Oracles: Shrines where a god speaks to human beings through the mouths of priests or priestesses. The concept of the god become vocal in this manner was by no means confined to Greece or Egypt. Our object here is to deal with the most celebrated oracles of all nations as well as those of antiquity. Probably all the primitive gods those, that is to say, of the fetish class, now under consideration - were consulted as oracles; it is certain that they derived this character in a state of animism and that they transmitted it to gods of the most advanced type. In early times the great question was whether man would have food on the morrow or no; perhaps the first oracle was the spirit which directed the hungry savage in his hunting and fishing expeditions. The Esquimaux still consult spirits for this purpose, and their wizards are as familiar with the art of giving ambiguous replies to their anxious clients as were the well - informed keepers of the oracles of Greece. As advancement proceeded, the direction of the gods was obtained in all the affairs of private and public life.
Greece:- The Oracle of Delphi. When Jupiter was once desirous to ascertain the central point of the earth, he despatched two eagles, or two crows, as they are named by Strabo. The messengers took flight in opposite courses, from sunrise and sunset; and they met at Delphi, which place was thenceforward dignified with the title " The navel of the earth; " an " umbilicus " being represented in white marble within its celebrated temple. Delphi thus became a place of great distinction, but it was not yet oracular, till the fumes which issued from a neighbouring cave were first discovered by a shepherd named Coretas. His attention was forcibly attracted to a spot round which whenever his goats were browsing they gambolled and bleated more than was their wont. Whether these fumes arose in consequence of an earthquake, or whether - they were generated by demoniacal art is not to be ascertained; but the latter hypothesis is thought by Clasen to be the more probable of the two. Coretas, on approaching the spot, was seized with ecstacy, and uttered words which were deemed inspired. It was not long before the danger arising in consequence of the excitement of curiosity among the neighbours, the deadly stupefaction often produced among those who inhaled the fumes without proper caution, and the inclination which it aroused in some to plunge themselves into the depths of the cavern below, occasioned the fissure to be covered by a sort of table, having a hole in the centre, and called a tripod, so that those who wished to try the experiment could resort there in safety. Eventually a young girl, of unsophisticated manners, became the chosen medium of the responses, now deemed oracular and called Pythian, as proceeding from Apollo, the slayer of Python, to whom Delphi was consecrated. A sylvan bower of laurel branches was erected over the spot, and at length the marble temple and the priesthood of Delphi arose where the Pythoness, seated on her throne, could be charged with the divine - and was thus rendered the vehicle of Apollo's dictation.
As the oracle became more celebrated, its prophetic machinery was constructed of more costly materials. The tripod was then formed of gold, but the lid, which was placed in its hollow rim, in order to afford the Pythoness a more secure seat, continued to be made of brass. She prepared herself by drinking out of a sacred fountain (Castalia), adjoining the crypt, the waters of which were reserved for her only, and in which she bathed her hair; by chewing a laurel leaf, and by circling her brows with a laurel crown. The person who made inquiry from the oracle, first offered a victim, and then having written his question in a notebook, handed it to the Pythoness, before she ascended the tripod; and he also as well as the priestess, wore a laurel crown. In early times the oracle spoke only in one month of the year, named " Byssus, " in which it originated; and at first only on the seventh day of that month, which was esteemed the birthday of Apollo, and was called " Polyphonic."
Virginity was at first an indispensable requisite in the Pythoness; on account, as Diodorus tells us, of the purity of that state and its relation to Diana; moreover, because virgins were thought better adapted than others of their sex to keep oracular mysteries secret and inviolate. But an untoward accident having occurred to one of these consecrated damsels, the guardians of the temple, in order, as they imagined, to prevent its repetition for the future, permitted no one to fulfil the duties of the office till she had attained the mature age of fifty; they still indulged her, however, with the use of a maiden's habit. The response was always delivered in Greek.
Oracle of Dodona. Another celebrated oracle, that of Jupiter, was at Dodona, in Epirus, from which Jupiter derived the name of Dodonus. It was situated at the foot of Mount Tomarus, in a wood of oaks; and there the answers were given by an old woman under the name of Pelias. Pelias means dove in the Attic dialect, from which the fable arose, that the doves prophesied in the groves of Dodona. According to Herodotus, this legend contains the following incident, which gave rise to the oracle: - Two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes were carried .away by Phoenician merchants; one of them was conveyed to Libya, where she founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; the other to Greece. The latter one remained in the Dodonian wood, which was much frequented on account of the acorns. There she had a temple built at the foot of an oak in honour of Jupiter, whose priestess she had been in Thebes; and here afterwards a regular oracle was founded. He adds, that this priestess was called a dove, because her language could not be understood. The Dodonid and African oracles were certainly connected, and Herodotus distinctly states, that the manner of prophecy in Dodona was the same as that in Egyptian Thebes. Diana was worshipped in Dodona in conjunction with Zeus, and a female figure was associated with Amun in the Libyan Ammonium. Besides this, the dove was the bird of Aphrodite, the Diana of Zeus, or the Mosaic divine love, which saved mankind from complete destruction. According to other authors, there was a wondrous intoxicating spring at Dodona; and in later times more material means were employed to produce the prophetic spirit.
Several copper bowls, namely, were placed upon a column, and the statue of a boy beside them. When the wind moved a rod or scourge having three bones attached to chains, it struck upon the metallic bowls, the sound of which was heard by the applicants. These Dodonian tones gave rise to a proverb ops Dodonaum - an unceasing babbler.
The oracle at Dodona was dedicated to the Pelasgian Zeus, who was worshipped here at the same time as the almighty ruler of the world, and as the friendly associate of mankind. In the course of the theogonic process, Diana was associated with him as his wife, - the mother of Aphrodite. The servants of Zeus were Selles, the priests of Diana, the so - called Peliades. According to Homer, the Selles inhabited the sanctum at Dodona, sleeping upon the earth, and with naked unwashed feet; they served the Pelasgian Zeus. It is probable that they slept upon the earth on the hides of newly - sacrificed animals, to receive prophetic dreams, as was customary at other places, Calchas and Oropus, with many others.
As regards the mantic of Dodona, it was partly natural, from the excitement of the mind, partly artificial. Of the latter we may mention three modes - the ancient oak of Zeus, with its prophetic doves, the miraculous spring, and the celebrated Dodonian bowls of brass.
The far - spreading, speaking tree, the incredible wonder, as Aeschylus calls it, was an oak, a lofty beautiful tree, with evergreen leaves and sweet edible acorns, which according to the belief of the Greeks and Romans, were the first sustenance of mankind. The Pelasgi regarded this tree as the tree of life. In this tree the god was supposed to reside, and the rustling of its leaves and the voices of birds showed his presence. When the questioners entered, the oak rustled, and the Peliades said, " Thus speaks Zeus." Incense was burned beneath it, which may be compared to the altar of Abraham under the oak Ogyges, which had stood there since the world's creation. According to the legend, sacred doves continually inhabited the tree, like the Marsoor oracle at Tiora Mattiene, where a sacred hawk foretells futurity from the top of a wooden pillar.
At the foot of the oak a cold spring gushes as it were from its roots, and from its murmur the inspired priestesses prophesied.
