CORNELL

UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THISBOOK IS ONE OF A
COLLECTION MADE BY
BENNO LOEWY
1854-1919
AND BEQUEATHED TO
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
 I Cornell University
f Library

The original of this book is in

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in

the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092304587
 —

ISIS UNVEILED:
A MASTER-KEY

Mysteries of Ancient and Mo-dern

SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY.

H. P. BLAVATSKY,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY CF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

''Cecy est un livre de bonne Foy." Montaigne.

Vol. \l.— theology.

NEW YORK:
J. W. BOUTON, 706 BROADWAY.
LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH.
1877.
 Copyright, by

J. "W. BOTJTON.
1877.

Trow's
Printing and Bookdinding Co.,
PRINTERS AND BOOKIilNDERS,
205-213 Kast \ith St.,
NEW VORiC,
 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preface
Mrs. Elizabetli Thompson and Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

THE ''INFALLIBILITY'' OF RELIGION.

CHAPTER I.

THE CHURCH : WHERE IS IT ?

Church statistics I

Catholic " miracles" and spiritualistic "phenomena" 4

Christian andPagan beliefs compared lo
Magic and sorcery practised by Christian clergy 20
Comparative theology a new science , 25
Eastern traditions as to Alexandrian Library 27
Roman Hindu Brahm-atma
pontiffs imitators of the 30
Christiandogmas derived from Iieathen philosophy 33
Doctrine of the Trinity of Pagan origin 45
Disputes between Gnostics and Church Fathers SI
Bloody records of Christianity S3

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN CRIMES AND HEATHEN VIRTUES.

Sorceries of Catherine of Medicis S5

Occult arts practised by the clergy 59
Witch-burnings and auto-da-fe of little children 62
Lying Catholic saints 74
Pretensions of missionaries in India and China 79
Sacrilegious tricks of Catholic clergy 82
Paul a kabalist 91
Petsr not the founder of Roman church 91
Pagan hierophants
Strict lives of 98
High character of ancient "mysteries" lOI
 CONTENTS.
PAGS

Jacolliot' s account of Hindu fakirs

Cliristian symbolism derived from Pliallic worship "

Hindu doctrine of the Pitris
Brahminic spirit -communion

Dangers of untrained mediumsliip

CHAPTER in.

DIVISIONS AMONGST THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

123
Resemblance between early Christianity and Buddhism
Peter never in Rome 4
Meanings of " Nazar " and " Nazarene " 129

Baptism a derived right ^ ' '34

Is Zoroaster a generic name ? 14'

Pythagorean teachings of Jesus '47

The Apocalypse kabalistic '47

Jesus considered an adept by some Pagan philosophers and early Christians 150
Doctrine of permutation 'S^
The meaning of God-Incarnate '53
Dogmas of the Gnostics I5S
Ideas of Marcion, the "heresiarch" I59
Precepts of Manu '"3
Jehovah identical with Bacchus 165

CHAPTER IV.

ORIENTAL COSMOGONIES AND BIBLE RECORDS.

Discrepancies in the Pentateuch 167

Indian, Chaldean and Ophite systems compared 17°
Who were the first Christians? 17^
Christos and Sophia- Achamoth I S3
Secret doctrine taught by Jesus 191
Jesus never claimed to be God 1 93
New Testament narratives and Hindu legends 199
Antiquity of the " Logos and " Christ "
'
' 205
Comparative Virgin-worship 209

CHAPTER V.

MYSTERIES OF THE ICABALA.

En-Soph and the Sephiroth 212

The primitive wisdom-religion 2i6
The book of Genesis a compilation of Old Wo- Id legends 217
The Trinity of the Kabala , 22a
 CONTENTS.

PAGE
Gnostic and Nazarene systems contrasted mth Hindu myths 225
Kabalism in the book of Ezekiel *
232
Story of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter found in the history of Christna 241
Untrustworthy teachings of the eai'Iy Fathers 248
Their persecuting spirit 249

CHAPTER VI.

ESOTERIC DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM PARODIED IN CHRISTIANITY.

Decisions of Nicean Council, how arrived at 251

Murder of Hypatia 252
Origm of the fish-symbol of Vishnu 256
Kabalistic doctrine of the Cosmogony 264
Diagrams of Hindu and Chaldeo- Jewish systems 265
Ten mythical Avatars of Vishnu 274
Trinity of man taught by Paul 281
Socrates and Plato on soul and spirit 283
True Buddhism, what it is 288

CHAPTER Vn.
EARLY CHRISTIAN HERESIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES.

Nazareans, Ophites, and modern Druzes 291

Etymology of TAG 29S
" Hermetic Brothers "of Egypt 307
True meaning of Nirvana 319
The Jai'na sect 321
Christians and Christians 323
The Gnostics and their detractors 325
Buddha, Jesus, and ApoUonius of Tyana 341

CHAPTER VIII.

JESUITRY AND MASONRY.

The Sohar and Rabbi Simeon 348

The Order of Jesuits and its relation to some of the Masonic orders 352
Crimes permitted to members
its 355
Principles of Jesuitry compared with those of Pagan moralists 364
Trinity of man in Egyptian Book of the Dead 367
Freemasonry no longer esoteric 372
Persecution of Templars by the Church 381
Secret Masonic ciphers ^. 39S
Jehovah not the " Ineffable Name " 398
 . ,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

THE VEDAS AND THE BIBLE.

'
PAGE
Nearly eveiy my th based on some gi'eat truth 4°S
Whence the Christian Sabbath 4o6
Antiquity of the Vedas 4'°
Pythagorean doctrine of the potentialities of numbers 4^7
" Days" of Genesis and " Days " of Brahma 422
Fall of man and the Deluge in the Hindu books 425
Antiquity of the Mahabharata 429
Were the ancient Egyptians of the Aryan race ? 434
Samuel, David, and Solomon mythical personages 439
Symbolism of Noah's Ark 447
The Patriarchs identical with zodiacal signs ,
459
All Bible legends belong to universal history 469

CHAPTER X.
THE DEVIL-MYTH.
The devil officially recognized by tha Church x.77
Satan the mainstay of sacerdotalism , .gg
Identity of Satan with the Egyptian Typhon -g.
His relation to serpent-worship .gq
The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead ,g.
The Hindu devil a metaphysical abstraction coi
Satan and the Prince of Hell in the Gospel of Nicodemus
515

CHAPTER XI.

COMPARATIVE RESULTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

The age of philosophy produced no atheists c,g
The legends of three Saviours .,_
Christian doctrine of the Atonement illogical p .

Cause of the failure of missionaries to convert Buddhists and Brahmanists cc-j

Neither Buddha nor Jesus left written records -ro
The grandest mysteries of religion in the Bagaved-gita rg.
The meaning of regeneration explained in the Satapa-Brahmana rgr
The sacrifice of blood interpreted <-^

Demoralization of British India by Christla-n missionaries

The Bible less authenticated than any other sacred book
Knowledge of chemistry and physics displayed by Indian jugglers. . . cgi

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Recapitulation of fundamental propositions
Seership of the soul and of the spirit
^
S90
 CONTENTS.

PAGE
The phenomenon of the so-called spirit-hand 594
Difference between mediums and adepts •.
595
Interview of an English ambassador with a reincarnated Buddha 598
Flight of a lama's astral body related by Abbe Hue 604
Schools of magic in Buddhist lamaseries 609
The unknown Hindu Todas
race of 613
Will-power of and yogis
fakirs 617
Taming of wild beasts by fakirs 622
Evocation of a living spirit by a Shaman, witnessed by the writer 626
Sorcery by the breath of a Jesuit Father 633
Why the study of magic is almost impracticable in Europe 635
Conclusion 635
 PREFACE TO PART II.

WERE it possible, we would keep this work out of the hands of

many Christians whom its perusal would not benefit, and for

whom it was not written. We allude to those whose faith in their respec-

tive churches is pure and sincere, and those whose sinless lives reflect the

glorious example of that Prophet of Nazareth, by whose mouth the spirit

of truth spake loudly to humanity. Such there have been at all times.

History preserves the names of many as heroes, philosophers, philan-

thropists, martyrs, and holy men and women ; but how many more have
lived and died, unknown but to their intimate acquaintance, unblessed

but by their humble beneficiaries ! These have ennobled Christianit)',

but would have shed the same lustre upon any other faith they might have

professed — for they were higher than their creed. The benevolence of

Peter Cooper and Elizabeth Thompson, of America, who are not ortho-

dox Christians, is no less Christ-like than that of the Baroness Angela

Burdett-Coutts, of England, who is one. And yet, in comparison with

the milhons who have been accounted Christians, such have always

formed a small minority. They are to be found at this day, in pul-

pit and pew, in palace and cottage ; but the increasing materialism,

worldliness and hypocrisy are fast diminishing their proportionate num-

ber. Their charity, and simple, child-like faith in the infallibiUty of their

Bible, their dogmas, and their clergy, bring into full activity all the virtues
IV PREFACE TO PART II.

that are implanted in our common nature. We have personally known

such God-fearing priests and clergymen, and we have always avoided

debate with them, lest we might be guilty of the cruelty of hurting their

feelings; nor would we rob a single layman of his blind confidence, if it

alone made possible for him holy living and serene dying.

An analysis of religious beliefs in general, this volume is in particu-

lar, directed against theological Christianity, the chief opponent of free

thought. It contains not one word against the pure teachings of Jesus,

but unsparingly denounces their debasement into pernicious ecclesiasti-

cal systems that are ruinous to man's faith in his immortality and his

God, and subversive of all moral restraint.

We cast our gauntlet at the dogmatic theologians who would enslave

both history and science ; and especially at the Vatican, whose despotic
pretensions have become hateful to the greater portion of enlightened

Christendom. The clergy apart, none but the logician, the investigator,

the dauntless explorer should meddle with books like this. Such delv-

ers after truth have the courage of their opinions.

\
 — —

ISIS UNVEILED.
PART TIVO.— RELIGION.

CHAPTER I.

" Yea, the time cometh, that whomsoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service." Gospel
accordi7ig to Joh7t^ xvi. 2.

" Let him be Anathema who shall say that human Sciences ought to be pursued In such a
. . .

spiritof freedom that one may be allowed to hold as true their assertions even when opposed to revealed
doctrines." CEcununical Council of 1870.
" Glouc—The Church ! Where is \f>"—King- He?iry VI., Act i., Sc. i.

the United States of America, sixty thousand {60,428) men are paid
IN salaries to teach the Science of God and His relations to His crea-
tures.
These men contract to impart to us the knowledge which treats of
character, and attributes of our Creator ; His laws and
the existence,
government the doctrines we are to believe and the duties we are to
;

practice. Five thousand (5,141) of them,* with the prospect of 1273

theological students to help them in time, teach this science according
to a formula prescribed by the Bishop of Rome, to five million people.
Fifty-five thousand (55,287) local and travelling ministers, representing
fifteen different denominations, f each contradicting the other upon more
or less vital theological questions, instnict, in their respective doctrines,
thirty-three million (33,500,000) other persons. Many of these teach ac-
cording to the canons of the cis-Atlantic branch of an establishment
which acknowledges a daughter of the late Duke of Kent as its spiritual

* These figures are copied from the " Religious Statistics of the United States for tin,

year 1871."
\ These are The Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Northern Method-
:

ists, Southern Methodists, Methodists various. Northern Presbyterians, Southern Pres-

byterians, United Presbyterians, United Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Reformed
Dutch., Reformed German, Reformed Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians.
 ;

2 ISIS UNVEILED.

of
head. There are many hundred thousand Jews; some thousands
Church.
Orientals ofall kinds and a very few who belong to the Greek
;

A man at Salt Lake City, with nineteen wives and more than one hun-
ruler over
dred children and grandchildren, is the supreme spiritual
mtercourse
ninety thousand people, who believe that he is in frequent
with the gods — for the Mormons are Polytheists as well as Polygamists,
and their chief represented as living in a planet they call Colob.
god is

The God of the Unitarians is a bachelor; the Deity of the Presby-

terians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and the other
orthodox Protestant
sects a spouseless Father with one Son, who is identical
with Himself.

In the attempt to outvie each other in the erection of their sixty-two

thousand and odd churches, prayer-houses, and meeting-halls, in which
to teach these conflicting theological doctrines, $354, 485, 581 have been
spent. The value of the Protestant parsonages alone, in which are
sheltered the disputants and their families, is roughly calculated to
approximate $54,115,297. Sixteen million (16,179,387) dollars, are,
morever, contributed every year for current expenses of the Protestant
denominations only. One Presbyterian church in New York cost a round
million ; a Catholic altar alone, one-fourth as much !

We will not mention the multitude of smaller sects, communities, and

extravagantly original little heresies in this country which spring up one
year to die out the next, like so many spores of fungi after a rainy day.
We will not even stop to consider the alleged millions of Spiritualists
for the majority lack the courage to break away from their respective re-
ligious denominations. These are the back-door Nicodemuses.
And now, with Pilate, let us inquire. What is truth ? Where is it to be
searched for amid this multitude of warring sects ? Each claims to be
based upon divine revelation, and each to have the keys of the celestial
gates. possession of this rare truth ? Or, must we exclaim
Is either in
with the Buddhist philosopher, " There is but one truth on earth, and it
is unchangeable : and this is — that there is no truth on it !
"

Though we have no upon the ground

disposition whatever to trench
that has been so exhaustively gleaned by those learned scholars who have
shown dogma has its origin in a heathen rite, still the
that every Christian
factswhich they have exhumed, since the enfranchisement of science, will
lose nothing by repetition. Besides, we propose to examine these facts
from a different and perhaps rather novel point of view that of the old :

philosophies as esoterically understood. These we have barely glanced

at in our first volume. We will use them as the standard by which to
compare Christian dogmas and miracles with the doctrines and pheno-
mena of ancient magic, and the modern " New Dispensation," as Spirit-
ualism is called by its votaries. Since the materialists deny the phenom-
 "THE church! where IS IT?" 3

ena without investigation, and since the theologians in admitting them

offer us the poor choice of two palpable absurdities the Devil and mira- —
cles— we can lose httle by applying to the theurgists, and tbey may actu-
ally help us to throw a great hght upon a very dark subject.
Professor A. Butlerof, of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg,
remarks in a recent pamphlet, entitled Mediuviistic Manifestations, as
follows " Let the facts (of modern spiritualism) belong if you will to the
:

number of those which were more or less known by the ancients ; let
them be identical with those which in the dark ages gave importance to
the office of Egyptian priest or Roman augur ; let them even furnish the
basis of the sorcery of our Siberian Shaman ; ... let them be all these,
and, if they are real facts, it is no business of ours. All the facts in
nature belong to science, and every addition to the store of science en-
riches instead of impoverishing her. humanity has once admitted a
If
trutii, and then denied it, to return to its
in the blindness of self-conceit
realization is a step forward and not backward."
Since the day that modern science gave what may be considered the
death-blow to dogmatic theology, by assuming the ground that religion
was full of mysterjf, and mystery is unscientific, the mental state of
the educated class has presented a curious aspect. Society seems from
that time to have been ever balancing itself upon one leg, on an unseen
tight-rope stretched from our visible universe into the invisible one un- ;

certain whether the end hooked on faith in the latter might not suddenly
break, and hurl it into final annihilation.
The great body of nominal Christians may be divided into three
unequal portions materialists, spiritualists, and Christians proper. The
:

materialists and spiritualists make common cause against the hierarchical

pretensions of the clergy wl>o, in retaliation, denounce both with equal
;

acerbity. The materialists are as little in harmony as the Christian sects

themselves — the Comtists, or, as they call themselves, the positivists,
being despised and hated to the last degree by the schools of thinkers,
one of which Maudsley honorably represents in England. Positivism, be
itremembered, is that " religion " of the future about whose founder even
Huxley has made himself wrathful in his famous lecture. The Physical
Basis of Life ; and Maudsley felt obhged, in behalf of modern science,
to express himself thus "It is no wonder that scientific men should be
:

anxious to disclaim Comte as their law-giver, and to protest against such

a king being set up to reign over them. Not conscious of any personal
obligation to his writings —
conscious how much, in some respects, he has
misrepresented the spirit and pretensions of science they repudiate the —
allegiance which his enthusiastic disciples would force upon them, and
which popular opinion is fast coming to think a natural one. They do
 1 ;

4 ISIS UNVEILED.

well in thus making a timely independence for if it be not

assertion of ;

done soon, it will soon be too late to be done well." * When a mate-
rialistic doctrine is repudiated so strongly by two
such materialists as
absurdity
Huxley and Maudsley, then we must think indeed that it is

itself.
Their various
nothing but dissension.
Among Christians there is

churches represent every degree of religious belief, from the omnivorous

credulity of blind faith to a condescending and
high-toned deference to

the Deity which thinly masks an evident conviction

of their own deific
believe more or less in the immortality of the
wisdom. All these sects
soul. Some admit the intercourse between the two worlds as a fact
some entertain the opinion as a sentiment some positively deny it and ; ;

only a few maintain an attitude of attention and expectancy.

Impatient of restraint, longing for the return of the dark ages, the
Romish Church frowns at the diabolical manifestations, and indicates
what she would do to their champions had she but the power of old.
Were it not for the self-evident fact that she herself is placed by science
on trial, and that she is handcuffed, she would be ready at a moment's
notice to repeat in the nineteenth century the revolting scenes of former
days. As to the Protestant clergy, so furious is their common hatred
toward spiritualism, that as a secular paper very truly remarks " They :

seem willing to undermine the public faith in all the spiritual pheno-
mena of the past, as recorded in the Bible, if they can only see the pes-
tilent modern heresy stabbed to the heart." f
Summoning back the long-forgotten memories of the Mosaic laws,
the Romish Church claims the monopoly of miracles, and of the right
to judgment over them, as being the sole heir thereto by di-
sit in
rect inheritance. The Old Testaynent, exiled by Colenso, his prede-
cessors and contemporaries, is recalled from its banishment. The proph-
ets, whom his Holiness the Pope condescends at last to place, if not on

the same level with himself, at least at a less respectful distance, J are
dusted and cleaned. The memory of all the diabolical abracadabra is
evoked anew. The blasphemous horrors perpetrated by Paganism, its

* H. Maudsley " Body and Mind."

:

f
" Boston Sunday Herald," November 5, 1876.
See the self-glorification of the present Pope in the work entitled, " Speeches of
\
Pope Pius IX." by Don Pascale de Franciscis ; and the famous pamphlet of that name
by the Rt Hon. W. E. Gladstone. The latter quotes from the work named the fol-
.

lowing sentence pronounced by the Pope; " My wish is that all governments should
know that I am speaking in this strain. And I have the right to speak even
. . .

more than Nathan the prophet to David the king, and a great deal more than St.
"
Ambrose had to Theodosins 1
 PAGAN PHALLISM IN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS. 5

phallic worship, thaumaturgical wonders wrought by Satan, human sacri-

fices, incantations, magic, and sorcery are recalled and
witchcraft,
DEMONISM is confronted with spiritualism for mutual recognition and
identification. Our modern demonologists conveniently overlook a few
insignificant details, among which is the undeniable presence of heathen
phallism in the Christian symbols. A strong spiritual element of this
worship may be easily demonstrated in the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin Mother of God ; and a physical element
equally proved in the fetish-worship of the holy limbs of Sts. Cosmo and
Damiano, at Isernia, near Naples a successful traffic in which ex-voto
;

in wax was carried on by the clergy, annually, until barely a half centurj'
ago. *
We find it rather unwise on the part of Catholic writers to pour out
their vials of wrath in such sentences as these :
" In a multitude of
pagodas, the phallic stone, ever and always assuming, like the Grecian
batylos,the brutally indecent form of the lingham the Maha . . .

Deva." I Before casting slurs on a symbol whose profound metaphysi-

cal meaning is too much for the modern champions of that religion of
sensualism far excellence, Roman Catholicism, to grasp, they are in duty
bound to destroy their oldest churches, and change the form of the cupolas
of their own temples. The Mahody of Elephanta, the Round Tower of
—
Bhangulpore, the minarets of Islam either rounded or pointed are the —
originals of the Campanile column of San Marco, at Venice, of the Roch-
ester Cathedral, and of the modern Duorao of Milan. All of these steeples,
turrets,domes, and Christian temples, are the reproductions of the primitive
idea of the litJios, the upright phallus. "The western tower of St. Paul's
Cathedral, London," says the author of The Hosicrucians, "is one of the
double liihoi placed always in front of every temple, Cliristian as well as
heathen." \ Moreover, in all Christian Churches, " particularly in Prot-
estant churches, where they figure most conspicuously, the two tables of
stone of the Mosaic Dispensation are placed over the altar, side by side,
as a united stone, the tops of which are rounded. . . . The right stone is

masculine, the left feminine." Therefore neither CathoUcs nor Protest-

ants have a right to talk of the "indecent forms " of heathen monuments
so long as they ornament their own churches with the symbols of the
Lingham and Yoni, and even write the laws of their God upon them.
Another detail not redounding very particularly to the honor of the
Christian clergy might be recalled in the word Inquisition. The torrents

* See King's "Gnostics,"

and other works.
\ " La Magie au XlXme Siecle," chap. i.
Des Mousseaux ;

X Hargrave Jennings:
" The Rosicrucians," pp. 228-241.
6 ISIS UNVEILED.
number of
of human blood shed by this Christian institution, and the
annals of Paganism. Another
its human sacrifices, are unparalleled in the
their "'^^'^"'
still more prominent feature in which the clergy surpassed
the "heathen," is sorcery. Certainly in no Pagan temple was black
magic, in its real and true sense, more practiced than in the Vatican.
of revenue,
While strongly supporting exorcism as an important source
the ancient heathen. It is easy to prove
they neglected magic as little as
that the sortilegium, or sorcery, was widely practiced
among the clergy
and practiced occasionally even
and monks so late as the last century, is

now.
Anathematizing every manifestation of occult nature outside the pre-
cincts of the Church, the clergy— notwithstanding proofs to
the contrary

—call it " the work of Satan," " the snares of the fallen angels," who
" rush in and out from the bottomless pit," mentioned by John in his
kabalistic Revelation, " from whence arises a smoke as the smoke of a
great furnace. " " Intoxicated by its fumes, around this pit are daily gather-
*
ing millions of Spiritualists, to worship at ''the Abyss of Baal:'
More than ever arrogant, stubborn, and despotic, now that she has
been nearly upset by modern research, not daring to interfere with the
powerful champions of science, the Latin Church revenges herself upon
the unpopular phenomena. A despot without a victim, is a word
void of sense a power which neglects to assert itself through outward,
;

well-calculated effects, risks being doubted in the end. The Church has
no intention to fall into the oblivion of the ancient myths, or to suffer her
authority to be too closely questioned. Hence she pursues, as well as
the times permit, her traditional policy. Lamenting the enforced extinc-
tion of her ally, the Holy Inquisition, she makes a virtue of necessity.
The only victims now within reach are the Spiritists of France. Recent
events have shown that the meek spouse of Christ never disdains to
retaliate on helpless victims.
Having successfully performed her part of Deus-ex-Machina from
behind the French Bench, which has not scrupled to disgrace itself for
her, the Church of Rome sets to work and shows in the year 1876 what
she can do. From the whirling tables and dancing pencils of profane
Spiritualism, the Christian world is warned to turn to the divine " mira-
cles " of Lourdes. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical authorities utilize their
time in arranging for other more easy triumphs, calculated to scare the
superstitious out of their senses. So, acting under orders, the clergy
hurl dramatic, if not very impressive anathemas from every Catliolic
diocese ; threaten right and left ; excommunicate and curse. Per-

* Des Mousseaux : " Hauls Phenomenes de la Magie."

 EXAMPLES OF PAPAL VITUPERATION. 7

ceiving, finally, that her thunderbolts dhected even against crowned

heads about as harmlessly as the Jupiterean lightnings of Offenbach's
fall

Calchas, Rome turns about in powerless fury against the vLctimized pro-
teges of the —
Emperor of Russia the unfortunate Bulgarians and Ser-
vians. Undisturbed by evidence and sarcasm, unbaffled by proof, " the
lamb of the Vatican " impartially divides his wrath between the liberals
of Italy, " the impious whose breath has the stench of the sepulchre," *
the " schismatic Russian Sarmates" and the heretics and spiritualists,
"who worship at the bottomless pit where the great Dragon lies in
wait."
Mr. Gladstone went to the trouble of making a catalogue of what he
terms the " flowers of speech," disseminated through these Papal dis-
courses. Let us few of the chosen terms used by this vicegerent of
cull a
Him who said that, "
whosoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of
hell-fire." They are selected from authentic discourses. Those who
oppose the Pope are " wolves, Pharisees, thieves, liars, hypocrites, drop-
sical children of Satan, sons of perdition, of sin, and corruption, satellites
of Satan in human flesh, monsters of hell, demons incarnate, stinking
corpses, men issued from the pits of hell, traitors and Judases led by the
spirit of hell ; children of the deepest pits of hell," etc., etc ; the whole
piously collected and published by Pasquale di Franciscis, whom
Don
Gladstone has, with perfect propriety, termed, " an accomplished profes-
sor oiflunkeyistn in things spiritual." f
Since his Holiness the Pope has such a rich vocabulary of invectives
at his command, why wonder that the Bishop of Toulouse did not scruple
to utter the most undignified falsehoods about the Protestants and Spirit-
ualists —
of America people doubly odious to a Catholic in his address —
to his diocese " Nothing," he remarks, " is more common in an era of
:

unbelief than to see a false revelation substitute itself for the true o?ie,

and minds neglect the teachings of the Holy Church, to devote them-
selves to the study of divination and the occult sciences." With a fine
episcopal contempt for statistics, and strangely confounding in his mem-
ory the audiences of the revivalists, Moody and Sankey, and the patrons
of darkened seance-rooms, he utters the unwarranted and fallacious as-
sertion that " it has been proven that Spiritualism, in the United States,
has caused one-sixth of all the cases of suicide and insanity." He says
that it is not possible that the spirits teach either an exact science,
'
'

because they are lying demons, or a usefiil science, because the character

* Don Pasquale di Franciscis : " Discorsi del Sommo Pontefice Pio IX.," Part i.,

P- 34°-
f "Speeches of Pius IX.," p. 14. Am. Edition.
8 ISIS UNVEILED.

He warns his dear

of the word of Satan, like Satan himself, Is sterile."
are under_ e
collaborateurs, that " the writings In favor of Spiritualism
" frequent spiritual
ban ; " and he advises them to let It be known that to
is to apostatize
trom
circles with the Intention of accepting the doctrine,
excommunication hnally
the Holy Church, and assume the risk of ;

spirit should prevail

says he, "Publish the fact that the teaching of no
of Peter, which is the teaching of the Spirit of
against that of the pulpit
God Himself!!"
Aware of the many false teachings attributed by the Roman Church

to the Creator, we prefer disbeUeving the latter assertion. The famous

us in his work that " all the illus-
Catholic theologian, Tlllemont, assures
trious Pagans are condemned to the eternal torments of hell, because

they hved before the time of Jesus, and, therefore, could not be benefited
by the redemption " He also assures us that the Virgin Mary person-
I !

ally testified to this truth over her own signature in a letter to a saint.
Therefore, this is also a revelation
— " the Spirit of God Himself" teaching
such charitable doctrines.
We have also read with great advantage the topographical descrip-
tions of Hell and Purgatory under that name
in the celebrated treatise
by a Jesuit, the Cardinal Bellarmin. A
found that the author, who
critic

gives the description from a divine vision with which he was favored,
" appears to possess all the knowledge of a land-measurer " about the
secret tracts and formidable divisions of the "bottomless pit." Justin
Martyr having actually committed to paper the heretical thought that
after all Socrates might not be altogether fixed in hell, his Benedictine
editor criticises this too benevolent father very severely. Whoever
doubts the Christian charity of the Church of Rome in this direction is
invited to peruse the Censure of the Sorbonne, on Marmontel's Belisa-
rius. The odium theologicum blazes in it on the dark sky of orthodox
—
theology like an aurora borealis the precursor of God's wrath, accord-
ing to the teaching of certain mediaeval divines.
We have attempted in the first part of this work to show, by histori-
cal examples, how completely men of science have deserved the sting-
ing sarcasm of the late Professor de Morgan, who remarked of them
that "they wear the priest's cast-off garb, dyed to escape detection."
The Christian clergy are, in like manner, attired in the cast-off garb of
the heathen priesthood ; acting diametrically in opposition to their Gods
moral precepts, but nevertheless, sitting in judgment over the whole
world.
When dying on the cross, the martyred Man of Sorrows forgave his
enemies. His last words were a prayer in their behalf. He taught his
disciples to curse not, but to bless, even their foes. But the heirs of
 CATHOLIC BLASPHEMY AGAINST HEAVEN. 9

St. Peter, the self-constituted representatives on earth of that same meek

Jesus, unhesitatingly curse whoever resists their despotic will. Besides,
was not the " Son " long since crowded by them into the 'background ?
They make their obeisance only to the Dowager Mother, for according —
to their teaching —again through "the direct Spirit of God," she alone
acts as a mediatrix. The CEcumenical Council of 1870 embodied the
teaching into a dogma, to disbelieve which is to be doomed forever to
the bottomless pit.'
'
The work of Don Pasquale di Franciscis is posi-
tive on that point ; for he tells us that, as the Queen of Heaven owes to
the present Pope " the finest gem in her coronet," since he has conferred
on her the unexpected honor of becoming suddenly immaculate, there is
nothing she cannot obtain from her Son for " her Church." *
Some years ago, certain travellers saw in Barri, Italy, a statue of the
Madonna, arrayed in a flounced pink skirt over a swelling crinoline !
Pious pilgrims who may be anxious to examine the regulation wardrobe
of their God's mother may do so by going to Southern Italy, Spain, and
Catholic North and South America. The Madonna of Barri must still
be there —between two vineyards and a locanda (gin-shop). When last
seen, a half-successful attempt had been made to clothe the infant Jesus ;

they had covered his legs with a pair of dirty, scollop-edged pantaloons.
An English traveller having presented the " Mediatrix " with a green
silk parasol, the grateful population of the contadini, accompanied by the
village-priest, went in procession to the spot. They managed to stick
the sunshade, opened, between the infant's back and the arm of the
Virgin which embraced him. The scene and ceremony were both sol-
emn and highly refreshing to our religious feelings. For there stood the
image of the goddess in its niche, surrounded with a row of ever-burning
lamps, the flames of which, flickering in the breeze, infect God's pure air
with an offensive smell of olive oil. The Mother and Son truly repre-
sent the two most conspicuous idols of Monotheistic Christianity !

For a companion to the idol of the poor contadini of Barri, go to the

rich city of Rio Janeiro. In the Church of the Duomo del Candelaria,
in a long hall running along one side of the church, there might be seen,
a few years ago, another Madonna. Along the walls of the hall there is
a line of saints, each standing on a contribution-box, which thus forms a
fit pedestal. In the centre of this line, under a gorgeously rich canopy
of blue silk, is exhibited the Virgin Mary leaning on the arm of Christ.
" Our Lady " is arrayed in a very decollete blue satin dress with short

*Vide "Speeches of Pope Pius IX.," by Don Pasq. di Franciscis; Gladstone's

pamphlet on this book; Draper's "Conflict between Religion and Science," and
others.
 a;

lO ISIS UNVEILED.

exquisitely-mou c
sleeves, showing, to great advantage, a snow-white,
satin with an
over-
neck, shoulders, and arms. The skirt equally of blue
a ballet-dancei
skirt of rich lace and gauze puffs, is as short as that of
;

finely-shaped legs covered

hardly reaching the knee, exhibits a pair of it
high
with flesh colored silk satin French boots with very
tights, and blue
arranged in
The blonde hair of this xMother of God
" " is
red heels !

voluminous chignon and curls. As she leans on

the latest fashion, with a
Only-Begotten,
her Son's arm, her face is lovingly turned toward her
worthy of admiration. Christ wears
whose dress and attitude are equally
an evening dress-coat, with swallow-tail, black trousers, and low cut
varnished boots, and white kid gloves, over one of
which spar-
white vest ;

kles a rich worth many thousands we must suppose—

diamond ring,
precious Brazihan jewel. this body of a modern Portuguese dan-
Above
dy, is a head with the hair parted in the middle ; a sad and solemn face,
and eyes whose patient look seems to reflect all the bitterness of this
*
majesty of the Crucified.
last insult flung at the
The Egyptian Isis was also represented as a Virgin Mother by her
devotees, and as holding her infant son, Horus, in her arms. In some
statues and basso-relievos, when she appears alone she is either com-
pletelynude or veiled from head to foot. But in the Mysteries, in common
with nearly every other goddess, she is entirely veiled from head to foot,
as a symbol of a mother's chastity. It would not do us any harm were
we to borrow from the ancients some of the poetic sentiment in their
religions, and the innate veneration they entertained for their symbols.
It is but fair to say at once that the last of the true Christians died

with the last of the direct apostles. Max Miiller forcibly asks :
" How
can a missionary in such circumstances meet the surprise and questions
of his pupils, unless he may point to that seed, f and tell them what
Christianity be ? unless he may show that, like all other reli-
was meant to
gions, Christianity too, has had its history that the Christianity of the
;

nineteenth century is not the Christianity of the middle ages, and that
the Christianity of the middle ages was not that of the early Councils
that the Cliristianity of the early Councils was not that of the Apostles,
and that what has been said by Christ, that alone was well said ? " J
Thus we may infer that the only characteristic difference between
modern Christianity and the old heathen faiths is the belief of the former
in a personal devil and in hell. " The Aryan nations had no devil,"
says Max Miiller. " Pluto, though of a sombre character, was a very
* The by an eye-witness who has visited the church several times
fact is given to us •

a Roman Catholic, who

perfectly horrified, as he expressed it.
felt

\ Referring to the seed planted by Jesus and his Apostles.

\ "Chips," vol. i., p. 26, Preface.
 THE HELLS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. II

respectable personage and Loki (the Scandinavian), though a mischiev-

;

ous person, was not a fiend. The German Goddess, Hell, too, like
Proserpine, had once seen better days. Thus, when the'Germans were
indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the Semitic Seth, Satan or
Diabolus, they treated him in the most good-humored way."
The same may be said of hell. Hades was quite a different place from
our region of eternal damnation, and might be termed rather an inter-
mediate state of purification. Neither does the Scandinavian Hel or
Hela, imply either a state or a place of punishment for when Frigga, ;

the grief-stricken mother of Bal-dur, the white god, who died and found
himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (Hades) sent Hermod, a son
of Thor, in quest of her beloved child, the messenger found him in the
inexorable region — alas ! but still comfortably seated on a rock, and
reading a book.* The Norse kingdom of the dead is moreover situated
in the higher latitudes of the Polar regions ; it is a cold and cheerless
abode, and neither the gelid halls of Hela, nor the occupation of Baldur
present the least similitude to the blazing hell of eternal fire and the
miserable " damned " sinners with
which the Church so generously peoples
it. No more is it the Eg)^tian Amenthes, the region of judgment and
purification ; nor the Onderah —
the abyss of darkness of the Hindus ;
for even the fallen angels hurled into it by Siva, are allowed by Para-
brahma to consider it as an intermediate state, in which an opportunity
is afforded them to prepare for higher degrees of purification and redemp-
tion from their wretched condition. The Gehenna of the New Testa-
ment was a locality outside the walls of Jerusalem and in mentioning ;

it, Jesus used but an ordinary metaphor. Whence then came the dreary
dogma of hell, that Archimedean lever of Christian theology, with which
they have succeeded to hold in subjection the numberless millions of
Christians for nineteen centuries ? Assuredly not from the Jewish
Scriptures, and we appeal for corroboration to any well-informed Hebrew
scholar.
The only designation of something approaching hell in the Bible is

Gehen?ia or Hinnom, a valley near Jerusalem, where was situated Tophet,

a place where a fire was perpetually kept for sanitary purposesi The
prophet Jeremiah informs us that the Israelites used to sacrifice their
children to Moloch-Hercules on that spot ; and later we find Chris-
tians quietly replacing this divinity by their god of mercy, whose wrath
will not be appeased, unless the Church sacrifices to him her unbaptized
"
children and sinning sons on the altar of " eternal damnation !

Whence then did the divine learn so well the conditions of hell, as

* Mallet : " Northern Antiquities."

12 ISIS UNVEILED.

to actually divide its torments into two kinds, i\\^ pana damni and paenEe

privation of the beatific vision the latter

sensus, the former being the ;

the eternal pains in a lake of fire and brimstone ? If they answer us that

it is in the Apocalypse (xx. lo), we are prepared to demonstrate whence

" And ///^ fl'^wV that deceived
the theologist John himself derived the idea,
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast^z.nA
ever," he
the false prophet are and shall be tormented for ever and
says. aside the esoteric
Laying interpretation that the "devil" or

tempting demon meant our own earthly body, which after death will

surely dissolve in \he fiery or ethereal elements,* the word "eternal" by

which our theologians interpret the words '• for ever and ever" does not
exist in the Hebrew language, either as a word or meaning. There is
no Hebrew word which properly expresses eternity ; d>ij? oulam, according
to Le Clerc, only imports a time whose beginning or end is not known.
While showing that this word does not mean infinite duration, and that
in the Old Testament the word forever only signifies a long time. Arch-
bishop Tillotson has completely perverted its sense with respect to the
idea of hell-torments. According to his doctrine, when Sodom and
Gomorrah are said to be suffering " eternal fire," we must understand it
only in the sense of that fire nat being extinguished till both cities were
entirely consumed. But, as to hell-fire the words must be understood in
the strictest sense of infinite duration. Such is the decree of the learned
divine. For the duration of the punishment of the wicked must be
proportionate to the eternal happiness of the righteous. So he says,
" These (speaking of the wicked) " shall go away eis KoKaaw uuivtov into
eternal punishment but the righteous €is Jcuryv amviov into life eternal."
;

The Reverend T. Surnden, f commenting on the speculations of his

predecessors, fills a whole volume with unanswerable arguments, tending
to show that the locality of Hell is in the sun. We suspect that the rev-
erend speculator had read the Apocalypse in bed, and had the night-
mare in consequence. There are two verses in the Revelation of John
reading thus "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun,
:

and power was given him to scorch men with fire. And men were
scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God." J This is
simply Pythagorean and kabahstic allegory. The idea is new neither with
the above-mentioned author nor with John. Pythagoras placed the
" sphere of purification in the sun," which sun, with its sphere, he moreover

* Ether is both pure and impure fire. The composition of the latter comprises all
its visible forms, such as the " correlation of forces" —
heat, flame, electricity etc.
The former is the Spirit of Fire. The difference is purely alchemical.
" Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell," by Rev. T. Surnden.
I See
Revelation xvi. S-9.
:|;
 3

AUGUSTINE'S GEOCENTRIC HELL. 1

locates in the middle of the universe, * the allegory having a double mean-
ing : I. Symbolically, the central, spiritual sun, the Supreme Deity.
Arrived at this region every soul becomes purified of its sins, and unites

itself forever with its spirit, having previously suffered throughout all the
lower spheres. 2. By placing the sphere of visible fire in the middle of
the universe, he simply taught the heliocentric system which appertained
to the Mysteries, and was imparted only in the higher degree of initiation.
John gives to his Word a purely kabalistic significance, which no " Fathers,"
except those who had belonged to the Neo-platonic school, were able to
comprehend. Origen understood it well, having been a pupil of Ammo-

nius Saccas ; therefore wehim bravely denying the perpetuity of hell-

see
torments. He maintains that not only men, but even devils (by which
term he meant disembodied human sinners), after a certain duration of
punishment shall be pardoned and finally restored to heaven, f In con-
sequence of this and other such heresies Origen was, as a matter of
course, exiled.
Many have been the learned and truly-inspired speculations as to the
locality of hell. The most popular were those which placed it in the
centre of the earth. At a certain time, however, skeptical doubts which
disturbed the placidity of faith in this highly-refreshing doctrine arose in
consequence of the meddling scientists of those days. As a Mr. Swinden
in our own century observes, the theory was inadmissible because of two
objections : ist, that a fund of fuel or sulphur sufficient to maintain so
furious and constant a fire could not be there supposed and, 2d, that it ;

must want the nitrous particles in the air to sustain and keep it alive.
"And how," says he, "can a fire be eternal, when, by degrees, the whole
substance of the earth must be consumed thereby ? " J
The skeptical gentleman had evidently forgotten that centuries ago St.
Augustine solved the difficulty. Have we not the word of this learned
divine that hell, nevertheless, is in the centre of the earth, for " God sup-
plies the central fire with air by a miracle? " The argument is unanswerable,
and so we will not seek to upset it.

The Christians were the first to make the existence of Satan a dogma
of the Church. And once that she had established it, she had to
struggle for over 1,700 years for the repression of a mysterious force
which it was her policy to make appear of diabolical origin. Unfortu-
nately, in manifesting itself, this force invariably tends to upset such
a belief by the ridiculous discrepancy it presents between the alleged

cause and the effects. If the clergy have not over-estimated the real power

* Aristotle mentions Pythagoreans who placed the sphere of fire in the sun, and
named it Jupiter''s Prison. See " De Coelo," lib. ii.

\ "DeCivit. Dei," i, xxi., c. 17. % " Demonologia and Hell," p. 289.

14 ISIS UNVEILED.

that he takes mig^'y

of the " Arch-Enemy of God," it must be confessed
Darkness wio
precautions against being recognized as the " Prince of
" are devils at all, as preactiea
aims at our souls. If modern " spirits
" stupid devils
by the clergy, then they can only be those "poor" or
the German and
whom Max Mffller describes as appearing so often in
Norwegian tales. ,.
forced to relin-
Notwithstanding this, the clergy fear above all to be
They are not willing to let us judge of the
quish this hold on humanity.
into dangerous di-
tree by its fruits, for that might sometimes force them
admit, with unprejudiced people, that
lemmas. They refuse, likewise, to
spiritualized and re-
the of Spiritualism has unquestionably
phenomena
But, as
claimed from evil courses many an indomitable atheist and skeptic.
the use in a Pope, if there is no Devil ?
they confess themselves, what is
And so Rome sends her ablest advocates and preachers to the rescue
of those perishing in " the bottomless pit." Rome employs her cleverest
writers for this purpose— albeit they all indignantly deny the accusation—
and in the preface to every book put forth by the prolific des Mousseaux,
the French Tertullian of our century, we find undeniable proofs of the
fact. Among other certificates of ecclesiastical approval, every volume is
ornamented with the text of a certain original letter addressed to the very
pious author by the world-known Father Ventura de Raulica, of Rome.
Few are those who have not heard this famous name. It is the name of
one of the chief Latin Church, the ex-General of the Order
pillars of the
of the Theatins, Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Examiner
of Bishops, and of the Roman Clergy, etc., etc., etc. This strikingly
characteristic document vnll remain to astonish future generations by
its spirit of unsophisticated demonolatry and unblushing sincerity. We
translate a fragment verbatim, and by thus helping its circulation hope to

merit the blessings of Mother Church * :

"Monsieur and excellent Friend:

"The greatest victory of Satan was gained on that day when he succeeded in mak-
ing himself denied.
" To demonstrate the existence of Satan, is to reestablish one of the fundamental
dogmas of the Church, which serve as a basis for Christianity, and, without which, Satan
would be but a name. . . .

" Magic, mesmerism, magnetism, somnambulism, spiritualism, spiritism, hypnotism

. . are only other names for SATANISM.
.

" To bring out such a truth and show it in its proper light, is to unmask the enemy ;

it is to unveil the immense danger of certain practices, reputed innocent ; it is to de-

serve well in the eyes of humanity and of religion.

" Father Ventura de Raulica."

* " Les Hauts Ph^nomenes de la Magie," p. v., Preface.

 !

THE BIOGRAPHERS OF THE DEVIL. 15

A—men
This is an unexpected honor indeed, for our American " controls " in

general, and the innocent "Indian guides" in particular. *To be thus

introduced in Rome as princes of the Empire of Eblis, is more than they
could ever hope for in other lands.
Without in the was working for the future
least suspecting that she
welfare of her enemies —the —
and spiritists the Church, some
spiritualists

twenty years since, in tolerating des Mousseaux and de Mirville as the

biographers of the Devil, and giving her approbation thereto, tacitly con-
fessed the literary copartnership.
M. the Chevalier Gougenot des Mousseaux, and his friend and colla-
borateur, the Marquis Eudes de Afirville, to judge by their long titles,

must be aristocrats J>ur sang, and they are, moreover, writers of no small
eruditionand talent. Were they to show themselves a little more parsi-
monious of double points of exclamation following every vituperation,
and invective against Satan and his worshippers, their style would be fault-
less. As it is, the crusade against the enemy of mankind was fierce, and
lasted for over twenty years.
What with the Catholics piling up their psychological phenomena to
prove the existence of a personal devil, and the Count de Gasparin, an
ancient minister of Louis Philippe, collecting volumes of other facts to
prove the contrary, the spiritists of France have contracted an everlast-
ing debt of gratitude toward the disputants. The existence of an unseen
spiritual imiverse peopled with invisible beings has now been demon-
strated beyond question. Ransacking the oldest libraries, they have dis-
tilled from the historical records the quintessence of evidence. All
epochs, from the Homeric ages down to the present day, have supplied
their choicest materials to these indefatigable authors. In trying to prove
the authenticity of the miracles wrought by Satan in the days preceding
the Christian era, as well as throughout the middle ages, they have sim-
ply laid a firm foundation for a study of the phenomena in our modern
times.
Though an Mousseaux un-
ardent, uncompromising enthusiast, des
wittingly transforms himself into the tempting demon, or as he is fond —
of calling the Devil —
the " serpent of Genesis." In his desire to demon-
strate in every manifestation the presence of the Evil One, he only suc-
ceeds in demonstrating that Spiritualism and magic are no new things in
the world, but very ancient twin-brothers, whose origin must be sought
for in the earliest infancy of ancient India, Chaldea, Babylonia, Egypt,
Persia, and Greece.
He proves the existence of "spirits," whether these be angels or
devils, with such a clearness of argument and logic, and such an amount
 6 !

1 ISIS UNVEILED.

that little is
of evidence, historical, irrefutable, and strictly authenticated,
left for spiritualist authors who may come after him.
How unfortunate
that the scientists, who beheve neither in devil nor spirit, are more than

M. des Mousseaux's books without reading them,

for
likely to ridicule
they really contain so many profound scientific interest
facts of
But what can we expect in our own age of unbelief, when we find
" Me,
Plato, over twenty-two centuries ago, complaining of the same ?
too," says he, in his Euthyphron, " when I say anything in the public

assembly concerning divine things, and predict to the7n what is going to

happen, they ridicule as mad and although nothing that I have predicted
;

has proved untrue, yet they envy all such men as we are. However, we
ought not to heed, but pursue our own way."
The literary resources of the Vatican and other Catholic repositories
of learning must have been freely placed at the disposal of these modern
authors. When one has such treasures at hand— original manuscripts,
papyri, and books pillaged from the richest heathen libraries old trea- ;

tiseson magic and alchemy and records of all the trials for witchcraft,
;

and sentences for the same to rack, stake, and torture, it is mighty easy
to write volumes of accusations against the Devil. We affirm on good
grounds that there are hundreds of the most valuable works on the occult
sciences, which are sentenced to eternal concealment from the pubhc,
but are attentively read and studied by the privileged who have access to
the Vatican Library. The laws of nature are the same for heathen sor-
cerer as for Catholic saint ; and a " miracle " may be produced as well by
one as by the other, without the slightest intervention of God or devil.
Hardly had the manifestations begun to attract attention in Europe,
than the clergy commenced their outcry that their traditional enemy had
reappeared under another name, and "divine miracles" also began to
be heard of in isolated instances. First they were confined to humble
individuals, some of whom claimed to have them produced through the
intervention of the Virgin Mary, saints and angels ; others — according to
the clergy — began from obsession and possession ; for the Devil
to suffer
must have his share of fame as well as the Deity. Finding that, not-
withstanding the warning, the independent, or so-called spiritual phe-
nomena went on increasing and multiplying, and that these manifesta-
tions threatened to upset the carefully-constructed dogmas of the Church,
the world was suddenly startled by extraordinary intelligence. In 1864,
a whole community became possessed of the Devil. Morzine, and the
awful stories ofits demoniacs ; A'alleyres, and the narratives of its well-

authenticated exhibitions of sorcery and those of the Presbytere de

;

Cideville curdled the blood in Catholic veins.

