities,(50) and
the charging of mirrors with the divine spiritual reflective powers
which characterize them. I here allude to a profound mystery connected
with their construction, known only to the initiate, but which
is vaguely hinted at in the subjoined quotation, a mystery at
which dolt and fools may laugh - provided they sense its nature
- but which higher Souls must reverence, honor, and adore.
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(50) Generally termed, in the later literature of the Order, the
Hierarchies of the Fraternity.
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Says Colonel Stephen Fraser, in his glorious volume entitled Twelve Years in India, a magnificent book, which was kindly lent me by Mr. W.G. Palgrave, of London, who called on me in August, 1873, while on his overland route to China, via San Francisco, and whom I had known in England fifteen years before, as a polished gentleman and scholar, and one of the deepest mystics on the globe outside of the Orient:
"We joyfully, gladly went, five of us, her Majesty's
Officers, on a tour of military inspection, the toils of which
were likely to be rewarded by an opportunity of witnessing the
dance of Illumination, of the MUNTRA-WALLAHS, or Magic-working
Brahmuns, whose strange miracles, worked apparently by the triple
agency of Battasahs (rice), Gookal (red-powder), and stangest
of all, by means of oval glasses or crystals, but black as night,
in which it is reported, some very strange things were to be seen.
We were all prepared to witness skilful jugglery, for which the
residents of Muttra* are renowned, but fully resolved to ascertain,
if possible, how it was all done, rejecting, of course, everything
claimed to be either supra-mortal or hyper-natural, so far as
the underlying principles were concerned. ...It was sheer skill,
but such as no European could pretend to equal. Yet how the sleeping
girl could tell our names, ages, place of birth, and fifty other
true facts, she never having seen either of us before - because
the dust of Jubalpore was still upon our clothes, we having been
but one day in Muttra - was a problem not easily solved. They
call it the Sleep of Sialam, and she passed into it by gazing
into a dark glass.
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* Muttra, a town in the province of Agra, India, on the west bank
of the river Jumma, in latitude 27 deg. 31 min. North; longitude
77 deg. 33 min. East; a place famous for the manufacture of Magical
apparatus, and one of the only two places on earth where the Paranaphthaline
gum is prepared, wherewith the adepts smear the backs of these
extraordinary mirrors, so celebrated by the various authorities
named in the text." Twelves Years in India. Vol. 2,
p. 286.
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"After reading Lane's story about the Magic Mirror in his Modern Egyptians; what DeSacy says in his famous Exposition de la religion des Druses; Makrisi's account in his History of the Mamelukes; J. Catafago and Defremeny in the Journale Asiatique; what Potter affirms as truth in his Travels in Syria; Victor L'Anglois, in Revue d'Orient; Carl Ritter; Dr. E. Smith; Vn Hammer in his Hist. Des Sasseins; W.H. Taylor's Nights with Oriental Magicians; the Gesta Magici of Lespanola; Lettres Edifiantes et curieuses; Youett's Researches into Magic Arts, and innumerable other unquestionable authorities, it was far less difficult to believe in the existence of some occult visual power possessed by these mirror-gazers, of both sexes, all ages, and diversity of culture, than to attribute it all to chicanery and lucky guesswork. ...‘Sahib, it true,' said our Wallah, next morning, when speaking of the exhibition of the previous day; ‘ and now I s'pose you go see Sebeiyeh dance(51) [the Mirror Bridal-fete of a renowned brotherhood of Mystics, Philosophers, and Magicians] no doubtee?' Well, we all determined to go, and a three-hours' ride brought us to a plateau in a mountain-gorge of the Chocki hills. We were not too late, and were kindly offered vantage ground of view by the Sheikh, a man of at least 125 years of age, judging from the fact that his grandchildren were white with snowy locks and beards waist long. ...The two brides entered the circle followed by the two grooms, all four bearing large earthen-pots full of a black, smeary, tar-like substance, which, on inquiry of the Sheikh, we learned was the product of the Volcanic springs of the Mahades hills, in the far-off province of Gondwana, in the Deccan; that it only flows in the month of June; is collected by girls and boys who are virginal, that is, before puberty; and must be prepared for use within the ensuing forty-nine days, by similar persons on the eve of actual marriage, as it is supposed certain properties of a magical nature attach to it when handled by such persons under such circumstances. Of course I, with my western habits of thought and European education, could but laugh at this, which seemed so very palpable and gross a superstition; and yet strange to relate, when I expressed my sceptical views to