OCCULT THEOCRASY
BY LADY QUEENBOROUGH
(EDITH STARR MILLER)
CHAPTER IX
THE DRUIDS
We heard, in 1928, of a " Druid " celebration at Stonehenge. Shortly afterwards we read of another, an initiation ceremony, at Penzance where "12 bards of Britain, including Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the author, were initiated by the Archdruid of Wales into a sect revived after a lapse of 2000 years. " l
Some of us might prefer the lapse to have continued and as the subject of the Druid Mysteries is here relevant we quote verbatim the chapter entitled " The Druids " from Mr. Charles William Heckethorn's interesting book Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries :
" The secret doctrines of the Druids were much the same as those of the Gymnosophists and Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the priests of Egypt, and of all other priests of antiquity. Like them, they had two sets of religious doctrines, exoteric and esoteric. Their rites were practised in Britain and Gaul, though they were brought to a much greater perfection in the former country, where the Isle of Anglesey was considered their chief seat. The word Druid is generally supposed to be derived from < ; " an oak ", which tree was particularly sacred among them, though its etymology may also be found in the Gaelic word Druidh, ' a wise man ' or ' magician. ' "
Their temples, wherein the sacred fire was preserved, were generally situate on eminences and in dense groves of oaks, and assumed various forms. "
The adytum or ark of the mysteries was called a cromlech, and was used as the sacred pastos 2 , or place of regeneration. It consisted of three upright stones, as supporters of a broad, flat stone laid across them on the top, so as to form a small cell. Kit Cotey's House, in Kent, was such a pastos. Considerable space, however, was necessary for the machinery of initiation in its largest and most comprehensive scale. Therefore, the Coer Sidi, where the mysteries of Druidism were performed, consisted of a range of buildings, adjoining the temple, containing apartments of all sizes, cells, vaults, baths, and long and artfully-contrived passages, with all the apparatus of terror used on these occasions. Most frequently these places were subterranean.
"The system of Druidism embraced every religious and philosophical pursuit then known in these islands. The rites bore an undoubted reference to astronomical facts. Their chief deities are reducible to two, — a male and a female, the great father and mother, Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belonged to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme god and goddess representing the two principles of all being. The grand periods of initiation were quarterly, and determined by the course of the sun, and his arrival at the equinoctial and solstitial points. But the time of annual celebration was May-eve, when fires were kindled on all the cairns and cromlechs throughout the island, which burned all night to introduce the sports of May-day, whence all the national sports formerly or still practised, date their origin. Round these fires choral dances were performed in honour of the sun, who, at this season, was figuratively said to rise from his tomb. The festival was licentious, and continued till the luminary had attained his meridian height, when priests and attendants retired to the woods, where the most disgraceful orgies were perpetrated. But the solemn initiations were performed at midnight, and contained three degrees, the first or lowest being the Eubates, the second the Bards, and the third the Druids. The candidate was first placed in the pastos bed, or coffin, where his symbolical death represented the death of Hu, or the sun ; and his restoration in the third degree symbolized the resurrection of the sun. He had to undergo trials and tests of courage similar to those practised in the mysteries of other countries, and which therefore need not be detailed here.
" The Druids taught the doctrine of one supreme being, a future state of rewards and punishments, the immortality of the soul and a metempsychosis... Their doctrines were chiefly those of Pythagoras.
" Their authority in many cases exceeded that of the monarch. They were, of course, the sole interpreters of religion, and consequently superintended all sacrifices; for no private person was allowed to offer a sacrifice without their sanction. They possessed the power of excommunication, which was the most horrible punishment that could be inflicted next to that of death, and from the effects of which the highest magistrate was not exempt. The great council of the realm was not competent to declare war or conclude peace without their concurrence. They determined all disputes by a final and unalterable decision, and had the power of inflicting the punishment of death.
And, indeed, their altars streamed with the blood of human victims. Holocausts of men, women, and children, enclosed in large towers of wicker-work, were sometimes sacrificed as a burnt-offering to their superstitions, which were, at the same time, intended to enhance the consideration of the priests, who were an ambitious race delighting in blood. The Druids, it is said, preferred such as had been guilty of theft, robbery, or other crimes, as most acceptable to their gods; but when there was a scarcity of criminals, they made no scruple to supply their place with innocent persons. These dreadful sacrifices were offered by the Druids, for the public, on the eve of a dangerous war, or in the time of any national calamity ; and also for particular persons of high rank, when they were afflicted with any dangerous disease.
" The priestesses, clothed in white, and wearing a metal girdle, foretold the future from the observation of natural phenomena, but more especially from human sacrifices. For them was reserved the frightful task of putting to death the prisoners taken in war, and individuals condemned by the Druids ; and their auguries were drawn from the manner in which the blood issued from the many wounds inflicted, and also from the smoking entrails. Many of these priestesses maintained a perpetual virginity, others gave themselves up to the most luxurious excesses.
" As the Romans gained ground in these islands the power of the Druids gradually declined ; and they were finally assailed by Suetonius Paulinus, governor of Britain under Nero, A. D. 61, in their stronghold, the Isle of Anglesey, and entirely defeated, the conqueror consuming many of them in the fires which they had kindled for burning the Roman prisoners they had expected to make — a very just retaliation upon these sanguinary priests. But though their dominion was thus destroyed, many of their religious practices continued much longer; and so late as the eleventh century, in the reign of Canute, it was necessary to forbid the people to worship the sun, moon, fires, etc. Certainly many of the practices of the Druids are still adhered to in Freemasonry ; and some writers on this order endeavour to show that it was established soon after the edict of Canute, and that as thereby the Druidical worship was prohibited in toto, the strongest oaths were required to bind the initiated to secrecy. "
There is no mystery as to the existence in Berlin of the " Druiden Orden " today. It is a branch of Freemasonry and its Sovereign Grand Master, until late, was Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden.