Strange to say, the question has been asked over and over again,
 WHY THERE ARE NO MIRACLES IN RUSSIA. 1/

why the " divine " miracles and most of the obsessions are so strictly
confined to Roman Catholic dioceses and countries ? Why is it that
since the Reformation there has been scarcely one single mvine " mira-
cle " in a Protestant land? Of course, the answer we must expect from
Catholics is, that the latter are peopled by heretics, and abandoned by
God. Then why are there no more Church-miracles in Russia, a coun-
try whose religion differs from the Roman Catholic faith but in external
forms of fundamental dogmas being identically the same, except
rites, its

as to the emanation of the Holy Ghost ? Russia has her accepted saints
and thaumaturgical and miracle-working images. The St. Mitro-
relics,
phaniy of Voroneg an authenticated miracle-worker, but his miracles
is

are limited to heaUng and though hundreds upon hundreds have been
;

healed through faith, and though the old cathedral is full of magnetic ef-
fluvia, and whole generations will go on believing in his i^ower, and some

persons will always be healed, still no such miracles are heard of in Rus-
sia as the Madonna-walking, and Madonna letter-writing, and statue-talk-

ing of CathoHc countries. Why is this so Sunply because the emperors

.'

have strictly forbidden that sort of thing. The Czar, Peter the Great,
stopped every spurious " divine " njiracle with one frown of his mighty
brow. He declared he would have no false miracles played by the holy
icones (images of saints), and they disappeared forever. *
There are cases on record of isolated and independent phenomena
exhibited by certain images in the last century the latest was the bleed-
;

ing of the cheek of an image of the Virgin, when a soldier of Napoleon

cut her face in two. This miracle, alleged to have happened in 1812, in
the days of the invasion by the " grand army," was the final farewell.f

* Dr. Stanley: "Lectures on the Eastern Church," p. 407.

j- In the government of Tambov, a gentleman, a rich landed proprietor, had a curious
case happen in his family during the Hungarian campaign of 1S4S. His only and much-
beloved nephew, whom, having no children, he had adopted as a son, was in the Russian
army. The elderly couple —
had a portrait of his a water-color painting — constantly,
during the meals, placed on the table in front of the young man's usual seat. One
evening as the family, with some friends, were at their early tea, the glass over the por-
trait, without any one touching it, was shattered to atoms with a loud explosion. As
the aunt of the young soldier caught the picture in her hand she saw the forehead and
head besmeared with blood. The guests, in order to quiet her, attributed the blood to
her having £Ut her fingers with the broken glass. But, examine as they would, they
could not find the vestige of a cut on her fingers, and no one had touched the picture but
herself. Alarmed at her state of excitement the husband, pretending to examine the
portrait more closely, cut his finger on purpose, and then tried to assure her that it was
his blood and that, in the first excitement, he had touched the frame without any one

remarking it. All was in vain, the old lady felt sure that Dimitry was killed. She
began to have masses said for him daily at the village church, and arrayed the whole
 8

1 ISIS UNVEILED.
been pious
But since then, although the three successive emperors have
and saints have
men. their will has been respected, and the images
spoken except as connected with
remained quiet, and hardly been of
there
religious worship. In Poland, a land of furious ultramontanism,
desperate attempts at miracle-doing. They died
wer°e, at different times,
at birth, however, for the argus-eyed police were there a Catholic mira-
;

cle in Poland, made public by the priests, generally meaning pohtical

revolution, bloodshed, and war.
then, not permissible to at least suspect that if, in one
country
Is It

divine miracles may be arrested by civil and military law, and in another

they never occur, we must search for the explanation of the two facts in
some natural cause, instead of attributing them to either god or devil ?
In our opinion— if it is worth anything— the whole secret may be
accounted for as follows. In Russia, the clergy know better than to
bewilder their parishes, whose piety is sincere and faith strong without
miracles they know that nothing is better calculated than the latter to
;

sow seeds of distrust, doubt, and finally of skepticism which leads directly
to atheism. Moreover the climate is less propitious, and the magnetism
of the average population too positive, too healthy, to call forth independ-
ent phenomena ; and fraud would not answer. On the other hand,
neither in Protestant Germany, nor England, nor yet in America, since

the days of the Reformation, has the clergy had access to any of the Vati-
can secret libraries. Hence they are all but poor hands at the magic of
Albertus Magnus.
As for America being overflowed with sensitives and mediums, the
reason for it is partially attributable to climatic influence and especially
Since the days of the
to the physiological condition of the population.
Salem 200 years ago, when the comparatively few settlers had
witchcraft,
pure and unadulterated blood in their veins, nothing much had been
heard of " spirits" or "mediums" until 1840. * The phenomena then
firstappeared among the ascetic and exalted Shakers, whose religious
aspirations, peculiar mode of life, moral purity, and physical chastity
all led to the production of independent phenomena of a psychological

household in deep mourning. Several weeks later, an official communication was

received from the colonel of the regiment, stating that their nephew was killed by a
fragment of a shell which had carried off the upper part of his head.
* Executions for witchcraft took place, not much later than a century ago, in other

of the American provinces. Notoriously there were negroes executed in New Jersey by
—
burning at the stake the penalty denounced in several States. Even in South Caro-
lina, in 1865, when the State government was " reconstructed," after the civil war the
statutes inflicting death for witchcraft were found to be still unrepealed. It is not a
hundred years since they have been enforced to the murderous letter of their text.
 ;

THE PHYSICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL AMERICAN TYPE. I9

as well as physical nature. Hundreds of thousands, and even millions

of men from various climates and of different constitutions and habits,
have, since 1692, invaded North America, and by intermarrying have sub-
stantially changed the physical type of the inhabitants. Of what country
in the world do the women's constitutions bear comparison with the deli-
cate, nervous, and sensitive constitutions of the feminine portion of the
population of the'United States ? We were struck on our arrival in the
country with the semi-transparent delicacy of skin of the natives of both
sexes. Compare a hard-working Irish factory girl or boy, with one from
a genuine American family. Look at their hands. One works as hard
as the other ; they are of equal age, and both seemingly healthy ; and
still, while the hands of the one, after an hour's soaping, will show a skin
little softer than that of a young alligator, those of the other, notwith-
standing constant use, will allow you to observe the circulation of the
blood under the thin and delicate epidermis. No wonder, then, that
while America is the conservatory of sensitives the majority of its clergy,
unable to produce divine or any other miracles, stoutly deny the possi-
bility of any phenomena except those produced by tricks and juggling.

And no wonder also that the Catholic priesthood, who are practically
aware of the existence of magic and spiritual phenomena, and believe in
them while dreading their consequences, try to attribute the whole to the
agency of the Devil.
Let us adduce one more argument, if only for the sake of circum-
stantial evidence. In what countries have " divine miracles " flourished
most, been most frequent and most stupendous ? Catholic Spain, and
Pontifical Italy, beyond question. And which more than these two, has
had access to ancient literature ? Spain was famous for her libraries
the Moors were celebrated for their profound learning in alchemy and
other sciences. The Vatican is the storehouse of an immense number
of ancient manuscripts. During the long interval of nearly 1,500 years
they have been accumulating, from trial after trial, books and manuscripts
confiscated from their sentenced victims, to their own profit. The Cath-
olics may plead that the books were generally committed to the flames ;

that the treatises of famous sorcerers and enchanters perished with their
accursed authors. But the Vatican, if it could speak, could tell a dif-
ferent story. It knows too well of the existence of certain closets and
rooms, access to which is had but by the very few. It knows that the
entrances to these secret hiding-places are so cleverly concealed from
sight in the carved frame-work and under the profuse ornamentation of
the library-walls, that there have even been Popes who lived and died
within the precmcts of the palace without ever suspecting their existence.
But these Popes were neither Sylvester II., Benedict IX., John XX., nor
 —

20 ISIS UNVEILED.
toxicolo^cal
theVlth and Vllth Gregory nor yet the famous Borgia of ;

of the hidden lore

memory. Neither were those who remained ignorant
friends of the sons of Loyola.
Where, in European Magic, can we iind cleverer
the records of
enchanters mysterious solitudes of the cloister ? Albert
than in the
Magnus, the famous Bishop and conjurer of Ratisbon, was never sur-
passed in his art. Roger Bacon was a monk, and Thomas Aquinas one
of the most learned pupils of Albertus. Trithemius, Abbot of the
Spanheim Benedictines, was the teacher, friend, and confidant of Corne-
lius Agrippa; and while the confederations of the Theosophists were
scattered broadcast about Germany, where they first originated, assist-
ing one another, and struggling for years for the acquirement of esoteric
knowledge, any person who knew how to become the favored pupil of cer-
tain monks, might very soon be proficient in all the important branches
of occult learning.
is all in history and cannot be easily denied.
This Magic, in all its
aspects, was widely and nearly openly practiced by the clergy till the
Reformation. And even he who was once called the " Father of the
Reformation," the famous John Reuchlin, * author of the Mirific Word
and friend of Pico di Mirandola, the teacher and instructor of Erasmus,
Luther, and Melancthon, was a kabalist and occultist.
The ancient Soriilegium, or divination by means of Sortes or lots
an art and practice now decried by the clergy as an abomination, desig-
nated by Stat. lo Jac. as felony, f and by Stat. 12 Carolus IJ. ex-
cepted out of the general pardons, on the ground of being sorcery —
was widely practiced by the clergy and monks. Nay, it was sanctioned
by St. Augustine himself, who does not " disapprove of this method of
learning futurity, provided it be not used for worldly purposes." More
than that, he confesses having practiced it himself. J
Aye but ; the clergy called it Sortes Sa?tctorum, when it was they
who practiced it ; while the Sortes Prce.nestince, succeeded by the Sortes
Homcric(C and Sortes Virgiliana, were abominable heathenism, the
worship of the Devil, when used by any one else.
Gregory de Tours informs us that when the clergy resorted to the
Sortes their custom was to lay the £ible on the altar, and to pray the
Lord that He would discover His will, and disclose to them futurity in
one of the verses of the book. Gilbert de Nogent writes that in his days
- i
* Vide the title-page on English translation of Mayerhoff's " Reuchlin und
tlie

Seine Zeit," Berlin, 1830. "The Life and Times of John Reuchlin, or Capnion, the
Father of the German Reformation," by F. Barham, London, 1843.
f Lord Coke 3 " Institutes," fol. 44.
:

I Vidi "The Life of St. Gregory of Tours."

 EPISCOPAL DIVINATION BY THE "LOT. 21

(about the twelfth century) the custom was, at the consecration of

bishops, to consult the Sortes Sanctorum, to thereby learn the success
and fate of the episcopate. On the other hand, we are told that the Sor-
tesSanctorum were condemned by the Council of Agda, in 506. In this
case again we are left to inquire, in which instance has the infallibihty of
the Church failed ? Was
it when she prohibited that which was practiced

by her greatest saint and patron, Augustine, or in the twelfth centur)',

when it was openly and with the sanction of the same Church practiced
by the clergy for the benefit of the bishop's elections ? Or, must we still
believe that in both of these contradictory cases tlie Vatican was inspired
by the direct " spirit of God? "
If any doubt that Gregory of Tours approved of a practice that pre-
vails to this day, more or less, even among strict Protestants, let them
read this " Lendastus, Earl of Tours, who was for ruining me with
:

Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs against me, I
withdrew to my oratory under a deep concern, where I took the Psalms.
. . My heart revived within me when I cast my eyes on this of the
.

seventy-seventh Psalm : He caused them to go on with confidence,

'

whilst the sea swallowed up their enemies.' Accordingly, the count

spoke not a word to my prejudice ; and leaving Tours that very day, the
boat in which he was, sunk in a storm, but his skill in swimming saved
him."
The sainted bishop simply confesses here to having practiced a bit of
sorcery. Every mesmerizer knows the power of u<ill during an intense
desire bent on any particular subject. Whether in consequence of " co-
incidents " or otherwise, the opened verse suggested to his mind revenge
by drowning. Passing the remainder of the day in " deep concern," and
possessed by this aU-absorbing thought, the saint — it may be unconsciously
— exercises on the subject and thus while imagining in the acci-
his will ;

dent the hand of God, he simply becomes a sorcerer exercising his mag-
netic will which reacts on the person feared and the count barely;

escapes with his life. Were the accident decreed by God, the culprit
would have been drowned for a simple bath could not have altered his
;

malevolent resolution against St. Gregory had he been very intent on it.
Furthermore, we find anathemas fulminated against this lottery of
fate, at the council of Varres, which forbids " all ecclesiastics, under pain

of excommunication, to perform that kind of divination, or to pry into

futurity, by looking into any book, or writing, whatsoever." The same
prohibition is pronounced at the coimcils of Agda in 506, of Orleans, in
SIX, of Auxerre in 595, and finally at the council of Aenham in mo ;

the latter condemning " sorcerers, witches, diviners, such as occasioned

death by magical operations, and who practiced fortune-telling by the
22 ISIS UNVEILED.

holy-book lots and the complaint of the joint clergy against de Gar-
;
"

lande, their bishop at Orleans, and addressed to Pope Alexander III.,

concludes in this manner " Let your apostolical hands put on strength
:

to strip naked the iniquity of this man, that the curse prognosticated on
the day of his consecration may overtake him for the gospels bemg
;

opened on the altar according to custom, the first words were and the :

*
young man, leaving his linen cloth, fled from them naked!'
Why then roast the lay-magicians and consulters of books, and cano-
nize the ecclesiastics ? Simply because the mediseval as well as the
modern phenomena, manifested through laymen, whether produced
through occult knowledge or happening independently, upset the claims
of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches to divine miracles. In the
face of reiterated and unimpeachable evidence it became impossible for
the former to maintain successfully the assertion that seemingly miracu-
lous manifestations by the "good angels" and God's direct intervention
could be produced exclusively by her chosen ministers and holy saints.
Neither could the Protestant well maintain on the same ground that
miracles had ended with the apostolic ages. For, whether of the same
nature or not, the modern phenomena claimed close kinship with the
biblical ones. The magnetists and came into
healers of our century
direct and open competition with the apostles. The Zouave Jacob, of
France, had outrivalled the prophet Elijah in recalling to life persons
who were seemingly dead and Alexis, the somnambulist, mentioned by
;

Mr. Wallace in his work,f was, by his lucidity, putting to shame apostles,
prophets, and the Sibyls of old. Since the burning of the last witch, the
great Revolution of France, so elaborately prepared by the league of
the secret societies and their clever emissaries, had blown over Europe
and awakened terror in the bosom of the clergy. It had, like a destroy-
ing hurricane, swept away in its course those best allies of the Church,
the Roman Catholic aristocracy. A sure foundation was now laid for
the right of individual opinion. The world was freed from ecclesiastical
tyranny by opening an unobstructed path to Napoleon the Great, who
had given the deathblow to the Inquisition. This great slaughter-house
—
of the Christian Church wherein she butchered, in the name of the
I^ainb, all the sheep arbitrarily declared scurvy —
was in ruins, and she
found herself left to her own responsibility and resources.
So long as the phenomena had appeared only sporadically, she had
always felt herself powerful enough to repress the consequences. Super-

* Translated from the original document in the Archives of Orleans, France j also
see " Sortes and Sortilegium " " Life of Peter de Blois."
;

f "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism."

 MIRACLES BY THE LAITY. 23

stition and belief in the Devil were as strong as ever, and Science had not
yet dared to publicly measure her forces with those of supernatural Religion.
Meanwhile the enemy had slowly but surely gained ground. All at once
itbroke out with an unexpected violence. " Miracles " began to appear
in full daylight, and passed from their mystic seclusion into the domain
of natural law, where the profane hand of Science was ready to strip off
their sacerdotal mask. Still, for a time, the Church held her position, and

with the powerful help of superstitious fear checked the progress of the
intruding force. But, when in succession appeared mesmerists and som-
nambulists, reproducing the physical and mental phenomenon of ecstasy,
hitherto believed to be the special gift of saints ; when the passion for
the turning tables had reached in France and elsewhere its climax of
fury —
when the psychography alleged spiritual from a simple curiosity
; —
had developed itself and settled into an unabated interest, and finally
ebbed into religious mysticism ; when the echoes aroused by the first raps
of Rochester, crossing the oceans, spread until they were re-percussed from
nearly every corner of the world —
then, and only then, the Latin Church
was fully awakened to a sense of danger. Wonder after wonder was
reported to have occurred in the spiritual circles and the lecture-rooms
of the mesmerists ; the sick were healed, the blind made to see, the lame
to walk, the deaf to hear. J. R. Newton in America, and Du Potet in
France, were healing the multitude without the slightest claim to divine
intervention. The great discovery of Mesmer, which reveals to the
earnest inquirer the mechanism of nature, mastered, as if by magical
power, organic and inorganic bodies.
But this was not the worst. A more direful calamity for the Church
occurred in the evocation from the upper and nether worlds of a multi-
tude of " spirits," whose private bearing and conversation gave the direct
lie to the most cherished and profitable dogmas of the Church. These
" spirits " claimed to be the identical entities, in a disembodied state, of
fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, friends and acquaintances of the
persons viewing the weird phenomena. The Devil seemed to have no
objective existence, and this struck at the very foundation upon which
the chair of St. Peter rested.* Not a spirit except the mocking nianni-

* There were two chairs of the titular apostle at Rome. The clergy, frightened at
the uninterrupted evidence furnished by scientific research, at last decided to confront
the enemy, and we find the *' Chronique des Arts " giving the cleverest, and at the same
time most jfesuitical, explanation of the fact. According to their story, " The increase
in the number of the faithful decided Peter upon making Rome henceforth the centre
of his action.The cemetery of Ostrianum was too distant and would 7ioi snjffice for
of the Christians. The motive which had induced the Apostle to confer
the reunions
on Linus and Cletus successively the episcopal character, in order to render them capa-
 "I

24 IS.[S UNVEILED.

kins of Planchette would confess to the most distant relationship with the
Satanic majesty, or accredit him with the governorship of a single mch
of territory. The clergy felt their prestige growing weaker every day,
as they saw the people impatiently shaking off, in the broad daylight
of truth, the dark veils with which they had been blindfolded for so many
centuries. Then finally, fortune, which previously had been on their side
in the long-waged conflict between theology and science, deserted to
their adversary. The help of the latter to the study of the occult side of
nature was truly precious and timely, and science has unwittingly widened
the once narrow path of the phenomena into a broad highway. Had not

ble of sharing the solicitudes of a church whose extent was to be without limits, led
naturally to a multiplication of the places of meeting. The particular residence of Peter
was therefore fixed at Viminal ; and there was established that mysterious Chair, the
symbol of power and truth. The august seat which was venerated at the Ostrian Cata-
combs was not, however, removed. Peter still visited this cradle of the Roman Church,
and often, without doubt, exercised his holy functions there, A. second Chair, expressing
the same mystery as the first, was set up at Cornelia, and it is this which has come down
to us through the ages."
Now, so far from it being possible that there ever were two genuine chairs of this
kind, the majority of critics show that Peter neverwas at Rome at all ; the reasons are
many and unanswerable. Perhaps we had best begin by pointing to the works of Justin
Martyr. This great champion of Christianity, writing in the early part of the second
century in Rome, where he fixed his abode, eager to get hold of the least proof in favor
of the truth for which he suffered, seems perfectly unconscious of St. Peter'' s existence!
Neither does any other writer of any consequence mention him in connection with
the Church of Rome, earlier than the days of Irenieus, when the latter set himself to
invent a new drawn from the depths of his imagination. We refer the reader
religion,
anxious to learn more to the able work of Mr. George Reber, entitled " The Christ of
Paul." The arguments of this author are conclusive. The above article in the "Chron-
ique des Arts," speaks of the increase of the faithful to such an extent that Ostrianum
could not contain the number of Christians. Now, if Peter was at Rome at all— runs
—
Mr. Reber' s argument it must have been between the years A. D. 64 and 69 ; for at
64 he was at Babylon, from whence he %vrote epistles and letters to Rome, and at
some time between 64 and 68 (the reign of Nero) he either died a mai-tyr or in his bed,
for Irenteus makes him deliver the Church of Rome, together with Paul
( ? ) (whom !

he persecuted and quarrelled with all his life), into the hands of Linns, who became
bishop in 69 (see Reber's " Christ of Paul," p. 122). We will treat of it more fully in
chapter iii.

Now, we name of common sense, how could the faithful of Peter's

ask, in the
Church increase a rate, when Nero trapped and killed them like so many
at such
mice during his reign ? History shows the few Christians fleeing from Rome, wherever
they could, to avoid the persecution of the emperor, and the "Chronique des Arts
makes them and multiply
increase " Christ," the article goes on to say, "willed that
!

doctrmal authority of his vicar should also have its portion of

this visible sign of the
immortality ; one can follow it from age to age in the documents of the Roman Church."
TertuUian formally attests its existence in his book "De Proescriptionibus."
Eager to
learn everything concerning so interesting a subject, we would like to
be shown when
 HISTORY OF THE CHAIR OF PETER. 2$

culminated at the nick of time, we might have seen repro-

this conflict

duced on a miniature scale the disgraceful scenes of the episodes of

Salem witchcraft and the Nuns of Loudun. As it was, the clergy were
muzzled.
But if science has unintentionally helped the progress of the occult
phenomena, the latter have reciprocally aided science herself. Until
the days when newly-reincarnated philosophy boldly claimed its place in
the world, there had been but few scholars who had undertaken the difficult
task of studying comparative theology. This science occupies a domain
heretofore penetrated by few explorers. The necessity which it involved
of being well acquainted with the dead languages, necessarily limited the
number of students. Besides, there was less popular need for it so long
as people could not replace the Christian orthodoxy by something more
tangible. It is one of the most undeniable facts of psychology, that the
average man can as little exist out of a religious element of some kind,
as a fish out of the water. The voice of truth, " a voice stronger than
the voice of the mightiest thunder," speaks to the inner man in the nine-
teenth century of the Christian era, as it spoke in the corresponding
century B.C. It is a useless and unprofitable task to ofifer to humanity
the choice between a future life and annihilation. The only chance that'
remains for those friends of human progress who seek to establish for
the good of mankind a faith, henceforth stripped entirely of superstition

did Christ WILL anything of the kind ? However :

'
' Ornaments of ivory have been fitted

to the front and back of the chair, but only on those parts repaired with acacia-wood.
Those which cover the panel in front are divided into three superimposed rows, each
containing six plaques of ivory, on which are engraved various subjects, among others the
'
Labors of Hercules.' Several of the plaques were wrongly placed, and seemed to have
been affixed to the chair at a time when the remains of antiquity were employed as orna-
ments, without much regard to fitness." This is the point. The article was written
simply as a clever answer to several facts published during the present century. Bower,
in his "History of the Popes " (vol. li., p. 7), narrates that in the year 1662, while cleaning
one of the chairs, "the Twelve Labors of Hercules' unluckily appeared engraved upon it,"
'

after which the chair was removed and another substituted. But in 1795, when Bona-
parte's troops occupied Rome, the chair was again examined. This time there was
found the Mahometan confession of faith, in Arabic letters " There is no Deity
:

but Allah, and Mahomet is his Apostle." (See appendix to "Ancient Symbol- Worship,"
by H. M. Westropp and C. Staniland Wake.) In the appendix Prof. Alexander
Wilder very justly remarks as follows " We presume that the Apostle of the Circum-
:

cision, as Paul, his great rival, styles him, was never at the Imperial City, nor had a
successor there, not even in the ghetto. The
Chau- of Peter,' therefore, is sacred
'

rather than apostolical. however, from the esoteric religion of

Its sanctity proceeded,
the former times of Rome. The hierophant of the Mysteries probably occupied it on
the day of initiations, when exhibiting to the candidates the Petronia (stone tablet
containing the last revelation made by the hierophant to the neophyte for initiation)."
26 ISIS UNVEILED.
Choose
and dogmatic fetters is to address them in the words of Joshua " :

which your fathers

ye this day whom you will serve whether the gods ;

served that were on the other side of the flood, or the

gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell.'' *
"The science of religion," wrote Max Miiller in i860, "is only just
beginning. . . . years the authentic documents of
During the last fifty

the most important religions in the world have been recovered in a most
unexpected and almost miraculous mattncr.\ We
have now before us the
Canonical books of Buddhism the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster is no
;

longer a sealed book and the hymns of the Rig- Veda have revealed a
;

state of religions anterior to the first beginnings of that mythology which

in Homer and Hesiod stands before us as a mouldering ruin." \
In their insatiable desire to extend the dominion of blind faith, the
early architects of Christian theology had been forced to conceal, as
much as it was possible, the true sources of the same. To this end
they are said to have burned or otherwise destr03'ed all the original man-
uscripts on the Kabala, magic, and occult sciences upon which they
could lay their hands. They ignorantly supposed that the most danger-
ous writings of this class had perished with the last Gnostic but some ;

day they may discover their mistake. Other authentic and as important
documents will perhaps reappear in a " most unexpected and almost
miraculous manner."

* Joshua xxiv. 15.

\ One of the most surprising facts that have come under our observation, is that
students of profound research should not couple the frequent recurrence of these "un-
expected and almost miraculous " discoveries of important documents, at the most op-
portune moments, with a premeditated design. Is it so strange that the custodians of
"Pagan" lore, seeing that the proper moment had arrived, should cause the needed
document, book, or relic to fall as if by accident in the right man's way? Geological
surveyors and explorers even as competent as Humboldt and Tschuddi, have not dis-
covered the hidden mines from which the Peruvian Incas dug their treasure, although
the latter confesses that the present degenerate Indians have the secret. In 1S39, Per-
ring, the archiEologist, proposed to the sheik of an Arab village two purses of gold, if he
helped him to discover the entrance to the hidden passage leading to the sepulchral
chambers in the North Pyramid of Doshoor. But though his men were o^t of employ-
ment and half stai-ved, the sheik proudly refused to "sell the secret of the dead,"
promising to show it gratis^ when the time would come for it. Is it, then, impossible
that in some other regions of the earth are guarded the remains of that glorious litera-
ture of the past, which was the fruit of its majestic civilization ? What is there so sur-
prising in the idea ? Who knows but that as the Christian Church has unconsciously
begotten free thought by reaction against her own cruelty, rapacity, and dogmatism, the
public mind may be glad to follow the lead of the Orientalists, away from Jerusalem
and towards EUora and that then much more will be discovered that is now hidden?
;

I
" Chips from a German Workshop," vol. i., p. 373 ; Semitic Monotheism.
 —

WHAT WAS SAVED FROM THE BRUCKION. 2/

There are strange traditions current in various parts of the East

on Mount Athos and in the Desert of Nitria, for instance among —
certain monks, and with learned Rabbis in Palestine, who' pass their
lives in commenting upon the Talmud. They say that not all the rolls
and manuscripts, reported in history to have been burned by Csesar, by
the Christian mob, in 389, and by the Arab General Amru, perished as
it is commonly believed ; and the story they tell is the following At :

the time of the contest for the throne, in 51 B.C., between Cleopatra
and her brother Dionysius Ptolemy, the Bruckion, which contained over
seven hundred thousand rolls, all bound in wood and fire-proof parch-
ment, was undergoing repairs, and a great portion of the original man-
uscripts, considered among the most precious, and which were not
duplicated, were stored away in the house of one of the librarians. As
the fire which consumed the rest was but the result of accident, no pre-
cautions had been taken at the time. But they add, that several hours
passed between the burning of the fleet, set on fire by Cffisar's order,
and the moment when the first buildings situated near the harbor caught
fire in their turn and that all the librarians, aided by several hundred
;

slaves attached to the museum, succeeded in saving the most precious of

the rolls. So perfect and solid was the fabric of the parchment, that while
in some rolls the inner pages and the wood-binding were reduced to ashes,
of others the parchment binding remained unscorched. These particu-
lars were all written out in Greek, Latin, and the Chaldeo-Syriac dia-
lect, by a learned youth named Theodas, one of the scribes employed

in the museum. One of these manuscripts is alleged to be preserved

till now
in a Greek convent and the person who narrated the tradi-
;

tion to us had seen it himself. He said that many more will see it and
learn where to look for important documents, when a certain prophecy
will be fulfilled ; adding, that most of these works could be found in
Tartary and India.* The monk showed us a copy of the original, which,
of course, we could read but poorly, as we claim but little eiudition in
the matter of dead languages. But we were so particularly struck by

* An after-thought has made us fancy that we can understand what is meant by the
following sentences of Moses of Choreni: "The ancient Asiatics," says he, "five
centuries before our era —
and especially the Hindus, the Persians, and the Chaldeans,
had in their possession a quantity of historical and scientific books. These works
were partially borrowed, partially translated in the Greek language, mostly since the
Ptolemies had established the Alexandrian library and encouraged the writers by their
liberalities, so that the Greek language became the deposit of all the sciences"
(" History of Armenia"). Therefore, the greater part of the literature included in
the 700,000 volumes of the Alexandrian Library was due to India, and her next
neighbors.
28 ISIS UNVEILED.

the vivid and picturesque translation of the holy father, that we

perfectly

remember some curious paragraphs, which run, as far as we can recall

them, as follows :—" When the Queen of the Sun (Cleopatra) was
brought back to the half-ruined city, after the fire had devoured the
Glory of the World ; and when she saw the mountains of books— or
rolls— covering the half-consumed steps of the estrada ; and when she
perceived that the inside was gone and the indestructible covers alone
remained, she wept in rage and fury, and cursed the meanness of her
fathers who had grudged the cost of the real Perganios for the inside as
well as the outside of the precious rolls." Further, our author, Theodas,
indulges in a joke at the expense of the queen for believing that nearly
all was burned when, in fact, hundreds and thousands of the
the library ;

choicest books were safely stored in his own house and those of other
scribes, librarians, students, and philosophers.
No more do sundry very learned Copts scattered all over the East
in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Palestine believe in the total destruction of
the subsequent libraries. For instance, they say that out of the library
of Attains III. of Pergamus, presented by Antony to Cleopatra, not a
volume was destroyed. At that time, according to their assertions, from
the moment that the Christians began to gain power in Alexandria—
—
about the end of the fourth century and Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea,
began to insult the national gods, the Pagan philosophers and learned
theurgists adopted effective measures to preserve the repositories of
their sacred learning. Theophilus, a bishop, who left behind him the
reputation of a most rascally and mercenary villain, was accused by one
named Antoninus, a famous theurgist and eminent scholar of occult
science of Alexandria, with bribing the slaves of the Serapion to steal
books which he sold to foreigners at great prices. History tells us how
Theophilus had the best of the philosophers, in a.d. 389 and how his ;

successor and nephew, the no less infamous Cyril, butchered Hypatia.

Suidas gives us some details about Antoninus, whom he calls Anto-
nius, and his eloquent friend Olympus, the defender of the Serapion.
But history is far from being complete in the miserable remnants of

books, which, crossing so many ages, have reached our own learned cen-
tury ; it fails to give the facts relating to the first five centuries of Chris-
tianitywhich are preserved in the numerous traditions current in the
East. Unauthenticated as these may appear, there is unquestionably
in the heap of chaff much good grain. That these traditions are not
oftener communicated to Europeans is not strange, when we consider
how apt our travellers are to render themselves antagonistic to the
natives by their skeptical bearing and, occasionally, dogmatic intoler-
ance. When exceptional men like some archccologists, who knew how
 THE HIDDEN LIBRARY AT ISHMONIA. 29

to win the confidence and even friendship of certain Arabs, are

favored with precious documents, it is declared simply a " coinci-
dence." And yet there are widespread traditions of the existence of
certain subterranean, and immense galleries, in the neighborhood of
Ishmonia — the " which are stored numberless manu-
petrified City," in
scripts andFor no amount of money would the Arabs go near
rolls.

it. At night, they say, from the crevices of the desolate ruins, sunk
deep in the unwatered sands of the desert, stream the rays from lights
carried to and fro in the galleries by no human hands. The Afrites
study the literature of the antediluvian ages, according to their behef,
and the Djin learns from the magic rolls the lesson of the following
day.
The Encyclopedia Brtta?inica, in its article on Alexandria, says :

"Wlien the temple of Serapis was demolished the valuable library . . .

was pillaged or destroyed and twenty years afterwards * the empty shelves
;

excited the regret . . . etc." But it does not state the subsequent fate of
the pillaged books.
In rivalry of the fierce Mary-worshippers of the fourth century, the
modern clerical persecutors of liberalism and " heresy " would wiUingly
shut up all the heretics and their books in some modern Serapion and
burn them alive.f The cause of this hatred is natural. Modern re-
search has more than ever unveiled the secret. " Is not the worship of
saints and angels now," said Bishop Newton, years ago, " in all respects
the same that the worship of demons was in former times ? The name
only is different, the thing is identically the same the very same . . .

temples, the very same images, which were once consecrated to Jupiter
and the other demons, are now consecrated to the Virgin Mary and
other saints the whole of Paganism is converted and applied to
. . .

Popery."
\Vhy not be impartial and add that " a good portion of it was adopted
"
by Protestant religions also ?
The very apostolic designation Peter is from the Mysteries. The
hierophant or supreme pontiff bore the Chaldean title -ins, peter, or in-
terpreter. The names Phtah, Peth'r, the residence of Balaam, Patara,
and Patras, the names of oracle-cities, pateres or pateras and, perhaps,

* Bonamy says in " Le Bibliotheque d'Alexandrie," quoting, we suppose, the Pres-

byter Orosius, wlio was an eye-witness, *' thirty years later.''
)• Since the above was written, the spirit here described has been beautifully exem-
plified at Barcelona, Spain, where the Bishop Fray Joachim invited the local spiritual-
ists to witness a formal burning of spiritual books. We find the account in a paper
called " The Revelation," published at Alicante, which sensibly adds that the perform-
ance was ** a caricature of the memorable epoch of the Inquisition.'*
30 TSIS UNVEILED.

Buddha,* all come from the same root. Jesus says :

" Upon this pdra I

will build Church, and the gates, or rulers of Hades, shall not prevail
my
against it " meaning by petra the rock-temple, and by metaphor, the
;

Christian Mysteries the adversaries to which were the old mystery-gods

;

of the underworld, who were worshipped in the rites of Isis, Adonis,

Atys, Sabazius, Dionysus, and the Eleusinia. No apostle Peter was ever
at Rome ; but the Pope, seizing the sceptre of the Pontifex Maximus, the
keys of Janus and Kubel6, and adorning his Christian head with the cap
of the Magna Mafer, copied from that of the tiara of Brahmatma, the
Supreme Pontiff of the Initiates of old India, became the successor of
the Pagan high priest, the real Peter-Roma, or Petroma.\
The Roman Catholic Church has two far mightier enemies than the
" heretics " and the " infidels " and these are Couiparative Mythology
; —
and Philology. When such eminent divines as the Rev. James Free-
man Clarke go so much out of their way to prove to their readers that
" Critical Theology from the time of Origen and Jerome and the . . .

Controversial Theology during fifteen centuries, has not consisted in

accepting on authority the opinions of other people," but has shown,
on the contrary, much "acute and comprehensive reasoning," we can but
regret that somuch scholarship should have been wasted in attempting
to prove that which a fair survey of the history of theology upsets at
every step. In these "controversies" and critical treatment of the doc-
trines of theChurch one can certainly find any amount of " acute rea-
soning," but farmore of a still acuter sophistry.
Recently the mass of cumulative evidence has been reinforced to an
extent which leaves little, if any, room for further controversy. A con-
clusive opinion is furnished by too many scholars to doubt the fact that
India was the Alma-]\Tater, not only of the civilization, arts, and sciences,
but also of all the great religions of antiquity ;
Judaism, and hence
Christianity, included. Herder places the cradle of humanity in India,
and shows Moses as a clever and relatively wz^^^/^rw compiler of the ancient
Brahmanical traditions " The river which encircles the country (India)
:

is the sacred Ganges, which all Asia considers as the paradisaical river.

There, also, is the biblical Gihon, which is none else but the Indus.
The Arabs call it so unto this day, and the names of the countries watered
by it are yet existing among the Hindus." Jacolliot claims to have
translated every ancient palm-leaf manuscript which he had the fortune
of being allowed by the Brahmans of the pagodas to see. In one of liis

* E. PococUe gives the variations of the name Buddha as : Bud'ha, Buddha, Booddha,
Butta, Pout, Pote, Pto, Pte, Phte, Phtha, Phut, etc., etc. See "India in Greece,"
Note, Appendix, 397.
\ The tiara of the Pope is also a perfect copy of that of the Dalai- Lama of Thibet.
 ORIGIN OF THE PAPAL TIARA AND KEYS. '
31

translations, we found passages which reveal to us the undoubted origin

of the keys of St. Peter, and account for the subsequent adoption of the
symbol by their Holinesses, the Popes of Rome.
He shows us, on the testimony of the Agrouchada Parikshai, which
he freely translates as " the Book oj Spirits " (Pitris), that centuries
before our era the initiates of the temple chose a Superior Council, pre-
sided over by the Brahm-titma or supreme chief of all these Initiates.
That this pontificate, which could be exercised only by a Brahman who
had reached the age of eighty years * that the Brahm-atnia was sole
;

guardian of the mystic formula, resume of every science, contained jn the

three mysterious letters,

U IVI

which signify creation, conservation, and transformation. He alone

could expound its meaning in the presence of the initiates of the third
and supreme degree. Whomsoever among these initiates revealed to a
profane a single one of the truths, even the smallest of the secrets en-
trusted to his care, was put to death. He who received the confidence
had to share his fate.
crown this able system," says JacoUiot, "there existed a
"Finally, to
word more superior to the mysterious monosyllable A U M, and
still —
which rendered him who came into the possession of its key nearly the
equal of Brahma himself. The Brahm-4tma alone possessed this key,
and transmitted it in a sealed casket to his successor.
" This unknown word, of which no human power could, even to-day,
when the Brahmanical authority has been crushed under the Mongolian
and European invasions, to-day, when each pagoda has its Brahm-atma, f
force the disclosure, was engraved in a golden triangle and preserved in
a sa,nctuary of the temple of Asgartha, whose Brahm-atma alone held the
keys. He also bore upon his tiara two crossed keys supported by two
kneeling Brahmans, symbol of the precious deposit of which he had the
keeping. . . . This word and were engraved upon the tablet
this triangle

of the ring that this religious chief wore as one of the signs of his dig-
nity ; it was also framed in a golden sun on the altar, where every morn-
ing the Supreme Pontiff offered the sacrifice of the sarvameda, or sacri-
fice to all the forces of nature." t

* It is the traditional policy of the College of Cardinals to elect, whenever practi-

cable, the new Pope among the oldest valetudinarians. The hierophant of the Eleusi-
nia was likewise always an old man, and unmarried.
This is not correct.
•f
| " Le Spiritisme dans le Monde," p. 28.
 :

32 •
ISIS UNVEILED.

enough ? And will the Catholics still maintain that it

Is this clear
M-as theBrahraans of 4,000 years ago who copied the ritual, symbols, and
dress of the Roman Pontiffs ? We would not feel in the least surprised.
Without going very far back into antiquity for comparisons, if we only
stop at the fourth and centuries of our era, and contrast the so-called
fifth

"heathenism" of the third Neo-platonic Eclectic School with the grow-

ing Christianity, the result may not be favorable to the latter. Even at
that early period,when the new religion had hardly outlined its contra-
dictory when the champions of the bloodthirsty Cyril knew not
dogmas ;

themselves whether Mary was to become " the Mother of God," or rank
as a " demon " in company with Isis when the memory of the meek and ;

lowly Jesus still lingered lovingly in every Christian heart, and his words
of mercy and charity vibrated still in the air, even then the Christians
were outdoing the Pagans in every kind of ferocity and religious intoler-
ance.
And we look still farther back, and seek for examples of true
if

Christism, in ages when Buddhism had hardly superseded Brahmanism in

India, and the name of Jesus was only to be pronounced three centuries
later, what do we find ? Which of the holy pillars of the Church has ever
elevated himself to the level of religious tolerance and noble simplicity
of character of some heathen ?
Compare, for instance, the Hindu
Asoka, who lived 300 and the Carthaginian St. Augustine, who flour-
B.C.,
ished three centuries after Christ. According to Max Miiller, this is
what is found engraved on the rocks of Girnar, Dhauli, and Kapurdigiri
" Piyadasi, the king beloved of the gods, desires that the ascetics of
all creeds might reside in all places. All these ascetics profess alike the
command which people should exercise over themselves, and the purity
of the soul. But people have different opinions and different inclina-
tions."
And here is what Augustine wrote after his baptism :
" Wondrous
depth of thy words whose surface, behold
! ! is before us, inviting to

little ones ;
yet are they a wondrous depth, O my God, a wondrous
depth is awful to look therein
! It yes ... an awfulness of honor, ;

and a trembling of love. Thy enemies [read Pagans] thereof I hate

vehemently Oh, that thou wouldst slay them with thy two-edged sword,
;

that they might no longer be enemies to it ; for so do I love to have them

slain." *
Wonderful spirit of Christianity ; and that from a Manichean con-
verted to the religion of one who even on his cross prayed for his ene-
mies !

* Translated by Prof. Draper for "Conflict between Religion and Science;"

book xii.
 THE ANCIENT OF DAYS. 33

Who the enemies of the "Lord" were, according to the Christians, is

not difficult to surmise ; the few inside the Augustinian fold werg His new
childrenand favorites, who had supplanted in His affections the sons of
His " chosen people." The rest of mankind were His natural foes.
Israel,

The teeming multitudes of heathendom were proper food for the flames
of hell; the handful within the Church communion, "heirs of salvation."
But if such a prescriptive policy was just, and its enforcement was
" sweet savor " in the nostrils of the " Lord," why not scorn also the
Pagan rites and philosophy ? Why draw so deep from the wells of wisdom,
dug and filled up to brim by the same heathen ? Or did the fathers, in
their desire to imitate the chosen people whose time-worn shoes they
were trying to fit upon their feet, contemplate the reenaction of the
spoliation-scene of the Exodus 1 Did they propose, in fleeing from
heathendom as the Jews did from Egypt, to carry off the valuables of its
religious allegories, as the "chosen ones" did the gold and silver orna-
ments ?
does seem as if the events of the first centuries of Chris-
It certainly
tianity were but the reflection of the images thrown upon the mirror of
the future at the time of the Exodus. During the stormy days of Irenaeus,
the Platonic philosophy, with its mystical submersion into Deity, was not
so obnoxious after all to the new doctrine as to prevent the Christians
from helping themselves to its abstruse metaphysics in every way and
manner. Allying themselves with the ascetical theurapeut» forefathers —
and models of the Christian monks and hermits, it was in Alexandria, let
it be remembered, that they laid the first foundations of the purely Pla-

tonic trinitarian doctrine. It became the Plato-Philonean doctrine later,

and such as we find it now. Plato considered the divine nature under a
three-fold modification of the First Cause, the reason or Logos, and the
soul or spirit of the universe. "The three archial or original principles,"
says Gibbon,* " were represented in the Platonic system as three gods,
united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation." Blend-
ing this transcendental idea with the more hypostatic figure of the Logos
of Philo, whose doctrine was that of the oldest Kabala, and who viewed
the King Messiah, as the metatron, or "the angel of the Lord," the
Legatus descended in flesh, but not the Ancient of Days Himself; f the
Christians clothed with this mythical representation of the Mediator for
the fallen race of Adam, Jesus, the son of Mary. Under this unexpected
garb his personality was all but lost. In the modern Jesus of the Chris-
tian Church, we find the ideal of the imaginative Iren?eus, not the adept

* " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

f
" Sohar Comment.," Gen. xl. lo; " Kabbal. Denud.," i., 528.

3
 34 ISIS UNVEILED.

of the Essenes, the obscure reformer from Galilee. see him under We
the disfigured Plato-Philonean mask, not as the disciples heard him on
the mount.
So far then the heathen philosophy had helped them in the building
of the principal dogma. But when the theurgists of the third Neo-pla-
tonic school, deprived of their ancient Mysteries, strove to blend the
doctrines of Plato with those of Aristotle, and by combining the two
philosophies added to their theosophy the primeval doctrines of the
Oriental Kabala, then the Christians from rivals became persecutors.
Once that the metaphysical allegories of Plato were being prepared to be
discussed in pubhc in the form of Grecian dialectics, all the elaborate
system of the Christian trinity would be unravelled and the divine pres-
tige completely upset. The eclectic school, reversing the order, had
adopted the inductive method and this method became its death-knell.
;

Of all things on earth, logic and reasonable explanations vie.T?: the most
hateful to the new religion of mystery for they threatened to unveil the
;

whole ground-work of the trinitarian conception ; to apprise the multi-

tude of the doctrine of emanations, and thus destroy the unity of the
whole. It could not be permitted, and it was not. History records the

ChristVik.& means that were resorted to.

The
universal doctrine of emanations, adopted from time immemo-
rial by the greatest schools which taught the kabalistic, Alexandrian, and
Oriental philosophers, gives the key to that panic among the Christian
fathers. That spirit of Jesuitism and clerical craft, which prompted
Parkhurst, many centuries later, to suppress in his Hebrew Lexicon thS
true meaning of the word of Genesis, originated in those days of
first

war against the expiring Neo-platonic and eclectic school. The fathers
had decided to pervert the meaning of the word " daimon," * and they
dreaded above all to have the esoteric and true meaning of the word
Rasit unveiled to the multitudes for if once the true sense of this
;

sentence, as well as that of the Hebrew word asdt (translated in the

Septuagint angels" while it means emanations),! were understood
^^

rightly, the mystery of the Christian trinity would have crumbled, carry-
ing in its downfall the new religion into the same heap of ruins with the
ancient Mysteries. This is the true reason why dialecticians, as well as

Aristotle himself, "prying philosopher," were ever obnoxious to

the
Christian theology. Even Luther, while on his work of reform, feeling
the ground insecure under his feet, notwithstanding that the dogmas had

* " The beings which the philosophers of other peoples distinguish

by the name
' Dfemons,' Moses names ' Angels,' " sa)'S Philo Judfeus. —
" De Gigant," i. 253.
f Deuteronomy xxxiii. 2., mC'X is translated "fiery law" in the English Bible.
 —

ORPHEAN VIEWS OF ETHER. 35

been reduced by him to their simplest expression, gave full vent to his
fear and hatred for Aristotle. The amount of abuse he heaped ifpon the
memory of the great logician can only be equalled never surpassed —
by the Pope's anathemas and invectives against the liberals of the Italian
government. Compiled together, they might easily fill a copy of a nevv
encycloptedia with models for monkish diatribes.
Of course
the Christian clergy can never get reconciled with a doc-
trinebased on the application of strict logic to discursive reasoning ?
The number of those who have abandoned theology on this account has
never been made known. They have asked questions and been forbid-
den to ask them ; hence, separation, disgust, and often a despairing
plunge into the abyss of atheism. The Orphean views of ether as chief
medium betwee?i God and created matter were likewise denounced. The
Orphic ^ther recalled too vividly the Archeus, the Soul of the World,
and the latter was in its metaphysical sense as closely related to the
—
emanations, being the first manifestation Sephira, or Divine Light.
And when could the latter be more feared than at that critical moment ?
Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Chalcidius, Methodius, and Maimoni-
des, on the authority of the Targum of Jerusalem, the orthodox and
greatest authority of the Jews, held that the first two words in the book
of Genesis — b-rasit, mean lVisdoi?i, or the Principle. And that the
idea of these words meaning " in the beginning "
was never shared but
by the profane, who were not allowed to penetrate any deeper into the
esoteric sense of the sentence. Beausobre, and after him Godfrey Hig-
gins, have demonstrated the fact. " All things," says the Kabala, " are
derived from one great Principle, and this principle is the unknown and

invisible God. From Him a substantia^ power immediately proceeds,

which is the image of God, and the source of all subsequent emanations.
This second principle sends forth, by the energy {or will s^nA force) oi
emanation, other natures, which are more or less perfect, according to
their different degrees of distance, in the scale of emanation, from the
First Source of existence, and which constitute different worlds, or orders
of being, all united to the eternal power from which they proceed.
Matter is nothing more than the most remote of the emanative energy
effect
of the Deity. The form from the immediate
material world receives its

agency of powers far beneath the First Source of Being * Beausobre f . . .

makes St. Augustine the Manichean say thus 'And if by Rasit we :

^understand the active Principle of the creation, instead of its beginning,

,in such a case we will clearly perceive that Moses never meant to say

* See Rees's " Encyclopcedia," art. Kabala.

