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The Comte De Gabalis

By Abbé N. de Montfaucon de Villars

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Discourse V

 

 
HEN the illustrious personage had taken his departure, on my return from accompanying him to the door, I found the Comte de Gabalis in my study.
"It is a great pity," said he, "that the nobleman who has just left you is one day to become one of the seventy-two Princes of the Sanhedrin of the New Law CXV, else he would be a great subject for our Holy Cabala. His mind is profound,
pure, broad, lofty and fearless. Here is the geomantic CXVI figure which I cast for him while you were talking together. I have never seen happier aspens nor those denoting a finer soul. Just look at this 'Mother'--what magnanimity it gives him; and this 'Daughter' will procure him the purple. Bad luck to her and to destiny since they deprive Philosophy of a subject who might perhaps surpass you. But where were we when he came in?"

"You were speaking, Sir," said I, "of a Saint whom I have never seen in the Roman Calendar. I think you called him Danhuzerus."

"Ah! I remember," he replied, "I was bidding you put yourself in the place of one of your doctors and suppose that the Blessed Danhuzerus had just laid bare to you his conscience and said, 'Sir, the fame of your learning has brought me from beyond the mountains. I have a slight scruple which is troubling me. A Nymph holds her court in a mountain in Italy: and a thousand Nymphs almost as beautiful as their Queen attend upon her. The handsomest and most learned and most worthy men resort thither from all the habitable globe. They love these Nymphs and are beloved by them; they lead the most delightful life in the world; the Nymphs whom they love bear them very fine children; they worship the living God, injure no. one and hope for immortality. I was one day walking upon this mountain and found favour in the eyes of the Queen of the Nymphs, who appeared to me and showed me her charming court. The Sages perceiving that she loved me, reverenced me almost as their Prince. They exhorted me to yield to the Nymph's sighs and beauty. She told me of her martyrdom, and left unsaid nothing which might touch my heart, and in short convinced me that she would die if I did not love her, and that if I loved her she would be indebted to me for her immortality. The arguments of those learned men prevailed over my principles, even as the charms of the Nymph won my heart. I love her and she has borne me children of great promise, but in the midst of my felicity I am sometimes troubled by the recollection that the Church of Rome might not approve of all this. I have come to consult you, Sir, about this Nymph, those Sages, these children and the state of my conscience.' Well, Mr. Doctor, what answer would you make to my Lord Danhuzerus?"

"I should say to him," I answered, "With all due respect to you, Lord Danhuzerus, you are letting your imagination run away with you, or else your vision is an enchantment, your children and your mistress are hobgoblins, your Sages are fools, and I must say that your conscience is thoroughly cauterized."

"By such an answer, my Son, you might achieve a doctor's hood, but you would not merit admission to our Order," rejoined the Comte with a deep sigh. " Such is the barbarous tendency ofall your doctors nowa-days. A poor Sylph would never dare show himself lest he be straightway mistaken for a hobgoblin; a Nymph cannot labour to become immortal without passing for an impure phantom; and a Salamander CXVII would not dare appear for fear of being taken for the Devil himself, while the pure flames of which he is composed would be thought the hell fire which ever attends upon the Prince of Darkness. To dissipate these Most injurious suspicions they vainly make the sign of the cross on appearing, bow the knee at Divine Names, and even pronounce them with reverence. All these precautions are futile. They cannot succeed in changing their reputation for being enemies of the God whom they worship more devoutly than do those who flee from them."

"But seriously, Sir," said I, "do you really believe these Sylphs to be such extraordinarily devout folk?"

"Most devout," he answered, "and most zealous for Divinity. The superlatively excellent discourses upon the Divine Essence which they deliver to us, and their wonderful prayers edify us greatly."

"Have they prayers as well? " said I. "I should very much like to hear one of their making."

"It is easy to gratify you," he rejoined, "and that I may not quote anything of questionable authority, and that you may be unable to suspect me of having fabricated it, listen to the prayer which the Salamander who gave answers in the Temple of Delphi was pleased to teach the Pagans, and which is recorded by Porphyry. It contains a sublime theology from which you will perceive that if mankind did not worship the true God, it was through no fault of these Sage Beings.