CHAPTER X
CHRISTIANITY
To define Christianity, one could hardly do better than use the words of Frederic W. Farrar, Canon of Westminster and Chaplain to Queen Victoria, who in 1874 wrote a Life of Christ. In his preface are the following lines :
" We study the sacred books of all the great religions of the world ; we see the effect exercised by those religions on the mind of their votaries ; and in spite of all the truths which even the worst of them enshrined, we watch the failure of them all to produce the inestimable blessings which we have ourselves enjoyed from infancy, which we treasure as dearly as our life, and which we regard as solely due to the spread and establishment of the Christian faith. We read the systems and treatises of ancient philosophy, and in spite of all the great and noble elements in which they abound, we see their total incapacity to console, or support, or deliver, or regenerate the world. Then we see the light of Christianity dawning like a tender spring day amid the universal and intolerable darkness. From the first, that new religion allies itself with the world's utter feeblenesses, and those feeblenesses it shares; yet without wealth, without learning, without genius,without arms, without anything to dazzle and attract the religion 'of outcasts and exiles, of fugitives and prisoners — numbering among its earliest converts not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty, but such as the gaoler of Philippi, and the runaway slave of Colossae — with no blessing apparently upon it save such as cometh from above — with no light whatever about it save the light that comes from heaven — it puts to flight kings and their armies ; it breathes a new life, and a new hope, and a new and unknown holiness into a guilty and decrepit world. This we see ; and we see the work grow, and increase, and become more and more irresistible, and spread ' with the gentleness of a sea that caresses the shore it covers. ' "
Words fail when attempting to speak of Jesus Christ, the Founder of Christianity. His birth, life and death are known to all. His teaching was public and accessible to the humblest. Long years of learning, awful initiation ceremonies striking terror in the adept's soul were not required from the followers of Christ. Himself, the bearer of that Light which He taught was not to be found in man's earthly nature but was to be sought from without, He invoked God with humble prayer and faith, and performed all miracles.
Therein, is Christ's teaching diametrically opposed to that of the high adepts whose secret doctrine was that man had divinity in himself and could bring it out by exercise of will, by concentration of thought and scientific psychic development. Fear, the predominant feature attendant upon the gaining of knowledge in all other religious systems, was foreign to the adherents of Christ who were repeatedly told : ' Fear not'... " Be not afraid '. No bonds, no fetters were imposed by Him in the shape of ritualism. Love of God and love of neighbour were the only precepts, Faith and Charity the only means through which the divine Spirit gave man transcendental power over moral evil and physical ills.
No purer and simpler doctrine, no greater knowledge of the communion possible between God and man had ever been given. Yet, within a very short time after the death of Christ, Christian ritualism began to appear. A theological system of dogmas and beliefs was devised, modes of worship elaborated and a hierarchy arose with all its attendant evils. However, the Christian faith, under the lash of persecution, had shown the world the power of Faith and Charity.
And against this power the forces of evil have ever been unfurled. Blow after blow was dealt to the rising church. Both its beliefs and practices were attacked by those who professed other views and worshipped other gods and who designed all schemes to subvert and pervert Christianity. Henceforth, as it has ever been with all religions, the history of Christianity and of Gnosticism will develop side by side, the perversion and destruction of the former being the aims of the latter.
The Tree of Christianity gave forth three main branches, the Catholicism of Rome, Greek Catholicism, and in the XVI Century, Lutherism. The two former bodies remained homogeneous but Lutherism gave birth to innumerable sects all dissenting from the parent church.
CHAPTER XI
MANICHEISM
Manicheism is the religion of the followers of Manes, a slave who was sold to a widow who freed and adopted him, thus making him the " son of the widow " a name which after him passed to all his followers and is still used in Masonic Lodges.
Of Manicheism, C. W. Olliver, considered an authority on all masonic matters, writes :
" Manicheism was one of the most important attempts to found a universal religion and to reconcile the Christian, Buddhist, and Mazdean with the Greek philosophy. It presented the same syncretic ideas found later among Moslem Druzes and among Sikhs. It failed in the first place because Islam presented a much simpler system in the East, and because in the West Christianity was already developing, in the time of Manes, a religion which aimed at reconciling the Paganism of Italy and Gaul with the ethics of Christ, this presenting a simpler and more familiar faith. But the one achievement of Manes was the creation of the Devil which led to an afterwards unremovable taint throughout religion. Manes was a notable philosopher and religious teacher born about the year A. D. 216, and he was crucified and flayed alive by the Persian Magi under Bahram I in the year A. D. 277. His Persian name was Shuraik, rendered Cubricus in Latin. " 1
He was the slave of the wife of a certain Terebinth who was a disciple of Scythianus of the race of the Sarrasins.
Olliver tells us further that : " His Acta Archdei became the Manichean Bible with sundry added epistles. He taught the Mazdean dualism of the powers of light and darkness, as representing good and evil beings, and an asceticism which aimed at the control of all passions. Manes repudiated Judaism, and like the Gnostics, regarded Jehovah as an evil God. The Manicheans were more hated and feared by Catholic Christians than any other sect. They were still in existence in spite of constant persecution as late as our tenth century, and their influence was felt from China to Spain and Gaul. It still lingers in Asia, and among the ' Christians of St. Thomas ' in Madras it survived till the fifteenth century. St. Augustine had listened for nine years to Manes, but the Roman Empire felt the force of this system chiefly in A. D. 280. The Romans knew it themselves in A. D. 330, and Faustus became its missionary among them. Many clung to Manicheism till A. D. 440, when Leo the Great found that he must stamp it out if the Roman creed was not to be extinguished. It was the basis of the Paulican heresy, and of that of the Albigenses in the South of France which was only quenched by blood in the thirteenth century.
" The doctrine of Manes can be summed up as follows. He believed in two gods, or, more exactly, principles, the principle of good and that of evil. Before the creation of the world the ' people of darkness ' revolted against the God, and God, incapable of withstanding the attack, gave to them a portion of His essence. The people of darkness having within them the principle of evil by their very nature, and the principle of good which they had just acquired, were able to constitute the world, where both these principles are combined, but where the principle of evil predominates as the natural characteristic of its originators. Man is a mixture of two natures, the spiritual being the work of God, the body, and especially sex, the work of the Devil. " 2
Summers, another authority, further explains that " it must be clearly borne in mind that these heretical bodies with their endless ramifications were not merely exponents of erroneous religious and intellectual beliefs by which they morally corrupted all who came under their influence, but they were the avowed enemies of law and order, red-hot anarchists who would stop at nothing to gain their ends. Terrorism and secret murder were their most frequent weapons.... The Manichean system was in truth a simultaneous attack upon the Church and the State, a desperate but well-planned organization to destroy the whole fabric of society, to reduce civilization to chaos. " 3
Manicheism possessed its- dogmas, liturgies, devotees, and churches.
