Chinese Trance and Clairvoyant Mediums
A Very extraordinary religious sect has (the Celestial Empire says) recently sprung into life at a place called Seaou-shan Hien, in Chekiang. Its head-quarters are at a ruined temple near a small market village, formerly dedicated to a deity called the Wei-to P‘u-sa, in immediate proximity with which are a few houses, thatched with grass, but scrupulously clean, where some of the leaders of the society reside. The movement is said to have had its rise in the ecstasies of a couple of old women, aged respectively upwards of eighty and fifty, who are mother and daughter; these are the high priestesses, or sybils, and at certain times become inspired by a particular P‘u-sa or spirit, with whom they hold frequent intercourse, and whose utterances, through the medium of the women, are regarded as divine oracles. Passing by this neighbourhood during the daytime everything is quiet; there is nothing whatever to attract attention. At night, however, the scene is said to be most remarkable. The place is crowded with people, all come to consult the Pythoness, or to hear what it is all about—people of every description, men and women, rich and poor, bad and good. The interior of the temple is brightly lighted, and there is generally a deal of eating and drinking; for this sect, unlike most of the others, encourages high living, and condemns vegetarianism. Seated upon a high dais are the two old women, with candles burning on either side of them, and the people worship them with incense and joss-sticks, as incarnations of the P‘u-sa. Some of the ecstatics pretend to have visions of this deity, and all the oracles delivered by the priestesses are unswervedly obeyed. One of the peculiar regulations of the sect is the adjuring of all silken clothes; nothing is worn but the simplest cotton. The initiated are firmly believed to be endowed with magical powers, and to be able to drive men mad with incantations and the administration of curious poisons. The number of adherents is rapidly increasing, and though the sect has only been in existence a few weeks, it counts already upwards of seven hundred members.
A Prophecy
Sir,— The East has always had the privilege of impassioning (passioner) souls. It has been the cradle of the human race, and from it all religions have drawn their legends. For a long time past the Oriental question has been hanging over political Europe like a dark cloud; the storm has gathered, the darkness has spread, and it cannot be long before the thunder sounds, for an explosion alone can dissipate the anguish felt by the world.
This state of things induced me on the 23rd of March last to evoke Mahomet. He replied in Arabic (but I begged him to write in French), “All that I have said was right and true; the power is tottering, the Koran remains; Mahomet has spoken, God has willed it—so shall it be.”
These words arrested my attention, “All that I said was right.” This referred, then, to the past.
“Do you know me?”
“Yes; I have already spoken to you.’’
So the above communication, given through the mediumship of Caterina, a mechanical writing medium, had connection with those I had myself received, as an intuitive writing medium, when I was in Mexico in 1859, There was an evident interest in referring to the fact, and what I now transcribe is the communication kept since then. I had asked the question, i What must be augured of Panslavism from a general, political, and Spiritualistic point of view of Europe?” (29th January, 1859.)
A.—Mahomet comes to answer that. The question you ask is one of those in which he is permitted to see the future; it is intimately connected with the conversion of the Turks, and with the power that will he given to Russia in the East. Panslavism is destined to disintegrate Austria, and to reconstitute Poland. Behold, all has disappeared. No more Austria, no more Rome; no more British Empire in the East. Ireland, that victim of so many centuries, has again hoisted the green colours of her standard. Poland lives again, Spiritualistic and proud, under the protection of Alexander and Napoleon IV. Italy sings her deliverance, and is now nothing but a large confederacy. France has recovered her territory in the Alps and the Rhine, and her moral power sways the world. And Russia! her chief pope of the Greek faith has been converted to Spiritualism, and with him all the nations confessing orthodoxy and Panslavism have entered into the movement, and have carried with them all the peoples of Slavonic origin. The Turks, alas! Or rather, glory be to God! have perished by their own disintegration; their empire will have finally disappeared by the time Europe shall be delivered from the horrors of the great war, which will last two years. The day of her regeneration will come, and the apostle of Jesus will convert the followers of the Koran now deprived of their empire. A new monarch will mount the throne of Constantinople, and the Turks in their turn will become disciples of Christianity, and, spreading themselves in the East, will convert the countless populations swarming there. India will no longer belong to the English, whose foreign dominions will be reduced to nothing. India will belong to herself, under the double protection of France and Russia, the two eldest daughters of Spiritualism, to whom will be given an almost unlimited power, in order that the new faith may be developed under the shadow of her prosperity. Rome will be the capital of the new spiritual kingdom.”