PRAYER OF THE SALAMANDERS.
Immortal, Eternal, Inejble and Sacred Father of all things, Thou who art borne upon the ceaselessly-rolling chariot of the ever-turning worlds. Thou Ruler of the Etherial Countries where the Throne of Thy power is raised, from the summit whereof Thy formidable eyes discover all things, and Thine excellent and holy ears hear all things. Hearken nto Thy children whom Thou hast loved from the birth of time; for Thy golden, mighty, and eternal Majesty shines above the world and above the firmament of the Stars. Thou art exalted above them, O radiant Fire! There Thou kindlest Thyself and maintainest Thyself by Thine own Splendour, and there go forth from Thine Eternal Essence inexhaustible streams of Light which nourish Thine Infinite Spirit. Thine Infinite Spirit produces all things and causes the inexhaustible treasure of matter, which can never fail in that generation which forever environs it, because .of the forms without number wherewith it is pregnant and wherewith Thou in the beginning didst fill it. From this Thy Spirit, likewise, are born those Holy Kings who stand about Thy Throne, and CXVIII who compose Thy court, O Universal Father! O Thou Unique God! O Father of mortal and immortal Saints! CXIX Thou hast in particular created Powers which are marvellously like unto Thine Eternal Thought, and unto Thine Adorable Essence. Thou hast set them higher than the Angels who announce to the world Thy Will. Lastly Thou hast created in the Elements a third rank of Sovereigns. Our continual exercise is to praise Thee and to worship Thy Will. We burn with desire to possess Thee, O Father, O Mother, who art tenderest of Mothers, O wonderful exemplar of the sentiments and tenderness of Mothers, O Son, the flower of all Sons, O Form of all Forms, Thou Soul, Spirit, Harmony and Number of all things! 

"What say you to this prayer of the Salamanders? Is it not exceedingly learned, lofty and devout?"

"And exceedingly obscure as well," I answered. "I once heard it paraphrased by a preacher who proved thereby that the Devil, in addition to his other vices, is above all else a great hypocrite."

"Alas!" exclaimed the Comte, "Poor Elementary Peoples! What resource is left you? You tell marvellous things concerning the Nature of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Assisting Intelligences, Angels and Heavens. "You make wonderful prayers and teach them to man; yet after all you are nothing but hypocritical hobgoblins!"

"Sir," I hastily observed, "it makes me uncomfortable to have you thus apostrophise these Peoples." "Nay, my Son," he replied, "do not fear lest I summon them, but rather lest your faintheartedness should in the future prevent you from having any realisation beyond that of amazement that you see fewer examples of their alliance with men than you could wish for. Alas! Where is the woman whose imagination has not been beclouded by your doaors, and who does not look with horror upon this relationship, and who would not tremble at the appearance of a Sylph?. Where is the man with least pretension to being good who does not flee the sight of them? Do we find, save very rarely, a man of worth who would care to be on familiar terms with them? Only profligates, misers, ambitious men or knaves court this honour to which, however, PRAISE GOD, they shall never attain; 'for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.'"

"Then what is to become of all these flying Nations," I inquired, "now that honest folk are so prejudiced against them?"

"Ah!" said he, "The arm of God is in no wise shortened, and the Devil does not derive all the advantage he anticipated from the ignorance and error which he has spread to their detriment; for in addition to the fact that the Philosophers, of whom there are a great number, do their utmost to remedy it by absolutely renouncing women, God has given all these Peoples permission to make use of every innocent artifice of which they can bethink themselves in order to converse with men without their knowledge."

"What do I hear, Sir?" I exclaimed.

"You hear nothing but the truth," he replied. "But I have a much greater secret to communicate to you. Know, my Son, that many a man believes himself to be the son of a man, who is really the son of a Sylph. Did I not tell you the other day that the Sylphs and other Lords of the Elements are overjoyed that we are willing to instruct them in the Cabala? Were it not for us their great enemy the Devil would alarm them exceedingly, and they would have difficulty in immortalising themselves without the knowledge of the maidens."

"I cannot sufficiently wonder at the profound ignorance in which we live," I remarked. "It is currently believed that the Powers of the Air sometimes help lovers to attain their desires. Apparently the contrary is true; the Powers of the Air require the assistance of men in their love affairs."

"Quite so, my Son," the Comte went on, "the Sage lends assistance to these poor people who, were it not for him, would be too wretched and too weak to resist the Devil. But when a Sylph has learned from us to pronounce Cabalistically the potent Name NEHMAHMIHAH CXX, and to combine it in mantric form with the delicious name Eliael, all powers of darkness take flight and the Sylph peacefully enjoys the society of his loved one."

"When these gentlemen are immortalised, they labour earnestly and live most piously that they may not lose their recently-acquired right to the possession of the Supreme Good. They therefore desire the person to whom they are allied to live with exemplary innocence, as is apparent in that celebrated adventure of a young Lord of Bavaria CXXI. He was inconsolable at the death of his wife, whom he loved passionately. A certain Sylphid was advised by one of our Sages to assume the likeness of the wife. She had confidence in the Sage and presented herself to the sorrowing young man, saying that God had raised her from the dead to console him in his extreme aflfliction. They lived together many years and had several beautiful children. The young nobleman, however, was not a good enough man to retain the gentle Sylphid; he used to blaspheme and use had language. She often warned him, but seeing that her remonstrances were unavailing she disappeared one day, and left him nothing but her petticoats and the regret of having been unwilling to follow her pious counsel. Thus you see, my Son, that Sylphs sometimes have reason to disappear. You see too that neither the Devil nor the fantastic caprices of your theologians can prevent the People of the Elements from working with success for their immortality when they are helped by one of our Sages."