Of this miraculous fountain it is related, that lighted torches being thrust into it were extinguished, and that extinguished torches were relit; it also rose and fell at various seasons. " That extinction and rekindling has, " says Lassaulx, " perhaps the mystical significance that the usual sober life of the senses must be extinguished, that the prophetic spirit dormant in the soul may be aroused. The torch of human existence must expire, that a divine one may be lighted; the human must die that the divine may be born; the destruction of individuality is the awakening of God in the soul, or, as the mystics say, the setting of sense is the rising of truth."
The extinguishing of a burning light shows that the spring contained carbonic acid gas, which possesses stupefying and deadly properties, like all exhalations arising especially from minerals. The regular rising and sinking of the water is a frequent phenomenon, and has been observed from the earliest ages.
It appears that predictions were drawn from the tones of the Dodonian brass bowls, as well as from the rustling of the sacred oak and the murmuring of the sacred well.
The Dodonian columns, with that which stood upon them, appears to express the following: - The medium sized brazen bowl was a hemisphere, and symbolised of heaven, the boy - like male statue a figure of the Demiurgos, or constructor of the universe; the bell - like notes a symbol of the harmony of the universe and music of the spheres. That the Demiurgos is represented as a boy is quite in the spirit of Eupto - Pelasgian theology as it reigned in Samothrace. The miraculous bell told all who came to Dodona to question the god that they were on holy ground, must inquire with pure hearts, and be silent when the god replied. It is easily imagined that these tones, independent and uninfluenced by human will, must have made a deep impression upon the minds of pilgrims - Those who questioned the god were also obliged to take a purificatory bath in the temple, similar to that by which the Delphian Pythia prepared herself for prophecy.
Besides this artificial soothsaying from signs, natural divination by the prophetic movements of the mind was practised. Where there are prophesying priestesses, there must also be ecstatic ones, similar to those in the magnetic state. Sophocles calls the Dodonaea priestesses divinely inspired: Plato (Phaedrus) says, more decidedly, that the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona had done much good in sacred madness, in private and public affairs, to their country, but in their senses little or nothing. We may see from this that the Delphian Pythia, as well as the Dodonian priestesses, did not give their oracles in the state of common waking consciousness, but in real ecstasy, to which the frequent incense - and drink - - offerings would assist. Aristides states, still more clearly than the others, that the priestesses at Dodona neither knew, before being seized upon by the spirit, what would be said, nor remembered afterwards, when their natural consciousness returned, what they had uttered; so that all others, rather than they, knew it.
Oracle of Jupiter Trophonius. - Trophonius, according to Pausanias, was the most skilful architect of his day. Concerning the origin of his oracle there are many opinions. Some say he was swallowed up by an earthquake in the cave which afterwards became prophetic; others, that after. having completed the Adyturn of Apollo at Delphi (a very marvellous specimen of his workmanship, which Dr. Clarke thought might at some time be discovered on account of its singularity), be declined asking any specific pay, but modestly requested the god to grant him whatever was the greatest benefit a man could receive; and in three days afterwards he was found dead.
This oracle was discovered after two years of scarcity in its neighbourhood, when the Pythoness ordered the starving population, who applied to her, to consult Trophonius in Lebada. The deputation sent for that purpose could not discover any trace of such an oracle, till Saon, the oldest among them, obtained the desired information by following the Right of a swarm of bees. The responses were given by the genius of Trophonius to the inquirer, who was compelled to descend into a cave, of the nature of which Pausanias has left a very lively representation. The votary resided for a certain number of days in a sanctuary of good fortune, in which he underwent customary lustrations, abstained from hot baths, but dipped in the river Hercyna, and was plentifully supplied with meat from the victims which he sacrificed. Many, indeed, were the sacred personages whom he was bound to propitiate with blood; among them were Trophonius himself and his sons, Apollo, Saturn, Jupiter, Vasileus, Juno Henioche, and Ceres Europa, who is affirmed to have been the. nurse of Trophonius. From an inspection of the entrails, a soothsayer pronounced whether Trophonius was in fit humour for consultation. None of the - oracles however favourable they might have 'been, were of the slightest avail, unless a ram, immolated to Agamedes at the mouth of the cave on the very night of the descent, proved auspicious.
When that propitious signal had been given the priests led the inquirer to the river Hercyna, where he was anointed and washed by two Ledaean youths, thirteen years of age, named " Hermai.” He was then carried farther to the two spring - heads of the stream, and there he drank first of Lethe, in order that he might forget all past events and present his mind to the oracle as a "tabula rasa"; and secondly of Mnemosyne, that he might firmly retain remembrance of every occurrence which was about to happen within the cave. An image, reputed to be the workmanship of Daedalus, was then exhibited to him, and so great was its sanctity, that no other eyes but those of a person about to undertake the adventure of the cave were ever permitted to behold it. Next he was clad in a linen robe, girt with ribbons, and shod with sandals peculiar to the country.
The entrance to the oracle was a very narrow aperture in a grove on the summit of a mountain, protected by a marble parapet about two cubits in height, and by brazen spikes above it. The upper part of the cave was artificial, like an oven, but no steps were cut in the rock, and the descent was made by a ladder brought to the spot on each occasion. On approaching the mouth of the adytum itself the adventurer lay flat, and holding in each hand some honeyed cakes, first inserted his feet into the aperture, then drew his knees and the remainder of his body after them, till he was caught by some hidden force, and carried downward as if by a whirlpool. The responses were given sometimes by a vision, sometimes by words; and a forcible exit was then made through the original entrance, and in like manner feet foremost. There was only a single instance on record of any person who had descended failing to return and that one deserved his fate . for his object was to discover treasure, not to consult the Oracle. Immediately on issuing from the cavern, the inquirer was placed on a seat called that of Mnemosyne, not far from the entrance, and there the priests demanded a relation of everything which he had seen and heard; he was then carried once again to the sanctuary of good fortune, where he remained for some time overpowered by terror and lost in forgetfulness. By degrees his powers of intellect returned, and, in contradiction to the received opinion, he recovered the power of smiling.
Dr. Clarke, in his visit to Lebadeia, found everything belonging to the hieron of Trophonius in its original state, excepting that the narrow entrance to the adytum was choked with rubbish. The Turkish governor was afraid of a popular commotion if he gave permission for cleansing this aperture. Mr. Cripps, however, introduced the whole length of his body into the cavity, and by thrusting a long pole before him found it utterly stopped. The waters of Lethe and Mnemosyne at present supply the washerwomen of Lebadea.
Oracles of Delos and Branchus. - The oracle of " Delos, " notwithstanding its high reputation, had few peculiarities: its virtue was derived from the nativity of Apollo and Diana in that island. At Dindyma, or Didyma, near Miletus, Apollo presided over the oracle of the " Branchidx, " so called from either one of his sons or of his favourites Branchus of Thessaly, whom be instructed in soothsaying while alive, and canonized after death. The responses were given by a priestess who bathed and fasted for three days before consultation, and then sat upon an axle or bar, with a charming - rod in her hand, and inhaling the steam from a hot spring. Offerings and ceremonies were necessary to render the inspiration effectual, including baths, fasting, and solitude, and Iamblichus censures those who despise them.
