The Visions of Mr. Hockley's Sensitives
Mr. F. Hockley, the author of an article which will be found in another part of this number of The Spiritualist, has made occult subjects the study of a lifetime, and he possesses perhaps the most valuable library of books and manuscripts on Magic, to be found in the world. His article upon another page describes some fantastic visions in mirrors of one of his seeresses, and as we have a difficult body of readers to address, consisting partly of persons versed in psychology and its facts, and partly of new inquirers altogether uninformed about both, it may be explained for the benefit of the latter that the publication of Emma’s visions does not necessarily imply that any Spiritualist believes either in the existence of spirits like enlarged black beetles who exhibit human intellect, or in spirits with long and shiny tails, however graceful and attractive those appendages may be. The details are given as actual psychological experiences recorded in good faith, without any expression of opinion on our part as to whether the visions were purely subjective, or whether they where impressed on the consciousness of the medium by the thoughts and will-power of a vividly imaginative spirit, or whether they were symbolical dreams, or what their nature may have been. The true philosophy of such phenomena will no doubt be discovered in the future. The visions of Mr. Hockley’s sensitive with a mirror, strongly resemble those without a mirror which were seen by a young member of the Fairfax family in the old witchcraft days, as set forth in a narrative drawn up by Lord Houghton from family records, and printed for private circulation.
<Untitled> (Mrs. Tappan-Richmond...)
Mrs. Tappan-Richmond, the American trance medium, is in London, and a reception was given to her by her friends last night
Mr. Ernest Wilding has written a song entitled “Love and Life,” which has been set to music by Mr. J. F. Molloy, and published by Messrs. Chappell & Co.
The Home Secretary in reply to a petition for the release of Mr. F. O. Matthews, forwarded from Newcastle, does not consider that there is sufficient ground to justify him in advising Her Majesty to comply with the prayer of the petition.
Evening With the in-Dwellers of the is Word of Spirits
David Paulus ab Indagine, a learned Hollander, personally acquainted with Swedenborg, says in a letter (March 5th, 1771), “Last Thursday I paid him a visit, and found him, as usual, writing. He told me ‘that he had been in conversation that same morning, for three hours, with the deceased King of Sweden. He had seen him already on the Wednesday; but, as he observed he was deeply engaged in conversation with the Queen, who is still living, he would not disturb him.’ I allowed him to continue, but at length asked him how it was possible for a person who is still in the land of the living, to be met with in the world of spirits. He replied, ‘that it was not the Queen herself, but her familiar spirit.’ I asked him what that might be, for I had neither heard, nor had I read anything about them. He then informed me, ‘that every man has either his good or bad spirit, who is not constantly with him, but sometimes a little removed from him, and appears in the world of spirits. But of this the man still living knows nothing; the spirit however, knows everything. This familiar spirit has everything in accordance with his companion upon earth: he has in the world of spirits, the same figure, the same countenance, and the same tone of voice, and wears also similar garments; in a word, this familiar spirit of the Queen, says Swedenborg, appeared exactly as he had so often seen the Queen herself at Stockholm, and had heard her speak.’ And he adds, 4 that Doctor Ernesti, of Leipsic, had appeared to him in a similar manner in the world of spirits, and that he had held a long disputation with him. See Wilkinson s Life of Swedenborg, p. 203., and Swedenborg’s Are. Cel. Vol. VIII. Nos. 5848—66, also 5976—83, where the subject is treated at length.”
This spirit was not my good one but my Doppel-ganger. 8th January, 1856. I invoked C. A. the spirit of the mirror.
The C. A. appeared, but indistinctly, the veil appearing thick in front of the mirror, The answers to my questions appeared, and also the book in the C. A.s’ hand, who kindly brought it up close to the front of the mirror; but my seeress could not read any portion, I then mentioned that Emma had first received a great disappointment about a journey she had anticipated, and was also suffering from nervous faceache; I therefore requested the C. A. to defer the vision of the book until the following Tuesday, and requested as usual a spiritual vision which would interest and instruct us. Immediately a response came and at the end of it a representation of my oval mirror. The seeress could not read the response, but upon opening the oval mirror she said, “Here is yourself come in.” I asked:—
Q. Why have you come uncalled? Are you the interesting and instructive vision I requested?
R. I am obliged to take any opportunity of appearing, and come when I can. You never ask me. I cannot appear in the other mirror, but when there is no vision I can tell you or show you where you can see me.
Q. Was it you then, who caused this mirror to appear just now, with some reading we could not make out?
R. I caused it to be done.
Q. Can you tell how it is my seer can now read your answers, and yet could not read in the C. A. mirror?
R. I suppose because I am not so purely spiritual. Ha! Ha!
Q. I have received from my good spirit friend some valuable spiritual information, which I also hope you will study and profit by.