"But honestly, Sir," I asked, "are you persuaded that the Devil is so great an enemy of these seducers of young girls?"

"A mortal enemy," said the Comte, "especially of the Nymphs, Sylphs and Salamanders. As for the Gnomes, he does not hate them nearly so much because, as I believe you have already learned, the Gnomes, frightened by the howlings of the Devils which they hear in the centre of the earth, prefer to remain mortal rather than run the risk of being thus tormented should they acquire immortality. Thence it comes to pass that these Gnomes and the demons, their neighbours, have a good deal to do with one another. The latter persuade the Gnomes, who are naturally most friendly to man, that it is doing him a very great service and delivering him from great danger, to compel him to renounce his immortality. In exchange, they promise the man whom they can persuade to this renunciation that they will provide him with all the money he asks for, will avert the dangers which might threaten his life during a given period, or will grant any other condition pleasing to him who makes this wretched covenant. Thus the Devil, wicked fellow that he is, through the mediation of a Gnome, causes the soul CXXII of such a man to become mortal and deprives it of the right to eternal life."

"Then, Sir," cried I, "in your opinion those covenants, of which demonographers cite so many examples, are not made with the Devil at all?"

"No, assuredly not," replied the Comte, "Has not the Prince of the World CXXIII been driven out? Is he not confined? Is he not bound? Is he not the terra damnata et maledicta which is left at the bottom of the retort of the Supreme and Archetype Distiller? Can he ascend into the Region of Light and spread there his concentrated darkness? He can do nothing against man. He can only inspire the Gnomes, his neighbours, to come and make these propositions to those among mankind whom he most fears may be saved, to the end that their souls may die with their bodies."

"Then," said I, "according to you these souls do die?"
"They die, my child," he answered.
"And are not those who enter into such covenants damned?"
"They cannot be damned," said he, "for their souls die with their bodies."
"Then they are let off easily, and' they are very lightly punished for so heinous a crime as that of renouncing the saving grace of their Baptism, and the Death of Our Lord."

"Do you call it being lightly punished," said the Comte, "to return into the black abyss of nonexistence? Know that it is a greater punishment than that of being damned, and that there is still a remnant of mercy in the justice which God exercises towards the sinners in Hell: it is a great grace not to let them be consumed by the fire which burns them. Nonexistence CXXIV is a greater evil than Hell. This is what the Sages preach to the Gnomes when they assemble them to make them understand the wrong they do themselves in preferring death to immortality and nonexistence to the hope of a blessed eternity, which they would have the right to possess if they would only ally themselves to men without exacting from them such criminal renunciation. Some yield to our persuasions and we marry them to our daughters."

"Then, Sir, do you evangelise the Subterranean Peoples?" I inquired.

"Why not?" he replied. "We are instructors to them as well as to the Peoples of the Fire, Air and Water; and Philosophic charity is extended without distinction to all these children of God. As they are more subtile and more enlightened than the generality of mankind, they are more tractable and amenable to discipline, and listen to the divine truths with a reverence which charms us."

"It must be charming indeed," I exclaimed mirthfully, "to see a Cabalist in the 
pulpit holding forth to these gentlemen!"
"You shall have that pleasure, my Son, whenever you wish," said the Comte, "and if you so desire I will assemble them this very evening and will preach to them at midnight."

"At midnight," I protested, "I have been told that that is the hour of the Sabbat." CXXV

The Comte began to laugh. "You remind me," he said, "of all the imbecilities related by the demonographers in that chapter on their imaginary Sabbat. You are not going to tell me that you also believe in it, that would indeed be a joke!"

"Oh!" I retorted, "as for those tales of. the Sabbat, I assure you I do not believe one of them."

"That is right, my Son," said he, "for I repeat that the Devil has not power thus to amuse himself at the expense of mankind, nor to enter into covenants with men, still less to make himself worshipped as the Iniquisitors believe. What has given rise to the popular rumour is that the Sages, as I have just told you, assemble the Inhabitants of the Elements to preach their Mysteries and Ethics to them. And as it usually happens that some Gnome turns from his gross error, comprehends the horrors of non-existence and consents to become immortalised, they bestow upon him one of our daughters; he is married and the nuptials are celebrated with all the rejoicing called for by the recent conquest. There are dances and those shouts of joy which Aristotle says were heard in certain isles CXXVI where, nevertheless, no living being was visible. The mighty Orpheus was the first to convoke these Subterranean Peoples. At his first lecture SABAZIUS, the most ancient of the Gnomes, was îm-mortalised; and from that SABAZIUS CXXVII was derived the name of this Assembly wherein the Sages were wont to address a speech to him as long as he lived, as is apparent in the Hymns of the divine Orpheus."