\ " Histor. Manich.," Liv. vi., ch. i., p. 291.
 —

36 ISIS UNVEILED.

heaven and earth were the first works of God. He only

said t
that
created heaven and earth through the Principle, who is
His Son.
God
is not the timeht points to, but to the immediate
author of the creatu
Angels, according to Augustine, were created before the firmament, f
according to the esoteric interpretation, the heaven and earth were c
ated after that, evolving from the second Principle or the Logos
creative Deity. " The word principle," says Beausobre, " does i

mean that the heaven and earth were created before anything else, i

to begin with, the angels were created before that ; but that God i

everything through His Wisdom, which is His Verbum, and which I

Christian Bible named the Beginning" thus adopting the exoteric me

ing of the word abandoned to the multitudes. —
The Kabala the C
ental as well as the Jewish — shows that a number of emanations (l

Jewish Sephiroth) issued from the First Principle, the chief of whi
was Wisdom. This Wisdom is the Logos of Philo, and Michael, t
chief of the Gnostic Eons it is the Ormazd of the Persians ; Minen
;

goddess of wisdom, of the Greeks, who emanated from the head

Jupiter ; and the second Person of the Christian Trinity. The eai

Fathers of the Church had not much to exert their imagination ; tli

found a ready-made doctrine that had existed in every theogony for thi
sands of years before the Christian era. Their trinity is but the trio
Sephiroth, the first three kabalistic lights of which Moses Nachmanic
says, that " they have never been seen by any one ; there is not any def(
in them, nor any disunion." The first eternal number is the Father,
the Chaldean primeval, invisible, and incomprehensible chaos, out
which proceeded the Intelligible one. The Egyptian Phtah, or "t
—
Principle of Light not the, light itself, and the Principle of Li
though himself no life." The Wisdom by which the Father created ti

heavens is the Son, or the kabalistic androgynous Adam Kadmo

The Son is at once the male Ra, or Light of Wisdom, Prudence or Int
ligcnce, Sephira, the female part of Himself while from this dual beii
;

proceeds ;he third emanation, the, Binah or Reason, the second Intel
—
gence the Holy Ghost of the Christians. Therefore, strictly speakit
there is a Tetraktis or quaternary, consisting of the Unintelligit
First monad, and its triple emanation, which properly constitute o
Trinity.
How then avoid perceiving at once, that had not the Christians pi

posely disfigured in their interpretation and translation the Mosaic Gena

to fit their own views, their religion, with its present dogmas, would ha'
been impossible ? The word Rasit, once taught in its new sense of tl

Principle and not the Beginning, and the anathematized doctrine (

emanations accepted, the position of the second trinitarian personal
 —

THE FIRST EMANATION OF EN-SOPH. 3/

becomes untenable. For, if the angels are the first divine emanations
from the Divine Substance, and were in existence before the Second
Principle, then the anthropomorphized Son is at best an emanation like
themselves, and cannot be God hypostatically any more than our visible
works are ourselves. That these metaphysical subtleties never entered
into tlie head of the honest-minded, sincere Paul, is evident as it is fur- ;

thermore evident, that like all learned Jews he was well acquainted with
the doctrine of emanations and never thought of corrupting it. How
can any one imagine that Paul identified the Son with the Father, when
"
he tells us that God made Jesus " a little lower than the angels
{Hebrews ii. 9), and a little higher than Moses " For this man was !

counted worthy of more glory than Moses" {Hebrews iii. 3). Of what-
ever, or how many forgeries, interlined later in the Acts, the Fathers are
guilty we know not btlt that Paul never considered Christ more than
;

a man " full of the Spirit of God " is but too evident " In the arche :

was the Logos, and the Logos was adnate to the Theos."
Wisdom, the first emanation of En-Soph ; the Protogonos, the Hy-
postasis ; the Adam Kadmon of the kabalist, the Brahma of the Hindu ;

the Logos of Plato, and the "Beginning" of St. John — is the Rasit
n-csn, of the Book of Genesis. If rightly interpreted it overturns, as we
have remarked, the whole elaborate system of Christian theology, for
it proves that behind the creative Deity, there was a higher god a ;

planner, an architect ; and that the former was but His executive agent
— a simple power !

They persecuted the Gnostics, murdered the philosophers, and burned

the kabalists and the masons ; and when the day of the great reckoning
arrives, and the light shines in darkness, what will they have to offer in
the place of the departed, expired religion ? What will they answer,
these pretended monotheists, these worshippers and /j^«^i!'- servants of
the one living God, to their Creator ? How will they account for this
long persecution of them who were the true followers of the grand
Megalistor, the supreme great master of the Rosicrucians, the first
of masons. " For he is the Builder and Architect of the Teniple of the
universe He is the Verbum Sapienti." *
;

" Every one knows," wrote the great Manichean of the third century,
.. Fauste, " that the Evangeliums were written neither by Jesus Christ,

" The altogether mystical coloring of Christianity harmonized with the Essene
•

rules of lifeand opinions, and it is not improbable that Jesus and John the Baptist
were initiated into the Essene Mysteries, to which Christianity may be indebted for
many a form of expression as indeed the community of Therapeuts!, an offspring of
;

, the Essene order, soon belonged wholly to Christianity " ("Yost," i., 411 quoted by —
the author of " Sod, the Son of the Man ").
 38 ISIS UNVEILED.

nor his apostles, but long after their time by some unknown persons,
who, judging well that they would hardly be beHeved when telhng of
things they had not seen themselves, headed their narratives with the
names of the apostles or of disciples contemporaneous with the latter."
Commenting upon the subject, A. Franck, the learned Hebrew
scholar of the Institute and translator of the Kabala, expresses the same
idea. " Are we not authorized," he asks, " to view the Kabala as a
precious remnant of rehgious philosophy of the Orient, which, trans-
ported into Alexandria, got mixed to the doctrine of Plato, and under the
usurped name of Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens, converted
and consecrated by St. Paul, was thus enabled to penetrate into the

mysticism of the mediceval ages ? " *

Says Jacolliot " What is then this religious philosophy of the
: Orient,

which has penetrated into the mystic symbolism of Christianity ? We

answer This philosophy, the traces of which we find among the Ma-
:

gians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Hebrew kabalists and the Chris-
tians, is none other than that of the Hindu Brahraans, the sectarians of
the pitris, or the spirits of the invisible worlds which surround us." f
But if the Gnostics were destroyed, the Gnosis, based on the secret

science of sciences, still lives. It is the earth which helps the woman,
and which is destined to open her mouth to swallow up mediaeval Chris-

tianity, the usurper and assassin of the great master's doctrine. The
ancient Kabala, the Gnosis, or traditional secret knowledge, was never
withoutits representatives in any age or country. The trinities of initiates,

whether passed into history or concealed under the impenetrable veil of

mystery, are preserved and impressed throughout the ages. They are

known as Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur,

and Pythagoras, etc. At the Transfiguration we see them

as Plato, Philo,
as Jesus, Moses, and Elias, the three Trismegisti and three kabalists, ;

Peter, James, and John —

whose revelation is the key to all wisdom. We
found them in the twilight of Jewish history as Zoroaster, Abraham, and
Terah, and later as Henoch, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Who, of those who ever studied the ancient philosophies, who under-

stand intuitionally the grandeur of their conceptions, the boundless subli-

mity of their views of the Unknown Deity, can hesitate for a moment to

give the preference to their doctrines over the incomprehensible dog-

matic and contradictory theology of the hundreds of Christian sects?
Who that ever read Plato and fathomed his To 'Ov, " whom no person lias
seen except the Son," can doubt that Jesus was a disciple of the same

* A. Franck: "Die Kabbala."

f
" Le Spiritisme dans le Monde."
 PLATO'S PRUDENT RESERVE. 39

secret doctrine whichhad instructed the great philosopher ? For, as we

have shown before now, Plato never claimed to be the inventor of all
tliat he wrote, but gave credit for it to Pythagoras, who, ia his turn,

pointed to the remote East as the source whence he derived his informa-
tion and Colebrooke shows that Plato confesses it in his
his philosophy.
epistles, and says
he has taken his teachings from ancient and sacred
that
doctrines * Moreover, it is undeniable that the theologies of all the
!

great nations dovetail together and show that each is a part of " one
stupendous whole." Like the rest of the initiates we see Plato taking
great pains to conceal the true meaning of his allegories. Every time
the subject touches the greater secrets of the Oriental Kabala, secret of
the true cosmogony of the universe and of the ideal, preexisting world,
Plato shrouds his philosophy in the profoundest darkness. His Timaus
is so confused that no one but an
can understand the secret initiate
meaning. And Mosheim thinks that Philo has filled his works with pas-
sages directly contradicting each other for the sole purpose of concealing
the true doctrine. For once we see a critic on the right track.
And this very trinitarian idea, as well as the so bitterly denounced
doctrine of emanations, whence ? The answer is
their remotest origin
easy, and every proof is now
In the sublime and profoundest
at hand.
of all philosophies, that of the universal " Wisdom-Religion," the first
traces of which, historical research now finds in the old pre-Vedic
religion of India. As the much-abused JacoUiot well remarks, " It is not
in the religiousworks of antiquity, such as the Vedas, the Zend Avesta,
the Bible, that we have to search for the exact expression of the enno-
bling and sublime beliefs of those epochs." f
" The holy primitive syllable, composed of the three letters
A—U — M., in which is contained the Vedic Trimurti (Trinity), must
be kept secret, like another triple Veda," says Manu, in book xi., sloka
265.
Swayambhouva is the unrevealed Deity it is the Being existent
;

through and of itself; he is the central and immortal germ of all that
exists in the universe. Three trinities emanate and are confounded in
him, forming a Supreme unity. These trinities, or the triple Trijnurti,
are : the Nara, Nari, and Viradyi the initial triad — the Agni, Vaya, and ;

Sourya — the manifested Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the creative triad.
tT\3.A;

Each of these triads becomes less metaphysical and more adapted to

the vulgar intelligence as it descends. Thus the last becomes but the
symbol in its concrete expression ; the necessarianism of a purely meta-

• " Asiat. Trans.," i. p. 579.

,

f Louis JacoUiot : " The Initiates of the Ancient Temples."

40 ISIS UNVEILED.

physical conception. Together with Swayambhouva, they are the ten

Sephiroth of the Hebrew kabaHsts, the ten Hindu Prajapatis— the
En-Soph of the former, answering to the great Unknown, expressed by
the mystic AU M of the latter.
Says Franck, the translator of the Kabala :
" The ten Sephiroth are divided into iAree classes, each of them
presenting to us the divinity under a different aspect, the whole still
remaining an indivisible Tri7iity,
"The first three Sephiroth are purely intellectual in metaphysics,
they express the absolute identity of existence and thought, and form
what the modern kabalists called the intelligible world — which is the
first manifestation of God.
" The three that follow, make us conceive God in one of their

aspects, as the identity of goodness and wisdom ; in the other they show
to us, in the Supreme good, the origin of beauty and magnificence (in

the creation). Therefore, they are named the virtues, or the sensible
world.
" Finally, we learn, by the last three Sephiroth, that the Universal
Providence, that the Supreme artist is also absolute Force, the all-

powerful cause, and that, at the same time, this cause is the generative
element of all that is. It is these last Sephiroth that constitute the
natural world, or nature in its essence and in its active principle.
Naiura naturans." *

This kabalistic conception is thus proved identical with that of the

Hindu philosophy. "Whoever reads Plato and his Dialogue Timasus,

will find these ideas as faithfully re-echoed by the Greek philosopher,
Moreover, the injunction of secrecy was as strict with the kabaHsts, as
with the initiates of the Adyta and the Hindu Yogis.
" Close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery),
and thy heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud and if thy heart has es- ;

caped thee, bring it back to its place, for such is the object of our alli-
ance " {Sepher Jezireh, Book
of Creation).
" This is a secret which gives death : close thy mouth lest thou
shouldst reveal to the vulgar ; compress thy brainsomething should
lest
escape from it and fall outside " (Agrouchada-Parikshai).
Truly the fate of many a future generation hung on a gossamer thread,
in the days of the third and fourth centuries. Had not the Emperor
sent in 389 to Alexandria a rescript — which was forced from him by the
Christians — for the destruction of every idol, our own century would
never have had a Christian mythological Pantheon of its own. Never

* Franck : "Die Kabbala."

 —
MARY-VIRGIN ONLY ISIS RECHRISTENED. 41

did the Neo-platonic school reach such a height of philosophy as when

nearest Uniting the mystic theosophy of old Egypt with the
its end.
refined philosophy of the Greeks nearer to the ancient Mysteries of
;

Thebes and Memphis than they had been for centuries versed in the ;

science of soothsaying and divination, as in the art of the Therapeutists ;

friendly with the acutest men of the Jewish nation, who were deeply
imbued with the Zoroastrian ideas, the Neo-platonists tended to amal-
gamate the old wisdom of the Oriental Kabala with the more refined
conceptions of the Occidental Theosophists. Notwithstanding the
treason of the Christians, who saw fit, for political reasons, after the days
of Constantine, to repudiate their tutors, the influence of the new
Platonic philosophy is conspicuous in the subsequent adoption of
dogmas, the origin of which can be traced but too easily to that remark-
able school. Though mutilated and disfigured, they still preserve a
strong family likeness, which nothing can obliterate.
But, ifknowledge of the occult powers of nature opens the
the
spiritual man, enlarges his intellectual faculties, and leads him
sight of
unemngly to a profounder veneration for the Creator, on the other hand
ignorance, dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and a childish fear of looking to
the bottom of things, invariably leads to fetish-worship and superstition.
When Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, had openly embraced the
cause of Isis, the Egyptian goddess, and had anthropomorphized her into
!Mary, the mother of God and the trinitarian controversy had taken
;

place from that moment the Egyptian doctrine of the emanation of the
;

creative God out of Emepht began to be tortured in a thousand ways,

until the Councils had agreed upon the adoption of it as it now stands
the disfigured Ternary of the kabalistic Solomon and Philo But as !

its origin was yet too evident, the Word was no longer called the
"Heavenly man," the primal Adaxn Kadmon, but became the Logos
Christ, and was made as old as the " Ancient of the Ancient," his
father. The concealed WISDOM became identical with its emanation,
the Divine Thought, and made to be regarded coequal and coeternal
with its first manifestation.
If we now stop to consider another of the fundamental dogmas of
Christianity, the doctrine of atonement, we may trace it as easilyback to
heathendom. This corner-stone of a Church which had believed herself
built on a firm rock for long centuries, is now excavated by science and
proved to come from the Gnostics. Professor Draper shows it as hardly
known in the days of TertuUian, and as having "originated among the
Gnostic heretics." * We will not permit ourselves to contradict such a

* See " Conflict between Religion and Science," p. 224.

42 ISIS UNVEILED.

learned authority, farther than to state that it originated among them

no more than their "anointed" Christos and Sophia.
The former
they modelled on the original of the " King Messiah," the
male prmci-
ple of wisdom, and the latter on the third Sephiroth, from the Chaldean
Kabala,* and even from the Hindu Brahma and Sara-asvati, f and
the

Pagan Dionysus and Demeter. And here we are on firm ground, if it

were only because it is now proved that the New Testament

never
we now, 300 years
appeared in its complete form, such as find it till

after the period of apostles, \ and the Sohar and other kabalistic books
are found to belong to the first century before our era, if not to be far
older still.

The Gnostics entertained many of the Essenean ideas; and the

Essenes had their "greater" and "minor" Mysteries at least two centu-
ries before our era. They were the Isarim or Initiates, the descendants
of the Egyptian hierophants, in whose country they had been settled for
several centuries before they were converted to Buddhistic monasticism by
the missionaries of King Asoka, and amalgamated later with the earhest
Christians and they existed, probably, before the old Egyptian temples
;

were desecrated and ruined in the incessant invasions of Persians, Greeks,

and other conquering hordes. The hierophants had their atonement
enacted in the Mystery of Initiation ages before the Gnostics, or even
the Essenes, had appeared. It was known among hierophants as the Bap-
tism OF Blood, and was considered not as an atonement for the " fall of
man " in Eden, but simply as an expiation for the past, present, and future
sins of ignorant but nevertheless polluted mankind. The hierophant
had the option of either offering his pure and sinless life as a sacrifice for
his race to the gods whom he hoped to rejoin, or an animal victim. The
former depended entirely on their own will. At the last moment of the
solemn "new birth," the initiator passed "the word" to the initiated, and
immediately after that the latter had a weapon placed in his right hand,
and was ordered to strike. § This is the true origin of the Christian dogma
of atonement.

* See "Soliar;" " Kab. Den.;" "The Book of Mystery," the oldest book
of the kabalists; and Milman "History of Christianity," pp. 212, 213-215.
:

Milman :
" History of Christianity," p. 2S0. The Kurios and Kora are men-
f
tioned repeatedly in " Justin Martyr." See p. 97.
:j; .See Okhausen :
" Biblischer Commentar iiber sammtliche Schriften des Neuen
Testaments," ii.

§ There is a wide-spread superstition among the Slavonians and Rus-

( ? ), especially
sians, that the magician or wizard cannot he has passed the "word" to a
die before
successor. So deeply is it rooted among the popular beliefs, that we do not imagine
there is a person in Russia who has not heard of it. It is but too easy to trace the
origin of this superstition to the old Mysteries wliich had been for ages spread all over
 THE sorcerer's TERRIFYING DEATH-BED. 43

Verily the " Christs " of the pre-Christian ages were many. But they
died unknown to the world, and disappeared as silently and as mysteri-
ously from the sight of man as Mos-es from the top of Pisgab, the moun-
tain of Nebo (oracular wisdom), after he had laid his hands upon Joshua,
who thus became "full of the spirit of wisdom "(z.(?., initiated).
Nor does the Mystery of the Eucharist pertain to Christians alone.
Godfrey Higgins proves that it was instituted many hundreds of years
before the " Paschal Supper," and says that " the sacrifice of bread and

the globe. The ancient Variago-Rouss had his Mysteries in the North as well as in
the South of Russia; and there are many relics of the by-gone faith scattered in the
lands watered by the sacred Dnieper, the baptismal Jordan of all Russia. No Zn&char
(the knowing one) or Koldoun (sorcerer), male or female, can die in fact before he has
passed the mysterious word to some one. The popular belief is that unless he does that
he will linger and suffer for weeks and months, and were he even finally to get liberated,
it would be only to wander on earth, unable to quit its region unless he finds a successor

even after death. How far the belief may be verified by others, we do not know, but
we have seen a case which, for its tragical and mysterious dhtoument, deserves to be given
here as an illustration of the subject in hand. An old man, of over one hundred years
of age, a peasant-serf in the government of S having a wide reputation as a sorcerer
,

and healer, was said to be dying for several days, and still unable to die. The report
spread like lightning, and the poor old fellow was shunned by even the members of his
own family, as the latter were afraid of receiving the unwelcome inheritance. At last
the public rumor in the village was that he had sent a message to a colleague less versed
than himself in the art, and who, although he lived in a distant district, was nevertheless
coming at the call, and would be on hand early on the following morning. There was
at that time on a visit to the proprietor of the village a young physician who, belonging
to the famous school of Nihilism of that day, laughed outrageously at the idea. The
master of the house, being a very pious man, and but half inclined to make so cheap
— —
of the ** superstition,'* smiled as the saying goes but with one corner of his mouth.
Meanwhile the young skeptic, to gratify his curiosity, had made a visit to the dying
man, had found that he could not live twenty-four hours longer, and, determined to
prove the absurdity of the " superstition," had taken means to detain the coming "suc-
cessor " at a neighboring village.
Early in the morning a company of four persons, comprising the physician, the mas-
ter of the place, his daughter, and the writer of the present lines, went to the hut in
which was to be achieved the triumph of skepticism. The dying man was expecting his
liberator every moment, and his agony at the delay became extreme. We tried to per-
suade the physician to humor the patient, were it for humanity's sake. He only laughed.
Getting hold with one hand of the old wizard's pulse, he took out his watch with the
other, and remarking in French that all would be over in a few moments, remained ab-
sorbed in his professional experiment. The scene was solemn and appalling. Suddenly
the door opened, and a young boy entered with the intelligence, addressed to the doctor,
that the ioum was lying dead drunk at a neighboring village, and, according to his
orders, could not be with "grandfather" till the next day. The young doctor felt
confused, and was just going to address the old man, when, as quick as lightn-ng, the
Znachar snatched his hand from his grasp and raised himself in bed. His deep-sunken
eyes flashed ; his yellow-white beard and hair streaming round his livid face made him a
44 ISIS UNVEILED.

wine was common to many ancient nations."* Cicero mentions it m

his

works, and wonders at the strangeness of the rite. There had been an
esoteric meaning attached to it from the first estabUshment of the Mys-
teries,and the Eucharistia is one of the oldest rites of antiquity. With
the hierophants it had nearly the same significance as with the Chris-
tians. Ceres was bread, and Bacchus was wine ; the former meaning re-
generation of life from the seed, and the latter- the grape the emblem — —
of wisdom and knowledge the accumulation of the spirit of things, and
;

the fermentation and subsequent strength of that esoteric knowledge

being justly symbolized by wine. The mystery related to the drama of
Eden ; it is have been first taught by Janus, who was also the first
said to
to introduce in the temples the sacrifices of " bread " and " wine " in com-
memoration of the "fall into generation" as the symbol of the "seed."
" I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman," says Jesus, alluding
to the secret knowledge that could be imparted by him. " I will drink
no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the
kingdom of God."
The festival of the Eleusinian Mysteries began in the month of Boe-
dromion, which corresponds with the month of September, the time of
grape-gathering, and lasted from the 15th to the 22d of the month, seven
days.f The Hebrew festival of the Eeast of Tabernacles began on the
15th and ended on the 22d of the month of Ethanim, which Dunlap
shows as derived, from Adonim, Adonia, Attenim, Ethanim \ and this ;

feast is named in Exodus (xxiii. 16) the feast of ingatherings. "All the
men of Israel assembled unto King Solomon at the feast in the month
Ethanim, which is the seventh." §
Plutarch thinks the feast of the booths to be the Bacchic rites, not

dreadful sight. One instant more, sinewy arms were clasped romid the
and his long,
physician's neck, as with a supernatural force he drew the doctor's head closer and closer
to his own face, where he held liim as in a vise, while whisperhig words inaudible to us
in his ear. The skeptic struggled to free himself, but before he had lime to make one
effective motion the work had evidently been done ; the hands relaxed their grasp, and
the old sorcerer fell on his back a corpse —
A strange and ghostly smile had settled on
!

—
the stony lips a smile of fiendish triumph and satisfied revenge but the doctor looked ;

paler and more ghastly than the dead man himself. He stared round with an expression
of terror difficult to describe, and without answering our inquiries ruslied out wildly from
the hut, in the direction of the woods. Messengers were sent after him, but he was
nowhere to be found. About sunset a report was heard in the forest. An hour later
his body was brought home, with a bullet through his head, for the skeptic had blown
out his brains !

What made him commit suicide ? What magic spell of sorcery had the " word " of
the dying wizard left on his mind ? Who can tell ?
* " Anacalypsis ; " also Tertullian. \ " Anthon," art. Eleusinia.
\ Dunlap: " Musah, His Mysteries," p. 71. § i Kings, viil. 2.
 ;

THE HEBREW KADESHIM. 45

the Eleusinian. Thus " Bacchus was directly called upon," he says.
The Sabazian worship was Sabbatic names Evius, pr Hevius, and
; the
Luaios are identical with Hivite and Levite. The French name Louis
is the Hebrew Levi ; lacchus again is lao or Jehovah and Baal or Adon,
;

like Bacchus, was a phallic god. "Who shall ascend into the hill (the
high place) of the Lord ? " asks the holy king David, " who shall stand in
the place of his Kadushii vinp" ? {^Psalms xxiv. 3). Kadesh may mean in
one sense to devote, hallow, sanctify, and even to initiate or to set apart
but it also means the ministers of lascivious rites (the Venus-worship)
and the true interpretation of the word Kadesh is bluntly rendered in
Deuteronomy xxiii. 17 Hosea iv. 14 and Genesis xxxviii., from verses
; ;

15 to 22. The "holy" Kadeshuth of the Bible were identical as to the

duties of their office with the Nautch-girls of the later Hindu pagodas.
The Hebrew Kadeshim or galli lived " by the house of the Lord, where
the women wove hangings for the gi'ove," or bust of Venus-Astartfe, says
verse the seventh in the twenty-third chapter of 2 Kings.
The dance performed by David round the ark was the "circle-dance"
have been prescribed by the Amazons for the Mysteries. Such
said to
was the dance of the daughters of Shiloh [Judges xxi. 21, 23 et passim),
and the leaping of the prophets of Baal (i Kings xviii. 26). It was simply
a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it denoted the motion of the
planets round the sun. That the dance was a Bacchic frenzy is appar-
ent. Sistra were used on the occasion, and the taunt of Michael and the
king's reply are very expressive. " The king of Israel uncovered him-
self before his maid-servants as one of the vain (or debauched) fellows
shamelessly uncovereth himself." And he retorts " : I will play (act
wantonly) before runi, and I will be yet more vile than
and I will
this,

be base in my own sight." When we remember that David had so-

journed among the Tyrians and Philistines, where their rites were com-
mon and that indeed he had conquered that land away from the house
;

of Saul, by the aid of mercenaries from their country, the countenancing

and even, perhaps, the introduction of such a Pagan-like worship by the
weak " psalmist" seems very natural. David knew nothing of Moses, it
seems, and if he introduced the Jehovah-worship it was not in its mono-
theistic character, but simply as that of one of the many gods of the
—
neighboring nations a tutelary deity to whom he had given the prefer-
ence, and chosen among " all other gods."
Following the Christian dogmas seriatim, if we concentrate our atten-
tion upon one which provoked the fiercest battles until its recognition,
that of the Trinity, what do we find ? We meet it, as we have shown,
northeast of the Indus and tracing it to Asia Minor and Europe, recog-
;

nize it among every people who had anything like an established re-
 —

46 ISIS UNVEILED.

ligion. It was taught in the oldest Chaldean, Egyptian, and Mithraitic

schools. The Chaldean Sun-god, Mithra, was called " Triple," and the
Chaldeans was a doctrine of the Akkadians, who,
trinitarian idea of the
themselves, belonged to a race which was the first to conceive a
meta-
physical trinity. The Chaldeans are a tribe of the Akkadians, according
toRawlinson, who lived in Babylonia from the earliest times. They were
Turanians, according to others, and instructed the Babylonians into the
firstnotions of religion. But these same Akkadians, who were they ?
Those scientists who would ascribe to them a Turanian origin, make
of them the inventors of the cuneiform characters others call them Su- ;

merians others again, respectively, make their language, of which (for

;

very good reasons) no traces whatever remain Kasdean, Chaldaic, —

Proto-Chaldean, Kasdo-Scythic, and so on. The only tradition worthy
of credence is that these Akkadians instructed the Babylonians in the
Mysteries, and taught them the sacerdotal or Mysiery-limguSige. These
Akkadians were then simply a tribe of the Hindu-Brahmans, now called
—
Aryans their vernacular language, the Sanscrit * of the Vedas and the ;

sacred or Mystery-language, that which, even in our own age, is used by

the Hindu fakirs and initiated Brahmans in their magical evocations, f
It has been, from time immemorial, and still is employed by the initiates

of all countries, and the Thibetan lamas claim that it is in this tongue
that appear the mysterious characters on the leaves and bark of the
sacred Koumboum.
who took
Jacolhot, such pains to penetrate the mysteries of the
Brahmanical initiation in translating and commenting upon the Agrou-
chada-Parikshai, confesses the following :

" It is pretended also, without our being able to verify the assertion,
that the magical evocations were pronounced in a particular language,
and was forbidden, under pain of death, to translate them into
that it

vulgar dialects. The rare expressions that we have been able to catch
like L'rhovi, h'hom, sKhrum, sho'rhim, are in fact most curious, and do
not seem to belong to any known idiom." \
Those who have seen a fakir or a lama reciting his mantras and con-

* Let us remember in this connection that Col. Van Kennedy has long ago declared
his opinion that Babylonia was once the seat of the Sanscrit language and of Brahman-
ical influence.

f
" ' Tlie Agi-ouchada-Parikshai,' which discloses, to a certain extent, the order of in-
itiation, does not give the formula of evocation," says Jacolliot, and he adds that, accord-
ing to some Brahmans, " these formula were never written, they were and still are im-
parted in a whisper in the ear of the adepts" (" month to ear, and the word at Imo
breath^'' say the Masons). — " Le Spiritisme daiis le Monde," p. loS.

t
" Le Spiritisme dans le Monde," p. loS.
 IS JACOLLIOT AN UNMITIGATED HUMBUG ? 47

jurations, know pronounces the words audibly when pre-

that he never
paring for a phenomenon. His lips move, and none will fver hear the
terrible formula pronounced, except in the interior of the temples, and
then in a cautious whisper. This, then, was the language now respect-
ively baptized by every scientist, and, according to his imaginative and
philological propensities, Kasdeo-Semitic, Scythic, Proto-Chaldean, and
the like.
Scarcely two of even the most learned Sanscrit philologists are agreed
as to the true interpretation of Vedic words. Let one put forth an essay,
a lecture, a treatise, a translation, a dictionary, and straightway all the
others fall to quarrelling with each other and with him as to his sins of
omission and commission. Professor Whitney, greatest of American
MUUer's notes on the Rig Veda Sdnhiia
Orientalists, says that Professor
" are far from showing that sound
and thoughtful judgment, that modera-
tion and economy which are among the most precious qualities of an
exegete." ProfessoT- Miiller angril}' retorts upon his critics that " not
only is the joy embittered which is the inherent reward of all bona fide
work, but selfishness, malignity, aye, even untruthfubiess, gain the upper
hand, and the healthy growth of science is stunted." He differs "in
many cases from the explanations of Vedic words given by Professor
Roth" in his Sanscrit Dictionary, and Professor Whitney shampooes
both heads by sa)ring that there are, unquestionably, words and
their
phrases "as to which both alike will hereafter be set right."
In volume i. of his Chips, Professor Miiller stigmatizes all the Vedas
except the Rik, the Atharva-Veda included, as "theological twaddle,"
while Professor Whitney regards the latter as " the most comprehensive
and valuable of the four collections, next after the Rik." To return to
the case of JacoUiot. Professor Whitney brands him as a "bungler
and a humbug," and, as we remarked above, this is the very general

verdict. But when the Bible dans V Inde appeared, the Societe Acade-
mique de Saint Quentin requested M. Textor de Ravisi, a learned In-
dianist, ten years Governor of Karikal, India, to report upon its merits.
He was an ardent Catholic, and bitterly opposed JacoUiot's conclusions
where they discredited the Mosaic and Catholic revelations but he was ;

forced to say "Written with good faith, in an easy, vigorous, and pas-
:

sionate style, of an easy and varied argumentation, the work of M. Jac-

oUiot is of absorbing interest ... a learned work on known facts and
with familiar arguments."
Enough. Let Jacolliot have the benefit of the doubt when such
very imposing authorities are doing their best to show up each other as
incompetents and literary journeymen. We quite agree with Professor
Whitney that " the truism, that [for European critics?] it is far easier to
 48 ISIS UNVEILED.

pull to pieces than to build up, is nowhere truer than in matters affecting
the archseology and history of India." *
Babylonia happened to be situated on the way of the great stream of
the earliestHindu emigration, and the Babylonians were one of the first
peoples benefited thereby, f These Khaldi were the worshippers of the
Moon-god, Deus Lunus, from which fact we may infer that the Akkadians
— if such must be their name —
belonged to the race of the Kings of the
Moon, whom tradition shows as having reigned in Pruyay now Allaha- —
bad. With them the trinity of Deus I.unus was manifested in the three
lunar phases, completing the quaternary with the fourth, and typifying
the death of the Moon-god in its gradual waning and final disappearance.
This death was allegorized by them, and attributed to the triumph of the
genius of evil over the light-giving deity ; as the later nations allegorized
the death of their Sun-gods, Osiris and Apollo, at the hands of Typhon
and the great Dragon Python, when the sun entered the winter solstice.
Babel, Arach, and Akkad are names of the sun. The Zoroastrian
Oracles are full and explicit upon the subject of the Divine Triad. "A
triad of Deity shines forth throughout the whole world, of which a Monad
is the head," admits the Reverend Dr. Maurice.
" For from this Triad, in the bosoms, are all things governed," says
a Chaldean oracle. The Phos, Pur, and Phlox, of Sanchoniathon, \ are
Light, Fire, and Flame, three manifestations of the Sun who is one.
Bel-Saturn, Jupiter-Bel, and Bel or Baal-Chom are the Chaldean trinity ;§
" The Babylonian Bel was regarded in the Triune aspect of Belitan,
Zeus-Belus (the mediator) and Baal-Chom who is Apollo Chomseus.
This was the Triune aspect of the Highest God,' who is, according to
'

Berosus, either El (the Hebrew), Bel, Belitan, Mithra, or Zervana, and

has the name Trarrip, "the Father." The Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,^
||

corresponding to Power, Wisdom, and Justice, which answer in their turn

* W. D. Whitney: " Oriental and Linguistic Studies, Tlie Veda, etc."

\ Jacolliot seems to have very logically demonstrated the absurd contradictions of
some philologists, anthropologists, and Orientalists, in regard to their Akkado
and Semito mania. " There is not, perhaps, much of good faith in their negations,"
he writes. "Tlie scientists who invent Turanian peoples know very well that in Manu
alone, there is more of veritable science and philosophy than in all that this pretended
Semitism has hitherto furnished us with ; but they are the slaves of a path which some
of them are following the last fifteen, twenty, or even thirty years. expect, . . . We
therefore, nothing of the present. India will owe its reconstitution to the scientists of
the next generation " (" Le Gen^se de I'HumanitS," pp. 60-61).
:j;Cory; "Anc. Frag." § Movers :" Phoinizer," 263.
II
Dunlap " Sp. Hist, of Man," p. 2S1.
:

1 Siva is not a god of the Vedas, strictly speaking. When the Vedas were written,
he held the rank of Maha-Deva or Bel among the gods of aboriginal India.
 THE TRINITIES OF VARIOUS RELIGIONS. 49

to Spirit, Matter,Time, and the Past, Present, and Future, can he found
in the temple of Gharipuri ; thousands of dogmatic Brahmans worship
these attributes of the Vedic Deity, while the severe monks and nuns
of Buddhistic Thibet recognize but the sacred trinity of the three cardi-
nal virtues : Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, professed by the Christians,
practiced by the Buddhists and some Hindus alone.
The
Persian triplicate Deity also consists of three persons, Ormazd,
Mithra, and Ahriman. " That is that principle," says Porphyry,* " which
the author of the Chaldaic Summary saith, They conceive there is one
'

principle of all things, and declare that is one and good.' " The Chinese
idol Sanpao, consists of three equal in all respects; f and the Peruvians
" supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in three, and three in one," says
Faber.J The Egyptians have their Emepht, Eicton, and Phta and the ;

triple god seated on the Lotos can be seen in the St. Petersburg Museum,

on a medal of the Northern Tartars.

Among the Church dogmas which have most seriously suffered of
late at the hands of the Orientalists, the last in question stands con-
spicuous. The reputation of each of the three personages of the an-
thropomorphic godhead as an original revelation to the Christians
through Divine will, has been badly compromised by inquiry into its
predecessors and origin. Orientalists have published more about the
similarity between Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Christianity than was
strictly agreeable to the Vatican. Draper's assertion that " Paganism
was modified by Christianity, Christianity by Paganisra,"§ is being daily
verified. " Olympus was restored but the divinities passed under other
names," he says, treating of the Constantine period. "The more pow-
erful provinces insisted on the adoption of their time-honored concep-
tions. Views of the trinity in accordance with the Egyptian traditions
were established. Not only was the adoration of Isis under a new name
restored, but .even her image, standing on the crescent moon, reappeared.
The well-known effigy of that goddess with the infant Horus in her arms
has descended to our days, in the beautiful artistic creations of the
Madonna and child."
But a still earlier origin than the Egyptian and Chaldean can be
assigned to the Virgin " Mother of God," Queen of Heaven. Though

* " De Antro Nympharum." -j- " Navarette," book ii., c. x.

X
" On the Origin of Heathen Idolatry."
§ Isis and Osiris are said, in the Egyptian sacred books, to have appeared {i.^., been
worshipped), on earth, later than Thot, the Jirst Hermes, called Trismegistus, who
wrote all their sacred books according to the command of God or by "divine revela-
tion." The companion and instructor of Isis and Osiris was Thot, or Hermes II., who
was an incarnation of the celestial Hermes.
4
50 ISIS UNVEILED.

Isis is also by right of Heaven, and is generally represented

the Queen
carrying in her hand the Crux Ansata composed of the mundane cross,
and of the Stauros of the Gnostics, she is a great deal younger than the
celestial virgin, Neith. In one of the tombs of the Pharaohs Rham- —
eses, Biban-el-M61ouk, in Thebes, Champollion, Junior,
in the valley of
discovered a picture, according to his opinion the most ancient ever yet
found. It represents the heavens symbolized by the figure of a woman
bedecked with stars. The birth of the Sun is figured by the form of a
little child, issuing from the bosom of its " Divine Mother."
In the Book of Hermes, " Pimander " is enunciated in distinct and un-
equivocal sentences, the whole trinitarian dogma accepted by the Chris-
tians. " The me," says Pimander, the divine thought. " I
light is

am and I am thy god, and I am far older than

the nous or intelligence,
the human principle which escapes from the shadow. I am the germ of
thought, the resplendent word, the son of God. Think that what thus
sees and hears in thee, is the Verbum of the Master, it is the Thought,
which is God the Father. The celestial ocean, the ^ther, which
. . .

flows from east to west, is the Breath of the Father, the life-giving
Principle, the holy ghost " " For they are not at all separated and
!

their union is life."

Ancient as may be the origin of Hermes, lost in the unknown days of
Egyptian colonization, there is yet a far older prophecy, directly relating
to the Hindu Christna, according to the Brahmans. It is, to say the
least, strange that the Christians claim to base their religion upon a pro-
phecy of the Bible, which exists nowhere in that book. In what chapter
or verse does Jehovah, the " Lord God," promise Adam and Eve to send
them a Redeemer who will save humanity ? "I will put enmity between
thee and the woman," says the Lord God to the serpent, "and between
thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
;

heel."
In these words there is not the slightest allusion to a Redeemer, and
the subtilest of intellects could not extract from them, as they stand in the
third chapter of Genesis, anything like that which the Christians have
contrived to find. On the other hand, in the traditions and Mann, Brahma
promises directly to the first couple to send them a Saviour who will
teach them the way to salvation.
" It is from the lips of a messenger of Brahma, who will be born in
Kuroukshetra, Matsya, and the land of Pantchola, also called Kanya-
Cubja (mountain of the Virgin), that all men on earth will learn their
duty," says Manii (book ii., slokas ig and 20).
The Mexicans Father of their Trinity Yzona, the Son Bacab,
call the
and the Holy Ghost Echvah, " and say they received it (the doctrine)
 1

PAGAN RITES AND DOGMAS ADOPTED BY CHRISTIANS. 5

from their ancestors." * Among the Semitic nations we can trace the trin-
ity to the prehistorical days of the fabled Sesostris, who is identified by
more than one critic with Nimrod, " the mighty hunter." Manetho makes
the oracle rebuke the king, when the latter asks, "Tell me, O thou
strong in fire, who before me could subjugate all things? and who shall
after me ? " And the oracle saith thus " First God, then the Word,
:

and then '

the Spirit.' "
f
In the foregoing lies the foundation of the fierce hatred of the Chris-
tianstoward the "Pagans" and the theurgists. Too much had been
borrowed ; the ancient religions and the Neo-platonists had been laid by
them under contribution sufficiently to perplex the world for several
thousand years. Had not the ancient creeds been speedily obliterated,
it would have been found impossible to preach the Christian religion as a
New Dispensation, or the direct Revelation from God the Father, through
God the Son, and under the influence of God the Holy Ghost. As a
political exigence the Fathers had — to gratify the wishes of their rich
converts — instituted even the festivals of Pan. They went so far as to
accept the ceremonies hitherto celebrated by the Pagan world in honor
of the God of the gardens, in all their primitive sincerity.\ It was
time to sever the connection. Either the Pagan worship and the Neo-
platonic theurgy, with all ceremonial of magic, must be crushed out for-
ever, or the Christians become Neo-platonists.
The fierce polemics and single-handed battles between Irenseus and
the Gnostics are too well known to need repetition. They were carried on
for over two centuries after the unscrupulous Bishop of Lyons had uttered
his last religious paradox. Celsus, the Neo-platonist, and a disciple of
the school of Ammonius Saccas, had thrown the Christians into perturba-
tion, and even had arrested for a time the progress of proselytism
by suc-
cessfully proving that the original and purer forms of the most important
dogmas of Christianity were to be found only in the teachings of Plato.
Celsus accused them of accepting the worst superstitions of Paganism, and
of interpolating passages from the books of the Sybils, without rightly
understanding their meaning. The accusations were so plausible, and the
facts so patent, that for a long time no Christian writer had ventured to
answer the challenge. Origen, at the fervent request of his friend, Am-
brosius,was the first to take the defense in hand, for, having belonged to
the same Platonic school of Ammonius, he was considered the most com-
petent man to refute the well-founded charges. But his eloquence failed,
and the only remedy that could be found was to destroy the writings of

* Lord Kingsborough "Ant. Mex,,"

: p. 165.

f
" Ap. Malal.," lib. i., cap. iv. % Payne Knight : "Phallic Worship."
52 ISIS UNVEILED.

Celsus themselves. * This could be achieved only in the fifth century,

when copies had been taken from this work, and many were those who
had read and studied them. If no copy of has descended to our pres-
it

ent generation of scientists, it is not because there is none extant at

present, but for the simple reason that the monks of a certain Oriental
church on Mount Athos will neither show nor confess they have one in
their possession. f Perhaps they do not even know themselves the value
of the contents of their manuscripts, on account of their great ignorance.
The dispersion of the Eclectic school had become the fondest hope
of the Christians. It had been looked and contemplated with intense
for
anxiety. It was finally achieved. The members were scattered by the

* The Celsus above mentioned, who lived between the second and third centuries,
is not Celsus the Epicurean. The latter wrote several works against Magic, and lived
earlier, during the reign of Hadrian,
f We
have the facts from a trustworthy witness, having no interest to invent such a
story. Having injured his leg in a fall from the steamer into the boat in which he was
to land at the Mount, he was taken care of by these monks, and during his convalescence,
through gifts of money and presents, became their greitest friend, and finally won their
entire confidence. Having asked for the Joan of some books, he was taken by the Supe-
rior to a large cellar in which they keep their sacred vessels and other property. Opening
a great trunk, full of old musty manuscripts and rolls, he was invited by the Superior
to " amuse himself." The gentleman was a scholar, and well versed in Greek and Latin
text. " I was amazed," he says, in a private letter, " and had my breath taken away,
on finding among these old parchments, so unceremoniously treated, some of the most
valuable relics of the first centuries, hitherto believed to have been lost." Among others
he found a half-destroyed manuscript, which he is perfectly sure must be a copy of the
" True Doctrine," the Aoyo; aXt]Qr\% of Celsus, out of which Origen quoted whole pages.
The traveller took as many notes as he could on that day, but when he came to offer to the
Superior to purchase some of these writings he found, to his gi-eat surprise, that no amount
of money would tempt They did not know what the manuscripts contained,
the monks.
nor "did they care," they But the "heap of writing," they added, was transmitted
said.
to them from one generation to another, and there was a tradition among them that
these papers would one day become the means of crushing the "Great Beast of the
Apocalypse," their hereditary enemy, the Church of Rome. They were constantly
quarrelling and fighting with the Catholic monks, and among the whole "heap" they
knew that there was a "holy" relic which protected them. They did not know which,
and so in their doubt abstained. It appears that the Superior, a shrewd Greek, under-
stood his bevue and repented of his kindness, for first of all he made the traveller give
him his most sacred word of honor, strengthened by an oath he made him take on the
image of the Holy Patroness of the Island, never to betray their secret, and never men-
tion, at least, the name of their convent. And finally, when the anxious student who
had passed a fortnight in reading all sorts of antiquated trash before he happened to
stumble over some precious manuscript, expressed the desire to have the key, to "amuse
himself " with the writings once more, he was very naively informed that the " key had
been lost," and that they did not know where to look for it. And thus he was left to
the few notes he had taken.
 A SAINT BUTCHERED, AND BUTCHERS SAINTED. S3

hand of the monsters Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, and his nephew

Cyril —
the murderer of the young, the learned, and the innocent Hy-
patia !
*
With the death of the martyred daughter of Theon, the mathematician,
there remained no possibility for the Neo-platonists to continue their
school at Alexandria. During the life-time of the youthful Hypatia her
friendship and influence with Orestes, the governor of the city, had assured
the philosophers security and protection against their murderous enemies.
With her death they had lost their strongest friend. How much she was
revered by all who knew her for her erudition, noble virtues, and charac-
ter, we can infer from the letters addressed to her by Synesius, Bishop of

Ptolemais, fragments of which have reached us. " My heart yearns for
the presence of your divine spirit," he wrote in 413 a. d., "which more
than anything else could alleviate the bitterness of my fortunes." At
another time he says :
" Oh, my mother, my sister, my teacher, my ben-
efactor ! My soul is very sad. The recollection of my children I have
lost is killing me. . . . When I have news of you and learn, as I hope,
that you are more fortunate than myself, I am at least only half-unhappy."
What would have been the feelings of this most noble and worthy of
Christian bishops, who had surrendered family and children and happiness
for the faith into which he had been attracted, had a prophetic vision dis-
closed to him that the only friend that had been left to him, his " mother,
sister, benefactor," would soon become an unrecognizable mass of flesh

and blood, pounded to jelly under the blows of the club of Peter the
—
Reader that her youthful, innocent body would be cut to pieces, " the
flesh scraped from the bones," by oyster-shells and the rest of her cast
into the fire, by order of the same Bishop Cyril he knew so well Cyril, —
the CANONIZED Saint f ! !