R. You are a prodigy. If you are as fond of telling others what you tell me, and circulate the report of receiving such wonderful information, you are quite entitled to one of those paragraphs in the newspapers, headed, “Wonderful! if true.”
Q. I am going to publish the book this month, and as I hope you will be greatly benefited by its perusal, just hand me over ten pounds towards the expense of printing.
R. I could tell you how to get it, at least a friend of mine could. He can appear in a bottle of water, and leave a diamond at the bottom worth a great deal more than that.
Q. I presume you obtain that from my former discourses relating to Count St. Germain’s obtaining diamonds by the Ob.
R. Well, I can tell you the spirit who can do it, and the formula for making him do so; at least I can cause you to know it. Shall I?
Q. Yes. The seeress then said: He is gone. How he’s come back and says-—
R. I wish you to cover up the other mirror. I did so.
R. You must request the C. A. to keep away now you have covered it up. Whilst he is here, I cannot show you what I intended.
Q. I will not do that. Cannot you appear on Fridays?
R, I could do so if I chose; but I do not, because you put me off to suit the convenience of others who appear. If you liked, you might ask the C. A. to let me appear in that one. I don’t like coming in the smallest, I have something in my pocket, which Orion gave me to show you, but I cannot do so unless I appear in the C. A. mirror, with the C. A. absent; it is something very interesting.
Q. You are aware the C. A. mirror is consecrated to him, and entirely under his protecting charge, therefore I cannot allow it.
R. Well then, if you will remove this mirror from the wall, and the other mirror, I will show you what I have in my pocket.
Emma then turned round and placed the Oval Mirror on the table, he continuing in the mirror with his hand in his pocket. She remarked: He is looking round so carefully; he has taken out a silk pocket handkerchief rolled up; he is undoing it; something looking like a great black beetle is in it; it is such a horrid black thing, and so dreadfully ugly; he does not touch it with his fingers; it is all over hair. It has come away from the hand kerchief, and is standing upright upon two legs, and has four others; its head is like a bat with two horns. How you have gone further away from it. I wonder if this is what he calls “very interesting.”
Q. Is that your interesting black diamond you have there?
R. No, but I will leave him here, and from him you can ascertain how to get the real ones. Is
Q. But what, may I ask, is the name of the gentleman your are leaving?
R. He will himself have the pleasure of in forming you. Emma said: Now you are gone.
Q. Will you let me know by what name I am to address you?
R. * * * * * *
The seer remarked: He is getting so large; he is nearly as big as the mirror.
I asked: Can you tell me the formula for obtaining diamonds in the Ob?
R. I can bring them into a vessel of water, if you will send other spirits away who are around.
Q. I cannot do that this evening, but if you will appear on another evening it can be done; besides I have not my Ob ready now.
R. There is no time like the present.
Q. If you have the power you describe, it seems strange such simple things should restrain you.
R. What are simple things? I can only deposit a diamond in water because I belong to water; but I cannot even do that unless you dispel the influence which now I feel very strong.
Q. I will not dispel my own Guardian Spirit.
R. Would you dispel him on another evening, and willingly?
Q. No, but on another evening you could appear without my having called him.
R. That is not what I ask; called or not, his influence is the same, and when I am with you that influence is opposed to me.
Q. Then I must go without the diamonds, as I would not willingly displace myself from his care and guidance.
R. Would you, if I could point out to you one more powerful and as faithful?
Q. I could not obtain a more faithful Guardian Spirit, and above all he gives me that knowledge which I covet more than all the diamonds of the deep.
R. Will you let me appear without exorcism then?
Q. Only when I invoke you—What shall be the formula used when I call you?
R. My name alone will bring me. My seer said: He is gone. Now you are come back.
Q. Well, you seem to have a disreputable lot of acquaintances, where did you get this one?
R. He is my pocket companion and guide for 1856.
Emma: Now he has turned round and walked off. (9.15 p m.)
On the following Tuesday I explained at length to the C. A. our last action, and expressed much regret that my atmospheric “double” should be apparently so much under the influence of an evil spirit.
The C. A. replied: The same spirit procured the diamonds for Count St. Germain, and Joseph Balsamo, and as you had for so many years taken such intense interest in their lives and actions it clung to the remembrance. As for your atmospheric spirit, he is now, as you were once, desirous of obtaining magical knowledge and power unmindful perhaps of spiritual good; but that does not make any difference to you. His actions do no harm to anyone, for his spiritual life will end without any judgment hereafter.
In April, 1852, the atmospheric spirit of a military officer of rank at Court, a Spaniard and a Roman Catholic (who afterwards served in the Crimea) appeared for the first time in my H. Crystal. I never knew him in the world, but we formed a mutual attachment, assisting each other in our occult studies, and communicating our experiences. He possessed the faculty of seeing spirits, and was a constant visitor in my mirrors and crystals for eight years. He would never tell us his name, and we dubbed him Captain Anderson.