"The ignorant have confounded things, and have made them the occasion of a thousand impertinent tales, and of defaming an Assembly which we convene solely to the glory of the Supreme Being."

"I should never have imagined the Sabbat to be a devotional assembly," said I.

"And yet it is a most holy and Cabalistic one;" he rejoined, "a fact of which it would not be easy to persuade the world. But such is the deplorable blindness of this unjust age; people are carried away by popular rumour and do not in the least wish to bd undeceived. Sages speak in vain, fools are more readily believed than they. In vain does a Philosopher bring to light the falsity of the chimeras people have fabricated, and present manifest proofs to the contrary. No matter what his experience, nor how sound his argument and reasoning, let but a man with a doctor's hood come along and write them down as false,--experience and demonstration count for naught and it is henceforward beyond the power of Truth to re-establish her empire. People would rather believe in a doctor's hood than in their own eyes. There has been in your native France a memorable proof of this popular mania. The famous. Cabalist Zedechias, * in the reign of your Pépin, took it into his head to convince the world that the Elements are inhabited by these Peoples whose nature I have just described to you. The expedient of which he bethought himself was to advise the Sylphs to show themselves in the Air to everybody; they did so sumptuously. These beings were seen in the Air in human form, sometimes in battle array marching in good order, halting under arms, or encamped beneath magnificent tents. Sometimes on wonderfully constructed aerial ships, whose flying squadrons roved at the will of the Zephyrs. What happened? Do you suppose that ignorant age would so much as reason as to the nature of these I' marvellous spectacles? The people straightway believed that sorcerers had taken possession of the Air CXXVIII for the purpose of raising tempests and bringing hail upon their crops. The learned theologians and jurists were soon of the same opinion as the masses. The Emperors believed it as well; and this ridiculous, ;a; chimera went so far that the wise Charlemagne, and after him Louis the Débonnaire, imposed grievous penalties upon all these supposed Tyrants of the Air. You may see an account of this in the first chapter of the Capitularies of these two Emperors." CXXIX

"The Sylphs seeing the populace, the pedants and even the crowned heads thus alarmed against them, determined to dissipate the bad opinion people had of their innocent fleet by carrying off men from every locality and showing them their beautiful women, their Republic and their manner of government, and then setting them down again on earth in divers parts of the world. They carried out their plan. The people who saw these men as they were descending came running from every direction, convinced beforehand that they were sorcerers who had separated from their companions in order to come and scatter poisons on the fruit and in the springs. Carried away by the frenzy with which such fancies inspired them, they hurried these innocents off to the torture. The great number of them who were put to death by fire and water throughout the kingdom is incredible."

"One day, among other instances, it chanced at Lyons that three men and a woman were seen descending from these aerial ships. The entire city gathered about them, crying out that they were magicians CXXX and were sent by Grimaldus, Duke of Beneventum, Charlemagne's enemy, to destroy the French harvests. In vain the four innocents sought to vindicate themselves by saying that they were their own country-folk, and had been carried away a short time since by miraculous men who had shown them unheard-of marvels, and had desired them to give an account of what they had seen. The frenzied populace paid no heed to their defence, and were on the point of casting them into the fire when the worthy Agobard, Bishop CXXXI of Lyons, who having been a monk in that city had acquired considerable authority there, came running at the noise, and having heard the accusations of the people and the defence of the accused, gravely pronounced that both one and the other were false. That it was not true that these men had fallen from the sky, and that what they said they had seen there was impossible."

"The people believed what their good father Agobard said rather than their own eyes, were pacified, set at liberty the four Ambassadors of the Sylphs CXXXII, and received with wonder the book which Agobard wrote to confirm the judgment which he had pronounced. Thus the testimony of these four witnesses was rendered vain."

"Nevertheless, as they escaped with their lives they were free to recount what they had seen, which was not altogether fruitless for, as you will recall, the age of Charlemagne was prolific of heroic men. This would indicate that the woman who had been in the home of the Sylphs found credence among the ladies of that period and that, by the grace of God, many Sylphs were immortalised. Many Sylphids also became immortal through the account of their beauty which these three men gave; which compelled the people of those times to apply themselves somewhat to Philosophy; and thence are derived all the stories of the fairies which you find in the love legends of the age of Charlemagne and of those which followed.

All these so-called fairies were only Sylphids and Nymphs. Did you ever read those histories of heroes and fairies?"
"No Sir," said I.

