THE MAGICIAN

THE MAGICIAN VERY shortly after the ceremony of Adeptus Minor, P. returned to his fastness to carry out the great Magical Operation of Abramelin the Mage, the preliminary preparations of which he had for so long now been setting in order. Unfortunately we have but scanty information of P.'s daily life during these days, and all that is recorded is to be found in a small book of some twenty pages entitled, "The Book of the Operation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. (Being the account of the events of my life, with notes on the operation by P., an humble Aspirant thereto.)" This slight volume commences with "The Oath of the Beginning," after which it is roughly divided into three parts. The first deals with the events of his life between the beginning of November 1899 and the end of February 1900; the second with the Abramelin Operation; and the third with the transactions P. had with Frater D.D.C.F. From the first part of this work we gather that great forces of evil were leagued against P.; and we learn this with no very great surprise, for those who set their faces against Darkness must expect Darkness to attempt to swallow them up. The Exempt Adept may laugh equally at good or at evil, but not so the mere magician whose passage along the {239} Path of Light is only to be marked by the increasing depths of the Darkness which surrounds him. It will be remembered that in the autumn of 1898 P. had met Frater V.N., who had lent him a copy of a book known as "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage," and had to some degree instructed him in the workings contained in it. This work P. had read and reread with the greatest interest and zeal, determining to perform the ceremonial operation laid down in it at the very first opportunity. This he was unable to do for nearly a year; it being not until November 1899 that he found it possible for him to retire to the house he had bought and make all necessary preparations for the great ceremony, which was to be commenced on the following Easter. The system, as taught by Abramelin, of entering into communication with one's Holy Guardian Angel, is, of all Western systems of Magic, perhaps the most simple and effective. No impossible demands are made, and though perhaps some are difficult to carry out, there is always a reason for them, and they are not merely placed in the way as tests of the worker's skill. The whole Operation is so lucidly dealt with in Mr. MacGregor Mathers' translation,32 that it would be but a waste of time and space to enter into it fully, and the following consists of but the briefest summary, only intended to give the reader an idea of the Operation, and in no way meant as a basis for him to work on. Abramelin having first carefully warned his readers against impostors, lays down that the chief thing to be considered is: "Whether ye be in good health, because the body being feeble and unhealthy, it is subject to divers infirmities {240} whence at length result impatience and want of 32 WEH NOTE: Actually Mathers probably did not translate the work. He makes reference to an Old French copy in the Library of the Arsenal in Paris and claims to have translated that into English, adding copious notes on Hebrew and Greek names. In fact, there is an English and a Hebrew version in the British Museum, a place Mathers frequented. Mathers also claimed to have translated the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, and the manuscripts he cites are in the British Museum, in Elizabethan English! power to operate and pursue the Operation; and a sick man can neither be clean and pure, nor enjoy solitude; and in such a case it is better to cease."33 The true and best time of commencing this Operation is the first day after the Celebration of the Feasts of Easter at about the time of the vernal Equinox. The time necessary for the working is six months, so that should it be commenced on March 22, it would end on September 21. The six months is divided into three periods of two months each. "First Period." "Every morning precisely a quarter of an hour before sunrise enter your Oratory, after having washed and dressed yourself in clean clothing, open the window, and then kneel at the Altar facing the window and invoke the Name of the Lord; after which you should confess to him your entire sins. This being finished you should supplicate Him "that in time to come He may be willing and pleased to regard you with pity and grant you His grace and goodness to send unto you His Holy Angel, who shall serve unto you as a Guide. ..."34 In the above exercise by prayer the one great point to observe, as Abramelin himself impresses in the following words, is: "It serveth nothing to speak without devotion, without attention, and without intelligence ... it is absolutely necessary that your prayer should issue from the midst of your heart, because simply setting down prayers in writing, the hearing of them will in no way explain unto you how really to pray."35 At sunset the same invocation, confession and prayer is to be repeated. {241} During this first period the points to be observed are: (1) That both the bed-chamber and Oratory are to be kept thoroughly clean. "Your whole attention must be given to purity in all things." (2) That "you may sleep with your Wife in the bed when she is pure and clean," not otherwise. (3) Every Saturday the sheets of the bed are to be changed and the chamber is to be perfumed. (4) No animal is to enter or dwell in the house. (5) "If you be your own Master, as far as lieth in your power, free yourself from all your business, and quit all mundane and vain company and conversation; leading a life tranquil, solitary and honest." (6) "Take well heed in treating of business, in selling or buying, that it shall be requisite that you never give way unto anger, but be modest and patient in your actions." (7) "You shall set apart two hours each day after having dined, during which you shall read with care the Holy Scripture and other Holy Books." (8) "As for eating, drinking and sleeping, such should be in moderation and never superfluous." (9) "Your dress should be clean but moderate, and according to custom. Flee all vanity." (10) "As for that which regardeth the family, the fewer in number, the better; also act so that the servants may be modest and tranquil." (11) "Let your hand be ever ready to give alms and other benefits to your neighbour; and let your heart be ever open unto the poor, whom God so loveth that one cannot express the same."36 "Second Period." During the whole of this period the accustomed prayer is to be made morning and evening, "but before entering into the Oratory ye 33 "The Book of the Sacred Magic," p. 54. 34 "Ibid." p. 64. Some of the following quotations have been abridged. 35 "Ibid." p. 65. 36 "The Book of the Sacred Magic," pp. 66-69. shall wash your hands and face thoroughly with pure water. And you shall prolong your prayer with the greatest possible affection, devotion and submission; humbly entreating the Lord God that he would deign to command His Holy Angels to lead you in the True Way. ..." During this period the points to be observed are: (1) "The use of the rites of Marriage is permitted, but should scarcely if at all be made use of." (2) "You shall also wash your whole body every Sabbath Eve." (3) "As to what regardeth commerce and rules of living, as in the first period." (4) "It is absolutely necessary during this period to retire from the world and seek retreat."