But again to quote Olliver : " First and foremost amongst the manifestations of what had become Devil worship we find the Black Mass or Devil Masses of the Middle Ages, from which the ceremonial and ritual of Black Magic are derived. The principle which forms the very essence of the Devil, the idea of opposition, also underlies the whole ceremonial and ritual of Black Magic and Black Masses. Such ideas as repeating prayers backwards, reversing the cross, consecrating obscene or filthy objects, are typical of this sense of opposition or desecration, which is also a recognised form of mental disease. The key-word to the whole of the practices of Black Magic is desecration. "4
Yet another authority not to be overlooked, namely Abbe Baruel, author of Memoires pour servir a I'his-toire du Jacobinisms shows the remarkable analogy between the dogmas and rituals of Freemasonry, Templarism and those of Manicheism. Grades concur in number and signs are identical. The mourning for 'Jacques Molay is a ceremony analogous to that practised by the Manicheans in remembrance of Manes and known as Bema. The term MacBenac still used in Masonic lodges was the reminder of the execution of Manes which all Manichean adepts sought to avenge. The practice of so called Fraternity or Brotherhood was in Manicheism extended only to adepts of the sect, just as it is similarly practised by Freemasons towards one another only.
The question which naturally comes up to one's mind when one follows closely the links of the Manichean chain is this : — Is not Freemasonry, such as we see it to-day, the full development of the idea of Cubricus or Manes the slave, the apotheosis of Manicheism as achieved by Albert Pike, Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry ?
CHAPTER XII
WITCHCRAFT
Margaret Alice Murray, writing in The Witch-cult in Western Europe establishes both the phallic and religious character of the " craft ", in her remarkable book from which we extract part of the following valuable information :
The deity worshipped by the witches was in some cases Lucifer, as the Good God in opposition to Adonay, the Christian God in His character of the benefactor of humanity, and in other instances Satan, the same spirit, as the Principle of Evil.
This is evident from the various references to their deity adduced in the trials of persons accused of this heresy. In both cases however, the devotees, whether of Lucifer or Satan, were obliged formally to renounce Christ, the Holy Ghost and the Christian God, before embracing the Devil faith which was the logical outgrowth of the Mazdean-Manichean Dualist doctrine of the double divinity. ;
The God of the witches seems to have been generally represented either as the double faced God Janus or the goat-headed Baphomet, the latter variously modified but usually bearing between the horns on its head the phallic emblem of a lighted candle.
Esoterically, this candle symbolized the sex-force or Kundalini risen to the pineal gland.
Cotton Mather stated that the witches " form themselves after the manner of Congregational Churches, " and M. A. Murray gives the following description of their leader :
" The Chief or supreme Head of each district was known to the recorders as the ' Devil '. Below him in each district, one or more officers — according to the size of the district — were appointed by the chief. The officers might be either men or women; their duties were to arrange for meetings, to send out notices, to keep the record of work done, to transact the business of the community, and to present new members. Evidently these persons also noted any likely convert, and either themselves entered into negotiations or reported to the Chief, who then took action as opportunity served. At the Esbats the officer appears to have taken command in the absence of the Grand Master ; at the Sabbaths the officers were merely heads of their own Covens, and were known as Devils or Spirits, though recognized as greatly inferior to the Chief. The principal officer acted as clerk at the Sabbath and entered the witches' report in his book ; if he were a priest or ordained minister, he often performed part of the religious service ; but the Devil himself always celebrated the mass or sacrament. "
From Lemoine in La Tradition, published 1892, we learn that the garter is the distinctive mark of the witch leader, for a woman shared this honour with the Grand Master as the Grand Mistress and in some cases occupied the office of deacon.
Animal masks seem to have been a popular form of disguise adopted by the witches and wizards attending meetings, and this custom is probably responsible for many of the stories of witch lycanthropy.
Among other obscene and phallic witch-rites was the Black Mass, celebrated by a renegade priest upon the naked body of the adept for whose benefit it was performed. It symbolized the perversion of all the rites of the Catholic church. Black candles instead of white, inverted crosses, chalices containing the blood of new-born infants sacrificed for ritual purposes, urine for holy water, all these were part of the paraphernalia needed, according to historians, to propitiate the Prince of Darkness and his retinue of minor Devils. Besides evocations, casting of spells and sex-orgies, devil worship entailed such inanities as desecration of the hosts stolen from catholic churches and the kissing of the Grand Master (devil) on the tail or membrum virile.
Only hosts consecrated in Roman Catholic churches could serve for Black Mass purposes as it was essential, in order to achieve desecration, that the miracle of transubstantiation should have taken place. The host had actually to be, not merely to represent, the body and blood of Christ.
As regards the Black Mass, M. Emile Caillet makes the following astute observation in La Prohibition de L'Occulte, page 113.
" One may wonder if it was not in order to canalize such an overflow of sacrilege that the church, in the Middle Ages, tolerated the ' Feast of Fools ', a last vestige of the saturnalia of Ancient Greece. Before the altar, upon the communion table, writes C. Lenient,3 were spread pell mell, grilled hogs puddings, sausages, playing cards and dice. For perfumes, old shoe-leather burned in the incense burners. Even the text of the divine service... becomes the butt of an interminable parody..., a confused jumble of jests and nonsense, of grotesque alleluias and latin buffooneries.... an indescribable charivari of cat calls, cries and whistles, etc. A few days afterwards the church, purged of all these impurities, washed and cleaned, resumed its usual appearance ; God again became master of His Altar ; the flood of human folly had passed ! "
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull against the craft couched in the following terms :
" It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse with demons, Incubi and Succubi; and that by their sorceries, and by their incantations, charms and conjurations, they suffocate, extinguish, and cause to perish the births of women, the increase of animals, the corn of the ground, the grapes of the vineyard and the fruit of the trees, as well as men, women, flocks, herds, and other various kinds of animals, vines and apple trees, grass, corn and other fruits of the earth ; making and procuring that men and women, flocks and herds and other animals shall suffer and be tormented both from within and without, so that men beget not, nor women conceive ; and they impede the conjugal action of men and women. "
Eliphas Levi, in Histoire de la Magie, (p. 116) gives the following explanation of the supposed origin of " elementals " known by spiritists as " dwellers on the threshold. "
He states that; " according to the best authorities, these spirits (larves) possess an ethereal body formed of the vapour of blood. That is why they seek blood and why they were supposed, formerly, to feed on the smoke of sacrifices.