Oracle of the Claian Apollo at Colophon. - Of the oracle of Apollo at Colophon, Iamblichus relates that it prophesied by drinking of water. " It is known that a subterranean spring exists there, from which the prophet drinks; after he has done so, and has performed many consecrations and sacred customs on certain night he predicts the future; but he is invisible to all who are present. That this water can induce prophecy is clear, but how it happens, no one knows, says the proverb." It might appear that the divine spirit pervades this water, but it is not so. God is in all things, and is reflected in this spring, thereby giving it the prophetic power. This inspiration of the water is not of an entirely divine nature, for it only prepares us and purifies the light of the soul, so that we are fit to receive the divine spirit. There the divine presence is of such a nature that it punishes everyone who is capable of receiving the god. The soothsayer uses this - spirit like a work - tool over which he has no control. After the moment of prediction be does not always remember that which has passed; often he can scarcely collect his faculties. Long before the water - drinking, the soothsayer must abstain day and night from food, and observe religious customs, which are impossible to ordinary people, by which means he is made capable of receiving the god. It is only in this manner that he is able to hold the mirror of his sov! to the radiance of free inspiration."
Oracle of Amphiaraus - Another very celebrated oracle was that of Amphiaraus, who distinguished himself so much in the Theban war. He was venerated at Oropus, in Boeotia, as a seer. This oracle was consulted more in sickness than on any other occasion. The applicants had here, also, to lie upon the skin of a sacrificed ram, and during sleep had the remedies of their diseases revealed to them. Not only, however, were sacrifices and lustrations performed here, but the priests prescribed other preparations bv which the minds of the sleepers were to be enlightened. They had to fast one day, and refrain from wine three. Amphilochus, as son of Amphiaraus, had a similar oracle at Mallos, in Cilicia, which Pausanias calls the most trustworthy and credible of the age. Plutarch speaks of the oracles of Amphilochus and Mopsus as being in a very flourishing state; and Lucian mentions that all those who wished to question the oracle had to lay down two oboes.
Egyptian Oracles. - The oracles of Ancient Egypt were as numerous as those of Greece. It must have been due to foreign influence that the oracle, that played so important a part in the Greek world at this time, was also thoroughly established on the banks of the Nile. Herodotus knew of no fewer than seven gods in Egypt who spake by oracles. Of these, the most reliable was considered to give an intimation of their intentions by means of remarkable events. These are carefully observed by the Egyptians, who write down what follows upon these prodigies. They also consider that the fate of a person is fixed by the day of his birth, for every day belongs, to a special god. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon at the oasis of that name and the same deity at Thebes existed from the twentieth to the twenty - second Dynasty. He was consulted not only concerning the fate of empires but upon such trifling matters as the identification of a thief. In all serious matters, however, it was sought to ascertain his views. Those about to make their wills sought his oracle, and judgments were ratified by his word.
"According to the inscriptions, intercourse between king and god was arranged as follows: - The King present himself before the god and preferred a direct question, so framed as to admit of an answer by simple yes or no; in reply the god nodded an affirmative, or shook his head innegation. This has suggested the idea that the oracles were worked by manipulating statues of divinities mechanically set in motion by the priests. But as yet no such statues have been found in the Valley of the Nile, and contrivances of this kind could have had no other object than to deceive the people, - a supposition apparently excluded in this case by the fact that it was customary for the king to visit the god alone and in secret. Probably the king presented himself on such occasions before the sacred animal in which the god was incarnate, believing that the divine will would be manifested by its movements."The Apis bull also possessed oracles. Bes, too, god of pleasure or of the senses, had an oracle at Abydos.
American Oracles. - Among the American races the oracle was frequently encountered. All the principal gods of aboriginal America universally act as oracles. With the ancient inhabitants of Peru, the huillcas partook of the nature Of oracles, Many of these were serpents, trees, and rivers, the noises made by which appeared to the primitive Peruvians - as, indeed, they do to primitive folk all over the world - to be of the quality of articulate speech. Both - the Huillcamayu and the Apurimac rivers at Cuzco were huillca oracles of this kind, as their names, " Huillca River " and " Great Speaker, " denote. These oracles often set the mandate of the Inca himself at defiance, occasionally supporting popular opinion against his policy.
The Peruvian Indians of the Andes range within recent generations continued to adhere to the superstitions they had inherited from their fathers. A rare and interesting account of these says that they " admit an evil being, the inhabitant of the centre of the earth, whom they consider as the author of their misfortunes, and at the mention of whose name they tremble. The most shrewd among them take advantage of this belief to obtain respect, and represent themselves as his delegates. Under the denomination of mohanes, or agoreros, they are consulted even on the most trivial occasions. They preside over the intrigues of love, the health of the community, and the taking of the field. Whatever repeatedly occurs to defeat their prognostics, falls on themselves; and they are wont to pay for their deceptions very dearly. They chew a species of vegetable called piripiri, and throw it into the air, accompanying this act by certain recitals and incantations, to injure some, to, benefit others, to procure rain and the inundation of rivers, or, on the other hand, to occasion settled weather, and a plentiful store of agricultural productions. Any such result, having been casually verified on a single occasion, suffices to confirm the Indians in their faith, although they may have been cheated a thousand times.
There is an instance on record of how the huillca could refuse on occasion to recognise even royalty itself. Manco, the Inca who had been given the kingly power by Pizarro, offered a sacrifice to one of these oracular shrines. The oracle refused to recognise him, through the medium of its guardian priest, stating that Manco was not the rightful Inca. Xlanco therefore caused the oracle, which was in the shade of a rock, to be thrown down, whereupon its guardian spirit emerged in the form of a parrot and flew away. It is probable that the bird thus liberated had been taught by the priests to answer to the questions of those who came to consult the shrine. But we learn that on Manco commanding that the parrot should be pursued it sought another rock, which opened to receive it, and the spirit of the huillca was transferred to this new abode.
Like the greater idols of Mexico, most of the principal huacas of Peru seem to have been also oracles. The guardians of the great speaking huacas appear to have exercised in virtue of their office an independent influence which was sometimes sufficiently powerful to resist the Apu - Ccapac Inca himself. It was perhaps natural that they should be the exponents of the popular feeling which supported them, rather than of the policy of the sovereign chiefs, whose interest it was to suppress them: there was even a tradition that the Huillac - umu, a venerable huillac whom the rest acknowledged as their head, had in old times possessed jurisdiction over the supreme war - chiefs.
Many Indian tribes employ fetishes as oracles, and among the ancient Mexicans practically all the great gods were oracular.
Ordo Templi Orientis: The letters O.T.O. stand for Ordo Templi Orientis, the Order of Oriental Templars, or Order of the Temple of the East. In 1895, Karl Kellner (1850-1905), a wealthy Austrian industrialist and paper chemist, as well as a high-grade Mason, founded the Ordo Templi Orientis. Kellner had traveled widely in the East, where he met three adepts who instructed him specific magical practices. Kellner's efforts to develop the Order were later assisted by Franz Hartmann, Heinrich Klein and Theodore Reuss, who had worked together prior to joining the O.T.O. The Order was first proclaimed in 1902 in Reuss's Masonic publication, 'Oriflamme'.
On Kellner's death, Reuss succeeded him as Outer Head [O.H.O.]. The 'Jubilee' edition of the 'Oriflamme', published in 1912, announced that the Order taught secret of sexual magic.