On the 12th March, 1859, Mahomet came again and said, “Turkey is still alive. The day has not arrived for God to change her faith. The great revolution must work itself out in Europe, and the new law manifest itself and be implanted before Mohammedanism ceases to exist; besides it is not with Turkey that the regeneration and conversion will commence, for Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt will precede Turkey, which latter will not take a direct part in the great war which is preparing, and which is about to change the face of Europe; but she will be shaken and sorely injured by it, for the Christian populations will arise and consume her by civil war to such an extent that when peace is again established the edifice will crumble to pieces. The Crescent will cease to appear upon her standards, and the mosques will become churches, to be afterwards changed into temples of the new faith. I perceive much bloodshed, for my descendants are brave, and will not yield without resistance. The Cross will have the upper hand, and in twenty years Constantinople, having first become Christian, will embrace the definitive religion of humanity.”
It must be remembered this was dictated seventeen years ago, when Italy was enslaved, and Austria sat enthroned over the Germanic confederation. Papal Rome shone with a splendour uncontested, and there was nothing then that could foreshadow the annihilation of Turkey and the approaching duel between England and Russia. Everything seems to be about to happen according to the prediction, even as to the manner of Turkey’s disintegration.
I cannot, however, too much insist upon the incapacity of the invisibles to determine as to length of time. There may be a possible correlation between the fall of the Ottoman empire and the conversion of Mohammedans, but such is far from being a necessary consequence, for the spirit may easily have mistaken distances, and have presented to us, as realised in a single picture, that which will only be the slow and patient work of time.
Trieste, Austria.
Torres-solanot on Ancient Spiritualism
The important and learned work, the author of which was lately the President of the Spanish Spiritualist Society, deals with many of the highest anthropological and Spiritual subjects. Much of the work is devoted to the correlation of the doctrines of the Brahmans with those of the modern Catholic Church. Thus the Brahmanic legends of Adima and Heva are associated with those of the Mosaic creation; the diluvial legend is found in the Vedas; the stories of Abraham, Moses, and much of the legend of the history of the Jewish temple are found to bear close analogies to the records found in Sanskrit writings. Of course, as Mr. Beal has very well pointed out, the difficulty is to ascertain whether the Jews copied from the Eastern writings, or whether the descendants of Nestorians conveyed to Persia and Thibet somewhat of the traditions of Christianity. The Thibetan sculptures of Buddha (if we may suppose them genuine) which Professor Leitner brought from Thibet, seem to prove the second theory, and we can see little in the assumed analogies between these religions which might not be the result of an imperfect remembrance of Christian writings.
The author’s analysis of various religious systems is singularly exact and precise; and he looks forward to Spiritualism as the means by which, after the decease of Christianity, man may be raised to the level of the intellectual Buddhists and Brahmans. He evidently considers Burnouf to be an authority; but, happily for the sense of his argument, does not quote Inman. The book is eminently readable, even to those to whom the subject is new. Since, however, the congresses of Orientalists, which have taken place nearly everywhere, the subject is a little hackneyed, and its immediate connexion with Spiritualism, though far more important than even the author considers, is not apparent to all.
* El Catolicismo antes del Cristo. For El Vizconde de Tones-Solanot, Third edition. Madrid.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Chinese Trance and Clairvoyant Mediums by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 210, September 1, 1876, p. 53
- ↑ A Prophecy by Clavairoz, F., London Spiritualist, No. 210, September 1, 1876, pp. 55-6
- ↑ Torres-solanot on Ancient Spiritualism by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 208, August 18, 1876, p. 25
- ↑ image by unknown author
London Spiritualist, No. 210, September 1, 1876, p. 53
London Spiritualist, No. 210, September 1, 1876, pp. 55-6
London Spiritualist, No. 208, August 18, 1876, p. 25