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the secret teachings of all ages
Hermetic
Pharmacology, Chemistry, And Therapeutics
CHAPTER XX
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THE art of healing was
originally one of the secret sciences of the priestcraft, and the
mystery of its source is obscured by the same veil which hides the
genesis of religious belief. All higher forms of knowledge were
originally in the possession of the sacerdotal castes. The temple was
the cradle of civilization. The priests, exercising their divine
prerogative, made the laws and enforced them; appointed the rulers and
controlled than; ministered to the needs of the living, and guided the
destinies of the dead. All branches of learning were monopolized by the
priesthood, who admitted into their ranks only those intellectually and
morally qualified to perpetuate their arcanum. The following quotation
from Plato's Statesman is apropos of the subject: " * * * in
Egypt, the King himself is not allowed to reign, unless he have priestly
powers; and if he should be one of another class, and have obtained the
throne by violence, he must get enrolled in the priestcraft."
Candidates aspiring to
membership in the religious orders underwent severe tests to prove their
worthiness. These ordeals were called initiations. Those who
passed them successfully were welcomed as brothers by the priests
and were instructed in the secret teachings. Among the ancients,
philosophy, science, and religion were never considered as separate
units: each was regarded as an integral part of the whole. Philosophy
was scientific and religious; science was philosophic and religious I
religion was philosophic and scientific. Perfect wisdom was considered
unattainable save as the result of harmonizing all three of these
expressions of mental and moral activity.
While modern physicians
accredit Hippocrates with being the father of medicine, the ancient
therapeutæ ascribed to the immortal Hermes the distinction of
being the founder of the art of healing. Clemens Alexandrinus, in
describing the books purported to be from the stylus of Hermes, divided
the sacred writings into six general classifications, one of which, the
Pastophorus, was devoted to the science of medicine. The
Smaragdine, or Emerald Tablet found in the valley of Ebron and
generally accredited to Hermes, is in reality a chemical formula of a
high and secret order.
Hippocrates, the famous Greek
physician, during the fifth century before Christ, dissociated the
healing art from the other sciences of the temple and thereby
established a precedent for separateness. One of the consequences is the
present widespread crass scientific materialism. The ancients realized
the interdependence of the sciences. The moderns do not; and as a
result, incomplete systems of learning are attempting to maintain
isolated individualism. The obstacles which confront present-day
scientific research are largely the result of prejudicial limitations
imposed by those who are unwilling to accept that which transcends the
concrete perceptions of the five primary human senses.
THE PARACELSIAN SYSTEM
OF MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY
During the Middle Ages the
long-ignored axioms and formulæ of Hermetic wisdom were assembled once
more, and chronicled, and systematic attempts were made to test their
accuracy. To Theophrastus of Hohenheim, who called himself
Paracelsus (a name meaning "greater than Celsus"), the world is
indebted for much of the knowledge it now possesses of the ancient
systems of medicine. Paracelsus devoted his entire life to the study and
exposition of Hermetic philosophy. Every notion and theory was grist to
his mill, and, while members of the medical fraternity belittle his
memory now as they opposed his system then, the occult world knows that
he will yet be recognized as the greatest physician of all times. While
the heterodox and exotic temperament of Paracelsus has been held against
him by his enemies, and his wanderlust has been called vagabondage, he
was one of the few minds who intelligently sought to reconcile the art
of healing with the philosophic and religious systems of paganism and
Christianity.
In defending his right to seek
knowledge in all parts of the earth, and among all classes of society,
Paracelsus wrote: "Therefore I consider that it is for me a matter of
praise, not of blame, that I have hitherto and worthily pursued my
wanderings. For this will I bear witness respecting nature: he who will
investigate her ways must travel her books with his feet. That which is
written is investigated through its letters, but nature from land to
land-as often a land so often a leaf. Thus is the Codex of Nature, thus
must its leaves be turned." (Paracelsus, by John Maxson
Stillman.)