the old Sheikh, he laughed, shook his head, handed me two parts of the shell of a large nut, and requested me to fill one with the crude material, and the other with the same after it had been prepared. I did the first, and reserved the empty shell for the other, taking care to hold both in my hand well wrapped up in a brown bandana. ...The circle had a pile of stones in the centre, upon which coals were brightly burning, and over this fire - which, by the way, is the Eternal Sacred Fire of the Garoonahs, which is never allowed to go out from one year's end to the other - was suspended from a tripod of betel rods a coarse earthen vessel, into which the four expectant marriagees poured about one-fourth of the contents of the simla gourds already mentioned; this, amid the din and an hundred tom-toms or native drums, the clashing of rude cymalos (cymbals) and wild, clarion-like bursts of the strangest, and, shall I, a staid Briton, confess it? - the most Soul-stirring and weird music that ever fell upon my ears, or moved the man within me! After this was done, the Sheikh's servitors erected a pole near the fire, around which pole were coiled the stuffed skins of the dreadful hooded snake of India, the terrible Naga, or Cobra, while on top was an inverted cocoa-shell, and two others at its base - understood by the initiated as symbolizing the Linga, the male emblem, or creative principle of Deity, while the suspended vessel over the fire represented the Yoni, or female principle, the tripod emblematizing the triple powers or qualities of Brahm - Creation, Preservation, Perpetuation - the fire below corresponding to Love, or the Infinite Fire which is the Life of All! ...And now began a strange, weird dance, to the wild melody of five hundred singing devotees of that wonderful Phallic, or sexual religion, mingled with the mellow breath of cythic flutes, the beating of tambours, the thrumming of various stringed instruments, and an occasional ziraleet, or rapture-shriek from the lips of women and young girls, whose enthusiasm was unrestrainable, and who gave vent to it in wild movements of their graceful and supple bodies, and in shrill cries that might be heard long miles away, like voices from heaven awakening the echoes of Space! ...Advancing with a slow, voluptuous, rhythmic movement, not of the feet alone, but of the whole form from crown to toe, the girls, aged about fifteen, brown as berries, agile as antelopes, graceful as gazelles, lovely, with barbaric splendor, as an Arab's ideal houri; they swayed, bent, advanced by twists and curves, by nameless writhings, by sweeping genuflexions, by movements the very poetry of passion, but passion of Soul far more than of body, with suffused faces and moistly gleaming eyes, toward the taller emblem, round which they slowly whirled and danced, ever and anon stirring with a silver spatula the dark substance contained in the vessels they bore. This by turns, while the two youths, bearing similar vessels, performed corresponding movements about the vessel which symbolized Nature in her productive aspect - until we five Europeans were lost in a maze of astonishment at the capacity of the human frame to express mutely, but with more meaning and eloquence than a thousand tongues could convey, the amazing heights, depths, and shades of passion, but a passion totally free from vulgarity or indecency, as pure as that of the ocean billows when they kiss each other over the grave of a dead cyclone! ...Observing my surprise, the old Sheikh touched my arm, and in purest Bengalee whispered: ‘Sahib, ARDOR begat the Universe! There is no power on earth either for good or ill, but Passion underlies it. That alone is the spring of all human action, and the father and mother alike of all the good and evil on the Earth! It is the golden key of Mystery, the fountain of Weakness and of Strength; and through its halo alone can man sense the ineffable essence of the Godhead! The materials in the vessels are charged with life - with the very essence of the human Soul, hence with celestial and divine magic power! For O, Sahib, it is only lust and hatred that keep closed the eyes of the Soul! And in the crystals whose backs we cover with the contents of these five vessels, the earnest seeker may behold, not only what takes place on earth, but also what transpires on other globes, and in the SAKWALAS of the Sacred Gods! - and this is the only true Bab (Door).' - ‘But,' I rejoined, ‘we of the West magnetize people, who, in that mysterious slumber, tell us amazing' - ‘Lies!' he said, interrupting the sentence, ‘for no two of them tell the same tale or behold the same things! Why? Because they explore the kingdoms of Fancy, not of FACT, and give you tales of imagination and distorted invention, instead of recitals of what actually exists Beyond! But wait!' I acquiesced, and turned once more to the dances of the Aleweheh, who by this time were moving in a more rapid manner to the quickened strains of the more than ever wild and fantastic music. ...Three of them began stirring the contents of the cauldron, into which