There has never been a religion in the annals of the world with such
a bloody record as Christianity. All the rest, including the traditional
fierce fights of the "chosen people" with their next of kin, the idolatrous
tribes of Israel, pale before the murderous fanaticism of the alleged fol-
lowers of Christ ! Even the rapid spread of Mahometanism before the
conquering sword_ of the Islam prophet, is a direct consequence of the

* See the historical romance of Canon Kingsley, "Hypatia," for a highly pictu-
yoimg martyr.
resque account of the tragical fate of this
+ We beg the reader to bear in it is the same Cyril who was accused and
mind that
proved guilty of having sold the gold and silver ornaments of his church, and spent the
money. He pleaded guilty, but tried to excuse himself on the ground that he had used
the money for the poor, but could not give evidence of it. His duplicity with Arius
and his party is well known. Thus one of the first Christian saints, and the founder
of the Trinity, appears on the pages of history as a murderer and a thief !
54 ISIS UNVEILED.

bloody riots and fights among Christians. It was the intestine war be-
tween the Nestorians and Cyrilians that engendered Islamism ; and it is
in the convent of Bozrah that the prolific seed was first sown by Bahira,
the Nestorian monk. Freely watered by rivers of blood, the tree of
Mecca has grown till we find it in the present century overshadowing
nearly two hundred millions of people. The recent Bulgarian atrocities
are but the natural outgrowth of the triumph of Cyril and the Mario-
laters.
The cruel, crafty politician, the plotting monk, glorified by ecclesias-

tical history with the aureole of a martyred saint. The despoiled philoso-
phers, the Neo-platonists, and the Gnostics, daily anathematized by the
Church all over the world for long and dreary centuries. The curse of
the unconcerned Deity hourly invoked on the magian rites and theurgic
practice, and the Christian clergy themselves using sorcery for ages.
Hypatia, the glorious maiden-philosopher, torn to pieces by the Christian
mob. And such as Catherine de Medici, Lucrezia Borgia, Joanna of
Naples, and the Isabellas of Spain, presented to the world as the faithful
—
daughters of the Church some even decorated by the Pope with the
order of the "Immaculate Rose," the highest emblem of womanly purity
and virtue, a symbol sacred to the Virgin-mother of God Such are the
!

examples of human justice How far less blasphemous appears a total

!

rejection of Mary as an immaculate goddess, than an idolatrous worship

of her, accompanied by such practices.
In the next chapter we will present a few illustrations of sorcery, as
practiced under the patronage of the Roman Church.
 ; —

CHAPTER II.

" They undertake by scales of miles to tell

The bounds,
********• dimensions, and extent of hell

Where bloated souls in smoky durance hung

Like a Westphalia gammon or neat*s tongue.
To be redeemed with masses and a song."
—Oldham ; Satires %iJ>on the Jesuitt.

** York. —But you are more inhuman, more inexorable

O, ten times more— than tigers of Hyrcania."
—King Henry K/., Part Third, Act i.. Scene iv.

*' War. —And hark ye, Sirs ; because she is a maid

Spare for no faggots, let there be enough ;
Place barrels of pitch upon the fatal stake."
— King Henry VI. Part First, Act
^ v., Scene iv.

that famous work of Bodin, on sorcery,* a frightful story is told

IN about Catherine of Medicis. The author was a learned pubhcist,
who, during twenty years of his life, collected authentic documents from
the archives of nearly every important city of France, to make up a com-
plete work on sorcery, magic, and the power of various " demons."
To use an expression of Eliphas Levi, his book offers a most remarkable
collection of " bloody and hideous facts; acts of revolting superstition,
arrests, and executions of stupid ferocity." " Burn every body " the !

Inquisition seemed to say —

God will easily sort out His own Poor !

fools, hysterical women, and idiots were roasted alive, without mercy, for

the crime of " magic." But, " at the same time, how many gieat culprits
escaped this unjust Ind sanguinary justice ! This is what Bodin makes
us fully appreciate."
Catherine, the pious Christian — who has so well deserved in the eyes
of the Church of Christ and never-to-be-forgotten mas-
for the atrocious
—
sacre of St. Bartholomew' the Queen Catherine, kept in her service an
apostate Jacobin priest. Well versed in the " black art," so fully pat-
ronized by the Medici family, he had won the gratitude and protection
of his pious mistress, by his unparalleled skill in killing people at a dis-
tance, by torturing with various incantations their wax simulacra. The
process has been described over and over again, and we scarcely need
repeat it.

* "La Demonomanie, ou traite des Sorciers." Paris, 1587.

56 ISIS UNVEILED.

Charles was lying sick of an incurable disease. The queen-mother,

who had everything to lose in case of his death, resorted to necromancy,
and consulted the oracle of the " bleeding head." This infernal opera-
tion required the decapitation of a child who must be possessed of great
beauty and purity. He
had been prepared in secret for his first commu-
nion, by the chaplam of the palace, who was apprised of the plot, and at
midnight of the appointed day, in the chamber of the sick man, and in
presence only of Catherine and a few of her confederates, the " devil's
mass " was celebrated. Let us give the rest of the story as we find it in
one of Levi's works " At this mass, celebrated before the image of the
:

demon, having under his feet a reversed cross, the sorcerer consecrated
two wafers, one black and one white. The white was given to the child,
whom they brought clothed as for baptism, and who was murdered upon
the very steps of the altar, immediately after his communion. His head,
separated from the trunk by a single blow, was placed, all palpitating,
upon the great black wafer which covered the bottom of the paten, then
placed upon a table where some mysterious lamps were burning. The
exorcism then began, and the demon was charged to pronounce an ora-
cle, and reply by the mouth of this head to a secret question that the
king dared not speak aloud, and that had been confided to no one. Then
a feeble voice, a strange voice, which had nothing of human character
about it, made itself audible in this poor little martyr's head." The sor-
cery availed nothing the king died, and
; —
Catherine remained the faith-
ful daughter of Rome !

How strange, that des Mousseaux, whx) makes such free use of Bodin's
materials to construct his formidable indictment against Spiritualists and
other sorcerers, should have overlooked this interesting episode !

a well-attested fact that Pope Sylvester II. was publicly accused

It is
by Cardinal Benno with being a sorcerer and an enchanter. The brazen
" oracular head " made by his Holiness was of the same kind as the one
fabricated by Albertus Magnus. The latter was smashed to pieces by
Thomas Aquinas, not because it was the work of or inhabited by a
"demon," but because the spook who was fixed inside, by mesmeric
power, talked incessantly, and his verbiage prevented the eloquent saint
from working out his mathematical problems. These heads and other
talking statues, trophies of the magical skill of
monks and bishops, were
fac-similes of the "animated" gods of the ancient temples. The accu-
sation against the Pope was proved at the time. It was also demonstrated
that he was constantly attended by " demons " or spirits. In the pre-
ceding chapter we have mentioned Benedict IX., John XX., and the
Vlth and Vllth Gregory, who were all known as magicians. The
latter Pope, moreover, was the famous Hildebrand, who was said
to have
 POPES, BISHOPS, AND PRIESTS AS SORCERERS. S7

been so expert at " shaking lightning out of his sleeve." An expression

which makes the venerable spiritualistic writer, Mr. Howitt, think that
"it was the origin of the celebrated thunder of the Vatican."
The magical achievements of the Bishop of Ratisbon and those of the
"angelic doctor," Thomas Aquinas, are too well known to need repe-
tition ; but we may explain farther how the " illusions " of the former were
produced. was so clever in making people believe
If the Catholic bishop
on a bitter winter night that they
were enjoying the delights of a splendid
summer day, and cause the icicles hanging from the boughs of the trees
in the garden to seem like so many tropical fruits, the Hindu magicians
also practice such biological powers unto this very day, and claim the
assistance of neither god nor devil. Such " miracles " are all produced
by the same human power that is inherent in every man, if he only
knew how to develop it.
About the time of the Reformation, the study of alchemy and magic
had become so prevalent among the clergy as to produce great scandal.
Cardinal Wolsey was openly accused before the court and the privy-
council of confederacy with a man named Wood, a sorcerer, who said
that " My
Lord Cardinale had suche a rynge that whatsomev ere he askyd
of the Kynges grace that he hadd yt ; " adding that "Master Cromwell,
when he was servaunt in my lord cardynales housse
. . . rede many . . .

hokes and specyally the boke of Salamon . . . and studied mettells and
what vertues they had after the canon of Salamon!^ This case, with seve-
ral others equally curious, is to be found among the Cromwell papers in

the Record Office of the Rolls House.

A priest named William Stapleton was arrested as a conjurer, during
the reign of Henry VIII., and an account of his adventures is still
preserved in the Rolls House records. The Sicilian priest whom
Benvenuto Cellini a necromancer, became famous through his
calls
successful conjurations, and was never molested. The remarkable
adventure of Cellini with him in the Colosseum, where the priest con-
jured up a whole host of devils, is well known to the reading public.
The subsequent meeting of Cellini with his mistress, as predicted and
brought about by the conjurer, at the precise time fixed by him, is to
be considered, as a matter of course, a " curious coincidence." In
the latter part of the sixteenth century there was hardly a parish to
be found in which the priests did not study magic and alchemy. The
practice of exorcism to cast out devils "in imitation of Christ," who
by the way never used exorcism at all, led the clergy to devote them-
selves openly to "sacred" magic in contradistinction to black art, of
which latter crime were accused all those who were neither priests nor
monks.
 :

S8 ISIS UNVEILED.

The occult knowledge gleaned by the Roman Church from the once
of theurgy she sedulously guarded for her own use, and sent to
fat fields
" on her lands of the
the stake only those practitioners who " poached
Scieniia Scientiarum, and those whose sins could not be concealed by the
frock.
fiiar's The proof of it lies in the records of history. "In the
course only of fifteen years, between 1580 to 1595, and only in the single
province of Lorraine, the President Remigius burned 900 witches,"
says Thomas Wright, in his Sorcery and Magic. It was during these

days, prolific in ecclesiastical murder and unrivalled for cruelty and

ferocity, thatJean Bodin wrote.
While the orthodox clergy called forth whole legions of "demons"
through magical incantations, unmolested by the authorities, provided
they held fast to the established dogmas and taught no heresy, on the
other hand, acts of unparalleled atrocity were perpetrated on poor, unfor-
tunate fools. Gabriel Malagrida, an old man of eighty, was burnt by these
evangelical Jack Ketches in 1761. In the Amsterdam library there is a
copy of the report of his famous trial, translated from the Lisbon edition.
He was accused of sorcery and illicit intercourse with the Devil, who had
"disclosed to him futurity." ( ? ) The prophecy imparted by the Arch-
Enemy to the poor visionary Jesuit is reported in the following terms
" The culprit hath confessed that the demon, under the form of the blessed
Virgin, having commanded him to write the life of Antichrist ( ? ), told him
that he, Malagrida,was a second John, but more clear than John the
Evangelist; that there were to be "three Antichrists, and that the last
should be born at Milan, of a monk and a nun, in the year 1920 ; that
he would marry Proserpine, one of the infernal furies," etc.
The prophecy is to be verified forty- three years hence. Even were all
the children born of monks and nuns really to become antichrists if
allowed to grow up to maturity, the fact would seem far less deplorable
than the discoveries made in so many convents when the foundations
have been removed for some reason. If the assertion of Luther is to be
disbelieved on account of his hatred for popery, then we may name dis-

coveries of the same character made quite recently in Austrian and

Russian Poland. Luther speaks of a fish-pond at Rome, situated near a
convent of nuns, which, having been cleared out by order of Pope Greg-
ory, disclosed, at the bottom, over six thousand infant skulls and of a ;

nunnery at Neinburg, in Austria, whose foundations, when searched, dis-

closed the same relics of celibacy and chastity !

" Ecclesia non novit Sanguinem I" meekly repeated the scarlet-robed
cardinals. And to avoid the spilling of blood which horrified them, they
instituted the Holy Inquisition. If, as the occultists maintain, and science
half confirms, our most trifling acts and thoughts are indelibly impressed
 "

THE BLOODY RECORD OF TORQUEMADA. 59

upon the eternal mirror of the astral ether, there must be somewhere, in
the boundless realm of the unseen universe, the imprint of a curious
picture. It is that of a gorgeous standard waving in the heavenly breeze

at the foot of the great "white throne" of the Almighty. On its crimson
damask face a cross, symbol of " the Son of God who died for mankind,"
with an olive branch on one side, and a sword, stained to the hilt with
human gore, on the other. A legend selected from the Psalms embla-
zoned in golden letters, reading thus " Exurge, Domine, et judica cau-
:

sam meam." For such appears the standard of the Inquisition, on a

photograph in our possession, from an original procured at the Escurial
of Madrid.
Under this Christian standard, in the brief space of fourteen years,
Tomas de Torquemada, the confessor of Queen Isabella, burned over ten
thousand persons, and sentenced to the torture eighty thousand more.
Orobio, the well-known writer, who was detained so long in prison, and
who hardly escaped the flames of the Inquisition, immortalized this insti-
tution in his works when once at liberty in Holland. He found no better
argument against the Holy Church than to embrace the Judaic faith and
submit even to circumcision. " In the cathedral of Saragossa," says a
writeron the Inquisition, "is the tomb of a famous inquisitor. Six pillars
surround the tomb ; to each is chained a Moor, as preparatory to being
burned." On this St. Foix ingenuously observes " If ever the Jack
:

Ketch of any country should be rich enough to have a splendid tomb, this
might serve as an excellent model " To make it complete, however,
!

the builders of the tomb ought not

to have omitted a bas-relief of the
famous horse which was burnt for sorcery and witchcraft. Granger tells
the story, describing it as having occurred in his time. The poor animal
"had been taught to tell the spots upon cards, and the hour of the day
by the watch. Horse and owner were both indicted by the sacred office
for dealing with the Devil, and both were burned, with a great ceremony

o{ auto-da-fe, at Lisbon, in 1601, as wizards!"

This immortal institution of Christianity did not remain without its
Dante to sing its praise. " Macedo, a Portuguese Jesuit," says the author
of Demonologia, " has discovered the origin of the Inquisition, in the
terrestrial Paradise, and presumes to allege that God was the first who

began the functions of an inquisitor over Cain and the workmen of

!
Babel
Nowhere, during the middle ages, were the arts of magic and sorcery
more practiced by the clergy than in Spain and Portugal. The Moors
were profoundly versed in the occult sciences, and at Toledo, Seville,
and Salamanca, were, once upon a time, the great schools of magic. The
town were skilled in all the abstruse sciences ; they
kabalists of the latter
6o ISIS UNVEILED.

knew the virtues of precious stones and other minerals, and had extracted
from alchemy its most profound secrets.
Marechale
The authentic documents pertaining to the great trial of the
during the regency of Marie de Medicis, disclose that the un-
d'Ancre,
fortunatewoman perished through the fault of the priests with whom, like
a true Italian, she surrounded herself. She was accused by the people
of Paris of sorcery, because it had been asserted that she had used, after
the ceremony of exorcism, newly-killed white cocks. Believing herself

constantly bewitched, and being in very delicate health, the Marechale

had the ceremony of exorcism publicly applied to herself in the Church

of the Augustins ; as to the birds, she used them as an application to
the forehead on account of dreadful pains in the head, and had been ad-
vised to do so by Montalto, the Jew physician of the queen, and the Ital-
ian priests.
In the sixteenth century, the Cur6 de Barjota, of the diocese of Calla-
hora, Spain, became the world's wonder for his magical powers. His
most extraordinary feat consisted, it was said, in transporting himself to
any distant country, witnessing political and other events, and then
returning home to predict them in his own country. He had a familiar
demon, who served him faithfully for long years, says the Chronicle, but
the cur6 turned ungrateful and cheated him. Having been apprised by
his demon of a conspiracy against the Pope's life, in consequence of an
intrigue of the latter with a fair lady, the cure transported himself to
Rome (in his double, of course) and thus saved his Holiness' life. After
which he repented, confessed his sins to the gallant Pope, and got absolu-
tion. " On his return he was delivered, as a matter of form, into the
custody of the inquisitors of Logroiio, but was acquitted and restored to
his liberty very soon."
Dominican monk of the fourteenth century the magi-
Friar Pietro, a —
cian who presentedthe famous Dr. Eugenic Torralva, a physician attached
to the house of the admiral of Castile, with a demon named Zequiel won —
his fame through the subsequent trial of Torralva. The procedure and
circumstances attendant upon the extraordinary trial are described in
the original papers preserved in the Archives of the Inquisition. The
Cardinal of Volterra, and the Cardinal of Santa Cruz, both saw and com-
municated with Zequiel, who proved, during the whole of Torralva's life,
to be a pure, kind, elemental spirit, doing many beneficent actions,
and remaining faithful to the physician to the last hour of his life.

Even the Inquisition acquitted Torralva, on that account and, although

;

an immortality of fame was insured to him by the satire of Cervantes,

neither Torralva nor the monk Pietro are fictitious heroes, but historical
personages, recorded in ecclesiastical documents of Rome and Cuenga,
 1

WITCH-BURNINGS AT BAMBERG AND WURZBURG. 6

in which town the trial of the physician took place, Januar}' the 29th,

The book of Dr. W. G. Soldan, of Stuttgart, has become as famous

in Germany, as Bodin's book on Denwnomania in France. It is the
most complete German treatise on witchcraft of the sixteenth century.
One interested to learn the secret machinery underlying these thousands
of legal murders, perpetrated by a clergy who pretended to believe in the
Devil, and succeeded in making others believe in him, will find it divulged
in the above-mentioned work.* The true origin of the daily accusations
and death-sentences for sorcery are cleverly traced to personal and
political enmities, and, above all, to the hatred of the Catholics toward

the Protestants. The crafty work of the Jesuits is seen at every page of
the bloody tragedies and it is in Bamberg and Wurzburg, where these
;

worthy sons of Loyola were most powerful at that time, that the cases of
witchcraft were most numerous. On the next page we give a curious list
of some victims, many of whom were children between the ages of seven
and eight years, and Protestants. " Of the multitudes of persons who
perished at the stake in Germany during the first half of the seventeenth
century for sorcery, the crjme of many was their attachment to the relig-
ion of Luther," says T. Wright, "... and the petty princes were not
unwilling to seize upon any pretense to fill their coffers the persons . . .

most persecuted being those whose property was a matter of considera-

tion. ... At Bamberg, as well as at Wurzburg, the bishop was a sover-

eign prince in his dominions. The Prince-Bishop, John George IL, who
ruled Bamberg after several unsuccessful attempts to root out Luth-
. . .

eranism, distinguished his reign by a series of sanguinary witch-trials,

which disgrace the annals of that city. . . . We may form some notion
of the proceedings of his worthy agent, f from the statement of the most
authentic historians, that between 1625 and 1630, not less than 900 trials
took place in the two courts of Bamberg and Zeil ; and a pamphlet pub-
lished at Bamberg by authority, in 1659, states the number of persons
whom Bishop John George had caused to be burned for sorcery, to have
been 600." \
Regretting that space should prevent our giving one of the most
curious lists in the world of burned witches, we will nevertheless make a

few extracts from the original record as printed in Hauber's Bibliotheca

* Dr. W. G. Soldan :
" Geschichte der Hexen processe, aus den Quellen darges-
tellt," Stuttgart, 1843.
Forner, Suffragan of Bamberg, author of a treatise against heretics
f Frederick
and sorcerers, under the title of " Panoplia Armaturoe Dei."
" Sorcery and Magic," by T. Wright, M.A., F.S. A., etc., Corresponding Mem-
X
ber of the National Institute of France, vol. ii., p. 185.
62 ISIS UNVEILED.

Magica. One glance at this horrible catalogue of murders in Christ's

name, is sufficient to discover that out of 162 persons burned, more than
one-half of them are designated as strangers (i.e., Protestants) in this

hospitable town ;and of the other half we find thirty-four children, the
oldest of whom was fourteen, the youngest an infant child of Dr. Schiitz.
To make the catalogue shorter we will present of each of the twenty-nine
burnings, but the most remarkable.*

IN THE FIRST BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.

Old Ancker's widow.
The wife of Liebler.
The wife of Gutbrodt.
The wife of Hocker.

IN THE SECOND BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.

Two Strange women (names unknown).
The old wife of iBeutler.

IN THE THIRD BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.

Tungersleber, a minstrel.
Four wives of citizens.

IN THE FOURTH BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.

A Strange man.

IN THE FIFTH BURNING, NINE PERSONS.

Lutz, an eminent shop-keeper.
The -wife of Baunach, a senator.

IN THE SIXTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

The fat tailor's wife.

A strange man.
A strange woman.

* Besides these burnings in Germany, which amount to many thousands, we find

some very interesting statements in Prof. Draper's " Conflict between Religion and
Science." On page 146, he says: " The families of the convicted were plunged into
irretrievable ruin. Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, computes that Torque-
mada and his collaborators, in the course of eighteen years, burned at the stake
10,220 persons, 6,S6o in effigy, and otherwise punished 97,321 ! With unutter-
. . .

able disgust and indignation, we learn that the papal government realized much money
by selling to the rich, dispensations to secure them from the Inquisition."
 A RECORD OF FIENDISH CRUELTY. 63

IN THE SEVENTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

A Strange girl of twelve years old.
A strange man, a strange woman.
A strange bailiff (Schultheiss).

Three strange women.

IN THE EIGHTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

Baunach, a senator, the fattest citizen in Wurzburg.
A strange man.
Two strange women.

IN THE NINTH BURNING, FIVE PERSONS.

A strange man.
A mother and daughter.

IN THE TENTH BURNING, THREE PERSONS.

Steinacher, a very rich man.
A strange man, a strange woman.

IN THE ELEVENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.

Two women and two men.

IN THE TWELFTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.

Two strange women.

IN THE THIRTEENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.

A little girl nine or ten years old.
A younger girl, her little sister.

IN THE FOURTEENTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.

The mother of the two little girls before mentioned.
A girl twenty-four years old.

IN THE FIFTEENTH BURNING, TWO PERSONS.

A boy twelve years of age, in the first school.
A woman.
IN THE SIXTEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A boy of ten years of age.

IN THE SEVENTEENTH BURNING, FOUR PERSONS.

A boy eleven years old.
A mother and daughter.
64 ISIS UNVEILED.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

Two boys, twelve years old.

The daughter of Dr. Junge.
A girl of fifteen years of age.
A strange woman.
IN THE NINETEENTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A boy of ten years of age.
Another boy, twelve years old.

IN THE TWENTIETH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

Gobel's child, the most beautiful girl in Wurzburg.
Two boys, each twelve years old.
Stepper's little daughter.

IN THE TWENTY-FIRST BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

A boy fourteen years old.
The little son of Senator Stolzenberger.
Two alumni.

IN THE TWENTY-SECOND BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

Stiirman, a rich cooper.
A strange boy.

IN THE TWENTY -THIRD BURNING, NINE PERSONS.

David Croten's boy, nine years old.
The two sons of the prince's cook, one fourteen, the other ten years old.

IN THE TWENTY-FOURTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

Two boys in the hospital.
A rich cooper.
IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.
A strange boy.

IN THE TWENTY-SIXTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

Weydenbush, a senator.
The little daughter of Valkenberger.
The little son of the town council bailiff.

IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

A strange boy.
A strange woman.
Another boy.
 THE HORRID TOTAL. 65

IN THE TWENTY-EIGHTH BURNING, SIX PERSONS.

The infant daughter of Dr. Schiitz.
A bhnd girl.

IN THE TWENTY-NINTH BURNING, SEVEN PERSONS.

The noble lady (Edelfrau).
fat

A doctor of divinity.

Item.

'"Strange" men and women, i.e., Protestants, 28

Citizens, apparently all wealthy people, 100
Summary : Boys, girls, and little children, 34

In nineteen months, 162 persons.

" There were," says Wright, " little girls of from seven to ten years
of age among the witches, and seven
of them were convicted and twenty
and burnt," at some of the other brdnde, or burnings. " The number;
brought to trial in these terrible proceedings were so great, and they
were treated with so little consideration, that it was usual not even to

take the trouble of setting down names, but they were cited as the
their
accused No. i. No. 2, No. 3, and so on.* The Jesuits took their con-
fessions in private."
What room is there in a theology which exacts such holocausts as these
to appease the bloody appetites of its priests for the following gentle
words :

" Suffer thelittle children to come unto me, and forbid them not for ;

of such kingdom of Heaven." " Even so it is not the will of your

is the
Father that one of these little ones should perish."
. . . "But whoso
shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better

for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were
drowned in the depths of the sea."
We sincerely hope that the above words have proved no vain threat
to these child-burners.

Did this butchery in the name of their Moloch-god prevent these

treasure-hunters from resorting to the black art themselves ? Not in the
least ; for in no class were such consulters of " familiar " spirits more
numerous than among the clergy during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
seventeenth centuries. True, there were some Catholic priests among
the victims, but though these were generally accused of having " been

* " Sorcery and Magic ;

" " The Burnings at Wiirtzburg," p. 186.

5
66 ISIS UNVEILED.

led into practices too dreadful to be described," it was not so. In the
twenty-nine burnings above catalogued we find the names of twelve
vicars, four canons, and two doctors of divinity burnt alive. But we
have only to turn to such works as were published at the time to assure
ourselves that each popish priest executed was accused of " damnable
heresy," i.e., a tendency to reformation —
a crime more heinous far than
sorcery.
We refer those who would learn how the Catholic clergy united duty
with pleasure in the matter of exorcisms, revenge, and treasure-hunting,
to volume II., chapter i., of W. Howitt's History of the Supernatural.
" In the book called Pneumatologia Occulta et Vera, all the forms of
adjuration and conjuration were laid down," says this veteran writer.

He then proceeds to give a long description of the favorite modus

operandi. The Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie of the late Eliphas
Levi, treated with so much abuse and contempt by des Mousseaux,
tells nothing of the weird ceremonies and practices but what was prac-
ticed legally and with the tacit if not open consent of the Church, by the
priests of the middle ages. The
exorcist-priest entered a circle at mid-
night he was clad in a new surplice, and had a consecrated band hanging
;

from the neck, covered with sacred characters. He wore on the head a
tall pointed cap, on the front of which was written in Hebrew the holy

word, Tetragrammaton — the ineffable name. It was written with a new

pen dipped in the blood of a white dove. the exorcists most What
yearned after, was to release miserable spirits which haunt spots where
hidden treasures lie. The exorcist sprinkles the circle with the blood
of a black lamb and a white pigeon. The priest had to adjure the evil
spirits of hell — Acheront, Magoth, Asmodei, Beelzebub, Belial, and all the
damned souls, in the mighty names of Jehovah, Adonay, Elohah, and
Sabaioth, which latter was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who
dwelt in the Uiim and Thuramim. When the damned souls flung in the
face of the exorcist that hewas a sinner, and could not get the treasure
from them, the priest-sorcerer had to reply that " all his sins were washed
out in the blood of Christ,* and he bid them depart as cursed ghosts and
damned flies." When the exorcist dislodged them at last, the poor soul
was " comforted in the name of the Saviour, and consigned to the care of
good angels" who were less powerful, we must think, than the exorcising
Catholic worthies, " and the rescued treasure, of course, was secured for
the Church."
" Certain days," adds Howitt, " are laid down in the calendar of the

* And retinted in the blood of the millions murdered in his name — in the no less
innocent blood than his own, of the little c\iA&-witches !
 ;:

SOLOMON'S SEVEN ABOMINATIONS. &]

Church most favorable for the practice of exorcism and, if the devils
as ;

fume of sulphur, assafoetida, bear's gall, and rue is

are difficult to drive, a
recommended, which, it was presumed, would outstench even devils."
This is the Church, and this the priesthood, which, in the nineteenth
century, pays 5,000 priests to teach the people of the United States the
infidelityof science and the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome !

We have already noticed the confession of an eminent prelate

that the elimination of Satan from theology would be fatal to the per-
petuity of the Church. But this is only partially true. The Prince of
Sin would be gone, but sin itself would survive. If the Devil were
annihilated, the Articles of Faith and the Bible would remain. In short
there would still be a pretended divine revelation, and the necessity for
self-assumed inspired interpreters. We must, therefore, consider the
authenticity of the Bible itself We must study its pages, and see if
they, indeed, contain the commands of the Deity, or but a compendium
of ancient traditions and hoary myths. We must try to interpret them
for ourselves — if possible. As to its pretended interpreters, the only
possible assimilation we can
them in the Bible is to compare
find for
them with the man described by the wise King Solomon in his Proverbs,
with the perpetrator of these " six things yea seven which . . . . . .

doth the Lord hate," and which are an abomination unto Him, to wit
" A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood

an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in run-

ning to mischief; a false ivitness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth
discord among brethren" [Proverbs y'\. 16, 17, 18, 19).
line of men who have left
Of which of these accusations are the long
Vatican guiltless ?
the imprint of their feet in the
" When the demons," says Augustine, " insinuate themselves in the

creatures, they begin by conforming themselves to the will of every one.

... In order men, they begin by seducing them, by simula-
to attract
ting obedience. . . . How
could one know, had he not been taught by the
demons themselves, what they like or what they hate the name which at- ;

tracts, or that which forces them into obedience ; all this art, in short, of

magic, the whole science of the magicians ? "

*

To impressive dissertation of the " saint," we will add that no

this
magician has ever denied that he had' learned the art from " spirits,"
whether, being a medium, they acted independently on him, or he had
been initiated into the science of " evocation " by his fathers who knew
it before himself. But who was it then that taught the exorcist ? The priest

* St. Augustine :
" City of God," i, xxi., ch. vi. ; des Mousseaux :
" Moeuis et Pra-
tiques des Demons."
68 ISIS UNVEILED.

who clothes himself with an authority not only over the magician, but
even over all these " spirits," whom he calls demons and devils as soon
as he finds them obeying any one but himself? He must have learned
somewhere from some one that power which he pretends to possess.
P'or, "... how could one know had he not been taught by the demons them-

selves the name which attracts, or that which forces them into obedi-
. . .

ence 1 " asks Augustine.

Useless to remark that we know the answer beforehand :
" Revela-
tion . . . Son of God nay, God Himself, through
divine gift . . . the ;

His direct Spirit, who descended on the apostles as the Pentecostal fire,
and who is now alleged to overshadow every priest who sees fit to ex-
orcise for either glory or a gift. Are we then to believe that the recent
scandal of public exorcism, performed about the 14th of October, 1876,
by the senior priest of the Church -of the Holy Spirit, at Barcelona, Spain,
was also done under the direct superintendence of the Holy Ghost ? *

* A correspondent of the London " Times" describes the Catalonian exorcist in the
following lines :

" About the 14th of October it was privately announced that a young woman of
seventeen or eighteen years of age, of the lower class, having long been afflicted with
'
Holy Spirit would cure
a hatred of holy things,' the senior priest of the Church of the
her of her disease. The
was to be held in a church frequented by the best
exhibition
part of the community. The church was dark, but a sickly light was shed by wax
lights on the sable forms of some eighty or a hundred persons who clustered round the
presbyterio, or sanctuary, in front of the altar. Within the little enclosure or sanc-
tuary, separated from the crowd by a light railnig, lay, on a common bench, with a little
pillow for her head to recline upon, a poorly-clad girl, probably of the peasant or ar-
tisan class her brother or husband stood at her feet to restrain her (at times) frantic
;

kicking by holding her legs. The door of the vestry opened ; t!ie exhibitor I mean —
the priest —
came in. The poor girl, not without just reason, 'had an aversion to holy
things,' or. at least, the 400 devils within her distorted body had such an aversion, and
in the confusion of the moment, thinking that the father was a holy thing,' she doubled '

up her legs, screamed out with twitching mouth, her whole body writhing, and threw her-
self nearly off the bench. The male attendant seized her legs, the women supported her
head and swept out her dishevelled hair. The priest advanced and, mingling familiarly
with the shuddering and horror-struck crowd, said, pointing at the suffering child,
now sobbing and twitching on the bench, Promise me, my children, that you will be
'

prudent (priidentcs), and of a truth, sons and daughters mine, you shall see marvels.'
The promise was given. The exhibitor went to procure stole and short surplice (esiola
y roquete), and returned in a moment, taking his stand at the side of the ' possessed
with the devils,' with his face toward the group of students. The order of the day's
proceedings was a lecture to the bystanders, and the operation of exorcising the devils.
'You know,' said the priest, that so great is this girl's aversion to holy things, myself
'

included, that she goes into convulsions, kicks, screams, and distorts her body the mo-
ment she arrives at the corner of this street, and her convulsive struggles reach their
climax when she enters the sacred house of the Most High.' Turning to the prostrate
shudderiiig, most unhappy object of his attaA, the priest commenced: '
In the name of
 A PAPAL BULL AGAINST SPIRITUALISM. 69

It will be urged that the " bishop was not cognizant of this freak of the
clergy " but even if he were, how
; could he have protested against a rite
considered since the days of the apostles, one of the most hofy preroga-
tives of the Church of Rome ? So late as in 1852, only twenty-five
years ago, these rites received a public and solemn sanction from the
Vatican, and a new Ritual of Exorcism was published in Rome, Paris,
and other Catholic capitals. Des Mousseaux, writing under the imme-
diate patronage of Father Ventura, the General of the Theatines of
Rome, even favors us with lengthy extracts from this famous ritual, and
explains the reason why it was enforced again. It was in consequence
of the revival of Magic under the name of Modern Spiritualism. The
bull of Pope Innocent VIII. is exhumed, and translated for the benefit
of des Mousseaux's readers. "We
have heard," exclaims the Sovereign
Pontiff, " that a great number of persons of both sexes have feared not to
enter into relations with the spirits of hell ; and that, by their practice of
sorcery . . . they strike with sterility the conjugal bed, destroy the germs
of humanity in the bosom of the mother, and throw spells on them, and
set a barrier to the multiplication of animals . . . etc., etc.;" then fol-

low curses and anathemas against the practice.

This belief of the Sovereign Pontiffs of an enlightened Christian coun-
tryis a direct inheritance by the most ignorant multitudes from the southern

—
Hindu rabble the "heathen." The diabolical arts of certain kangalins
(witches) and jadugar (sorcerers) are firmly believed in by these people.
The following are among their most dreaded powers to inspire love and :

hatred at will ; to send a devil to take possession of a person and torture

God, of the saints, of the blessed Host, of every holy sacrament of our Church, I adjure
thee, Rusbel, come out of her.' (N. B. '
Rusbel ' is the name of a devil, the devil having
257 names in Catalonia.) Thus adjured, the girl threw herself in an agony of convul- —
sion, till her distorted face, foam-bespattered lips and writhing limbs grew well-nigh

stiff — at full length upon the floor, and, in language semi-obscene, semi-violent, screamed
out, 'I don't choose to come out, you thieves, scamps, robbers.' At last, from the
quivering lips of the girl, came the words, '
I will
;
' but the devil added, with tra-
ditional perversity, '
I will cast the 100 out, but by the mouth of the girl.' The priest
objected. The exit, he said, of ichd devils out of the small Spanisli mouth of the woman
would Meave her suffocated.' Then the maddened girl said she must undress herself
for the devils to escape. This petition the holy father refused, Then I will come *

out through the right foot, but first '

—
the girl had on a hempen sand-al, she was ob-
viously of the poorest class
—
you must take off her sandal.' Tlie sandal was untied ;
'

the foot gave a convulsive plunge ; the devil and his myrmidons (so the cura said,
looking round triumphantly) had gone to their own place. And, assuied of this, the
wretched dupe of a girl lay quite still. The bishop was not cognizant of this freak of
the clergy, and the moment it came to the ears of the civil authorities, the sharpest

means were taken to prevent a repetition of the scandal."

 —

70 ISIS UNVEILED.

him ; to expel him ; to cause sudden death or an incurable disease ;

to

either strike cattle with or protect them from epidemics compose ;

to

philtres that will either strike with sterility or provoke unbounded pas-
sions iii men and women, etc., etc. The sight alone of a man said to be

such a sorcerer excites in a Hindu profound terror.

And now we will quote in this connection the truthful remark of a
writer who passed years in India in the study of the origin of such super-
stitions " Vulgar magic in India, like a degenerated infiltration, goes
:

hand-in-hand with the most ennobling beliefs of the sectarians of the

Pitr is. It was the work of the lowest clergy, and designed to hold the
populace in a perpetual state of fear. It is thus that in all ages and
under every latitude, side by side with philosophical speculations of the
highest character, one always finds the religion of the rabble." * In
India was the work of the lowest clergy ; in Rome, that of the highest
it

Pontiffs. But then, have they not as authority their greatest saint,
Augustine, who declares that " whoever believes not in the evil spirits,
refuses to believe in Holy Writ ? " f
Therefore, in the second half of the nineteenth century, we find the
counsel for the Sacred Congregation of Rites (exorcism of demons in-
cluded). Father Ventura de Raulica, writing thus, in a letter published
by des Mousseaux, in 1865 :

" We are in full magic! and under false names ; the Spirit of lies and impudicity
goes on perpetrating his horrible deprecations. . . . The most grievous feature in this

is that among the most serious persons they do not attach the importance to the strange
phenomena which they deserve, these manifestations that we witness, and which become
with every day more weird, striking, as well as most fatal.
" I cannot sufficiently admire and praise, from this standpoint, the zeal and courage
displayed by you in your work. The facts which you have collected are calculated to
throw light and conviction into the most skeptical minds ; and after reading this remark-
able work, written with so much learnedness and consciousness, blindness is no longer
possible.
" If anything could surprise us, it would be the indifference with which these phe-
nomena have been treated by false .Science, endeavoring, as she has, to turn into ridicule

so grave a subject ; the childish simplicity exhibited by her in the desire to explain the
facts by absurd and contradictory hypotheses. . . . \
[Signed] " The Father Ventura de Raulica, etc., etc.

Thus encouraged by the greatest authorities of the Church of Rome,

ancient and modern, the Chevalier argues the necessity and the efficacy of
exorcism by the priests. He tries to demonstrate on faith, as usual

* Louis JacoUiot : " Le Spiritisme dans le Monde," p. 162.

f St. Augustine ; " City of God."
" Moeurs et Pratiques de? Demons," p. ii.
X
 — 1 ;

A MUSEUM OF ASTONISHING RELICS. 7

that the power of the spirits of hell is closely related to certain rites,
words, and formal signs. " In the diabolical Catholicism," he says,
"as well as in the divine Catholicism, potential grace is bound (iiee) to
certain signs." While the power of the Catholic priest proceeds from
God, that of the Pagan priest proceeds from the Devil. The Devil, he
adds, "is forced to submission" before the holy minister of God •' ke

dares nnt i.te." *

We beg the reader to note well the underlined sentence, as we

mean to test its truth impartially. We are prepared to adduce proofs,
undeniable and undenied even by the Popish Church forced, as she —
was, into the confession —
proofs of hundreds of cases in relation to the
most solemn of her dogmas, wherein the " spirits " lied from beginning
to end. How about certain holy relics authenticated by visions of the
blessed Virgin, and a host of saints ? We have at hand a treatise by a
pious Catholic, Jilbert de Nogen, on the relics of saints. With honest
despair he acknowledges the "great number of false relics, as well as -

false legends," and severely censures the inventors of these lying mira-

cles. " It was on the occasion of one of our Saviour's teeth," writes the
author of Demonologia, " that de Nogen took up his pen on this subject,
by which the monks of St. Medard de Soissons pretended to work mira-
cles ; a pretension which he asserted to be as chimerical as that of several
persons who believed they possessed the navel, and other parts less
comely, of the body of Christ." f
"A monk of St. Antony," says Stephens, J "having been at Jerusa-
lem, saw there several relics, among which was a bit of the finger of the
Holy Ghost, as sound and entire as it had ever been the snout of the
;

seraph that appeared to St. Francis one of the nails of a cherub

;

one of the ribs of the Verbum caro factum (the Word made flesh) some ;

rays of the star that appeared to the three kings of the East a phial of ;

St. Michael's sweat, that exuded when he was fighting against the Devil,

etc. All which things,' observes the monkish treasurer of relics, I have
' '

"
brought with me home very devoutly.'
And if the foregoing is set aside as the invention of a Protestant enemy,
may we not be allowed to refer the reader to the History of England and
authentic documents which state the existence of a relic not less extraor-
dinary than the best of the others ? Henry III. received from the Grand
Master of the Templars a phial containing a small portion of the sacred
blood of Christ which he had shed upon the cross. It was attested to be

genuine by the seals of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. The

* Des Mousseaux "Table des Matieres."
:

f "Demonologia ; " London, 1S27, J. Bumpus, 23 Skinner Street.

\ " Traite Preparatif a I'Apologie pour Herodote," c. 39.

 —

72 ISIS UNVEILED.

procession bearing the sacred phial from St. Paul's to Westminster Abbey
is described by the historian: "Two monks received the phial, and
deposited it in the Abbey . . .which made all England shine with glory,
dedicating it to God and St. Edward."
story of the Prince Radzivil is well known.
The It was the undenia-

ble decepdon of the monks and nuns surrounding him and his own
confessor which made the Polish nobleman become a Lutheran. He felt
at first so indignant at the " heresy " of the Reformation spreading in
Lithuania, that he travelled all the way to Rome to pay his homage of

sympathy and veneration to the Pope. The latter presented him with a
precious box of relics. On his return home, his confessor saw the Virgin,
who descended from her glorious abode for the sole purpose of blessing
these relics and authenticating them. The superior of the neighboring
convent and the mother-abbess of a nunnery both saw the same vision,
with a reenforcement of several saints and martyrs they prophesied and ;

"felt the Holy Ghost" ascending from the box of relics and overshadow-
ing the prince. A demoniac provided for the purpose by the clergy was
exorcised in full ceremony, and upon being touched by the box immedi-
ately recovered, and rendered thanks on the spot to the Pope and the
Holy Ghost. After the ceremony was over the guardian of the treasury
in which the relics were kept, threw himself at the feet of the prince, and
confessed that on their way back from Rome
he had lost the box of relics.
Dreading the wrath of his master, he had procured a similar box, "which
he had filled with the small bones of dogs and cats ;" but seeing how the
prince was deceived, he preferred confessing his guilt to such blasphemous
tricks. The prince said nothing, but continued for some time testing
not the relics, but his confessor and the vision-seers. Their mock raptures
made him discover so thoroughly the gross impositions of the monks and
nuns that he joined the Reformed Church.
This is history. Bayle shows that when the Roman Church is no
longer able to deny that there have been false rehcs, she resorts to soph-
istry, and replies that if false rehcs have wrought miracles it is " because

of the good intentions of the believers, who thus obtained from God a
reward of their good faith " The same Bayle shows, by numerous in-
!

stances, that whenever it was proved that several bodies of the same saint,
or three heads of him, or three arms (as in the case of Augustine) were said
to exist in different places, and that they could not well be all authentic,
the cool and invariable answer of the Church was that they were all
genuine ; for " God had multiplied and miraculously reproduced them
for the greater glory of His Holy Church " In other words they would
!

have the faithful believe that the body of a deceased saint may, through
divine miracle, acquire the physiological peculiarities of a crawfish !
 A DECEIVING CLERGY AND JOYING SPIRITS. 73

We fancy that it would be hard

to demonstrate to satisfaction that the
any one particular instance, better or
visions of Catholic saints, are, in
more trustworthy than the average visions and prophecies of ouf modern
" mediums." The visions of Andrew Jackson Davis however our critics—
may sneer at them — are by long odds more philosophical and more com-
patible with modern science than the Augustinian speculations. When-
ever the visions of Swedenborg, the greatest among the modern seers,
run astray from philosophy and scientific truth^ it is when they most run
parallel with theology. Nor are these visions any more useless to either
science or humanity than those of the great orthodox saints. In the life

of St. Bernard it is narrated that as he was once in church, upon a Christ-

mas he prayed that the very hour in which Christ was born might be
eve,
revealed to him ; and when the " true and correct hour came, he saw the
divine babe appear in his manger." What a pity that the divine babe did
not embrace so favorable an opportunity to fix the correct day and year
of his death, and thereby reconcile the controversies of his putative
historians. The Tischendorfs, Lardners, and Colensos, as well as many
a Catholic divine, who have vainly squeezed the marrow out of historical
records and their own brains, in the useless search, would at least have
had something for which to thank the saint.

As it is, we are hopelessly left to infer that most of the beatific and
Golden Legend, and those to be found in the more
divine visions of the
complete biographies of the most important " saints," as well as most
of the visions of our own persecuted seers and seeresses, were produced
by ignorant and undeveloped " spirits " passionately fond of personating
great historical characters. We are quite ready to agree with the Chev-
alier des Mousseaux, and other unrelenting persecutors of magic and spir-
itualism in the name of the Church, that modern spirits are often " lying
spirits ; " that they are humor the respective hobbies of
ever on hand to
the persons with them at " circles ; " that they deceive
who communicate
them and, therefore, are not always good " spirits."
But, having conceded so much, we will now ask of any impartial
person : is it same time that the power given
possible to believe at the
to the exorcist-priest, that supreme and divine power of which he boasts,
has been given to him by God for the purpose of deceiving people ?
That the prayer pronounced by him in the name of Christ, and which,
forcing the demon into submission, makes him reveal himself, is calculated
at the same time to make the devil confess not the truth, but that only

which it is the interest of the church to which the exorcist belongs, should
pass for truth 1 And this is what invariably happens. Compare, for
instance, the responses given by the demon to Luther, with those
obtained from the devils by St. Dominick. The one argues against the
 !

74 ISIS UNVEILED.

private mass, and upbraids Luther with placing the Virgin Mary and
saints before Christ, and thus dishonoring the Son of God * wiiile the ;

demons exorcised by St. Dominick, upon seeing the Virgin whom the
holy father had also evoked to help him, roar out " Oh our enemy : !

oh our damner
! why didst thou descend from heaven to torment us ?
! . . .

Why thou so powerful an intercessor for sinners

art Oh thou most ! !

certain secure way to heaven

and thou commandest us and we are
. . .

forced to confess that nobody is damned 'who only perseveres in thy holy
worship, etc., etc."f Luther's " Saint Satan " assures him that while
believing in the transubstantiation of Christ's body and blood he had
been worshipping merely bread and wine and the devils of all the ;

Catholic saints promise eternal damnation to whomsoever disbelieves or

even so much as doubts the dogma !

Before leaving the subject, let us give one or two more instances from
the Chronicles of the Lives of the Saints, selected from such narratives
as are fully accepted by the Church. We might fill volumes with proofs
of undeniable confederacy between the exorcisers and the demons. Their
very nature betrays them. Instead of being independent, crafty entities,

bent on the destruction of men's souls and spirits, the majority of them
are simply the elementals of the kabalists ; creatures with no intellect
of their own, but faithful mirrors of the will which evokes, controls, and
guides them. We will not waste our time in drawing the reader's atten-
tion to doubtful or obscure thaumaturgists and exorcisers, but take as
our standard one of the greatest saints of Catholicism, and select a bou-
quet from that same prolific conservatory of pious lies, The Golden
Legend, of James de Veragine. J
Dominick, the founder of the famous order of that name, is one of
St.

the mightiest saints on the calendar. His order was the first that received
a solemn confirmation from the Pope,§ and he is well known in history
as the associate and counsellor of the infamous Simon de Montford, the
papal general, whom he helped to butcher the unfortunate Albigenses in
and near Toulouse. The story goes that this saint and the Church after
him, claim that he received from the Virgin, in propria persona, a rosary,
whose virtues produced such stupendous miracles that they throw entirely
into the shade those of the apostles, and even of Jesus himself. A man,
says the biographer, an abandoned sinner, was bold enough to doubt the

* De Missa Privata et Unctione Sacerdotum.

Dominick "
f See the "Life of St. and the story about the miraculous Rosary;
also the " Golden Legend."

% James de Varasse, known by the Latin name of James de Veragine, was Vicar-
General of the Dominicans and Bishop of Genoa in 1290.
g Thirteenth century.
 :

dominick's dialogue with the devils. 75

virtue of theDominican rosary and for this unparalleled blasphemy was

;

punished on the spot by having 15,000 devils take possession of him.

Seeing the great suffering of the tortured demoniac, St. Dominifck forgot
the insult and called the devils to account.
Following is the colloquy between the " blessed exorcist " and the
demons
Question. — How did you take possession of this man, and how many
are you ?