" They are the Incubi and Succubi, the monstrous children of impure dreams.
" When sufficiently condensed to be visible, they are only a vapour coloured by the reflection of a picture and, having no independent life, they imitate the life of him who evokes them as the shadow does the body.
" They generally manifest around the persons of idiots and beings devoid of morality whose isolation has led them to develop irregular habits.
" Owing to the feeble cohesion of the parts of their fantastic bodies, they fear the open air, fire, and above all, the point of swords, and as they live only by the life of those who have created or evoked them, they become the vaporous appendices of the real body of their parents. So it can happen that an injury inflicted on them might actually react upon the parent body, as the unborn child is really wounded or disfigured by an impression made upon its mother.
" These elementals draw the vital heat from persons in good health and quickly exhaust those who are weak.
" They are the source of the stories of vampires, stories only too true and periodically recurrent, as everyone knows.
" That is why one feels a chill of the atmosphere when approaching mediums who are persons obsessed by these spirits that never manifest in the presence of anyone able to unveil the mystery of their monstrous birth. They are children of an exalted imagination or unbalanced mentality... "
In politics, throughout the ages, witchcraft, as practised by subversive sects, has played a prominent part.
Illustrations of this are to be found in the case of the North Berwick Witches who were tried for treason in 1592 when their Devil or Grand Master, Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, attempted to supplant James VI as King of Scotland. The Black Masses held by the infamous Abbe Guibourg for Madame de Mon-tespan, with the object of regaining for her the favour of Louis XIV, are famous in history.
Eliphas Levi, the great initiate, has thus defined the aims of magic and witchcraft :
" To deceive the peoples for the purpose of exploiting them, to enslave them and delay their progress, or prevent it even if possible, such is the crime of black magic. 4
Proof of the foregoing devil worship and contact with spirits or devils is found in history, even as late as 1819 when we read that; " The Devil met Margaret Nin-Gilbert etc... " Studying the history of the Mopses in 1761 we find its Grand Masters, Grand Mistresses and Deacons, adorned with the distinctive " Garter " of the witch, performing the ceremonial of kissing the Devil's tail as part of the ritual of 18th Century Masonry. The "Coven" of the Middle Ages is the Masonic ' Lodge " of today, but the " Craft " remains the " Craft ".
CHAPTER XIII
THE GNOSTICS
(The Heretics)
Gnosticism, like the Ancient Mysteries, was founded on Spiritism, their mediums giving instructions purporting to come from the Gods or Spirits.
In the Christian era, one of the earliest prominent Gnostics was Simon Magus, a Jew and an adept of the sect of Dosithians.
This article is composed of certain passages transcribed verbatim from The Moravians Compared and Detected by Lavington. (See pages XIII, 59, 105 to 109 and 133).
Among the successive disciples of Simon Magus were — Basilides, Valentinius, Carpocrates, Marcus, Marcion, Cerdo, Epiphanes, Montanus, etc., and according to Bishop Lavington, " these were Heretics, and, that they were Heretics of the worst Kind that ever defiled and disgraced the Christian Name, is allowed by all Denominations of Christians. "
Some of these lived in the first Century and even in the Apostles' Days, but the second Century was most fruitful in the Production of this Generation of Vipers and we must receive our Knowledge of their abominable Tenets from the early Ecclesiastical writers such as Irenoeus... Epiphanius... Theodoret... and many others... "
The Spirit among these Heretics went by different Names, Ogdoas, Sophia, Terra, Jerusalem and Lord in the masculine Gender : — Is particularly called both Prunicus and Prunica ; Mother Prunica the bold, and Mother Achamoth : — Their Mother is a Woman from a Woman. Sometimes their celestial Beings are neither Male nor Female : sometimes interchangeably either male or female. "
Such was the Excellency of their Knowledge and Illumination, who arrogantly styled themselves Gnostics, that they are superior to Peter or Paul or any of Christ's other disciples. They only, have drunk up the supreme Knowledge, are above Principalities and Powers, secure of Salvation : and for that very Reason are free to debauch Women, or indulge all manner of Licentiousness — This Knowledge is of itself perfect Redemption, and sufficient. " — " Simon Magus, who taught that his Harlot Helena was the Holy Ghost, instituted certain foul and infamous Mysteries inexpressibly filthy and had Assemblies equally filthy to celebrate them : These being the Mysteries of Life, and of the most perfect Knowledge. "
" The Carpocratians... practised all manner of Philtres and Enchantments : in order, as they speak, to have full Power in all Things, and to do whatever they please. — Hence they spend their Time in Luxury and Pleasure and bodily Enjoyments : nor ever come among us, unless it be to ensnare unstable Souls, and entice them into their impious Doctrine. "
" For this end they taught Incontinence to be obligatory, as a Law : and not only lawful, but necessary to Salvation ; not only compatible with the Saviour's Religion, but an essential Part of it : and those were the best Men, who in the common Opinion were the most vicious.
" The Carpocratians grew to that Degree of Madness, that being unable to conceal their Debaucheries, they made Incontinence to be a Law " — " Prodicus added this to the Tenets of Carpocrates, that Fornication ought to be open and public, and the Use of Women common. For which Reason, in their Feasts, the Candles were extinguished, each lay with the Women, as Chance appointed; and they called this Lasciviousness a mystical Initiation, a mystical Communion. "
" Clemens Alex, gives a long Passage from the Writings of Epiphanes, contending for a Community of Women, as being the Law of Heaven; and that Men and Women ought no more to be confined in their Amours than other Animals. ' For ', says Epiphanes, ' he hath implanted a strong and vehement Desire in Man of propagating his Species ; which neither Law, nor Custom, nor any Thing else, can abolish ; for it is the Decree of God. '
" The Ophites, or Cainites, say, that Cain was the Progeny of a higher Principality than Abel; and they confess that Esau, Corah, and the Sodomites, and all such, were their Relations : — That Vulva was the Creator of the Universe ; and that none could be saved, unless he passed thro' all. So also Carpocrates taught. — Most of the Gnostics, with wonderful Artifice of Improbity, taught what is not fit to be named, in the promiscuous Use of Women, and to roll in all manner of filthy Communication.