Theodore Reuss was an interesting character. Born June 28, 1855 in Augsburg, he entered Masonry in 1876. He was a singer, journalist and possibly a spy for the Prussian political police, infiltrating the Socialist League founded by Karl Marx's daughter and her husband. Reuss was later associated with William Wynn Westcott, a leader of the Golden Dawn, who later introduced him to John Yarker. Yarker chartered Reuss to found the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim in Germany. After several attempts to concretize various Masonic Rites, Reuss settled on the development of the O.T.O.
The Order experienced reasonably steady growth under Reuss' leadership. For example, he chartered Papus in France, Rudolph Steiner in Berlin and H. Spencer Lewis in the USA. In 1912, the historic meeting between Reuss and Crowley occurred. Crowley wrote that Reuss came to him and accused him of revealing Order secrets. The two instead got along well, and when Crowley looked at it afresh, the initiated interpretation of sexual magick unfolded itself to him for the first time. Reuss appointed Crowley as “Supreme and Holy King” of all the English speaking world, and it was this authorization that he invoked when publishing the material of the Equinox.
Reuss resigned as Outer Head of the Order in 1922 after suffering a stroke and named Crowley his successor. All was well until 1925 when Crowley’s personal messianic vision, the Book of the Law was translated into German. Liber Legis was supposed to have been dictated to Crowley by an ancient Atlantean spirit known as Aiwass at the Great Pyramid in 1904.
Reactions to Liber Legis caused a break in the continuity of the Order. Many members split with the new O.H.O. over the book, which Crowley was actively promulgating through the Order. He had earlier revised the Order rituals at Reuss's request, deeply infusing the doctrines of the New Aeon revelation.
Crowley published many of his most important works under the imprimatur of the O.T.O.. He reformulated its long-term goals and mission and came to view the O.T.O. as the "ark" for preserving the distillation of the world's cultures into the future.
Palladium, Order of : A masonic diabolic order, also entitled the Sovereign-Council of Wisdom, founded in Paris on May 2oth, 1737. It initiated women under the name of companions of Penelope. The fact that it existed is proved by the circumstance that Ragou, the Masonic antiquary, published its ritual.
Paracelsus: In the history of alchemy there is not a more striking or picturesque figure than Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast von Hohenheim, the illustrious physician and exponent of the hermetic philosophy who has chosen to go down to fame under the name of Paracelsus. He was born at Einsiedeln, near Zurich, in the year 1493. His father, the natural son of a prince, himself practice the " art of medicine, " and was desirous that his only son should follow the same profession. To the fulfilment of that desire was directed the early training of Paracelsus - a training which fostered his imaginative rather than his practical tendencies, and which first cast his mind into the alchemical mould. It did not take him long to discover that the medical traditions of the time were but empty husks from which all substance had long since dried away. " I considered with myself, " he says, " that if there were no teacher of medicine in the world, how would I set about to learn the art ? No otherwise than in the great open book of nature, written with the finger of God." Having thus freed himself from the constraining bonds of an outworn medical orthodoxy, whose chief resources were bleeding, purging, and emetics, he set about evolving a new system to replace the old, and in order that he might study the book of nature to better advantage he travelled extensively from 1513 to 1524, visiting almost every part of the known world, studying metallurgy, chemistry, and medicine, and consorting with vagabonds of every description. He was brought before the Chain of Tartary, conversed with the magicians of Egypt and Arabia, and is said to have even reached India. At length his protracted wanderings came to a close, and in 1524 he settled in Basle, then a favourite resort of scholars and physicians, where he was appointed to fill the chair of medicine at the University.
Never had Basle witnessed a more brilliant, erratic professor. His inflated language, his eccentric behaviour, the splendour of his conceptions flashing through a fog of obscurity, at once attracted and repelled, and gained for him friends and enemies. His antipathy to the Galenic school became ever more pronounced, and the crisis came when he publicly burned the works of Galen and Avicenna in a brazen vase into which he had cast nitre and sulphur. By such a proceeding he incurred the hatred of his more conservative brethren, and cut himself off forever from the established school of medicine. He continued his triumphant career, however, till a conflict with the magistrates brought it to an abrupt close. He was forced to flee from Basle, and thereafter wandered from place to place, gaining a living as best he might. An element of mystery surrounds the manner of his death, which took place in 1541, but the best authenticated account states that he was poisoned at the instigation of the medical faculty.
But interesting as were the events of his life, it is to his work that most attention is due. Not only was he the founder of the modern science of medicine; the magnetic theory of Mesmer, the " astral " theory of modern spiritualists, the philosophy of Descartes, were all foreshadowed in the fantastic, yet not always illogical, teaching of Paracelsus. He revived the " microcosmic " theory of ancient Greece, and sought to prove the human body analogous to the Solar System, by establishing a connection between the seven organs of the body and the seven planets. He preached the doctrines of the efficacy of will - power and the imagination in such words as these: " It is possible that my spirit, without the help of my body, and through an ardent will alone, and without a sword, can stab and wound others. It is also possible that I can bring the spirit of my adversary into an image and then hold him up or lame him at my pleasure." " Resolute imagination is the beginning of all magical operations." " Because men do not perfectly believe and imagine, the result is, that arts are uncertain when they might be wholly certain." The first principle of his doctrine is the extraction of the quintessence, or philosophic mercury, from every material body. He believed that if the quintessence were drawn from each animal, plant, and mineral, the combined result would equal the universal spirit, or " astral body " in man, and that a draught of the extract would renew his youth. He came at length to the conclusion that " astral bodies " exercised a mutual influence on each other, and declared that he himself had communicated with the dead, and - with living persons at a considerable distance. He was the first to connect this influence with that of the magnet, and to use the word "magnetism" with its present application. It was on this foundation that Mesmer built his theory of magnetic influence. While Paracelsus busied himself with such problems, however, he did not neglect the study and practice of medicine. Indeed, astrology and the magnet entered largely into his treatment. When he was sought by a patient, his first care was to consult the planets, where the disease had its origin, and if the patient were a woman he took it for granted that the cause of her malady lay in the moon. His anticipation of the philosophy of Descartes, consisted in his theory that by bringing the various elements of the human body into harmony with the elements of nature - fire, light, earth, etc - old age and death might be indefinitely postponed. His experiment in the extraction of its essential spirit from the poppy resulted in the production of laudanum, which he prescribed freely in the form of " three black pills." The recipes which he gives for the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, and various universal remedies, are exceedingly obscure.