all the material from the gourds had now been poured, murmuring strange, wild bursts of Phallic song the while; and the fourth, the taller maiden of the four, stripped herself entirely nude above the waist and below the knees, her long raven hair streaming around her matchless form - a form of such superlative contour, proportions, lively peach-blow tint, and rounded beauty, as made me blush for the imperfections of the race that mothered me! There were not violent exertions of legs and arms, not the slightest effort at effect, none of the gross motions in use in the west, on the stage or off it - whose palpable object is the firing of the sluggish blood of half-blase spectators; but a graceful movement, a delicious trembling, half fear, half invitation, a quivering, semi-longing, semi-reluctant undulation of arms, bosom, form, eyes even - rippling streams of most voluptuous, billowy heavings and throbbings of Soul through body, so wonderful, so glowing, that one wished to die immediately that he might receive the reward of centuries of toil in the ravishing arms of the houris of the seventh, ay! even the first paradise of the Ghillim, and the resplendent Queens of the Brahminical Valhalla. And yet there was absolutely nothing suggestive of course, gross, animal passion in all this transcendental melody of hyper-sensuous motion; on the contrary, one felt like seizing her by the waist, drawing his sword and challenging all earth, and hell to boot, to take her away, or disturb her tranquillity of celestial - what shall I call it? - I am lost for a name!
"Presently both the girls joined the mystic sensuous-magic
dance and one of them seized me suddenly by the arm and dragged
me to the central vessel, saying, ‘Look, Sahib, look!' I
did so, but instead of a black mass of seething boiling gum, I
beheld a cauldron bubbling over with the most gorgeously pink-tinted
froth that imagination ever dreamed of, and while I stood there
marvelling at the singular phenomenon - for every bubble took
the form of a flower, lotus, amaranth, violet, lily, Rose!
- the old Sheikh drew nigh and said, ‘Sahib, now's the time!
Pointing to the bundle containing the empty shell and the one
already half filled. Acting on the suggestion, I held forth the
empty shell, into which the girl ladled about a gill of the contents
of the swinging vessel, and the Sheikh produced two perfectly
clean ovoid glass plates, over which he poured respectively the
contents of the two shells, and held both over the fire for a
minute, till dry, and then handing them to me, said, ‘Look,
and, wish, and WILL, to see whatever is nearest and dearest to
your heart!' Internally I laughed, but he took the two shells,
and while he held them, I looked into the hollow face of the glass
which was covered with the singular substance first handed to
me, and gazing steadily about half a minute - the mystic-dance
going on meanwhile - I willed to see my home and people in far-off
Albion. Nothing appeared. The old man smiled. ‘Now look at
the other one, which is a true Bhatteyeh - full of divine light
and imperial power, and you will -‘ Before he finished, I
glanced into the other, and, scarce hoping that the Western reader
will credit me with anything loftier than a vivid imagination,
fired almost beyond endurance by the lascivious surroundings in
the midst of which I was, I nevertheless clearly and distinctly
affirm, on the hitherto unsullied honor of an English gentleman,
and a colonel in Her Majesty's service, that I saw a wave of pale,
white light, flit like a cloud-shadow over the face of the mysterious
disk, and in the centre of that light a landscape, composed of
trees, houses, lands, lowing cattle, and forms of human beings,
each and every item of which I recognized as the old familiar
things of my boyhood and youth, long ere the fires of ambition
had turned my face toward distant India. I beheld the simulacrum
of a dear sister, whom I had left in perfect health. I saw her
to all appearance, very, very sick, the physicians, nurses, troops
of friends, and faithful servitors, gathered round her; she
was dying! dead! I saw the funeral cortege set out
for the cemetery, and I marvelled greatly that they buried her
by the iron ribs of a railway; because when I left, no road of
that kind ran through my native town. I saw the silver plate on
her coffin, and most clearly and distinctly read the inscription
thereon but the surname was one I had never heard of! I
looked up at the Sheikh, who was eyeing me with strange interest
and intensity, as if to ask an explanation; but he only smiled
and repeated the one word, ‘See!' Instantly I turned my eyes
to the ovoid again, as likewise did three of my European friends,
and, to my and their utter astonishment, beheld a shadow, an exact
image of myself, standing near the well-curb of my native manse,
weeping as if its heart would break, over the prostrate form of
my elder brother who lay there dying from a rifle-bullet through
the groin, the result of an accident that had just befallen him
while in the act of drinking from the swinging-pail or bucket!