{242} (5) "Ye shall lengthen your prayers to the utmost of your ability." (6) "As for eating, drinking, and clothing, as before."37 "Third Period." "Morning and Noon ye shall wash your hands and your face on entering the Oratory; and first ye shall make Confession of all your sins; after this, with a very ardent prayer, ye shall entreat the Lord to accord unto you this particular grace, which is, that you may enjoy and be able to endure the presence and conversation of His Holy Angels, and that He may deign by their intermission to grant unto you the Secret Wisdom, so that you may be able to have dominion over the Spirits and over all creatures. "Ye shall do this same at midday before dining and also in the evening,"38 as well as at sunrise. During this period the points to be observed are: (1) "The man who is his own master shall leave all business alone, except works of charity towards his neighbour." (2) "You shall shun all society except that of your Wife and of your Servants." (3) "Ye shall employ the greatest part of your time in speaking of the Law of God." (4) "Every Sabbath Eve shall ye fast, and wash your whole body, and change your garment."39 If possible the whole of this Operation should be performed in a place where solitude can be obtained; the best being, as Abramelin writes: "Where there is a small wood, in the midst of which you shall make a small Altar, and you shall cover the same with a hut of fine branches, so that the rain may not fall thereon and extinguish the Lamps and the Censer."40 The Altar should be made of wood and in the manner of a cupboard, so that it may hold all the necessary things. There should be two tunics, one of linen, and the other of Crimson or Scarlet Silk with gold. The sacred oil is prepared from myrrh, cinnamon and galangal mixed with olive oil. The incense of Olibanum, storax, and lign aloes, or cedar, is reduced to a fine powder and well mixed together. The Wand is cut from an Almond tree.41 {243} The third period having been completed, on the morning following: "Rise betimes, neither wash yourself at all nor dress yourself at all in your 37 "The Book of the Sacred Magic," pp. 69, 70. 38 "Ibid." pp. 70, 71. 39 "Ibid." p. 71. 40 "Ibid." p. 74. 41 "Ibid." pp. 76, 77. ordinary clothes; but take a Robe of Mourning; enter the Oratory with bare feet; go unto the side of the Censer, and having opened the windows, return unto the door. There prostrate yourself with your face against the ground, and order the Child (who is used as assistant and clairvoyante) to put the Perfume upon the Censer, after which he is to place himself upon his knees before the Altar; following in all things and throughout the instructions which I have given unto you. ... Humiliate yourself before God and His Celestial Court, and commence your prayer with fervour, for then it is that you will begin to enflame yourself in praying, and you will see appear an extraordinary and supernatural Splendour which will fill the whole apartment, and will surround you with an inexpressible odour, and this alone will console you and comfort your heart so that you shall call for ever happy the Day of the Lord.42 * * * * * * "During Seven Days shall you perform the Ceremonies without failing therein in any way: namely, the Day of the Consecration, the Three Days of the Convocation of the Good and Holy Spirits, and the Three other Days of the Convocation of the Evil Spirits. "On the second morning you shall follow the counsels your Holy Guardian Angel shall have given you, and on the third you shall render thanks. "And then shall you first be able to put to the test whether you shall have well employed the period of your Six Moons, and how well and worthily you shall have laboured in the quest of the Wisdom of the Lord; since you shall see your Guardian Angel appear unto you in unequalled beauty: who also will converse with you, and speak in words so full of affection and of goodness, and with such sweetness, that no human tongue could express the same. ... In one word, you shall be received by him with such affection that this description I here give unto you shall appear a mere nothing in comparison."43 After the Third day Abramelin very wisely writes: "Now at this point I commence to restrict myself in my writing, seeing that by the Grace of the Lord I have submitted and consigned you unto a MASTER so great that he will never let you err."44 Thus, briefly though it be, we have run through the system {244} as advocated by one of the greatest masters of Magic in the West. With perfect lucidity Abramelin brings us step by step towards the MASTER ___ Augoeides, Adonai, Higher Self, call Him what you will. By means of symbols of purity ___ by cleanliness and clean living ___ he leads us on by meditation and concentration through prayer to a one-pointedness, a vision or conversation with the MASTER so full of goodness and beauty, so full of rapture and ecstasy that no human tongue can express the same. Alas! that we are not simple-minded enough to accept it, and to seek at that little altar in the wood that sweet reward which at once cancels all the toils and sorrows of our lives. But in these present times prayer has become a mockery, and it is hard, how hard we know well, for any one to pray with that earnestness which brings with it reward. The rationalist has so befouled prayer with his wordy slush that it is indeed a hard task to dissociate it from the host of external symbols and images. A man who prays to a god is at once imagined to be praying to a thing with legs; for the educated are so surfeited with tangible things that the transcendental entirely escapes them; yet the man who prays may in truth be praying to the Master, and it matters not one whit whether the Master have legs or no legs, for God does not depend on 42 "The Book of the Sacred Magic," p. 81. 43 "Ibid." pp. 82,85. 