He is deservedly celebrated as the first physician to use opium and mercury, and to recognise the value of sulphur. He applied himself also to the solution of a problem which still exercises the minds of scientific men - whether it is possible to produce life from inorganic matter. Paracelsus asserted that it was, and has, left on record a quaint recipe for a homunculus, or artificial man. By a peculiar treatment of certain " spagyric substances" - which he has unfortunately omitted to specify - he declared that he could produce a perfect human child in, miniature. Speculations such as these, medical, alchemical and philosophical, were scattered so profusely throughout his teaching that we are compelled to admit that here was a mastermind, a genius, who was a charlatan only incidentally, by reason of training and temperament. Let it be remembered that he lived in an age when practically all scholars and physicians were wont to impose on popular ignorance, and we cannot but remark that Paracelsus displayed, under all his arrogant exterior, a curious singleness of purpose, and a real desire to penetrate the mysteries of science. He has left on record the principal points of the philosophy on which he founded his researches in his " Archidoxa Medicina." It contains the leading rules of the art of healing, as he practised and preached them. " I had resolved, " he says, " to give ten books to the ' Archidoxes., ' but I have reserved the tenth in my head. It is a treasure which men are not worthy to possess, and shall only be given to the world when they shall have abjured Aristotle, Avicenna, and Galen, and promised a perfect submission to Paracelsus." The world did not recant, but Paracelsus relented, and at the entreaty of his disciples published this tenth book, the key to the nine others, but a key which might pass for a lock. and for a lock which we cannot even pick. It is entitled the " Tenth Book of the Arch - Doclyines ; or, On the Secret Mysteries of Nature." A brief summary of it is - as follows:
He begins by supposing and ends by establishing that there is a universal spirit infused into the veins of man, forming within us a species of invisible body, of which our visible body, which it directs and governs at its will, is but the wrapping - the casket. This universal spirit is not simple - not more simple, for instance, than the number ioo, which is a collection of units. Where, then, are the spiritual units of which our complex spirit is composed ? Scattered in plants and minerals.. but principally in metals. There exists in these inferior productions of the earth a host of sub - spirits which sum themselves up in us, as the universe does in God. So the science of the philosopher has simply to unite them to the body - to disengage them from the grosser matter which clogs and confines them, to separate the pure from the impure.
To separate the pure from the impure is, in other words, to seize upon the soul of the heterogeneous bodies - to evolve their " predestined element, " " the seminal essence of beings ... .. the first being, or quintessence."
To understand this latter word " quintessence, " it is needful for the reader to know that everybody, whatever it may be, is composed of four elements, and that the essence compounded of these elements forms a fifth, which is the soul of the mixed bodies, or, in other words, its mercury, " " I have shown, " says Paracelsus, " in my book of ' Elements, ' that the quintessence is the same thing as mercury. There is in mercury whatever wise men seek." That is, not the mercury of modern chemists, but a philosophical mercury of which every body has its own. " There are as many mercuries as there are things. The mercury of a vegetable, a mineral, or an animal of the same kind, although strongly resembling each other, does not precisely resemble another mercury, and it is for this reason that vegetables, minerals, and animals of the same species are not exactly alike. . . . The true mercury of philosophers is the radical humidity of each body, and its veritable essence."
Paracelsus now sought for a plant worthy of holding in the vegetable kingdom the same rank as gold in the metallic - a plant whose " predestined element " should unite in itself the virtues of nearly all the vegetable essences. Although this was not easy to distinguish, he recognised at a glance - we know not by what signs - the supremacy of excellence in the melissa, and first decreed to it that pharmaceutical crown which at a later period the Carmelites ought to have consecrated. How he obtained this new specific may be seen in the Life of Paracelsus, by Savarien:
" He took some balm - mint in flower, which he had taken care to collect before the rising of the sun. He pounded it in a mortar, reduced it to an impalpable dust, poured it into a long - necked vial which he sealed hermetically, and placed it to digest (or settle) for forty hours in a heap of horse - dung. This time expired, he opened the vial, and found there a matter which he reduced into a fluid by pressing it, separating it from its impurities by exposure to the slow heat of a bain - maybe. The grosser parts sunk to the bottom, and he drew off the liqueur which floated on the top, filtering it through some cotton. This liqueur having been poured into a bottle he added to it the fixed salt, which he had drawn from the same plant when dried. There remained nothing more but to extract from this liqueur the first lief or being of the plant. For this purpose Paracelsus mixed the liqueur with so much' water of salt' (understand by this the mercurial element or radical humidity of the salt), put it in a mattress, exposed it for six weeks to the sun, and finally, at the expiration of this term, discovered a last residuum which was decidedly, according to him, the "the, life or supreme essence of the plant. But at all events, is certain that what he found in his mattress was the genie or spirit he required; and with the surplus, if there were any, we need not concern ourselves."
Those who may wish to know what this genie was like, are informed that it as exactly resembled, as two drops of water, the spirit of aromatic wine known to - day as absinthe suisse. It was a liquid green as emerald, - green, the bright colour of hope and spring - time. Unfortunately, it failed as a specific in the conditions indispensable for an elixir of immortality; but it was a preparation more than half celestial, which almost rendered old age impossible.
By means and manipulations as subtle and ingenious as those which he employed upon the melissa, Paracelsus did not draw, but learned to extract, the " predestined element " of plants which ranked much higher in the vegetable aristocracy, - the " first life - of the gillyflower, the cinnamon, the myrrh, the scammony, the celandine. All these supreme essences, which, according to the 5th book of " Archidoxa, " unite with a mass of magisteries " as precious as they are rude, are the base of so many specifics, equally reparative and regenerative. This depends upon the relationship which exists between the temperament of a privileged plant and the temperament of the individual who asks of it his rejuvenescence.
However brilliant were the results of his discoveries, those he obtained or those he thought he might obtain, they are for Paracelsus but the a b c of Magic. To the eyes of so consummate an alchemist vegetable life is nothing; it is the mineral - the metallic life - which is all. So me may assure ourselves that it was in his power to seize the first life - principle of the moon, the sun, Mars, or Saturn; that is, of silver, gold, iron, or lead. It was equally facile for him to - grasp the fife of the precious stones, the bitumens, the sulphurs, and even that of animals.
Paracelsus sets forth several methods of obtaining this great arcanum. Here is the shortest and most simple as recorded by Incola Francus:
Take some mercury, or at least the element of mercury, separating the pure from the impure, and afterwards pounding it to perfect whiteness. Then you shall sublimate it with sal - ammoniac, and this so many times as may be necessary to resolve it into a fluid. Calcine it, coagulate it, and again dissolve it, and let it strain in a pelican during a philosophic month, until it thickens and assumes the form of a hard substance. Thereafter this form of stone is incombustible, and nothing can change or alter it; the metallic bodies which it penetrates become fixed and incombustible, for this material is incombustible, and changes the imperfect metals into metal perfect. Although I have given the process in few words, the thing itself demands a long toil, and many difficult circumstances, which I have expressly omitted, not to weary the reader, who ought to be very diligent and intelligent if he wishes to arrive at the accomplishment of this great work."
Paracelsus himself tells us in his " Archidoxa, " when explaining his own recipe for the completion of it, and profiting by the occasion to criticise his fellow - workers.
" I omit, " he writes, " what I have said in different places on the theory of the stone; I will say only that this arcanum does not consist in the blast (rouille) or flowers of antimony. It must be sought in the mercury of antimony, which, when it is carried to perfection, is nothing else than the heaven of metals; for even as the heaven gives life to plants and minerals, so does the pure quintessence of antimony vitrify everything. This is why the Deluge was not able to deprive any substance of its virtue or properties, for the heaven being the life of all beings, there is nothing superior to it which can modify or destroy it.
" Take the antimony, purge it of its arsenical impurities in an iron vessel until the coagulated mercury of the antimony appears quite white, and is distinguishable by the star which appears in the superficies of the regulus, or semi - metal. But although this regulus, which is the element of mercury, has in itself a veritable hidden life, nevertheless these things are in virtue, and not - actually.
