Designed and produced by

George Rainbird Ltd

36 Park Street
London W1 Y 4DE

Photoset, printed and bound in Great Britain.

Picture research: Patricia Vaughan and
Alison Bewley Cathie
Design: Stuart Perry

First published 1971

This edition published 1977 by

Book Club Associates
By arrangement with Hutchinson Publishing Co.

©Dennis Wheatley 1971

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd

Title-page The bat: a form that

vampires were said to assume for
flying through the windows of
their victims
4

Contents
Author's Note 6
Statement 8

PART I The Invisible Influences

Introductory 11
Mesmerism: in the Old World 12
Mesmerism: in the United States 18
Hypnotism 22
Faith Healing 29
Telepathy 30
Premonitions 34

PART 2 Predestination or Free Will?

Introductory 41
Astrology 41
Numerology 45
Cheirognomy and Cheiromancy 50
Cartomancy 56
Clairvoyance 59
Psychometry 62
Clairaudience 63
Oracles 65
Necromancy 67
Haruspicy 76
Other Methods of Divination 76

PART 3 Beliefs in Early Ages

Introductory 83
Prehistoric Man 85
The Sumerians 89
Egypt 94
Taoism 102
India 106
Central America 115
Zoroastrianism 120
Confucianism 122
Buddhism 126

PART 4 Beliefs in the Past 2,500 Years

Introductory 131
Greece 131
Palestine 138
Gnosticism 144
The Druids 147
Rome 148
The Coming of Christ 156
Mithraism and Manichaeism 161
Mohammedanism164
The Cabala 168
The Dark Ages 171
The Incas 175
The Rosicrucians 182
The Freemasons 183
The Theosophists 185

PART 5 Of Witches and Warlocks

Introductory 189
The Little People 189
The Coming of the Devil 193
The Middle Ages 197
The Alchemists 205
Sorcerers 210
The Tools of the Trade 219
The Sabbaths 223
The Later Middle Ages 229
The Great Persecution 234
The Salem Witch Trials 239
The Frauds 243
Australasia and the Pacific 245
Of Apparitions 248
Modern Occultists 253
Voodoo 261
Magic and the Fate of Nations 265
The Black Art Today 268
Conclusions and the 'Way' 275
Notes on the Illustrations and Acknowledgments 280
Index 283

5
 Author's Note

To write a book with so great a range of subjects as this

one attempts to cover, I have by necessity used a great many
literary sources. Their very bulk prevents me from making
detailed acknowledgment of them all, and if, in mentioning those
to which I owe most, I omit any that should have been included,
let me assure my benefactor, with apologies, that the omission
is inadvertent and will be remedied in future editions of the book.
My thanks are specially due to the following publishers or
other owners of copyright, and to the authors or editors if still
living, for permitting me to quote, often quite extensively, from
the works specified:
Faber & Faber Ltd: Modern Experiments in Telepathy by S.
G. Soal and F. Bateman.

The Parapsychology Foundation, Inc., New York, sponsors:

Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena, Vol. I (France by Eric].
Dingwall) and Vol. IV (U.S.A. by Allan Angoff, Great Britain by
Eric J. Dingwall), from the series edited by Eric]. Dingwall,
published by J. & A. Churchill, London.

Ernest Benn Ltd: Death and Its Mystery by Camille

Flammarion, translated from the French by E. S. Brooks.

C. A. Watts & Co. Ltd: Twilight of the Gods by Richard

Garnett.

George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd : Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy by

Grillot de Givry, translated from the French by J. Courtenay
Locke.

Collins-Knowlton-Wing, Inc., New York: The Devil in

Massachusetts, copyright © 1949 by Marion Starkey, published
by Alfred Knopf, Inc., New York; and The Reluctant Prophet by
Daniel Logan, published by Doubleday & Company, Inc., New
York, all rights reserved.
 Rider & Co. : Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual
by Eliphas Levi, translated from the French by A. E. Waite.

Barrie & Jenkins Ltd: Cheiro's Language of the Hand and

Cheiro's Book of Numbers.

IPC Magazines Ltd: article 'Quantum processes predicted?'

by Dr Helmut Schmidt, published in the issue of New Scientist
dated October 16th 1969 and quoted in part, with
acknowledgment, by the London Times.

Mr John Symonds, literary executor of the late Aleister

Crowley : Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley,
published privately.

To Mr Richard Cavendish I am particularly indebted for the

use he has permitted me to make of his The Black Arts
(Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd), now almost a classic in its kind.
Acknowledgment must be made to that invaluable work the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, which has provided me with much
useful information, besides acting as a check on authorities less
comprehensive than itself.
Finally, I should like to offer my grateful thanks to the staff
of George Rainbird Ltd for the assistance given to me in the
preparation of this book for the press.

D.W.
6
 For my dear wife Joan

When Mr George Rainbird first invited me to write a book of

this kind, I felt that I lacked the academic knowledge for such an
undertaking, and I declined.
But a few months later Mr Rainbird approached me again,
and my wife then persuuaded me that from the four thousand
books in my library and nearly sixty of serious reading, I had
acquired more knowledge than I could have by a years spent at
any University. It is therefore to her that my readers owe this
book, and I the great enjoyment I derived once I set about
writing it.
 7

Statement
Existence as we know it is dominated by two Powers - Light
and Darkness.
With Light is coupled warmth; with Darkness, cold.
All forms of life are dependent on Light for their growth and
well-being.
All progress is checked during Darkness; and when, as in
winter, its hours exceed those of Light, it brings about decay and
death.
Therefore, from time immemorial, Light has been associated
with good, and Darkness with evil.
During the course of a year, in any part of the world the total
hours of Light and Darkness are the same. Hence the influence
wielded by the two Powers on mankind is equal.
There are certain things that it is not given to man to know.
For example: how the Universe was created, what lies beyond
the remotest star, how to grasp the meaning of eternity.
The reason for the existence of good and evil is also
beyond our comprehension. We know only that our lives are
subject to these forces; and that, from earliest times, for lack of
any other explanation, the greater part of mankind has attributed
good to some form of God, and evil to some form of Devil.
The beliefs subscribed to by mankind can be divided into
three categories:
1. The belief that natural phenomena and visible objects
have supernatural powers.
2. The belief that everything is ordered by invisible beings
having human form.
3· The belief that every individual has within him a spark of
the Divine Spirit and, after a succession of lives during which he
has purged the dross from his nature, will attain a state of
beatitude in which his spirit becomes one with Light.
The first of these forms of belief, entailing the propitiation
of the elements or the worship of graven images, is now held by
a relatively small minority of the world's population, living for the
most part almost isolated in a state of savagery.
The second is, nominally, held by some 1,200,0000,0000
people, mainly Christians, Mohammedans and Jews. However,
in the past few hundred years Christian beliefs, particularly,
have been greatly watered down.
In the Middle Ages it was commonly accepted that the Devil
quite frequently appeared to tempt the devout as an actual
person, complete with horns, hooves and a spiked tail; while,
even in the last century, the majority of the masses envisaged
God the Father as an old gentleman with a long grey beard, who
invariably spoke English - or French or German according to
their own nationality.
At the present day a high proportion of Christians seem to
regard it as unlikely that the Devil exists at all, and a belief in
Hell has become démodée. To many Christians, too, the
doctrine of the Trinity is no longer fully acceptable. God the
Father has faded into the background, and most people find the
role of the Holy Ghost somewhat difficult

to understand. It is for this reason that in Africa a far higher

proportion of Negroes has become converted to
Mohammedanism than to Christianity. Allah, as the one,
indivisible God, with Mahomet featuring only as Prophet, seems
a much more logical conception to people just moving out of the
age of sacrificing to tribal deities. As far as most Protestants at
least are concerned, Jesus Christ alone retains his former status
as the Protector, to whom in rimes of trouble appeals for help
may be made with the hope of his divine intervention. But it must
be accepted that a very high proportion of Western 'Christians'
are now either agnostics or pay only lip-service to their religion.
The third, subscribed to by some 8oo,ooo,ooo people -
Buddhists, Confucians, Hindus and Taoists - is an obvious
advance on the belief in a god in the image of man, because it
places responsibility upon the individual himself. But this applies
only in cases where the followers of a way of life accept such
philosophies in their original purity. As is the case with the
religions, the teachings of their originators have become
bedevilled through the centuries by ignorant or ambitious
priesthoods and claimants to supernatural powers, who have
made a living by battening on the superstitions of the credulous.
So, both in the West and East, the masses have been led to
believe in the powers of saints and demons.
We must also consider this new Age of Unbelief. Atheism
goes hand in hand with Communism. During the past few
decades, particularly in Russia and China, as the older
generations die off there are ever fewer people who accept the
beliefs of their forefathers. This applies also to millions in the
Western world and among the better-educated peoples in the
Near East.
An eminent Victorian once remarked, 'A little religion is good
for the masses.' Cynical as that statement may appear, it seems
to contain an element of truth. Either a belief in a personal God,
or the following of a righteous way of life, provided disciplines
and rules which could not be broken without incurring possible
social ostracism and either penalties imposed by a priest or a
debit entry on one's life record that would count against one
after death. People were also inspired to do good deeds by the
belief that they would be rewarded in the hereafter. Moreover,
the taboos held families together, and a faith was a crutch on
which to lean in time of trouble.
The decline in the faiths has led to major changes in outlook
and conduct by many million people — to a repudiation by the
young of the authority and (possible) wisdom of their elders, a
seeking for some mental stimulant that will replace accepted
religions, and a breaking down of prohibitions that, through the
ages, have protected society for its own good. Whether
unorthodox occult aid is deliberately sought, or atheism
accepted, the removal of the old barriers against self-
gratification has rendered a great part of the new generation
vulnerable to temptations which, out of fear or with a hope of
reward, they would otherwise resist.
And nothing can change the laws which, at the "time of the
Creation, it was decreed should dominate the lives of human
beings. So we all remain, and must continue to remain, subject
to the Powers of Light and Darkness.

9
PART 1

The Invisible
Influences

Introductory
It has long been maintained by many thinkers of many
nations that Homo sapiens is endowed with a sixth sense. That
is to say that impulses may reach the brain in a way that is due
neither to sight, hearing, touch, taste nor smell. The modern
term for this is extra-sensory perception or E.S.P.
That everyone has this sense, to a greater or lesser degree,
seems a reasonable assumption. In primitive peoples it appears
to be much more highly developed than in the advanced races;
possibly because the many preoccupations caused by
enormously varied social activities overlay our inherent spiritual
resources.
An example of this may be seen even in contrasting the
mentalities of Europeans in the Middle Ages with those of
modern city dwellers. The majority of the former ere present at
family prayers daily, morning and evening, attended church at
east twice every Sunday and regularly went to confession,
where penalties for Their sins were imposed upon them.
Therefore, it is not to be wondered at that they were obsessed
with the state of their souls and, at times, saw visions of the
saints and demons who were never far from their thoughts.
Whereas modern man, caught up in the rat-race for money or
pleasure, has little time left to devote to spiritual speculations,
and so is not attuned to becoming conscious of such
manifestations.
Assuming that the sixth sense can be cultivated, I use the
expression 'attuned' cause it must consist of something like a
radio set situated in the human brain,
50 that, if tuned in to the right wavelength, it can both receive
messages and send them out.
The messages received can be assumed to be due to
magnetic waves, currents or vibrations emanating from any of
several sources.
The sun, as is well known, has many vital influences on the
earth. So has the moon, which accounts for the rise and fall of
the tides and is believed by some gardeners to increase the
speed of germination of seeds if planted when the moon is
waxing. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the
rays from other heavenly bodies, in particular the planets, may
also exert an influence on matters terrestrial. This is the basis
for the belief in astrology, with which I shall deal later. The earth,
too, has invisible forces. Many people believe that it sends out
invisible rays, which can be tapped by rhabdomancy. This form
of divination

Opposite A dowser exploring for metals with his rod

11

has been used in efforts to locate objects concealed by the

surface of the earth. The method employed is to take a forked
branch of hazel, elder, oak or applewood, and hold it by the two
upper ends of the Y, with the third end pointing forward. The
diviner walks about the area selected. When he comes above
the place under which lies the material he is seeking, the rod
twitches and vibrates in his hands. This method of finding coal
seams was frequently used in Germany during the Middle Ages.
It is said also to have been successfully used in searches for
gold and buried treasure. One thing is positive. For many
centuries it was employed to find water, and is still resorted to all
over the world today for locating underground springs.
In addition to such 'rays', there may be others which pass
unseen from one human brain to another. One type of mental
influence that has been accepted by the medical profession is
hypnotism, as developed from the practice that, in the
eighteenth century, had been named mesmerism.

Mesmerism: in the Old World

The ability of some people to impose their will upon others,
without violence or coercion, has existed for very early times.
That a caste of Egyptian priests, who acted as doctors,
possessed this ability can hardly be doubted. They performed
the operation of trepanning, and one cannot believe that the
pieces of a smashed skull could be removed and replaced over
the naked brain by a metal plate while the patient was rendered
unconscious by an anaesthetic no more effective than alcohol or
opium.
With regard to the use of magnetism in healing, the Greeks
were aware of the lodestone and believed that it could be used
as a curative agent.
In the sixteenth century the famous physician-magician
Paracelsus asserted that every human body was charged with
magnetism, which led to experiments in sympathetic medicine.
Sir Kenelm Digby, the son of the Sir Everard who was
executed for participation in the Gunpowder Plot, was an
extraordinarily brilliant scholar, as well as a very able diplomat
and naval commander under Charles I; he produced a 'powder
of sympathy' and a 'weapon ointment' which he claimed, if mixed
with the blood on the weapon that had caused a wound, would
help to heal it.
In the same period J. E. Burggrav produced a book
supporting the theory that shed blood still had a mystic
relationship with the person who had shed it; and this we know
to be one of the basic principles of magic. Robert Fludd, J. B.
van Helmont and William Maxwell were all deeply interested in
this subject. But magnetism, hypnotism and their associated
phenomena, such as faith healing and telepathy, did not
become generally known about in Europe until late in the
eighteenth century.
Eric J. Dingwall and his collaborators have published a four-
volume work Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena, which, after
noting some of the earlier mesmerists and hypnotists, gives an
extremely full account of the leading ones and their activities in
Europe and the Americas during the whole of the past century.
From these volumes I shall quote a limited number of examples.

12

In 1778 an Austrian physician named Friedrich (or Franz)

Anton Mesmer
arrived in Paris. Having studied the works of Paracelsus, he
came to believe, like him, that the stars influence the health of
human beings by giving out an invisible fluid. Experiments led
Mesmer to conclude that he had a healing power in his own
hands, and he called this force 'animal magnetism'. He was
particularly successful with hysterical patients, and he insisted
that his cures were due to natural phenomena; but the
conventional medical body in Vienna accused him of magic, and
he was exiled from Austria. In Paris he opened an elaborate and
luxurious clinic, and soon the fashionable pre-revolution world of
Versailles was flocking to him.
In his De Medicina Magnetica, published a hundred years
earlier, William Maxwell had written: ”Material rays flow from all
bodies in which the soul operates by its presence. By these rays
energy and the power of working are diffused. The vital spirit
which descends from the sky, pure, unchanged and whole, is
the parent of the vital spirit which exists in all things. If you make
use of the universal spirit by means of instruments impregnated
with this spirit you will thereby call to your aid the great secret of
the Mages. The universal medicine is nothing but the vital spirit
repeated in the proper subject.”
The instrument Mesmer used was a large tub. In it were laid
a number of bottles filled with magnetized water, with their necks
towards a larger, central bottle. The tub was partly filled with
water, to which were added iron filings and powdered glass.
Attached to the tub were cords, which the patients, sitting round
the tub, tied round themselves. There were also cords with iron
bars, and these either the patients or one of Mesmer's
assistants, of whom there were over a hundred, held to their
stomachs, livers, spleens or other afflicted parts. To hasten the
effect of the cords and irons, from time to time an attendant
would rub the patients in the place where the pain was seated,
or Mesmer himself point to it with

13
a wand he carried.
In an antechamber, a band played gay music, and every
other day a tub was provided free of charge for the poor. Many
of the patients became hysterical, but great numbers were said
to be cured of a variety of ailments.
The Marquis de Puységur took up mesmerism and became a
gifted amateur. He had a peasant named Victor, who would
carry out his every silent wish, and
 sing songs that the Marquis sang silently in his head. Another
subject of his, Madeleine, was taken by him one day to the
house of a friend named Mitonard. Having been put en rapport
with him, she went up to him and took three screws from his
pocket, just as he had willed her to do.
J.P.F. Deleuze was a follower of de Puységur. He carried out
many experiments and wrote lavishly on the subject. He was
inclined to attribute the success of somnambules largely to their
own imagination; but here he came up against the metallic
tractors invented by the American physician Dr Elisha Perkins.
These ”tractors” were two pieces of different metals, each three
inches

I4
long. Perkins's son was selling them in London for five guineas
the pair. Many eminent people testified to the effectiveness of
drawing them over afflicted parts of the body. They were much
used on infants, but were far more successful on horses, and
cured many animals of lameness, saddle boils and even
blindness. And how could imagination enter into the cure of
animals ?
Dr J. H. D. Petetin termed magnetism ”animal electricity”. He
specialized in experiments with cataleptics, who are particularly
good subjects, and also practised ”eyeless vision”. He could, we
are told, transfer a patient's senses to other parts of his body.
On one occasion he held a packet containing milk bread to a
patient's stomach. She at once began to munch, and said how
good the bread tasted. He then hanged the packet for one
containing raw beef. In disgust the patient declared that she was
going to vomit. He could, apparently, also make the patient 'see'
through her stomach, and, on his holding a box to it containing a
letter, she correctly described its contents.

15

The great Dictionnaire de Médecine was published in the

182os, and Dr L. Rostan was chosen to contribute the article on
Mesmerism that appeared in the thirteenth volume. He believed
that the magnetic fluid was similar to electricity, and that passing
through the nerves it formed an aura that could be directed by
the will of the operator. Further, he thought that this agent
nerveux was able to penetrate solid bodies, and could influence
the subject through closed doors, except possibly in cases
where the phenomenon was due to thought-transference.
Here it will be observed we are already approaching the
situation where it is recognized that magnetism, faith healing,
hypnotism, telepathy and clairvoyance are all inextricably linked.
Alexandre Bertrand, a disciple of Deleuze, relates a curious
case. In a dimly lit room, where a number of people were
present, he hypnotized a subject, then took a ring from her
hand. Unseen by her, he slipped the ring to one of the ladies
 16

present. When he asked the somnambule where her ring was,

she replied, 'Monsieur R. has it.' She insisted on this and,
touching her hip, said, 'He has it here.' Mon- -ieur R. produced it
from his side pocket. The lady had passed it on to him,
· own to Bertrand.
Bertrand likened the brain to a stretched cord which, in cases of
thought-
transference, vibrated in sympathy with those of others. He
was one of the earliest · vestigators to write of the hallucinations
that can be induced in somnambules, -uch as preventing their
being aware that a person is in a room with them, or :naking
them see someone who is not there.
.Many experiments were carried out at the Salpetriere by the
Baron du Potet du Sennevoy and other eminent physicians.
These were later examined by Dr .\medee Dupau, who carried
out a very wide survey of the whole subject. He pointed out that
magnetism was not without its dangers. There had been cases
·here the medical treatment had proved utterly wrong, and
even resulted in death. He also observed that somnambules, the
great majority of whom were
 17

young women, tended to fall so completely under the influence

of their magnetizers, almost always men, that advantage might
be taken of them; and he questioned the origin of this 'universal
fluid'.
About the last the Roman Catholic priesthood had no doubts,
declaring roundly that mesmerism was the work of the Devil,
and preaching trenchantly against its use.
In the 184os, Dr Alphonse Teste became very prominent as
an investigator into abnormal phenomena. He wrote numerous
books and started a magazine on the subject. His experiments
with water are of particular interest. It was found that, if a
somnambule's sensitivity was transferred to a glass of
magnetized water and the water was pricked with a pin, the lady
felt the pain; whereas if the pin was stuck into her she did not
feel it. Teste also describes cases in which somnambules said
that water which had been magnetized tasted, at the silent will of
the operator, like lemonade, chocolate or wine.
By the middle of the century, in Paris and most other large
cities, magnetism - by then more frequently termed hypnotism -
had become the major interest of the upper classes. A furious
war on paper raged between doctors of the old school who
would not for one moment concede that cures could be effected
by abnormal means, and equally eminent physicians who were
either more open-minded or convinced believers in the new
treatment.
Many of the latter appear to have been over-credulous and to
have accepted conditions for experiments which were open to
cheating. And many of the magnet- izers and their
somnambules undoubtedly did cheat. The former frequently
refused to allow watertight precautions to be taken, on the
excuse that these could upset their somnambules; while the
latter often wriggled the bandag~s from over their eyes, so that
they could glimpse articles held out to them, or kept on asking
questions of their audience until they picked up a hint as to what
was expected of them. Nevertheless, many cases are so well
attested that it is reasonable to conclude that an invisible
influence was responsible for them.
Naturally, the cures achieved by the magnetizers and the
predictions made by their somnambules excited the greatest
interest in the public. It is, therefore, not in the least surprising
that great numbers of unscrupulous people seized upon this way
of making quick money. Magnetic 'consultants', with all sorts of
pretensions, set up all over the place, and dozens of public
exhibitions in variety halls and cabarets took place nightly. At
one time there were no fewer than three hundred magnetizers
practising in Paris. A number of them appear to have possessed
genuine powers; the great majority were frauds.
Mesmerism: in the United States
It is by no means surprising that, in this young and virile
nation, not only doctors but many clergymen should have
displayed an eagerness to investigate the powers attributed to
mesmerism - an attribute which was lacking in most of their
more hidebound opposite numbers in the old countries of
Europe.
I know of no record of George Washington's ever having
attended an

18

experiment in mesmerism, but on May 14th 1794 his old friend

the Marquis de Lafayette te to him from Paris, telling him about
Mesmer, and adding, ... he has instructed scholars, among
whom your humble servant is called one of the most
thusiastic ... and before I go, I will get leave to let you into the
secret ofMesmer,
which you may depend upon, is a grand philosophical
discovery'.
 19

Two countrymen of Lafayette's, Joseph DuCommun and

Charles Poyen, were among the first exponents of the art in the
United States. The celebrated Daniel Webster and Henry Clay
both spoke highly of it. The great physician Dr Charles Caldwell
of Louisville, Kentucky, returned from Europe an enthusiastic
champion and said of it, 'Never has there been before a
discovery so easily and so clearly demonstrable as mesmerism
is, so unreasonably and stubbornly doubted, and so
contumaciously discredited and opposed ... Yet never before
has there been made in anthropology a discovery so interesting
and sublime - so calculated to exhibit the power and dominion of
the human will - its boundless sway over space and spirit ...'
In one of the lectures given by Du Commun in New York, he
described magnet- ism as follows: 'This fluid is seen by some
somnambulists as bright atmosphere around our bodies and
emanating from our fingers in the act of magnetisation, as rays
of light. It may be, according to some, concentrated in water,
reflected by mirrors; it may impregnate many objects; it is not
interrupted by opaque bodies, and penetrates towards whom it
is directed. This last circumstance determines that sympathy or
antipathy, which we often feel at first sight for a person,
according to the similarity or dissimilarity of our fluid with his.'
Du Commun declared the three important qualifications for a
good magnetizer to be belief, will and benevolence. He regarded
women as generally better than men as subjects, and was of the
opinion that a magnetized tree gave much better results than
Mesmer's tub.
One widely read book by J. P. F. Deleuze was translated
from the French by Thomas C. Hartshorn, of Providence, Rhode
Island. A Dr Brownwell related the followmg to Hartshorn. He
was greatly worried about one of his patients, who had been ill
for a long time. The trouble lay in the intestines, but he could not
diagnose it, so he called in a somnambule. He questioned her in
his own house, which was a mile and a half away from that of
the patient. She described the patient's house and his room, but
hesitated to go further, because she said he looked so terribly ill.
Brownwell persuaded her to do so, and asked if the trouble lay
in the kidneys, liver or intestinal canal. She replied that they
were all normal, but his spleen was greatly enlarged. He asked
her how she knew. For answer, although she was not supposed
to have any knowledge of anatomy, she placed her hand over
the doctor's spleen and said, 'It is a great deal larger and thicker
than yours.' Ten days later the patient died. An autopsy was
held, at which sixteen physicians were present. Brownwell told
them about the somnambule's diagnosis. The body was opened,
and the spleen found to weigh fifty-seven ounces, as opposed to
the normal five.
C. F. Durant was the author of an important work on animal
magnetism, published in New York in 1837· He cited Professor
Francis Wayland of Brown University as a believer in the new
science. The book gave accounts of the lectures of Professor
Charles Poyen de St Sauveur, another Frenchman and a
disciple of Deleuze, and of the work of the former's converts - a
jeweller named Americus Potter and a Mr and Mrs William
Andros of Providence. Mrs Andros was proved capable of what
has become known as 'travelling clairvoyance' and, on.one
occasion,

20

although she had never been to India, she gave a Mr Henry

Erving of Boston rrect answers to his questions about Calcutta.
It was Durant's contention that witchcraft, water dowsing with a
stick, the rcery of India, and the charm used by the rat-catcher,
are all modified branches
- a 'hithertofore intricate science'. He adds that the gypsies
succeed in fortune- • lling because they 'receive the aid of the
magnetic fluid [and] far surpass the
t magnetic somnambulists in the country'.
By the 1840s mesmerism was being widely used for medical
diagnosis. An
e mple of this is a testimonial signed by a Mr H. A. Davis of
Natick, Massa- ~ usetts, on July 12th 1843, certifying that a
somnambule magnetized by Mr G. Gregory had examined his
mother, who lived in Alexandria, New Hampshire, 12 - miles
distant. The invalid was stated to have a tumour on the right side
of the a domen, pains and violent cramps in the stomach; her
right foot, the somnambule
ent on, was swollen and purple. All this was perfectly correct.
By then a number of magazines in America were devoting much
of their space o magnetism, and the following account appeared
in The Magnet, a periodical
·ounded by the Reverend La Roy Sunderland. It came from a
Mr R. Carter of Bo ton, who reports that French teacher at
Harvard had mesmerized a boy-of ourteen whom he had known
for only a few days, with the following results. The youth not only
described accurately sights in New York, Philadelphia,
~·ashington, Quebec, Le Havre and Brest, but also the home of
the French eacher's mother in the last city. He identified objects
in the rooms, stated that she d three daughters and two sons,
and that one of the latter was in an English
hip named The Empire - all correctly.
:\mong the famous magnetizers of the day were the Reverend
John Pierpont,
Dr D. Gilbert, the Reverend John Bovee Dods and Dr
Shattuck. Under the influence of magnetism, the latter removed
a large tumour from the shoulder of a dy who lived in Lowell,
Massachusetts, without her feeling any pain at all.
But perhaps the most famous of all magnetizers at this time
was Dr Robert Collyer, hose lectures were attended by many
thousands of people. Of him a Mr John Parshall of
Canandaigua, New York, stated, 'I do solemnly declare that Dr
Collyer n act on any part of my body. Though I am aware of his
intention, I cannot resist • e action of his will. He can cause me
to feel hot or cold, wet or dry, tall or short,
- out or spare, and in fact he can change my condition at any
time.'
Dr Lyman B. Larkin of Wrentham, Massachusetts, attempted to
cure his ·ervant, Mary Jane, of fits by mesmerizing her. She
proved able not only to
escribe her own state, but also to diagnose a number of the
doctor's patients, of ho she had never heard, and often to
prescribe for them. However, Dr Larkin reports that, while under
mesmerism, Mary Jane frequently spoke of a beautiful :my who
was with her, whom she called Katy. At other times she used
most vile guage, which she said she was compelled to do by a
'sailor boy'. Still worse, a nme came when her sailor boy took to
putting Mary Jane's limbs out of joint, and Jr Larkin had to call in
a surgeon to reset them. One day both her knees and her · ts
were twice thrown out of joint, while she bellowed with laughter
and made

21
 profane jokes. There could hardly be a clearer case of
possession.
In his Mesmerism and Christian Science, published in London in
1909, Frank Podmore states that, from the 185os onward, the
healing powers of mesmerism attracted far less attention in the
United States than its 'spiritual revelations'. Table-turning
became the rage, and everyone was eager to witness
experiments at which they hoped to behold wonders. The belief
in a magnetic fluid waned, and
the clairvoyants were left in possession of the field .

Hypnotism
As we have seen, by the middle of the nineteenth century,
powers previously credited to mesmerism were transferred to
hypnosis, and subjects previously termed somnambules were
now called mediums. The number of these grew to many
thousands, the majority being professionals who gave nightly
exhibitions in Paris, New York, London, St Petersburg, Berlin
and many other great cities.
One of the most famous mediums in France was Calixte
Renaux, who gave
 exhibitions under the control of J. J. A. Ricard. While under
hypnosis he would obey silently-given orders, play games of
cards while blindfolded, and exercise the faculty of travelling
clairvoyance. On one occasion he described the room of a
awyer and its furnishings with absolute accuracy. He then
added that there was a box on the table in the centre of the
room. The lawyer said there could not be. Renaux insisted that
there was. Several people accompanied the lawyer home. .\nd
there was the box on the table. He had taken it that morning
from its usual place in another room, and had forgotten to return
it.
Still more famous than Renaux were the Didier brothers.
Alexis and Adolph. The former was managed by J. B. Marcillet,
a one-time cavalry officer. Marcillet ould hypnotize Alexis into
such a state of rigidity that, while he was sitting in a chair with
his legs stretched out horizontally, a man could stand on his
unsupported ::highs without their giving way. He frequently gave
demonstrations of 'eyeless -·ght' by reading the contents of
letters inside boxes, paragraphs from closed books, and so on;
but the following is of special interest. The sitting was held at
Lord
Adare's house in London. A Colonel Llewellyn, who had been
wounded at Waterloo, was present only by chance, and the
Reverend G. Sandby took down these particulars of what
occurred.
Colonel Llewellyn produced a flat morocco box that looked
like a small jewel- case. It was handed to Alexis, who said, 'The
object within this case is a hard substance. It is contained in an
envelope. The envelope is whiter than the thing itself. It is a kind
of ivory. It is a bone, taken from a body- from a human body.
From your body. The bone has been cut so as to leave a flat
side.'
This was true. It was a piece of the Colonel's leg bone, sawn
off after the wound, flat towards the part that enclosed the
marrow.
Taking the bone from the case, Alexis pointed to a part of it,
and went on, ' T h e ball struck here, with extraordinary effect. Y
ou received three separate injuries at the same moment. You
were wounded in the early part of the day, whilst charging the
enemy.' All this was correct.
There are recorded many other remarkable feats performed
by Alexis while under hypnosis. He could travel mentally
wherever directed, all over the world, and bring back accurate
descriptions of people and places. He could talk with Africans
and Chinese; he clairvoyantly descended a mine in Australia
and entered into the harem of a sultan.
But at times he had his failures. Like most other mediums, he
believed these to be due to some person in the audience who
entirely disbelieved in his powers. Upon this question W. H.
Parsons wrote to his fellow-investigator Dr]. Elliotson, 'I am more
than ever convinced of the extraordinary and, as yet,
unaccountable power which scepticism has in obstructing the
faculty. I believe that if a determined
 24

ceptic has only held in his hand an object intended for a test
of iucidity, it will, in some instances, be sufficient to nullify the
efforts of a clairvoyante.'
The above was, of course, the get-out used by the
innumerable crooks who were trading on the gullibility of the
public, whenever conditions were made too rigorous for them to
get away with their trickery.
Toward the end of Alexis's season in London his failures
became more frequent. This he blamed on exhaustion and, as
Marcillet made him perform four times a day, we may well agree
that his excuse was valid. But the successes in his long career
far outnumbered his failures, and many of his feats are difficult
to attribute to fra ud.
His brother Adolph appears to have been equally gifted, and
had the same uccess in demonstrating 'eyeless vision',
diagnosis of illness, travelling clair-
·.-oyance, finding lost money, recovering stolen articles, and
so on.
A. S. Morin in his book Du magnhisme et des sciences occultes,
published in 186o, was one of the first investigators to suggest
that the theory of the magnetic fluid must be abandoned, that
the miracles of magnetism could be described in terms of magic,
and that the effects said to be produced by magnetism were
very
-imilar to those recorded among the magicians and sorcerers
of early times. While 'somnambule' and 'medium' continued for a
while to mean much the same thing to most people, among the
learned a somnambule was a person who remained under the
influence of his own spirit while in a trance, and a medium
was possessed by the discarnate spirits of others.
During the latter part of the century, the interest of the public
became greatly
aroused by spiritualism; and it was, no doubt, reluctance to
appear to be associated with such practices - a very high
proportion of which were fraudulent - that caused the great
majority of doctors in all European countries to refuse to have
anything to do with hypnotism. .
Nevertheless, the more enterprising members of the
profession continued to investigate the phenomena and employ
them for healing. Among such doctors was ]. M. Charcot. With
regard to him, I recall being told in the 1930s by my friend the
late Sir Lionel Earle, for many years Permanent Secretary of
State for the Office of Works, that, as a young medical student
at the Salpetriere in Paris, he had seen Charcot charm away a
cancer in a woman's breast.
In Britain, apart from a handful of bold spirits, the reluctance
of Victorian doctors to become involved in any form of mysticism
was still greater than that of their colleagues on the Continent;
but such investigators as James Braid, Dr John Elliotson, W. H.
Parsons, F. W. H. Myers, Dr W. Newnham, Professor William
Gregory, Sir William Barrett, George Wyld, Edmund Gurney,
Professor and Mrs Sidgwick, Dr]. M. Bramwell, Frank Podmore
and others laboured heroically.
However, as was the case in other countries, a gullible public
flocked to see exhibitions of hypnotism, many of which were
fraudulent. Thackeray and Dickens both showed their interest,
and numerous novels based upon the wielding of occult power
appeared, among them George Du Maurier's classic Trilby, in
which the villain is the mesmerist musician Svengali.
25

In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and

its committee held many long sessions of inquiry. Unfortunately,
for a number of years they placed great reliance on a Mr George
Albert Smith, who, with a partner named Douglas Blackburn,
had been making his living by giving public exhibitions of
hypnotism at Brighton. Another associate of theirs was a baker's
son, Fred Wells. During the Society's investigations, Smith was
given a free hand to choose his mediums and always used
Wells or some other young Brighton acquaintance of his. Then
his late partner, Blackburn, publicly disclosed that their act had
been a fraud. In- credible as it sounds, the committee of the
S.P.R. continued to show complete faith in Smith and retained
him as their major operator, thereby opening to question the
validity of its entire body of findings .
In the United States, psychical activities developed along
different lines. Frank Podmore pointed out that mediums in
Europe accepted the power of forces above them as 'higher
intelligences' and believed themselves to be dependent on the
will of another; whereas 'in the land of democracy we are
confronted with a singular

26

development unknown to the older monarchies. The

transatlantic seers constantly tend to be independent; they
assume the authority of the prophet; they grasp at
piritual autocracy ...'
Among the champions of this new revelation were Andrew
Jackson Davis,
Thomas Lake Harris, James Stanley Grimes and John Bovee
Dods.
Davis was the son of a drunken, uneducated shoemaker and
was born in 1826 in Blooming Grove, Orange County, New
York. As a youth he was a sleepwalker and, at times, claimed to
be directed by mysterious voices. A local tailor named William
Levingston put him into a trance, and he apparently became
capable of ·eyeless sight', could diagnose illnesses and actually
see through the skin of the
human body.
Harris was unusual in that he was never put into trances, but
entered them
pontaneously. During them he went into ecstacies and gave
expression to such works as The Hymn of Life's Completeness
and A Lyric of the Golden Age. He helped to found the
Brotherhood of the New Life and organized the Independent
Christian Church in New York.
Grimes held the belief that the planets influenced each other
and the earth, because all were connected by a substance he
termed 'etherium', which com- municated light, heat, electricity,
gravitation and 'mental emotion' from one body to another, and
one mind to another.
Dod's 'vital electricity' appears to have been a similar
conception. With it he IS reported to have cured one Hiram
Bostwick, who had an affliction that had rendered him almost
incapable of walking, and a Lucy Ann Allen of L ynchburg,
Yirginia, who had been unable to walk at all for eighteen years.
It is said that he could make people believe they were generals
or statesmen, and that he could
make them drunk on plain water.
Far more important than any of the foregoing was a New
England clockmaker
named Phineas P . Quimby. He received only six weeks .of
schooling, but became ·ery proficient at his trade, and had a
most inquiring mind. Married, and with a amily, he was a very
gentle man, and of all the American healers he had the highest
reputation for 'beauty of character and honesty of purpose'.
His greatest contribution to spiritual healing was his belief that
the process
as essentially an act of the patient's will, imagination or faith.
Although his interest was first aroused by magnetism, he later
abandoned all conceptions of a fluid which passed from the
healer to the patient, and insisted that the cure lay
olely in the healer's having the strength of will to convince the
patient that he could cure him.
Abandoning clockmaking, Quimby toured New England with
a young man of nineteen, Lucius Burkmar. Lucius was docile
and unimaginative, but when hypnotized by Q!Iimby had an
extraordinary flair for diagnosis. They are said to have made
innumerable cures. In the meantime, Q!Iimby was sorting out in
his mind the ideas that were to lead him to the conclusion that it
was not the medicine but faith in the person who practised it that
really brought about the cure. In due course he gave up as
redundant the use of a medium.

27

Toward the end of the century the Reverend Warren Felt

Evans of Vermont, and a blind doctor, James R. Cocke of
Boston, both became famed for the cures they performed
through hypnosis.
No doubt a great many more doctors, both in Europe and
America, would have taken up the study in view of its great
value for producing anaesthesia in people under surgery; but by
this time chloroform and ether, the forerunners of today's
anaesthetics, had been discovered.
We come now to the new era. One of the names that Quimby
had given to his theory of healing was the 'science of Christ',
and one of the patients whom he treated was a Miss Mary
Patterson, who later became Mrs Mary Baker Eddy and
Quimby's devoted disciple. It was, therefore, this humble
clockmaker who, through the efforts of Mrs Eddy, brought to
many millions of people a faith in their ability to conquer ill health
and render themselves free from pain.

Faith Healing
Recovery from illness ·has long been thought to depend
largely on the patient's belief in the wisdom of his doctor, and
faith in the treatment prescribed. This is equally an ingredient,
although often an unacknowledged one, in cures by mes-
merism and hypnotism. It was not, however, until Q!.Iimby
published his final conclusions, and they were widely
disseminated by the Church of Christ, Scientist, that people
were presented with the formal belief that a doctor or hypnotist
was not always required, because in many instances they might
cure themselves by having faith in their own will power.
Some people are so fully convinced of this that they refuse to
see a doctor, or allow their children to be examined by one. This
is very wrong, and contrary to the teachings of Mrs Eddy herself.
There are types of damage to the body that no amount of will
power can repair; moreover it is, surely, childish folly to endure a
long fight against pain when it can easily be alleviated by
modern drugs.
On the other hand, people are at times afflicted with ills that
defeat all remedies advised by the very best medical opinion. In
such cases it is not unreasonable to consult a faith healer -
provided his honesty and success in other cases is vouched for
by a reliable acquaintance of one's own.
Many people speak of cases in which treatment by a faith
healer has proved successful. Only a week or so ago a friend of
mine, Mr Charles Willes, the head of the Anchor Press, was
telling me that for eleven years he could neither bend down nor
reach up to a high shelf without pain in his back, and no doctor
could do any- thing for him. He then went to a lady in Colchester
who, during three visits, placed her hands on his back. That was
two years ago, and when stooping or stretching he has had no
pain in his back since then.
In the above case hands were laid on the afflicted area, but
this need not be part of the procedure; cases have been
reported of cures effected at a distance, without the healer's
having ever seen his patient, contact being established simply
by the
Opposite Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science

29
 healer through holding something that the patient had worn.
Among the more advanced races, as with the practitioners of
Christian Science,
the afflicted frequently attempt to overcome their ailments
mainly or wholly by the exertion of their own will. In the less
advanced races, the cure depends entirely on the faith of the
patient in the occult power of the healer. A case of this kind
came within my personal knowledge while I was staying with
relatives in Johannes- burg, South Africa.
One day my sister-in-law's Negro cook, Maria, complained of
severe pains in her breast. Her mistress took her to the hospital.
The doctor diagnosed advanced cancer, said she must be
operated on without delay and told her to remain in the waiting
room until a nurse came for her.
Half an hour after my sister-in-law got home, the doctor
telephoned her: 'Was Maria there?' 'No, she was not.' She had
slipped out of the hospital and dis- appeared without trace.
For a week we had no cook. She then returned, full of good
cheer and declaring herself to be perfectly well. Asked where
she had been, she replied that she had been to see the 'black
doctor', who had 'thrown the bones' for her and cured her of her
pains. And, when she was examined at the hospital, it was
found that the cancer (if cancer it had been) had vanished.

Telepathy
As we have seen, ideas passing from the mind of a
conscious person to a person less palpably aware play a great
part in hypnotism. We now have to deal with ideas that pass
silently from one conscious mind to another.
Thought-transference is as old as history. St Augustine
relates that one of his pupils asked the Carthaginian diviner,
Albicerius, to say what he, the pupil, was thinking about.
Albicerius answered correctly that the pupil was thinking about a
line of Virgil, and recited the passage, though a man of little
education.
But scientific investigation into telepathy began only in
comparatively recent times. The word was coined by F. W. H.
Myers in 1882, the year in which the Society for Psychical
Research was founded. Myers defined it as the 'apparent
transference of ideas, sensations, images and feelings from one
mind to another without the aid of the five senses'.
Modern Experiments in Telepathy by S. G. Soal and F.
Bateman gives an exhaus- tive survey of the subject. A great
part of its 400 pages records experiments con- ducted by Mr
Soal personally. It is clear that he must have devoted the greater
part of his life to supervising the guessing and checking of
thousands upon thousands of cards used in these
investigations, and in devising ever more rigorous precautions
against fraud.
Professor L. T . Troland of Harvard University was the first to
invent a machine for testing telepathy. He used a darkened box
in which a spotlight could be made to flash either to the right or
the left; the subject predicted which way the light would flash.
However, in the early days, the general practice was to use
packs of playing

30

cards. Owing to the similarity between the red or black kings

and knaves, it was soon decided to dispense with all court
cards. Dr J. B. Rhine later decided to simplify matters by having
cards made in sets of five, with the following symbols on them:
the plus sign, a circle, a rectangle, a five-pointed star and a set
of wavy lines. These were known as Zener cards. Later still, Mr
Soal substituted sets of five cards having on them an elephant,
a giraffe, a lion, a pelican and a zebra.
Two Americans who, like Mr Soal, decided to devote their
lives to investigating telepathy were Dr Joseph Banks Rhine and
his wife, Dr Louisa E. Rhine. After spending a year at Harvard
they transferred to Duke University, and it was there that most of
their experiments were carried out.
In an early experiment Hubert Pearce, one of Dr Rhine's
subjects, scored 279 hits out of 650 guesses, which is an
average of 10.7 out of every 25. Later experi- ments were made
with Pearce in a room 250 yards distant from that in which the
cards were shown. Among 1,075 trials there were 5 runs of 25
cards each with 12 hits, and I with 13, making odds in favour of
telepathy astronomical.
In 1933, Dr Rhine carried out an experiment with another
subject, Miss May Turner, who was at Lake Janaluska, while her
sender, Miss Ownbey, was 250 miles away in Durham, North
Carolina. Some of Miss Turner's scores were as high as r6 and
even 19 in series of 25, against odds that are positively
fantastic.
Whately Carington, an airman in the First World War, and a
researcher for the Air Ministry, later carried out a number of
tests in connection with extra-sensory perception at Cambridge.
One of them was a novel means of testing telepathy. Instead of
cards he used ten drawings, exposing a different one in a locked
room each night for ten consecutive nights. With the assistance
of Professor C. D. Broad, R. H. Thouless, Dr Irving and other
friends, he secured no fewer than 741 persons, in Great Britain,
the United States and Holland, to endeavour to guess each
picture, make a similar one, and send it in.
 31

The experiment did not prove particularly successful; but later

it had most interesting repercussions. He noticed that an
unusual number of guessers drew on Tuesday the type of
picture he had put up on Monday or would put up on
Wednesday. His people were picking up impressions from the
immediate past or future .
Soal incorporated this principle in his system of marking, and
he found that the average derived from the series of card
experiments conducted in 1934---9 (which consisted of 128,350
trials), when applied to z,ooo trials he made with a Mrs G.
Stewart, gave odds of more than I,ooo,ooo to I in favour of
telepathy.
The Americans have far exceeded this, as is shown by the
following extract from the front page of the London Times, where
a review appeared of an article published in The New Scientist
on October 16th 1969:
32
 FORESEEING THE FUTURE
By our Scientific Correspondent

Dr Helmuth Schmidt has devised a strange machine

consisting of push buttons and coloured lamps for his subjects.
The purpose is to guess which of the lamps will be switched on
by a special electric control which is itself controlled by a pulse
of radia- tion coming from a piece of radioactive strontium.
Unlike card guessing games used to test psychic
phenomena, the machine generates random events without
human intervention. [My italics.]
Dr Schmidt, who did this work at the Boeing Scientific
Research Laboratories in Seattle, tested 100 subjects, but found
only a small number with abnormal scores. He says exploratory
tests suggest that performance depends on the mood of the
individuals.
 33

His three best subjects obtained a performance of predicting

which bulbs would light that could be obtained by chance with a
probability of 1 in five hundred million. These experiments are
believed to represent as conclusive a proof of the reality of
extra sensory perception as the phenomena would seem to
admit.
Yet even that is not the highest point. At the rooms of the
Society for Psychical Research in New York, in one run of
twenty-five cards, a Miss Lillian Levine guessed the first fifteen
cards correctly. The odds against this as having been due to
chance work out at about 3o,ooo,ooo,ooo to 1 .
It is of interest that so many eminent philosophers - among
them Professor C. D. Broad of Cambridge and H. H. Price of
Oxford; Mr C. W. K. Mundie, Head of the Department of
Philosophy at University College, Dundee; and Anthony G. N.
Flew, Professor of Philosophy at Keele University - have all
repeatedly expressed their conviction of the soundness of the
evidence for extra- sensory perception. And Professor A. M.
Turing, writing in Mind (October 1950) on 'Computing Machinery
and Intelligence', said, 'These disturbing phenomena seem to
deny all our usual scientific ideas; how we should like to
discredit them! Unfortunately, the evidence, at least for
telepathy, is overwhelming.'
As we have seen, mesmerism, hypnotism, faith healing and
telepathy are all inextricably interwoven, and during the
investigation of them there have been
endless wrangles among their practitioners about the source
and type of power which makes them effective. That does not
form part of our inquiry. All we are concerned with is to show
that diagnoses can be made, illnesses cured, passages from
closed books read through their covers, stolen articles located,
the contents described of rooms that have never been visited,
distance annihilated by mental travel, and other apparent
miracles performed without any normal means of
communication. In short, by an invisible influence.

Premonitions
So far we have dealt only with the possibility that rays from
the heavenly bodies may affect human conduct, and that
impulses may be sent deliberately from one human brain to
another.
But there are other phenomena which remain unaccounted
for. It is not un- common for a person suddenly to become
convinced that a close friend or relation, of whom he has heard
nothing for a considerable time, has just died; or for a person to
become subject to an overwhelming feeling that, a~though he
has already paid for a ticket, he should not set out on a journey
to which he has much looked forward - to learn later that, had he
ignored this psychic warning, he would probably have died in a
plane or train crash.
Closely allied to the latter type of premonition is the
experience recounted by Mr ]. W. Dunne, the author of An
Experiment with Time, which caused such a sensation when it
first appeared.
One night in the autumn of 1913, he tells us, he dreamt that
he was looking from a high railway embankment at a scene
which he recognized as being situated

34

"ttle to the north of the Forth Bridge. Below him was the open
grassland, with ups of people walking about. The dream came
and went several times, and v in one dream, he noticed that a
train going north had fallen over the aclanent. Thinking that this
was perhaps one of a type of prophetic dreams "ch he
occasionally had, he attempted to focus his mind on the date
of_the "dent, but was able only to form the impression that it
would happen some time
 the following spring. . _·ext morning he told his sister about
his dream and they spoke of warmng ir friends who might come
north the next spring not to come by that route. :\pril 14th 1914
the Flying Scotsman jumped the parapet near Burntisl_and
- tion about fifteen miles north of the Forth Bridge, and fell on
to the golf hnks '
enty feet below. . . . . One of the many scientists who, in the
past century, proclaimed their behef m -sensory perception was
the distinguished French astronomer, Professor Camille
Flammarion. He collected a great number of examples of
happenings that ald not be accounted for by normal means,
mostly vouched for by responsible ple and published them in a
three-volume work Death and Its Mystery: Vol. ·Before Death';
Vol. 2, 'At the Moment of Death'; and Vol. 3, 'After Death'.
I ..·Ye below a number of examples from Vol. 1.
-Thomas Garrison lived twenty miles from his mother's house
near Ozark,
· ouri. One night he was attending a religious service. He had
not seen his ther for two months, and at about ten o'clock felt a
sudden need to do so. It e so overwhelming that he left the
church before the service was over, and to the railway station;
but he missed the last train. Obsessed by the thought he must
reach his mother without delay, he set off to walk a large part of
the ":;tance along the railway track, and reached her house at
three in the morning. ere he roused his sister and asked where
their mother was. She replied that eir mother, who was perfectly
well, had gone to bed at about ten o'clock, as they ed to get up
early and go into town in the morning. Garrison then asserted
their mother was dead. On going upstairs they found that was
so.
Dr L. Mougeri, Alienist at the Royal Italian Hospital,
Constantinople, reported one day a relative of his said to him at
about half-past eleven in the morning, can't think why, but since
this morning I cannot rid myselfof the thought that · aunt has
died in Geneva.' The man had quarrelled with his family ten
years . ore and had had no news of them since; but, while he
was still at Dr Mougeri's e,'his servant arrived bringing a
telegram from Geneva, announcing that his
~ had died suddenly that morning.
_ lady living in Limerick had a treasured servant named Nelly
Hanlon, who e day asked for the day off to attend a fair a few
miles away. The request was
readily granted, but when told of the matter the lady's
husband objected because .· had guests coming to dinner; he
would be late returning from his office, and d been counting on
Nelly to get the wine up. Nevertheless, Nelly was allowed ~ off
on her jaunt. That evening, followed by another servant carrying
a basket - ld the bottles, the lady herself went down to get the
wine. As she descended

35

the cellar steps she gave a loud cry and fainted. When she
had been carried up to her bed, the girl who been with her told
the other servants that she and her mistress had both seen
Nelly at the foot of the stairs, dripping from head to foot with
water. Nelly did not return that night or on the following day. She
had been seen at the fair, but afterwards had completely
disappeared. No one ever discovered how tragedy had
overtaken her. Later, her drowned body was found in the river.
A lawyer wrote that, in January 1909, he was living at St
Martin-des-Noyers, while negotiating for a practice at Moutiers-
les-Mauxfaits, where his parents lived. On the 9th of that month
he went there, as he did every month, and spent a few hours
with them. Both were in excellent health, and some days later he
had word from his mother that they were both very well. On the
night of the 30th to 31st he dreamt that he was at their house. In
the drawing-room there was a crowd of people round an
improvised bed of boards and a mattress, on which his father
was lying. He began to weep. This awoke his wife, who asked
what was the matter with him. He replied, 'It is nothing. I have
just had a senseless dream. I dreamt that Papa was dead.'
Having noticed that it was half-past five, they both again fell
asleep without anxiety. The next day he learnt that his father
had suddenly been taken ill at eleven o'clock the previous
evening, had been laid on an im- provised bed in the drawing-
room and died at precisely half-past five in the morning.
In the correspondence of a Duchesse d'Orleans who lived
early in the eighteenth century, a letter records the following.
The husband of one of her ladies-in-waiting, a Monsieur de
Longueil, brought back from Canada with him an Indian. One
day when they were at table the Indian's face suddenly became
convulsed, and he burst into tears. Asked what ailed him, he
replied to de Longueil, 'Through the window I have just seen
your brother murdered at a certain spot in Canada.' They
declared that the Indian was mad, but he insisted that they
should write an account of his vision. Six months later a ship
arrived with the news that de Longueil's
brother had been murdered at the exact time and place given
by the Indian. Going back to the first century A.D., a vision seen
by Apollonius of Tyana was vouched for by the population of a
whole city. The philosopher was lecturing to a crowd of several
hundred people in a park outside Ephesus. Suddenly he faltered
in his discourse, became at a loss for words, then recovered and
cried joyfully, Ephesians! The tyrant has been killed today. [He
was referring to the Emperor Domitian.JWhat am I saying? He
was killed at the very instant I stopped speaking. Rome herself
is only just learning of it, and the people are running through the
streets, wild with joy.' The Ephesians refused to believe him, but
shortly after- wards messengers arrived in Asia Minor, and they
confirmed that Domitian had been assassinated at noon, the
very moment Apollonius had announced the fact. Pope Pius V
was also sent a vision. While looking out of a window in the
Vatican, he exclaimed to his companions, 'Let us go to the altar
to give thanks to God; our army has just won a great victory.' He
had witnessed the closing phase of the defeat of the Turkish
armada by the Christian forces under Don Juan of Austria, at the
Battle of Lepanto, 6oo miles away, which proved to be a turning-
point in
the history of the world.

36
 h may be argued that all the above, and innumerable similar
examples that d be quoted, are due to thought-transference -
messages sent out by the person 17 (even the aunt in Geneva,
although she had not seen her nephew for ten
) or others witnessing the event. But those that follow, also
from Camille arion, cannot be explained as having emanated
from any human brain.
Lady Eardley related that, as a young girl, she had a slight
attack of measles. . - er three or four days in her room, her
grandmother told her she might have a th. As she was about to
get into it, she heard a voice say clearly, 'Open the
r. She was naturally astounded, as there was no one with her
in the bathroom. e voice repeated, 'Open the door.' She was a
little frightened, but decided that e must be light-headed and had
imagined it; so she got into the bath. For a · d time the command
was given to her, and so impressively that she got out d
unlocked the door. As she stepped into her bath again she
fainted and fell
in the water. Fortunately she was just able to snatch at and
pull the bell-rope. • ·en·ant ran in and found her with her head
under water. If the door had been
·ed, she would have been drowned before she could have
been rescued. Professor Boehm, a teacher of mathematics at
Marburg, was spending an ening with friends, when he was
seized with the conviction that he ought to
rum home. This feeling was so strong that he gave way to it
and left his friends 1_·. When he reached his house he found
everything in order, but felt a com- ive urge to change the
position of his bed. With his servants' help he moved o the other
end of the room. In the middle of the night part of the ceiling
apsed, and a heavy beam, which might well have killed him,
came down where
- bed had previously been.
.\ ~1onsieur A. Saurel relates that in 1911, while a civilian, he
had a dream in
·ch he saw very clearly an old, fortified farm that had a brook
near it, and the ounding landscape, all of which was completely
strange to him. More sur- rising, he was dressed as an officer
and nearby there were a number of soldiers horizon-blue
uniforms who wore helmets of a strange shape. The following
day told his friends of his dream, then thought no more about it.
With 1914 came ar, and he became a lieutenant. A time arrived
when his regiment was sent place behind the line in the Aube. In
every particular it was the same as he een in his dream, except
that there was no brook. An adjutant came up and
- ed him if he had any idea where they could get water for
their tired, dusty men. replied at once, 'There is a brook nearby.
As it's not here, it must be on the
er side of the house.' And so it was.
On June 27th 1894 Dr Gallet, then a student of medicine at
Lyons, was working
· room with a fellow student named Varay. Both were
concentrating entirely preparing for an examination that was
shortly to take place, and neither was -·erested in politics. That
day the electoral congress was to meet at noon at "ersailles to
elect a new President of the Republic, and of the various
candidates . {onsieur Casimir-Perier was expected to get only
third place. Well before noon, et suddenly felt impelled to write
under the notes he was making, 'Monsieur '-""'·~ll.U . -Perier is
elected President of the Republic by 451 votes.' Utterly amazed,

37

Gallet showed Varay what he had written, but Varay

brusquely told him to stop fooling and leave him to get on with
his work. After lunch they went to attend a lecture at the Faculty.
On the way they met two other students and Gallet told them of
this extraordinary premonition; then, in spite of their laughter he
repeated it. When they came out of class the four friends went to
a cafe. There the papers had arrived, announcing that Casimir-
Perier had been elected (with a majority of 28) by receiving 451
votes.
Early in 1865 a Signor Vincent Sassaroli went to live at
Sarteano and became the director of a band of thirty-four
musicians. The band practised in a room on the third floor of a
house belonging to Canon Dom Bacherini. When they met for
their first rehearsal, Sassaroli declared the house to be unsafe,
and he predicted a day and hour when it would crumble from the
roof to the first floor. The house was examined by an architect,
who declared it to be perfectly sound, but only with great
difficulty was Sassaroli persuaded to continue the rehearsals
there. His colleagues made a joke of the whole matter and
thought him slightly mad. However, on the day predicted he
pleaded so fervently that they should leave the house with him
that they agreed. As they trooped downstairs he begged them to
tread softly, for fear that the weight of them all might hasten the
fall of the building. They reached the street only just in time. At
exactly the hour predicted the building collapsed. Everyone in
the town had known of this prediction.
Baron Joseph Kronhelm reported the following account of the
death of an official in the Russian Marine, named Lukawski.
Madame Lukawski was awakened one night by her husband's
groaning, then shouting, 'Help! Save me!' When he was fully
awake he told her that he had dreamt that he was on board a
big ship which had a collision with another. He had been flung
out into the sea and had struggled with another man for a
lifebuoy. Although he got it, he went under and drowned.
Lukawski was so fully convinced that he was destined to die in
this way fairly soon that he at once started to arrange his affairs.
Two months later he received an order to sail in the ship
Wladimir to a port on the Black Sea. Before leaving he recalled
his dream to his wife, and told her sadly that he would never see
her again. The Wladimir collided with another ship, the Sineus.
Lukawski was flung into the sea. Nearby another passenger,
named Henicke, was holding on to a lifebuoy. Lukawski made a
grab for it. Henicke shouted, 'Don't do that! it will not support two
people. We shall both be drowned.' In spite of this, and yelling
that he could not swim, Lukawski seized the buoy; upon which
Henicke let go and cried, 'Then take it. I'm a good swimmer.' At
that moment they were separated by a big wave. Lukawski was
drowned, but Henicke was saved, and he recounted how he had
let Lukawski have the lifebuoy.
Another report in the Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research was given by a Captain MacGowan. While in Brooklyn
with his two young sons, who were on holiday, he promised to
take them to the theatre, booked seats and paid for them. On
the morning of the day they were going, an inner voice repeated
insis- tently to him, 'Don't go to the theatre. Take your sons back
to school.' Reluctantly he told his sister and some friends who
were also going that he had decided not to

38

·e the boys. They were so reproachful at his denying his sons

this treat that he said they would go after all. But the voice
continued to nag him the whole afternoon. £ :entually he gave in
to it, changed his mind again and told the boys that he was
taking them back to New York. That evening the theatre was
entirely destroyed
_· fire. His sister, who was sitting in a different part of the
house from where he ould have sat, escaped; but 305 people
either perished in the flames or were
shed to death.
Prince Radziwill adopted one of his nieces, named Agnes,
because she was an
rphan. They lived in a castle in Galicia. In it there was a very
large salon, situated ·een the apartments of the Prince and
those of the children, so they frequently d to pass through it.
During her childhood, whenever the Countess Agnes tered the
salon she uttered screams of terror and pointed at a huge
picture of e Cumaean Sibyl that hung over the double doors. In
due course the Countess me engaged to be married, and a
great reception was given to celebrate the ·ent. That everting it
was intended that the company should play games in the g
salon. Agnes was persuaded by her guests to go into it first;
then she was ddenly again seized with terror. She attempted to
draw back, but her laughing "ends shut the door behind her. In
vain she shook at it. The movement brought
own the weighty picture; it broke her skull and she died
instantly.
Flammarion recorded over 4,ooo cases in support of a belief in
extra-sensory rception, but I feel it would be redundant to draw
upon him, or other sources,
r further examples.
.\s the reader will have observed, many of these silent, mental
communications
could not reasonably have had their origin either through the
effect of cosmic rays r through transmission from one human
brain to another.
•
Therefore such foreknowledge of coming events can perhaps
best be explained : the action on us of invisible forces. Indeed,
one might well conclude that pulses to sacrifice our own
interests for the good of others, or to succumb to the emptation
to do evil, are inspired by those ubiquitous Powers that we
loosely
erm God or the Devil.

39
PART 2

Predestination or Free
Will?
Introductory
Impulses to do good or ill occur continually in our daily lives.
Mostly they concern only small matters, but occasionally they
involve one of such great importance that the decision taken
may affect the whole course of our futures . This raises the
question: when, apparently, making these decisions, do we
really have any choice? _\re the Arab philosophers right in their
contention that 'the fate of every man is bound about his brow'?
Or do we have free will, and if so to what extent?
The methods used by various peoples for foretelling events
are innumerable. Let us examine those most widely known.
 Astrology
The ancients, particularly those of Chaldea, Egypt and Mexico,
were most know-
edgeable in astronomy, and they regarded astrology as an
equally exact science. They firmly believed that the future of
both nations and individuals could be read in the stars, and a
considerable section of their priesthoods was engaged solely in
drawing up horoscopes.
T he procedure consisted in plotting the positions of the Sun,
Moon and planets in the twelve houses of the zodiac, as near as
possible--to the points at which those dies were situated at the
moment of a person's birth, and interpreting their
elationships according to rules whose origin is lost in the
mists of antiquity.
Each heavenly body was credited with certain qualities and
believed to exert its
influence for good or ill. Their principal qualities, and their
symbols, are:

41
 Figures personifying the heavenly bodies that were believed
to rule the days of the week; and a mystical diagram
From the above it will be seen that basically the Sun,
Mercury, Venus and Jupiter are beneficent, and that the Moon,
Mars and Saturn are associated with certain malevolent
qualities. Mars squared by Saturn is a most sinister sign, as it
indicates a tendency to manic-depression. Hitler had it in his
horoscope. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were discovered only in
comparatively recent times. The possible influences of the two
former have been assessed by modern astrologers, who have
compared the known characteristics of a great number of
persons with the positions of those planets in their horoscopes.
Pluto, however, is so small and so distant from the Earth that
such influence as it may exert is regarded as of little importance.
In the East, horoscopes are still cast for male children of
upper-class parents, and such was the case in Europe duriRg
the classical era. Neatanebus, King of Egypt, was both a great
sorcerer and a great astrologer. It is said that he stood beside
his daughter Olympias when she was about to give birth to
Alexander the Great. Having cast a horoscope for the day and
hour, he persuaded her to withhold the birth until he gave the
word. At the most propitious moment he gave it, then told her
that her child would become the master of the world.
No doubt the practice of casting horoscopes continued here
and there in Europe during the Middle Ages. But, to form an
opinion of the degree of success that can be achieved by these
means, we must move on to more recent centuries.
With the revival of interest in astrology through Latin
translations of Arabic texts left by the Greeks, from the
Renaissance onward horoscopes were cast of royal and noble
children. Many have been recorded. Here are a few events pre-
dicted in them, which came to pass:
That King Henry II of France would receive a fatal injury in a
joust. That his son, King Henry III, would be assassinated.

42

That the Marquis de Cinque Mars would become King Louis

XIII's closest friend, but, by his order, be executed for
conspiracy.
That Louis XIV (the Sun King) would reign in a splendour
surpassing that of all his predecessors; that throughout his life
h e w o u l d b e c o n s t a n t l y a f fl i c t e d w i t h d e a t h s a n d
disappointments in his family, but that he would be most
fortunate in the ministers he chose to advise him.
It was predicted to both Giovanni de' Medici and Marcel
Cervin that they would be popes - to the first by the astrologer
Louis Gaurie and to the second by his astrologer father;
Giovanni became Leo X and Marcel became Marcellus II.
According to astrologers, everybody's character partakes to
some extent of the qualities of the sign of the zodiac paramount
at his birth. But each sign is ruled by one of the heavenly bodies;
and it is this which, all else being equal, determines the type of
personality.
The twelve signs of the zodiac with the periods during which
the Sun passes through them, are:

T he horoscope illustrated is that of the author, as cast by

Miss J. M . Revill in October 1965. It is an interesting example of
how the position of the heavenly bodies at the hour of birth may
overcome otherwise unfavourable omens.
T he date of my birth is January 8th. That is within three days
of the centre of the Sun's period in Capricorn, and that sign is
ruled by Saturn. Moreover, each heavenly body is associated
with a number, and Saturn's number is 8. As Saturn · the most
malevolent of all the planets, normally there could be no more
un- -ortunate date on which to be born. I should have been a
morbid introvert, prone to accidents, made miserable by one
disappointment after another, and an utter
ailure in everything I undertook.
Yet the fact is that I am a cheerful, sociable person. I have
derived great happiness
rom my family, my many friends, my work, and the wide
appreciation it has received.
All this is due to the position of the heavenly bodies in my
horoscope. It will
 43

be seen that the sign Leo is on the ascendant. The Moon is

in close trine (the most favourable aspect) both to Uranus and to
Saturn, the dispositor of the Sun in Capricorn. Beyond all, the
Sun itself is in trine to Jupiter. That is the most for- tunate of
positions, promising protection, wealth and fame.
I had never met Miss Revill; but, having delineated my
character with great accuracy, she gave the years in my life that
had proved the most important, and why - none of which could
she have learnt through ordinary channels. Regardi~g my future,
she predicted that, although I was then sixty-nine, I was entering
on the best years of my life, arid that when I was seventy-two or
seventy-three (I am now seventy-three) I should be writing an
unusual book. It had not then even occurred to me to undertake
a work of this kind.
I should stress that horoscopes lightly undertaken are of very
little value. Exactitude in both the time of birth and in plotting the
position of the heavenly bodies is essential; one must also
interpret correctly the effect of each upon the other. The houses
of the zodiac are divided into quadruplicities - cardinal, fixed and
mutable; also into triplicities - fire, earth, air, water. These, with
the aspects, all have to be considered.
For those who are interested, there are available many books
dealing with astrology. Among them I particularly recommend
The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish, who devotes over fifty
pages to this subject, and many more to giving

44

in greater detail than is possible here, owing to the ground I

have to cover, other methods of foretelling the future.