"I am sorry to hear it," he replied, "for they would have given you some idea of the state to which the Sages are one day determined to reduce the world. Those heroic men, those love affairs with Nymphs, those voyages to terrestial paradise, those palaces and enchanted woods and all the charming adventures that happen in them, give but a faint idea of the life led by the Sages and of what the world will be when they shall have brought about the Reign of Wisdom CXXXIII. Then we shall see only heroes born; the least of our children will have the strength of Zoroaster, Apollonius or Melchizedek; and most of them will be as accomplished as the children Adam would have had by Eve had he not sinned with her."

"Did you not tell me, Sir," I interposed, "that God did not wish Adam and Eve to have children, that Adam was to think only of Sylphids, and Eve only of some Sylph or Salamander?"

"It is true," said the Comte, "that they ought not to have had children in the way in which they did."

"Then Sir," I continued, "your Cabala empowers man and woman to create children otherwise than by the usual method?"

"Assuredly," he replied.

"Ah Sir," I entreated, "teach this method to me, I beg of you."

"You will not find it out to-day, and it please you," said he smilingly, "I wish to avenge the People of the Elements for your having been so hard to undeceive regarding their supposed deviltry. I do not doubt that you are now recovered from your panic terrors. Therefore I leave you that you may have leisure to meditate and to deliberate in the presence of God as to which species of Elementary Beings will be most appropriate to His glory and to your own, as a participant in your 
immortality."
"Meanwhile I go to meditate in preparation for the discourse you have made me long to deliver to the Gnomes to-night."
"Are you intending to explain a chapter of Averroes. to them?" said I.

"I believe that it might be well to introduce something of the sort," said the Comte, "for I intend to preach to them on the excellence of man, that I may influence them to seek his alliance. Like Aristotle, Averroes held two theories which it would be well for me to explain, one as to the nature of the understanding, and the other as to the Chief Good. He says that there is only one created understanding which is the image of the uncreated, and that this unique understanding suffices for all men; that requires explanation. And as for the Chief Good, Averroes says that it consists in the conversation of Angels, which is not Cabalistic enough. For man, even in this life CXXXIV can, and is created to, enjoy God, as you will one day understand and experience when you shall have reached the estate of the Sages."

Thus ends the Discourse of the Comte de Gabalis. He returned the next day and brought the speech that he had delivered to the Subterranean Peoples. It was marvellous! I would publish it with the series of Discourses which a certain Vicomtesse and I have had with this Illustrious Man, were I certain that all my readers would have the proper spirit, and not take it amiss that I amuse myself at the expense of fools. If I see that people are willing to let my book accomplish
the good that it is capable of doing, and are
not unjustly suspeéting me of seeking to give
credit to the Occult Sciences under
pretence of ridiculing them, I
shall continue to delight in
Monsieur le Comte,
and shall soon be
able to publish
another
volume  *
 
.
________________________________________

Footnotes
161:CXV p. 162 SANHEDRIN OF THE NEW LAW.--On February 9th, 1807, one hundred and thirty-seven years after the publication of the first edition of these Discourses, the "Grand Sanhedrin " convened at Paris. This French Sanhedrin was the Jewish high court convoked by the Emperor Napoleon I. for the purpose of giving legal sanction to those principles of government which he desired to establish as the basis of the future status of the Jews and of his New Law for them.

161:CXVI GEOMANCY.--"A forecast of the future by means of dots made in the sand. It is mentioned by many English writers--by Chaucer and Dryden--and is at present largely practised in China, in the Soudan and in Egypt, where its practitioners may daily be seen making signs in the dust at the corners of the streets. Instead of making marks on the earth itself, it has been the habit in Europe--one may say for centuries--for the marks to be made by pen or pencil on a sheet of paper." "'Geomancy,' according to M. de Cattan, * 'is a science and an art which consists of points and lines representing the four elements and the stars and planets of the sky.' The instruments of this art are a pen, ink and paper, or a small stick, and earth, dust or well-cleaned sand. This method was used by the Chaldeans, Persians, Hebrews, and Egyptians before ink and paper were invented. The science therefore retains the name of geomancy."

"The great professors of the art assert for geomancy the widest possible extension to all subjects."

"This was the distraction that Sir Edward Lytton often sought in the intervals of business and study."

Mother and Daughter are terms denoting the so-called houses in a geomantic figure. Further particulars as to the practice of this art, together with Sir Edward Lytton's own geomantic tables and instruction, as well as an international forecast of importance made by him and since verified by the event, are to be found in the book from which the quotations given above are made. "RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS," BY SIR HENRY DRUMMOND WOLFF. VOL. I., PAGE 298 AND FOLLOWING.

161:* La Geomance do Seigneur Christofe de Cattan, Gentilhomme Genevois. Paris, 1567.