" Therefore, if you wish to reduce the power to action, you must disengage the life which is concealed in it by a living fire like to itself, or with a metallic vinegar. To discover this fire many philosophers have proceeded differently, but agreeing to the foundations of the art, have arrived at the desired end. For some with great labour have drawn forth the quintessence of the thickened mercury of the regulus of, antimony, and by this means have reduced to action the mercury of the antimony: others have considered that there was a uniform quintessence in the other minerals, as for example in the fixed sulphur of the vitriol, or the stone of the magnet, and having extracted the quintessence, have .afterwards matured and exalted their heaven with it, and reduced it to action. Their process is good, and has had its result. Meanwhile this fire - this corporeal life - which they seek with toil, is found much more easily and in much greater perfection in the ordinary mercury, which appears through its perpetual fluidity - a proof that it possesses a very powerful fire and a celestial life similar to that which lies hidden in the regulus of the antimony. Therefore. he who would wish to exalt our metallic heaven, starred, to its greatest completeness, and to reduce into action its potential virtues, he must first extract from ordinary mercury its corporeal life, which is a celestial fire; that is to say the quintessence of quicksilver, or, in other words, the metallic vinegar, that has resulted from its dissolution in the water which originally produced it, and which is its own mother; that is to say, he must dissolve it in the arcanum of the salt I have described, and mingle it with the ' stomach of Anthion, which is the spirit of vinegar, and in this menstruum melt and filter and consistent mercury of the antimony, strain it in the said liquor, and finally reduce it into crystals of a yellowish green, of which we have spoken in our manual."
As regards the Philosopher's Stone, he gives the following formula:
" Take, " said he, " the electric mineral not yet mature (antimony), put it in its sphere, in the fire with the iron, to remove its ordures and other superfluities, and purge it as much as you can, following the rules of chymistry, so that it may not suffer by the aforesaid impurities. Make, in a word, the regulus with the mark. This done, cause it to dissolve in the ' stomach of the ostrich ' (vitriol), which springs from the earth and is fortified in its virtue by the I sharpness of the eagle ' (the metallic vinegar or essence of mercury). As soon as the essence is perfected, and when after its dissolution it has taken the colour of the herb called calendule, do not forget to reduce it into a spiritual luminous essence, which resembles amber. After this, add to it of the ' spread eagle ' one half the weight of the election before its preparation, and frequently distil the, stomach of the ostrich ' into the matter, and thus the election will become much more spiritualized. When the I stomach of the ostrich ' is weakened by the labour of digestion, we must strengthen it and frequently distil it. Finally, when it has lost all its impurity, add as much tartaric quintessence as will rest upon your fingers, until it throws off its impurity and rises with it. Repeat this process until the preparation becomes white, and this will suffice; for you shall see yourself as gradually it rises in the form of the ' exalted eagle, ' and with little trouble converts itself in its form (like sublimated mercury); and that is what we are seeking.
" I tell you in truth that there is no greater remedy in medicine than that which lies in this election, and that there is nothing like it in the whole world. But not to digress from my purpose, and not to leave this work imperfect, observe the manner in which you ought to operate."
" The election then being destroyed, as I have said, to arrive at the desired end (which is, to make of it a universal medicine for human as well as metallic bodies), take your election, rendered light and volatile by the method above described.
" Take of it as much as you would wish to reduce it to its perfection, and put it in a philosophical egg of glass, and seal it very tightly, that nothing of it may respire; put it into an athanor until of itself it resolves into a liquid, in such a manner that in the middle of this sea there may appear a small island, which daily diminishes, and finally, all shall be changed to a colour black as ink. This colour is the raven, or bird which flies at night without wings, and which, through the celestial dew, that rising continually falls back by a constant circulation, changes into what is called ' the head of the raven, ' and afterwards resolves into the tail of the peacock, ' then it assumes the hue of the tail of a peacock, ' and afterwards the colour of the ' feathers of a swan '; finally acquiring an extreme redness, which marks its fiery nature, and in virtue of which it expels all kinds of impurities, and strengthens feeble members. This preparation, according to all philosophers, is made in a single vessel, over a single furnace, with an equal and continual fire, and this medicine, which is more than celestial, cures all kinds of infirmities, as well. in human as metallic bodies; wherefore no one can understand or - attain such an arcanum without the help of God for its virtue is ineffable and divine."
Pasqually, Martinez de: (Kabbalist and Mystic). [1715 ? - 17791. The date of Marlinez Pasqualis' birth is not known definitely while even his nationality is a matter of uncertainty. It is commonly supposed, however, that he was born about 1715, somewhere in the south of France; while several writers have maintained that his parents were Portuguese Jews, but this theory has frequently been contested. It is said that from the outset he evinced a predilection for mysticism in its various forms, while it is certain that, in 1754, he instituted a Kabbalistic rite, which was gleaned from Hebraic studies, and whose espousers were styled Cohens, this being simply the Hebrew for priests. He propagated this rite in divers masonic lodges of France, notably those of Marseilles, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Paris; while in 1768 we find him settled in the French capital, gathering round him many people addicted to mysticism, and impregnating them with his theories. His sojourn here was cut short eventually, nevertheless, for he heard that some property had been bequeathed to him in the island of St. Dominique, and lie hastened thither with intent to assert his rights; but he did not return to France, his death occurring in 1779 at Port - au - Prince, the principal town in the island aforesaid.
Pasqually is credited with having written a book, but this was never published. As regards the philosophy which he promulgated. he appears to have believed partly in the inspiration of the Scriptures, the downfall of the angels, the theory of original sin, together with the doctrine of justification by faith; but he seems to have held that man existed in an elemental state long before the creation detailed in Genesis, and was gradually evolved into his present form. In short, Pasqually was something of an anticipator of endless modern theorists; nor did he fail to find a disciple who regarded him as a prophet and master, this being Louis Claude de St. Martin, a theosophist frequently styled in France " le philosophe inconnu, " who founded the sect known as Martinistes. The reader will find some account of St. Martin in an article headed with his name.
Phantom Islands: Back in 1687 the English pirate Captain Edward Davis discovered an island with "a, long sandy beach and coconut palms." The location was given as latitude 270 S, and about five hundred miles west of the South American coast. Another island with high peaks was observed approximately twelve leagues away to the west.
Davis was in a hurry and he decided not to land since he had ample provisions. Since he was known to be an experienced, trustworthy navigator, his report was accepted and for fifty years the charts of the sea showed the location of "Davis Land." There was one big problem, however. No one could find it.
While searching for it in 1722, the Dutch Admiral Roggeveen discovered Easter Island on Easter Sunday and gave his landfall its holiday name. But the admiral said that Easter could not be Davis Land. Easter was 2,000 miles from the mainland and the nearest land is the rocks of Salay - Gomez 250 miles to the east.
In 1802 a Captain Gwyn reported that the rocks of Sala - y - Gomez had been erroneously charted. He had found that the rocks were three hundred miles west and fifty miles south of Easter Island. Mariners made a search. The rocks were found at their charted location, while there was no trace of rocks at the location given by Gwyn.
A small uninhabited island was reported by Juan Fernandez in 1576 off the South American coast, observed while be was on a voyage from Callao to Valparaiso. It was never found, but in 1809 the ship Guinevere found a reef in the general area that may have been the remains of an island.
Captain Pinocebio, in 1879, announced his discovery of Podesta Island, which be named after his vessel. Its location was given as 870 miles due west of Valparaiso, Chile, a lonely part of the sea far from shipping lanes.
The Italian captain said the island was oval in shape, about three - quarters of a mile in circumference and forty feet in height. The, Italian Hydrographic Office claimed that the captain's navigation could not have been in error more than a few miles. It might have been Davis Land, , although there was no other island nearby.