Numerology
This is closely allied to astrology and is said to have its
origins in the learning of the ancient Hindus. Their priesthood
was sufficiently far advanced in the science of astronomy to be
aware of the precession of the equinoxes, which is completed
once every 25,827 years; so one cannot lightly dismiss their
belief in astrology and the potency of numbers. The belief they
held was that each heavenly body is
associated with a number, which partakes of its qualities.
According to Cheiro's Book ofNumbers, these associations are
as follows:
 The date of a person's birth automatically associates him with
one number, but that produced by substituting the above
numbers for the letters of his name is considered even more
important. Should the two be the same, that obviously greatly
increases the influence of the planet associated with that
number and adds to the potency gained when a person uses
that number to further his projects.
Compound numbers have special meanings, but for general
purposes all should be reduced to a single dig~t. As, for
example: 28 (2 + 8) reduces to 1, 65 (6 + 5 = 11) to 2, and so
on.
Number Ones, being Sun people, are positive: creative,
determined, ambitious. They dislike restraint, make themselves
respected and generally rise to positions of authority. Number
Ones 'look after Number One'. They get on best with people
ho are Twos, Fours or Sevens, and their most fortunate days
are Sundays and _Iondays, particularly if these fall on the 1st,
1oth, 19th or 28th of the month. Their lucky colours are gold,
yellow and brown; their lucky stones topaz and
amber.
Number Twos, being Moon people, are imaginative, artistic,
romantic, but they
are not forceful and are seldom strong physically. Habitually
they take second place. They get on best with people who are
Ones, and to a lesser degree with evens. Their most fortunate
days are Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Their
 45

lucky colours are white, cream and green; their lucky stones
pearls, moonstones and jade.
Number Threes, being Jupiter people, love authority, order
and discipline. They are trustworthy, conscientious and proud,
but inclined to be dictatorial. They get on best with people who
are Sixes and Nines. Their most fortunate days are Thursdays,
Fridays and Tuesdays. Their lucky colours are mauve, purple,
crimson and rose; their lucky stone is amethyst.
Number Fours, being Uranus people, are born rebels often
opposed to generally accepted customs. They are sensitive,
lonely and rarely successful in worldly matters. People having
this unfortunate number do not easily acquire friends, but their
best chance is with Number Ones, because Uranians are also
influenced by the Sun. Their best days are Saturdays, Sundays
and Mondays. Their lucky colours are grey, electric blue and half
shades; their lucky stone is the sapphire.
Number Fives, being Mercury people, are prompt in thought
and decision, highly strung and quick to recover from
misfortune. They crave every kind of excitement and are great
gamblers; commerce brings them good money. They make
friends easily and are liked by people having any of the other
numbers. Their lucky days are Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Fridays. They can wear any colour, but should choose light
'ones; their lucky stone is the diamond.
Number Sixes, being Venus people, are artistic, generous
and lovers of the beautiful. They are determined, at times to the
point of obstinacy, but very considerate of others, who become
devoted to them. Their character attracts many friends to them,
particularly Threes and Nines. Their best days are Tuesdays
and Fridays. Their lucky colours are all shades of blue and pink;
their lucky stone is the turquoise.
Number Sevens, being Neptune people, are restless and
independent and pro- duce original ideas. They are great
travellers, and good writers and painters, but not very fortunate
over money matters. The number 7 is associated in many ways
with mysticism, so its people are much more psychic than
others. They often have the gift of intuition and clairvoyance.
Their best chance of making friends is with Number Twos,
because Neptunians are also influenced by the Moon. Their best
days are Sundays and Mondays. Their lucky colours are green,
white and yellow; their lucky stones cats'-eyes, pearls and
moonstones.
Number Eights, being Saturn people, have intense natures
and great strength of individuality, but they are frequently
misunderstood and lead very lonely lives. They are playthings of
fate, and, although they occasionally rise to high positions, they
are more frequently subjected to losses, sorrows and
humiliations. As Number Eights appear cold and
undemonstrative, they do not attract friends easily, and they
should always avoid associating with Number Fours, as the
bringing together of these two numbers almost invariably results
in misfortune or tragedy. Their best days are Saturdays,
Sundays and Mondays. Their lucky colours are dark grey, dark
blue and black; their lucky stones the dark sapphire and black
pearl.
Number Nines, being Mars people, are born fighters,
impulsive, courageous and hasty-tempered. They make good
leaders, but resent criticism. Their home

46

life is rarely peaceful, and they are peculiarly prone to

accidents from fire and explosions. They get on best with people
who are Threes or Sixes. Their lucky days are Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Fridays, their lucky colours are red, crimson and
pink; their lucky stones ruby, garnet and bloodstone.
To illustrate the way in which to arrive at the numerical
equivalent of one's name, I give my own.
 It will be seen that, if I were generally known by the whole of
my name, I should be saddled with the unfortunate 4· This, in
conjunction with my birth number 8, could prove positively
catastrophic.
Fortunately I never use my middle name, and it is the name
by which you are known - even if it be an adopted one or a
nickname - that counts. So my name, as well as my birth
number, is 8.
The lives of comparatively few people have, I imagine, been
so dominated by one number as mine has. From this point of
view, the following list of events may be of interest. It should be
remarked that when relating one's number to years the century
is ignored and only the last two numerals are added together.

First big change in life. Sent to boarding school at the age of

8.
Second big change in life. Received first commission, in I9I4,
at the age of 17,
which equals 8.
Sent to the Western Front on 8.8.I9I7. A triple 8.
Third big change in life. January I9I9, went into the family
 wine business at 26 South Audley Street: 8.
Fourth big change in life. Married June I924 at the age of 26:
8.
My father died and I inherited the business in I926: 8.
Fifth big change in life. Second marriage, 8.8.I931. A double
8. Sixth big change in life. In I932 started to write at the age
of 35: 8.

47

In 1934 went to live at No.8 StJohn's Wood Park: 8.

Seventh big change in life. Commissioned in R.A.F.V.R. in
1941 at the age of 44: 8.
Eighth big change in life. Returned to civilian life and bought
new home at Lymington in December 1944: 8.

From the above it would appear that, the Saturnian 8 being

so paramount in my life, it should have been one of gloom,
isolation and failure. Moreover, it does portend that it may yet be
my fate to be ruined through becoming involved in some terrible
tragedy. But, so far, the malefic influence of Saturn has been
nullified by other influences.
Hundreds of people think of me simply as Dennis, which
brings the resilient qualities of Number 5 into play. This is doubly
reinforced by the fact that there are no fewer than six ss in the
fourteen letters of my name and that Mercury, the associate of
5, is well aspected in my horoscope. But I have no doubt that I
owe my immunity to my Sun in Capricorn trine to Jupiter, and
my great good fortune to my double numbers. Wheatley equals
30, giving mental qualities, and Dennis equals 23, the luckiest of
all numbers to have. It is called the Royal Star of the Lion. It
promises help and protection from those in high places, and
great success.
I have dwelt at some length upon my own numbers for a
definite reason. I feel sure that many readers, having reached
this point in the book, will proceed to work out their own
numbers. I wished to show that, should they prove to be 4 or 8,
their owners should not be unduly cast down, because, as in my
case, the ill fortune foreboded by these unlucky numbers may
well be diverted from them by other, more fortunate, influences.
Before leaving this subject, I will add a few further points of
interest.
While to make oneself a slave to numbers would lead to a
stupid restriction of one's activities, believers in numerology
select, as far as is practicable, dates in the month that tally with
one's number for entering on matters of special significance,
such as signing important documents, setting out on a long
journey, moving to a new home and so on. And if the date also
falls on one of the lucky days associated with your number, so
much the better.
Single women usually derive their numbers from the Christian
names they use, coupled with their surnames. All women are
subject to the Moon and so, to some extent, have its fluid
quality. They are more adaptable to change than men, and
when they marry, particularly for love, take pleasure in sharing
their husband's tastes and pursuits, even if they have had no
previous interest in them. Therefore, if their numbers are
changed by their married names, these new numbers will tend
to supplant their unmarried ones.

Opposite The 'magic square of squares', considered to have

occult properties; and correspondences held by the Cabalists to
exist between parts of the hand and astrological principles,
denoted by letters and numbers

48
 It is believed by numerologists that, by a change of name, a
person can bring more fortunate influences to bear upon
himself. For example, Pat adds to I3, and so has the unfortunate
number 4· By making her friends call her Patricia, she could
become a 3· Edward adds to 22, which is also a 4· To change to
Ted would be useless, as that makes I3, but as Eddie he would
become a 1. Will is another I3, but as William he could be a I, or
as Bill a 9· Violet adds to 26, and so is an 8. By becoming
known as Vi, she would be a 7.
Where modifications of a name are not possible, the adoption
of a nickname having a fortunate number would serve the same
purpose.
This changing of numbers, it is said, also affects homes. A
person living at No. 4 or 8 could possibly change the influences
by ceasing to use the number and giving the house a name, the
letters of which made a favourable number.
The number given by occultists to Jesus Christ is 888. This
reduced to a single digit is 6, the number of Venus, the symbol
of Love.
The number of the Beast (Man) is given in the Book of
Revelation as 666. Reduced to a single digit it is 9, the number
of Mars, the symbol of war and destruction.

Cheirognomy and Cheiromancy

Prediction by examining the shape of the hands and the lines
on them - commonly known as palmistry - is said to have
originated in the earliest Aryan civilization, and has continued to
be very popular ever since.
An officer in Marlborough's army defined war as 'long periods
of acute boredom interspersed by short intervals of intense fear'.
That, I think, is a very apt descrip- tion of war in any age. During
my time on the Western Front I was indeed altern- ately bored to
tears and frightened out of my wits. To relieve the many days of
tedium, I sent for what I still believe to be the best book on
palmistry, Cheiro's L anguage o f the Hand, and set about
teaching myself to tell fortunes by this means.
I soon found the formation of the hand, as an indication to a
person's character, to be remarkably accurate.
There are seven types of hand :
I. The Elementary: coarse, clumsy and thick, with a heavy
palm and short
fingers, indicating the lowest type of mentality.
2. The Square, which is also known as the useful. It indicates
orderliness,
punctuality, conformity to habit and respect for authority.
3· The Spatulate. This has thick finger-tips. It indicates
energy and enthusiasm,
but also a restless disposition.
4· The Philosophic: long, angular and bony. Those who have
it are nearly
always keen students. They gain wisdom but not money.
5· The Conic, with the palm and fingers slightly tapering. This
indicates a love
of beauty and luxury, an artistic but not very business-like
personality.
6. The Psychic, an exaggerated version of the Conic, with
very slim, smooth fingers. It is an unworldly hand, and
therefore unfortunate, but also an indica-
tion of psychic gifts.

50
 7· The Mixed, so described only because it cannot be
classed as one of the others.

Generally speaking, nearly all hands are to some extent

mixed. Many have e palms with conic fingers, which is an
excellent combination, as it gives ctical ability to employ an
artistic talent, and there are many other varieties in · h one bad
feature is offset by a good one. People with small hands have
large often in excess of their capabilities; people with large ones
do nearly all te work - jewel-setters and engravers usually have
large hands. The texture ~ e hand is of great importance.
Flabbiness shows an irresolute, lazy nature; ess and resilience
indicate self-reliance and determination. Hair on the back
e hand is said to indicate vanity.
e thumb differentiates man from animals, and so is the dominant
feature of
 hand. It should be long and stand well away from the first
finger, but not at ggerated angle. The first or nail phalanx
denotes will, the second one logic the basal part love. A supple-
jointed thumb indicates extravagance; a firm- - ed thumb a much
stronger will. If the nail phal~nx is club-like, it proclaims

51

a violent temper. If the lower phalanx is waisted, this shows

tact. If the basal part of the thumb is excessively plump and the
phalanges comparatively short, the person is likely to be ruled
by strong sexual urges.
Both the shape and length of the fingers have their
meanings. Long fingers show love of detail in work,
surroundings and dress. Short fingers show impulsive- ness and
impatience about all minor matters. Crooked fingers on a bad
hand are signs of a distorted, evil nature. Knobbly knuckles
indicate a gift for mathematics; and spatulate finger-tips,
mechanical ability. The nails can reveal inherited physical
weaknesses: filbert-shaped, liability to lung trouble; squarish,
bad circulation and possibly heart trouble; shell-shaped,
paralysis. The comparative length of the fingers can be a key to
the character. A first finger which is unusually long indicates lust
for power; the second, morbid introspection; the third, artistic
genius; the
fourth, a gift for oratory, languages and success in
commerce.
These qualities are also indicated if there are small fleshy pads,
called mounts, on the palm at the base of the fingers. That
under the first finger is known as the Mount of Jupiter; under the
second, Saturn; the third, Apollo; and the fourth, Mercury. If one
finger is exceptionally long and there is a mount beneath it, this
naturally intensifies the quality. In addition to the above there
is the Mount of Venus. This is the one .at the base of the thumb.
If almost flat, it shows lack of virility; if full, a heaithy capacity for
passion; if excessive, an obsession with sex. The Mount of the
Moon is on the opposite side of the hand. Its development in-
dicates imagination, idealism, a romantic nature and a love of
travel.
There are two Mounts of Mars. The first, Positive, below the Line
of Life and between the Mounts of Jupiter and Venus, indicates
the degree of courage of the subject; if excessive, a
quarrelsome disposition. The second, Negative, lying between
the Mounts of Mercury and the Moon, denotes self-control and
fortitude. Given this knowledge, and the ability to assess how
the quality indicated by each physical portion of the hand is
increased or modified by the others, the palmist may predict with
reasonable certainty what a person will do in any given circum-
stances.
The lines also reveal certain aspects of character and inform the
palmist con-
cerning the subject's past and his prospects. To be at their
best, with one exception all the principal lines, those of Life,
Head, Heart, Fate and Fortune (also called the Sun) should be
clearly marked and unbroken. The exception is the Line of
Health; the less it shows the better. It is by the position of the
lines on the hand, their relation to one another and the breaks or
islands on them that the subject's past and future can be told.
But this is a much more difficult undertaking than that of
delineating character. As in the case with the position of the
planets in a horoscope, great experience is needed to assess
how a bad patch on one line may be modified by the condition of
others and particularly the effect that the many minor lines can
have on the principal ones.
Incidentally, it might be expected that a seamstress or
packer, who is constantly using the hands, would develop many
more lines on the palms than a person who

52
 -es his hands very little. This is far from being the case.
Working-class people ormally have few but the principal lines to
show, whereas the palms of those who ·e by their intellect, or
have many interests, are criss-crossed by a network. For
• e lines are not the product of physical exertion but of activity
in the brain.
It is generally accepted that the left hand discloses the attributes
and inclinations
e have inherited, and the right what we have made of them.
The Line of Life rises under the Mount of Jupiter, and runs down
the hand circling the Mount of Venus. The longer and clearer it
is, the longer the expecta-
tion of life. A definite break in it indicates a premature death,
unless, alongside • e break and inside it, there is another,
usually fainter line. This is the Line of . 1ars, which would reduce
the probability of death to a very serious'illness or ccident. When
the Line of Life forks at the lower end, it indicates that the
subject
will probably spend the latter part of his life and die in a
country other than that which he was born.
The Line of Head begins on the Mount of Jupiter, tied to the
Line of Life, or • om the Mount of Mars Positive, and runs across
the hand. When clear and un- roken it shows intellectual
strength; if irregular, the reverse. A good Line of Head, rising on
Jupiter and just touching the Line of Life, indicates an exception-
ally powerful intellect. When the Line of Head rises from the Line
of Life, but is ·ed to it, this shows a nervous disposition, an
excess of caution and domination by ents or others early in life.
A Line of Head rising from the Mount of Mars is d, showing a
nervous and irritable disposition. When running straight across •
e palm it shows practical common sense. When sloping slightly
downward, ginative qualities. When it runs slightly upward, it
indicates a harsh taskmaster, ut one successful in commerce.
Ifit sends an offshoot up to the Mount ofJupiter, • · is a good sign
for achieving ambition. Another fortunate sign is if it forks at - e
end, sending a branch down to the Mount of the Moon. This
foretells success
• ough imagination and psychic awareness.
The Line of Heart runs across the palm below the Mounts of
Jupiter, Saturn,
Apollo and Mercury. A long, unbroken line means happiness
in the affections. • it rises from Jupiter it indicates the highest
type of love. If it rises from Saturn, • e subject will be more
passionate and more selfish in satisfying his desires. If it
between the two Mounts it shows a capability for both idealistic
and passionate .-e. When the line starts in a fork, with one
branch rising between the fingers d the other from Jupiter, that is
a sign of a tranquil nature and much happiness
- love.
The Line of Fate, rising from the wrist and running straight up to
the Mount
·
:: aturn, is a sign of extreme good fortune. When it is stopped
by the Line of eart, success will be ruined through the affections.
If stopped by the Line of ead, success will be ruined through a
miscalculation. If it does not rise until the "ddle of the palm, it
shows a very difficult early life; but, if it is well-marked
- er that, success will be won through the subject's own
efforts. When it is forked, -th a branch running up from the
Mount of the Moon, it denotes success won
ough the imagination.

53

The Line of Fortune (or of the Sun), if good, indicates that the
subject's career will be brilliant. It may rise from any part of the
hand, but must run up to the Mount of Apollo (or of the Sun). It is
rarely seen deep and long, and means more if well marked on a
square or spatulate hand than on one that is conic or philo-
sophic. If unbroken and well marked right across the Mount of
Apollo, it is a sure sign of good fortune and contentment in the
latter part of life.
The Line of Health, if present, runs down the palm from the
Mount of Mercury. Its absence is a sign of excellent health. If it
runs straight down, the subject has good resistance to illness,
but if it cuts the Life Line he or she will die prematurely from
some illness.
The Line of Marriage (or of a prolonged liaison) runs across
the Mount of Mercury from the side of the hand. If there are two
or more, the lowest is earliest. Their length shows their duration.
When a line turns up at the end it indicates an improved social
status through marriage; if a line turns down, the reverse. If it
forks at the end, a divorce or separation is to be feared. Little
vertical lines above the Line of Marriage indicate children or, if
they are to play a large part in the subject's life, step-children.
There are several other minor lines - the Line of Intuition, the
Girdle of Venus, the Via Lasciva, the Ring of Saturn and the
Bracelets. When present they reinforce tendencies shown by the
major lines; but it is rare to find them all in any one hand, and
any of them that are to be seen are usually rudimentary.
Breaks, islands, spots or a chain formation in any line show
weakness and misfortunes connected with it. Crosses indicate
disappointments and dangers; squares, protection from disaster
or loss; stars, good fortune.
I have dealt at some length with this subject for two reasons:
Firstly, so that the reader may examine his own hands and
realize that, in the main, the qualities that I have indicated for
each formation tally with his own character. And that, since the
shape of our hands and the main lines upon them are formed
before birth, although they may later become a little longer and
slightly alter direction, it follows that our lives are largely
circumscribed by the qualities we have been given.
Secondly, because some readers may be sufficiently
intrigued to take up the study of palmistry. It is an amusing
pastime, and no harm can possibly come of it, provided only that
one never predicts a death or great misfortune that one thinks
he sees in a subject's hand. To do so could cause acute worry.
Moreover, unless you are a real expert, you may have
interpreted the lines wrongly.
Reverting to my own experiences, it was not until after the
war, when I once read hands at a charity fete, for which my
mother was on the committee, that I realized an interesting but
no really surprising thing. If one reads the hands of friends and
acquaintances, he is bound to be influenced by what he believes
he knows about them; so the reading may be a long way from
the truth. I was far more successful at the fete where, ii;l most
cases, I was dealing with people whom I had never previously
met. Nearly all of them admitted that what I told them about their
character and past was correct.

54
 Before leaving this subject I will record one extraordinary
prediction about y elf. When I was first married, my mother-in-
law used regularly to give bridge -ernoons. To help an old friend
of hers who was a widow and had very little ney, she paid her a
couple of guineas to come and read the hands of the other dies
while they were 'dummy'. On one of these afternoons I called to
collect my · e. The lady suggested that she should read my
hand, and I readily agreed. After e glance at my right hand, she
looked up, stared at me and exclaimed, 'But this ·- extraordinary!
I have never seen such markings in a hand before. You see
those o stars on your Mount of Apollo. They show that one day
you will be rich and
ous; really famous. I'm absolutely certain of it.'

55

I was then still a Mayfair wine merchant, and, as I owned my

own business, I had no reason to suppose that I would ever be
anything else. That was four years before I wrote my first book.
Cartomancy
Telling fortunes by cards is at the present day probably the
most popular method of predicting a person's future.
There are two distinct types of pack: the Tarot, or Major
Arcana, which consists of twenty-two pictorial cards, none of
which has any obvious relation to the others ; and the Minor
Arcana, which originally had fifty-six cards (in modern times
reduced to fifty-two) divided into four suits. The suits, now
diamonds, hearts spades and clubs, were originally coins, cups,
swords and staffs, which represented respectively commerce,
spirituality, war and agriculture. In the old packs the fourteenth
card in each suit was the Knight, who has since been dropped
or, if one prefers, merged with the Knave, who represents the
squire of the Lord (King) and Lady (Queen).
The origin of both packs is lost in mystery. Some writers have
stated that the Tarot is the Book of Thoth, the God of Wisdom of
the Egyptians; others connect it with the twenty-two paths of the
Hebrew Cabala, and still others assert that cards were
introduced into western Europe by the Bohemians, as the
gypsies were called. The suggested link with the Cabala does
not bear investigation; and, tempting as it may be to attribute
them to that mysterious and highly psychic race, the gypsies,
that does not hold water either, because they did not enter
Europe until early in the fifteenth century, and Tarot cards are
known to have existed in France at least a century earlier. The
earliest recorded is a pack painted in 1392 by the Parisian artist
Gringonneur for King Charles VI.
In the centuries that followed, the practice of telling fortunes
by both the Major and Minor Arcana became widespread.
During the frighteningly uncertain times of the French Revolution
and early Napoleonic wars, people flocked to have their destiny
foretold for them by a Mademoiselle Lenormand, who showed a
great gift for cartomancy. She read the cards for the Princesse
de Lamballe Robespierre, Danton, Barras, Talleyrand and many
other famous people, was frequently in attendance on the
Empress Josephine for that purpose, and twice imprisoned by
Napoleon for predicting events that would interfere with his
plans. It is said that during a session with the great cavalry
leader Marshal Murat, King of Naples, he cut the unlucky King of
Diamonds four times in succession, but refused to accept
Lenormand's interpretation of this evil card; whereupon she
flung the pack at him and insisted that he would be either
hanged or shot while a prisoner. In 1815 he was executed by a
firing squad.
In the Minor Arcana, the red cards, particularly hearts, are
lucky, and the black particularly the spades, unlucky. But, as
with astrology and palmistry, the effect of each has to be
considered in relation to the others, and much experience is
required to interpret a lay-out correctly.
The Tarot cards, which are all pictorial and symbolize every
phase of both

56
 ordinary and spiritual life, run as follows:

I. The Juggler, representing the will of God, the Creation and

the quickening of life.
II. The High Priestess (La Papessa, in the Italian pack
illustrated on pp. 48-9), representing duality and virginity.
III. The Empress, representing beauty and pregnancy.

57
IV. The Emperor, representing material things and worldly
authority.
V. The Pope, representing sacred things and spiritual
power.
VI. The Lovers, representing innocence, love and the
union of opposites.
VII. The Chariot, representing exaltation and the
passage of the spirit
toward beatitude.
VIII. Justice, representing the achievement of equilibrium.
IX. The Hermit, representing puberty and hidden light.
X. The Wheel of Fortune, representing karma and a
building up toward
one's destiny.
XI. Strength (La Forza), representing the discipline that
leads to ecstasy.
XII. The Hanged Man, representing the release of the
waters of life.
XIII. Death, representing resurrection.
XIV. Temperance, representing change and transformation.
XV. The Devil, representing the dominance of pride,
ambition and lust.
XVI. The Tower Struck by Lightning, representing
bitterness, collapse,
violence and destruction, imprisonment or death.
XVII. The Star, representing intuition, hope and bliss.
XVIII. The Moon, representing the breaking of the hymen and
also the
darkness of the womb.
XIX. The Sun, representing the light of true intelligence.
XX. The Day of Judgment, representing aspiration from
base to higher
things.
XXI. The World (II Mondo), representing joy, and release
from earthly
existence.
The last card, the Fool (II Matto), corresponds to 0,
which contains all qualities yet has none; and it
represents divine madness.

I have given only the dominant attributes of the cards. The

significance of each may be modified by the fall of other cards
near it.
Many years ago I bought a Tarot pack. My present wife, to
whom I was then engaged, had a gift for telling fortunes from
ordinary cards; and I asked her to tell mine by the Tarot. Owing
to their extremely involved meanings, she could read little from
the lay-out; but twice, when I cut the pack, I turned up the Tower
Struck by Lightning. At worst, this card means violent death; at
best, when it is upside down, as was the case with both my cuts,
it means heavy financial loss and possible imprisonment. I
should have been greatly worried but, having no reason to
anticipate such misfortune, laughed the matter off.
However, a year later I had ample cause to recall this sinister
indication of misfortune. For then, not only was I reduced to the
verge of bankruptcy by the slump of 1929, but I was accused of
fraud and faced with the threat of criminal proceedings. I might
well have been sent to gaol if an accountant had not, almost at
the last minute, unearthed a document that exonerated me
completely.
It is by no means unusual for the Powers that Be to decree
that we must suffer ill-fortune in order that our way of life be
ultimately changed for the better. During

58

the agonizing months that I could not go to my own office,

and was debarred from taking a job with any other firm, I
resolved to do my utmost to divert my mind from worry, so wrote
an adventure story, The Forbidden Territory, and A Private Life
of King Charles II. Both were published in 1933. They are both
still widely bought and read.

Clairvoyance
 This is the art of predicting the future, in the old days by
looking into a magic mirror, in more recent times usually by
gazing into a crystal ball. It is by no means as satisfactory as
astrology or palmistry, because by them a person's whole life
from the cradle to the grave can be studied, whereas the
clairvoyant can describe only a series of isolated episodes
bearing on the subject's future, and it has no fixed rules that can
be mastered. However, while many clairvoyants have been
revealed as frauds, there is ample proof that a very considerable
number have made accurate predictions.
Among those who have is the American seer, Daniel Logan,
whose biography was published in 1968, with the title The
Reluctant Prophet.
This young man's ambition was to become an actor, but he
could only in- frequently obtain even small parts, which got him
nowhere; so, to keep himself, he had at times to take jobs as a
dancing instructor or store salesman. During one of these
periods, in June 1957, he was in Hartford, Connecticut. Near-
penniless and bored, he let a friend take him to a seance. The
medium there singled him out, asserted that he had great
psychic gifts, and that he would become known to millions of
people through prophecies made by him over television.
He did not take the medium seriously, but his belief was
confirmed by other mediums, so at length he was persuaded to
experiment and went into a self- induced trance with surprising
results.
Logan believes, as indeed the evidence seems to show, that
only the less potent mediums need crystals or other aids in
order to practise clairvoyance, and that such phenomena as
floating trumpets, the production of ectoplasm, and so on, at
seances are only clever conjuring tricks used to fool a credulous
audience.
Having made a number of correct predictions in private, in
December 1966 Logan was engaged to appear in the David
Susskind television programme. Among other things, he
accurately predicted the following:

That the greatest outbreak of racial violence in the history of

the United States would take place during the
summer of 1967.
 That there would be a second major electrical power failure
(similar to the one in 1965) in the eastern part of the
United States which would plunge a huge area into
darkness. (This occurred in June 1967.)
That the winner of that year's Academy Award would be Miss
Elizabeth Taylor.
That, although people were predicting an early end to the war
in Vietnam, it would increase in intensity and ultimately
spread to affect many areas in
South-East Asia.

59

Logan maintains that the public has not been given the truth
about the assassin- ation of President Kennedy. That three men
were involved, together with a Government official. And that the
full truth will eventually be made public.
In connection with the above, another American psychic,
Jean Dixon, predicted Kennedy's assassination and sent a
warning to the F.B.I., but it was ignored.
In spite of Shirley Temple Black's immense popularity, Logan
predicted that she would fail in her attempt to secure election to
Congress; and, early in 1968, he correctly named six winners of
the forthcoming Academy Awards for the year just concluded.
Concerning future world events, as far back as 1960 he
forecast that by 1975 the United States and the Soviet Union
would have entered into a formal alliance, and that a major
confrontation and possibly a major war between the U.S.A. and
China would occur in the 198os.
The accurate prediction of events by innumerable other
mediums could be cited, but I feel that these of Daniel Logan are
enough to prove the validity of clair- voyance.
However, clairvoyants having such powers as to be nearly
100 per cent reliable are, I believe, very rare. But I had the good
fortune to consult one of extremely high reputation, named
Henry Dewhirst, in the late 'twenties and early 'thirties.
Dewhirst was a small, frail-looking Swede, with a big head
and a fine, calm face that radiated gentleness and intelligence.
He lived very modestly in a small flat high up in a block in
Bayswater, and conserved his powers by seeing only a few
people every day. It was his custom to tell clients that, if their
friends wished to consult him, they should ring up and make an
appointment but not give their names or say by whom they had
been recommended; then he would fit them in if possible.
In consequence, on my first visit to him he could not have
known who I was or anything about me.
As he let me into his flat, he looked hard at me with his pale
blue eyes and said, 'Your initials are D.I.W.' As they are D.Y.W.,
he was not far offthe mark.
We sat in easy chairs on opposite sides of the fire in his
sitting-room, and Dewhirst said, 'I am going to ask you a number
of questions, but you are not to answer any of them.' He then
entered on a monologue, obviously for the purpose of tuning his
mind in to my circumstances and personality. 'Have you been
abroad lately? Yes, but not far. Perhaps only to the seaside. But
you have crossed water, haven't you? What do you do for a
living? I think you are in some profession connected with art. But
perhaps it is only a flair for using your imagination.' And so on.
Gradually he became more specific. Before we parted he told
me that my first marriage had been happy but that it would soon
break up. That it had been or- dained as a suitable path to bring
my small son into the world. That I should marry again. That my
second wife would be the sister of a close friend, but he

Opposite The 'reluctant prophet', Daniel Logan

61
 would not introduce her to me. We should meet in a
mahogany-panelled room, and she would come to see me on a
matter of business.
All this came true. The mahogany-panelled room was my
office in South Audley Street. My wife-to-be had been sent to me
by my friend to place an order for champagne for a ball that she
was arranging.
Three years later, toward the end of the trying time that I had
gone through in my business, I visited Dewhirst again.
Immediately I entered his room, he extended both his hands
to me and cried, 'You've written a book! Now you are on the
right path. You were never meant to be a business man. As an
author you cannot fail. Never write under any name but your
own, and you will have a tremendous success.'
I then admitted that I had written a book, but it was still in
manuscript and had only recently been offered to a publisher, so
it might not be taken.
'Don't worry,' he replied. 'It will be, and you will hear that it
has on the 22nd of this month. It was then early August, and my
wife and I were shortly going abroad to stay with friends in
Normandy. The 22nd came and went, to my disappointment,
without my receiving any news about my book. But on the
morning of the 23rd I received a letter from my agent, telling me
that Hutchinson and Company had taken my book for
publication. Had the letter not had to be forwarded on from
London, I should have received it on the zznd.

Psychometry
In this form of clairvoyance the medium holds a piece of
clothing, or other posses- sion, of the person about whom
information is required.
There have been many occasions when it has been used
successfully to trace suspected criminals, so that - delightful
euphemism - the police 'invited someone to assist them with
their inquiries'.
The Dutch clairvoyant, Gerard Croiset, is said to have aided
the police in their search, in various parts of the world, for many
missing persons.
Of this occult faculty I happen to have incontestable proof.
Not long ago Mr John Irwin decided to test the powers of certain
occultists on television. I agreed to be the subject, was
smuggled into the studio and wore a mask with a fringe that
came down over my chin. An astrologer Mr John Naylor, a
palmist Miss Jo Sheridan, a clairvoyant Mr Tom Corbett, and a
psychometrist Mr Douglas Johnson were in turn asked to tell the
audience all they could about me. The only aids they received
were the date, hour and place of my birth, for Mr Naylor, and an
ink print of my hand for Miss Sheridan. /
All of them got the fact that I was a well-known author and
numerous particulars about my circumstances correctly. At one
point Miss Sheridan even declared, 'In his early life he had some
connections with a liquid; yes, it must have been wine.'
I was in excellent health, but for about two months previously
I had noticed a momentary giving in my left knee when I crossed
a room. This had occurred so infrequently - not more than once
a week at the most - and been so barely per- ceptible that I had
not even told my wife about it.

62
 Mr Johnson was the last of the four seers to exercise his gift
on me. I handed him a pair of my braces. He stroked them for a
minute or so, then said, 'There is something wrong with your left
leg. You ought to consult your doctor.'

Clairaudience
This is frequently associated with clairvoyance. It is listening
to the voices of invisible presences, and so can hardly be
classed as fortune-telling in the ordinary sense. Yet, if those
presences are called upon, for advice about the future, it
certainly
borders on the subject we are now examining.
Joan of Arc and her 'voices' are a good example of this type of
communication
with the unseen powers. And they were not, as the Christian
Church would now have us believe, the voices of saints or
angels. They emanated from the Old God; for Joan was, in fact,
a witch.
Although she was a prisoner of the English, it was not they
who condemned her to be burnt at the stake. It was a tribunal of
the Holy Inquisition presided over by the Bishop of Beauvais.
From the account of her trial, it emerges quite clearly

63

that she was not a Christian. She received her religious

instruction from her god- mother, who was known to consort with
the Little People. They were the descen- dants of a race that
was far older than the Franks; they had never wavered in their
attachment to the pagan faith and were steeped in the lore of
magic. Joan's god- mother, the wife of the Sieur de Bourlemont,
was one of them. In due course I shall be giving further
particulars about this malicious race of European pygmies.
Further evidence of Joan's association with the Dark Power is
that, on her arrival at the French Court, she chose as her
personal champion and protector the able general, Gilles de
Rais, who later was proved to be one of the most blood- lusting
sadists and Satanists who have ever lived. It was upon him that
the tale of 'Bluebeard' was founded, and of him, too, we shall
have more to say later.
In Joan's day, the early fifteenth century, though Christianity
had secured a firm hold on the upper strata of society, the great
majority of the common people still worshipped in secret the
pagan god of their forefathers. That is why the French soldiers
were willing, and even eager, to give their lives for Joan in
battle. They
 looked on her as a minor deity. She herself declared that she
could not be killed in combat and also that she could be of use
to the Dauphin only for a single year. That is very strong
evidence that she had made a pact with the Old God to be given
twelve months of power.
Even in prison, when there was no longer any point to her
doing so, she insisted on continuing to wear men's clothes; so
there could hardly be a less suitable title to give her than the
Maid, unless a special reason lay behind it. And there did. All
the Grand Covens have their Queen Witch, who is known as the
Maiden, and she ranks in power next to the Grand Master.
When Joan was first put forward by her sponsors and accepted
by the Dauphin, she ranked only as the Maid of Orleans. But
later she was elevated to the highest title that could be
bestowed in her country on a witch, Ia Pucel/e de France. And
she never attempted to repudiate either title.
I do not suggest that Joan of Arc was necessarily an evil
woman. There were white witches as well as black. But there
can be very little doubt that she was a follower of the Old
Religion and had knowledge of its mysteries. In the eyes of her
troops she was a heroine and, after her death, tales of her
spread that caused her memory to be held dear by the great
majority of the French people. The Christian Church must not
appear to be at fault; so its priests declared the voices she had
heard were those of angels and, later, decided to make her a
saint. But that was very far from being the view of the Church
when she was alive. It was still fighting desperately to eradicate
the belief in the pagan god whose ceremonies offered feasting
and gaiety, instead of hair shirts and misery, as the price of
salvation.
Joan had trafficked with the Little People, who were hated
and feared for the strange powers they wielded; so the voices
she heard were probably those of spirits. That was why she was
sent to the stake.

Oracles
These were a common feature of ancient civilizations, and
anyone could consult one for a fee. That of Jupiter Ammon,
situated in the great oasis of that name in the Libyan desert,
was, for many centuries, the most famous among the Egyptians.
The oracle at Delphi was the most renowned of all in the
classical world, and its site is still one of the greatest tourist
attractions of modern Greece.
According to Greek mythology, Delphi was the centre of the
earth. The founda- tions of the temple there date back to the
fourteenth century B.C., and the shrine, said originally to have
been guarded by a huge python, was dedicated to the Earth
goddess. Later, Apollo slew the python and became the reigning
deity. Neverthe- less, the priestess-medium continued to be
known as the pythoness, and sat on a tripod formed by three
carved snakes.
The temple was built over a volcanic chasm, and from a
crack in the floor under the tripod vapours arose that were
inhaled by the priestess, causing her to fall into a trance agitated
by fits of frenzy. Her eyes became glazed and staring, foam
bubbled from her mouth and she spoke in jerky, often
meaningless, phrases. But they were rendered intelligible by the
priests who stood near her, although the

65
 wers given to those consulting the oracle were so obscure
that they frequently terpreted them in accordance with their own
wishes, so that when acted upon
'" ey proved disastrous.

Necromancy
This is foretelling the future with, supposedly, the aid of the
dead.
The usual form it takes in these days is spiritualistic seances.
A number of people gather in a room with a 'sensitive', as a
medium is called. The medium may a man or a woman, but, as
there are more women mediums than men, I will
fer to the medium as 'her'.
T he lights in the room are dimmed, the medium goes into a
trance and becomes
essed. That is to say, her spirit leaves her body, which is
taken over by another. -sually the possessing spirit is a regular
visitor, known as the medium's 'guide'; t it may be some other
who, at the request of a member of the audience, has called up
or, for all we know, some entity that poses as the personality
sent for. _-o grounds can possibly be advanced to justify
sending one's spirit out of one's y and allowing it to be occupied
by another. The practice is condoned by the ent that, by so
doing, the medium brings comfort to many bereaved people
o are anxious to renew contact with loved ones who have
died. But what proof -- there that the spirit possessing the
medium is that of the dead person called
· from beyond ?
The above passage will, I know, result in virulent abuse from the
psychic press,
- such periodicals are a means of making a living for a
considerable number of ple, and they have on previous
occasions taken great exception to similar state- rs made in
articles by me. But I firmly maintain my opinion, and restate it e,
because I consider it no less than a duty, in a book of this kind,
to warn
pie of the danger and futility of taking up any form of
spiritualism.
. 'ith possession the personality of the medium changes. Her
voice is no longer ;:ecognizable as the one she speaks with
normally. If she is a cultured woman it _.- become coarse and
uneducated, or vice-versa; or, quite possibly, have a
0
ign accent, or sound like a man's voice.
metimes the medium is tied to her chair, with the object of
convincing the
·ence that she is incapable of moving. Then trumpets or
tambourines are seen oat about above her head in the semi-
darkness. At other times she exudes from mouth a matter that is
dough-like in appearance, and is called electoplasm.
But the main object of the operation is for members of the
audience either to the spirit, who is presumed to be possessing
her, about the future, or to secure either directly or through the
possessing spirit, of people dear to them who
d ead.
The response to the latter type of question usually leaves much
to be desired, d is limited to such statements as 'It is very nice
up here.' But occasionally
ething does come through that really rings a bell, such as
'George is glad that

Opposite Revelation of the black art to a neophyte by the

fiend Asomvel

67
 you found the money that he hid under the floor in the
bedroom.'
The recipient of such a message is generally fully convinced that
he or she has been in communication with a father, mother,
husband, wife or other relative. At times a communication may
be even more impressive. For example, 'Look under the
floorboard by the window in my bedroom and you will find some
money that I hid there.' And later the message proves to be
correct. But in neither case is
there any proof whatever that it came from a departed
relative or friend.
It may quite well be that some alien entity has contacted the
spirit of the dead person, and so obtained knowledge of the
inquirer's family and affairs, and is using the medium as a
mouthpiece. Obviously no good spirit would deliberately
impersonate another spirit, so it is reasonable to assume that, if
it is an imperson- ating spirit, it is evil. And, as has been rightly
pointed out, a modern medium's
'guide' plays exactly the same role as a medieval witch's
'familiar'.
Why, one may ask, should evil spirits perform such
impersonations? The answer most probably is: to open a way
into the mind of the inquirer, and make it more
susceptible to invisible influences through the vibrations sent
out.
It cannot, of course, be said that genuine communications are
never made
through mediums. But, in view of the fact that, in numerous
cases every day couples who mean everything to each other are
separated by death, yet only on extremely rare occasions does
the departed give any sign of attempting to com- municate
through an intermediary to comfort the still living, it seems
abundantly clear that the dead do not wish to be called back.
There are, however, many cases on record ofthe spirits ofthe
departed appearing independently of mediums either as an
apparition or in a dream, either to benefit the living by some
information or to right some wrong. It can, therefore, be
assumed that if they have some reason to return they are quite
capable of doing so volun- tarily, and have no need of a vacant
body through which to make their communica- tions.
It must not be thought that I am accusing mediums generally
of being wicked people who deliberately offer themselves as
channels through which evil entities can make contact with
members of seance audiences. I have no doubt that the great
majority honestly believe that their 'guides' are good spirits, and
that through them they bring comfort to many bereaved people.
But the fact remains that there is no proof of this, and that they
are placing their own spirits in grave jeopardy by allowing
themselves to be possessed.
The type of medium referred to above must not be confused
with the seer. The first, if not a fraud (and innumerable cases of
this type of fraud have been exposed by the Society for
Psychical Research and similar associations), makes herself a
vacant vehicle and invites another spirit to take possession of
her; the spirit of the second does not leave the body, and by
means of her own psychic gifts she predicts the future. The
latter has no connection with necromancy.
We come now to a more advanced form of necromancy. That
is the actual

Opposite Eliphas Levi, the French occulist

68
 calling up of the dead as an apparition. This can be achieved
only by black magic. A classic case is that of the Witch of Endor
calling up the ghost of Samuel a
the behest of Saul.
Another is well known owing to an engraving that has been
reproduced many
times. It depicts Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer, Dr John Dee,
and his assistant. Edward Kelley, calling up the spirit of a
woman in a churchyard on a night of full moon.
A much more recent example of this odious practice
concerns the notorious magician Eliphas Levi, who lived in the
last century. On July 24th 1854, he claimed. after twenty-one
days of scrupulous preparation in accordance with the rules for
such operations, he called up the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana.
Here is the account of it as given in his book Transcendental
Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual:
The cabinet prepared for the evocation was situated in a
turret; it contained four concave mirrors, and a species of altar
having a white marble top, encircled by a chain of magnetized
iron. The sign of the pentagram . . . was carved and gilded on
the white marble surface; it was drawn also in various colours
upon a new, white lambskin stretched beneath the altar. In the
middle of the marble table there was a small copper chafing-
dish, containing charcoal of alder and laurel wood; another
chafing- dish was set before me.on a tripod. I was clothed in a
white garment, very similar to the vestments of our catholic
priests, but longer and wider, and I wore upon my head a crown
of vervain leaves, intertwined with a gold chain. I held a new
sword in one hand, and in the other the Ritual. I kindled two fires
with the required and prepared substances, and I began reading
the evocations of the Ritual in a voice at first low, but rising by
degrees. The smoke spread, the flame caused the objects upon
which it fell to waver, then it went out, the smoke still floating
white and slow about the marble altar; I seemed to feel a kind of
quaking of the earth, my ears tingled, my heart beat quickly, I
heaped more twigs and perfumes on the chafing-dishes, and as
the flame again burst up, I beheld distinctly, before the altar, the
figure of a man of more than normal size, which dissolved and
vanished away. I recommenced the evocations, and placed
myself within a circle which I had drawn previously between the
tripod and the altar. Thereupon the mirror which was behind the
altar seemed to brighten in its depth, a wan form was outlined
therein, which increased, and seemed to approach by degrees.
Three times, and with closed eyes, I invoked Apollonius. When I
again looked forth there was a man in front of me, wrapped from
head to foot in a species of shroud, which seemed more grey
than white; he was lean, melancholy and beardless and did not
altogether correspond to my preconceived notion of Apollonius. I
experi- enced an abnormally cold sensation, and when I
endeavoured to question the phantom I could not articulate a
syllable. I therefore placed my hand on the sign of the penta-
gram, and pointed the sword at the figure, commanding it
mentally to obey and not alarm me, in virtue of the said sign.
The form thereupon became vague, and suddenly disappeared.
I directed it to return, and presently felt, as it were, a breath
close by me, something touched my hand which was holding the
sword, and the arm became immediately benumbed as far as
the elbow. I divined that the sword displeased the spirit, and I
therefore placed it point downwards, close by me, within the
circle. The

Opposite The witch of Endor evoking the prophet Samuel

70
 human figure reappeared immediately, but I experienced
such an intense weaknes in all my limbs, and a swooning
sensation came so quickly over me, that I made two steps to sit
down, whereupon I fell into a profound lethargy, accompanied
by dreams of which I had only a confused recollection when I
came again to myself. For several subsequent days my arm
remained benumbed and painful. The apparition did not speak
to me, but it seemed that the questions I had designed to ask
answered them- selves in my mind ...
Am I to conclude from all this that I really evoked, saw and
touched the great Apollonius of Tyana? I am not so hallucinated
as to affirm or so unserious as to believe it. The effect of the
probations, the perfumes, the mirrors, the pentacles, is an actual
drunkenness of the imagination, which must act powerfully on a
person otherwise nervous and impressionable. I do not explain
the physical laws by which I saw and
 touched; I affirm solely that I did see and that I did touch, that
I saw clearly and distinctly, apart from dreaming, and this is
sufficient to establish the real efficacy of magical ceremonies.
For the rest, I regard the practice as destructive and
dangerous ...
 Few, I feel, would question the honesty of this account. The
abnormal cold that Levi mentions is an indication that he had
called up something pretty nasty, as Satanic manifestations are
often said to be accompanied by an icy chill. One recalls that the
seventh and lowest hell of Dante's Inferno was no roaring
furnace
being stoked by demons, but a place of deathly cold. And
Levi's warning is certainly not one to be ignored.
We now come to the most terrible form of necromancy. This
consists in the desecration of graveyards and the performance
of ceremonies with corpses; murder, in order that the blood and
bodies of the newly slain may be put to infernal
es; and copulation with the bodies of women who have
recently died.
This last revolting practice probably originated in Egypt. The
process of em- ::r.uming a body took seventy days, during the
greater part of which it was de- ;-drated with natron (a native
sodium carbonate). The embalmers were a class part,
somewhat similar to the Hindu Untouchables, and they were not
permitted o mix freely with the rest of the population. In
consequence, the only women ·ailable to them were the
destitute and the lowest class of harlot. When, therefore, ~ e
body of a young or beautiful woman was handed over to th.em,
it is said that - ey kept the corpse warm on hot bricks for several
days and satisfied their lust
pon it.
It is also said that, owing to their having kept specially beautiful
bodies for too
g, internal decay became so far advanced that those who
used them contracted disease; and that this was the origin of
syphilis. However that may be, there is me evidence to show
that Egyptian sorcerers bought dead bodies from the
balmers and also kept mummies in their houses for
necromantic purposes. The medicine men of certain North
American Indians were said to be skilful - rcerers who openly
practiced necromancy. Whenever one of their chiefs died, - ey
put on him his great feathered head-dress and his war paint,
dressed him in his regalia and set the body up in the centre of a
circle, then consulted it about
buffalo-hunting prospects and the future of the tribe.
_\ccording to practitioners, the preparations for performing a
necromantic
ration successfully are arduous. The sorcerer and his
assistants must procure - ouds stolen from corpses. As they put
them on they recite the funeral service, -- en wear them for
many days, until the operation is completed. During that time -·
ey live on dog's flesh, black unleavened bread and unfermented
grape juice.
ey must abstain from salt and women. Dog-meat puts them in
rapport with Hecate, because the dog is her creature, and she is
the goddess of death. Un- eayened bread and unfermented
wine represent the reverse of the sacrament, and
t is taboo because it is associated with preservation.
The desecration of the grave should take place preferably on a
night of full
moon and on the 13th of the month; but, failing that, under
the auspicies of

73

Saturn and the number 4· The time should be between

midnight and one o'cloc·· as that is the first hour of the new day.
The sorcerer-assistants carry torches an burn noisome herbs,
including hemlock, mandrake and henbane. A magic circl is
drawn round the grave. It is opened; then the coffin. The
sorcerer touches the corpse three times with his wand,
pronounces a conjuration over it and commands it to arise. The
assistants help it out of the coffin and arrange it as though
crucified. with its head to the east. A vessel containing wine,
mastic and sweet oil is place at its right hand and the mixture set
alight. The sorcerer then repeats an incantatio three times,
ordering the spirit to re-enter its body and answer his questions.
T h body, we are told, comes to its feet and in a hollow voice
replies to the questio asked. The operation completed, the
sorcerer rewards the spirit by destroying th body with quicklime,
so that it can never again be used for the same purpose.
Until comparatively recent times it was easy to obtain young
children, as man_ poor families who already had several to
support were quite willing to sell anothe!" unwelcome infant.
Sorcerers were eager buyers, as these babies were valuabl
adjuncts to black magic ceremonies. Their sacrifice as a tribute
to the Power o' Darkness brought welcome rewards, and their
warm blood was very potent fo casting spells.
Finally their heads were cut off and mounted on a brass plate
engraved w"i magical symbols and permanently retained by the
necromancers, who from tim to time would pronounce a
conjuration and compel it to answer his questions.
In black magic ceremonies, only one thing is more potent
than blood: namel:-- human semen. Hence the practice of a
necromancer's copulating with the bod_ of a dead woman. His
semen revitalized her and strengthened his incantation ·
restoring life to the corpse.
In Roman times the use of a special bell, known as the Bell of
Girardius, was regarded as a powerful aid to a necromancer's
operations. The bell had to be cas· from a mixture of lead, tin,
iron, gold, copper, fixed mercury and silver. The necro- mancer
wrapped it in a piece of green taffeta and buried it for seven
days in grave with the corpse that he desired to raise. He then
went to the grave, dug u the bell, recited his conjuration and
rang the bell, upon which the corpse was compelled to answer
the summons.
In fifteenth-century Spain, necromancy was taught as an art
in Toledo, Sevill and Salamanca and practised in caves
specially reserved for the purpose. Isabe!U the Catholic was a
most remarkable woman. She proved herself to be one of th
greatest quartermaster generals of all time in supplying the
armies with which he.~ husband, King Ferdinand, drove the
Moors out of Spain. She was also responsible for inflicting more
torture and burnings at the stake of (mostly) innocent people
than any other monarch; for it was under her that the Inquisition
was establishe and carried out its terrible work with her fervid
blessing. But at least she can be credited with ordering the
bricking up of the caves used by the necromancers.
Q.!.Iite recently there have been several cases of the
desecration of graveyards In one, in Bedfordshire, the graves of
six women had been opened and the skeleto of one had been
carried into the church and left there. Seeking to learn the future

74

by calling up the dead, in one way or another, has been

practised from the earliest times.
The most horrifying description of necromancy is probably
that given by L ucan, in his Pharsalia, of the witch Erichtho
raising the dead for Sextus Pompey . Sextus was the son of
Pompey the Great, and he was eager to know if his father would
prove victorious in the war he was waging to become master of
the Roman world. Impatient with the obscure, unsatisfactory
answers given him by oracles, Sextus screwed up his courage
to demand a clear answer from the dead, and sought
out Erichtho.
To render her terrible profession more easy and successful, this
witch lived in
the aura of death. She made her home among the tombs,
slept in one as though she were a corpse and surrounded
herself with such gruesome relics of the dead as charred bones
taken from funeral pyres, shrouds, eyeballs, tongues and
testicles, that she had cut from corpses in neighbouring graves.
When Sextus asked her to read the future for him, she said
that they must go to a nearby battlefield and collect the newly
dead body of a soldier who had been killed while fighting;
because, she affirmed, the energy retained in a body after death
gradually seeps away, and decayed corpses are not very
articulate. It should also be one that had not been wounded in
the mouth, throat or lungs; otherwise, when resurrected, it might
not be able to speak at all.
After groping about for some time among the slain, they found a
corpse with
lungs, larynx and tongue intact and carried it to a cave,
hidden among yews, that had been dedicated to the dark gods.
There the body, with its gaping wounds and coagulated blood,
was laid out while Erichtho made a ghastly brew from the spittle
of mad dogs, the flesh of a hyena that had fed on corpses, the
skin of a snake, -:-arious noisome herbs and menstrual blood.
Having warmed up the mixture, she told Sextus to cut a hole in
the corpse above its heart, .then she poured the foul mess into it
as a form of new blood, in preparation for the return of the spirit.
She then began her incantation, calling upon Hermes, the
guide of the dead ; Charon, who ferries them over the dark
waters of the River Styx; Hecate, their goddess; Proserpine,
queen of the underworld; and Chaos, the real lord of the earth,
who waits impatiently to sow dissension and death among
mankind. While
he was reminding these park Powers that she frequently
poured to them libations of human blood, and had sacrificed to
them many unborn infants snatched from their mother's wombs,
there came peals of thunder, the roar of wild beasts, the hooting
of owls, the howl of wolves and the hiss of snakes.
Suddenly the spirit of the soldier, which was still close to
earth, appeared above i corpse. Erichtho commanded it to enter
its body, but the spirit shrank from entering the bloody, mangled
flesh. The witch threatened to send it down to hell.
till it refused. Then she persuaded it to obey by promising
that she would after- ·ards destroy the corpse, so that it could
never again be recalled to earth by a
magtctan.
Reluctantly the spirit entered the body, causing the blood to
become warm and
flow through its veins; then the muscles moved and the dead
man stood up.

75
 Through cracked and purple lips, the resurrected soldier
foretold the fate of Pompey's armies. When he had done, fallen
branches were collected for a funeral pyre. The soldier lay down
upon it. Erichtho recited a spell that released the spirit from
earth, and the body was consumed in the flames.

Haruspicy
This was a means of divination greatly favoured by the
ancients, particularly the Romans, who established a special
priesthood for this purpose, known as augers - hence our own
'augury'. The method consisted of sacrificing a bird, then
predicting future events from the state of its entrails.
Allied to this was prediction based on marks of the liver.
Animals were also sacrificed for this purpose and - among
peoples with particularly sadistic natures such as the
Babylonians and the Aztecs - humans, generally while still
infants. The Romans also read omens in the flight of birds.

Other Methods of Divination

Less frequently practised methods of foretelling the future
were the following: Stichomancy. This was to open a book at
random and seek to apply to one'
problem the first sentence that one's glance fell upon. For this
the Romans mostly used the works of Homer and Virgil. The
Christians substituted the Bible, and. although the practice was
forbidden by the Church, in the Dark and Middle Ages it was
often performed by priests standing in front of the altars of their
churches.
Coscinomancy. This is done with a sieve, by holding it in a
pair of pincers supported by the pressure of the index fingers of
two persons. It was used to indicate a thief. Several names were
spoken, and when that of the thief was pro- nounced the sieve
began to gyrate.
Pyromancy. This is drawing deductions from the way a fire
burns, after certain herbs have been thrown on it. Allied to it is
lampadomancy, which consists o watching the flame of a lamp
and predicting from the way that it wavers in a draught.
 Hydromancy. This is predicting by the movement of water,
and several methods can be used. One is to dangle a ring on
the end of a string into the water. Another is to let fall into it
drops of oil or molten lead, and make predictions according to
their consequent formations. To this is closely allied the much
more widely used method of scattering tea-leaves or coffee
grounds in.a saucer.
Ouija Boards. There has recently been a craze for this
method. The board is a heart-shaped piece of wood, with small
wheels under the broader end and a pencil fitted into the point.
The hands of the inquirer are placed lightly above the wheels;
he asks his question and the board answers it in automatic
writing. In the same category is setting out the letters of the
alphabet in a circle on a table. A glass tumbler is placed upside
down in the centre, the inquirers each put a finger on the bottom
of the glass, the question is asked and, sliding from letter to
letter, the gla spells out the answer.
Alectoromancy. Used by the Japanese, it is somewhat similar
to the above. The

76
 characters of the alphabet are set out in a circle on the
ground, and rice is scattered in it. A cock is then put in the circle
and the characters nearest to which it picks up the grains are
supposed to give the answer to the question.
Geomancy. This is simply scattering earth, sand, peas or
wheat on the ground and foretelling the future by the patterns
formed.
Astragalomancy. This, greatly favoured by Negro races, is
throwing down small bones out of a bag and making predictions
from the way they fall.
Oneiromancy. This is by interpreting dreams, a practice of
the greatest antiquity and still world-wide today. One recalls
Pharaoh's dream of the seven fat kine and the seven lean kine,
which was interpreted by Joseph. In Victorian times, books on
the subject were extremely popular.
Still further methods. By planting a stick at a crossroads and
observing the re- actions of passers-by to it. By throwing sticks
in the air and predicting from the way they fall. The Chinese
make predictions from the carapaces of tortoises, the Japanese
by drawing at ran.dom small bamboo sticks from a box. In fact,
the ways in which man has endeavoured to learn the future are
innumerable.
It will be observed that only by a few of the above methods
can it be hoped to predict the whole course of a life. The
majority lend themselves only to answering a series of
questions. But all of them entail communication with invisible
forces.
Before leaving this subject I will give two outstanding
examples of predicting the future correctly.
The first concerns Nostradamus, a French astrologer of
Jewish descent, who read philosophy and graduated in
medicine at the Universities of Avignon and Montpellier
respectively, and became honoured throughout all France for his
learning.
In 1555 he published a book of rhymed prophecies entitled
Centuries. In 1558

77

he produced a second, enlarged edition. King Charles IX

appointed him his physician-in-ordinary.
Nostradamus's prophecies were read long after his death,
and many of them came
78
 true. Among them he predicted the wholesale drownings
carried out nearly 250 years later, during the French Revolution,
at Nantes, by the terrorist Jean Baptiste Carrier, and that the
King of the Isles (Britain) would become the most powerful
monarch with dominion over a great part of the world. This was
in the year that Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne, and the
British Empire was still undreamt of.
The most disturbing prophecy made by him was that, in the
year 2000, Paris would be destroyed by a flight of man-made
birds coming from the east. In view of China's progress in
producing nuclear missiles, perhaps we had better make the
best of the thirty-odd years we have to go.
The second concerns a woman whose name we do not
know, and the means she used to produce her prophecy have
not come down to us. She was an old negress, said to be partly
of Irish descent, who lived on the island of Martinique in a
tumble- down hut. Two young girls, aged about twelve, went to
her one day to have their fortunes told. One was Josephine
Tascher de la Pagerie, the other Aimee Dubucq de Rivery. The
old woman predicted that both of them would marry great kings
who ruled over vast peoples and that Aimee would bear a son
who, after her, would reign gloriously.

79

Josephine duly sailed for France, and in due course married

the Viscomte de Beauharnais; then, after Beauharnais had been
sent to the guillotine, Napoleon Bonaparte. A few years later she
was crowned in Notre Dame as Empress of the French, when
the French Empire dominated Europe from the shores of the
Baltic to the toe of Italy.
Aimee also sailed for France, and she spent eight years
being educated at a convent in Nantes. In her early twenties she
set out to return to Martinique. A tempest in the Bay of Biscay
severely damaged the ship, and she was transferred to a
Spanish vessel that was sailing to the Balearic Isles. This vessel
was captured by corsairs and Aimee was taken as a prisoner to
Algiers. The Bey of Algier decided that this blue-eyed, golden-
haired French girl was so superbly lovely that he would send her
to Constantinople as a present for his master, the Sultan. There.
in due course, Aimee became the Sultan's favourite wife and
bore him a son. Bur the Janissaries revolted, placed a Prince
Mustapha on the throne and imprisoned Aimee's husband's
successor, Selim, as well as her own son and herself. This
made it seem extremely unlikely that the whole of the prediction
would be fulfilled. But a year later there was a counter-
revolution. Mustapha was dethroned, and Aimee son became
Sultan as Mahmoud II. No man can have two mothers, so a
Sultan' mother ranked far above his wives. Aimee was known as
the Veiled Crown, and was the supreme authority over all the
women in the vast Turkish Empire, which then included all North
Africa, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and the greater part of the
Balkans. Aimee had brought her son up with western ideas, and
to believe tha Turkey should no longer remain isolated.
Mahmoud was a highly intelligent man He accepted her
guidance; he became known as the Reformer and for thirty-one
years ruled gloriously.

What, then, are we to decide about predestination and free

will? From the evidence before us of the success achieved by
innumerable predictors of the future, it · difficult not to believe
that our every act is preordained.
The type of parents to whom we were born, their degree of
wealth or pove~· our nurse (if our parents were well enough off
to provide one), our brothers an sisters or other childhood
companions, the food that formed our staple diet, eye the
climate in which we lived - all these inescapable circumstances
during o formative years have a lasting influence on our
mentality. There follow the kin of education we were given,
teachers who were admired or detested, young frien who
introduced us to new interests, the liking or disliking that we
developed fo1 sport, cooking, music, housework, gardening,
animals, publicity and many oth factors, the characters of
members of the opposite sex with whom we had o first and
subsequent love-affairs. The first affair particularly may induce
eith shyness or boldness. Our looks and personality also play a
part, causing us become either reticent and awkward, with a
dread of having to go to parties, c imbued with a happy
confidence that we shall be welcome everywhere in all types of
company.
There may then come marriage, bringing an altered outlook on
life; children,

8o
 ibly necessitating new habits of economy. Meanwhile there
has been the type occupation by which we earn our living;
workmates or business associates ; the ks we have read; the
places to which we have been on holiday or have travelled _;
necessity; possibly one or more accidents that have instilled in
us a dread of ;:enain circumstances; most probably a period of
war during which we have been subject to discipline, either in
one of the fighting services or as a nurse in a hospital. Good or
bad future prospects beget impulses to generous cooperation
or, owing o caution, the rejection of appeals. Our health, at any
given moment, plays a great
part in influencing our state of mind.
So there we have it. Throughout the years each personality is
built up by tens
of thousands of physical and mental experiences.
Undeniably, the countless habits of mind engendered by our
past and present environments must automatically dictate the
great majority of our decisions.
But it may be that, at times, we are confronted with a
situation in which we are eing tested. About which decision it is
proper for us to take the~e can never be any doubt. Our
conscience tells us loud and clear; and, should we decide for the
one which appears to be against our own interests, it does not
necessarily follow that we shall deprive ourselves of some piece
of good fortune that has been pre-
dicted for us.
For example, it is predicted to a young man that he will fall in
love with and marry
a very charming girl. She is so accurately described that
when he meets her he has no doubt at all that she is the girl
about whom he has been told; but she is already engaged to
someone else. It chances that he comes into possession of
certain information by which he could discredit her fiance in her
eyes. He is naturally greatly tempted to use it; but he refrains,
because it is a matter of the past and he feels that it would be
unfair to rake it up. Apparently he has scotched his own
chances. But if the seer was gifted with true vision, the girl's
fiance may, for some reason of his own, break off the
engagement, or he may meet with a fatal accident, and thus our
young man will marry her after all.
Here I should issue a warning. People who earn their living
from telling fortunes have, like others, their off days. Also,
forcing their gift hour after hour to satisfy a succession of clients
tends to cause their psychic powers to deteriorate. In any case,
clairvoyants having true vision are few and far between.
Moreover, even the fulfilment of a true prediction may not prove
the piece of good fortune that one expected it to be.
For example, it is predicted that a rich relation will leave you
his fortune. He does, but charges you with taking care of his wife
for life. She is a bedridden in- valid, and (apart from the bother
entailed), after you have paid death duties on your relative's
estate and taxes on the income of the residue, you find that the
widow's keep and nurses to look after her cost you more than
you are getting from the legacy.
Therefore we should never change the pattern of our lives in
the hope of making conditions more favourable for a prediction
that promises great happiness to come true. Consulting a
fortune-teller should always be regarded as for amusement only.

81
PART 3

Beliefs in Early
Ages
Introductory
B_ this time the reader may well be asking, 'But what has all
this to do with the ,-]1 and all his works?'
0 tensibly nothing. Actually, a very great deal. I have set forth
the case for the lief that human beings have a sixth sense, that
their minds are capable of both mitting and receiving impulses
for which there is no normal explanation, d that some of the
impulses received emanate from the disembodied powers of d
and evil. Since every process in the Universe of which we are
aware is :: ·erned by immutable laws, it follows that occult
phenomena must also be bject to laws, and that anyone who
knows these should be able to make use -them. That this has
been done in the past is claimed by many occultists in their
'tings, and that it is still being done is claimed by modern
magicians.
In fact, the borderline between magic and science often appears
very thin, and
- - constantly decreasing.
Yhen a slave-raiding party landed on the coast of Africa in the
sixteenth century
d a white man struck a Negro warrior dead by firing a musket
at him from fifty the natives naturally must have supposed that
the white man was a witch
or with a magic stick.
r' in the days of King James I, I had shown his courtiers a screen
on which they
d see the King's son, Prince Charles - whom they knew to
have gone on a t to Madrid - gallivanting there with his friend the
Duke of Buckingham, the ers would undoubtedly have decided
that the screen was a magic mirror and
::ht well have had me burnt at the stake for having sold my
soul to the Devil. uch examples of how ~he apparently magical
later becomes accepted as due to entific discoveries, and is put
to everyday use, are legion. We may, therefore, - e magic as the
application of scientific laws which are still unknown to our ~
ognized scientists. The putting into force of these oc;cult laws
may be likened to a s having a means by which he can tap in on
invisible electric cables and, by them transmit his will to achieve
a desired end.
It may be to effect a local change in the weather and bring the
benefit of rain
the dangers of a tempest; to cause crops to rot or thrive and
cattle to multiply die; to cause other human beings to become
subject to strong impulses; to cure
ick and crippled or to inflict disease and death.

Opposite The Sacred hexagram of Solomon, formed by the

White and Black Ancients of the Cabala

83

These electric cables are, of course, those currents

emanating from the Power of Light and the Power of Darkness.
 They are operated by, on the one hand, such means as
religious ceremonies held by the pure in heart, prayers for the
ability to help those in trouble, the sacrifice of opportunities and
pleasures for the benefit of others, fasts and disciplines carried
out to subdue impulses to commit any of the seven deadly sins,
and all magical operations undertaken with the object of calling
down supernatural aid for a good purpose. On the other hand
they are operated by animal and human sacrifices,
licentiousness without affection, the unnatural use of semen,
blood. excrement, hair, nails and other products of the human
body, wishing ill to any other person, employing violence to
achieve one's ends, leading the young into sin, working for the
overthrow of law and order, inflicting mental or physica: cruelty,
and all magical operations undertaken with the object of calling
down
supernatural power for an evil or selfish purpose.
Magical operations undertaken for an unselfish purpose belong
to white magic.
and those who perform them are followers of the Right-hand
Path. Operations undertaken for personal ends belong to black
magic, and those who perform them are followers of the Left-
hand Path.
A considerable number of people are born with psychic gifts.
In most cases. when they become aware of this, they use them
in minor ways, generally for good. sometimes for taking pain
from others, more usually for the harmless amusement of
fortune-telling. As they have not made a deliberate study of
magic, their powers are very limited and, not having 'crossed the
abyss', they are not fully committed either to the Right-hand or
the Left-hand Path.
To achieve real power is quite a different matter, and a most
arduous under- taking. It entails many years of preparation and
an almost exclusive preoccupatioc with the supernatural.
The Christian saints, as also the holy men of other
civilizations, were capable of performing their miracles because
they denied themselves the pleasures of thi world, undertook
prolonged fasts, worked themselves up into an ecstatic state by
inflicting pain on their bodies - as, for example, the fakirs of India
do when they lie on beds of nails or have themselves buried
alive for periods that would normally bring about their deaths
from thirst - and constantly communed with their own version of
the Godhead.
Likewise the magician must purge himself of all impurities,
learn by heart highly complicated rituals, and go to immense
labour to gather together the ingredients required to perform his
enchantments. If he is a black magician he must proceed with
extreme caution, for he knows only too well that, in calling on the
Powers of Darkness he is exposing himself to a terrifying force;
and that. should he fail to control it, he could be utterly
destroyed.
Any attempt to reach a conclusion about the Devil and all his
works by basing it on the practices of one people, or the tenets
of a single religion, would be futile because we are examining
the two invisible Powers that dominate the Universe and affect
the whole of mankind equally.