167:CXVII ST. BENEDICT AND THE SALAMANDER.--The truth of this statement is verified by the following extract from "The Life of St. Benedict, by St. Gregory the Great." * "The castle called Casaino is situated upon the side of a high mountain, which containeth as it were, in the lap thereof, the same castle, and riseth into the air three miles high so that the top seemeth to touch the very heavens: on this stood an old temple where Apollo was worshipped by the foolish country people, according to the custom of the ancient heathens. Round about it, likewise, grew groves, in which even until that time the mad multitude of infidels offered idolatrous sacrifices. The man of God coming to that place broke down the idol, overthrew the altar, burn't the groves, and, of the temple of Apollo, made a chapel to St. Martin, and where the profane altar had stood, he built a chapel of St. John; and, by continual preaching, converted many of the people thereabout. But the old enemy not bearing this silently, did pre- sent himself, not covertly or in a dream but openly and visibly in the sight of the Father, and with great cries complained of the violence he had suffered, in as much that the brethren heard him though they could see nothing. For, as the venerable Father told his disciples, the wicked fiend represented himself to his sight all on fire, and, with flaming mouth and flashing eyes, seemed to rage against him. And, then, they all heard what he said, for first, he called him by his p. 170 name, and, when the man of God would make him no answer, he fell to reviling him. And whereas before, he cried: 'Benedict, Benedict,' and he saw that he could get no answer, then he cried Maledict, not Benedict, what hast thou to do with me, and why dost thou persecute me?'"

167:* Chapter viii.

169:CXVIII HOLY KINGS.--These Hierarchal Beings called Kings are in reality states of consciousness or energy within which are governing intelligences having jurisdiction over the seven planets.

"But the Mind, The God, being masculine-feminine, originating Life and Light, begat by Word another Mind Creator, Who being God of the Fire and the Spirit, created some Seven Administrators, encompassing in circles the sensible world; and their administration is called Fate." HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. POEMANDRES I, §9.

"Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne." THE APOCALYPSE OR REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. CHAPTER I., VERSE 4.

169:CXIX PRAYER.--There is a mansion above through which shines down the great central Light of the Paraclete or Holy Spirit, and through this descending column the prayers of those who seek the Light ascend to the higher spheres. The gateway of this mansion, known to Cabalists as the Sixth House or Hierarchy, is guarded by two Wonderful Beings. † These Beings symbolise the union between the human and divine, for prayer is but the bringing together of these opposites. The divine mingles with the human so that it also may become divine: and man's thoughts ascending into the the Light are taken up by these Intelligences who judge them and summon the Hosts of their Realm to grant, according to Law, the requests made.

When you pray, think! Shut out all lower thoughts. Approach God as you would the entrance to the Holy Place. Ask if it be well to demand to be given wisdom according to Law. Be strong in purpose and firm in demand, for as you seek and demand power of a spiritual nature you will balance that power in self on the lower planes.. It is to penetrate beyond these lower planes or spheres of illusion that Jesus said, * "When you pray, SAY" these things. You have by a direct and positive effort to reach the higher spheres of consciousness, therefore let your thought be clear . and concise, for a sincere, positive and well-defined prayer harmonises man with God. On the other hand, an idle or unthinking prayer without definite expression becomes an affliction to the mind and destroys its receptivity to the Light. A fervent prayer to the Deity crystallises the mind so that other forms of thought cannot enter, and prepares it to receive a response from the God within.

Prayer or concentration on the Highest Source man is capable of imagining is a path to Wisdom Found.

169:† Cherubim. Note aaa, Commentary Continued.

169:* Luke xi., 2. Compare Proclus on Prayer. Note bbb, Commentary Continued.

175:CXX NEHMAHMIHAH.--The three-syllabled word which is communicated to Master Masons as a substitute for the Master's word, "until wiser ages shall discover the true one," resembles Nehmahmihah: and one need not travel far to find further indication of the identity of the esoteric teachings of Masonry with. the Philosophy of the Comte. The following confirmation of this fact is drawn from a manuscript on the subjea of Freemasonry now in the Bodleian Library, and entitled "Certayne Questyons, with Answeres to the same, concerning the Mystery of Maçonrye; written by the hande of kynge Henrye, the sixthe of the name, and faithfullye copyed by me Johan Leylande, Antiquarius, by the commaunde of his Highnesse." Wherein King Henry VI, himself A Mason, says of the Craft:

"They concelethe the arte of kepynge secrettes, that soe the worlde mayeth nothinge concele from them. Thay concelethe the arte of wunderwerckynge, and of foresayinge thynges to comme, that so thay same artes may not be usedde of the wyckedde to an evyell ende. Thay also concelethe the ante of chaunges, the wey of wynnynge the facultye of ABRAC (God), the skylle of becommynge gude and parfyghte wythouten the holpynges of fere and hope (religion); and the universelle longage of maçonnes."