But the island has not been found since the original report, and it was removed from charts in 1935. Again, in 1912, the S.S. Glewalon, a large English vessel, steamed into Valparaiso harbor with the news that land bad been sighted off the coast and not far from Easter Island. All officers aboard bad checked the calculations which were turned over to harbor authorities.
Apparently a new island had arisen from the sea, but the training ship Baquedano searched for the new land for three weeks without success. Soundings in the region revealed a depth of around ten thousand feet.
Finally, northwest of this area and just north of the Equator, there was Sarah Ann Island. It would be in the path of totality during the solar eclipse which will occur June 8, 1937, and astronomers were anxious to establish an observation post there since there were no other nearby islands.
During the summer of 1932 vessels of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet searched for Sarah Ann, but finally gave up. Once again an island was removed from the charts.
Then there are the Auroras, a group of three islands said to lie in the South Atlantic about halfway between the Falklands and South Georgia. They were first reported in 1762 by the whaler Aurora. Later sightings were logged by the vessels San Miguel in 1769, again by the Aurora in 1774, by the Pearl in 1779, and by the Dolores and Princess in 1790. The Spanish surveying ship Atrevida fixed their position in 1794 and its officers made detailed charts and sketches of the three islands. But searches conducted in 1820 and 1822 and by exploring vessels since have all failed to uncover any trace of the islands that were the scene of Edgar Allen Poe's story Arthur Gordon Pym." The last report of them was an observation made in 1856 by the brig Helen Baird.
Several phantom islands were once charted in the area four hundred to five hundred miles south of Tasmania. One group, the Royal Company Islands, were eliminated from charts in 1904. In this same area, Nimrod Island was discovered in 1828 by Captain Eilbech and named after his ship
Five years later Captain John Biscoe found marine vegetation and numerous birds at the location given, but no islands. Two antarctic explorers, Shackleton in 1909 and Scott in 1913, made unsuccessful searches, and soundings disclosed a two mile depth. Nimrod was dropped from charts in 1922.
In 1860 the U.S.S. Levant sailed from Hawaii for Panama and vanished in the area bounded by the 133rd to the 138th meridians west and the 15th to 20th parallels north. Within this 30, 000 square - mile region, the warship was believed to have been wrecked on an uncharted island. A search by the U.S.S. Albatross and the cruiser Tacoma failed to reveal any trace of the warship or of islands.
In this area, however, whalers had reported islands named Bunker, New, Sultan, Eclipse, Roca and others unnamed. One of the unnamed islands was reported by a British mariner, DeGreaves, in 1859 as located twelve hundred miles southeast of Honolulu. None of these islands has been found by exploring vessels.
Other phantom islands in, the South Pacific never found include Sprague, Monks, Favorite, Duke of York, Dangerous, Grand Duke Alexander, Little Paternosters, Marqueen, Massacre, and Mortlock.
The U.S. government in 1858 listed over a dozen islands in the South Pacific as "pertaining to the United States under the act of Aug. 18, 1856." Not one of these islands has ever been found
Accounts of most of the phantom islands we have been considering will be found in Gould's Oddities, referred to earlier, and in Karl Baarslag's Islands of Adventure.
It is Baarslag, moreover, who tells us about Onaneuse or Hunter Island, a perfect isle, if it could be found, for escapists from civilization. Its alleged location is lat. 150 31' S.; long. 1760 111 W., and the nearest land is Niaufou or "tin can" island.
Hunter was discovered in 1823 by Captain Hunter of the Donna Carmelita. The captain said it was inhabited by intelligent and cultivated Polynesians who had the curious custom of amputating the little finger of the left hand at the second joint. He added that the land was fertile, with plenty of coconut palms and breadfruit. Hunter should have renamed in his paradise; no one else has been able to find it.
Well over a century ago Father Santa Clara, at the Rosario Mission near St. Francis Bay, California, told Captain Charles Morrell about the St. Vincent Islands where the priest had resided for a time. They had been discovered by Antonio Martinus in 1789 at lat. 70 21' N. and long. 1270 4' W., while on a voyage from Panama to China. Father Clara said they were inhabited, well - wooded, and with good harbors.
Morrell made his search in 1825. At the location given all he found was discolored water 120 fathoms deep. There are no other islands within hundreds of miles, and Morrell searched the area for - over a month. But the St. Vincents had vanished
There is pathos in the story of the Tuanaki Islands, a part of the Cook group in the South Pacific, that disappeared around the middle of the last century. They were three low - lying adjoining islands of tropical beauty located southeast of Rarotonga, about halfway to Mangaia.
The Tuanakis were inhabited by Polynesians unspoiled by the white man's avarice, afflictions, and anomalies. However, according to the Rev. William Gill (Gems of the Coral Islands, 1865), missionaries were en route to the islands in 1844 when their schooner failed to locate them.
In the Rarotongan Records of the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, published in Honolulu in 1916 by the Polynesian Society, the account of a sailor of Aitutaki who visited the islands in 1842 is given. It is an echo from the abyss of yesterday, a voice from the past about an island that has vanished forever:
Two years have passed since I saw that island. We went thither by way of Rurutu Island, and, when we found it, our captain ... lowered a boat into which we descended. There were seven of us. No one was on the beach. I was sent inland and saw the house of the Ariki, or high chief, full of men; I told the chief I came from Araura, an old name of Aitutaki.
There were no women inside, as they had a separate house. "We do not kill men; we only know how to dance and sing; we know nothing of war, " said the chief. The captain afterwards went inland, and we slept there that night, taking some food - fowls, pigs, yams and bananas. We were six days ashore there.
Their water is scraped up in a bowl or in the leaf of the giant taro. Their dialect is that of, Mangaia, and they wear the tiputa [or poncho], and use the same kind of fans as at Mangaia. It takes one night and a day to reach Tuanaki from Mangaia.
The story of the Tuanakis is told by Professor H. Macmillan Brown in his book The Riddle of the Pacific, and is repeated from this source by Lewis Spence in his work The Problem of Lemuria.
Destruction must have come to these enchanting islands between 1842 and 1884. And it must have come suddenly since the Polynesians are expert sailors and no survivors appeared at other islands.
Several former inhabitants of the Tuanaki Islands, who left in their youth, died at Rarotonga during the present century.
But time and tide are relentless, and even island paradises are transient. Other islands will appear - and vanish. Terra is not always firma, especially among the protean islands dotting our great seas."
And far from the lanes of commercial and tourist travel, chilled by ice and snow, or warm and fragrant beneath the sun, there may still be islands waiting in solitude to be discovered.
One is known as Fata Morgana and it has been seen since the sixteenth century in the Straits of Messina, between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Apparently it is a harbor city with white walls, glistening palaces, and inhabitants. A popular legend is that the city is the kingdom of King Arthur's sister, Morgan Le Fay, who was a fairy, and that it lies on the bottom of the strait.
Another is the "Phantom City of Alaska."
Known to the Alaskan Indians for generations, its repeated appearances in the vicinity of the Muir Glacier indicate a fixed position somewhere, but it cannot be identified with any city now existing on earth.
"Whether this city exists in some unknown world on the other side of the North Pole or not, " states a report written in 1897, "it is a fact that this wonderful mirage occurs from time to time yearly ... (it is) like some immense city of the past."