44 "Ibid." p. 85. the education of man's mind, or the standard of his knowledge, or the idols he has set up. In some cases hostility to prayer would prove more fruitful than devotion to it. He who believes in denying and blaspheming God will attain to the Divine Vision of Adonai as speedily as he who believes in praying to Him and worshipping His Holy Name; so long as he "enflame" himself with blasphemy and denial. It is the "will" {245} to accomplish, to conquer and overcome, which in both cases carries with it the supreme reward, and not the mere fact of denying or believing, which are but instruments towards this end. But, be it well remembered! this mystery of the Equivalence of all symbols, good and evil, is only true in Da„th and from Da„th. One man may fell a tree with an axe, another may saw it down, another dig it up, another burn it down, another wash it out of the earth by water, blast it by powder, or drag it down by a rope. In the end the tree falls, and the desire of each particular man is accomplished in spite of the variety of their tools. Thus we find that as Rising on the Planes was one method, so was Skrying another; so again were the rituals of the Golden Dawn; so again "The HB:Shin of HB:Shin Operation" and Talismanic Magic; and now again still one more ___ the method of Abramelin; all different means to enable man to fell the tall tree of life and obtain the Master Vision of Adonai, the Augoeides or Higher Self. Each method, used rightly and carried to its ultimation, leads to the same Heaven; each method used wrongly, or mistaken for the End, side-tracks the Adept into some Limbo or plunges him into some Hell. To all such as are of a devout disposition Prayer offers an excellent means of Concentration towards this end ___ identification with Adonai. And it matters no whit to what we pray, whether it be to Buddha or to Christ, or the top-hat and gin-bottle of a West African ju-ju, so long as we pray with our whole heart; and eventually, as the Vision informs, belief, faith, prayer, worship and supplication vanish, the {246} burning- glass of our Will has set on fire the white sheet of paper that had been our ideal; it crumples, turns brown, blackens, and bursts into flame. The gates of the mind swing apart, and the realm into which we rush is as different from the realm which we had contemplated as our ideal as the burning fire is to the cool white paper we had looked upon. For those who cannot thus believe, who in fact have no faith in prayer, there are yet other ways for them to travel, as we shall presently see; in fact so many that each could travel by a different road and yet arrive at the same destination; and it is hoped that those who study this book may thereby discover the speediest road to the Portal of the Temple. Early in November, P. returned to London to consult with Fratres I.A. and V.N., and shortly afterwards crossed over to Paris, and after a few days' residence in that city returned to England; and by means of the Codselim symbol journeyed to D___, and from thence to T___. here he received a letter from I.A. warning him of very grave danger. P. Thereupon invoked Heru-pa-kraatist and cast himself upon the Providence of God: "that he may give His Angels charge over me, to keep me in all my ways. So mote it be!" Thus far the events which carry us down to the commencement of the Operation, which begins with: " ""THE OATH OF THE BEGINNING." I, P___, Frater Ordinis Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, a Lord of the Paths in the Portal of the Vault of the Adepts, a 5� = 6� of the Order of the Golden Dawn; and an humble servant of the Christ of God; do this day spiritually bind myself anew" By the Sword of Vengeance: By the Powers of the Elements: By the Cross of Suffering: {247} That I will devote myself to the Great Work: the obtaining of Communion with my own Higher and Divine Genius, (called the Guardian Angel) by means of the prescribed course: and that I will use any Power so obtained unto the Redemption of the Universe. So help me the Lord of the Universe and mine own Higher Soul! Let us now turn to "The Obligation of the Operation." I, P___, in the presence of the Lord of the Universe, and of all Powers Divine and Angelic, do spiritually bind myself, even as I am now physically bound unto the cross of suffering: (1) To unite my consciousness with the divine, as I may be permitted and aided by the Gods Who live for ever, the AEons of Infinite years, that, being lost in the Limitless Light, it may find Itself: to the Regeneration of the Race, either of man or as the Will of God shall be. And I submit myself utterly to the Will Divine. (2) To follow out with courage, modesty, lovingkindness, and perseverance the course prescribed by Abramelin the Mage; as far as in me lies, unto the attainment of this end. (3) To despise utterly the things and the opinions of this world lest they hinder me in doing this. (4) To use my powers only to the Spiritual well-being of all with whom I may be brought in contact. (5) To give no place to Evil: and to make eternal war against the Forces of Evil: until even they be redeemed unto the Light. (6) To harmonize my own spirit that so Equilibrium may lead me to the East and that my Human Consciousness shall allow no usurpation of its rule by the Automatic. (7) To conquer the temptations. (8) To banish the illusions. (9) To put my whole trust in the Only and Omnipotent Lord God: as it is written "Blessed are they that put their trust in Him." (10) To uplift the Cross of Sacrifice and Suffering: and to cause my Light to shine before men that they may glorify my Father which is in Heaven.45 Furthermore: I most solemnly promise and swear: to acquire this Holy Science in the manner prescribed in the Book of Abramelin, without omitting the least imaginable thing of their contents: not to gloss or comment in any way on that which may be or may not be; not to use this Sacred Science to offend the Great God, nor to work ill unto my neighbour: to communicate it to no living person, unless by long practice and conversation I shall know him thoroughly, well examining whether such an one really {248} intendeth to work for the Good or for the Evil. I will punctually observe, in granting it, the same fashion which was used by Abramelin to Abraham. Otherwise, let him who receiveth it draw no fruit therefrom. I will keep myself as from a Scorpion from selling this Science. Let this Science remain in me and in my generation as long as it shall please the Most High.46 All these points I generally and severally swear to observe under the awful penalty of the displeasure of God, and of Him to whose Knowledge and Conversation I do most ardently aspire. So help me the Lord of the Universe, and my own Higher Soul! The obligation is followed, in the book, by various preparations which we pass over in order that we may the more speedily record some of the 45 The reader will note that this is a sort of personal adaptation of the 5� = 6� obligation. 46 This latter portion of the obligation is taken from the Oath which Abramelin imposed on his pupil Abraham. Visions which P. experienced at this time: the first we quote is little better than an obsession, and is as follows: In bed, I invoked the Fire angels and spirits on the tablet, with names, etc., and the 6th Key.47 I then (as Harpocrates) entered my crystal. An angel, meeting me, told me among other things, that they (of the tablets) were "at war with the angels of the 30 AEthyrs, to prevent the squaring of" "the circle." I went with him unto the abodes of Fire, but must have fallen asleep, or nearly so. Anyhow, I regained consciousness in a very singular state half consciousness being there, and half here. I recovered and banished the Spirits, but was burning all over, and tossed restlessly about___very sleepy, but consumed of fire! Only repeated careful assumption of Harpocrates' god-form enabled me to regain my normal state. I had a long dream of a woman eloping, whom I helped, and after of a man stealing my Rose Cross jewel from a dressing-table in a hotel. I caught him and found him a weak man beyond natural (I could bend or flatten him at will), and then the dream seemed to lose coherence. ... I carried him