Now came the most astonishing phenomena of all, for each of the
three friends who were looking with me, started in surprise, and
uttered exclamations of undisguised astonishment, for each had
seen things beyond the range or pale of trickery or the play of
excited fancy. One beheld the three forms of his dead father,
sister, and uncle, the latter pointing to a sealed packet on which
was inscribed the word, ‘Dead - Will - heir - Oct. 11th.
Go home!' The other beheld the drawing -room, and its occupants,
of the old house at home, and on the table lay a large pile of
gold coin, across which lay a legend thus: ‘Jem and David's
winnings: Lottery: Paris: June 18th: 10,000 Pounds!' the third
man saw a battle or skirmish waging in the Punjaub, and his senior
officer struck down by a shot in the side, thus opening the road
to his own promotion. Much more we saw and noted in that wonderful
scene of diablerie, portions of which I shall detail at
length hereafter. But it became necessary to attend to other matters.
I did so, as will be hereinafter cited, and then accompanied the
Sheikh to his tent, where the marriage was celebrated, and he
told me there certain wonderful secrets in reference to the further
preparation of the strange material composing the reflective surfaces
of the curious Bhatts, which, while exceedingly mystic and effective,
at the hands and offices of the newly married people, is
yet of so singular and delicate a nature as not to be admissible
to these pages; for, while really of the most holy and sacred
nature, yet the miseducation - in certain vital respects and knowledges
- of the civilized Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin races, would
render the matters to which I allude subjects of either not well-based
blushes or outright mirth.* ...Seven long months after these memorable
experiences, I parted with three of my then comrades, and, accompanied
by two others, embarked on one of the steamers of the Messageries
Imperiales, from Bombay, homeward bound. Before I left, one
of my friends had sold his commission in consequence of having
fallen heir to an uncle's estate, who, the letters of recall stated,
had died in England, on Oct. 10th, and not on the 11th, as the
ovoid had stated! It had actually taken the difference of Longitude,
and was correct to an hour! The second man, on arrival
in England, proved the truth of the mirror, for Fane, not 'Jem'
as the glass stated, and Davidson, not ‘David' - cousins
of his - had fallen on a lottery-fortune of over a lac
of rupees in India money! The other officer was promoted in consequence
of the death of his lieutenant-colonel, in a skirmish in the Punjaub,
which event was the result of a shot in the loins, not the side.
Arrived at home, I found my people in deep mourning for my younger
sister, the widow, after a wifehood of less than a year, of Capt.
H.___ of Her Majesty's Navy, whom she had met for the first time
only a few months before there marriage, I had left for India
five years before, and though I had often heard of my brother-in-law's
family, yet we had never met. He went down in one of the new crack
iron-clads on her trial-trip. The awful news occasioned premature
motherhood; she died, and her remains were deposited in the hillside
vault, skirting which was a railway just equipped and opened for
traffic a month or two prior to the marine disaster! Lastly: Within
eight months after my return I became sole male heir to our family-property
in consequence of the death of my brother by a charge of shot,
not a bullet in the groin, as the Mirror showed, but full in the
abdomen, while climbing a fence for a drink at the brookside,
and not at a well. Every fact shown so mysteriously was proved
strangely true, though not literally so. I, just previous to my
departure from the strange bridal, asked the old Sheikh some questions;
and learned that the material on the crystal surface wherein we
saw the strange miracles was but partially prepared, as my readers
will also recollect; but some which he placed on a glass just
before I left, and which had been fully prepared, the finishing
process being a secret one and conducted by the newly wedded couples
by a peculiar process - and nameless - never made a mistake while
in my possession. I confess I lost it from a silly servant having
shown it boastingly to a gypsy, who stole it that same night,
through the most adroit bit of scientific burglary I ever heard
or read of. The loss, however, was not irreparable, for I have
since found that these strange Muntra-Wallahs, as they are contemptuously
called by their Islamic foes in the Carnatic (but true Magi in
the opinion of better informed people), have brethren and correspondents
in nearly every country on the globe - Brazil, China, Japan, Vienna,
and even our own London, while they have a regular Lodge in Paris,
of some of whom the Initiated, and favored ignorants even, can
and do obtain occasionally, not only well-charged and polished
Bhatteyeh, but actually, now and then, a gourd full of Moulveh-Bhattah,
- the strangely mysterious substance which constitutes the seeing
surface, as mercury does in the ordinary looking-glass; the two
are alike in all save that the latter reflects matter and the
living, while the former, sometimes but not at all times, or to
all people, or to the successful seers on all occasions, reveals
only spirit and the dead, ay, and things that never die! Heaven
help all whom a Muntra-Wallah hates! - or loves either, for that
matter - unless that love be returned; for the magician in one
case will bring up the hated one's shadow, and then strange horrors
will seize him or her; and in the latter case - well stranger
things happen, that is all.
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* Exactly the reason why I have been unable to find a single true
adept or adapt in the U.S.A. __P.B.R.
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Thus much by way of information. Those who have read the
works of MUNDT, HARGRAVE JENNINGS, LAWRIE, PALGRAVE, MORIER, LANE,
need not be told that these Bhatts have been imitated often, but
without avail;(52) for, unless they be true, not a cloud even
can be seen. There is another secret about them which can only
be revealed to such as have and use them! - and not then till
they shall have proved worthy of the knowing.
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(52) The process of manufacture might be the same, but where is
the spiritualized and potentized material to be found which is
necessary to give and hold continual life in the reservoir? In
the performance of the necessary rites, the western mind would
see only means for self-satisfaction and be forgetful of the high
office of the process or acts.
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Now I wish right here to say, that some persons have been disappointed in such, because all mysteries of the heavens, or gold in the ground, or hidden money, etc., were not at once revealed. I never used one for any such purpose but sat and gazed upon it, awaiting patiently for aught that was vounchsafed in the way of visions or phantoramas. This is their negative and immeasurably lowest use. The highest is to sit gazing until the gazer shall pass into a transcendently lofty and most interior state - absolute, unequivocal supra-clairvoyant condition, and then, ah, THEN, as myriad glories unfold and roll before the Soul's eyes the seer is every inch a king or queen, and can laugh this life and world, and all their trials, troubles, and infinite littleness to utter scorn, and, as it were, snap his fingers at life, death, and their copula - circumstance. And this is the positive use of a good Bhatteyeh.
The facts of Psycho-Vision, Mesmeric lucidity, Somnambulic sight, and Clairvoyance, so called, are too numerous, palpable, and well authenticated in this age to be questioned. The old time animal magnetism and its marvels gave way to what was called "Electrical Psychology," which in turn receded before the advance of what were called "Seeing Mediums," but few of whom, however, could see the same facts alike; and all gave way before the better method of developing the inner vision. By a royal road the goal is reached in these days, and that too without the delays, dangers, and uncertainties heretofore attending all methods of attaining that strange Soul-sight wherewith not a few have astonished the world. But a higher, broader, deeper clairvoyance is now needed and demanded by mankind , far superior to that displayed by the riff-raff pulings of half-crazed fanatics; the money-grabbing hordes of "Fortune-tellers" infesting all large cities; the "Biologists," "Psychologists," and others of the same order and genera. The new has become old, and the old new, and a better method of self-development is found in the revived practice than in all the others singly or combined. In India, China, Japan, Siam, Upper Egypt, Arabia, central Nigritia, and on the far-off plains of Tartary and Thibet, the old usage still survives; and the seers divine through shells, and crystals, and diamonds, emeralds, or the plain and less expensive dark-ovoid, wholly surpassing the boasted clairboyance of France, England, and America, and in the same identical lines too, albeit some uses thereof are perversions from the true and normal, whether for mere financial ends, - as by the rising and the falling of a white or yellow cloud or spot on the mirror's surface, indicative of similar movements in the correspondent precious metals; the floating or the sinking of a fleece for "stocks;" the rising or lowering of a stalk or sheaf of wheat, declarative of the course to be taken by that cereal in the markets of the world, for, sometimes, weeks ahead; or whether the objects, purposes, and ends sought pertain to the higher, broader, or deeper ranges of human thought and speculation. Unquestionably this ancient mode of dealing with the dead, and rapporting the mystical worlds above, beneath, within, and around us, is as superior to modern "Circleism" as gold in beauty outvies rough iron. Hence students and explorers of the mystical side of the human Soul, those desirous of opening the sealed doors of strange new worlds, and realizing somewhat of the tremendous problem of being, must develop, not merely "Progress." And to such the process of self-culturement is by me considered absolutely indispensable, and worth more to an anxious, earnest, light-seeking, yet not impatient soul, than all the "circles," and magnetists on the four continents, because the developed man or woman grows CHARACTER, the "progressed" ones, merely memory and tact. And to be an Independent Seer is to become an absolute Power on the globe! Whereas all forms of automacy, magnetic or otherwise, are but forms of serfdom and slavery to powers incapable of identification, and for that reason doubly dangerous!
