A Message from Luxor
The readers of the Scientist will be no more surprised to read the circular which appears on our first page than we were to receive the same by post, since the appearance of our last number. Who may be our unknown friends of the “Committee of Seven,” we do not know, nor who the "Brotherhood of Luxor,” but we do know that we are most thankful for this proof of their interest and shall try to deserve its continuance.
Can anyone tell us anything of such a fraternity as the above ? And what Luxor is meant ? Is it the ancient city of that name, whose majestic ruins, afford but a faint idea of the splendor of its prime ? Once a metropolis whose smallest public building must have eclipsed in size any of modern times, it is now a desolate waste, guarded only by a handful of Arabs, whose flocks graze the avenues that in past ages glittered with wealth, and who dare not enter it by night for fear of the Afrites or unprogressed spirits; who flit with noiseless footsteps through the deserted passages and chambers, underground. Travellers tell us of grand rooms in the temples the walls of which are ablaze with frescoes of quaint device which looks as fresh as if the paint were laid on but yesterday. Can it be that the shades of the departed Magi, banded together into a Council, meet there to rule the spiritual destinies of mankind ?
It is time that some Power, terrestrial or supernal, came to our aid, for, after twenty-seven years of spiritual manifestations, we know next to nothing about the laws of their occurrence. Have we learnt aught concerning mediumship, its cause, its perils, its possibilities, its advantages? Have we examples of the co-operation of spirits with mortals upon equal terms, or the subserviency of the latter to the former, as in some cases is meet and proper ? Mediumship in our day seems to be synonymous with Slavery, and it really appears as if the medium class had no rights that their invisible masters were bound to respect.
We cannot help regarding this as an evil of magnitude, and if we could only be satisfied that the appearance of this mysterious circular is an indication that the Eastern spiritualistic fraternity is about to lift the veil that has so long hid the Temple from our view, we, in common with all other friends of the cause, would hail the event with joy. It will be a blessed day for us when the order shall be, Sit Lux.
A Remarkable Picture
To the Editor of The Spiritual Scientist :
Our friends in the other world seem to be using every method they can devise to demonstrate to us the scriptural truth that besides the natural body “there is a spiritual body." The manifestations are thus daily taking on new phases. One of the newest is the painting of pictures directly by disembodied spirits. A most beautiful one has just been painted expressly for me by the spirit known as “John King,” and which has been forwarded to me from Philadelphia.
I will briefly state the evidence that has satisfied me that
was a disembodied spirit.
I. The positive testimony of Madame Helen P. Blavatsky, by whom the picture was sent to me, a Russian lady of rank and of high intelligence, now residing in Philadelphia; who, not only has no conceivable motive for deception in the matter, but is known by her friends to be the very soul of sincerity and honor. I know from her own lips that the spirit calling himself “John King” has been manifesting his presence to her in a variety of ways for a number of years ; that she has had frequent communications from him, many of them by writings <... continues on page 2-12 >
Editor's notes