about and found a hair-brush to beat him, &c. &c. Query: Was I totally obsessed? The second is: Invoking the angels of Earth I obtained a wonderful effect. The angel, my guide, treated me with great contempt and was very rude and truthful. He shewed me divers things. In the centre of the earth is formulated the Rose and Cross. Now the Rose is the Absolute Self-Sacrifice, the merging of "all" in the 0 (Negative) the Universal {249} Principle of generation through change ("not" merely the feminine), and the Universal Light "Khabs" The Cross is the Extension or Pekht principle. Now I should have learned more but my attention wandered. This closes the four elemental visions: prosecuted, alas! with what weakness, fatuity, and folly! And, lastly, the following, which is of considerable interest: I ... in the afternoon shut myself up, and went on a journey. ... I went with a very personal guide: and beheld (after some lesser things) our Master as he sate by the Well with the Woman of Samaria. Now the five husbands were five great religions which had defiled the purity of the Virgin of the World: and "he whom thou now hast" was materialism (or modern thought) Other scenes also I saw in His life: and behold I also was crucified! Now did I go backwards in time even unto Berashith, the Beginning, and was permitted to see marvellous things. First the Abyss of the Water: on which I, even I, brooded amid other dusky flames as S upon M held by my Genius. And I beheld the victory of Rƒ upon Apophis and the First of the Golden Dawns! Yea: and monsters, faces half-formed, arose: but they subsisted not. And the firmament was. Again the Chaos and the Death! Then "Ath" Hashamaim v. "ath" h-aretz. There is a whirling intertwining infinitude of nebulae, many concentric systems, each system non-concentric to any other, yet "all" concentric to the whole. As I went backwards in time they grew faster and faster, and less and less material. (P.S.___This is the scientific hypothesis, directly contrary to that of Anna Kingsford), and at last are whirling wheels of light: yet through them "waved" a thrill of an intenser invisible light in a direction perpendicular to the tangents. I asked to go yet further back and behold! I am floating on my back___cast down! in a wind of Light flashing down upon me from the immeasurable Above. (This Light is of a blueish silver tinge.) And I saw that Face, lost above me in the height inscrutable: a face of absolute 47 The Enochian Keys of Dr. Dee. beauty. And I saw as it were a Lamb slain in the Glamour of Those Eyes. Thus was I made pure: for there, what impunity could live? I was told that not many had been so far back: none further: those who "could" go farther would not, since that would have reabsorbed them into the Beginning, and that must not be to him who hath sworn to uplift the Standard of Sacrifice and Sorrow, which is strength. (I forgot the Angels in the Planetary Whirl. They regarded me with curiosity: and were totally unable to comprehend my explanation that I was a "Man, returning in time to behold the" "Beginning of Things.)" " Now was I able to stand in my Sephiroth: and the Crown of Twelve Stars" "was upon my head! I then went into the centre of the earth (I suppose) and" "stood upon the "{250} top of an high mountain. The many dragons and guardians I was able to overpower by "authority." Now the mount was of glistening whiteness, exceeding white as snow: yet dead and unluminous. And I beheld a vision, even like unto that of the Universal Mercury;48 and I learnt that I myself was sulphur and unmercurial. Now having attained the Mercurialising of my Sulphur I was able (in my vision) to fecundate the mountain (of Salt). And it was instantly transmuted into gold. What came ye out into the wilderness for to see? No: into living, glowing, molten Light: the Light that redeemeth the material world! So I returned: having difficulty to find the earth(?). But I called on S.R.M.D. and V.N.R. who were glad to see me; and returned into the body: to waste the night in gibing at a foolish medico. (It is worth noting here how very much more coherent this Vision is than the first ones we have had occasion to mention.) So far the second part of the "Book of the Operation." The third part of this book, which consists but of two pages, begins obscurely enough: "Heard this evening from D.D.49 Second Order apparently mad." However, this information which, from the following, we gauge to be connected with the dead sea apple schism which had for some time been ripening amongst the members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, was considered sufficiently important by P. for him to offer his services to G. H. Frater D.D.C.F., who was then in Paris. About a week later P. writes: "D.D.C.F. accepts my services, therefore do I rejoice, that my sacrifice is accepted. Therefore do I again postpone the Operation of Abramelin the Mage, having by God's Grace formulated even in this a new link with the Higher, and gained a new weapon against the Great Princes of the Evil of the World. Amen." {251} Thus ends the "Book of the Operation." But on the back of the last page there is a note from which we gather the following. That P. journeyed from London to Paris (evidently shortly after his letter to D.D.C.F. he had left T___ for London). There he was selected as the messenger of D.D.C.F., after a long talk with him and V.N.R., and at noon, four days later, he left Paris for London. This note ends with the following words: "The history of my mission: is it not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Revolt of the Adepti?" Before glancing through this Chronicle of Revolt, which in all truth might be called "The Book of the Fatuity of the Inepti," it will be necessary to return for a moment to that interesting document, "The History Lection." The last point we arrived at in the Lection was that, "in 1900 one P., a brother, instituted a rigorous test of S.R.M.D. on the one side and the Order on the other." S.R.M.D. is but another name for G.H. Frater D.D.C.F., against whose authority the Second Order were now in open revolt. From this point the Lection continues: 48 Described in a M.S. edited by S.R.M.D. and issued to the Second Order, in which is a picture of Mercury diving into the sea. 49 Secretary of the Order of the Golden Dawn. "He discovered that S.R.M.D., though a scholar of some ability and a magician of remarkable powers, had never attained complete initiation: and further had fallen from his original place, he having imprudently attracted to himself forces of evil too great and terrible for him to withstand.50 "The claim of the Order that the true adepts were in charge of it was definitely disproved. "In the Order, with two certain exceptions and two {252} doubtful ones, he found no persons with any capacity for initiation of any sort. "He thereupon, by his subtle wisdom, destroyed both the Order and its chief. "Being himself no perfect adept, he was driven of the Spirit into the Wilderness, where he abode for six years, studying by the light of reason the sacred books and secret systems of initiation of all countries and ages." We must now leave the Lection, to return to it again six years