Blavatsky H.P. - The Cave of the Echoes: Difference between revisions

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{{Style P-Title|THE CAVE OF THE ECHOES<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[In her {{SB-page|v=1|p=119|text=Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 119}}, where the cuttings of this story are pasted. H.P.B. wrote in pen and ink:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[She most likely means by this that the New York Sun refused to publish it at the time her 1st and 2nd stories appeared therein.<br>

This story was republished by H.P.B. in The Theosophist, Vol. IV, April, 1883, pp. 164-66, and later appeared in a Russian version—most likely from H.P.B.’s own pen—in Rebus (Riddle), Vol. V, January 5, 12 and 19, 1886. The latter version is somewhat fuller, even though it lacks some of the paragraphs of the English text.—Compiler.]}}</ref>}}

{{Style P-Subtitle|AN APPALLING TALE OF RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICEINFLICTED

{{Style P-Subtitle|BY H. P. BLAVATSKY.}}

The story I am about to relate has the merit of being perfectly true. The family is well-known in that portion of the Russian dominions where the scene is located. The circumstance was witnessed by one of my relatives, upon whom it made an impression that he carried to his grave. {{Page aside|339}}My object in telling it is to illustrate one of the many phases of psychological science studied by Theosophists, and which i must be studied by whoever would inform himself thoroughly upon the relations of living man with the silent world of shadows—that bourne from which . . . some travellers do return....

It may be taken as a case of mediumship of a most striking kind—in short, a transfiguration. It differs only in degree from that of Mrs. Markee—formerly Compton—witnessed and described by Colonel Olcott in his work, and one of the most astounding ones on record.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Vide Col. H. S. Olcott, People from the Other World, Hartford, Conn., 1875, pp. 479 et seq.—Compiler.]}}</ref> The physical body of Mrs. Compton was transformed alternately into the shapes of a dwarfish girl and a tall Indian chief. In the present instance the haunting soul of an old man enters a child’s body, and temporarily re-incarnating itself, becomes the agent of inexorable destiny. The intelligent reader will need no further hint to enable him to trace the lesson which my veracious narrative conveys.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[The opening paragraphs, up to here, .10 not occur in the Russian version of this story.—Compiler.]}}</ref>

An only son had been born to the young couple, and it was hoped that this would have brought a ray of sunshine to the father’s heart. But it was such a weak and puny little creature that it seemed scarce able to catch its breath; and so, according to the Russian custom in such cases, the family priest was called to christen it the same evening, lest, dying, it might go to the place prepared for unbaptized infants by Christian theology. The family and servants were gathered {{Page aside|344}} at the ceremony in the large reception room of the house, and the priest was about to dip the babe thrice in the water, when he was seen to stop abruptly, turn deadly pale, and stare into vacancy, while his hands shook so violently that he almost dropped the child into the baptismal font. At the same time, the nurse, who stood at the end of the first row of spectators, gave a wild shriek, and pointing to the direction of the library room used by the old Izvertzoff, ran away in terror. No one could understand the panic of these two personages, for, except them, no one had seen anything extraordinary. Some had remarked the library door swing slowly open, but it must have been caused by the wind, which was now wailing all through the old mansion. After the ceremony, the priest, corroborated by the hysterically sobbing maid, solemnly averred that he had seen, for one moment, the apparition of the deceased master upon the threshold of his library, then swiftly glide toward the font, and instantly disappear. Both witnesses described the spectre as having on its features an expression of menace. The priest, after crossing himself and muttering prayers, insisted that the whole family should have Masses said for the space of seven weeks for the repose of the “troubled soul.”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[This entire scene is lacking in the Russian version of the story. —Compiler.]}}</ref>

About the middle of July, a tall Hungarian traveller, preceded by a great reputation for eccentricity, wealth, and most extraordinary mesmeric powers, arrived at P— from Kamchatka, where, as was rumoured, he had resided for some time, surrounded by Shamans. He settled in the little town, with one of this sect, and was said to experiment in mesmerism on this North Siberian "sorcerer,” as he was called by the inhabitants. He gave dinners and parties, and during such receptions, invariably exhibited his Shaman of whom he felt very proud. One day, the notables of P—––made an unexpected invasion of the domain of Nicholas Izvertzoff, and requested of him the loan of his “Cave” for an evening entertainment. Nicholas consented with great reluctance, and with still greater hesitancy was he prevailed upon to join the party, among whom was my own relative.

Another chant and a roll of the drum, and the mountain trembled to its foundation with the cannon-like peals which rolled through the dark and distant corridors. The Shaman’s body rose two yards in the air, and, nodding and swaying, he sat, self-suspended, like a hideous apparition. But the transformation which now occurred in the boy chilled everyone with fear as they speechlessly watched the scene. The silvery cloud about the child now seemed to lift him, too, into the air; but, unlike the Shaman, his feet never left the ground. The little boy began to grow as if the work of years was to be miraculously accomplished in a few seconds. He became tall and large, and his senile features grew older, in harmony with the body. A few more seconds and the youthful form had entirely disappeared: it was totally absorbed in another individuality! and, to the horror of those present who had been familiar with his appearance, this individuality was old Izvertzoff! . . .

On his left temple was a large, gaping wound from which trickled great drops of blood. The phantom now moved directly in front of Nicholas, who, with his hair standing erect, gazed at his own son, transformed into his uncle, with the look of a raving madman. This sepulchral silence was broken by the Hungarian, who, addressing the child phantom, asked him in solemn voice: “In the name of Them who have all powers, answer the truth, and nothing but the truth. Restless soul, was thy body lost by accident, or foully murdered?”

And now a few words in conclusion.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[These concluding remarks do not appear in the Russian version of the story.—Compiler.]}}</ref> I hope that, whoever else may be disposed to question the possibility of an occurrence like the above, it will not be the intelligent Spiritualist. Not a feature in my narrative but finds in the records of mediumship its parallel. The apparition of the astral form like that of old Izvertzoff at the baptism is an everyday affair with clairvoyants. If the child was transformed into a man, in the sight of a crowd of people, so has a child-apparition been seen to emerge from Dr. Monck’s side and many children to step out of William Eddy’s cabinet. If elongation of the body occurred in the boy’s case, the same thing is alleged of various mediums. If a “spirit”—according to the accepted phraseology, an “astral man” as we term it—crowding out the undeveloped soul of the newly-born dual creature, took possession of his body, so have hundreds of other earth-bound souls obsessed the bodies of mediums. Interchange of “souls” has been noticed in living men unacquainted with each other, and even residing at opposite points of the globe. This may happen either from disease, which generally loosens the bonds between the astral and the physical man, or in consequence of some other {{Page aside|352}} occult condition. The levitation of the Shaman is no more a matter of wonder; and if his “double” wandered from his entranced body, so has the same phenomenon been oft reported in Spiritualistic papers as happening under our own observation. This Russian episode but confirms what investigators of modern phenomena have experienced. In it, throughout a period of ten years, the whole plot is developed by a real disembodied “spirit.” Earth-bound, he burned for a just but fiendish revenge, the planning and execution of which constituted certainly an insurmountable impediment to the progress and purification of the troubled soul. The “Elementals” play no part in my story, except when thrown into violent perturbation by the sounds of the magical drum and the incantations of the adept. The action of these creatures was limited to the flickering of the flames, the disturbance of the water in the lake, and the intensification of the awakened echoes. The phenomena at P—— were produced and controlled by an adept-psychologist, working for, with, and through a disembodied soul, upon a deliberate plan for the accomplishment of a cruel vengeance, which, though charged to the account of the unhappy, restless astral man, yet accomplished the ends of the unerring law of Retribution in punishing the guilty and rescuing the innocent.

Let the Spiritualist who would pronounce magic an exploded superstition, compare the methods of the “magician” with those of the “circle.” The latter derives its very name from the most common arrangement of the sitters. required by the “spirits” themselves. This is found philosophical and necessary by the Spiritualists. To ensure the formation of a circular magnetic current, the sitters are obliged to take hold of hands. Most generally the medium will complain of being affected if this magnetic chain is broken. Instances are known where instruments floating in the air have fallen upon the breaking of this current. The “magician” either draws with chalk a circle around the spot where the occult forces are to be concentrated to produce phenomena, as Baron Du Potet is known by all France to do—or forms one in thought, by will power; and this cannot be broken unless {{Page aside|353}} his WILL gives way. The rhythmic drum beats of the “magician” and his incantations are but another and more perfected form of the singing and music-playing of modern circles. In a word, the modern séance could be and should be made a school of magic, or philosophical, controllable Spiritualism. Verb. sap.

{{Style P-No indent|New York, 1878.}}