Additional proof is found in the following statement: "Freemasonry proclaims, as it has proclaimed from its origin, the existence of a creative principle, p. 178 under the name of the great Architect of the universe."

"PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTORS-GENERAL OF THE THIRTY-THIRD AND LAST DEGREE, ETC., HELD AT THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AUGUST 15, 1876."

177:CXXI LORD OF BAVARIA. NOTE CCC, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

179:CXXII SOUL.--The word Soul is used with the meaning of spiritual vesture throughout these Discourses, and in their terminology may be said to be the Air and Water bodies taken together, and in contradistinction to the Earth body and Fire body or spirit which they unite. "For the Spirit is an invisible thing nor doth it ever appear without another garment, which garment is the Soul." EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES, 44RIPLEY REVIV'D," LONDON, 1678. PAGE 8.

181:CXXIII  PRINCE OF THE WORLD.--And God said to Raphael: "Go Raphael, and bind Azalzel; chain him Hand and Foot, and cast him into Darkness; open the Desart that is in the Wilderness of Dudael, and go, and plunge him in there; cover him with sharp and rugged Stones; involve Darkness over him, which he shall inhabit to Eternity: Obstruct his Sight, that he may not see the Light, and that he may be brought out in the Day of Judgment, to be consum'd by Fire." THE HISTORY OF THE ANGELS AND THEIR GALLANTRY WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN. WRITTEN BY ENOCH THE PATRIARCH. PUBLISH'D IN GREEK, BY DR. GRABE, MADE ENGLISH, LONDON, 1715.

183:CXXIV  NON-EXISTENCE.--The inner meaning of these teachings is that man, by yielding to the temptations of his lower or Gnome nature, gradually weakens the link which the immortal or Solar Principle is able to maintain between itself and man's soul. Continued degeneration irrevocably severs this link, and the Spirit or Solar Principle withdraws into the Divine Essence whence it came. Once this withdrawal of the Spirit is accomplished the soul and physical body of man follow the trend of all mortal evolution and die or disintegrate, reverting to the great treasury of matter and becoming for a time an unconscious and therefore, from the standpoint of consciousness, a non-existent part of the Divine Plan.

185:CXXV  SABBAT. NOTE DDD, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

185:CXXVI ENCHANTED ISLES.--In one of the seven islands called the Islands of Aeolus, Lipara by name, there is, so they say, a tomb, concerning which many wonder- ful things are told; but in this more especially all are agreed, that it is not safe to approach the place by night. For the sound of drums and cymbals is clearly heard proceding thence, together with laughter and clamour and the clapping of hands. TRANSLATED FROM ARISTOTELIS DE MIRABILIBUS AUSCULTATIONIBUS, §838b.

187:* Zedechias. Note eee, Commentary Continued.

187:CXXVII 

TO SABAZIUS.
The fumigation from aromatics.

Hear me, illustrious father, daemon fam'd,
Great Saturn's offspring, and Sabazius nam'd;
Inserting Bacchus, bearer of the vine,
And sounding God, within thy thigh divine,
That when mature, the Dionysian God
Might burst the bands of his conceal'd abode,
And come to sacred Tmolus, his delight,
Where Ippa' dwells, all beautiful and bright.
Blest Phrygian God, the most august of all,
Come aid thy mystics, when on thee they call.

FROM THE MYSTICAL HYMNS OF ORPHEUS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK, AND DEMONSTRATED TO BE THE INVOCATIONS WHICH WERE USED IN THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, BY THOMAS TAYLOR.

"But the older Greeks considered the Eleusinian mysteries as much above all other religious services as the Gods are superior to heroes." PAUSANIAS, BOOK X., PHOCIS.

189:CXXVIII  STORM WIZARDS.--In these regions nearly all men, noble and of low degree, town folk and country folk, old and young, think that hail and thunder can be produced at the will of man. For on hearing thunder and seeing lightning, they say, "It is a raised breeze." When asked what they mean by "raised," they aver, some shamefacedly, others with confidence, as is the manner of the unexperienced, that the storm has been raised by the incantations of certain men who are called storm wizards, and hence the expression. Whether this common belief agrees with the facts is a matter to be proved by the authority of Holy Scripture. TRANSLATED FROM AGOBARD, LIBER DE GRANDINE ET TONITRUIS, CHAPTER i.