later, and as briefly as possible run through the Chronicles of Revolt, which consist of various documents for the most part printed towards the close of 1900 and the beginning of 1901, by such members of the Order as had broken away from their chief, D.D.C.F. In a printed document written on May 4, 1901, and signed by D.E.D.I., we find the following: You are aware that, originally, the Second Order in this country was governed absolutely by three chiefs. Ultimately their authority all devolved on one ___ our late chief, the G.H. Frater D.D.C.F., who was practically recognised as Autocrat. This we have already learnt from the Lection. But from a "Statement" issued to Adepti in February 1901, we further learn that on April 1 ("sic"), 1897, V.H. Soror S.S.D.D. was appointed head of the London branch of the Order and that the formation of secret groups was advised and legalised by D.D.C.F. "S.A. approved of this and formed a group himself, as Silentio ("sic") can bear witness." However, in "Letters to the Adepti of R.R. and A.C." issued in the same month, it appears that it was not by D.D.C.F.'s sanction, but through their distrust of him, that Soror S.S.D.D. started a group in London, and Frater S.S. one in Edinburgh. These groups {253} seemed to have worked as secret societies within the Order. Fra: D.E.D.I. appears in this same document to have objected to this, for we find him attempting to get S.S.D.D. to amalgamate the smaller groups and form a larger group of Theorici. This attempt led to a meeting of the Executive Council in which S.S.D.D. raised an objection of D.E.D.I.'s proposal; and we find D.E.D.I. writing: "I have sat on many committees in my own country and elsewhere, but I am proud to say that I never met among the mechanics, farmers and shop-assistants with whom I have worked in Ireland a state of feeling so ignoble, or resolutions so astonishing, as those I had to listen to yesterday." From the "Statement" it appears that these groups were the chief cause of the Revolt. D.D.C.F., permitting these groups to be formed, little by little delegated his power to others; so that when the crash came he had no magical force left to meet it; and that those who had gained it had so dispersed it among themselves that instead of causing them to rise a phoenix out of the ashes of the past, it simply set them squabbling and fighting over petty and absurd points of morals and law. A fair specimen of the magical powers displayed by the Order after the fall of D.D.C.F. is to be found in the above "Statement." "... The most serious charge that Soror F.E.R. has brought against Soror S.S.D.D. is that she has conducted the examinations unjustly." S.S.D.D.'s 50 Presumably Abramelin Demons. reply was: "That she has no time, even if she had the inclination, to indulge in futile acts of spite or favouritism." Whilst revolt was simmering in the pot of dissatisfaction, it appears that D.D.C.F. was residing in Paris, reviving the mysteries of Isis at the BodiniŠre Theatre.51 Here he and {254} his wife lived under a variety of pseudonyms such as "The Hierophant Rameses," and the "High Priestess Anari," Count and Countess MacGregor of Glenstrae, &c. &c. Their success seems at first to have been considerable, for we read in "The Humanitarian," vol. xvi. No. 2, that their receptions "are amongst the most interesting in Paris. You will find people attending them of nearly every shade of opinion and of profession: Isis-worshippers, Alchemists, Protestants, Catholics, scientists, doctors, lawyers, painters, and men and women of letters, besides persons of high rank." This success may have possibly distracted his attention from the real state of affairs in England. However, from a mere simmer the pot began to boil, and by the middle of February 1900 the fat was fairly in the fire. It was also at about this time, if not a few weeks earlier, that the notorious Madam Horos introduced herself to D.D.C.F.; this question, however, we will deal with a little later on, though in several ways it seems to be connected with the present revolt. On February 16, 1900, from 87 Rue Mozart, D.D.C.F. addressed the following letter to V.H. Soror S.S.D.D. (the Chief in charge in Anglia). It is divided into five paragraphs, the last two of which we give in full. C. et V.H. Soror S.S.D.D. * * * * * * ("d") Now, with regard to he Second Order, it would be with the "very" "greatest regret" both from my personal regard for you, as well as from the occult standpoint, that I should receive your Resignation as my Representative in the Second Order in London; but I cannot let you form a combination to make a schism therein with the idea of working secretly or avowedly under "Sapere Aude"52 under the mistaken impression {255} that he received an Epitome of the Second Order work from G.H. Soror, "Sapiens Dominabitur Astris." For this forces me to tell you plainly (and, understand me well, I can prove to the hilt every word which I here say and more, and were I confronted with S.A., I should say the same), though for the sake of the Order, and for the circumstance that it would mean so deadly a blow to S.A.'s reputation, I entreat you to keep this secret from the "Order," for the present, at least, though you are at perfect liberty to show "him" this if you think fit, "after mature consideration." ("e")He has NEVER been at "any time" either in personal or in written communication with the Secret Chiefs of the Order, he having "either himself" "forged or procured to be forged" the professed correspondence between him and them, and my tongue having been tied all these years by a previous Oath of Secrecy to him, demanded by him, from me, before showing me what he had either done or caused to be done or both. You must comprehend from what little I say here the "extreme gravity" of such a matter, and again I ask you, both for his sake and that of the Order, not to force me to go further into the subject. This letter ends by stating that every atom of the knowledge of the Order has been communicated to him, and to him alone, by the Secret Chiefs of the Order, and that G.H. Soror S.D.A. was now in Paris with him.53 51 See the "Sunday Chronicle," March 19, 1899. 52 S.A. was Sapere Aude (or Non Omnis Moriar), Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, King's Coroner for Hoxton. 