But the question arises with many: "Can any and every one successfully use the Bhatts?" The reply is, No! Yes! Not every one can see in them; but every one can develop by them the Eight characteristics of perfect man and womanhood: WILL; ATTENTION; CONCENTRATION; PERSISTENCE; SELF-RESTRAINT; RELIANCE; MAGNETIC ENERGY, and AFFECTION, by an hour's steady use per day, and thus develop Soul, thereby growing the power of death-survival and enduring Immortality. For I hold that those who cannot see in them at all, or produce clouds, or other magnetic effects after fair trial, may rest assured that they lack the great essential to Immortality, and unless they cultivate Soul and strive for it, when death lands their bodies in the grave their inner selves will dwindle back to the monadal state of blank Nihility.
Others can see in them, if not at once, then in periods varying from six weeks to one year, and the slower the development, the grander will be the power when culture shall have brought it into play. I have known a few utter failures with them, but the successes outnumber them at least in the ration of five hundred to one. When used by a single one the front may be gazed at, but a glorious surface is presented edgewise, or obliquely. In lodge, the company, whether it be few or many persons, should sit in a semicircle, the mirror leaning against the wall, and the glare of a bull's-eye lantern be thrown full and round upon its glowing face. Let all be still and motionless, and then carefully note the result.
To conclude: I so not approve of the use of them for purposes of magnetizing the opposite sexes, affectionally, for although easily done, yet I think Love thus gained is not apt to be enduring, by reason of its too ardent and too often passional character, hence cannot fully satisfy the needs of the human Soul; yet I do believe it good to stir the medicine for the sick, with the finger, in the Basin of the ovoid, for by such means it can be quadruply charged with the divinest and most loving, therefore healing effluence of the tremendous Soul of man.
CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS. - Many will suspect from our true name - BROTHERHOOD of EULIS(53) - that we really mean Eleusis, and they are not far wrong. The Eleusinian Philosophers (with whom Jesus is reported to have studied) were philosophers of Sex; and the Eleusinian Mysteries were mysteries thereof, just such as the writer of this has taught ever since he began to think, and suffered for his thoughts, through the unfledged "Philosopher" of the century, amidst whom only now and then can a true thinker or real reasoner be found.
Through the Night of time the lamp of Eulis has lighted
our path, and enabled obscure brethren to illuminate the world.
Before Pythagoras, Plato, Hermes, and Buddha, we were! and when
their systems shall topple into dust, we will still flourish in
Immortal youth, because we drink of life at its holy fountain.
Restored, pure, healthful, and normal sex with its uses to and
with us means Restoration, Strength, Ascension, not their baleful
opposites, as in the world outside the pale of genuine science.
Up to the publications hereof on this continent we were indeed
secret, for not one-tenth of those tested and called "Rosicrucians,"
knew of the deeper, yet simpler philosophy. But the time has come
to spread the new doctrines because the age is ripe. I - We -
no longer put up difficult barriers, but affiliate with all who
are broad enough to accept Truth, no matter what garb she may
wear. But till then we shut out the world. Now the Infinite, all
seekers after the attainable. We have determined to teach the
Esoteric doctrines of the AEth,(54) to accept all worthy aspirants,
initiate them, and empower them to instruct, upbuild, and initiate
others, - forming lodges if so they please.
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(54) The philosophy, doctrines and practices taught by the AEth
Priesthood, the third and highest Order of the Secret Schools.
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