The Banquet being over, says the Man to the Woman, Arise, and shew thy Love to a Brother. So they proceed to Copulation ". — " Some of them, by a most horrible Abuse of Scripture, apply the Words, Give to every one that asketh thee, towards enticing the Women. " — " Take hold, says Isidorus, of some robust woman, that you be not plucked away from Grace ; and when you have spent your seminal Fire, you may pray with a good Conscience. ".
" Both Epiphanius, and Irenoeus before him, say of the Founder of the Nicolaitans : ' Being ashamed of his own Remissness, he audaciously pronounced, that no one, who was not lascivious every Day could be Partaker of eternal life. ' •—" Therefore those Gnostics, after a Debauchery, were used to boast of their Happiness, as having done a meritorious Thing : and when they had their Will on a complying Female, they told her ' she was now a pure Virgin' ; though she was daily corrupted, and for many Years together. "
" This may be a proper Place to introduce The Confession of Epiphanius; who in his Youth had fallen into the Gnostic Heresy ; whence he received what he writes concerning them, from the professed Teachers' own Mouths : when their Women, one in particular, used all their Arts to debauch him. But by the Help of the divine Grace he overcame their temptations. I was then, says he, reproached by those pestilent Women, who thus scoffingly talked with each other, ' We would have saved this Youth, but not being able, we have suffered him to perish in the Hands of the Principalities. ' For the most beautiful among them makes herself the bait; and those whom she enticeth, she is said not to destroy, but to deliver. Whence the handsomest are used to upbraid those who are less so ; ' I am an elect Vessel, able to save those whom I attempt; which you have not Power to do. '
The most beautiful of them were employed to seduce me ; but God delivered me from their Wickedness ; so that, after reading their Books, I escaped from among them, and discovered the several Names of them to the Bishops of those Parts ; and near eighty of them were sent into Banishment. "
" The Valentinians, says Irenoeus, being in Love with certain Women, would, without a Blush, seduce them from their Husbands, and make them their own Wives. Others of them, seemingly modest at first, pretended to live with them as Sisters ; and in Process of Time were discovered, Sister being found pregnant by Brother. "
" And to aggravate their wickedness, they esteemed Copulation as a most sacred Mystery, known only to themselves ; and which the Profane were not allowed to put in Practice : What was abominable in others being highly meritorious in themselves. For, saith Irenaeus again, ' They have this Grace descending to them from the unspeakable and unnameable Copulation above. For which Reason they ought always to be meditating on the Mystery of Copulation.' And thus they persuade silly People, addressing them in Discourse, ' Whoever is in the World and of the World, and mingled with a Woman is not of the Truth, nor shall pass into the Truth ; because he mingleth in Concupiscence. ' Therefore Continence, say they, is necessary to us natural Men ; but by no means to themselves, who are spiritual and perfect; among whom the Seed, small from above, is perfected here. " Compare Tertullian, p. 261.
" To quote Clemens Alexandrinus. ' I will bring in to open Light your most secret Mysteries : not ashamed to speak what you are not ashamed to worship " i. e. the secrets of both Sexes. ' For I may well call them Atheists, who impudently worship those Parts, which modesty forbids to mention. "
CHAPTER XIV
LAMAISM
Lamaism was founded about 407 A. D. by a Bodi-satva called, it is said, Chomschim, in Chinese Boyan-chi-yin, (the voice which reflects the world) on the mountain Bouthala around which was built the sacred city of Lhassa.
Lamaism is not only a religion, it is a theistic government. In 1206, when Tibet was conquered by Ghengis Khan (Mongol), Buddhism became the established religion but in 1368 when Tibet fell from the hands of the Mongols into those of the Chinese, Lamaism, losing its temporal power, became merely a religion, its spiritual power remaining however the same and the religion of more than 250 million men.
The Lamas are Priests of Buddha among the Mongols and Tibetans, but Lamaism is not orthodox Buddhism.
Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, laid down the following laws governing the attainment of Nirvana (state of not being). Their enumeration will serve to show how Buddhism and Lamaism differ.
According to that great teacher the ten obstacles which prevent people from attaining the supreme liberation are : —
1. The belief in the " Ego ",
2. Doubt,
3. The belief in the efficacy of rites and ceremonies,
4. Sensual desires,
5. Anger,
6. The wish to live in a world less coarse than our own,
7. The wish to live in a more subtle world than our own,
8. Pride,
9. Agitation,
10. Ignorance.
The few quotations given hereafter from the very remarkable books of Madame Alexandra David-Neel can only serve to show students of these subjects the great value of the books themselves.
Quoting Bhagavad Gita, she writes :
" Orthodox Buddhism denied the existence of a permanent soul which transmigrated, and considered this theory as the most pernicious of errors but the great majority of Buddhists have fallen back into this old belief of the Hindus concerning the 'jiva ' (self) which periodically changes its old body for a new one, as we cast off old clothes for new. " 2
The Tibetan clergy comprises a theocratic aristocracy the members of which are called Lamas, " tulkous ".
" According to popular belief, a tulkou is either the reincarnation of a saint or dead sage or else the incarnation of a superhuman being, a god or a demon.
In answer to a question she put to the Dalai-Lama on the definition of the word " tulkou " Madame David-Neel quotes him as saying : — "A Bodhisatva is the base from which can spring numberless magical forms. The force he engenders by a perfect concentration of thought enables him simultaneously to show a phantom similar to himself in thousands and thousands of worlds. He is not only able to create human forms, but every other kind as well, even to inanimate objects such as houses, enclosures, forests, roads, bridges, etc. etc. and he can produce atmospheric phenomena, as well as the elixir of immortality which quenches all thirst. (This expression, he explained, was to be taken both in a literal and symbolic sense.)3 "
In fact, concluded the Dalai-Lama, his power to create Magic forms is limitless. "
" The Kandhomas are reincarnated women, fairies, and may either be married or in holy orders. " 4
The usual method employed for locating the new body appropriated by an old soul is the following : —
" A child answering to the prescribed conditions is discovered and a lama diviner is consulted. Should he pronounce in favour of the candidate the following form of trial takes place : — Some personal belongings of the deceased lama are mixed with other similar ones, and the child must point out the first, thus proving that he recognizes the things that were his in his former existence. 5
" This system assumed its present form towards the year 1650 when the fifth Grand Lama Lobzang Gyatso, having become sovereign of Tibet, but wishing to acquire a higher dignity, proclaimed himself the reincarnation (avatar) of Tchenrezigs, a dignitary of the Mahayanist Pantheon. Simultaneously he established his master as Grand Lama of the monastery of Trachilhumpo, proclaiming him the reincarnation of Eupamed, a Mystic Buddha of whom Tchenrezigs was the spiritual son.
" The example thus given by the lama-king stimulated the creation of tulkous. Soon all monasteries made a point of having at their head the incarnation of some celebrated personage. Thus the Dalai-Lama, the political head of Tibet today, is said still to be a reincarnation of Tchenrezigs and the present Trachi Lama one of Eupamed. " 6
The palace of the Dalai-Lamas is the monastery of Gahlden situated some twenty kilometres from Lhassa. It was founded by Tsong Khapa in the XV century. Tsong Khapa, the reformer, forbade marriage and the use of fermented beverages to the clergy. His followers called Gelougspas are known as the Yellow Sect and their favourite God is Jigsdjied, the destroyer (the terrible), another version of the Hindu god Siva. The Red Sect, the Sakyapas, those distinguished by their red hats, are their religious opponents.
As regards the Tibetan gods and the ritual pertaining to their worship Madame David-Neel gives us the following most illuminating description :
" To the respiratory exercises repeated several times a day the recluse often joins meditation-contemplation assisted by Kyilkhors.
" A Kyilkhor, or magic circle, is a kind of diagram drawn on paper or stuff or engraved on metal, stone or wood... Deities or lamas are generally represented on them by little pyramids of paste called ' torma. ' 7
" Kyilkhors are also designed with coloured powder on boards or on the floor, but only such persons as have received a special initiation may compose or draw them. Each Kyilkhor, moreover, requires a particular initiation and that erected by a non-initiate would remain a dead thing impossible to animate and powerless. An advanced student, wishing to evoke a Bodhisatva or deity, seeks to animate the Kyilkhor which has hitherto only served as a focus for concentration.
" The Hindus endow magical diagrams as well as the statues of deities with life before worshipping them. The object of this rite, called prana-pratishtha, is to convey to the inanimate object, by means of psychic currents, the energy of the worshipper. The life thus infused into the latter is kept up by the daily cult which is rendered it, for it lives on the concentration of thought which has given it birth. Should it suddenly be deprived of this subtle food, the living soul within it will perish and die of inanition the object reverting to its former condition of inert matter. " 8
The Tibetan mystics animate their Kyilkhor by a similar method, but they do not aim at making it an object of worship and the material representation of the Kyilkhor is abolished when, after a certain amount of practice, it becomes purely a mental image.
A tradition of the Kahgyudpas relates that the founder of their sect, Marpa, was blamed by his master (guru) Narota for having paid homage first to the Kyilkhor.
" It is I who constructed the Kyilkhor ", declared Narota. " Its life and energy were infused in it by me. Without me, those figures would be only inert objects. The gods that inhabit it are born of my spirit therefore, it is to me that homage is primarily due. " 9
" According to Tibetan occultists, these beings, (the gods) have acquired a kind of real existence due to the innumerable thoughts which have been concentrated on them 10.
" According to the Tibetans, during the celebration of a rite, the thoughts of the officiating evocator, concentrated on the deities who ' exist already ', cause these to become more powerful and more real for him. By identifying himself with them the evocator establishes contact with an accumulation of energy infinitely greater than that which he alone might generate.11
"Thus we must conclude that the gods of Eastern Magic correspond to what our occidental scientists call thought-forms. That these thought-forms can be projected and reabsorbed into the person of their creator is a theory with which all students of spiritism and psychic science are familiar, but that they can detach from their makers and lead separate existences, empowered for good or evil by the collective thought-force of their worshippers, is an idea with which the western world is still unfamiliar.
" Gods, Demons, the whole universe is a mirage, a fantasy of the brain issuing therefrom and resolvent thereto. " 12
" Thus the aim of the teaching is to bring the student to understand that the world and all its phenomena are but phantasms born of our own imagination. This in short is the fundamental teaching of the Mystics of Tibet. " 13
Among the various tricks taught to initiates and described by Madame David-Neel in her books are: —
Pages
Yoga breathing exercises .... 119 in Initiations Lamaiques.
Levitation................209 in Parmi les Mys tiques et les Magiciens du Thibet.
Loung-gom (fast walking)......211 »
Toumo (self heating)..........219 »
Telepathy ....................231 »
Buddha who, after a thorough investigation of them, rejected the physical practices of the Brahmins, pays little heed to the breathing exercises of Yoga, in his spiritual teaching. 14
Madame David-Neel tells the following anecdote of the Great Master. "
One day Buddha, travelling with one of his disciples, met an emaciated Yogi alone in a hut in the middle of the forest.
The master stopped, enquiring how long the ascetic had lived in that place practising such austerities. " Twenty-five years ", answered the Yogi. "
And what results have you obtained after such dire efforts " ? queried the Buddha further.
" I am able to cross a river walking on the water ", proudly declared the anchorite : —
" Ah 1 My poor friend! " answered the Sage sympathetically, " have you really wasted so much time for that, when for a pittance you can get taken across it on the ferry ! "
On page 157 of her remarkable book Initiations Lamaiques Madame David-Neel explains further the existence of another school of curious rites, presumably a development of degenerate Hindu Tantric Buddhism, to the practice of which may be ascribed much that seems objectionable in the Oriental occultism, which has filtered through to the Western world. There we are told that : — "A certain class of Tibetan occultists teach a method of semi-physical semi-psychic stimulation, which consists in such singular practices as that of causing the seminal flow, ejected in the course of sexual union, to be reabsorbed etc. etc. "
Tibet is indeed the land of Demons where Official Lamaism competes with Unofficial Sorcery, and Magic, white and black, still remains the law of the land.
CHAPTER XV
THE YEZIDEES (DEVIL WORSHIPPERS)
The sect of the Yezidees was founded by Sheik Adi in the fifth century.
Mr. W. B. Seabrook's observations on the Yezidees, as recorded in his book, Adventures in Arabia, form a basis for the study of the beliefs of this sect.
According to his informant, the Yezidee faith is briefly this : l
" God created seven spirits ' as a man lighteth one lamp after another ', and the first of these spirits was Satan, whom God made supreme ruler of the earth for a period of ten thousand years. And because Satan was supreme master of the earth, those who dwelt on it could prosper only by doing him homage and worshipping him. "
Since the true name was forbidden ", Mechmed Hamdi told me, " they referred to Shaitan as Melek Taos (Angel Peacock) and worshipped him in the form of a brass bird ..."
While the name of Shaitan was forbidden ", he said, " so much so that if a Yezidee hears it spoken, their law commands him either to kill the man who uttered it or kill himself — yet we could talk as freely with them about Melek Taos as we could to a Christian about Jesus. "
A priest of the cult also volunteered the following information to Mr. Seabrook on the Yezidee divinity.
" Our difference from all other religions is this — that we know God is so far away that we can have no contact with Him — and He, on his part, has no knowledge or interest of any sort concerning human affairs. It is useless to pray to him or worship Him. He cares nothing about us.
" He has given the entire control of this world for ten thousand years to the bright spirit Melek Taos, and Him, therefore, we worship. Muslims and Christians are wrongly taught that he whom we call Melek Taos is the spirit of evil. We know that this is not true. He is the spirit of power and the ruler of this world. At the end of the ten thousand years of his reign — of which we are now in the third thousand — he will re-enter paradise as the chief of the Seven Bright Spirits, and all his true worshippers will enter paradise with him. "
The Grand Priest of the order, the " Mir ", receives one-seventh part of the harvests of the land. He is the arbiter of all religious matters and under him rank seven ecclesiastical orders.
The doctrine of the Yezidees is contained in three sacred books The Black Book, The Revelation and The Contract with the Devil; but a knowledge of reading and writing is restricted to the priests of the first order and is classified by the sect as a serious sin.
CHAPTER XVI
ORTHODOX ISLAM
The Arabian peninsula was the home of nomads and mountaineers when, in the seventh century, Mahomet arose as a self styled Prophet and the creator of Islam-ism. The doctrine of Islam has three dogmas : —
1. Monotheism.
2. Belief in the Prophet, namely Mahomet.
3. The law of retribution.
The sacred book of Islamism, the Koran, was devoid of mystic teaching. The Figh, for every believer, is the code of morals and obligations such as fast, prayer, pilgrimage to Mecca, etc. Mysticism was interjected into Islamism by Sufism.
Mahomet aimed at the establishment of a religion which, he declared, was revealed to him during periods of trance which he frequently underwent. He was determined to impose this religion on all the Arabs and, through much bloodshed, he succeeded in stamping out the Koraishites from whom he took Mecca.
The death of Mahomet was the signal for disruption among his followers and innumerable divisions both political and religious, from the history of the Arabs during their periods of conquest which began immediately after the death of Mahomet during the Khalifate of Omar (634-644).
CHAPTER XVII
UNORTHODOX ISLAM, THE ISHMAELITES, THE LODGE OF CAIRO
Manicheism was not the only secret association that sprang from the initiations of the Magi. In the seventh century of our era we meet with similar societies, possessing an influence not limited to the regions in which they arose, variations of one single thought, which aimed at combining the venerable doctrines of Zoroaster with Christian belief. Of these societies or sects the following may be mentioned : the followers of Keyoumerz; the worshippers of Servan, certain Zoroastrians, so-called " Dualists " ; Gnostics and, lastly, the followers of Mastek, the most formidable and disastrous of all, preaching universal equality and liberty, the irresponsibility of man, and the community of property and women.
The Arabs having rendered themselves masters of Persia in the seventh century, the sects of that country set to work to spread their tenets among Islam in order to undermine it.
This is corroborated by Heckethorn who writes :
" The Persian sects examined the Koran, pointed out its contradictions, and denied its divine origin. And so 134 UNORTHODOX ISLAM 135 there arose in Islamism that movement which attacks dogmas, and destroys faith, and substitutes for blind belief free enquiry. " 1
In Persia and in Mesopotamia had spread the new rationalism, the philosophical heresy of the Mutazi-lites (schismatics) exposed by Hassan al-Basri.
The Jew Abdallah Ibn Saba 2 presented himself as the prophet of the future Imam, who was to manifest. He meant to overthrow the caliphate and to uphold the rights of Mahomet al-Hanafi, the son of Ismael, the descendant of the prophet by his daughter Fatima, the wife of Ali. Thus was founded the Shi'a sect.
The Fatmite dynasty (from Fatima, daughter of Mahomet) was founded in 909 A. D. when Ahmed-Said, the son of a Jewess who had married the Shi'a chief al-Hussain,3 conquered Egypt and Syria, establishing the centre at Cairo. Declaring himself to be the long expected Imam, Said, on coming to power, assumed the name of Obaid Allah el-Mahdi. 4 The Fatmite dynasty lasted from 909 to 1171. Heckethorn informs us that " The Doial-Doat, or supreme missionary or judge, shared the power with the prince. 5
" Meetings were held in the Lodge at Cairo, which contained many books and scientific instruments; science was the professed object, but the real aim was very different. The course of instruction was divided into nine degrees... the ninth degree... as the necessary result of the teaching of all the former, taught that nothing was to be believed, and that everything was lawful.
" Egypt, especially, seems as if predestined to be the birthplace of secret societies, of priests, warriors and fanatics. It is the region of mysteries... Cairo has succeeded the ancient Memphis, the doctrine of the Lodge of Wisdom that of the Academy of Heliopolis... The throne of the descendants of Fatima was to be surrounded with an army of assassins, a formidable body-guard; a mysterious militia was to be raised, that should spread far and wide the fame and terror of the caliphate of Cairo, and inflict fatal blows on the abhorred rule of Bagdad. The missionaries spread widely, and in Arabia and Syria, partisans were won, to whom the designs of the order were unknown, but who had with fearful solemnity sworn blind obedience. "
The Fatmites had received from the sect the mission of destroying, or at least of disrupting Islam. The successor of Obaid-Allah continued this work, having himself proclaimed a Shi'a while in reality he was sceptic. It was under the Caliph Hakim that the Druses came into being.
The Shi'a sects who recognized Mohammed al-Hanafi as the last living " Imam " were called Ismae-lites or Septimans. From their midst sprang a secret body, the Khoja, which, in spite of persecution still exists in Persia and India, where its exoteric chief is the Anglicised Indian, the Aga Khan, whose followers are the moneylenders of Islam, a profession forbidden by Mahomet.
Still another Shi'a sect, the Duodecimans or Ima-nites, recognize Mohamed al-Muntazar the twelfth Imam.
Under the Fatmite Caliph Hakim, a new religion sprang out of Ismailism, that of the Druses, so called from its inventor, a certain Darosi. This religion differs little from Ismailism, except that it introduces the dogma of the incarnation of God himself on Earth, under the form of the Caliph Hakim.
When the Fatmite Caliph Mostansir ascended the throne, he re-established the Ismailian belief : and the Druses, driven from Egypt, took refuge in Lebanon, where they still exist.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DRUSES
The Druses, as afore stated, are a gnostic sect among the Ismaelite Mahommedans. It was founded in the tenth century during the reign of the Fatimite Caliph al-Hakim Biambellalu.
The founder is usually recognised as Mohammed al Darazi or al Druzi (Nouchtegin ben Ismail al Bokhari) born near Bokhara cir. 960. He adopted the doctrine then preached by al-Hakim of the successive reincarnations of the divinity under human form 1 and wrote a treatise in which he established the continuous series of divine incarnations ending with the statement that the last living manifestation was al-Hakim, the Caliph of Egypt. So pleased was al-Hakim with the book that he called Mohammed al-Druzi to him, and gave him great authority in the conduct of affairs. From that time, al-Hakim who hitherto had been known as Biambellalu that is " the one governing by the order of God, changed his name to Biam-Eh meaning " the one governing by his own right. " He then caused himself to be worshipped as God. The public reading of Mohammed al-Druzi's book, in one of Cairo's mosques, •caused popular riots and its author was obliged to flee from Egypt. He took refuge in the mountains of Syria and made many proselytes by allowing his adepts the use of wine, condoning licentiousness and encouraging the propagation of ideas tending to the confiscation of property. Later, he returned to Egypt but was confronted by the power gained by one of his disciples, Hamza al-Hadi, who had become leader of the Druses there. In the conflict that ensued, Mohammed al Druzi took up arms against his rival and adversary and was killed in 1019.
Hamza, later, went to Syria and Lebanon and preached to the Druses the doctrine of al-Hakim such as prevailed in Egypt. Hamza was declared the prophet, the Imam of al-Hakim who, being the divine incarnation, will yet manifest himself to the Druses, be their Messiah and give them all earthly power. The sect is divided into three degrees: Profanes, Aspirants and Wise.
The Druses, from a political point of view, are divided into two parts, the Djumblatiehs and the Yezbe-kiehs and religiously they have their own rites, mysteries, and exoteric and esoteric doctrines. The high initiates or priests rule the people and through religious fanaticism have reduced the Druses to a state of theocrasy with all its attendant law of fear and numerous restrictions upon which theocratic power can alone be edified.
In his book on Secret Societies, Heckethorn comments on the similarity existing between the law of the Druses and that of the Jews whereby " to a brother, perfect truth and confidence are due but it is allowable, nay, a duty, to be false towards men of another creed. "
Subsequently, he draws yet another comparison between the Druses and the Freemasons and mentions the Masonic degrees of " The United Druses " and " Commanders of Lebanon ".
footnotes
chapter 9
1. The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 24, 1928.
2. Pastos — The altar upon which the ritual desecration of virginity obligatory for initiation into the phallic cult took place.
chapter 11
1. C. W. Olliver, An Analysis of Magic and Witchcraft, p. 102.
2. C. W. Olliver, op. cit, p. 103.
3. M. Summers, History of Witchcraft and Demonology, p. 17
4. C. W. Olliver, op. cit, p. 106.
1. " Epiphanius gives an account of a sect of Heretics called Satanians. ' Satan, say they, is a very great and potent Person, and author of much Mischief. Why, therefore, should we not chiefly fly to him, and adore him, honour, and praise trim, that for our flattering worship he may do us no harm, but Pardon us as being his own servants ? ' Hence they call themselves Satanians. " Bishop Lavington, The Moravians Corn-Pared and Detected, p. 170.
2. Margaret Alice Murray, The Witch-cult in Western Europe, p. 186.
3 La Satire en France au Moyen-Age, p. 422.
4 Eliphas Levi, La Clefdes Grands Mysteres, p. 308.
3. David-Neel, op. cit., p. 115.
4. Ibid, p. 111.
5. Ibid, p. 118.
6. David-Neel, op. cit., p. 110.
7. Ibid, p. 259.
8. David-Neel, op. cit., p. 260.
9. David-Neel, Initiations Lamaiques, p. 59
10. David-Neel, op. cit, p. 103.
11. Ibid., p. 104.
12. Ibid., p. 280.
13. Ibid., p. 262.
1. Heckethorn, Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, vol. I, p. 162.
2. Jewish Encyclopaedia, Art. Abdallah Ibn Saba.
3. Ibid., Art. Caliphs.
4. Mahdi-Messiah.
5. Heckethorn op. cit, p. 165.
chapter 18
1. Compare with Lamaism.
1 comment:
The light print is hard to read. Ctrl-A gives a blue background with white letters, making it easier to read. I've read down to the Gnostics chapter and bookmarked the article for future reading. The previous reading on syncretism and witchcraft is informative.
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