53 This, as we shall shortly see, must have been Madame Horos. It must be remembered here that in the "History Lection" we learnt that S.R.M.D. (that is D.D.C.F.), by the death of one of his colleagues and the weakness of the other, secured sole authority over the Order; these two were G.H. Fratres M.E.V. and N.O.M. (that is, S.A.); and it was the latter, so it was generally supposed, who had first discovered the cipher MSS. which led to the connecting-link being established with G.H. Sopror S.D.A. and the great chiefs of the Third Order in Germany. S.S.D.D. on receiving the above letter went into the country and spent whole days considering it, after which she wrote to S.A., requesting an explanation of D.D.C.F.'s statement. S.A. replied that he did not admit the accuracy of the {256} statement, though, his witnesses being dead, he could not legally prove it false, and therefore he wished to remain neutral in the matter. So for the first time he refused to sit upon a corpse. On March 3, S.S.D.D. formed a Committee of Seven to inquire into the matter. This Committee pointed out to D.D.C.F. the seriousness of his accusation, and asked him to give them proof of its accuracy. A considerable correspondence ensued, in which D.D.C.F. absolutely and unconditionally refused to acknowledge the Committee or to give any proof whatsoever. Consequent on this refusal, the Committee agreed to place the matter before the Second Order. On March 23, D.D.C.F. wrote a letter to S.S.D.D. purporting to remove her from her position as his representative in the Second Order. On the 25th she replied: "I saw that if I kept silence I should become a party to a fraud, and therefore took the advice of some Members of the Order who have always been friendly to your interests. ..." On March 24 a general meeting of the Second Order was held, and D.D.C,F. was informed that the reason for making his charge of forgery public was, that the whole constitution of the Order depended upon the authenticity of the documents that he alleged to be forged. At a meeting of the Committee on March 29, L.O. stated that he had seen S.A., who had given him his honourable assurance that he had no reason to suppose that S.D.A. was not the person she purported to be. He had only had communication with her by letter, and had, "bonƒ fide," posted letters to her in Germany in reply. {257} On April 2, D.D.C.F, wrote refusing to acknowledge the right of the Second order to elect a Committee, and threatened members with the Punitive Current. At this juncture P., influenced, so far as himself knew, only by the impulse of self-sacrifice for the Order that had done so much for him; but, as is now apparent, secretly impelled by the true and Unknown Chiefs of the Third Order to put both the Order and its Chief to the test, crossed over to Paris and offered his services to D.D.C.F. They were accepted, and he was asked to act as envoy to the refractory brethren. In his long talk with D.D.C.F., P. proposed that the following scheme of action should be adopted to quell the revolt of the Second Order: I. The Second Order to be summoned at various times during two or three days. They to find, on being admitted one by one, a masked man in authority and a scribe. These questions, &c., pass, after pledge of secrecy concerning the interview. (A) Are you convinced of the truth of the doctrines and knowledge received in the grade of 5� = 6 �? Yes or No? If "yes" (1) Then their origin can spring from a pure source only? If "no" (2) I degrade you to be a Lord of the Paths in the Portal in the Vault of the Adepts. (B) If he reply "Yes," the masked man continues: Are you satisfied with the logic of this statement? Do you solemnly promise to cease these unseemly disputes as to the headship of this Order? I for my part can assure you that from my own knowledge D.D.C.F. is really a 7� = 4�. If "yes" (3) Then you will sign this paper; it contains a solemn reaffirmation of your obligation as a 5� = 6") slightly expanded, and a pledge to support heartily the new regulations. If "no" (4) I expel you from this Order. II. The practice of masks is to be introduced. Each member will know only the member who introduced him. Severe tests of the candidate's moral excellence, courage, earnestness, humility, refusal to do wrong, to be inserted in the Portal or 5� = 6") ritual. {258} III. Outer Order to be summoned. Similar regulations to be announced to them. New pledges required that they will not communicate the identity of anybody they happen to have known to any new member. IV. Vault to be reconsecrated. D.D.C.F. at once accepted these proposals and gave to P. the following instructions, which were at the time so hastily jotted down in a note-book that they are now almost impossible to decipher. From them we make out the following: That the false54 Sapiens Dominabitur Astris was a very stout woman and very fair, who possessed the power of changing her appearance from youth to age and "vice versƒ." That at present she has appeared as Mrs. Horos, or Howes, or Dutton. Her husband, Theo Horos, whose mystical name is Magus Sidera Regit, is a man of about twenty-five to thirty years old, short and very fair. He does not look strong but is extremely so. He has a bald patch on his head with very yellow hair growing over it. That Sapientia Ad Beneficiendum Hominibus55 is very dark and in appearance like S.S.D.D. To accept nothing from these, and in case of doubt or trouble to telegraph direct to him (D.D.C.F.). Not to be taken in by mere tricks, and to be both courteous and firm. The warnings given to P. by D.D.C.F. were as follows: If he were to feel feeble or ill or worried, and if fires refused to burn, she (Madame Horos) may be expected. {259} That the real H.P. Blavatsky and the real S.D.A. can incarnate in her; and that they (her forces) have been against D.D.C.F. for long. That her occult name is Swami Vive Ananda. That to work against them it was first necessary to separate them, and, at the very last resort, arrest them for theft. (They had stolen a travelling bag belonging to D.D.C.F., containing his rituals.) To wire their real address to D.D.C.F. 54 It will be evident that D.D.C.F. detected the fraud between the dates of his first letter to S.S.D.D. and of P.'s arrival in Paris. 55 Mrs. Rose Adams(?). To use the MacGregor symbols ___ tartan and dirks. The shoulder-plad to be thrown over the head to isolate (like H.P.K. formula). And above all to use their own current against them. Symbol of Rose Cross only to be used to invoke D.D.C.F. Other symbols were also given him. P. had long learnt to pity the ignorance and folly of most of the Members of the Order, as we learn from the "History Lection"; he was now destined to put to the test the powers of his alleged chief. If his appearance in England were followed by immediate submission of the rebels, it might safely be concluded that D.D.C.F. had not lost all control; if D.D.C.F. failed, it was then P.'s intention occultly to confound and so destroy the Order. P. at once set out on his return journey to England, and throughout followed in the minutest details the instructions given him by D.D.C.F. On arriving in London he immediately set his powers in motion. He was at once rejected by various members of the Order, who had always been bitterly envious of his powers and progress. On the first day of his arrival in London he went to see {260} Soror P.E.C.Q. and Frater S.: on his way the cab-lamps catch fire, and later a cab-horse runs away with him, and Soror S.S.D.F.'s fire refuses to burn. This was on a Friday. On Saturday the rose cross given him by D.D.C.F. began to lose colour and whitened; a rubber mackintosh nowhere near the fire suddenly caught light; and fires were by no means anxious to burn. Again he went to see Soror P.E.C.Q., and in the evening records a long dream about "the Horos lot." "They were at C___," he writes, "and wanted to get a particular MS. I had no one I could trust at all, and it was hell and Tommy for a long while. But it ended tragically enough for them." On Sunday he saw various members of the Order; and