On the 6th February, 1856, he was relating to me the difficulties he was in with a spirit he had invoked, and I said: I hope you did not use a vessel of water. He replied: No, I did not, and never intend to do so again. Did I ever tell you how a spirit escaped from a bottle of water I was once using? I replied: No, do tell us that.
I had been looking in the crystal one evening for a long time without having a vision. Before I left off, I asked the spirit of the crystal, very earnestly, when I could have a vision, for it was so very wearisome to look and to anticipate, and then be disappointed. This message immediately came:—
Procure a glass vessel a foot deep, flat inside, and six inches square; fill it with water from a fish-pond; let the neck of the vessel be sufficiently large to admit your three fingers. Cut the middle finger of your left hand, and having put a strip of paper round the outside of the middle of the bottle, write with the blood of the finger you have cut, this one name * * * * Paste this strip of paper round the bottle, and then insert the finger you have cut and two other fingers into the neck, and from it into the water let a drop of blood flow. If you do this you will see and hear of that which will instruct you in spiritual knowledge, and aid you in all that you desire appertaining to the world.
Although I thought it could not be good, I did not desire anything evil, and I thought, foolishly, that I could hear, and see, and know what they said, without allowing them to influence me, or without for one moment surrendering myself to their possession. I would not do it again. It was not the power but the knowledge that I sought. I was at the time in a house with a good many people in it, and fearing that someone might interrupt me I locked the door. Before I began I had been obliged to have the glass bottle made to the exact size, and I wrote the name on a Vellum band and sealed it on. This I placed on the table, and very soon without any call—I used nothing more than the name on the bottle— the water began to change to a thick dirty red liquid, and from this there formed, as the water again became clearer, a spirit more like an animal than even a distorted human figure; it had a tail as long in proportion to its size as is the tail of a mouse to the rest of the animal, and it had peculiarly shaped horns. It increased in size so as to fill the entire bottle, the tips of the horns rising above the water in the neck of the bottle. When I saw its head coming above the water, I thought I should be able to prevent its getting any larger by putting a stopper on the top. I could not find anything to place over it at the moment, but a book from the mantlepiece. The instant that I stepped across for the book, the horns of the spirit were visible to me above the bottle. Very quickly you may imagine I Was back with the book. I am very strong, as strong, I believe, as most men; I can lift a couple of hundredweight, and now I had occasion to put my strength forth. I tried to press the book on the neck of the bottle with all my might, but I could not move it one inch. My hands and the book in them went up as easily as I could have lifted a baby’s hands. I grew desperate. I tore the band off the bottle; I used exorcism. There was no fire in the room, and no light, or I would have immediately burned the band. I could not tear it, and I had no means of destroying it; the spirit all this time was gradually getting out of the bottle.
I could not think what to do; I took the bottle up, threw it down and broke it; the water of course ran all over the carpet, and I thought for a moment that I had got rid of the spirit, but I was mistaken, for from the water, as it lay on the floor, it rose again much larger than before.
I went to the door, but I was afraid to open it; then in an instant I thought he might be only visible to me and not to others, and that if I were with other people he would disappear from me, and I tried the door, but could not open it. I forgot that I had locked it. Again I used the form of dismissal and exorcism but it was of no use. Having done this, I asked him what he wanted. He asked me to test his power by naming anything I desired, and said that if I found that he gave it me and if I would promise him obedience, he Would do the same in all other things.
I resolutely told him that I would not—that had I known he was evil and could escape from the bottle I would not have called him; still he did not leave, and I then felt the place to be insufferable, so oppressive as to be almost suffocating. My eyes seemed to bum, I was getting giddy, and appeared to see instead of the one figure a thousand of all shapes and sizes. I still remained with my hand on the lock; the room became confused and dark for one instant only, than all was light. The evil spirit was gone, and I noticed that every drop of water was gone from the surface of the carpet, and that on the white ground which surrounded the pattern, Was a single red spot. Although unnerved whilst the spirit was present, I was not the least so the moment it was gone, and on stooping to pick up the small pieces of bottle, I observed round the red spot a circle contaning words. Even then, by an impulse I could not control, I was all on fire to know what those words Were, and down on my knees I deciphered with much difficulty, “* * * * returns blood which is too white for a sacrifice.” The red spot rose above the carpet, the Words disappeared, and there only remained a little piece of cold congealed blood: this I removed. In an adjoining room I burnt the band which had been round the bottle, threw away the pieces of bottle, and determined to be more cautious in future.
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Visions of Mr. Hockley's Sensitives by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 410, July 2, 1880, p. 1
- ↑ Mrs. Tappan-Richmond... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 410, July 2, 1880, p. 1
- ↑ Evening With the in-Dwellers of the is Word of Spirits by Hockley, Frederick, London Spiritualist, No. 410, July 2, 1880, p. 2-5
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 410, July 2, 1880, p. 1
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London Spiritualist, No. 410, July 2, 1880, p. 2-5