84

But some insight may be gained by a survey of the principal

forms of belief from e earliest times.

Prehistoric Man
Our knowledge of races who lived in the distant past is
mainly due to the weapons d belongings that have been
recovered from their graves by archaeologists. But, rtunately,
some of them were artists and have left paintings of themselves
and the animals of their period in the caves they inhabited.
One of the earliest of these dates from Palaeolithic times, and
is in the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege. It is, as can clearly
be seen from the feet and hands, a · ring of a man, but he is
dressed and masked in the skin of an animal, poses in prancing
attitude, and is wearing on his head a pair of antlers. From our
know- ge of a cult that survived right into the Middle Ages, we
may assume that the -;ure represents the oldest known deity -
the Horned God. And it was from him that our Devil of late
Christian times inherited his horns, hooves and tail.
However, it must not be thought that there was anything
Satanic about the orned God. Primitive people attributed to him
everything good or bad for which - ere was no explanation.
Dualism arose at a much later stage, when nations had erged
and went to war with one another. Then each side maintained
that its was good and the god of its enemies evil. The loser's
god was taken into the d of the winner, as a minor deity. This, of
course, was a form of insurance, for if you were rude to the
other fellow's god, there was always a chance that he might do
you a mischief while your own god was looking the other way.
After many wars this custom resulted in polytheism, which
reached its apex - the Roman Empire. Not, in that case,
because the highly sophisticated Romans -eared the gods of the
savage tribes they conquered; they had the sense to realize if
you acknowledged the god of a people you had defeated, that
made for rure peace and goodwill. The British, because of their
belief in Christianity, ald not, while making their Empire, follow
quite the same policy, by acknow- ging the divinity of Shiva or
Tawhaki. But they did the next best thing by decreting religious
toleration for all their peoples.
The one exception to the policy of toleration in ancient times
was the Hebrews.
Yahva or Jehovah, as he later came to be called, was, as we
know, a jealous god and d not tolerate any other deity's getting a
sniff at the burnt offerings.
The making of burnt offerings was common to most primitive
peoples, and tinued well into the Christian era. The theory was
that the god needed sustain- =; but, in early times, meat was
much too precious to be set aside to rot for a ·t)·. The smoke
from the meat was looked on as its spirit and, therefore, as ble
of nourishing him. That was the god's share, and the sacrificial
animal could be eaten cheerfully afterwards.
According to primitive belief, everything had its spirit double,
and, blood being
essential of life in man and animal, its spilling on the ground,
as the sacrificial was slaughtered, would also be most welcome
to the god. As time went on d the tribes merged into nations
ruled by powerful priest-kings, the favour of

85
 the god was courted by human sacrifice. With many peoples
it became customary o make human sacrifices not only at
certain seasons of the year and when going o war, but also on
the death of a ruler. But when men dwelt in caves there were
::10 slaves that could be sent to serve their master in another
world, and every hand as needed; so, when they buried their
dead, they spread red earth over the corpse signify spilt blood.
And to this day blood has, with the exception of semen,
continued to be the most potent aid to any magical operation.
Of all the arts, dancing is the most primitive, and it was by
dancing that early
:nan worshipped the Great Spirit. At Cogul, in north-eastern
Spain, there is a crude cave painting depicting such a dance. It
is of very special interest, because e naked man round whom
the nine women are dancing wears a garter. This, -om time
immemorial, has been the distinguishing mark worn by a person
having
occult powers.
T he garter may be very elaborate, or simply a piece of string;
but it occurs again d again throughout the history of magic and
witchcraft. During the great
"tch-hunts of the seventeenth century, when any witch was
under accusation,

0pposite A prehistoric sorcerer dressed and masked in the

skin of an animal

Below Before the dawn of history : clothed women dancing

with a satyr in their midst

87
 great pressure was brought to bear on him or her to disclose
the names of the other members of the coven, who, realizing
their danger, not infrequently contrived tha~ one or more of them
should get into the prison and ensure silence by killing the
prisoner. The victim might be stabbed to death, strangled or
made to take poiso No matter how the deed was done, a
bootlace or some similar object was alwa_._ left tied loosely
round the victim's neck. As far as I know, no reason for this has
ever been suggested. But in no case were the murderers ever
caught, so the in- ference was that they had made themselves
invisible to enter the cell. By leavin-" there a symbol of magic
power, it may be that they sought to intimidate thei: persecutors
and judges.
Palaeolithic man was succeeded by Neolithic man, cave
dwellings became thing of the past, hunting began to give place
to agriculture, villages were buil~ strong personalities became
chiefs who fulfilled a dual role - leader in war an priest in
sacrificial ceremonies.
But for such headship in early times it seems there was a
price to pay. In
the antlers worn by the primitive magician are not without their
significance There comes a time when every king of a herd is
challenged by a younger stag an killed. No doubt that happened
on many occasions in man's dim past; but th
is much evidence to show that a time came when matters were
regularized by agreement that, rather than wait for the chief to
become decrepit before he \\""• killed, he should retain power for
only seven years. Well or ill, when his time \\"": up he had to die
and pass on his spiritual, as well as his temporal, power to a ne
leader.
Extraordinary to relate, this practice still continues in Central
Nigeria. The Chi-~ of the Junkus tribe is expected, after ruling
for seven years, to go to a cave kno
as Kunguni and there surrender his life. It was reported in the
London Sund, ~ Express ofJanuary 4th 1970 that the present
Chief, Malam Adi Bwaye, has alread_ ruled for ten years and
still refuses to die, greatly to the annoyance of his mo backward
subjects.
A time then came when strong-willed priest-kings like Malam
Adi Bwaye wh were only middle-aged and still hale and hearty
refused to submit to the ri death that was expected of them. This
led to the custom of appointing a scapegoa~ Temporarily,
sometimes for a year, sometimes for only a few days, the
scapegoo.;. was allowed all the privileges of a king, and led a
life of indolence and luxury, the::. his life became forfeit. Sir J. G.
Frazer, in his monumental work on folklore, T Colden Bough,
devotes a whole volume to this subject.
Since the dawn of historical times, some seven thousand
years ago, in Mediterranean countries and those of Western
Europe, many religions have wax and waned, and countless
gods and goddesses have been worshipped for a while then
fallen victims to the passage of time. But the Horned God - the
Old God - survived them all.
He spoke with the voice of thunder and, when angry, struck
with his lightnin: but he also fostered reproduction in men and
animals, caused the crops to gro endowed his votaries with
magic powers and decreed that when he was worshipped.

88

it should be an occasion for feasting, merriment and

indulgence in the joys of life. It was not until the thirteenth
century, at the earliest, when the Christian priest- hood felt
strong enough to oppose him, that he became known as the
Devil.
The Sumerians
In recent times the theory has been advanced that civilization
first arose in Central _\sia. This is largely based on the fact that
there are many similarities between the beliefs and magic of
peoples far removed from one another; This could be accounted
for if various tribes of this Central Asian stock had migrated to
Scandinavia, China, across the Bering Straits, down through the
Americas and also to Mesopotamia.
On the other hand the life of primitive man - an unceasing
fight against nature for food and survival - must have been very
similar in whatever part of the world he inhabited; so I see
nothing strange in the fact that widely separated peoples
developed similar practices.
However that may be, to the best of our certain knowledge
the earliest races to pass out of the Neolithic stage lived in the
fertile lands between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and in the
valley of the Nile; and this dawn of the two great civilizations
occurred about 4000 B.C.
T he archaeologists now tell us that the foundations of
Jericho are older than any city in either area, and that its site
has been continuously occupied for over 7 ooo years; but of the
customs of the people who lived there at that remote time
e have little or no information.
Personally I should have thought that, in view of Egypt's
extraordinarily
dvanced civilization (and it was never higher) during the
Fourth Dynasty, about z68o B.c., the people of the Nile must
have emerged from a state of semi-barbarism ong before the
building of such cities as Ur of the Chaldees. However, we will
take the Sumerian civilization first, because between the rivers
Tigris and Euphrates the traditional site of the Garden of Eden.
It is upon the beliefs absorbed by the Hebrews, while living in
Babylon, that the account of the Creation, and the first chapters
of Genesis, are based. But the
ory as given in our Bible is a sadly muddled one.
By it we are led to beli~ve (Genesis ii. 16-17) that there was in
the Garden of
Eden only one tree whose fruit Adam and Eve were forbidden
to eat - the tree f the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Genesis
iii. 22- 4 reads: 'And the Lord ·d, Behold, the man is become as
one of us, to know good and evil; and now, est he put forth his
hand, and take also ofthe tree ofLife, and eat, and live for ever:
ilierefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground
-om whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he
placed at the east of e garden of Eden Cherubims, and a
flaming sword turned every way, to keep e way of the tree of
Life.'
These passages clearly suggest that there were in the
garden two special trees . hose fruit Adam and Eve were
forbidden to eat. The original Babylonian account of what is
supposed to have taken place is as follows.
Having created man in his own image, the Lord God was so
pleased with his

89
 handiwork that he decided to make man immortal. So he sent
one of his angels ~ tell Adam to eat of the tree of Life. The
angel's name was Serpent, and his appear- ance was then
similar to that of the other angels; but he was a cunning and
ambiti personality and delivered what is known as the 'perverted
message'. This indu Eve and Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil, whe ate of the tree of Life.
The sequel is duly recorded in Genesis iii. 10-19, in which,
having learnt
had happened, an intensely angry Jehovah decreed that the
unfortunate Adam Eve, and their children, should suffer every
unpleasantness he could think And he did not let off Serpent, as
we read in Genesis iii. 14: 'And the Lord said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above cattle, and
above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
d shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.'
So Serpent lost his golden halo and lovely wings; but
according to the Ba.. - lonians, as he had eaten of the tree of
life, he had become immortal, and tha why he never dies but
simply sheds his skin each year.
I was so intrigued by this delightful legend of the two trees,
that I asked · very talented artist, Frank C. Pape, who did the
beautiful illustrations for editi~ of Anatole France and James
Branch Cabell, to design for me a bookplate on theme. The face
of the satyr at whose feet I am sitting, absorbing knowledge..
that of one Gordon Eric Gordon-Tombe, a brother officer of mine
in the F World War. It was he who weaned me away, at the age
of twenty, from rea nothing but light fiction, to enjoy fine English
prose, translations of the most

90
 famous foreign authors, accounts of the great civilizations of
the past and Eastern eachings. A debt that it was impossible to
repay; but, at least, I have been able o acknowledge it by
pasting his portrait into my collection of 4,000 books. I had him
drawn as a satyr because he often declared himself to be a
'conscious hedonist'.
Reverting to more serious matters, the Hebrews also
collected the legend of the Flood from Babylon, and it is quite
possible that the story of Moses as an abandoned baby found
among the bullrushes by Pharaoh's daughter is derived from a
similar -wry about Sargon, who became King of Akkad. Probably
the Hebrews also learnt
their advanced magic there.
The Cabala, upon the understanding of which the alchemists
later based the
·Great Work', is usually attributed to the Jews; but according
to one tradition the Cabala was first taught by God to certain
chosen angels, two of whom, Uzza and _\zel, after being driven
out of heaven with the rebellious Lucifer, taught it to _-\dam, and
to Eve the art of witchcraft. The Cabala was handed down by
way of _-oah and Abraham to Moses, who became proficient in
it during his wanderings in the wilderness, and initiated seventy
elders into its mysteries. In due course
olomon exceeded all previous initiates in his profound
knowledge of its workings, and thereby became the most
powerful magician who ever lived, so that his reputation for
wisdom spread through every country in the world, causing him
to be venerated for many centuries after his death.
;..J"o one had dared to write the Cabala down until, at the
time of the destruction f the Temple, Schimeon Ben Jochai did
so. After his death his sons, the Rabbi Eleazar and the Rabbi
Abba, collated his treatises and produced the Sepher ha-
 Zohar, the Book of Splendour, from which, centuries later, the
European alchemi learnt the secrets of the Cabala. But while
knowledge of the Cabala was confin for a long period to the
Jews, there can be little doubt that it had its origin eith in
Babylonia or Egypt, and more probably the latter. A fuller
account of ancient teaching will be given in Part 4·
Among the many thousand cuneiform tablets that formed the
library of Assur- banipal a great number deal with magic, and
give spells that had been hand down for many generations. As
is universally the case, such enchantments w based on the
belief that a mystic sympathy existed between the person to
bewitched and any part of him, such as hair, nail parings,
something he had wor::· or else a wax puppet upon which his
name had been written.
To cast a spell three things were necessary: (1) to know the
'word of power' b. which a demon could be summoned; (2) to
know how to compel him to carry o an order; (3) to burn or
destroy some property of the person to be afflicted, or image of
him.
Knotted cords have played a great part in magical
ceremonies in every coun from China to Peru, the belief being
that one could imprison certain ills in the kn The Babylonian
priests used the mystic number seven, or multiples of seven,
when
 tying such knots. After suitable offerings had been made,
they untied them to relieve the patient of his pain. Then, facing
towards the east, which is also universal in such practices, they
lifted one hand to heaven and pronounced the conjuration.
The ancient city state of Sumer and its adjacent territories,
Ur, Kish, Eridu, Uruk, Akkad and the rest, all show a very
advanced development, particularly in building and astronomy.
Their huge square ziggurats, which were mounted by ramps up
the sides, were temple observatories. From them the priests not
only cast horoscopes, but worked out many tables concerning
the movements of the heavenly bodies, according to
calculations that are acknowledged as correct by
cientists today. Their artists were most talented, as can be
seen from their repre-
entation of men and animals on innumerable seal-rings and
cylinders, and engravings on ivory and on spearheads, that
have been dug up; and, perhaps the best example of all, the
magnificent portrait statue of the King of Lagash, dated to 2200
B.C. Their painted pottery was most decorative; they had
splendid chariots, uolden helmets and fine jewellery.
The Babylonians and Assyrians inherited the knowledge of
these scientists and killed craftsmen. The great terraced palace
on which -were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was accounted
one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Huge gateways,
flanked by man-headed, winged bulls, still testify to the ability of
the sculptors. From Nineveh great armies went out to conquer
distant lands. Their cuneiform cript was one of the earliest forms
of non-pictorial writing, and in it, laboriously chipped from slabs
of stone, they kept most meticulous records of taxation, stores
of food put aside against famine and so on.
As early as 2500 B.c., the Sumerians were known to have been
trading, by way
of Baluchistan, with India; so it is not to be wondered at that
by that time they had already acquired a large pantheon of gods
- inherited, obtained by local con- quest or adopted from other
peoples.
In the Sumerian theocracy, Marduk the son of Ea, a water
god, was the Creator, and he moulded the body of the first man
from blood. Later, the principal divinities were a trilogy consisting
of Shamash the Sun, Sin the Moon and lshtar the planet Yenus.
The last later became known as Semiramis, then Astarte, and
extended her sway far and wide over the Phoenician and
Carthaginian peoples. Meanwhile Shamash and Sin had given
place to the evil god Bel.
During the early Sumerian period Marduk, like the Horned
God, had been regarded as neither good nor evil; but in later
times he became incorporated with Bel as Bel-Marduk (the
Moloch of the Bible), one of the most terrible gods under whom
it has been the misfortune of man to suffer. He was not content
with burnt offerings of animals, but had to be propitiated by the
smell of roast human flesh. Great brass images of him reared up
in his temples; their bellies opened down the centre like a pair of
gates and inside there was a roaring furnace. Into these terrible
idols, during several centuries, the priests of Bel-Marduk threw
countless men, women and children, to be consumed by the
flames.
All this time Marduk's father, Ea, had continued in the
background among a core of minor deities. But he held a very
special place, because he was the god

93

of wisdom, and even the other gods went to consult him

when in difficulties. It Ea who stopped the rain, and so saved
mankind when Bel had sent the Deluge wi the intention of
destroying humanity.
Ea was also the master magician. It was from him that the
priests learnt to their horoscopes and spells, as also did the
Jews who brought his mysteries in Europe. In Babylonia and
Assyria the cult of the Homed God was tempora · overlaid by
evil, but he still had his worshippers.

Egypt
Above all peoples in the ancient world, the Egyptians were
civilized in the sense of the word. Owing to the climate of the
Nile valley, and their custom furnishing their tombs with articles
whose spirit forms would be available to th in the long journey
through the underworld, we are still able to enjoy innumera
beautiful things with which they surrounded themselves: their
lovely temples, wir carved and painted pillars and graceful lotus-
flower capitals; the picturesq square-sailed barques from which
they fished and shot duck; their war chari, with prancing, plume-
crested horses; representations of the people themselves their
immaculate pleated white linen garments; their beautifully
designed furni painted pottery, glass and jewels.
In their many papyri they have left us accounts of the type of
life they led, able administration of the two kingdoms and the
just laws given to them by Pharaohs, whom they looked on as
divine. For those readers who desire a detail picture, I would
recommend Winged Pharaoh and other books by Joan
They purport to be records of her own lives lived in ancient
Egypt, and they ha such an extraordinary ring of seeming
veracity that I personally have no doub all that when she wrote
them she was a true seer. The expression 'write' is strictly
correct; for, as my wife and I saw her do on many occasions,
she used · lie on a sofa with closed eyes, in a self-induced semi-
trance, and slowly descr: what she saw while her husband took
it down.
But happy, compared with other races, as the people of the
Nile appear to in been, their thoughts were never far from death,
and the still happier existence the life to come that could be
achieved by righteous conduct. So much so was the case that,
at their dinner parties, when they reached what would be our co
stage, the butler carried round a miniature coffin containing a
mummy, tore them that all of them must one day put off their
envelopes of clay.
The Book ofthe Dead gives a most detailed account ofthe
terrifying journey personality that survived death would have to
make. Led through the undern·o by the jackal-headed god
Anubis, it was eventually brought to the Hall ofJudgm entThere,
before Osiris, seated on his throne, it would be examined by the
Ass
of the Dead, and have to vouch for having kept, not twelve, but
forty-two co mandments. Then its heart was weighed in a pair of
scales against the feather of
 Opposite An Egyptian tomb-model of the boat designed to
take the released spirit through the world of shades

94
 Truth, the result being recorded by the ibis-headed god of
wisdom, Thoth; an only then, if the verdict was favourable, did it
attain eternal bliss.
The Egyptians had gone very deeply into the question of
what it was that left the body and survived after death. Even that
great Egyptologist, the late Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, found it by no
means easy to differentiate between the parts of this entity, but
the following is a brief summary of his findings.
The ka. This was the etheric double of the body. At death it
had to leave the corpse; so the relatives of the deceased made
a small statue, called a ka figure, for it to occupy, and put this
with the mummy in the tomb. The ka could leave the tomb if it
wished, but usually remained there. It was sustained by the spiri
doubles of food placed in the tomb, and as these were
consumed it gradually fade away .
The sahu. This was the soul, a replica of the human body
which, provided the right ceremonies had been performed, set
out through the underworld to the H of Judgment.
The khaibit. This was the shadow. While alive, an Egyptian
believed his shado to be a vulnerable part of himself, and that to
walk on a person's shadow was a very wicked thing to do. As an
integral but immaterial part of them, it accompanied them after
death and became the shadow of the sahu. Special rites were
performed to protect it from being stolen.

96
 The ba. This apparently was a second soul which had the
power to enter into other people, such as mediums when in a
trance, and possess them.
The khu. This was the spirit, the ego, the essence of the
person and, alone, was indestructible and immortal.
The modern occultist believes the ka to be a person's etheric
double, which acts as a form of battery recharged with electricity
during sleep. If that is so, it seems quite logical that it should
linger on for a while in the neighbourhood of the corpse. An
apparition seen fairly soon after death would be the ka; but a
prolonged haunting would presumably be the ba or, possibly,
the khaibit, as in our own literature ghosts are often referred to
as 'shades'.
The Egyptian trinity consisted of Osiris, his wife Isis and their
son, the hawk- headed Horus. There was also a forerunner of
the Christian Devil, Osiris's younger brother, Set. He was
jealous of Osiris's power and wished to supplant him on the
throne. With seventy-two evil companions he arranged a
banquet and invited Osiris. Toward the end of the feast a
beautiful, bejewelled coffer was carried in, and Set said he
would make a present of it to anyone who fitted comfortably into
it. Osiris was persuaded to lie down in the coffer; as soon as he
had done so the conspirators rushed forward, closed the lid and
nailed it down. They then threw it into the Nile, and the sea
carried it to Byblos. The lamenting Isis found it and brought it
back to Egypt; but, one night when Set was hunting by
moonlight in the Delta, he came upon it again, cut his brother's
corpse into fourteen pieces and

97

Below right King Tutankhamen as

the jackal-headed god Anubis
Below Osiris in his closed
shrine, with Isis and his four
grandsons

scattered them far and wide. Isis searched the land, and,
wherever she came upo a piece of her dead husband's body,
she erected a temple to him, while her so Horus, the symbol of
Light, fought and triumphed over Set, the embodiment o:-
Darkness.
Concurrently with their trinity, the Egyptians worshipped the
giver of life. Ammon-Ra or the Sun, who rode in his heavenly
chariot through the sky by day died every night and was
resurrected next morning.
In addition to these major gods, there were innumerable
minor ones, mostl_ local deities who had either the heads or
bodies of animals. Each had its o priesthood. Separate schools
of priests and priestesses fulfilled the many needs of this people
that was so concerned about things of the spirit and life after
death. These schools foretold the future by looking into mirrors;
made talismans an amulets; practised telepathy, sending and
receiving news from other parts of the country; and fulfilled the
role of doctors and highly-skilled surgeons, sending th spirits out
of their patients while they operated upon them or performed the
ceremomes.
The uncouth gods of other contemporary peoples all lusted
after burnt offerings. and many of them demanded human
sacrifices; but the religious ceremonies of th, Egyptians were on
an altogether higher plane. There can be little doubt that amone
their priesthood were adepts, both male and female, who
practised magic. And

98

there is good reason to suppose that it was mainly white magic.

However, black magic was also practised by sorcerers, and
they used puppets to bring about death in the following manner.
Having written the name of their intended victim on the image,
they collected seven stalks from seven date-palms, de a bow
with horse hair and shot the stalks like arrows at the image,
saying as they let fly each one, 'Destroyed be A. the son of B.'
It is said that Egyptian magicians could imbue clay figures
with life. The owing, related in the Westcar papyrus, gives an
account of such a happening.
The Pharaoh Neb-Ka, who reigned about 3830 B.C., went on
a visit to one of his high officials named Aba-aner. The wife of
the official fell in love with one of Pharaoh's bodyguards and
allowed him to seduce her. Learning of this, Aba-aner made a
wax model of a crocodile seven spans long. Having recited an
incantation over it, ending with the order 'When the man cometh
down to bathe in my waters thou shalt seize him', he gave the
model to his servant with orders that when the soldier went for
his morning swim it should be thrown into the water afer him.
This was done. The model immediately turned into a living
crocodile twelve feet long, seized the man and dragged him
under water, where they both remained a week. On the seventh
day Aba-aner, while out walking with the Pharaoh, ”invited him
to come and see a wonderful thing. When they reached the
bank of the bank of the Nile, Aba-aner commanded the crocodile
to bring the soldier up from the river . The magical animal
obeyed, upon which Aba-aner told the Pharaoh how the had
seduced his wife. The Pharaoh then said to the crocodile, 'Take
that which is thine and be gone.' Snapping up the soldier again
in its terrible jaws, the beast plunged back into the river with him.
As I have remarked earlier, magic is the application of
scientific laws that are still unknown to our recognized scientists;
and one cannot help wondering how much of the scientific
knowledge possessed by the Egyptians was due to their study
of magic.
We need go no further than the Great Pyramid to establish
the fact that the Egyptians possessed scientific data that did not
become known to the modern world until the ninteenth century.
It is said to have been built between 2645 and 2622 B.c. by
Khufu or, as the Greeks called him, Cheops, the second king of
the Fourth Dynasty.
After 4,500 years it remains the most massive building ever
erected by man. Its base covers 13 acres; even after various
depradations it is still 474 feet high — which is 100 feet higher
than St Paul's — and it contains some 2,300,000 blocks of
stone, weighing an estimated 5,923,400 tons.
In the opinion of the author, a great deal of nonsense has
been written about this pyramid by people who have sought to
prove that it is a mystic creation by which the prophecies of the
Bible were translated into stone. They aver that it foretells 6000
years of history.
Where the descending passage meets the ascending passage
is taken as the Biblical date for the Exodus, 1486 B.C. The end
of the ascending passage, where it

99

reaches the 'Grand Gallery', is said to indicate the birth in 4

B.C., and the death in A.D. 30, ofJesus Christ; the low passage
leading to the antechamber ofthe so-called King's Chamber is
believed to give the dates of the beginning and end of the First
World War. But after that the system breaks down, for, on the
key dates said tc indicate world-shattering events in 1928 to
1953, nothing of any special importance occurred. Moreover, as
one of the basic dates, they take the Biblical Flood tc have
occurred in 2345-2344 B.c., and, while it is now generally
acknowledged that a great flood did take place, such evidence
as we have for it puts it at ap- proximately 9000 B.c. Finally, the
Pyramidists assert that the secrets of the Pyrami were not
meant to be discovered until comparatively recent times, and
that this remarkable revelation was designed entirely for the
benefit of the British. Le· us return to brass tacks.
The unit of measurement used for building the Pyramid was
the inch - 1,000 Pyramid inches equal 1,001 British inches - and
the Egyptian 'sacred' cubit, which measured 25 inches. At the
base each side of the Pyramid measures 9,068 inches Nowhere
is there more than a very slight error, and the huge blocks are
set perfectly together that one cannot get a penknife between
them. Some of the blocks weigh up to seventy tons. The
Pyramid, by the ratio of its original or intended height to the
perimeter of the base, as nearly as possible squares the circle.
Moreover the sum of the two diagonals of its base is 25,826,54
inches. which is very close to the number of years in the
precession of the equinoxes. T h measurements also embody
the days of the year to a fraction, the number of day in a
century, and the distance of the sun from the earth. The builders
of the Great Pyramid based their inch on the earth's polar
diameter, and their calculation was
not very far from the present accepted standard of
500,544,000 British inches. How was all this achieved? The
Pyramidists would have us believe that a smai body of people of
another race, and far higher intellect, arrived in Egypt from
Central Asia, and that they designed this amazing structure for
Cheops. But had that been so, where is the land from which
these people came? It is surely in- conceivable that they or their
forebears would not have built pyramids for them- selves in it.
But in the past half-century the aeroplane has enabled man to
survey the earth in a new way. The most desolate wastes of
Central Asia, Arabia and Africa can hold few secrets from us
now; and such mighty, indestructible buildings
as pyramids would certainly not have gone unspotted.
Other speculators in the mystic put forward Atlantis as the place
from which the
pyramid designers came. The problem of Atlantis is
extraordinarily fascinating. and many similarities in the early
cultures of the Mediterranean and Mexico make it impossible not
to believe that there was considerable communication between
the two continents long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic.
But the snag about supposing a lost continent to have once
occupied the middle of that ocean is that geological evidence is
so very strongly against it.
There is yet another possible explanation. Now that men
have landed on the moon - given that world-wide anarchy,
nuclear war or a cosmic calamity do not destroy our present
civilization - there can be little doubt that within the next
 100

hundred years man will land on Mars and other more distant
heavenly bodies.
It is now recognized that the stars can be numbered in trillions
and that a high proportion of these 'suns' have planets circling
round them. A conference of eminent scientists produced what
is known as the Green Bank Formula — a con-clusion that at
least 50,000,000 other planets have life on them. The distance
to them can be overcome by freezing astronauts for a suitable
period (recently the Russians froze several dogs for four days in
solid ice, then revived them to a perfectly normal state of
animation).
Let us suppose that in the year 2000 and x a rocket from the
earth, belching fire from its tail, descended with a thunderous
roar on a planet whose inhabitants ere still living in its Stone
Age. What would be the reaction of those people ?
They could only assume that our Earth-men were gods who
had arrived in a · chariot.
is it possible that in the dawn of history astronauts from
another planet arrived ere in a space vehicle, and that it was
they who were responsible for the building of the Great Pyramid
- and many other unexplained marvels of antiquity ?
That is the theory recently put forward by Erich von Daniken
in his book Chariots of the Gods ?.
Not only in the Bible but also in the folklore of nearly every
people there are ccounts of these visitors from outer space,
believed to be gods — of the new knowledge that they brought,
of the great works they performed, and of their promise to
return.
If von Daniken is right, this would explain the (otherwise
inexplicable) unheralded emergence almost overnight from
semi-barbarism to high civilization of the Egyptians, Chaldeans,
Mayas, Incas and other peoples.
For the fact that the 'gods' did not return, I offer a possible
explanation of my own. Conceivably they came from Ceres, at
one time a planet in our solar system, now a mass of asteroids
the largest of which is only twenty-seven miles in diameter.
What caused Ceres to be blown to pieces ? Were its inhabitants
the victims of nuclear power, and was their planet destroyed by
some ghastly misuse of that power ?
Allthough I cannot subscribe to all von Daniken's suggestions,
I consider that his general theory opens up an entirely new field
of speculation. I regard Chariots of the Gods? as an epoch-
making book that should be read by everyone interested in the
history of mankind.
Before we leave this subject, there are two further points of
interest I would like to mention. The Great Pyramid is said never
to have been completed. The Pyramidists claim that it lacks an
apex because, according to the prophet Zechariah (iv. 7), the
'headstone' represents the second coming of Christ, and not
until that occurs will the apex be placed in position.
The Pyramidists also believe that the prophecy embodied in
the vast building ends at the year 2001. Let us hope that this
cannot be taken as a sinister corroboration of Nostradamus's
prophecy that Paris will be destroyed by a flight of man-made
birds coming from the east in the year 2000!

101

Taoism
It is a far cry from Egypt to China, but it comes next on our list
because civilization there evolved not very long after it did in the
valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates The Emperor Yao is said
to have ruled from 2356 to 2255 B.C., and starting with his time
there are historical records of the dynasties.
By the time the numerous tribes of the prehistoric period had
coalesced, China had acquired a large pantheon. The supreme
head of these, who was credited with the Creation, was known
as the August Personage of Jade. His wife was the mother-
queen Wang, and they dwelt with the other immortals on the
K'un-llll! mountains. Among them were representatives of the
Sun, Moon, rain, thunder. wind, learning and happiness; also
four dragon kings who were the immediate henchmen of the
August Personage of Jade.
The Chinese pantheon, unlike all others, was run as a
bureaucracy. The gods were ministers and, from time to time,
had to report on their work to the Augusr Personage. If he was
not satisfied, he sacked them and appointed others in their
places. This attitude has always been taken by the Chinese
towards the idols representing the immortals. Even today
Chinese living outside China who s · keep statues of the
Buddha, Confucius or Kuan-yin in their houses, when favoured
by fortune will burn joss-sticks to them but, when afflicted by
trouble, will giye the figure a sharp slap over the face with a fan.
Kuan-yin succeeded Mother Wang as Queen of Heaven. I
am the fortunate possessor of one of the most beautiful carvings
of her that I have ever seen. As the giver of children she is
usually carrying an infant; here, her upheld hand indicates that
she is listening to prayer. I need hardly add that I have never
slappe' her face.
Also in my collection are the fat and cheerful god of
happiness, Ho-toi; and Chao-lao, the god of longevity. The latter
is said to have been carried in his unfortunate mother's womb
for eighty years. The height of his forehead indicates the vast
knowledge he acquired during this long pregnancy, and the
peach he is carrying is the symbol of longevity.
The Chinese gods and goddesses, like those of other
pantheons, were subject to human frailties, as is indicated by
the following legend. The August Personage ofJade had a
daughter named Chih-nii, who was known as the Heavenly
Spinster. She spent the whole of her time spinning for her papa
beautiful robes and clouds which had no seams. One day he
took pity on her loneliness and gave her the Heavenly Cowherd
as a husband. She then became so obsessed with the delights
of love that she neglected her work. Thereupon the August
Personage lost his temper and separated them, putting the poor
girl on one side of the Heavenly River (the Milky Way), and the
Cowherd on the other, with permission to see eac other only
once a year.
But the Chinese people were not destined to depend
indefinitely on the freakish

Opposite China's god of longevity, Chao-lao, and Kuan-yin,

the Chin{•e Q!leen of Heaven

102
 will of their, at times, terrifying gods and goddesses. In the
seventh and sixth centuries B.c., there appeared a cluster of
sages - Zoroaster, Lao-tze, Gautama th Buddha and Confucius -
whose teachings were destined to alter the spiritual thinking of
great parts of the world's population.
In China the second of these, Lao-tze, was born, probably in
604 B.C. His teaching was that people should follow the way of
Nature; her processes, methods and laws, the power that works
in all created things, producing, preserving an life-giving. It can
best be described as a doctrine of acceptance, passivity an
humility. It would, I think, be fair to say that, in the last two
senses, Mahatm:. Gandhi had the outlook of a Taoist.
It is, no doubt, this insistence on humility which accounts for
the Chinese habi- of belittling oneself, so that a highly intelligent
and influential man will say, 'This person who is of no
importance, and whose opinion is of little value, asks pardo for
suggesting .. . ' and so on.
Lao-tze declared all weapons to be evil, and that there is no
greater calami . than entering on war. He held that the precious
things were gentleness, econom_ and shrinking; that in the age
of perfect virtue men lived in common with bir and beasts and
were on terms of equality with all creatures; that we should
discar our wisdom and become quietly acquiescent like still
water; that the body of enshrines an immaterial spirit; that this
returns to the Tao who gave it; tha- having operated in the body
during the time of life, in due course it receives a ne
embodiment. This last, of course, establishes the fact that he
believed in reincarn- ation .
104
 After having spread his teaching and bestowed on his
disciple, Yin Hse, the Tao-te Ching, The Book of the First
Principle and its Virtue, he is said to have mounted on a green
ox and disappeared toward the west. He was never seen again.
But many people had accepted his doctrines and passed them
down until, 700 . ears later, one Chang Tao-ling wrote many
works on him and his teaching, thus ::·ving Taoism a new
impetus and causing it to become one of the great religions of
the world.
Actually Taoism is not a religion but a philosophy. I use the
word religion here
ecause, although Lao-tze never claimed to be divinely
inspired, after his death e was deified. A considerable mythology
grew up round him, and he was credited

105

with power over many fearsome demons. For some

unaccountable reason he came to be regarded as the father of
Chinese magic, and the witches and warlocks of China (known
as 'Wu'), of which there have always been great numbers,
associated themselves with his cult.
Nevertheless, although Confucianism was the pre-
Communist official religion of China, Taoism continued to be
honoured; and, before the revolution, its titular head, known as
the Celestial Master, was ceremoniously received annually by
the Emperor in the Temple of Heaven.
India
The earliest tribes that lived in the Indus Valley were probably
indigenous, and, as with the Indians of North America, the
Eskimos and other primitive races, their society may well have
been based on totemism.
This is the practice by which groups of people associate
themselves with some other living thing, usually an animal. The
totem is identified with the life of the group; to harm the species
is therefore taboo. Totemistp was doubtless the origin of
sympathetic magic, which on the darker side plays such a large
part in the operations of witches and sorcerers. Its peak is
reached when a black magician makes a wax image of the
person he wishes to harm, writes the victim's name on it, and
then sticks thorns in it or melts it in front of a fire while reciting
an appropriate curse.
The discoveries made at the buried cities of Mohenjo-Daro in
Sind and Harappa in the Punjab show that as long ago as 2 5 0
0 B.C. the country beside the River Indus already had an
advanced civilization, with a literate populace, wheeled vehicles,
high brick buildings and an effective drainage system.
About 1500 B.C. the Indus Valley was overrun by Aryan
tribes from the north- west. For a considerable time, until they
had blended with the earlier inhabitants, the position of the
invaders was rather like that of the Normans after they had con-
quered England.
During the intermixture of races the unique social structure
developed that we
call caste. Its origins were complex, but that they must have
been largely racial is suggested by the fact that the Indian name
for caste was (as it remains) varna, meaning colour or
complexion. Of the four castes, the highest comprised the
Brahmans or priests. Their duty was to teach the scriptures and
direct religious ceremonies; they also had charge of scholarship
and science, observed the heavens and made the calendar. The
second caste was that of Kshatriyas, the warrior nobility, who
governed the country and defended it by force of arms. Next
came the Vaishyas, the traders, farmers and artisans. The
lowest caste was composed of Shudras, who performed for
each of the three higher castes the menial tasks that it
disdained.
The Aryans brought many cults, including animal sacrifice
and worship round a sacred fire. They had a plurality of gods,
which gradually coalesced with those of the existing population
to grow into a vast and intricate mythology. Indra was god of the
firmament; Mitra ruled the day, Varuna the night. Surya, the
spirit of the

106

sun, gave light and warmth; the smiling goddess Ushas

brought the dawn. Agni as fire; Soma, the source of inspiration,
lived incarnate in the juice extracted :-rom the plant Asclepias
acida and then fermented, to be drunk by the Brahmans and
offered as a libation; worldly wisdom was symbolized by the
elephant-headed god Ganesha; Lakshmi the bountiful gave
prosperity. Brahma as creator, Vishnu as preserver and Shiva
as destroyer became the Hindu trinity. Saraswati, originally a
river goddess, was transformed into the daughter-wife of
Brahma and - seated on a lotus, her brow bejewelled with a
slender crescent - presided over learning and the arts. An
entrancing form of Vishnu was Krishna, the incarnation of all that
is loving and beloved. Shiva, when not performing his
destructive function, ruled the dance, because the Indians,
supreme in their mastery of gesture, believed
that the Universe moved through rhythmic patterns under his
direction.
From ancient times Indian tradition affirmed reverence for
woman as the -oundation-stone of all religion. The wife, and
especially the mother, had literally o be worshipped. Thus
ultimate Being was conceived not merely as the Father ut even
more as the Mother of the World. Under her beatific aspect she
became
Devi or Parvati, the shakti (female power) of Shiva. In her
more terrifying forms she could be Durga, a golden-skinned
woman, fiercely beautiful, riding a tiger; or Kali, 'the Black', hung
with human skulls, dripping blood and flourishing
eapons in her numerous hands. At the festival of Durga-puja,
which runs from eptember into October, animals are still
sacrificed in some parts of India. The chief worshippers of Kali
are the Shaktas; their beliefs draw authority from the T antras,
scriptures famous for the central place they give to sex. By
contrast with the abstentions typical of Indian religion in general,
Tantric rituals are carnal. They involve five factors: wine, red
meat, fish, symbolic gestures and coitus. The highest Indian
teachings treat sex as a means of spiritual development,
transmuting basic forces through the beauty of mutual feeling,
but Tantrism on its sinister
side is orgiastic and can rapidly become black magic.
Among the more infamous of Kali's devotees were the thugs or
phansigars
noose-users), who took travellers unawares and strangled
them from behind. .\lthough robbery often occurred, the
assassination was essentially a perverted orm of ceremonial,
and the victim's death was an offering to the goddess. During
the last century the British eradicated thuggee. But, as I shall
point out at the conclusion of this book, in the West recently,
though so far on a small scale, ritual
murder has once more raised its cobra head.
Besides a cohort of gods, the early Indians believed in many
intermediate and
lower beings. The Nasatyas helped the unfortunate, cured
the sick and protected the young. The Nagas were a race of
man-headed serpents. Demons multiplied; among them were
the wonder-working Asuras and the Rakshasas, who delighted
in violence, gluttony and lust.
To this diversity of beings innumerable shrines were raised.
Indian religious architecture, even though it may encase no
more than a simple chamber with one image, springs outwardly
into a staggering elaboration. Carvings of exquisite detail show
gods and goddesses, snakes and devils, writhing in erotic
embrace
107
 or relentless combat. Sometimes uncanny in their effect on
the beholder, the_ express the whole range of possible emotion
from the transcendent to the depraved
By nature Indians, perhaps more than any other racial group,
tend to regar the unseen as more real than the seen. This
readiness of belief renders their country a fertile soil for every
kind of superstition and perversion, sorcery, dia- bolism,
polytheistic cruelty and self-immolation. India is the home of
magic ;~ all its shades from ivory to ebony. At the same time we
must remember tha through her sages' constant exercise of
faculties beyond the mundane, she has preserved a matchless
tradition in religious philosophy that at its highest subsum the
abstract ultimate. Nor does the multiplicity of the Hindu gods
mean that they

108

are always viewed as separate persons. In every age the

thoughtful Hindu has venerated them as aspects of one Being,
whose qualities are manifested in omni- farious forms. Did not
the Lord Krishna say, 'Whatever god a man worships, it is I who
answer the prayer' ?
Originally the word Hindu had no religious meaning. The
Persians called the River Indus the Hindu, and so the people
who lived near it came to be known as Hindus. What we now
call Hinduism, which had no founder and no single scrip- ture, is
not really a religion at all but a whole family of religions,
philosophies, practices and types of life. This multiformity has
arisen largely through the toler- ance that is characteristic of the
Indian outlook, enabling it to absorb elements readily from other
cultures, such as the Greek, the Christian and the Islamic.
Unexclusive, it does not repudiate alien views as fit only for
pagans and infidels, to whom salvation is denied.
A basic feature of Hinduism is the belief in reincarnation, the
doctrine that the higher part of man does not die with one body
but may become clothed in other bodies to work out the results
of the actions that he has already performed. Such outworking is
thought to proceed under the law of karma, by which a man
through
successive rebirths may learn from his mistakes, repair the
evil that he may have done and, by acquiring greater powers
and opportunities, reap the benefit of the efforts he has made.
Beyond this, in many Indian teachings we find a preoccupation
with ways to escape altogether from the wheel of rebirth. At a
primitive stage karma was often conceived as involving
transmigration, by which someone who had behaved in a way
unbecoming to the human level would be transformed into a
lower animal, so that a cruel man would become a tiger, a
greedy one a pig, a furtive one a rat, and so on. This in part
caused the·feeling for the inviolability of all life that is another
general feature of Hinduism. It is carried to an extreme by some
sects, such as the Jains, who take extraordinary precautions to
avoid harming even a slug, ant or flea.
The development of Indian religious vision may be divided
roughly into three periods: the Vedic, the epic and the
scholastic.
During the first, which goes back to an oral tradition before
the middle of the second millennium B.C., arose the four Vedas,
the most ancient Hindu scriptures. Of these earliest was the Rig
Veda, a collection of mystical chants and invocations that were
afterwards rearranged for ceremonial use in the Yajur and Sarna
Vedas. The fourth work, the Atharva Veda, is the one most
closely related to the subject of this book, because it contains
spells for obtaining purely material benefits. It was one of the
world's first compendiums of white magic. The final part of the
Vedas included the Aranyakas, or Forest Books, and the
Upanishads. These last are the philosophical commentaries that
form the basis of all later Hindu thought.
From about the seventh century B.C. traditional stories were
gathered into the two great epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. The first, the 'Way ofRama', recounts how Sita,
the wife of the Indian King Rania, was carried off by Ravana, the
fiendish King of Lanka, now called Ceylon; and how Rama, with
the help of

109

Hanuman, regained her. Rama is worshipped by many

Hindus as a divine incarn- ation; at the very least he is regarded
as the ideal Hindu ruler, with Sita as his faultless consort, the
embodiment of all the virtues that an Indian woman should
possess. The Mahabharata, the 'Great War of the Bharats',
which contains some- thing like three million words, is the
longest poem known. On the surface it records
the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, two
branches of the same family; but the whole is a profound
allegory on the meaning of life. It uses every literary device ever
invented and embraces every type of personage and situation
possible in story-telling. The essence of the work can be found
in the eighteen chapters collectively known as the Bhagavad
Gita, the 'Sacred Song', which is revered as a scripture in itself.
There the Pandavas' champion Arjuna is found de- claring
himself unable to shed the blood of the Kauravas, his kinsmen,
preferring indeed to give up his own life for their sake. The Lord
Krishna, who has assumed the role of Arjuna's charioteer,
teaches him that, though he may apparently destroy the bodies
of those opposing him, he cannot touch the spirit, which is
without be- ginning or end. The Gita is a heroic dialogue on the
saving power of love and, with a special detachment, the need
for participation in outward events.
Into this epic period was born Gautama the Buddha, who set
himself to purify Hinduism from the ·accretions with which its
truths had become obscured; he taught that, without
dependence on priesthoods, rituals or the privilege of caste
each man must strive for enlightenment through his own efforts.
An outline of the Buddha's life and message is given later in this
book.
Towards the second century A.D. the scholastic period
followed when Indian concepts began to be enunciated through
highly defined thought-structures called the six systems of
philosophy. The most important is the Vedanta, as the consum-
mate unfoldment of the principle expounded by the Upanishads:
that the atman or spirit is identical with Brahman, the Absolute.
All true development in man is, according to the highest Hindu
teachings, the process of realizing this identity.
Among the six systems, one has achieved in the West an
extensive though a rather dubious fame. This is Yoga. Derived
from the Sanskrityug, 'to unite', the word means the science of
attaining oneness with the Absolute. Its practices take various
forms, adapted to different types of people. Thus Bhakti Yoga
concerns devotion; Jnana Yoga, the acquisition of knowledge;
Mantra Yoga, the intonation of sacred sounds ; Karma Yoga,
active life; Raja Yoga, the understanding of oneself from every
aspect.
To the Western hearer the word Yoga usually suggests the
form called Hatha Yoga, the way of bodily control, which he
associates with contortions and mys- terious powers. This Yoga,
however, has precisely the same object as the other forms. It
includes eight steps. Avoiding Sanskrit words, we may say that
the first two, which ensure the ethical preparation essential to all
typical Indian teachings are to refrain from wrong kinds of
behaviour and to pursue right kinds. The third step is physical:
the mastery of postures. Hundreds are known, each more
complex

Opposite A sadhu or holy man, whose smeared face

reminds him that his body must return to ashes
110
 than the last, but the two most vital are the lotus position, a
way of sitting erect with the legs folded, and standing upside
down. The fourth step is also mainly physical: the control of
breathing. All the further steps are inward, and in broad English
terms they may be described as withdrawing attention from
external perceptions; directing it upon its internal object, namely
that Self which is identical with the Absolute; becoming
absorbed into that; and finally achieving with it the unity that
brings total illumination.
 112

I have dwelt upon these steps because I wish to record the

true practice from whose misuse derives one evil engendered by
that spirit of negation against which, throughout this book, I
speak as clearly as I can: in this case it is fakirism. This occurs
when the object of Hatha Yoga has been forgotten and
contortions are performed for their own sake. A fakir may, for
instance, keep his limbs outstretched until they wither, and he
has to be carried about like a rotting log. Occult powers
stimulated by perversities of this kind have no value for the real
development of man.
A relatively harmless, though spiritually pointless, form of
fakirism is conjuring.
 113

The best-known example is the rope trick, in which a rope is

said to be thrown up into the air by the fakir and climbed by a
boy who disappears at the top and then suddenly reappears
upon the ground. Strangely enough, although almost everybody
has heard of this, one never seems to meet any reputable
person who has actually seen it done. When the present Duke
of Windsor was about to tour India as Prince of Wales, the
country was scoured for anyone who would perform it, but not
one could be discovered. The Asiatic Review, Vol. XXXII, No.
110, for April 1936, contains an interesting report of a paper
read by Major G. H . Rooke embodying various accounts of the
rope trick, which were later discussed by the audience. That was
the period when it was popularly attributed to 'mass hypnosis',
but doubt has since been cast upon the possibility of producing
an identical hallucination simultaneously in the minds of a
crowd. The least unsatisfactory explanation I know was supplied
by a barrister, himself a hypnotist, conjuror and member of the
Magic Circle, from the report of a witness whom he had every
reason to consider truthful. This observer added one notable
factor to the usual account: the fakir had in front of him a basket
of snakes. Apparently he did not throw the rope in the air but
hauled it up from under his legs in a series of jerks the rope
being fairly thick and containing short rigid sections of bamboo
or metal which he could fix together with a deft movement, until
at last the boy climbed to the top and, while the attention of the
onlookers was concentrated on the snakes, jumped down
behind. In Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghost-Hunter, Paul
Tabori succinctly retells the story of how Price persuaded the
conjuror 'Karachi' to demonstrate the trick in the English
countryside. This was done during a snowstorm and was not a
great success. 'Karachi' offered the secret of the trick to Price for
£so, which Price declined to pay. Instead, he made a rope
himself that, held up one way, could be coiled but, held the other
way up, became as stiff as a rod. This clearly supports the
explanation quoted from the barrister above.
I feel I must not conclude this section without mentioning the
cult among young Western people today for adopting the
externals of Indian religious life without always knowing what
they mean.
Every day in London now you may see some young man
swathed in a saintly robe, held at the waist by a pyjama-string
and partly covered with the jacket of a British naval uniform
surmounted by epaulettes; his head displays a redskin hair-
band, and his feet are shuffled into Persian slippers
manufactured in North- ampton; round his neck hang ropes of
'love beads', Maltese crosses and oddments from the Portobello
Road. Not long ago a large group of young people gathered
publicly to intone the Hindu sacred syllable AUM, though with
little notion how it should be pronounced. The sincerity that
inspired many of them was no doubt commendable, but the
objective result of their effort to produce a word of power, such
as might dematerialize an elephant at twenty paces, must surely
have been nil.
Activities like these give point to the affirmation I shall make
at the end of this book, that the young, having lost faith in
Western forms of religion, are allowing the vacuum to be filled
by forces that they do not understand, occasionally perhaps
benign but often dangerous and sometimes destructive in the
last degree.

114
Central America
about the same time as a civilization was developing in the
Indus Valley, one
taking shape in southern Mexico and the countries adjacent
to it. There were number of races in these territories: Huastecs,
Olmecs, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, oltecs, Chichimecs and others,
whose cultures differed widely, but they traded ,ether and, from
totemism, gradually built up a pantheon which merged into or
uded one another's gods.
Of all these races that of the Mayas was the most advanced,
and it survived
""er than any of the others; for it was not finally subdued by
the Spaniards until 1 4 0 years after the fall of the Aztec capital,
which was later to become Mexico
-
_\s with the Egyptians, the life ofthe nation centred round its
religious establish-
ents. Some of these were vast and, again in the manner of
the Egyptians, their
, est buildings were pyramids, of which there were a great
number and one, • east, that rivals in size the Great Pyramid of
Cheops.
T he earliest places at which they erected these great
monuments were Copan Honduras and Tikal in Guatemala. For
a reason unknown, but probably use the poor soil had been
worked out, every few hundred years the whole "on migrated,
and in the tenth century A.D. they settled in Yucatan, where - at
-:xmai and Chichen Itza - as builders they accomplished their
supreme achieve- ents. At the latter place the temples,
pyramids, palaces, ball-courts and observa-
_. cover an area of over eight square miles.
.-ery early in their civilization their priests became accomplished
astrologers.
a reason still undiscovered, they dated their calendar from
the year we call : 3 B.C. In the matter of Creation they were
more fortunate than ourselves, who - e inherited the week
established by Jehovah, for their god did the job in four _ · so,
until the arrival of the Spaniards, for them every fifth day was a
Sunday. Twenty days made up the Maya month, and eighteen
months, plus the odd
· e days - when everyone stayed at home because this period
was considered un-
-
y - the year. It should be remarkable that, even in their early
days at Copan, ne calendars show that their astronomer priests
measured the length of the year with a degree of accuracy
slightly greater than that of the Gregorian
endar we now use.
They also used a 26o-day ceremonial cycle of twenty numbered
days combined
the numbers r to 13. The two cycles ran in harmony and a
day named in both not repeat itself until fifty-two years later. The
coming of this event always "ed great perturbation, as they
feared it portended the end of the world. As n as it was safely
past, they set swiftly about increasing the height of their
-;ram.ids by several further layers, until they migrated once
again.
_\s time went on, four gods appear to have become paramount
throughout exico and the countries adjacent to it.
Huitzilopochtli, who lived in the south, was the son of a goddess
named Coatlicue,
o wore snakes for a skirt. She already had a daughter and
400 sons. When she

115

again became pregnant, her daughter believed she had been

dishonoured, so urged her brothers to murder their mother; but,
speaking from the womb, Huitzilopochtli calmed her down.
When he was born, he arrived already wearing armour and
armed. A vicious personality, he promptly slew his sister and his
400 brothers. He was the god of war and storms, and so, on the
arrival of the ferocious Aztecs, he was enthusiastically adopted
by them, and on the flat top of the great pyramid in Tenochtitlan,
the Aztec capital, innumerable human sacrifices were offered up
to him.
Tezcatlipoca was the Sun god and lived in the north. He was
feared greatly because he brought drought, which was a
perpetual curse to the Mexicans, since their soil was shallow
and water could not lie on the limestone beneath it. He, too, was
a most unpleasant person, as he was also associated with the
Moon and used to wander about at night, appearing as a giant
and carrying his head in his hand. He took delight in frightening
people to death. It was to appease him that every year a
scapegoat for the Emperor was chosen : a handsome, well-born
young man who lived for a year in the luxury befitting a king, and
was then slaughtered. He was the lord of the great complex of
temples known as Teotihuacan, thirty-two miles from Mexico
City, that had been taken by the Aztecs from the Toltecs. There
are pyramids there to both the Moon and the Sun. The latter is
the mightiest
 116

all the pyramids in the New World, and it is said that on one
occasion zo,ooo men d women were slaughtered on it in one
day.
I am very rarely subject to psychic impressions, but when I was
taken down to
the so-called treasure chambers under the Pyramid of the
Moon at Teoti- cin, although I was with a number of people and
these dungeons were lit by ectricity, I was suddenly seized with
such a sense of evil that I could not get out
• the place quickly enough.
On the other hand, while I was staying in Luxor, I went down into
the tomb of
otmes III, the Napoleon of Egypt. It is the deepest of all the
tombs in the Valley the Kings. The sarcophagus chamber is 300
feet underground, and very few ple other than professional
archaeologists ever descend to it, as it is unlit, the · · g split and
the staircases broken. Yet down there I felt no trace of evil; only
er and some perturbation when my filthy Arab guide
threatened to make off th the only candle unless I handed him,
there and then, a handsome tip.
Every Mexican pyramid was truncated, with a small, flat-
roofed temple on top.
 In front of this lay a smaller than life-sized stone figure of a
man wearing a flat round hat, with his knees raised up, and
leaning backwards on his elbows. In his lap reposed a small,
square platter. The figure was known as Chac-Mool, and the
method of sacrifice was to throw the victim down on this figure,
after which the priest slit the live chest open with an obsidian
knife, plunged his hand in, dragged out the steaming heart
dripping with blood, and held it on high.
Tlaloc, who lived in the east, was the god of the mountains,
rain and springs. He controlled four types of water; only one of
them helped growth, the others caused blight among cereals,
turned to frost or destroyed fruit. His cult was the most terrible of
all. He demanded that children, and particularly babies that were
being fed at the breast, should be sacrificed to him, and
afterwards his priests ate their flesh.
Even the Mexican Venus was a revolting personality. She
was the patroness o adultery and filth.
Quetzalcoatl, who lived in the west, was, alone of all the
Mexican deities, worthy of veneration. He was the master of life,
the civilizer, the patron of all arts; an he is of very special
interest because he is said to have been a golden-haired white
man.
The legend was that he came up out of the sea on the
Atlantic coast, bringing knowledge to the Indians of many things
about which they had not previous}_ known. The Toltecs made
him their king. For many years he ruled them wisel_ and justly,
but his nation was then defeated by the Chichimecs. He led the
remnan of his people away to Yucatan. There he bade them
farewell and sailed away to the east on a raft of snakes; but he
had promised to return and bring them lasting happiness.
This is supposed to have occurred late in the tenth century
A.D., and so strong}_ did this belief take root among the people
that when Cortes arrived, 450 years later, the Indians believed
his golden-bearded lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, to be
Quetzalcoatl come again.
The belief in the god's return having been so strong, he may
well, in fact, hav been a real historical personage. It was towards
the end of the tenth century tha the Vikings discovered North
America and temporarily established a settlemen-
in what they named the Vineland. Is it not possible that one of
their long ship was caught in a tempest, swept south and
wrecked in the Caribbean, and that the Norseman, christened
Quetzalcoatl by the Toltecs, was the only survivor to ge ashore?
A golden-haired white man, probably over six feet tall, against
the Indians· average height of only five feet one inch, would
certainly have been taken for a god And later, old and weary, he
might well have had a ship built, manned it with a crew of slaves
and made the attempt to return to his own country, but had
agair. been wrecked, and this time drowned.
By the time Cortes arrived the Aztecs had conquered the
whole country. The~ were a barbarous nation of warriors who
had come down from the north onl_ toward the end of the twelfth
century. In 1325 they founded their capital, Tenoch- tithin, on a
big island in Lake Texcoco. From there they sallied forth,
subdued all

118

Jte other races and exacted tribute from them, in both goods
and many thousands f captives to feed their terrible gods with
blood.
The popular belief that Cortes conquered Mexico with a few
score Spanish oot soldiers and a handful of horsemen is, of
course, far from the truth. The _\ztecs were so loathed and
dreaded by the other races that they welcomed the paniards as
deliverers from the terrible tyranny by which they were being
bled ·hite. They furnished him with supplies, thousands of
porters to carry them and a
p-eat army of warriors that he led into battle.
Yet this does not detract from Cortes's well-deserved glory. He
was not only a
:lne soldier and an able administrator, but a truly great man.
Today, his memory - execrated by the Mexicans; yet they owe
him an immeasurable debt. Before his arrival they had to live
almost entirely on maize, fish and fruit, and these could only be
baked or boiled. There was no grease for frying, no milk, no
cheese; there ·ere no cattle, goats, pigs, horses, until Cortes
imported herds from Europe. To :llin they owe the plough and
the wheeled vehicle, and even potatoes, which he rought for
them from Peru. He was, moreover, in some ways a very
humane man,
d protected the Indians from his brutal soldiery.
\ hen the Spaniards entered Tenochtitlan, they could hardly
believe their ;·es. The Aztecs had made it the most splendid city
in Mexico, with broad streets, ine squares, and palaces that had
balconies ablaze with flowers. The richer
·
abitants wore gorgeous garments and great feathered
headdresses. There were
utiful carvings in jade, wonderful jewels, gold-plated weapons
with intricate ~rravings. Bernel Diaz wrote of the city, 'There is
so much to think of that I do ot know how to describe it, things
that have never been heard or seen before or
·en dreamt about.'
In addition to the pyramids and the pre-dawn ceremonies every
morning to
ure that the sun would rise again, there is much that makes it
difficult to believe
t the Mexican civilization owed nothing to those of the
Mediterranean. A similarity can even be found in the Mexican
hieroglyphics to the symbols for the Phoenician alphabet, and
they are the only two alphabets in the world based on
ocal sounds instead of picture writing. Unfortunately, much of
the history of this remarkable people was lost, because the
fanatical Catholic priests burnt nearly all - eir beautifully
illustrated books, so only their scripture, the Popol Vuh, and a
· codices have survived. But one thing seems clear. While the
pyramids of ~ypt were raised by priests of the Light, the blood-
soaked ones of Mexico were
tars to the Power of Darkness.
. ear Oaxaca there rises a height, surrounded by deep
valleys, called Monte .\lban. The whole ofits top is a great
plateau with, sunken in it, a vast oblong arena ong whose sides
could be seated Ioo,ooo people. In it there are temples, and in -
me places, at ground level, the sides are shored up by what
might be taken for ws of tombstones. There were some in one
corner that I noticed with particular · terest. The figures carved
on them represented many races. In addition to
- veral hook-nosed, long-headed Indians, there were others
unmistakably of .\ryans, Chinese and Negroes. Monte Alban
dates from soo B.C. Could there be

119

clearer proof that the race who made it were in

communication with Europe, Asia and Africa?
With such oceans of blood being split by powerful priest
sorcerers to feed the dark gods, it may be wondered how Cortes
and his little band of Spaniards escaped the death spells cast
against them. That they did so was probably due to their
complete conviction that pagans could not harm them. They
were armoured by their unshakeable belief in the goodness of
Jesus Christ and in his protection.

Zoroastrianism
This is one of the great religions of the world; for, although
through the centuries the number of its followers has shrunk, its
teachings had a very considerable influence on others, on Greek
philosophy and in the ritual and practice of magic. It has gone
through many vicissitudes, but in its most recent form it is still
followed today by the Parsees of India and by ·a limited number
of rural communities in Iran.
Although Persia lay on the trade route between Chaldea and
India, there is nc record of a civilization developing there until
the ninth century B.C. The earl_ Persians then lived on the
mountains of Kurdistan; and the Medes, who in course of time
coalesced with them to form one nation, occupied the plain.
Late as the Persian civilization was in its arising compared
with others, it was destined not only to animate a mighty empire
that fought and defeated Rome, bu to last right up to modern
times, and to produce a literature and an art almost unrivalled in
Asia. This civilization blossomed very swiftly. To appreciate th
vastness of the Palace of the King of Kings at Persopolis, its
ruins must be see and in excellence the bas-reliefs are
surpassed only by those of the Greeks.
Twice in her history Persia has been conquered and for a
period occupied by semi-barbarous race; but- unlike Egypt,
Assyria, Crete, Rome and Byzantium - she never lost her
identity. She absorbed her conquerors and went on to ne
triumphs, producing the most beautiful rugs in the world,
magnificent mosqu and palaces, exquisite paintings and
gardens in which a great number of flowers we now enjoy were
first cultivated. Her armies invaded India and despoil~ her of her
finest jewels, but in the squares of Teheran, Isfahan and Shiraz
t1: statues are not of her soldiers; they are of her poets.
Turning now to the early times of this remarkable people, the
god of th kings was Ahura Mazda, the 'War Lord'. He had six
attendant beneficent im- mortals, representing order, good mind,
desirable dominion, devotion, wholP- someness and immortality.
He also had two sons: Spenta Mainyu, the spirit truth and life,
and Angra Mainyu, the spirit of destruction and death. The form
was called Atar by the people. He rode in the chariot of the Sun,
and they wc'- shipped him in the form of fire. T o him they looked
for comfort, guidance, virili _ and a paradise where he would
receive the virtuous. In addition to these there
a pantheon of minor gods derived from Babylonia and the valley
of the Ind while the Medes had priests who were known as the
Magi and performed sp - fire rituals. Oxen were sacrificed to the
gods, and during the ceremonies priests and

120

congregation all drank a potent liquor fermented from the

juice of the haoma plant. The shed blood was, as usual,
believed to strengthen the life force of the celebrants, and their
intoxication to be a foretaste of the joys of immortality.
Zoroaster lived, it is said, for seventy-seven years,
somewhere between 630 and -40 B.c., and so he was the
earliest of the four great sages of pre-Christian times. He was
born in north-eastern Persia, a territory then known as Khorezm,
a part
of Baluchistan, inhabited by nomadic tribes.
According to the legend which grew up after his death, at the
age of twenty
he left the paternal roof in search of the man who was 'most
in love with rectitude and most given to feeding the poor'. He fed
animals and the wretched, tended fires and lived in silence in a
cave for seven years. When he was thirty, each of the
archangels made a revelation to him that gave him power over
various elements of the cosmos. He then set out to preach, and
to destroy demons: Upon this the evil god Angra Mainyu arrived
and offered him a kingdom if he would stop his acti- Yities, but
Zoroaster resisted this temptation and declared that, with the
help of :\lazda, he would vanquish the Prince of Darkness.
A much more probable account is that he was a man of some
wealth, with herds, and well-educated; that his mission was not
only an ethical but also a practical one, in that he urged his
countrymen to give up their uncertain nomadic ways and,
instead, settle down as farmers. His denunciation of their
polytheism and worship of demons at first met strong opposition,
but he succeeded in converting King Hystaspes, at whose Court
he spent many years, and his daughter, Pouruchista, married
Jamasp, one of Hystaspes's ministers.
Zoroaster rejected all the gods except Ahura Mazda and his
two sons. He abolished blood sacrifices and the drinking of the
fermented haoma and made fire the sole object of worship. His
teachings are enshrined in the Zend Avesta, which
·as compiled several centuries after his death; although one
part of it, the Gathas, is directly ascribed to him.
As a result of Zoroaster's teaching, Ahura Mazda became
merged with his good on, now called Ormazd, who dwelt in
Light, while the evil son, called Ahriman, dwelt in Darkness.
These two principals waged eternal war, and it was taught that a
spark of each spirit was embodied in every man. After death the
soul was weighed in a balance and judged accordingly. If Light
had triumphed, the soul would go to Heaven; if Darkness, to
Hell. But, in due course, the world would be consumed in a
mighty fire, and the souls of the damned would be purged in it,
so they would
hare in the universal resurrection.
This weighing of the soul of the dead suggests an Egyptian
origin, as does the
ymbol for Ahura Mazda, which was a winged disc or head,
reminiscent of Horus. As fire was the symbol of Light, there were
no devils with pitchforks in the Zoroastrian Hell. It more closely
resembled purgatory, and was simply the 'outer darkness'
mentioned by St Matthew. Moreover, according to the A vesta, a
mortal inner condemned to death by the high priest escaped
punishment in the here- after. It will be recalled that the pitiless
St Paul (in I Corinthians v. 5) demanded that sinners should be
delivered to Satan - that is, be put to death - in order that

121
 their souls might be saved at the Last Judgment. It was upon
this doctrine that. many centuries later, the Holy Inquisition sent
thousands of men and women to be burnt at the stake.
As Zoroastrianism spread south and west in Persia, it was
adopted by the Magi They were regarded as wise men, because
they had inherited much of the know- ledge of the Babylonians
and, possibly, the Egyptians. They were highly skilled in the
interpretation of dreams, in astrology and magic; hence our word
'magician·
Zoroaster was never deified, but the beliefs that he initiated
have survive through the ages. They are found in the Dead Sea
scrolls of the Essenes, a passage from one of which reads: 'He
created man to have dominion over the earth an made for him
two spirits, that he might walk with them until the time of his
visitation; these are the spirits of truth and error. In the abode of
light are the origins of truth and from the source of darkness are
the origins of error.'
Those beliefs were inherited by the Gnostics and later by the
alchemists. The:· played a major part in formulating the
conception that every happening in the Universe, and act of
every individual, can be attributed to either the Power o Light or
the Power of Darkness.
Confucianism
While Lao-tze was still living, another of the four great sages
of the pre-Christia.c era, K'ung Fu-tzu or Confucius, was born in
China. It is said that the two met an talked together; but this is
most unlikely because, in 551 B.c., when Confuciu was a
newborn babe, Lao-tze was already over fifty years old.