Annc'cr of the Devils. — We came into luui for having spoken disre-
spectfully of the rosary. We are 15,000.
Question. — Why did so many as 15,000 enter him ?
Answer. — Because there are fifteen decades in the rosary which he
derided, etc.
Dominick. — Is not all true I have said of the virtues of the rosary ?
Devils. —Yes ! Yes (they emit flames through the nostrils of the
!

demoniac). Know all ye Christians that Dominick never said one word

concerning the rosary that is not most true and know ye further, that ;

if you do not believe him, great calamities will befall you.

Dominick. —
Who is the man in the world the Devil hates the most ?
Devils. — (//z chorus.) Thou art the very man (here follow verbose
compliments).
Dominick. — Of which state of Christians are there the most damned?
— In we have merchants, pawnbrokers, fraudulent bankers,
Devils. hell
grocers, Jews, apothecaries, etc., etc.

Dominick. — Are there any priests or monks in hell ?

Devils. — There are a great number of but no monks, with the priests,
exception of such as have transgressed the rule of their order.
Dominick. — Have you any Dominicans ?

Devils. — Alas ! alas ! we have not one yet, but we expect a great
number of them after their devotion is a little cooled.
We do not pretend to give the questions and answers literally, for
they occupy twenty-three pages but the substance is here, as may be
;

seen by any one who cares to read the Golden Legend. The full descrip-
tion of the hideous bellowings of the demons, their enforced glorification
of the saint, and so on, is too long for this chapter. Suffice it to say
that as we read the numerous questions offered by Dominick and the
answers of the demons, we become fully convinced that they corroborate
in every detail the unwarranted assertions and support the interests of

the Church. The narrative is suggestive. The legend graphically

describes the battle of the exorcist with the legion from the bottomless
pit. The sulphurous flames which burst forth from the nose, mouth,
eyes, and ears, of the demoniac ; the sudden appearance of over a hun-
"je ISIS UNVEILED.

dred angels, clad in golden armor ; and, finally, the descent of the blessed
Virgin herself, in person, bearing a golden rod, with which she adminis-
ters a sound thrashing to the demoniac, to force the devils to confess that
of herself which we need repeat. The whole catalogue of theo-
s-carcely

logical' truths uttered by Dominick's devils were embodied in so many

articles of faith by his Holiness, the present Pope, in 1870, at the last
CEcumenical Council.
From the foregoing it is easy to see that the only substantial differ-

ence between infidel "mediums" and orthodox saints lies in the relative
usefulness of the demons, if demons we must call them. While the Devil
faithfully supports the Christian exorcist in his orthodox (?) views, the
modern spook generally leaves his medium in the lurch. For, by lying,
he acts against his or her interests rather than otherwise, and thereby
too often casts foul suspicion on the genuineness of the mediumship.
Were niodern " spirits" devils, they would evidently display a little more
discrimination and cunning than they do. They would act as the demons
of the saint which, compelled by the ecclesiastical magician and by the
power of " the name . . . which forces them into submission," lie in

accordance with the direct interest of the exorcist and his church. The
moral of the parallel we leave to the sagacity of the reader.
" Observe well," exclaims des Mousseaux, " that there are demons
which sometimes will speak the truth." " The exorcist," he adds, quoting
the 7?z/«t7/, "must command the demon to tell him whether he is de-

tained in the body of the demoniac through some magic art, or by signs,
or any objects which usually serve for this evil practice. In case the
exorcised person has swallowed the he must vomit them back latter, ;

and if they are not in his body, the demon must indicate the proper place
where they are to be found and having found them they must be ;

burned." * Thus some demons reveal the existence of the bewitchment,

tell who is its author, and indicate the means to destroy the malefice.

But beware to ever resort, in such a case, to magicians, sorcerers, or

mediums. You must call to help you but the minister of your Church !"
"The Church beheves in magic, as you well see," he adds, " since she
expresses it so formally. And those who disbelieve in magic, can they
hope to share the faith of their own Church ? And who can teach
still

them better? To whom did Christ say Go ye therefore, and teach all :
'

nations and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
. . .

world ? ' "

t
Are we to believe that he said this but to those who wear these black

* "Rituale Romanum," pp. 475-478. Parisiis, 1852.

" Moeurs et Pratiques des Demons," 177.
f p.
 HALF-CONVERTED DRAGONS AND WOLVES. 7/

or scarlet liveries of Rome ? Must we then credit the story that this
power was given by Christ to Simon Stylites, the saint who sanctified
himself by jjerching on a pillar {stylos) sixty feet high, for thirty-six years
of his life, without ever descending from it, in order that, among other
miracles stated in the Golden Legend, he might cure a dragon of a sore
eye ? " Near Simon's pillar was the dwelling of a dragon, so very
venomous that the stench was spread for miles round his cave." This
ophidian-hermit met with an accident he got a thorn in his eye, and,
;

hecoming blind, crept to the saint's pillar, and pressed his eye against it
for three days, without touching any one. Then the blessed saint, from
his aerial seat, " three feet in diameter," ordered earth and water to be

placed on the dragon's eye, out of which suddenly emerged a thorn (or
stake), a cubit in length when the people saw the " miracle " they glori-
;

fied the Creator. As to the grateful dragon, he arose and, " having adored
God for two hours, returned to his cave " * a half-converted ophidian,—
we must suppose.
And what are we to think of that other narrative, to disbelieve in
which is "to risk on^s salvation," as we were informed by a Pope's
missionary, of the Order of the P'ranciscans ? When St. Francis preached
a sermon in the wilderness, the birds assembled from the four cardinal
points of the world. They warbled and api)lauded every sentence ; they
sang a holy mass in chorus ; finally they dispersed to carry the glad
tidings all over the universe. A grasshopper, profiting by the absence
of the Holy Virgin, who generally kept company with the saint, remained
perched on the head of the " blessed one " for a whole week. Attacked
by a ferocious wolf, the saint, who had no other weapon but the sign
of the cross which he made upon himself, instead of running away from
his rabid assailant, began arguing with the beast. Having imparted to
him the benefit to be derived from the holy religion, St. Francis never
ceased talking until the wolf became as meek as a lamb, and even
shed tears of repentance over his past sins. Finally, he " stretched his
paws hands of the saint, followed him like a dog through all the
in the
towns in which he preached, and became half a Christian "f Wonders !

of zoology a horse turned sorcerer, a wolf and a dragori turned Chris-

!

tians !

These two anecdotes, chosen at random from among hundreds, if

rivalled are not surpassed by the wildest romances of the Pagan thau-
maturgists, magicians, and spiritualists And yet, when Pythagoras is
!

said to have subdued animals, even wild beasts, merely through a power-

See the narrative selected from the " Golden Legend," by Alban Butler,
*

f See the " Golden Legend ; " " Life of St. Francis;" "Deraonologia."
78 ISIS UNVEILED.

fill mesmeric influence, he is pronounced by one-half of the Catholics a

bare-faced impostor, and by the rest a sorcerer, who worked magic in
confederacy with the Devil ! Neither the she-bear, nor the eagle, nor
yet the bull that Pythagoras is said to have persuaded to give up eating

beans, were alleged to have answered with human voices ; while St. Ben-
edict's "black raven," whom he called "brother," argues with him, and
croaks his answers like a born casuist. When him one-
the saint offers
half of a poisoned loaf, the raven grows indignant and reproaches him in
Latin as though he had just graduated at the Propaganda !

Ifbe objected that the Golden Legend is now but half supported
it

by the Church and that it is known to have been compiled by the writer
;

from a collection of the lives of the saints, for the most part unauthenti-
cated, we can show that, at least in one instance, the biography is no
legendary compilation, but the history of one man, by another one who
was his contemporary. Jortin and Gibbons demonstrated years ago, that
the early fathers used to select narratives, wherewith to ornament the
lives of their apocryphal saints, from Ovid, Homer, Livy, and even from
the unwritten popular legends of Pagan nations. But such is not the case
in the above instances. St. Bernard lived in the twelfth century, a'nd St.
Dominick was nearly contemporaneous with the author of the Golden
Legend. De Veragine died in 1298, and Dominick, whose exorcisms
and life he describes so minutely, instituted his order in the first quarter
of the thirteenth century. Moreover, de Veragine was Vicar-General of
the Dominicans himself, in the middle of the same century, and therefore
described the miracles wrought by his hero and patron but a few years
after they were alleged to have happened. He wrote them in the same
convent and while narrating these wonders he had probably fifty persons
;

at hand who had been eye-witnesses to the saint's mode of living. What
must we think, in such a case, of a biographer who seriously describes the
following One day, as the blessed saint was occupied in his study, the
:

Devil began pestering him, in the shape of a flea. He frisked and jumped
about the pages of his book until the harassed saint, unwilling as he was
to act unkindly, even toward a devil, felt compelled to punish him by
fixing the troublesome devil on the very sentence on which he stopped,
by clasping the book. At another time the same devil appeared under
the shape of a monkey. He grinned so horribly that Dominick, in order
to get rid of him, ordered the devil-monkey to take the candle and hold
it him until he had done reading. The poor imp did so, and held it
for
until it was consumed to the very end of the wick and, notwithstanding ;

his pitiful cries for mercy, the saint compelled him to hold it till his fin-
gers were burned to the bones !

Enough The approbation with which this book was received by the
!
 THE INDECENCY OF THE "GOLDEN LEGEND." 79

Church, and the pecuhar sanctity attributed to it, is sufficient to show the
estimation in which veracity was held by its patrons. We may add, in
conclusion, that the finest quintessence of Boccaccio's Decameron, appears
prudery itself by comparison with the filthy realism of the Golden Legend.

We cannot regard with too much astonishment the pretensions of the

Catholic Church in seeking to convert Hindus and Buddhists to Chris-
tianity. While the " heathen" keeps to the faith of his fathers, he has at
least the one redeeming quality— that of not having apostatized for the

mere pleasure of exchanging one set of idols for another. There may be
for him some novelty in his embracing Protestantism for in that he gains
;

the advantage, at least, of Hmiting his reUgious views to their simplest

expression. But when a Buddhist has been enticed into exchanging his
Shoe Dagoon for the Slipper of the Vatican, or the eight hairs from the
head of Gautama and Buddha's tooth, which work miracles, for the locks
of a Christian saint, and a tooth of Jesus, which work far less clever
miracles, he has no cause to boast of his choice. In his address to the
Literary Society of Java, Sir T. S. Raffles is said to have narrated the fol-
lowing characteristic anecdote " On visiting the great temple on the
:

hills of Nangasaki, the English commissionerwas received with marked

regard and respect by the venerable patriarch of the northern provinces,
a man eighty years of age, who entertained him most sumptuously. On
showing him round the courts of the temple, one of the English officers
present heedlessly exclaimed, in surprise, '
Jesus Christus !
' The patriarch
turning half round, with a placid smile, bowed significantly, with the
expression: ' We know
your Jasus Christus Well, don't obtrude him
!

upon us in our temples, and we remain friends.' And so, with a hearty
shake of the hands, these two opposites parted." *
There is scarcely a report sent by the missionaries from India, Thibet,
and China, but laments the diabolical "obscenity" of the heathen rites,
their lamentable irapudicity all of which " are so strongly suggestive of
;

devil-worship," as des Mousseaux tells us. We can scarcely be assured

that the morality of the Pagans would be in the least improved were they
allowed a free inquiry into the life of say the psalmist-king, the author
of those sweet Psalms which are so rapturously repeated by Christians.
The. difference between David performing a phallic dance before the holy
ark— —
emblem of the female principle and a Hindu Vishnavite bearing
the same emblem on his forehead, favors the former only in the eyes of
those who have studied neither the ancient faith nor their own. When a
religion which compelled David to cut off and deliver two hundred fore-
skins of his enemies before he could become the king's son-in-law (i Sam.

* ''
The Mythology of the Hindus," by Charles Coleman. Japan.
80 ISIS UNVEILED.

accepted as a standard by Christians, they would do well not to

xviii.) is

cast into the teeth of heathen the impudicities of their faiths. Remem-
bering the suggestive parable of Jesus, they ought to cast the beam out of
tlieir own eye before plucking at the mote in their neighbor's. The sexual
element marked in Christianity as in any one of the "heathen reli-
is as
gions." Certainly, nowhere in the Vedas can be found the coarseness and
downright immodesty of language, that Hebraists now discover through-
out the Mosaic Bible.
It would profit little were we to dwell much upon subjects which have
been disposed of in such a masterly way by an anonymous author whose
work electrified England and Germany last year * while as regards the ;

particular topic under notice, we cannot do better than recommend the

scholarly writings of Dr. Inman. Albeit one-sided, and in many instan-
ces unjust to the ancient heathen. Pagan, and Jewish religions, the fads
treated in the A?icient and Pagan Christian Symbolisrn, are unimpeach-
able. Neither can we agree with some English critics who charge him
with an intent to destroy Christianity. If by Christianity is meant the ex-
ternal religious forms of worshi[), thenhe certainly seeks to destroy it, for in
his eyes, as well as in those of every truly religious man, who has studied
ancient exoteric faiths, and their symbology, Christianity is pure heath-
enism, and Catholicism, with its fetish-worshipping, is far worse and more
pernicious than Hinduism in its most idolatrous aspect. But while
denouncing the exoteric forms and unmasking the symbols, it is not the
religion of Christ that the author attacks, but the artificial system of the-
ology. We will allow him to illustrate the position in his own language,
and quote from his preface :

" When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer,"

he says, " they were, we are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being
driven through the body but experience showed them to have such
;

tenacity of life that they rose, again and again, notwithstanding renewed
impalement, and vi<irt not ultimately laid to rest till wholly burned. In
like manner, the regenerated heathendom, which dominates over the
followers of Jesus of Nazareth, has risen again and again, after being
transfixed. Still cherished by the many, denounced by the few.
it is

Amongst other accusers, I raise my voice against the Paganism which

exists so extensively in ecclesiastical Christianity, and will do my utmost
to expose the imposture. ... In a vampire story told in Thalaba, by
Southey, the resuscitated being takes the form of a dearly-beloved maiden,
and the hero is obliged tokill her with his own hand. He does so ; but,
whilst he strikes the form of the loved one, he feels sure that he slays

* "Supernatural Religion."
 THE POPE FRATERNIZING WITH ISLAM. 8l

only a demon. In like manner, when I endeavor to destroy the current

heathenism, which has assumed the garb of Christianity, / do not attack
real religion* Few would accuse a workman of malignancy, who
cleanses from filth the surface of a noble statue. There may be some
who are too nice to touch a nasty subject, yet even they will rejoice when
some one removes the dirt. Such a scavenger is wanted." f
else
But is it merely Pagans and heathen that the Catholics persecute,

and about whom, like Augustine, they cry to the Deity, " Oh, my God !

so do I wish Thy enemies to be slaijil" Oh, no their aspirations are !

more ISIosaic and Cain-like than that. It is against their next of kin in
faith, against their schismatic brothers that they are now intriguing within
the walls which sheltered the murderous Borgias. The larva of the
infanticidal, parricidal, and fratricidal Popes have proved themselves fit
counsellors for the Cains of Castelfidardo and Mentana. It is now the
turn of the Slavonian Christians, the Oriental Schismatics —the Philis-
tines of the Greek Church !

His Holiness the Pope, after exhausting, in a metaphor of self-lauda-

tion, every point of assimilation between the great biblical prophets and
himself, has finally and truly compared himself with the Patriarch Jacob
"wrestling against his God." He now crowns the edifice of Catholic
piety by openly sympathizing with the Turks ! The vicegerent of God
inaugurates his infallibility by encouraging, in a true Christian spirit, the
acts of that Moslem David, the modern Bashi-Bazuk ; and seems as
it

if nothing would more please his Holiness than to be presented by the

latter with several thousands of the Bulgarian or Servian " foreskins."
True to her policy to be all things to all men to promote her own inter-
ests, the Romish Church is, at this writing (1876), benevolently viewing
the Bulgarian and Servian atrocities, and, probably, manoeuvring with
Turkey against Russia. Better Islam, and the hitherto -hated Crescent
over the sepulchre of the Christian god, than the Greek Church estab-
lished at Constantinople and Jerusalem as the state religion. Like a
decrepit and toothless ex-tyrant in exile, the Vatican is eager for any
alliance that promises, if not a restoration of its own power, at least the
weakening of its rival. The axe its inquisitors once swung, it now toys

* Neither do we, if by true religion the woi'Id shall at last understand the adoration of

one Supreme, Invisible, and Unknown Deity, by works and acts, not by the profession
of vain human dogmas. But our intention is to go farther. We desire to demonstrate
that if we exclude ceremonial and fetish worship from being regarded as essential parts

of religion, then the true Christ-like principles have been exemplified, and true Chris-
tianity practiced since the days of the apostles, exclusively among Buddhists and

"heathen."
\ "Ancient Pagan and Modem Christian Symbolism," p. xvi.

6
 —

82 ISIS UNVEILED.

with in secret, feeling its edge, and waiting, and hoping against hope. In

her time, the Popish Church has lain with strange bedfellows, but never
before now sunk to the degradation of giving her moral support to those
who for over 1200 years spat in her face, called her adherents "infidel
dogs," repudiated her teachings, and denied godhood to her God !

The aroused at this indignity,

press of even Catholic France is fairly

and openly accuses the Ultramontane portion of the Catholic Church

and the Vatican of siding, during the present Eastern struggle, with the
Mahometan against the Christian. "When the Minister of Foreign
Affairs in theFrench Legislature spoke some mild words in favor of the
Greek was only applauded by the liberal Catholics, and
Christians, he
received coldly by the Ultramontane party," says the French correspon-
dent of a New York paper.
" Sopronounced was this, that M. Lemoinne, the well-known editor
of the great liberal Catholic journal, the Debats, was moved to say that
the Roman Church felt more sympathy for the Moslem than the schis-
matic, just as they preferred an infidel to the Protestant. There is at '

bottom,' says this writer, a great affinity between the Syllabus and the
'

Koran, and between the two heads of the faithful. The two systems are
of the same nature, and are united on the common ground of a one and-
unchangeable theory.' In Italy, in like manner, the King and Liberal
Catholics are in warm sympathy with the unfortunate Christians, while
the Pope and Ultramontane faction are believed to be inclining to the
Mahometans."
The civilized world may yet expect the apparition of the materialized
Virgin Mary within the walls of the Vatican. The so often-repeated
" miracle " of Ihe Immaculate Visitor in the mediaeval ages has recently
been enacted at Lourdes, and why not once more, as a coup de grace to

all heretics, schismatics, and infidels ? The miraculous wax taper is yet
seen at Arras, the chief city of Artois ; and at every new calamity threat-
ening her beloved Church, the " Blessed Lady " appears personally, and
lights it with her own fair hands, in view of a whole " biologized " con-
gregation. This sort of "miracle," says E. Worsley, wrought by the
Roman Catholic Church, " being most certain, and never doubted of by
any." * Neither has the private correspondence with which the most
" Gracious Lady " honors her friends been doubted. There are two
precious missives from her in the archives of the Church. The first pur-
ports to be a letter in answer to one addressed to her by Ignatius. She
confirms all things learned by her correspondent from "her friend"
* '
' Discourses of Miracles wrought in the Roman Catholic Church ; or a full Refu-
tation of Dr. Stillingfleet's unjust Exceptions against Miracles." Octavo, 1676,
p. 64.
 A LETTER FROM MARY VIRGIN. 83

meaning the Apostle John. She bids him hold fast to his vows, and adds
as an inducement " I and John will come together and pay you a
:

viiitr *
Nothing was known of this unblushing fraud till the letters were pub-
Pans, in 1495.
lished at By a curious accident it appeared at a time
when threatening inquiries began to be made as to the genuineness of
the fourth Synoptic. Who could doubt, after such a confirmation from
headquarters ! But the climax of effrontery was capped in 1534, when
another letter was received from the " Mediatrix," which sounds more like
the report of a lobby-agent to a brother-politician. It was written in excel-
lent Latin, and was found in the Cathedral of Messina, together with the
image to which it alludes. Its contents run as follows :

"Mary Virgin, Mother of

the Redeemer of the world, to the Bishop, Clergy, and
the other faithful of Jlessuia, sendeth health and benediction from herself and son
:f
"Whereas ye have been mindful of establishing the worship of me; now this is to
let youknow that by so doing ye have found great favor in my sight. I have a long
time reflected with pain upon your city, which is exposed to much danger from its con-
tiguity to the fire have often had words about it with my son, for he
of Etna, and I
was vexed with you because of your guilty neglect of my worship, so that he would
cot care a pin about my intercession. Now, however, that you have come to your
senses, and have happily begun to worship me, he has conferred upon me the right to

become your everlasting protectress but, at the same time, I warn you to mind what
;

you are about, and give me no cause of repenting of my kindness to you. The prayers
and festivals instituted in my honor please me tremendously {vehemetiter), and if you
persevere in these things, and provided you oppose to the utmost of your
faithfully

power, the heretics which now-a-days are spreading through the world, by which both
my worship and that of the other saints, male and female, are so endangered, you shall
enjoy my perpetual protection.
" In sign of this compact, I send you down from Heaven
the image of myself, cast
by celestial hands, and if honor to which it is entitled, it will be an
ye hold it in the
evidence to me of your obedience and your faith. Farewell. Dated in Heaven,
whilst sitting near the throne of my son, in the month of December, of the 1534th
year from his incarnation.
"Mary Virgin."

The reader should understand that this document is no anti-Catholic

forgery. The author from whom it is taken, J says that the authenticity
of the missive "is attested by the Bishop himself, his Vicar-General,

* After this, why should the Roman Catholics object to the claims of the Spiritual-
ists? If, without proof, they believe " materialization " of Mary and John, for
in the

Ignatius, how can they logically deny the materialization of Katie and John (King),
when it is attested by the careful experiments of Mr. Crookes, the English chemist, and
the cumulative testimony of a large number of witnesses?
f The " Mother of God " takes precedence therefore of God?
X See the " New Era " for July, 1875. N. Y.
 ;

84 ISIS UNVEILED.

Secretary, and six Canons of the Cathedral Church of Messina, all of

whom have signe'd that attestation with their names, and confirmed it
upon oath.
" Both the epistle and image were found upon the high altar, where
they had been placed by angels from heaven."
A Church must have reached the last stages of degradation, when
such sacrilegious trickery as this could be resorted to by its clergy, and
accepted with or without question by the people.
No ! far from the man who workings of an immortal spirit
feels the
within him, be such a religion ! There never was nor ever will be a truly
philosophical mind, whether of Pagan, heathen, Jew, or Christian, but has
followed the same path of thought. Gautama-Buddha is mirrored in the
precepts of Christ Paul and Philo Judasus are faithful echoes of Plato
;

and Ammonias Saccas and Plotinus won their immortal fame by combin-
ing the teachings of all these grand masters of true philosophy. " Prove
all things ; hold fast that which is good," ought to be the motto of all

brothers on earth. Not so is it with the interpreters of the Bible. The

seed of the Reformation was sown on the day that, the second chapter of
The Catholic Epistle of James, jostled the eleventh chapter of the Epistle
to the Hebrews in the same New Testament. One who believes in Paul
cannot believe James, Peter, and John. The Paulists, to remain Chris-
in
tians with their apostle, must withstand Peter " to the face " and if ;

Peter "was to be blamed" and was wrong, then he was not infallible.

How then can his successor (?) boast of his infallibility ? Every kingdom
divided against itself is and every house divided
brought to desolation ;

against itself must fall. A proved as fatal in reli-

plurality of masters has
gions as in politics. What Paul preached, was preached by every other
mystic philosopher. " Stand /aj/ therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage!"
exclaims the honest apostle-philosopher and adds, as if prophetically
;

inspired " But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye
:

be not consumed one of another."

That the Neo-platonists were not always despised or accused of
demonolatry is evidenced in the adoption by the Roman Church of their
very rites and theurgy. The identical evocations and incantations of the
Pagan and Jewish Kabalist, are now repeated by the Christian exorcist,
and the theurgy of lamblichus was adopted word for word. " Distinct
as were the Platonists and Pauline Christians of the earlier centuries,"
writes Professor A. Wilder, "many of the more distinguished teachers
of the new were deeply tinctured with the philosophical leaven.
faith
Synesius, the Bishop of Cyrene, was the disciple of Hypatia. St. Anthony
reiterated the theurgy of lamblichus. The Logos, or word of the Gospd
 PAGAN ORIGIN OF CATHOLIC RITUAL. 8S

according to John, was a Gnostic personification.

Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, and others of the fathers drank deeply from the fomitains of
philosophy. The ascetic idea which carried away the Church was like
that which was practiced by Plotinus ... all through the middle ages
there rose up men who accepted the interior doctrines which were pro-
mulgated by the renowned teacher of the Academy." *
To substantiate our accusation that the Latin Church first despoiled
the kabalists and theurgists of their magical rites and ceremonies, before
hurling anathemas upon their devoted heads, we will now translate for
the reader fragments from the forms of exorcism employed by kabalists
and Christians. The identity in phraseology, may, perhaps, disclose one
of the reasons why the Romish Church has always desired to keep the
faithful in ignorance of the meaning of her Latin prayers and ritual. Only
those directly interested in the deception have had the opportunity to
compare the rituals of the Church and the magicians. Tlie best Latin
scholars were, until a comparatively recent date, either churchmen, or
dependent upon the Church. Common people could not read Latin, and
even if they could, the reading of the books on magic was prohibited,
under the penalty of anathema and excommunication. The cunning
device of the confessional made it almost impossible to consult, even
surreptitiously, what the priests call 3. grimoire (a devil's scrawl), or Ritual

of Magic. To make assurance doubly sure, the Church began destroying

or concealing everything of the kind she could lay her hands upon.
The following are translated from the Kabalistic Ritual, and that gen-
erally known as the' Roman Ritual. The latter was promulgated in
1851 and 1852, under the sanction of Cardinal Engelbert, Archbishop of
Malines, and of the Archbishop of Paris. Speaking of it, the demonolo-
gist des Mousseaux says "It is the ritual of Paul V., revised by the
:

most learned of modern Popes, by the contemporary of Voltaire, Benedict

XIV." f

Kabalistic. (Jewish and Pagan.) Roman Catholic

Exorcism of Salt. Exorcism of Salt. §
The Priest-Magician blesses the Salt, and The Priest blesses the Salt and says :

says; " Creature of Salt, \ in thee may ** Creature of Salt, I exorcise thee in the
remain the wisdom (of God) ; and may it name of the living God . , . become the
preserve from all corruption our minds and health of the soul and of the body ! Every-

* "Paul and Plato."

t See
" La Magie au XlXme SiWe," p. 168.

% Creature of salt, air, water, or of any object to be enchanted or blessed, is a tech

nical word in magic, adopted by the Christian clergy.
§ "Rom. Rit.," edit, of 1851, pp. 291-296, etc., etc.
 —

86 ISIS UNVEILED.

bodies. Through Hochmael (i^XD^n, God where where thou art thrown may the un-
of wisdom), and the power ofRuach Hoch- clean spirit be put to flight. Amen.'" . . .

mael (Spirit of the Holy Ghost) may the

Spirits of matter (bad spirits) before it

recede. . . . Amen."

Exorcism of Water {and Ashes'). Exorcism of Water.

" Creature of the Water, I exorcise thee "Creature of the water, in the name of
... by the three names which are Netsah, the Almighty God, the Father, the Son,
Hod, and Jerod (kabalistic trinity), in the and the Holy Ghost be exorcised.
. . .

beginning and in the end, by Alpha and ... I adjure thee in the name of the Lamb
Omega, which are in the Spirit Azoth . . . (the magician says bull ox ox per
(Holy Ghost, or the 'Universal Soul'), I alas Tauri) of the Lamb that trod upon the
exorcise and adjure thee. Wandering . . . basilisk and the aspic,and who crushes
eagle, may the Lord command thee by the under his foot the lion and the dragon."
wings of the bull and his flaming sword."
(The cherub placed at the east gate of
Eden.)

Exorcism of an Elemental Spirit. Exorcism of the Devil.

" Serpent, in the name of the Tetragram-
maton, the Lord; He commands thee, by " O Lord, let him who carries along
the angel and the lion. with him the terror, fiee, struck in his turn
"Angel of darkness, obey, and run away by terror and defeated. O thou, who art
with this holy (exorcised) water. Eagle in the Ancient Serpent . . . tremble before
chains, obey this sign, and retreat before the hand of him who, having triumphed of
the breath. Moving serpent, crawl at my the tortures of hell (?) devictis geniitibus
feet, or be tortured by this sacred fire, and inferni, recalled the souls to light. . . .

evaporate before this holy incense. Let The more whilst (hou decay, the more terri-
water return to water (the elemental spirit ble will be thy torture ... by Him who
of water) ; let the fire burn, and the air and the dead
reigns over the living . . .

circulate ; let the earth return to earth by and who will judge the century by fire,
the virtue of the Pentagi-am, which is the sacuhtm per ignem, etc. In the name of
Morning and in the name of the
Star, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
tetragrammaton which is traced in the cen- Amen." *
tre of the Cross of Light. Amen."

unnecessary to try the patience of the reader any longer, although

It is
we might multiply examples. It must not be forgotten that we have
quoted from the latest revision of the Ritual, that of 1851-2. If we were
to go back to the former one we would find a far more striking identity,
not merely of phraseology but of ceremonial form. For the purpose of
comparison we have not even availed ourselves of the ritual of ceremo-
nial magic of the Christian kabalists of the middle ages, wherein the
language modelled upon a belief in the divinity of Christ is, with the
exception of a stray expression here and there, identical with the Catholic

"Rom. Rit.," pp. 421-435.

 — — — a
"
:

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS KABALISTIC. 87

Ritual. * The latter, however, makes one improvement, for the originality

of which the Church should be allowed all credit. Certainly nothing so

fantastical could be found in a ritual of magic. " Give place," apostro-
phizing the " Demon," it says, " give place to Jesus Christ 'CaowfiUhy, . . .

stinking, and ferocious beast . . . dost thou rebel ? Listen and tremble,
Satan ;
enemy of the faith, enemy of the human race, introducer of death
. . . root of all evil, promoter of vice, soul of envy, origin of avarice,
cause of discord, prince of homicide, whom God curses ; author of incest
and sacrilege, inventor of all obscenity, professor of the most detestable
actions, a7id Grand Master of
( / / ) {Doctor Hmreticorum ! ) Heretics
What !
.'
. . dost thou
Dost dare to resist, and thou knowest
still stand ?

that Christ, our Lord, is coming ? Give place to Jesus Christ, give . . .

place to the Holy Ghost, which, by His blessed Apostle Peter, has flung
thee down before the public, in the person of* Simon the Magician
(te manifeste stravit in Simone mago).\

After such a shower of abuse, no devil having the shghtest feeling

of self-respect could remain in such company unless, indeed, he should ;

chance to be an Italian Liberal, or King Victor Emmanuel himself;

both of whom, thanks to Pius IX., have become anathema-proof
It really seems too bad to strip Rome of all her symbols at once but ;

justice must be done to the despoiled hierophants. Long before the

sign of the Cross was adopted as a Christian symbol, it was employed as
a secret sign of recognition among neophytes and adepts. Says Levi
"The sign of the Cross adopted by the Christians does not belong exclu-
sively to them. It is kabalistic, and represents the oppositions and
quaternary equilibrium of the elements. We see by the occult verse of
the Pater, to which we have called attention in another work, that there
were originally two ways of making it, or, at least, two very different
formulas to express its meaning one reserved for priests and" initiates— ;

the other given to neophytes and the profane. Thus, for example, the
initiate, carrying his hand to his forehead, said To thee ; then he added, :

belong ; and continued, while carrying his hand to the breast the king-
dom ; then, to the left shoulder -justice ; to the right shoulder and
mercy. Then he joined the two hands, adding : throughout the genera-
ting cycles : '
Tibi sunt Malchut, et Geburah et Chassed per ALonas' —
sign of the Cross, absolutely and magnificently kabalistic, which the pro-
fanations of Gnosticism made the mihtant and official Church completely
lose."
I

• See "Art-Magic," art. Peter d'Abano.

f "Ritual," pp. 429-433 ; see "La Magie au XlXme Siecle," pp. 171, 172.

X "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie," vol. ii., p. 88.

88 ISIS UNVEILED.

How fantastical, therefore, is the assertion of Father Ventura, that,

while Augustine was a Manichean, a philosopher, ignorant of and refu-
sing to humble himself before the sublimity of the " grand Christian rev-
elation,"he knew nothing, understood naught of God, man, or universe;
" ..he remained poor, small, obscure, sterile, and wrote nothing, did
.

nothing really grand or useful." But, hardly had he become a Chris-

tian "... when his reasoning powers and intellect, enlightened at the
luminary of faith, elevated him to the most sublime heights of philosophy
and theology." And his other proposition that Augustine's genius, as a
consequence, " developed itself in all its grandeur and prodigious fecundity
... his intellect radiated with that immense splendor which, reflecting
itself in hisimmortal writings, has never ceased for one moment during
fourteen centuries to illuminate the Church and the world " * !

Whatever Augustine was as a Manichean, we leave Father Ventura

to discover ; but that his accession to Christianity established an everlast-
ing enmity between theology and science is beyond doubt. While forced
to confess that " the Gentiles had possibly something divine and true in
their doctrines," he, nevertheless, declared that for their superstition,
idolatry, and pride, they had " to be detested, and, unless they improved,
to be punished by divine judgment." This furnishes the clew to the sub-
sequent policy of the Christian Church, even to our day. If the Gentiles
did not choose to come into the Church, all that was divine in their phil-
osophy should go for naught, and the divine wrath of God should be vis-
ited upon their heads. What effect this produced is succinctly stated by
Draper " No one did more than this Father to bring science and
:

religion into antagonism ; it was mainly he who diverted the Bible from
its true office —
a guide to purity of life —
and placed it in the perilous
position of being the arbiter of human knowledge, an audacious tyranny
over the mind of man. The example once set, there was no want of
followers the works of the Greek philosophers were stigmatized as pro-
;

fane ; the transcendently glorious achievements of the Museum of Alex-

andria were hidden from sight by a cloud of ignorance, mysticism, and
unintelligible jargon, out of which there too often flashed the destroying
lightnings of ecclesiastical vengeance." f
Augustine and Cyprian \ admit that Hermes and Hostanes believed
in one true god the first two maintaining, as well as the two Pagans,
;

that he is invisible and incomprehensible, except spiritually. Moreover

—
we invite any man of intelligence provided he be not a religious fanatic
— after reading fragments chosen at random from the works of Hermes

* " Conferences," by Le P^re Ventura, vol. ii., part i., p. Ivi., Preface.
\ "
Conflict between Religion and Science," p. 62.
^ " De Baptismo Contra Donatistas," lib. vi., ch. xliv.
 WAS "SIMON MAGUS" ST. PAUL? 89

and Augustine on the Deity, to decide which of the two gives a more
philosophical definition of the " unseen Father." We have at least one
writer of fame who is of our opinion. Draper calls the Augustinian
productions a " rhapsodical conversation" with God; an "incoherent
dream."*
Father Ventura depicts the saint as attitudinizing before an astonished
world upon " the most sublime heights of philosophy." But here steps
in again the same unprejudiced critic, who passes the following remarks
on this colossus of Patristic philosophy. "Was it for this preposterous
scheme," he asks, " this product of ignorance and audacity, that the
works of the Greek philosophers were to be given up ? It was none too
soon that the great criticswho appeared at the Reformation, by compar-
ing the works of these writers with one another, brought them to their
proper level, and taught us to look upon them all with contempt." f
For such men as Plotinus, Porphyry, lambhchus, ApoUonius, and
even Simon Magus, to be accused of having formed a pact with the
Devil, whether the latter personage exist or not, is so absurd as to need
but little refutation. If Simon Magus —
the most problematical of all in
an historical sense — ever existed otherwise than in the overheated fancy
of Peter and the other was evidently no worse than any of
apostles, he
his adversaries. A however great, is insuf-
difference in religious views,
ficient /^r se to send one person to heaven and the other to hell. Such
uncharitable and peremptory doctrines might have been taught in the
middle ages ; but it is too late now for even the Church to put forward
this traditional scarecrow. Research begins to suggest that which, if
ever verified, will bring eternal disgrace on the Church of the Apostle
Peter, whose very imposition of herself upon that disciple must be re-
garded as the most unverified and unverifiable of the assumptions of the
Catholic clergy.
The erudite author of Supernatural Religion assiduously endeavors
toprove that by Simon Magus we must understand the apostle Paul,
whose Epistles were secretly as well as openly calumniated by Peter,
and charged with containing " dysnoetic learning." The Apostle of the
Gentiles was brave, outspoken, sincere, and very learned the Apostle ;

of Circumcision, cowardly, cautious, insincere, and very ignorant. That

Paul had been, partially, at least, if not completely, initiated into the
theurgic mysteries, admits of little doubt. His language, the phraseology
so peculiar to the Greek philosophers, certain expressions used butby the
initiates, are so many sure ear-marks to that supposition. Our suspicion
has been strengthened by an able article in one of the New York peri-

* "Conflict, etc.," p. 37. \ Ibid.

go ISIS UNVEILED.

odicals, entitled in which the author puts forward one

Paul and Plato*
remarkable and, for very precious observation.
us, In his Epistles to the
Corinthians he shows Paul abounding with "expressions suggested by
the initiations of Sabazius and Eleusis, and the lectures of the (Greek)
philosophers. He (Paul) designates himself an idiotes — a person unskil-
ful in Word, but not in the gnosis or philosophical learning.
the We '

speak wisdom among the perfect or initiated,' he writes not the wis- ;
'

dom of this world, nor of the archons of this world, but divine wisdom
in a mystery, secret —
which none of the Archons of this world knew.' " \
What else can the apostle mean by these unequivocal words, but
that he himself, as belonging to the mystcs (initiated), spoke of things
shown and explained only in the Mysteries ? The " divine wisdom in a
mystery which none of the archons of this world knew," has evidendy
some direct reference to the basileus of the Eleusinian initiation who
did know. The basileus belonged to the staff of the great hierophant,
and was an archon of Athens ; and as such was one of the chief mystce,
belonging to the interior Mysteries, to which a very select and small
number obtained an entrance. J The magistrates supervising the Eleu-
sinians were called archons.
Another proof that Paul belonged to the circle of the " Initiates" lies
in the following fact. The apostle had his head shorn at Cenchrea
(where Lucius, Afuleius, was initiated) because " he had a vow." The
fiazars —
or set apart —
as we see in the Jewish Scriptures, had to cut
their hair which they wore long, and which " no razor touched " at any
other time, and sacrifice it on the altar of initiation. And the nazars
were a class of Chaldean theurgists. We will show further that Jesus
belonged to this class.
Paul declares that " According to the grace of God which is given
:

unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation."

§
This expression, master-builder, used only ofice in the whole Bible,
and by Paul, may be considered as a whole revelation. In the Mysteries,
the third part of the sacred rites was called Epopteia, or revelation, recep-
tion into the secrets. In substance it means that stage of divine clairvoy-

ance when everything pertaining to this earth disappears, and earthly sight
is paralyzed, and the soul united free and pure with its Spirit, or God.
is

But the real significance of the word is " overseeing," from o7rro/xai—
I see myself. In Sanscrit the word evdpto has the same meaning,

* " Paul and Plato," by A. Wilder, editor of " The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mys"
teries," of Thomas Taylor.
\ " Paul and Plato." % See Taylor's " Eleus. and Bacchic Myst."
§ I Corin., iii. lo.
 —
PETER S HATRED OF PAUL. 91

as well as to obtain. * The word epopteia

one, from E;ri is a compound
—upon, and 0-wTOfx.a.i — to look, or an overseer,
an inspector also used —
for a master-builder. The title of master-mason, in Freemasonry, is
derived from this, in the sense used in the Mysteries. Therefore, when
Paul entitles himself a " master-builder," he is using a word pre-eminently

kabalistic, theurgic, and masonic, and one which no other apostle uses.
He thus declares himself an adept, having the right to initiate others.
If we search in this direction, with those sure guides, the Grecian
Mysteries and the Kabala, before us, it will be easy to find the secret reason
why Paul was so persecuted and hated by Peter, John, and James. The
author of the Revelation was a Jewish kabalist pur sang, with all the
hatred inherited by him from his forefathers toward the Mysteries, His
f
jealousy during the life of Jesus extended even to Peter
and it is but ;

after the death of their common master that we see the two apostles

the former of whom wore the Mitre and the Petaloon of the Jewish

—
Rabbis preach so zealously the rite of circumcision. In the eyes of
Peter, Paul, who had humiliated him, and whom he felt so much his
superior in "Greek learning" and philosophy, must have naturally
appeared as a magician, a man polluted with the " Gnosis" with the
" wisdom " of the Greek Mysteries —
hence, perhaps, " Simon \ the Ma-
gician."
As to Peter, biblical criticism has shown before now that he had
probably no more to do with the foundation of the Latin Church at
Rome, than to furnish the pretext so readily seized upon by the cunning
Irenasus to benefit this Church with the new name of the apostle
Petra or Kiffa, a name which allowed so readily, by an easy play upon
words, to connect it with Petroma, the double set of stone tablets used

* In its most extensive meaning, the Sanscrit word has the same literal sense as the
Greek term ; both imply " revelation," by no human agent, but through the " receiving
of the sacred drink." In India the initiated received the " Soma," sacred drink, which
helped to liberate his soul from the body ; and in the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the
sacred drink offered at the Epopteia. The Grecian Mysteries are wholly derived from
the Brahmanical Vedic rites, and the latter from the ante-vedic religious Mysteries
primitive Buddhist philosophy.

f It is needless to state that the Gospel

according to John was not written by John
but by a Platonist or a Gnostic belonging to the Neo-platonic school.
The fact that Peter persecuted the -'Apostle to the Gentiles," under that name,
:j;

does not necessarily imply that there was no Simon Magus

individually distinct from
Paul. It may have become a generic name of abuse. Theodoret and Chrysostom, the
earliest and most prolific commentators on the Gnosticism of those days, seem actually

to make of Simon a rival of Paul, and to state that between them passed frequent mes-
sages. The former, as a diligent propagandist of what Paul terms the " antitheses of
the Gnosis" (ist Epistle to Timothy), must have been a sore thorn in the side of the
apostle. There are sufficient proofs of the actual existence of Simon Magus.
92 ISIS UNVEILED.

at the initiations, during the final Mystery.

In this,
by the hierophant
the Vatican.
perhaps, hes concealed the whole secret of the claims of
As Professor Wilder happily suggests "In the Oriental countries the
:

designation ins, Peter (in Phoenician and Chaldaic, an interpreter)

appears to have been the title of this personage (the hierophant). . . .

There is in these facts some reminder of the peculiar ciixumstances of the

Mosaic Law . and also of the claim of the Pope to be the successor
. .

*
of Peter, the hierophant or interpreter of the Christian religion."
As such, we must concede to him, to some extent, the right to be
such an The Latin Church has faithfully preserved in
interpreter.
symbols, ceremonies, architecture, and even in the very dress of her
rites,

clergy, the tradition of the Pagan worship of the public or exoteric —

ceremonies, we should add ; otherwise her dogmas would embody more
sense and contain less blasphemy against the majesty of the Supreme
and Invisible God.
An inscription found on the coffin of Queen Mentuhept, of the elev-
enth dynasty (2250 B.C.), now proved to have been transcribed from the
seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Dead (dating not later than
4500 B.C.), is more than suggestive. This monumental text contains a
group of hieroglyphics, which, when interpreted, read thus :

PTR. RF. SU.

Peter- ref- su.

Baron Bunsen shows this sacred formulary mixed up with a whole

series of glosses and various interpretations on a monument forty cen-
turies old. " This is identical with saying that the record (the true inter-
pretation) was no longer intelligible.
at that time . We beg our . .

readers to understand," he adds, " that a sacred text, a hymn, containing

the words of a departed spirit, existed in such a state about 4,000
years ago ... as to be all but unintelligible to royal scribes." f
That it was unintelligible to the unitiated among the latter is as well
proved by the confused and contradictory glossaries, as that it- was a
" mystery "-word, known to the hierophants of the sanctuaries, and, more-
over, a word chosen by Jesus, to designate the office assigned by him to
one of his apostles. This word, PTR, was partially interpreted, owing
to another word similarly written in another group of hieroglyphics, on a

* " Introd. to Eleus. and Bacchic Mysteries," p. x. Had we not trustworthy kabal-
istic tradition to rely upon, we might be, perhaps, forced to question whether the author-
ship of the Revelation is to be ascribed to the apostle of tliat name. He seems to
be termed John tlie Theologist.
\ Bunsen :
" Egypt's Place in Universal History," vol. v., p. 90.
 THE TRUE INTERPRETATION OF " PETRUM." 93

Stele, the sign used for it being an opened eye. * Bimsen mentions as
another explanation of PTR— " to show." " It appears to me," he re-
marks, " that oiir PTR is literally the old Aramaic and Hebrtw '
Patar,'
which occurs in the history of Joseph as the specific word for interpre-
ting ; whence also Pitriim is the term for interpretation of a text, a
dream." f In a manuscript of the first century, a combination of the
Demotic and Greek texts, J and most probably one of the few which
miraculously escaped the Christian vandalism of the second and third
centuries, when all such precious manuscripts were burned as magical,
we find occurring in several places a phrase, which, perhaps, may throw
some light upon this question. One
of the principal heroes of the manu-
script, who is constantly referred to as " the Judean Illmninator " or
Initiate, TeXeiior^s, is made to communicate but with his Patar ; the
latter being written in Chaldaic characters. Once
the latter word is
coupled with the name Shimeon. Several times, the " Illuminator," who
rarely breaks his contemplative solitude,is shown inhabiting a KpjW??

(cave), and teaching the multitudes of eager scholars standing outside, not
orally, but through this Patar. The latter receives the words of wisdom
by applying his ear to a circular hole in a partition which conceals the
teacher from the listeners, and then conveys them, with explanations and
glossaries, to the crowd. This, with a slight change, was the method
used by Pythagoras, who, as we know, never allowed his neophytes to
see him during the years of probation, but instructed them from behind
a curtain in his cave.
But, whether the " Illuminator " of the GrEeco-Deraotic manuscript
is identical with Jesus or not, the fact remains, that we find him selecting
a " mystery "-appellation for one who ismade to appear later by the
Catholic Church as the janitor of the Kingdom of Heaven and the inter-
preter of Christ's will. The word Patar
or Peter locates both master and
and connects them with the " Secret
disciple in the circle of initiation,
Doctrine." The great hierophant of the ancient Mysteries never allowed
the candidates to see or hear him personally. He was the Deus-ex-Ma-
and instructions
china, the presiding but invisible Deity, uttering his will
through a second party and 2,000 years later, we discover that the
;

Dalai-Lamas of Thibet had been following for centuries the same tradition-
al programme during the most important religious mysteries of lamaism.

* See de Rouge " Stele," p. 44 ; Ptar (videus)

: is interpreted on it " to appear,"
—
with a sign of interrogation after it tlie usual mark of scientific perplexity. In Bunsen's
fifth volume of "'
Egypte," the interpretation following is " Illuminator," which is more
correct.
" Egypt," vol. v., p. 90.
f Bunsen's
\ It is the property of a mystic whom we met in Syria.
94 ISIS UNVEILED.

If Jesus knew the secret meaning of the title bestowed by him on Simon,
then he must have been initiated ; otherwise he could not have learned
it ;and if he was an initiate of either the Pythagorean Essenes, the Chal-
dean Magi, or the Egyptian Priests, then the doctrine taught by him was
but a portion of the Secret Doctrine " taught by the Pagan hierophants
'

to the few select adepts admitted within the sacred adyta.