Willoughby, an early pioneer, learned of the mirage from the Indians. He unsuccessfully attempted to photograph it in 1887. Another witness, C. W. Thornton of Seattle, wrote: "It required no effort of the imagination to liken it to a city, but was so distinct that it required, instead, faith to believe it was not in reality a city."
Alexander Badlam, in his book Wonders of Alaska, tells of two prospectors near the glacier who saw a reflection of the mysterious city in a pan of quicksilver.
In 1889 L. R. French, of Chicago, succeeded in photographing the mirage near Mt. Fairweather. He wrote: "We could see plainly houses, well - defined streets and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over large buildings, which appeared to be ancient mosques or cathedrals . . . It did, not look like a modem city, but more like an ancient European city."
Bound for London from New Orleans, the United States freighter American Scientist, on August 22, 1948, slowed to quarter - speed at lat. 46. 231 N., long. 370 201 W., approximately 550 miles northwest of the Azores. The charts showed a depth of 21400 fathoms.
But this was the legendary location of an island considered a myth by modern geographers and historians - once known as Mayda and later as Asmaida - the treasure island of the seven cities. Under the captain's direction, the echo - sounder was brought into operation. It registered only twenty fath0msl As the ship slowly proceeded ' the sounding device traced the shape of an island about 120 feet below the surface for twenty minutes.
The freighter was turned around for another run over the location. This time the depth was fifteen fathoms, but as the vessel continued back over its course for thirty - five minutes the depth varied from fifteen to thirty - five fathoms before it again revealed the usual mid - Atlantic depths. This apparently confirmed the legend that the island was twenty - eight miles in length.
The American Scientist radioed a report of its discovery, and the message was picked up by another U.S. freighter, the S.S. Southland, steaming along the same course two days behind the Scientist. The captain of the second freighter decided to check the report. He, got readings of twenty nine to thirty - five fathoms, andin what may have been the island's harbor, a sounding of ninety fathoms.
The reports of these two vessels are listed in the U.S. Hydrographic Office Notices, to Mariners as No. 32 (4352) and No. 42 (5592).
There is, an orthodox history of men and events, and there is a hidden history embodied in myth and legend. With scholarship and the spade, truth is frequently brought out of the shadows. Troy, for example, was considered a myth until Heinrich Schliemann, who could not forget "the surge and thunder of the Odyssey, " brought once more into the light of the sun the ancient walls and towers of Ilium.
And so it may be with Mayda, the golden isle of refuge.
We are indebted to Lawrence D. Hills and his extensive research for this remarkable story. His article appeared in Fate magazine, June, 1958.
In A.D. 734 the Moors were conquering, Spain and Portugal. As the Mohammedan hordes advanced, the Bishop of Oporto, Portugal, with six other bishops and chosen refugees, prepared to flee and preserve the Christian faith in exile. Provisions and water, livestock and seeds, were loaded on several vessels.
The ships set sail for the "Purples, " now known as the Azores, as the Moorish cavalry entered the city. With only the sun for a compass, the vessels missed the then uninhabited Azores. At this point the refugees vanished from orthodox history. Some historians believe - they were lost at sea, others that they may have reached the West Indies, but there is no evidence that they ever reached the New World. Over seven centuries later - in 1447 - a Portuguese freighter under the command of Captain Antonio Leone was bound for Lisbon from the Mediterranean when it was struck by a severe storm. With a broken mast, the helpless vessel was driven far to the west. When the gale had passed. Captain Leone tried to reach the Azores, but missed the islands, and the ship was blown to the northwest. At last be reached a low, crescent - shaped volcanic island "where the people spake the Portuguese tongue and asked if the - Moors did yet trouble Spain."
On the twenty - eight - mile - long island there were seven communities, each with a bishop and' "cathedral" built of basalt rocks mortared with burnt seashell lime. The island was well - populated - seven centuries includes twenty - eight generations. When the captain and his crew attended Mass, they were astonished to see large gold crucifixes and candlesticks and gold embroidered altar cloths.
Captain Leone and his men were on the island for several weeks repairing their vessel. During this period white quartz sand was taken from the beach to scrub the decks. Later, after the vessel sailed for Lisbon, the origin of the islands gold was revealed when gold particles were discovered in the sand. Apparently the island's geological formation was similar to that of the Cape Verdes.
Despite the gold dust, little attention was paid by mariners to the discovery. After all, it was a self - contained island that provided no market and was inhabited by civilized Catholics who could hardly be converted and sold as slaves. But the island was placed on ocean charts, and since longitude could not be determined at that time except by dead - reckoning, it was placed at various spots along latitude 46 degrees north.
The island had apparently been sighted before Antonio Leone's visit. Arab sailors of the eleventh century had reported it, and Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, had it in his Description of the World written in 1154. He called the island "Main." In addition, Bretons had noticed the island and called it "Mayda" or "Asmaida."
In 1474 the Florentine map maker, Toscanelli, sent a copy of his latest map to Columbus. It included the island. With the map was the following erroneous note: "From the island of Antillia, which you call the Seven Cities, to the most noble Island of Cipango (Japan) are 10 spaces which makes 2, 500 miles."
Again, the island is clearly marked to the northeast of the Azores on one of the first globes made in 1492 by Martin Behaim of Nuremberg. Behaim had lived on the Azores for fourteen years. This last statement is important for two reasons: first, it is evidence against the later theory that Mayda was actually St. Miguel in the Azores; second, because the two American freighters in 1948 found the sunken island at the location marked on Behaim's globe.
In 1498 - six years after the first voyage of Columbus to the New World - Pedro de Ayala, Spanish Ambassador to the court of Henry VII, told King Ferdinand that the sailors of Bristol, England, had "fitted out every year, two, three or four caravels in search of . . . the Seven Cities." Apparently they had no success, and one wonders if this is the origin of the legend of the "Seven Cities of Cibola” so long sought for in the New World.
The island, at this time, may have been slowly sinking. The Spanish geographer, Galvario, reported in 1555 that "this island is - not now seen." From this time on charts still bore the name of Mayda, but it was listed as a rock or group of rocks. Hills says its last appearance under this name was on a map of the Atlantic published in New York in 1814 by E. M. Blunt.
The confusion that Mayda has produced among geographers is illustrated by Lieutenant Commander Gould in his book Oddities. Gould says that Mayda was "probably a distorted version of Bermuda, and was long a source of puzzlement to cartographers in general, (but it) turned up smilingly in the middle of the Bay of Biscay on a map published at Chicago so recently as 1906." The Bay of Biscay is off the coast of France.
Early in the nineteenth century the name of Mayda was dropped from charts after the vessel Barenetha was wrecked on a submerged rock at the location. This rock, probably the last of the island to sink beneath the surface, was thereafter marked on charts as Barenetha Rock. The rock was last reported above water in 1813 by the captain of the British ship Crompton.'
To see if the rock still existed in 1873, Captain Urquhart of the American vessel Trimountain altered his course. This action brought him to the vicinity just in time to rescue the passengers and crew of the French liner Ville de Paris which was sinking after a collision with the British barque Loch Earn. If Maydi had sunk slowly, it would seem the inhabitants would have prepared to escape. No survivors turned up at the Azores or elsewhere. More than likely it sank quickly during a submarine earthquake. There have been a number of severe shocks in this general area, including the historic one of 1638. There were six earthquakes in this region in the nineteenth century.
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