122
 As a young man Confucius was poor, but so eager for
learning that, we are told, being unable to afford candles, he sat
out on winter nights, huddled in his padded coat, and studied by
the reflected light of the snow.
At that time China was united under the Emperor only
theoretically. The power- ful barons frequently made war on one
another and taxed their people cruelly to upport their armies, so
poverty and starvation were rife in the land. Confucius
dedicated his life to relieving the sufferings of the people.
Although a religious man, he made no attempt to found a
religion, but contented
himself with condemning superstitious practices and, until
comparatively late in life, simply talking to the more intelligent
students about how the state of things
 might be bettered. In fact he conducted himself in very much
the same way as, at that very time, the philosophers of Athens
were doing on the other side of the world.
The State was then administered by aristocrats who were
often ignorant and cared little for the welfare of the masses.
Confucius held that the right to govern de.fJended on the ability
to make the governed happy. (I print this in italics because it has
a context in the conclusions reached at the end of this book.)
And that depended on virtue and ability.

123
 The great sacred books of China were the Shu King, the Shih
King, the Yi King and the Li Ki. Confucius set a high value on
these and, in the Analects attributed to him, commented upon
them at length. His own writings consist of the Khun-Khiu, which
is a history of his own State for 242 years, and the Hsiao King,
or Classic of Filial Piety, which in the course of time was to have
an immense influence on the Chinese people.
Confucius died in 479' B.C. In 213 B.C., the Emperor Khin
had all the sacred books that could be found seized and burnt,
but fortunately enough portions of them were hidden by scholars
for them later to be reconstructed for posterity.
'Virtue,' Confucius maintained, 'is to love men. And wisdom is
to understand men. The truly virtuous man, desiring to establish
himself, seeks to establish others; desiring success for himself,
he helps others to succeed. To find in the wishes of one's own
heart the principle of his conduct towards others is the method
of true virtue.'
The sage did not himself succeed in worldly life, for he never
received the high government appointment that was his
ambition. But he was instrumental in securing posts of
importance for many of his young followers and, in due course,
his ideas were responsible for changing the whole system of
selt;cting ministers. Previously the governing class had
consisted entirely of the nobility, appointed by the favour of the
Emperor, without regard for qualifications. Afterwards, for over
2,ooo years, China was run by able men mostly, who owed
nothing to birth or wealth. Many of them had been born in
poverty. No one could become a :vlandarin who had not passed
out high in the examinations.
Confucius laid down Eight Steps for 'maintaining one's clear
character, loving the people and abiding in the highest good': (I)
investigating the nature of things; (2) extending knowledge; (3)
maintaining sincerity of the will; (4) rectifying the mind; (5)
cultivating the personal life; (6) regulating the family; (7) ordering
the state; and (8) bringing peace to the world.
The basis of his doctrine was that one should practise
absolute sincerity in all things; that one's conduct towards others
must be irreproachable; that to achieve happiness one must
begin by respecting and loving one's parents, and out of this
would grow love of all mankind.
The 'Way' or 'Great Learning' did not become nation-wide
until the eleventh century A.D.; but, from the beginning, it had
great influence on the emperors and their courts, and as early
as 136 B.C. it was proclaimed the State doctrine. In the latter
part of his life, Confucius spent ten years travelling through the
country, at times in considerable danger, spreading his beliefs.
They were further spread by the writings of his grandson, Tzu
Szu, and Mencius, his greatest disciple.
His urging men to acquire knowledge and use it to combat
abuses and evil was the antithesis of Lao-tze's teaching that
happiness can be achieved by emptying the mind and striving
for complete passivity. Both doctrines had a strong appeal for
opposite mentalities among the literate classes of China. The
ignorant masses

Opposite Confucius outlined in stone

125

continued to be obsessed by superstition and put their faith in

the magic of the priest-sorcerers and witches. That naturally
coloured, to a considerable extent, the life of the whole nation.
Hence the many precautions against demons, such as the
turned-up corners of the roofs of Chinese buildings, the zigzag
doorways designed to prevent evil spirits from entering, and the
idols in every Chinese home, to which rich and poor alike
ceremoniously made their daily bow. But, in this last, we have at
least some of the most beautiful works of art that have ever
been created.
Had the teachings of Confucius spread among all peoples
and been accepted by them, it would have led to an end of evil
in this world.

Buddhism
In 563 B.C., twelve years before the birth of Confucius in
China, Gautama Buddha - perhaps the profoundest of the four
great pre-Christian sages - was born in the part of northern India
that is now Nepal. His given name was Siddhartha; Gautama he
derived from his father, who was King of the Gautama people.
As a prince he was of the Kshatriya or warrior caste, but
while still a young man he was attracted to a non-worldly life. He
married a beautiful girl, who gave him a son; he lived in great
luxury and his every whim was gratified. Yet these things could
not hold him. In his twenty-ninth year he renounced home and
comforts to seek the 'supreme peace of nirvana'.
He first sought instruction from two religious teachers, then
he tried extreme ascetic practices for a period of six years. Both
proved unsatisfactory, so he re- turned to a natural regime and
sat down under a huge Bo tree in profound medita- tion. The
conclusion he reached was that suffering is caused by
ignorance, and it can be removed by right living and
enlightenment. Thus he became the Buddha, or 'Enlightened
One'; and, starting in Benares, he spent the remaining forty-five
years of his life as a wandering teacher.
At that time the dominant elements in Hindu religion taught
that the most effective way of terminating the perpetual cycle of
birth, death and rebirth created by the law of karma was through
the performance of expensive and complicated rituals by the
Brahman priests. The philosophical development of Vedic
literature. through the Upanishads, had already brought about a
reaction against this, so Gautama was listened to with respect
and eagerness.
He repudiated the gods and declared every individual to be
responsible for hi own salvation, without any priestly assistance.
He condemned the two extremes: a profitless life of indulgence
and sensual pleasure, and an equally profitless one of self-
mortification. He urged people to take the 'Middle Path', by
which they might gain insight, knowledge, tranquility and
enlightenment; and stated that enlightenment consisted in
realization of the Four Noble Truths. These were:

1. The truth of pain : birth is pain, old age is pain, death is

pain, union with the unpleasant is pain, separation from the
pleasant is pain, not obtaining wha one wishes is pain.
2. The truth of the cause of pain : the craving that leads to
rebirth, accompanied

126
 by delight and passion, rejoicing at finding the delight here
and there;
namely, the craving of lust, for existence, for non-existence.
3· The truth of the cessation of pain; the complete cessation of
that craving - its
forsaking, relinquishment, release and detachment from it.
4· The truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain: the
Noble Eightfold Path - right view, right thought, right speech,
right action, right livelihood,
right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
The object of this, of course, was to recognize the suffering
inherent in existence and to provide a way of deliverance from it
by rightness of conduct and inner discipline; the good being
nirvana, a transcendant state free from craving, suffering and
sorrow.
Gautama formed an order of monks. It removed all
restrictions of caste, placed upon all members the same
requirements, denounced extreme ascetic practices and
emphasized moral principles. His monks wore yellow robes and
their equip- ment consisted of an alms bowl, a toothpick, and a
razor with which they kept their heads shaven. They listened to
the religious discourse of their seniors and fasted after the
noonday meal. Their preaching to laymen enjoined abstention
from taking life, drinking intoxicants, lying, stealing and
unchastity. It emphasized the virtues of good relations between
parents and children, husbands and wives, masters and
servants.
In the third century B.C. the great Indian ruler Ashoka
became converted to Buddhism, and spread it far and wide; but
after some 8oo years it began to decline. The Brahmans again
got the upper hand. Hinduism, with its worship of many gods,
again dominated the great majority of the people.
But Buddhism was very far from being a dying faith. Ashoka
had sent a bhikkhu named Mahendra as a missionary to Ceylon,
and he was made welcome there by the Sinhalese King Tissa,
who became a convert. Mahendra's sister followed him, bringing
with her a branch of the Bo tree under which Gautama had
received enlightenment. This was ceremoniously planted, and
still flourishes today, probably the oldest tree in the world.
 The Sinhalese, a pale race that had come down from India in
the second half of the eleventh century B.c., developed into a
remarkable people. Their system of irrigation rivalled that of
Egypt, and one of their artificial tanks, 4,500 square feet, is still
working. It was a land of jewels, which they traded with the
Romans. Their palaces and art were of the highest standard,
and the monuments they raised to the Lord Buddha are worthy
of the epithet 'mighty'. Some of them, called dagobas, are huge
domes rising from the ground with, inside, a small chamber
containing sacred relics. The rest of them are solid brick, and it
has been calculated that in the largest there are as many bricks
as would be needed to build a European city to house 8o,ooo
people.
Ceylon continues to be one of the great strongholds of
Buddhism, and the beautiful Temple of the Tooth, at Kandy, is
one of the most famous shrines in the Buddhist world.

127

Cambodia is another great Buddhist stronghold. The marvel

of Angkor Wat needs no description. In Bangkok, the capital of
neighbouring Thailand, Buddha's temples are no ruins. There
are scores of them, and their newly gilded pinnacles glitter in the
sun. Across the great peninsula, in Rangoon, the immense
Shawa Dagon rears its central spire to the sky. Far away to the
south, in Java, Borneo and Sumatra, hundreds of thousands of
men have laboured to do the Lord Buddha honour. Equally far
away to the north, Buddhism has long shared with their native
Shintoism the devotion of the Japanese. I recall seeing one
seated statue of the sage at Nara that was eighty feet in height.
It had been cast in one piece of bronze in the year that William
the Conqueror invaded England, and worshippers were still
kneeling in prayer before it.
The whole of East Asia, and far into the interior of the great
continent, became the Buddha's province. The Chinese were
ever a most courteous people. They listened with respect to the
missionaries from every Christian denomination, as well as to
Zoroastrians, Hindus, Jains, Mithraists and Mohammedans; but
the Buddhists alone succeeded in making converts in any
number. By the second century B.C., Confucius had to share
roughly equally with Gautama the devotion of Chinese millions.
Tibet became another of his strongholds, and the Dalai Lama a
'living god' who spoke for him on earth. The latest figures tell us
that there are over 168,ooo,ooo living followers of the Buddha,
and more than 30o,ooo of them live in the Americas.

Lao-tze, Zoroaster, Confucius and Gautama Buddha brought

new light to mankind. They taught that one must not rely on a
self-created Big Brother vaguely resident above the clouds. That
it was futile to rely on the promises of priests that, if a man said
on his death-bed that he was sorry for his sins, all would be well
with him in the hereafter. That he must nurture the spark of spirit
that was in himself until it became a pure flame. That only so
could he become one with God.
 PART 4

Beliefs in the Past

2,500 Years

Introductory
In considering this period, the most suitable people to start
with are the Greeks, because not only did their gods, or others
copied from them, dominate the Mediter- !'3llean and the Near
East for a thousand years, but the Greeks themselves con-
tributed more to the thinking of the modern world than any other
people.
But the saga of civilization in Greece is divided into two
entirely separate stages, s;o that the Greeks of the classical
period, who made Athens forever famous, did ot believe that the
great buildings of the past had been erected by their ancestors,
but thought them to be the work of a race of mythical giants.

Greece
It was in Crete that the pre-Hellenic civilization arose, well
before 2000 B.C., and it reached its zenith about 400 years
later. The Cretans were the first great maritime people. They
traded with Egypt and Syria and as far west as the Pillars of
Hercules; perhaps even further. They may well have been the
first peopleto cross the Atlantic ro America. After all, the
Pharaoh Necho sent an expedition that sailed out of the _.
{editerranean down the west coast of Africa, wintered
somewhere south of the equator, sowed corn, garnered it in the
spring and, after two years, arrived home :- way of the Red Sea.
Compared with such a voyage,.one to Mexico or Brazil ould
have been a much lesser undertaking. And the great galleys of
the ancients were bigger and better ships than those of
Columbus.
Be that as it may, the Cretans dominated the Aegean and had
numerous colonies on the mainland. The greatest of these was
Mycenae, in southern Greece. It was there that Agamemnon
and others of the heroes lived, and from nearby Tiryns that they
sailed to besiege Troy.
It is in the ruins of these citadels on the mainland that Cretan
architecture is
seen at its most impressive. Walls and gateways are formed
from huge slabs of one, some of which weigh up to seventy
tons. It cannot be wondered at that 800 years later the
descendants of the builders believed that 'there were giants in
those days'.
In Crete itself these monolithic edifices are less in evidence,
but the palaces at knossos, Phaestos and Hagia Triada must
have rivalled those of Babylon. They

Opposite A drinking-vessel of black soapstone, with rock-

crystal eyes and gilded wooden horns, from the Little Palace,
Knossos

131

are many storeys high, the rooms are small but their courts
spacious, and in their subterranean treasuries can still be seen
the huge jars - reminiscent of those in which Ali Baba's forty
thieves concealed themselves - for the storage of grain, oil
and gold. In their palaces, too, there were pipes running
under the floors of every room, providing an excellent central
heating system against the cold of winter · and the Queen had
her private bathroom.
The great goddess of the early Cretans was the Universal
Mother. Later they adopted the cult of the sacred bull, which
they probably first acquired from the Assyrians, as that of Apis,
in Egypt, did not arise until Ptolemaic times.
The Minotaur was said to have owed its existence to the sea
god Poseidon's having put an enchantment on King Minos's
Queen, so that she fell in love with a bull and became pregnant
by it. The beast lived at the centre of the Labyrinth and every
year handsome youths and beautiful maidens were brought from
the mainland and offered up to it. Whether they were actually
sacrificed remains debatable, but they were certainly brought
face to face with the Minotaur; and this is believed to be the
origin of the bullfight. The story of how the Greek hero Theseus,
with the aid of the Minoan King's daughter Ariadne, who had
fallen in love with him, slew the Minotaur is too well known for
repetition.

Recently an American archaeologist, James W. Mavor Jnr,

has produced a new theory about Atlantis, which postulates that
this fabled land was really an Aegean island at the southern end
of the Cyclades group, and that it was either a Creta colony or
that Cretan civilization had its origin there. His book Visit to
Atlantt:; makes fascinating reading. There is no doubt that this
island was largely destroyed by a great eruption, and recent
excavations have revealed many evidences of a advanced
civilization. But it is difficult to believe that Solon, who learnt
abou· Atlantis from the priests at Sais in Egypt, could have
previously known nothing

Opposite The Priest-king fresco from Knossos

132
 about it if the terrible upheavals during its destruction had
occurred so much nearer his own home.
That the Flood, during which Atlantis is said to have been
overwhelmed, actually occurred seems certain; although, of
course, it was not world-wide. Sir]. G. Frazer, in his study
Folklore in the Old Testament, points out that, although varying
in particulars, legends of the Flood have been handed down on
both sides of the Atlantic; but the further one goes from that
ocean the less frequently they are found, so that, for example, in
China they are non-existent. That probability is that widespread
volcanic eruptions and mountainous tidal waves were caused by
a small comet, or huge meteorite, that came down in the
Atlantic. But the site of Atlantis remains a mystery. One thing
appears certain : the devastating occurrence must have
happened thousands of years before any civilization existed in
the Aegean, otherwise there would be much information about it
in the papyri of the Egyptians.
About 1400 B.C. the Mycenaean civilization disappeared. It
was wiped out by the barbarous Dorians, who swept down from
the north, and, for the better part of 700 years the peoples in
that part of the Mediterranean sank back into semi- primitive
communities.
By Sso B.c. the inhabitants of Greece believed the Minoans
to have been a legendary race. It is thought to have been about
that time that the wonderful stories of the heroes, attributed to
Homer, were written, and the equally colourful account of the
doings of the gods, attributed to Hesiod.
In the Homeric tales magical happenings were of everyday
occurrence. Terrible monsters menaced the adventurers,
friendly powers appeared and saved them, everyone was liable
to enchantment. Circe became the prototype of the beautiful
witch-seductress, and turned men into swine, while Medea could
render a hero invisible to his foes.
The pantheon immortalized by these writers is one of the
most vivid and lifelike ever created. Instead of half-animal gods
or ferocious brutes constantly demanding blood and the smells
of the kitchen, we have a family representing all the virtues and
vices arising from human emotions.
Zeus, king of gods and men, is a typical headman of a tribe
that has acquired some culture·. At times he loses his temper
and starts throwing thunderbolts, but he is no bully and has a
strong sense of justice. He is sadly henpecked by Hera, his
shrewish queen, but he just cannot resist any chance that
comes along to enjoy a tumble with a pretty girl.
Aphrodite, the starry-eyed, born of the foam, had no
inhibitions. But what a horrid mother-in-law she proved when her
son, Eros, brought home little Psyche! Aphrodite gave the poor
girl all sorts of horrid chores to do and, as the palaces of
Olympus would not have been more than pleasant bungalows,
probably made her sleep under the kitchen sink.
How like life, too, that this most beautiful of women should
have had for her husband the ugly, crippled Vulcan!
Apollo, the great musician, could be cruel on occasion. Did
he not flay the

134

wretched Marsyas, the tune from whose pipes had jarred his
sensitive ear? But as the Sun god he loved all forms of beauty.
So much so that, Zeus having taken the sky and earth, and his
brothers Poseidon and Pluto having taken the sea and the
underworld, Apollo declared none of them good enough to live
in, so created the island of Rhodes for himself. And those who
have been there will have delighted in his island of butterflies
and roses.
There had, of course, to be a representative of war - the
uncouth, brutal Mars; of hunting - the chaste Diana; and other
personalities who portrayed the various strengths and
weaknesses of mankind.
Homer's view of the after life was a very depressing one. Apart
from a few
notable exceptions, who were either awarded perpetual bliss or
unending torment, the great majority of souls, having given
Charon the piece of money placed in their dead hands before
burial, were ferried across the Styx to a gloomy Hades in which
they drifted about indefinitely as only semi-conscious shades.
This cheerless conception long coloured much of Greek thought.
But the doctrine of Orphism held out a far brighter prospect;
namely that, having drunk of the waters of Lethe which caused
souls to forget their past life, they were born again.
The beginnings of classical Greece took place in the seventh
century B.c., and in a remarkably short time it blossomed into
the greatest advance in knowledge and creation of beauty that
the world has ever known.
By the sixth century, Persia under Cambyses and Darius had
become a great power, overrunning Babylonia, Palestine and
Egypt right down to Luxor. She then attempted to subdue the
Greeks, but in 480 B.C. was defeated by them at Thermo- pylae
and in the epoch-making battle of Salamis at which they
destroyed Xerxes's fleet, thus putting an end to the Persian
threat to Europe.
From this period we have the writings of two of the greatest
Greek dramatist- philosophers: Aeschylus and Sophocles. The
first studied the relations between God and man in human
history; the second the relations between man and the city state,
as revealing the purpose of the gods. And it was from the
generally warring city states, of which Greece was then made
up, that there emerged a new form of government, destined later
to become accepted by the greater part of the nations of the
world.
This was democracy, but not as we now know it. Previously
all states had been ruled by priest-kings, or a later development
of monarchy in which the ruler was ed a tyrant. The Athenians
initiated the Assembly at which, from time to all citizens met and
decided by majority vote whether there should be peace or war,
such taxes as were to be imposed and other important matters.
But it should be noted that only a few thousand citizens -
those, in fact, who were property owners and so would bear the
burden of taxation - were eligible to vote. -This system, the
soundest possible form of government, has developed into one
in which the great present-day democracies allow equal voting
power to all members of their populations who are of legal age -
which is a very different matter.
In Greece, the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. proved to be the
grand era. During time a score of men emerged with minds of
the highest order. Under the

135

hands of Myron, Phideas, Polyclitus, Praxiteles and Lysippus,

the sculpture of the human body reached a beauty that has
never been surpassed. Encouraged by the great Pericles,
architecture took new and lovely forms. Even today the ruins of
the Acropolis, when floodlit at night, appear a dwelling-place fit
for the gods. Later the gracious Greek temples, and theatres
with remarkably fine acoustics, rose in Asia Minor, Italy, Sicily
and many other lands.
It was during these centuries that the great philosophers
flourished. Socrates wrote nothing, but he fostered schools of
debate on the same lines as Confucius had done in China.
Plato, who followed him, portrayed his age and speculated in
undying prose on man's destiny. He was a convinced believer in
reincarnation, and his doctrines lived long after him, being
widely propounded by the Neo- Platonists of the early Christian
world. Pythagoras appears to have even accepted the Hindu
belief that souls could be retarded and reincarnated in animals
and insects. Plato's pupil, Aristotle, gave deep thought to
esoteric doctrines but, like Socrates, seems to have reached no
definite conclusion. Later there came Euclid and Archimedes,
with their immense contributions to mathematics, and Strabo
with his contribution to the geography of the ancient world.
Poets and playwrights whose work has survived 2,ooo years
delighted the Greek people: Meleager, Euripides, Theocritus,
and Aristophanes. The comedies of the last are more closely en
rapport with the modern mind than any Restoration play.

136
 About the middle of the fourth century B.C., Philip of
Macedon emerged from northern Greece and swiftly became
master of the whole peninsula. His son, _\lexander the Great,
made himself sovereign of the greatest empire the world had
ever known up to that date. In 334 B.C. he conquered Asia
Minor, in 332 Egypt, in 331 Babylonia, in 330 Persia and in 327
north-western India. In 323 he died at the age of thirty-three. His
vast realm was partitioned by his captains. Through _\lexander's
conquests Greek philosophy, learning and culture were carried
to the ends of the then known earth.
So also was the Greek pantheon. But, because the gods
were later worshipped under many names, and in distant
countries literate people could read transla- tions of works
embodying the Greeks' higher thought, it must not be supposed
that the practice of magic had ceased. While Sappho sang and,
later, Socrates talked, witches and sorcerers plied their trade as
profitably as ever. Greek literature abounded in accounts of
spells cast with dire results, and love potions resorted to by the
infatuated.
The most famous charm for unrequited love was 'drawing
down the moon'. It is mentioned by Aristophanes and several
other writers, including Lucian in his story of Glaukias and
Chrysis. The youth, it tells us, became so lovesick for the
maiden that it was feared he would die, so a powerful magician
was consulted. He prescribed 'drawing down the moon' and
performed the operation, which included invoking Hecate, the
goddess of the dead, and her fearsome escort of ghouls. A clay
figure of Chrysis was then made and bronze needles stuck into

137

various parts of it by Glaukias with the words 'I pierce thee

that thou should'st think of me.' Soon afterwards Chrysis came
running to the house and threw her arms around the young
man's neck.
The innumerable stories of a similar nature suggest that
dependence upon invisible influences was common with the
bulk of the population.

Palestine
Belgium has been termed the 'cockpit of Europe'. Palestine is
the cockpit of the Near East. Canaan, as it was called in the old
days, was from the earliest times the land of the Semites; but
their many tribes never coalesced into a great nation.
To the north, in the mountainous country ofeastern Asia
Minor, lived the warlike Hittites; to the south lay the mighty
kingdom of Egypt and to the east the equally mighty nations of
Mesopotamia. When Palestine was not being invaded by one or
another of these much stronger and more advanced peoples,
the Semitic tribes, an incredibly quarrelsome lot, were fighting
among themselves for territory on which to graze and water their
herds.
The Old Testament tells us how the Hebrews were constantly
at war with the Amalekites, the Jebusites, the Philistines, the
Hivites, the Perizzites, the Amorites and the Moabites; at times
the people of Israel and of Judea were in opposite camps. Even
in later times, when these originally nomad tribes had
established themselves in considerable cities, they knew no
peace. As the might of Egypt and Assyria waned, that of Persia
rose. The Persian invasion was followed by that of Alexander
with his Greeks. Finally the Roman legions arrived. Exasperated
by revolts, they massacred a great part of the population, but at
last restored order and imposed the pax Romana.
Of the Hittites, who must be included in this picture, we know
little, although increasing evidence is now emerging that, by
comparison with the nomad tribes to the south, they were a
civilized and powerful people. They had the usual pantheon, and
although the names of their gods differ from those of the gods in
Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, they are identifiable with them.
By far the most interesting people of the Palestinian lands
were the Canaanites, later to become known as the
Phoenicians. The birthplace of this great people was the
Lebanon, and their capital the port of Byblos, not very far north
of Beirut. It was a trading centre as early as 3000 B.c., and its
ancient stronghold is one of the most fascinating places that a
traveller can visit. In the one great ruin can still be seen the
workmanship of Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, the Saracens
and the Crusaders.
It was the famous cedars of Lebanon which first enabled the
citizens of Byblos to prosper, and for century after century
cargoes of the precious wood were dispatched to both Egypt
and Babylonia, to be made into beams for the temples. They
were blessed, too, in the lovely country that lies behind the city,
for it is indeed a 'land of milk and honey', and a delight to motor
through.
In the earliest times their gods were taken from Egypt. Their
chief deities were Hathor, called by them the Lady of Byblos,
and the Sun god Ra, called by them

138
 Ruti. But later the evil gods of Babylon became paramount,
the Lady's place was taken by Astarte and that of Ruti by Baal,
who, in his aspect as Moloch, demanded the smell of burnt
human flesh as the price of his patronage.
There was, of course, a swarm of other gods and goddesses,
mostly of an equally cruel disposition. To give two examples.
Baal had a daughter named' Anat. She quarrelled with the
harvest god Mot. This, it is recorded, is how she dealt with him.
'She seizes Mot, the son divine. \ ith her sickle she cleaves him.
With her flail she beats him. With fire she grills him. With her mill
she grinds him. In the fields she scatters him.'
The other concerns Atis, who was also known as Adonis or
Tammuz. This handsome god was believed to die and be
resurrected every year. Each year, at the time of his death,
priests and worshippers assembled in the sacred groves to
attend his funeral. While the women wailed and beat their
breasts the men excited themselves into a frenzy. To bring the
god back to life much blood had to be spilt,
 139

so they ran amok, gashing themselves and others with

knives. But, as we know, in magical ceremonies blood is not
always quite enough, so many of the men actually cut off their
own penises and testicles.
In the course of time the Phoenicians moved south, and the
centre of their activities became the great ports of Tyre and
Sidon. With the disappearance of the Cretan civilization, they
inherited the seaborne traffic of the Mediterranean and their
upper class consisted of merchant princes. Their ships voyaged
to Britain, and probably much further; to Cornwall they brought
the precious purple dye, which they had discovered could be
made from shellfish, and traded it for cargoes of tin.
By the ninth century B.c., they had established trading posts
in Spain, the south of France, Italy, Sicily and North Africa. The
last two developed into thriving colonies, particularly the one in
North Africa, which became the great city of Carthage,
exceeding its motherland in wealth and splendour. So powerful
did she become that she challenged Rome for supremacy in the
western Mediterranean. The Carthaginian general Hannibal
marched an army from Spain into northern Italy and performed
the amazing feat of getting his war elephants over the Alps. But
in the third Punic war the Roman General Scipio Aemilianus
utterly defeated the Carthaginians, destroyed the idols in which
many thousands of captives and slaves had been roasted to
death, and burnt the evil city to the ground. In due course, too,
the Roman legions triumphed in Palestine. So ended the
Phoenician civilization.
To mankind it brought one inestimable gift: the invention ofa
phonetic alphabet, by which signs for sounds replaced the
infinitely more complicated hieroglyphics that had developed out
of picture writing.
Wherever the Phoenicians went, they took their terrible gods
with them, and the priests performed their magic by the spilling
of blood and semen. Some years ago, when I was in Nice, a
friend took me to see a Phoenician temple. It was deep
underground, its only entrance being a well-like cavity on a hill-
top some miles outside the city. One shudders to think of_the
revolting rites that had taken place in those subterranean
chambers.
It was in Nice, too, that I witnessed an unusual cabaret turn
at a night club. An emaciated, white-haired old man recited
some bawdy poems, then ended his turn by saying the Lord's
Prayer backwards. Most of the audience took it, no doubt, as a
feat of memory; but I felt certain that it was a covert invitation.
Had I put it to him afterwards that I could pay handsomely for a
wax image to be made and that to be done which had to be
done so that I could inherit from a rich uncle I do not doubt he
would have obliged me.
The other race that, making Palestine its home, also made its
mark on world history is, of course, the Jewish race.
It has now been established by cuneiform tablets found in
Mesopotamia that they originated at Ur of the Chaldees, and
that about the nineteenth century B.C. Abraham led his tribe up
to northern Syria, where they settled for a time in the
neighbourhood of Haran. He then led them south through
Canaan into Egypt,
 140

their part of which the Bible calls the Land of Goshen. Their
arrival there is depicted in a mural at Beni Hasan.
It is more than probable that they were the Hyksos, or
Shepherd Kings, who formed the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Dynasties. They are said to have been foreign barbarians who
came from Phoenicia and, Egypt at that date having fallen into a
state of decadence, conquered the country with little opposition.
They destroyed many of the temples, murdered the priests and,
between 1720 and 1507 B. C. , under a succession of six kings,
temporarily smothered Egyptian civilization. But it seems that
the Egyptians then recovered and, after a time of strife,
enslaved the Jews until, in the reign of Pharaoh Ahmosi I,
Moses led them to freedom.
After wandering for, according to the Bible, forty years, they
settled in the land of Canaan. From that time onwards, the
history of the Jews is one long tale of wars. For a good part of
the time, as vassals of Egypt, they were fighting the Assyrians;
at other times they were engaged in local conflicts with various
Semitic peoples similar to themselves.
Of ten of the twelve tribes history tells us little, except that we
know that the Levites became a priestly caste, while Israel and
Judah became separate nations, the former establishing its
capital at Samaria, the latter a little further south at Jerusalem.
In 745 B.C. the Assyrians, under their King Tiglath-Pileser III,
launched a determined invasion of Palestine; after a long war,
in.721 one of his successors, Sargon II, captured Samaria. He
carried off 27,000 captives and, in 715, many thousands more
from among the desert Israelites. This put an end to the
Kingdom of Israel, and its people were turned loose in a place
known as the land of Beth- Omri. Although they were the original
'chosen of the Lord', the scribes to whom we owe the Old
Testament take no further interest in them and smoothly transfer
the patronage of Jehovah to the people of Judah.
How little that patronage was worth soon became evident.
Assyria's effort had cost her so dear that she rapidly went into
decline. A new line of kings, founded by the Chaldean
Nabopolassar, arose in Babylon. The Assyrians were
overthrown, and Nineveh fell to the Chaldeans and Medes in
612 B.C. Nabopolassar's son who became Nebuchadrezzar II
(the Nebuchadnezzar of the Bible) defeated the Egyptians at
Carchemish in northern Syria in 6os. The battle was the turning-
point of the age. Jerusalem was besieged and captured, and its
royal family were made prisoners. A few years later, relying on
Egyptian help, Jerusalem rebelled. It was besieged again. Help
never came, and the city was stormed and sacked. This was in
587 B.c. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, slaughtered the
leading citizens and carried the rest off into captivity.
The rise of Persia followed. Cyrus the Great conquered
Babylon, and, fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, he
gave permission for the return of the Jews to Palestine. It is said
that in 516 B.c., under Darius I, the Temple was rebuilt; but this
appears doubtful. Both Judah and Israel had been shattered and
still lay under Persian domination. Many of the Jews who trickled
back had deserted Jehovah and had taken wives of other races
who worshipped 'false' gods. There occurred a great schism.
The descendants of the original Samaritans asserted their

141

claim to be the 'chosen'. But the Judeans repudiated it and

henceforth regarded themselves as the only people entitled to
Jehovah's protection. It was probably not until the arrival of
Alexander the Great that the Temple was actually restored, or
until about 320 B.C., under his successor in those parts,
Ptolemy I, that the sons of Judah became exclusively the Jewish
people.
The Seleucids went to war with the Ptolemies, and by 198
B.C. Palestine was again under Asiatic rule. A hundred years
later, Rome had risen to a power of the first magnitude, and in
63 B.C. Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem. The Parthians
then invaded Syria. The Jewish leader, Antipater, stood by
Rome, but 30,000 Jews sided with the invaders. The Parthians
were defeated and the 3o,ooo Jews sold into slavery. Julius
Caesar and Pompey fought for the dominion of the Roman
world. Caesar triumphed, and in 48 B.C. Pompey was slain.
Herod the Great emerged; he became King of the Jews and a
strong adherent of Rome. He maintained a state of relative
peace until his last years, which ended in 4 B.C.
But the Jews were not content under Roman rule. All the
efforts of Herod Antipas and the Roman procurators failed to
keep order. Between A.D. 48 and 52 there were constant riots,
and a massacre took place in the Temple. The revolu- tionary
movement grew; at length the Jews rose, and set up a
government of their own. Vespasian was sent to crush the
rebellion. In A.D. 70 Jerusalem fell; its in- habitants were
slaughtered and the Temple was burnt down. As a last act of
defiance, the surviving rebels occupied the great natural rock
fortress of Masada. When they could hold out no longer, rather
than surrender, ten men were selected to kill their companions,
including women and children. Then they killed them- selves.
That was the end of the Jewish people as a nation. They did not
regain the country they had come to regard as their own until
1,878 years later.
Briefly, that is the history of the Jews. They showed
tremendous tenacity and courage, and an independence of spirit
which must fill us with admiration. Since their dispersal, by their
patronage of art, and in many other ways, the best among them
have probably made a greater contribution to culture than any
other race; but that cannot be said of them during the centuries
they lived in Palestine.
They were intolerant, treacherous, even thieves and liars. At
least, that is the impression of them given by their own writings
in the Old Testament. For that, their god was largely
responsible. He shed no ray of light. He had modelled him- self,
or perhaps one should say they had modelled him upon the dark
gods of Babylon. His only distinction from those ferocious deities
was that he did not demand human sacrifices. Yet his desires
were solely concerned with the aggrand- izement of the Jews,
however unscrupulous the means employed, and the increase
of their seed so that they might the better make war on other
peoples and deprive them of their peace and prosperity.
Doubtless the Jews were no worse than other peoples of their
age, but in Palestine before the time of Christ they made no con-
tribution whatever to the enlightenment of mankind.
In one way, until the coming of Mahomet, who proclaimed
Allah as the one God, Jehovah was unusual. He was one of the
few gods who refused to have a family and companions. He
never tired of proclaiming, 'I the Lord thy God am

142
 a jealous God', and 'Thou shalt have no other gods before
me.' And, while jealousy is a very human failing, it is certainly
not one to be admired.
However that may be, in the case of a god it was particularly
hard on women, for whom Jehovah had no time at all. And, if
one takes seriously the existence of a god made by man in his
own image, one can imagine how annoyed Jehovah must have
been when the Christians adopted him as their God the Father
and attributed to him a Son.
That the Israelites sadly hankered after their old gods is
clearly indicated when it looked as though Moses would not
return from his trip up the mountain, and Aaron fashioned a
golden calf for them. Dancing round it naked, as we are told, by
the light of the moon must have aroused nostalgic memories of
jolly parties, ending in an uninhibited romp, in which they had
engaged before setting off into the wilderness.
The gold of which the calf was made was obviously that of
the necklaces, ear-

143
 rings and bangles belonging to the Egyptians in whose
houses they had lodged, and which Moses had told them to
steal ('borrow' is the shifty expression used in the Bible) from
their hosts.
The Israelites then paid for their fun in no uncertain manner.
Aaron, although responsible for making the calf, got off scot
free, but 3,000 poor wretches were slain at Moses's order - a
foretaste of the concentration camps. Hitler would have made
him an honorary Aryan and an S. S. Gruppenftihrer for that.
Then, having pounded the gold of the calf into powder mixed
with water, Moses made the others drink it. Whether it acted like
Mussolini's castor oil, or ruined their diges- tions, we are not
informed.
Of magic practised by the Jews the Old Testament gives us
ample evidence.
From the Book of Tobit we learn how the angel Raphael
sought, by means of fumigations, to counteract the work of the
demon Asmodeus, who had fallen in love with Sarah. Then
there is Balaam's ass and - an outstanding example - Moses's
competition with Pharaoh's priests; a case of the pupil
surpassing his masters. There is also the matter of his having
led the Israelites dry-shod across the floor of the Red Sea.
For his having performed this feat there is a possible down-
to-earth explanation. In the final phase of the Russian
Revolutionary war, the Whites, under Baron Wrangel, had been
driven right down to the Crimea, and were encamped on the
isthmus of Perekop. The Bolshevik army under General V. K.
Blucher was on the far side of the Sivash ('Putrid') Sea, which
runs along the isthmus to the Sea of Azov. Having no boats or
pontoons, it was unable to attack the Whites. The Sivash is
shallow and, on very rare occasions, a wind coming from the
west blows with such tremendous force that it piles up the water,
leaving the bed of the river at its mouth almost dry. This
phenomenon occurred on the night of November 8th 1920, and
the Bolshevik General took advantage of it. Although his men
had to wade chest-deep, he got his army across before dawn,
took by surprise the Whites, who had supposed themselves
completely safe from attack, and defeated them.
As the narrow upper end of the Red Sea is very shallow,
there is a possibility that a similar phenomenon may have
occurred there on the night of the Exodus. Even if that were the
case, given a belief in the powers of an initiate to call invisible
forces to his aid, magic is not necessarily ruled out. Moses could
have raised a whirlwind and so caused the waters to pile up.
We must now pass on to other matters, soberly aware that
from Palestine we received two legacies: our alphabet from the
Phoenicians, and Jehovah as our God.

Gnosticism
The original Gnostics were also inhabitants of Palestine, but
they deserve a section to themselves.
The word 'Gnostic' is derived from the Greek. It means 'one
who has know- ledge', and the Gnostics contributed a very
considerable part of the magic in- herited by both the Near East
and the Western world.

144
 Gnosticism arose late in the first century A.D., a curious
mixture of Jewish and Christian mysticism, coloured by Greek
thought. As it had no individual founder, it cannot be termed a
religion, and it is more in the nature of a philosophical belief. Its
roots can be traced back to the Essenes, who earlier also
inhabited Palestine and whose ideas have recently become
available to us through the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls.
The Gnostics were divided into numerous sects, the beliefs of
which were modified by those of the territories in which they
lived. In the West, during the early years of the movement, when
Christian beliefs were still very fluid, they were closely
associated with the Christians; whereas further east they
became influenced by Manichaeism; and there is a sect of them,
called the Mandaeans, still existing in Iraq.
However, the general basis of their belief was that
enlightenment cannot be achieved by reason, but is the intuition
of the mystery of the self. They held that Jehovah is not God,
but a demiurge who created an alien world from evil matter, and
that the true God is the unconscious spirit of every man, which
sleeps in him until he becomes aware of it. They regarded Christ
as a great revealer, but denied the doctrine of original sin and
the necessity for atonement.

145
 146

The magician Simon Magus, a Jewish heterodox teacher

from Samaria, was the - t person to become prominent in the
movement. He believed that he had
ccomplished what later became known by the alchemists as
the 'Great Work', ely achieving oneness with God.
.\nother, much later, Gnostic of importance was the Roman
Valentinus. But _.
histimetheChristianshadcoalescedintoamorepowerfulunity,andha
dcome ~ regard Gnosticism as the 'Gnostic heresy', so about
A.D. 160 Valentinus was
 communicated from the Christian Church.
By the fourth century persecution by the Christians had
practically destroyed
Gnosticism in the West; but its doctrines were passed down
in secret by the uminati of the Near East and, in the sixteenth
century, came to western Europe
· Latin translations of the Arabian philosophers.
.-\s at that time anyone suspected of heresy was liable to be
burnt at the stake
:- the Inquisition, the owners of such manuscripts naturally
never acknowledged eir interest in Gnosticism and spoke of it
only to their closest associates; but ·- undoubtedly had a very
considerable influence in the formulation of the beliefs the
alchemists and continues to have its place in more enlightened
spiritual thinkng.

The Druids
nile in Scandinavia the Norsemen continued to drink mead out
of the skulls of
eir enemies and expected, if they died in battle, to be
welcomed to Valhalla by Odin (Woden), Thor and Frea, and the
barbarians in the German lands continued o ·orship similar
primitive conceptions of the gods, several centuries of seaborne
ntact with the Mediterranean had brought to southern Britain and
the western
t of France more esoteric cults.
The foremost of these was that of the Druids. Julius Caesar
mentions them in
account of the conquest of Gaul as the priesthood of the
Celts in Brittany and uthem England. He states that they wielded
great influence, accompanied their ·ors into battle as doctors to
succour the wounded, were powerful magicians d divined by
means of human sacrifice. For the last reason the Emperor
Claudius ecreed that they should be disbanded; but, if folklore
can in this instance be ·ed upon, they were still in existence at a
much later date, for we are led to
·eve that King Arthur's great wizard, Merlin, was a Druid.
For over x,ooo years, it was believed that the legends about
King Arthur and his · ·ghts of the Round Table were romantic
myths, but that is not so today. t.xcavations at Glastonbury and
other sites in Somerset have convinced archaeo- gists that they
have found Camelot, where Arthur had his Court, and the 'Isle -:
\valon', now a high ridged mound, but once probably surrounded
by marshes. In A.D. 407, the Roman legions left Britain. After
four centuries of Roman rotection, and never having been
trained in the use of arms, the natives proved pelessly incapable
of defending themselves from invasion by the Saxons. tern and
central England was overrun. The native chiefs, and their
surviving enchmen, took refuge with Ambrosius, a young noble
of Roman descent who

147

ruled over a large area in the west, and there continued their
resistance.
Arthur, or Artorius as he was then known, is said to have been
the younger brother of Ambrosius; terming himself Count of the
Britains, he became the champion of the Celts. His cavalry was
famous, hence the tales about his gallant
knights; and, according to the legend, he won twelve major
victories.
It was to Glastonbury that Joseph of Arimathea is reputed to
have brought the Holy Grail, the bowl that Christ had used at the
Last Supper. It was this which inspired the knights with visions
and mystical ecstacies. And it was at Glastonbury that Arthur
was buried in secrecy, so that knowledge of his death should not
take the heart out of his people.
That in those days his chief priest - for that was obviously
Merlin's position -
should also have been a magician is not the least surprising.
As we shall see, several of the popes do not appear to have
considered that there was anything reprehensible about
combining the practice of sorcery with the office of God's vicar
on earth. Their knowledge of magic had been handed down
through many centuries, but that cannot have been so with the
beliefs of the Druids; they made use of pentacles, and their
magic was far beyond the primitive magic they would have
inherited from the the ancient Britons. For that reason they are
of particular interest.
The word druuid is found in old Irish. Its first syllable can be
translated as 'oak', and the second as 'he who knows'. The
Druids performed their rituals under oak trees, and the mistletoe
that grew on the trees was sacred to them. That 'knowing' can
be taken as something more than a mere casting of spells is
implied in the writings of Poseidonius, who described the Druids
as representatives of the Logos, the higher power of the soul
that holds the instincts in check. Moreover, we learn that among
their main tenets was the belief that the universe is indestruct-
ible and that the soul of man is immortal.
In due course the Anglo-Saxon royal family was converted to
Christianity. Its priests were successful in securing the highest
religious offices and, regarding the Druids as heretics,
suppressed their cult. As is to be expected, later accounts
stigmatize them as malignant magicians, just as still later
writings by the monks portray all followers of the Old Faith as
worshippers of the Devil.
The probability seems to be that their using human sacrifices
as a means of divination continued as a hangover from the
worship of barbarous gods by their ancestors, but that they had
acquired some degree of enlightenment from, possibly, Gnostics
arriving from Palestine in the ships of the Phoenicians and
Romans, and that they practised white magic as well as black.

Rome
Traditionally the foundation of Rome was in 753 B.C., but the
place can then have been little more than a cluster of villages
situated about the famous seven hills.
To the north, a century or more earlier, the Etruscans had
towns and the rudiments of civilization. Comparatively little is
known about them, but the re- mains they have left are
interesting and quite distinct from those of any other
Mediterranean people. Rich jewels were found in their tombs,
and the comfortably

148

lounging figures on the tombs are grotesquely fascinating.

Early in their development the Etruscans came under the
influence of the Greek colony of Syracuse in Sicily and,
using the names of Tinia, Uni and Minerva, opted three
members of the Greek pantheon as their family of divinities. It
was no doubt also from the Greeks that they learnt advanced
magic.
They specialized in divining by the flight of birds and
examining the entrails : birds and mammals; and their diviners
were called augurs - hence our word 'augury'. Cicero tells us
that, in the early days of the republic, it was the practice end six
youths from the most noble families to Etruria to be educated as
augurs, d that the Roman College of Augurs consisted of four
patricians; the number was later increased to nine.
Augurs were appointed for life, and their office was one of
great power and dignity. Their chief, the Magister Collegii, was
responsible for interpreting the · of the gods, supervising such
sacrifices as were necessary for the protection the State, and
keeping the Senate advised on the future prospects of all
matters that concerned the nation.
They usually confirmed official appointments, but had the
power to invalidate those of praetors and even consuls. They
wore togas striped with purple, double oaks, and conical hats.
As a symbol of their office they carried staffs, whose heads
resembled those of bishops' croziers. They took particular notice
of the activities f ravens; birds that have always been associated
with good or ill fortune, for which reason the ravens that inhabit
the Tower ofLondon have always been well cared for. It was
probably from the Etruscans that the Romans also acquired the
fear of

149
 the evil eye, to which they considered themselves particularly
subject. To avert it they wore on a bangle, or as a brooch, a
small gold phallus, and such amulets of virility are still worn by
many people in Italy at the present day.
As the Romans expanded southward, their interests came
into conflict with those of the older and more powerful state of
Carthage in Africa. There followed, between 264 and I46 B.C.,
the three Punic Wars which ended with the total destruction of
Carthage, giving Rome complete dominance in the western
Mediter- ranean. Meanwhile, in the east, between 2I4 and I94
B.c., Rome had freed Greece from occupation by Philip V of
Macedonia, and became the protector of the Greek States.
 From ISO B.C. onwards Roman legions marched from victory
to victory until, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius 32s years
later, the boundaries of the Empire to the west and north were
the Atlantic, the border of Scotland, the Rhine and the Danube;
to the south and east the Sahara desert, Ethiopia, Arabia Felix
and the

150

frontier of Persia. Within them lay every nation of the civilized

world except those m middle and eastern Asia.
From her beginnings Rome had had Greek influences to
north and south, and her nearest neighbour across the Adriatic
was Greece. Wherever her legions marched to the eastward,
they followed the footsteps of Alexander the Great. Greek had
become the lingua franca of all educated people in Asia Minor,
Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt. Greek ideas permeated all
intellectual discussions. It was therefore natural that the Romans
should take over the gods of Greece.
Zeus and Hera became Jupiter and Juno, and the royal
couple were held in high regard; but, as might be expected of
such a warlike people, Mars — whom they called Ares — took
first place among the gods, and they chose to regard him as the
father of the twins, Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders
of Rome, who had been suckled by a she-wolf. Athene, Artemis
and Aphrodite became Minerva, Diana and Venus. Poseidon,
Pluto and Eros became Neptune, Hades and Cupid. .\polio
alone retained his original name.
Only one god was invented by the Romans themselves, and
he assumed a position f great importance. This was the two-
faced god Janus. Originally a sun god, he developed into the
guardian of all doorways. He was given two faces, back to back,
-o that he could see both ways at once and no evil could slip
past him. He was also the god of 'beginnings', the promoter of
all initiative and every enterprise.
Another unusual factor of Roman religion was the promotion
of the Greek =oddess Hestia to receive special veneration as
Vesta. She was the most beautiful of their divinities, and the
most loved, for she was the goddess of the hearth and presided
over the cooking of all meals. Her circular temple is still to be
seen in the Forum, and in it lived the vestal virgins. They were
chosen by lot from among the -hildren of the noblest families,
and were dedicated to the goddess before they reached
puberty. For ten years they received instruction, for ten years
they per- .ormed the rites and for ten years gave instruction.
After the thirty years they were free to marry if they wished; but
few of them ever did so, preferring to retain their high status.
Whenever they appeared in public they were preceded by a
lictor, and if a man on his way to execution had the good fortune
to meet a vestal in the reet he was immediately reprieved. They
were sworn to absolute chastity. If they were found to have
broken their vow, they were unmercifully whipped, then ailed up
alive. But, in eleven hundred years, only twenty vestals
disgraced their office .
Religious ceremonies of great importance were presided over by
the Pontifex Maximus, a position always held by the Emperor.
In addition to public worship of the great gods, every Roman
family had its private gods in its own home. From birth each
person had his or her genius. This was a spirit who performed
the functions of a guardian angel. There were also the lar and
the two penates. These
ere protector spirits who guarded the house and prevented
the food in the larder .rom going bad. The father of the family
acted as its priest. On special occasions the small statuette of
the far was decorated with a garland, and offered fruit and a
libation of wine.

151
But the members of the Greek pantheon and the family gods
were by no means the only ones worshipped in imperial Rome.
Cybele, the great goddess of Phrygia, was very popular; so, too,
were Isis and the god Serapis from an Egypt that had become
decadent. Many others were brought from Syria, North Africa
and .\lesopotamia, including Baal, but he had to make do on the
burnt flesh of animals as the Romans forbade human sacrifice.
There were also Christian and Mithraic chapels.
Provided that a religion did not menace the peace and
security of the State, everyone was free to worship as he
wished. The persecution of the Christians egan only when the
authorities realized that their doctrine incited slaves to believe
that they were the equals of their masters, and so was a form of
Communism
calculated to undermine the social order, and not to be
tolerated.
It cannot be contested that the intolerance of all other faiths
displayed by the early Christians and their fanatical urge to
destroy the capitalist system were the product of the same type
of mentality that animated the followers of Marx and
Lenin.
People who denounce the iniquities of the Romans often refer to
the inhumanity
f the slave system. But there is another side to the picture. It
is true that the tate slaves, particularly those who served in the
galleys, were treated with great harshness, but a high
percentage of them were condemned criminals; and press-
~anged seamen, quite a number of whom were flogged to
death, did not fare much
etter in Nelson's day.
.Much, too, has been made of the orgies of Tiberius, Nero and
Messalina. Over
a thousand years later the Christian popes countenanced
and attended the same _-pe of parties. They are fully described
in the annals of the Borgias. The gardens of Versailles could
also tell a tale of midnight fetes in the days of Louis XV, when
ords and ladies, masked and dressed as satyrs and nymphs,
disported themselves m shadowed grottoes. The licentiousness
of the more depraved emperors cannot be taken as a portrait of
the morals of the average Roman family. Had it been, the
Empire could not have lasted even a hundred years. It was
maintained by thousands of officials scattered over its vast
territories. For the most part they led exemplary Jives; kept
order; dispensed justice; ensured that grain was stored against
famine; uilt bridges and viaducts; constructed a road system
unrivalled for centuries,
rom every remote frontier to Rome, with post-houses along
them manned by garrisons that ensured the protection of
travellers against robbers; introduced the .atest methods of
agriculture to the people they governed; and fostered art, litera-
mre, commerce and learning.
They resided in pleasant villas, and the lives they led were
very similar to those of an English country gentleman or colonial
official of the Georgian age. If a Roman lord could have
resumed his body and gone to dine with any English nobleman
of the eighteenth century, the interests of both of them would
have
een so alike that they would have talked the night through.
And they could have Opposite The goddess Vesta
Rome
I 53
~
-· ·~·.
l.-?' ~·
 •
...-.:-;..·
.~
..
...
. . ,t . . ..
~
-·
·'
. ._.
-==-· ;
' ..
" --.
---
...u..:.:__ _
~
... .I
.
-.·' ..."""'..
. .;~..:·. ...i,.,~,. ' ,,, ·-~·''\<_,.. .·f.
:
, ..... );' _...._. "
l- -- .
·.·
:--- .
s
 _\ Roman mosaic designed to avert the evil eye
done so, as they both spoke Latin, albeit with very different
accents.
To literature the Romans made a considerable contribution, with
Cicero's -peeches, the works of Horace, Virgil, Petronius, Julius
Caesar's histories and many other writings that have come down
to us. But they were in the main content to rake over the
philosophies of the Greeks, and contributed little new thought to
them. They were above all a practical race, concerned with the
physical well-being of the peoples over whom they ruled. The
temples they built were copies - and ...ater as at Baalbek,
decadent copies - of those of the Greeks. Like our 'eminent
Yictorian', they believed that 'a little religion is good for the IY-
a:sses'; but their
higher classes paid only lip service to religion.
However, many of the Roman intelligentsia showed a profound
interest in the
possible conditions of an after life. Among them Virgil is the
mbst interesting, and in his Aeneid he gives a vivid description
of the Underworl~. In the main he follows the tradition of the
Greeks, that Hades is a gloomy realm; but he clearly
tates his belief that the dead who have not perfected their
spir~ reborn again and again until each soul is cleansed of all
material desire, after whkh it attains eternal bliss.
It is said that initiation into the Greek mysteries was actually
the disclosure by Opposite The Emperor Marcus Aurelius
conducting a sacrifice
Rome
155
The Coming of Christ
 the high priest that the gods did not exist, that a man's
destiny lay in his own hands and that nothing was known about
the hereafter. This admission was made only to young men of
the ruling class, and there is some reason to believe that
Romans of noble birth were, on attaining manhood, similarly
informed of the truth.
Yet, whether they believed in the gods or not, they certainly
believed in occult influences. In Rome, Egyptian astrologers did
a roaring trade; love philtres could be bought from scores of
witches, and Roman literature abounds in accounts of spells that
were cast. An excellent and amusing example is The Golden
Ass of Lucius Apuleius - a tale of a witch who turned a young
man into a donkey.
Such was the enormously active Roman world. It took from
the East and gave to the West. Its civilizing influence was
incalculable, and it may well be said that those peoples who
lived in the dark forests beyond the Rhine and the Danube,
\ and so never experienced those 400 years of Roman rule,
never caught up mentally in the conception of firmness,
tempered with tolerance and mercy, inherited by those peoples
who enjoyed it.
As with other empires, there was always fighting on the
frontiers; but, within the vast dominions ruled from the city of the
seven hills, the pax Romana gave generation after generation
the opportunity to better its way of life in security.
With the fall of Rome in A.D. 410, the Light in Europe went
out and the Powers of Darkness ruled supreme for close on a
thousand years.
The Coming of Christ
I approach this section with some diffidence, as the last thing
I would wish is to offend the susceptibilities of earnest
Christians; but in a work of this kind it would be illogical to
examine the foundations of Christianity on a different basis from
that on which we have examined other religions.
Unfortunately, the historical data for the life of Christ are
extremely slender. They are based almost entirely on the four
Gospels, which, scholars tell us, were not written in his lifetime,
but mainly compiled from oral tradition many years after his
death.
About his having been a historical character there seems no
doubt whatever, but the question of his divinity is a very different
matter. The accounts of the virgin birth, the rending of the veil of
the Temple at the hour he died, and other wonders, are
trimmings with which, in early times, it was customary to
glamorize the lives of holy men after their deaths. However, the
Gospels tell us that on many occasions he claimed to be divine.
In that he differed from all the other great teachers, but he gave
no proof of divinity. In fact his last words when in agony on the
cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?', indicate
that he lacked the power of a god, as he was incapable of
ascending to heaven through his own volition.
Many of his reported utterances are so difficult to understand
that, again with diffidence, I put forward the suggestion that he
was frequently referring to the spark of divine spirit which he had
and all of us have in us. We know that he was baptized by John
the Baptist, and many years of his life are unaccounted for, so
156
it is possible that he spent a considerable time in John's
company. If so, he would have learnt from him the doctrine of
the Essenes, who taught belief in that divine -park.
There is another possibility. If he was indeed a human being,
like others he could have suffered from delusions, and honestly
believed that he was divine.
His describing himself as the 'Son of Man' was one of the
things about which the Pharisees took such umbrage; because,
in the sense he used it, the inference was that there were two
gods, and this was anathema to their monotheistic creed given
them by the jealous Jehovah. Their other quarrel with him was
that, like all reformers, he condemned the importance attached
to ceremonies.
Yet that he came to the Jews, as the chosen people, there
can be no doubt. In ~latthew x. 5, 6, when sending forth his
disciples, he says, 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into
any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.'
Apart from his journey into Egypt as a child, we have no
evidence that he travelled beyond a small area in the
neighbourhood ofJerusalem and Galilee. When he took Peter,
James and his brother John up a mountain, it was with Moses
and Elias that he talked. It is, too, abundantly clear that he
regarded the wrathful, intolerant Jehovah as his 'father in
heaven', and fully accepted the ordinances handed down from
Moses. ·
When the Roman centurion appealed to him to heal his
servant, he appeared urprised that a man of an alien people
should ask his help. Like the Jewish pro- phets before him, it
was to the people of Israel alone that he had come to make his
revelations; and it was only late in his ministry that he seems to
have realized
that other people were also worthy of salvation.
With regard to his many miracles, similar ones have been
performed by other
men possessing great magical powers. Many of them were
rendered possible by the faith shown by the afflicted. We have
seen, too, how Professor Charcot in Paris and old black Maria's
witch doctor in South Africa both dispersed a cancer in the
breast. Hypnotism in recent times has caused subjects to
believe they were drinking wine when it was actually water, as
no doubt happened at the marriage in Cana.
 The secret of Jesus's power is nof far to seek. He led a
blameless life, had com- plete confidence in himself, and spent
a very great deal of his time communing with God. The fact that
his god was the patron of a primitive tribe of bedouins is
immaterial. He was in fact communing with the Power of Light,
and drawing it down into himself.
A very interesting passage in the Gospels is that regarding
the temptation. Every religion had its evil gods and demons, but
this appears to be the first refer- ence to the Devil as a person. It
is recorded that Satan took Christ up into a high place, showed
him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, 'All this will I give
unto thee if thou wilt bow down and worship me', and it was
made plain that it was Satan's to give. This, of course, is based
on the belief that when Lucifer, as an angel, succumbed to pride
and rebelled against God, he was chased out of
The Coming of Christ
157
The Coming of Christ
 Christ tempted: perhaps the first explicit appearance of the
Devil
Heaven by the archangel Michael, and that God then
decreed that the Earth should be his province. It is this that has
led black magicians, all through the ages, to believe that, as
'Prince of this World', Satan is master here and can grant them
anything they desire.
As far as we know, Christ never had a love affair. No doubt
that accounts for his taking the traditional Jewish view of women
and, unlike Mahomet, not decreeing for them a better lot. Moses
had laid it down that if a man died his widow should be taken as
wife by his brother; the idea being that she should bear more
children for Israel. When the Pharisees asked Christ whose wife
she would be at the resur- rection if she had been the wife of
seven brothers in succession, he simply replied
I 58
that, 'in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage'. It does not seem to have occurred to him to condemn
a custom by which a woman might be forced to accept a man
she hated, and become no better than a slave. Again, unlike
other great reformers, he entirely failed to appreciate the fact
that man is by nature polygamous, and that to condemn divorce,
as he did so harshly, was a sure way to drive people into
committing adultery.
At times he showed righteous anger, as when he overturned
the tables of the money-changers in the Temple. One would like
to see him return to Jerusalem today. By agreement, Greek
Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian Church priests serve
the Holy Sepulchre, and also the Shrine of the Nativity at
Bethlehem. They compete for ~he contributions of the visitor,
simultaneously thrusting begging bowls at him with the cry
'Money for the Sepulchre! Money for the Holy Crib! Money for
the Sepulchre!'
I was amazed to find that the spot where the crucifixion is
supposed to have taken place and the tomb of Christ were both
under the dome of one church; because, according to the
Gospels, he was buried in Joseph Of Arimathea's tomb, which
had been hewn out of a rock in a nearby garden.
I was then told of another 'reputed' tomb that lay just outside
the city wall, and went to it. There was no altar and there were
no priests, as it was discovered and bought by Gordon of
Khartoum. Now this 'Garden Tomb', as it is termed, is supported
by a Church of England society in London. My wife and I were
taken round it by the single custodian, a Swedish lady. On one
side, beneath what was the city wall, a cliff rises up. In the layers
of stone there is a formation like a big skull - Golgotha. At
ground level is a clean, empty, unembellished tomb. The
remainder of the site is an acre of beautifully-kept garden.
There, surely, was the true tomb of the Master.
Christ's foreknowledge that he would be executed, and
willingness to submit to death, suggest that he was aware of the
ancient custom·of sacrificing a scapegoat and that he regarded
himself as one, the idea being that his death would result in the
salvation of mankind from original sin. This Jewish conception is
surely a most curious one, for a person has to commit a sin
before it is necessary to redeem it, and how could anyone have
committed a sin before being born?
There seems no doubt that Christ's popularity with the people
was largely due to their mistaken impression that he had come
to free them from their Roman overlords. He certainly became
known as the King of the Jews. This makes it surprising that
Pontius Pilate even hesitated to condemn him; or, at least, as a
subversive influence, to have had him put in prison. The account
of the trial as given in the Gospels is obviously designed to
throw opprobrium on the Jewish priesthood, who were
antagonistic to Christ's teaching. They were certainly the
accusers; but the probability is that, being responsible for
maintaining order, Pilate did not think twice, as life was cheap in
those days, about getting rid of a potential trouble-maker, and so
sent Christ to his death and thought no more about it.
The episode was regarded as of so little importance that it
remained unknown
The Coming of Christ
159
The Coming of Christ
 Votive offerings to Our Lady of the Pines, at Teror in the
Canary Islands
outside the Jewish world. In Roman literature there are only
three brief references to it, and these, written long afterwards,
refer only to the origin of Christianity. On this subject Anatole
France wrote what is probably the most cynical story of all time.
Here is the gist of it.
In their old age, Pilate and a retired general were sitting
sunning themselves near a lovely villa outside Rome. They
recall old times. The talk turns to when they were in Palestine
together. They speak of various mutual friends and the sort of
life they led there. The general asks, 'Do you remember that little
red-headed harlot who used to dance in one of the taverns?'
Pilate laughs. 'Oh, yes. Of course I do. What a lovely little piece
she was!' Presently the general asks, 'Do you re- member that
rabble-rouser that you had crucified? I forget his name but he
called himself the King of the Jews.' Pilate shakes his head. 'No,
I don't remember him.'
That probably sums up the lack of impact that Christ made on
the Roman world.
It is even possible that Christianity might have died out soon
after the death of its first followers, had it not been for St Paul.
Many people assume that he was a Roman; and it is true that
he enjoyed Roman citizenship because Rome granted it to men
of a certain standing in all subject nations. But the fact is that he
was a Jew and, until he had what may have been an epileptic fit,
during which he had a vision of Christ, he was a fanatical
devotee of Jehovah. He then became Christ-intoxicated.
Owing to his strict Pharisee upbringing, in his teaching he
naturally placed great stress upon the wrath and vengeful
attributes of God the Father, thereby
x6o
 smothering and perverting the true message of the gentle
Jesus. He spent ten years in tireless travel, covering Palestine,
Syria, Asia Minor, the whole coast of the Aegean, Greece,
Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Naples and Rome. He was an
intolerant religious bigot. But, wherever he went, he converted
thousands of people to his version of Christianity.
It was his creed that destroyed the original one of gracious
benignity and the achievement of spiritual exaltation through
oneness with God. He demanded obedience with threats of
Hellfire, required his converts to give up all the joys of life, to
become masochists themselves and inflict sadism on those who
would not accept his dogmas. The legacy he left has caused
untold millions of people to lead lives of misery in the hope of
better things in a life to come. He is responsible for the dirt and
squalor that was imposed on the pious for nineteen hundred
years. It was his teaching that brought about the age-long
persecution of his own race, the Jews, and upon it was founded
the Holy Inquisition, which tortured and burnt tens of thousands
of peoples without mercy.
But the work of this fanatic detracts nothing from the beauty
of Christ's-original teaching. In believing in him a great part of
mankind has known comfort and joy. Owing to the precept of
charity which he left, inestimable good has been done for the
poor and oppressed all over the world.
Mithraism and Manichaeism
Of these two the former was a debased form of
Zoroastrianism and, during the early centuries of the Christian
era, was very widespread throughout the Roman Empire.
Mithra was the ancient Indo-Iranian god of Light. He was not
mentioned in the
Zoroastrian Gathas, but appears from the time of the Persian
conquests in the
fourth century B.c., as a subordinate of Ormazd. His cult derived
much from the Babylonian beliefs, and its principal breeding

~
ground was Anatolia. Thence, in
early Christian times, it spread south and west.
I
The mythical birth of Mithra took place from a rock. His
legend recounts his adventures when hunting the sacred bull, .a
beautiful creature which at length he reluctantly slew as a
sacrifice to the Sun god, who shared a feast of the hull's flesh
with him, then carried him up to heaven in the chariot of the Sun.
There the two deities more or less merged, as the protectors of
men and the enemies of the dark destroyer, Ahriman. In due
course the priests of Mithra caused Ormazd to become
submerged in Mithra, then the purity of Zoroastrianism became
lost in rituals and overlaid by beliefs adopted from other
religions.
It will be particularly noted that blood sacrifices were restored
and man was no longer held responsible for fostering the spark
of divine Light within him. Instead, as with the Christians, he was
given a personal god and promised salvation. As with
Christianity, too, the Mithraists had a ritual of baptism and a
sacrament. The latter consisted of bread and water, and was
probably partaken of only by those who had passed several of
the seven grades of initiation. Of these adepts a very high code
of morality was expected and, again like the Christians, they
were
Mithraism and Manichaeism
Mithraism and Manichaeism
 expected to serve their god as spiritual crusaders.
The great strength of Mithraism lay in its rivalry with Christianity
as a faith for
the poor and humble. It acknowledged no class distinctions;
the slave and the nobleman met in its temples as equals.
Compared with the splendid temples of the classic Greco-
Roman gods, Mithraic temples were like the Nonconformist
chapels of nineteenth-century England, as opposed to our great
cathedrals. Known as 'grottoes', they were sometimes in caves
but more usually long, narrow underground crypts. They rarely
held more than fifty worshippers, who knelt against, or sat on,
benches along either side. Their only decoration was a large
carved plaque at one end, and these could be very
beautiful. The carving represented Mithra wearing a Phrygian
cap, with a torch- bearer on either side, slaying the bull while a
scorpion stung its genitals and a dog and a serpent both lapped
up blood from the wound. Behind the figures were the sacred
symbols of the cult and the signs of the zodiac.
The great weakness of Mithraism was that it did not admit
women; but it found many converts among bodies of men who
were living together, and it was the Roman legions who carried it
as far south as the Sudan and as far north as the borders of
Scotland. An underground Mithraic temple was discovered in the
City of London, when the site of a building in Cannon Street that
had been destroyed by an air raid in the Second World War was
being cleared.
Ostia, the port of Rome, was a great stronghold of Mithraism,
and in the early centuries of the Christian era there were many
thousands of Mithraists in Rome itself. In A.D. 274 the Emperor
Aurelian associated himself with the 'unconquerable Sun', and
so widespread was the cult at this time that some scholars aver
that only by chance did Christianity become paramount in the
Western world, instead of Mithraism.
That chance was the acceptance in A.D. 394 of Christianity
by the Emperor Theodosius. The Christians had long been
bitterly opposed to Mithraism and denounced it as a heresy.
Imperial favour enabled them to crush the rival faith and, in an
amazingly short time, persecution entirely destroyed Mithraism.
Mithraism corftributed nothing to man's knowledge of the
eternal verities; after its disappearance, the belief in the divine
Power of Light was maintained only by the Parsees and, for
many centuries, as a dim flicker in secret places.
Manichaeism was another offshoot of Zoroastrianism and
also became a serious threat to Christianity; but it had a human
founder. The prophet Mani was a native of Babylon, and he
began to proclaim his faith in the year that Saphor I ascended
the throne of Persia.
He asserted that he had received the revelations at the ages
of twelve and twenty- four. The church he founded copied the
Christian hierarchy, but had elements in it of the Zoroastrian
dualism, the traditions of the Gnostics and the teachings of St
Paul. His disciples were required to practice asceticism
according to their degr:!e of initiation.
Assisted by twelve apostles, Mani taught that the faith
preached in India by Gautama the Buddha, in Persia by
Zoroaster and in Palestine by Jesus Christ
162
ere one and that he, Mani, was the ultimate spokesman on
the way to achieve vation.
One may feel that there is much to be said for his basic
belief, and it spread pidly in the Near East. But it was fanatically
opposed by the Christians, who -:''"oclaimed it to be a
dangerous heresy and, their powers by then having become
nsiderable, they succeeded in stamping it out.
.\s will be seen, owing to Roman tolerance during the last
century of the Western
Empire, beliefs in the spiritual destiny of man were
enormously varied. They :mged from those of intellectual
agnostics who subscribed to the Stoic, Epicurean, Hedonistic or
other philosophies of the Greeks, through the followers of
doctrines
Mithraism and Manichaeism
Mohammedanism
 derived from Zoroaster and the worshippers ofJehovah and
Christ, to innumerable wholly pagan cults whose votaries
gashed themselves with knives and performed human
sacrifices.
Mohammedanism
This faith is followed by nearly one-seventh of this world's
population and is called by them Islam, which means 'peace
through submission to the will of God'. Its founder, Mahomet,
was born in A.D. 570. He came from a good family, which
had become poor, and it is believed that he spent his early
years as a shepherd boy in the mountains outside Mecca. Later
he accompanied some caravans on trading expeditions, and
showed himself to be honest and competent. This led a rich
widow named Khadija to entrust him with her business affairs. At
the age of twenty-five he married her and, although she was
much older than he was, he became so devoted to her that he
took no other wife until after her death.
Mahomet was a very introspective man and, about the year
610, he formed the habit of going into the mountains to think and
pray. One night on Mount Hira he had an overwhelming spiritual
experience. According to the traditional account, a luminous
being appeared, who declared himself to be the Archangel
Gabriel, seized him by·the throat and, in an imperious voice,
revealed the word of God to him. As Mahomet is said to have
been an epileptic, his vision may have had something in
common with St Paul's vision of Jesus.
For a while he could not believe that he had really had this
vision and, for fear of being laughed at, refrained from telling
anyone about it except his wife. There followed a period of inner
emptiness, during which he suffered great unhappiness. Then
he was again seized with the conviction that he had a divine
message to convey, and in 613, when he was over forty, he
began to preach.
To begin with he told only a limited number of people about
his mission; but, as his audiences grew, he met with
considerable opposition. Mecca was not only a trading centre.
Many pilgrims came there to worship at the temple which had
been built round a black stone that was looked upon as sacred,
and the priests who officiated there feared he would harm their
lucrative livelihood.
In 619 he had the misfortune to lose both his wife and his
uncle, Abu Talib, both of whom had given him their
wholehearted support; and, as by then many Meccans had
become openly hostile to him, he advised his most ardent
followers to emigrate to Christian Ethiopia. But actually the move
was made to the not very distant oasis of Yathrib.
Living in the oasis at that time there were two tribes of Arabs
that were at loggerheads, and a community of Jews. Mahomet,
who was a fluent speaker and an able diplomat, acted as
arbitrator between the Arabs, and when he had brought them
together it was agreed that he and all his followers who were still
in Mecca should settle permanently in Yathrib. This move,
known as the Hegira, occurred on July 16th A.D. 6zz. It is on
that date that Mohammedans base their calendar, and in that
year Islam was proclaimed not only as a religion, but also as a
political body. Yathrib henceforth became known as Medina -
the city of the Prophet.
164
_1ahomet made it absolutely clear from the beginning that he
made no claim divinity, and he preached that there was only one
God, Allah, 'the merciful, compassionate'. He recognized Christ,
but not as the Son of God, only as an -pired prophet like
Abraham, Moses and himself. By this monotheism he hoped
-:Dn over the Jews, but in this he failed, as also with the
Christians, who found many divergences between their doctrine
and his to accept it. But the greater of the population in those
parts was pagan, and from it he soon collected a
erous following.
His activities proving harmful to the Meccans, they went to war
with him; or
- er, for several years, there were, on and off, a series of
raids and counter raids. ese culminated in the defeat of the
Meccans, and in 630 he captured Mecca.
There, in pursuance of his policy of outlawing paganism and
destroying all , he turned the temple of the black stone into a
Mohammedan sanctuary, since m 1 as the Kaba, and gave new
laws to the people. These, consisting of the
al pronouncements he had already made, with those he
continued to make, nn the Koran; which, with its commentaries,
has become Islamic law.
_lahomet was an excellent administrator and had a strong
sense of justice. He eed that all men shQuld be equal before the
law, prohibited blood feuds and tly improved the status of
women. Though veiled and largely set apart, for the time they
were allowed to own property; men were henceforth limited to
four
= 1wives, and husbands' obligations were defined. On the
other hand, he accepted principle of holy war and the forcible
conversion of the unbeliever.
During these years his doctrine spread like wildfire, and when
he died, on e 8th 632 at Medina, had been accepted by the
greater part of the people of
rabia.
_1ahomet left only daughters. One of them, Fatima, married his
cousin, Ali,
o had been one of his first converts, and their sons, being
heirs by blood, could e claimed the succession to the caliphate,
as the leadership of the Islamic world e to be called, but his
followers decided on election. This later caused dissension d
several times led to civil wars that temporarily weakened Arab
expansion. _\s a result of this schism, the majority of Muslims
are Sunnis, who regard the Caliph as the executive chief of their
community. The Shi'ites, on the other hand, k on him as an
infallible Imam, divinely inspired by having inherited the blood ·
Ali. For reasons largely political, Persia became the stronghold
of the latter sect. However, between 632 and 661, under the first
four Caliphs- Abu Bakr, Omar, an and Ali - Islam became a
great power and drove the Byzantine Greeks t of Palestine,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Nubia and Cyrenaica. It also overran ersia
and Morocco. This fantastic series of lightning conquests was
continued _- the penetration of India in the east and the
subjugation of Spain in the west. Islam's advance in Europe was
not checked until the Moors were defeated by
Dlarles Martel, King of the Franks, at the battle of Tours in
732.
During the following centuries they several times besieged
Byzantium, but ·thout success, fought with and were defeated by
the Seljuk Turks, one of whose eaders, Togrul Beg, made
himself Caliph in 1040, and were temporarily driven
Mohammedanism
t of Persia by Genghis Khan in 1220. But they succeeded in
holding on to most : their vast empire and, meanwhile, created a
wonderful civilization.
Their mosques and palaces in Cairo, Kairouan, Cordoba and
Granada testify -o the genius of their architects; and, although
their religion forbade embellish- ent by statues, their lace-like
stonework is superb. Their gardens, in which .- untains always
played, were beautiful; their costumes and weapons
magnificent. Yhey inherited the knowledge of the Greeks, and
not only kept its flame burning ut also made many valuable
additions to science and medicine. That the culture f the ancient
world was not lost is due to them. It was the accounts of their
·\ilization brought back to the west by the Crusaders, and later
translations of
-· e Arab scholars' works, which led at last to the
Renaissance in Europe.
It is one of the tragedies of the world that the Arabs should have
succumbed to
-· e Turks, and had their empire pass into the hands of that
barbarous people.
At the end of the third century A.D., the Roman Empire had
been divided tween Constantine I, who ruled the west from
Rome, and Diocletian, who took
- e eastern territories and made his capital Byzantium.
Although officially Roman, -· e latter took on much more the
colour of a Greek civilization, as it inherited the ajor part of what
had been Alexander the Great's dominions, and its armies
consisted largely of Greeks. With only one brief reversion to
paganism, under _ulian the Apostate, it remained the stronghold
of ~he Orthodox Christian Church · r over eleven hundred years;
then, at last, on May 3oth 1453, it fell to the Otto-
:nan Turks.
From Constantinople, as it was now called, the Sultans, who
were also Caliphs,
ruled theoretically through subject despots the whole of North
Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Asia Minor and the Balkans,
until the states of the last achieved their independence early in
the nineteenth century. These monarchs lived in -plendour, but
they gave positively nothing to mankind. Of all the great
empires, ~t is the only one that neither produced splendid
buildings nor advanced learning. The Turks left their subject
peoples to rot in poverty and ignorance.
 The Arabs eclipsed them in every way and were a truly great
people. Suleiman the Magnificent displayed a chivalry equal to
that of any Christian knight, and Haroun al-Rashid, with his
splendid Court at Baghdad, has been rendered im- mortal in the
Thousand Nights and a Night. From those delightful tales we get
a splendid picture of how both his rich and poor subjects lived.
Among them there · hardly one in which a djin, ifrit, demon, or
some form of magic does not play a part.
The ambition to achieve sainthood is better provided for by
Islam than by many other religions. A devout individual does not
have to struggle alone to reach a state of sanctity; he or she - for
women may also become initiates - requests admission to a
circle that forms part ofone ofthe several orders ofSufis.
Ifaccepted, he becomes a disciple and submits for a period to an
extremely strict discipline, until he is considered worthy of
advancement.
Opposite A minaret at Natanz in Persia
Mohammedanism
t..
 Dancing dervishes
l h .....:,..
'f ~~;;·
These orders are said to have been formed by the
companions of Mahomet, and their circles have long existed in
every part of the Islamic world. Some fakirs in India are Sufis; so
also are the dervishes of Turkey, Persia and the Sudan.
Certain sects of dervishes are far from saintly and batten as
unscrupulously on the poorer classes as did the Christian
wandering friars in Europe during the Middle Ages. Many
dervishes are conjurers, hypnotists and small-time sorcerers
who make a good living by selling amulets, love charms and
even poisons. But the genuine Sufis of the highest grade are
true holy men. Their way of life is to participate in the normal
activities of the people yet remain spiritually apart. By the
strictest possible observance of the Koran, and the highest
degree of physical cleanliness and purity of mind, they seek
communion with God.
It is recorded that the Sufi saints have performed many
miracles, including raising the dead. So, as in the Christian
world, concurrently with a belief in God, the Mohammedans
continue to seek help in their daily lives from the invisible
powers of the occult.
The Cabala
This is the keystone of all mysticism. It is said by some to
have been divulged to Abraham by God, but the probability is
that the Jews learnt of it from the Egyptian or Babylonian priests.
In any case, for many centuries it remained the closely guarded
secret ofJewish wise men. The word is derived from the Hebrew
quibbel,
168
to receive', and signifies 'knowledge handed down by
tradition'. Its doctrines are contained mainly in the Sepher ha-
Zohar, the Book of Splendour, and the Sepher Yetzirah, the
Book of Formation. They furnish the thirty-two Ways of Wisdom,
the fifty-two Doors of Knowledge and the seventy-two Names
of the Deity.
It was believed by intiates that the Universe consisted of nine
spheres, the outer one being that of God, the next that of the
stars; then came those of the Sun, the five planets and the
Moon. On being sent forth from God, the spirit penetrated all the
other spheres, collecting a varying degree of their qualities from
each: from Jupiter ambition, from Venus capacity to love, from
Saturn melancholy and so on; then on reaching Earth it received
its covering of flesh. At death the reverse
happened.
According to the Cabalists, if one knew the way to go about it,
one did not have
to die in order to return to God. This could be achieved if one
possessed the magic formulae for leaving one's body and
penetrating the spheres. The difficulty was that, on leaving
Earth, the spirit had to make its way through hordes of demons
and demiurges, and that each sphere was guarded by a phalanx
of angels that would do their utmost to tum it back. In
consequence, it was impossible to complete this hazardous
journey unless one went armed with a great number of words of
power, the use of which would paralyse the evil spirits and
compel each set of angels to open its gates. If the spirit did
succeed in achieving this mystical ascent, it not
The alchemic correspondence of the Macrocosm and the
Microcosm
The Cabala
The Cabala
 only became one with God but, on its return to its body,
possessed the powers of God.
In preparation for attempting to attain his objective, the
Cabalist had to train himself to perfect physical fitness by
exercises that have some resemblance to Yoga. Breathing in
regular rhythm was very important; also to achieve complete
immobility for long periods. For this he did not allow himself to
assume a relaxed position. On the contrary, it had to be done
while the body was contorted; for example, standing on one leg
and clasping the ankle of the raised leg with one hand while
holding the other straight up in the air.
The key to this mystery was embodied in the Sephirotic Tree.
Its symbols represented the whole of creation and all the
phenomena of the Universe, recon- ciling in unity every
apparent diversity. On the right-hand side it is male, on the left
side female, and in the middle bisexual. It is at once the
Macrocosm, which is
A diagram believed to be extremely A Jewish cabalist holding
the potent in raising spirits to find Sephirotic Tree
treasure
the Universe in the form of God, and the Microcosm, which is
an infinitely tiny copy of the same in the form of Man. The lowest
Sephiroth, Malkuth, stands for the kingdom; the one above,
Yesod, for the foundation; the next two above, to the left Hod for
honour and to the right Netsah for victory. The middle circle
stands for Tiphereth, which is both comeliness and glory. Above
again, to the left Geburah for power and on the right Hesed for
both benignity and grace. The top pair, on the left Binah for
understanding and on the right Hokmah for wisdom. On the
apex Kether, the crown.
Sometimes the tree is shown as a man, the upper triangle
representing his head, the middle branches his trunk and arms,
the lower triangle his genitals and legs. The branches of the tree
form three triangles, the lower two pointing downwards. The top
triangle indicates the creative forces in God and the Universe;
the second
170
 the human trinity of father, mother and child; the third the
forces that play on man - impulse, animality and thought. Each
branch of the tree is a path to higher wisdom, and its esoteric
ramifications are so many and so complicated that only a brain
of the first order is capable of grasping them all.
It is believed that the initiates among the Gnostics had
mastered these secrets; but they were unknown to Christians in
the Middle Ages, and most jealously guarded by the Jews, being
handed down by a very limited number of Rabbis from one to
another.
After the fall ofJerusalem in A.D. 70, the great dispersal
followed. Communities of Jews migrated from Palestine to all
parts of the Near East. In some places they were allowed to
settle in peace; at others, as the Christians grew more powerful,
the Jews were persecuted as the race that had caused Christ to
be crucified, and were driven to move further afield in the hope
of better fortune. Islam was more tolerant of them and, in the
wake of the Moors, considerable numbers of them settled in
Spain. From there they slowly penetrated every country in
Europe.
Until the sixteenth century they succeeded in retaining the
secrets of the Cabala; but after that, either from stolen
manuscripts or by other means, Latin translations ofthe
Cabalistic documents were made. The Church looked on the
study of such a subject as heresy in the first degree, and those
were the days when the dungeons of the Holy Inquisition were
crammed with poor wretches awaiting trial only on the merest
suspicion of having transgressed the ordinances of the Church.
In consequence, the secrets of the Cabala continued to be
guarded as closely as ever by Jews and Christians alike who
had penetrated them.
The Dark Ages
In the first century after the death of Christ, the New Religion
gained many converts. Its doctrines of equality before God, that
Christ had died to save man- kind, that repentance of sins
assured their forgiveness and that a rich man could not enter the
Kingdom of Heaven, naturally had a strong appeal to the slaves,
the poor and the humble. Moreover, considerable numbers of
humane intellectuals among the higher classes were won over
by this new faith that promised salvation to those who regarded
all men as brothers and led unselfish lives.
 Antioch became the first stronghold of the Christians. The
missions of St Paul and of the disciples secured
many .thousands of converts in Asia Minor, Greece and Egypt.
In Rome, for a while, the Christians were driven underground
and had to celebrate the new mystery of the sacrament down in
the catacombs. But Constantine the Great made it the State
religion, and from then on for several centuries, until the coming
of Mahomet, the power of the Christian Church increased
throughout all the Mediterranean lands.
Yet, in those early centuries after Christ, its bishops, with
some exceptions, were very far from being ascetics. It has so
rightly been said that power corrupts, and the majority of the
chief priests of Christianity were no exceptions to that rule. They
were more concerned with politics than saving souls, and at
their conferences spent much of their time seeking praise for
their eloquence and
The Dark Ages
Three medieval clerics : a carving in Winchester Cathedral
 reasoning abilities in debating obscure points of doctrine,
such as how many angels could stand on the point of a needle.
With the final partition of the Empire in A.D. 364, there came
the great schism. In the West the successors of St Peter
continued to hold sway from Rome over Christians in their half
of the Empire. In the East the Bishops of Byzantium asserted
their independence and, as patriarchs, became the chief priests
of the Greek Orthodox Church.
In A.D. 410, Alaric the Goth sacked Rome. As a ransom for
the defeated Emperor he demanded his weight in gold, then
contemptuously threw his sword into the big scales for extra
measure. So ended the Empire in the West. But, as had always
proved the case except with the Jews, the victors feared the god
of the vanquished, so the papacy was allowed to continue and,
in course of time, ever greater numbers of the barbarians
became Christians, owing spiritual allegiance to the Pope.
As the power of the papacy grew, the popes tended more
and more only to pretend humility in public, and in private to
surround themselves with luxury, until it became accepted that
they were powerful potentates, the equals and, in their status as
God's vicars on earth, the superiors of kings. They piled up
treasure and recruited armies. In papal bulls they fulminated
against anyone who attempted
172
to curb their power and, as a last resort, blackmailed them
with threats of ex-
communication.
In Byzantium there continued to be an Emperor, but the
patriarchs wielded great power and also lived in luxury, holding
court in their palaces. They were later in the happy position of
being able to make great fortunes by negotiating the purchase of
supplies for the armies of the Crusaders during their campaigns
to capture Jerusalem. The degree of indifference to Christian
morality in Byzantium can be judged by the fact that Theodosia,
who had been a prostitute, became an Empress.
Between the higher priesthoods of the two Churches there
was little to choose, except that the Greeks were the more
civilized. Clean-living, truly pious priests were a small minority.
The great majority openly kept mistresses and indulged in every
sort of vice. One calls to mind the entertainments given by the
Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. On one occasion, for his guests'
amusement, he engaged the hundred most beautiful courtesans
in Rome, had them strip naked in his ballroom and there
copulate with his men-at-arms, having offered valuable prizes
for the couples who performed in the most lascivious positions;
while his daughter, the beautiful Lucretia, and the other ladies of
his Court, looked on and applauded. That similar exhibitions
were given by earlier popes and the patriarchs in Byzan- tium
there can be no doubt. Meanwhile genuinely holy lives were
being led by exceptional characters like St Francis of Assisi.
In both empires, side by side with Christianity, the old pagan
beliefs were still held by vast numbers of the people, and only
the most truly pious clergy escaped contamination by them. The
result was that many priests pandered to their congregations by
introducing into their services parts of the 'Jld rituals only thinly
disguised.
Superstition was as rife as ever and many of the clergy, high
and low, practised sorcery. Pope Leo the Great, in the fifth
century; Pope Honorius in the seventh century; and Pope
Silvester II in the ninth century all practised black magic. One of
the most famous books on magic is The Grimoire of Pope
Honorius.
To end this section on a lighter note, perhaps I may be
permitted to quote a passage from that delightfully amusing
book, The Twilight ofthe Gods by the late Dr Richard Garnett,
sometime Chief Librarian of the British Museum Library:
 'It will be a tough business,' observed the sorcerer ... 'It will
require fumigations.' 'Yes,' said the bishop, 'and suffumigations.'
'Aloes and mastic,' advised the sorcerer.
'Aye,' assented the bishop, 'and red sanders.'
'We must call in Primeumaton,' said the warlock. 'Clearly,'
said the bishop, 'and Amioram.' 'Triangles,' said the sorcerer.
'Pentacles,' said the bishop.
'In the hour of Methon,' said the sorcerer.
The Dark Ages
173
 'I should have thought Tafrac,' suggested the bishop, 'but I
defer to your better judgment.'
'I can have the blood of a goat?' queried the wizard.
'Yes,' said the bishop, 'and of a monkey also.'
'Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as
a little unweaned
child?'
'If absolutely necessary,' said the bishop.
'I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your
Lordship's part,' said the sorcerer. 'Your Lordship is evidently of
the profession.'
It is not difficult to suppose that many a conversation on more
or less similar lines took place in the Dark Ages.
The Incas
While Europe continued to languish in the Dark Ages, one of
the most remarkable civilizations of all time was developing in
South America.
On the Pacific coast, the nomads who had migrated from
Asia across the Bering Strait and gradually populated the
American continent had, in the neighbourhood ofPeru, emerged
from barbarism about 2500 B.C.
Pottery and other objects recovered in recent times from
graves by archaeo- logists show that they had achieved a fair
degree of culture, but very little is known about them because
the Incas' policy, like that of the Spaniards who conquered them,
was as far as possible to eliminate all evidence of the culture of
their pre- decessors. Their principal god is said to have taken
the form of a cat, but I suggest that it is more likely to have been
that of a puma.
So vague is our information about the early Andean peoples
that the experts cannot date within 200 years the blossoming of
the Mochicas, but it is thought that they flourished in Peru for
some 700 years until they were overcome by the Tiahuanacos,
round about A.D. 1 0 0 0 . However, the Mochicas were builders
on no small scale, for there are still the remains of enormous
pyramids raised by them to the Sun and Moon near Trujillo. The
former is estimated to be formed of
IJO,ooo,ooo sun-dried mud bricks.
The Tiahuanacos originated in the Bolivian Andes near Lake
Titicaca. Swooping
down from their mountains to the coast, they took over the
Mochica Empire and became for some 300 years the most
powerful nation in those parts. Toward the end of that period
there were many wars between rival peoples, from which the
Chimtis emerged as the dominant race. Their capital, Chan
Chan, was near Trujillo. Owing to lack of water, it is now derelict
and deserted, but its ruins cover eight square miles, and consist
of big rectangular blocks of houses, lofty walls, reservoirs and
pyramid temples, all built out of adobe mud. It was from these
people that the Incas inherited their highly developed system of
government and social stratification from god-king down to
peasant.
Opposite The temptation of St Anthony
The Incas
175
 The Incas
Like the Aztecs in Mexico, the Incas came late on the scene.
Their first emperor, Manco Capac, who may be only a legendary
figure, is said to have lived about A.D. I ISO, and it was not until
some 200 years later that the expansion of the race began. But,
under their ninth emperor, Pachacutec, it was incredibly rapid.
Between about I350 and ISOO they conquered practically the
whole of the South American littoral between the Andes and the
sea. From their capital, Cuzco, I I,ooo feet up in ;:he heart of the
mountains, the Lord Incas ruled with absolute power from the
borders of Ecuador down to Central Chile, a distance of over
3,ooo miles. That is very nearly as far as from London to
Khartoum.
Cuzco is perhaps the most remarkable city ever built. Its
palaces, houses and towering walls all consist of huge blocks of
stone, so skilfully dressed and fitted that it is impossible to get
even a piece of paper between them. The only buildings
comparable to them are those of the pre-Hellenes at Mycene
and Tiryns; and, were the two civilizations not separated by
3,000 years, one would be tempted to believe that the Incas had
learnt how to raise monoliths from the early Greeks. But the
Greek cities were incomparably smaller than those of the Incas,
and the latter were faced with the additional problem of having
to man-handle blocks of stone weighing up to 200 tons up
rugged, precipitous heights, before they could even begin to get
them into position.
The streets of the city formed a gridiron, converging on two
central plazas, the principal one of which was called
Huaycapata, Joy Square. On it stood the great Temple of the
Sun and others to the Moon, Stars, Lightning and Rainbow. The
walls of the city and its largest buildings were not carved like
those in Mexico, but they were covered with gold plates, each
weighing up to ten pounds. What their appearance must have
been in strong sunlight dazzles the imagination.
Yet there were still greater wonders. Adjoining the Temple of
the Sun was the sanctuary of the priests, and in it there -yvas a
garden; but a garden of whose like no European had ever
dreamt; paths, grass, clods of earth, life-size flowers and maize
with corn cobs were all made of solid gold; so were twenty
llamas with their young, and life-size shepherds with slings and
crooks, to watch them.
 Cuzco was only one of many fine Inca cities, each having a
huge adjacent fort to guard it, and the roads that linked them
were another marvel. They surpassed even the Roman roads,
the longest of which was from the frontier of Scotland to
Jerusalem. The Incas' coastal road was 2,520 miles long, and
their inland road along the Andes, which in parts touched an
altitude of I7,I6o feet, was 3,250 miles long. Moreover, the
standard width was twenty-four feet. There were many others
running laterally down the valleys from the mountains to the
coast, and scores of bridges of several different types.
The most famous of these was the bridge of San Luis Rey. It
was a suspension bridge, some 300 feet above the bottom of
the valley, made of grass ropes as thick as a man's body and
284 feet long. This bridge was constructed by the Incas in
I350 and continued in use until I89o - 540 years. Had the
ancients had such a Opposite The mummy of a woman, from
ancient Peru
176
ridge they would surely have acclaimed it as the eighth
wonder of the world. The main object of this wonderful system of
communications was military. It bled the Lord Inca to dispatch
forces in an incredibly short time to any part
his vast dominions threatened by invasion or rebellion. And
information of ible trouble reached him with amazing speed.
Relays of runners were stationed ong the roads. News could be
brought by them from Quito in the far north to • e capital, a
distance of 1,250 miles, in five days and nights. This was faster
than
oman couriers and equalled only by the pony gallopers of
Genghis Khan.
It was not only in their road system that the Incas resembled the
Romans. They · - did so in their love of law and order, and the
admirable administration of their empire. Each year a census
was taken. From each territory a certain number of en were
called up for the army, and others to maintain the roads. Each
township eld its agricultural land in common. Annually it was
shared out in accordance ·th the number of available workers in
each family. The town or village was then cu:ed in accordance
with its output. At a certain age every man had to take a wife
d each child of the marriage was duly registered.
All this is the more remarkable in that the Incas had no
means of writing. They -ent their messages and kept their
records by a complicated system of differently
loured strings, in which they tied groups of knots at intervals.
The laws were strict and their form of justice is to be admired,
for the punish- ents for crime or negligence were graded in
accordance with the status of the
0 posite A shrunken head used by the Jivaro Indians of
Ecuador as a powerful element in magic Bdow The Incas' only
form of 'writing' a group of knotted strings
The Incas
179
 The Incas
offender. The higher in rank and the greater his responsibility,
the heavier was the penalty.
The Lord Incas always took their sisters as wives, for no one
dreamt ofcontesting that they were incarnations of God on earth,
and the divine strain could not be polluted by common blood.
But the prettiest girls from all the towns were sent to the Lord
Inca and known as 'chosen women'. From them he selected his
con- cubines; the others wove his garments, which were of the
very finest vicuna wool. Although the girls numbered several
score, they must have been kept busy, for the Lord Inca never
wore any piece of clothing twice. Immediately he had taken it off,
it was burnt.
By his 'chosen women' he had many children; his half-royal
sons administered the empire and officered the army. The
'chosen women' were housed in almost inaccessible palaces
high up on the mountain sides. But when the Spanish soldiers
came, they managed to climb to one and raped all the girls in it.
After the Incas had defeated the Chimus, they never lost a
battle against a people of their own continent. It was their
custom to carry out a great slaughter of enemy troops after a
victory, and later another ceremonial slaughter of enemy leaders
at Cuzco, after which they amused themselves by making
effigies out of the bodies, distending their stomachs and using
them as drums.
But they were not by nature as cruel as the Aztecs, and, once
a nation had been subdued, its people were treated with
kindness. At times ofdrought, they sacrificed animals to bring
rain, and if the rain did not come, a human; but otherwise their
gods did not call for blood sacrifices. Their magicians were, of
course, all priests, and they practised both black and white
magic, summoning spirits either to kill or cure. We have pictures
of them conjuring up demons, and it is interesting to note that all
the demons are shown with horns. The fact that all the Lord
Inca's clothes were burnt immediately after he had taken them
off is a clear indication of of the priests' being aware that
anything he had worn was charged with his person- ality, and so
could be used to put a spell on him.
Only the Lord Inca was allowed more than one wife, and from
the royal sons they bore him he nominated his heir. It was the
Incas' tragedy that, in 1525, the Emperor Huayna Capac died
without having chosen a successor. It was just at that time that
Francisco Pizarro learnt ofthe 'Land ofGold' and began to make
plans to conquer it. Two royal sons, Huascar and Atahualpa,
both claimed the throne. There ensued five years of terrible civil
war, in which thousands of warriors were slain, and the nation
was left exhausted. Huascar was killed and Atahualpa was
about to make his entry as Lord Inca into Cuzco. At that precise
moment, May 13th 1532, Pizarro arrived on the scene.
It is a strange thing, but there had never been any
communication between the Mexican and the Peruvian
civilizations, so the Incas knew nothing about Cortes's conquest
of the Aztecs, and very little about the white men who had been
arriving in America ever since the first landing of Columbus forty
years earlier. They even believed that a mounted man and his
horse were one animal.
180
Pizarro had the good luck to encounter Atahualpa on his way
from' the sulphur
The murder of Atahualpa
The Rosicrucians
 baths. The Conquistador had with him only 130 foot soldiers
and forty cavalry; but one blast from the Spanish cannon was
enough. The Lord Inca was captured, and after that none of his
warriors dared lift a hand lest he be harmed.
Atahualpa agreed to ransom himself by filling with gold a
room twenty-five feet long and fifteen feet wide, as high as a
white line that a tall man could not reach. The priceless
ornaments were all melted down; so, by order of the Spanish
king, were all the other beautiful gold works of art that were sent
to Spain.
Not long after this enormous ransom had been paid, Pizarro
treacherously had Arahualpa tried for heresy, and strangled.
How great our debt is to the Incas few people realize. They
were the greatest agriculturalists that the world has ever known.
In the lowlands and on terraced mountain slopes, they were the
first to cultivate pineapples, cacao, peanuts, avocados,
cashews, tomatoes, peppers, papaya, mulberries, manioc,
tapioca, many varieties of beans, twenty kinds of maize, 240
kinds of potatoes, and a great number of medical herbs. More
than half the foods that the world eats today were developed by
them.
In Peru there was no firm, restraining hand like that with
which the humane Cortes protected the Indians in Mexico.
Lusting for gold, the barbarians who called themselves
Christians slaughtered the Incas by the tens of thousands and
utterly destroyed their wonderful civilization.
The Rosicrucians
Up and down the world today there are many societies calling
themselves Rosi- crucians, but the majority of them are no more
than associations, comparatively easy to join, that have been
formed for studying the occult. Some have links with
Freemasonry, and there are at least two rival orders in the
United States.
The original order is said to have been founded as a result of
the publication in 1614 of the Fama Fraternitatis. It recorded the
travels, some 200 years earlier, of a German named Christian
Rosenkreuz to Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Arabia, in which
countries he came into possession of much secret wisdom,
including a knowledge of alchemy and the Cabala.
On his return to Germany he imparted this knowledge to first
three, then a total of eight companions. It was agreed that the
existence .of this fraternity was to be kept secret for 100 years. It
is said that, after 120 years, a member discovered Rosenkreuz's
secret burial-place, with his body perfectly preserved, and
certain esoteric documents.
Rosenkreuz is reputed to have lived for 106 years, dying in
1484. If so, his tomb would have been opened in 1604, and the
founding of the order preceded the publication of the Fama
Fraternitatis. As the travels described in the book are very
similar to those of Paracelsus, the famous Swiss alchemist and
physician who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century,
many authorities believe that he was the actual founder of the
order, and that Rosenkreuz was only a mythical figure .
182
However that may be, by the middle of the seventeenth
century there were
. !embers of a French Lodge awaiting the arrival of the
Master Masons
ranches of the order in several European countries, the one
in England being .:Ounded by the alchemist Robert Fludd.
Tradition asserts that the doctrine of the genuine
Rosicrucians is a combination f the beliefs of Akhnaton the
'heretic' Pharaoh, the Christian Gnostics and Jewish Cabalists,
and that in each country branches of the order are alternately
ctive and dormant for periods of 108 years.
The Freemasons
Just as with the Rosicrucians, the term Masonry is applied to
several societies that differ in their activities and objectives.
Their creed and rituals are held to be illictly secret, but there is
good reason to suppose that the basis of the Masonic belief is
that the Universe is symbolized by a building, the apex of which
is God.
Freemasonry has its origin in medieval times in England as a
craft guild; but, owing to the lives led by the stonemasons of
those days, it differed from all others. Goldsmiths, tailors,
vintners and the rest were all more or less permanently resident
in cities, and had their guildhouses in them. The masons, on the
other
The Freemasons
The Freemasons
 hand, were migrants, working perhaps for months or even
years on a castle in one county, then moving to work, again for a
long period, on a monastery in another county at the other end
of the kingdom; or possibly in France, where English masons
were very highly thought of.
On each building site they were provided with a 'lodge', in
which they not only kept their tools and fed, but also discussed
their conditions of employment. For this last reason, to ensure
secrecy, no one other than themselves was allowed inside the
lodge.
There came a time when, presumably to secure patronage,
men who were not working masons, but gentry or nobility, were
given the freedom of these lodges. The first on record is John
Boswell, Laird of Auchinleck, who attended the Edinburgh Lodge
in June x6oo. During the seventeenth century this innovation
spread rapidly; distinguished men of learning, such as Elias
Ashmole, the founder of the Ashmolean Library, and many
peers, among them a Duke of Richmond, became Freemasons.
The Grand Lodge of England was founded at the Apple Tree
Tavern, near Covent Garden, in 1717; a Grand Lodge in
Scotland, where Freemasonry was particularly strong,.in 1736;
and others in Ireland, the United States, India and the
Caribbean. During·the War of Independence, the Americans
broke away; but, instead of having one Grand Lodge for the
United States, a number were created, each remaining
paramount in its own territory. There are now over 9,ooo lodges
in all parts of the world, under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Lodges of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Men of all Christian sects were admitted from the start, and
Jews from soon after 1723. But the Roman Catholic Church
regarded Freemasonry as a heresy, and Pope Clement XII
issued a bull condemning it. For doing so he had ample reason;
because Freemasonry had developed in a very different way in
several Continental countries from that which it had in Britain
and the United States.
It is beyond question that, in the English-speaking countries,
the secret meetings of Freemasons have never been used for
political ends. On the contrary, one of the main objectives is to
foster goodwill between men of all creeds and races; and, as the
world's greatest charitable organization, Freemasonry has done
an inestimable amount of good. In British lodges loyalty to the
Crown is universal and, from the end of the eighteenth century,
many members of the Royal Family have been Grand Masters.
But in some places, France particularly, Freemasonry
became a cover for atheists and anarchists. The Lodge of the
Grand Orient, which became very powerful, rejected the
fundamental requirement of Freemasonry- the belief that God is
the Great Architect of the Universe. There is reason to believe
that the Rosicrucians were associated with it, and that the policy
of this secret society was then both anti-Church and anti-State.
The Lodge of the Grand Orient certainly played a
considerable part in bringing about the French Revolution.
Philippe d'Orleans was a member of it. To curry favour with the
mob he gave up his title of Duke and took the name of Philippe
184
Egalite; then voted in the Nationa~ Assembly for the death of
his cousin, Louis XVI. It is satisfactory to record that his having
called himself Equality Philippe did not save him from, a few
months later, also being sent to the guillotine.
It is on account of the subversive activities of the Continental
Freemasons, and the supposition that their rites incorporate
malefic occult operations, that not only does the Catholic Church
condemn Freemasonry, but it was also banned by Hitler and is
forbidden in Communist countries.
The Theosophists
The basis of this movement is a combination of religion and
philosophy, through which its leaders claimed a special insight
into the divine nature and its processes. Their beliefs owe more
to Indian modes of thought than to Greco-European ones, and
their mysticism has strong associations with the i.deas of
Meister Eckhart, Jacob Bohme and Emanuel Swedenborg. They
have also embodied in their doctrine reincarnation, certain of the
theories put forward by Paracelsus and their own interpretation
of the Cabala.
When we consider the characters of the two women mainly
responsible for the creation and propagation of Theosophy, we
shall no longer be surprised that it is
uch a strange mixture.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born in Russia in 1831, but was
of German
blood. At the age of sixteen she married, but left her husband
after a few months. he then spent many years travelling in
Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Canada, crossed the United States
in a covered wagon, went on to Central and South .-\merica,
India, Java and Tibet. Having spent some time in the latter
country, she returned to Russia in 1856. A few years later she
set out again for the Near East and India, paid a second visit to
Tibet in 1868 and to Egypt in 1872. In 1873 she went to New
York; and there, with the assistance ofColonel H. S. Olcott and
William Q Judge, in 1875 she founded the Theosophical
Society.
In 1879 she and Olcott went to India and established the
headquarters of the Society at Adyar, near Madras. One of the
Hidden Masters, named Koot Hoomi, became a frequent visitor
to the establishment. Not only did he appear to Madame
Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, C. W. Leadbeater and others, but he
showered them
 with letters that fell from ceilings and appeared on tables.
Unfortunately for the fraternity, a most unpleasant couple named
Coulomb,
who had been taken on to run the house, proved
antagonistic. A room known as the Occult Room backed on to
Madame Blavatsky's bedroom. In the Occult Room there was a
shrine enclosed in a wall cupboard. At times, when the cupboard
was opened, flowers or a lett~r from Koot Hoomi, that had not
been there a few minutes earlier, mysteriously arrived.
The Coulombs accused Madame Blavatsky of being a fraud,
and the Society for Psychical Research sen~ a Mr Hodgson out
to investigate. It then emerged that behind a wardrobe in
Madame Blavatsky's pedroom there was a hole in the wall,
through which anyone could have put articles into the shrine,
while the
The Theosophists
185
 cupboard containing it was shut, without the people in the
Occult Room seeing them do so.
Madame Blavatsky's defence was that out of malice the
Coulombs had made the hole during her absence. But the
Committee of the Society for Psychical Research gave their
verdict against her.
After leaving India for the last time she settled first in
Germany, then moved to London, where she had established a
European Headquarters. She died on ~.fay 8th 1891.
In addition to being an inexhaustible traveller, she was a
most prolific writer. Her book Isis Unveiled attracted world-wide
attention, and it was followed by many others. According to her
there existed a 'secret doctrine' that had been transmitted
through the ages by a series of Mahatmas, living in various parts
of the world, but in touch with one another. She claimed that in
Tibet a Master .Y1orya had taken her as his disciple, and that
she spoke with his authority. However that may be, she was a
remarkable woman, and in her many years of travel must have
acquired an immense knowledge of her subject; but one is
inclined to think that it was somewhat ill-digested.
After her death, Colonel Olcott remained President of the
Society, and on his death, in 1907, another remarkable woman
succeeded him. This was Mrs Annie Besant.
Born in 1847, Annie Besant early became one of the best-
known firebrands and trouble-makers of late Victorian times.
She was a born revolutionary who wrote and lectured without
pause, advocating socialism and atheism. She became a trade
union organizer and strike leader, and was sent to prison for
obscenity. Then, in 1889, she read Madame Blavatsky's book
The Secret Doctrine and overnight abandoned atheism.
Henceforth she devoted her boundless energy to spreading the
doctrine of Theosophy.
In 1893 she went to India and there discovered that·in most
of her previous incarnations she had been an Indian; so she
adopted Hinduism as her basic religion and combined it with
Theosophy. Fierily espousing India's demand for horne rule, she
would not submit to Ghandi's policy of passive resistance and,
as
he refused to discontinue her subversive activities during the
war, in 1917 the Government, very rightly, decided to put her in
a concentration camp.
 By 1909 she had 'discovered' young Krishnarnurti and
proclaimed him as the 'new Messiah'. But when he grew older
he repudiated the divinity that had been thrust upon him, which
was a sad blow to Mrs Besant. Her turbulent career carne to an
end in Madras at the age of nearly eighty-six.
One cannot help feeling that, with such an unbalanced lady
for long its principal director, Theosophy became a forerunner of
modern spiritual thinking, in which such Light as there is has
been almost eclipsed under a welter of outworn religions,
ignorance, superstitions and false doctrines, calculated to retard
rather than advance man's oneness with God.
Opposite Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the creator of the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophists
 PART5
Of Witches and Warlocks
Introductory
Christianity was brought to Britain during the latter centuries
of the Roman occupation; but, about 4 0 0 years after the
Roman legions left in A.D. 4 0 7 , the Vikings began their raids,
and in due course the Danes became the masters of a great
part of England. So far Christianity had been no more than just
one of the many religions brought from the Mediterranean, and
such Christians as escaped massacre took refuge in Wales. The
great bulk of the population, recognizing the Norse gods as very
similar to their own ancient deities, continued happily to
celebrate their pagan rites.
Some zoo years after the departure of the Romans, St
Augustine arrived, was well received by King Ethelbert and built,
in its earliest form, Canterbury Cathedral. At school one was led
to suppose that, from that point on, everything was plain sailing
for the Christians, and that within a few score years the English
people had been converted to Christianity. That, in fact, was
very far from being the case. Queens, kings and the greater part
of the nobility accepted the new religion; and, in most cases,
blackmailed by a fanatical and militant priesthood with threats of
Hellfire and damnation, handed over much of their treasure for
building churches, abbeys and priories. But this probably had
little effect on the common people.
By that time the original Celtic stock, whom we term ancient
Britons, had become diluted through 400 years of Roman
occupation and 300 years of invasions by Danes, Jutes, Angles
and other Norsemen, so that, through intermarriage, by far the
greater part of the population of England had coalesced into the
Anglo- Saxon race.
The Little People
But there was also a very much smaller race, having entirely
different character- istics, that lived apart, widely scattered in
small groups. This race, according to that very high authority,
Professor Margaret Murray, was descended from the Neolithic
men who continued to populate Europe in the Bronze Age.
These descendants were known as the Little People.
For a further 6oo years after the arrival of St Augustine,
although gradually increasing numbers of the Anglo-Saxon
peasantry were baptized and paid lip- service to Christianity, the
great majority continued to worship the Old God, and
Opposite The Inferno
 r
The Little People
~
•
I
~
-
I
"i \
~
A gleeful imp
A 'psychic photograph' of fairies
the Little People never acknowledged the Christian God at
all. Until the last of them disappeared in the eighteenth century,
they remained firmly pagan.
It will surprise many readers to learn that- in Professor
Murray's view, which I find very convincing - these descendants
of an ancient race were no other than the fairies, so often
referred to in our early literature and accounts of witch trials.
Professor Murray asserts that fairies as envisaged by the
modern mind were invented by Shakespeare in A Midsummer
Night's Dream. In it, for the first time, there appear these
enchanting miniature folk of the imagination, flitting on their
gossamer wings from flower to flower, drinking from acorn cups,
dancing in rings that left dark circles on the grass, and amusing
themselves by weaving enchant- ments.
Only in this last did they resemble their flesh-and-blood
prototypes. But Shakespeare's delightful conception caught on
and spread far and wide, producing in the following centuries the
countless fairy tales for children, beneath which the true origin of
the species was gradually forgotten, then became almost lost.
The skeletons found in Neolithic graves show that the
average man was only five feet five inches in height, and the
woman proportionately smaller; so, by the standards oflater
centuries, the fairies would have been a race of European
pygmies. In the chronicles of the Middle Ages, fairy men were
described as like boys of ten or twelve, but broader and more
bulky. They were a dark-complexioned race which accounts for
their frequently being termed 'brownies'. Elves, goblins sprites
and leprechauns were other terms used when referring to them;
and the chief lady of a fairy settlement was usually known as the
'Elfin Queen'.
In the Dark and Middle Ages England was very sparsely
populated. The Domesday Book of 1086 estimates the number
to have been I,Ioo,ooo and, in Queen Elizabeth I's time, the
population of the whole country amounted to under 6,ooo,ooo -
only about three-quarters of that of London alone today. So
there
190
were great areas of desolate downland and heath, unfitted for
agriculture and far removed from the towns. It was on these that
the Little People had their settle- ments.
Like their Neolithic forbears, they lived in large round huts
similar to the igloos of the Eskimos. The floors were made of
stone, laid two or three feet below the surface of the ground, and
a circular stone parapet rose two or three feet above it. Over
that arched a dome, formed of branches and layers of leaves,
with a hole in the centre to let out the smoke from the fire.
Again like their Neolithic ancestors, the Little People had no
knowledge of agriculture, but kept small herds of cattle, living
mainly off their milk and butter, and an occasional feast of meat.
But their meagre diet was frequently eked out by such game as
they could snare, and poultry or flour they either stole from
outlying farms or blackmailed the inhabitants of the nearest
villages into giving them.
They were extraordinarily secretive and cunning, very shy of
strangers, and most proficient in hiding themselves, as an aid to
which they always dressed in green garments woven for them
by their women. They had small bows and arrows fitted with
miniature flint heads, many of which have been found. These
were so small that they could not have inflicted a serious woun9
on a man; but many herbs were available from which they
distilled poison, and it is believed that they dipped the arrow
heads in toxic brews. If so, even a scratch from one of these
little arrowheads would have been sufficient to cause an
inflamed wound. This, no doubt, was one of the reasons why the
people of the villages went in such dread of the fairies.
During Roman times it seems that the principal habitat of
these survivors of the Neolithic people was England, and later
Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Rem-
Left Hobgoblins enjoying food
Below A knight visiting a fairy house
The Little People
 The Little People
nants of them also survived in Germany, Belgium and
France. But it is interesting to note that they continued to be
written of in other countries as humans of small stature much
longer than was the case in England. Fairy stories as we know
them do not appear on the Continent until long after
Shakespeare's death.
That he knew the truth about them is made plain in The
Merry Wives ofWindsor. In it he makes Mistress Anne Page
dress herself as a fairy and expect to be taken for one. Since
she was a fully-grown young woman, that would have been out
of the question had her contemporaries believed fairies to be
diminutive creatures with wings.
That the Little People had inherited the secrets of occult
power, or perhaps we should say in this case 'rudimentary
magic', there can be no doubt at all. Had they not done so, the
Anglo-Saxon peasantry and that of Brittany, where they had
numerous settlements, could easily have wiped out their small
communities. Instead, for many centuries, they paid tribute in
farm produce to be spared having a murrain put on their cattle, a
blight on the crops, or a spell that would cause their women to
miscarry.
Occasionally, for a fee, the Little People could be persuaded
to use their arts for the benefit of some villager who sought their
aid. At times too, disguised as ordin- ary peasants, they would
go into a village and borrow from an acquaintance some fruit or
cereal; and it was remarked that they were always scrupulously
honest in repaying such debts. But, in general, they were
regarded with fear and hatred.
It is indicative that the traditional costume of the witch -
steeple-crowned hat, cloak and crutch - is exactly the same as
that of the fairy godmother. This may well be due to the fact that
the nobility of the Dark and Middle Ages invited the local Elfin
Queen to the christenings of their children, paying her
handsomely to cast spells that would ensure the child a
fortunate future. We all recall the unhappy results in fairy stories
if the bad fairy failed to receive an invitation. The Little People
had the reputation of being extremely malicious.
As acknowledged followers of the Old God, they were
anathema to the Christian Church. Owing no doubt to their
psychic ability to be aware when danger threatened them, and
their extreme cunning, there does not appear to be any case on
record of one of the Little People being brought to trial as a
witch. But the mention of them in the witch trials of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are legion. Again and
again old crones and young girls alike, the great majority of
whom were entirely innocent, were sent to the ducking-stool or
burnt at the stake, solely because malicious neighbours reported
that they had been seen visiting a fairy settlement. It was upon
the evidence that Joan of Arc's godmother had initiated her, at
the age of twelve, into the Old Religion under the fairy tree at
Bourlemont that Joan was burnt as a witch.
That the Little People eventually disappeared is probably due
to the racial decline that affects races having a low standard of
living, as has occurred with certain tribes of South American
Indians, and has led to almost complete extinction of the Caribs,
who once populated the whole of the West Indies. There are
num-
192
 erous accounts of fairy men marrying ordinary women, and
vice versa; so, no doubt, the remnants of the race were
absorbed into the general population, as is occurring with the
gypsies at the present day.
The Coming of the Devil
The portrait that the Christian Church has given us of Satan as a
horrifying demon with horns, hooves, wings and tail is a
comparatively modern creation.
The original conception of him was built up by the early
Christian Fathers from Virtue abducted by a monster
The Coming of the Devil
193
The Coming of the Devil
 statements attributed to Isaiah and other prophets in the Old
Testament, which were derived from Babylonia. His name was
Lucifer; he held the rank of seraph, and so was a prince among
the angels. Tertullian tells us that he was the 'wisest of all the
angels and perfect in beauty', while Eusebius follows Isaiah in
calling him the 'Son of the Morning'.
In the fourth century A.D., influenced probably by Zoroastrian
beliefs, Lactantius went so far as to declare that, before the
creation of the world, God engendered two sons- the Word and
the Devil. This appears to imply that Lucifer was actually the
younger son of Jehovah, which would make plausible the
statement of Gregory of Nyssa that 'God confided to him the
Government of the Earth'.
However, the generally accepted legend is that Lucifer led a
rebellion against Jehovah that resulted in civil war. Michael, as
the general of the loyal angels, defeated the rebels and drove
them out of Heaven. Then Jehovah gave Lucifer the earth to
rule over as his principality.
Unless one accepts this, the account of the temptation as
given in the Gospels does not make sense. It will be recalled
that Satan took Christ up to a high place, showed him all the
countries and cities of the world and said (Matthew iv. g), 'All
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship
me.' The offer would have been pointless if this great dominion
had not been Lucifer's to give, and clearly the authors of the
Gospels believed that to be the case.
It is, of course, on this belief that Satanism is based. If Satan
is the all-powerful master of this world, it is logical to believe
that, if properly approached by his votaries, he can give them
anything they wish.
In the Old Testament there are many references to evil
spirits; but it was not until after the death of Christ that any
attempt was made to determine the nature of the Devil and the
part he plays in relation to mankind. In this the early Christian
Fathers made up for lost time. They spent countless hours
wrangling on the sub- ject. St Cyprian maintained that it was
seeing God create man in his own image that caused Lucifer to
rebel. Tertullian, too, asserts that it was jealousy of Adam. The
Mohammedans also believed that to be the case, as the version
of the Fall given in the Koran is that Iblis - their name for Lucifer
- refused to worship Adam at the Deity's command, protesting, 'I
am more excellent than he; thou hast created me of fire, and
thou has created him of clay.'
But St Hilary, St Ambrose and St Jerome all followed Origen
and denied this. They maintained that it was not jealousy, but
pride, that led to Lucifer's fall. For had he not said (Isaiah xiv.
13- 14), 'I will exalt my throne above the stars ofGod ... I will be
like the Most High'? And the great St Augustine also took this
view, so it triumphed and became a dogma of the Church.
Again there was much dispute about what type of being the
Devil was. Some of the early Fathers maintained that he
consisted of fire; but against this it was argued that if so, and he
or his demons came near anybody, that person would be burnt
up. Cassian says, 'When we proclaim that there are spiritual
natures such as angels we must not think that they are
incorporeal. They have a body which makes them subsist; but
this body is much more subtle than ours.'
194
 The above opinion was concurred in by Origen and for many
centuries accepted _- the Church. It was l;>ased on the account
of how the sons of God (Genesis vi. 4) came in unto' the
daughters of men. How, it was argued, could they have done
t if they had not the male equipment for performing the act?
The literature about demons provides us with numerous
accounts of how women ere carnally possessed by incubi, and
men by succubi, but it could not be argued t the sons of God
belonged to this type of lecherous elemental, because the
ughters of men were got with child. And, while many ladies have
stoutly main- ed that they have become pregnant without ever
having submitted to the sexual brace, there has never, until the
introduction of artificial insemination, been
established case of this.
It was not until the twelfth century that the Church changed its
opinion and
~ eed to the dictum of Honore of Autun: 'The Angels have
ethereal bodies,
The Coming of the Devil
 The Coming of the Devil
the demons have aerial bodies, men have terrestrial bodies.'
And a compromise was reached by giving the demons spiritual
bodies over which they could clothe them- selves with material
bodies.
Each seraph was said to have six wings, all of which were
covered with eyes. According to Isaiah (vi. 2), 'with twain he
covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain
did he fly'. The two wings covering the face symbolized a
counsellor of the Deity, the two covering the feet a divine
messenger; of the two with which they flew, one represented
intellect and the other love.
Basing his theory on the above belief, St Bernard of
Clairvaux produced a practical explanation to account for the
seraph's fall. His view was that, having quarrelled with God,
Lucifer took off. As he now hated his master, his love wing gave
way and he came crashing down to earth.
Another problem that exercised the wits of the Fathers was
the present state of the Devil and his demons, who, for some
unknown reason, were numbered as 666. The Devil, they said,
in the form of the serpent in Eden, had brought original sin into
the world. Christ, by disguising himself as a human being, had
trapped the Devil into exceeding his authority by bringing about
his death, and so re- deemed mankind. The Devil having been
defeated, he was, with his followers, condemned to eternal fire.
But were they already suffering it, or only to do so after the Last
Judgment? A knotty point.
One school of thought was of the opinion that the Devil, as
one of God's principal lieutenants, had been dispatched to earth
on a special mission. This was to act as an agent provocateur
and go about tempting people to do evil. If so, it does not seem
that one can attach much blame to him; and to send him on
such a mission would certainly be in keeping with what we are
told about the malevolent Jehovah- witness what he did to poor
Job and other unfortunates.
In any case, it is clear that until the Middle Ages Christians
thought of Lucifer in a very different fashion from that in which
they did later. Although a wicked
Below right Baphomet, the composite idol said to have been
worshipped by the Knights Templar
Below The Devil in command of trampling the Cross
196
 cllow, he was not particularly to be feared, and, through
excess of pride, he had = t himself into the sort of trouble that
might have befallen any over-ambitious uman, while his
companions were still beautiful people who had backed the
wrong
rse.
Up to that time, as we shall see, Christianity had no secure
hold on the masses. :Dey might pay lip-service to the Church,
but at heart they were still pagan and orshipped the pleasure-
loving Old God. The majority of the Christian priests were
anything but straight-laced, and condoned all sorts of licence in
their gregations. But the power of the Church gradually
increased until she found elf strong enough to declare war on
paganism. It was from that time that ~ucifer was amalgamated
by the Church with the old Horned God, made a creature ·
bestial appearance, with horns, the cloven hooves of the
lecherous goat, scaly
· gs and a spiked tail. Thus was the Devil born.
he Middle Ages
we have seen, in Europe up to the later part of the fifteenth
century, the Church d succeeded in imposing the Christian faith
only upon the upper classes and a proportion of the people who
came into close contact with them. By far the = ter part of the
population still consisted of peasantry, and the majority of the
untry folk attended church because the Lord of the Manor willed
that they ould do so; but they continued to rely on the Old God
for rain when needed,
-
d harvests, protection from misfortune, and other blessings.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Catholic Church
had a serious ·al also in an organized religion with bishops and
deacons. This was the Cathari,
hich came to Western Europe from the Balkans, where its
followers were par- arly strong in Bulgaria and were known as
the Bogomils. Groups of Cathars erged in western Germany,
Flanders, France and northern Italy. Their doctrine ered widely
from that of the Roman Catholics, and for many years the
bishops
- the two churches disputed hotly.
T he Cathars seem to have derived their basic belief from the
Gnostics, for they
 ere dualists and held that God and Satan were equally
powerful deities who ruled er Heaven and Earth respectively.
They regarded all matter as evil and preached t man's aim must
be to free his spirit from the bonds of the flesh, so that it uld
return to God. To this end they even approved suicide, although
this seems e ·cal, as they were reincarnationists; modern
believers in reincarnation most
ongly condemn taking one's own life.
T heir asceticism has rarely been equalled. They kept strict fasts
and totally
rohibited the eating of meat, because, like the Hindus, they
maintained that the uls of humans who had led bad lives could
be degraded and return in animals ; to eat flesh was a type of
cannibalism. Sexual intercourse was forbidden, because
rocreation resulted in the imprisonment of more spirit in the
world of flesh. As pulation could not be entirely suppressed, they
advocated that it should be dulged in as infrequently as
possible, and promiscuously, since to marry was to ~ ender to a
life of vice. They rejected the greater part of the Old Testament
and
The Middle Ages
197
 The Middle Ages
accepted the New Testament only according to their own
lights. For example, as God could not be imprisoned in a human
body, Christ was merely an angel sent to indicate the way to
salvation, not himself to provide it.
Owing no doubt to its extreme asceticism, coupled with the
opposition of the Catholic Church, in Northern Europe and Italy
the Cathari religion gradually died out; but it took a strong hold in
the south of France. There its centres were Albi, Carcassonne
and Toulouse; and, after the first town, the Cathari in the south
became known as the Albigenses. A wave of fanaticism swept
that part of France; so many thousands of converts were made
that the religion seriously menaced the Roman faith. The murder
of one of the papal legates, Pierre de Castelnau, caused the
Pope, Innocent III, to call for a crusade to stamp out this heresy.
The barons of northern France, led by Simon IV de Montfort,
marched on Languedoc.
Toulouse was besieged, captured and sacked with terrible
ferocity. No man, woman or child was spared. When Beziers
was taken it was set on fire; Catholic troops ringed the town and
anyone who attempted to escape was driven back to perish in
the flames. Scores of castles had to be taken, so fighting
continued for many years. Even when there were no more towns
or strongholds left to take, no mercy was shown to the wretched
Albigenses. The survivors sought refuge in the deep forests and
the mountains of the Pyrenees, but they were hunted to their
deaths by packs of hounds. It was another triumph for the
Christian Church.
Returning now to the general state of things in western
Europe. The day had not yet come when the Devil achieved one
of his greatest victories by persuading Rome to decree that its
priests should remain celibate. When it expected the tens of
thousands of priests who were then officiating throughout
Europe - the majority of whom must have been healthy, virile
men- all to lead a life of unbroken chastity, it was asking the
impossible. Many of them doubtless succeeded in sup- pressing
their natural urges by fasting, self-flagellation and other
methods. But from the literature of the times it cannot be
doubted that many gave way to the temptation to seduce their
prettiest parishioners. In earlier times, most priests had led the
normal lives of married men and had not unduly condemned
their flocks for their junketings at the sabbaths; some of them
had even joined in. They knew all about the Old Religion and, as
it did not menace their own, condoned it.
The same state of affairs, I was surprised to find, still
continues in Guatemala. Far up-country in Chimaltenango, a city
of one-storey houses, live JO,ooo Indians. In the centre is a
great square where, every Saturday morning, a market is held.
Everything can be bought there from hand-made pottery of
ancient design to radio sets. The square is dominated by a fine
church, built by the Spaniards 300 years ago. At seven o'clock in
the morning Roman Catholic priests celebrate mass there. Then
the building is handed over for pagan rites. Indian acolytes
swing censers on the steps leading up to the church,
summoning the devotees of the ancient gods. Our Indian guide
took my wife and me in by a side door. He warned us to appear
interested only in the carvings and architecture, because to look
at the worshippers might give offence. As is frequently the case
in churches in Latin America, there were no pews. On the stone
floor of the body of the church
198
orne twenty groups of people were kneeling round candles
they had set up, bunches of herbs, the scattered petals of
flowers and other oddments. At each group a witch-doctor was
softly intoning an incantation; spells to bring about good or evil,
in accordance with the wishes of the worshippers.
The policy of the Catholic Church in Latin America is to
collect numbers of people who will accept baptism, attend Mass
and make contributions to support the priesthood, as an
insurance against the Christian God doing them harm. If they
can also be persuaded to abandon their old gods and accept the
faith, that is all to the good; if not, that is just too bad. That was
also the attitude of the Church m Europe up to the end of the
Middle Ages. It had not yet occurred to kings and
ishops to persecute followers of the Old God in the name of
the jealous Jehovah, oupled with that of Christ.
In The God ofthe Witches Professor Margaret Murray gives a
fascinating account f the origin of the Order of the Garter. King
Edward III ascended the throne in 327. By then the Church was
already beginning her long fight with the Old God.
One night the King gave a ball at Windsor Castle. During it
the garter of his mistress, the beautiful Countess of Salisbury,
came off while she was dancing with him. She was overcome
with confusion, which would not normally have been the
e with a lady over such a trivial matter in those days when
everyone thought othing of freely bandying bawdy jests. Swiftly
the King saved her face by snatch- :ng up the garter and crying
'Honi soit qui maly pense' ('Evil is he who evil thinks'),
- us protecting her from the probable malice of his clergy.
But there was more to it than that. As we have seen, the garter
was the distinguish-
g mark worn by the chief witch of a coven, and that of the
Countess showed her ~o be the Queen Witch of England.
Realizing this, the King took it from her and romptly formed an
order of twenty-six knights - two covens of thirteen - with :llmself
as the chief of one and the Prince of Wales as chief of the other.
By so oing he made himself the incarnate God in the eyes of all
of his still pagan sub- ects. In Froissart's Chronicles, it is
recorded that the King then told his Court ::hat this new order
would prove an excellent expedient for the uniting not only f his
own people but of all foreigners conjunctively with them in bonds
of amity d peace - referring, of course, to the followers of the Old
Religion on the Con-
 :::ne n t .
It is of further interest to record that to this day the mantle worn
by the sove-
~eigns of Britain, as chiefs of the order, is powdered over
with 168 garters and - at the garter worn on the leg makes 169.
That is thirteen times thirteen, thus ~epresenting thirteen
covens.
T he increase in the power of the Church was largely due to
the Crusaders. This omantic adventure of going to the Holy
Land on an armed pilgrimage, to capture - e sepulchre of Christ
from the infidel, naturally affected thousands of ordinary en-at-
arms, who had no option but to accompany their feudal lords.
They were nstantly harangued by the chaplains of the
expeditions about Christ, his life, · goodness and his power, and
assured that, if they put their faith in him, they ould return home
safely. Being subjected for many months to this indoctrination,
The Middle Ages
199
 The Middle Ages
and having little opportunity to practise their pagan rites, they
became genuine converts to Christianity, and those who did get
back to their homelands converted their families.
During the age of the Crusades, it was not only large bodies
of knights, squires, spearmen and archers who set out from
western Europe for the Holy Land. Many thousands of people
made the long journey as pilgrims. To protect them from capture
by Arab corsairs, the Order of Knights Templar was formed. The
Knights were drawn from several nations, each company being
known as a 'tongue'. They were sworn to celibacy and poverty,
but that did not prevent them from freely indulging in vice or their
order from becoming immensely rich. Their headquarters was
Malta, and for many generations they dominated a great part of
the Mediter- ranean.
They were military engineers of the first rank and built several
hundred castles. The best preserved of these is on Rhodes; for,
regardless of expense, it was splendidly restored by Mussolini.
The walls, which are eighty feet high and three miles long,
enclose a town in which several thousand people are still living,
and their huge ramparts are so wide at the top that three cars
abreast could be driven along them.
The Order was founded in Jerusalem in I 119 by Hugues de
Payns and his comrade Godeffroi de St Orner. The latter was an
Albigense, so from the beginning the Order had anti-Christian
leanings; and, as its knights spent most of their lives in the Near
East, it was not altogether surprising that certain of them
became involved in Eastern practices. Before many years had
passed, the whole Order gave itself up to the worship of
Baphomet, a pagan deity envisaged by Arab mystics.
The idol of Baphomet represented in magical form the
Absolute. It had the head and hooves of a goat, with a black
candle set between the horns; and human hands, upheld and
pointing to two crescents, the upper white, the lower black; the
belly was green and had scales like a fish; the female breasts
were blue; the sexual organs consisted of a penis and a vulva,
as in a hermaphrodite; on its fore- head it had a pentagram. The
image was seated cross-legged on a cube, the symbol of four,
the square and foundation of all things; the feet rested on a
sphere, repre- senting the world.
When initiated, a Knight Templar had to spit upon, then
trample underfoot, the Cross, crying three times as he did so,
'Jete renonce,Jesu'. He was then stripped naked and led in to
the idol, his companions crying, 'Yalla! Yalla!' There followed a
male orgy, for the Templars, like other military castes such as
the Spartans, were sodomites.
Early in the fourteenth century, Philippe le Bel was King of
France. Becoming very short of money, he decided to replenish
his treasury at the expense of the Templars. Having drawn the
attention of Pope Clement V to the terrible blas- phemies they
were said to utter, he received permission to proceed against
them. The headquarters of the Templars in Paris was a big
castle, called the Temple. The Grand Master of the Order,
Jacques de Molay, was in residence there. In 1 3 0 7 the King
invited him and the other Knights T emplar who Were in Paris
200
.Jl«lt'll\,ttUft Ott tttO (; l): UltlrS tttttp;b:t:atnntr.t~ n n Ott
tttltp{t ttbtt ttttnt
gt tttllt Ulttc.tpte&ltttntlo•O!Cftro .rtnt Jaques de Molay at
the stake
The Middle Ages
201
The Middle Ages
to an entertainment at the Louvre, and there arrested them
all. They were tried for heresy, terribly tortured and burnt at the
stake.
It is of special interest to record that, before he gave up the
ghost, from the heart of the flames Jacques de Molay, who was
undoubtedly a high priest of Satan, pronounced a curse upon
the Royal House of France. Nearly soo years later, the
monarchy ended when Louis XVI and his family were taken as
prisoners to the Temple, and he left it only to be driven to the
guillotine.
As the Middle Ages advanced, although more and more
people began to put their faith in the Christian God, the Holy
Virgin and the saints, the Church was still not powerful enough
to suppress the pagan feasts. On the eve of May Day, the day of
Beltane, young men still leapt over the bonfires, then carried the
girls off into the darkness. Throughout May Day itself, the young
folk joyfully kept up the old custom of dancing round the phallus
- now thinly disguised under the new name of Maypole.
Christmas was substituted for the old Roman Saturnalia and,
although attendance at church was virtually compulsory on
Christmas Day, the people had right up to January 6th, Twelfth
Night, for merry-making. And during these feasts the Church
tactfully observed an amnesty on at least two of the deadly sins
- drunkenness and lechery.
But for the most par.t life continued to be grim and little better
than in the Dark Ages. Kings and nobles lived in cold, draughty
castles. They wore rich garments, but beneath they were never
free from lice. Only the very rich could afford to have the floors
of their banqueting halls swept daily and, in the summer months,
fresh flowers scattered over them. Normally the hunting dogs
gnawed bones beneath the tables, then fouled the floors.
Drunkenness and gluttony were the besetting sins of the nobility.
They added to .the filth by vomiting when in their cups, and went
no further than the nearest corridor to relieve themselves. The
stench must have been appalling.
Except for the lord and lady, in her withdrawing room, there
was no privacy, and bathrooms were unknown. It was a canon
of the Christian Faith that dirtiness was next to godliness. In
Roman times a visit to the magnificent public baths was a daily
event. In their passion for cleanliness and to be sweet-smelling
they even had all the hair removed from their armpits and
abdomens. The baths, too, were not only places in which to
bathe, swim, be massaged and keep fit by exercising in the
gymnasiums; they were also like clubs in which, sitting about or
strolling unashamedly naked in the warm perfumed air, people
discussed the news, trans- acted business and made social
engagements.
In the Near East, this concern for physical cleanliness
continued. Mahomet decreed that all true believers must
cleanse themselves daily, even to the point that, when
journeying through a desert and water was not available, they
must scrub themselves with sand; and in all Islamic cities there
were public baths. In due course these were taken over and
maintained by the semi-barbarous Turks. When I was taken
round the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, I recall being told by my
guide that, as late as the eighteenth century, the Turks found
that the Europeans smelt so unpleasant that, whenever the
Sultan was to grant an audience to a British
202
 or French Ambassador, the emissary had first to submit to
being taken to the mam, stripped and given a bath.
In the Christian nations alone people worshipped a god whose
priesthood
isted upon the deliberate cultivation of dirt and misery. For
many centuries rich and poor alike dwelt in stench and squalor.
They stayed in inns infested with d-bugs; from accumulated
sweat their bodies were coated with a layer of greasy 51th that
made a breeding place for every kind of germ, and so readily
spread disease. Their God, so they were told, took pleasure in
seeing them suffer, so they eld parties in which they whipped
one another. As penances for having given . ay to the
temptation to enjoy themselves, they were made to fast, to crawl
through the streets on their knees and to wear hair shirts. To
perform the sexual act, except to beget children, was a sin. The
female form divine was looked on as the embodiment of evil.
Even up to eighty years ago many a woman had given
birth to half a dozen children although her husband had never
had the pleasure of eeing her naked.
As if this was not enough, generation after generation,
multitudes of young women were either persuaded or forced to
become 'brides of Christ' and, behind the walls of hundreds of
convents, fated to liv.e unnatural lives. In many of them the
mother superiors were truly pious women; the strictest discipline
was main- tained and even the confession of impure thoughts
was punished with severe penances. But the gardens of others,
such as the convents of Loudun and Louviers, became
graveyards for infants fathered on the nuns by visiting priests
and strangled at birth.
Approximately an equal number of men went into
monasteries. Many of them planted today's most celebrated
vineyards, to the great benefit of future generations, while others
did exquisite work illuminating manuscripts which we now
treasure. But the many who joined the stricter orders led useless
lives, imposing harsh penances on themselves, and getting up
at midnight from.hard beds in freezing cells, to kneel for hours
on the stone floors of the chapels. Thousands of others roamed
the countryside and cities as wandering friars, not only leading
useless lives, but acting as a scourge on the people. It was a sin
to deny them food or turn them away. A great many of them
battened on the poor, blackmailed them for money and,
whenever they had the chance, seduced their women.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the abuse by the
Church of its privileged position brought about defiance of it.
Many monarchs resented the great wealth accumulated by the
prelates. They were denounced for the lives of luxury they led,
and the people were driven to exasperation by the insolence
and greed of the wandering friars. Martin Luther in Germany,
Calvin in Switzerland, Savonarola in Italy and Henry VIII in
England rebelled against Rome. Soon the Reformation swept
Europe.
Germans fought Germans, Dutch and English the Spaniards
and the French. Over points of dogma there were wars fought
with the utmost ferocity. Many thousands died in them, many
thousands were taken prisoner and brutally tortured. The
greatest crime of which the Roman Emperors were accused is
that they had
The Middle Ages
203
The Middle Ages
Christians thrown to the lions; but that does not exceed in
horror what the Chris- tians did to one another. Motley tells us in
his Rise ofthe Dutch Republic that the Protestants in the
Netherlands devised the following ingenious way of dealing with
captured Catholics. They caught half a dozen rats, put them in a
small iron cauldron and turned it upside down on the stomach of
the prisoner, then heaped red-hot coals on the bottom of the pot.
The heat caused the rats to gnaw their way out through the belly
of the wretched victim. The tortures inflicted by the Catholics on
the Protestants were no less horrifying.
Spain alone escaped these ghastly civil wars, owing to their
great Cardinal Cisneros. He was a man of true piety. He refused
to tolerate abuses and had
Man between Fortune and Death
204
·~~
ll!i ii'.Hitnhiim6r(..l. r-<15ltlll}l rlmFl'ij boatiJ rmnnrnGl\!:[ll))lftno
\n(prfci!J .,_,
nri ~ -"'i - ---
p~
~Q~j;§~
"' .J.# 4...........
.:J!!Jll. tlHl 0~'1\UD.
'\·"NJ/
~- l
 purged his priesthood of greedy, evil men so thoroughly that
it was respected by the people, with the result that they turned a
deaf ear to the new heresies. Yet in Spain such recalcitrants as
there were, together with Jews and Moors, suffered as much as
their fellows in other countries, for those were the days of the
Holy Inquisition.
Until the coming of the Renaissance, the Christian world
remained one of stagnation. Only when the knowledge of Greek
and Roman culture, which had been kept alive by the Arabs,
trickled back to the West, did Light again begin to penetrate the
dark, cruel, disease-ridden lives of the people. Education had
been entirely in the hands of the Church, and it taught only its
dogmas. Apart from religious treatises, literature was almost
non-existent. The earth was flat and
Jerusalem was the centre of it. To believe otherwise was
heresy. The high degree of medicine and surgery achieved by
the ancients had been lost and forgotten. The sick were dosed
with revolting nostrums, leprosy was rife and no attempt was
made to cure it. The Church forbade all forms of scientific
experiment, and condemned rich and poor alike to lives of
bigoted ignorance.
Among the few fine things left to us from this age of
totalitarian rule by the papacy, that enforced the beliefs of St
Paul, are the cathedrals. At Chartres, Cologne, Milan,
Westminster, Bruges, Seville, and in scores of other cities, their
pires and towers still rise in splendour to the sky. They rank
among man's greatest achievements, and their beauty is a true
expression of the faith of their builders. A imilar spirit pervades
some of the period's paintings and illuminated manuscripts. But
they also express another thing. On all of them, cheek by jowl
with their statues of saints and angels, are carvings representing
Satan and his demons. He is no longer the beautiful 'Son of the
Morning' of ancient tradition, the laughing Pan playing on his
pipes for his votaries to dance and revel in the joys of life. He
and his host have become hideous gargoyles, threatening all
those who question
the teachings of the Church with fire, brimstone and eternal
torment.
This discloses very plainly the mentality of those whom they
were designed to terrify. By practising the most rigorous self-
denial they might hope for salvation, but they lived in constant
fear of the Power of Darkness, and there were many who
were prepared to swear that such demons had actually
appeared to them.
It would be interesting to know what proportion of the population
hedged their bets and, on nights when the moon was full, went
stealthily to make their obeisance to the old Horned God. That
thousands of people must have done this we know
from the countless witch trials that took place in the following
centuries.
The Alchemists
The secret art of the alchemists has long been associated
with turning base metal into gold; but that was only a by-product
of their main objective.
From the earliest civilizations, including that of the Chinese,
metallurgists have submitted various metals to treatments
designed to refine away their dross and so make them more
valuable. The ancient Egyptians are said to have discovered a
dark powder that separated gold and silver from their native
ores. In later times
The Alchemists
205
 purged his priesthood of greedy, evil men so thoroughly that
it was respected by the people, with the result that they turned a
deaf ear to the new heresies. Yet in Spain such recalcitrants as
there were, together with Jews and Moors, suffered as much as
their fellows in other countries, for those were the days of the
Holy Inquisition.
Until the coming of the Renaissance, the Christian world
remained one of stagnation. Only when the knowledge of Greek
and Roman culture, which had been kept alive by the Arabs,
trickled back to the West, did Light again begin to penetrate the
dark, cruel, disease-ridden lives of the people. Education had
been entirely in the hands of the Church, and it taught only its
dogmas. Apart from religious treatises, literature was almost
non-existent. The earth was flat and
Jerusalem was the centre of it. To believe otherwise was
heresy. The high degree of medicine and surgery achieved by
the ancients had been lost and forgotten. The ick were dosed
with revolting nostrums, leprosy was rife and no attempt was
made to cure it. The Church forbade all forms of scientific
experiment, and condemned
rich and poor alike to lives of bigoted ignorance.
Among the few fine things left to us from this age of totalitarian
rule by the
papacy, that enforced the beliefs of St Paul, are the
cathedrals. At Chartres, Cologne, Milan, Westminster, Bruges,
Seville, and in scores of other cities, their spires and towers still
rise in splendour to the sky. They rank among man's greatest
achievements, and their beauty is a true expression of the faith
of their builders. A similar spirit pervades some of the period's
paintings and illuminated manuscripts.
But they also express another thing. On all of them, cheek by
jowl with their statues of saints and angels, are carvings
representing Satan and his demons. He is no longer the
beautiful 'Son of the Morning' of ancient tradition, the laughing
Pan playing on his pipes for his votaries to dance and revel in
the joys of life. He and his host have become hideous gargoyles,
threatening.all those who question the teachings of the Church
with fire, brimstone and eternal torment.
This discloses very plainly the mentality of those whom they
were designed to terrify. By practising the most rigorous self-
denial they might hope for salvation, but they lived in constant
fear of the Power of Darkness, and there were many who were
prepared to swear that such demons had actually appeared to
them.
It would be interesting to know what proportion of the
population hedged their bets and, on nights when the moon was
full, went stealthily to make their obeisance to the old Horned
God. That thousands of people must have done this we know
from the countless witch trials that took place in the following
centuries.
The Alchemists
The secret art of the alchemists has long been associated
with turning base metal into gold; but that was only a by-product
of their main objective.
From the earliest civilizations, including that of the Chinese,
metallurgists have submitted various metals to treatments
designed to refine away their dross and so make them more
valuable. The ancient Egyptians are said to have discovered a
dark powder that separated gold and silver from their native
ores. In later times
The Alchemists
205
 The Alchemists
the production of precious metals by such means would have
been classed as magic; but really it was a scientific process, the
secret of which became lost. To describe these chemical
operations the Arabs used the word khemia, which they had
derived from the Egyptians, adding to it the article a!. Thus it
became al- khemia or alchemy. But those ancient metallurgists
were in no sense alchemists.
The fundamental object of the alchemist was to accomplish
the Great Work. This may perhaps be best described as the
process by which a living man achieved oneness with God.
Alchemy as we know it probably originated in the twelfth or
thirteenth century, in the Near East. We first hear of it in the year
1357, when in Paris a learned physician named Nicholas Flamel
came into possession of a very old manuscript made from thin
leaves of bark. Its author was one Abraham the Jew, and it is
upon his work, illustrated with many strange symbolical figures,
that alchemy is based .
Alchemists accept the version of the Creation as given in
Genesis, although not, of course, Jehovah as described
frequently conversing with Abraham about burnt offerings and
having a vast tribe of descendants who would dominate all other
peoples. They were concerned with the 'spirit that moved upon
the face of the waters'.
It was this, they contended, that not only created the earth
but animated the whole Universe, every part of which has a
replica in some part of Man. This vast spiritual entity they term
the Macrocosm, and Man, its diminuitive counterpart, the
Microcosm. Upon this analogy, and the conception of the two as
being imbued with the same spirit, they base their belief that
Man as a part of God can, by know-
~ ledge of the secret doctrine, wield the power of God.
This secret knowledge consisted of the way in which, vitalized
by the Power of
Light (a spark of which the alchemists held existed in all
things), Nature works. A full understanding of the mystery of the
Creation gave the alchemist the mastery of the four elements:
fire, air, water and earth.
The four elements embrace all matter, whether hot or cold,
wet or dry. Every- thing that exists is composed of them in
different proportions, and change can be wrought in them by
various treatments. Fire, if allowed to go out, becomes ash -
earth. Air, if sufficiently compressed, becomes water. Water, if
brought to the boil, changes into vapour - air. Earth, if burnt, can
be dissolved into fire.
The above are the simplest forms of transmutation. By
infinitely more com- plicated ones, the alchemists claimed to be
able to produce the philosopher's stone, which would not only
turn lead into gold but formed the Elixir of Life.
The agents used for the transformation were mercury,
sulphur and salt. These were put into a vessel known as the
'aludel', or philosophic egg. It represented the earth in which a
new Creation was about to take place. The aludel was put in the
'athanor', as an alchemist's furnace is called, and its contents
subjected to a series of complicated operations. Various
accounts give them as maceration, sublimation, fermentation,
calcination, projection, separation, revivication, putrefaction,
coagulation, exaltation and multiplication. But it is safe to say
that several of these
206
ICOJ"fffl<:NT LES JNOCENS ...,..,,...,,.,...,,
 cDMHAN'DEH/f:Nr JJV
ROY HERODES' Nzeofas Ffat:tut-
:-.licholas Flamel's The Alchemic Figures o f Abraham the
Jew
processes are combined, as the total would certainly be seven,
that being the
mystic number.
The illustration of The Alchemic Figures of Abraham the Jew we
owe to Nicholas
Flame!, who reproduced it as a fresco. At the top of the
painting there are pictures in seven squares. Their meaning is
given as follows:
1. Mercury holding a caduceus; Saturn in a cloud, armed with
a scythe. Interpreta- tion: maceration of common mercury,
mixed with common salt and vitriol, by the god Mercury, whose
legs Saturn is about to cut off with his scythe.
z. A mountain with seven caverns and seven black-and-
yellow serpents; one serpent devouring another has golden
wings; at the foot is one griffin trying to eat another; on the
summit of the mountain is a bough with golden branches
bearing red and white flowers and tossed by the north wind.
Interpretation: sublimation of the
macerated mercury by a flower shaken by the wind and
guarded by two winged dragons.
The Alchemists
207
The Alchemists
 3· The Garden of Hesperides enclosed with hedges. In the
middle an oak stock and a rose-bush with golden leaves. A
rivulet springs from the foot of the oak, and blind men are
seeking for the rivulet, but cannot find it. Interpretation:
revivication of the sublimated mercury by a spring which issues
from the foot of a rose-bush, planted in a beautiful garden.
4· King Herod, crowned, in a field orders the massacre of the
innocents; soldiers are filling a vat with their blood. Seven
children are dead. Interpretation: pre- paration of worked silver
or gold by unprepared common mercury, represented by the sun
and moon bathing in children's blood.
5· A caduceus formed by two serpents swallowing each other
while twined round a golden rod. Interpretation: solution and
volatilization; the two serpents are the two parts of the resolved
metal, one earthy, the other watery, which have to be fixed by
each other.
6. A dead serpent crucified. Interpretation: coagulation and
fixation of the volatil- izate.
7· A desert with four springs from which rivers are flowing;
four small serpents are creeping about the desert. Interpretation:
multiplication, represented by the springs and the serpents.
This final stage bears out the statement of other alchemists
that, once the Great Work is completed, the 'stone' can be
increased indefinitely. It appears in fact to have been a powder,
and a small pinch of it was said to be sufficient to turn a pound
of lead into gold, to cure illness or, if taken twice yearly, to
prolong life.
Below these pictures are those of Nicholas Flame! and his
wife Perrenelle, St Peter, St Paul and God the Father; there are
also given alchemic significations. In the lower compartments
are two dragons, male and female, signifying the fixate
and the volatilizate; a man and a woman, signifying the two
natures reconciled ; three resurrected bodies, which are the
'body, the soul and the spirit of the white stone'; two angels and
a man holding a lion's paw, which signifies the achievement of
the Work.
Like the Cabalists, from whom they derived much of their
doctrine, the al- chemists spent long hours teaching themselves
how to remain perfectly still, as this was essential if they were to
compel the spirit to leave the body. Absolute concentration is of
the first importance in performing a magical operation. It is
achieved only gradually, by focusing the mind on one object. In
due course, the magician must advance to a state in which he
can empty his mind completely. Finally he conjures up an
apparition of himself standing in front of himself. Actually this is
what the Egyptians would have called his ka, his etheric double,
which he has forced out of his body. His spirit then leaves his
body and enters the ka, enabling it to ascend to the astral
planes, but still attached to his physical body by what is called
the 'silver cord', a transparent link which keeps it alive and
enables him to return to it.
The above is sufficient to give the reader some idea of the
great erudition in symbolism and knowledge of the properties
ascribed to innumerable mythical beasts, not to mention the
p~actical ability to manipulate substances and temper-
208
The practical and the symbolical combined in alchemy
 atures, that was required to become a successful alchemist.
And here I would like to make it clear that all this immense
study, labour and expense went for nothing, was utterly wasted,
unless the alchemist had an upright and honest soul.
In true alchemy there was no question at all of sorcery.
Intense self-discipline was required; a passionate desire to
achieve a higher state of being. The alchemist did not call upon
the Powers of either Light or Darkness to aid him. His was a
philosophy based on what he believed to be the eternal verities.
By prayer and faith, he worked himself up into a state of
exaltation which enabled him temporarily to destroy his
personality and pass out of his body to become one with Light.
In his Cinque Livres, the fifteenth-century alchemist Nicholas
Valois wrote, 'The good God granted me this divine secret
through my prayers and the good intentions I had of using it
well; the science is lost if purity of heart is lost.'
It will be appreciated that such men were rare and passed on
their great secret only to those whom they believed worthy to
share it. There is also the interesting fact that all treatises on
alchemy vary only in detail. Abraham the Jew, or perhaps
209
Sorcerers
 some other earlier sage, had had revealed to him, or believed
that he had fathomed, the explanation of Man's relation to the
Universe. Those who came after him accepted that explanation
as entirely satisfactory, so never sought to alter or im- prove
upon it.
Among the most celebrated alchemists were Heinrich
Khunrath, Basil Valentine, Mylius, Brackhausen, George Ripley,
Noel du Fail, Nicholas Melchior, Petrus Bonus, Cyliani, Salomon
Trismosin, Cambriel and Elias Ashmole, the founder of the
Ashmolean Library at Oxford.
In view of the great rewards believed to be obtainable -
boundless wealth and serene longevity - it is not surprising that
for every genuine alchemist there were scores of men who
spent much time and money endeavouring to produce the
philosopher's stone.
Strange coloured lights in their laboratories were seen
through chinks between drawn curtains at night, and horrid
smells issued with the smoke from their chimneys. The noise of
the bellows with which they blew up the fires of their furnaces
led to their being derisively termed 'puffers'. No doubt many of
these dabblers were sorcerers and practised witchcraft in the
hope that it would help them to penetrate the great secret.
Nevertheless they bravely risked prosecution for heresy, and
to some of them we owe a debt, for at times their experiments
led to an advance in chemistry. For instance, one of them,
Johann Kunckel von Lowenstjern, stumbled on the answer to
the riddle of how Brand of Hamburg had isolated phosphorus;
and another, Blaise de Vigenere, chanced to discover benzoic
acid.
Sorcerers
These may perhaps be best defined as men who have
mastered the secret of harnessing occult power. The accounts
given in the Old Testament of the doings of Balaam, Tobias and
Moses show them all to have been sorcerers, but they were not
evil. It is only when a sorcerer uses his powers for his own ends
that he becomes a black magician, and there were considerable
numbers of these in Europe during the Middle Ages.
One reason why they became Satanists is not far to seek. In
those days, unless one was well-born or went into the Church,
there was very little opportunity of advancement. Many of the
more intelligent of the yeoman class, who had received some
education, doubtless felt that God, from whom they were told all
blessings flowed, had provided them with fewer than the Devil
might well give.
Such men probably received their first instruction from the
Little People, or had it passed down to them by older
practitioners of the black art. The odds are that comparatively
few of them went to the sabbaths. They were usually solitaries
who achieved the reputation of wise men, after which their
customers came to them by stealth at night and paid them well
to cast spells.
Occultism was clearly denounced by the Mosaic law-
Leviticus xix. 31: 'Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them.' Several
Roman emperors had also forbidden the practice of sorcery.
Even
210
o, until the thirteenth century the penalties inflicted on
sorcerers were compara- tiYely mild. The ecclesiastical councils,
such as that of Laodicea in 363 and of Berkhampstead in 697,
did no more than decree that sorcerers should be ex-
communicated or fined; and the secular judges of the Middle
Ages did not deal
ith them harshly. A witch or wizard who had eaten human
flesh could get out of trouble by paying zoo gold sous; and
sorcerers were even to some extent pro- ected, because a
person who accused another of being one and failed to prove it
-as severely punished.
It was not until the Church had become more powerful, and
fanatical prelates
had got the upper hand, that the commandment in Exodus
xxii. 18 was invoked: ·Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' After
that denunciations were welcomed, and the accused, guilty and
not guilty alike, were subjected to harsh treatment in rhe hope of
wringing a confession from them.
In this no difference was made between sorcerers and
alchemists, or men whose natural curiosity led them to make
experiments in primitive science. The Rabbi achiel, who lived in
France, may well have been part alchemist and part scientist, or
he is said to have lighted his house by supt;rnatural power and,
when an un- ·elcome visitor arrived, by pressing a button to
have made sparks flash from his
Joor knocker; which strongly suggests that he had stumbled
on electricity. Despite the Church's new, uncompromising
attitude toward sorcery, many of her ambitious junior priests sold
themselves to the Devil in exchange for worldly
-uccess. The effects of insufflation are well known. By this
process of prolonged, arm breathing on a person ofthe opposite
sex, sexual desire is aroused. So many priests applied this
method of preparing for seduction women who knelt before
rhem while confessing, that Augustine, Jerome and Gregory all
publicly condemned
t as sorcery.
The Cure of Peifane seduced the Dame de Lieu in this fashion
and was burnt
at the stake for it. So too, in 161 I , was Louis Gaufridi, a
priest of Accules, near _larseilles. When in prison, charged with
this and numerous foul sorceries, his examiners found the
Devil's mark in three places upon his body - small areas in which
he could feel no pain.
Another case was that of Pierre Girard of Aix. In 1731, having
seduced a _lademoiselle Cadiere, he committed many revolting
acts on her, trading upon her simplicity and religious fervour;
but, in due course, her parents learnt of it and he was arrested.
In her ecstasies this young woman displayed the stigmata, and it
· a curious feature of these ecclesiastical sorceries that many of
the women con- cerned developed bleeding hands, feet and
foreheads, or other Christ-like pheno- mena.
More usually these physical manifestations appeared on
nuns of extreme piety ho became frenzied during their
passionate devotions, and it was assumed by orne that these
brides of Christ were possessed by their divine husband. As this
cannot possibly have been the case with women having sexual
relations with evil priests, it can only be assumed that the Dark
Power caused the manifestation to
encourage the women to give themselves up to sin still
further.
Sorcerers
2II
Sorcerers
 The burning of Urbain Grandier
The most sensational case of this kind was that of Urbain
Grandier. This priest was confessor to the nuns at the Convent
ofLoudun, and, according to the accounts of his trial in 1634, by
means of sorcery he converted the whole place into a harem for
himself. When he was examined witch marks were also found
on him. Even after he had been burnt, the nuns continued for a
considerable time to behave lecherously and to blaspheme, and
it took several exorcists to free them from the demons that
Grandier had used to possess them. Aldous Huxley wrote a
book on the subject and suggested that the ravings of the nuns
and their bawdy behaviour were really due to a certain type of
rye in the bread they ate. But that would not
212
1 ;,
I
•
 account for the many other cases in which nuns became
possessed owing to abuse y lecherous priests.
 .\s we have seen earlier, it was not only junior clerics who
became Satanists. everal popes and many bishops practised
the black art. All over Europe, too, - ere were laymen practising
sorcery. In Germany they were particularly prevalent, d in
England we had the notorious John Dee. He combined sorcery,
astrology d necromancy with genuine science and great
learning. He advised Q!.Ieen Elizabeth I on a propitious date for
her coronation and gave her lessons in mys- "cism. In 1560 a
wax image of the Queen with a pin thrust through its heart was
ound in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This caused great alarm, and
immediately Her _lajesty was informed of it she sent for John
Dee to cast a spell for her protection. His other activity was as a
brilliant mathematician and geographer, advising navi- :: tors on
the routes they should take on their voyages ofdiscovery. It was,
however, · misfortune to ha~e as his companion one Edward
Kelley, who was the worst
:·pe of rogue; and it was owing to Kelley that he ,had to
spend the latter years of · life in Poland and Bohemia in very
poor circumstances.
In France, in the fifteenth century, there lived one of the
greatest sorcerers of all times, Joan of Arc's protector Gilles de
Rais. He was born in 1404; his parents died when he was still in
his 'teens, and he inherited vast wealth. At that time the English
were masters of the greater part of northern France, including
Rheims.
·ntil a French ruler had been crowned there, he was not
recognized as King of trance, so the heir to the late king
continued to be known as the Dauphin. De Rais . as one of the
barons who went to his assistance. He proved himself an
excellent soldier and, with Joan, raised the siege of Orleans.
This proved the turning point f the Hundred Years War. From
then onward the fortunes of the English declined and Joan won
many victories. The Dauphin was crowned in Rheims Cathedral
Charles VII, and de Rais, at the age of twenty-six, was made
a Marshal of France.
In 1430, Joan was captured by the Burgundians and handed
over to their English allies. For some inexplicable reason,
neither her King nor de Rais made any attempt either to rescue
or to ransom her. She was tried by a French ecclesiastical court
as a heretic, then burnt at the stake.
Soon afterwards, de Rais seems to have lost all interest in
war. He retired to his enormous castle at Tiffanges in Brittany
and lived there in a splendour that outdid the Court of the King.
Gilles was far from being a typical uncouth, lice-ridden baron of
his period. He spoke Latin fluently, dressed always in the finest
silks, had his hair curled and his beard dyed blue. It was this
latter fancy that later led t.; his becoming thought of as the
Bluebeard of the fairy tale; but the story originated in the East.
De Rais was a great lover of the beautiful and a lavish patron of
the arts. He supported a crowd of hangers-on, as well as scores
of men-at-arms, huntsmen, musicians, poets, jugglers and a
host of servants.
Even his immense wealth could not stand this strain, and,
after a few years, he had to begin selling off parts of his estates.
Then he took to alchemy. He had a wing of the castle converted
into a great laboratory; and there, shut up with
Sorcerers
213
Antoine de Palerne, Franc;:ois Lombard and the Paris
goldsmith Jean Petit, he spent days on end.
His attempt to become an alchemist having failed, he turned
to the black art. Soon there were rumours that children had
disappeared from nearby villages. The horrors he practised
upon them were almost beyond belief - caressing them and
feeding them with sweets before suddenly committing sodomy
on them, then disembowelling them. In 1 4 4 0 he committed the
cardinal folly of attacking another man in a church. For this
sacrilege he was arrested. Accusations of sorcery followed. He
was condemned, and before his execution he made such pious
repentance that the hearts of all present seem to have been
touched, and he was received back into the Church. Later, the
skeletons and skulls of no fewer than 200 children were dredged
up from the moat of his castle. This monster was one of the
most fiendish, bestial sadists that ever inhabited a human body.
The most potent of all ceremonies practised by sorcerers
who are Satanists is the Black Mass. But let us be clear that this
is the name given to the ceremony only in Christian countries. In
any country, any ritual which is a reversal or travesty of the most
sacred ritual normally celebrated in it is, in effect, a Black ~tass.
The salient feature is that the representative of the Power of
Light should be abjured and the Power of Darkness invoked by
the offering up of blood and semen. .-\ fair example is a practice
by the Mau-Mau when they were endeavouring to terrorize the
British into abandoning Kenya. Particulars of it were sent to me
by an intelligence officer who had witnessed an initiation
ceremony. After taking fearful oaths to the dark gods, the initiate
vowed to murder all white men, women and children wherever
opportunity offered; and to bind his vow he copulated with a
ow, which was then slaughtered and eaten.
In Christian countries, to be of maximum potency a Black Mass
should be
performed by a priest, and, should he have been unfrocked,
this makes no difference to the power inherent in him. But
anyone sufficiently debased can perform a ritual of this kind.
At a Black Mass everything possible is done the opposite
way to the correct procedure. The cross on the altar is upside
down, crooked or broken. The acolytes hould be youths who
readily give themselves to sodomy. In the censers that they
wing, instead of incense, opium and other drugs are burnt. The
celebrant wears a black cape embroidered with serpents and
other Satanic emblems. He is naked beneath it, and it is open
down the front, exposing his genitals. The congregation hould,
preferably, be wearing animal costumes and masks. The litany
and prayers are recited backwards. The congregation's
responses are animal howls, snuffiings and grunts. The
ceremony is performed on the body of a naked woman,
preferably a virgin - in the Middle Ages on her bottom, later on
her belly. On the altar is a mattress covered with a black cloth.
She lies on this with her head on a pillow below a broken
crucifix; her arms are spread out and in her hands she holds two
Opposite The pact, written in his own blood, by which Urbain
'Grandier sold his soul to the Devil
Sorcerers
215
 Sorcerers
black candles made from human fat. Her legs dangle down
over the edge of the altar, and each time during the ritual that
the priest should kiss the altar, instead he kisses the vagina of
the woman. Sacramental wafers stolen from a church are
scattered on the floor. The congregation tramples, then urinates,
on them while repudiating Christ and vilifying the Virgin Mary.
Some of the broken wafers are put in a chalice. The celebrant is
handed an infant. He cuts its throat on the belly of the woman,
who is lying on the altar, and catches its blood in the chalice.
Having drunk some of the blood, he sprinkles the rest of it on the
congregation, who, by then incited to a frenzy by the smoke
from the drugs in the censers, are howling imprecations and
blasphemies. Finally the celebrant copulates with the woman,
while the congregation, as though possessed by demons,
frantically slake their lust on one another in every way possible
to conceive.
History records that, in the Middle Ages, there were hundreds
of evil priests who celebrated Black Masses, and their number
probably reached its apex later, in the reign of Louis XIV. At that
time in France the Catholic Church had been split by the so-
called Jansenist heresy, which greatly weakened the hold of
ortho- doxy among the laity, and the ascendancy gained by the
Dark Power is demonstrated by the fact that, in the seven years
between 1673 and 168o, over fifty priests were executed for
sacrilege.and sorcery, and many others imprisoned.
The activities of these sorcerers were by no means confined
to sexual excesses and casting horoscopes. They dealt in
potions for every need, ·and many of them were poisoners. At
that time there were hundreds of witches in France, practising
more or less openly, and through them a terrible epidemic of
poisoning swept the country. Hundreds of unscrupulous people
paid lavishly for the means to kill relatives from whom they
expected to inherit. Among these was the beautiful Marquise de
Brinvilliers. After trying out various poisons on unfortunate
patients in hospitals, she and her lover poisoned her father and
her two brothers. An attempt on her husband failed, and papers
incriminating her were found. She escaped to England, but was
arrested at Liege in 1676, brought to Paris, tried, condemned
and executed. During her trial she declared, 'Half the people of
quality are involved in this sort of thing, and if I cared to talk I
could ruin them.'
It was probably her trial that led to the King's setting up a
special court, under his Lieutenant of Police, to investigate such
crimes. Inquiries led to the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, known
as La Voisin, a society fortune-teller and sorceress. In her house
there was found a Satanic temple, with all the usual trappings of
black candles, a mattress on the altar, and so on. Behind it lay a
furnace containing the charred bones of children who had been
sacrificed in Black Masses on the naked bodies of the ladies of
the Court.
Further investigation revealed that the King's mistress,
Frans;oise-Athenai:s Marquise de Montespan, had been one of
them, so he suppressed the court's further findings. His earlier
mistress had been Louise de laValliere, and Athenai:s de
Montespan wished to supplant her. In 1667 Athena·is consulted
La Voisin,
Opposite The Marquise de Brinvilliers suffering water-torture
under interrogation
2!6
Sorcerers
 •
-.
After torture, the Marquise de Brinvilliers on La Voisin
(Catherine Deshayes), her way to execution the fortune-teller
and sorceress
who procured a Pere Mariette to celebrate a Black Mass
upon her, with that intention. And a few months later the King
had taken her as his mistress.
However, the career of Athena·is is an example of the fact
that Satan is far from being a master who can be relied on.
Whenever he sights better game, he throws a devotee
overboard without hesitation. A few years later, Athena·is feared
that she was about to lose the King's love, so she again repaired
to La Voisin.
This time the sorceress procured for her another priest: the
infamous Abbe Guibourg, who had celebrated the Black Mass
on many women. He did so on Athena·is, but Satan ignored her
plea for help. And for an excellent reason. The rival who
succeeded her in the King's affections was the governess of the
Royal children, Madame de Maintenon. In the name of piety this
evil woman persuaded Louis to revoke the Edict of Nantes, by
which his grandfather, Henry IV, had granted freedom of religion
to all his people.
This resulted in the persecution of the Huguenots. Many
thousands of these French Protestants were dispossessed of
their homes and property and driven into exile. Satan's work was
well carried out by the disruption of the lives of these honest,
hardworking citizens, who only wished to worship God in their
own fashion. For them it must have been a grievous time, but
their enforced emigration greatly benefited England, the United
States and South Africa.
In due course, La Voisin was arrested, tortured, tried and
finally executed in 168o. During her trial, her daughter
Marguerite confessed to having been present at the Black Mass
performed by the Abbe Guibourg on Athena·is de Montespan.
218
 She deposed that the beautiful Marquise had lain naked on a
black-draped altar with her head veiled; and that while the
repulsive old Abbe had performed upon her, in her outstretched
hands she had held two black candles made from the fat of
murderers, supplied by the Public Executioner, one of La
Voisin's lovers.
The Tools of the Trade
The way of the would-be magician is far from easy. Not only
has he to discover an adept who will instruct him, and spend as
much time learning complicated .ormulae as a student would to
obtain a University degree, he also has to discipline himself to
achieve complete mastery of his mind and body, then provide
himself
·ith the properties necessary to invoke occult forces.
He will require a sword, a knife with an ebony handle, a wand, a
cauldron, a
pestle and mortar, candlesticks and candles, a cup, copper
trays in which to burn herbs, a mirror or crystal, an astrolabe, a
number of books and appropriate robes. To procure all these
does not sound very difficult; but the trouble is that, to be of
maximum effect, they should be made by the magician himself
from virgin materials. When that is not possible, they should at
least be brand new, for, if they have been used by anyone else,
that person's aura will have affected them and, quite possibly,
produce a dangerous reaction when the magician uses them in
an
cult ceremony.
If the magician is an alchemist, he will also need an althanor -
a furnace in the hape of an egg - and at least two score special
instruments for his transmutations. If he is a Satanist, the
candles must be black and made of human fat - preferably that
of a murderer or stillborn infant - and sulphur. A human skull is
also a useful
adjunct.
According to the operation contemplated, various herbs and
extracts are needed,
either for burning or mixing in potions: aconite, pure alcohol,
alder shoots, bitter aloes, ambergris, anise, asafoetida, basil,
belladonna, black hellebore, camphor, cedar shavings,
celandine, cinnamon, civet, cloves, coriander, cyclamen, deadly
nightshade, endive, fern, frankincense, galbanum, galinal, garlic,
ginseng, gladwyn, hawthorne, hazel shoots, heliotrope,
hemlock, henbane, honey, jasmine, laurel leaves, mace,
mandrake, marjoram, mastic, mint, musk, myrrh, myrtle,
narcissus, nettle, nux vomica, onycha, opium, pansy, parsley,
pepper, periwinkle, purselain, rose, rosemary, rue, saffron, sage,
salt, sandalwood, scammony, storax,
ulphur, tar-water, thorn-apple, valerian, vervain, vinegar,
vitriol, wormwood and vew.
In addition to these, parts of various beasts, birds and reptiles
are required for pecified purposes: 'Eye of frog and tail of newt'
and so on, as Shakespeare puts it. But the thing that counted
above all when pronouncing a curse or compounding a love
charm was to be able to include in the brew something worn by
the person at whom the spell was aimed or, better still, some
part of his anatomy. Nail-parings, some hairs from a brush or
comb (much better, although hard to come by, a few pubic
hairs), some drops of blood on a bandage from a cut finger, or a
little flask
of urine or pot of excrement, were very potent; but best of all
was a piece of sheet
The Tools of the Trade
219
The Tools of the Trade
 that had been soiled by semen or a sanitary towel soaked in
menstrual blood.
To have forged the tools, learnt the rituals and acquired these
nauseous horrors was still not enough unless the magician was
prepared to risk his own destruction
by calling upon the Powers of Darkness to carry out his
wishes.
For conjuring up a demon he used either the Clavicu/e
ofSalomon- a copy of which had been taken by the Rabbi Aben
Ezra to Aries in Provence, seized during
a persecution of the Jews and then translated by the
Archbishop of Aries- or the
Grimoire ofPope Honorius.
 But first he had to protect himself by drawing two magic
circles and, within the inner one, a pentacle, in which he
inscribed many occult symbols; and, in the space between the
two circles, some such abjuration as In nomine Pa + tris et Fi +
Iii et Spiritus+ Sancti! + He/+ Heloym + Sother + Emmanuel+
Sabaoth + Agia + Thetragrammaton + Agyos + Otheos +
Ischiros +. For only when inside the circle was he safe. Should
he forget himself for one moment and put a foot outside it, at
best he would be struck senseless, at worst die of a heart
attack.
Demons do not come to serve sorcerers willingly. They
resent being distracted from their own nefarious doings and
have to be coerced. This can be done only if the magician
knows their names; and names are of immense importance,
because in a magical sense they are the essence of the
individual.
Primitive man's given name was known only to his parents;
for everyday purposes he assumed another, because if an
enemy found out his real name he could use it to do him an evil.
It will be recalled that in one of those early con- versations
between Abraham and Jehovah, the latter was far too cagey to
give his name, and simply said, 'I am that I am', for fear that
Abraham might have an advantage over him.
However, by the Middle Ages it seems to have become
generally accepted that God the Father's real name was
Tetragrammaton; and those of Lucifer's once- beautiful
companions, now become hideous monstrosities, were also
known.
MacGregor Mathers, a very prominent occultist of modern
times and an early
Opposite A witches' altar high on the Yorkshire moors
Right Mandrake, the root, used in witches' potions, that was
said to resemble the human form and to shriek when torn from
the ground
Below A calfs heart, stuck with thorns for witchcraft,
discovered in a Devon chimney
The Tools of the Trade
221
 The Tools of the Trade
associate of Aleister Crowley, listed the ten evil Sephiroths
under the supreme command of Sammael as follows: Moloch,
Beelzebub, Lucifuge, Astaroth, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Baal,
Adrammelech, Lilith and Naamah.
This leaves out Abaddon, Mammon, Leviathan, Belial, Usiel,
Nebiros and Thentus, all of whom I should have thought ranked
pretty high. But having had no commerce with any of these
gentry, I am in no position to judge.
Richard Cavendish, in his admirable book The Black Arts,
tells us that the Arbatel ofMagic lists seven Olympic spirits who
rule the planets: Aratron (Saturn), Bethor Oupiter), Phaleg
(Mars), Och (the Sun), Hagith (Venus), Ophiel (Mercury) and
Phul (the Moon). Each of them has subordinate spirits, and any
sorcerer who knew his business would obviously call up
whichever of these many entities he regarded as most suitable
to the operation in hand.
However, perhaps the greatest authority on demons was
John Wier, physician to the Duke of Cleves in the sixteenth
century. In his famous book Pseudomonarchia Daemonum he
provided a Burke's Peerage of the Dark Powers and calculated
that the demon host numbered 7,409,127, led by seventy-nine
princes.
A word should perhaps be added about protection from
demons and evil spirits. They intensely dislike the smell of garlic,
so people who feared their attentions often wore a wreath of.it
about their necks. Salt, too, is an abomination to them, because
it is a preservative and their business is destruction.
Any symbol that has long been venerated as a representation
of good is a pro- tection, owing to its having acquired an aura of
Light. The most ancient symbol of this kind is the swastika - but
the reverse of that adopted by the Nazis as their emblem.
Another is the horseshoe. The most potent in Christian countries
is obviously the crucifix. It will give protection even to people
who have become atheists. Anyone troubled by evil
manifestations should not hesitate to say, 'Avaunt thee, Satan!'
and call on Jesus Christ.
No one who has not called on the Powers of Darkness need
ever fear them. We all have that spark of Light within us, and
defiance followed by an appeal for help, with faith that it will be
given, will never remain unanswered.
 Reverting now to the magician. Having carried out the ritual
with the most scrupulous care, standing in his pentacle, holding
his sword and wand, the sorcerer addressed the demon
required in, more or less, the following terms:
'I conjure and command thee, 0 Spirit X.Y.Z., by
Baralamensis, Baldachienses, Paumachie, Apolorodedes and
the most powerful Princes Genio and Liachide, Ministers of the
Seat of Tartarus and Chief Princes of the Throne of Apologia in
the ninth region; by Him who spoke and it was done; by the
most Holy and Glorious names Adonai, El Elohim, Elohe,
Zabaoth, Elion, Escherce, Jar and Tetragrammaton. Appear
forthwith and show thyself to me, here outside this circle, in fair
and human shape, without horror or deformity and without delay.
Speak to me visibly, clearly and without deceit. Answer all my
demands and per- form all that I desire. Do not linger. The King
of Kings commands thee.'
Thus it was that, for several centuries, men all over Europe
who had the tenacity of purpose to spend many years studying
and disciplining themselves, to risk being
222
tortured and burnt at the stake, and the courage to face
terrifying entities from spheres unknown, explored and bent to
their will the invisible influences.
A certain number of them were alchemists. Through the
confused doctrines of many sects, they had discerned the true
knowledge of the co-equal powers of good and evil that so
mysteriously'influence our every act. They secretly carried the
torch that every man has God within him and can achieve
advancement only through himself. But the great majority were
evil men, inspired by the Dark Power to encourage lust,
depravity and greed; to sow dissension, cause illness and death
and act as the willing agents of the Destroyer.
The Sabbaths
During the centuries in which the Plantaganet kings ruled
England and a great part of France from the Tower of London
and Windsor Castle, those courageous missionaries who first
crossed the Rhine and penetrated the dark forests ofGermany
had been followed generation after generation by many others;
so that, from the Moorish frontier in Spain to the sparsely
populated north, Christianity had become the official religion
throughout the whole of western Europe.
In the cities, early Gothic ·cathedrals were going up and in
towns and villages churches enough to accommodate their
whole population on Sundays. But in those times habits
changed very slowly, especially in the country, where, unless
they had to go with their local lord to the wars, most men died
within half a mile of the place where they had been born, never
having travelled further than the nearest market town.
From Neolithic times, the simple country folk had never
ceased to venerate the Horned God. During the centuries of
Roman rule, and for many generations afterwards, he had been
worshipped openly with music, dancing and processions in
which young girls scattered flowers before him on feast days.
Later, again for many generations, the Church pandered to
these jollifications, calling him Jack- in-the-Green, or Robin
Goodfellow. But gradually the rule of the Church grew sterner;
less and less licence was permitted, until at length the Old God's
high days were taken over by the Christian saints.
Yet the Old God did not die, because the people still had
need of him. They found no satisfaction in a religion that failed to
provide an occasional outlet for their love of revelry. Many of
them, too, had more faith in the bawdy goat-man as a provider
of good harvests and bonny babies than in the sad figure that
hung so pitifully from the Cross. After all, no amount of fasting,
chanting of dirges and wearing of hair shirts had persuaded him
to put a stop to the Black Death until that terrible plague had
killed off a third of the population of England.
So the weekly esbat and the monthly sabbath became a
regular feature of country life throughout western Europe, and
for many centuries there was nothing par- ticularly wicked about
them.
It must be remembered that, in those days, there were no
buses and motor-bikes to take young people into the nearest
town to cinemas and dance halls; no local football and cricket
clubs, or bingo halls. The people were poor and worked from
The Sabbaths
223
 The Sabbaths
dawn to dusk. Very few of them could read or even afford
candles to provide light for parlour games on winter evenings.
Apart from hiring fairs and the feasts of the Church, their only
form of relaxation was the esbat. It would, therefore, be fair to
look on it as a weekly local night club.
Sabbaths were usually held at the full of the moon, and four
times a year there were grand sabbaths, such as those held in
Germany on the Brocken, at which several congregations
together celebrated the Old God's feasts. These were February
2nd (Candlemas), April 30th (Walpurgisnacht), August rst
(Lammas) and October JISt (Hallowe'en).
People all brought their contributions of poultry, poached
game, fruit, cakes, honey and home-brewed drinks and
congregated on a deserted moorland or in a forest glade. The
man who represented the god dressed for the part as a goat,
stag, dog or bull, and received homage in the god's name. He
would, we may assume, have been a cheerful, popular fellow
and probably the village joker. When homage had been paid, he
and the village wise-woman gave advice on problems about
which members of the congregation would not have cared to
consult their priest, and provided herbal remedies for those in
need of them. He then assumed a role similar to that of a master
of ceremonies at a modern village hop, and led the revels.
Those who played Instruments brought them and formed a
band. Everyone else danced and joined in the sort of games that
are still played at children's parties. Then these simple folk, who
for the rest of the week could afford only the poorest fare,
pooled all the good things they had brought and merrily set to on
a real tuck-in.
The feast over, full to the gills with strong ale, cider and elder,
cowslip or dandelion wine, the fun, as can be imagined, became
fast and furious. Fornication and adultery were held to be sins
by the Christian God, but the Old Religion taught that such
doings aided fertility in crops and cattle, and the sanctity of
marriage had not then been generally accepted as a serious
matter. The Lord of the Manor could have any young woman
who took his fancy, and, if she had a child by him, so much the
better as it meant a rich godfather for the baby. And many a lord
could claim to have sired over a hundred children by girls on his
estate. Moreover, in those days, among the peasantry few
parents objected to two young people who were well suited
entering on a trial marriage, or spending what was termed a
'proving night' before they decided whether they liked one
another well enough to have their union regularized by the
Church; and, if they elected to seek other bedfellows, no shame
was thought of either.
Came cockcrow, and the revellers, tired but happy, wended
their way back to their poor hovels, to face another week of
gruelling work; but with the cheering thought that at its end they
would dance, feast and enjoy free love again.
Such were the esbats and sabbaths in the Middle Ages.
But time changes all things, and early in the sixteenth century
the sabbaths began to take on a very different character. I
suggest that the principal cause of this was the coming of the
Reformation. Before it the peasantry had had no love
224
for either begging friars or wealthy abbots, but the very vices
of this indolent priesthood inclined them to condone the loose
morals of their flocks. They knew all about the revels over which
representatives of the Old God presided, yet they never
interfered. The only people tried and condemned for heresy
were those stupid enough to deny Christ in public or commit
sacrilege in a church.
The Reformation swept away many of these venal but
tolerant priests, or forced them to become zealots. A new type of
clergy arose : earnest, vociferous, puritanical men, who took
their religion seriously and were determined to enforce
conformity on everyone. It was they who stigmatized the Old
God as the Devil, and threatened with eternal torment in the
fires of Hell any of their parishioners who attended a sabbath.
This must have scared many worthy folk into forgoing further
visits to the Saturday evening night club. Moreover, this new
type of priest preached with real conviction about the goodness
of Christ and of how he had sacrificed himself to redeem
mankind; and, instead of Latin, the services were conducted in
English, which everyone could understand. Printing had been
invented, books slowly began to circulate and the yeoman
farmers learnt to read. Much of the period's literature was
religious: edifying tales of saints and martyrs and horrifying
accounts of how worshippers of the Old God were often carried
away by demons.
In the course of two generations all this must have swung the
great bulk of the population over from being only nominally
Christian to becoming devout believers. A similar change of
attitude took place in the Protestant countries on the Con- tinent.
It occurred, too, in the still Catholic countries, but for a different
reason. In them the Holy Inquisition had by then got fully into its
terrible stride. Sheer terror of being denounced as having
attended a sabbath, and of being burnt at the stake, drove the
greater part of the people to abandon the Old God, and after
a while they became devout, out of habit.
But a great part of the Catholic clergy continued to be as
depraved as ever, as
we learn from the history of Madeleine Bavent. In 1625, at
the age of eighteen, after being seduced by her confessor, she
entered a convent at Louviers. There a Father David told her
that God should be worshipped naked, as Eve had been in the
Garden of Eden. As a sign of submission, all the nuns went
naked to church and afterwards danced naked for the pleasure
of the priests in the convent garden. The priests then incited the
nuns to make lesbian love to one another, and copulate, some
playing the male by using a leather phallus.
Later, a Father Picard became chaplain, with one Father
Boulle as his assistant. These two beauties were Satanists and
turned the games into sabbaths. The nuns were taken to a
house near the convent, where there were other priests and also
laymen wearing animal costumes. A Black Mass was then
performed with every form of blasphemy. On one occasion one
of the nuns brought her own new-born child. It was crucified
alive, then roasted and eaten. The meetings finished with every
lecherous act that could be thought of.
In 1647, Boulle was burnt at the stake, and the corpse of
Picard, who had died a few years earlier, was dug up to be burnt
with him. The unfortunate Madeleine
The Sabbaths
225
 died in prison at the age of forty.
Outside the Church only the worst elements of the people were
left to the Old
God. These were outlaws and robbers who lived in the
woods; men and women who were by nature anarchists and
cherished a burning hatred of all authority; the greedy and
unscrupulous who were prepared to risk discovery and
punishment by the Church in order to obtain the secrets of
casting spells and of making love
226
philtres and poisons which they could sell in secret for good
money.
The Powers of Darkness never sleep, and here was a golden
field for exploitation. From midnight picnics and bawdy gaiety,
the sabbaths changed to blasphemous parodies of the Christian
faith. Henceforth anyone who wanted to attend them
had first to be initiated into a coven, and the chief of each
coven ruled it by terror. The initiate had to deny Christ, spit on
the Cross and, in token of submission to the devil, kiss the
fundamental orifice of the goat-man chief.
227
 The Sabbaths
They also had to sign in their own blood a pact with Satan, in
which they surrendered their souls to him in exchange for a term
of years during which he would ensure their prosperity. Such a
pact signed by Urbain Grandier, who ravished the nuns in the
Convent at Loudun, has been preserved. It was also customary
for worshippers to present their ch.ildren to the chief of the
coven, sell them to the Devil and have them baptized into the
Satanic faith.
It is quite probable that there are a number of people still
living to whom this has happened. Soon after the publication of
my first book with an occult back- ground, The Devil Rides Out,
a woman who said she had been sold to the Devil came to see
me. She had nothing to gain by lying, and she asked nothing of
me; from her personality and sincerity of manner, I believe that
she was telling me the truth. She was quiet, respectable, middle-
aged and very sad. This is what she told me:
'From my childhood I have always been "queer". Although I
like animals, no dog will come near me. I cannot go into a
church without being physically sick. When night falls, I seem to
wake up and feel the urge to go out and do all sorts of things. In
my 'teens I found that I had the power to ill-wish people; but I
used it only mildly as a sort of wicked joke.
'Then I became a chorus girl. One evening I learnt that
another girl had played me a filthy trick. We were in the
dressing-room. I picked up what remained of a cake of soap,
squeezed it in my hand and put this curse upon her: "As I crush
this soap, so may you be crushed by misfortune."
'About a year later, my elder sister told me that she had seen
this girl. She was suffering from some unknown wasting
disease, was too ill to work and was living in poverty. I felt
horrified and told my sister what I had done. She upbraided me,
calling me a daughter of the Devil; and it was only as a result of
this that I learnt my mother had been a witch and had sold me to
the Devil when I was a baby.'
This poor woman added that she had since learnt to control
her anger, but was still afflicted by her 'queerness'.
Reverting to the change in character of the sabbath. The
chief of the coven first read the litany of Satan out of the Black
Book. Every member then had to report the evil he or she had
done since the last meeting, and woe betide any who had failed
to create trouble and grief. They were savagely whipped. The
chief was always disguised as some type of animal, and the
majority of chiefs must have been powerful hypnotists to have
been able to impose their wills on members who showed
reluctance to conform. When the feast was held, filthy brews
were drunk, loaded with aphrodisiacs which would arouse the
drinkers into a sexual frenzy. Offal was eaten and, whenever
possible, the flesh of a murdered child. The band struck up, but
it played no tune, only made a horrid cacophony. They danced,
but back to back. Then the orgy began, and it was no matter of
joyful, healthy lust. The witches and warlocks came to these
sabbaths masked and clad to represent
wild beasts and vermin. Toads copulated with wildcats,
wolves with great blue- bottles, rats with foxes; sometimes in
pairs, often in groups, practising every conceivable form of
depravity and obscenity.
228
 Such were the sabbaths of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, when the Church in western Europe had replaced the
Horned God with the Devil and the power of Darkness again
came into its own.
The Later Middle Ages
The term 'witch' is equally applicable to a man or a woman. The
reason that it is
now generally accepted as signifying a woman is, doubtless,
because in Christian countries there have always been many
more female than male witches. For this an explanation is not
far to seek. Compared with other religions, Christianity had little
to offer women.
Pagan faiths, however many other gods are included in their
pantheons, had a supreme Trinity, which was usually of father,
mother and son. Jehovah - almost alone of the ancient gods -
remained unmarried, and this bachelor god was inherited from
the Hebrews by Christians and Mohammedans alike. The
Christians gave him a Son, but Christ did not marry. Mahomet
did marry, and, although he did not claim divinity, he did a great
deal for women by raising their status to become individuals with
definite rights, including that of owning property.
In the pagan faiths, the mother goddess played a part that it
is impossible to overestimate. She had borne a child, and so
had suffered the fears of pregnancy and pains of giving birth. All
women could count on her understanding and sym- pathy, and
place themselves in her hands in a way they could not do with
any male deity.
Realizing this weakness in their divine hierarchy, the early
Christian Fathers endeavoured to make good their lack of a
mother goddess by building up the figure of the Virgin Mary. A
devotion to this chaste and sadly stricken mother of Christ has
comforted countless millions of women; but it could never be
more than a half measure, because - unlike Isis, Hera,
Semiramis and the rest - she was not a goddess with limitless
power in her own right. She could only intercede with her divine
Son. And, after the Reformation, the Protestants threw away
even this attraction for women to their churches.
Moreover, unlike Mohammedan women (who, despite their
veiling and seclusion, were treated with respect), women in all
Christian countries were, until quite recent times, legally
chattels. Still worse, for many centuries they were regarded by
the Church as vessels of evil, made deliberately in a form that
would tempt men
into the sin of lust; they were taught that to show themselves
naked to their husbands was a wicked thing to do, and that for a
man to caress their bodies for any purpose other than to get
them with child was a way of taking the road to hell. Indeed, it
was decreed that, even to enter a church, a woman must cover
her head -
ymbolically putting ashes upon it - as an acknowledgment
that she was the embodiment of original sin, and that it was her
sex that had caused God the Father
to drive mankind out of Paradise.
Can it then be wondered at that many a spirited woman
resented the inferiority
imposed on her by the Christian Church, and decided to give
her allegiance secretly to the opposition ?
The Later Middle Ages
229
 The Later Middle Ages
In the fourteenth century there were a few skirmishes
between the rival faiths. The Bishop of Coventry was, in 1303,
accused of paying homage to a deity in the form of an animal,
but he got off. So did Dame Alice Kyteler, who in 1324 was
accused of sacrificing live animals to devils. Even the Carmelite
friar Pierre Recordi, who was brought to trial in I 329, got off with
imprisonment for life; although he admitted to having seduced
three women by making images of them in wax mingled with his
own blood and spittle, and burying them under the women's
thresholds, then, after his success, making a sacrifice in thanks
to the Devil.
In 1335, Catherine Delort and Anne Marie de Georgel were
tried in Toulouse, and confessed that, for over twenty years,
they had attended sabbaths and had long since given
themselves to the Devil. They maintained that God ruled the
heavens and the Devil the earth; that they were equal in power
and that the war between them would continue for ever. This
belief in the warring powers of Light and Darkness was
obviously a survival of the Albigenses' so-called heresy.
Catherine deposed that she had first been taken to a sabbath
by her lover, a shepherd. There she made obeisance to a great
he-goat, then submitted to his pleasure and that of other men
present. She said that they drank horrid liquids and ate the flesh
of new-born children, but were rewarded by being taught by the
goat spells that would harm people they disliked.
Anne Marie stated that one day, near the town, she had seen
a huge dark man dressed in the skin of an animal coming
towards her across the water. He had blown into her mouth,
then possessed her; on the following Saturday, by his will, she
had been carried to the sabbath. It was presided over by a great
he-goat, who urged them to do all the harm they could to
Christians, and taught them about poisonous plants.
It is not until a little before the middle of the fifteenth century
that we get the first mention of witches riding through the nights
to sabbaths on broomsticks. Levitation has been vouched for by
a number of people who have witnessed Eastern mystics
perform their wonders; and, if we are prepared to agree that to
the two Supreme Powers all things are possible, certain witches
may have been granted the ability to fly. But it is much more
probable that the witches only believed that they had done so,
owing to drug-induced dreams.
From many accounts, it is certain that the chiefs of covens
sometimes gave witches an ointment with which to smear their
bodies before coming to a sabbath. Professor A. J. Clark
analysed two recipes for such ointments that have survived. He
reported that aconite and belladonna were among the
ingredients. The first produces irregular action of the heart and
the second delirium. The effect of such a combination on a
person would produce sleep, with a sensation of movement and
falling through space. But for the chief -of a coven to have given
his witches an ointment knowing that it would prevent them from
attending a sabbath does not make sense; so the possible
explanation is that they did go, but only in spirit, and,
Opposite Walpurgisnacht : witches flying to a sabbath
230
 The Later Middle Ages
when their spirits returned to their bodies and they woke, they
brought back a complete memory of all that their spirits had
encountered there and believed that they had physically
participated.
In 1441 Roger Bolingbroke, an astronomer; Thomas
Southwell, a Canon of StPeter's, Westminster; and a witch
named Margery Goodmayne were all charged with having
conspired against the life of King Henry VI by sorcery, on the
instruc- tions of Dame Eleanor, a daughter of Lord Cobham.
Southwell died in the Tower, Goodmayne was burnt at the stake
and Bolingbroke was dragged through the streets on a hurdle
tied to a horse's tail before being hanged, drawn and quartered.
But Dame Eleanor got off with only having to do penance in
public.
In the reign of Edward IV, the Duchess of Bedford was
accused of having em- ployed a sorcerer named Thomas Wake
to enchant the King into marrying Elizabeth Woodville, by whom
he had the two princes later murdered in the Tower; but the
charge was withdrawn. After Edward's death, his one-time
mistress, Jane Shore, was convicted of using witchcraft against
his successor,
Above A witch kissing the Devil 'beneath his tail'
Right Instruments of torture used at witches' trials
Richard III, but she fared no worse than having to walk
through the streets with a placard hung round her neck,
declaring her to be a harlot. And she was so beloved by the
people for her sweetness and charities that the crowds showed
their sym- pathy for her.
In Savoy in 1477 a witch named Antoine Rose was brought
to trial. She had told a neighbour that she badly needed money,
so the friend took her to a sabbath where she was persuaded to
do homage to the Devil. He had the form of a big, black dog;
everyone present kissed his hindquarters, then the men
copulated with the women, dog-fashion. They were told to take
the Host at Communion, hold it in their mouths and, later, spit it
out and trample on it. He gave them potions for making people
and cattle ill, and told them to do all the harm they could. They
knew him by the name of Robinet.
232
This is one of the many instances in which witches stated
that the Devil was
 spoken of by them as Robin, or some form of that name.
Dame Alice Kyteler called him Robin Artisan, the Somerset
witches called the chief of their coven Robin; and Puck, a deity
of the Little People, was also known as Robin Goodfellow .
Professor Murray remarks on the connection between the latter
and Robin Hood, and points out that the legends regarding
Robin Hood associate him with many places far removed from
Sherwood Forest - for instance, Scotland. It will be noted that his
band numbered twelve men, which, with himself, made up a
coven; also that he was a declared enemy of the Church and
took special delight in robbing rich abbots and priors for the
benefit of the poor. Tales of his doings having arisen in so many
localities, and the date of their origins differing greatly, might be
accounted for if his name was an abbreviation of Robin with the
Hood, as in witch trials the Devil is often described as wearing a
hood, and the Little People always wore hoods from which they
were most averse ever to be parted, evidently attaching some
magical significance to them.
On December 5th 1484, Pope Innocent VIII opened the war
against witchcraft, by publishing a bull entitled Summis
desiderantes affectibus. This led to the creation of the Holy
Office, as the Inquisition was officially called. It empowered
inquisitms appointed by the Holy See to participate in all trials
for heresy, to override the decisions of local courts, to proceed
against persons of whatever rank and to
punish all those found guilty.
The object of the bull was to stamp out the lawlessness that
then threatened
society. Votaries of the Left-hand Path had become so
numerous that, by casting spells, inciting to rebellion and other
nefarious activities, they were thought by the Church to be as
much a menace to the Christian way of life as Communism is
thought to be today.
The bull - initially aimed at Germany, where at that time
Satanism was par- ticularly rife - was inspired by Jacobus
Sprenger, the Prior of the Convent of Cologne. In collaboration
with Prior Heinrich Kramer he wrote the Malleus Maleficarum -
the 'Hammer of the Witches'. It was first published in 1486 and
ran into many editions.
This dissertation of a quarter of a million words is the most
famous of all books on witchcraft and demonology, as it
examines the whole subject with great thorough- ness.
An English translation with a long and most informative
introduction by the Reverend Montague Summers was
published in 1928. But the theological argu- ments in the text are
so involved that the abbreviated edition published by the Folio
Society in 1968 will be found much easier to follow.
In 1487 the Dominican friar Tomas de Torquemada was
appointed Grand Inquisitor of Spain. Under the patronage of the
fanatical Queen Isabella he instituted the indiscriminate reign of
terror that has forever made the word Inquisition infamous.
However, another century was to pass before the battle was
fully joined, and, as is shown by many of the above cases, up till
that time people of wealth and influence had nothing very much
to fear if they were accused of practising the Old Religion.
The Later Middle Ages
233
The Great Persecution
 The Great Persecution
In 1591, at North Berwick, a grand sabbath was held by thirty-
nine persons (three covens), it is said at the instance of the 5th
Earl of Bothwell, with the object of destroying King James VI of
Scotland, later King James I of England. The King was about to
set out to fetch as his bride, Princess Anne of Denmark. The
grand master at the sabbath, a man named John Fane, shared
out the duties among those present. Some were to arrange to
secure a piece of the King's clothing, then a wax image of him
would be made, wrapped in the cloth, and slowly burnt; others
were to attempt to poison him, and others again to raise storms
so that he would be drowned at sea. A storm did succeed in
delaying his departure for some weeks; then, when he finally set
sail - as was disclosed later by one of the principal witches,
Agnes Simpson, at her trial - they took a cat, christened it the
King and threw it into the foaming surf. This aroused a terrible
tempest; but the King, owing it was
said to his great piety, survived and, on his return to
Scotland, initiated the first great witch-hunt, in order to wreak
vengeance on those who had attempted to bring about his
death.
Fane, Simpson and others were arrested, tortured, brought to
trial and duly burnt. The confessions extracted revealed
numerous Satanic practices. Fane acknowledged having broken
into a church at night by means of a 'hand of glory'. This was the
hand of a murderer cut from his corpse as it swung on a gibbet,
then dipped in wax and used as a candle. All locks were
supposed to open to this charm, and a deep sleep be imposed
upon anyone in the building that the witch entered. Fane had
then performed a service to the Devil in the church. Agnes
Simpson said that she foretold the outcome of illnesses by the
behaviour of a big black dog called Elva, and that she had
danced endlong - that is, follow-my-leader - in the kirkyard with
Barbara Napier and over a hundred other people, while Gilie
Duncan played on a trump. She also described how, at Beigis
Todd's house, she,
Janet Campbell and two wives named Stobbin had prepared
the cat before it was thrown into the sea, by knitting to its four
paws the private parts of a dead man. King James then wrote a
book on demonology, and by early in the seventeenth century
witch-hunting was in full swing, particularly in Scotland. In
Pendle Forest, a lofty ruin known as Malkin Tower was a
favourite place for holding sabbaths. Two rival witches, Mother
Dundike and Mother Chattox, caused so much trouble in the
neighbourhood that a local magistrate had them arrested. On
the night of Good Friday, 1612, their covens met at the Tower to
cast spells, with the object of freeing their leaders. Unluckily for
them a child named Janet Device had been brought along, and
she betrayed all she had seen and heard, so nearly
all that group of witches were seized and went to the stake.
All Celtic witches were believed to be able to turn themselves
into hares, in
which form they sucked milk from the cows, leaving them dry.
Similar beliefs about the power of witches to turn themselves
into animals were world-wide. On the Continent they usually
became werewolves and in Africa changed into were- leopards.
There are many stories of men, when out at night, encountering
a savage
234
animal and slicing off one of its forepaws, to find when they
got home their wives with a hand missing and the arm a
bleeding, bandaged stump.
Many witches had familiars, particularly those in the eastern
counties ofEngland, from which it has been deduced that the
custom was brought over by the Norse- men; and it is thought to
have originated with the Finns or Lapps. It is certain that the
shamans, as the witch-doctors of the sub-Arctic races are
called, kept familiars; and so did the Red Indians of North
America.
The familiar was usually a cat or dog, and frequently some
small animal such as a mouse, toad, adder or mole that could
be kept in a box or pot. To the food of her familiar the witch
added a drop of her own blood, by pricking her arm or finger,
thus making the animal part of herself. It did her bidding,
bringing mis-
fortune to anyone to whom she sent it; but those were always
anxious occasions, for if any harm befell the familiar, the witch
herself would be affected.
A witch with a demon familiar
The Great Persecution
235
 The Great Persecution
Frances Moore, tried in 1645, stated that the goodwife Weed
gave her a white cat, telling her that, if she would deny God and
affirm the same with her blood, then whomsoever she cursed
and sent that cat unto, they should die shortly after.
Elizabeth Sawyer, the famous Witch of Edmonton, confessed
that she kept a devil in the form of a black dog, and that 'when
he came barking to me he had then done the mischife that I had
bid him do for me'. When Elizabeth was searched by order of
the magistrate, and in spite of her resistance, there was found
on her, a 'thing like a Teate, the bigness of a little finger and the
length of half a finger, which was branched at the top and
seemed as though one had suckt it'.
Teats similar to this were frequently found on various parts of
witches' bodies, when they were stripped and examined before
being tried. They were believed to have been produced by the
touch of the Devil, in order to enable the witches to feed their
familiars. The other mark that was always sought for was one or
more insensitive spots, such as those found on the body of
Urbain Grandier.
For this professional prickers were employed and, as they got
a good fee for every witch detected, it is certain that these
unscrupulous fanatics sent many a poor innocent woman to a
terrible death. The method employed was to strip the prisoner,
blindfold her, then feel all over the body for some place where,
perhaps after an accident, the skin had become hard. A pin was
then pushed gently in. If the woman did not cry out, or the place
start to bleed, she was told to find the pin and take it out. If her
hand went to some other part of her body, that was taken as
definite evidence that the place where the pin was had been
touched by the Devil, and so she was a witch.
Among the most infamous of the prickers were John Kincaid
of Trenent, John Balfour of Corhouse, John Dick and an
inhabitant of Inverness called Paterson. On one occasion the
last pricked eighteen women and one man in the Church of
Wardlaw in one day, having first cut off all their hair. This terrible
villain made a considerable fortune in this sadistic manner, but
was later discovered to be a woman in men's clothes. The most
notorious of all the witch-hunters was Matthew Hopkins, who
with his assistant John Stearne terrorized the eastern counties.
Quite a number of people do have insensitive spots on their
bodies, and it seems certain that many of the prickers' victims
were innocent; but the practice was to push in a three-inch pin,
and it is impossible to believe that the majority
of the women who did not show any reaction had not had
parts of their bodies anaesthetized by some unnatural, and
presumably occult, means.
The story of the Lancashire Witches is known to many
through Harrison Ainsworth's famous novel. The most notorious
of them was Elizabeth Dundike. She brought up her children to
be witches and also instructed her grandchildren in witchcraft.
Such handing down in families of the secret art was common
practice. To ensure a good feast at the sabbaths, the Lancashire
Witches simply went to the house of a well-to-do farmer and
helped themselves to what they liked from his larder. This was
also the custom in many other localities, and the covens were so
dreaded that the farmers made no protest.
236
One striking fact about the witches is that, almost without
exception, they
refused to recant. After enduring the most awful tortures, they
still insisted that the Devil was the true god and that attending
the sabbaths had been the most wonderful thing in their lives,
because they had experienced such ecstatic pleasure at them -
and this in spite of the fact that many of them averred that each
time the Devil copulated with them it was excruciatingly painful,
because his huge member was covered with scales.
The victory of the Parliamentarians in the Great Rebellion
greatly intensified the witch-hunts, because the Roundheads
were Puritans to a man. As the Reverend Montague Summers
put it in his History ofWitchcraft, 'Envenomed by the poison
Matthew Hopkins compelling witches to reveal the names of
their associates
Hopkins Wtlch F1~de,. Genemll ~~
The Great Persecution
:tl1ema.u%ar .2 !Yewa.ckett
.J Peck.e 1n. theCrowtt~ 4 GriezzJl ftreeJ~utt
 The Great Persecution
of Calvin and John Knox, fire and cord were seldom at rest.'
Levellers, Anabaptists and other fanatical sects gave no fair trial
or the least mercy to any poor wretch upon whom could be
pinned the faintest suspicion of having had anything to do with
witchcraft. During the sixteen years that Britain was a republic,
many hundreds of women and scores of men, doubtless
innocent, were half-drowned by being ducked in ponds that
formed the sewers of villages, were whipped, had their teeth
torn out and finally were hanged.
There has been a tradition that before the Battle of
Worcester, where the Royalists made their unsuccessful attempt
to defeat the Roundheads and place Charles II on the throne,
Oliver Cromwell sold his smll to the Devil for victory and a
further seven years of power. Was it coincidence that he died
seven years later to the very day, during the worst thunderstorm
within human memory? At least half the people in England
believed that the Devil had come to claim him.
At last, on May 8th r66o, Charles was proclaimed King. With
his landing at Dover, the worst period of repression ever known
in Britain came to an ~nd, and on his thirtieth birthday, May 29,
he rode triumphantly into Whitehall. He was not only a 'merry'
monarch, but a man of the wisest and sweetest disposition.
Even of the regicides who had voted for his father's death, after
ten of them had been executed, he said, 'I am weary of hanging,
let it rest'; and so spared the lives of the remainder.
Indiscriminate witch-hunting was brought to an end, but witch
trials and burnings continued right up to early in the nineteenth
century, and witches continued to assert that nothing would
induce them to give up the Devil as a lover, although his
embrace could be as agonizing as childbirth. In r662, in
Scotland, Isobel Gowdie told her accusers that the Devil was
heavy like a malt sack and had a huge member that was cold as
ice, but added, 'He is abler for us that way than any man can
be.'
Paulus Grillandus, a judge who tried many witches in Rome,
declared that they enjoyed connection with the Devil 'with the
utmost voluptuousness'. Jeannette d'Abadie said that his
member was enormous; that both it and his emission were
cold and she suffered extreme pain. Nearly all of them
testified to a madness of sensuality in which torment was
mingled with delight.
On the Continent witch-hunting was pursued both by the Holy
Inquisition and the Protestant ministers, with the same savage
ferocity as in Britain. Remigius, a criminal judge in Lorraine,
recorded that, during his sixteen years as a judge, no fewer than
8oo witches were condemned and burnt in his area. That is at
the rate of one every week. And he adds that about the same
number saved themselves by enduring torture without
confessing or by escaping.
The generally accepted idea of a witch is of a wrinkled,
toothless old crone with straggling grey hair; but many were
young and beautiful. One such was the Hungarian Countess
Elizabeth Bathory. She once wrote to her husband, telling him of
a new spell she had learnt. It was to beat a black hen to death
with a white cane, keep the blood, then smear a little of it on the
clothing or, better still, the body of one's enemy; and 'he will
surely die'. Many beautiful women have regularly
238
 bathed in asses' milk to preserve the freshness of their skins;
the Countess pre- ferred human blood. To ensure a fresh supply
daily, she kept for bleeding several young peasant girls chained
up in the cellars of her castle. In 1610 someone gave her away,
and she was arrested. In the dungeons the bodies of fifty girls
were found.
The thought of Middle Europe in those times brings to mind
vampires. These were believed to be the bodies of evil people
who had been buried but were not dead. They were said to
leave their graves in the middle of the night, seek out a cottage
where a door had been left unlocked, creep inside, fix their front
teeth - which had become hollow fangs - into the neck of a
sleeper and suck his blood.
The area in which a vampire could operate was limited by
two factors: it was unable to cross running water and it had to be
back in its grave by cock-crow; so, if one was known to be active
in the neighbourhood, a watch could be set for it and it could be
shadowed to its lair. Next day the village worthies attended
Mass in the church, then followed the priest in solemn
procession to the grave. It was then opened, and a stout stake
was driven through the vampire's heart; with a terrible scream, it
gave up the ghost.
The probable foundation for stories of these 'undead' is that
now and then witches who were outcasts found that there could
be worse homes than the spacious tomb of a noble family, and
so lived in a graveyard, as we have seen the witch Erichtho did
in Roman times; and at night they went out, not to suck blood,
but to steal food.
There can be no doubt that, during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, many a poor old woman who lived alone in
a cottage on the edge of a village, and talked to her pet animal
(as anyone might do) as though it were a human being, was
accused of witchcraft and sent to her death; and thousands who,
falsely accused by malicious enemies, suffered torture and an
agonizing death at the stake. But there were great numbers who
were unquestionably guilty. It must be remembered that, not
only did they indulge in the most revolting sexual practices, but
they were murderers of children, poisoners, procurers and
blackmailers, and had pledged themselves to a life of habitual
crime, which inflicted immeasurable loss, distress, ill-health and
misery upon innocent people.
 The stamping out of witchcraft and Satanism needs no
justification. It is in fact a duty incumbent on all those in
authority. Their first concern should be the protection of law-
abiding citizens within their jurisdiction.
The crime of which Catholic and Protestant Christians were
equally guilty was that, while mouthing hypocritical declarations
of their devotion to a God of love and mercy, they should have
inflicted such unspeakable cruelties on their fellow human
beings.
The Salem Witch Trials
The American colonies had their share of witch cults,
although Satanism there was much less prevalent than in
Europe. However, as we have seen, the most ferocious
persecution of witchcraft in Britain took place when the country
was dominated by the Puritans; so it is not surprising that witch-
hunting was carried
The Salem Witch Trials
239
The Salem Witch Trials
 out more ruthlessly in Puritan New England than in the
southern colonies. The extraordinary courage and endurance
displayed by the early settlers was due to their absolute faith in
God, His Word and the rightness of the strict adherence to the
letter of it as laid down by the fanatical John Calvin; so they
would not tolerate anyone even questioning a passage in the
Bible.
From early in the seventeenth century there had been a
certain number of witch trials in Boston and other places, but the
notorious affair at Salem did not occur until 1692, and it had
some most unusual features.
It began in Salem village, in the house of the Reverend
Samuel Parris. He had a nine-year-old daughter, Betty, a
nervous, introspective child, and a niece of eleven, Abigail
Williams, a bold and mischievous girl who dominated her cousin.
Parris had lived for a while in Barbados, and had brought back
with him two slaves: John Indian, a Negro who worked mostly
outside the house, and his wife Tituba, a Negro-Carib half-caste,
who cooked and cleaned.
Of Mrs Parris we know little, except that she was very devout
and spent most of her time doing good works in the village; the
children were really mothered by old Tituba, who adored them.
Steeped in her Voodoo beliefs, inherited from Africa and the
Caribbean, Tituba talked to the girls about them and, for their
amusement, taught them how to cast some, probably more or
less harmless, spells.
So proud were they of this secret knowledge that they
boasted of it to several of their older friends : Mary Walcott,
Elizabeth Booth and Susanna Sheldon, and later to several
others, including Ann Putnam, the malicious daughter of a
neurotic, scandal-loving mother; with the result that, before long,
old Tituba's quarters became a real witch's kitchen.
What actually went on there nobody is now ever likely to
know; but it must have been something pretty nasty, as first
Betty, then Abigail and, in turn, all the other girls, became
possessed. They suffered from vacancy of mind, fits of
dizziness, then crawled about on all fours, making horrible
animal noises.
Prayers proved of no avail. The girls screamed as though
touched with a red hot iron at the sound of a sacred word. A Dr
Greggs was called in but could be of no help, and he declared
that the 'evil hand' was on them; so Parris appealed for spiritual
assistance and two ministers, Nicholas Noyes and John Hale,
arrived in the village.
Repeatedly they asked all the children who their tormenters
were, but could get no reply. Mary Walcott's aunt then resorted
to a stratagem. Suspecting Tituba, she persuaded her to make a
witch-cake from an old country recipe. It consisted of rye meal
mixed with the urine of the children. When Parris learnt this and
charged his daughter with being a party to it, she went into such
terrible hysterics that it was feared she would die. But out of
Betty and her friends they at last got admissions that enabled
them to charge Tituba with witchcraft. A slovenly creature
named Sarah Good and Sarah Osburne, a woman of property
who was suspected of immorality, were also charged.
Two magistrates - John Hathorne, a true zealot, and
Jonathan Corwin, a milder man - were sent from Salem village
to examine the witches; but the law in
240
Massachusetts at that time was primitive. The concept that
an accused is innocent until proved guilty had not even been
thought of; the prisoners were allowed no counsel to defend
them, and it was enough for a witness to declare that he had
seen the 'shape' of the accused riding through the air on a
broomstick for him to be believed, however stoutly the poor
wretch in the dock denied it.
Tituba was fortunate. The Reverend Mr Parris thrashed her
again and again until her slave mentality saved her. She
suddenly realized that to escape further punishment she must
do as he wished - tell him the sort of things he hoped to hear
from her. Once started, she went to it with a will, but she was too
cunning to say that she had had dealings with the Devil. A tall
man, she claimed, had come to her, told her that he was God
and that she must serve him for six years. He had brought her a
book. There were nine names in it, among them those of
Osborne and Sarah Good. She had flown to sabbaths with the
man, accompanied by a hog, two red cats and the winged head
of a cat that was a creature of Osborne's. The witches' 'shapes'
had tried to force her to harm Betty and Abigail, but she had
resisted them.
All this was eagerly accepted by the court. It was evident that
poor Tituba had been deceived by the Devil, and was the
innocent victim of the witches. This was borne out by her also
becoming possessed, rolling her eyes, frothing at the mouth and
screaming that a demon was tormenting her for having spoken.
Her husband, John Indian, was a quick learner. He roared,
blasphemed and flung himself about on the floor of the
courtroom in, apparently, paroxysms of agony; so obviously he
was another victim of the horror that had come to Salem village.
Hysteria seized upon the Reverend Mr Parris's congregation.
A dozen people said, and some perhaps honestly believed, that
they had seen the 'shapes' of others against whom they had a
grudge, sticking pins into poppets and supping up the unholy
sacrament of red bread and bloody wine. Rebecca Nurse, a
most respectable old lady, greatly beloved by her family, was
dragged from a.bed of sickness to be charged. John Proctor, an
honest farmer, had the temerity to declare that the girls were
liars, and their hysteria self-induced for the pleasure they got out
of having drawn so much attention to themselves - which was, in
part, certainly true. The result was that he was arrested as a
witch and his property was confiscated before he had even been
tried.
For every trial the girls were brought into court, and their
unch~cked behaviour had a shattering effect upon the accused.
If a prisoner lifted his eyes to heaven, they all lifted theirs; if he
blew his nose, they all blew theirs, and so on. If he denied a
charge, they created pandemonium, howling him down and
going into hysterical fits. Still worse, he was in effect tried by
them. One by one the demented young creatures were carried
to the prisoner and he was forced to take the hand of each in
turn. If she continued to rave and twist, he was innocent; but if
she became quiet, it was assumed that he had taken back into
himself the demon he had sent out to torment her, and so was
guilty.
A statement was made that the sabbaths were held in a
meadow that had been leased to Parris, which was normally
always avoided at night because it was plagued by a host of
croaking frogs. It was said that a horn was sounded there,
The Salem Witch Trials
 The Salem Witch Trials
which was inaudible to honest folk, but could be heard by
every witch in Essex County. In Andover, Salisbury and Salmon
Falls they all mounted their broom- sticks and came screaming
through the air to a sabbath. When they had taken unholy
communion, the Devil delivered a sermon, telling them that they
must get enough converts to overthrow the Church; then the
good old times would come back. There would again be
jollifications at Christmas, dancing round the Maypole, racing,
cock-fights and all the delights that the Puritan New Englanders
had forsworn.
The girls were constantly seeing 'shapes' all over the place,
and so unshakable had their elders' belief in them become that,
at the children's direction, they actually stabbed with their
swords and threw pitchforks at the empty air where these
'shapes' were supposed to be.
A new Governor, Sir William Phips, arrived from England and
with him Increase Mather, the father of Cotton Mather and later
President of Harvard. Mather had been prominent in the Boston
witch trials, but Phips was interested only in getting together an
expedition against the French in Canada. Having decreed that
all those in prison accused of witchcraft should be chained up in
their cells, he left the business of trying them to his jurists. A
special court of Oyer and Terminer was formed with the Deputy
Governor, William Stoughton, as President, and six other
judges. ·
People in the neighbourhood of Salem who feared to be
'cried out', as it was called, began to seek safety in flight. Among
them was John Willard, the Deputy Constable, who had arrested
several of the witches. In a sudden fit of disgust he turned on the
girls, accused them of being fakes and cried out, 'Hang them all!
Hang them!' The girls got back at him by declaring that they had
seen his 'shape' strangling his own nephew who had just died.
Willard fled, but failed to get any distance before he was caught,
chained up in prison and accused of having be- witched to death
eleven other people.
Suddenly the girls decided on the identity of the man who
played the part of the Devil at the sabbaths. It was, they
declared, the Reverend George Burroughs, who had held the
living at Salem village ten years earlier. Shocked as the
magistrates
 were that a minister should be involved, they did not hesitate.
The sheriffs were dispatched to the distant parish where
Burroughs was living. Striding into his house, they dragged him
from the table in the middle of a meal and hauled him off to
Salem.
T o his amazement, he was accused of murdering a number
of soldiers who had been killed near his parish while fighting
Indians. Not physically of course. As with the crimes of which
the other witches were accused, it was his 'shape' that had done
these deeds. What possible defence could he put up to prove
his innocence?
Poor old Rebecca Nurse was brought to trial. Her
unblemished reputation stood her in good stead. Her family and
numerous friends had the courage to testify. She was found not
guilty. Instantly the courtroom became a bedlam. The girls
howled and tore their hair, screaming that the old lady was
guilty. Rebecca was brought back into the court. The jury was
told to think again. This time they
242
reversed their verdict. On Tuesday, July 19th, she was one of
five women hanged on Gallows Hill.
The terror spread. Scores of people were 'cried out'. Under
Stoughton's presi- dency the court administered a travesty of
justice. Prisoners who confessed could hope for clemency,
those who stoutly denied their guilt were condemned. On
September 22nd eight more were hanged, including one Mary
Esty.
Now there occurred the most amazing happening in the
whole awful business. On that day Mary Esty's 'shape' appeared
to a servant girl named Mary Herrick and said to her, 'I am going
upon the ladder to be hanged for a witch, but I am innocent and
before a twelve-month be past you shall believe it.' Shortly
afterwards her ghost caused Mary Herrick to denounce the wife
of the minister John Hale. He knew the charge to be utterly
false, and suddenly realized how many others of the accused
might well be innocent.
This proved the beginning of a return to sanity. The Governor
came back from the Canadian border. He was shocked to find
that 150 people were chained up in prison awaiting trial for
witchcraft. He decree~ that in future spectral evidence should be
inadmissible. This cut the ground from under the feet of those
tireless persecutors Stoughton, Noyes and Parris. Accused after
accused was found not guilty. The movement collapsed.
Out of this terrible madness only one thing emerges to the
credit of the per- secutors. Unlike the Calvanists and Holy
Inquisition, in Europe, at least the Ameri- can witch-hunters
hanged their victims. They neither tortured them nor burnt them
at the stake.
The Frauds
The second half of the eighteenth century was a time of great
splendour in Europe. From vast Versailles down to the smallest
German court, ladies and gentlemen went clothed in silks and
satins. The aristocracy of England lived in great Georgian
mansions, that of France in gracious chateaux. In Italy, Spain,
the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Scandinavia there were
scores of castles and palaces. Their occupants were served by
whole companies of servants in rich liveries ; coaches and
horses filled the stables, and their owners collected costly
paintings and libraries of beautifully bound books. They hunted
and travelled, attended by big retinues, and entertained on the
grand scale.
 All this had to be paid for, and many of them could ill afford to
have such costly display, so it is not surprising that magic was
frequently resorted to, in the hope that it would replenish nearly
empty coffers. The majority of sovereigns and richer nobles
housed and fed astrologers who advised them about their
ventures, and any rogue who claimed to know the secret
formula by which the alchemists turned base metal into gold was
welcome at every court.
One of the most successful of these gentry was the Comte
de St-Germain, who appeared in Paris about 1750. He was a
fine handsome fellow, who looked to be in early middle age ; but
he averred that he had discovered the Elixir of Life and by
means of it had already lived for 2,ooo years. Although no one
could persuade him
The Frauds
243
The Frauds
 Left The Comte de St-Germain, who claimed to have
discovered the Elixir of Life
Centre Giuseppe Balsamo, 'Count Cagliostro', believed by
Cardinal de Rohan to have made gold Right Jacopo Casanova,
who used the trappings of occultism to promote his love affairs
to share his secret, he became very popular in society, and
Louis XV entrusted him with several secret diplomatic missions.
He was involved in many of the political intrigues of the day until,
in 1775, he retired to Schleswig-Holstein and gave himself up
entirely to the study of the occult with Landgrave Charles of
Hesse.
Another of these successful adventurers was Giuseppe
Balsamo, who was born in 1743 in Palermo. Alexandre Dumas
used him as the title character in Memoirs ofa Physician, the first
of that splendid series of five novels that cover the latter part of
the reign of Louis XV and the French Revolution.
In 1776, styling himself Count Cagliostro, Balsamo arrived in
London with a beautiful young Italian wife. He, too, asserted that
he had lived for many hundreds of years, and had learnt all the
secrets of the mysterious East. He was an extremely able
hypnotist and in 1784, under the patronage of Cardinal de
Rohan, held successful seances that became the rage of
Parisian society. By slipping unseen some grains of gold into a
mixture, then reducing it until only a sediment and the gold were
left, he induced the gullible Cardinal to believe that he had made
it.
The Cardinal was infatuated with Queen Marie Antoinette,
and Cagliostro contributed to his downfall by promising him her
love. In 1785 there occurred the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
Although not privy to the fraud, Cagliostro became involved in
the scandal and Louis XVI banished him from France. Four
years later, in Rome, his wife denounced him to the Holy
Inquisition as a heretic, magician and Freemason. He was
condemned to life imprisonment, and died in the dungeons of
San Leo in 1795.
Much the most likable of this type of rogue was Giovanni
Jacopo Casanova, whose name has passed into history as the
most insatiable of seducers. A Venetian born in 1725, in his
middle years he visited nearly every major city in Europe, and
many of them several times; so the accounts of his life in them,
given in his Memoirs, make a valuable contribution to the history
of his times.
244
Again and again he drove away from a city in tears, having
left behind the love
of his life, generally in order that she might better her position
- only to encounter at the first inn another beauty who promptly
became the love of his life. He gambled away half a dozen
fortunes and cheated no more than his contemporaries, made
several German princes rich by managing lottery systems for
them, was a gifted conversationalist in many languages and had
a most inquiring mind. So it was natural that such a man in such
an age should, early in his life, become in- terested in magic.
Although he had no knowledge of the real secrets of the
Cabala, he made adroit use of it and of formulae supposedly
enabling him to communicate with invisible forces. With glib
astrological and occult jargon he fooled many people, resorting
to such tricks at times when his reckless gambling had left him
in low water.
His greatest success in this direction was with an immensely
wealthy elderly widow, the Marquise d'Urfe. It was generally
accepted that no female could ever be made aware of the
ultimate secrets of the Universe, and this good lady's one
ambition was to be so. Casanova produced the excellent idea
that, to achieve her end, she should be reborn as a boy.
A full-length novel could be written on the intriguing situations
that followed. They covered several years while Casanova lived
like a prince at the Marquise's expense. From time to time an
evil-natured youth and several glamorous prostitutes were
brought in to play parts in these magical proceedings. They
quarrelled among themselves and endeavoured to blackmail
Casanova. At length, all other formulae having failed, he
decided that he must pretend to get the Marquise with child
himself, and tell her that she would give birth to a male infant
into whom her own spirit would be transferred. But Madame
d'Urfe was no longer the lovely young thing she had been when
the Due d'Orleans, as Regent of France during Louis XV's
minority, had been her lover. Fortunately she was heterosexual,
so Casanova imported his pretty mistress, who was also
heterosexual; and, having been excited by her during a
threesome, he succeeded in raising enough steam to satisfy the
old lady.
Needless to say the Marquise never achieved her ambition.
Casanova's fortunes declined, but he spent his old age as
librarian to the Count von Waldstein at the Castle of Dux in
Bohemia, and it is to those years of retirement that we owe the
twelve volumes of his fascinating memoirs.
 Australasia and the Pacific
Little or nothing was known about these parts of the world
until the middle of the eighteenth century. In Australia itself the
aborigines were found to be, with the possible exception of the
Hottentots, the most backward people known to man.
Nevertheless they had knowledge of occult forces.
Like the African witch doctors, the Australian magic-men
could cause a man to die without laying a hand on him. The
method used was the pointing stick or bone. The stick is made
of wood, tapered to a point at one end by charring it in a fire,
and rounded at the other. Sometimes it is ornamented with dots
or special lines burnt on with a fire-stick. A cord of twisted hair
and fur two feet three inches long
Australasia and the Pacific
245
 Australasia and the Pacific
is attached to the blunt end of the stick by white gum.
The person who has made the stick then 'sings' it - that is,
endows it with his
hatred for the proposed victim. After hiding the stick for a few
days, he seeks a favourable opportunity to point it at his enemy,
such as by taking up a position some way behind him when he
is seated near a camp fire and his silhouette is clearly outlined.
The stick is pointed at the victim with short, stabbing
movements, the operator meanwhile willing the bad magic to be
projected from the stick into his enemy's body. Sometimes the
magic-man has an assistant who holds the end of the cord and
reinforces the evil going out of the stick.
Another method used by the aborigines for ridding
themselves of an enemy is to sing to themselves with him in
mind the 'song of the dream-time snake'. An account of such a
proceeding appeared in the British press a few years ago. A
young native named Lyn Wulumu was hated by his mother-in-
law, so she sang the song to put him out of the way. Its effect,
so it is stated, is to cause a dream- snake to coil itself round the
body of the sleeping victim, and it gradually crushes him until he
can no longer breathe.
Lyn was unquestionably a dying man when a Methodist
missionary had him flown down to Darwin Hospital. Four doctors
could find nothing whatever wrong with him physically, but he
was clearly about to die. They put him in an iron lung,
and so saved his life.
The Maoris of New Zealand are a far more advanced people;
but they, too, have
their magic, as do other Polynesians and the Melanesians.
The sea voyages made with remarkable precision from one
island to another without compass or other mechanical aids to
navigation, and often over great wastes of ocean, are evidence
enough that they are sensitive to natural laws still unknown to
science. Of all emi- grations the most remarkable was that by
Pacific peoples through the East Indies and across the Indian
Ocean to Madagascar; and the combination of their magic with
that of the African Negro's must have produced some very
potent occultists among the Malagasis.
While in the Fijis I had the exceptional good fortune to see
one of the com- paratively infrequent fire-walks on the island of
Beqa. We were received by the Vunivalu and his Council of
Elders and, after the usual yaggona drinking ceremony of
welcome, taken to sit on a grassy slope about fifty feet above a
circular pit some twenty feet in diameter. The pit was three-
quarters full oflarge stones covered with
smouldering logs. By a fire lit at seven o'clock that morning
the stones had been made red hot. At a signal from the Chief, a
dozen natives approached the pit in pairs, each holding one end
of a long, very tough, rope-like Iiana. Throwing these across the
pit, they ran from it parallel to each other, so that the middle of
the Iiana formed a bight and, as it narrowed, caught round one
of the smouldering logs. In this way they dragged all the logs out
of the pit. Next they approached the pit with long poles and
prodded the stones until no points, which might trip a fire walker,
were sticking up. As they were doing this, one of the poles
snapped and the end, about two feet long, fell on the stones. It
had not lain there for more than thirty seconds before it burst
into flame. That was incontestable evidence that the stones
246
Fijians walking on red-hot stones
 really were intensely hot.
From a nearby bure, in which they had been fasting for twenty-
four hours, there
emerged the eight men who were to make the fire-walk. They
were naked to the waist, but wore short sulus of leather; their
legs and feet were bare. Carrying them- selves very upright,
they walked with slow, dignified steps to the pit, down on to the
stones, once round it, then out again. Not one of them faltered,
made a murmur or showed any change of expression.
Afterwards, laughing, they showed me the soles of their feet.
There was not even the suggestion of a blister on them.
For passing unscathed through such an ordeal there is as yet
no scientific explanation. It is achieved by white magic.
The Fijians are a splendid people, but only four or five
generations ago they were cannibals, and they are convinced
that a man's spirit can be forced to obey orders.
Australasia and the Pacific
247
 Of Apparitions
The houses still lived in by the Ratus- as their Rajahs are
called- are supported on piles made from thick tree trunks.
Before each of these was put in a man was lowered to the
bottom of the hole and buried alive beneath it, with orders that
his spirit was to protect the pile from being attacked by termites.
Of Apparitions
Generally speaking, apparitions are quite harmless, but there
are several kinds, and some can be malicious.
In most cases a ghost is the etheric body, which the
Egyptians called the ka, lingering for a while in the
neighbourhood in which the physical body has died. Sometimes
it is more than that, a khu, animated by the spirit of the dead
person, who has deliberately returned because it promised
someone to do so, because it has a message to convey, or
because its body died in circumstances that, for a while, have
caused it to become earthbound. Yet again, if the person who
has died was possessed, its ka may be inhabited by a demon,
or it may be that an elemental is impersonating the dead person
for an evil purpose.
In the third volume of his great work Death and its Mystery,
from which I have already quoted in another connection, the
eminent French savant Camille Flam- marion gives many
accounts of apparitions, so well attested that it is impossible to
doubt their veracity. It is unnecessary to quote more than a few.
The owner of a factory in Glasgow had in his employ a
delicate youth named Robert Mackenzie, who after three years
inadvisedly left him. A few years later he chanced to come upon
Robert in the street. He was destitute and starving, so the
manufacturer gave him his job back. From then on, Robert
showed absolute devotion to him.
In due course the manufacturer went to live in London, and
he forgot about his Scottish workman. One night he dreamt that
he was seated at his desk, talking business with a customer.
Robert entered the room and came toward him. Irritated, he
asked the young man if he did not see that he was busy. With
an air of annoyance Robert withdrew; but in the meantime his
employer had noticed that his face was a livid blue and that on
his forehead there were beads of sweat. As soon as the visitor
had gone, Robert hurried forward again. Reproved, he protested
that he had something most urgent to tell his master. He said he
had been accused of an act he had not committed. Asked what
it was, he would only reply that he wanted his benefactor to
know that he was innocent. Pressed to say of what he had been
accused, he said, 'Ye will ken it soon', then disappeared.
Soon after the manufacturer had woken from this strange
dream, his wife ran into the room with an open letter in her hand
and cried, 'Oh, James! A terrible thing has happened. Young
Mackenzie has committed suicide.'
It transpired that on the previous Saturday the workmen at
the Glasgow factory had held their annual dance. Robert, who
was inclined to be' solitary, had spent the evening helping in the
refreshment room. Afterwards he had taken home a bottle that
he believed to contain whiskey, and before getting into bed had
taken a quick swig. It had been nitric acid. He had died in agony,
and the symptoms his
248
 master had seen on the face of the apparition were those
which result from nitric acid poisoning.
A nurse named Mrs Chambers sent the following to
Flammarion. Tommy Brown, a boy of twelve, belonging to a
poverty-stricken family, was in hospital suffering from
malnutrition. His mother came to visit him, and he said to her,
'Mama, there's Father.'
'No, dear,' his mother answered. 'There's no one there.'
'But there is,' the boy insisted. 'It's Father, and he's beckoning
me to follow him, so that he can take me away with him.'
The mother thought that Tommy was delirious and remarked
to Mrs Chambers that the boy's father had been dead for two
years.
Hearing this, Tommy said, 'No, he's not dead. He's there, and
beckoning me with his hand. He's calling me! He's calling me!'
Little Tommy died a few days later.
The next example concerns a young woman who died of
cholera in StLouis in 1867. Nine years later her brother, to whom
she had been devoted, went on a visit to the United States. One
day, when working in his room, he suddenly realized that she
was sitting beside him. He was thunderstruck, but delighted to
see her as if in the flesh, looking happy and charming but for the
fact that she had a nasty scratch across one cheek.
On returning home, he told his parents about this vision. His
father was in- credulous and made fun of him. But, when he
mentioned the scratch on the girl's face, his mother fainted. She
had made that scratch herself, accidentally with a pin, while
arranging her daughter's body for burial. And nobody except
herself could possibly have known about it.
Lord Brougham, the inventor of the form of carriage that
bears his name, wrote in his memoirs:
'While at school I had a friend whom I particularly loved and
esteemed. Several times we discussed the question of survival,
and one day we were foolish enough to draw up a contract
written in our own blood, stating whichever of us died first would
return and show himself to the other.
'A few years later, at the age of twenty-one, I was travelling in
Sweden. It was December and very cold so, on arriving at
Gottenburg I immediately had a hot bath. I was just proposing to
get out when I glanced at the chair on which I had put my
clothes. To my stupefaction my friend was seated there, calmly
gazing at me.
'On my return to Edinburgh I found a letter from India, telling
me that my friend had died there on December 19th- the day
that his ghost had appeared to me in Sweden.'
The following also concerns Sweden. Madame de
Marteville's husband had been the Dutch Minister to that
country. After his death one of his creditors demanded zs,ooo
Dutch florins. The widow felt sure that the debt had been paid,
and to have paid it again would have put her in serious
difficulties; so she went to the famous seer, Emanuel
Swedenborg, and eight days afterwards she had a dream.
Of Apparitions
249
Of Apparitions
 In it her husband appeared to her, and showed her the piece
of furniture in which the receipt was, together with a hair-comb
set with twenty diamonds, which she had believed lost. Getting
up, she found the things, then went joyfully back to bed. The
following morning Swedenborg called on her and, before she
had said a word, told her that the previous night Monsieur de
Marteville's spirit had appeared to him and had told him that it
was about to appear to her.
During the civil war in the Vendee a weaver named Jean
Goujon was killed. As he had no family, his thatched cottage
was ·left empty and abandoned. Next harvest time a girl of
nineteen was returning from the fields. To her horror, on passing
the cottage she saw Goujon lying across the threshold of the
door. The apparition called to her, saying that his savings were
behind a stone in the chimney corner, and imploring her to have
them used for the repose of his soul. The money was found and
the masses were said.
Here is an account of how the lives of many people were
probably saved. A Captain Dreiker was in command of a ship
sailing from New York to the Tortugas. He states:
'One night, everything being as it should be, I left my
absolutely trustworthy first mate in charge on the bridge and
went down to my cabin. At ten to eleven I distinctly heard a
voice say, "Return to the bridge and give orders to cast anchor."
'I called out, "Who's that?", but received no reply; so went up
to the bridge. No-one from it had come down to me, and all was
in order; so I went back to my cabin.
'At ten to twelve, a man in a long overcoat and a broad-
brimmed hat that partially hid his face, entered it. He ordered me
to go up and have the anchor cast. Then he turned away and I
heard his heavy footsteps as he went off down the passage.
Greatly agitated, I went up to the bridge again; but everything
was all right and I felt confident that the ship was on her correct
course.
'Too worried now to go to sleep, I sat in my cabin. At ten
minutes to one, the vision again appeared and imperatively
ordered me to have the anchor dropped. Suddenly I recognized
the apparition as that of my old friend, Captain John Burton, who
had been extremely kind to me when, as a boy, I had gone on
voyages with him. Doubting the rightness of the order no longer,
I ran up to the bridge and had the anchor cast. In the morning I
found that had I not done so the ship would have run on to the
rocks of Bahama.'
Here is a case of a spirit returning long after death. In March
1905 a game warden named Cocozza, who lived in a village up
in the Abruzzi mountains, had his father appear to him in a
dream. He was reproached by his father, who had been dead
ten years, for having neglected his grave and allowing wolves to
gnaw his bones. In the morning Cocozza told his sister of his
dream. T o his amazement she had had the same dream.
Although it was snowing hard, the game warden took his rifle
and went out to the cemetery. His father's grave had been
disturbed, there were the footprints of wolves in the snow, and
scattered bones that had been gnawed. Cocozza complained to
the authorities, and took action against the cemetery officials. It
then transpired
250
that, the cemetery being very small, it was customary to open
up graves after a corpse had been interred for ten years and
remove the bones to a charnel house. The grave-diggers had
been carrying out their work at the grave of Cocozza's father,
when a blizzard had come on and caused them to stop, leaving
the bones at the side of the grave.
I have, I think, better grounds than most people who believe
they have seen an apparition for feeling certain that it really was
a psychic manifestation, because I doubt if I had then ever
heard about ghosts, and I took it for a burglar.
At the age of eight, being a delicate boy, I was sent to
boarding school at Margate, in order that I might benefit from the
reputedly healthy sea air that, in winter, often blew in icy gusts
direct from the North Pole upon this seaside resort.
Owing to my tender age, instead of being put in a dormitory, I
lived with three other youngsters in the headmaster's villa. It was
a square, detached, three-storey house, having a single central
stairway, with four bedrooms opening out on the first-floor
landing.
One winter night, at about eight o'clock, I was going up to bed
with a single companion. He was next to the wall, and I was next
to the banisters. Only a dim light came up from the hall. When I
was within three steps of the landing, my head was level with
the top of the banisters. I chanced to look to my left and through
the banisters. A figure was crouching on the lower steps of the
upper flight leading to the second floor. It had one hand on the
banister rail. Its face was below the hand, a white blob staring
through the banisters into my eyes. Terrified, I halted. As I did so
the figure glided silently up the stairs. Next moment I was flying
down
the stairs, yelling at the top of my voice, 'A burglar! A burglar!'
The headmaster, Mr Hester, and others promptly came on the
scene with hockey-sticks. While his wife, who was only about
twenty-five, and a friend of hers named Millie Evans, who often
stayed with them, comforted me with lemonade and cake, the
house was searched. The burglar had disappeared. Nothing had
been taken, nothing disturbed. There was no building near
enough for a man to have leapt from the roof to another. In the
morning they went round the outside of the house. There were
no scratches on the drain-pipes, no broken plants or footmarks
on the flower-beds. Everyone insisted that I had imagined the
whole thing. I swore that I had seen the outline of a crouching
man, his hand on the banister and
his face peering into mine.
Years later, during the First World War, I again met Millie Evans.
After we had
chatted for a while, she asked, 'D'you remember when you
saw the ghost?' Puzzled, I replied, 'Ghost? No. I've never seen a
ghost.'
'Oh, of course,' she said. 'You thought it was a burglar. But it
wasn't. The
Hesters were very keen on spiritualism. In the evenings we
frequently held seances and got wall-rappings. When no burglar
could be found, we realized that the thing you had seen must
have been something very nasty that we had called up, and we
never held another seance.'
My only other psychic experience was on the Western Front.
My division had had a pretty heavy pasting in the battle of
Passchendaele, so we were taken out of
Of Apparitions
Of Apparitions
 Faces believed to be of 'spirit guides' in a photograph taken
by a medium
the Ypres sector and sent down to a very quiet part of the
front opposite Cambrai. The officers of my battery were given a
walled garden in which to pitch our tents. It lay behind a chateau
that the Germans had blown up the previous summer before
retreating for a few miles. They had used the chateau as a field
hospital. In one corner of the yard in front of it there was a shed
the roof of which had fallen in. Under it we found piles of
bloodstained uniforms and battered helmets, so evidently the
shed had been used as a place in which to put the equipment of
the wounded and dying as they were brought in.
We had been told that we were to rest there all through the
winter. Actually, within three weeks we were up to our necks in
the battle of Cambrai; but mean- while, having no idea of what
was in store for us, we set two bricklayers to work on building us
a lean-to Mess against the wall of the garden. It was early
November, and getting chilly, so I decided to build a little lean-
to-house with a fireplace in it,
252
for myself and the officer with whom I was sharing a tent,
who was then on leave in England.
Owing to my duties I could work only in the evenings. But
during the daytime my soldier servant collected bricks from the
nearby ruined village and cleaned them ready for me. The nights
were fine, with splendid moonlight, so I was able to carry on until
about one o'clock in the morning.
One night, when I had been on the job for about a week, I set
to work im- mediately after dinner. During the meal there had
been the usual chat, and not a word about the occult or ghosts.
The subject had not even crossed my mind. For three hours or
so I was fully occupied laying and levelling the bricks. By then
my three brother officers were all sound asleep in their tents.
They were some distance from me; but, owing to the brilliant
moonlight, I could just catch glimpses of the canvas through the
branches of the pear and apple trees.
I was mixing a new lot of mortar and cheerfully humming to
myself. Suddenly I had a feeling that someone was behind me. I
swung round. There was nobody there, and it was utterly silent. I
turned back to my mixing. Again I felt a presence menacing me
from behind. I again whipped round and stared through the
moonlit branches of the pear tree. Nothing there. I took myself to
task, as I had made up my mind to lay one more row of bricks
before turning in.
How long I stuck it I have no idea. Perhaps two minutes ;
perhaps only thirty seconds. My whole being told me that
something malevolent was about to strike me down from behind.
Dropping my shovel, I fled in terror to my tent. Sweat had broken
out on my forehead; with trembling hands I managed to switch
on my torch. I have never fainted in my life, but I came very near
to it then.
I have no doubt that I was threatened by an elemental. Every
good or bad thought that passes through the human brain
creates a thought-form, either beautiful or horrible. The good
ones give our guardian 'angel greater strength to protect us. The
bad ones become elementals and, having been born, endeavour
to maintain a life of their own. This they can do by feeding on the
spirit forms of offal, excreta, vomit, blood and spilt semen. They
build up etheric bodies like those of the demons in the paintings
of Breughel. Normally they are invisible; but they are often seen
by chronic alcoholics and drug-takers, on whom they feed as
spiritual parasites, and when such a person dies the elemental
blindly seeks some- one else on whom to batten.
Modern Occultists
I had been reading books on ancient religions and occultism
for the best part of twenty years when I decided to write my first
novel with a black magic theme, The Devil Rides Out; but I did
not feel that I really knew enough about the subject, so I secured
introductions to the leading occultists of the day, asked each of
them to dinner several times, and had long discussions with
them.
One visitor was Harry Price, who of course was not a
magician but a ghost- hunter. He had been particularly
prominent in the investigation into the haunting of Borley
Rectory. About whether the place was haunted or not there had
been a
Modern Occultists
253
 Borley Rectory, Essex, the 'most haunted house in England'
considerable difference of opinion, and after Price's death
one of England's largest national newspapers sent one of their
leading reporters down to endeavour to settle the question.
The reporter is a man of undoubted integrity and has since
become a famous television personality. But, as he told me the
following in confidence, I must refer to him as X. With him to
Borley he took a staff photographer. They spent two days there
without finding the least indication of haunting. Returning to
London,
254
X. wrote his article. He was just finishing when the
photographer came in with the films he had been developing,
and said, 'X., look at this.'
It was a photograph of the Rectory taken from a field beyond
a road that passed it. On the Rectory side of the road ran a wire
fence, but it was said that at one time there had been a gate
there. On the photographic plate there was the gate and,
standing in it, the outline of the figure of a nun.
They took the photograph to the editor. For some reason it
was against the
255
 Modern Occultists
policy of the paper to confirm Price's contention that the
rectory was haunted, so the photograph was suppressed.
The Reverend Montague Summers was a most interesting
man. He was not only a great authority on witchcraft,
werewolves and the rest, but also wrote a number of excellent
books on the Restoration theatre. He always dressed as a
clergyman, and, with the silvery locks that curled down on either
side of his pale, aristocratic face, he was the very picture of a
Restoration bishop. But quite a number of people maintained
that he had either been defrocked or had never taken holy
orders at all.
I recall his telling me one evening of an exorcism he had
performed in Ireland. The wife of a cottager was apparently
possessed by a devil. When Summers arrived she was foaming
at the mouth and had to be held down. With bell and book he
performed the ceremony. A small black cloud issued from the
woman's mouth. She became quiet, the black cloud disappeared
into a cold leg of mutton that had been put on the table ready for
supper. A few minutes later, it was seen to be
swarming with maggots.
Summers asked my wife and me to spend the weekend at his
house in Alresford.
We motored down on the Friday afternoon. When we were
taken round the garden, my wife spotted .the most gigantic toad
she had ever seen, and in the bed- room we were given there
were a dozen enormous spiders.
On the Saturday morning my host took me into a room that
was empty except for a pile of books. Picking up a small leather-
bound volume, he said, 'Look, this is just the thing for you. It is
worth far more, but I'll let you have it for fifty pounds.'
I did not want it and, anyhow, could not have afforded it.
Much embarrassed, I said so. Never have I seen a man's
expression change so swiftly. From benevolent calm it suddenly
became filled with demoniac fury. He threw down the book and
flounced out of the room. An hour later I had sent myself a
telegram. By Saturday evening my wife and I were home again
in London. That was the last I saw of the 'Reverend' Montague
Summers.
Rollo Ahmed was a very different character. He was an
Egyptian by birth, and from his father's family had acquired his
initial knowledge of the 'secret art'. However, his mother was a
native of the West Indies and, while Rollo was still in his 'teens,
his parents decided to leave Egypt. For many years he lived with
them in devil-ridden islands and the little-explored forests of
Yucatan, Guiana and Brazil. In these places he acquired first-
hand knowledge not only of the primitive magic of the forest
Indians, but also of Voodoo and the use of obeahs. Later he
explored Europe and Asia for further knowledge of the mysteries
and for a while lived in Burma, where he became a practitioner
of Raja Yoga.
He was a small, slim man, neither bombastic nor subservient,
with a most cheer- ful personality and a ready laugh, and he
spoke English perfectly. Several times he dined with us in
Q!.Ieen's Gate. On one occasion on a freezing night in mid-
winter he arrived without a hat or overcoat, dressed in a thin
summer suit. He had walked all the way from Clapham
Common; yet his hands were glowing with warmth. This he
declared was due to his practising yoga, and he offered to teach
zs6
 my wife and me yoga breathing. We had a few lessons, but
were too heavily engaged with other matters to follow it up.
After the great success of The Devil Rides Out, my London
publisher asked me to write a serious study of the occult. But in
1935 I did not feel that I was competent to do so, and I
suggested that they should approach Rollo Ahmed. He wrote
The Black Art for them, and, having re-read it recently, I am
again amazed at the extent of his knowledge. From him I learnt
a great deal. Later I was told that he had slipped up in a
ceremony and failed to master a demon, who had caused all his
teeth to fall out. Soon after the opening of the war, I lost sight of
him, as I had other things to think about.
I was introduced to Aleister Crowley by a friend of mine who
was a very well- known journalist and later, as a Member of
Parliament, became one of the leaders of the Socialist Party. I
will therefore refer to him as Z. Crowley dined with my wife and
me several times. He was a fascinating conversationalist and
had an intellect of the first order.
His interest in the occult dated from his days as an
undergraduate at Cambridge. It is said that, while there, he
wanted to put on a bawdy play by Aristophanes, but the Master
of John's forbade it. Thereupon Crowley made a wax figure of
the Master and, with a group of youngsters, took it out into a
meadow one night at the full of the moon. While they stood in a
circle round him, he recited an invocation and prepared to stick
a long needle into the liver of the image. One of his com-
panions was seized with qualms, broke the ring and grabbed his
arm to stop him. The needle pierced the image's ankle instead
of its liver. Next day the Master fell down the steps of the college
and broke his ankle.
Aleister Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice, inscribed
by him to the author of this book
Modern Occultists
In Paris in the latter part of the last century there were
several powerful practi- tioners of the black art, among them
Eliphas Levi, the defrocked priest Abbe Boullan and his ex-nun
mistress Adele Chevalier, Jules Bois, Julie Thibault, Oswald
Wirth, J.-K. Huysmans and the Marquis Stanislas de Guaita,
who founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross. There
was bitter rivalry among these adepts, and there is reason to
believe that Guaita killed Boullan by sorcery.
Meanwhile the Order of the Golden Dawn had been founded
in England. It had over a hundred members, including Algernon
Blackwood, Arthur Machen, W. B. Yeats, William Wynn Westcott
of the Rosicrucians, MacGregor Mathers and Crowley. The two
latter became deadly enemies. Mathers succeeded in getting
Crowley expelled from the Order, upon which Crowley formed
an order of his own, called the Silver Star. When Mathers died in
1918 many of his friends were convinced that Crowley had put a
death spell on him.
For some years Crowley lived in Sicily, with a number of male
and female disciples at the Abbey of Thelema, near Cefalu.
Black masses were said there and animals offered up to Satan.
It was then rumoured that human infants were also being
sacrificed, upon which the authorities expelled Crowley from
Italy.
In Crowley's book Magick in Theory and Practice he gives the
degrees of initia- tion as follows :
The Order ofthe S.S.
lpsissimus Magus
Magister Templi
10°= I 0 9°=2° 8°= 3°
The Order ofthe R.C. (Babe of the Abyss - the link)
Adeptus Exemptus Adeptus Major Adeptus Minor
7°=4°. 6°=5° 5°=6°
The Order ofthe G.D.
(Dominus Liminis- the link)
Philosophus Practicus Zelator Neophyte Probationer
4°= 7° 3°=8° 2° = 9
1°= 10°
o0 =o0
(These figures have special meanings to the initiate and
are commonly employed to designate the grades.)
The general characteristics and attributions of these grades
are indicated by their correspondences on the Tree of Life, as
may be studied in detail in Liber 777·
Opposite Aleister Crowley, who claimed to be the Devil's
chief emissary on earth and identified himself with the Beast,
whose number is 666, in the Book of Revelation
Modern Occultists
259
 Modern Occultists
Student. His business is to acquire a general intellectual
knowledge of all systems of attainment, as declared in the
prescribed books.
Probationer. His principal business is to begin such practices
as he may prefer, and to write a careful record of the same for
one year.
Neophyte. Has to acquire perfect control of the Astral Plane.
Zelator. His main work is to achieve complete success in
Asana and Pranayama. He also begins to study the formula of
the Rosy Cross.
Practicus. Is expected to complete his intellectual training,
and in particular to study the Qtbalah.
Philosophus. Is expected to complete his moral -training. He
is tested in Devotion to the Order.
Dominus Liminis. Is expected to show mastery of Pratyahara
and Dharana.
Adeptus Minor. Is expected to perform the Great Work and to
attain the Know- ledge and the Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel.
Adeptus Major. Is admitted to the practice of the formula of
the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost.
Adeptus Exemptus. Obtains a general mastery of practical
Magick, though without comprehension.
Babe of the Abyss. Completes in perfection all these matters.
He then either (a) becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or,
(b) is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even
of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a Babe of the Abyss,
who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in
the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a
Magister Templi (Master of the Temple): whose functions are
fully described in Liber 418, as is this whole initiation from
Adeptus Exemptus. See also 'Aha!'. His principal business is to
tend his 'garden' of disciples, and to obtain a perfect under-
standing of the Universe. He is a Master of Samadhi.
Magus. Attains to wisdom, declares his law (see Liber 1, vel
Magi) and is a Master of all Magick in its greatest and highest
sense.
Ipsissimus. Is beyond all this and beyond all comprehension
of those of lower degrees.
Having had Crowley to dinner several times, I told my friend
Z. that, although I found him intensely interesting, I was
convinced that he could not harm a rabbit.
'Ah!' replied Z. 'Not now, perhaps. But he was very different
before that affair in Paris.' The affair in Paris was as follows.
Crowley wanted to raise Pan. One of his disciples owned a
small hotel on the Left Bank. Crowley, with his twelve disciples,
took it over for the weekend and the servants were given a
holiday. On Saturday night a big room at the top of the house
was emptied of all its furniture, swept and garnished. Crowley
and his principal disciple, MacAleister (son of Aleister), were to
perform the ceremony there, while the other eleven remained
downstairs. He told them that, whatever noises they might hear,
in no circumstances were they to enter the room before
mormng.
z6o
Down in the little restaurant a cold collation had been
prepared. The eleven
 had supper and waited uneasily. They all had a great deal to
drink, but got only stale-tight. By midnight the place had become
intensely cold. They heard shouting and banging in the room
upstairs, but obeyed orders not to go up. In the morning they did
go up. The door was locked and they could get no reply to their
anxious calls, so they broke it down.
Crowley had raised Pan all right. MacAleister was dead and
Crowley, stripped of his magician's robes, a naked gibbering
idiot crouching in a corner.
Before he was fit to go about again, he spent four months in
a lunatic asylum. Z., who told me all this, had been one of the
disciples, and an eye-witness to this party.
V oodoo
This is one of the vilest, cruellest and most debased forms of
worship ever devised by man. Its origins lay in darkest Africa,
and the Negro has carried its foul practices with him to every
part of the world which he inhabits; and now even, I am told on
good authority, to several cities in England.
The Voodoo account of the Creation is that God took his
woman into the bedroom and together they began it. According
to these people, that is all that a woman is fit for, together with
working and cooking for her man.
All 'teen-age girls are specially trained for marriage by old
beldames. It is held that soft beds make a poor foundation for
copulation. The girl is taught to lie on the hard floor supported
only by her shoulders, elbows and the soles of her feet. On the
day of her marriage she offers her vagina to her new owner in
this position. During her training she has been erotically titillated,
and on the morning of the wedding given aphrodisiacs, so that
she will not disgrace herself by failing to exhaust her man.
The uplifted finger of Voodoo greeting represents the ~ale
member. The Voodoo handshake is the thumb of one person
thrust between the thumb and first finger of the other,
symbolizing copulation. At a Voodoo cermony the houngan or
priest asks the mambo or priestess 'What is truth?' Throwing
back a veil, she exposes her sex organs. There follows a dance
in which the woman throws off six more veils until she is naked.
Working herself up into a frenzy, she at last collapses on the
floor. Privileged males are then allowed to kiss her vagina.
The Caribbean islands, Brazil and the southern United States
are all riddled with Voodoo, but its heartland is the black
Republic of Haiti. In 1908 Celestina, the daughter of the
President, and a powerful mambo, was married to a goat. When
it died it was buried with the rites of the Christian Church.
On to the original pagan gods of the Congo, Nigeria and
Dahomey, Voodoo has grafted the Christian saints. For
instance, Damballah Ouedo, the snake god, who is the greatest
of the Voodoo gods, is associated with St Patrick, because in
pictures of that saint there is always a snake.
A Voodoo altar looks like a stall at a cheap jumble sale. One
that I saw in Brazil had heaped on it pictures of the Virgin Mary
and several saints, bottles of Coca- Cola, little pots of wilted
flowers, shredded palm fronds, a dagger, a fly-whisk
V oodoo
261
V oodoo
 and flasks of rum. But so primitive still are some of these
people that Voodoo ceremonies are held to appease spirits that
they believe to live at the sources of nvers.
Usually the ceremonies are held in a compound called a
hounfort, where the houngan lives like an African chief. To the
rise and fall of brilliantly coordinated drumming, rituals are
carried out with a sword, flags and dancing. The couples dance
skilfully among a maze of candles set up on the floor, and their
movements represent copulation. The hougan also dances and,
making the same movement, will press himself against the
backsides of some of the dancers.
Now and then a man or woman will break away and whirl
round and round, excited by the drumming into a frenzy. Their
eyes roll and they become possessed by one of the many spirits
they callloas. Through them the loa makes demands and
prophecies; foaming at the mouth, the dancer then has a fit and
falls to the ground.
There are two kinds of gods: the Rada, under Damballah,
who are good gods, and the Petro, who are evil. The chief of the
latter is called Baron Samedi, Baron Cimeterre and Baron Crois
- three names (Lord of Saturday, Lord of the Cemetery and Lord
of the Cross) for one deity. Damballah's day is Wednesday, and
he likes to have a white cock and a white hen sacrificed to him.
His woman is Aida Ouedo. The fourth high member of the
pantheon is Papa Legba, the giver of opportunities. Maitre
Carrefour (Lord of the Crossroads) is also important. He is
worshipped in the form of a man-high cross on which has been
hung a dirty old tail-coat and a battered top hat. The chants that
are sung bring in innumerable other deities.
Sacrifices are then offered in a refinement of cruelty
compared with which the Black Mass is a civilized proceeding. If
it is a pig, they first cut off its testicles, then drink its blood; if it is
a goat, it is buffetted and beaten before a deadly slash from the
houngan's magic sabre puts it out of its misery; if it is a dog, its
ears and tail are first cut off; if it is a pair of chickens or doves,
the bones of the wings and legs are slowly broken before the
necks are wrung. Few people can be so bestial as the Haitian
Voodooists. Moreover, Zora Hurston also tells us in her very
informative book Voodoo Gods that they are fundamentally
dishonest and should never be paid in advance for any service,
as they think themselves clever not to perform it, and they
cannot be trusted with even a few cents.
They call a person's soul a duppy and believe that, like the
Egyptian ka, it lingers near the body for a while; according to
them, for nine days. On the ninth night the dead man's relatives
and friends crowd into his hut and give his ka a party. He is
supposed to feed off the spirit doubles of the food offered to him,
and to take away with him the spirit doubles of his furniture and
clothes, and depart contented. Eighteen months later another
ceremony, called koo-min-ah, is performed. This is the formal
closing of the dead man's grave; it is assumed that for several
months he might leave it from time to time to wander about, but
that after a year and a half he will really have settled down, so
there is no longer any fear that, by closing
Opposite Votaries possessed in a Voodoo dance
262
 it, he would be shut out. Voodoo has its black Venus, a
sexually insatiable goddess named Erzulie. She is obsessed
with jealousy. Woe betide the man whom she visits in a dream
who does not henceforth become utterly devoted to her. She will
tolerate no rival. Every Thursday and Saturday millions of
candles are lighted in her honour, after thousands of wives have
prepared their bed with clean sheets and perfumed the room;
they are then turned out to sleep in the hen-run, while their
husbands revel in erotic conflicts with the goddess. It is
somewhat surprising to learn that, when a man seeks initiation
to the cult of Erzulie, his baptism includes the reciting by the
houngan of three Credos and three Ave Marias.
Side by side with the normal Voodoo ceremonies - which in
all conscience are revolting enough - there are others carried
out by several secret societies, where cannibalism is practised.
The most powerful of these is the Cochon Gris. Its members are
bocors, the Haiti name for witch-doctors.
Apart from cannibalism, their speciality is selling souls to
Satan. Ambitious men make pacts with them to be granted
prosperity for a year, in return for a soul; not their own, but that
of some other member of their family, of whom they must be
fond. As time goes on and they have sacrificed their children,
their relatives and, at last, their wives, they are eventually
brought to book and have to surrender themselves.
It is supposed that these souls acquired by the bocors
become zombies. Everyone in Haiti, even the mulattos, who are
predominantly white, and the ruling caste, fear the zombies and
also that an enemy may cause them to be made into one.
The process is said to be that the bocor mounts his horse
and, seated facing the tail, rides after dark to the selected
victim's house. There he places his lips to the crack of the door,
sucks out the victim's soul and rides off with it. The victim
becomes ill and in afew hours is dead. The following night, after
he has been buried, the bocor and his assistants go to the
cemetery and open the grave. The corpse is called on by name,
and is compelled to cooperate, as the bocor has its soul with
him, perhaps in a bottle. The corpse is then allowed one sniff at
his soul, which enables him to sit up. He is hauled out of the
grave and hustled along to the hounfort and given a sip of a
potion, the formula for which is a great secret. After that he is a
zombie and will work tirelessly in the bocor's fields, or perform
any simple tasks of evil that he is ordered to carry out.
It seems probable that the victim never actually dies, but is
either bewitched or given some drug that temporarily stops his
heart and gives him the appearance of death. In a hot country
he would naturally be buried the following day. The bocor then
disinters him and restores him to physical but not mental life, his
brain having been atrophied by the potion that entirely destroys
his knowledge of his personality, his reasoning faculties and his
memory.
In extenuation of normal Voodoo ceremonies, it must be
remembered that its votaries are among the most poverty-
stricken people in the world, and, as the sabbaths were to the
witches in Europe, their excesses are the only thing that makes
like worth living. It is a tragedy that they should have been
ensnared into such cruel and bestial practices.
264
Magic and the Fate of Nations
In ancient times triumph or disaster seems almost always to
have depended on advice from occult sources, because it was
the priests who informed warrior-kings of favourable days on
which to join battle, and of ways in which they might best
overcome their enemies.
With the advance of time, official religious sources were less
frequently con- sulted; but there must have been many
instances where the monarch's closest counsellor was an
extremely strong personality who had risen from a lowly origin,
owing to his hypnotic powers, and who was at least believed by
his jealous rivals to have dealings with the Devil.
We have seen how Joan of Arc's 'voices' led to her imbuing
the French army with such spirit that it broke the hold that
England had had for many generations over a great part of
France.
There is some evidence to show that, behind the scenes, the
Rosicrucians played a considerable part in bringing about the
French Revolution. Louis XVI was a very humane man and a
very weak one, but the fact that he made no attempt to check
the Revolution in the early days, when it could easily have been
done, does suggest the possibility that he was under a spell. If
he was not, it is difficult to understand how he could, on the
fateful August roth 1790, have given his devoted Swiss Guard
orders that they were on no account to fire upon the mob, then
watched every man of them being butchered before his eyes.
Many people are of the opinion that Rasputin was a black
magician. It is certain that he was a most powerful hypnotist and
healer, and that simply by the laying on of hands he checked the
little Tsarevitch's haemophilia. That naturally won him the
gratitude of the Tsar and Tsarina, but it seems a little too much
that these two rabid autocrats should have allowed him to make
a habit of kissing them upon the face.
That he was a lecher of the first order there is no doubt at all;
and, although the Imperial Family was deeply religious, many
people assert that the Tsarina and all four of her young
daughters allowed him to become their lover. For them, and
many well-born ladies of the Russian court, to have allowed an
unwashed monk, who kept his long fingernails encrusted with
dirt, to gratify his lust on their bodies, an explanation was
advanced to me by my good friend Joseph Vecchi, who for
many years ran the Hungaria Restaurant in London.
 Before the war Vecchi had been the maitre d'hotel at the
Grand Hotel, St Petersburg, so he knew many members of the
Russian nobility; and later those who came to live in London
after being driven into exile made the Hungaria their favourite
meeting-place. Among others Prince Yusupov, who played the
leading role in Rasputin's killing, was often there. Moreover it
was at the Grand Hotel that Rasputin used to entertain, and on
many occasions Vecchi had supervised parties for him in a big
private dining-room in the basement, where the monk would sit
down to dinner, the only man, with up to twenty ladies. Vecchi
was, therefore, something of an authority on Rasputin.
Magic and the Fate of Nations
z6s
By the women of the Russian Court he was undoubtedly
venerated as a saint. Vecchi's belief was that he had introduced
a new cult based on the masochistic outlook of St Paul - that
humility was the key to Heaven and dirtiness next to godliness.
How better could these ladies win favour in the sight of the Holy
Trinity than by submitting to his caresses?
Be that as it may, Rasputin's influence over the Imperial
Family is unquestioned. That the Revolution would have come
about anyhow is highly probable; but there is a possibility that it
might have been averted had the Tsar listened to advisers who
urged him to forgo more of his authority in favour of his newly-
formed parliament. Instead, with Rasputin's blessing, he went off
to spend useless months at the headquarters of his army,
leaving his wife and the monk to run the govern- ment. For
personal ends Rasputin secured the appointment of several
highly incompetent ministers, and their measures undoubtedly
precipitated the revolution.
The French and Russian revolutions were among the
greatest upheavals in modern history. During them many million
people lost their lives, and scores of millions more had loved
ones killed or were reduced to beggary. One of Satan's titles is
Lord of Misrule. No circumstances could have better served his
purpose.
It has been said that, as a young man, Winston Churchill was
a member of the Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt. In view of his
tirelessly inquiring mind, it would not be very surprising if that
were so. But one is reminded of the saying 'A man who at the
age of twenty is not a Communist has no heart; if he is still a
Communist
at the age of thirty, he has no head.'
Ofone thing I feel positive. During the war Churchill had no truck
with occultism
of any kind. For three years it was my good fortune, as a
member of the Joint Planning Staff of the War Cabinet and
therefore one of Churchill's staff officers, to work in the fortress
basement under Whitehall, from which the war was directed. I
state this as evidence to my readers that I am no woolly-minded
mystic, but have my feet very firmly planted on the ground.
Unlike the majority of the other Planners, doubtless owing to the
fact I was already a very well known author, I was privileged to
count among my friends General Lord Ismay, Major Sir
Desmond Morton and Commander 'Tommy' Thompson, R.N.,
who were respectively the Prime Min- ister's Chief Staff Officer,
his Personal Assistant, and his personal Aide-de-Camp; so were
all constantly with him. All three lunched and dined with me, and
I with them, on many occasions. I cannot believe that I would not
have picked up at least a rumour of it from one of them, had our
great war leader owed anything to the Power of Darkness.
There is evidence that Hitler expressed great interest in
Satanic ceremonies, and an American correspondent writes to
me that Hitler once confided to Rauschnig that he was founding
a secret order at the second stage of which a man-god would be
worshipped throughout the world - and presumably Hitler
intended to be that man.
Himmler was obsessed by a belief in occult power. He
listened greedily to every potential magic-maker that his
sycophants could produce for him; and Hitler frequently
consulted astrologers whom he kept as permanent members of
his
Opposite Grigori Efimovich Rasputin
Magic and the Fate of Nations
 The Black Art Today
entourage. Not once, but on half a dozen occasions, he
escaped assassination when by all the laws of chance he should
have been killed. But, in view of the work he was doing, it paid
the Power of Darkness well to keep him alive until it was no
longer possible for him to do further harm. We recall, too, his
last desperate efforts to destroy the German people with
himself. That he survived as long as he did could surely be
termed the 'luck of the Devil'.
The Black Art Today
In every age there have been secret societies, and the
greater part of them have been brotherhoods concerned, to a
greater or lesser degree, with magic. In the Western World, until
the middle of the eighteenth century, their members dared not
admit to belonging to them for fear of being accused of heresy.
With the coming of the Age of Reason the power of the Church
declined; so such societies were more freely talked of and
written about; but, right up to very recent times, few people
would freely confess that on certain nights they attended a
sabbath, for to the ordinary person that still suggested evil
doings and sexual promiscuity.
During the past decade, human behaviour has entered a new
phase. It is termed the permissive society. The restraining
powers of the Churches, parental authority and public opinion
have all been overthrown by the younger generation. The
majority of young people believe that they have the right to do
what they like with their lives, irrespective of others, and
comparatively few of them follow a religion.
Basically, of course, their instincts do not differ from those of
their predecessors. Because a man chooses to grow his hair
long, that does not indicate that he is effeminate or lacks
courage, and it does not follow that, because a girl exposes all
but a small portion of her body to the public gaze, she is
necessarily immoral. But this young generation has been
brought up in a new and terrible era, in which some maniac may
bring an abrupt end to everything by launching nuclear war. In
consequence young people lack a feeling of security and feel
the urge to drown fear in excitement and excess. It is this, and
the desperate seeking for some mental crutch to lean on, that
has brought about this great upsurge in the practice of magic.
For many decades it had become so dormant that in 1951
Parliament repealed the ancient Act that made witchcraft a
crime. This enabled its practitioners to come out into the open.
One such was the late Dr Gerald B. Gardner, who lived in the
Isle of Man and opened there the museum that, he claimed, was
the only one in the world devoted to magic and witchcraft. He
was responsible for the formation of many covens in Britain and
initiated rites which are still followed by a considerable
percentage of covens today, although they are repudiated by
others who adhere to rites handed down from the Druids, and
others again who regard their rites as more orthodox.
In Britain, the number of covens has now increased to
several hundred, and in an article in the New York Times dated
October JISt 1969, the Hampshire witch
Opposite Witches dancing in a circle
268
 The Black Art Today
,
.
.
t
.
·;!~...........- ~ ·___,__
I •l'i't~ r) ; -~i;li•
r1 ·
'.q~ ,
. "'""'P1
t'•. ·....,_., ~·i ·· ' 4
"'~·I'f•~·•I· .,"., ,~'·.',~,''f•"'.·\ "')J
(
J ~-~~
~(·. ' J I .
'"' p - \ ' ' 1 ' ' ' ) . I I ' - . . :
~
fl..,(;}"·::(;;·
t;.w; . • • ~t J . ' • ¥·~1 l
I
~' t.fl\
r~
'".t't , ,. \..·. ··. ...t
-1 r:J~·\l\i\l\;l,}.' ~~'
. '1~
-~. ' . . . . ·~i? ; ] l & a \ ' ' 1 ' \ ? i ' t " • . , i r ; : ; - ) ' . • ·
~ Pi[•
~
,'
:r."'"~'J ·~. ~ ~~m./'~~!~. . . ·/~
f.(,"'~'\.I:_,.,,,,,":J If. ~_,r,,"·?~'~/'~r~:·.~J_t
J1-··.J.
~.:~;-li:~ik
. ~:
!· ••.•n-.. lt.;;;/'~S:W ~
'f.~
~.
1
~ ;~ "' ..""'~~f.~~~
·:;.~tr~<~,-~\ 1
~lc· •.:~.·J.:.
 ·:
~,. /;~~
.
- ~•• ~;·.~·;~~1 ~ ~~·/~ ·LY.•..... i'?:(~l":tS f p!/.'''i··,\~' ''·\f·t'l
~.4ti ~i~,J
rJr.'~;" 1..·:-J:.·~?J•\ :;pr.{
,.

~
t
. .l·"' .'•/\
~
1. ···;\·~
'"' r.,i' .; ·\•.'ill')
'1.:.~4., ':rJ•ll"'-'
.r=.-')l''' '.J:. ~;:.1ro ··~
,:i .u '1,';" l\•'
I
9
·.,•·•:_:•£i-:> ~,~..(":
.·
•. ,;.·:7~. ~·,,;
Lo
>I ~.r~:· ~·,
\
' iA''l)f.. 'h·'";'. ' ~~·
~.•~-~¥\ ' 1v;:t~;;'f)i'· •, ,,, ..,. .
~• ~r ,I
·
·
Il~ I ' J.;;"·;<'t:!t',"•']!~.~.,.·./~""·.· ·'~~~
·.~f
.''f•\t} ;4',.-~":~7;~;..- 'i', . - r . . ) ' i·Y.:g~~. . ~;.~·:';.•~\it· . . . . • :
'
f,
4~
: ' J · • ) - ) . , - ,.~,.~,
\.
-
-.· ~ ~-:·
·- -·
.
 Above and right Charmes printed on Tibetan paper, showing
forms of sickness helplessly manacled
··. .
· .., .•
. ;;
,, •• I
Miss Sybil Leek, who emigrated to the United States, is
reported as saying that she knows of 400 covens there.
At sabbaths all indications of class are eliminated by the fact
that those present wear uniform black robes or strip themselves
naked. The latter custom is much more usual and is claimed to
have the advantage because garments form, to some extent, a
barrier that lessens the free flow of spiritual emanations from the
body. With the object of raising a cone of power the participants
perform the follow- my-leader dance with increasing frenzy until
one of them becomes possessed, falls and, like a medium,
speaks with the voice of the possessing spirit. The procedure is
therefore essentially the same as that which takes place at a
Voodoo ceremony.
The great majority of modern witches stoutly maintain that
they practise only white magic, but the fact remains that anyone
attending a sabbath lays himself open to Satanic influences, and
in certain cases the evil resulting is incontestable.
The Wall Street Journal, of all papers, devoted to the subject
an impressively long article, which opened with a column on the
front page of the issue dated October 23rd 1969. It quotes Mr
Anton Szandor LaVey- who acted as technical adviser in the film
Rosemary's Baby - as saying with a grin, 'I am very much a
devil's advocate.' He added that sex played a big part in the
weekly night-time services he held, and that the 'Church' he had
founded three years before had grown to a membership of
7,ooo.
In California there was the appalling case in which,
apparently, members of a coven brutally murdered the eight-
months-pregnant Sharon Tate and a number
Opposite A witch lying motionless for a night and a day
270
 The Black Art Today
of other people. That it was a Satanic killing I had no doubt
from the first account of it, because, although they were not
hung, two of the victims were found with the traditional sign - the
end of a rope tied round the neck.
In Britain, too, the black art is gaining votaries by the
thousand. The biography, published in 1969, of Mr Alex
Sanders, a Manchester man now living in London, states that,
as a youth, he one day came upon his grandmother in her
kitchen standing naked in a pentacle. She disclosed to him that
she was the last of a long line of hereditary witches. Then, in
due course, she initiated him, both into her secrets and sexually.
He now claims to be the King Witch of England.
Personally I do not believe that there are many more genuine
sorcerers practising today than there have been in the past. By
that I mean initiates of the genuine Rosicrucians or adepts
possessing the secrets of the Cabala who, by a perverted use of
them, can call to their aid the Powers of Darkness. The majority
of these covens, I am convinced, are run by unscrupulous
individuals who, to satisfy their lusts, impose on the credulity of
young people and induce them to participate in rituals ending in
orgies, by promising the girls rich husbands, the men other
women they desire, or success in other ventures on which they
have set their hearts.
I believe, too, that in certain cases covens are operated for
purposes of blackmail. In these, a 'talent scout' picks up a likely
victim at an ordinary spiritualistic seance and says to him, 'This
is only nursery stuff. I'll take you to a place next week where you
can see the real thing.' After attending a few meetings of the
coven, the victim is photographed from behind a curtain,
bending over a lovely nude girl. He is then told to pay up - or
else.
Assuming that I am right, and that such genuine black
magicians as there are concern themselves very little with
romps, but a great deal with bringing about disruption through
causing conditions that lead to widespread labour unrest and
(wherever possible) wars, this does not mean that the covens
run by frauds are harmless. Far from it. One does not have to
know the secret rituals to attract the interest of the Powers of
Darkness.
By prayer to any source of good in which one believes, one
can receive comfort and fortitude; by participating in Satanic
rites, however sham, one can make oneself a focus for evil. The
spilling of blood by the sacrifice of animals, the spilling of semen
in lust without affection, and the practice of perversions are like
ringing a bell for the Devil. All these thousands of young people
who have become initiates of covens are liable to become
pawns of the Power of Darkness in its eternal war with the
Power of Light. If this continues on an ever-increasing scale, the
in- evitable result will be a return to the brutal lawlessness,
poverty and insecurity of the Dark Ages.
It is the duty of every responsible person who values a life of
order, stability and decency to do his utmost to prevent this from
happening. But how are we to set about it?
Opposite The tusked wooden image of a guardian spirit, from
the Nicobar Islands
272
Gonclusions and the 'Way'
The original account of the Fall is symbolical of the
relationship of the invisible Powers to Man. It was the intention
of the Good Power that created Eden that its inhabitants should
live there for ever in unity and happiness. But the Evil Power
intervened and caused the prototypes of mankind to be driven in
misery from the Garden.
Although we are not permitted to know why it should be so,
the spirit of Man is the prize for which the two Powers have been
at war ever since, and will continue so until the end of time.
Throughout recorded history the battle has swayed to and
fro. Periodically the Power of Light sends a great teacher, such
as Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ,
Mahomet - and, quite frequently, smaller ones - to show
mankind the way to achieve peace and contentment. But
invariably the Power of Darkness has caused evil men to pervert
the teachings of the Enlightened Ones, until they become
submerged in ceremonies, often performed by priests leading
exemplary lives but blindfolded by the doctrines of their own
narrow religions.
Today the world is threatened with a new age of Darkness.
For this there are four reasons:
1. Stability has been disrupted by two world wars.
2. Nearly half this world's inhabitants are living under totalitarian
systems,
which destroy family unity and turn individuals into robots.
3· The governments of the more progressive nations have
abandoned the task of ruling the backward countries, preserving
peace in them and fostering the
posterity of their peoples.
4· The rulers of the free world no longer maintain in them the
state of law,
order and morality which is essential to civilization.
There have been eras in which great groups of nations have
lived in relative peace and security. The pax Romana lasted for
several centuries. In the New World the Spaniards maintained
stability in the greater part of its two continents for 200 years.
And throughout an Empire on which the British used to boast
that 'the sun never set' the pax Britannica was maintained for
many generations.
The result of the dissolution of the great empires is grim with
human misery. With the fall of Rome the Power of Darkness
came into its own for centuries. Spain's decline led to 100 years
of wars and bloody revolutions in Central and South America.
What was the cost of hauling down the Union Jack? Civil war in
Opposite The Devil sowing discord in the haunts of men
275
Conclusions and the 'Way'
 India: a million dead and many millions more robbed of all
they possessed. Prosperous Ceylon poverty-stricken. In Egypt
the Suez Canal sabotaged, and a war with Israel that is
bankrupting both countries. In the Sudan fifteen years of race-
war between Arabs and Negroes with hundreds of thousands
dead. Africa a hotch-potch of police states, countless Asians
deprived of their homes and liveli- hoods and forced to emigrate;
and for two and a half years the nightmare horror that has
reduced the most prosperous part of Nigeria to a shambles. And
those peoples who lived under the flags of Belgium, Holland and
France paid a similar price for their freedom. The ghastly
massacre in the Congo, the wholesale slaughter in Indonesia;
and Vietnam!
Having locked themselves out of the kindergarten while
leaving the children to play with loaded firearms, there is little
that the grown-ups can now do about that. But at least they
should restore order in their own houses.
The lesson the great empires left us was that rulers should
rule, and for the past two decades the governments of the
Western World have failed to do so. Freedom of speech,
freedom of the Press and freedom of assembly are a part of our
in- heritance; but not the right to destroy property, gun down the
police and attack peaceful citizens, nor the right to form covens
that call upon occult forces and send their members out to rob,
rape and murder.
Robbery with violence is rife and is increasing all over the
United States. In Washington, D.C., not only white families but
also well-to-do coloured ones have been moving out to the
suburbs because it is no longer safe to live in the city. But in
various country districts also to go out alone at night is to invite a
hold-up and a bashing. And London is now little better.
In every city in Europe and the United States malcontents
create riots in which they smash the windows of embassies, ruin
sports grounds, set fire to buildings and commit outrages which
no proper government would tolerate.
Is it possible that riots, wildcat strikes, anti-apartheid
demonstrations and the appalling increase in crime have any
connection with magic and Satanism?
It has been estimated by responsible investigators that there
are now 3o,ooo members of covens in Great Britain. There are
probably as many or more in the United States and scores of
covens on the Continent, in Australia and in Canada. Let us
agree that the great majority of these people have gone into the
game only for fun, or to practise white magic. But how many of
them could swear that they are not seeking to secure their own
desires through occult power? Without realizing it they become
a focus for evil.
Consider the case of the Salem madness. An old half-caste
Negress, who certainly cannot have been a sorceress with a
real knowledge of the black art, amuses eight or ten innocent
children and 'teenage girls by teaching them a few spells. The
girls become possessed. Within a few months the entire
surrounding countryside is embroiled. Scores of people accuse
their neighbours of witchcraft. Demoniac possession spreads. A
dozen innocent people are hanged, others spend months
chained up in prisons; suspicion, hatred, loss and misery bedevil
the whole area.
276
Recently, in a churchyard not far from London, twelve
corpses were dug up in
a single night, and the church desecrated with an unholy
ritual. People who are capable of such acts are not out only for
fun and games. And for benefits received Satan's price must be
paid. It is no longer putting a murrain on some farmer's cattle, or
causing some unfortunate woman to miscarry. The taking of
drugs to create ecstasy at Satanic gatherings has long been
habitual. Today thousands of young people are being hooked in
this way and become willing agents in recruiting others to
become addicts.
It is, I am convinced, the opening of the minds of thousands
of people to the influence of the Powers of Darkness that has
formed a cancer in society.
It is the duty ofour elected rulers to rule. They are responsible
for the well-being of their people. It is for them to take measures
that will ensure the ordinary law- abiding citizen protection from
attack, robbery, rape and murder. But they are failing to do this.
Still worse, they cavil at strengthening the law to protect their
long-suffering police from injury.
To stamp out Satanism entirely is, I believe, impossible. But
the Roman Emperors kept it in check by forbidding sorcery, and
in Britain, until 1951, the practising of witchcraft was a crime. No
civilized person would dream of initiating witch-hunts such as
took place in the seventeenth century. But I am most strongly of
the opinion that to fight this evil, which is now a principal
breeding-ground for dope-addicts, anarchists and lawlessness,
new legislation should be introduced.
Psychic investigation should be encouraged, but only under
licence; and persons participating in occult ceremonies other
than those approved by a responsible body should be liable to
prosecution.
Acts leading to the moral degradation of young people are
surely as great a crime as acts of physical violence. Both should
be punished, not by a mere fine which the offender can well
afford to pay, but in a manner which should prove a real
deterrent to the repetition of the offence and an example to
others.
What is the solution? Some argue for corporal punishment.
Others believe in various methods of re-education. In recent
times, in Britain, a vociferous minority of do-gooders has turned
the prisons into clubs where the inmates enjoy excellent food,
games, libraries, television and concerts. Surely, to be effective,
prisons should not be merely houses of detention but of
correction. This might soon lead to their no longer being
overcrowded.
Should our rulers fail us, and matters go from bad to worse,
what can we do? I suggest the answer is to strive more than
ever to increase the degree of Light in the spark of deathless
spirit with which each one of us is endowed. Its cultivation
can be a joy both to ourselves and to all with whom we come
into contact. More- over, not only is it a protection, but it also
brings a great reward.
Who, having read this book, can doubt that each of us is
animated by a spirit? Of its continued existence after death we
have no incontestable proof. But many years ago I was given as
near proof as, I think, anyone could hope to receive.
During the First World War, for a while before the battle of
Cambrai, I shared a tent with a Lieutenant Pickett. He learnt that
his sister was dying, and obtained compassionate leave to go to
England. On his return to the Western Front, this is
Conclusions and the 'Way'
277
 Conclusions and the 'Way'
what he told me:
'I was at my sister's bedside when she died. Her last whispered
words were,
"Hello, Daddy"; then, in pleased surprise, "Why, Jean- you
here too!" '
Now it is reasonable to suppose that any person about to die
may hope to be greeted on the other side by someone he loved
who had preceded him; but Jean, the girl's brother-in-law, was a
French officer, at that time believed to be still alive and with his
regiment in France. The family only learnt two days after the
girfs
death that Jean had been killed in action a few hours before
she died.
Accepting the view that our spirit does survive, is it reasonable
to believe in the Last Judgment of the Hebrew-Christian faith,
which provides only two altern- atives? Either one is to sit for
ever on the right hand of Jehovah, or be cast into
eternal torment.
Are those who were born in poverty and dragged up by criminal
parents to be
everlastingly condemned because they lied, stole and
committed murder, or to be excused and made members of the
Saints' Club, because they were not given a chance? Are those
who worked hard and earned money to be penalized because
they did not give it all away, and the layabouts who never did an
honest day's work to be favoured because they now and then
shared a crust with another sponger? What of those born as
mongols or epileptics, or habitual drunks, drug- addicts,
schizophrenics and lunatics who, at times, have not been fully
responsible for bestial acts they have committed, but have
otherwise led exemplary lives? Are they to inhabit a heavenly
mansion for all time, or roast for ever on the Devil's gridirons?
From the above it is abundantly clear that the idea of being
judged on the record of a single life is unrealistic. But that one
earns good marks or bad in it and, after an interval, is given
another chance to do better, makes sense.
During the past centuries countless millions of people have
believed in re- incarnation. Vast numbers of them still do, and
more and more people have become convinced that it is the
only logical explanation for the mystery of life and death.
 Briefly the belief of reincarnationists is that all matter contains
spirit, and is in the process of growth or decay; that the fluid
spirit of earth formations and vegeta- tion gradually coalesces
into group-spirits which pass into a number of animals of the
same species; that these in turn become concentrated into an
individual spirit that passes into a human being; that the first
incarnation of all of us was in the body of a primitive man, and
that through many lives, male and female, we have progressed
to our present advanced state.
It is believed that in each life, as during a term at school, we
learn something. For the evil we have done in it we must pay in
the next, or in some later life; for the good we are rewarded .by
being given a better start next time. This, as I have explained in
the section on India, is called the law of karma, and it is not
unusual to experience 'quick karma'. That is, if one does some
generous act, one will shortly afterwards receive some
unexpected benefit. It is also thought that between lives we
enjoy long holidays or rest periods, which we spend happily with
those
278
 who, in our last or earlier lives, have been our loves,
cherished relatives or closest companions. Then, when we are
ready to face the trials of Earth once more, we take up the
challenge by becoming the child of parents chosen as suitable
for us.
Occultists also hold that, in deep sleep, our spirits leave our
bodies and, remain- ing attached to them only by what is termed
the 'silver cord', ascend to the astral planes where they can
communicate with other spirits whose bodies are also asleep,
and those of others not in incarnation. And that every
experience we have been through in former lives is stored in our
'vase of memory', temporary access to this vast store of
knowledge being the explanation for our so often waking in the
morning with problems solved that were worrying us the
previous night.
All of us have setbacks, but gradually we move up the ladder,
acquiring wisdom as we go, and the virtues of fortitude,
forbearance, generosity and gentleness. Eventually the time
comes when we face the great test, by being given a position of
high responsibility, and we are granted the power to influence
for good or ill large communities by leadership, example or our
writings. If we pass that test we return to Earth no more, but
become one with the Lords of Light who watch over us and
strive for the well-being of mankind.
There are then two 'ways' of life, and the choice of which to
follow lies with us. You can follow the Left-hand Path, summed
up in Aleister Crowley's precept 'Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the law' - lie, steal, cheat, give free rein to all your
basest instincts, and commit any act of meanness or brutality,
regardless of the misery it may cause others, in order to get
what you want. Or you can follow the Right-hand Path, summed
up in the precept of Jesus Christ 'Love thy neigh- bour as
thyself.'
Followers of the Right-hand Path are not called upon to deny
themselves the joys of the flesh, or to forgo gaiety and the many
pleasures oflife. On the contrary, we should not have been given
our instincts if we were to be blamed for enjoying them. It should
be our aim to become conscious hedonists and derive pleasure
ourselves from giving pleasure to other people. The only
prohibition is that we should not gratify our desires if by doing so
we are going to harm others.
 None of us can hope to lead perfect lives. But, if we follow
the Right-hand Path, we shall be armoured against the
temptation to do evil. We need have no fear of the Devil and all
his works; nor need the idea ofdeath hold any terror for us. With
this thought I leave my readers.
Conclusions and the 'Way'
279
Notes on the Illustrations, and Acknowledgments
 The producers of this book wish to express their thanks to all
who are indicated by the list below: the governing bodies and
staffs of the libraries and museums, or the individual owners,
who have kindly given permission for items from their collections
to be reproduced here, and also the photo- graphers who have
taken pictures specially or have supplied them from their
records. In a work of this kind, however, the primary sources of
some illustrations must necessarily be obscure. Every effort has
been made to trace these; in one or two cases where it has not
been possible, the producers wish to apologize if the
acknowledgment proves to be inadequate. In no case is such
inadequacy intentional, and, if any owner of copyright who has
remained untraced will kindly communicate with the producers,
a reasonable fee will be paid and the required acknowledgment
made in future editions of the book.
Abbreviations used are:
. BM The Trustees of the British Museum, London

. BN La Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

Bodleian The Curators of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Horniman The Horniman Museum, London
Mansell ME ML
RT
The Mansell Collection, London
The Mary Evans Picture Library, London
Le Muse du Louvre, Paris
The Radio Times Hulton Picture Library, London
The Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
VA
Page1-3 10 I3 14 IS
Photos: Sdeuard C. Bisserot.
From De Re Metallica by George Agricola, 1556. S•ience
Museum, London.
ME.
BN.
From a broadsheet thought to have been composed by Mesmer
or his assistant. BN, De Vinck Collection No. goo. RT.
RT.
Photo: Douglas Dickens.
RT.
From Human Magnetism; or How to Hypnotise by James Coates
1g07. Harry Price Library, University of London. Photos: John
Freeman.
From Trilby by Gerald du Maurier. Photo: John Freeman.
RT.
From Harry Price, The Biography ofa Ghost Hunter by Paul
Tabori, 1g5o.
Photo: John Freeman.
Prismaton 70 used in Germany. Photos: Leif Geiges.
Musee des Augustins, Toulouse. Photo: Yan.
From Le Petit A/bert. Photo: John Freeman.
Birth data: January 8th, 18g7, 7.30 p.m., London. Artwork: Jim
Gibson.
(Top) RT. (Bottom) Photo: John Freeman.
From Cheiro's Language of the Hand, London, I8g7. By
permission of the Hamlyn Publishing Group.
Photo: Stephen Connolly. Handprint: George Rainbird Ltd.
From Memoires historiques et secretes de l'imperatrice
Josephine, Paris, 1827.
Photo: John Freeman.
From The Reluctant Prophet by Daniel Logan. Photo : C.
Marcus Blechman. Harry Price Library, University ofLondon.
Photo: John Freeman.
Photo: Studio Madec.
By Aubrey Beardsley. Photo: John Freeman.
From Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas
Levi.
Author's Collection. Photo: John Freeman.
280
I6-17 1g 22-3 24
32- 3 40 42 44 4g 51
26
28
31
55 57
6o 63 64 66 68
Page 7I
 72
77
78
79
82
86 87 90 9I 92 9S
96-7 98
I03
I04 IOS-8 III I I2-I3
116 II7 I22 I23 I24 128 I29 I30 I32 I33
I36-7
I39 I43 I4S I46 I49 ISO
IS2 IS4
ISS IS8 I6o I63 I66 I68 I69 I70
I72 I74
From Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy by Grillot de Givry. By
permission ofGeorge G. Harrap f$ Co. Photo : John Freeman.
From The Magus by Francis Barrett, I8oi. BM.
Harry Price Library, University ofLondon. Photo: John Freeman.
From Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy by Grillot de Givry. By
permission of George G. Harrap & Co. Photo: David Rudkin.
ME.
From Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas
Levi. BM. Caverne des Trois Freres, Ariege. Photo: Collection
Musee de !'Homme, Paris. A cave at CoguL Photo: Collection
Musee de !'Homme, Paris.
(Left) From Speculum Salvationis. BM. (Right) Author's
Collection. Nimes Cathedral, c. 1150. Photo: Bildarchiv Foto
Marburg.
From Nimrud, Iraq. BM.
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
ML. Photo: Giraudon.
(Left) From the Papyrus of Ani. Reproduced from Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection by E. A. Wallis Budge, I9I1. Photo: John
Freeman. (Right)
Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Author's Collection. Photos: Derrick Witty.
Musee Guimet, Paris.
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
Photo: Douglas Dickens.
From Light on Yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar, I965. By permission
ofGeorge Allen and Unwin and Schocken Books. Photo: John
Freeman.
The Museum, University ofPennsylvania.
Photo: Ferdinand Anton.
Cincinnati Art Museum.
From an MS. of a sacrificial hymn. VA. Photo: R. B. Fleming &
Co.
After a picture attributed to Wu Tao Tzu. Horniman. Photo:
Derrick Witty.
Chieng Mai, North Thailand. Photo: William MacQuitty.
Photo : J Allan Cash.
ISSo- rsoo B.c. Heraklion Museum. Photo: Dimitrios Harissiadis.
(Left) Attic, 400- 390 B.c. BM. (Right) 4th cent. B.C. BM.
Department ofAntiquities, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
From an early 5th-cent. relief from Tarentum. Photo: !'-
Bruckmann.
By L. Breton, from Le Dictionnai~e Infernal by J A. S. Collin de
Plancy, r863. BM. Photo : Professor Yigael Yadin.
By L. Breton, from Le Dictionnaire Infernal by J. A. S. Collin de
Plancy, r863. BM. Aspect Pictures. Photo: Derek Bayes.
Soprintendenza alia Antichita, Florence.
(Left) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. (Centre) From a Roman
republican coin. BM. (Right) BM. Photo : Derrick Witty.
Museo Nazionale delle Terme, Rome. Mansell. Photo:
Anderson.
Mansell. Photo: Alinari.
Mansell.
By Johann Sadler, 1582. Cabinet des Estampes, BN.
Photo: William MacQuitty.
Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican City.
Photo: John Donat.
Bodleian. MS. Douce Or., b.2, folio 51.
From My/ius, Chymica: Basilica Philosophica. BM.
(Left) R T. (Right) from Porta Lucis haec est porta
tetragrammaton, justi intrabunt per earn by Paulus Ricius,
Augsburg, rsr6. Reproduced from Witchcraft, Magic and
Alchemy by Grillot de Givry. By permission ofGeorge G. Harrap
f$ Co.
Photo: David Rudkin.
From the tomb of William of Wykeham, c. 1400. Photo:
Picturepoint.
From a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Museo del Prado,
Madrid.
 Page 177 178 179 181
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
BM.
From the Peruvian codex Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno,
completed by Felipe Huaman in 1613. Institut d'Ethnologie,
Musee de /'Homme, Paris.
282
183
BN.
RT.
From The Inferno by Lorenzo Maitani and his school. West
fa<;ade, Orvieto Cathedral. By permission ofPaul Elek
Productions.
(Left) By Arthur Rackham, from A Wonder Book, 1922. Photo:
Derrick Witty. (Right) From The Coming ofthe Fairies by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1922.
Photo: John Freeman.
(Left) Duendecitos. Caprice No. 49 by Goya. BM. Photo : John
Freeman. (Right) From Historia de gentibus Septentrioalibus by
Claus Magnus, Rome, 1555. BM. Photo: John Freeman.
From The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli. BM.
(Left) From Compendium Maleficarum by M. Guazzo, 1608. BM.
Photo: John Freeman. (Right) From Transcendental Magic, Its
Doctrine and Ritual by
Eliphas Levi. BM.
From Les Chroniques de France, late 14th cent. BM.
Memento Mori by the Master of the Banderoles.
Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart.
Photo: Haupstaatsarchiv.
From an 18th-cent. print after the fresco by Nicholas Flame!,
from the Charnier des Innocents, 18th cent. Reproduced from
Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy by Grillot
de Givry. By permission ofGeorge G. Harrap f.S Co. Photo:
David Rudkin. Mansell.
Photo: John Freeman.
Mansell.
Musee Carnavalet. Photo: Bulloz.
(Left) By Charles Le Brun. ML. Photo: Giraudon. (Right) BN.
Photo: John Drysdale, Camera Press.
(Left) Wei/come Historical Medical Museum, London. (Right)
RT.
A Witches' Sabbath by Claude Gillot. RT.
By Knelling. Mansell.
(Left) 16th cent. ME. (Right) Bamberg, Germany. Mansell.
'Mother Shipton'. Photo: John Freeman.
17th cent. RT.
(Left) By N. Thomas. BN. Photo: Giraudon. (Centre) ME. (Right)
By Alessandro Longhi. Photo : ]. Rives Childs, Nice.
Fiji Tourist Board. Photo: Rob Wright.
By A. Norman, from his Personal Experiences in Spiritualism.
ME.
Harry Price Library, University o f London.
Author's Collection. Photo: Derrick Witty.
Photo : Syndication International.
Paul Popper and Transworld Feature Syndicate. Photo: Lee
Kraft.
RT.
Transworld Feature Syndicate. Photo: Martin Weaver.
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
Photo: John Hedgeco, Camera Press.
Horniman. Photo: Derrick Witty.
By Felicien Rops. Royal Library, Brussels .
186
188 190
191
193 195 196
201
204 207
209 212 214 217 218 220 221
226- 7 231 232 235 237 244
247
252 254-5 257 258 263 266 269 270 271
273 274
 Index
Page numbers in italics refer to black- and-white illustrations.
Aaron, 143
Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena, t 2 Abraham the Jew, 206, 207,
207, 209 aconite, 219, 230
Adam, 8g, go, 91, 194
Adonis, 139
Aeschylus, 135
Ahmed, Rollo, 256
Ahriman, 121, 122
Ahura Mazda, 120, 121
Albicerius, 30
Albigenscs, see Cathars,
alchemy and alchemists, 122, 147, 169,
182- J, 205-6, 207, 207, 208- 1I,
209, 2IJ, 219, 223 alectoromancy, 76
Alexander the Great, 42, IJ7, 142 alphabet, used in divination,
76 Ambrosius, 147- 8
Ammon-Ra, g8, 138
Anat, 139
Andros, Mrs William, 20
angels, nature of, go, 195
Angra, Mainyu, rzo-t
animal disguise representing pagan
god, 8s, 86, 88, 224, 225, 227, 230 animal magnetism, see
magnetism animals, cure of, by magnetism, 15,
16-17
- , sacrifice of, 76, 85, ro6--7, tzo, 121, 153, t6t, 163, r8o,
2JO, 259, 262, 272
antlers, worn in religious ceremonies, 88
Anubis, 94, 98
Aphrodite, 132, 134, 136, 151 Apollo, 135, IJ7, 151
apparitions, 97, 248-so, 252; see also
visions
Apollonius of Tyana, 36, 70, 72 Apuleius, Lucis, The Golden Ass
of. 156 Arab architecture, 167
Arabs, 41, 147, 164-7, 200, 205, 206 architecture, religious, 93,
94, l07,
115, II6- 17, IIJ, 119, 123, 127-8, I29, 136, 140, 155, 162,
165, I66, I 67, 176, 205
Ariadne, 132, 132
Aries the Ram, 40, 43
Arimathea, Joseph of, 148
Arthur, King, 148
Aryans, ro6
Asmodeus, r44, I45
Asomvcl, 66
Assurbanipal, 92
- , library of, 92
Assyrians, 92, 93, 141
Astarte, 93, 139
astragalomancy, 77
astrology and astrologers, 13, 40, 41- 5,
42, 49, 59, 77-80, I I5, I22, I 56,
213, 243, 267
astronomy, 41, 45, 93 Atahualpa, 180, 181, 182
Atar, 120
atheism, g, r84, r87
Atis, 139
Atlantis, roo, I32
augury and augurs, 76, 149, 150 August Personage of Jade,
102 Australian aborigines, 245- 6 'Avalon, Isle or, 146, 147
Aztecs, 76, r 15- 19
ba, 97
Baal, 139, 139, 153, 222
babies, sacrifice of, see sacrifice
- , used in necromancy, 74
Bobylon and Babylonians, 76, 89- 93,
138-9, 141, 161, 168, 194 Balsamo, Giuseppe, 244, 244
Baphomet, 196, 200
Bathory, Elizabeth, 238 Bavent, Madeleine, 225
Bel, 93
belladonna, 219, 230
Bell of Girardius, 74
Beltanefires, 202
Betrand, Alexandre, r6-r7
Besant, Annie, 187
Bhagavad Gita, 110
Bible, 76, 240-1
- ,Gospels, 156-<), 194
-,Old Testament, 8g, go, 99, 100,
1011 141, 142, rg4, 195- 6, 197,
 206, 210
birds, divination by flighi of, 76, 149
- , divination by entrails of, 76, 149 Black Art, The 257
Black Arts, The, 44, 222
Blackburn, Douglas, 26
black magic, 66, 221
- , definition of, 83
- , in early civilizations, 99, 107
- , in the Middle Ages, 202, 210, 215,
22I I 229, 230
- ,in modern times, 221, 270- 2, 276-7 - , practised by clergy,
173, 175,
21 I- I3, 215, 218, 230,
see also alchemists, Black Mass, magicians, necromancy,
sabbaths
blackmail, 272
Black Mass, 2rs-r6, 218- rg, 220, 225,
259
Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, 185, 186 blood, menstrual, 75, 220
- , used in magic, r2, 74- 5, 87,
r39- 4o, 2r5, 2r9- 2r, 226, 235- 6,
238-<)
bocors, 264
bone, used in black magic, 245
- , used in divination, 76- 7 Book • f the Dead, The, 94
Book ofthe First Principle and its
Cabala and Cabalists, 49, 56, 82, 91-2, 169-71, IJO, 182- 3,
IBS, 208, 245, 272
Cagliostro, Count, see Balsamo, Giuseppe
Caldwell, Charles, 20
Caliphs, 165- 7
Cambodia, 128
Canaanites, see Phoenicians
candles, used in black magic, 216, 2r9 Capricorn the Goat, 43,
48
cards, used in fortune-telling, s6-g, 57 - , used in testing
telepathy, 3o--2, 3I,
33- 4 Caribs, 192
Carington, Whately, 31
cartomancy, see cards
Casanova, Giovanni Jacopo, 244, 2-14,
 245
caste system, 106, 127
Cathars, 197- 8
cats, 234, 235, 241
Cavendish, Richard, 44, 222
cave paintings, 85, 86, 87, 87 Caverne des Trois Frf:res, 85, 86
caves, used for necromancy, 74
- , used for worship, I62
celibacy of priests, rg8, 200
Celts, 147- 8, 234
Centuries, 77
Ceres, the planet, ro r
Cervin, Marcel, see Marcellus II Ceylon, 127
Chaldea, 41
Chang Tao-ling, 105
Chao-lao, 102, IOJ
Chaos, 75
Charcot, J. M., 25, 157
Chariots ofthe Gods?, 101
Charles II, 238
charms, 150, ISS, 270; see also love
potions and charms
Charon, 75
Cheiro, 51
cheirognomy and cheiromancy, see
palmistry
Cheiro's Book ofNumbers, 45
Cheiro's Language ofthe Hand, so chemistry, 21 I; see also
alchemy Chih-nii, 102
children, sold to the Devil, 228, 264 Chimus, '75
China, magic in, 1os- 6, 126
Chinese architecture, 126
Chinese philosophy and religion, 102,
IOJ, 104- 5, 122, 125, 127- 8
Christ, beliefs about, 145- 7, 163, 165,
Virtue, The, 105
Book of Revelation, so
Book of Splendour, 92
books used in divination, 76
Borley Rectory, 253-5, 254
Borneo, 128
Boston witch trials, 240, 242
Bo tree, 126, 127
Boull~, Father, 225
Brahma, 107
Brinvilliers, Marquise de, 2 1 6 ,2 1 7 ,2 1 8 Britain, covens at
present in, 276 Brittany, 147, 192
broomsticks, used by witches, 241, 242 -
198; see also Christian beliefs ,crucifixion of, r6o, 171
, divine intervention by, 9
,life, work and power of, 156--61,
279
, in numerology, so
, a protection against evil, 222
, in Pyramid prophecies, 99- 100, 101 , repudiated in Satanic
ceremonies,
Brotherhood of the ew Life, 27 Brownwell, Dr, 20
Buddha, the, 110, I26- 7, 128, r62 Buddhism, g, 126-8, 128
bull, the sacred, 93, IJO, 132, 161 Burggrar, J. E., 12
Burkmar, Lucius, 27
burning at the stake, 63, 74, 192, 201,
202 21 I, 2 /2 1 213, 225, '2341 238 1
burnt offerings, see sacrifice Byblos, 138
Byzantium, r67, 173
---
-
--
200, 2I6, 22?- 8
, St Paul's vision of, r6o ,temptation of, 157, 158 ,and women,
158
-
-
-
Christian beliefs and practices, 8-g,
143, 145- 7, 160, 193- 4, 198, 202, 229 - , in Voodoo, 261-4
Christian Church, early, 145, 171, 173 - ,in the Middle Ages,
171, 192, 203,
210, 223, 233
 Index
- , in modern times, 268
- , opposed to other faiths, 147, 148,
de' Medici, Giovanni, see Leo X, Pope
- , magic and medicine in, I2, 73- 4. 98-9, 205- 6
171, '93
- , Reformation of, 203- 4, 224- 5 - , schism in, 172
De Medicina Magnetica, 13
de Mclay, Jacques, 200, 201
demons, 66, 145, 195, 225, 235, 237
- , Arabian, 167
- , Chinese, ros-6, !OJ, 126
- ,conjuration of, 93, I8o
- , exorcism and destruction of, 120,
Egyptian astrology, 41, 156 Egyptian religious beliefs, 41, 65,
see also Roman Catholic Church ;
•53
elementals, 195, 248, 253
elements, propitiation of, 8
Elixir of Life, 206, 243
Elizabeth I, 213
embalming, 73, 177
empires, dissolution of, 276
Erichtho, 75, 239
Eros, 132, I34, ISI
Erzulie, 264
Essenes, I45, I57
Etruscans, I49, 149, 150
evil associated with Darkness, 8
- eye, ISO, 155
Exodus of Jews from Egypt, 141, 143 exorcism, 212, zs6
extra-sensory perception, IJ, 32-3,
priests, popes
Chrisiian Fathers, 193- 4, 229 Christianity, early, 153, r6o, 161,
162 - , in Celtic Britain, 148, 189
- , in the Middle Ages, 64, 224 Christians, e3rly, 153, 171
- , opposed to rival religions, 162- 3,
212
- , Inca, I8o
- , Indian, 110
- , names of, 222
- ,nature of, I8o, 194- 6, 205, 253 - , protection from, 222
- ,worship of, 121
de Rais, Gilles, 64, 213, 215 dervishes, 168, 168
desecration of churches, 276- 7 Deshayes, Catherine, see La
Voisin Devi, 107
Devil (Satan), 196
- ,activities of, I98, 2I6, 218, 242,
•65
- , persecution of, 153, 232
- ,persecution of Jews by, 171 Christian saints, 84, 173, 174,
189 Christian Science, 29
Christmas, 2 0 2
Churchill, Winston, 267
Cinque Mars, Marquis de, 43 Circe, 134
circle, see magic circle clairaudience, 63- 5
clairvoyance, t6-17, 59- 62
-, 'traveiJing', 2o-1, 24-5
267, 274
association with the Horned God, 86, '97. 225, 228
beliefs about, 8- 9, 193- 7, 230,
35. 39
- , 'eyeless sight' in, Is, 23; see also
see also future, methods of telling Clark, A. J., 230
Clavicule of Sa/omen, 220
Cochon Gris, 264
-,
232, 236
fairies, 190; see also Little People faith healing, 16, 29- 30,
157;
Cogul cave paintings, 87, 87 Collyer, Robert, 21
Communism, g, 153
Confucius, 122, I2J- s, 1 2 4 Confucianism, g, 123, 125, 126
conjuring, 113, r68-9
copulation, see sexual intercourse corpses, used in
necromancy, 73-4 Cortes, Hernando, I I8, I20 coscinomancy, 76
-,-,-,
children sold to, 228 copulation with, 237, 238 nature of, 9,
86, 157- 8, 193- 7, 205 , 232
possession by , 256
see also healing
fakirs, 84, ••3- 14, 168
Fama Fraternitatis, I82 'familiar', of a witch, see witches,
covens, 6s, 199, 228, 230, 233, 268- 72, 276
Dewhurst, Henry, 61
diagnosis of disease, 20, 21, 25, 27 diagrams, occult, 40, 49, 72,
82, 16g,
Creation, 89, 90, 115, 206
Cretan architecture, 13 I
Crete and Cretans, 13 I- 2
Croiset, Gerard, 62
Cromwell, Oliver, 238
Crowley, Aleister, 257-9, 258, 26o-1,
IJO
279
crucifix, 2IS, 222
Crusaders, 165, 173, 200
crystal ball, 59
cure of disease, see healing ; faith
10, I2; see also future, methods of
259. 260, 265
- , Cathars in, 198
- , Freemasonry in, 183, 184
- , hypnotism in, 22- 4
- , mesmerism in, 13- 18
-, Templars in, 200
Frazer, J. G., 134
Freemasonry, 183, 183, 184, 185 French Revolution, 265
friars, wandering, 203
future, methods of telling the, 41- 63,
healing Cuzco, 176 Cybele, 153
telling
divine spirit in man, 128, 145, I56-7,
Damballah Ouedo, 262
dancing in rituals, 87, 87, 107, 168,
24- 5, 29
Dods, John Bovee, 21, 27
dog as representing the Devil, 224,
223, 262, 26J, 267, 270
Dante Alighieri, Inferno of, 73 Dark Ages, 76, 171 , I73, 175, I90,
232
dogs, 73, 75, 234, 235
dreams, 34- 8, 69, 248, 250, 251
- , interpretation of, 77, 122 Druids, 147- 8, 268
dualism, 85, 197
Dubucq, de Rivery , Aimee, 8o
Du Commun, Joseph, 20
Du magnltism et des sciences occultes,
ss,57, 65-8o, 77, •48
192
Darkness, Power of, 8, 9, 64, 75, 84,
Garden of Eden, 89, 90, 91 Gardner, Gerald, B., 268
garlic, 222
Garnett, Richard, I73
Garter, order of the, 199- 200 garter as symbol of occult power,
121, 122, I56, 205, 21 I , 215, 216, 220, 222, 22J, 227, 229,
272, 275, 277
Davis, Andrew Jackson, 27
dead calling up of the, see necromancy - , communication with
the, see
25
Du Maurier, George, Trilby of, 25, 26 Dundike, Elizabeth, 236
Dunne,].W.,34-5
Dupau, Amedee, I7
Durant, C. F., 20, 21
Durga, 107
8?-8, '99. 268
Gautama Buddha, see Buddha, the geomancy, 77
Germany, black magic in, 213, 233
- , sabbaths in, 224- 5
ghosts, see apparitions, spirits, visions Glastonbury, 146, 147
Gnosticism, and Gnostics, 122, 144,
necromancy, spiritualism
- ,stateofthe,204
Dead Sea Scrolls, I22, 145 Death and Its Mystery, 35, 36-7,
248- 52
Dee, John, 70, 213
de Georgel, Anne Marie, 230 Deleuze, ]. P . H ., 16, 20 Delort,
Catherine, 230 Delphi, oracle at, 65
de' Medici, Catherine, 79
Ea, 93, 94
ectoplasm, 59, 67
Eddy, Mary Baker, 28, 29 Edward III, 199
Egypt, I '7· •38, 14D-l
 148, 162, 171, 183, I97
goat as representing the Devil, 224,
284
-,
clairvoyance
fairy godmother, 192
-,
- , sm.ds sold to, 211, 214, 228, 238,
attended by 'familiars' Fane, John, 234
Fiji, 246-8, 247
fire, divination with, 76 - worship, 120, 121
264
- , temptation by, 9, 157, I94
- , worship of, 227- 8, 230, 232- 4,
2 ]2, 236-7. 239. 259. 276-7
see also Darkness, Power of; demons; Horned God; Lucifer
- walking, 246-7, 247
Flamel, Nicholas, 206, 207, 208 Flammarion, Camille, 35, 39,
248 Flood, legend of, 91, 100, 134 Fludd, Robert, 12, 183
Folklore in the Old Testament, 134 fortune-telling, see future,
methods
Diana, I35
Dickens, Charles, 25
Dictionnaire de Mldicine, 16 Didier, Adolf, 23, 25
Didier, Alexis, 23- 5
Digby, Kenelm, I2, 13
divination for minerals and water,
of telling
France, Anatole, I6o
France, black magic in, 211, 216,
206, 222- J
doctors, attitude of, to hypnotism,
94- 6, 95, 96, 97- 9, g8, 134, 138,
227, 230 GodoftheWitches,The199 God, beliefs about, 8, 90,
145- 7,
157, 165, 167- 7o, 170- 2, 183,
194-6, 198, 203, 206, 223, 230,
 261
- ,communion with, 157, 168
- the Father, 9, 143, 160, 208, 221,
229
- the Holy Ghost, 9, 206
see also Horned God; Jehovah;
Light Power of
gods, Chinese, I02, 103, 104
- ,Egyptian, 96, 97, 98, 153
- , Etruscan, 149, 1 so
- ,Greek, I3I, I32, I32, 134,
1]6-?, 137. 148, 151, 153
- , Indian, 106, 107- 8
- ,interplanetary, 101
- ,Mayan and Aztec, 115- 19
- ,Norse and German, 147, 189
- , Persian, I20-22, I 22
- ,Phoenician, I38, IJ9, 140
- , prehistoric, 85
- ,Roman, I49, ISO, ISI, 153, 153 - , Sumerian, 93- 4
- , Voodoo, 262
Golden Ass, The, 156
golden calf, 143
good, associated with light, 8
Good and Evii, tree of the
Knowledge of, 89, go Gospels, see Bible governmehts
responsibility to
eradicate black magic, 275 , 276, 277 Grandier, Urbain, 212,
212, 214, 228 Grant, Joan, 94
graves, desecration of, 73, 75
Greece, I3I-8, 176
- , magic and medicine in, 12, 137 Greek architecture, 136
Greek mythology, 131, 134, 135,
149. 151, 156
Greek philosophy, 131, 134- 8, 153- 5.
I56, I67, 2o5; see also Crete Greek Orthodox Church, 167,
172 Grimes, James Stanley, 27
Homer, 76, I34
hoods, 233
Hopkins, Matthew, 236, 237 Horned God, beliefs about, 88, 223
- , nature of, 197
- , worship of, 64, 85, I89, I95,
205, 223-9
see also Devil, Old Religion horoscopes, 41-4, 44, 93
horseshoe, 222
Horus, 98, r21
Ho-toi, 102
Hsiao King, 125
Huitzilopochtli, 115
Hurston, Zora, 262
hydromancy, 76
hyenas, 75
hypnotism, 12, 18, 19, 22, 22-3, 23,
Julius Caesar, 142, I55
J unkus tribe of igeria, 88 Juno, 151
Jupiter, the god, 151
- , the planet, 41, 42- 3, 44, 46,
48, J69, 222
Jupiter Ammon, oracle of, 65
ka, g6, 208, 248
Kali, 107
'Karachi', the conjurer, 1 I4
karma, I09, 126- 7, 278
Kelley, Edward, 70, 213
Kennedy, John F., 61
khaibil, g6
khu, 97, 248
Knights Templar, see Templars Knossos, 131, I33
knoued cords used in magic, 92
- , used as 'writing', I79, 179 Knowledge of Good and Evil, tree
of
the, dg, go
Koran, 165, I68, 194 Krishna, 107, tog, 110 Krishnamurti, I87
Kuan-yin, 102, 103
Lafayette, Marquis de, 20 Lagash, statue of king of, 92
lampadomancy, 76
Lao-rze, 104- s, 104, 125 Larkin, Lyman B., 21
laurel, 70
La Voisin (Catherine Deshaycs), 216, 218, 2I9
Left-hand Path, 84, 279 Lenormand, Mademoiselle, 56, 57
Leo the Lion, 40, 43, 44
Leo X, Pope (Giovanni de' Medici),
 43
Lepanto, Battle of, 36
Li:vi, Eliphas, 70, 68, 259
Life, the tree of, 89, go
Light, Power of, 8, 9, 84, I2I, I22,
157, r62, 205, 215, 222, 275 Little People, 64, 65, 189- 90,
190,
191, 192
lodestone, I2
Lodge of the Grand Orient, 184 Logan, Daniel, 59, 6o
Louis XIII of France, 43
Louis XIV of France, 43
lo\·e potions and charms, IJ7, I56,
167- 8, 219, 228 Lucan, 74
Lucifer, IS7, 194, 196-7; see also Devil
macrocosm and microcosm, 169, 170, 206
Madagascar, 246
Magi, 120, 122
magic, aboriginal, 246, 247
- , in ancient civilizations, 92, 99,
Io6, 108, 109- Io, 121, 122, I37,
I40, 143, 148, I49, 167, r8o, 210 - , ceremonies used in, 70-
6, 92,
99, 137, 215, 219, 220 , 22I1 222, 259, 260- 1; see also
Black Mass, sabbaths, Voodoo circle, 70- 2, 72, 74, 221
- , definition of, 83-4
- , fraudulent, 244- 6
- , and the Little People, 64, 192 - , and magnetism, 25
- ,in politics, 211, 213, 265- 7
- , spells, 70, 72- 3, 92, 99, I37,
192, 199, 212, 219-21, 228
- , sympathetic, I2, 92, 106
- , white, 84, 99, 109, 148, 247,
270, 276
Grimoire o f Pope
Honorius,
The,
images, ust::d in spells, 92, 99, 106, 137, 213, 257
Inca architecture, 176
Incas, 175, 179, 181, 182
incubi, I95, 195
Independent Christian Church, 29 India, magic in, 106, 107
- ,theosophists in, 185- 7
Indian architecture, 106- 7
Indian history, 106-7
Indian mythology, 107, I08, Iro Indian religious thought, I06, 109,
IIO- I2, 111 126--8, I87 1
Indians, North American, 73, 106, 235
- , South American, 175, 178, 192, 198
Inquisition, Holy, 63, 74, I22, I6I, I 7I, 205, 225, 233, 238, 244
Isabella 'the Catholic' Queen of Castile, 74, 233
Ishtar, 93
Isis, g8, 98, 153,
Islam, see Mohammedanism Israel and Israelites, 138, I4I
Jachiel, Rabbi, 211 Jack-in-the-Green, 223 Jains, 1o8, I09
James VI and I, 234 Janus, IjO, IJI
Japan, Buddhism in, 128
- , fortune-telling in, 222
ja\'a, I27
Jehovah, names of, 22 I
- , nature of, 85, 142, I43, I45,
I 60, I96, 229 Jericho, 89
Jerusalem, I4I--2, 159
Jesus Christ, see Christ
Jews, beliefs of, 8, 89, 91, 142,
143. 159. 165, 168
- , and Christ, 158
- ,history of, 138, 140- 1, 142,
q3, II]
- ,magic practised by, 9I 2, 143,
171
- , persecution of, 171, 205
Joan of Arc, 63- 4, 64, 6_;, 192, 213,
265
, godmother of, a witch, 64, 192 Johnson, Douglas, 62
josephine, Empress of the French,
57, 63, 8o
Judah, 141, 142
Judge, William Q, 185 judgement of souls, 121 ; see also
souls, weighing of
I731 220
Gringonneur, 56
Guibourg, Abbe, 218
'guide' of a medium, 67, 252 gypsies, 21, 56
Hades, 135. 155
Haiti, 261-2 hallucinations induced in
sommambules, 18
'hand of glory', 234
hands, study of, see palmistry
hares, 234
Harris, Thomas Lake, 27
haruspicy, 76
hauntings, see apparitions, spirits head shrinking, 178
healing, by magic, 92, 157, 265, 270 - ,with magnetism, 12, IJ-
I8,
2I, 25, 27
see also faith healing
Heaven, 121, 171, 194, 197 Heavenly Cowherd, 102
Hebrews, see Jews
Hecate, 73, 75, I37
Hell, 9, 121, I61, 188, 189, 196, 224 Henry II of France, 42
Henry III of France, 42
herbs, 74, 75, 191, 219
Hermes, 75, 136
Himmler, Heinrich, 267
Hinduism, g, 45, to8- 13, 126, 128,
187
History ofWilchcrafi, 237 Hitler, Adolf, 42, 185, 268 Hittites, 138
Holy Grail, 148
24, 24, 26, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, II4 157, 168, 244, 265;
1
see also faith healing, magnetism, mesmerism, telepathy
Index
z8s
Index
 see also alchemy, black magic, and magic under names of
countries
- , magic and sorcery during, 192, 210, 215, 216, 22I-2
Parsons, W. H., 24- 5
penances in the Christian Church,
magicians (satanists, sorcerers, wizards), aboriginal, 86
- , in ancient civilizations, 99,
- , social conditions during, 202- 3 - , survival of paganism
during
203
pentacles, 14S, 221, 222, 272 pentagrams, 70, 200
Perkins, Elisha, r4
Persepolis, I20
Persia, magic in, I22
Persian architecture, 120, 166 Persian history, 120- 1, 135, 137,
123, 147, 148, 168, r8o, 210
- ,in the Middle Ages, 202, 210,
198- 203
Midsummer Night's Dream, A, 190 Minerva, 151
Minor Arcana, 56
Minotaur, I32
miracles, of Christ, 157
- , of the saints, S4
- , of the Sufis, 168
mistletoe, I4S
Mithra and Mithraism, 153, I61 - 4,
216, 225
- ,in the 15th and r6th centuries,
21 I- IJ
- , modern, 69, 73, zs6, 257, 258,
138, 141, 161, 167
Persian mythology, 121, 161 Persian religious thought, 120- 2,
259, 260, 268, 272
- , qualities of, 84, 219, 223, z6o -,tools of, 84, 219, 221
t6]
122, I6S
Peru, 175- 82, 177
Petetin, ]. H. D., 15
phallus, Iso, 202, 22S
Pharaohs, 94, g8, 99, 183 Pharsalia, 75
philosophers, Greek, 135-6 philosopher's stone, 206--ro
philosophy, religious, 104-5, 109,
see also alchemists, witches Magick in Theory and Prartice,
Mochicas, 175
Modern Experiments in Telepathy, 30 Mohammedanism, 164-S,
qi, 194 Moloch, 93, 139; see also Baal monks, Buddhist, 127,
128
257, 259, ~6o
Magnet, The, 21
magnetism, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, r8-zo,
2 1 , 2 5 , z6; see also clairvoyance, hypnotism, mesmerism,
telepathy
- , Christian, 203,
monsters, 193
Monte Alban, 119
Montespan, Marquise de, 216- rS Moon, in astrology, 11, 41, 42,
44,
magnetized water, experiments 20
with,
IIO , 12S, 126- 7, 1]6, I4S, ISS Phoenicians, 13S- 4o
photographs, 'psychic', 252, 25S Picard, Father, 225
Magus, Simon, 147
Mahabharata, 109
Mahendra, 106
Mahmoud II, Sultan of Turkey, So Mahomet, the prophet, 9, 157,
164,
45, 46, 4S, 169, 222
- , drawing down of, 137
- ,worship of, 93, 102, r r6- 17,
Pierpont, John, 21
Pius V, Pope, 36
planets, life on other, 101; see also
165, 168, 203, 229; see also
175-6
Morin, A. S., 25
Moses, 91, 141, 143-4, 157, 15S, 210 Mot, 139
Mother figure, worship of, 102, 107,
astrology, and under names of
Mohammedanism
Maintenon, Madame de, 218
Major Arcana, see Tarot Cards Malleus Malejicarum, 233
Mandaeans, 145
mandrake, 73, 219, 221
Mani, r62
Manichaeism, 145, r62
Maeoris, 246
Marcellus II, Pope (Marcel Cervin),
132, 229
Murat, Marshal Joachim, ;6 Murray, Margaret, 189-90, 199, 233
Mycenal, 131, 134
Myers, F. W. H., 30
planets
Pluto, the god, 135, 151
- , the planet, 41- 2
Podmore, Frank, 26
pointing the bone, 245-6
poison, 19I, 216, 227
Polynesians, 246
polytheism, 84; see also gods Pompey the Great, 75, 76, 142
popes, 43, 148, 153, 172-3, 211, 233 Poseidon, I32, 135, IJJ,
ISI possession by spirits, see spirits Potet du Sennevoy, Baron
du, 17 Powers of Light and Darkness, see
43
Marcillet, J. B., 23
Marduk, 93- 4
Mars, the god, 135, 151
- , the planet, 41, 43, 46, 48, 222 Masada, 142, 143
masks, worn in ceremonies, S5;
names in magic, 22 r- 2
- , in numerology, 45, 4S- 5o Napoleon Bonaparte, 56
Neatanebus, King of Egypt, 42 necromancers, see magicians
necromancy, 67- 76, 71, 72, tSo,
Light, Power of; Darkness,
see also animal disguise Masonry, see Freemasonry
Mathers, MacGregor, 221, 259 Mau-Mau, 215
Mavor, James N., 132 Maxwell, William, 13
Mayas, I Is- r6, 116
May Day, 202
Mecca, r6s
Medea, 132
Medici, Catherine de', see de'
213, 260
Neo-Piatonists, 136
Neptune, the god, 151
- ,the planet, 41, 42, 46 Nigeria, 88
nirvana, 127
Norsemen, 235; see also Vikings Nostradamus, 77-9, 78, 101
- , magic mirror of, 79 numerology, 45- 50, 49
nuns, 203, 2I 1- 13, 225
Power of
Poyen de St Sauveur, Charles, 20 prayer to combat evil, 84, 272
prediction, see future, methods of
Medici, Catherine
medicine, development of, 205;
41, 93, 9S, 1IS, rI9, 126,
see also faith healing, healing meditation, 108, 126
mediums, 23- 5, 27, 29, 59, 67, 69;
140, 147-8, 168, 180, 265
- , Roman Catholic, see Roman
see also somnabules
melanesians, 246
Mercury, the planet, 41, 43, 46, 222 Merlin, 148
Merry Wives of Windsor, The, 192 Mesmer, Fredrich Anton, 13,
14,
see also Horned God, sabbaths onieromancy, 77
oracles, 65, 75
orgies, r53, 202, 22S-9, 270- 2 original sin, I451 159, 196, 229
Ormazed, 121, 122, 161 Orphism, 94, 97, 98
Catholic Priests
- ,V oodoo, 261-4
Price, Harry, 28, 114, 253- 6 prophecy, see future, methods of
19, 20
- ,magnetic tub of, 14, 15, 20 mesmerism, 12- 22; see also faith
119, rS9, 197, 224-5
pagan feasts, 202, 223, 224; see also
238,239
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, 222 Psyche, 134
Psychical Research, Society for,
healing, hypnotism, magnetism,
telepathy
Mesmerism and Christian Science, 22 Mesopotamia, Sg
Mexico, 41, 100, IIS- I9i see also
Old Religion, Horned God,
see Society for Psychical Research psychometry, 62- 3, 63
Puck, 233
purgatory, 121
Aztecs, Mayas
Middle Ages, Christian beliefs and
religious beliefs Palestine, 138- 44
palmistry, 49, so- s, s1 ' 55 Pan, 132, 205, 26o-1 Paracelsus,
13, 13, 1S2, 1Ss Paris, see France
Parsees, I20, 162
Puritans, 237, 239-40
Puysegur, Marquise de, I4- 15 Pyramid, the Great, 99- 100, 101
pyramids, in Central America, 1 I 5,
practices during, r r, 76, 197- 205 - ,the Little People, 12,
190- 2
286
occultism, see alchemy, magic
Olcott, Colonel H. S., 185, 187
Old God, see Horned God
Old Religion, 65, 192, 198, 224, 233;
126, 140- 1, r61, 164, r68, q6 - , as magicians and
astrologers,
ouija boards, 76, 77
pagan beliefs, 165,·173, 190, 200, 229 pagan ceremonies and
rites, S;- S,
telling
propitiation of the elements, S Proserpine, 75
Protestants, 9, 204, 218, 225, 229,
266
telling
premonitions, 34-<)
priests, Christian, r4S, IS9, I7r-3,
189
- ,as doctors, 12, 92- 3, 9S, 147
- , of early civilizations, 41, 6s, 76,
92- 3, 9S, ro6, 1IS, 119, 120,
It6- IS, 117
- ,in South America, 175 pyromancy, 76
Queen Witch, 65, 199 Quetzalcoatl , 118 Quimby, Phineas
P., 27-9
Ra, see Ammon-Ron
raising spirits, see necromancy Rama, 109- 10
Rasputin, Grigori Efimovich,
265- 7. 266
ravens, 149
Recordi, Pierre, 230
Red Sea, 144
Reformation, 203, 224- s reincarnation, S, 109, 136, ISS, 1S5,
t87, '97. 278
religion, its value in society, 9 religions, see under specific
names religious beliefs, of early man, S,
85-8, 106; see also Old Religion,
pagan beliefs
- , perversion of, 9, 161, 27S religious ceremonies, 84, S8, gS,
107, 120, I26, 139- 40, ISI, I6I, 173, 198, 27s; see also
magical ceremonies
religious toleration, Ss, IS3 Reluctant Prophet, The, 59
Renaissance, 205
Renaux, Calixte, 22
Revelation, Book of, so
Revill, J. M., 44
revolutions caused by magic, 265 rhabdomancy, 11- 12
Rhine, J. B., 31
Ricard, J. J. A., 23
Right-hand Path, 84, 279
ritual murder, 107, 1So; see also
sacrifice
rituals, see religious ceremonies,
magical ceremonies, sabbaths Robin, as name of the Devil,
232- 3 Robin Goodfellow, 223, 233
Robin Hood, 233
Roman Catholic Church, attacks
heresy, 184-5, 192, 198- 9, 218,
23o-2
- , bigotry of, 20S, 229
- , in the Reformation, 203- 4;
set also Inquisition, witch hunts
and trials.
Roman Catholic priests, 172
- , black magic practised by, 173-5,
211-131 21S-I9, 230
- , Black Mass performed by, 215- 19,
225
- , celibacy of, 198
- , corruption and immorality of,
I72-3, 197, 203, 2I I-I3, 224- 5
- , cultivate dirt and misery, 203
- , opposed to psychic experiment, IS - , suppress paganism,
IH)-20,
I97- 8, 21 I , 225
- , tolerate paganism and magic,
171- 3, 197, 1g8-g, 21 I1 223- 5 Roman Emperors as priest,
151, IS4 Roman Empire, history of, 142, 147,
148- 56, 157, 159-6o, 162-3, 17 ,,
172-J, q6, '79, t89
Roman mythology, I5I-J, 150, 153. Roman occult practices, 74-
6, 149- 50,
ISO, IS3, 156, 210
Roman passion for cleanliness, 202 Roman religious practices,
8s, 151,
1S3, IS4, ISS, 156, 162, I71 rope trick, Indian, II4
Rosenkreuz, Christian, 1S2 Rosicrucians, 1S2-5, 265, 272
Royal Star of the Lion, 48 Russia, g, 265- 7, see also Soviet
Union sabbaths, 226-7
sacrament, 73, t6t, 171, 24I sacrifice, animal, 76, Ss, 106,
I20- I,
153, IS4, I6t, 163, ISo, 230,
262, 272
- , human, 87, 98, 116, 118, 139- 40,
148, '53, 180
- , of human infants, 74, 75, 76,
ItS, 216 sahu, 96
St-Germain, Comte de, 243- 4, 244 St Paul, I2I, I6o-1, I62,
164, 171,
267
saints, Christian, 84, t6o- I, 172,
174, t89
Salem witch trials, 239-43, 276 Salisbury, Countess of, 199
salt, 73, 222
Samuel, ghost of the prophet, 70, 71 Sanders, Alex, 272
Satan, !ee Devil
Satanists, see magicians
Satanism, basis of, 194; see also
Devil, worship of
Saturn, the planet, 4I, 42, 43, 46,
48, 74, 169, 222
Saturnalia, 202
scapegoat, 88, 116, 159
Schmidt, Helmuth, 33
science, in relation to magic in, S3 scorpions, I62
Scotland, black magic, 12, 234 scripts, ancient, 93, 1I9, 140
seances, 59, 67--<), 244, 251, 272 self-hypnosis, 19
semen, used in magic, 74, 140, 215, 220, 272
Semiramis, 93
Sephiroths, 170, 222
Sephirotic Tree, I7o-1, 170 Serpent, the, go, go, 196
Set, 97- 8
seven, the mystic number, 92, 207 Sextus, Pompey, 75
sexual intercourse, with angels, I9S - , with demons, 195
- , with the Devil, 237, 238
- , in rituals, 73, 74, 107, 216,
2241 225, 230, 232, 261, 270, 272 - , as a sin, I97, 203, 224,
229 Shakespeare, William, 190, 192 Shattuck, Dr, 2I
Shawa Dagon, 128,
Shiva, 107
Shore, Jane, 232
sieves, used in divination, 76 Simpson, Agnes, 234
singing in black magic, 246 Sinhalese architecture, 127
Sita, rog- Io
Sivash Sea, 144
sixth sense,_ su e"tra-sensory
perception
Smith, George Albert, 26
snakes, 65, 75, 107, II4, I15, IIS,
I62, 246, 26 I
Soal, S. G., 30-2,31
Society for Psychical Research,
26, 34, 69, 185
sodomy, 200, 215
Solomon, 91
- , sacred hexagram of, 82 somnabules, I4, IS-2o, 2I, 25;
see also mediums
Sophocles, 135
sorcerers, see magicians
sorcery, set black magic, magic souls, journey of after death, 94-
6,
95
- , sold to the Devil, 214, 22S, 23S,
264
- ,weighing of, 94-6, 96, 121
South Africa, 30
Soviet Union, predictions concerning,
61
Spain, Holy Inq~isition, 205
- , necromancy tn, 74
Spanish conquest of America, I I 5,
118- 2o, 18o-2, 181
Spanish Empire, 275
spe11s, set magic
Spenta Mainyu, 120
Spirit, journeys of, I69-'70, 2oS-g,
2J0- 2, 278-<)
- , survival of after death, 277- 8;
see also souls
spirits, as apparitions, 70-2, 71,
248-53, 252
- , evil, see demons
- ,guardian, ISI, 2SO, 273
- , photographs supposedly taken of,
252, 255
- , possession by, 2I - 2, 67- 9,
240- 3, 262, 270
- , raising of, see necromancy
- , voices of, 65
spiritual healing, su faith healing spiritualism, 25, 67, 25I
Sprenger, Jacobus, 233
stichomancy, 76
sticks, used in black magic, 245- 6
- , used in divination, 77
stigmata, 2II
Sufis, 167- 8
Sumatra, I28
Sumerian civilization, 89-94 Summers, Montague, 233, 237
Sun, in astrology, 4I-5, 48, 162, 175 - , in the Cabala, 169
- , spirit of, 222
- , worship of, 93, g8, 102, II6,
IJ5, IJ8, 151, 161 superstition, 9, I26, 173, IS7 Svengali, 25,
26
swastika, 222
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 249- 50 syphilis, supposed origin of, 73
Ages, 198, 224-9, 234, 237, 241-2
- , in the Middle
- , in the 16th and 17th centuries,
129
divination, 76
see also clairvoyance, faith healing,
223- 4
Tantrism, I07
Taoism, I02-6
Taoists, 9
Tao-te Ching, 105
Tarot cards, 56-8
tea-leaves, used in
telepathy, 16, 30- 4, Jl, 32- 3, 98;
hypnotism, magnetism, mesmerism Templars, 200-2
Temple Black, Shirley, 61
temples, see architecture, religions temptation by the Devil, 9,
157,
IS8, 174. 196
Tenochtit13.n, 118, ng Teotihuac:in, I16--17, 117
Teste, Alphonse, 18 Tetragrammaton, 221 Terzcatlipoca, 1 I6
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 25 Thailand, 128, 128
Theosophy, 185- 7
Theseus, I32
Thoth, 56, 96 thought-transference, r6-I8, 37;
see also telepathy thuggee, 107
Index
Index
 Tiahuanacos, 175
Tibet, 12S
Tinia,·149, 150
Tituba, 240- 1
Tlaloc, uS
Toltecs, uS
torture, 74, 216, 232, 234, 236-9 totemism, 1o6, 1 15
Venus, the goddess, 93, 151, 264
- , the planet, 41, 42, 45, 46, so, 169 - , the spirit of, 222
vervain, 70
Vesta, 151, 153
Vietnam, predictions concerning, 59 Vikings, 11S, 1S9
Virgil, 76, 155
Virgin Mary, 160, zoz, 216, 229, 261 virgins, vestal, 151
Vishnu, 107
visions, 35-6, 164; see also apparitions Visit to Atlantis, 132
Voices, spirit, 63
von Oaniken, Erich, 101
Voodoo, 240, 256, 261- 4, 263
Voodoo Gods, 262
- , attended by familiars, 69, 226-7, 235-6, 235, 237
'tractors', used for healing, 15 Transcendental Magic, Its
Doctrine
-,
2II, 23Q-3
in the I6th and 17th centuries, S7- S, 2!6-IS, 22S--<), 234- 43
modern, 268- 72, 268, 271 mostly women, 229
sabbaths of, see sabbaths
titles of, 65
and Ritual, 70
trepanning, 12
Trilby, 25, 26
Trinity, doctrine of the, 9 Troland, L. T., 30
trumpets, floating, 59, 67
Turing, A. M., 34
Turkey and the Turks, So, 165- S,
-,
-,
-,
-,
witch hunts and trials, s,-s, 190,
 202
Twelfth Night, 202
Twilight of the Gods, The, 173
Walpurgisnacht, 224, 231
Wang, Mother, 102
warlocks, 228; see also magicians water, used in divination, 76
Wells, Fred, 26
232, 234- 43, 237
Witch of Edmonton, 236
Witch of Endor, 70, 70
women, copulation with corpses of, 73
Unbelief, Age of, 9
United States, Freemasonary in, 184 - , mesmerism in, xS- 22
- , predictions concerning, 59-61
- , Rosicrucians in, 1 8 2
- , witchcraft in, 270- 2, 276
- , witch-hunts in, 240- 3
Uranus, the planet, 41, 42, 44, 46 Urle, Marquise d', 245
-, - ,
seduction of by priests, 198, 211- 121 225, 2JO, 265
StatUS of, I 58--<), 165, 229 subject to the moon, 48
Valentinus, 147 Valhalla, 147 vampires, 239 Vedas, 109
-,
Weir, John, 222
witchcraft, see black magic, magic witch-doctors, I99, 235, 264
witches, 70, 226-7, 231, 232, 235,
Zoroaster, I20-2
Zoroastrianism, 12o-2, 161, 162, 194
288
werewolves, 234
Wheatley, Dennis, bookplate of,
-,
-,-,-,
90-1,C)O Yoga,11013,//2-tJ,170,256 horosc.:opc of, 43 4,
-1-1
name of, in numcrolog~, 47 X prcdic.:tions conc.:crning, 44,
55. 5s, 6• 3
right hand of, 55, 55
Zend Avesta, 121
Zener cards, 3 1
Zeus, 134- 5, 137
ziggurats, 93
zodiac, houses of, 41, 44
- , signs of, 40, 4I, 43- 4, 162 zombies, 264
237, 268,27I
- ,believed to fly, 230, 231, 241- 2
- , believed to turn into animals, 234- 5
- , costume of, 87- 8, I92, 228, 270
- , covens of, see covens
- , in early civilizations, 75, 126, 156 - , in the Middle Ages, 63-
5, 199,