But we will discuss this question further on. For the present we will
endeavor to briefly indicate the extraordinary similarity — or rather iden-
tity, we should say — of rites and ceremonial dress of the Christian clergy
with that of the old Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and
other Pagans of the hoary antiquity.
If we would find the model of the Papal tiara, we must search the
annals of the ancient Assyrian tablets. We invite the reader to give his
attention to Dr. Inman's illustrated work. Ancient Faga?i and Modern
Christian Symbolism. On page sixty-four, he will readily recognize the
head-gear of the successor of St. Peter in the coiffure worn by gods or
angels in ancient Assyria, " where it appears crowned by an emblem of
the male trinity " (the Christian Cross). " We may mention, in passing,"
adds Dr. Inman, " that, as the Romanists adopted the mitre and the
tiara from the cursed brood of Ham,' so they adopted the Episcopalian
'

crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the artistic form with which they
clothe their angels from the painters and urn-makers of Magna Grecia and
Central Italy."
Would we push our inquiries farther, and seek to ascertain as much
in relation to the nimbus and the tonsure of the Catholic priest and
monk ? * We shall find undeniable proofs that they are solar emblems.
Knight, in his Old England Pictorially Illustrated, gives a drawing by
St. Augustine, representing an ancient Christian bishop, in a dress prob-

ably identical with that worn by the great " saint " himself 'Y'he pallium,
or the ancient stole of the bishop, is the feminine sign when worn by a
priest in worship. On St. Augustine's picture it is bedecked with Bud-
dhistic crosses, and in its whole appearance it is a representation of the
Egyptian X (^au), assuming slightly the figure of the letter Y- "jf^^s
lower end is the mark of the masculine triad," says Inman; "the right
hand (of the figure) has the forefinger extended, like the Assyrian priests
while doing homage to the grove. When a male dons the pallium in
. . .

worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the unity, the

arba, or mystic four." f
"Immaculate is our Lady Isis, " is the legend around an engraving

* The Priests of Isis were tonsured.

f See
" Ancient Faiths," vol. ii., pp. 915-918.
 CATHOLIC BELLS FROM THE BUDDHIST PAGODAS. 95

of Serapis and Isis, described by King, in The Gnostics and their Re-
mains, 'H KYPIA ICIC ArNH "... the very terms applied afterwards to
thatpersonage (the Virgin Mary) who succeeded to her form, tftles, sym-
and ceremonies.
bols, rites, Thus, her devotees carried into the new
. . .

priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation to celi-

bacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately, the frequent
ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed." "The 'Black Virgins,' so
highly reverenced in certain French cathedrals proved, when at last
. . .

critically examined, basalt figures of Isis !

" *

Before the shrine of Jupiter Amnion were suspended tinkling bells,

from the sound of whose chiming the priests gathered the auguries ; "A
golden bell and a pomegranate . round about the hem of the robe,"
. .

was the result with the Mosaic Jews. But in the Buddhistic system, dur-
ing the religious services, the gods of the Deva Loka are always invoked,
and invited to descend upon the altars by the ringing of bells suspend-
ed in the pagodas. The bell of the sacred table of Siva at Kuhama is

described in Kailasa, and every Buddhist vihara and lamasery has its

bells.

We come to them directly

thus see that the bells used by Christians
from the Buddhist Thibetans and Chinese. The beads and rosaries have
the same origin, and have been used by Buddhist monks for over 2,300
years. The Linghams in the Hindu temples are ornamented upon certain
days with large berries, from a tree sacred to Mahadeva, which are strung
into rosaries. The title of " nun " is an Egyptian word, and had with them
the actual meaning the Christians did not even take the trouble of trans-
;

lating the word Nonna. The aureole of the saints was used by the ante-
diluvian artists of Babylonia, whenever they desired to honor or deify a
mortal's head. In a celebrated picture in Moore's Hindoo Pantheon, en-
tided, " Christna nursed by Devaki, from a highly-finished picture," the
Hindu Virgin is represented as seated on a lounge and nursing Christna.
The hair brushed back, the long veil, and the golden aureole around the
Virgin's head, as well as around that of the Hindu Saviour, are striking.
No Catholic, well versed as he might be in the mysterious symbolism
of iconology, would hesitate for a moment to worship at that shrine the
Virgin JMary, the mother of his God " f In Indur Subba, the south
!

entrance of the Caves of Ellora, may be seen to this day the figure of
Indra's wife, Indranee, sitting with her infant son-god, pointing the finger
to heaven with the same gesture as the Italian Madonna and child.
In Pagan and Christian Symbolism, the author gives a figure from a
* " The Gnostics and their Remains,'' p. 71.

f See illustration in Inman's

"Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,"
p. 27.
96 ISIS UNVEILED.

mediasval woodcut —
the like of which we have seen by dozens in old
psalters— in which the Virgin Mary, with her infant, is represented as
the Queen of Heaven, on the crescent moon, emblem of virginity.
'•
Being before the sun, she almost eclipses its light. Than this, nothing
could more completely identify the Christian mother and child with Isis
and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno, and a host of other Pagan goddesses,
who have been called 'Queen of Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe,'
'
Mother of God, Spouse of God,' the Celestial Virgin,' the Heavenly
' ' '

Peace-Maker,' etc." *
Such pictures are not purely astronomical. They represent the male
god and the female goddess, as the sun and moon in conjunction, "the
union of the triad with the unit." The horns of the cow on the head of
Isis have the same significance.

And so above, below, outside, and inside, the Christian Church, in

the priestly garments, and the religious rites, we recognize the stamp of
exoteric heathenism. On no subject within the wide range of human
knowledge, has the world been more blinded or deceived with such per-
sistent misrepresentation as on that of antiquity. Its hoary past and its
religious faiths have been misrepresented and trampled under the feet of
its successors. Its hierophants and prophets, mystae and epoptae,
f of the
once sacred adyta of the temple shown as demoniacs and devil-worshippers.
Donned in the despoiled garments of the victim, the Christian priest now
anathematizes the latter with rites and ceremonies which he has learned
from the theurgists themselves. The Mosaic Bible is used as a weapon
against the people who furnished it. The heathen philosopher is cursed
under the very roof which has witnessed and the " monkey
his initiation ;

of God" (i. e., the devil of Tertullian), "the originator and founder of
magical theurgy, the science of illusions and lies, whose father and author
is the demon," is exorcised with holy water by the hand which holds the

identical lituus\ with which the ancient augur, after a solemn prayer,
used to determine the regions of heaven, and evoke, in the name of the
HIGHEST, the minor god (now termed the Devil), who unveiled to his eyes
futurity, and enabled him to prophesy On the part of the Christians
!

and the clergy it is nothing but shameful ignorance, prejudice, and that
contemptible pride so boldly denounced by one of their own reverend
ministers, T. Gross, § which rails against all investigation " as a useless
or a criminal labor, when it must be feared that they will result in die
overthrow of preestablished systems of faith." On the part of the schol-
ars it is the same apprehension of the possible necessity of having to

* Ibid., p. 76.
f Initiates and seers.
X The augur's, and now bishop's, pastoral crook. § " Tlie Heathen Religion."
JUSTIN martyr's confession ABOUT THEURGIC AMULETS. 9/

modify some of their erroneously-established theories of science. " Noth-

ing but such pitiable prejudice," says Gross, " can have thus misrepre-
sented the theology of heathenism, and distorted —nay, caricatured — its

forms of religious worship. It is time that posterity should raise its voice
in vindication of violated truth, and that the present age should learn a
little of that common sense of which it boasts with as much self-compla-
cency as if the prerogative of reason was the birthright only of modern
times."
All this gives a sure clew to the real cause of the hatred felt
by the
early and mediaeval Christian toward his Pagan brother and dangerous
rival. We hate but what we fear. The Christian thaumaturgist once
having broken all association with the Mysteries of the temples and with
" these schools sorenowned for magic," described by St. Hilarion,* could
certainly expect but little to rival the Pagan wonder-workers. No
apostle, with the exception perhaps of healing by mesmeric power, has
ever equalled Apollonius of Tyana ; and the scandal created among the
apostles by the miracle-doing Simon Magus, is too notorious to be re-
peated here again. " How is it," asks Justin Martyr, in evident dismay,
"how is it that the talismans of Apollonius (the reXecr/xaTa) have power
in certain members of creation, for they prevent, as we see, the fury of
the waves, and the violence of the winds, and the attacks of wild beasts ;

and whilst our Lord's miracles are preserved by tradition alone, those of
Apollonius are most numerous, and actually manifested in present facts,
so as to lead astray all beholders ? " f This perplexed martyr solves the
problem by attributing very correctly the efficacy and potency of the
charms used by Apollonius to his profound knowledge of the sympathies
and antipathies (or repugnances) of nature.
Unable to deny the evident superiority of their enemies' powers, the
fathers had recourse to the old but ever successful method that of —
slander. They honored the theurgists with the same insinuating calumny
that had been resorted to by the Pharisees against Jesus. "Thou hast a
daemon," the elders of the Jewish Synagogue had said to him. " Thou
hast the Devil," repeated the cunning fathers, with equal truth, ad-
dressing the Pagan thaumaturgist and the widely-bruited charge, erected
;

later into an article of faith, won the day.

But the modern heirs of these ecclesiastical falsifiers, who charge
and even magnetism with being produced by a demon,
magic, spiritualism,
forget or perhaps never read the classics. None of our bigots has ever
looked with more scorn on the abuses of magic than did the true initiate

* " Pferes du Desert d'Orient," vol. ii., p. 283.

"Quaest.," xxiv.
f Justin Martyr
:

7
98 ISIS UNVEILED.

of old. No modern or even medieval law could be more severe than

that of the hierophant. True, he had more discrimination, charity, and
the "unconscious"
justice, than the Christian clergy ; for while banishing
sorcerer, the person troubled with a demon, from within the sacred pre-
burning him, took
cincts of the adyta, the priests, instead of mercilessly
unfortunate "possessed one." Having hospitals expressly
care of the
for that purpose neighborhood of temples, the ancient " medium,"
in the

if obsessed, was taken care of and restored to health. But with one
who had, by conscious witchcraft, acquired powers dangerous to his fellow-

creatures, the priests of old were as severe as justice herself.

" Any per-

son accidentally guilty of homicide, or of any crime, or convicted of

'untchcraft, was excluded from the Eleusinian Mysteries."* And so were

they from allothers. This law, mentioned by all writers on the ancient
initiation, speaks for itself. The claim of Augustine, that all the expla-

nations given by the Neo-platonists were invented by themselves is absurd.

For nearly every ceremony in their true and successive order is given by
Plato himself, in a more or less covered way. The Mysteries are as old
as the world, and one well versed in the esoteric mythologies of various
nations can trace them back to the days of the ante-Vedic period in
India. A condition of the strictest virtue and purity is required from the
Vatou, or candidate in India before he can become an initiate, whether
he aims to be a simple fakir, a Purohita (public priest) or a Sannyasi,
a saint of the second degree of initiation, the most holy as the most
revered of them all. After having conquered, in the terrible trials pre-
hminary to admittance to the inner temple in the subterranean crypts of
his pagoda, the sannyasi passes the rest of his life in the temple, prac-
ticing the eighty-four rules and ten virtues prescribed to the Yogis.
"
No one who has not practiced, during his whole life, the ten virtues
which the divine Manu makes incumbent as a duty, can be initiated into
the Mysteries of the council," say the Hindu books of initiation.
These virtues are " Resignation ; the act of rendering good for
: evil

temperance ;
probity ;
purity ; chastity ; repression of the physical

senses ; knowledge of the Holy Scriptures that of the Superior

the ;

soul (spirit) worship of truth

; abstinence from anger."
; These virtues
must alone direct the life of a true Yogi. " No unworthy adept ought
to defile the ranks of the holy initiates by his presence for twenty-four
hours." The adept becomes guilty after having once broken any one
of these vows. Surely the exercise of such virtues is inconsistent with
the idea one has of ^«'//-worship and lasciviousness of purpose !

And now we will try to give a clear insight into one of the chief ob-

* See Taylor's " Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries ;" Porphyry and others.
 THE WHISPERED SECRETS OF INITIATION. 99

jccts of this work. What we desire to prove is, that underlying every
ancient popular religion was the same ancient wisdom-doctrine, one and
identical, professed and practiced by the initiates of every country,
who alone were aware of its existence and importance. To ascertain
its origin, and the precise age in which it was matured, is now beyond

human possibility. A single glance, however, is enough to assure one

that it could not have attained the marvellous perfection in which we
find it pictured to us in the relics
of- the various esoteric systems, except
after a succession of ages. A
philosophy so profound, a moral code so
ennobling, and practical results so conclusive and so uniformly demon-
strable is not the growth of a generation, or even a single epoch. Fact
must have been piled upon fact, deduction upon deduction, science have
begotten science, and myriads of the brightest human intellects have re-
flected upon the laws of nature, before this ancient doctrine had taken con-
crete shape. The proofs of this identity of fundamental doctrine in the
old religions are found in the prevalence of a system of initiation in ;

the secret sacerdotal castes who had the guardianship of mystical words
of power, and a public display of a phenomenal control over natural
forces, indicating association with preterhuman beings. Every approach
to the Mysteries of all these nations was guarded with the same jealous
care, and in all, the penalty of death was inflicted upon initiates of any

degree who divulged the secrets entrusted to them. We have seen that
such was the case in the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, among the
Chaldean Magi, and the Egyptian hierophants while with the Hindus,
;

from whom they were all derived, the same rule has prevailed from time im-
memorial. We are left in no doubt upon this point ; for the Agrushada
Parikshai says explicitly, " Every initiate, to whatever degree he may
belong, who reveals the great sacred formula, must be put to death."
Naturally enough, this same extreme penalty was prescribed in all the
multifarious sects and brotherhoods which at different periods have sprung
from the ancient stock. We find it with the early Essenes, Gnostics,
theurgic Neo-platonists, and medieval philosophers ; and in our day, even
ihe Masons perpetuate the memory of the old obligations in the penalties
of throat-cutting, dismemberment, and disemboweling, with which the
candidate threatened.
is As the Masonic "master's word" is communi-
cated only at " low breath," so the selfsame precaution is prescribed in
the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the Jewish Mercaba. When initiated,
the neophyte was led by an ancient to a secluded spot, and there the
latter whispered in his ear the great secret.* The .A-Eason swears, under
the most fricrhtful penalties, that he will not communicate the secrets of

* Franck : " Die Kabbala."

100 ISIS UNVEILED.

any degree " an inferior degree ; " and the Agrushada

to a brother of
Parikshai says Any initiate of the third degree who reveals before
:
"
the prescribed time, to the initiates of the second degree, the superior
truths, must be put to death." Again, the Masonic apprentice consents
to have his " tongue torn out by the roots " if he divulge anything to a
profane ; and in the Hindu books of initiation, the same Agrushada
Parikshai, we find that any initiate of the first degree (the lowest) who
betrays the secrets of his initiation, to members of other castes, for whom
the science should be a closed book, must have " \i\% tongue cut out " and
juffer other mutilations.
As we proceed, we will point out the evidences of this identity of
vows, formulas, rites, and doctrines, between the ancient faiths. We will

also show that not only their memory is still preserved in India, but also
that the Secret Association is still alive and as active as ever. That, after

reading what we have to say, it may be inferred that the chief pontiff and
hierophant, the Brahmdtma, is still accessible to those " who know,"
though perhaps recognized by another name and that the ramifications ;

of his influence extend throughout the world. But we will now return
again to the early Christian period.
As though he were not aware that there was any esoteric significance
to the exoteric symbols, and that the Mysteries themselves were composed
of two parts, the lesser at Agrse, and the higher ones at Eleusinia, Cle-
mens Alexandrinus, with a rancorous bigotry that one might expect from
a renegade Neo-platonist, but astonished to find in this generally honest
is

and learned Father, stigmatized the Mysteries as indecent and diabolical.

Whatever were the rites enacted among the neophytes before they passed
form of instruction
to a higher however misunderstood were the trials
;

of Katliarsis or purification, during which they were submitted to every

kind of probation and however much the immaterial or physical aspect
;

night have led to calumny, it is but wicked prejudice which can compel

a person to say that under this external meaning there was not a far
deeper and spiritual significance.
It is positively absurd to judge the ancients from our own stand-
point of propriety and virtue. And most assuredly it is not for the Church
— which now stands accused by all the modern symbologists of having
adopted precisely these same emblems in their coarsest aspect, and feels
lierself powerless to refute the accusations —
to throw the stone at those
who were her models. When men like Pythagoras, Plato, and lambli-
chus,renowned for their severe morality, took part in the Mysteries, and
spoke of them with veneration, it ill behooves our modern critics to judge
them so rashly upon their merely external aspect. laniblichus explains
the worst ; and his explanation, for an unprejudiced mind, ought to be
 —

THE MYSTERIES ENNOBLING IN TENDENCY. lOI

perfectly plausible. " Exhibitions of this kind," he says, "in the Myste-
ries were designed to free us from licentious passions, by gratifying the
sight, and at the same time vanquishing all evil thought, through the awfiu

ja/zrfZ/y with which these rites were accompanied."* "The wisest and
best men in the Pagan world," adds Dr. Warburton, " are unanimous in
this, that the Mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest

ends by the worthiest means." f

In these celebratedrites, although persons of both sexes and all

classes were allowed to take a part, and a participation in them was even
obligatory, very few indeed attained the higher and final initiation. The
gradation of the Mysteries is given us by Proclus in the fourth book of his
Theology of Plato. " The perfective rite T^ken), precedes in order the -

initiation -Mtiesis — and the initiation, Epopteia, or the final apocal3'pse

(revelation)." Theon of Smyrna, in Mathematica, also divides the mys-
tic rites into five parts :
" the first of which is the previous purification
;

for neither are the Mysteries communicated to all who are willing to re-
ceive them ; . . . there are certain persons who are prevented by the
voice of the crier (lojpvf) . . . since it is necessary that such as are not
expelled from the Mysteries should first be refined by certain purifications
which the reception of the sacred rites succeeds. The third part is de-
nominated epopteia or reception. And the fourth, which is the end and
design of the revelation, is the binding of the head and fixing of the

crowns \ . whether after this he (the initiated person) becomes

. . . . .

an hierophant or sustains some other ])art of the sacerdotal office. But

thefifth, which is produced from all these, is friendship and interior

communion with God." And this was the last and most awful of all the
Mysteries.
There are writers who have often wondered at the meaning of tliis

claim to a " friendship and. interior

Christian communion with God."
authors have denied the pretensions of the " Pagans" to such " commu-
nion," affirming that only Christian saints were and are capable of enjoy-
ing it ; have altogether scoffed at the idea of both.
materialistic skeptics
After long ages of religious materialism and spiritual stagnation, it has
most certainly become difficult if not altogether impossible to substantiate
the claims of either party. The old Greeks, who had once crowded

* "Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians."

" Divine Legation of Moses ; " The " Eleusinian Mysteries " as quoted by Thos.
f
Taylor.
\ This expression must not be understood literally ; for as in the initiation of certain
Brotherhoods it has a secret meaning, hinted at by Pythagoras, when he describes his

feelings after the initiation and tells that he was crowned by the gods in whose pres-
ence he had drunk "the waters of life
" — in Hindu, d-bi-hay&t, fount of life.
 ,

I03 ISIS UNVEILED.

around the Agora of Athens, with its altar to the " Unknown God," are

no more ; and their descendants firmly beheve that they have found the
" Unknown " in the Jewish Jehova. The divine ecstasies of the early
Christians have made room formore modern character, in
visions of a
perfect keeping with progress and civilization. The " Son of man " ap-
pearing to the rapt vision of the ancient Christian as coming from the
seventh heaven, in a cloud of glory, and surrounded with angels and
winged seraphim, has made room for a more prosaic and at the same
time more business-like Jesus. The latter is now shown as making morn-
ing calls upon Mary and Martha in Bethany as seating himself on " the ;

ottomaii" with the younger sister, a lover of "ethics," while Martha goes
off to the kitchen to cook. Anon the heated fancy of a blasphemous
Brooklyn preacher and harlequin, the Reverend Dr. Talmage, makes us
see her rushing back " with besweated brow, a pitcher in one hand and
the tongs in the other into the presence of Christ," and blowing him
. . .

up for not caring that her sister hath left her " to serve alone."*
From the birth of the solemn and majestic conception of the unre-
vealed Deity of the ancient adepts to such caricatured descriptions of
him who died an the Cross for his philanthropic devotion to humanity,
long centuries have intervened, and their heavy tread seems to have
almost entirely obliterated all sense of a spiritual religion from the hearts
of his professed followers. No wonder then, that the sentence of Proclus
is no longer understood by the Christians, and is rejected as a "vagary"
by the materialists, who, in their negation, are less blasphemous and
atheistical than many of the reverends and members of the churches.
But, although the Greek epopiai are no more, we have now, in our own
age, a people far more ancient than the oldest Hellenes, who practice
the so-called " preterhuman " gifts to the same extent as did their ances-
tors far earlier than the days of Troy. It is to this people that we draw
the attention of the psychologist and philosopher.
One need not go very deep into the literature of the Orientalists to
become convinced that in most cases they do not even suspect that in

* This original and very long sermon was preached in a church at Brooklyn, N. Y.

on the 15th day of April, 1877. On the following morning, the reverend orator was
called in the " Sun" a gibbering charlatan but this deserved epithet will not prevent
;

other reverend buffoons doing the same and everi worse. And this is the religion of
Christ ! Far better disbelieve in him altogether than caricature one's God in such a
manner. We heartily applaud the " Sun" for the following views "And then when :

Talmage makes Christ say to Martha in the Don't worry, but sit down on
tantrums :
'

this ottoman,' he adds the climax to a scene that the inspired writers had nothing to
say about. Talmage's buffoonery is going too far. If he were the worst heretic in
the land, instead of being straight in his orthodoxy, he would not do so much evil to
religion as he does by his familiar blasphemies."
 THE HINDU DEMI-GODS OF THE THIRD DEGREE. 103

the arcane philosophy of India there are deptlis whicli they have not
sounded, and cannot sound, for they pass on without perceiving them-
There is a pervading tone of conscious superiority, a ring of cotitempt in
the treatment of Hindu metaphysics, as thougli the European mind is

alone enlightened enough to polish the rough diamond of the old San-
scrit writers, and separate right from wrong for the benefit of their de-
scendants. We see them disputing over the external forms of expression
without a conception of the great vital truths these hide from the profane
view.
'As a rule, the Brahmans," says JacoUiot, "rarely go beyond the
class of grihesta [priests of the vulgar castes] and piirahita [exorcisers,
divines, prophets, and evocators of spirits]. And yet, we shall see . . .

once that we have touched upon the question and study of manifestations
and phenomena, that these initiates of the first degree (the lowest) at-
tribute to themselves, and in appearance possess faculties developed to a
degree which has never been equalled in Europe. As to the initiates of
the second and especially of the third category, they pretend to be
enabled to ignore time, space, and to command life and death." *
Such initiates as these M. Jacolliot did not meet ; for, as he says him-
self, they only appear on the most solemn occasions, and when the faith

of the multitudes has to be strengthened by phenomena of a superior

order. " They are never seen, either in the neighborhood of, or even in-
side the temples, except at the grand quinquennial festival of the fire.
On that occasion, they appear about the middle of the night, on a plat-
form erected in the centre of the sacred lake, like so many phantoms,
and by their conjurations they illumine the space. A fiery column of
light ascends from around them, rushing from earth to heaven. Unfa-
miliar sounds vibrate through the air, and five or six hundred thousand
Hindus, gathered from every part of India to contemplate these demi-
gods, throw themselves with their faces buried in the dust, invoking the
souls of their ancestors." f
Let any impartial person read the Spiritisme dans le Afonde, and he
cannot believe that this "implacable rationalist," as Jacolliot takes pride
in terming himself, said one word more than is warranted by what he had

seen. His statements support and are corroborated by those of other

skeptics. As a rule, the missionaries, even after passing half a lifetime
in the country of " devil-worship," as they call India, either disingenu-
ously deny altogether what they cannot help knowing to be true, or
ridiculously attribute phenomena to this power of the Devil, that outrival
the " miracles " of the apostolic ages. And what do we see this French

* " Le Spiritisme dans le Monde," p. 6S. f Ibid., pp. 78, 79.

104 ISIS UNVEILED.

author, notwithstanding his incorrigible rationalism, forced to admit,

after having narrated the greatest wonders? Watch the fakirs as he
would, he is compelled to bear the strongest testimony to their perfect
honesty in the matter of their miraculous phenomena. " Never," he
says, " have we succeeded in detecting a single one in the act of deceit."
One fact should be noted by all who, without having been in India, still
fancy they are clever enough to expose the fraud oi pretended magicians.
This skilled and cool observer, this redoubtable materialist, after his
long sojourn in India, affirms, "We unhesitatingly avow that we have not
met, either in India or in Ceylon, a single European, even among the old-
est residents, who has been able to indicate the means employed by these
devotees for the production of these phenomena " !

And how should they ? Does not this zealous Orientalist confess to
us that even he, who had every available means at hand to learn many of
their rites and doctrines at first hand, failed in his attempts to make the
Brahmans explain to him their secrets. " All that our most diligent inqui-
ries of the Pourohitas could elicit from them respecting the acts of their

superiors (the invisible initiates of the temples), amounts to very little."

And again, speaking of one of the books, he confesses that, while purport-
ing to reveal all that is desirable to know, it " falls back into mysterious
formulas, in combinations of magical and occult letters, the secret of
which it has been impossible for us to penetrate," etc.
The fakirs, although they can never reach beyond the first degree of
initiation, are, notwithstanding, the only agents between the living world
and the " silent brothers," or those initiates who never cross the thresh-
olds of their sacred dwellings. The Fukara-Yogis belong to the tem-
ples, and who knows but these cenobites of the sanctuary have far more
to do with the psychological phenomena which attend the fakirs, and
have been so graphically described by Jacolliot, than the Pitris them-
selves? Who can tell but that the fluidic spectre of the ancient Brahman
seen by Jacolliot was the Scin-lecca, the spiritual double, of one of these
mysterious sannyasi ?

Although the story has been translated and commented upon by Pro-
fessor Perty, of Geneva, still we will venture to give it in JacolHot's own
words " A moment after tlie disappearance of the hands, the fakir con-
:

tinuing his evocations {mantras) more earnestly than ever, a cloud tike
the but more opalescent and more opaque, began to hover near
first,

the small brasier, which, by request of the Hindu, I had constantly fed
with live coals. Little by little it assumed a form entire human, and I
distinguished the spectre — for I cannot call it otherwise — of an old Brah-
man sacrificator, kneeling near the little brasier.
" He bore on his forehead the signs sacred to Vishnu, and around his
 '

THE LIVING SPECTRE OF A BRAHMAN. lOS

body the triple cord, sign of the initiates of the priestly caste. He joined
his hands above his head, as during the sacrifices, and his hps moved as

if they were reciting prayers. At a given moment, he took d pinch of

perfumed powder, and threw it upon the coals ; it must have been a
strong compound, for a thick smoke arose on the instant, and filled the
two chambers.
"When it was dissipated, I perceived the spectre, which, two steps
from me, was extending to me its fieshless hand ; J took it in mine, mak-
ing a salutation, and I was astonished to find it, although bony and hard,
warm and living.
" 'Art thou, indeed,' said I at this moment, in a loud voice, '
an ancient
inhabitant of the earth ?

" I had not finished the question, when the word am (yes) appeared
and then disappeared in letters of fire, on the breast of the old Brahman,
with an effect much like that which the word would produce if written in
the dark with a stick of phosphorus.
" 'Win you leave me nothing in token of your visit ?' I continued.
"The spirit broke the triple cord, composed of three strands of cot-
ton, which begirt his loins, gave it to me, and vanished at my feet." *
" Oh Brahma what is this mystery which takes place every night ?
!

. . . When lying on the matting, with eyes closed, the body is lost sight
of,and the soul escapes to enter into conversation with the Pitris. . . .

Watch over it, O Brahma, when, forsaking the resting body, it goes away
to hover over the waters, to wander in the immensity of heaven, and

penetrate into the dark and mysterious nooks of the valleys and grand
forests of the Hymavat " {Agroushada Partkshai.)
!

The fakirs, when belonging to some particular temple, never act but
under orders. Not one of them, unless he has reached a degree of extra-
ordinary sanctity, is freed from the influence and guidance of his guru, his
teacher, who and instructed him in the mysteries of the
first initiated
occult sciences. Like the subject of the European mesmerizer, the aver-
age fakir can never rid himself entirely of the psychological influence
exercised on him by his guru. Having passed two or three hours in the
silence and' solitude of the inner temple in prayer and meditation, the
fakir, when he emerges thence, is mesmerically strengthened and pre-

pared he produces wonders far more varied and powerful than before
;

he entered. The "master" has laid his Jiands upon him, and the fakir
feels strong.

It may be shown, on the authority of many Brahraanical and Buddhist

sacred books, that there has ever existed a great difference between

* Louis JacolUot : " Phenomenes et Manifestations."

 ;

I06 ISIS UNVEILED.

adepts of the higher order, and purely psychological subjects — like many
of these fakirs, who are mediums in a certain qualified sense. True,
the fakir is ever talking of Pitris, and this is natural ;for they are his
protecting deities. But are the Pitris disembodied human beijigs of our
race'l This is the question, and we will discuss it in a moment.
We say that the fakir may be regarded in a degree as a medium
for he is — —
what is not generally known under the direct mesmeric in-
fluence of a living adept, his sannyasi or guru. When the latter dies,

the power of the former, unless he has received the last transfer of
spiritual forces, wanes and often even disappears. Wh}', if it were other-
wise, should the fakirs have been excluded from the right of advancing
to the second and third degree ? The lives of many of them exempHfy
a degree of self-sacrifice and sanctity unknown and utterly incomprehen-
sible to Europeans, who shudder at the bare thought of such self-inflicted

tortures. But however shielded from control by vulgar and earth-bound

spirits, however wide the chasm between a debasing influence and their
self-controlled souls and however well protected by the seven-knotted ma-
;

gical bamboo rod which he receives from the guru, still the fakir lives in the
outer world of sin and matter, and it is possible that his soul may be
tainted, perchance, by the magnetic emanations from profane objects
and persons, and thereby open an access to strange spirits and gods.
To admit one so situated, one not under any and all circumstances
sure of the mastery over himself, to a knowledge of the awful mysteries
and priceless secrets of initiation, would be impracticable. It would not
only imperil the security of that which must, at all hazards, be guarded
from profanation, but it would be consenting to admit behind the veil a
fellow being, whose mediumistic irresponsibility might at any moment
cause him to lose his life through an involuntary indiscretion. The same
law which prevailed in the Eleusinian Mysteries before our era, holds
good now in India.
Not only must the adept have mastery over himself, but he must be
able to control the inferior grades of spiritual beings, nature-spirits, and
earthbound souls, in short the very ones by whom, if by any, the fakir is
'
liable to be affected.
For the objector to affirm that the Brahman-adepts and the fakirs admit
that of themselves they are powerless, and can only act with the help of
disembodied human spirits, is to state that these Hindus are unacquainted

with the laws of their sacred books and even the meaning of the word Pitris.
The Laws of Mann, the Atharva-Veda, and other books, prove what we
now say. "All that exists," says the Atharva-Veda, "is in the powei
of the gods. The gods are under the power of magical conjurations.
The magical conjurations are under the control of the Brahmans. Hence
 —

WHAT THE PITRIS ARE AND ARE NOT. lOJ

the gods are power of the Brahmans." This is logical, albeit seem-
in the
ingly paradoxical, and it is the fact. And this fact will explain to those
who have not hitherto had the clew (among whom Jacolliot must be num-
bered, as will appear on reading his works), why the fakir should be con-
fined to the first, or lowest degree of that course of initiation whose highest
adepts, or hierophants, are the sannydsis, or members of the ancient
Supreme Council of Seventy.
Moreover, in Book I., of the Hindu Genesis, or Book of Creation
of Md'iu, the Pitris are called the lunar ancestors of the human race.
They belong to a race of beings different from ourselves, and cannot
properly be called " human spirits " in the sense in which the spiritualists
use this term. This is what is said of them :

"Then they (the gods) created the Jackshas, the Rakshasas, the
Pisatshas,* the Gandarbas f and the Apsaras, and the Asuras, the Nagas,
the Sarpas and the Suparnas, \ and the Pitris lunar ancestors of the
human race" (See Listitutes of Mann, Book I., sloka 37, where the Pitris
are termed " progenitors of mankind ").
The Pitris are a distinct race of spirits belonging to the mytho-
logical hierarchy or rather to the kabalistical nomenclature, and must
be included with the good genii, the dasmons of the Greeks, or the
inferior gods of tire invisible world and when a fakir attributes his phe-
;

nomena to the Pitris, he means only what the ancient philosophers and
theurgists meant when they maintained that all the "miracles" were
obtained through the intervention of the gods, or the good and bad
daemons, who control the powers of nature, the elementals, who are subor-
dinate to the power of him " who knows." A ghost or human phantom
would be termed by a fakir patit, or chutnd, as that of a female human
i^\nt pichhalpdi, not pitris. True, pita ra means (plural) fathers, ances-
tors ; and pitra-i is a kinsman ; but these words are used in quite a
different sense from that of the Pitris invoked in the mantras.
To maintain before a devout Brahman or a fakir that any one can
converse with the spirits of the dead, would be to shock him with what
would appear to him blasphemy. Does not the concluding verse of the
Bagavat state that this supreme felicity is alone reserved to the holy
sannyasis, the gurus, and yogis ?

" Long before they finally rid themselves of their mortal envelopes,
the souls who have practiced only good, such as those of the sannyasis
and the vanaprasthas, acquire the faculty of conversing with the souls
which preceded them to the swarga."

* Pisatshas, diemons of the race of the gnomes, the giants and the vampiies.
good djemons, celestial sei aphs, singers.
\ Gandarbas,
i Asuras and Nagas are the Titanic spirits and the dragon or serpent -headed spirits.
I08 ISIS UNVEILED.

In this case the Pitris instead of genii are the spirits, or rather souls,

of the departed ones. But they will freely communicate only with those
whose atmosphere is as pure as their own, and to whose prayerful kalassa
(invocation) they can respond without the risk of defiling their own celes-
tial purity. When the soul of the invocator has reached the Sayadyam,
or perfect identity of essence with the Universal Soul, when matter is
utterly conquered, then the adept can freely enter into daily and hourly
communion with those who, though unburdened with their corporeal forms,
are still themselves progressing through the endless series of transforma-
tions included in the gradual approach to the Parani^tma, or the grand
Universal Soul.
Bearing in mind that the Christian fathers have always claimed for
themselves and their saints the name of " friends of God," and knowing
that theyborrowed this expression, with many others, from the technology
of the Pagan temples, it is but natural to expect them to show an evil
temper whenever alluding to these rites. Ignorant, as a rule, and having
had biographers as ignorant as themselves, we could not well expect
them to find in the accounts of their beatific visions a descriptive beauty
such as we find in the Pagan classics. Whether the visions and objective
phenomena claimed by both the fathers of the desert and the hierophants
of the sanctuary are to be discredited, or accepted as facts, the splendid
imagery employed by Proclus and Apuleius in narrating the small por-
tion of the final initiation that they dared reveal, throws completely into

the shade the plagiaristic tales of the Christian ascetics, faithful copies
though they were intended to be. The story of the temptation of St.
Anthony in the desert by the female demon, is a parody upon the prelim-
inary trials of the neophyte during the Mikra, or minor Mysteries of
—
Agree those rites at the thought of which Clemens railed so bitterly, and
which represented the bereaved Demeter in search of her child, and her
good-natured hostess Baubo. *
Without entering again into a demonstration that in Christian, and
especially Irish Roman Catholic, churches f the same apparently in-
decent customs as the above prevailed until the end of the last century,
we will recur to the untiring labors of that honest and brave defender of
the ancient faith, Thomas Taylor, and his works. However much dog-
matic Greek scholarship may have found to say against his "mistransla-
tions," his memory must be dear to every true Platonist, who seeks rather
to learn the inner thought of the great philosopher than enjoy the mere
external mechanism of his writings. Better classical translators may have

* See Arnolius: " Op. Cit.," pp. 249, 250.

f See Inman's
" Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism."
 DESERVED PRAISE OF THOMAS TAYLOR. 109

rendered us, in more correct phraeeology, Plato's words, but Taylor shows
us Plato's meaning, and this is more than can be said of Zeller, Jowett, and
their predecessors. Yet, as writes Professor A. Wilder, " Taylor's works
have met with favor at the hands of men capable of profound and recon-
dite thinking ; and it must be conceded that he was endowed with a
superior qualification —that of an intuitive perception of the interior
meaning of the subjects which he considered. Others may have known
more Greek, but he knew more Plato." *
Taylor devoted his whole useful life to the search after such old
manuscripts as would enable him to have his own speculations concerning
several obscure rites in the Mysteries corroborated by writers who had
been initiated themselves. It is with full confidence in the assertions of
various classical writers that we say that ridiculous, perhaps licentious in
some cases, as may appear modern critic, it ought
ancient worship to the
not to have so appeared to the Christians. During the mediaeval ages, and
even later, they accepted pretty nearly the same without understanding
the secret import of its rites, and quite satisfied with the obscure and
rather fantastic interpretations of their clergy, who accepted the exterior
form and distorted the inner meaning. We are ready to concede, in full
justice, that centuries have passed since the great majority of the Chris-
tian clergy, who are not allowed to pry into Gods mysteries nor seek to
explain that which the Church has once accepted and established, have
had the remotest idea of their symbolism, whether in its exoteric or eso-
teric meaning. Not so with the head of the Church and its highest digni-
taries. And if we fully agree with Inman that it is "difficult to believe
that the ecclesiastics who sanctioned the publication of such prints f could
have been as ignorant as modern ritualists," we are not at all prepared
to believe with the same author "that the latter, if they knew the real

meaning of the symbols commonly used by the Roman Church, would

not have adopted them."
To eliminate what is plainly derived from the sex and nature wor-

* Introduction to Taylor's " Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries," published by W.

J.
Bouton.
\ Illustrated figures
" from an ancient Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, printed at
Venice, 1524, with a license from the Inquisition." In the illustrations given by Dr.
Inman the Virgin is represented in an Assyrian ** grove," the abomination in the eyes
of the Lord, according to the Bible prophets. " The book in question," says the author,
" coutains numerous figures, all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of Ishtar.
The presence of the woman therein identifies the two as symbolic of Isis, or la nature ;
and a man bowing down in adoration thereof shows the same idea as is depicted in
Assyrian sculptures, where males offer to the goddess symbols of themselves " (See
"Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism," p. 91. Second edition. J. W.
Bouton, publisher, New York).
no ISIS UNVEILED.

ship of the ancient heathens, would be equivalent to pulling down the

whole Roman Catholic image-worship— the Madonna element — and

reforming the faith to Protestantism. The enforcement of the late dogma
of the Immaculation was prompted by this very secret reason. The
science of symbology was making too rapid progress. Blind faith in the
Pope's infallibility and in the immaculate nature of the Virgin ar.d of her
ancestral female lineage to a certain remove could alone save the Church
from the indiscreet revelations of science. It was a clever stroke of
policy on the part of the vicegerent of God. What matters it if, by
'conferring upon her such an honor," as Don Pascale de Franciscis
naively expresses it, he has made a goddess of the Virgin Mary, an Olym-
pian Deity, who, having been by her very nature placed in the impossi-
bility of sinning, can claim no virtue, no personal merit for her puritj',

precisely for which, as we were taught to believe in our younger days, she
was chosen among all other women. If his Holiness has deprived her of
this, perhaps, on the other hand, he thinks that he has endowed her with

at least one physical attribute not shared by the other virgin-goddesses.

But even this new dogma, which, in company with the new claim to
infallibility, has quasi-revolutionised the Christian world, is not original
with the Church of Rome. It is but a return to a hardly-remembered
heresy of the early Christian ages, that of the CoUyridians, so called from
their sacrificing cakes to the Virgin, whom they claimed to be Virgin-
born. * The new sentence, " O, Virgin Mary, coticeived without sin" is
simply a tardy acceptance of that which was at first deemed a '^blasphemous
heresie" by the orthodox fathers.
To think for one moment that any of the popes, cardinals, or other
high dignitaries "were not aware " from the first to the last of the exter-
nal meanings of their symbols, is to do injustice to their great learning
and their spirit of Machiavellism. It is to forget that the emissaries of

Rome will never be stopped by any which can be skirted by the

difficulty

employment of Jesuitical artifice. The policy of complaisant conformity

was never carried to greater lengths than by the missionaries in Ceylon,
—
who, according to the Abb6 Dubois certainly a learned and competent
authority —
" conducted the images of the Virgin and Saviour on triumphal
cars, imitated from the orgies of Juggernauth, and introduced the dancers

from the Brahminical rites into the ceremonial of the church." f Let us
at least thank these black-frocked politicians for their consistency in

employing the car of Juggernauth, upon which the "wicked heathen"

* See King's " Gnostics," pp. 91, 92 ;

" Tlie Genealogy of the Blessed Virgin
Mary," by Faustus, Bishop of Riez.

\ Prinseps quotes Dubois, "Edinburgh Review," April, 1851, p. 411.

 THE VIRGIN MARY ON THE CAR OF JUGGERNAUTH. Ill

convey the liiii^ham of Siva. To have used this car to carry in its turn
the Romish representative of the female principle in nature, is to show-
discrimination and a thorough knowledge of the oldest mythological con-
ceptions. They have blended the two deities, and thus represented, in a
Christian procession, the "heathen" Brahma, or Nara (the father), Nari
(the mother), and Viradj (the son).
Says Manu " The Sovereign Master who exists through himself, di-
:

vides his body into two halves, male and female, and from the union of
tliese two principles is born Viradj, the Son."*

There was not a Christian Father who could have been ignorant of
these symbols in their physical meaning for it is in this latter aspect
;

that they were abandoned to the ignorant rabble. Moreover, they all
had as good reasons to suspect the occult symbolism contained in these
images although as none of them Paul excepted, perhaps
; — had been —
initiated they could know nothing whatever about the nature of the final
rites. Any person revealing these mysteries was put to death, regardless
of sex, nationality, or creed. A Christian father would no more be
proof against an accident than a Pagan ATysta or the Mu'ctttjs.

If during the Aporreta or preliminary arcanes, there were some

which might have shocked the pudicity of a Christian convert
practices
— though we doubt the sincerity of such statements their mystical —
symbolism was all sufficient to relieve the performance of any charge of
licentiousness. Even the episode of the Matron Baubo —whose rather
eccentric method of consolation was immortalized in the minor Myste-
ries —
is explained by impartial mystagogues quite naturally. Ceres-
Demeter and her earthly wanderings in search of her daughter are the
euhemerized descriptions of one of the most metaphysico-psychological
subjects ever treated of by human mind. It is a mask for the transcend-
ent narrative of the initiated seers ; the celestial vision of the freed soul
of the initiate of the lasthour describing the process by which the soul
that has not yet been incarnated descends for the first time into matter,
" Blessed is he who hath seen those common C07icerns of the under-

world he knows both the end of life and its divine origin from Jupiter,"
;

says Pindar. Taylor shows, on the authority of more than one initiate,
tliat the " dramatic performances of the Lesser Mysteries were designed

by their founders, to signify occultly the condition of the unpurified soul

invested with an earthly body, and enveloped in a material and physical

* " Manu," book I., sloka 32 : Sir W.Jones, translating from the Northern "Manu,"
renders this sloka as follows :
" Having divided his own substance, the mighty Power

became half male, half female, or nature active and passive ; and from that female he
produced Viraj.
112 ISIS UNVEILED.

nature . . . that the soul, indeed, till purified by philosophy, suffers

death through i-ts union with the body."

The body is and many Christian
the sepulchre, the prison of the soul,
Fathers held with Plato that the soul punished through its union with
is

the body. Such is the fundamental doctrine of the Buddhists and of

many Brahmanists too. When Plotinus remarks that " when the soul
has descended into generation (from its half-Axwrne condition) she par-
takes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the opposite of her
first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in which is nothing more

than to fall into dark mire " * he only repeats the teachings of Gautama-
;

Buddha. If we have to believe the ancient initiates at all, we must

accept their interpretation of the symbols. And if, moreover, we find
them perfectly coinciding with the teachings of the greatest philosophers
and that which we know symbolizes the same meaning in the modern
Mysteries in the East, we must believe them to be right.
If Demeter was considered the intellectual soul, or rather the Astral
soul, half emanation from the spirit and half tainted with matter through
a succession of spiritual evolutions — we may readily understand what is

meant by the Matron Baubo, the Enchantress, who before she succeeds
in reconciling the soul —
Demeter, to its new position, finds herseff obliged
to assume the sexual forms of an infant. Baubo is matter, the physical
body and the intellectual, as yet pure astral soul can be ensnared into
;

its new terrestrial prison but by the display of innocent babyhood.

Until then, doomed -to her fate, Demeter, or Magna-mater, the Soul, won-
ders and hesitates and suffers but once having partaken of the magic
;

potion prepared by Baubo, she forgets her sorrows for a certain time ;

she parts with that consciousness of higher intellect that she was pos-
sessed of before entering the body of a child. Thenceforth she must
seek to rejoin it again ; and when the age of reason arrives for the child,
the struggle — forgotten
few years of infancy begins again. The
for a —
astral soul is placed between matter (body) and the highest intellect
(its immortal spirit or nous). Which of those two will conquer? The
result of the battle of life lies between the triad. It is a question of a
few years of physical enjoyment on earth and — if it has begotten abuse
— of the dissolution of the earthly body being followed by death of the
astral body, which thus prevented from being united with the highest
is

spirit of the triad, which alone confers on us individual imniortaUty or, ;

on the other hand, of becoming immortal mystse initiated before death ;

of the body into the divine truths of the after life. Demi-gods below,
and GODS above.

* " Enead," i., book viii.

 THE SUBLIMEST PART OF THE EPOPTEIA. I13
t

Such was the chief object of the Mysteries represented as diabolical

by theology, and ridiculed by modern symbologists. To disbelieve that
there exist in man certain arcane powers, which, by psychological study
he can develop in himself to the highest degree, become an hierophant
and then impart to others upder the same conditions of earthly discipline,
is to cast an imputation of falsehood and lunacy upon a number of the

best, purest, and most learned men of antiquity and of the middle ages.
What the hierophant was allowed to see at the last hour is hardly hinted
at by them. And yet Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, lamblichus, Proclus,
and many others knew and affirmed their reality.
Whether in the "inner temple," or through the study of theurgy carried
on privately, or by the sole exertion of a whole life of spiritual labor, they
all obtained the practical proof of such divine possibilities for man fight-

ing his battle with life on earth to win a life in the eternity. What the
last epopteia was is alluded to by Plato in (64) ; "
Phxdrus being . . .

initiated in those Mysteries, which it is lawful to call the most blessed of

all mysteries ... we were freed from the molestations of evils which
otherwise await us in a future period of time. Likewise, in consequence
of this divine initiation,we became spectators of entire, simple, immova-
ble, and blessed visions, resident in a pure light." This sentence shows
that they saw visions, gods, spirits. As Taylor correctly observes, from
all such passages in the works of the initiates it may be inferred, " that

the most sublime part of the epopteia consisted in beholding the

. . .

gods themselves invested with a resislendent light," or highest planetary

spirits. The statement
of Proclus upon this subject is unequivocal "In :

all and mysteries, the gods exhibit many forms of them-

the initiations
selves, and appear in o. variety of shapes, and sometimes, indeed, a form-
less light of themselves is held forth to the view sometimes this light is ;

according to a human form, and sometimes it proceeds into a different

shape." *
" Whatever is on earth is the resemblance and shadow of something
that is in the sphere, while that resplendent thing (the prototype of the
remaineth in unchangeable condition, it is well also with its
soul-spirit)
shadow. But when the resplendent one renioveth far from its shadow life
removeth from the latter to a distance. And yet, that very light is the
shadow of something still more resplendent than itself." Thus speaks
Desatir, the Persian Book of Shet,\ thereby showing its identity of eso-
teric doctrines with those of the Greek philosophers.
The second statement of Plato confirms our belief that the Mysteries
of the ancients were identical with the Initiations, as practiced now

• " Commentary upon the Republic of Plato," p. 380. f Verses 33-41.

114 ISIS UNVEILED.

among the Buddhists and the Hindu adepts. The highest visions, the
most truthful, are produced, not through natural ecstatics or "mediums,"
as it is sometimes erroneously asserted, but through a regular discipline
of gradual initiations and development of psychical powers. The Mystae
were brought into close union with those whom Proclus calls " mystical
natures," "resplendent gods," because, as Plato says, "we were our-
selves pure and immaculate, being liberated from this surrounding vest-
me?it, which we denominate body, and to which we are now bound like
an oyster to its shell." *
So the doctrine of planetary and terrestrial Pitris was revealed en-
tirely in ancient India, as well as now, only at the last moment of
initiation, and to the adepts of superior degrees. Many are the fakirs,
who, though pure, and honest, and self-devoted, have yet never seen the
astral form of a purely hutnan pilar (an ancestor or father), otherwise
than at the solemn moment of theirand last initiation. It is in the
first

presence of his instructor, the guru, and just before the vatou-ii^\x is
dispatched into the world of the living, with his seven-knotted bamboo

wand for all protection, that he is suddenly placed face to face with the
unknown presence. He sees it, and falls prostrate at the feet of the
evanescent form, but is not entrusted with the great secret of its evoca-
tion ; for it is the supreme mystery of the holy syllable. The AuM con-
tains the evocation of the Vedic Trimurti Brahma, Vishnu, Siva,
triad, the

say the Orientalists ; f it contains the evocation of something more real

and objective than this triime abstraction — we say, respectfully contradict-
ing the eminent scientists. It is the trinity of man himself, on his way
to become immortal through the solemn union of his inner triune self —
the exterior, gross body, the husk not even being taken in consideration
in this human trinity.J It is, when this trinity, in anticipation of the final

" Phsedrus," p. 64.

*

The Supreme Buddha

f is invoked with two of his acolytes of the theistic triad,
Dharma and Sanga. This triad is addressed in Sanscrit in the following terms
Namo Buddhdya,
Na7no Dharmdya,
Navto Sang&ya,
Aum !
while the Thibetan Buddhists pronounce their invocations as follows :

Nan-won Fo-tho-ye^
Nan-won Tha-ma-ye,
Nan-won Seng-kia-ye,
Aan !

See also " Journal Asiatique," tome vii., p. 286.

X The body of man —his coat of skin — is an inert mass of matter, per se; it is but
the sentietit living body within the man that is considered as the man's body proper,
 5

HOW HUMAN SPIRITS CAN BE CONFERRED WITH. II

triumphant reunion beyond the gates of corporeal death became for a

few seconds a unity, that the candidate is allowed, at the moment of the
initiation, to behold his future self. Thus we read in the Persian Desa-
tir, of the " Resplendent one ;
" in the Greek philosopher-initiates, of
the —
Augoeides the self shining " blessed vision resident in the pure light ; "

in Porphyry, that Plotinus was united to his " god " six times during his
lifetime ; and so on.
" In ancient India, the mystery of the triad, known but to the ini-
tiates, could not, under the penalty of death, be revealed to the vulgar,"
says Vrihaspati,
Neither could it Grecian and Samothracian Mysteries.
in the ancient
Nor can it be now. hands of the adepts, and must remain
It is in the

a mystery to the world so long as the materialistic savant regards it as an

undemonstrated fallacy, an insane hallucination, and the dogmatic theo-
logian, a snare of the Evil One.
Subjective communication with the human, god-hke spirits of those who
have preceded us to the silent land of bhss, is in India divided into three
categories. Under the spiritual training of a guru or sannyasi, the vatou
(disciple or neophyte) begins to feel them. Were he not under the imme-
diate guidance of an adept, he would be controlled by the invisibles, and
utterly at their mercy, for among these subjective influences he is unable
to discern the good from the bad. Happy the sensitive who is sure of
the purity of his spiritual atmosphere !

To this subjective consciousness, which is the first degree, is, after

a time, added that of clairaudience. This is the second degree or stage of

development. The sensitive —when not naturally made so by psycho-
logical training — now audibly hears, but unable to discern and
is still ;

is incapable of verifying his impressions, and one who is unprotected

the tricky powers of the air but too often delude with semblances of
voices and speech. But the guru's influence is there ; it is the most
powerful shield against the intrusion of the bhictnd into the atmosphere
of the vatou, consecrated to the pure, human, and celestial Pitris.
The third degree is when the fakir
that or any other candidate both
feels, hears, and sees ; and when he can at
will produce the reflections

of the Pitris on the mirror of astral light. All depends upon his psycho-
logical and mesmeric powers, which are always proportionate to the in-
tensity of his will. But the fakir will never control the Akasa, the spir-
itual life -principle, the omnipotent agent of every phenomenon, in the

same deo-ree as an adept of the third and highest initiation. And the

and it is that which, together with the fontal soul or purely astral
body, directly con-
nected with the immortal spirit, constitutes the trinity of man.
 "

Il6 ISIS UNVEILED.

phenomena produced by the will of the latter do not generally run the
market-places for the satisfaction of open-mouthed investigators.
The unity of God, the immortality of the spirit, belief in salvation
only through our works, merit and demerit ; such are the principal arti-

cles of faith of the Wisdom-religion, and the ground -work of Vedaisni,

Buddhism, Parsism, and such we find to have been even that of the an-
cient Osirism, when we, after abandoning the popular sun-god to the
materialism of the rabble, confine our attention to the Books of Hermes,
the thrice-great.
" The THOUGHT concealed as yet the world in silence and darkness.
. . . Then the Lord who exists through Himself, and who is not to be

divulged to the external senses of man ; dissipated darkness, and mani-

fested the perceptible world."
" He that can be perceived only by the spirit, that escapes the
organs of sense, who is without visible parts, eternal, the soul of all

beings, that none can comprehend, displayed His own splendor

{Manu, book i., slokas, 6-7).
Such is the ideal of the Supreme in the mind of every Hindu phil-

osopher.
" Of all the duties, the principal one is to acquire the knowledge of
the supreme soul (the spirit) ; it is the first of all sciences, for it alone
confers on man immortality " [Manu, book xii., sloka 85).
And
our scientists talk of the Nirvana of Buddha and the Moksha of
Brahma as of a complete annihilation It is thus that the following!

verse is interpreted by some materialists.

" The man who recognizes the Supreme Soul, in his own soul, as
well as in that of all creatures, and who is equally just to all (whether
man or animals) obtains the happiest of all fates, that to be finally ab-
sorbed in the bosom of Brahma" (Manu, book xii., sloka 125).
The doctrine of the Moksha and the Nirvana, as understood by the
school of Max can never bear confronting with numerous texts
Miiller,
that can be found, if required, as a final refutation. There are sculp-
tures in many pagodas which contradict, point-blank, the imputation.
Ask a Brahman to explain Moksha, address yourself to an educated Bud-
dhist and pray him to define for you the meaning of Nirvana. Both
will answer you that in every one of these religions Nirvana represents
the dogma of the spirit's immortality. That, to reach the Nirvana
means absorption into the great universal soul, the latter representing a
state,not an individual being or an anthropomorphic god, as some under-
stand the great existence. That a spirit reaching such a state becomes
a part of the integral whole, but never loses its individuality for all that.
Henceforth, the spirit lives spiritually, without any fear of further modi-
 THE VISIONS OF SEERS NOT PROVOKED BY DRUGS. 11/

fications of form ; for form pertains to matter, and the state of Nirvana
implies a complete purification or a final riddance from even the most
sublimated particle of matter.
This word, absorbed, when it is proved that the Hindus and Buddhists
believe in the immortality of the spirit, must necessarily mean intimate
union, not annihilation. Let Christians call them idolaters, if they still dare
do so, in the face of science and the latest translations of the sacred
Sanscrit books ; they have no right to present the speculative philosophy
of ancient sages as an inconsistency and the philosophers themselves as
illogical With far better reason we can accuse the ancient Jews
fools.

of utter nihilism. There is not a word contained in the Books of Moses

— or the prophets either —
which, taken literally, implies the spirit's immor-
tality. Yet every devout Jew hopes as well to be "gathered into the
bosom of A-Braham."
The hierophants and some Brahmans are accused of having adminis-
tered to their epoptai strong drinks or ansesthetics to produce visions which
shall be taken by the latter as realities. They did and do use sacred bever-
ages which, like the Soma-drink, possess the faculty of freeing the astral
form from the bonds of matter ; but in those visions there is as little to
be attributed to hallucination as in the glimpses which the scientist, by
the help of his optical instrument, gets into the microscopic world. A man
cannot perceive, touch, and converse with pure spirit through any of his
bodily senses. Only spirit alone can talk to and see spirit ; and even
our astral soul, the Doppelganger, is too gross, too much tainted yet with
earthly to its perceptions and insinuations.
matter to trust entirely
How
dangerous may often become untrained mediumship, and how
thoroughly it was understood and provided against by the ancient sages,
is perfectly exemplified in the case of Socrates. The old Grecian phi-
losopher was a " medium " hence, he had never been initiated into the
;

Mysteries ; for such was the rigorous law. But he had his " familiar
spirit " as they call it, his daimonion ; and this invisible counsellor
became the cause of is generally believed that if he was
his death. It

not initiated into the Mysteries was because he himself neglected to

it

become so. But the Secret Records teach us that it was because he could
not be admitted to participate in the sacred rites, and precisely, as we
state, on account of his mediumship. There was a law against the
admission not only of such as were convicted of deliberate witchcraft *

* We really think that the word '

' witchcraft '
' ought, once for all, to be understood
in the sense which properly belongs to it. Witchcraft may be either conscious or uncon-

scious. Certain wicked and dangerous results may be obtaiatid through the mesmeric
powers of a so-called sorcerer, who misuses his potential fluid or again tliey may be ;

achieved through an easy access of malicious tricky " spirits " (so much the worse if
Il8 ISIS UNVEILED.

but even of those who were known to have " a familiar spirit." The law-
was just and logical, because a genuine medium is more or less irre-
sponsible and the eccentricities of Socrates are thus accounted for in
;

some degree. A medium must he passive ; and if a firm believer in his

" spirit-guide " he will allow himself to be ruled by the latter, not by the
rules of the sanctuary. A medium of olden times, like the modern
"medium" was subject to be entranced at the will and pleasure of the
"power" which controlled him; therefore, he could not well have been
entrusted with the awful secrets of the final initiation, "never to be revealed
under the penalty of death." The old sage, in unguarded moments of
"spiritual inspiration," revealed that which he had never learned ; and
was therefore put to death as an atheist.
How then, with such an instance as that of Socrates, in relation to
the visions and spiritual wonders at the epoptai, of the Inner Temple,
can any one assert that these seers, theurgists, and thauniaturgists were
all " spirit-mediums ? " Neither Pythagoras, Plato, nor any of the later
more important Neo-platonists ; neither lamblichus, Longinus, Proclus,
nor ApoUonius of Tyana, were ever mediums for in such case they ;

would not have been admitted to the Mysteries at all. As Taylor proves
— " This assertion of divine visions in the Mysteries is clearly confirmed
by Plotinus. And in short, that magical evocation formed a part of the
sacerdotal office in them, and that this was universally believed by all

antiquity long before the era of the later Platonists," shows that apart
from natural " mediumship," there has existed, from the beginning of
time, a mysterious science, discussed by many, but known only to a few.
The use of it is a longing toward our only true and real home — the
after-life, and a desire to cling more closely to our parent spirit ; abuse
of it is sorcery, witchcraft, black magic. Between the two is placed natu-
ral " mediumship " a soul clothed with imperfect matter, a ready agent
;

for either the one'or the other, and utterly dependent on its surroundings
of life, constitutional heredity —
physical as well as mental and on the —
nature of the " spirits" it attracts around itself. A blessing or a curse,
as fate will have it, unless the medium is purified of earthly dross.
The reason why in every age so little has been generally known of the
mysteries of initiation, is twofold. The first has already been explained
by more than one author, and Hes in the terrible penalty following the least
indiscretion. The second, is the superhuman difficulties and even dan-
gers which the daring candidate of old had to encounter, and either con-
quer, or die in the attempt, when, what is still worse, he did not lose his

human) to the atmosphere surrounding a medium. How many thousands of such irre-
sponsible innocent victims have met infamous deaths through the tricks of those Ele-
mentai'ies !
 THE FOUR TAN AIM OF THE TALMUD. II9

reason. There was no real danger to him whose mind had become thor-
and so prepared for every terrific sight. He who
oughl}' spiritualized,
fully recognized the power of his immortal spirit, and never doubted for

one moment its omnipotent protection, had naught to fear. But woe to
the candidate in whom the slightest physical fear — sickly child of matter
—made him lose sight and faith in his own invulnerability. He who
was not wholly confident of his moral fitness to accept the burden of these
tremendous secrets was doomed.
The Talmud gives the story of the four Tanaim, who are made, in
allegorical terms, to enter into the garden of delights ; i. e., to be initia-

ted into the occult and final science.

"According to the teaching of our holy masters the names of the four
who entered the garden of delight, are Ben Asai, Ben Zoma, Acher, and
:

Rabbi Akiba. . . .

"Ben Asai looked and — lost his sight.

"Ben Zoma looked and — lost his reason.
"Acher made depredations in the plantation" (mixed up the whole
and failed). " But Akiba, who had entered in peace, came out of it in
peace, for the saint whose name be blessed had said, This old man is '

"
worthy of serving us with glory.'
"The learned commentators of the Talmud, the Rabbis of the s)'na-

gogue, explain that the garden of delight, in which those four personages
are madeto enter, is but that mysterious science, the most terrible of
sciences for weak intellects, which it leads directly to insanity" says A.
Franck, in his Kabbala. It is not the pure at heart and he who studies
but with a view to perfecting himself and so more easily acquiring the
promised immortality, who need have any fear but rather he who
;

makes of the science of sciences a sinful pretext for worldly motives, who
should tremble. The latter will never withstand the kahalistic evocations
of the supreme initiation.
The licentious performances of the thousand and one early Christian
sects,may be criticised by partial commentators as well as the ancient
Eleusinian and other rites. But why should they incur the blame of the
theologians, the Christians, when their own " Mysteries" of " the divine
incarnation with Joseph, Mary, and the angel " in a sacred trilogue used
to be enacted in more than one country, and were famous at one time in
Spain and Southern France? Later, they fell like many other once
secret rites into the hands of the populace. It is but a few years since,

during every Christmas week, Punch-and- Judy-boxes, containing the above

named personages, an additional display of the infant Jesus in his manger,
were carried about the country in Poland and Southern Russia. They
were called Kaliadovki, a word the correct etymology of which we are
 —
I20 ISIS UNVEILED.

unable to give unless from the verb Kaliadovdt, a word that we as

it is

willingly abandon We have seen this show in

to learned philologists.
our days of childhood. We remember the three king-Magi represented
by three dolls in powdered wigs and colored tights ; and it is from recol-
lecting the simple, profound veneration depicted on the faces of the
pious audience, that we can the more readily appreciate the honest and
justremark by the editor, in the introduction to the Eleusinian Mysteries,
who says "It is ignorance which leads to profanation. Men ridicule
:

what they do not properly understand. The undercurrent of this

. . .

world is set toward one goal ; and inside of human credulity call it —
—
human weakness, if you please is a power almost infinite, a holy faith
capable of apprehending the supremest truths of all existence."
If that abstract sentiment called Christian charity prevailed in the
Church, we would be well content to leave unsaid. We have no
all this

quarrel with Christians whose faith whose practice coincides

is sincere and
with their profession. But with an arrogant, dogmatic, and dishonest
clergy, we have nothing to do except to see the ancient philosophy
antagonized by modern theology in its puny offspring Spiritualism —
defended and righted so far as we are able, so that its grandeur and suffi-
ciency may be thoroughly displayed. It is not alone for the esoteric
philosophy that we fight nor for any modern system of moral
; philoso-
phy, but for the inalienable right of private judgment, and especially for
the ennobhng idea of a future life of activity and accountabiHty.
We eagerly applaud such commentators as Godfrey Higgins, Inman,
Payne Knight, King, Dunlap, and Dr. Newton, however much they disa-

gree with our own mystical views, for their diligence is constantly being
rewarded by fresh discoveries of the Pagan paternity of Christian sym-
bols. But otherwise, all these learned works are useless. Their re-
searches only cover half the ground. Lacking the true key of interpreta-
tion they see the symbols only in a physical aspect. They have no pass-
word to cause the gates of mystery to swing open and ancient spiritual ;

philosophy is to them a closed book. Diametrically opposed though

they be to the clergy in their ideas respecting it, in the way of interpreta-
tion they do little more than their opponents for a questioning public.
Their labors tend to strengthen materialism as those of the clergy,
especially the Romish clergy, do to cultivate belief in diabolism.
If the study of Hermetic philosophy held out no other hope of reward,
it would be more than enough to know that by it we may learn with what

perfection of justice the world is governed. A sermon upon this text is

preached by every page of history. Among all there is not one that con-
veys a deeper moral than the case of the Roman Church. The divine
law of compensation was never more strikingly exemplified than in the
 THE ROMISH CHURCH SELF-DOOMED. 121

fact thatby her own act she has deprived herself of the only possible key
to her own
religious mysteries. The assumption of Godfrey Hi^gins that
there are two doctrines maintained in the Roman Church, one for the
— —
masses and the other the esoteric for the " perfect," or the initiates, as
ancient Mysteries, appears to us unwarranted and rather fantastic.
in the
They have lost the key, we repeat ; otherwise no terrestrial power could
have prostrated her, and except a superficial knowledge of the means of
producing " miracles," her clergy can in no way be compared in their
wisdom with the hierophants of old.
In burning the works of the theurgists ; in proscribing those who affect
their study ; in affixing the stigma of
demonolatry to magic in general,
Rome has left her exoteric worship and Bible to be helplessly riddled by
every free-thinker, her sexual emblems to be identified with coarseness,
and her priests to unwittingly turn magicians and even sorcerers in their
exorcisms, which are but necromantic evocations. Thus retribution, by
the exquisite adjustment of divine law, is made to overtake this scheme of
cruelty, injustice, and bigotry, through her own suicidal acts.
True philosophy and divine truth are convertible terms. A religion
which dreads the light cannot be a religion based on either truth or phil-
osophy — hence, it must be false. The ancient Mysteries were mysteries
to the profane only, whom the hierophant never sought nor would accept as
proselytes; to the initiates the Mysteries became explained as soon as the
final veil was withdrawn. No mind like that of Pythagoras or Plato would
have contented itself with an unfathomable and incomprehensible mystery,
like that of the Christian dogma. There can be but one truth, for two
small truths on the same subject can but constitute one great error.
Among thousands of exoteric or popular conflicting religions which have
been propagated since the days when the first men were enabled to inter-
change their ideas, not a nation, not a people, nor the most abject tribe,
but after their own fashion has believed in an Unseen God, the First
Cause of unerring and immutable laws, and in the inunortality of our spirit.
No creed, no false philosophy, no religious exaggerations, could ever de-
stroy that feehng. It must, therefore, be based upon an absolute truth.
On the other hand, every one of the numberless religions and religious
sects views the Deity after its own fashion ; and, fathering on the un-
known its own speculations, it enforces these purely human outgrowths
of overheated imagination on the ignorant masses, and calls them "re-
velation." As the dogmas of every religion and sect often differ radically,
they cannot be true. And if untrue, what are they ?

"The greatest curse to a nation," remarks Dr. Inman, "is not a baa
religion,but a form of faith which prevents manly inquiry. I know of

no nation of old that was priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords
122 ISIS UNVEILED.

of those who did not care for hierarchs. .The greatest danger is to
. .

be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at vice, and encourage it as

a means whereby they can gain power over their votaries. So long as
every man does to other men as he would that they should do to him,
and allows no one to interfere between him and his Maker, all will go well
with the world." *

" Ancient Pagan and Modem Christian Symbolism," preface, p. 34.

 — —

CHAPTER III.

*'KlNG. —Let us from point to point this story know."

—Airs Well That Ends iVell.—Act v., Scene 3.

" He is the One, self-proceeding and from Him all things proceed.
:

And in them He Himself exerts His activi^ no mortal :

Beholds Him, but He beholds all " Orphic Hymn. !

''And Athens, O Athena, is thy own !

Great Goddess hear and on my darkened mind

!

Pour thy pure light in measure unconfined :

That sacred light, O all-proceeding Queen,

Which beams eternal from thy face serene.
My soul, while wand'ring on the earth, inspire
With thy own blessed and impulsive fire
" !

—Proclus : Taylor : To Mi*ierzia.

" '^ow faith is the substance of things. ... By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that
believed not, when she had received the sj>ies in peace" —Hebreivs xi. 1,31.

" What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man hath ? Can vxyth
faith, and have not works
save hint ? . . . Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by luorks, when she had received
the messengers, and had sent them out another way ? " James ii. 14, 25.

CLEMENT describes Basilides, the Gnostic, as " a philosopher

devoted to the contemplation of divine things." This very
appropriate expression may be applied to many of the founders of the
more important sects which later were all engulfed in one — that stupen-
dous compound of unintelligible dogmas enforced by Irenceus, Tertullian,
and others, which is now termed Christianity. If these must be called
heresies, tlien early Christianity itself must be included in the number.
Basilides and Valentinus preceded Irenseus and Tertullian ; and the
two latter Fathers had less facts than the two former Gnostics to show
that their heresy was plausible. Neither divine right nor truth brought
about the triumph of their Christianity ; fate alone was propitious. We
can assert, with entire plausibilit)', that there is not one of all these
sects —
KabaJism, Judaism, and our present Christianity included but —
sprang from the two main branches of that one mother-trunk, the once
universal religion, which antedated the Vedaic ages we speak of that —
prehistoric Buddlrismwhich merged later into Brahmanism.
The religion which the primitive teaching of the early few apostles
—
most resembled a religion preached by Jesus himself is the elder of —
these two, Buddhism. The latter as taught in its primitive purity, and
carried to perfection by the last of the Buddhas, Gautama, based its
 ;;

124 ISIS UNVEILED.

moral ethics on three fundamental principles. It alleged that i, every

thing existing, exists from natural causes 2, that virtue brings its own
;

reward, and vice and sin their own punishment ; and, 3, that the state
of man in this world is probationary. We might add that on these three
principles rested the universal foundation of every religious creed God, ;

—
and individual immortality for every man if he could but win it.
However puzzling the subsequent theological tenets ; however seem-
ingly incomprehensible the metaphysical abstractions which have con-
vulsed the theology of every one of the great rehgions of mankind as
soon as it was placed on a sure footing, the above is found to be the
essence of every religious philosophy, with the exception of later Chris-
tianity. It was that of Zoroaster, of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Jesus,
and even of Moses, albeit the teachings of the Jewish law-giver have
been so piously tampered with.
We will devote the present chapter mainly to a brief survey of the
numerous sects which have recognized themselves as Christians that is ;

to say, that have believed in a Christos, or an anointed one. We will

also endeavor to explain the latter appellation from the kabalistic stand-
point, and show it reappearing in every religious system. It might be
same time, to see how much the earliest apostles Paul
profitable, at the —
and Peter, agreed in their preaching of the new Dispensation. We will
begin with Peter.
We must once more return to that greatest of all the Patristic frauds
the one which has undeniably helped the Roman Catholic Church to its

unmerited supremacy, viz. the barefaced assertion, in the teeth of histor-

:

ical evidence, that Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome. It is but too

natural that the Latin clergy should cling to it, for, with the exposure of
the fraudulent nature of this pretext, the dogma of apostolic succession
must fall to the ground.
There have been many able works of late, in refutation of this pre-
posterous claim. Among we note Mr. G. Reber's, The Christ of
others
Paul, which overthrows it quite ingeniously. The author proves, i, that
there was no church established at Rome, until the reign of Antoninus
Pius 2, that as Eusebius and Irensus both agree that Linus was the
;

second Bishop of Rome, into whose hands " the blessed apostles " Peter
and Paul committed the church after building it, it could not have been at
any other time than between a.d. 64 and 68 3, that this interval of
;

years happens during the reign of Nero, for Eusebius states that Linus
held this ofiice twelve years [Ecclesiastical History, book iii., c.
13),
entering upon it a.d. 69, one year after the death of Nero, and
dying
himself in 8r. After that the author maintains, on very solid grounds,
that Peter could not be in Rome a.d. 64, for he was
then in Babylon
 THE FICTION OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 125

wherefrom he wrote his first Epistle, the date of which is fixed by Dr.
Lardner and other critics at precisely this year. But we believe that his
best argument is in proving that it was not in the character of the
cowardly Peter to risk himself in such close neighborhood with Nero,
who " was feeding the wild beasts of the Amphitheatre with the flesh and
bones of Christians " * at that time.

Perhaps the Church of Rome was but consistent in choosing as her

titularfounder the apostle who thrice denied his master at the moment
of danger and the only one, moreover, except Judas, who provoked
;

Christ in such a way as to be addressed as the " Enemy." " Get thee
behind me, Satan " exclaims Jesus, rebuking the taunting apostle, f
!

There is in the Greek Church which has never found favor

a tradition
at the Vatican. The former one of the Gnostic lead-
traces its origin to
ers —Basilides, perhaps, who and Adrian, at the end
lived under Trajan
of the first and the beginning of the second century. With regard to this
particular tradition, if the Gnostic is Basilides, then he must be accepted
as a sufficient authority, having claimed to have been a disciple of the
Apostle Matthew, and to have had for master Glaucias, a disciple of St.
Peter himself. Were the narrative attributed to him authenticated, the
London Committee for the Revision of the Bible would have to add a new
verse to Matthew, Mark, and John, who tell the story of Peter's denial
of Christ.
This tradition, then, of which we have been speaking, affirms that,
when frightened at the accusation of the servant of the high priest, the
apostle had thrice denied his master, and the cock had crowed, Jesus,
who was then passing through the hall in custody of the soldiers, turned,
and, looking at Peter, said :
" Verily, I say unto thee, Peter, thou shalt
deny me throughout the coming ages, and never stop until thou shalt be
old, and shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and
carry thee whither thou wouldst not." The latter part of this sentence,
say the Greeks, relates to the Church of Rome, and prophesies her con-
stant apostasy from Christ, under the mask of false religion. Later, it
was inserted in the twenty-first chapter of Jolin, but the whole of this

chapter had been pronounced a forgery, even before it was found that this
Gospel was never written by John the Apostle at all.
The anonymous author of Supernatural Religion, a work which in two
years passed through several editions, and which is alleged to have been
written by an eminent theologian, proves conclusively the spuriousness
of the four gospels, or at least their complete transformation in the hands

* " The Christ of Faul," p. 123.

\ Gospel according to Marlj, viii. 33.
126 ISIS UNVEILED.

of the too-zealous Iren»us and his champions. The fourth gospel is

completely upset by this able author the extraordinary forgeries of the
;

Fathers of the early centuries are plainly demonstrated, and the relative
value of the synoptics is discussed with an unprecedented power of logic.

The work carries conviction in its every line. From it we quote the fol-

lowing :
" We we lose in abandoning belief in
gain infinitely more than
the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain, pure and unimpaired,
the treasure of Christian morahty, we relinquish nothing but the debasing
elements added to by human superstition. We are no longer bound
it

to believe a theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are

freed from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of
the Universe, and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher conceptions
of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being, hidden from our finite minds, it
is true, in the impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose laws of wondrous

comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in operation around

us. . . . The argument so often employed by theologians, that Divine
revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views contained in that,
revelation are required for our moral consciousness, is purely imaginary,
and derived from the revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only
thing absolutely necessary for man is Truth, and to that, and that alone,
must our moral consciousness adapt itself." *
We will consider farther in what light was regarded the Divine reve-
lation of the Jewish Bible by the Gnostics, who yet believed in Christ in
their own way, a far better and less blasphemous one than the Roman
Cathohc. The Fathers have forced on the behevers in Christ a BiUe,
the laws prescribed in which he was the first to break the teachings of ;

which he utterly rejected and for which crimes he was finally crucified.
;

Of whatever else the Christian world can boast, it can hardly claim logic
and consistency as its chief virtues.
The fact alone that Peter remained to the last an " apostle of the cir-
cumcision," speaks for itself. Whosoever else might have built the Church
of Rome it was not Peter. If such were the case, the successors of this
apostle would have to submit themselves to circumcision, if it were but
for the sake of consistency, and to show that the claims of the popes are
not utterly groundless. Dr. Inman asserts that report says that "in our
Christian times popes have to be privately perfect," f but we do not know
whether it is carried to the extent of the Levitical Jewish law. The first
fifteen Christian bishops of Jerusalem, commencing with James and in-

cluding Judas, were all circumcised Jews. \

* " Supernatural Religion," vol. ii., p. 489.

\ " Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism," p. 28.
% See Eusebius, " E\. H,," bk. iv., ch. v. ; " Sulpicius Severus," vol. ii., p. 31.
 WHO AND WHAT WAS PETER? 12/

In the Sepher Toldos Jeshu* a Hebrew manuscript of great anti-

quity, the version about Peter is different. Simon Peter, it says, was one
of their own brethren, though he had somewhat departed from the laws,
and the Jewish hatred and persecution of the apostle seems to have
existed but in the fecund imagination of the fathers. The author speaks
of him with great respect and fairness, calling him '= a faithful servant of
the living God," who passed his life in austerity and meditation, "living
in Babylon at the summit of a tower," composing hymns, and preaching
charity. He adds that Peter always recommended to the Christians not
tomolest the Jews, but as soon as he was dead, behold another preacher
went to Rome and pretended that Simon Peter had altered the teachings
of his master. He invented a burning hell and threatened every one
with it promised miracles, but worked none.
;

How much there is in the above of fiction and how much of truth, it
is for others to decide but it certainly bears more the evidence of sin-
;

cerity and fact on its face, than the fables concocted by the fathers to
answer their end.
We may the mot'e readily credit this friendship between Peter and his
late co-religionists as we find in Theodoret the following assertion " The :

Nazarenes are Jews, honoring the anointed (Jesus) as a juit tnan and
using the Evangel according to Peter." f Peter was a Nazarene, accord-
ing to the Talmud. He belonged to the sect of the later Nazarenes,
which dissented from the followers of John the Baptist, and became a
rival sect ; and which — as tradition goes —was instituted by Jesus himself
History finds the first Christian sects to have been either Nazarenes like
John the Baptist ; or Ebionites, among whom were many of the relatives
of Jesus ; or Essenes (lessaens) the Therapeutfe, healers, of which the
Nazaria were a branch. All these sects, which only in the days of Ire-
njeus beganbe considered heretical, were more or less kabalistic.
to
They believed in the expulsion of demons by magical incantations, and
practiced this method; Jervis terms the Nabatheans and other such sects
" wandering Jewish exorcists," | the Arabic word Naba, meaning to wan-

der, and the Hebrew saj naba, to prophesy. The Talmud indiscrimi-
* It appears that the Jews attribute a very high antiquity to " Sepher Toldos
Jeshu," It was mentioned for the first time by Martin, about the beginning of the
thirteenth century, for the Talmudists took great care to conceal it from the Christians.
Levi says that Porchetus Salvaticus published some portions of it, which were used by
Luther (see vol. viii. Jena Ed.). ,
The Hebrew text, which was missing, was at last
found by Miinster and Buxtorf, and published in i6Si, by Christopher Wagenseilius,
in Nuremberg, and in Frankfort, in a collection entitled " Tela Ignea Satanse," or

The Burning Darts of Satan (" See Levi's Science des Esprits").
f Theodoret
" Heretic. Fab.," lib. ii., ii.
:

\ Jervis W. Jervis : " Genesis," p. 324.

128 ISIS UNVEILED.

nately calls all the Christians Nozari. * All the Gnostic sects equally
believed in magic. Irenseus, in describing the followers of Basilides,
says, ''
They use images, invocations, incantations, and all other things
pertaining unto magic." Dunlap, on the authority of Lightfoot, shows
that Jesus was called Nazaraios, in reference to his humble and mean

external condition; "for Nazaraios means separation, alienation from

other men." f
The meaning of the word nazar -its. signifies to vow or conse-
real
crate one's self to the service ofGod. As a noun it is a diadem or
emblem of such consecration, a head so consecrated. \ Joseph was
styled a nazar. § " The head of Joseph, the vertex of the nazar among
his brethren." Samson and Samuel (iibmb ^n-ib-j; Semes-on and Sem-
va-el) are described alike as nazars. Porphyry, treating of Pythagoras,
says that he was purified and initiated at Babylon by Zar-adas, the head
of the sacred college.May it not be surmised, therefore, that the Zoro-
Aster was the nazar of Ishtar, Zar-adas or Na-Zar-Ad, being the same ||

with change of idiom ? Ezra, or x-ity, was a priest and scribe, a hiero-

phant and the first Hebrew colonizer of Judea wsfs V^aiit Zeru-Babel
;

or the Zoro or nazar of Babylon.

The Jewish Scriptures indicate two distinct worships and religions
among the Israelites; that of Bacchus-worship under the mask of Jeho-
vah, and that of the Chaldean initiates to whom belonged some of the
nazars, the theurgists, and a few of the prophets. The headquarters of
these were always at Babylon and Chaldea, where two rival schools of
Magians can be distinctly shown. Those who would doubt the state-
ment will have in such a case to account for the discrepancy between
history and Plato, who of all men of his day was certainly one of the
best informed? Speaking of the Magians, he shows them as instructing
the Persian kings of Zoroaster, as the son or priest of Oromasdes ; and
yet Darius, in the inscription at Bihistun, boasts of having restored the
cultus of Ormazd and put down the Magian rites Evidently there ! were
two distinct and antagonistic Magian schools. The oldest and the most
esoteric of the two being that which, satisfied with its unassailable knowl-
edge and secret power, was content to apparently rehnquish her exoteric
popularity, and concede her supremacy into the hands of the reforming
Darius. The later Gnostics showed the same prudent policy by accom-
modating themselves in every country to the prevailing religious forms,
still secretly adhering to their own essential doctrines.

* "Lightfoot," 501.
f Dunlap : " Sod, the Son of the Man," p. x.
XJeremiah vii. 29 " Cut off thine hair,
: OJerusalem, and cast it away, and take
up a lamentation on high places."
§ Genesis xlix. 26. | Nazareth ?
 THE ARIST^US —EURYDIKE FABLE EXPLAINED. 1
29

There is another hypothesis possible, which

is that Zero-Ishtar was

the high priest of the Chaldean worship, or Magian hierophant. When

the Aryans of Persia, under Darius Hystaspes, overthrew the Magian
Gomates, and restored the Masdean worship, there ensued an amalgama-
tion by which the Magian Zoro-astar became the Zara-tushra of the
Vendidad. This was not acceptable to the other Aryans, who adopted
the Vedic religion as distinguished from that of Avesta. But this is but
an hypothesis.
And whatever Moses is now believed to have been, we will demon-
strate that he was an initiate. The Mosaic rehgion was at best a sun-and
serpent worship, diluted, perhaps, with some slight monotheistic notions
before the latterwere forcibly crammed into the so-called " inspired Scrip-
tures " by Ezra, at the time he was alleged to have r^rwritten the Mosaic
books. At all events the Book of A'umbers was a later book and there ;

the sun-and-serpent worship is as plainly traceable as in any Pagan story.

The tale of thefiery serpents is an allegory in more than one sense.

The " serpents "were the Levites or Ophites, who were Moses' body-
guard (see Exodus xxxii. 26); and the command of the "Lord" to
Moses to hang the heads of the people " before the Lord against the
sun," which is the emblem of this Lord, is unequivocal.
The nazars or prophets, as well as the Nazarenes, were an anti-
Bacchus caste, in so far that, in common with all the initiated prophets,
and offered a strong
they held to the spirit of the symbolical religions
opposition to the idolatrous and exoteric practices of the dead letter.
Hence, the frequent stoning of the prophets by the populace and under
the leadership of those priests who made a profitable living out of the
popular superstitions. Otfried Miiller shows how much
the Orphic Mys-
teries differed from the foprilar Bacchus,* although the Orphikoi
rites of

are known to have followed the worship of Bacchus. The system of the
purest morality and Of a severe asceticism promulgated in the teachings
of Orpheus, and so adhered to by his votaries, are incompatible
strictly

with the lasciviousness and gross immorality of the popular rites. The
fable of Aristceus pursuing Eurydike into the woods where a serpent occa-
sions her death, is a very plain allegory, which was in part explained at
the earliest times. Aristseus is brutal power, pursuing Eurydike, the
esoteric doctrine, into the woods where the serpent (emblem of every
sun-god, and worshipped under its grosser aspect even by the Jews)
kills her ; i.e., forces truth to become still more esoteric, and seek
shelter in the Underworld, which is not the hell of our theologians.
Moreover, the fate of Orpheus, torn to pieces by the Bacchantes, is

* Otfried Miiller :
" Historical Greek Literature," pp. 230-240.
I30 ISIS UNVEILED.

another allegory to show that the gross and popular rites are always
more welcome than divine but simple truth, and proves the great diflfer-
ence that must have existed between the esoteric and the popular wor-
ship. As the poems of both Orpheus and Musfeus were said to have been
lost since the earliest ages, so that neither Plato nor Aristotle recognized
anything authentic in the poems extant in their time, it is difficult to say with
precision what constituted their peculiar rites. Still we have the oral tra-

dition, and every infei^ence to draw therefrom and this tradition points to
;

Orpheus as having brought his doctrines from India. As one whose

religion was that of the oldest Magians —
hence, that to which belonged
the initiates of all countries, beginning with Moses, the " sons of the
Prophets," and the ascetic nazars (who must not be confounded with
those against whom thundered Hosea and other prophets) to the Essenes.
This latter sect were Pythagoreans before they rather degenerated, than
became perfected in their system by the Buddhist missionaries, whom
Pliny tells us established themselves on the shores of the Dead Sea, ages
before his time, ''per sceculorum millia." But if, on the one hand, these
Buddhist monks were the first to establish monastic communities and in-
culcate the strict observance of dogmatic conventual rule, on the other
they were also the first to enforce and popularize those stern virtues so
exemplified by Sakya-muni, and which were previously exercised only in
isolated cases of well-known philosophers and their followers virtues ;

preached two or three centuries later by Jesus, practiced by a few Chris-

tian ascetics, and gradually abandoned, and even entirely forgotten by
the Christian Church.
The initiated nazars had ever held to this rule, which had to be fol-
lowed before them by the adepts of every age and the disciples of
;

John were but a dissenting branch of the Essenes. Therefore, we cannot

well confound them with all the nazars spoken of in the Old Testament,
and who are accused by Hosea with having separated or consecrated
themselves to Bosheth n»2 (see Hebrew text) which implied the great-
;

est possible abomination. To infer, as some critics and theologians do,

that it means to separate one's self to chastity or continence, is either to
advisedly pervert the true meaning, or to be totally ignorant of the
Hebrew language. The eleventh verse of the firstchapter of Micah
half explains the word in its veiled translation :
" Pass ye away, thou
inhabitant of Saphir, etc.," and in the original text the word is Bosheth.
Certainly neither Baal, nor lahoh Kadosh, with his Kadeshim, was a god
of ascetic virtue, albeit the Septuaginia terms them, as well as the galli
— the perfected priests —
TereXeo-yuti-ous, the initiated and the consecrated.*

See " Movers," p. 6S3.

 THE NAZARS AND NAZIREATES. 13I

The great Sod of the Kadeshim, translated in Psalm Ixxxix. 7, by

"assembly of the saints," was anything but a mystery of tl^^e ''sancti-
fied" in the sense given to the latter word by Webster.
The Nazireate sect existed long before the laws of Moses, and origin-
ated among people most inimical to the "cliosen" ones of Israel, viz.,
the people of Galilee, the ancient oUa-podrida of idolatrous nations,
where was built Nazara, the present Nazareth. It is in Nazara that the
ancient Nazori'a or Nazireates held their " Mysteries of Life " or " assem-
blies," as the word now stands in the translation,* which were but the
secret mysteries of initiation, f
utterly distinct in their practical form
from the popular M\steries which were held at Byblus in honor of Adonis.
While the true initiates of the ostracised Galilee were worshipping the
true God and enjoying transcendent visions, what were the "chosen"
ones about ? Ezekiel tells it to us (chap, viii) when, in describing what
he saw, he says that the form of a hand took him by a lock of his head
and transported him from Chaldea unto Jerusalem. "And there stood
seventy men of the senators of the house of Israel. . . .
'
Son of man,
hast thou seen what the ancients ... do in the dark ? " inquires the '

" Lord." " At the door of the house of the Lord behold there sat . . .

women weeping for Taiiimuz " (Adonis). We really cannot suppose that
the Pagans have ever surpassed the " chosen" people in certain shameful
abominations of which their own prophets accuse them so profusely. To
admit this truth, one hardly needs even to be a Hebrew scholar let him ;

read the Bible in English and meditate over the language of the " holy"
prophets.
This accounts for the hatred of the later Nazarenes for the orthodox
Jews —followers of the exoteric Mosaic Law — who are ever taunted by
this sect with being the worshippers of lurbo-Adunai, or Lord Bacchus.
Passing under the disguise of Adoni-Iaclwh (original text, Isaiah Ixi. i),

lahoh and Lord Sabaoth, the Baal-Adonis, or Bacchus, worshipped in

the groves and public sods or Mysteries, under the poUshing hand of Ezra
becomes finally the later-vowelled Adonai of the Massorah — the One
and Supreme God of the Christians !

" Thou shalt not worship the Sun who is named Adunai, says the
Codex of the Nazarenes whose name is also Kadush
; \ and El-El. This
Adunai will elect to himself a nation and congregate in crowds (his wor-

ship will be exoteric) . . . Jerusalem will become the refuge and city of
the Abortive, who shall perfect themselves (circumcise) with a sword
. . . and shall adore Adunai." §

* " Codex Nazarasus," ii., 305. See Lucian :

" De Syria Dea."
f
^:See Psalm Lxx.xix. 18. § " Codex Nazarxus," i. 47.
132 ISIS UNVEILED.

The who were the descendants of the Scripture

oldest Nazarenes,
iiazars, prominent leader was John the Baptist, although
and whose last
never very orthodox in the sight of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem
were, nevertheless, respected and left unmolested. Even Herod '-feared
the multitude " because they regarded John as a prophet {Matthew xiv.
5). But the followers of Jesus evidently adhered to a sect which became
a still more exasperating thorn in their side. It appeared as a heresy
within another heresy ; for while the nazars of the olden times, the
" Sons of the Prophets," were Chaldean kabalists, the adepts of the new
dissenting sect showed themselves reformers and innovators from the
first. The great similitude traced by some critics between the rites and
observances of the earliest Christians and those of the Essenes may be
accounted for without the slightest difficulty. The Essenes, as we re-
marked just now, were the converts of Buddhist missionaries who had
overrun Egypt, Greece, and even Judea at one time, since the reign of
Asoka the zealous propagandist and while it is evidently to the Essenes
;

that belongs the honor of having had the Nazarene reformer, Jesus, as
a pupil, still the latter is found disagreeing with his early teachers on
several questions of formal observance. He cannot strictly be called
an Essene, for reasons which we will indicate further on, neither was he
a nazar, or Nazaria of the older sect. What Jesus was, may be found in

the Codex Nazarizus, in the unjust accusations of the Bardesanian Gnos-

tics.

" Jesu is Nebu, the false Messiah, the destroyer of the old orthodox
religion," says He is the founder of the sect of the new
the Codex. *
nazars, words clearly imply, a follower of the Buddhist
and, as the
doctrine. In Hebrew the word naba ttas means to speak of inspiration ;

and las is nebo, a god of wisdom. But Nebo is also Mercury, and Mer-
cury is Buddha in the Hindu monogram of planets. Moreover, we find

the Talmudists holding that Jesus was inspired by the genius of Mer-
cury, f
The Nazarene reformer had undoubtedly belonged to one of these
sects ; though, perhaps, it would be next to impossible to decide
absolutely which. But what is self-evident is that he preached the
philosophy of Buddha-Sakyamfini. Denounced by the later prophets,
cursed by the Sanhedrim, the nazars they were confounded with others —
of that name " who separated themselves unto that shame," they were J
secretly, if not openly persecuted by the orthodox synagogue. It be-

* Ibid. ; Norberg :
" Onomasticon," 74.

f Alph. de Spire :
" Fortalicium Fidei," ii., 2.

\ Hosea ix. 10.

 BLUNDERS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. I33

comes clear why Jesus was treated with such contempt from the first,
and deprecatingly called " the Galilean." Nathaniel inquires " Can —
tliere any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " {John i.
46) at the very
beginning of his career and merely because he knows him to be a
;

nazar. Does not even the older nazars were not

this clearly hint, that
really Hebrew but rather a class of Chaldean theurgists ?
religionists,
Besides, as the Niw Testament is noted for its mistranslations and trans-
we may justly suspect that the word Nazareth
parent falsifications of texts,
was substituted for that of nasaria, or nozari. That it originally read
" Can any good thing come from a nozari, or Nazarene "
a follower of ;

St.John the Baptist, with whom we see him associating from his first
appearance on the stage of action, after having been lost sight of for a
period of nearly twenty years. The blunders of the Old Testament i.-r^
as nothing to those of the gospels.
Nothing shows better than these self-
evident contradictions the system upon which the super-
of pious fraud
structure of the Messiahship rests. "This is Elias which was for to
come," says Matthew of John the Baptist, thus forcing an ancient kabal-
istic tradition into the frame of evidence (xi. 14). But when address-
ing the Baptist himself, they ask him {/ohni. 16), "Art thou Elias?"
" And he saith lam not / "
—
Which knew best John or his biographer ?
And which is divine revelation ?
The motive of Jesus was evidently Gautama-Buddha, to
like that of
benefit humanity at large by producing a which should
religious reform
give it a religion of pure ethics the true knowledge of God and nature
;

having remained until then solely in the hands of the esoteric sects, and
their adepts. As Jesus used oil and the Essenes never used aught but
pure water,* he cannot be called a strict Essene. On the other hand,
the Essenes were also " set apart ;" they were healers {assaya) and dwelt
in the desert as all ascetics did.

But although he did not abstain from wine he could have remained a
Nazarene all the same. For in chapter vi. of Numbers, we see that
after the priest has waved a part of the hair of a Nazorite for a wave-
offering before the Lord," "after that a Nazarene may drink wine"
(v. 20). The bitter denunciation by the reformer of the people who
would be satisfied with nothing is worded in the following exclamation :

"John came neither eating nor drinking and they say: 'He hath a
devil.' . . . The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say :

'
Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber.' " And yet he was an Essene
and Nazarene, for we not only find him sending a message to Herod, to
say that he was one of those who cast out demons, and who performed

* " The Essenes considered oil as a defilement," says Josephus: " Wars," ii., p. 7.
134 ISIS UNVEILED.

cures, but actually calling himself a prophet and declaring himself equal
to the other prophets. *
The author of Sod shows Matthew trying to connect the appella-
tion of Nazarene with a prophecy, f and inquires " Why then does
Matthew state that the prophet said he should be called NazariaV
Simply "because he belonged to that sect, and a prophecy would con-
firm his claims to the Messiahship. . . . Now it does not appear that
the prophets anywhere state that the Messiah will be called a Nazarene:'\
The fact alone that Matthew tries in the last verse of chapter ii. to

strengthen his claim that Jesus dwelt in Nazareth merely to fulfil a

prophecy, does more than weaken the argument, it upsets it entirely ; for

the two chapters have sufficiently been proved later forgeries.

first

is one of the oldest rites and was practiced by all the nations
Baptism
in their Mysteries, as sacred ablutions. Dunlap seems to derive the
name of the nazars from nazah, sprinkling Bahak-Zivo is the genius ;

who called the world into existence § out of the " dark water," say the
Nazarenes and Richardson's Persian, Arabic, and English Lexicon
;

asserts that the word Bahak means "raining." But the Bahak-Zivo of
the Nazarenes cannot be traced so easily to Bacchus, who " was the
rain-god," for the nazars were the greatest opponents of Bacchus-wor-
ship. " is brought up by the Hyades, the rain-nymphs," says
Bacchus
Preller who shows, furthermore, that f at the conclusion of the religious
; ||

Mysteries, the priests baptized (washed) their monuments and anointed

them with oil. All this is but a very indirect proof. The Jordan bap-
tism need not be shown a substitution for tlie exoteric Bacchic rites and
the libations in honor of Adonis or Adoni — whom the Nazarenes abhorred
— in order to have been a sect sprung from the " Mysteries"
prove it to
of the " Secret Doctrine " and their rites can by no means be con-
;

founded with those of the Pagan populace, who had simply fallen into the
idolatrous and unreasoning faith of all plebeian multitudes. John was the
prophet of these Nazarenes, and in Galilee he was termed "the Saviour,"
but he was not the founder of that sect which derived its tradition from
the remotest Chaldeo-Akkadian theurgy.
" The early plebeian Israelites were Canaanites and Phoenicians, with

* Luke xiii. 32.

f We must bear in mind that the Gospel according to Matthew in
Matthew ii.
the New Testament is not the original Gospel of the apostle of that name. The au-
thentic Evangel was for centuries in the possession of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites,
as we show further on the admission of St. Jerome himself, who confesses that he had
to ask permission of the Nazarenes to translate it.

X Dunlap " Sod, the Son of the Man." § " Codex Nazarceus," vol. ii., p. 233.
:

II
Preller : vol. i., p. 415. •[ Ibid., vol. i., p. 490.
 —
VARIOUS MODES OF BAPTISM. 1 35

the same worship of the Phallic gods — Bacchus, Baal or Adon, lacchos
— lao or Jehovah ; " but even among them there had always been a
class of initiated adepts. Later, the character of this plebe was modified
by Assyrian conquests ; and, finally, the Persian colonizations superim-
posed the Pharisean and Eastern ideas and usages, from which the Old
Testament and the Mosaic institutes were derived. The Asmonean
priest-kings promulgated the canon of the Old Testament in contradis-
tinction to the Apocrypha or Secret Books of the Alexandrian Jews
kabalists.* John Hyrcanus they were Asideans (Chasidim) and
Till
Pharisees (Parsees), but then they became Sadducees or Zadokites as- —
serters of sacerdotal rule as contradistinguished from rabbinical. The
Pharisees were lenientand intellectual, the Sadducees, bigoted and cruel.
Says the Codex: "John, son of the AbaSaba-Zacharia, conceived
by his mother Anasabet in her hundredth year, had baptized for /i?;Yj'-/wf
years \ when Jesu Messias came to the Jordan to be baptized with John's
baptism. . . . But \l& ^'\}1 pervert John! s doctrine, (ihzx\^'^<g the baptism
of the Jordan, and perverting the sayings of justice." \
The baptism was changed from water to that of the Holy Ghost, un-
doubtedly in consequence of the ever-dominant idea of the Fathers to
institute a reform, and make the Christians distinct from St. John's
Nazarenes, the Nabatheans and Ebionites, in order to make room for
new dogmas. Not only do the Synoptics tell us that Jesus was baptizing
the same as John, but John's own disciples complained of it, though surely
Jesus cannot be accused of following a purely Bacchic rite. The paren-
thesis in verse 2d of John iv., "... though Jesus himself baptized not,"
is so clumsy as to show upon its face that it is an interpolation.
Matthew makes John say that he that should come after him would not
baptize them with water "but with the Holy Ghost and fire." Mark,
Luke, and John corroborate these words. Water, fire, and spirit, or Holy
Ghost, have all their origin in India, as we will show.

* The word Apocrypha was very erroneously adopted as doubtful and spurious.

The word means hidden and secret but that which is secret may be often more true
;

than that which is revealed.

f The statement, if reliable, would show that Jesus was between fifty and sixty years
old when baptized ; for the Gospels make him but a few months younger than John.
The kabalists say that Jesus was over forty years old when first appearing at the gates
of Jerusalem. The present copy of the *' Codex Nazar^us " is dated in the year 1042,
but Dunlap finds in Irenceus (2d century) quotations from and ample references to this
book. " The basis of the material common to Irenceus and the '' Codex Nazarasus"
must be at least as early as the first century," says the author in his preface to " Sod,
the Son of the Man," p. i.
X
" Codex Nazarseus," vol. i., p. 109; Dunlap: Ibid., xxiv.
136 ISIS UNVEILED.

Now there one very strange peculiarity about this sentence. It is

is

flatly denied Acts xix. 2-5. ApoUos, a Jew of Alexandria, belonged

in
to the sect of St. John's disciples he had been baptized, and instructf;d
;

others in the doctrines of the Baptist. And yet when Paul, cleverly

profiting by his absence at Corinth, finds certain disciples of Apollos'

at Ephesus, and asks them whether they received the Holy Ghost,
he is naively answered, " We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost " "Unto what then were you baptized?"
!

he inquires. ''
Unto John' s baptisjn" they say. Then Paul is made to
repeat the words attributed to John by the Synoptics ; and these men
" were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," exhibiting, moreover,
at the same instant, the usual polyglot gift which accompanies the descent
of the Holy Ghost.
How then ? St. John the Baptist, who is called the " precursor," that
" the prophecy might be fulfilled," the great prophet and martyr,
whose words ought to have had such an importance in the eyes of his
disciples, announces the " Holy Ghost " to his listeners causes crowds ;

to assemble on the shores of the Jordan, where, at the great ceremony

of Christ's baptism, the promised "Holy Ghost" appears within the
opened heavens, and the multitude hears the voice, and yet there are
disciples of St. John who have " never so much as heard whether there be
"
any Holy Ghost !

Verily the disciples who wrote the Codex Nazarmtcs were right. Only
it is not Jesus himself, but those who came after him, and who concocted

the Bible to suit themselves, that ''perverted John's doctrine, changed

the baptism of the Jordan, and perverted the sayings of justice."
It is useless to object that the present Codex was written centuries
John preached. So were our Gospels. When
after the direct apostles of
this astounding interview of Paul with the " Baptists" took place, Barde-
sanes had not yet appeared among them, and the sect was not considered
a " heresy." Moreover, we are enabled to judge how little St. John's
promise of the "Holy Ghost," and the appearance of the "Ghost" him-
self, had affected his disciples, by the displeasure shown by them toward the

disciples of Jesus,and the kind of rivalry manifested from the first. Nav,
so httle John himself sure of the identity of Jesus with the expected
is

Messiah, that after the famous scene of the baptism at the Jordan, and the
oral assurance by the Holy Ghost Himself that " This is my beloved Son"
{MattheTv iii. 17), we find "the Precursor," in Matthew xi., sending
two of his disciples from his prison to inquire of Jesus " Art thou he :

that should come, or do we look for another ! ! "

This flagrant contradiction alone ought to have long ago satisfied
reasonable minds as to the putative divine inspiration of the A'ew Testa-
 JESUS A REFORMING NAZARIA. 1 37

inent. But we may offer another question If baptism is the sign of

:

regeneration,and an ordinance instituted by Jesus, why do not Christians

now baptize as Jesus is here represented as doing, " with the Holy Ghost
and with fire," instead of following the custom of the Nazarenes? In
making these palpable interpolations, what possible motive could Irenseus
have had except to cause people to believe that the appellation of Naza-
rene, which Jesus bore, came only from his father's residence at Nazareth,
and not from his affihation with the sect of Nazaria, the healers ?
This expedient of Irenasus was a most unfortunate one, for from time
immemorial the prophets of old had been thundering against the baptism
of fire as practiced by their neighbors, which imparted the "spirit of
prophecy," or the Holy Ghost. But the case was desperate the Christians;

were universally called Nazoreens and lessaens (according to Epiphanius),

and Christ simply ranked as a Jewish prophet and healer so self styled,—
so accepted by his own disciples, and so regarded by their followers. In
such a state of things there was no room for either a new hierarchy or a
new God-head; and since Irenseus had undertaken the business of man-
ufacturing both, he had to put together such materials as were available,
and fill the gaps with his own fertile inventions.
—
To assure ourselves that Jesus was a true Nazarene albeit with ideas
of a new reform — we must not search for the proof in the translated
Gospels, but in such original versions as are accessible. Tischendorf,
ill his translation from the Greek o{ Luke'w. 34, has it " lesou Nazarene ;"

and in the Syriac it reads " lasoua, thou Nazaria." Thus, if we take in
account all that is puzzling and incomprehensible in the four Gospels,
revised and corrected as they now stand, we shall easily see for ourselves
that the true, original Christianity, such as was preached by Jesus, is to
be found only in the so-called Syrian heresies. Only from them can we
extract any clear notions about what was primitive Christianity.
Such was the faith when Tertullus the orator accused the apostle
of Paul,
before the governor Felix. What he complained of was that they had
found " that man a mover of sedition ... a ringleader of the sect of the
Nazarenes ;" * and, while Paul denies every other accusation, he con-
way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of
fesses that " after the
my fathers." fThis confession is a whole revelation. It shows i, :

that Paul admitted belonging to the sect of the Nazarenes 2, that he ;

worshipped the God of his fathers, not the trinitarian Christian God, of
whom he knows nothing, and who was not invented until after his death;
and, 3, that this unlucky confession satisfactorily explains why the \.xe.2^-
im, Acts of the Apostles, together with John's Hevelation, vihich atone

* Acts xxiv. 5. \ Ibid., 14.

138 ISIS UNVEILED.

period was utterly rejected, were kept out of the canon of the
New Testa-

ment for such a length of tmie.

At Byblos, the neophytes as well as the hierophants were, after par-
solitude for
ticipating in the Mysteries, obliged to fast and remain in
some time. There was strict fasting and preparation before as well as
Adonian, and Eleusinian orgies ; and Herodotus hints,
after the Bacchic,
with fear and veneration about the lake of Bacchus, in which " they
(the priests) made at night exhibitions of his life and sufferings."* In

the Mithraic sacrifices, during the initiation, a preHminary scene of death

was simulated by the neophyte, and it preceded the scene showing him
himself " being born again by the rite of baptism:' portion of tiiis A
ceremony is still enacted in the present day by the Masons, when the
neophyte, as the Grand Master Hiram Abiff, hes dead, and is raised by
the strong grip of the Hon's paw.
The priests were circumcised. The neophyte could not be initiated
without having been present at the solemn Mysteries of the Take.
The Nazarenes were baptized in the Jordan and could not be baptized ;

elsewhere they were also circumcised, and had to fast before as well as
;

after the purification by baptism. Jesus is said to have fasted in the

wilderness for forty days, immediately after his baptism. To the present
day, there is outside every temple in India, a lake, stream, or a reservoir
full of holy water, in which the Brahmans and the Hindu devotees bathe
daily. Such places of consecrated water are necessary to every temple.
The bathing festivals, or baptismal rites, occur twice every year ; in Octo-

ber and April. Each lasts ten days ; and, as in ancient Egypt and Greece,
the and idols are immersed in water
statues of their gods, goddesses,
by the priests ; ceremony being to wash away from
the object of the
them the sins of their worshippers which they have taken upon them-
selves, and which pollute them, until washed off by holy water.
During the Aratty, the bathing ceremony, the principal god of every
temple is carried in solemn procession to be baptized in the sea. The
Brahman priests, carrying the sacred images, are followed generally by
the Maharajah —
barefoot, and nearly naked. Three times the priests
enter the sea the third time they carry with them the whole of the
;

images. Holding them up with prayers repeated by the whole congre-

gation, the Chief Priest plunges the statues of the gods thrice in the
name of the mystic trinity, into the water ; after which they are purified.f
The Orphic hymn calls water the greatest purifier of men and gods.

* *'
Herodotus," U. p. 170.
,

f Tlie Hindu High Pontiff — the Chief of the Namburis, who lives in the Cochin
Land, is generally present during these festivals of "Holy Water" immersions. lie
travels sometimes to very great distances to preside over the ceremony.
 ADONIS WORSHIP AT BETHLEHEM. 1 39

Our Nazarene sect is known to have existed some 150 years B.C.,
and have lived on the banks of the Jordan, and on the eastern shore
to
of the Dead Sea, according to Phny and Josephus. * But in King's
Gnostics, we find quoted another statement by Josephus from verse 13,
which says that the Essenes had been established on the shores of
the Dead Sea "for thousands of ages" before Pliny's time, f
According to Munk the term " Galilean " is nearly synonymous with
that of " Nazarene ;
" furthermore, he shows the relations of the former
with the Gentiles as very intimate. The populace had probably grad-
and modes of
ualVy adopted, in their constant intercourse, certain rites
worship of the Pagans and the scorn with which the Galileans were
;

regarded by the orthodox Jews is attributed by him to the same cause.

Their friendly relations had certainly led them, at a later period, to
adopt the " Adonia," or the sacred rites over the body of the lamented
Adonis, as we find Jerome fairly lamenting this circumstance. " Over

Bethlehem," he says, " the grove of Tharamuz, that is of Adonis, was

casting its shadow And in the groito where formerly the infant Jesus
!

cried, the lover of Venus was being mourned." \

Mt was after the rebellion of Bar Cochba, that the Roman Emperor
estabhshed the Mysteries of Adonis at the Sacred Cave in Bethlehem ;

and who knows but this was the petra or rock-temple on which the
church was built ? The Boar of Adonis was placed above the gate of
Jerusalem which looked toward Bethlehem.
Munk says that the " Nazireate was an institution established before
the laws of Musah. " § This is evident as we find this sect not only
;

mentioned but minutely described in Numbers (chap. vi.). In the

commandment given in this chapter to Moses by the " Lord," it is easy
to recognize the rites and laws of the Priests of Adonis. ||
The absti-
nence and purity strictly prescribed in both sects are identical. Both

* " Ant. Jud. ," xiii., p. g ; xv., p. 10.

f King thinks it a great exaggeration and is inclined to believe that these Essenes,
who were most undoubtedly Buddhist monks, were " merely a continuation of the
associations known as Sons of the Prophets." " The Gnostics and their Remains,"
p. 22.

I St. Jerome: "Epistles," p. 49 (ad. Poulmam) ; see Dunlap's "Spirit-His-

tory," p. 218.
§ ' Munk," p. 169.
I
—
Bacchus and Ceres or the mystical Wine and Bread, used during the Mysteries,
become, in the " Adonia," Adonis and Venus. Movers shows that " lao is Bacchus,"
p. 550; and his authority is Lydics de Mens (^S-J^)
" Spir. Hist.," p. 195.
; /an
is a Sun-god and the Jewish Jehovah the intellectual or Central Sun of the kabal-
;

ists. See Julian in Proclus. But this " lao" is not the Mystery-god.
140 ISIS UNVEILED.

allowed their hair to grow long * as the Hindu ccenobites and fakirs do
to this day, while other castes shave their hair and abstain on certain
days from wine. The prophet Elijah, a Nazarene, is described in 2
Kings, and by Josephus as " a hairy man girt wit4i a girdle of leather." f
And John the Baptist and Jesus are both represented as wearing very
long hair. \ John is " clothed with camel's hair" and wearing a girdle
of hide, and Jesus in a long garment "without any seams" "and . . .

very white, like snow," says Mark ; the very dress worn by the Nazarene
Priests and the Pythagorean and Buddhist Essenes, as described by
Josephus.
Ifwe carefully trace the terms nazar, and nazaret, throughout the
best known works of ancient writers, we will meet them in connection
with "Pagan" as well as Jewish adepts. Thus, Alexander Polyhistor
says of Pythagoras that he was a disciple of the Assyrian Nazaret, whom
some suppose to be Ezekiel. Diogenes Laertius states most positively

that Pythagoras, after being initiated into all the Mysteries of the Greeks
and barbarians, " went into Egypt and afterward visited the Chaldeans
and Magi ;
" and Apuleius maintains that it was Zoroaster who instructed
Pythagoras.
Were we to suggest that the Hebrew nazars, the railing prophets of
the " Lord," had been Pagan mysteries, and
initiated into the so-called
belonged (or at least a majority of them) to the same Lodge or circle of
adepts as those who were considered idolaters that their " circle of ;

prophets " was but a collateral branch of a secret association, which we

may well term " international," what a visitation of Christian wrath would
we not incur ! And still, the case looks strangely suspicious.
Let us first recall to our mind that which Ammianus Marcellinus, and
other historians relate of Darius Hystaspes. The latter, penetrating into
Upper India (Bactriana), learned pure rites, and stellar and cosniical
sciences from Brachmans, and communicated them to the Magi. Now
Hystaspes is shown
have crushed the Magi
in history to and intro- ;

— —
duced or rather forced upon them the pure religion of Zoroaster, that
of Ormazd. How is it, then, that an inscription is found on the tomb

* Josephus: "Ant. Jud.," iv., p. 4.

flbid. , ix. ; 2 Kings, i. 8.

X In relation to the well-known fact of Jesus wearing his hair long, and being always
so represented, it becomes quite startling to find how little the unknown Editor of the
" Acts " knew about the Apostle Paul, since he makes him say in i Corinthians xi.
14,
" Doth not Nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto
Aim ? " Certainly Paul could never have said such a thing Therefore, if the pas- !

sage is genuine, Paul knew nothing of the prophet whose doctrines he had embraced
—
and for which he died and if false how much more reliable is what remains ?
;
 WHAT PHILOLOGY PROVES ABOUT ZOROASTER. 141

of Darius, he was " teacher and hierophant of magic, or

stating that
magianism ? "
Evidently there must be some historical mistake, and
history confesses it. In this imbroglio of names, Zoroaster, the teacher
and instructor of Pythagoras, can be neither the Zoroaster nor Zarathustra
who among the Parsees nor he who appeared at
instituted sun-worship ;

the court of Gushtasp (Hystaspes) the alleged father of Darius; nor,

again, the Zoroaster who placed his magi above the kings themselves.
—
The oldest Zoroastrian scripture the Avesta does not betray the —
slightest traces of the reformer having ever been acquainted with any of

the nations that subsequently adopted his mode of worship. He seems

utterly ignorant of the neighbors of Western Iran, the Medes, the Assyri-
ans, the Persians, and others. If we had no other evidences of the great
antiquity of the Zoroastrian religion than the discovery of the blunder
committed by some scholars in our own century, who regarded King
Vistaspa (Gushtasp) as identical with the father of Darius, whereas the
Persian tradition points directly to Vistaspa as to the last of the line of
Kaianian princes who ruled in Bactriana, it ought to be enough, for the
Assyrian conquest of Bactriana took place 1,200 years B.C.*
Therefore, it is but natural that we should see in the appellation of
Zoroaster not a name but a generic term, whose significance must be left
to philologists to Guru, in Sanscrit, is a spiritual teacher
agree upon. ;

and as Zuruastara means same language he who worships the sun,

in the
why is it impossible, that by some natm-al change of language, due to the
great number of different nations which were converted to the sun
worship, the word guru-astara, the spiritual teacher of sun-worship, so
closely resembling the name of the founder of this religion, became grad-
ually transformed in its primal form of Zuryastara or Zoroaster ? The
opinion of the kabalists is was but one Zarathustra and many
that there
guruastars or spiritual teachers, and that one such o'?/r«, or rather huru-
aster, as he is called in the old manuscripts, was the instructor of Pythag-
oras. To philology and our readers we leave the explanation for what it
is worth. Personally we believe in it, as we credit on this subject kab-
alistic tradition far more than the explanation of scientists, no two of
whom have been able to agree up to the present year.
Aristotle states that Zoroaster lived 6,000 years before ChristHer- ;

mippus of Alexandria, who is said to have read the genuine books of the
Zoroastrians, although Alexander the Great is accused of having destroyed

* Max Miiller has sufficiently proved the case in his lecture on the " Zend-Avesta."
He Gushtasp "the mythical pupil of Zoroaster." Mythical, perhaps, only be-
calls
cause the period in which he lived and learned with Zoroaster is too remote to allow
our modern science to speculate upon it with any certainty.
 —
142 ISIS UNVEILED.

them, shows Zoroaster as the pupil of Azonak (Azon-ach, or the Azon-

God) and as having lived 5,000 years before the fall of Troy. Er or Eros,
whose vision is related by Plato in the Republic, is declared by Clement
to have been Zordusth. While the Magus who dethroned Cambyses
was a Mede, and Darius proclaims that he put down the Magian rites to
establish those of Ormazd, Xanthus of Lydia declares Zoroaster to have
been the chief of the Magi !

Wliich of them is wrong ? all right, and only the modern

or are they
interpreters fail between the Reformer and his
to explain the difference
apostles and followers ? This blundering of our commentators reminds us
of that of Suetonius, who mistook the Christians for one Christo.s, or
Crestos, as he spells it, and assured his readers that Claudius banished
him for the disturbance he made among the Jews.
Finally, and to return again to the nazars, Zaratus is mentioned by
Pliny in the following words " He was Zoroaster and Nazaret."
: As
Zoroaster is called princeps of the Magi, and nazar signifies separated or
consecrated, is it not a Hebrew rendering of mag ? Volney believes so.
The Persian word Na-zaruan means millions of years, and refers to the
Chaldean "Ancient of Days." Hence the name of the Nazars or Naza-
renes, who were consecrated to the service of the Supreme one God, the
kabalistic En-Soph, or the Ancient of Days, the "Aged of the aged."
But the word nazar may also be found in India. In Hindustani
nazar is sight, internal or supernatural vision ; nazar band-i means fas-
cination, a mesmeric or magical spell and nazaran is the word for sight-
;

seeing or vision.
Professor Wilder thinks that as the word Zeruana is nowhere to be
found in the Avesta, but only in the later Parsi books, it came from the
Magians, who composed the Persian sacred caste in the Sassan period,
but were originally Assyrians. " Turan, of the poets," he says, " I con-
sider to be Aturia, or Assyria ; and that Zohak (Az-dahaka, Dei-okes, or
Astyages), the Serpent-king, was Assyrian, Median, and Babylonian
when those countries were united."
This opinion does not, however, in the least implicate our statement
that the secret doctrines of the Magi, of the pre-Vedic Buddhists, of the
hierophants of the EgyjHian Thoth or Hermes, and of the adepts of what-
ever age and nationality, including the Chaldean kabahsts and the Jewish
nazars, were identical from the beginning. When we use the term Bud-
dhists, we do not mean by it either the exoteric Buddhism insti-
to imply
tuted by the followers of Gautama-Buddha, nor the modern Buddhistic
religion, but the secret philosophy of Sakyamuni, which in its essence is
certainly identical with the ancient wisdom-religion of the sanctuary, the
pre Vedic Brahmanism. The "schism" of Zoroaster, as it is called, is a
 ZARATHUSTRA AND THE ZOROASTRIANS. I43

direct proof of it. For it was no schism, strictl)' speaking, but merely a
partially-public exposition of strictly monotheistic religious truths, hitherto
taught only in the sanctuaries, and that he had learned from the Brah-
mans. Zoroaster, the primeval institutor of sun-worship, cannot be called
the founder of the dualistic system neither was he the first to teach the
;

unity of God, for he taught but what he had learned himself with the
Brahmans. And that Zarathustra and his followers, the Zoroastrians,
" had been settled in India before they immigrated into Persia," is also

proved by Max Miiller. " That the Zoroastrians and their ancestors
started from India," he says, " during the Vaidik period, can be proved
as distinctly as that the inhabitants of Massilia started from Greece.
. . . Many
of the gods of the Zoroastrians come out ... as mere reflec-
tions and deflections of the primitive and authentic gods of the Veda." *
If, now, we can prove —
and we can do so on the evidence of the
Kabala and the oldest traditions of the wisdom-religion, the philosophy
of the -old sanctuaries —
that all these gods, whether of the Zoroastrians
or of the Veda, are but so many personated occult powers of nature, the
faithful servants of the adepts of secret wisdom — Magic — we are on
secure ground.
Thus, whether we say that Kabalisra and Gnosticism proceeded from
Masdeanism or Zoroastrianism, it is all the same, unless we meant the
exoteric worship —
which we do not. Likewise, and in this sense, we may
echo King, the author of the Gnostics, and several other archceologists,
and maintain that both the former proceeded from Buddhism, at once
the simplest and most satisfying of philosophies, and which resulted
in one of the purest religions of the world. It is only a matter of chron-
ology to decide which of these religions, differing but in external form,
is the oldest, therefore the least adulterated. But even this bears but very
indirectly, if at all, on the subject we Already some time before
treat of.
our era, the adepts, except in India, had ceased to congregate in large
communities ; but whether among the Essenes, or the Neo-platonists, or,
again, among the innumerable struggling sects born but to die, the same
doctrines, identical in substance and spirit, if not always in form, are
encountered. By Buddhism, therefore, we mean that religion signifying
literally and which by many ages antedates the
the doctrine of wisdom,
metaphysical philosophy of Siddhirtha Sakyamuni.
After nineteen centuries of enforced eliiuinations from the canonical
books of every sentence which might put the investigator on the true path,
it has become very difficult to show, to the satisfaction of exact science,

that the " Pagan " worshippers of Adonis, their neighbors, the Naza-

Max Miiller : " Zend Avesta," 83.

144 ISIS UNVEILED.

renes, and the Pythagorean Essenes, the healing Therapeutes,* the Ebio-
nites, and other sects, were all, with very slight differences, followers of
the ancient theurgic Mysteries. And yet by analogy and a close study
of the hidden sense of their rites and customs, we can trace their kin-
ship.
It was given to a contemporary of Jesus to become the means of
pointing out to posterity, by his interpretation of the oldest literature of
Israel, how deeply the kabalistic philosophy agreed in its esoterism with
that of the profoundest thinkers. This contemporary, an ardent
Greek
disciple of Plato was Philo Judsus. While explaining the
and Aristotle,
Mosaic books according to a purely kabalistic method, he is the famous
Hebrew writer whom Kingsley calls the Father of New Platonism.
It is evident that Philo's Therapeutes are a branch of the Essenes.
—
Their name indicates it 'Etrcraroi, Asaya, physician. Hence, the con-
tradictions, and other desperate expedients to reconcile the
forgeries,
prophecies of the Jewish canon with the Galilean nativity and god-
ship.
Luke, wlio was a physician, is designated in the Syriac texts as
Asaia, the Essaian or Essene. Josephus and Philo Judaeus have suf-
ficiently described this sect to leave no doubt in our mind that the Naza-
rene Reformer, after having received his education in their dwellings in
the desert, and been duly initiated in the Mysteries, preferred the free
and independent life of a wandering Nazaria, and so separated or ina-
zarenized himself from them, thus becoming a travelling Therapeute, a
Nazaria, a healer. Every Therapeute, before quitting his community,
had to do the same. Both Jesus and St. John the Baptist preached the
end of the Age f which proves their knowledge of the secret computa-
;

tion of the priests and kabalists, who with the chiefs of the Essene com-
munities alone had the secret of the duration of the cycles. The latter
were kabalists and theurgists " they had their mystic books, and pre-
;

dicted future events," says Munk. J

Diinlap, whose personal researches seem to have been quite success-
ful in that direction, traces the Essenes, Nazarenes, Dositheans, and some
other sects as having all existed before Christ :
" They rejected pleas-
ures, despised riches, loved one another, and more than other sects, neg-

* Philo : " De Vita. Contemp."

\ Tlie real meaning of the division into ages and Buddhistic. So httle
is esoteric
did the uninitiated Christians understand it words of Jesus liter-
that they accepted the
ally and firmly l^elieved that he meant the end of the world. There had been many
prophecies about the forthcoming age. Virgil, in the fourth Eclogue, mentions the
—
Metatron a new offspring, with whom the iron age shall end and s. golden one arise.
X
" Palestine," p. 525, et seq.
 THE PYTHAGOREAN UTTERANCES OF JESUS. 145

lected wedlock, deeming the conquest of the passions to be virtuous," *

he says.
These are all virtues preached by Jesus ; and if we are to take the
gospels as a standard of truth, Christ was a metempsychosist " or i-e-in-
carnationist —again same Essenes, whom we see were Pythag-
like these
oreans in all and habits. lamblichus asserts that the
their doctrines
Samian philosopher spent a certain time at Carmel with them, f In his
discourses and sermons, Jesus always spoke in parables and used meta-
phors with his audience. This habit was again that of the Essenians
and the Nazarene^ the Galileans who dwelt in cities and villages were
;

never known to use such allegorical language. Indeed, some of his

disciples being Galileans as well as himself, felt even surprised to find
him using with the people such a form of expression. " Why speakest
thou unto them in parables ? " J they often inquired. " Because, it is
given unto you to know the j\[ysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to
them it is not given," was the reply, which was that of an initiate.
" Therefore, I speak unto them in parables ; because, they seeing, see
not,and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand." Moreover,
we find Jesus expressing his thoughts still clearer and in sentences —
which are purely Pythagorean —
when, during the Sermon on the Mount,
he says :

" Give ye not that which is sacred to the dogs,

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine ;

Eor the swine will tread them under their feet

And the dogs will turn and rend you."

Professor A. Wilder, the editor of Taylor's Eleusinian Mysteries,

observes " a like disposition on the part of Jesus and Paul to classify
their doctrines as esoteric and exoteric, the Mysteries of the Kingdom of
God '
for the apostles,' and '
parables ' for the multitude. '
AVe speak
wisdom,' says Paul, 'among them that are perfect' (or initiated)." §
In the Eleusinian and other Mysteries the participants were always
divided into two classes, the neophytes and the perfect. The former
were sometimes admitted to the preliminary initiation : the dramatic
performance of Ceres, or the soul, descending to Hades. | But it was

* "Sod," vol. ii.. Preface, p. xi.

\ " Vit. Pythag." Munk derives the name of the lessaiis or Essenes from the Syriac
Asaya — the healers, or physicians, thus showing their identity with the Egyptian Thera-
peutae. " Palestine," p. 515.

X Matthew xiii. 10.

§ " Eleusinian Mysteries," p. 15.

1 This descent to Hades signified
the inevitable fate of each soul to be united for a
time with a terrestrial body. This union, or dark prospect for the soul to find itself
 —
146 ISIS UNVEILED.

given only to the "perfect" to enjoy and learn the Mysteries of the
divine Elysium, the celestial abode of the blessed ; this Elysium being
unquestionably the same as the "Kingdom of Heaven." To contradict
or reject the above, would be merely to shut one's eyes to the truth.
The narrative of the Apostle Paul, his second Epistle to the Cor- m
inthians (xii. 3, 4), has struck several scholars, well versed in the
descriptions of the mystical rites of tlie initiation given by some
classics, as alluding most undoubtedly to the final Epopteia* " I knew
a certain man whether in body or outside of body, I know not : God
—
knoweth who was rapt into Paradise, and heard things ineffable appijra
pr^/xara, which it is not lawful for a man to repeat." These words have
rarely, so far as we know, been regarded by commentators as an
allusion to the beatific visions of a^n " initiated" seer. But the phrase-
ology is These things " which it is not lawful to repeat"
unequivocal.
are hinted at in the same words, and the reason for it assigned, is the
same as that which we find repeatedly expressed by Plato, Proclus,
lanibHchus, Herodotus, and other classics. "We speak wisdom only
among them who are perfect," says Paul the plain and undeniable ;

translation of the sentence being speak of the profounder (or

:
" We
final) esoteric doctrines of the Mysteries (which were denominated wis-

dom) only among them who are initiated." f So in relation to the "man
—
who was rapt into Paradise " and who was evidently Paul himself J—
the word Paradise having replaced that of Elysium. To
Christian
complete the proof, we might recall the words of Plato, given else-
where, which show that before an initiate could see the gods in their
purest light, he had to become liberated horn his body i.e., to separate ;

his astral soul fromApuleius also describes his initiation into the
it. §
Mysteries in the same way " I approached the confines of death
: and, ;

having trodden on the threshold of Proserpina, returned, having been

carried through all the elements. In the depths of midnight I saw the
sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the infernal and super-
nal gods, and to these divinities approaching, I paid the tribute of de-
vout adoration." ||

imprisoned within the dark tenement of a body, was considered by all the ancient
philosophers and is even by the modern Buddhists, as a punishment.
" Eleusinian Mysteries," p. 49, foot-note.
*
" The profound or esoteric doctrines of the ancients were denominated wisdom,
f
and afterward philosophy, and also the gnosis^or knowledge. They related to the human
soul, its divine parentage, its supposed degradation from its high estate by becoming

connected with "generation" or the physical world, its onward progress and restora-
tion to God by regenerations or . . . transmigrations." Ibid, p. 2, foot-note.

X Cyril of Jerusalem asserts it. See vi. 10.

§ " Pha;drus," 64. 1

" The Golden Ass," xL
 THE KABALISM OF THE APOCALYPSE. 147

Thus, in common with Pythagoras and other hierophant reformers,

Jesus divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric. Following
faithfully the Pythagoreo-Essenean ways, he never sat at a meal without
saying "grace." "The priest prays before his meal," says Josephus,
describing the Essenes. Jesus also divided his followers into " neo-
jihytes," "brethren," and the "perfect," if we may judge by the differ-
ence he made between them. But his career at least as a public Rabbi,
was of a too short duration to allow him to estabUsh a regular school of
hisown and with the exception, perhaps, of John, it does not seem that
;

he had initiated any other apostle. The Gnostic amulets and tahsmans are
mostly the emblems of
the apocalyptic allegories. The " seven vowels"
are closely related to the " seven seals " and the mystic title Abraxas,
;

partakes as much Shem Hamphirosh, " the holy

of the compositian of
word" or name, as the name called The word of God, that
ineffable :

" no man kne"v but he himself^' * as John expresses it.

It would be difficult to escape from the well-adduced proofs that the

Apocalypse is the production of an initiated kabalist, when this Revelation

presents whole* passages taken from the Books of Enoch and Daniel,
which latter is in itself an abridged imitation of the former and when, ;

furthermore, we
ascertain that the Ophite Gnostics who rejected the Old-
Testament entirely, as " emanating from an inferior being (Jehovah),"
accepted the most ancient prophets, such as Enoch, and deduced the
strongest support from this book for their religious tenets, the demonstra-
tion becomes evident. We will show further how closely related are all

these doctrines. Besides, there is the history of Domitian's persecutions

of magicians and philosophers, which affords as good a proof as any that
John was generally considered a kabalist. As the apostle was included
among the number, and, moreover, conspicuous, the imperial edict ban-
ished him not only from Rome, but even from the continent. It was
not the Christians whom —
confounding them with the Jews, as some his-
torians will have it —
the emperor persecuted, but the astrologers and kab-
alists.
f
The accusations against Jesus of practicing the magic of Egypt were
numerous, and at one time universal, in the towns where he was known.
The Pharisees, as claimed in the Bible, had been the first to flinsf it in his

* "Apocalypse," xix. 12.

"Vita. Eutrop.," 7. It is neither cruelty, nor an insane indulgence
f See Suet, in
in it, which shows this emperor in history as passing his time in catching flies and trans-
piercing them with a golden bodkin, but religious superstition. The Jewish astrolo-
gers had predicted to him that he had provoked the wrath of Beelzebub, the " Lord
of the fiies," and would perish miserably through the revenge of the dark god of
Ekron, and die like King Ahaziali, because he persecuted the Jews.
148 ISIS UNVEILED.

face, although Rabbi Wise considers Jesns himself a Pharisee. The Tal-
mud certainly points to one of that sect. * But these
James the Just as
partisans are known to have always stoned every prophet who denounced
their evil ways, and it is not on this fact that vi'e base our assertion.
These accused him of sorcery, and of driving out devils by Beelzebub,
their prince, with as much justice as later the Catholic clergy had to
accuse of the same more than one innocent martyr. But Justin Martyr
states on better authority that the men of his time who were ?iot Jews
asserted that the miracles of Jesus were performed by magical art
/j-ayiKij (j>avTa(Tia —
the very expression used by the skeptics of those
days to designate the feats of thaumaturgy accomplished in the Pagan
temples. " They even ventured to call him a magician and a deceiver of
the people," complains the martyr, f In the Gospel of Nicodemus (the
Acta Pilate), the Jews bring the same accusation before Pilate. " Did
we not tell thee he was a magician ? " | Celsus speaks of the same charge,
and as a Neo-platonist believes in it. § The Talmudic literature is full
of the most minute particulars, and their greatest accusation is that "Jesus
could fly as easily in the air as others could walk." ||
St. 'Austin asserted
that was generally believed that he had been initiated in Egypt, and
it

that he wrote books concerning magic, which he delivered to John. ^

There was a work called Magia Jesu Chrisfi, which was attributed to
Jesus ** himself. In the Clementine Recognitions the charge is brought
against Jesus that he did not perform his miracles as a Jewish prophet,
but as a magician, i.e., an initiate of the " heathen " temples. \\
It was usual then, as it is now, among the intolerant clergy of
opposing religions, as well as among the lower classes of society, and
even among those patricians who, for various reasons had been excluded
from any participation of the Mysteries, to accuse, sometimes, the highest
hierophants and adepts of sorcery and black magic. So Apuleius, who

* We believe that it was the Sadducees and not the Pharisees who crucified Jesus.

—
They were Zadokites partisans of the house of Zadok, or the sacerdotal family. In
the " Acts" the apostles were said to be persecuted by the Sadducees, but never by the
Pharisees. In fact, the latternever persecuted any one. They had the scribes, rabbis,
and learned men in their numbers, and were not, like the Sadducees, jealous of their
order.
j-
' Dial.," p. 69.
IFabricius: "Cod. Apoc, N. T.," i., 243; Tischendorf: " Evang. Ap.," p.

214.
g Origen " Cont. Cels.," 11.
:

II
Rabbi lochan "Mag.," 51. :
f "Origen," 11.
** Cf. "August de Consans. Evang.," i., Fabric. "Cod. Ap. N. T.,"
9; : i.,

p. 305, ff.

\\ " Recog.," i. 58; cf., p. 40.

 JESUS IN THE GARB OF A MAGICIAN. 149

had been initiated, was likewise accused of witchcraft, and of carrying

—
about him the figure of a skeleton a potent agent, as it is asserted, in
the operations of the black art. But one of the best and most unques-
tionable proofs of our assertion may be found in the so-called Museo
Gregoriano. On the sarcophagus, which is panelled with bas-reliefs
representing the miracles of Christ, * may be seen the full figure
of Jesus, who, in the resurrection of Lazarus, appears beardless " and
equipped with a wand in the received guise ofa necromancer ( ) whilst .?

the corpse of Lazarus is swathed in bandages exactly as an Egyptian

mummy."
Had posterity been enabled have several such representations
to
executed during the first century when
the figure, dress, and every-day
habits of the Reformer were still fresh in the memory of his contempora-
ries, perhaps the Christian world would be more Christ-like ; the dozens

of contradictory, groundless, and utterly meaningless speculations about

the "Son of Man " would have been impossible and humanity would now
;

have but one religion and one God. It is this absence of all proof, the

lack of the least positive clew about him whom Christianity has dei-
fied, that has caused the present state of perplexity. No pictures of
Christ were possible until after the days of Constantine, when the Jewish
element was nearly eliminated among the followers of the new religion.
The Jews, apostles, and disciples, whom the Zoroastrians and the Parsees
had inoculated with a holy horror of any form of images, would have
considered it a sacrilegious blasphemy to represent in any way or shape
their master. The only authorized image of Jesus, even in the days of
TertuUian, was an allegorical representation of the " Good Shepherd," f
which was no portrait, but the figure of a man with a jackal-head, Hke
Anubis. \ On this gem, as seen in the collection of Gnostic amulets, the
Good Shepherd bears upon his shoulders the lost lamb. He seems to
have a human head upon his neck; but, as King correctly observes, " it
only seems so to the uninitiated eye." On closer inspection, he becomes
the double-headed Anubis, having one head human, the other a jackal's,
whilst his girdle assumes the form of a serpent rearing aloft its crested
head. " This figure," adds the author of the Gnostics, etc., "had two
—
meanings one obvious for the vulgar the other mystical, and recogniz-
;

able by the initiated alone. It was perhaps the signet of some chief

* King's "Gnostics," p. 145; the author places this sarcophagus among the
earliestproductions of that art which inundated later tlie world with mosaics and en-
gravings, representing the events and personages of the " New Testament."
" De Pudicitia." See " The Gnostics and their Rem.-iins," p. 144.
f
X Ibid., plate i., p. 200.
ISO ISIS UNVETLED.

teacher or apostle." * This affords a fresh proof that the Gnostics and
early orthodox Christians were not so wide apart in their secret doc-
( ? )

trine. King deduces from a quotation from Epiphanius, that even as

late as 400 a.d. it was considered an atrocious sin to attempt to repre-
sent the bodily appearance of Christ. Epiphanius f brings it as an idola-
trous charge against the Carpocratians that " they kept painted portraits,
and even gold and silver images, and in other materials, which they
pretended to be portraits of Jesus, and made by Pilate after the likeness
of Christ. These they keep in secret, along with Pythagoras, Plato,
. . .

and Aristotle, and setting them all up together, they worship and offer
sacrifices unto them after the Gentiles' fashion."
What would the pious Epiphanius say were he to resuscitate and
step into St. Peter's Cathedral at Rome Ambrosius seems also very
!

desperate at the idea — that some persons fully credited the statement
of Lampridius that Alexander Severus had in his private chapel an
image of Christ among other great philosophers. "That the Pagans
should have preserved the likeness of Christ," he exclaims, " but the
disciples have neglected to do so, is a notion the mind shudders to
entertain, much less to believe."
All this points undeniably to the fact, that except a handful of self-

styled Christians who subsequently won the day, all the civilized portion
of the Pagans who knew of Jesus honored him as a philosopher, an adept
whom they placed on the same level with Pythagoras and Apollonius.
Whence such a veneration on their part for a man, were he simply, as
represented by the Synoptics, a poor, unknown Jewish carpenter from
Nazareth ? As an incarnated God there is no single record of him on
this earth capable of withstanding the critical e.vamination of science ; as
one of the greatest reformers, an inveterate enemy of every theological
dogmatism, a persecutor of bigotry, a teacher of one of the most sublime
codes of ethics, Jesus is one of the grandest and most clearly-defined
figures on the panorama of human history. His age may, with every day,
be receding farther and farther back into the gloomy and hazy mists of
the past ; —
and his theology based on human fancy and supported by
untenable dogmas may, nay, must with every day lose more of its un-
merited prestige ; alone the grand figure of the philosopher and moral
reformer instead of growing paler will become with every century more
pronounced and more clearly defined. It will reign supreme and uni-
versal only on that day when the whole of humanity recognizes but one

* This gem is in the collection of the author of " The Gnostics and their Remains."
See p. 201.
" Hoeresies," xxvii.
f
 ;

THE LONG-HAIRED NAZARENES. ISI

father — the unknown one above —and one brother — the whole of man-
kind below.
In a pretended letter of Lentulus, a senator and a distingdished his-
torian, to the Roman senate, there is a description of the personal ap-
pearance of Jesus. The letter itself, written in horrid Latin, is pro-
nounced a bare-faced forgery but we find therein an expression which
;

suggests many thoughts. Albeit a forgery it is evident that whosoever

invented it has nevertheless tried to follow tradition as closely as possi-
ble. The hair of Jesus is represented in it as "wavy and curling . . .

flowing down upon and as "having a parting in the mid-

his shoulders,"
dle of the head after the fashion of the Nazarenes." This last sentence
shows I. That there was such a tradition, based on the biblical de-
:

scription of John the Baptist, the Nazaria, and the custom of this sect.
2. Had Lentulus been the author of this letter, it is difficult to believe

that Paul should never have heard of it and had he known its contents, ;

he would never have pronounced it a shame for men to wear their hair
long,* thus shaming his Lord and Christ-God. 3. If Jesus did wear his
hair long and " parted in the middle of the forehead, after the fashion of
the Nazarenes (as well as John, the only one of his apostles who fol-
lowed it), then we have one good reason more to say that Jesus must

have belonged to the sect of the Nazarenes, and been called Nasaria
for this reason and not because he was an inhabitant of Nazareth ; for
they never wore their hair long. The Nazarite, who separated himself
unto the Lord, allowed " no razor to come upon his head." " He shall
be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow," says Num-
bers (vi. s)- Samson was a Nazarite, i.e., vowed to the service of God,
and in his hair was his strength. " No razor shall come upon his head
the child shall be a Nazarite nnto God from the womb" {Judges xiii. 5).

But the and most reasonable conclusion to be inferred from this is

final
that Jesus, who was so opposed to all the orthodox Jewish practices, would
not have allowed his hair to grow had he not belonged to this sect, which
in the days of John the Baptist had already become a heresy in the eyes

of the Sanhedrim. The Talmud, speaking of the Nazaria, or the Naza-

renes (who had abandoned the world like Hindu yogis or hermits) calls
theur a sect of physicians, of wandering exorcists as also does Jervis. ;

"They went about the country, living on alms and performing cures." f
Epiphanius says that the Nazarenes come next in heresy to the Corin-
thians whether having existed " before them or after them, nevertheless
synchronous," and then adds that "all Christians at that time were
equally called Nazarenes ! " J

* I Cor. xi. 14. -j- See the " Israelite Indeed," vol. ii., p. 238 ;
" Treatise Nazir,"
" Epiph. ed. Petar," vol. i., p 117.
J
 —
152 ISIS UNVEILED.

In the very first remark made by Jesus about John the Baptist, we
find him stating that he is " Elias, which was for to come." This asser-
tion, if it is not a later interpolation for the sake of having a
prophecy ful-
filled, means again that Jesus was a kabalist ; unless indeed we have to

adopt the doctrine of the French spiritists and suspect him of believing
in reincarnation. Except the kabalistic sects of the Essenes, the Nazar-
enes, the disciples of Simeon Ben lochai, and Hillel, neither the ortho-
dox Jews, nor the Galileans, believed or knew anything about the doc-
trine oi permutation. And the Sadducees rejected even that of the res-
urrection.
"But the author of this restitutionis was Mosah, our master, upon
whom be peace Who was the revolutio (transmigration) of Seth and
!

Hebel, that he might cover the nudity of his Father Adam Primus" says
the Kabala* Thus, Jesus hinting that John was the revolutio, or trans-
migration of Elias, seems to prove beyond any doubt the school to
which he belonged.
Until the present day uninitiated Kabalists and Masons believe per-
mutation to be synonymous with transmigration and metempsychosis.
But they are as much mistaken in regard to the doctrine of the true
Kabalists as to that of the Buddhists. True, the Sohar says in one
place, "All souls are subject to transmigration men do not know the . . .

ways of the Holy One, blessed be He they do not know that they are
;

brought before the tribunal, both before they enter this world and after
they quit it," and the Pharisees also held this doctrine, as Josephus
shows (Ajitiguities, xviii. 13). Also the doctrine of Gilgul, held to the
strange theory of the " Whirling of the Soul," which taught that the
bodies of Jews buried far away from the Holy Land, still preserve a par-
ticle of soul which can neither rest nor quit them, until it reaches the

soil of the "Promised Land." And this "whirling" process was

thought to be accomplished by the soul being conveyed back through an
actual evolution of species ; transmigrating from the minutest insect up
to the largest animal. But this was an exoteric doctrine. We refer the
reader to the Kahbala Denudata of Henry Khunrath his language, how- ;

ever obscure, may yet throw some light upon the subject.
But this doctrine of permutation, or revolutio, must not be understood
as a belief in reincarnation. That Moses was considered the transmigra-
tion of Ab