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<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|By Mme. H. P. Blavatsky}}.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[This article was written by H.P.B. as a reply to Mr. Colby who denied in the ''Banner of Light'' the existence of Magic. After the cutting had been pasted in her ''Scrapbook'', {{SB-page|v=1|p=70-71|text=Vol. I, pp. 70-71}}, H.P.B. made some pen and ink remarks and additions, which are shown herewith in footnotes appended as indicated by H.P.B. herself.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>}} | <center>{{Style S-Small capitals|By Mme. H. P. Blavatsky}}.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[This article was written by H.P.B. as a reply to Mr. Colby who denied in the ''Banner of Light'' the existence of Magic. After the cutting had been pasted in her ''Scrapbook'', {{SB-page|v=1|p=70-71|text=Vol. I, pp. 70-71}}, H.P.B. made some pen and ink remarks and additions, which are shown herewith in footnotes appended as indicated by H.P.B. herself.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>}} | ||
{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Spiritual Scientist'', Boston, Vol. III, October 14, 1875, pp. 64-65]}} | |||
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Furthermore, supported in my assertions by thousands of intelligent Spiritualists, generally known for their integrity and truthfulness, I could furnish numberless proofs and instances where the Elementary Diakka, ''Esprits malins et farfadets'', and other such-like unreliable and ignorant denizens of the spirit-world, arraying themselves in pompous, world-known and famous names, suddenly gave the bewildered witnesses such deplorable, unheard-of, slip-slop trash, and betimes something worse, that more than one person who, previous to that, was an earnest believer in the spiritual philosophy, has either silently taken to his heels; or, if he happened to have been formerly a Roman Catholic, has devoutly tried to recall to memory with which hand he used to cross himself, and then cleared out with the most fervent exclamation of ''Vade retro, Satanas!'' Such is the opinion of every educated Spiritualist. | Furthermore, supported in my assertions by thousands of intelligent Spiritualists, generally known for their integrity and truthfulness, I could furnish numberless proofs and instances where the Elementary Diakka, ''Esprits malins et farfadets'', and other such-like unreliable and ignorant denizens of the spirit-world, arraying themselves in pompous, world-known and famous names, suddenly gave the bewildered witnesses such deplorable, unheard-of, slip-slop trash, and betimes something worse, that more than one person who, previous to that, was an earnest believer in the spiritual philosophy, has either silently taken to his heels; or, if he happened to have been formerly a Roman Catholic, has devoutly tried to recall to memory with which hand he used to cross himself, and then cleared out with the most fervent exclamation of ''Vade retro, Satanas!'' Such is the opinion of every educated Spiritualist. | ||
If that indomitable Attila, the persecutor of modern Spiritualism, and mediums, Dr. G. Beard, had offered such a remark against Magic, I would not wonder, as a too profound devotion to blue pill and black draught is generally {{Page aside|136}} considered the best antidote against mystic and spiritual speculations; but for a firm Spiritualist, a believer in invisible, mysterious worlds, swarming with beings, the true nature of which is still an unriddled mystery to everyone—to step in and then sarcastically reject that which has been proved to exist and believed in for countless ages by millions of persons, wiser than himself, is too audacious! And that skeptic is the editor of a leading Spiritual paper! A man, whose first duty should be, to help his readers to seek—untiringly and perseveringly—for the | If that indomitable Attila, the persecutor of modern Spiritualism, and mediums, Dr. G. Beard, had offered such a remark against Magic, I would not wonder, as a too profound devotion to blue pill and black draught is generally {{Page aside|136}} considered the best antidote against mystic and spiritual speculations; but for a firm Spiritualist, a believer in invisible, mysterious worlds, swarming with beings, the true nature of which is still an unriddled mystery to everyone—to step in and then sarcastically reject that which has been proved to exist and believed in for countless ages by millions of persons, wiser than himself, is too audacious! And that skeptic is the editor of a leading Spiritual paper! A man, whose first duty should be, to help his readers to seek—untiringly and perseveringly—for the {{Style S-Small capitals|truth}} in whatever form it might present itself; but who takes the risk of dragging thousands of people into error, by pinning them to his personal rose-water faith and credulity. Every serious, earnest-minded Spiritualist must agree with me, in saying, that if modern Spiritualism remains, for a few years only, in its present condition of chaotic anarchy, or still worse, if it is allowed to run its mad course, shooting forth on all sides, idle hypotheses based on superstitious, groundless ideas, then will the Dr. Beards, Dr. Marvins, and others, known as scientific (?) skeptics, triumph indeed. | ||
Really, it seems to be a waste of time to answer such ridiculous, ignorant assertions as the one which forced me to take up my pen. Any well-read Spiritualist, who finds the statement “that there ever was such a science as magic, has never been proved, nor ever will be,” will need no answer from myself, nor anyone else, to cause him to shrug his shoulders and smile, as he probably has smiled, at the wonderful attempt of Mr. Colby’s spirits to reorganize geography by placing the Apennines in Spain. | Really, it seems to be a waste of time to answer such ridiculous, ignorant assertions as the one which forced me to take up my pen. Any well-read Spiritualist, who finds the statement “that there ever was such a science as magic, has never been proved, nor ever will be,” will need no answer from myself, nor anyone else, to cause him to shrug his shoulders and smile, as he probably has smiled, at the wonderful attempt of Mr. Colby’s spirits to reorganize geography by placing the Apennines in Spain. | ||
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{{Style P-Signature in capitals|{{HPB-CW-comment|—Compiler.]}}}}</ref> into Katie Brinks. The laws {{Page aside|137}} of nature are unchangeable. The conditions under which a medium can be transformed, entirely absorbed in the process by the spirit, into the semblance of another person, will hold good whenever that spirit or rather ''force'' should have a fancy to take the form of a cat. | {{Style P-Signature in capitals|{{HPB-CW-comment|—Compiler.]}}}}</ref> into Katie Brinks. The laws {{Page aside|137}} of nature are unchangeable. The conditions under which a medium can be transformed, entirely absorbed in the process by the spirit, into the semblance of another person, will hold good whenever that spirit or rather ''force'' should have a fancy to take the form of a cat. | ||
The exercise of ''magical'' power is the exercise of ''natural'' powers, but | The exercise of ''magical'' power is the exercise of ''natural'' powers, but {{Style S-Small capitals|superior}} to the ordinary functions of Nature. A miracle is not a violation of the laws of Nature, except for ignorant people. Magic is but a ''science'', a profound knowledge of the Occult forces in Nature, and of the laws governing the visible or the invisible world. Spiritualism in the hands of an adept becomes Magic, for he is learned in the art of blending together the laws of the Universe, without breaking any of them and thereby violating Nature. In the hands of an experienced medium, Spiritualism becomes {{Style S-Small capitals|unconscious sorcery}}; for, by allowing himself to become the helpless tool of a variety of spirits, of whom he knows nothing save what the latter permit him to know, he opens, unknown to himself, a door of communication between the two worlds, through which emerge the blind forces of Nature lurking in the astral light, as well as good and bad spirits. | ||
A powerful mesmerizer, profoundly learned in his science, such as Baron Du Potet, Regazzoni, Pietro d’Amicis of Bologna, are ''magicians'', for they have become the adepts, the initiated ones, into the great mystery of our Mother Nature. Such men as the above-mentioned—and such were Mesmer and Cagliostro—''control'' the spirits instead of allowing their subjects or themselves to be controlled by them; and Spiritualism is safe in their hands. In the absence of experienced Adepts though, it is always safer for a naturally clairvoyant medium to trust to good luck and chance, and try to judge of the tree by its fruits. Bad spirits will seldom {{Page aside|138}} communicate through a pure, naturally good and virtuous person; and it is still more seldom that pure spirits will choose impure channels. Like attracts like. | A powerful mesmerizer, profoundly learned in his science, such as Baron Du Potet, Regazzoni, Pietro d’Amicis of Bologna, are ''magicians'', for they have become the adepts, the initiated ones, into the great mystery of our Mother Nature. Such men as the above-mentioned—and such were Mesmer and Cagliostro—''control'' the spirits instead of allowing their subjects or themselves to be controlled by them; and Spiritualism is safe in their hands. In the absence of experienced Adepts though, it is always safer for a naturally clairvoyant medium to trust to good luck and chance, and try to judge of the tree by its fruits. Bad spirits will seldom {{Page aside|138}} communicate through a pure, naturally good and virtuous person; and it is still more seldom that pure spirits will choose impure channels. Like attracts like. | ||
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That is the reason why no trash was allowed to be given by unprogressed spirits in the days of old. The oracles of the sibyls and inspired priestesses could never have affirmed Athens to be a town in India, or jumped Mount Ararat from its native place down to Egypt. | That is the reason why no trash was allowed to be given by unprogressed spirits in the days of old. The oracles of the sibyls and inspired priestesses could never have affirmed Athens to be a town in India, or jumped Mount Ararat from its native place down to Egypt. | ||
If the skeptical writer of the editorial had, moreover, devoted less time to little prattling Indian spirits and more to {{Page aside|140}} profitable lectures, he might have learned perhaps at the same time, that the ancients had their illegal mediums—I mean those who belonged to no special Temple, and thus the spirits controlling them, unchecked by the expert hand of the magician, were left to themselves, and had all the opportunity possible to perform their capers on their helpless tools; that such mediums were generally considered ''obsessed'' and ''possessed'', which they were in fact; in other words, and according to the Bible phraseology, “they had the seven devils in them.” Furthermore, these mediums were ordered to be put to death, for the intolerant Moses, the magician, who was learned in the wisdom of Egypt, had said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[''Exodus'', 5. xxii. 18.]}}</ref> Alone, the Egyptians and Greeks, even more humane and just than Moses, took such into their Temples, and when found unfit for sacred duties of prophecy [they] ''were cured'', in the same way as Jesus Christ cured Mary of Magdala and many others, by “casting out the seven devils.” Either Mr. Colby and Co. must completely deny the miracles of Christ, <ref>“if he ever lived—which is more than doubtful.”</ref> the Apostles, Prophets, Thaumaturgists, and Magicians, and so deny point-blank every bit of the sacred and profane histories, or he must confess that there is a | If the skeptical writer of the editorial had, moreover, devoted less time to little prattling Indian spirits and more to {{Page aside|140}} profitable lectures, he might have learned perhaps at the same time, that the ancients had their illegal mediums—I mean those who belonged to no special Temple, and thus the spirits controlling them, unchecked by the expert hand of the magician, were left to themselves, and had all the opportunity possible to perform their capers on their helpless tools; that such mediums were generally considered ''obsessed'' and ''possessed'', which they were in fact; in other words, and according to the Bible phraseology, “they had the seven devils in them.” Furthermore, these mediums were ordered to be put to death, for the intolerant Moses, the magician, who was learned in the wisdom of Egypt, had said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[''Exodus'', 5. xxii. 18.]}}</ref> Alone, the Egyptians and Greeks, even more humane and just than Moses, took such into their Temples, and when found unfit for sacred duties of prophecy [they] ''were cured'', in the same way as Jesus Christ cured Mary of Magdala and many others, by “casting out the seven devils.” Either Mr. Colby and Co. must completely deny the miracles of Christ, <ref>“if he ever lived—which is more than doubtful.”</ref> the Apostles, Prophets, Thaumaturgists, and Magicians, and so deny point-blank every bit of the sacred and profane histories, or he must confess that there is a {{Style S-Small capitals|power}} in this world which can command spirits, at least the bad and unprogressed ones, the elementary and Diakka. The ''pure ones'', the disembodied, will never descend to our sphere, unless attracted by a current of powerful sympathy and love, or on some useful mission. | ||
Far from me the thought of casting odium and ridicule on our<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “all.”]}}</ref> medium. I am<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corr. to “am not.”]}}</ref> myself a Spiritualist, if, as says Colonel Olcott, a firm belief in our souls<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “spirits.”]}}</ref> immortality and ''the knowledge'' of a constant possibility for us to communicate with the spirits of our departed and loved ones, either through honest, pure mediums, or by means of the Secret Science, constitutes a Spiritualist. But<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “And.”]}}</ref> I am not of {{Page aside|141}} those fanatical Spiritualists, to be found in every country, who blindly accept the claims of every spirit,<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Enclosed in quotes: “spirit.”]}}</ref> for I have seen too much of various phenomena, undreamed of in America. I ''know'' that | Far from me the thought of casting odium and ridicule on our<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “all.”]}}</ref> medium. I am<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corr. to “am not.”]}}</ref> myself a Spiritualist, if, as says Colonel Olcott, a firm belief in our souls<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “spirits.”]}}</ref> immortality and ''the knowledge'' of a constant possibility for us to communicate with the spirits of our departed and loved ones, either through honest, pure mediums, or by means of the Secret Science, constitutes a Spiritualist. But<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Corrected to “And.”]}}</ref> I am not of {{Page aside|141}} those fanatical Spiritualists, to be found in every country, who blindly accept the claims of every spirit,<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Enclosed in quotes: “spirit.”]}}</ref> for I have seen too much of various phenomena, undreamed of in America. I ''know'' that {{Style S-Small capitals|magic}} does exist, and 10,000 editors of Spiritual papers cannot change my belief in what I know. There is a white and a black magic; and no one who has ever travelled in the East, can doubt it, if he has taken the trouble to investigate. My faith being firm I am, therefore, ever ready to support and protect any honest medium—aye, and even occasionally one who appears ''dishonest''; for I know but too well, what helpless tools and victims such mediums are in the hands of unprogressed, invisible beings. I am furthermore aware of the malice and wickedness of the elementary, and how far they can inspire not only a sensitive medium, ''but any other person'' as well. Though I may be an “irresponsible woman” in the eyes of those who are but “too responsible” for the harm they do to {{Style S-Small capitals|earnest}} Spiritualists by their unfairness, one-sidedness, and spiritual sentimentalism, I feel safe to say, that generally I am quick enough to detect whenever a medium is cheating ''under control'', or cheating consciously. | ||
Thus magic exists and has existed ever since prehistoric ages. Begun in history with the Samathracian mysteries, it followed its course uninterruptedly, and ended for a time with the expiring theurgic rites and ceremonies of christianized Greece; then reappeared for a time again with the Neo-Platonic, Alexandrian school, and passing, by initiation, to sundry solitary students and philosophers, safely crossed the mediaeval ages, and notwithstanding the furious persecutions of the Church, resumed its fame in the hands of such adepts as Paracelsus and several others, and finally died out in Europe with the Count de St.-Germain and Cagliostro, to seek refuge from the frozen-hearted skepticism in its native country of the East. | Thus magic exists and has existed ever since prehistoric ages. Begun in history with the Samathracian mysteries, it followed its course uninterruptedly, and ended for a time with the expiring theurgic rites and ceremonies of christianized Greece; then reappeared for a time again with the Neo-Platonic, Alexandrian school, and passing, by initiation, to sundry solitary students and philosophers, safely crossed the mediaeval ages, and notwithstanding the furious persecutions of the Church, resumed its fame in the hands of such adepts as Paracelsus and several others, and finally died out in Europe with the Count de St.-Germain and Cagliostro, to seek refuge from the frozen-hearted skepticism in its native country of the East. | ||
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In India, magic has never died out, and blossoms there as well as ever. Practised, as in ancient Egypt, only within {{Page aside|142}} the secret enclosure of the Temples, it was, and still is, called the “sacred science.” For it is a science, based on natural occult forces of Nature; and not merely a blind belief in the poll-parrot talking of crafty, elementary ones, ready to forcibly prevent ''real, disembodied'' spirits from communicating with their loved ones whenever they can do so. | In India, magic has never died out, and blossoms there as well as ever. Practised, as in ancient Egypt, only within {{Page aside|142}} the secret enclosure of the Temples, it was, and still is, called the “sacred science.” For it is a science, based on natural occult forces of Nature; and not merely a blind belief in the poll-parrot talking of crafty, elementary ones, ready to forcibly prevent ''real, disembodied'' spirits from communicating with their loved ones whenever they can do so. | ||
Some time since, a Mr. Mendenhall devoted several columns in the ''Religio-Philosophical Journal'', to questioning, cross-examining, and criticizing the mysterious Brotherhood of Luxor. He made a fruitless attempt at forcing the said Brotherhood to answer him, and thus unveil the sphinx. I can satisfy Mr. Mendenhall. The | Some time since, a Mr. Mendenhall devoted several columns in the ''Religio-Philosophical Journal'', to questioning, cross-examining, and criticizing the mysterious Brotherhood of Luxor. He made a fruitless attempt at forcing the said Brotherhood to answer him, and thus unveil the sphinx. I can satisfy Mr. Mendenhall. The {{Style S-Small capitals|Brotherhood of luxor}} is one of the sections of the Grand Lodge of which ''I am a member''. If this gentleman entertains any doubt as to my statement—which I have no doubt he will—he can, if he chooses, write to ''Lahore'' for information. If perchance, the ''Seven of the Committee'' were so rude as not to answer him, and would refuse to give him the desired information, I can then offer him a little business transaction. Mr. Mendenhall, as far as I remember, has two wives in the spirit world. Both of these ladies materialize at M. Mott’s, and often hold very long conversations with their husband, as the latter told us of several times, and over his own signature; adding, moreover, that he had no doubt whatever of the identity of the said spirits. If so, let one of the departed ladies tell Mr. Mendenhall the name of that section of the Grand Lodge I belong to. For ''real, genuine, disembodied'' spirits, if both are what they claim to be, the matter is more than easy; they have but to enquire of other spirits, look into my thoughts, and so on; for a disembodied entity, an immortal spirit, it is the easiest thing in the world to do. Then, if the gentleman I challenge, though I am deprived of the pleasure of his acquaintance, tells me the true name of the section—which name three gentlemen in New York, who are accepted neophytes of our Lodge, know well—I pledge myself to give to Mr. Mendenhall the true statement concerning the Brotherhood, which is not composed of spirits, as he may {{Page aside|143}}think, but of living mortals, and I will, moreover, if he desires to, put him in direct communication with the Lodge as I have done for others.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[H.P.B. added on the margin:<br> | ||
“And so he did and—abused me in a vile way in the papers for my offer. The ''Spirits'' proved to be ignoramuses!!”<br> | “And so he did and—abused me in a vile way in the papers for my offer. The ''Spirits'' proved to be ignoramuses!!”<br> | ||
It is most likely, however, that this refers to the ''last'' sentence of the article.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>Methinks, Mr. Mendenhall will answer that no such name can be given correctly by the spirits, for no such Lodge or either Section exists at all, and thus close the discussion. | It is most likely, however, that this refers to the ''last'' sentence of the article.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>Methinks, Mr. Mendenhall will answer that no such name can be given correctly by the spirits, for no such Lodge or either Section exists at all, and thus close the discussion. | ||