189:CXXIX CAPITULARIES, "KAROLI MAGNI ET LUDOVICI PII CHRISTIONES CAPITULA." NOTE FFF, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

191:CXXX MAGICIANS SENT BY GRIMALDUS, DUKE OF BENEVENTUM. NOTE GGG, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

191:CXXXI AGOBARD, BISHOP OF LYONS. NOTE HHH, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

193:CXXXII  THE FOUR AMBASSADORS OF THE SYLPHS.--We have, however, seen and heard many men plunged in such great stupidity, sunk in such depths of folly, as to believe and say that there is a certain region, which they call Magonia, whence ships sail in the clouds, in order to carry back to that region those fruits of the earth which are destroyed by hail and tempests; the sailors paying rewards to the storm wizards and themselves receiving corn and other produce. Out of the number of those whose blind folly was deep enough to allow them to believe these things possible, I saw several exhibiting, in a certain concourse of people, four persons in bonds--three men and a woman who they said had fallen from these same ships; after keeping them for some days in captivity, they had brought them before the assembled multitude, as we have said, -in our presence to be stoned. But truth prevailed. TRANSLATED FROM AGOBARD, LIBER DE GRANDINE ET TONITRUIS, CHAPTER ii.

195:CXXXIII  MARRIAGE IN THE REIGN OF WISDOM.--There is an ancient Hermetic saying, "As above, so below," as in the universe so in man, as in the universal principle and finer bodies of man, so in the gross physical body. We cannot divorce the Creator from His Creation. In like manner we cannot divorce the Divine Principle in man from man when considering him, and must regard the physical body as the vesture and manifestation of the God within.

It is therefore significant that Aristotle and anatomists prior to his day and in our own have recognised the fact that the human body is androgynous, and accurately speaking neither male nor female, but bisexual. In the male body the female organs of sex exist in a state of latent development; and in the female organism the male organs of sex are present in rudimentary form. Thus we find upon the physical plane an evidence that a dual force, male and female, positive and negative, is manifesting in every human being. And we must inevitably conclude that the attraéion between the sexes, since it is of a magnetic character, is the result of the effort universal in Nature to balance these positive and negative forces.

The existence of a dual force operative in man and its balance in the perfect man, Adarn, is plainly stated in the first chapter of Genesis, verse 27. " So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them," p. 198 and more explicitly in chapter v., verses z and 2, "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them;

PO and blessed them and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created."

This verse reveals the Fatherhood and Motherhood of God, making known to us that the Divine or Solar Force is both positive and negative in its manifestation, yet at its Source maintained in a unity of sublime harmony and balance.

If the ultimate goal of the individual soul's evolution on this planet is the formation of a deathless Solar Body which can only evolve when a perfect balance of the positive and negative currents of Solar Force has been achieved, then marriage or the effort of the soul to balance self with its opposite-, thereby attaining a transitory equilibrium, must be in its essence spiritual. Swedenborg affirms this truth regarding the polarisation of the sexes when he says, "Love that is truly conjugal in its first essence is love to the Lord." And Plato expands this divine reality in the Phaedrus.

But whenever one who is fresh from those mysteries, who saw much of that heavenly vision, beholds in any god-like face or form a successful copy of original beauty,--he is inspired with a reverential awe, and did he not fear the repute of exceeding madness, he would offer sacrifice to his beloved as to the image of a god."

Thus the Sages of our Order teach their disciples p. 200 to worship God through the being beloved as a means of purifying the mind and of creating chaste thought in the world. For the person who, thinking of his beloved one, prays to God through that being, recognising in him or in her that divinity which is of God, breaks no law; for one cannot approach God through the being that one loves with impure thought.

"Praise the name of thy Lord THE MOST HIGH,
Who hath created and balanced ALL THINGS."
THE KORAN, SURA lxxxvii.

199:CXXXIV FOR MAN, EVEN IN THIS LIFE CAN, AND IS CREATED TO, ENJOY GOD.--"He is known when realized by an acute intellect, purified by meditation and self-control. By a knowledge of Him assuredly man attains to bliss even in the flesh. By a proper and thorough cultivation and development of the powers of his soul he becomes vested with a SINGULAR ENERGY, * and by a true realization of the nature of the Supreme Being by means of contemplation, he attains to beatitude on the dissolution of the physical body. If God is known and understood in this life, the supreme object of existence is attained; if missed in this life, the loss is indescribable." KAINOPNISHAT. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY CHHAJJU SINGH. PAGES 13-14.

199:* Solar Force.
201:*

ANOTHER VOLUME.--Noel Argonne, in the second edition of his Mélanges Vigneul-Marville, published in 1725, about fifty years after the supposed death of the Abbé de Villars, includes a criticism of the Comte de Gabalis. He says, "The world has never known whether the author merely wished to jest or whether he spoke in good faith. The second volume which he promised would have settled the question." This statement made by a representative man of letters thoroughly in touch with the literary happenings of his day, may be taken as proof that those who were best qualified to judge did not regard the various sequels published with
the later editions of the Comte de Gabalis as the
work of its author, but knew them for the
obvious forgeries which a careful study
of their internal evidence and style
reveals them to be. The Comte
de Gabalis may be said to
stand alone as the only
one of the Abbé de
Villar's writings
on occultism
thus far
given
out
 
.
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