The author of the present volume was well known to the reading public of two generations ago. He lived and wrote in a time of mental stress and strain; in the days of the reconstruction after the young Republic had successfully withstood the first assault upon its internal unity. Just after this struggle of brother against brother, there was an attitude of thankfulness on the part of the nation. The people breathed more easily and turned the lamps of their minds upon the ways of the spirit and the deeper things in life. Warfare, carnage, over-zealousness, mistaken devotion or forgetfulness of high ideals, always seem to have been followed by periods of solemn quiet. Such periods of reaction bring about physical relaxation. The mental being become dominant and, turning away from the world, men contemplate the dim aisles of the inner self, where God is said to dwell. Out of such communion spring great thoughts and actions.
We witness in the cathedrals of Europe the result of such a reaction. They represent one exquisite form of atonement made by medieval mankind, for the release from the scourge of the Dark Ages, and a penance for the slaughter in the Crusades.
The Great War just behind us has left the world in the throes of a reaction of this nature. There is freedom of thought never before indulged in. An absence of the old order. A breaking away from convention. An earnest search for the purpose of Life. This is the chief reason for bringing out a new edition of Randolph's works at this time. On account of the wider field which now exists for such books, they may possibly serve the purpose more effectively now, even, than they did when first published.
Randolph's works are now exceedingly rare, some of them seem to have utterly disappeared from circulation. Their value lies not alone in their rarity but in the history and experience of this man which they reveal. When P.B. Randolph was in his prime, before he became an author, there was everywhere a spirit of frank inquiry, very probably awakened by the recognition of the unlimited potentialities in the increasing application of science and its method. There are many exponents of theories, resulting in the subsequent foundation of schools and orders. Mary Baker Eddy, Daniel Homes, Alan Kardec and the later Magnetists, were prominent in the current literature and thought. Study was intense and detached. It was not hindered by the jocund treatment of the press or the incredulous portion of the public. It was among such investigators that Randolph received his early experience. His youth had been hard and bitter, as a result of which he had set up questions to answer which would require a searching analysis. The inadequacy of these early occult experiences to answer him impelled him to start an impetuous search throughout the world for the solution of the difficult problem he had found in Life. The full romance of this search will never be fully written due to the unfortunate burning, recently, of many of his personal notes in a book which served as a record of this travels. This book was lost sight of for years, and came to light only to be destroyed. The results of his search, however, we have intact in his writings, many of which have as yet not been published.
It is difficult for one in this age of many cults to appreciate the true value of Randolph's efforts in behalf of the Soul and its pilgrimage. Today we follow one god, only to be deceived and rush in search of another tomorrow. A general confusion surrounds the truth about mysticism. There is mercenariness, an offering of stone for bread; honest but inadequate systems of philosophy, where one seeks facts but finds speculation. In 1850 it was simpler. There were few cults. It was due to this that Randolph seems, early in his search, to have gone almost directly to the heart of Truth.
It was about 1850 that Randolph, then in Paris on the first leg of his journey, met Gen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock a grandson of Ethan Allen of the Revolution. Gen. Hitchcock later became a writer on mysticism and alchemy and his writings are still well and favorably known. The meeting was brought about by Drs. Fontain and Begevin, who were intimate friends of Randolph. It was from this moment that Randolph's instruction by and association with the great members of the now extinct Frankfort lodge commenced. It was from such men as Count Giounotti, Gen. Hitchock, and Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie, that he received the secrets of the Rose Cross. During the next ten years on succeeding trips abroad he cultivated the intimate acquaintance of Bulwer-Lytton, Eliphas Levi, and especially Hargrove Jennings, with whom he carried on an active correspondence during the remainder of his life.
After his sojourn in Paris, his plans crystalized. He had known all along what he wanted and now he had found where to obtain it. So from this point his wanderings took him into strange localities, into high places, and circles where the face of a white man had never before been seen. He emerges from Egypt, Tunis, Arabia, Syria and many other less travelled lands, each time having succeeded in adding some variation of the lore he already possessed. There are yet left a few queer relics and documents which show the track of his journeys at this time.
As a result of this method of accumulation wisdom and experience, Randolph's works embrace the most diverse and unusual mass of information.
The bare relation of the details of his travels are of absorbing interest, yet this was not his object in writing. It was his desire to attract to him all those who had suffered as he had, and who also thirsted for infinite truth. He has embodied in his works nearly all of the invaluable wisdom he has to offer. This is not always easily found, as one would judge, but to those who have been his followers, the Truth can be singled out and the hand of Oriental, Arab or European master traced with precision. In his writings, in some form of expression, is said to lie hidden the study and application of the deepest secrets revealed to mankind. Among the invaluable possessions handed down to him by Count Giounotti, representing the true philosophy and methods of the Rosicrucians are strewn the observations and secrets of the Ansairii, of Moor, Persian Turk, Hindu–whenever he had found that man who had made himself a member of this vast, unnamed fraternity.
These are some of the reasons for the great value attached to Randolph's works. They date from a time when occultism was comparatively simple. The unfortunate brood of mystic fledglings which today flutter between the always obscure guiding light and honest reader are disconcerting. In the darkened field of confusion may give up. Who to believe? One must believe before the senses can receive the proof. The truth giver and the liar may appear alike to one who has not seen or felt the presence of Truth.
From 1850, for upwards of twenty-five years, the field of mystic teaching in this country was open and uncontested, Randolph and a number of coworkers occupied it completely. There is for this reason a complete satisfaction in reading his works. An unbroken line of life-long followers down to the present day, is the strongest tribute one can make to his philosophy and methods.
Seership now republished in this new edition, was
among the most popular of Randolph's books after Ravelette and
Eulis. It is not, as one might gather from superficial reading
of the title, a work devoted to ordinary crystal-gazing. It is
a work dealing with magic of the loftiest and most powerful kind.
There is much scattered information in the literature on magic
mirrors, and in recent years a small book by Bosc has appeared
in French, but a comprehensive work embodying methods, the history
and practice amongst various nations, does not exist up to the
time of the appearance of this work.
There is nothing here for the dabbler in occult phenomena. On
the contrary, the high-minded and ambitious experimenter may find
hidden in the lines of this work the most profound truth, the
discovery of which may lead him to the greatest attainments. The
work is indeed practical, but at the same time, its purpose is
to entice the reader toward the high planes where one becomes
Soul Conscious and to impress upon him the uselessness of commonplace
phenomenalism. It is with the heartfelt desire of accomplishing
the author's wish that the publishers send forth this illuminating
and instructive work upon a new venture.
ALLAN F. ODELL