on Monday saw Soror S.S.D.F., arranged with her final details, and captured the Vault. He writes: In the morning early I was very badly obsessed, and entirely lost my temper ___ utterly without reason or justification. Five times at least have horses bolted at sight of me." Also: "Fires at 15 R.R. refuse utterly to burn." On Tuesday he recaptured vault and suspended H.S. and it appears S.S.D.D., who sought aid from the police, and, so to speak, with the majority of the fallen Order under the protection of the truncheons of Scotland Yard, drew up a new set of rules and regulations, and expelled such members from the Order as had shown any knowledge superior to their own. Thus it came to pass that on April 21, 1900, the Second Order of the Golden Dawn struggled through the fogs of their own fatuity; the sun of Occult Knowledge rising in the Outer Court of Scotland Yard to illumine twenty-two members of {261} the R.R. and A.C. and the few remaining sleepy constables that the lightning flash had not destroyed. Five days later we find D.D.C.F. writing to one of the brothers of the Order as follows: ... I admit that I "have" committed one great though unavoidable fault, which is this: in giving these persons so great a knowledge I have not also been able to give them brains and intelligence to comprehend it, for this miracle the Gods have not granted me the power to perform. You had better address your reproaches to the Gods rather than to me, unless some spark of returning wisdom can make you recognise in such "critics" the swine who trample the Divine teaching under foot. With all this we entirely agree, and so eventually did P.; but D.D.C.F. had also failed, the bow had proved as rotten as the arrows, and now P., throwing the empty quiver of the Golden Dawn aside, set out alone on the next stage of his Mystic Progress. P. was not yet certain of this failure of D.D.C.F. The final test was made two years later, and is described in due course. As to the intrigues of Madame Horos and her husband, nothing very definite is known. But on October 23, 1901, when the Horos case was before the public gaze, D.D.C.F. addressed a letter from Paris to the Editor of "Light"56 in which he states that on October 13 he wrote a letter to Mr. Curtis Bennett "to protest against the shameful and utterly unauthorised use of its name (the Order of the Golden Dawn) for their own abominable and immoral purposes by the execrable couple calling themselves 'Mr. and Mrs. Horos.'" {262} Further, D.D.C.F.57 writes: Coincident with certain dissensions in my Order, stirred up by a few members, constant fermentors of discord, jealous of my authority, though clamorous for my teaching, the so-called Mr. and Mrs. Horos and a Mrs. Rose Adams, who said she was a doctor of medicine, came to me in Paris in the beginning of last year (1900) with an introduction from an acquaintance of good social standing. At this time my name was well known here in connection with lectures on Ancient Egyptian Religious Ceremonies. The female prisoner stated that they had come with the intention of aiding me in this, and she professed to be an influential member of the Theosophical society, and also of my own Order, giving me the secret name58 of a person of high occult rank in it, who had been reported to be dead some years before. I have yet to learn how, when, where and from whom she obtained the knowledge of that Order, which she then certainly possessed. She was also acquainted with the names and addresses of several of the members, notably of those belonging to the discordant category. ... D.D.C.F. then states that she stole from his house several MSS. relating to the Order of the G.'. D.'.: "From these she and her infamous accomplices would seem to have concocted some form of initiation under the name of my Order, to impose upon their unfortunate victims." Coincident with her second appearance more dissension arose in the Order, "culminating in severance of the discordant members from it." As far as it goes this seems to be an honest and straightforward account.59 But D.D.C.F. does not state, as he must have known at the time, that Madame Horos was a Vampire of remarkable power, that is to say, one who, following the left-hand path, uses sexual love as a bait to catch her victims by, and that she had told him (as he, D.D.C.F., told P. at the time he appointed P. his envoy) that she (Soror S.V.A.) {263} could be "overshadowed by H.P. Blavatsky and G.H. Soror S.D.A. 8� = 3�." This D.D.C.F. said he knew, because she had related to him details of a very private conversation he had had with Madame Blavatsky at Denmark Hill; also 56 This letter was not published in "Light" until January 11, 1902, as at the time the case was "sub judice." 57 In this letter D.D.C.F. signs himself G. S. L. MacGregor Mathers (Comte MacGregor de Glenstrae). 58 S.D.A. 59 In this letter Mr. Mathers points out the perfectly pure intentions of the Order; who could have doubted it after Inspector Kane's pronouncement at the trial of Madame Horos: "It is a perfectly pure Order"? that he most certainly knew that she must be at least a 6� = 5� on account of her power of performing miracles.60 As D.D.C.F. apparently much dreaded that Madame Horos might take over the command of the Order in London, he, as we have seen, instructed P. to use cold steel and the MacGregor Tartan against her.61 He also informed P. that she had stolen some rituals in a portmanteau, which theft, it will be remembered, P. was to make use of as a last weapon against her. He further added that she was a "financial fraud," and that her husband was but a victim to her vampirism, a sort of soulless maniac, possessing unexpected and demoniacal strength when inspired by her. Her motive, he thought, was hostility against the Order and himself, and as {264} he expressed it: "to the current sent at the end of a century to regenerate this planet." N.'s statement again varies somewhat from the above, and is probably more trustworthy. It is as follows: S.V.A.62 came suddenly to Paris and informed D.D.C.F. that she was S.D.A. 8� = 3�, who had not died as had been reported. On hearing this D.D.C.F. at once accepted her statement.63 She promised him a large sum of money to build a temple to Isis;64 for at this time D.D.C.F. was starting what he called "The Mysteries of Isis," and the public dances and entertainments were being held by V.N.R.65 at the Bodini‚re Theatre. Now that she had turned out to be a fraud it proved that D.D.C.F. was a fraud also.66 This of course is as ridiculous as assertion to make as that made by another member of the Order, which was: "That if indeed it were the promise of S.V.A.'s money that had satisfied D.D.C.F.'s conscience, then he most certainly must be a fraud." P., in his own subtle way, saw this, arguing that in the case where a great man claims to be a leader amongst men, it is permissible to suppose 60 One or two curious points in her trial are worth recording. Laura Horos, alias The Swami, alias Mrs. Jackson, alias Soror S.V.A., claimed to be Princess Editha Lollito Baroness Rosenthal, Countess of Landfeld, daughter of Louis I., King of Bavaria, and Lola Montez (for Lola Montez see "Lola Montez: an Adventuress of the Forties," by Edmund B. D'Auvergne). In Cape Town she had promoted "The Order of Theocratic Unity," which was also called "The Order of the Atonement," and the "United Templars." Her whole trial was marked by the disgusting display of public eagerness to revel in the filth that was disclosed. At the time, from the coroneted aristocrat to the red-tied demagogue, all classes in England were smacking their filthy lips over such insinuating muck as: "Daisy is a dark little thing, bright and attractive, with hair down her back in thick curls, and looking even less that her age" (sixteen). ___ "The Sun," October 17, 1901. On leaving the court the day before this tasty paragraph appeared in the above-mentioned feculent luminary, the public having for several hours greedily sniffed round her messes, commenced to hiss at her, whereupon she turned upon them and shouted: "Shut up, you reptiles. It's only snakes that hiss." For this remark alone her final sentence should most certainly have been reduced. 