Paracelsus was a great
observationalist, and those who knew him best have called him "The
Second Hermes" and "The Trismegistus of Switzerland." He traveled Europe
from end to end, and may have penetrated Eastern lands while running
down superstitions and ferreting out supposedly lost doctrines. From the
gypsies he learned much concerning the uses of simples, and apparently
from the Arabians concerning the making of talismans and the influences
of the heavenly bodies. Paracelsus felt that the healing of the sick was
of far greater importance than the maintaining of an orthodox medical
standing, so he sacrificed what might otherwise have been a dignified
medical career and at the cost of lifelong persecution bitterly attacked
the therapeutic systems of his day.
Uppermost in his mind was the
hypothesis that everything in the universe is good for something--which
accounts for his cutting fungus from tombstones and collecting dew on
glass plates at midnight. He was a true explorer of Nature's arcanum.
Many authorities have held the opinion that he was the discoverer of
mesmerism, and that Mesmer evolved the art as the result of studying the
writings of this great Swiss physician.
The utter contempt which
Paracelsus felt for the narrow systems of medicine in vogue during his
lifetime, and his conviction of their inadequacy, are best expressed in
his own quaint way: "But the number of diseases that originate from some
unknown causes is far greater than those that come from mechanical
causes, and for such diseases our physicians know no cure because not
knowing such causes they cannot remove them. All they can prudently do
is to observe the patient and make their guesses about his condition;
and the patient may rest satisfied if the medicines administered to him
do no serious harm, and do not prevent his recovery. The best of our
popular physicians are the ones that do least harm. But, unfortunately,
some poison their patients with mercury, others purge them or bleed them
to death. There are some who have learned so much that their learning
has driven out all their common sense, and a there are others who care a
great: deal more for their own profit than for the health of their
patients. A disease does not change its state to accommodate itself to
the knowledge of the physician, but the physician should understand the
causes of the disease. A physician should be a servant of Nature, and
not her enemy; he should be able to guide and direct her in her struggle
for life and not throw, by his unreasonable interference, fresh
obstacles in the way of recovery." (From the Paragranum,
translated by Franz Hartmann.)
The belief that nearly all
diseases have their origin in the invisible nature of man (the Astrum)
is a fundamental precept of Hermetic medicine, for while Hermetists in
no way disregarded the physical body, they believed that man's material
constitution was an emanation from, or an objectification of, his
invisible spiritual principles. A brief, but it is believed fairly
comprehensive, résumé of the Hermetic principles of Paracelsus
follows.
THE TITLE PAGE OF THE BOOK OF
ALZE.
From Musæum Hermeticum
Reformatum et Amplificatum.
This title page is a further
example of Hermetic and alchemical symbolism. The seven-pointed star of
the sacred metals is arranged that one black point is downward, thus
symbolizing Saturn, the Destroyer. Beginning in the space immediately to
the left of the black point, reading clockwise discloses the cryptic
word VITRIOL formed by the capital letters of the seven Latin words in
the outer circle.
There is one vital substance in
Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called archæus, or
vital life force, and is synonymous with the astral light or
spiritual air of the ancients. In regard to this substance, Eliphas Levi
has written: "Light, that creative agent, the vibrations of which are
the movement and life of all things; light, latent in the universal
ether, radiating about absorbing centres, which, being saturated
thereby, project movement and life in their turn, so forming creative
currents; light, astralized in the stars, animalized in animals,
humanized in human beings; light, which vegetates all plants, glistens
in metals, produces all forms of Nature and equilibrates all by the laws
of universal sympathy--this is the light which exhibits the phenomena of
magnetism, divined by Paracelsus, which tinctures the blood, being
released from the air as it is inhaled and discharged by the hermetic
bellows of the lungs." (The History of Magic.)
This vital energy has its
origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two
bodies, one visible and substantial, the other invisible and
transcendent. The latter consists of an ethereal counterpart of the
physical form; it constitutes the vehicle of archæus, and may be
called a vital body. This etheric shadow sheath is not
dissipated by death, but remains until the physical form is entirely
disintegrated. These "etheric doubles, "seen around graveyards, have
given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer in its substances
than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to
impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body
that cause much disease. Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid
mental attitude could poison his own etheric nature, and this infection,
diverting the natural flow of vital life force, would later
appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible
nature composed of this "archæus," but each manifests it in a different
way.
Concerning the astral-light
bodies of flowers, James Gaffarel, in 1650, wrote the following: "I
answer, that though they be chopt in pieces, brayed in a Mortar, and
even burnt to Ashes; yet do they neverthelesse retaine, (by a certaine
Secret, and wonderfull Power of Nature), both in the Juyce, and in the
Ashes, the selfe same Forme, and Figure, that they had before: and
though it be not there Visible, yet it may by Art be drawne forth, and
made Visible to the Eye, by an Artist. This perhaps will seem a
Ridiculous story to those, who reade only the Titles of Bookes: but,
those that please, may see this truth confirmed, if they but have
recourse to the Workes of M. du Chesne, S. de la Violette, one of the
best Chymists that our Age hath produced; who affirmes, that himselfe
saw an Excellent Polich Physician of Cracovia, who kept, in Glasses, the
Ashes of almost all the Hearbs that are knowne: so that, when any one,
out of Curiosity, had a desire to see any of them, as (for example) a
Rose, in one of his Glasses, he tooke That where the Ashes of a Rose
were preserved; and holding it over a lighted Candle, so soone as it
ever began to feele the Heat, you should presently see the Ashes begin
to Move; which afterwards rising up, and dispersing themselves about the
Glasse, you should immediately observe a kind of little Dark Cloud;
which dividing it selfe into many parts, it came at length to represent
a Rose; but so Faire, so Fresh, and so Perfect a one, that you would
have thought it to have been as Substancial, & as Odoriferous a
Rose, as growes on the Rose-tree." (Unheard-of Curiosities Concerning
Talismanical Sculpture of the Persians.)
Paracelsus, recognizing
derangements of the etheric double as the most important cause of
disease, sought to reharmonize its substances by bringing into contact
with it other bodies whose vital energy could supply elements needed, or
were strong enough to overcome the diseased conditions existing in the
aura of the sufferer. Its invisible cause having been thus removed, the
ailment speedily vanished.
The vehicle for the
archæus, or vital life force, Paracelsus called the mumia.
A good example of a physical mumia is vaccine, which is the vehicle of a
semi-astral virus. Anything which serves as a medium for the
transmission of the archæus, whether it be organic or inorganic, truly
physical or partly spiritualized, was termed a mumia. The most universal
form of the mumia was ether, which modern science has accepted as a
hypothetical substance serving as a medium between the realm of vital
energy and that of organic and inorganic substance.
The control of universal energy
is virtually impossible, save through one of its vehicles (the mumia). A
good example of this is food. Man does not secure nourishment from dead
animal or plant organisms, but when he incorporates their structures
into his own body he first gains control over the mumia, or etheric
double, of the animal or plant. Having obtained this control, the human
organism then diverts the flow of the archæus to its own uses.
Paracelsus says: "That which constitutes life is contained in the Mumia,
and by imparting the Mumia we impart life." This is the secret of the
remedial properties of talismans and amulets, for the mumia of the
substances of which they are composed serves as a channel to connect the
person wearing them with certain manifestations of the universal vital
life force.
According to Paracelsus, in the
same way that plants purify the atmosphere by accepting into their
constitutions the carbon dioxid exhaled by animals and humans, so may
plants and animals accept disease elements transferred to them by human
beings. These lower forms of life, having organisms and needs different
from man, are often able to assimilate these substances without ill
effect. At other times, the plant or animal dies, sacrificed in order
that the more intelligent, and consequently more useful, creature may
survive. Paracelsus discovered that in either case the patient was
gradually relieved of his malady. When the lower life had either
completely assimilated the foreign mumia from the patient, or had itself
died and disintegrated as the result of its inability to do so, complete
recovery resulted. Many years of investigation were necessary to
determine which herb or animal most readily accepted the mumia of each
of various diseases.
Paracelsus discovered that in
many cases plants revealed by their shape the particular organs of the
human body which they served most effectively. The medical system of
Paracelsus was based on the theory that by removing the diseased etheric
mumia from the organism of the patient and causing it to be accepted
into the nature of some distant and disinterested thing of comparatively
little value, it was possible to divert from the patient the flow of the
archæus which had been continually revitalizing and nourishing the
malady. Its vehicle of expression being transplanted, the archæus
necessarily accompanied its mumia, and the patient recovered.
THE HERMETIC THEORY
CONCERNING THE CAUSATIONS OF DISEASE
According to the Hermetic
philosophers, there were seven primary causes of disease. The first was
evil spirits. These were regarded as creatures born of degenerate
actions, subsisting on the vital energies of those to whom they attached
themselves. The second cause was a derangement of the spiritual
nature and the material nature: these two, failing to coordinate,
produced mental and physical
subnormality. The third was an unhealthy or abnormal mental
attitude. Melancholia, morbid emotions, excess of feeling, such as
passions, lusts, greeds, and hates, affected the mumia, from which they
reacted into the physical body, where they resulted in ulcers, tumors,
cancers, fevers, and tuberculosis. The ancients viewed the disease germ
as a unit of mumia which had been impregnated with the emanations from
evil influences which it had contacted. In other words, germs were
minute creatures born out of man's evil thoughts and actions.
JOHANNIS BAPTISTAE VON
HELMONT.
From von Helmont's Ausgang
der Artznen-Kunst.
At the beginning of the seventeenth
century von Helmont, the Belgian alchemist (to whom incidentally, the
world is indebted for the common term gas, as distinguished from
other kinds of air), while experimenting with the root of A---, touched
it to the tip of his tongue, without swallowing any of the substance. He
himself describes the result in the following manner:
"Immediately my head seemed tied
tightly with a string, and soon after there happened to me a singular
circumstance such as I had never before experienced. I observed with
astonishment that I no longer felt and thought with the head, but with
the region of the stomach, as if consciousness had now taken up its seat
in the stomach. Terrified by this unusual phenomenon, I asked myself and
inquired into myself carefully; but I only became the more convinced
that my power of perception was became greater and more comprehensive.
This intellectual clearness was associated with great pleasure. I did
not sleep, nor did I dream; I was perfectly sober; and my health was
perfect. I had occasionally had ecstasies, but these had nothing in
common with this condition of the stomach, in which it thought and felt,
and almost excluded all cooperation of the head. In the meantime my
friends were troubled with the fear that I might go mad. But my faith to
God, and my submission to His will, soon dissipated this fear. This
state continued for two hours, after which I had same dizziness. I
afterwards frequently tasted of the A---, but I never again could
reproduce these sensations." (Van Helmont, Demens idea. Reprinted
by P. Davidson in The Mistletoe and Its Philosophy.)
Von Helmont is only one of many who
have accidentally hit upon the secrets of the early priestcrafts, but
none in this age give evidence of an adequate comprehension of the
ancient Hermetic secrets. From the description von Helmont gives, it is
probable that the herb mentioned by him paralyzed temporarily the
cerebrospinal nervous system, the result being that the consciousness
was forced to function through the sympathetic nervous system and its
brain--the solar plexus.
The fourth cause of disease was
what the Orientals called Karma, that is, the Law of
Compensation, which demanded that the individual pay in full for the
indiscretions and delinquencies of the past. A physician had to be very
careful how he interfered with the workings of this law, lest he thwart
the plan of Eternal justice. The fifth cause was the motion and
aspects of the heavenly bodies. The stars did not compel the
sickness but rather impelled it. The Hermetists taught that a strong and
wise man ruled his stars, but that a negative, weak person was ruled by
them. These five causes of disease are all superphysical in nature. They
must be estimated by inductive and deductive reasoning and a careful
consideration of the life and temperament of the patient.
The sixth cause of disease was
a misuse of faculty, organ, or function, such as overstraining a
member or overtaxing the nerves. The seventh cause was the presence
in the system of foreign substances, impurities, or obstructions.
Under this heading must be considered diet, air, sunlight, and the
presence of foreign bodies. This list does not include accidental
injuries; such do not belong under the heading of disease. Frequently
they are methods by which the Law of Karma expresses itself.
According to the Hermetists,
disease could be prevented or successfully combated in seven ways.
First, by spells and invocations, in which the physician ordered the
evil spirit causing the disease to depart from the patient. This
procedure was probably based on the Biblical account of the man
possessed of devils whom Jesus healed by commanding the devils to leave
the man and enter into a herd of swine. Sometimes the evil spirits
entered a patient at the bidding of someone desiring to injure him. In
these cases the physician commanded the spirits to return to the one who
sent them. It is recorded that in some instances the evil spirits
departed through the mouth in the form of clouds of smoke; sometimes
from the nostrils as flames. It is even averred that the spirits might
depart in the form of birds and insects.
The second method of healing
was by vibration. The inharmonies of the bodies were neutralized by
chanting spells and intoning the sacred names or by playing upon musical
instruments and singing. Sometimes articles of various colors were
exposed to the sight of the sick, for the ancients recognized, at least
in part, the principle of color therapeutics, now in the process of
rediscovery.
The third method was with the
aid of talismans, charms, and amulets. The ancients believed that the
planets controlled the functions of the human body and that by making
charms out of different metals they could combat the malignant
influences of the various stars. Thus, a person who is anæmic lacks
iron. Iron was believed to be under the control of Mars. Therefore, in
order to bring the influence of Mars to the sufferer, around his neck
was hung a talisman made of iron and bearing upon it certain secret
instructions reputed to have the power of invoking the spirit of Mars.
If there was too much iron in the system, the patient was subjected to
the influence of a talisman composed of the metal corresponding to some
planet having an antipathy to Mars. This influence would then offset the
Mars energy and thus aid in restoring normality.
The fourth method was by the
aid of herbs and simples. While they used metal talismans, the majority
of the ancient physicians did not approve of mineral medicine in any
form for internal use. Herbs were their favorite remedies. Like the
metals, each herb was assigned to one of the planets. Having diagnosed
by the stars the sickness and its cause, the doctors then administered
the herbal antidote.
The fifth method of healing
disease was by prayer. All ancient peoples believed in the compassionate
intercession of the Deity for the alleviation of human suffering.
Paracelsus said that faith would cure all disease. Few persons, however,
possess a sufficient degree of faith.
The sixth method--which was
prevention rather than cure--was regulation of the diet and daily habits
of life. The individual, by avoiding the things which caused illness,
remained well. The ancients believed that health was the normal state of
man; disease was the result of man's disregard of the dictates of
Nature.
The seventh method was
"practical medicine," consisting chiefly of bleeding, purging, and
similar lines of treatment. These procedures, while useful in
moderation, were dangerous in excess. Many a useful citizen has died
twenty-five or fifty years before his time as the result of drastic
purging or of having all the blood drained out of his body.
Paracelsus used all seven
methods of treatment, and even his worst enemies admitted that he
accomplished results almost miraculous in character. Near his old estate
in Hohenheim, the dew falls very heavily at certain seasons of the year,
and Paracelsus discovered that by gathering the dew under certain
configurations of the planets he obtained a water possessing marvelous
medicinal virtue, for it had absorbed the properties of the heavenly
bodies.
HERMETIC HERBALISM AND
PHARMACOLOGY
The herbs of the fields were
sacred to the early pagans, who believed that the gods had made plants
for the cure of human ills. When properly prepared and applied, each
root and shrub could be used for the alleviation of suffering, or for
the development of spiritual, mental, moral, or physical powers. In
The Mistletoe and Its Philosophy, P. Davidson pays the following
beautiful tribute to the plants: "Books have been written on the
language of flowers and herbs, the poet from the earliest ages has held
the sweetest and most loving converse with them, kings are even glad to
obtain their essences at second hand to perfume themselves; but to the
true physician--Nature's High-Priest--they speak in a far higher and
more exalted strain. There is not a plant or mineral which has disclosed
the last of its properties to the scientists. How can they feel
confident that for every one of the discovered properties there may not
be many powers concealed in the inner nature of the plant? Well have
flowers been called the 'Stars of Earth,' and why should they not be
beautiful? Have they not from the time of their birth smiled in the
splendor of the sun by day, and slumbered under the brightness of the
stars by night? Have they not come from another and more spiritual world
to our earth, seeing that God made 'every plant of the field BEFORE it
was in the earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE IT
GREW'?"
Many primitive peoples used
herbal remedies, with many remarkable cures. The Chinese, Egyptians, and
American Indians cured with herbs diseases for which modern science
knows no remedy. Doctor Nicholas Culpeper, whose useful life ended in
1654, was probably the most famous of herbalists. Finding that the
medical systems of his day were unsatisfactory in the extreme, Culpeper
turned his attention to the plants of the fields, and discovered a
medium of healing which gained for him national renown.
In Doctor Culpeper's
correlation of astrology and herbalism, each plant was under the
jurisdiction of one of the planets or luminaries. He believed that
disease was also controlled by celestial configurations. He summed up
his system of treatment as follows: "You may oppose diseases by Herbs of
the planet opposite to the planet that causes them: as diseases of
Jupiter by Herbs of Mercury, and the contrary; diseases of the
Luminaries by the Herbs of Saturn, and the contrary; diseases of Mars by
Herbs of Venus and the contrary. * * * There is a way to cure diseases
sometimes by Sympathy, and so every planet cures his own disease; as the
Sun and Moon by their Herbs cure the Eyes, Saturn the Spleen, Jupiter
the Liver, Mars the Gall and diseases of choler, and Venus diseases in
the Instruments of Generation." (The Complete Herbal.)
Mediæval European herbalists
rediscovered only in part the ancient Hermetic secrets of Egypt and
Greece. These earlier nations evolved the fundamentals of nearly all
modern arcs and sciences.
NICHOLAS CULPEPER.
From Culpeper's Semeiotica
Uranica.
This famous physician,
herbalist, and astrologer spent the greater part of his useful life
ranging the hills and forests of England and cataloguing literally
hundreds of medicinal herbs. Condemning the unnatural methods of
contemporaneous medicos, Culpeper wrote: "This not being pleasing, and
less profitable tome, I consulted with my two brothers, DR. REASON and
DR. EXPERIENCE, and took a voyage to visit my mother NATURE, by whose
advice, together with the help of Dr. DILIGENCE, I at last obtained my
desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY, a stranger in our days, to
publish it to the world, I have done it." (From the Introduction to the
1835 Edition of The Complete Herbal.) Doctor Johnson said of
Culpeper that he merited the gratitude of posterity.
At that time the methods used in healing
were among the secrets imparted to initiates of the Mysteries. Unctions,
collyria, philters, and potions were concocted to the accompaniment of
strange rites. The effectiveness of these medicines is a matter of
historical record. Incenses and perfumes were also much
used.
Barrett in his Magus
describes the theory on which they worked, as follows: "For, because our
spirit is the pure, subtil, lucid, airy and unctuous vapour of the
blood, nothing, therefore, is better adapted for collyriums than the
like vapours which are more suitable to our spirit in substance; for
then, by reason of their likeness, they do more stir up, attract and
transform the spirit."
Poisons were thoroughly
studied, and in some communities extracts of deadly herbs were
administered to persons sentenced to death--as in the case of Socrates.
The infamous Borgias of Italy developed the art of poisoning to its
highest degree. Unnumbered brilliant men and women were quietly and
efficiently disposed of by the almost superhuman knowledge of chemistry
which for many centuries was preserved in the Borgia family.
Egyptian priests discovered
herb extracts by means of which temporary clairvoyance could be induced,
and they made use of these during the initiatory rituals of their
Mysteries. The drugs were sometimes mixed with the food given to
candidates, and at other times were presented in the form of sacred
potions, the nature of which was explained. Shortly after the drugs were
administered to him, the neophyte was attacked by a spell of dizziness.
He found himself floating through space, and while his physical body was
absolutely insensible (being guarded by priests that no ill should
befall it) the candidate passed through a number of weird experiences,
which he was able to relate after regaining consciousness. In the light
of present-day knowledge, it is difficult to appreciate an art so highly
developed that by means of draughts, perfumes, and incenses any mental
attitude desired could be induced almost instantaneously, yet such an
art actually existed among the priestcraft of the early pagan
world.
Concerning this subject, H. P.
Blavatsky, the foremost occultist of the nineteenth century, has
written: 'Plants also have like mystical properties in a most wonderful
degree, and the secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments are only
lost to European science, and useless to say, too, are unknown to it,
except in a few marked instances, such as opium and hashish. Yet, the
psychical effects of even these few upon the human system are regarded
as evidences of a temporary mental disorder. The women of Thessaly and
Epirus, the female hierophants of the rites of Sabazius, did not carry
their secrets away with the downfall of their sanctuaries. They are
still preserved, and those who are aware of the nature of Soma, know the
properties of other plants as well." (Isis Unveiled.)
Herbal compounds were used to
cause temporary clairvoyance in connection with the oracles, especially
the one at Delphi. Words spoken while in these imposed trances were
regarded as prophetic. Modem mediums, while under control as the result
of partly self-imposed catalepsy, give messages somewhat similar to
those of the ancient prophets, but in the majority of cases their
results are far less accurate, for the soothsayers of today lack the
knowledge of Nature's hidden forces.
The Mysteries taught that
during the higher degrees of initiation the gods themselves took part in
the instruction of candidates or at least were present, which was in
itself a benediction. As the deities dwelt in the invisible worlds and
came only in their spiritual bodies, it was impossible for the neophyte
to cognize them without the assistance of drugs which stimulated the
clairvoyant center of his consciousness (probably the pineal gland).
Many initiates in the ancient Mysteries stated emphatically that they
had conversed with the immortals, and had beheld the gods.
When the standards of the
pagans became corrupted, a division took place in the Mysteries. The
band of truly enlightened ones separated themselves from the rest and,
preserving the most important of their secrets, vanished without leaving
a trace. The rest slowly drifted, like rudderless ships, on the rocks of
degeneracy and disintegration. Some of the less important of the secret
formulæ fell into the hands of the profane, who perverted them--as in
the case of the Bacchanalia, during which drugs were mixed with wine and
became the real cause of the orgies.
In certain parts of the earth
it was maintained that there were natural wells, springs, or fountains,
in which the water (because of the minerals through which it coursed)
was tinctured with sacred properties. Temples were often built near
these spots, and in some cases natural caves which chanced to be in the
vicinity were sanctified to some deity.
"The aspirants to initiation,
and those who came to request prophetic dreams of the Gods, were
prepared by a fast, more or less prolonged, after which they partook of
meals expressly prepared; and also of mysterious drinks, such as the
water of Lethe, and the water of Mnemosyne in the grotto of Trophonius;
or of the Ciceion in the mysteries of the Eleusinia. Different drugs
were easily mixed up with the meats or introduced into the drinks,
according to the state of mind or body into which it was necessary to
throw the recipient, and the nature of the visions he was desirous of
procuring.'' (Salverte's The Occult Sciences.) The same author
states that certain sects of early Christianity were accused of using
drugs for the same general purposes as the pagans.
The sect of the Assassins, or
the Yezidees as they are more generally known, demonstrated a rather
interesting aspect of the drug problem. In the eleventh century this
order, by capturing the fortress of Mount Alamont, established itself at
Irak. Hassan Sabbah, the founder of the order, known as the "Old Man of
the Mountain, " is suspected of having controlled his followers by the
use of narcotics. Hassan made his followers believe that they were in
Paradise, where they would be forever if they implicitly obeyed him
while they were alive. De Quincey, in his Confessions of an Opium
Eater, describes the peculiar psychological effects produced by this
product of the poppy, and the use of a similar drug may have given rise
to the idea of Paradise which filled the minds of the
Yezidees.
The philosophers of all ages
have taught that the visible universe was but a fractional part of the
whole, and that by analogy the physical body of man is in reality the
least important part of his composite constitution. Most of the medical
systems of today almost entirely ignore the superphysical man. They pay
but scant attention to causes, and concentrate their efforts on
ameliorating effects. Paracelsus, noting the same proclivity on the part
of physicians during his day, aptly remarked: "There is a great
difference between the power that removes the invisible causes of
disease, and which is Magic, and that which causes merely external
effects [to] disappear, and which is Physic, Sorcery, and Quackery."
(Translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Disease is unnatural, and is
evidence that there is a maladjustment within or between organs or
tissues. Permanent health cannot be regained until harmony is restored.
The outstanding virtue of Hermetic medicine was its recognition of
spiritual and psychophysical derangements as being largely responsible
for the condition which is called physical disease. Suggestive therapy
was used with marked success by the priest-physicians of the ancient
world. Among the-American Indians, the Shamans--or "Medicine
Men"--dispelled sickness with the aid of mysterious dances, invocations,
and charms. The fact that in spite of their ignorance of modern methods
of medical treatment these sorcerers effected innumerable cures, is well
worthy of consideration.
The magic rituals used by the
Egyptian priests for the curing of disease were based upon a highly
developed comprehension of the complex workings of the human mind and
its reactions upon the physical constitution. The Egyptian and Brahmin
worlds undoubtedly understood the fundamental principle of
vibrotherapeutics. By means of chants and mantras, which emphasized
certain vowel and consonant sounds, they set up vibratory reactions
which dispelled congestions and assisted Nature in reconstructing broken
members and depleted organisms. They also applied their knowledge of the
laws governing vibration to the spiritual constitution of man; by their
intonings, they stimulated latent centers of consciousness and thereby
vastly increased the sensitiveness of the subjective nature.
In the Book of Coming Forth
by Day, many of the Egyptian secrets have been preserved to this
generation. While this ancient scroll has been well translated, only a
few understand the secret: significance of its magical passages.
Oriental races have a keen realization of the dynamics of sound. They
know that every spoken word has tremendous power and that by certain
arrangements of words they can create vortices of force in the invisible
universe about them and thereby profoundly influence physical substance.
The Sacred Word by which the world was established, the Lost
Word which Masonry is still seeking, and the threefold Divine Name
symbolized by A. U. M.--the creative tone of the Hindus--all are
indicative of the veneration accorded the principle of sound.
The so-called "new discoveries"
of modern science are often only rediscoveries of secrets well known to
the priests and philosophers of ancient pagandom. Man's inhumanity to
man has resulted in the loss of records and formula: which, had they
been preserved, would have solved many of the greatest problems of this
civilization. With sword and firebrand, races obliterate the records of
their predecessors, and then inevitably meet with an untimely fate for
need of the very wisdom they have destroyed.
CHEMICAL
SYLLABLES.
From De Monte-Snyders' Metamorphosis Planetarum.
De Monte-Snyders declares that each of
the above characters forms one syllables of a word having seven
syllables, the word itself representing the materia prima, or
first substance of the universe. As all substance is composed of seven
powers combined according to certain cosmic laws, a great mystery is
concealed within the sevenfold constitution of man, and the universe. Of
the above seven characters, De Monte-Snyder writes:
Whoever wants to know the true name
and character of the materia prima shall know that out of the
combination of the above figures syllables are produced, and out of
these the verbum significativum."
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