61 Because she had been afraid of them. 62 Fra: AE.A. of the G.'. D.'. believes that some American members of the Order met Madame Horos in New York, and from them it was that she obtained her knowledge. 63 Probably after S.V.A. had given him the grade signs. 64 This explains the term "financial fraud." 65 D.D.C.F.'s "hermetic" wife: for a more correct account see "The Humanitarian," vol. xvi. No. 2, "Isis-Worship in Paris." 66 From this wonderful piece of logic one might be permitted to mistake N. for a member of the Rationalistic Press Association. But he was only a 5� = 6�. that his actions may be meant to place his followers between the horns of a rational dilemma. {265} The disciple who can recognize Christ in the darkness that surrounds the Cross, he is a true disciple. P. suspended judgment on D.D.C.F. till he had proved that he had pledged his honour, to excuse a maniacal assault upon a Saint of God, Frater I.A. It is permissible for a great musician to improvise in some great masterpiece he may be playing; but it is not permissible for a student to say that he can play this piece when he can only scrape through it by improvising easy bars for the more difficult ones. Similarly with a great Magician; he can indulge in petty black magical tricks if he so desire (there is always a danger), for at a breath they will vanish before the greater magic that is his. But the shivering little cardshuffler who pretends he is the Master because he has successfully forced a card on a village curate, not only cuts off all hope of ever becoming such, but unless he is extremely careful, will find himself literally in the place of the evil triad, marching, not between Isis and Nephthys, but between two sturdy guardians of the peace. Towards the end of April, 1900, P. returned to his lonely house in the north, but only remaining there a few days, he travelled back to Paris. For it was now past Easter, and so too late in the year to begin the Operation of Abramelin. He had, as we have seen induced D.D.C.F. to put in force the Deadly and Hostile Current of Will, but, as in the case of the Jackdaw of Rheims, nobody seemed a penny the worse. One might have expected that D.D.C.F. having failed, P. would have abandoned him. No, for it seemed still possible that D.D.C.F., really in touch with the Supreme Chiefs, had yet finally decided to say with Christ upon the {266} Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," even though this theory was somewhat rudely shaken by D.D.C.F spending the whole of one Sunday afternoon in rattling a lot of dried peas in a sieve under the impression that they were the revolted members: as subsequent events proved, they were only the ideas in his head. So we find P. still loyal, if a little sceptical, and searching within himself to discover a touchstone by which he might prove beyond doubt the authenticity of D.D.C.F.'s claim to represent the Masters. Now, there had been a good deal of talk of an adventure that happened to D.D.C.F. and Frater I.A., who was a guest in his house, in which a revolver figured prominently; but the story was only vague, and Frater I.A., who could and would have told the truth about it, had departed for a distant colony. So on arriving in Paris, P. lured D.D.C.F. into telling the story, which was as follows: That he and I.A. had disagreed upon an obscure point in theology, thereby formulating the accursed Dyad, thereby enabling the Abramelin demons to assume material form: one in his own shape, another in that of I.A. Now, the demon that looked like I.A. had a revolver, and threatened to shoot him (D.D.C.F.), while the demon that resembled himself was equally anxious to shoot I.A. Fortunately, before the demons could fire, V.N.R. came into the room, thus formulating the symbol of the Blessed Trinity, of which her great purity of character would naturally fit her to be a prominent member. Now, the only probability about this story, which D.D.C.F. related on his magical honour as a 7� = 4�, was that D.D.C.F. saw double. Frater P., however, was not going to judge any isolated story by the general laws of probability, so, bowing gracefully, he rose and set out {267} to find Frater I.A., whom he eventually ran down at the house of a holy Yogi in the Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, to hear his account. Frater I.A.'s account was less of a strain upon P.'s faculties of belief. They had had, he said, an argument about the God Shiva, the Destroyer, whom I.A. worshipped because, if one repeated his name often enough, Shiva would one day open his eye and destroy the Universe, and whom D.D.C.F. feared and hated because He would one day open His eye and destroy D.D.C.F. I.A. closed the argument by assuming the position Padmasana and repeating the Mantra: "Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva." D.D.C.F., angrier than ever, sought the sideboard, but soon returned, only to find Frater I.A. still muttering: "Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva." "Will you stop blaspheming?" cried D.D.C.F.; but the holy man only said: "Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva." "If you don't stop I will shoot you!" said D.D.C.F., drawing a revolver from his pocket, and levelling it at I.A.'s head; but I.A., being concentrated, took no notice, and continued to mutter: "Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva." Whether overawed by the majesty of the saint, or interrupted by the entry of a third person, I.A. no longer remembered, but D.D.C.F. never pulled the trigger. It was only after this interview, which did not take place till August 1901, that P. definitely decided against D.D.C.F. We must now return to his wanderings, and so we find him in July 1900 crossing the Atlantic to New York. From New York P. journeyed to Mexico: in this country he travelled about alone for three months; and whilst in {268} Mexico D.F. became partaker in a wonderful experience known as "the Vision and the Voice."67 Shortly after this vision, he founded at Guanajato the Order of the L.I.L., and the fire of Adonai descending upon him, he wrote "The Book of the Spirit of the Living God," of which the two following rituals are part: